Jan. 13, 1 881] 



NA TURE 



239 



London Missionary Society he consented to " ordination.'' 

 Chemistry seems to have been a favourite subject with 

 him at ctllege, and Dr. Blaikie narrates an interesting in- 

 cident in which Livingstone and James and William (now 

 Sir Wilham) Thomson and Lyon Playfair met together 

 at James Young's (now of Kelly) rooms, to witness 

 some chemical e>cperiment. Having been accepted by 

 the London Missionary Society, Livingstone went to 

 London to complete his medical studies, get some 

 lessons in theology, and learn to preach. His failure in 

 the latter accomplishment nearly led to his finnl rejection, 

 and no doubt determined the Society to send him to the 

 rough and humble field of .Africa, instead of to China, on 

 which his heart was set. The decision must be regarded 

 as in every respect fortunate, though Livingstone had 

 been some time in Africa ere he got over his disappoint- 

 ment. He went out to his work in Africa in 1S41, and 

 how anxious he was in every way to qualify himself for 

 that work is shown by the fact that he got the captain of 

 the ship in which he sailed to teach him the use of the 

 quadrant and how to take lunars. With a few more 

 lessons in taking observations from Sir Thomas Maclear 

 at the Cape, he became an adept in this kind of work, 

 and Sir Thomas afterwards expressed his astonishment 

 at the almost perfect accuracy of Livingstone's observa- 

 tions in this department. He left the Cape as soon as he 

 could and made for Moffat's station at Kuruman. Still 

 further north he went, about 250 miles, and settled for 

 some time among the Bechuanas, over whom, as over all 

 other natives with whom he came into contact, he soon 

 acquired great power and influence. His idea of a mis- 

 sionary's work was very practical, and rapidly developed 

 and expanded, after he set foot in Africa. From the first 

 he gave attention to geography, and his early letters are 

 full of geographical details, illustrated by little sketch 

 maps. How early his mind was attracted by the scientific 

 questions connected with the geogi'aphy of Africa will be 

 seen from the following passage from the work before 

 us : — 



" The progress of medical and scientific work during 

 this period is noted in a letter to Dr. Risdon Bennett, 

 dated 30th June, 1S43. In addition to full details of the 

 missionary work, this letter enters largely into the st;ite 

 of disease in South Africa, and records some interesting 

 cases, medical and surgical. Still more interesting, per- 

 haps, is the evidence it affords of the place in Living- 

 stone's attention which began to be occupied by three 

 great subjects of which we shall hear much anon- Fever, 

 Tsetse, and ' the Lake.' Fever he considered the greatest 

 barrier to the evangelisation of Africa. Tsetse, an insect 

 like a common fly, destroyed horses and oxen, so that 

 many traders lost literally every ox in their team. As 

 for the Lake, it lay somewhat beyond the outskirts of his 

 new district, and was reported terrible for fever. He 

 heard that Mr. Moftat intended to visit it, but he was 

 somewhat alarmed lest his friend should suffer. It was 

 not Moffat but Livingstone, however, that first braved the 

 risks of that fever swamp. 



"A subject of special scientific interest to the mis- 

 sionary during this period was — the desiccation of Africa. 

 On this topic he addressed a long letter to Dr. Buckland 

 in 1S43, of which, considerably to his regret, no public 

 notice appears to have been taken, and perhaps the letter 

 never reached him. The substance of this paper may, 

 however, be gathered from a communication subsequently 

 made to the Royal Geographical Society (see Joiir>ial, 

 vol. xxvii. p. 356) after his first impression had been con- 



firmed by enlarged observation and discovery. Around' 

 and north of Kuruman, he had found many indications 

 of a much larger supply of water in a former age. He 

 asciibed the desiccation to the gradual elevation of the 

 western part of the country. He found traces of a very 

 large ancient river which flowed nearly north and south 

 to a large lake, including the bed of the present Orange 

 River ; in fact he believed that the whole country south 

 of Lake 'Ngami presented in ancient times very much 

 the same appearance as the basin north of that lake does 

 now, and that the southern lake disappeared when a 

 fissure was made in the ridge through which the C range 

 River now proceeds to the sea. He could even indicate 

 the spot where the river and the lake met, for some hills 

 there had caused an eddy in which was found a mound 

 of calcareous tufa and travertine, full of fossil bones. 

 These fossils he was most eager to examine, in order to 

 determine the time of the change ; but on his first visit 

 he had no time, and when he returned he was suddenly 

 called away to visit a missionary's child, a hundred miles 

 off. It happened that he was never in the same locality 

 again, and had therefore no opportunity to complete his 

 investigation." 



It was not likely that a man whose mind was filled with 

 such problems would be content to settle down to the 

 dull routine of the work of a common missionary, and 

 count his success by the tale of doubtful "conversions" 

 he could 'send home to his constituents. He kept 

 moving onward from one station to another, getting 

 further and further into the interior, gaining the love of 

 the natives and the hatred of the Boers. By his ex.imple 

 more than by direct teaching he showed the people the 

 beauty of right living, and taught them many industrial 

 arts which some of them have not lost till this day. But 

 his longing was ever northwards, and his eager desire to 

 solve the mystery of Lake 'Ngami. It was not till 1849 

 however that he was able to visit the lake, and his account 

 of the visit first brought him permanently into notice as 

 a working geographer. This may be said to have ended 

 the first stage of Livingstone's career, that in which the 

 missionary was predominant. It seems to us, however, 

 doubtful whether Livingstone ever intended definitely to 

 settle down to the life of a missionary. Even from the ' 

 beginning, we think, he must have had some vague idea 

 of combining the function of missionary and explorer, 

 always, however, with the one great object in view of 

 bringing Africa under the influences of civilisation and 

 Christianity. Shortly after the 'Ngami excursion he 

 became a missionary at large. Returning to Cape Town, 

 he sent home his wife and children, and prepared himself 

 for the great work of exploring the Zambesi. Proceeding 

 northwards to Linyanti in 1852, he set out on that 

 ever memorable journey to Loanda and across the 

 continent to Ouilimane, which stamped him as one 

 of the greatest explorers of all time. The story 

 of this and of his subsequent work in the region 

 of Lake Nyassa, and of his many years' wandering 

 all over Central Africa, he has told himself, and Dr. 

 Blaikie wisely refrains from introducing more of it than 

 is really necessary to hold together the narrative of his 

 Personal Life. .-Ml that Livingstone has done for Africa it 

 is not easy to estimate. It is he more than any other 

 explorer who has filled up the great white blank in the 

 maps of our schoolboy days. His geographical instinct 

 was surer than that of any other man ; only once was it 

 seemingly ' at fault, when he wandered away by Lake 



