LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY 
335 
kneeling on his knees beside the bed, his face resting on both hands, 
and his body leaning against the edge. They gazed in doubt for a few 
moments; but there was no stir, no breathing. One stepped forward 
and laid his hand on the worn and hollow cheek. It was cold. The 
master was indeed dead! 
While in the act of praying to his God, the heroic soul had passed 
away. We shall never know what prayer he made; but, knowing the 
set purpose of his life, the great desire with which his whole being 
was possessed, we may well and with reverence think that in com¬ 
mitting his spirit into the hands of the God who gave it he did not 
omit to plead for the healing of that great “open sore of the world/ 5 
in probing which he had laid down his life. 
The beauty of his character was not lost on the poor blacks who 
were with him. With a fidelity which is rare in story, and a sense of 
responsibility almost unknown to benighted Africa, his servants pre¬ 
pared to convey his body and personal effects back to his own people. 
They buried his heart and internal organs under a tree, and marked 
the grave so that it might be recognized. His body they dried in the 
sun, and embalmed in the best way they could. Wrapping it in calico 
and bark, and covering the whole with canvas, they set out on their 
long and difficult journey to Zanzibar. Numerous dangers threat¬ 
ened them, and time and again they were surrounded by hostile bands— 
hostile chiefly through a superstitious fear of the dead. But still they 
persevered; and, after behaving with a courage and devotion worthy of 
their beloved master, they at length brought his mortal remains safely 
to the coast, together with the whole of his personal effects. Nearly 
a year had been occupied by the journey. Not a note or jotting of 
jail those last seven years of Livingstone’s life was lost, and it is 
entirely owing to Susi and Chuma and their faithful companions that 
this is so. Our debt to these fine fellows no reward could wipe out. 
It is an enduring obligation. 
On the 15th of April, 1874, the body, accompanied by Susi and 
Chuma, arrived in England. It was taken to the rooms of the Geo¬ 
graphical Society, and there identified—partly by the false joint in the 
upper arm, which had developed when the lion mangled him long years 
before at Mabotsa. 
