To the ordinary person five months of waiting would have been almost intolerable. There are signs that even Livingstone had some ado to sit still and count the days. But if they were profitless months to him, and if often he was, as he records, “weary, weary,” the revelations contained in his journal are by no means profitless to us. He has time to write fully as to his plans and his motives. He takes us into his confidence; and we see that he has lost nothing in all these years of that eager curiosity which belonged to him as a boy. He still carries in his breast “the heart of a little child.” The wonderful Ptolemy and the naïve Herodotus are pondered over; and all the stories of “fountains” and “pillars” awaken in the great traveller the desire to test them for himself. He is evidently not sure that there is not something in them after all. He would dearly like to find out. He cannot reconcile Ptolemy with the investigation of Baker, Speke, and Grant; and it has all the delight of a fascinating conundrum to him. _April 18th._--“I pray the good Lord of all to favour me so as to allow me to discover the ancient fountains of Herodotus, and if there is anything in the underground excavations to confirm the precious old documents (τἀ βιβλία), the Scriptures of truth, may He permit me to bring it to light, and give me wisdom to make a proper use of it.” On the first of May he records that he has finished a letter to the _New York Herald_. This is the letter which concludes with the now world-renowned words upon his tablet in the Abbey--“All I can add in my loneliness is, may Heaven’s rich blessing come down on every one--American, English, or Turk--who will help to heal the open sore of the world.” By a coincidence the words were written one year to the very day before the writer’s death. He meditates much on the native faiths. He recognises as the fundamental fact “dependence on a Divine Power,” but “without any conscious feeling of its nature.” He notes also their belief in a continued existence after death, so as to be able to do good to those they love and evil to those they hate. “I don’t know how the great loving Father will bring all out right at last, but He knows and will do it.” For himself, his confidence is anchored, as it has always been, in the plain word of Christ, the perfect Gentleman. _May 13th._--“He will keep His word, the Gracious One, full of grace and truth--no doubt of it. He said, ‘Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out,’ and ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do.’ He _will_ keep His word: then I can come and humbly present my petition and it will be all right. Doubt is here inadmissible, surely.”