DR.

LIVINGSTONE'S TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

BY

THE REV. W. G. BARRETT.

[Delivered at a Soiree of the Manchester Young Men's Christian Association, in the Free-Trade Hall.-From the "Manchester Courier."]

THE REV. W. G. BARRETT gave a very interesting resume of Dr. Livingstone's travels in Southern Africa, illustrated with a map. The journeys of this celebrated traveller extended over seven years, in Central and South Africa, during which he travelled, almost entirely on foot, eleven thousand miles. Dr. Livingstone was still a young man, with, it was to be hoped, a long life of honour and usefulness before him. Dr. Livingstone was a Christian young man. What fame he had acquired was the result of his goodness. He did not start upon his great African exploration with a determination to achieve that which he had acquired-a European reputation; it was not to become a geographer, though he was that; it was not to lay down latitudes and longitudes, though ho had accomplished that far beyond any African traveller; but it was, to use his own words-the words embodied in the sublime purpose which sustained him amidst all dangers-when he said, “I am resolved, GOD giving me life and health, to plant the seed of the Gospel where it never yet has been planted." That purpose was uppermost in his mind in all his wanderings, and when, after seven years of privation unequalled in the history of travel, he

accomplished his great enterprise, then, with all the greatness of a true hero, and the modesty of a true Christian, writing home to England an account of his extraordinary explorations, he says, "But the end of this geographical feat is only the beginning of the missionary enterprise." It was but the other day that Dr. Livingstone was a poor factory lad in Scotland, embued with an ardent thirst for knowledge, and devoting his nights and leisure hours in the day to its acquisition. Robert Moffat came to England; Livingstone heard him speak, and his mind was fired with the desire of going to Africa.

He offered his services to the London Missionary Society, was accepted, and returned to Africa with Robert Moffat; and at the station of Kuruman they might now suppose Livingstone labouring. Whilst at Kuruman he learned a variety of useful things, acquired the language, learned to ride upon oxen, &c., which he afterwards found very serviceable. During this time also he felt that it was not good to be in Africa alone, and he became Mr. Moffat's son-in-law, and in Mrs. Livingstone became possessed of one who shared with him all the perils, only to increase with him all the joys, of his great and adventurous undertakings. He resolved to leave Kuruman, and, proceeding to Kolobeng, about two hundred miles to the north, he built mission premises, chapel, school-house, and dwelling-house, and laboured there for some considerable period; until in June, 1849, he set out upon his first journey. The people told Livingstone that to the north, about a month's journey, there was a large river, and a sea; that the banks of the river were thickly peopled, and that the country was very fine. They encountered great difficulties in crossing the Lahari desert between Kolobeng and this river, until at last, after a month of hard travelling, he was amply repaid for his exertions by a sight of that noble river, the Zouga, the existence of which was not known before with certainty. With the impa

tience which seems to be natural to heroic men, he could not abide the slow travelling of his companions any longer, and he got the natives to hollow him out a rude canoe, in which he went up this river Zouga, reminding him, he said, of some of the rivers of his own country. Dr. Livingstone went up this river in his canoe until he arrived at Lake Ngami, of which he ascertained the latitude and longitude, length and breadth. The banks of this river, both northern and southern, he found covered with lovely villages, thickly peopled, nestling either among the rushes on its banks, or amidst the limestone rocks of the district, revealing a country well watered and well wooded, and entirely different to the arid desert he had left behind; in fact, he learned by that and subquent observations, that when you have passed 20 degrees of south latitude in Africa, you at once exchange the desert and the wilderness for a wellwatered, well-wooded, and abundantly peopled country. His oxen were attacked by that great pest of Africa, the tsetse fly, and he was compelled reluctantly to return home to Kuruman. Livingstone having ascertained beyond all doubt the existence of this great river and lake, planned a further journey, to cross, if possible, the Zouga, and see what country lay beyond. He set out again, accompanied by the same people, skirted the desert and reached the lake a second time. On this second journey in 1850, he traversed the whole of the northern border of the lake, its western and its southern coast, and ascertained that the lake was about 70 miles in length, averaging about 25 miles in width, and nearly 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. A second time his people and cattle were taken ill, and he was obliged to return home. At home he and his wife nursed the idea of his being the messenger of the gospel still further north, and they had many colloquies over it, for her heart was as brave and as stout as his. In December, 1851, he commenced his third journey,

under circumstances unparalleled in all African travel. He packed up all that he had, took his wife and his three children, and started for the interior of Africa. Whither he was going he really did not know. All that he meant to do was to go as far north as he could, and if possible to reach an apocryphal town named Linyante, of whose existence he had heard, and where there was said to reside a friendly chief named Sebitoanè. He crossed the river Zouga in safety, and travelled about 200 miles north of it until he reached a remarkable geological phenomenon, a large depression in the surface of the land, about 100 miles in length and 50 in width, being a dried-up salt lake, or inland sea, which he found encrusted with pure white salt, a beneficial provision for the sustentation of animal life there. Crossing these salt pans, from information which he received from the natives, he was induced to diverge in a north-westerly direction until he came to the magnificent river Chobe, the second river he was honoured to discover, a river larger and more magnificent in natural scenery than the river Zouga. Crossing the Chobe, he soon found out the tribe of which he was in search: and now imagine him, with his wife and family, safely located at happy Linyantè, the capital, where the friendly chief resided. The old chief received Livingstone with the utmost cordiality, gave him the best house the town could furnish, placed plenty of servants at his disposal, and told him he was monarch of all he surveyed. Livingstone here remained some considerable time taking observations, &c., and experiencing the greatest kindness from the people, though they were by far the most savage of all the heathen tribes he met with in Africa. Finding the place unfavourable for a missionary station, on account of its periodical inundations, he returned to Kuruman, and wrote home to the directors of the London Missionary Society, saying that he had only half done his work, but having had his arm broken

by a lion-though that was nothing and his throat being diseased, he must go to the Cape. He told them he was resolved to penetrate still further, and that he should like to send his wife and children to England, whilst he alone for three years pursued his explorations. He was resolved, he said, if GOD supported him, to reach the western coast, and pass to the eastern coast, and see if he could discover the river Zambesi, which was destined hereafter to be the highway for introducing Christianity, commerce, and civilisation into Africa. He returned to Cape Town, and embarked his wife and family. Whilst at Cape Town, he placed himself under the tuition of Mr. McLear, the astronomer royal, that he might perfect himself in taking solar and lunar observations. In November last a meeting was held at Cape Town, at which the Bishop presided, when Mr. McLear said that Dr. Livingstone had taken 146 latitudes and longitudes, about 190 observations, and had so carefully ascertained the precise position of every place he visited in the interior of South and Central Africa, that by simply using Livingstone's map, a person might go from Cape Town and strike any part of Livingstone's route, with the same certainty that a vessel sailing from London and adhering to the directions of the chart, might reach Cape Town. This, Mr. McLear said, was the first instance of true geographical science being applied to African discovery, and it had been done by a Missionary of the Gospel in his anxiety to diffuse Christianity.

Dr. Livingstone commenced his fourth journey, and arrived at Kuruman, where he was refreshed with the presence and advice of Mr. Moffat. Here a detention

occurred, extremely vexatious and unaccountable at the time, but which was afterwards seen to be an interposition of Providence for his personal safety from the Dutch boors. Mr. Barrett mentioned a romantic little episode arising concerning a hymn book, out of Dr. Livingstone's travels. When Dr,