iv PREFATORY LETTER. 



On none of the public festivals, to which I have just 

 alluded, were the gratulations of the University more honest 

 and true-hearted than those which were offered to Dr Living- 

 stone. He came amongst us without any long notes of pre- 

 paration, without any pageant or eloquence to charm and 

 captivate our senses. He stood before us — a plain, single- 

 minded, cheerful man — somewhat attenuated by years of 

 toil, and with a face tinged by the sun of Africa: and he 

 addressed us in unadorned and simple words; said nothing 

 that savoured of self-glory; and when he told us of what he 

 had done, during the sixteen years that were gone, and what 

 he hoped, with God's blessing, to do for the cause of truth 

 and the good of his fellow- creatures in Africa, in years to come, 

 he more than once exclaimed in earnest truth, that "he had 

 made no sacrifice" — that he had but done a duty to which he 

 had been called by outward circumstances — that he had only 

 obeyed an impulse which he felt within himself, and had the 

 sanction of his conscience. 



We received him, therefore, as a Christian brother, who 

 having grappled manfully with great dangers and overcome 

 them, had returned to his home after long years of absence : 

 and while we listened to the tale that he had to tell, there arose 

 in the hearts of all the listeners a fervent hope, that the hand of 

 God which had so long upheld him would uphold him still, 

 and help him to carry out the great work of Christian love 

 that was still before him. In such words as these I believe 

 that I am truly interpreting the sentiments of the University 

 the day that they met Dr Livingstone in the Senate-House. 



All who that day assembled to meet him, and listen to his 

 address, had heard something of his early labours ; and there 

 was a smaller number who had then read his Missionary 

 Travels and Researches in South Africa. We knew that he 

 was a man of humble birth, and that he had learnt the first 

 lessons of Christian truth from the teaching and example of 

 his parents. We knew that, for years of his early life he had 



