Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone (fun to read .txt) 📕

out on another African journey nearly a year ago to conduct his faithful Makololo attendants back to their own country, had not the King of Portugal relieved him from all anxiety on their account, by sending out directions that they should be supported at Tete until his return.

Our abstract does, at best, but scanty justice to the most interesting, as well as most valuable, of modern works of travel. It has revolutionized our ideas of African character as well as of African geography.

It shows that Central Africa is peopled by tribes barbarous, indeed, but far from manifesting those savage and degrading traits which we are wont to associate with the negro race. In all his long pilgrimage Livingstone saw scarcely a trace of the brutal rites and bloody superstitions of Dahomey and Ashanti. The natives every where long for intercourse with the whites, and eagerly seek the products of civilized labor. In regions where no white men had ever been seen the cottons of Lowell and Manchester, passed from tribe to tribe, are even now the standard currency.

Civilized nations have an equal interest in opening intercourse with these countries, for they are capable of supplying those great tropical staples which the industrious temperate zones must have, but can not produce. Livingstone found cotton growing wild all along his route from Loanda to Kilimane; the sugar-cane flourishes spontaneously in the valley of "The River"; coffee abounds on the west coast; and indigo is a weed in the delta of the Zambesi. Barth also finds these products abundant on the banks of the Benuwe and Shari, and around Lake Tsad.

The prevalent idea of the inherent laziness of the Africans must be abandoned, for, scattered through the narratives of both these intrepid explorers are abundant testimonies of the industrious disposition of the natives.

Livingstone, as befits his profession, regards his discoveries from a religious stand-point. "The end of the geographical feat," he says, "is the beginning of the missionary enterprise." But he is a philosopher as well as a preacher, recognizing as true missionaries the man of science who searches after hidden truths, the soldier who fights against tyranny, the sailor who puts down the slave-trade, and the merchant who teaches practically the mutual dependence of the nations of the earth.

His idea of missionary labor looks to this world as well as the next.

Had the Bakwains possessed rifles as well as Bibles -- had they raised cotton as well as attended prayer-meetings -- it would have been better for them.

He is clearly of the opinion that decent clothing is of more immediate use to the heathen than doctrinal sermons. "We ought," he says, "to encourage the Africans to cultivate for our markets, as the most effectual means, next to the Gospel, of their elevation." His practical turn of mind suffers him to present no fancy pictures of barbarous nations longing for the Gospel. His Makololo friends, indeed, listened respectfully when he discoursed of the Saviour, but were all earnestness when he spoke of cotton cloths and muskets. Sekeletu favored the missionary, not as the man who could give him Bibles and tracts, but as the one by whose help he hoped to sell his ivory for a rifle, a sugar-mill, and brass wire.

Livingstone's missionary scheme is accommodated to the actual state of things.

It rests quite as much upon traders as preachers. He would open a communication by the Zambesi to the heart of the continent.

Upon the healthy, elevated region overlooking the low, fertile basin he would establish trading posts, supplied with European wares.

We can not wonder that the directors of the Missionary Society looked coldly upon this scheme, and wrote to him that they were "restricted in their power of aiding plans connected only remotely with the spread of the Gospel;" nor can we regret that Livingstone, feeling his old love of independence revive, withdrew from his connection with the Society, for the purpose of carrying out his own plans.

With all respect for the worthy persons who manage missionary societies, we can not but believe that the man who led so large a party across the African continent will accomplish more for the good cause when working out his own plans than he would do by following out their ideas.

Appendix. -- Notes to etext.

Words:

The names Loanda and Zambesi are given in most modern texts as Luanda and Zambezi.

In three cases, the spelling used in the original was distracting enough that it has been changed: musquito > mosquito, hachshish > hashish, and nomade > nomad.

In three other cases, two variant spellings of a word were used in the text.

These were made uniform in accordance with the modern standard.

They were: water-buck > waterbuck, Mosambique > Mozambique, and imbody > embody.

Other notes on terms: Livingstone often refers to ground-nuts --

this is the British term for a peanut. Mutokwane (`Cannabis sativa') must be some variety of marijuana.

Symbols:

As the symbols for the British Pound (a crossed L), Degrees (small circle, in the upper half of the line of text), and fractions cannot be represented in ASCII, the following standards have been used: Pounds: written out, and capitalized, AFTER the number of pounds, rather than before it. Hence "L20" becomes 20 Pounds.

(where L represents the Pound symbol.)

Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: "Degrees", when used alone, is either spelled out or abbreviated "Deg." -- but is always capitalized where it replaces the symbol. When a location is given with a combination of degrees and minutes, or degrees, minutes, and seconds, [d] is used to denote the symbol for degrees, ['] represents minutes, and ["] represents seconds -- these latter two are the common symbols, or at least as similar as ASCII can represent. For an example, lat. 9d 37' 30" S. would be latitude 9 degrees 37 minutes 30 seconds south.

All temperatures given are in Fahrenheit.

Fractions: Where whole numbers and fractions are combined, the whole number is separated from the fraction with a dash.

For example, in Chapter 21: 16 ounces and 2-19/20 drams would translate as 16 ounces and two-and-nineteen-twentieths drams.

Incidentally, Livingstone uses British measurements, which sometimes differ from the American.

Corrected Errors:

Errors in the original text were corrected when the context presented compelling evidence that there was in fact an error. When possible, proper names were checked against the index for extra surety.

Chapter 2, "All around Scroti the country is perfectly flat"

changed to "All around Serotli".

Chapter 2, "one species of plants" changed to "one species of plant".

Chapter 3, "a fire specimen of arboreal beauty" changed to "a fine specimen".

Chapter 12, "till a stranger, happening to come to visit Santaru"

changed to "to visit Santuru".

Chapter 14, "the orders of Sekeletu as as to our companions"

changed to "the orders of Sekeletu as to our companions".

Chapter 14, "while Mashuana plants the poles" changed to "while Mashauana".

Chapter 15, "In other cases I have known them turn back" changed to "In other cases I have known them to turn back".

Chapter 20, p. 438, "to make a canal from Calumbo to Loando"

changed to "from Calumbo to Loanda".

(Loando, while correct, is otherwise only given in the full Portuguese name.) Chapter 26, "we saw the Batoko" changed to "we saw the Batoka".

Chapter 28, "with whom Lekwebu had lived" changed to "with whom Sekwebu".

Accented Characters in Words:

To maintain an easily searchable text, accented or special characters have been discarded. The following is a pretty complete list of the words in the text which were originally accented.

They appear more or less in the order in which they first appeared with the accent -- often the accents were dropped in the original.

In each case, the accent follows the appropriate letter, the "ae" and "oe" combinations are represented as (ae) and (oe), [], [/], [~], [^] and [-] represent the accent that looks like them which would appear above the preceding letter. [=] represents an accent that looks like the bottom half of a circle, also appearing above the letter, ["] is an umlaut, and [,] represents a cedilla.

