Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/86

 clothing, which they ornament with handsome dyes of native production, exhibit handicraft in their conversion of iron and precious metals into articles of use and ornament."

But to no traveller is the cause of African civilization more indebted than to Dr. Livingstone. Twenty-six years of his life have been spent in exploring that country and working for the good of its people. In August, 1849, he discovered Lake Ngami, one of the most beautiful sheets of water in that sunny land. His discovery of the source of the Zambesi River and its tributaries, the Victoria Falls, the beds of gold, silver, iron and coal, and his communication with a people who had never beheld a white man before, are matters of congratulation to the friends of humanity, and the elevation of man the world over.

Along the shores of the Zambesi were found pink marble beds, and white marble, its clearness scarcely equaled by anything of the kind ever seen in Europe. In his description of the country through which this splendid river passes, Dr. Livingstone says: "When we came to the top of the outer range of the hills, we had a glorious view. At a short distance below us we saw the Kafue, wending away over a forest-clad plain to the confluence, and on the other side of the Zambesi, beyond that, lay a long range of dark hills.

"A line of fleecy clouds appeared, lying along the course of that river at their base. The plain below us, at the left of the Kafue, had more large game on it than anywhere else I had seen in Africa. Hundreds of buffaloes and zebras grazed on the open spaces, and there stood lordly elephants feeding majestically, nothing moving apparently, but the proboscis. I wish that