i S 5 7-5 8. ] FIRST VISIT HOME. 2 3 5 



drew near, a strong desire arose among many of his 

 friends, chiefly the geographers, to take leave of him in a 

 way that should emphatically mark the strength of their 

 admiration and the cordiality of their good wishes. It 

 was accordingly resolved that he should be invited to a 

 public dinner on the 13th February 1858, and that Sir 

 Roderick Murchison should occupy the chair. On the 

 morning of that day he had the honour of an interview 

 with Her Majesty the Queen. A Scottish correspondent 

 of an American journal, whose letter at other points 

 shows that he had good information, 1 after referring to 

 the fact that Livingstone was not presented in the usual 

 way, says : — 



" He was honoured by the Queen with a private interview. . . . 

 She sent for Livingstone, who attended Her Majesty at the palace, 

 without ceremony, in his black coat and blue trousers, and his cap 

 surrounded with a stripe of gold lace. This was his usual attire, and 

 the cap had now become the appropriate distinction of one of Her 

 Majesty's consuls, an official position to which the traveller attaches 

 great importance, as giving him consequence in the eyes of the 

 natives, and authority over the members of the expedition. The 

 Queen conversed with him affably for half an hour on the subject of 

 his travels. Dr. Livingstone told Her Majesty that he would now be 

 able to say to the natives that he had seen his chief, his not having 

 done so before having been a constant subject of surprise to the 

 children of the African wilderness. He mentioned to Her Majesty 

 also that the people were in the habit of inquiring whether his chief 

 were wealthy ; and that when he assured them she was very wealthy, 

 they would ask how many cows she had got, a question at which the 

 Queen laughed heartily." 



In the only notice of this interview which we have 

 found in Livingstone's own writing, he simply says that 

 Her Majesty assured him of her good wishes in his 

 journeys. It was the only interview with his Sovereign 

 he ever had. When he returned in 1864 he said that 

 he would have been pleased to have another, but only if 

 it came naturally, and without his seeking it. The Queen 



1 We have ascertained, that the correspondent was the late Mr. Keddie, of the 

 Glasgow Free Church College, who got his information from Mr. James Young. 



