SIB JOHN KIRK AT HOME. 
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hospital at Renkioi, Dardanelles, during the Crimean 
War; hut already, both at the University and during 
his service abroad, his taste and aptitude for natural 
history had so developed that he little cared to make 
the medical profession his ultimate career. In 1858 
he accepted the post of naturalist to Dr. Livingstone’s 
expedition to the Zambesi. When he arrived at the 
mouth of this river, the circumstances of the expedi¬ 
tion were such that it became necessary for Dr. Kirk 
(as he then was) to lay his studies of natural history 
aside, and assume the arduous position of second in 
command, and direct personally the conduct of the 
land j)arty. It was largely owing to his exertions 
and untiring labour that the unfortunate Zambesi 
Expedition was not an even costlier experiment than 
it eventually proved; and Dr. Livingstone found in 
his colleague and second in command a mainstay and 
help in several critical emergencies wherein the rest 
of his staff were of little service. 
Shortly after his return from the Zambesi Dr. Kirk 
was offered the post of Vice-Consul at Zanzibar, and 
thus entered the service in which he rose successively 
to the ranks of Consul, Consul-General, and Political 
Agent. In 1878 he was made C.M.G., and in 1881 
he was knighted. 
There is no one living or dead who has so profoundly 
influenced the condition of Eastern Africa as Sir John 
Kirk. To him more than to any one else is owing the 
effective repression of slave-trading; and it is only 
quite recently that the full consequences of his steady 
anti-slavery policy began to appear and develop them¬ 
selves into a healthy and beneficent solution of a 
difficult African problem. When Sir John first arrived 
in Zanzibar the Arab ruler of the island, the so-called 
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