The Personal Life of David Livingstone/CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER XXIII.

POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.

History of his life not completed at his death--Thrilling effect of the tragedy of Ilala--Livingstone's influence on the slave-trade--His letters from Manyuema--Sir Bartle Frere's mission to Zanzibar--Successful efforts of Dr. Kirk with Sultan of Zanzibar--The land route--The sea route--Slave-trade declared illegal--Egypt--The Soudan--Colonel Gordon--Conventions with Turkey--King Mtesa of Uganda--Nyassa district--Introduction of lawful commerce--Various commercial enterprises in progress--Influence of Livingstone on exploration--Enterprise of newspapers--Exploring undertakings of various nations--Livingstone's personal service to science--His hard work in science the cause of respect--His influence on missionary enterprise--Livingstonia--Dr. Stewart.--Mr. E.D. Young--Blantyre--The Universities Mission under Bishop Steere--Its return to the mainland and to Nyassa district--Church Missionary Society at Nyanza--London Missionary Society at Tanganyika--French, Inland, Baptist, and American missions--Medical missions--The Fisk Livingstone hall--Livingstone's great legacy to Africa, a spotless Christian name and character--Honors of the future.

The heart of David Livingstone was laid under the mvula-tree in Ilala, and his bones in Westminster Abbey; but his spirit marched on. The history of his life is not completed with the record of his death. The continual cry of his heart to be permitted to finish his work was answered, answered thoroughly, though not in the way he thought of. The thrill that went through the civilized world when his death and all its touching circumstances became known, did more for Africa than he could have done had he completed his task and spent years in this country following it up. From the worn-out figure kneeling at the bedside in the hut in Ilala an electric spark seemed to fly, quickening hearts on every side. The statesman felt it; it put new vigor into the despatches he wrote and the measures he devised with regard to the slave-trade. The merchant felt it, and began to plan in earnest how to traverse the continent with roads and railways, and open it to commerce from shore to centre. The explorer felt it, and started with high purpose on new scenes of unknown danger. The missionary felt it,--felt it a reproof of past languor and unbelief, and found himself lifted up to a higher level of faith and devotion. No parliament of philanthropy was held; but the verdict was as unanimous and as hearty as if the Christian world had met and passed the resolution--"Livingstone's work shall not die: AFRICA SHALL LIVE."

A rapid glance at the progress of events during the seven years that have elapsed since the death of Livingstone will show best what influence he wielded after his death. Whether we consider the steps that have been taken to suppress the slave-trade, the progress of commercial undertakings, the successful journeys of explorers stimulated by his example who have gone from shore to shore, or the new enterprises of the various missionary bodies, carried out by agents with somewhat of Livingstone's spirit, we shall see what a wonderful revolution he effected,--how entirely he changed the prospects of Africa.

Livingstone himself had the impression that his long and weary detention in Manyuema was designed by Providence to enable him to know and proclaim to the world the awful horrors of the slave-trade. When his despatches and letters from that region were published in this country, the matter was taken up in the highest quarters. After the Queen's Speech had drawn the attention of Parliament to it, a Royal Commission, and then a Select Committee of the House of Commons, prepared the way for further action. Sir Bartle Frere was to Zanzibar, with the view of negotiating a treaty with the Sultan, to render illegal all traffic in slaves by sea. Sir Bartle was unable to persuade the Sultan, but left the matter in the hands of Dr. Kirk, who succeeded in 1873 in negotiating the treaty, and got the shipment of slaves prohibited over a sea-board of nearly a thousand miles. But the slave-dealer was too clever to yield; for the route by sea he simply substituted a route by land, which, instead of diminishing the horrors of the traffic, actually made them greater. Dr. Kirk's energies had to be employed in getting the land traffic placed in the same category as that by sea, and here, too, he was successful, so that within the dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the slave-trade, as a legal enterprise, came to an end.

