xxiv LIVINGSTONE'S DEATH. 



Lualaba river was "the western arm of the Nile or the 

 eastern head water of the Congo." On February 25, 1871, 

 " they came on the Lualaba, flowing west-south-west," 

 causing him to write, " I have to suspend my judgment, so 

 as to find after all perhaps the Congo," as indeed it has 

 proved to be, " though," says Hughes, " he did not live 

 to know it." 



After this he returned to Ujiji, and there, on October 20, 

 1 87 1, took place that historic meeting between Livingstone 

 and Stanley. Stanley had been sent out by the " New 

 York Herald" to discover the explorer, alive or dead. 

 This wonderful story is told in Stanley's " How I found 

 Livingstone." On March 14, 1872, Stanley returned, 

 having with him Livingstone's " Last Journals " (published 

 in 1874). Livingstone would not accompany him. He 

 desired to complete his task. " Stanley resolutely turned 

 his face eastward, but now and then would take a look 

 round at the deserted figure of an old man in grey clothes 

 who, with bended head and slow steps, was returning to 

 his solitude .... This was Livingstone's last sight of a 

 white man." 



In a year he was dead, and the circumstances are of the 

 most pathetic on record. He had reached Ilala, and his 

 men had made him a bed of sticks and grass. But he 

 was ill unto death. He was alone, for no white man 

 was with him, and yet thousands of willing hands would 

 have tended him. if they could. On May 1st, 1873, early 

 in the morning, his servants found the great traveller 

 " kneeling by his bed, his face buried in his hands on the 

 pillow." He was dead. 



The bringing of his body to England is another amazing 

 story. Susi and Chumah, two devoted native servants, 

 buried his heart in Africa, but insisted on carrying the 

 embalmed body to England vid Zanzibar. On April 18, 

 1874, it was laid in Westminster Abbey. On the spot 

 where he died, close to Lake Banguelo, there now stands 

 an obelisk twenty feet high, in place of the tree under 

 which his heart was buried. 



Stanley said of Livingstone : " You may take any 

 point in Dr. Livingstone's character and analyse it care- 

 fully, and I will challenge any man to rind fault with it. 

 Religion has toned him and made him a Christian 

 gentleman, the most companionable of men and indulgent 

 of masters." 



