796 LIFE OF LA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



"Dear parents, wait with patience, and you will see me come home with 

 honour. I expect it seems a long time to you, but it seems like yesterday 

 to me. I am in good health and happy. My thoughts are ever on you all, 

 and my prayers are for you. I have had trouble, but I have borne up against 

 it. Mr. Stanley says, ' Frank, you are the coolest man and the happiest I 

 ever saw.' I don't know the exact time we shall leave here, but the King of 

 Uganda has sent eighty canoes and five hundred men to take us to his coun- 

 try. He is a Christian. Mr. Stanley said he was sorry to leave him ; he is 

 so fond of a white man. There is a French officer at his place ; and Colonel 

 Gordon farther on, with several white men with him. My dear parents, were 

 you to see the hut I am now sitting in writing this you would say, How can 

 you live there ? but to-morrow we shall leave here, perhaps for no house at 

 all. I have just had my evening meal of tea, boiled beef and banana. In 

 my hut there are no less than nine black boys around me, asking me ques- 

 tions about England, and the boy that held Dr. Livingstone's hand is my 

 servant, and is as faithful as any Christian. One little boy was a slave, but 

 now free. As soon as he came with me I set him free. I saw him pulled 

 from his mother. He is about nine years old, quick and honest. His name 

 is Benjamin. My dear parents, keep my dog, Sailor, and I will pay for him 

 when I come home. I should like to have him here to keep the natives 

 away. They are afraid of the white man's dogs, but all ours are dead. I 

 daresay you think it unkind of me not to say anything about my dear brother J 

 but God's will be done, and I hope he is at rest. What can I say or think ? 

 All I can think, I wish he was with me now. I cannot explain to you all just 

 now ; but I hope to tell you in person some day. Mr. Stanley has made 

 some great discoveries. I can tell you it is not all pleasure in Africa, but I 

 hope it will soon be over, and we shall return. Remember me to everybody, 

 and look for me in May, 1877. 



"P.S. — My Dear Parents — I thought when I wrote the other sheets they 

 would be on their way by this time, but the letters only go when there is a cara- 

 van going to Uny any embe with ivory, so I can't say when this letter will reach 

 you. Since I wrote the other I have had a trip of twelve days in the boat 

 with ten men, to get canoes to convey our caravan by water to Uganda, 

 which is only five days, and by land twenty. I went to an island called 

 Ukereweway, about one hundred and twenty miles round it. The king is 

 very great. I went to him. When I went near the natives were surprised 

 to see a boat. There were thousands who never saw a white man or a boat. 

 I was the first white man ever there. I was followed everywhere by hun- 

 dreds of them. They were around the boat all day, and if I wanted them to 

 move away I only had to get out of her. Men, women, and children, are very 

 near all naked. They are a fine race of people ; the king as fine-looking a 

 man as I have seen in Africa. When I went to him he sat on a large stone 