But Zanzibar was but a fragment of Africa. In no other part of the continent was it of more importance that the traffic should be arrested than in Egypt, and in parts of the Empire of Turkey in Africa under the control of the Sultan. The late Khedive of Egypt was hearty in the cause, less, perhaps, from dislike of the slave-trade, than from his desire to hold good rank among the Western powers, and to enjoy the favorable opinion of England. By far the most important contribution of the Khedive to the cause lay in his committing the vast region of the Soudan to the hands of our countryman, Colonel Gordon, whose recent resignation of the office has awakened so general regret. Hating the slave-trade, Colonel Gordon employed his remarkable influence over native chiefs and tribes in discouraging it, and with great effect. To use his own words, recently spoken to a friend, he cut off the slave-dealers in their strongholds, and he made all his people love him. Few men, indeed, have shown more of Livingstone's spirit in managing the natives than Gordon Pasha, or furnished better proof that for really doing away with the slave-trade more is needed than a good treaty--there must be a hearty and influential Executive to carry out its provisions. Our conventions with Turkey have come to little or nothing. They have shared the usual fate of Turkish promises. Even the convention announced with considerable confidence in the Queen's speech on 5th February, 1880, if the tenor of it be as it has been reported in the _Temps_ newspaper, leaves far too much in the hands of the Turks, and unless it be energetically and constantly enforced by this country, will fail in its object. To this end, however, we trust that the attention of our Government will be earnestly directed. The Turkish traffic is particularly hateful, for it is carried on mainly for purposes of sensuality and show.

The abolition of the slave-trade by King Mtesa, chief of Waganda, near Lake Victoria Nyanza, is one of the most recent fruits of the agitation. The services of Mr. Mackay, a countryman of Livingstone's, and an agent of the Church Missionary Society, contributed mainly to this remarkable result.

Such facts show that not only has the slave-trade become illegal in some of the separate states of Africa, but that an active spirit has been roused against it, which, if duly directed, may yet achieve much more. The trade, however, breeds a reckless spirit, which cares little for treaties or enactments, and is ready to continue the traffic as a smuggling business after it has been declared illegal. In the Nyassa district, from which to a large extent it has disappeared, it is by no means suppressed. It is quite conceivable that it may revive after the temporary alarm of the dealers has subsided. The remissness, and even the connivance, of the Portuguese authorities has been a great hindrance to its abolition. All who desire to carry out the noble object of Livingstone's life will therefore do well to urge her Majesty's Ministers, members of Parliament, and all who have influence, to renewed and unremitting efforts toward the complete and final abolition of the traffic throughout the whole of Africa. To this consummation the honor of Great Britain is conspicuously pledged, and it is one to which statesmen of all parties have usually been proud to contribute.

If we pass from the slave-trade to the promotion of lawful commerce, we find the influence of Livingstone hardly less apparent in not a few undertakings recently begun. Animated by the memory of his four months' fellowship with Livingstone, Mr. Stanley has undertaken the exploration of the Congo or Livingstone River, because it was a work that Livingstone desired to be done. With a body of Kroomen and others he is now at work making a road from near Banza Noki to Stanley Pool. He takes a steamer in sections to be put together above the Falls, and with it he intends to explore and to open to commerce the numerous great navigable tributaries of the Livingstone River. Mr. Stanley has already established steam communication between the French station near the mouth of the Congo and his own station near Banza Noki or Embomma. The "Livingstone Central African Company, Limited," with Mr. James Stevenson, of Glasgow, as chairman, has constructed a road along the Murchison Rapids, thus making the original route of Livingstone available between Quilimane and the Nyassa district, and is doing much more to advance Christian civilization. France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy have all been active in promoting commercial schemes. A magnificent proposal has been made, under French auspices, for a railway across the Soudan. There is a proposal from Manchester to connect the great lakes with the sea by a railway from the coast opposite Zanzibar. Another scheme is for a railway from the Zambesi to Lake Nyassa. A telegraph through Egypt has been projected to the South African colonies of Britain, passing by Nyassa and Shiré. An Italian colony on a large scale has been projected in the dominions of Menelek, king of Shoa, near the Somali land. Any statement of the various commercial schemes begun or contemplated would probably be defective, because new enterprises are so often appearing. But all this shows what a new light has burst on the commercial world as to the capabilities of Africa in a trading point of view. There seems, indeed, no reason why Africa should not furnish most of the products which at present we derive from India. As a market for our manufactures, it is capable, even with a moderate amount of civilization, of becoming one of our most extensive customers. The voice that proclaimed these things in 1857 was the voice of one crying in the wilderness; but it is now repeated in a thousand echoes.

