Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

D >> David Livingstone >> Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa


Our uncles all entered his majesty's service during the last French
war, either as soldiers or sailors; but my father remained at home, and,
though too conscientious ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer, by
his kindliness of manner and winning ways he made the heart-strings
of his children twine around him as firmly as if he had possessed, and
could have bestowed upon them, every worldly advantage. He reared
his children in connection with the Kirk of Scotland--a religious
establishment which has been an incalculable blessing to that
country--but he afterward left it, and during the last twenty years of
his life held the office of deacon of an independent church in Hamilton,
and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting me, from
my infancy, with a continuously consistent pious example, such as that
ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully portrayed in Burns's
"Cottar's Saturday Night". He died in February, 1856, in peaceful hope
of that mercy which we all expect through the death of our Lord and
Savior. I was at the time on my way below Zumbo, expecting no greater
pleasure in this country than sitting by our cottage fire and telling
him my travels. I revere his memory.

The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often seen
among the Scottish poor--that of the anxious housewife striving to
make both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put into the factory as a
"piecer", to aid by my earnings in lessening her anxiety. With a part of
my first week's wages I purchased Ruddiman's "Rudiments of Latin",
and pursued the study of that language for many years afterward, with
unabated ardor, at an evening school, which met between the hours of
eight and ten. The dictionary part of my labors was followed up till
twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up
and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be back in the
factory by six in the morning, and continue my work, with intervals for
breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night. I read in this way
many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil and Horace better at
sixteen than I do now. Our schoolmaster--happily still alive--was
supported in part by the company; he was attentive and kind, and so
moderate in his charges that all who wished for education might have
obtained it. Many availed themselves of the privilege; and some of my
schoolfellows now rank in positions far above what they appeared ever
likely to come to when in the village school. If such a system were
established in England, it would prove a never-ending blessing to the
poor.

In reading, every thing that I could lay my hands on was devoured except
novels. Scientific works and books of travels were my especial delight;
though my father, believing, with many of his time who ought to have
known better, that the former were inimical to religion, would have
preferred to have seen me poring over the "Cloud of Witnesses", or
Boston's "Fourfold State". Our difference of opinion reached the point
of open rebellion on my part, and his last application of the rod was
on my refusal to peruse Wilberforce's "Practical Christianity". This
dislike to dry doctrinal reading, and to religious reading of every
sort, continued for years afterward; but having lighted on those
admirable works of Dr. Thomas Dick, "The Philosophy of Religion" and
"The Philosophy of a Future State", it was gratifying to find my own
ideas, that religion and science are not hostile, but friendly to each
other, fully proved and enforced.

Great pains had been taken by my parents to instill the doctrines of
Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in understanding the
theory of our free salvation by the atonement of our Savior, but it was
only about this time that I really began to feel the necessity and value
of a personal application of the provisions of that atonement to my own
case. The change was like what may be supposed would take place were it
possible to cure a case of "color blindness". The perfect freeness with
which the pardon of all our guilt is offered in God's book drew forth
feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us with his blood, and
a sense of deep obligation to Him for his mercy has influenced, in some
small measure, my conduct ever since. But I shall not again refer to
the inner spiritual life which I believe then began, nor do I intend to
specify with any prominence the evangelistic labors to which the love of
Christ has since impelled me. This book will speak, not so much of what
has been done, as of what still remains to be performed, before the
Gospel can be said to be preached to all nations.

In the glow of love which Christianity inspires, I soon resolved to
devote my life to the alleviation of human misery. Turning this idea
over in my mind, I felt that to be a pioneer of Christianity in China
might lead to the material benefit of some portions of that immense
empire; and therefore set myself to obtain a medical education, in order
to be qualified for that enterprise.