Athen(ae)um > Athenaeum

Bakwa/in > Bakwain

Mabo/tsa > Mabotsa

Bechua/na > Bechuana

Seche/le > Sechele

Chonua/ne > Chonuane

Bakalaha/ri > Bakalahari

hy(ae)na > hyaena

tse/tse > tsetse

Banajo/a > Banajoa

man(oe)uvre > manoeuvre

Bato-ka > Batoka

Loye/lo > Loyelo

Mamba/ri > Mambari

mopane/ > mopane

Balo=nda > Balonda

Sekele/nke > Sekelenke

Mane/nko > Manenko

Sheako/ndo > Sheakondo

Nyamoa/na > Nyamoana

Kolimbo/ta > Kolimbota

Samba/nza > Sambanza

N~uana Loke/ > Nyuana Loke

larv(ae) > larvae

de/tour > detour

cicad(ae) > cicadae

Korwe/ > Korwe

Moni/na > Monina

Bonya/i > Bonyai

Conge/ > Conge

Bua/ze > Buaze

Leche/ > Leche

Bakue/na > Bakuena

Shokua/ne > Shokuane

Lepelo/le > Lepelole

Litubaru/ba > Litubaruba

Baka/a > Bakaa

Bamangwa/to > Bamangwato

Makala/ka > Makalaka

Letlo/che > Letloche

n~ami > nyami

n~aka > nyaka

Matebe/le > Matebele

Seko/mi > Sekomi

Baka/tla > Bakatla

Meba/lwe > Mebalwe

Batla/pi > Batlapi

Bata/u > Batau

Bano/ga > Banoga

Mokwa/in > Mokwain

Leko/a > Lekoa

Mako/a > Makoa

Mochoase/le > Mochoasele

Limpo/po > Limpopo

Bangwake/tse > Bangwaketse

Sebitua/ne > Sebituane

Makolo/lo > Makololo

Kalaha/ri > Kalahari

mimos(ae) > mimosae

vertebr(ae) > vertebrae

thoae/la > thoaela

tsesse/be > tsessebe

Mosilika/tze > Mosilikatze

Batlo/kua > Batlokua

Bahu/keng > Bahukeng

Bamose/tla > Bamosetla

Manta/tees > Mantatees

Ka-ke > Kake

Matlame/tlo > Matlametlo

(Ae)sop > Aesop

cucurbitace(ae) > cucurbitaceae

Leroshu/a > Leroshua

Ke-me > Keme

simi(ae) > simiae

du"iker > duiker

Mona/to > Monato

Boatlana/ma > Boatlanama

Lope/pe > Lopepe

Mashu"e > Mashue

Lobota/ni > Lobotani

leguminos(ae) > leguminosae

Ramoto/bi > Ramotobi

Mohotlua/ni > Mohotluani

"Kia itume/la" > "Kia itumela"

"Kia time/la" > "Kia timela"

"Ki time/tse" > "Ki timetse"

Moko/ko > Mokoko

Mathulua/ni > Mathuluani

Mokokonya/ni > Mokokonyani

Lotlaka/ni > Lotlakani

Ngabisa/ne > Ngabisane

Bako/ba > Bakoba

Tzo- > Tzo

Bataua/na > Batauana

Lechulate/be > Lechulatebe

More/mi > Moremi

moheto/lo > mohetolo

kuabao-ba > kuabaoba

tumo-go > tumogo

ife/ > ife

Bakuru/tse > Bakurutse

Ntwe/twe > Ntwetwe

Matlomagan-ya/na > Matlomagan-yana

Sichua/na > Sichuana

Maha/be > Mahabe

aroid(oe)a > aroidoea

Maja/ne > Majane

Moro/a > Moroa

Baro/tse > Barotse

Nalie/le > Naliele

Seshe/ke > Sesheke

e- e- e- > ee ee ee

(ae) (ae) (ae) > ae ae ae

Maha/le > Mahale

Namaga/ri > Namagari

Basu/tu > Basutu

Sikonye/le > Sikonyele

Maka/be > Makabe

Damara/s > Damaras

Bashubi/a > Bashubia

C(ae)sar > Caesar

Kafu/e > Kafue

Tlapa/ne > Tlapane

Ramosi/nii/ > Ramosinii

Baloia/na > Baloiana

Bihe/ > Bihe

tse/pe > tsepe

acme/ > acme

lamell(ae) > lamellae

ngotuane/ > ngotuane

diarrh(oe)a > diarrhoea

natur(ae) > naturae

herni(ae) > herniae

Serina/ne > Serinane

Lesho/nya > Leshonya

ka/ma > kama

ta-ri > tari

formul(ae) > formulae

prote/ge/es > protegees

prim(ae)val > primaeval

lamin(ae) > laminae

lopane/ > lopane

Kandeha/i > Kandehai

Mamochisa/ne > Mamochisane

Mpe/pe > Mpepe

Nokua/ne > Nokuane

"Nsepi/sa" > "Nsepisa"

Banye/ti > Banyeti

boya/loa > boyaloa

o-a/lo > o-alo

bu/za > buza

minuti(ae) > minutiae

Moti/be > Motibe

hypog(oe)a > hypogoea

Bapa/lleng > Bapalleng

Cho- > Cho

Tso- > Tso

"Ho-o-!" > "Ho-o!"

Mako-a > Makoa

Seko-a > Sekoa

Makolo/kue > Makolokue

Bape-ri > Baperi

Bapo- > Bapo

Narie/le > Nariele

giraff(ae) > giraffae

lechwe/s > lechwes

Luambe/ji > Luambeji

Luambe/si > Luambesi

Ambe/zi > Ambezi

Ojimbe/si > Ojimbesi

Zambe/si > Zambesi

Tianya/ne > Tianyane

Lebeo/le > Lebeole

Sisinya/ne > Sisinyane

Molo=iana > Moloiana

"tau e to=na" > "tau e tona"

"Sau e to=na" > "Sau e tona"

Lo=nda > Londa

Ambo=nda > Ambonda

n~ake > nyake

"Kua-!" > "Kua!"

moshe/ba > mosheba

Name/ta > Nameta

Masi/ko > Masiko

Pitsa/ne > Pitsane

Sekobinya/ne > Sekobinyane

Mashaua/na > Mashauana

mogame/tsa >