is once planted, the work is sure to go on. A missionary is soon known to be supported by his friends at home; and though the salary is but a bare subsistence, to Africans it seems an enormous sum; and being unable to appreciate the motives by which he is actuated, they consider themselves entitled to various services at his hands, and defrauded if these are not duly rendered. This feeling is all the stronger when a young man, instead of going boldly to the real heathen, settles down in a comfortable house and garden prepared by those into whose labours he has entered. A remedy for this evil might be found in appropriating the houses and gardens raised by the missionaries' hands to their own families. It is ridiculous to call such places as Kuruman, for instance, Missionary Society's property.' This beautiful station was made what it is, not by English money, but by the sweat and toil of fathers whose children have, notwithstanding, no place on earth which they can call a home. The Society's operations, may be transferred to the north, and then the strong-built mission premises become the home of a Boer, and the stately stone church his cattle-pen. This place has been what the monasteries of Europe are said to have been when pure. The monks did not disdain to hold the plough. They introduced fruit-trees, flowers, and vegetables, in addition to teaching and emancipating the serfs. Their monasteries were mission stations, which resembled ours in being dispensaries for the sick, almshouses for the poor, and nurseries of learning. Can we learn nothing from them in their prosperity as the schools of Europe, and see nought in their history but the pollution and laziness of their decay? Can our wise men tell us why the former mission stations (primitive monasteries) were self-supporting, rich, and flourishing as pioneers of civilization and agriculture from which we even now reap benefits, and modern mission stations are mere pauper establishments without that permanence or ability to be self-supporting which they possessed? "Protestant missionaries of every denomination in South Africa all agree in one point, that no mere profession of Christianity is sufficient to entitle the converts to the Christian name. They are all anxious to place the Bible in the hands of the natives, and, with ability to read that, there can be little doubt as to the future. We believe Christianity to be divine, and equal to all it has to perform; then let the good seed be widely sown, and, no matter to what sect the converts may belong, the harvest will be glorious. Let nothing that I have said be interpreted as indicative of feelings inimical to any body of Christians, for I never as a missionary felt myself to be either Presbyterian, Episcopalian. or Independent, or called upon in any way to love one denomination less than another. My earnest desire is, that those who really have the best interests of the heathen at heart should go to them; and assuredly, in Africa at least, self-denying labours among real heathen will not fail to be appreciated. Christians have never yet dealt fairly by the heathen and been disappointed." Probably no man, a member of the society by whom Dr. Livingstone has been employed, has ever spoken so freely, fearlessly, and impartially as he has done in this remarkable passage. That he will find many persons to dissent from him, must necessarily be expected. Prejudice always occupies the approaches to the citadel of truth: it will make the first stand against any one who attempts to carry the place. We do not wish, we confess, ourselves to pronounce a positive judgment in the case. It is, no doubt, a good deal to say that the quality of the religion you propagate has little to do with its value, provided only it emanates from a nominally Christian source. And yet, taking our author's view, the darkness of heathenism seems so deadly, that any glimmer of light thrown in upon it ought to be a blessing. At all events, we will not allow ourselves to doubt that Dr. Livingstone himself, amidst all his secular efforts, and through all his blunt speaking, has done vast spiritual good, and laid a safe foundation for the structure which more detailed and continuous labour must rear hereafter amid those benighted wastes. With regard to the geographical achievements of Dr. Livingstone, there will be more unanimity of opinion. He has unquestionably accomplished much. The general result of his discoveries may be summed up in a few words. It appears that, on the western, or Atlantic, side of South Central Africa, the interior is shut up, so far as a practicable route by land or water, commencing at Loanda, is concerned. That access might possibly be had to the region by means of one or other of those rivers which he crossed, flowing to the northward; and that, so far, there is an open for future exploration in that direction. But that the interior, to which these routes might lead, although abounding in tracts of fertile and well-irrigated land, is, under present circumstances, and until the process of desiccation shall be farther advanced, ill-adapted as a field for European enterprise. This estimate applies to the whole of the country explored, lying north and west of the Barotse valley. But that on the eastern side of the continent, below Victoria Falls, unanticipated facilities