In recognizing the plants pointed out in my first medical book, that
extraordinary old work on astrological medicine, Culpeper's "Herbal",
I had the guidance of a book on the plants of Lanarkshire, by Patrick.
Limited as my time was, I found opportunities to scour the whole
country-side, "collecting simples". Deep and anxious were my studies on
the still deeper and more perplexing profundities of astrology, and I
believe I got as far into that abyss of phantasies as my author said he
dared to lead me. It seemed perilous ground to tread on farther, for the
dark hint seemed to my youthful mind to loom toward "selling soul and
body to the devil", as the price of the unfathomable knowledge of the
stars. These excursions, often in company with brothers, one now in
Canada, and the other a clergyman in the United States, gratified my
intense love of nature; and though we generally returned so unmercifully
hungry and fatigued that the embryo parson shed tears, yet we
discovered, to us, so many new and interesting things, that he was
always as eager to join us next time as he was the last.

On one of these exploring tours we entered a limestone quarry--long
before geology was so popular as it is now. It is impossible to describe
the delight and wonder with which I began to collect the shells found
in the carboniferous limestone which crops out in High Blantyre and
Cambuslang. A quarry-man, seeing a little boy so engaged, looked with
that pitying eye which the benevolent assume when viewing the insane.
Addressing him with, "How ever did these shells come into these rocks?"
"When God made the rocks, he made the shells in them," was the damping
reply. What a deal of trouble geologists might have saved themselves by
adopting the Turk-like philosophy of this Scotchman!

My reading while at work was carried on by placing the book on a portion
of the spinning-jenny, so that I could catch sentence after sentence as
I passed at my work; I thus kept up a pretty constant study undisturbed
by the roar of the machinery. To this part of my education I owe my
present power of completely abstracting the mind from surrounding
noises, so as to read and write with perfect comfort amid the play
of children or near the dancing and songs of savages. The toil of
cotton-spinning, to which I was promoted in my nineteenth year, was
excessively severe on a slim, loose-jointed lad, but it was well paid
for; and it enabled me to support myself while attending medical and
Greek classes in Glasgow in winter, as also the divinity lectures of Dr.
Wardlaw, by working with my hands in summer. I never received a farthing
of aid from any one, and should have accomplished my project of going to
China as a medical missionary, in the course of time, by my own efforts,
had not some friends advised my joining the London Missionary Society
on account of its perfectly unsectarian character. It "sends neither
Episcopacy, nor Presbyterianism, nor Independency, but the Gospel of
Christ to the heathen." This exactly agreed with my ideas of what a
missionary society ought to do; but it was not without a pang that I
offered myself, for it was not quite agreeable to one accustomed to work
his own way to become in a measure dependent on others; and I would not
have been much put about though my offer had been rejected.

Looking back now on that life of toil, I can not but feel thankful
that it formed such a material part of my early education; and, were
it possible, I should like to begin life over again in the same lowly
style, and to pass through the same hardy training.

Time and travel have not effaced the feelings of respect I imbibed for
the humble inhabitants of my native village. For morality, honesty,
and intelligence, they were, in general, good specimens of the Scottish
poor. In a population of more than two thousand souls, we had, of
course, a variety of character. In addition to the common run of men,
there were some characters of sterling worth and ability, who exerted
a most beneficial influence on the children and youth of the place by
imparting gratuitous religious instruction.* Much intelligent interest
was felt by the villagers in all public questions, and they furnished a
proof that the possession of the means of education did not render them
an unsafe portion of the population. They felt kindly toward each other,
and much respected those of the neighboring gentry who, like the late
Lord Douglas, placed some confidence in their sense of honor. Through
the kindness of that nobleman, the poorest among us could stroll at
pleasure over the ancient domains of Bothwell, and other spots hallowed
by the venerable associations of which our school-books and local
traditions made us well aware; and few of us could view the dear
memorials of the past without feeling that these carefully kept
monuments were our own. The masses of the working-people of Scotland
have read history, and are no revolutionary levelers. They rejoice in
the memories of "Wallace and Bruce and a' the lave," who are still much
revered as the former champions of freedom. And while foreigners imagine
that we want the spirit only to overturn capitalists and aristocracy, we
are content to respect our laws till we can change them, and hate those
stupid revolutions which might sweep away time-honored institutions,
dear alike to rich and poor.

