How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. LivingstoneStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
History
How I found Livingstone : $b Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone
Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton)
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
By this time Livingstone was becoming known to me. I defy any one to be
in his society long without thoroughly fathoming him, for in him there
is no guile, and what is apparent on the surface is the thing that is in
him. I simply write down my own opinion of the man as I have seen him,
not as he represents himself; as I know him to be, not as I have heard
of him. I lived with him from the 10th November, 1871, to the 14th
March, 1872; witnessed his conduct in the camp, and on the march, and
my feelings for him are those of unqualified admiration. The camp is the
best place to discover a man's weaknesses, where, if he is flighty or
wrong-headed, he is sure to develop his hobbies and weak side. I think
it possible, however, that Livingstone, with an unsuitable companion,
might feel annoyance. I know I should do so very readily, if a man's
character was of that oblique nature that it was an impossibility to
travel in his company. I have seen men, in whose company I felt nothing
but a thraldom, which it was a duty to my own self-respect to cast off
as soon as possible; a feeling of utter incompatibility, with whose
nature mine could never assimilate. But Livingstone was a character that
I venerated, that called forth all my enthusiasm, that evoked nothing
but sincerest admiration.
Dr. Livingstone is about sixty years old, though after he was restored
to health he appeared more like a man who had not passed his fiftieth
year. His hair has a brownish colour yet, but is here and there streaked
with grey lines over the temples; his whiskers and moustache are
very grey. He shaves his chin daily. His eyes, which are hazel, are
remarkably bright; he has a sight keen as a hawk's. His teeth alone
indicate the weakness of age; the hard fare of Lunda has made havoc in
their lines. His form, which soon assumed a stoutish appearance, is a
little over the ordinary height with the slightest possible bow in the
shoulders. When walking he has a firm but heavy tread, like that of an
overworked or fatigued man. He is accustomed to wear a naval cap with
a semicircular peak, by which he has been identified throughout Africa.
His dress, when first I saw him, exhibited traces of patching and
repairing, but was scrupulously clean.
I was led to believe that Livingstone possessed a splenetic,
misanthropic temper; some have said that he is garrulous, that he is
demented; that he has utterly changed from the David Livingstone whom
people knew as the reverend missionary; that he takes no notes or
observations but such as those which no other person could read but
himself; and it was reported, before I proceeded to Central Africa, that
he was married to an African princess.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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