DAVID LIVINGSTONE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 138, 8 December 1926, Page 15

DAVID LIVINGSTONE

NOTED AFRICAN EXPLORER

COTTAGE HOME IN BLANTYRE

EPIC STORY OF HIS LOSS AND

FINDING.

There has recently appeared in "The Times" of London a letter signed by Field -Marshal Lord Haig, Sir James Barrie, and Colonel John Buchan, urging the preservation of the cottage horne1 of David Livingstone, the explorer, in Scotland, which, it appears, is threatened with demolition. "That humble home at Blantyre, on the banks of the Clyde," the letter runs, "with the old school and cotton, mill nearby, holds too many associations of simple and heroic endeavour for this age to allow it to disappear. "With it would go our most vital personal link with the great missionary and explorer, leaving a gap which no other memorial could.■ possibly fill."

The appeal should have some interest for Americans, when it is remembered that it was with the assistance of American money that Livingstone was found in the heart of Africa, after having been lost sight of by the civilised world for some years, writes E. le Clere Phillips in the New York "Times." The finding of the old Scottish explorer by Henry M. Stanley is, indeed, one o£ the most sensational incidents in the annals of travel and exploration. And had James Gordon Bennett, the younger, not conceived the hazardous plan of sending one of his star reporters to find Livingstone "alive or dead," it is moro than probable that the explorer's life would have ended somewhat sooner than it actually did.

EARLY YEARS IN SCOTLAND.

David Livingstone, who more than nny man helped to fill in the virtually blank map of the Africa of his day, was born of humble parentage on 19tli March, 1813. At the age of ten he went to work in a cotton mill, but with that dogged preseveranco which is characteristic of the Scotsman, managed to find time to learn Latin, although the mill absorbed no less than fourteen. hours a day. Nevertheless, by the time that he was sixteen he could read yirgil and Horace with ease. Before he was twenty he developed a twte for missionary work. The taste grew stronger and in 1838, having joined the London Missionary Society; he travelled to the capital to be examined by the board of the society. He was accepted and -went into training. Then Livingstone returned to London to walk the hospitals. On Bth December, 1840, he left England, little dreaming that on his return his native land would be ringing-with his name. He landed in South Africa determined at all costs to push inward to the unknown heart of the Dark Continent. Steadily he trekked northward, acquiring a solid knowledge of various native languages. His fame as a medicine man spread far and wide, and frequently Datives would walk ISO miles for treatment. -

In 1844 Livingstone married, and ■with his wife continued to push into th£ interior of the unknown continent. He had for some time past had the desire to cross Africa from west to ea»t, but it was not until 1852, when his wife and children had sailed for England, that he was at last free for this daring exploit. Leaving the interior he set out for the west coast, and in due time reached Loanda. He had. pushed from the interior to the coast; he had now to travel across the continent to the east coast.

RETTJRKS HOME TAMOTJS,

Livingstone accomplished thi3 feat, and suddenly found himself famous. He bad spent something like thirteen years in the heart of the Dark Continent, and now England called him home. On his arrival in London Lord Palmerston showered him with attentions, appointing him Consul of East Africa; Queen Victoria received him, and the wide sale of the book he had ■written relieved him of all financial anxieties. Hitherto, Livingstone's only capital had been his character and his medical knowledge; henceforth his country was behind him. He returned to Africa charged to explore the Zambesi, but a combination of circumstances made these travels less successful than his first explorations. In 1864 he was again in England, and it was during this same yoar that his son Bobert came to the United States and enlisted in the' Federal Army. Bobert died in hospital from wounds and was buried in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Livingstone's third and last expedition to Africa started in 1864. This time his' object waß to explore the sources of the Nile. He had long since resigned from missionary work, concentrating all his efforts on combating the slave trade and on scientific and geographical discovery. . The years passed by and gradually the outside world realised that the great African explorer had not been heard of for some time. Where was he? Was he dead? Inquiries were made, but "Livingstone had disappeared into the heart of the immense African continent and no one could now give any clue to his whereabouts. America, no less than his own country, began to, speculate a3 to his fate; and in 1869. an American translated his speculations into action. James Gordon Bennett, owner of the "New York Herald," summoned to his office in Paris one of his most successful reporters; the young Welsh-American, originally known as John Rowlands, and now known as Henry Morton Stanley. "Find Livingstone," was Bennett'3 command.

