DR. LIVINGSTONE'S DIARY. 587 



very evident to the reader that Livingstone entertained very grave forebod- 

 ings about his health during the last two years of his life, but it is not clear 

 that he realised the near approach of death when his malady suddenly passed 

 into a more dangerous stage. It may be said, " Why did he not take some 

 precautions or give some strict injunctions to his men to preserve his note- 

 books and maps at all hazards, in the event of his decease ? Did not his 

 great ruling passion suggest some such precaution ?" Fair questions ; but, 

 reader, you have all — every word written, spoken, or implied. Is there, then, 

 no explanation ? Yes ; we think past experience affords it, and it is offered 

 to you by one who remembers, moreover, how Livingstone himself used to 

 point out to him in Africa the peculiar features of death by malarial poison- 

 ing. In full recollection of eight deaths in the Zambesi and Shire districts, 

 not a single parting word or direction in any instance can be recalled. Neither 

 hope nor courage gives way as death approaches. In most cases a comatose 

 state of exhaustion supervenes, which, if it be not quickly arrested by active 

 measures, passes into complete insensibility ; this is almost invariably the 

 closing scene. In Dr. Livingstone's case we find some departure from the 

 ordinary symptoms. (The great loss of blood may have had a bearing on 

 the case.) He, as we have seen by the entry of the 18th April, was alive to 

 the conviction that malarial poison is the basis of every disorder in Tropical 

 Africa, and he did not doubt but that he was fully under its influence whilst 

 suffering so severely. As we have said, a man of less endurance in all pro- 

 bability would have perished in the first week of the terrible approach to the 

 Lake, through the country and under the continual downpour that he de- 

 scribes. It tried every constitution, saturated every man with fever poison, 

 and destroyed several, as we shall sec a little further on. The greater vitality 

 in his iron system very likely staved off for a few days the last state of coma 

 to which we refer, but there is quite sufficient to show us that only a thin 

 margin lay between the heavy drowsiness of the last few days before reaching 

 Chitambo's, and the final and usual symptom that brings on unconsciousness 

 and inability to speak. On more closely questioning the men, one only elicits 

 that they imagine he hoped to recover, as he had so often done before ; and 

 if this really was the case, it will, in a measure account for the absence of 

 anything like a dying statement ; but still they speak again and again of his 

 drowsiness, which in itself would take away all ability to realise vividly the 

 seriousness of the situation. It may be that, at the last, a flash of conviction 

 for a moment lit up the mind. If so, what greater consolation can those have 

 who mourn his loss than the account that the men give of what they saw 

 when they entered the hut ? Livingstone had not merely turned himself — he 

 had risen to pray ; he still rested on his knees, his hands were clasped under 

 his head : when they approached him he seemed to live. He had not fallen 

 to right or left when he rendered up his spirit to God. Death required no 