* The reader will pardon my mentioning the names of two of
these most worthy men--David Hogg, who addressed me on his
death-bed with the words, "Now, lad, make religion the every-
day business of your life, and not a thing of fits and starts;
for if you do not, temptation and other things will get the
better of you;" and Thomas Burke, an old Forty-second
Peninsula soldier, who has been incessant and never weary in
good works for about forty years. I was delighted to find him
still alive; men like these are an honor to their country and
profession.

Having finished the medical curriculum and presented a thesis on a
subject which required the use of the stethoscope for its diagnosis, I
unwittingly procured for myself an examination rather more severe
and prolonged than usual among examining bodies. The reason was, that
between me and the examiners a slight difference of opinion existed as
to whether this instrument could do what was asserted. The wiser
plan would have been to have had no opinion of my own. However, I was
admitted a Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. It was
with unfeigned delight I became a member of a profession which is
pre-eminently devoted to practical benevolence, and which with unwearied
energy pursues from age to age its endeavors to lessen human woe.

But though now qualified for my original plan, the opium war was then
raging, and it was deemed inexpedient for me to proceed to China. I had
fondly hoped to have gained access to that then closed empire by means
of the healing art; but there being no prospect of an early peace with
the Chinese, and as another inviting field was opening out through the
labors of Mr. Moffat, I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa; and
after a more extended course of theological training in England than
I had enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840, and, after a
voyage of three months, reached Cape Town. Spending but a short time
there, I started for the interior by going round to Algoa Bay, and soon
proceeded inland, and have spent the following sixteen years of my
life, namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary labors there
without cost to the inhabitants.

As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by habits of
writing, and which are so important to an author, my African life has
not only not been favorable to the growth of such accomplishments, but
quite the reverse; it has made composition irksome and laborious. I
think I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to
write another book. It is far easier to travel than to write about it.
I intended on going to Africa to continue my studies; but as I could not
brook the idea of simply entering into other men's labors made ready to
my hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching, manual labor
in building and other handicraft work, which made me generally as much
exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings as ever I had been when
a cotton-spinner. The want of time for self-improvement was the only
source of regret that I experienced during my African career. The
reader, remembering this, will make allowances for the mere gropings for
light of a student who has the vanity to think himself "not yet too old
to learn". More precise information on several subjects has necessarily
been omitted in a popular work like the present; but I hope to give such
details to the scientific reader through some other channel.




Chapter 1.

The Bakwain Country--Study of the Language--Native Ideas regarding
Comets--Mabotsa Station--A Lion Encounter--Virus of the Teeth of
Lions--Names of the Bechuana Tribes--Sechele--His Ancestors--Obtains
the Chieftainship--His Marriage and Government--The Kotla--First public
Religious Services--Sechele's Questions--He Learns to Read--Novel
mode for Converting his Tribe--Surprise at their Indifference--
Polygamy--Baptism of Sechele--Opposition of the Natives--Purchase Land
at Chonuane--Relations with the People--Their Intelligence--Prolonged
Drought--Consequent Trials--Rain-medicine--God's Word blamed--Native
Reasoning--Rain-maker--Dispute between Rain Doctor and Medical
Doctor--The Hunting Hopo--Salt or animal Food a necessary of
Life--Duties of a Missionary.



The general instructions I received from the Directors of the London
Missionary Society led me, as soon as I reached Kuruman or Lattakoo,
then, as it is now, their farthest inland station from the Cape, to turn
my attention to the north. Without waiting longer at Kuruman than was
necessary to recruit the oxen, which were pretty well tired by the long
journey from Algoa Bay, I proceeded, in company with another missionary,
to the Bakuena or Bakwain country, and found Sechele, with his tribe,
located at Shokuane. We shortly after retraced our steps to Kuruman; but
as the objects in view were by no means to be attained by a temporary
excursion of this sort, I determined to make a fresh start into the
interior as soon as possible. Accordingly, after resting three months at
Kuruman, which is a kind of head station in the country, I returned to
a spot about fifteen miles south of Shokuane, called Lepelole (now
Litubaruba). Here, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the
language, I cut myself off from all European society for about six
months, and gained by this ordeal an insight into the habits, ways of
thinking, laws, and language of that section of the Bechuanas called
Bakwains, which has proved of incalculable advantage in my intercourse
with them ever since.

