348 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xvii. 



early in the summer of 1865, but when the printing was 

 finished the map was not ready ; and the publication 

 had to be delayed till the usual season in autumn. 



The entries in his Journal are brief and of little 

 general interest during the time the book was getting 

 ready. Most of them have reference to the affairs of 

 other people. As he finds that Dr. Kirk is unable to 

 undertake a work on the botany and natural history of 

 the Expedition, unless he should hold some permanent 

 situation, he exerts himself to procure a Government 

 appointment for him, recommending him strongly to 

 Sir R. Murchison and others, and is particularly grati- 

 fied by a reply to his application from the Earl of 

 Dalhousie, who wrote that he regarded his request as a 

 command. He is pleased to learn that, through the 

 kind efforts of Sir Roderick, his brother Charles has been 

 appointed Consul at Fernando Po. He sees the American 

 minister, who promises to do all he can for Robert, but 

 almost immediately after, the report comes that poor Robert 

 has died in a hospital in Salisbury, N. Carolina. He de- 

 livers a lecture at the Mechanics' Institute at Mansfield, but 

 the very idea of a speech always makes him ill, and in this 

 case it brings on an attack of haemorrhoids, with which he 

 had not been troubled for long. He goes to London to a 

 meeting of the Geographical Society, and hears a paper 

 of Burton's — a gentleman from whose geographical views 

 he dissents, as he does from his views on subjects more 

 important. In regard to his book he says very little ; 

 four days, he tells us, were spent in writing the de- 

 scription of the Victoria Falls ; and on the 1 5th April 

 1865 he summons his daughter Agnes to take his pen 

 and write finis at the end of his manuscript. On 

 leaving Newstead on the 25 th, he writes, " Parted with 

 our good friends the Webbs. And may God Almighty 

 bless and reward them and their family ! " 



Some time before this, a proposal was made to him 



