ii PREFATORY LETTER. 



the simple task of writing such a letter as this almost im- 

 possible. 



It may seem incongruous that I should write a preface to 

 a work with which (excepting the two newspaper Reports) I 

 am still unacquainted. But on this score, after my conversa- 

 tions with yourself, I think that I am quite secure from 

 blame. As to the baleful misery and deadly sin wrought by 

 the slave-dealer in Africa, your opinions do not differ from 

 those I have been taught to hold from the days of my 

 childhood. If you hope, in however humble a degree, to 

 make Dr Livingstone's great labours and discoveries more 

 widely known — to forward (by a direct appeal to what he has 

 done) the great and good cause of civilization, brotherly love, 

 and Christian truth— and to encourage the Missionary of the 

 Gospel in carrying the message of peace to poor benighted 

 Africa ; — in all such hopes you have the heartfelt sympathy 

 of many a fellow-Christian who will wish God speed to your 

 little Volume. 



Dr Livingstone, if I mistake not, came to Cambridge 

 as your guest, on Monday, December the 3rd. The next 

 morning he addressed, in the Senate-house, a very large 

 audience composed of the resident Graduates and Under- 

 graduates of the University, and of many visitors from the 

 Town and neighbourhood. Under the sanction of a Grace 

 of the Senate this building had been hastily prepared for 

 his reception by an order of the Vice- Chancellor, who pre- 

 sided at the Meeting. On the same day he dined in the 

 Hall of Trinity College, when the Master presided; and 

 he rested for the night at the Master's Lodge. The day 

 following (Dec. 5th), with the sanction of the Mayor and 

 Corporation, he addressed a very crowded audience in the 

 Town Hall; and he afterwards dined a second time in the 

 Hall of Trinity College. In the course of the same evening he 

 took leave of us, to our great sorrow; some of us believing that 

 we should never see his face again. 