In stimulating African exploration the influence of Livingstone was very decided. He was the first of the galaxy of modern African travelers, for both in the Geographical Society and in the world at large his name became famous before those of Baker, Grant, Speke, Burton, Stanley, and Cameron. Stanley, inspired first by the desire of finding him, became himself a remarkable and successful traveler. The same remark is applicable to Cameron. Not only did Livingstone stimulate professed geographers, but, what was truly a novelty in the annals of exploration, he set newspaper companies to open up Africa. The _New York Herald_, having found Livingstone, became hungry for new discoveries, and enlisting a brother-in-arms, Mr. Edwin Arnold and the _Daily Telegraph_, the two papers united to send Mr. Stanley "to fresh woods and pastures new." Under the auspices of the African Exploration Society, and the directions of the Royal Geographical, Mr. Keith Johnston and Mr. Joseph Thomson undertook the exploration of the country between Dar es Salaam and Lake Nyassa, the former falling a victim to illness, the latter penetrating through unexplored regions to Nyassa, and subsequently extending his journey to Tanganyika. We can but name the international enterprise resulting from Brussels Conference; the French researches of Lieutenant de Semellé and of de Brazza; the various German Expeditions of Dr. Lenz, Dr. Pogge, Dr. Fischer, and Herr Denhardts; and the Portuguese exploration on the west, from Benguela to the head-waters of the Zambesi. Africa does not want for explorers, and generally they are men bent on advancing legitimate commerce and the improvement of the people. It would be a comfort if we could think of all as having this for their object; but tares, we fear, will always be mingled with the good seed; and if there have been travelers who have led immoral lives and sought their own amusement only, and traders who by trafficking in rum and such things have demoralized the natives, they have only shown that in some natures selfishness is too deeply imbedded to be affected by the noblest examples.

Livingstone himself traveled twenty-nine thousand miles in Africa, and added to the known part of the globe about a million square miles. He discovered Lakes 'Ngami, Shirwa, Nyassa, Moero, and Bangweolo; the upper Zambesi, and many other rivers; made known the wonderful Victoria Falls; also the high ridges flanking the depressed basin of the central plateau; he was the first European to traverse the whole length of Lake Tanganyika, and to give it its true orientation; he traversed in much pain and sorrow the vast watershed near Lake Bangweolo, and, through no fault of his own, just missed the information that would have set at rest all his surmises about the sources of the Nile. His discoveries were never mere happy guesses or vague descriptions from the accounts of natives; each spot was determined with the utmost precision, though at the time his head might be giddy from fever or his body tormented with pain. He strove after an accurate notion of the form and structure of the continent; Investigated its geology, hydrography, botany, and zoölogy; and grappled with the two great enemies of man and beast that prey on it--fever and tsetse. Yet all these were matters apart from the great business of his life. In science he was neither amateur nor dilettante, but a careful, patient, laborious worker. And hence his high position, and the respect he inspired in the scientific world. Small men might peck and nibble at him, but the true kings of science,--the Owens, Murchisons, Herschels, Sedgwicks, and Fergussons--honored him the more the longer they knew him. We miss an important fact in his life if we do not take note of the impression which he made on such men.

