er
Livingstone had left, Mr. Gabriel says, 5th August, 1855: "I am grieved
to say that this excellent man's health has suffered a good deal [on the
return journey]. He nevertheless wrote in cheerful spirits, sanguine of
success in doing his duty under the guidance and protection of that kind
Providence who had always carried him through so many perils and
hardships. He assures me that since he knew the value of Christianity,
he has ever wished to spend his life in propagating its blessings among
men, and adds that the same desire remains still as strong as ever."

While Livingstone was at Loanda, he made several acquaintances among the
officers of Her Majesty's navy, engaged in the suppression of the
slave-trade. For many of these gentlemen he was led to entertain a high
regard. Their humanity charmed him, and so did their attention to their
duties. In his early days, sharing the feeling then so prevalent in his
class, he had been used to think of epauleted gentlemen as idlers, or
worse--"_fruges consumere nati_" Personal acquaintance, as in so many
other cases, rubbed off the prejudice. In many ways Livingstone's mind
was broadening. His intensely sympathetic nature drew powerfully to all
who were interested in what was rapidly becoming his own
master-idea--the suppression of the slave-trade. We shall see proofs not
a few, how this sympathetic affection modified some of his early
opinions, and greatly widened the sphere of his charity.

After all the illness and dangers he had encountered, Livingstone might
quite honorably have accepted a berth in one of Her Majesty's cruisers,
and returned to England. But the men who had come with him from the
Barotse country to Loanda had to return, and Livingstone knew that they
were quite unable to perform the journey without him. That consideration
determined his course. All the risks and dangers of that terrible
road--the attacks of fever and dysentery, the protracted absence of
those for whom he pined, were not to be thought of when he had a duty to
these poor men. Besides, he had hot yet accomplished his object. He had,
indeed, discovered a way by his friend Sekeletu might sell his tusks to
far greater advantage, and which would thus help to introduce a
legitimate traffic among the Makololo, and expel the slave-trade; but he
had discovered no healthy locality for a mission, nor any unexceptional
highway to the sea for the purpose of general traffic. The east coast
seemed to pr