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
I have often heard our servants discuss our respective merits. "Your
master," say my servants to Livingstone's, "is a good man--a very good
man; he does not beat you, for he has a kind heart; but ours--oh! he
is sharp--hot as fire"--"mkali sana, kana moto." From being hated and
thwarted in every possible way by the Arabs and half-castes upon
first arrival in Ujiji, he has, through his uniform kindness and mild,
pleasant temper, won all hearts. I observed that universal respect was
paid to him. Even the Mohammedans never passed his house without calling
to pay their compliments, and to say, "The blessing of God rest on you."
Each Sunday morning he gathers his little flock around him, and reads
prayers and a chapter from the Bible, in a natural, unaffected, and
sincere tone; and afterwards delivers a short address in the Kisawahili
language, about the subject read to them, which is listened to with
interest and attention.
There is another point in Livingstone's character about which readers of
his books, and students of his travels, would like to know, and that is
his ability to withstand the dreadful climate of Central Africa, and
the consistent energy with which he follows up his explorations. His
consistent energy is native to him and to his race. He is a very fine
example of the perseverance, doggedness, and tenacity which characterise
the Anglo-Saxon spirit; but his ability to withstand the climate is due
not only to the happy constitution with which he was born, but to the
strictly temperate life he has ever led. A drunkard and a man of vicious
habits could never have withstood the climate of Central Africa.
The second day after my arrival in Ujiji I asked the Doctor if he did
not feel a desire, sometimes, to visit his country, and take a little
rest after his six years' explorations; and the answer he gave me fully
reveals the man. Said he:
"I should like very much to go home and see my children once again, but
I cannot bring my heart to abandon the task I have undertaken, when it
is so nearly completed. It only requires six or seven months more to
trace the true source that I have discovered with Petherick's branch of
the White Nile, or with the Albert N'Yanza of Sir Samuel Baker, which is
the lake called by the natives 'Chowambe.' Why should I go home before
my task is ended, to have to come back again to do what I can very well
do now?"
"And why?" I asked, "did you come so far back without finishing the task
which you say you have got to do?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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