Читать книгу Stanley's Story; Or, Through the Wilds of Africa - A. G. Col. Feather - Страница 9

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Again leaves England, March, 1858 — Resigning his position as Missionary for the London Society, he is appointed by the British Government Consul at Killimane — After a brief exploration along the Zambesi, he again visits England — Sails on his Final Expedition August 14th, 1865, and proceeds by way of Bombay to Zanzibar — Report of his Murder on the shores of Nyassa.

Among great men who have had much to do in directing the destinies of nations or any considerable number of mankind, there have been two kinds—one class, who supposed they controlled events and by imperial will and power mastered circumstances and the course of Providence; the other, composed of those who have modestly imagined they were but instruments in the hands of a Superior Power through whom some of his beneficent designs were to be accomplished. Among the former was Napoleon Bonaparte, who probably thought that in many particulars God was entitled to high respect, but that in the general conduct of military campaigns, He could not be compared with the French Emperor. It is historically true that the men of this class have generally inflicted great evils upon mankind. Of the other class of great men, David Livingstone is a conspicuous example; and the one thing of which he is the most unaffectedly ignorant is his own genius. “If the reader remembers,” he modestly remarks near the close of his work, “the way in which I was led, while teaching the Bakwains, to commence exploration, he will, I think, recognize the hand of Providence.” And he goes on to show how, previously to this, Sebituane had gone north and from a country larger than France expelled hordes of bloody savages, and occupied their country with a people speaking the language of the Bakwains. Then again he was singularly turned toward the west instead of the east coast of Africa, it thus happening that when he returned upon his great expedition across the continent, the country was at peace and his life saved. Meantime, Sechele himself at Kolobeng had become a missionary to his own people and they were becoming civilized. “I think,” he concludes, “that I see the operation of the unseen hand in all this, and I humbly hope that it will still guide me to do good in my day and generation in Africa.”

ATTACKED BY BUFFALOES.

But this explorer was withal eminently practical. He wanted British merchants as well as English missionaries to go to Africa, and thinking that philanthropy and profit were equally interested, he believed that the explorations he had already made fully justified the opinion that still further discoveries might completely demonstrate the fact that Africa was not only a great missionary field but might become of the greatest value in the commercial world through the production especially of cotton and sugar. “I propose,” he says, “to spend some more years of labor, and shall be thankful if I see the system fairly begun in an open pathway which will eventually benefit both Africa and England.”

From all which it is clear that the second expedition of Dr. Livingstone to Africa, and which had not at that time been concluded, was the result of a deliberate opinion that, with the blessing of heaven, he might be able to accomplish that which should result in great good to Africa and at the same time help to increase the trade and commerce of his own country. Impelled by such worthy and unselfish motives, he again left England in March, 1858, and sailed for Kilimane. He had resigned his position as missionary for the London Society, but the British government had appointed him consul at Kilimane, with the understanding that he was not on this account to give up his character of explorer. On the contrary, he was supplied with a small vessel, and accompanied by a number of scientific associates, made a number of exploring expeditions by which his ideas in respect to the production of cotton and sugar and the overthrow of the slave traffic were greatly encouraged, and the conclusion reached that it would not be long before the opening of commercial intercourse between European nations and the tribes of South Africa. It was afterwards discovered by Mr. Young, in charge of an English expedition of search, which proceeded far up the Zambesi river, that the memory of Dr. Livingstone was highly revered, and his influence manifested in the moral improvement of the people and the advancement of their material interests. Subsequently, Dr. Livingstone made an expedition in a large region of country drained by the river Rovuma, which, along the east coast of Africa is a sort of boundary between Mohammedan and Portuguese authority. For this expedition a steamer was provided, but it was found to be of too great draft of water to be of much service. Dr. Livingstone, therefore, with the object of accomplishing the great design of his second voyage to Africa, returned to England, having re-explored a large portion of country along the Zambesi and visited for the first time the tribes of a large extent of country several hundred miles north of the Zambesi in its eastward course. This return to England was, however, but a part of the expedition upon which he had started in 1858, or rather an episode in it, without which the original object—the discovery of the principal watershed of the African continent, including the sources of the Nile—would not have been accomplished. Whilst, therefore, Dr. Livingstone has made three voyages from England to Africa, it will be more convenient to group his series of explorations under the general heading of two great expeditions—the first under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, the second under those of the Royal Geographical Society, with special assistance from the British government.

For the completion of the series of explorations of this expedition, upon which the explorer was then still engaged, he left England, August 14th, 1865, accompanied by his daughter as far as Paris. Thence, he proceeded to Bombay, and provided himself with materiel and men for the work before him. From Bombay he proceeded to Zanzibar, and on March 28th, 1866, left that island accompanied by two boys—Chanma and Wakotasie—a number of Sepoys, several men from Johanna Island, and some Suahili from a school at Bombay, and having reached the main land proceeded to the interior by the river Rovuma. As he proceeded he from time to time sent back accounts of his progress and the interesting incidents of his explorations. But late in this year the leader of the Johanna men arrived at Zanzibar with a story that Dr. Livingstone had been murdered on the shores of Lake Nyassa by a band of Mazitus. The tale had such an air of truth that no one doubted it. Moosa’s story being fully credited, the world quite generally gave up Dr. Livingstone as lost. Dr. G. Edward Seward, resident agent of the English government at Zanzibar, condensed Moosa’s information into a dispatch to Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, of which the following is the principal portion:

“Zanzibar, Dec. 10, 1866.

“My Lord—I send you the saddest news. Dr. Livingstone, in his despatch from Ngomano, informed your Lordship that he stood ‘on the threshold of the unexplored.’ Yet, as if that which should betide him had already thrown its shadow he added:—‘It is but to say little of the future.’

“My Lord, if the report of some fugitives from his party be true, this brave and good man has ‘crossed the threshold of the unexplored’—he has confronted the future and will never return. He was slain, so it is alleged, during a sudden and unprovoked encounter with those very Zulus of whom he says in his despatch, that they had laid waste the country round about him and had ‘swept away the food from above and in the ground.’ With an escort reduced to twenty by desertion, death and dismissals, he had traversed, as I believe, that terra incognita between the confluence of the Loende and Rovuma rivers, at Nyomano, and the eastern or northeastern littoral of Lake Nyassa; had crossed the lake at some point as yet unascertained; had reached a station named Kompoonda or Mapoonda, on its western, probably its northwestern, shore, and was pushing west or northwest, into dangerous ground, when between Marenga and Mukliosowe a band of implacable savages stopped the way, a mixed horde of Zulus, or Mafilte and Nyassa folk. The Nyassa folk were armed with bow and arrow, the Zulus with the traditional shield, broad bladed spears, and axes. With Livingstone there were nine or ten muskets; his Johanna men were resting with their loads far in the rear.