224 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



should be maintained at the public expense of the province and Mozambique, 

 until Livingstone should return to claim them. 



The following remarks on the influence of locality on the character of 

 peoples, as exemplified by the African tribes he had come in contact with, 

 their language, habits, etc., are extracted from Dr. Livingstone's letters to 

 Sir Roderick Murchison : — 



"Perhaps nowhere else do hills seem to exert a more powerful and well- 

 marked influence on national character than they do in Africa. Every one is 

 aware of the brave resistance offered by the Kaffre mountaineers to the British sol- 

 diers, than whom I believe there are none more brave beneath the sun. And the 

 whole of the hill tribes, with but few exceptions, possess a similarity of character. 

 They extend chiefly along the eastern side of the continent. Those among 

 whom I have lately travelled have been fighting with the Portuguese for the 

 last two years, and have actually kept the good men of Tete shut up in their 

 fort during most of that time. They are a strong, muscular race, and, from 

 constant work in the gardens, the men have hands like those of English plough- 

 men. Like hill people in general, they are much attached to the soil. Their 

 laws are very stringent. The boundaries of the lands of each are well defined, 

 and, should an elephant be killed, the huntsman must wait till one comes from 

 the lord of the land to give permission to cut it up. The underlying tusk and 

 half of the carcase are likewise the property of him on whose soil the elephant 

 fell. They may well love their land, for it yields abundance of grain, and 

 here superior wheat and rice may be seen flourishing side by side. Their 

 government is a sort of republican-feudalism, which has decided that no child 

 of a chief can succeed his father. A system of separating the young men from 

 their parents and relatives would have pleased the author of the Cyropgedia : 

 yet the frequent application of the ordeal to get rid of a wife no longer loved 

 shows that Xenophon's beau ideal does not produce gallantry equal to that 

 which emanates from the birch of a wrathful village dominie among ourselves. 

 The country towards Mozambique supports people of similar warlike propen- 

 sities ; and if these are owing to an infusion of Arab blood in their veins, that 

 mixture does not seem to have had much influence on their customs, for those 

 are more negro than aught else. They all possess a very vivid impression of 

 the agency of unseen spirits in human affairs, which I believe is especially 

 characteristic of the true negro family. 



" Situated more towards the centre of the continent, we have the 

 Bechuana tribes, who live generally on plains. Compared with the Kaffre 

 family, they are all effeminate and cowardly ; yet even here we see courage 

 manifested by those who inhabit a hill country. Witness, for example, 

 Sebituane, who fought his way from the Basuto country to the Barotse and 

 to the Bashukulompo. Moshesh showed the same spirit lately in his 

 encounter with English troops. These stand highest in the scale, and certain 



