THE PRESS ON DR. LIVINGSTONE. 257 



worth. His appearance and manner on the platform at this time were thus 

 described in the Nonconformist newspaper : — 



" A foreign-looking person, plainly and rather carelessly dressed, of 

 middle height, bony frame, and Gaelic countenance, with short-cropped hair 

 and moustachios, and generally plain exterior, rises to address the meeting. 

 He appears to be about forty years of age. His face is deeply furrowed, and 

 pretty well tanned. It indicates a man of quick and keen discernment, 

 strong impulses, inflexible resolution, and habitual self-command. Unani- 

 mated, its most characteristic expression is that of severity ; when excited, a 

 varied expression of earnest and benevolent feeling and remarkable enjoy- 

 ment of the ludicrous in circumstances and character passes over it. . . . 

 When he speaks, you think him at first to be a Frenchman ; but as he tells a 

 Scotch anecdote in true Grlasgowegian dialect, you make up your mind that 

 he must be, as his face indicates, a countryman from the north. His com- 

 mand of his mother tongue being imperfect, he apologises for his broken, 

 hesitating speech, by informing you that he has not spoken your language for 

 nearly sixteen years ; and then he tells you, as but a modest yet earnest man 

 can, concerning his travels. . . . His narrative is not very connected 

 and his manner is awkward, excepting once when he justifies his enthusiasm, 

 and once when he graphically describes the great cataract of Central Africa. 

 He ends a speech of natural eloquence and witty simplicity by saying that he 

 has ' begun his work, and will carry it on.' His broken thanks are drowned 

 by the applause of the audience." 



The press was not slow to acknowledge the greatness and importance of 

 the discoveries he had made, nor stinted in its admiration of the manner in 

 which he carried out his self-imposed task. The Star said, " We believe that 

 along the whole line of eleven thousand miles which he traversed in Africa, 

 the name of Dr. Livingstone will awaken no memories of wrong or pain in the 

 heart of man, woman, or child, and will rouse no purposes of vengeance to fall 

 on the head of the next European visitor that may follow in his footsteps. 

 His experience has utterly belied the truculent theory of those who maintain 

 that barbarous and semi-barbarous nations can be influenced only by an appeal 

 to their fears, and that the safety of the traveller consists in a prompt and 

 peremptory display of force. . . . Dr. Livingstone, clothing himself in a 

 panoply of Christian kindness, passed unscathed among the warlike African 

 tribes, and won them to an exhibition of noble generosity of character towards 

 himself and his companions." The "leader" wound up an eloquent tribute 

 with the following : — 



"For seventeen years, smitten by more than thirty attacks of fever, 



endangered by seven attempts upon his life, continually exposed to fatigue, 



hunger, and the chance of perishing miserably in a wilderness, shut out from 



the knowledge of civilized men, the missionary pursued his way, an apostle 



I 1 



