xvi LIVINGSTONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY^ 



have searched most carefully through all the traditions 

 I could find of our family, and I never could discover 

 that there was a dishonest man among our forefathers. 

 If therefore any of you or any of your children should take 

 to dishonest ways, it will not be because it runs in our 

 blood ; it does not belong to you. I leave this precept 

 with you : Be honest." If therefore in the following 

 pages I fall into any errors, I hope they will be dealt with 

 as honest mistakes, and not as indicating that I have 

 forgotten our ancient motto. This event took place at a 

 time when the Highlanders, according to Macaulay, were 

 much like the Cape Caffres, and any one, it was said, 

 could escape punishment for cattle-stealing by presenting 

 a share of the plunder to his chieftain. Our ancestors 

 were Roman Catholics ; they were made Protestants by 

 the laird coming round with a man having a yellow staff, 

 which would seem to have attracted more attention than 

 his teaching, for the new religion went long afterwards, 

 perhaps it does so still, by the name of " the religion of 

 the yellow stick." 



Finding his farm in Ulva insufficient to support a 

 numerous family, my grandfather removed to Blantyre 

 Works, a large cotton manufactory on the beautiful Clyde, 

 above Glasgow ; and his sons, having had the best 

 education the Hebrides afforded, were gladly received as 

 clerks by the proprietors, Monteith and Co. He himself, 

 highly esteemed for his un^inching honesty, was employed 

 in the conveyance of large sums of money from Glasgow 

 to the works, and in old age was, according to the custom 

 of that company, pensioned off, so as to spend his declining 

 years in ease and comfort. 



Our uncles all entered His Majesty's service during the 

 last French war, either as soldiers or sailors ; but my 

 lather remained at home, and, though too conscientious 

 ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer, by his kindliness 

 of manner and winning ways he made the heartstrings of 

 his children twine around him as firmly as if he had 

 possessed, and could have bestowed upon them, e very- 

 worldly advantage. He reared his children in connection 

 with the Kirk of Scotland — »a religious establishment 

 which has been an incalculable blessing to that country — 

 but he afterwards left it, and during the last twenty years 

 of his life held the office of deacon of an independent 

 church in Hamilton, and deserved my lasting gratitude 