In 1871 Stanley landed in Zanzibar. He went inland and when near Ujiji, on the eastern bank of Lake Tanganyika, he heard from natives that in that town was a white man like himself. Could this be Livingstone1? Stanley decided that 5t could be none other. His caravan pressed forward and as it neared the noted slave and ivory market town, volleys were fired to attract the attention of the inhabitants. Presently natives and Arab traders came running toward the advancing column which was flying the Stars and Stripes at its head and the flag of Zanzibar at its rear. Two natives came forward and spoke to Stanley, and then raced back into the town. These men were Susi and Chumah, members of Livingstone's expedition.

MEETING WITH STANLEY.

The relief party advanced and Stanley has told of tlio intense' excitement he felt. Presently he saw coming toward him a little group of men. One of them was white. He was old and. bent and grey and his wellused clothes were patched in many places. The relief party still marched forward. At last it was within speaking distance of the white man. It halted and Stanley, raising his hat, stepped up to the grey, bent old man. "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" he said as the old man also raised his hat.

Livingstone . had arrived at ITjiji about a month before. He "was ill, worn, and disheartened. In his journal is the entry: "When my spirits were at their lowest ebb the Good Samaritan was close at hand, for one morning Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out, 'An Englishman! I sco him!' "

That night Livingstone had champagne fnr dinner. Stanley relates that both ate until they could eat no more. Under the Ame>ric»a wzglonßta care

and good feeding Livingstone became strong again and rapidly put on flesh. When. Livingstone was .fully restored to health, he and Stanley set out to explore Lake Tanganyika. But the old Scotsman refused to return fa England with Stanley. There was still work to be done in Africa. And so, after four months of the closest companionship, they, parted, Stanley to return to tho white world and Livingstone to continue his exploration of the sources of the Nile as soon as Stanley had sent him ia now party of native followers from Zanzibar. Livingstone entrusted the young American with his journals, sealed with five seals, and Stanley bade farewell to the "old man in grey clothes, who, with bended head and slow' steps, was returning to his solitude;" The American was the last white man that Livingstone set eyes on. ;

tDEATH OF LIVINGSTONE.

When the fifty-six natives sent from the .coast by Stanley arrived at Unyanyombe, where Livingstone was waiting -for them, the old explorer once agaip turned his face toward the interior of the continent. But eight months later he was spent. On 30th April, 1873, 'in Chitambo's village in the country of Ilala, on the south-west shore of Lake BangwepH, he sank. During jthe next morning he died—alone. Entering his hut soon after daybreak, hia Servants found him kneeling by his bed,* his face buried in the pillow. At first they thought he was praying and withdrew. They returned: and touched him, and realised, that their master had gone.

What follows is an. historic example of devotion and heroism .on the part of African natives. • The scholar, of the party, a negro named Jacob AVainwright, made a rude catalogue of the explorer's belongings, beginning: "In the chest was found about ■ a shilling and a \." The-body of Livingstone they carefully embalmed1; although nothing but salt and a little brandy were at their disposal.; The he.arfc was buried beneath a tree in ■ the village, where to-day a monument marks • tho spot. After drying the .body of their master in the sun, they packed it and then set out on the daring journey to Zanzibar. At one point they literally had to fight their way to the coasi But these devoted men did not abandon their burden1 and on 15th February, 1874, less than nine months after Livingstone's death, they delivered his remains to the British Consul -.1 Zanzibar. Livingstone had often said that he desired no better burial than beneath the leaves of an African forest, where, he said, there was more "elbow room" than in England. But it was .not to be. Instead, his „ countrymen buried him in England'sl Valhalla of the great.