The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fifth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through AfricaKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fifth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Africa
Knox, Thomas Wallace
Africa -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Africa, Central -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
"His family were earnest Presbyterians, and his early training led him
to the study of theology; he combined with it the study of medicine,
and, after devoting himself to these matters for several years, he
offered his services to the London Missionary Society, and was sent to
Africa. He arrived at Natal in 1840, and from that time till his death,
thirty-three years later, his life was devoted to the work of civilizing
and Christianizing the 'Dark Continent.'
"The record of his travels and explorations is in his published volumes,
and in a book entitled 'Livingstone's Last Journals,' which contains the
history of the final years of his life and the melancholy account of his
death."
Fred asked the names of Dr. Livingstone's books.
"During the early years of his missionary work," the Doctor continued,
"he sent a great many documents to England, containing valuable
information of a geographical and scientific character; they were
printed by the London Missionary Society in its journal. But nothing
appeared in book-form till 1857, when he published 'Missionary Travels
and Researches in South Africa.' He visited England to superintend the
publication of the volume, and returned to Africa in 1858.
"Down to that time he had devoted himself to missionary work, and all
his travels and explorations were directly in connection with the effort
to Christianize Africa. In 1858 he went, on behalf of the English
government, and aided by private subscriptions, to explore the southern
part of the great continent.
"On this journey he started from Quilimane, at the mouth of the Zambesi
River, and travelled in a north-westerly direction. For a part of the
route he followed the course of the river, and then turned away from it
to the north, in search of a lake of which he had been told by the
natives. He discovered the lake (Nyassa) in 1859, and explored the
country to the west and north-west of it, and the whole region around
the head-waters of the north-east branch of the Zambesi and its
tributaries.
"The work occupied him till 1863. His wife accompanied him on the
journey, and died in the interior of Africa, in April, 1862. In 1864 he
returned to England, and published 'A Narrative of an Expedition to the
Zambesi and its Tributaries.' Then, as soon as the book was issued, he
made preparations for another expedition, and left England in 1865.
"Nothing was heard from him for more than a year, and in March, 1867, a
report came to England that he had been killed in a skirmish with the
natives on the banks of Lake Nyassa. It was not generally believed, and
in June of the same year an expedition was sent to look for him. It was
under the command of Mr. E. D. Young, and although it did not succeed in
finding him, it obtained information that convinced Mr. Young of the
incorrectness of the report.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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