IN DARKEST AFRICA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5051, 12 November 1926, Page 3

IN DARKEST AFRICA.

STORY OF LIVINGSTONE.

THE LAST WHITE SURVIVOR.

The last white survivor of David Livingstone’s expedition into Central Africa is dead. He was Mr Charles St. John, who had reached the age of 86. After participating in the suppression of the slave traffic on the East African coast, Mr St. John joined the great explorer and missionary Sjnd went with him into the heart of Africa (says, the Watertown Times). It is 53 years ago since David Livingstone died in Africa after 30 years’ work in the interior of .the then unknown continent. His travels covered one-third of the continent from the Cape to near the Equator and from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. No single African explorer has ever done so much for African geography as Livingstone. He gave his life to the work. “In the annals of exploration of the Dark Continent,” wrote Stanley many years; .after the death of the missionary explorer, “we look in vain for such a name as Livingstone’s?’ All of that faithful hand of men who followed the “great doctor” on th# last into the interior are gone. Livingstone had made two previous journeys of exploration into Africa before he arrived at Zanzibar on January 28, 1866. He first went out as a missionary in 1840. He returned to' England in 1856 and wrote his “Missionary Travels ®jid Researches in South Africa.”' The results of his travels were far-reaching. Basqd on his. observations the map of Central Africa was reconstructed. Two years later, in 1858, Livingstone accepted the appointment of Hoi Majesty’s Consul at Quillimajie for the eastern coast and independent districts in the interior and commander of an expedition for exploring Eastern and Central Africa. The; Zambesi expedition, of which Livingstone became commander,. sailed from Liverpool in March, 1858. The expedition returned in 1864; after a comparative failure, although the geographical results were important. THE MEETING WITH STANLEY. Livingstone would have liked to spend the remainder of his days at his home, but he was persuaded to accept the appointment of British Consul to Central Africa, .and he again left England in 1865, never .to return. The two main objects of the expedition were the suppression of slavery, which was then ramp.ant on the African coast, by means of civilising influences, and the ascertainment of the watershed in thte region between Nyassa and Tanganyika. Livingstone followed the idea that, the sources of the Nile were farrtter to the south, and his last journey became in the end a forlorn hope in search of the “fountains,” of Herodotus. He arrived at Zanzibar ip 1866 and started Tor. the interior. The journey was beset with l hardships. The followers of the expedition fell away until there were only four or five boys left, animals were l<fet from the train, the medicine chest was ; stolten. Dr. Livingstone wa.s stricken ■with 'fever, and Arab slave-dealers hampered their progress into the interior.

The weary traveller at last made his way back to'. Ujiji, and it was> here tha.t he was met by Mr H. Mi- Stanley, sent by James Gordon Bennett, of the New York Herald- With Stanley, Livingstone explored thQ north end of Tanganyika, and at the .end of the year Stanley bade farewell to Livingstone at Unyamwezi: After five months Stanley sent him 57 men and boys, and thus, .attended Livingstone started his last trek.

THE GREAT EXPLORER’S END. .The party started for Lake Bangweula, proceeding along the east of Tanganyika. Livingstone was failing fast, and he became weaker and weaken, until he had to be carried in a rude litter. In January, 1813, the party got among endless jungle on the east of the lake, trying to find the fountains. They reached Chitambo’s village on the Lulimala in Ilala, on the south shore of the lake. -4lt Was here that the great explorer died. Ea’rly one morning the boys found the “great master,” as they called him, kneeling by the side of his bed, dead. His faithful men preserved the body as best they could, and, wrapping it up carefully, carried it and all his papers dind instruments across Africa to Zanzibar. It was conveyed to England with all honour and. deposited in Westminster Abbey. In old Chitabmo’s village the time and place of his. death are commemorated by a permanent monument, -which 'replaced in 19(12 th'e tree on which his followers; had recorded the event.