William Garden Blaikie

“ That early and life-long prayer of Livingstone's--that he might resemble Christ--was fulfilled in no ordinary degree. It will be an immense benefit to all future missionaries in Africa that, in explaining to the people what practical Christianity means, they will have but to point to the life and character of the man whose name will stand first among African benefactors in centuries to come. A foreigner has remarked that, "in the nineteenth century, the white has made a man out of the black; in the twentieth century, Europe will make a world out of Africa." ”

“ Few men, indeed, have shown more of Livingstone's spirit in managing the natives than Gordon Pasha, or furnished better proof that for really doing away with the slave-trade more is needed than a good treaty--there must be a hearty and influential Executive to carry out its provisions. ”

“ His discoveries were never mere happy guesses or vague descriptions from the accounts of natives; each spot was determined with the utmost precision, though at the time his head might be giddy from fever or his body tormented with pain. He strove after an accurate notion of the form and structure of the continent; Investigated its geology, hydrography, botany, and zoölogy; and grappled with the two great enemies of man and beast that prey on it--fever and tsetse. ”

“ Such facts show that not only has the slave-trade become illegal in some of the separate states of Africa, but that an active spirit has been roused against it, which, if duly directed, may yet achieve much more. The trade, however, breeds a reckless spirit, which cares little for treaties or enactments, and is ready to continue the traffic as a smuggling business after it has been declared illegal. In the Nyassa district, from which to a large extent it has disappeared, it is by no means suppressed. ”

“ All who desire to carry out the noble object of Livingstone's life will therefore do well to urge her Majesty's Ministers, members of Parliament, and all who have influence, to renewed and unremitting efforts toward the complete and final abolition of the traffic throughout the whole of Africa. ”

“ Another scheme is for a railway from the Zambesi to Lake Nyassa. A telegraph through Egypt has been projected to the South African colonies of Britain, passing by Nyassa and Shiré. An Italian colony on a large scale has been projected in the dominions of Menelek, king of Shoa, near the Somali land. Any statement of the various commercial schemes begun or contemplated would probably be defective, because new enterprises are so often appearing. But all this shows what a new light has burst on the commercial world as to the capabilities of Africa in a trading point of view. ”

“ Kirk, who succeeded in 1873 in negotiating the treaty, and got the shipment of slaves prohibited over a sea-board of nearly a thousand miles. But the slave-dealer was too clever to yield; for the route by sea he simply substituted a route by land, which, instead of diminishing the horrors of the traffic, actually made them greater. Dr. Kirk's energies had to be employed in getting the land traffic placed in the same category as that by sea, and here, too, he was successful, so that within the dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, the slave-trade, as a legal enterprise, came to an end. ”

“ E.D. Young, R.N., who led the party, and by his great experience and wonderful way of managing the natives, laid not only the founders of Livingstonia, but the friends of Africa, under obligations that have never been sufficiently acknowledged [81] . In concert with the "Livingstone Central African Company," considerable progress has been made in exploring the neighboring regions, and the recent exploit of Mr. James Stewart, C.E., one of the lay helpers of the Mission, in traversing the country between Nyassa and Tanganyika, is an important contribution to geography [82] . ”

“ Fischer, and Herr Denhardts; and the Portuguese exploration on the west, from Benguela to the head-waters of the Zambesi. Africa does not want for explorers, and generally they are men bent on advancing legitimate commerce and the improvement of the people. It would be a comfort if we could think of all as having this for their object; but tares, we fear, will always be mingled with the good seed ”