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LIVINGSTONE, DAVID, LL.D., D.C.L. 



MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE, LL.D. 



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at Glasgow. Having joined the London Missionary Society, he was 

 now qualified for a medical missionary in China, but the war with 

 that country was then in activity, and under the circumstances it was 

 deemed better that he should go to South Africa, where Mr. Moffat 

 had opened an inviting field for missionary labour. After a more 

 extended theological training in England than he had enjoyed in 

 Glasgow, he embarked for Africa in 1840, and in three months reached 

 Cape Town. Going round to Algoa Bay, he proceeded thence to the 

 interior, wbero he spent the following sixteen years of his life. 



After residing some time at the principal missionary station at 

 Kuruman and other places, and studying tho language and manners 

 of that section of the Becbuanas called Bakwains, he selected the 

 beautiful valley of Mabotsa (25 14' S. lat., 26 30' E. long.), as the 

 site of a missionary station, and thither he removed in 1843. While 

 residing there he went out on one occasion with a party of the natives 

 for the purpose of shooting one or two of a troop of lions, which leaping 

 into the cattle-pens by night, destroyed the cows, and oven attacked 

 the herds in open day. If only one of the lions were killed, it was 

 expected that the troop would leave the locality. The natives sur- 

 rounded the lions while they were sitting on a hill, but allowed them 

 to break through and escape. Livingstone however, seeing one of 

 them sitting behind a bush on a piece of rock, at a distance of about 

 thirty yards, took a good aim, and fired both barrels of his gun into 

 the bush. He was uncertain whether tho lion was struck or not, and 

 was in the act of reloading his gun when the lion sprung upon him, 

 caught his shoulder, and they both came to the ground together, the 

 lion having one of his paws on the back of Livingstone's head. One 

 of thff natives, at a distance of ten or fifteen yards, taking aim, and 

 both barrels missing fire, the lion sprung upon the native, and bit his 

 thigh. Another native then attempted to spear the lion, which then 

 caught this man by the shoulder, but at that moment the two bullets 

 fired by Livingstone took effect, and the lion fell down dead. Besides 

 crushing the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth-wounds in tbe 

 tipper part of Livingstone's arm. The consequence has been that he 

 has a false joint at the shoulder, which baa ever since prevented him 

 from taking a steady aim. 



Dr. Livingstone resided among tho Bakwains, mostly at the station 

 which was called Kolobeng from a stream of that name, on the banks 

 of which it was situated. On the 1st of June 1849, Dr. Livingstone, in 

 company with Messrs. Oswell and Murray, two gentlemen who had 

 come from the East Indies for the purpose of hunting, started from 

 Kolobeug for the purpose of discovering the Lake Ngami. This pur- 

 pose was accomplished on the 1st of August. In June 1851, Dr. 

 Livingstone discovered the Zambesi flowing in the centre of the 

 northern part of the continent of South Africa. lu April 1852 he 

 returned to Cape Town, with Mrs. Livingstone and his children, for 

 the purpose of sending them to England, while he returned, in order 

 to seek a more healthy locality for a station, where he should also be 

 free from the annoyances to which he had been some time subjected 

 by the Boers of the Cashan Mountains. Having sent his family home 

 to England, Dr. Livingstone, in tho beginning of June 1852, com- 

 menced his last journey from Cape Town. While detained at Kuru- 

 man he received intelligence of Pretorius, the Dutch revolutionary 

 leader, having sent 400 Boers to attack the Bakwains at Kolobeng. 

 They burnt down the village, killed about sixty men, and carried away 

 many of their women and about 200 of the school-children for slaves. 

 Dr. Livingstone's house was plundered of everything, his books torn to 

 pieces and scattered about, and all the property in tho village taken 

 away. Having returned to Kolobeng, and remained a few days with 

 the wretched Bakwains, he prepared to depart northwards on the 

 15th of January 1853, and on the 23rd of May arrived at Linyanti 

 (18 17' 20" S. lat., 23 50' 9" E. long.), the capital of the great tribe 

 called Makololo. The chief, named Sekeletu, and the whole of the 

 population of the town, numbering between 6000 and 7000, received 

 him with enthusiastic kindness. 



On the Hth of November, 1853, Dr. Livingstone took his departure 

 from Linyanti, for the western coast of Africa, accompanied by twenty- 

 seven natives belonging to the tribe of Makololo. The journey was per- 

 formed partly by land, and partly by water in canoes. They ascended 

 the Leeambye till they reached its affluent the Leeba, coming from 

 the N.N.W., which they also ascended for some distance, and then 

 travelled overland till they reached the Lake Dilolo. Thence, with 

 much difficulty and frequent danger from hostile natives, they pro- 

 ceeded till they reached the Coango (Quango), which they crossed, and 

 were then protected by the Portuguese, and treated with great kind- 

 ness, till they reached Loango, the capital of Angola, on the western 

 coast of Africa. At Loango Dr. Livingstone and hia party were 

 received by Mr. Gabriel, the British commissioner for the suppression 

 of the slave-trade, and treated with the most liberal hospitality, and 

 were also treated with kindness by the Portuguese authorities. They 

 remained at Loango till September 20, 1854, when they started on their 

 return journey to Linyanti, which they reached in September 1855. 