present themselves; consisting, in part, in the existence of a navigable river, penetrating from the coast far inland; and in part in the nature of the country it traverses, and in the character of its inhabitants. Large tracts are salubrious, fertile, and picturesque. Traces of valuable minerals abound. There is a vast supply of game; and the population, as a rule, are friendly and accessible. That, however, on both sea-boards a European nation, having its interests bound up in the traffic of slaves, has long maintained settlements, and so holds a key to the interior which it might consider it prejudicial to relinquish, or, at least, to relinquish unconditionally. That, therefore, the international difficulty is the first to be surmounted. Such is a brief recapitulation of the results of Dr. Livingstone's travels hitherto the material results, we mean but he justly views "the end of the geographical feat as the beginning of the missionary enterprise.' It is interesting to learn from himself the objects he proposes to himself, should he be permitted, as he says, "to do something more for Africa." He will endeavour, in the first place, to secure a permanent path to the highlands on the borders of the central basin, which are comparatively healthy, so as to enable Europeans to pass thither as speedily as possible from the unhealthy region near the coast. He will then try to develop, as far as he can, a trade between the natives in the vicinity of Tete and this country; and, to that end, to distribute seeds of better kinds than those that are indigenous. He hopes that missionary efforts and those of a more worldly character may mutually further each other; for any trade, except that in slaves, has a tendency to elevate the character and condition of a barbarous population. he proposes furthermore the formation of stations on the Zambesi, beyond the Portuguese territory, but having communication through it with the coast. Only let a healthy locality be searched for, and he pledges himself that there is perfect security for life and property among a people who will listen to reason, provided only they are fairly and kindly dealt with. These efforts seem feasible, because they are moderate. Great caution marks Dr. Livingstone's designs in general. This is, perhaps, the more remarkable as, in a passage which we cannot forbear from quoting, he shows himself one of those who see the hand of a special Providence, almost working miracles to smooth their onward path. The way in which he was led, he says, while teaching the Bakwains, to commence exploration, is clear evidence of this. "Anterior to that, when Mr. Moffat began to give the Bible-the Magna Charta of all the rights and privileges of Sebituane went north, and spread the modern civilization to the Bechuanas, language into which he was translating the sacred oracles, in a new region, larger than France. Sebituane, at the same time, rooted out hordes of bloody savages, among whom no white man could have gone without leaving his skull to ornament some village. He opened up the way for me-let us hope also for the ing at Kolobeng, seeing only a small Bible. Then, again, while I was labournot understand it, and felt inclined to arc of the cycle of Providence, I could ascribe our successive and prolonged droughts to the wicked one. But when forced by these, and the Boers, to become explorer, and open a new country in the north, rather than set my face southwards, where missionaries are not needed; the gracious Spirit of God influenced the minds of the heathen to is again perceived. regard me with favour; the Divine hand Then, I turned away westwards, rather than in the opposite direction, chiefly from observing that some native Portuguese, though influenced by the hope of a reward from their Government to cross the continent, had been obliged to return from the east without accomplishing their object. Had I g I gone at first in the eastern direction, seemed to invite, I should have come which the course of the great Leeambye among the belligerents near Tete, when the war was raging at its height, instead of, as it happened, when all was over. And again, when enabled to reach LoAs a means of working out this idea, anda, the resolution to do my duty by going back to Linyanti, probably saved me from the fate of my papers in the "Forerunner." And then, last of all, this new country is partially opened to the sympathies of Christendom, and I find that Sechele himself has, though unbidden by man, been teaching his own people. In fact, he has been doing all that I was prevented from doing, and I have been employed in exploring a work I had no previous intention of performing. I think that I see the operation of the unseen hand in all this, and I humbly hope, that it will still guide me to do good in my day and ge neration in Africa." In his fresh efforts, we heartily bid him God speed. Whatever the result of the contemplated mission to the court of Lisbon may prove, the labours of the explorer will be but indirectly influenced his powers as pioneer will remain what they were. The influence of governments and religions may present or remove obstacles, but a discovery is a thing that cannot be ignored or repudiated; and the world's interests will not be prejudiced by the jealousies or superstitions of nations. Such barriers will