The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His FamilyBlaikie, William Garden
Religion
The Personal Life of David Livingstone: Chiefly from his Unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the Possession of His Family
Blaikie, William Garden
Livingstone, David, 1813-1873
His traveling-kit was reduced to the smallest possible ilk; that he
minded little, but he was vexed to be able to take so few books. A few
days after setting out, he writes in his private Journal;
"I feel the want of books in this journey more than anything
else. A Sichuana Pentateuch, a lined journal, Thomson's
Tables, a Nautical Almanac, and a Bible, constitute my stock.
The last constitutes my chief resource; but the want of other
mental pabulum is felt severely. There is little to interest
in the conversation of the people. Loud disputes often about
the women, and angry altercations in which the same string of
abuse is used, are more frequent than anything else."
The "lined journal," of which mention is made here, was probably the
most wonderful thing of the kind ever taken on such a journey. It is a
strongly bound quarto volume of more then 800 pages, with a lock and
key. The writing is so neat and clear that it might almost be taken for
lithograph. Occasionally there is a page with letters beginning to
sprawl, as if one of those times had come when he tells us that he-could
neither think nor speak, nor tell any one's name--possibly not even his
own, if he had been asked it. He used to jot his observations on little
note-books, and extend them when detained by rain or other causes.
The journal differs in some material respects from the printed record of
this journey. It is much more explicit in setting forth the bad
treatment he often received. When he spoke of these things to the
public, he made constant use of the mantle of charity, and the record of
many a bad deed and many a bad character is toned down. Naturally, too,
the journal is more explicit on the subject of his own troubles, and
more free in recording the play of his feelings. It does not hide the
communings of his heart with his heavenly Father. It is built up in a
random-rubble style; here a solemn prayer, in the next line a note of
lunar observations; then a dissertation on the habits of the
hippopotamus. Notes bearing on the character, the superstitions, and the
feelings of the natives are of frequent occurrence. The explanation is,
that Livingstone put down everything as it came, reserving the arranging
and digesting of the whole to a future time. The extremely hurried
manner in which he was obliged to write his _Missionary Travels_
prevented him from fulfilling all his plan, and compelled him to content
himself with giving to the public then what could be put most readily
together. There are indications that he contemplated in the end a much
more thorough use of his materials. It is not to be supposed that his
published volumes contained all that he deemed worthy of publication, or
that a censure is due to those who reproduce some portions which he
passed over. As to the neat and finished form in which the Journal
exists, it was one of the many fruits of a strong habit of orderliness
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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