In this second journey to Lepelole--so called from a cavern of that
name--I began preparations for a settlement, by making a canal to
irrigate gardens, from a stream then flowing copiously, but now quite
dry. When these preparations were well advanced, I went northward to
visit the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka, living between 22
Degrees and 23 Degrees south latitude. The Bakaa Mountains had been
visited before by a trader, who, with his people, all perished from
fever. In going round the northern part of these basaltic hills near
Letloche I was only ten days distant from the lower part of the Zouga,
which passed by the same name as Lake Ngami;* and I might then (in 1842)
have discovered that lake, had discovery alone been my object. Most part
of this journey beyond Shokuane was performed on foot, in consequence
of the draught oxen having become sick. Some of my companions who had
recently joined us, and did not know that I understood a little of their
speech, were overheard by me discussing my appearance and powers: "He
is not strong; he is quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts
himself into those bags (trowsers); he will soon knock up." This caused
my Highland blood to rise, and made me despise the fatigue of keeping
them all at the top of their speed for days together, and until I heard
them expressing proper opinions of my pedestrian powers.

* Several words in the African languages begin with the ringing sound
heard in the end of the word "comING". If the reader puts an 'i'
to the beginning of the name of the lake, as Ingami,
and then sounds the 'i' as little as possible, he will have
the correct pronunciation. The Spanish n [ny] is employed
to denote this sound, and Ngami is spelt nyami--naka means a tusk,
nyaka a doctor. Every vowel is sounded in all native words,
and the emphasis in pronunciation is put upon the penultimate.

Returning to Kuruman, in order to bring my luggage to our proposed
settlement, I was followed by the news that the tribe of Bakwains,
who had shown themselves so friendly toward me, had been driven from
Lepelole by the Barolongs, so that my prospects for the time of forming
a settlement there were at an end. One of those periodical outbreaks
of war, which seem to have occurred from time immemorial, for the
possession of cattle, had burst forth in the land, and had so changed
the relations of the tribes to each other, that I was obliged to set out
anew to look for a suitable locality for a mission station.

In going north again, a comet blazed on our sight, exciting the
wonder of every tribe we visited. That of 1816 had been followed by an
irruption of the Matebele, the most cruel enemies the Bechuanas ever
knew, and this they thought might portend something as bad, or it might
only foreshadow the death of some great chief. On this subject of comets
I knew little more than they did themselves, but I had that confidence
in a kind, overruling Providence, which makes such a difference between
Christians and both the ancient and modern heathen.

As some of the Bamangwato people had accompanied me to Kuruman, I was
obliged to restore them and their goods to their chief Sekomi. This made
a journey to the residence of that chief again necessary, and, for the
first time, I performed a distance of some hundred miles on ox-back.

Returning toward Kuruman, I selected the beautiful valley of Mabotsa
(lat. 25d 14' south, long. 26d 30'?) as the site of a missionary
station, and thither I removed in 1843. Here an occurrence took place
concerning which I have frequently been questioned in England, and
which, but for the importunities of friends, I meant to have kept in
store to tell my children when in my dotage. The Bakatla of the village
Mabotsa were much troubled by lions, which leaped into the cattle-pens
by night, and destroyed their cows. They even attacked the herds in open
day. This was so unusual an occurrence that the people believed that
they were bewitched--"given," as they said, "into the power of the lions
by a neighboring tribe." They went once to attack the animals, but,
being rather a cowardly people compared to Bechuanas in general on such
occasions, they returned without killing any.