be removed or broken through. The course of Christianity and civilization may be likened to that of the great artery by which the plains of the interior of Africa are now placed in communication with the world. If it cannot make its way otherwise, it will force open a gulf for itself, and tunnel the channel it does not find. Under whatever circumstances those within the limits of the known, the vast unknown regions are drawn name of the individual who has first whispered the secret to men, will remain carved upon the tree in the garden he has planted, as it does at this moment in the island overlooking the cataract; and mark him to future ages as an instrument, divinely appointed by Providence for the amelioration of the human race and the furtherance of God's glory. In this estimate of ours, we are happy to observe that the whole civilized world agrees. Abroad as well as at home, in the New World as well as in the Old, Livingstone's name is already famous-blamelessly and irreproachably famous and should it be his lot, after all, to prove no exception in his fate to that of the explorers of the mighty continent of Africa, his memory will be yet more honoured than his life, and he will be admitted, with acclamation, amongst the illustrious characters who have helped to raise the British name to its unapproachable pre-eminence in the domain of legitimate adventure and scientific discovery. ORIENTAL AND WESTERN SIBERIA.* THE more civilized a people becomes, and the more harshly it regards any thing in the shape of vagabondism within its own limits, by so much the more it respects the fiery hearts which, flying off from the unceasing but confined whirl of its own busy life, seek amidst distant sunsets and at the cold hearths of buried nations, new warmth of feeling, and new fuel for thought, for the hearts and minds of their own countrymen. During the last four centuries the professed traveller has been regarded by steady commerce-loving Europe as a good citizen, and of at least equal rank with the members of the several learned professions. Indeed, it is scarcely too much to say, that that quality of the soul which, in old days, demanded eagerly and imperiously the gratification of dramatic representations, seeks now its nourishment in the stories of adventure and of lands scarcely known. Another element of this feeling, however, exists of course, in that earthhunger which is said to have been so prominent a feature of the character of the old Norman lords; yet it is not the love of possession, but the feeling of necessity which makes us listen now with so much pleasure to any tongue which tells of the existence of "ample verge and room" beyond our own crowded civilization. We no longer ask travellers for travellers' stories; not because our love of the marvellous is less keen than that of our forefathers, but because it receives ampler and, indeed, inexhaustible gratification at home. The worlds of thought and feeling, of science and of material nature, are explored at the present day with such incessant keenness of investigation, that every hour produces some new wonder, which is a miracle in every respect, save that it is a result, instead of being an exception to the regular laws of the universe. We no longer take delight in hearing of men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders. What we ask of travellers at the present day is, either that they should gratify our feelings of selfishness, more or less refined, by opening to us new landscapes of life, new tracks for commerce, or that they should act before us, on the theatre of distant lands, those dramas of energy and daring which are dear to all men, because all men feel that they too, if need were, could take part in them. But if we of the present hour make, with some eagerness, these demands of the adventurers of our own time, the latter are no less eager in satisfying them. The northern lights do not with more frequency streak the horizon with electric fire than do the wondrous though far off climes beckon to industry to gather the unclaimed wealth with which those climes are burdened. And as for adventure, why there has never been a day for many, many years past, that the whole English nation has not been waiting with earnest longing for news of some man or men hidden from us for a time by the ice mountains of the Arctic seas, by the eye-wearying steppes of Asia, or the sands of African deserts. Mr. Atkinson, however, to the story of whose travels we wish now to call our readers' attention, did not propose to himself, on setting out on his adventures, to become either the pilot of commerce or a mere wrestler with untamed nature. An artist, he set out to visit lands and climes where the seasons and the mirage had hitherto been the only painters; and, as the first acquirers of the New World, regarding only its gold, knew not the value of their prize, so our artist, seeking only to conquer new realms for his art, has at the same time conquered new realms for thought. A sense of not unpleasurable mystery accompanies us, as we follow this pilgrim of art, who, seven years wandering amongst the tombs of nations, sought there the ever new. He seeks no Timbuctoo in the desert, no mighty Oriental and Western Siberia. By Thomas Witlam Atkinson. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1858. |