324 A WORD FOR REID. 



from us. On the 4th December, ourselves and gear 

 were taken on board H.M.S. Racoon^ 21, Commander 

 Sperling, where we were received with the greatest 

 kindness, and I have left friends there whom I can 

 ' never forget. We reached Simon's Bay on the seven- 

 teenth, just in time to catch the mail of the nine- 

 teenth from Table Bay, and return to England among 

 our old and kind friends in the Union Company's 

 steamer Celt^ Captain Bajaiton, landing at Plymouth 

 on the 21st January, 1868. 



In concluding the narrative of the Livingstone 

 Search Expedition, I wish to speak in the highest 

 terms of Reid, who proved himself a first-class work- 

 man, and a steady, hardrworking man. Every word 

 and act of his during our trip revealed a straightfor- 

 ward, high-principled, and noble character. He is a 

 married man, and, prior to his association with this 

 Expedition, worked at a well-known firrh of ship- 

 builders and engineers at Glasgow. It must be re- 

 membered that he was one of Livingstone's former 

 expedition, and one of the only two (Reid- and Pen- 

 nell) who stuck to him to the last, assisting him to 

 take The Lady Nyassa (a small iron steamer intend- 

 ed for Lake Nyassa, but which could not be got past 

 the Murchison Cataracts, owing to the great weight of 

 her sections) to Bombay, and finally returning with 

 the great traveller to England by the overland route. 

 It seems extraordinary that, though Livingstone gave 

 him the best of characters, no notice was ever taken 

 of him till his services (which have been more than 

 valuable to this Expedition) were again required. 



