His native servants behaved with beautiful devotion, and would not leave
him alone in death. His heart they buried where he died, but as best
they could they embalmed his body, and by slow stages made their way
towards the coast with their precious burden, which they were determined
somehow to get to England. At one time every one of them was stricken
down by the terrible fever, but on they went for many a month, through
swamp and desert and through hostile lands. Nothing could daunt them.
Their master must lie in his home, far away, over the seas. When at
last they reached Zanzibar and handed over the trust they had so loyally
guarded, they barely received a word of thanks. But one friend of
Livingstone’s came forward just in time, and undertook to pay all
expenses for two of their number to go to England and be present at the
funeral. Susi and Chuma, two of the slaves the Doctor had freed, and his
most devoted attendants, were chosen to go with their master till the
end of his journey. It was almost a year after his death when the great
traveller was borne into the Abbey, and those two stood there among the
mourners, awe-struck but contented. Their task was accomplished; the
white man who had been their deliverer lay among his own people.
A very simple inscription, ending with the words, "Other sheep I have
which are not of this fold. Them also must I bring," marks the place in
the nave where, with a curious significance, Livingstone, an architect
of the Empire, lies close to other architects, Sir Charles Barry, Sir
Gilbert Scott, and John Pearson, whose works are to be seen in the
Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Hall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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