Last, but not least, we note the marvelous expansion of missionary enterprise in Africa since Livingstone's death. Though he used no sensational methods of appeal, he had a wonderful power to draw men to the mission field. In his own quiet way, he not only enlisted recruits, but inspired them with the enthusiasm of their calling. Not even Charles Simeon, during his long residence at Cambridge, sent more men to India than Livingstone drew to Africa in his brief visit to the Universities. It seemed as if he suddenly awakened the minds of young men to a new view of the grand purposes of life. Mr. Monk wrote to him truly, "That Cambridge visit of yours. lighted a candle which will NEVER, NEVER go out."

At the time of his death there was no missionary at work in the great region of Shiré and Nyassa on which his heart was so much set. The first to take possession were his countrymen of Scotland. The Livingstonia mission and settlement of the Free Church, planned by Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, who had gone out to reconnoitre in 1863, and begun in 1875, has now three stations on the lake, and has won the highest commendation of such travelers as the late Consul Elton[80]. Much of the success of this enterprise is due to Livingstone's old comrade, Mr. E.D. Young, R.N., who led the party, and by his great experience and wonderful way of managing the natives, laid not only the founders of Livingstonia, but the friends of Africa, under obligations that have never been sufficiently acknowledged[81]. In concert with the "Livingstone Central African Company," considerable progress has been made in exploring the neighboring regions, and the recent exploit of Mr. James Stewart, C.E., one of the lay helpers of the Mission, in traversing the country between Nyassa and Tanganyika, is an important contribution to geography[82]. It would have gratified Livingstone to think that in conducting this settlement several of the Scotch Churches were practically at one--Free, Reformed, and United Presbyterian; while at Blantyre, on the Shiré, the Established Church of Scotland, with a mission and a colony of mechanics, has taken its share in the work.

[Footnote 80: _Lakes and Mountains of Africa_, pp. 277, 280.]

[Footnote 81: See his work. _Nyassa_: London, 1877.]

[Footnote 82: See _Transactions of Royal Geographical Society_, 1880.]

Under Bishop Steere, the successor of Bishop Tozer, the Universities Mission has re-occupied part of the mainland, and the freed-slave village of Masasi, situated between the sea and Nyassa, to the north of the Rovuma, enjoys a measure of prosperity which has never been interrupted during the three or four years of its existence. Other stations have been formed, or are projected, one of them on the eastern margin of the lake. The Church Missionary Society has occupied the shores of Victoria Nyanza, achieving great results amid many trials and sacrifices, at first wonderfully aided and encouraged by King Mtesa, though, as we write, we hear accounts of a change of policy which is grievously disappointing. Lake Tanganyika has been occupied by the London Missionary Society.

The "Société des Missions Évangéliques," of Paris, has made preparations for occupying the Barotse Valley, near the head-waters of the Zambesi. The Livingstone Inland Mission has some missionaries on the Atlantic Coast at the mouth of the Congo, and others who are working inward, while a monthly journal is edited by Mrs. Grattan Guinness, entitled _The Regions Beyond_. The Baptist Missionary Society has a mission in the same district, toward the elucidation of which the Rev. J. T. Comber's _Explorations Inland from Mount Cameroons and through Congo to Mkouta_ have thrown considerable light.

More recently still, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, having resolved to devote to Africa Mr. Otis's munificent bequest of a million dollars, appointed the Rev. Dr. Means to collect information as to the most suitable openings for missions in Central Africa; and on his recommendation, after considering the claims of seven other localities, have decided to adopt as their field the region of Bihé and the Coanza, an upland tract to the east of Benguela, healthy and suitable for European colonization, and as yet not occupied by any missionary body. Thus the Old World and the New are joining their forces for the evangelization of Africa. And they are not only occupying regions which Livingstone recommended, but are trying to work his principle of combining colonization with missions, so as to give their people an actual picture of Christianity as it is exemplified in the ordinary affairs of life.

