day, 'No State Church,'* on the bark of a tree, woodcuts which it was his father's delight to decipher. The letters D. L.' have grown with the growth of the tree, and broadened by the lapse of time, as has the fame of their owner."

The family of Neil Livingstone erected a tombstone to the memory of their parents in the Hamilton Cemetery. The inscription on it is one of the most touching we remember ever to have seen. We cannot resist giving a copy of it:

TO SHOW THE RESTING-PLACE
OF NEIL LIVINGSTONE
AND AGNES HUNTER;

AND TO EXPRESS

THE THANKFULNESS TO GOD
OF THEIR CHILDREN,

JOHN, DAVID, JANET, CHARLES,
AND AGNES,

FOR POOR AND PIOUS PARENTS.

Of this family, the two best known to the general public are dead.

Dr. Livingstone's eldest brother John is still alive. He emigrated to North America in early life, and settled at Listowel, twenty-five miles from Niagara Falls, as a farmer and storekeeper. He is a man of energetic character, and has done much towards the improvement of a

At that time the Voluntary Controversy was agitating the churches in Scotland, and the "Ten Years' Conflict," which ended in the disruption of the Church of Scotland was at its height. In his manhood, no man was more tolerant as to the question of "Creed" than Dr. Livingstone. To him all men were truly "brethren," who honestly and uprightly followed after Christ and his commandments.

RESIDENCE OF HIS FAMILY.

327

large tract of country all but unreclaimed when he entered it. Like all the other members of his family, he is respected for his humble and unobtrusive piety, and for his uprightness and worth as a man of the world. An indefatigable representative of "The New York Herald" visited and interviewed him in 1872, and treated the readers of "The Herald" to a graphic account of the old gentleman and his surroundings, when Mr. Stanley and his discovery of Livingstone were attracting universal attention.

Charles, Dr. Livingstone's younger brother, and his loved companion in the brief holiday hours of his boy hood, was educated for the ministry, and was for a good many years pastor of one of the New England Presbyte rian churches. He shared the adventurous spirit of his brother, Dr. Livingstone, and, as we have seen, accompanied him on his second expedition to the Zambesi. Returning to England, he was appointed one of H. M. consuls to the West Coast of Africa, a position which gave him much opportunity for doing good to the heathen, which he embraced with great zeal and success. Last year, his health having broken down, he started on his return to England, but died on the passage home. Dr. Livingstone's sisters, Janet and Agnes, removed with their parents to Hamilton in 1841, where they still reside. They are both unmarried, and are held in much respect by their neighbors for their Christian character and genial worth.

Dr. Livingstone's family have resided principally in Hamilton since his departure on his last expedition in 1866. His eldest son, to use his father's words in a letter to Sir Bartle Frere written in 1868, "wandered into the American war," and must have been killed, as he has

never been heard of since the close of one of the early battles before Richmond. His second son, Mr. Thomas E. Livingstone, represents a large commercial house in Alexandria. His third son, Mr. W. Oswell Livingstone, is at present completing his medical education at Glasgow University. His eldest daughter, who was a great favorite of her father, and to whom he intrusted the custody of his papers sent home by Mr. Stanley, resides in Hamilton, where her younger sister is at present receiving her education.

Up to the present time, the Livingstone family have done honor to the injunction of their progenitor recorded at page nine. At a time when the morals of his neighbors were of a somewhat loose description, he did not on his death-bed tell his children to strive to be distinguished or to become rich, but to be honest, as all their forefathers had been. The generations of his successors, with whom the achievements of Dr. Livingstone have made us acquainted, have more than obeyed the dying counsel of their Highland ancestor. To honesty they have added godliness; and from among them has come the man of all others in this nineteenth century who will stand highest with his countrymen for the noblest human characteristics, self-denial, intrepidity, and love to God and his fellow-men. His life from early manhood has been a continual sacrifice offered up for the material and spiritual welfare of a vast people of whose existence in the mysterious heart of the African continent modern commerce and Christian missions were previously unaware.

That he should have died on his homeward journey, after nearly a quarter of a century of successful exploration in hitherto unknown countries, is a dispensation of Providence to which we must reverently bow. His fate

A CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY.

329

forms one more instance in the annals of heroic effort and self-sacrifice, where the human instrument of God s grea purpose has been removed in the very hour of success, when rest and peace, and human rewards and acknowl edgments, were awaiting him at the close of his stirring conflict. Though weary, worn, and broken in body, we may readily believe that his undaunted spirit remained to him at the last; and he would be thankful to God, that to him had been given a rare opportunity of preaching the gospel of his Master to thousands of benighted heathens, who had never before heard of their Redeemer. This, and the certainty, that, as a result of his labors, the introduction of Christianity and peaceful commerce, and the suppression of slavery among the millions of Central Africa, would be only a question of time, would reconcile him to the laying down the burden of his life far from nome and kindred, among the people he had striven so nobly to serve. Of late years the magnitude of his contributions to our geographical knowledge has all but made us forget that he was a Christian missionary to the heathen. From early boyhood this was his cherished ambition; and from his own published accounts, and through Mr. Stanley, we know that he never lost an opportunity of going about his Master's work.

28

CHAPTER XVIII.

ACCOUNT OF LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH OF DR. LIVINGSTONE.

THE following brief account of the last moments of Dr. Livingstone has reached us as the last sheet of this narrative was going to press. It was sent by the correspondent of "The New York Herald "at Suez, and reached England on the 29th of March:

"The Malwa' (Peninsular and Oriental steamer) arrived off Suez at eleven on Saturday night, having Mr. Arthur Laing and Jacob Wainwright on board, with the body of Livingstone.

"The great traveller had been ill with chronic dysentery for several months past, although well-supplied with stores and medicines; and he seems to have had a presentiment that this attack would prove fatal.

"He rode a donkey at first, but was subsequently carried, and thus arrived at Ilala, beyond Lake Bemba (Bangweolo), in Bisa Country, when he said to his followers, Build me a hut to die in.' The hut was built by his men, who first of all made him a bed. It is stated that he suffered greatly, groaning night and day. On the third day he said, 'I am very cold: put more grass over the hut.'

"His followers did not speak to or go near him. Kitumbo, chief of Bisa, however, sent flour and beans, and behaved well to the party. On the fourth day Livingstone became insensible, and died about midnight. Ma