It is well known that if one of a troop of lions is killed, the others
take the hint and leave that part of the country. So, the next time the
herds were attacked, I went with the people, in order to encourage them
to rid themselves of the annoyance by destroying one of the marauders.
We found the lions on a small hill about a quarter of a mile in length,
and covered with trees. A circle of men was formed round it, and they
gradually closed up, ascending pretty near to each other. Being down
below on the plain with a native schoolmaster, named Mebalwe, a most
excellent man, I saw one of the lions sitting on a piece of rock within
the now closed circle of men. Mebalwe fired at him before I could, and
the ball struck the rock on which the animal was sitting. He bit at
the spot struck, as a dog does at a stick or stone thrown at him; then
leaping away, broke through the opening circle and escaped unhurt. The
men were afraid to attack him, perhaps on account of their belief in
witchcraft. When the circle was re-formed, we saw two other lions in
it; but we were afraid to fire lest we should strike the men, and they
allowed the beasts to burst through also. If the Bakatla had acted
according to the custom of the country, they would have speared the
lions in their attempt to get out. Seeing we could not get them to kill
one of the lions, we bent our footsteps toward the village; in going
round the end of the hill, however, I saw one of the beasts sitting on
a piece of rock as before, but this time he had a little bush in front.
Being about thirty yards off, I took a good aim at his body through the
bush, and fired both barrels into it. The men then called out, "He is
shot, he is shot!" Others cried, "He has been shot by another man too;
let us go to him!" I did not see any one else shoot at him, but I saw
the lion's tail erected in anger behind the bush, and, turning to the
people, said, "Stop a little, till I load again." When in the act of
ramming down the bullets, I heard a shout. Starting, and looking half
round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was upon
a little height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to
the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook
me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to
that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat.
It caused a sort of dreaminess, in which there was no sense of pain nor
feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all that was happening.
It was like what patients partially under the influence of chloroform
describe, who see all the operation, but feel not the knife. This
singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake
annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round at the
beast. This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed
by the carnivora; and if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent
Creator for lessening the pain of death. Turning round to relieve myself
of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my head, I saw his eyes
directed to Mebalwe, who was trying to shoot him at a distance of ten
or fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels; the
lion immediately left me, and, attacking Mebalwe, bit his thigh. Another
man, whose life I had saved before, after he had been tossed by a
buffalo, attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe. He
left Mebalwe and caught this man by the shoulder, but at that moment the
bullets he had received took effect, and he fell down dead. The whole
was the work of a few moments, and must have been his paroxysms of
dying rage. In order to take out the charm from him, the Bakatla on the
following day made a huge bonfire over the carcass, which was declared
to be that of the largest lion they had ever seen. Besides crunching the
bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds on the upper part of my
arm.

A wound from this animal's tooth resembles a gun-shot wound; it is
generally followed by a great deal of sloughing and discharge, and pains
are felt in the part periodically ever afterward. I had on a tartan
jacket on the occasion, and I believe that it wiped off all the virus
from the teeth that pierced the flesh, for my two companions in this
affray have both suffered from the peculiar pains, while I have escaped
with only the inconvenience of a false joint in my limb. The man whose
shoulder was wounded showed me his wound actually burst forth afresh on
the same month of the following year. This curious point deserves the
attention of inquirers.

The different Bechuana tribes are named after certain animals, showing
probably that in former times they were addicted to animal-worship like
the ancient Egyptians. The term Bakatla means "they of the monkey";
Bakuena, "they of the alligator"; Batlapi, "they of the fish": each
tribe having a superstitious dread of the animal after which it is
called. They also use the word "bina", to dance, in reference to the
custom of thus naming themselves, so that, when you wish to ascertain
what tribe they belong to, you say, "What do you dance?" It would seem
as if that had been a part of the worship of old. A tribe never eats the
animal which is its namesake, using the term "ila", hate or dread, in
reference to killing it. We find traces of many ancient tribes in the
country in individual members of those now extinct, as the Batau, "they
of the lion"; the Banoga, "they of the serpent"; though no such tribes
now exist. The use of the personal pronoun they, Ba-Ma, Wa, Va or Ova,
Am-Ki, &c., prevails very extensively in the names of tribes in Africa.
A single individual is indicated by the terms Mo or Le. Thus Mokwain is
a single person of the Bakwain tribe, and Lekoa is a single white man or
Englishman--Makoa being Englishmen.