Besides missions on the old principle, Medical Missions have received a great impulse through Livingstone. When mission work in Central Africa began to be seriously entertained, men like Dr. Laws, the late Dr. Black, and the late Dr. Smith, all medical missionaries, were among the first to offer their services. The Edinburgh Medical Mission made quite a new start when it gave the name of Livingstone to its buildings. Another institution that has adopted the name for a hall in which to train colored people for African work is the Fisk University, Tennessee, made famous by the Jubilee Singers.

In glancing at these results of Livingstone's influence in the mission field, we must not forget that of all his legacies to Africa by far the highest was the spotless name and bright Christian character which have become associated every where with its great missionary explorer. From the first day of his sojourn in Africa to the last, "patient continuance in well-doing" was the great charm through which he sought, with God's blessing, to win the confidence of Africa. Before the poorest African he maintained self-restraint and self-respect as carefully as in the best society at home. No prevailing relaxation of the moral code in those wild, dark regions ever lowered his tone or lessened his regard for the proprieties of Christian or civilized life. Scandal is so rampant among the natives of Africa that even men of high character have sometimes suffered from its lying tongue; but in the case of Livingstone there was such an enamel of purity upon his character that no filth could stick to it, and none was thrown. What Livingstone did in order to keep his word to his poor attendants was a wonder in Africa, as it was the admiration of the world. His way of trusting them, too, was singularly winning. He would go up to a fierce chief, surrounded by his grinning warriors, with the same easy gait and kindly smile with which he would have approached his friends at Kuruman or Hamilton. It was the highest tribute that the slave-traders in the Zambesi district paid to his character when for their own vile ends they told the people that they were the children of Livingstone. It was the charm of his name that enabled Mr. E.D. Young, while engaged in founding the Livingstonia settlement, to obtain six hundred carriers to transport the pieces of the Ilala steamer past the Murchison Cataracts, carrying loads of great weight for forty miles, at six yards of calico each, without a single piece of the vessel being lost or thrown away. The noble conduct of the band that for eight months carried his remains toward the coast was a crowning proof of the love he inspired.

Nearly every day some new token comes to light of the affection and honor with which he was regarded all over Central Africa. On 12th April, 1880, the Rev. Chauncy Maples, of the Universities Mission, in a paper read to the Geographical Society, describing a journey to the Rovuma and the Makonde country, told of a man he found there, with the relic of an old coat over his right shoulder, evidently of English manufacture. It turned out, from the man's statement, that ten years ago a white man, the donor of the coat, had traveled with him to Mataka's, whom to have once seen and talked with was to remember for life; a white man who treated black men as his brothers, and whose memory would be cherished all along the Rovuma Valley after they were all dead and gone; a short man with a bushy moustache, and a keen piercing eye, whose words were always gentle, and whose manners were always kind; whom, as a leader, it was a privilege to follow, and who knew the way to the hearts of all men.

That early and life-long prayer of Livingstone's--that he might resemble Christ--was fulfilled in no ordinary degree. It will be an immense benefit to all future missionaries in Africa that, in explaining to the people what practical Christianity means, they will have but to point to the life and character of the man whose name will stand first among African benefactors in centuries to come. A foreigner has remarked that, "in the nineteenth century, the white has made a man out of the black; in the twentieth century, Europe will make a world out of Africa." When that world is made, and generation after generation of intelligent Africans look back on its beginnings, as England looks back on the days of King Alfred, Ireland of St. Patrick, Scotland of St. Columba, or the United States of George Washington, the name that will be encircled by them with brightest honor is that of DAVID LIVINGSTONE. Mabotsa, Chonuane, and Kolobeng will be visited with thrilling interest by many a pilgrim, and some grand memorial pile in Ilala will mark the spot where his heart reposes. And when preachers and teachers speak of this man, when fathers tell their children what Africa owes to him, and when the question is asked what made him so great and so good, the answer will be, that he lived by the faith of the Son of God, and that the love of Christ constrained him to live and die for Africa.