586 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



outside, and soon returned with the copper kettle full. Calling him close, he 

 asked him to bring him his medicine-chest, and to hold the candle near him, 

 for the man noticed he could hardly see. With great difficulty Dr. Living- 

 stone selected the calomel, which he told him to place by his side ; then 

 directing him to pour a little water into a cup, and to put another empty one 

 by it, he said in a low, feeble voice, " All right, you can go out now." These 

 were the last words he was ever heard to speak. It must have been about 

 four a.m. when Susi heard Majwara's step once more. " Come to Bwana, 

 I am afraid ; I don't know if he is alive." The lad's evident alarm made 

 Susi run to arouse Chumah, Chowpere, Matthew, and Muanyasere, and the six 

 men went immediately to the hut. Passing inside they looked towards the 

 bed. Dr. Livingstone was not lying on it, but appeared to be engaged in 

 prayer, and they instinctively drew backwards for the instant. Pointing to 

 him Majwara said, "When I lay down he was just as he is now, and it is 

 because I find that he does not move that I fear he is dead." They asked 

 the lad how long he had slept. Majwara said he could not tell, but he was 

 sure that it was some considerable time. The men drew nearer. 



" 'A candle stuck by its own wax to the top of the box, shed a light 

 sufficient for them to see his form. Dr. Livingstone was kneeling by the 

 side of his bed, his body stretched forward, his head buried in his hands upon 

 the pillow. For a minute they watched him ; he did not stir, there was no 

 sign of breathing ; then one of them, Matthew, advanced softly to him and 

 placed his hands to his cheeks. It was sufficient ; life had been extinct some 

 time, and the body was almost cold ; Livingstone was dead. 



"'His sad-hearted servants raised him tenderly up, and laid him full 

 length on the bed, then carefully covering him, they went out into the damp 

 night-air to consult together. It was not long before the cocks crew, and it 

 is from this circumstance — coupled with the fact that Susi spoke to him some 

 time shortly before midnight — that we are able to state with tolerable cer- 

 tainty that he expired early on the 1st of May. It hrs been thought best to 

 give the narrative of these closing hours as nearly as possible in the words of 

 the two men who attended him constantly, both here and in the many 

 illnesses of like character which he endured in the last six years' wanderings ; 

 in fact from the first moment of the news arriving in England, it was felt to 

 be indispensable that they should come home to state what occurred. . . . 



" ' The men have much to consider as they cower around the watch-fire, 

 and little time for deliberation. They are at their furthest point from home, 

 and their leader has fallen at their head ; we shall see presently how they 

 faced their difficulties. . . . Several inquiries will naturally arise on 

 reading this distressing history ; the foremost, perhaps, will be with regard to 

 the entire absence of everything like a parting word to those immediately 

 about him, or a farewell line to his family and friends at home. It must be 



