THE SITE OF LIVINGSTONIA, 813 



the remains of his beloved wife under the lonely baobab tree at Shupanga. 

 Few knew better than Dr. Stewart how keenly Livingstone felt the failure 

 of the English Universities Mission on the banks of the Shire in Central 

 Africa, through the death of Bishop M'Kenzie and the Rev. Mr. Burrup; 

 and how much he longed for the re-establishment of a mission settlement in 

 that part of Africa in which it is proposed to found Livingstonia. In an entry 

 in his ' Last Journals,' made in the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa on the 

 13th September, 1866, we find Livingstone, after expressing his keen regret 

 that the mission was abandoned by the Bishop's successor, adding hopefully 

 (may we not almost say prophetically ?), ' But all will come right some day, 

 though I may not live to participate in the joy, or even see the commence- 

 ment of better times.' "When in Bombay, in October, 1865, Livingstone was 

 asked by the late Rev. Dr. Wilson, in what part of Africa he would recom- 

 mend the commencement of a mission, supposing the Free Church resolved 

 to found one ? The explorer at once replied, ' I would recommend the Free 

 Church to commence operations on the healthy heights near the Lake Nyassa.' 

 It is thus quite clear that such a scheme as that originated by Dr. Stewart 

 would have had Livingstone's sanction. Nay, may we not go further, and 

 say that it was really suggested by the great traveller himself ? 



"The site fixed on for the settlement is at the southern end of Lake 

 Nyassa, a magnificent inland sea, nearly three hundred miles long, and at 

 some points sixty miles in breadth. Near the point where the River Shire 

 leaves Nyassa (about fourteen degrees south of the equator), a promontory 

 known as Cape Maclear, cleaves the south end of the lake like a wedge ; and 

 there it is proposed to found Livingstonia. About nine months ago, the 

 little band — some half-a-dozen in number — who were chosen to carry out 

 this great work, left Scotland under the leadership of Captain E. D. Young, 

 R. N. (the leader of the Livingstone Search Expedition in 1867), and already 

 they are busily engaged in founding the infant colony on Cape Maclear. 

 The difficulties they have, up to this date, encountered, have not been very 

 serious. The distance from Lake Nyassa to the sea is almost four hundred 

 miles. Flat-bottomed boats, drawing from two to three feet, can sail down 

 the Shire for sixty miles — 



' By shallow rivers, to whose falls 

 Melodious birds sing madrigals.' 



There the navigation is interrupted for between fifty and sixty miles by the 

 Murchison Cataracts, but beyond these, down to where the Shire joins the 

 Zambesi, and along the latter river to the sea, the navigation is unbroken. 

 The mission party — three of them artizans, and one a medical missionary 

 sent out by the United Presbyterian Church — proceeded by steamer to the 



