FAREWELL FESTIVAL. 265 



it may tend to promote the civilization and improvement of the people of 

 Africa. (Loud applause.) 



" Before I sit down, gentlemen, I trust I may be allowed to refer for a 

 moment to a matter which has been touched upon by our chairman. I am 

 proud of Dr. Livingstone not only as a Scotchman, but as a native of that 

 part of the country with which I am more particularly connected. Dr. 

 Livingstone has himself informed me that at a very recent period his family 

 came from the little island of Ulva, on the coast of Argyllshire, an island 

 belonging to what Sir Walter Scott has called 



" the group of islets gay 

 That guard famed Staffa round." 



And I deem it, gentlemen, a circumstance not altogether unworthy of remark, 

 that Ulva stands in very close proximity to another island which was one of 

 the earliest seats of missionary enterprise in our own country. Most of you 

 will probably recollect the famous sentence in which the great moralist and 

 philosopher of England, Dr. Johnson, records his visit to that celebrated spot. 

 I think I can remember it with substantial accuracy. ' We were now treading 

 that illustrious island whence roving tribes and rude barbarians derived the 

 benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. The philosophy of that 

 man is but little to be envied whose patriotism would not kindle on the plains 

 of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of 

 Iona.' If such be the feelings with which we should tread upon the spot 

 which at the distance of so many centuries has been hallowed by the footsteps 

 of the Christian missionary, surely it is with something of the same feelings 

 of reverence with which we should assemble here to-night, to bid Grod-speed 

 to one whose name will be remembered in after ages, and perhaps by millions 

 of the human race, as the first pioneer of civilization and the first harbinger 

 of the Gospel." 



In proposing the toast of the various missionary societies, Sir Benjamin 

 Brodie said : — 



" I shall not occupy your time, gentlemen, for more than a few minutes 

 before I name the toast which I have undertaken to propose. 



" We recognize in Dr. Livingstone the intrepid and enterprising traveller, 

 exploring regions which, in great part at least, had not been before explored 

 by Europeans, contributing to the general stock an abundance of valuable 

 information in geography, in natural history, in geology ; associating with 

 races of mankind of whom we had little or no previous knowledge, conversing 

 with them in their own language, familiarising himself with their habits, 

 institutions, and modes of thought ; and thus promoting the advancement of 

 that most important of all the sciences, the science of human nature. 

 (Cheers.) 



"Nor was Dr. Livingstone thus occupied, as in the case of ordinary 



Kl 



