6z6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Tribune Association. For twenty- 

 five years Mr. Ripley has interpreted 

 the intellectual work of the age through 

 its columns to millions of his country- 

 men ; and this has not only been done 

 with conscientious fidelity and rare 

 discrimination, but with a broad and 

 courageous liberality and a catholic 

 sympathy with all that seemed true 

 and excellent, whatever its source. 

 May the paper, in the new epoch upon 

 which it has entered, have all the suc- 

 cess that shall be commensurate with 

 its nobleness of aim, and its honorable 

 and high-toned management! 



DEATH OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. 



Tidings of the death of Dr. David 

 Livingstone, the celebrated African ex- 

 plorer, have been received, and are 

 generally credited. The particulars are 

 meagre and uncertain, but it is said he 

 died of dysentery after severe exposure, 

 returning from Ujiji to Unyanyembe. 

 The expedition of the British Govern- 

 ment, under Lieutenant Cameron, is 

 supposed to have met him in an en- 

 campment where he breathed his last, 

 and embalmed his body to be taken to 

 Zanzibar. 



He was born in 1817, of poor Scot- 

 tish parents, and, having a taste for 

 books, his father helped him to attend 

 the Glasgow University in the winter, 

 while he helped himself by working in 

 the cotton-mills in vacation. He stud- 

 ied medicine, and was admitted to gen- 

 eral practice in surgery and physic in 

 1838. He desired to go to China as a 

 missionary, but, hearing that a medical 

 agent was wanted for the African mis- 

 sions, he applied, was accepted, or- 

 dained to preach, and in 1839 left for 

 Natal. He here met the missionary, 

 Eev. Mr. Moffatt, and married his 

 daughter, by whom he had two sons 

 born in Africa. His first effort at ex- 

 ploration was in the great Kalahari 

 Desert in 1849, when he discovered the 



Zonga River, and floated down its cur- 

 rent into Lake Ngami, the most south- 

 erly of that great chain of lakes which 

 occupies the centre of Africa. The 

 next year he returned to this lake with 

 wife and children, who suffered greatly. 

 He afterward discovered the great Zam- 

 bezi River, the chief stream of Southern 

 Africa. He now formed the scheme of 

 opening up the Zambezi by means of 

 light steamers, and of evangelizing the 

 inhabitants of the region. His family 

 were sent to Europe, and he undertook 

 a formidable search of this country in 

 1852. His wanderings, adventures, and 

 discoveries, were continued until the 

 latter part of 1856, when he returned 

 to Europe, and was received with the 

 greatest honors. In 1857 he published 

 a narrative of his travels, and in 1858 

 returned to Africa to explore the Zam- 

 bezi with steam-launches. During this 

 expedition he discovered Lakes Nyassa 

 and Shirvan, lost his wife, and the ex- 

 pedition was recalled by the Govern- 

 ment in 1863, and he again reached 

 England in 1864. In 1865 he left his 

 native country for the last time, and 

 his object was thus stated in the pref- 

 ace to his book on the Zambezi and its 

 tributaries: "I propose," he wrote, "to 

 go inland north of the territory which 

 the Portuguese in Europe claim, and 

 endeavor to commence that system m 

 the East which has been so eminently 

 successful on the west coast — a system 

 combining the repressive effects of her 

 Majesty's cruisers with lawful trade 

 and Christian missions — the moral and 

 material results of which have been so 

 gratifying. I hope to ascend the Ro- 

 vuma, or some other river north of 

 Cape Delgado, and, in addition to my 

 other work, shall strive, by passing 

 along the northern end of Lake Ny- 

 assa, and round the southern end of 

 Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the wa- 

 ter-shed of that part of Africa. In so 

 doing I have no wish to unsettle what, 

 with so much toil and danger, was ac- 

 complished by Speke and Grant, but 



