LIVINGSTONE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



My own inclination would lead me to say as little as 

 possible about myself ; but several friends, in whose 

 judgment I have confidence, have suggested that, as the 

 reader likes to know something about the author, a short 

 account of his origin and early life would lend additional 

 interest to this book. Such is my excuse for the following 

 egotism ; and, if an apology be necessary for giving a 

 genealogy, I find it in the fact that it is not very long, 

 and contains only one incident of which I have reason to 

 be proud. 



Our great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, 

 fighting for the old line of kings ; and our grandfather 

 was a small farmer in Ulva, where my father was born. 

 It is one of that cluster of the Hebrides thus alluded to by 

 Walter Scott :— 



"And Ulva dark, and Colonsay, 

 And all the group of islets gay 

 That guard famed Staff a round." * 



Our grandfather was intimately acquainted with all the 

 traditionary legends which that great writer has since 

 made use of in the ' Tales of a Grandfather ' and other 

 works. As a boy I remember listening to him with 

 delight, for his memory was stored with a never-ending 

 stock of stories, many of which were wonderfully like 

 those I have since heard while sitting by the African 

 evening fires. Our grandmother, too, used to sing Gaelic 

 songs, some of which, as she believed,had been composed by 

 captive islanders languishing hopelessly among the Turks. 



Grandfather could give particulars of the lives of his 

 ancestors for six generations of the family before him ; 

 and the only point of the tradition I feel proud of is this. 

 One of these poor hardy islanders was renowned in the 

 district for great wisdom and prudence ; and it is related 

 that, when he was on his deathbed, he called all his 

 children around him and said, " Now, in my lifetime, I 



* Lord of the Isles, canto iv 



