place of his death are commemorated by a permanent monument, which
replaced in 1902 the tree on which his native followers had recorded the
event.
In spite of his sufferings and the many compulsory delays, Livingstone's
discoveries during these last years were both extensive and of prime
importance as leading to a solution of African hydrography. No single
African explorer has ever done so much for African geography as
Livingstone during his thirty years' work. His travels covered one-third
of the continent, extending from the Cape to near the equator, and from
the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Livingstone was no hurried traveller;
he did his journeying leisurely, carefully observing and recording all
that was worthy of note, with rare geographical instinct and the eye of
a trained scientific observer, studying the ways of the people, eating
their food, living in their huts, and sympathizing with their joys and
sorrows. In all the countries through which he travelled his memory is
cherished by the native tribes who, almost without exception, treated
Livingstone as a superior being; his treatment of them was always
tender, gentle and gentlemanly. By the Arab slavers whom he opposed he
was also greatly admired, and was by them styled "the very great
doctor." "In the annals of exploration of the Dark Continent," wrote
Stanley many years after the death of the missionary explorer, "we look
in vain among other nationalities for a name such as Livingstone's. He
stands pre-eminent above all; he unites in himself all the best
qualities of other explorers. ... Britain ... excelled herself even when
she produced the strong and perseverant Scotchman, Livingstone." But the
direct gains to geography and science are perhaps not the greatest
results of Livingstone's journeys. His example and his death acted like
an inspiration, filling Africa with an army of explorers and
missionaries, and raising in Europe so powerful a feeling against the
slave trade that through him it may be considered as having received its
deathblow. Personally Livingstone was a pure and tender-hearted man,
full of humanity and sympathy, simple-minded as a child. The motto of
his life was the advice he gave to some school children in
Scotland--"Fear God, and work hard."
See, besides his own narratives and W. G. Blaikie's _Life_ (1880), the
publications of the London Missionary Society from 1840, the _Journal
and Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, the despatches to
the Foreign Office sent home by Livingstone during his last two
expeditions, and Stanley's _Autobiography_ (1909) and _How I Found
Livingstone_ (1872). (J. S. K.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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