400 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



but we have followed him far enough to form a correct judg- 

 ment of his character. This great man traveled over a dis- 

 tance of ten thousand miles in Africa, and was the first to cross 

 through the continental center ; he spent nearly thirty years of 

 his life in that vast wilderness, learned to speak the native 

 tongues of many tribes ; and with all his experience he does not 

 mention having met one single king, nor did he have the vanity 

 to say that even a chief deigned to do him homage. 



Livingstone had a fixed purpose, and his inflexible motto was, 

 " Prove all things." There was not the very least vanity in his 

 nature; he believed that Bangweolo lake was the Nile's chief 

 source, and that the Lualaba river was the connecting stream 

 between Lake Albert and Bangweolo. He had every reason to 

 believe his theory to be correct, both from his own observations 

 and the information he received from natives whom he consulted. 

 But he would not retire on a theory ; he would not claim a dis- 

 covery that he had not rightly made and incontestably proved. 

 His modesty is positively wonderful, and can only be equaled by 

 the noble, exalted, pure and beautiful Christianity which filled his 

 great heart. While journeying toward Bangweolo the last time, 

 to prove his theory respecting the Lualaba being its outlet and 

 the Nile source, with a hand almost palsied by a fatal disease, he 

 wrote : "The discovery of the true source of the Nile is nothing 

 to me, except as it may be turned to the advantage of Christian 

 Missions." 



That his soul was without dross is proved not alone by the 

 civilizing influence he exerted through Africa, but also by the 

 attitude in which he died, surrendering up his precious life in a 

 blaze of Christian glory. All honor to the name of Dr. David 

 Livingstone, the greatest of all African explorers ! Worthily he 

 sleeps beside kings, though his desire was to rest at Shupanga, 

 in the silent wilderness, beside the lonely grave of his loved 

 wife, Mary. 



