A TROPICAL SWAMP. 3G3 



dreadful torturers, and the pulse will engage the attention above 

 all possible charms of external nature. But when the frequent 

 rains refresh all things, and cloudy canopies are often spread 

 over trees and flowers, and the sun seems resting from its ire, 

 then the wealth of foliage and flowers and fruits, the melody of 

 birds whose various hues present a museum of colors, and the 

 lifefulness of every creeping, swimming, crawling, climbing, 

 leaping and strolling thing, from ants to elephants, rivals the 

 most wonderful fancies which are wrought into the primitive 

 abode of man. Thus we may appeal to the seasons for the 

 explanation of the difference between the pleasant pictures 

 drawn by Dr. Livingstone and the mournful, wail-like lan- 

 guage of Mr. Rowley, who could only see "swamp, swamp, 

 swamp — reeking, festering, rotting, malaria-pregnant swamp." 

 It is very much pleasanter to settle the question between two 

 men by the sun and clouds, than by bringing the "liver" into 

 it. Indeed, one of the special charms by which Dr. Living- 

 stone secured the attention and deepened the interest continually 

 with which the eyes of the world followed him in his wander- 

 ings was his capacity to find pleasant things as well as painful 

 ones. He enables us to look on the world as it is. He did not 

 hide the fact that there were ills in Africa. The man would be 

 a "natural" indeed who should dream of ease and luxury with 

 his narrative in hand. But he did not fail to observe the good 

 for which men might dare to confront the ill. If a man must 

 scorch with fever, why should he not see a flower ? If he must 

 encounter suspicion and sometimes be in peril of his life, why 

 should he not record the kindness shown him and observe the 

 beauties which no blemishes should conceal, the excellencies of 

 character which divide dominion with what we hate? 



The object of Dr. Livingstone, as a man and as a representa- 

 tive of the British government, was not only to explore the 

 river and examine the country ; that alone would have been an 

 idle enterprise, and unworthy of his Christian zeal and of the 

 English name. He was commissioned also to engage the 

 friendly regard of the tribes, and cultivate such an acquaintance 

 with them as might facilitate any subsequent enterprises of 

 church or state in their midst. He needed, therefore, to be 

 exceedingly careful that, with so large and varied s company as 



