68 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. iv. 



know that Mebalwe, the native who was with him, and 

 who saved his life by diverting the lion when his paw was 

 on his head, was the teacher whom Mrs. M 'Robert's 

 twelve pounds had enabled him to employ. Little did 

 the good woman think that this offering would indirectly 

 be the means of preserving the life of Livingstone for 

 the wonderful work of the next thirty years ! When, on 

 being attacked by Mebalwe, the lion left Livingstone, and 

 sprang upon him, he bit his thigh, then dashed towards 

 another man, and caught him by the shoulder, when in a 

 moment, the previous shots taking effect, he fell down 

 dead. Sir Bartle Frere, in his obituary notice of 

 Livingstone read to the Royal Geographical Society, 

 remarked : " For thirty years afterwards all his labours 

 and adventures, entailing such exertion and fatigue, were 

 undertaken with a limb so maimed that it was painful for 

 him to raise a fowling-piece, or in fact to place the left 

 arm in any position above the level of the shoulder." 



In his Missionary Travels Livingstone says that but 

 for the importunities of his friends, he meant to have 

 kept this story in store to tell his children in his dotage. 

 How little he made of it at the time will be seen from 

 the following allusion to it in a letter to his father, dated 

 27th April 1844. After telling how the attacks of the 

 lions drew the people of Mabotsa away from the irrigating 

 operations he was engaged in, he says : — 



" At last, one of the lions destroyed nine sheep in broad daylight 

 on a hill just opposite our house. All the people immediately ran 

 over to it, and, contrary to my custom, I imprudently went with them, 

 in order to see how they acted, and encourage them to destroy him. 

 They surrounded him several times, but he managed to break through 

 the circle. I then got tired. In coming home I had to come near to 

 the end of the hill. They were then close upon the lion, and had 

 wounded him. He rushed out from the bushes which concealed him 

 from view, and bit me on the arm so as to break the bone. It is now 

 nearly well, however, feeling weak only from having been confined in 

 one position so long ; and I ought to praise Him who delivered me 

 from so great a danger. I hope I shall never forget His mercy. You 