On the 3rd of November 1855, Dr. Livingstone started, in company 

 with a number of natives, on his journey to the eastern coast of 

 Africa. After passing over the Victoria Falls the Leeambye takes the 

 name of the Zambesi, both names having the same meaning, namely 

 'river.' Following the course of the Zambesi, sometimes on the 

 northern bank and sometimes at a short distance from it, they pro- 



ceeded to some distance below Zumbo, where a native chief lent them 

 some canoes, by which they were enabled to cross to the southern 

 side. On the 3rd of March 1856, they reached the Portuguese station 

 at Tete, which they left on the 22nd of March, and, sailing down the 

 Zambesi, on the 27th arrived at Senna. Thence Dr. Livingstone pro- 

 ceeded to Kilimane, at the mouth of the river, and her Majesty's gun- 

 brig Frolic having arrived there, Dr. Livingstone was received on 

 board. The Frolic left Kilimane July 12, and arrived at Mauritius 

 August 12, where Dr. Livingstone remained till November, when he 

 returned by the Red Sea and the Overland route, and on the 12th of 

 December 1856, was in England. Dr. Livingstone hopes to establish a 

 trade with the interior of Africa by means of the great river Zambesi, 

 and the British government have decided upon granting a sum of 

 50001. in order to defray tho cost of an expedition up that river. A 

 ship of the proper construction, drawing a small quantity of water, is 

 now (December 1857) ready, and if the voyage is to be made next 

 year, she must leave this country in January, so as to be at the mouth 

 of the Zambesi in March j otherwise the expedition must be deferred 

 till the- following year. 



* MAURY, MATTHEW FONTAINE, LL.D., Lieutenant in the 

 United States navy, Superintendent of the Naval Observatory and 

 Hydrographical Office at Washington, was born on the 14th of 

 January 1806, in Spottsylvania County, Virginia, but educated in 

 Tennessee, whither his parents removed while he was very young. 

 Having entered the United States navy, he, in 1824, received a com- 

 mission as midshipman on board the Brandywine. He continued with 

 this vessel during a voyage to Europe and a cruise in the Pacific Ocean. 

 Afterwards, it is stated in Duyckinck's 'Cyclopaedia of American 

 Literature,' he served in the Vincennes sloop, on board of which he 

 made a voyage round the globe, which occupied nearly four years. 

 This statement is also made in other works, but in Commander Wilkes's 

 ' Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition,' published by 

 the United States government, though the name of a Lieutenant 

 Maury occurs in the list of the crew of the Vincennes, it is William 

 L. and not Matthew F. Maury, and no other person of the name of 

 Maury is on the list of the crew of either of the ships. Commodore 

 Wilkes seems expressly to state that his was the first exploring expe- 

 dition made by order of the United States government, so that Mr. 

 Maury could not have sailed in a previous voyage, while a circumstance 

 stated in Duyckinck, would, if the date be correct, prove (apart even 

 from the discrepancy of the Christian names) that he did not sail in 

 this or any subsequent voyage namely, that in 1839 he had the mis- 

 fortune to have his leg broken by a fall from a horse, and being thus 

 rendered lame, was incapacitated for further service afloat : the voyage 

 of the Vincennes under Commodore Wilkes occupied from 1838 to 

 1842. Mr. Maury served for awhile as master of the B'almouth, 

 stationed in the Pacific, from which he was removed to the frigate 

 Potomac as acting lieutenant; and soon after, having by this time 

 established his character as a scientific seaman, he was appointed on 

 his return to New York to accompany an exploratory expedition 

 under Captain Jones as director of the astronomical observations, 

 with the rank of lieutenant. Before the expedition sailed he resigned 

 the appointment at the same time with Captain Jones. Shortly after 

 he was appointed to the charge of the depot of naval charts and 

 instruments at Washington. Under his direction the depot of naval 

 charts soon assumed an important character. It was re-organised, the 

 plan enlarged, and named the National Observatory ; but it having 

 become more and more exclusively a branch of the naval service, its 

 title was in 1855 changed to that of the Naval Observatory. Whilst 

 at sea, Mr. Maury had written a valuable work for the use of mariners, 

 entitled 'A New Theoretical and Practical Treatise on Navigation,' in 

 which he treated at length of the mathematical sciences, as far as they 

 bore on navigation, with theoretical and empirical methods of working 

 out the various problems of the navigator, as well as embodied the 

 results of his own observation and experience. The work was not of 

 service to otbers only : the composition of it bad compelled him not 

 merely to master more thoroughly the higher branches of mathematics, 

 but it had led him to look steadily at the still unfulfilled desiderata of 

 the mariner, which his self-training had fitted him at once to compre- 

 hend clearly and emboldened him to endeavour to supply. 



His appointment as superintendent of the National Observatory at 

 Washington, and of the government Hydrographical Office, enabled 

 him to give a most important practical direction to his previous inves- 

 tigations. His attention had been strongly directed to the subject of 

 ocean currents and the Gulf Stream, and he saw how much more pre- 

 cision might be given to our knowledge respecting them by an 

 extended system of well-directed simultaneous observations. In 1842 

 he submitted to the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography 

 a scheme for the making of daily observations at fixed hours by the 

 commanders of the naval and merchant service of the United States 

 when at sea. The scheme was adopted ; and masters of vessels were 

 supplied with model logs, according to which they were to enter the 

 direction of the wind at least once in every eight hours ; the direction, 

 velocity, depths, and limits of the various currents; the temperature of 

 the air, and at the same time that of the water at the surface, and as 

 far as practicable at various depths of the sea ; as well as such other 



