"We managed your affair very nicely," Lord Palmerston said to Livingstone at a reception at Lady Palmerston's on the 12th December. "Had we waited till the usual time when Parliament should be asked, it would have been too late." Lord Shaftesbury, at the reception, assured him that the country would do everything for him, and congratulated him on going out in the way now settled. So did the Lord Chancellor (Cranworth), Sir Culling Eardley, and Mr. Calcraft, M.P. Dr. Livingstone was on the most friendly terms with the Portuguese Ambassador, the Count de Lavradio, who ever avowed the highest respect for himself, and a strong desire to help him in his work. To get this assurance turned into substantial assistance appeared to Livingstone to be of the very highest importance. Unless strong influence were brought to bear on the local Portuguese Governors in Africa, his scheme would be wrecked. The Portuguese Ambassador was then at Lisbon, and Livingstone had resolved to go there, to secure the influence from headquarters which was so necessary. The Prince Consort had promised to introduce him to his cousin, the King of Portugal. There were, however, some obstacles to his going. Yellow fever was raging at Lisbon, and moreover, time was precious, and a little delay might lead to the loss of a season on the Zambesi. At Lady Palmerston's reception, Lord Palmerston had said to him that Lord Clarendon might manage the Portuguese affair without his going to Lisbon. A day or two after, Livingstone saw Lord Clarendon, who confirmed Lord Palmerston's opinion, and assured him that when Lavradio returned, the affair would be settled. The Lisbon journey was accordingly given up. The Count returned to London before Livingstone left, and expressed a wish to send a number of Portuguese agents along with him. But to this both Lord Clarendon and he had the strongest objections, as complicating the expedition. Livingstone was furnished with letters from the Portuguese Government to the local Governors, instructing them to give him all needful help. But when he returned to the Zambesi he found that these public instructions were strangely neutralized and reversed by some unseen process. He himself believed to the last in the honest purpose of the King of Portugal, but he had not the same confidence in the Government. From some of the notes written to him at this time by friends who understood more of diplomacy than he did, we can see that little actual help was expected from the local Governors in the Portuguese settlements, one of these friends expressing the conviction that "the sooner those Portuguese dogs-in-the-manger are eaten, up, body and bones, by the Zulu Caffres, the better."