before Livingstone
left, and expressed a wish to send a number of Portuguese agents along
with him. But to this both Lord Clarendon and he had the strongest
objections, as complicating the expedition. Livingstone was furnished
with letters from the Portuguese Government to the local Governors,
instructing them to give him all needful help. But when he returned to
the Zambesi he found that these public instructions were strangely
neutralized and reversed by some unseen process. He himself believed to
the last in the honest purpose of the King of Portugal, but he had not
the same confidence in the Government. From some of the notes written to
him at this time by friends who understood more of diplomacy than he
did, we can see that little actual help was expected from the local
Governors in the Portuguese settlements, one of these friends expressing
the conviction that "the sooner those Portuguese dogs-in-the-manger are
eaten, up, body and bones, by the Zulu Caffres, the better."

The co-operation of Lord Clarendon was very cordial. "He told me to go
to Washington (of the Admiralty) as if all had been arranged, and do
everything necessary, and come to him for everything I needed. He
repeated, 'Just come here and tell me what you want, and I will give it
you.' He was wonderfully kind. I thank God who gives the influence."
Among other things, Lord Clarendon wrote an official letter to the chief
Sekeletu, thanking him, in the name of the Queen, for his kindness and
help to her servant, Dr. Livingstone, explaining the desire of the
British nation, as a commercial and Christian people, to live at peace
with all and to benefit all; telling him, too, what they thought of the
slave-trade; hoping that Sekeletu would help to keep "God's highway,"
the river Zambesi, as a free pathway for all nations; assuring him of
friendship and good-will; and respectfully hinting that, "as we have
derived all our greatness from the divine religion we received from
heaven, it will be well if you consider it carefully when any of our
people talk to you about it[56]."

[Footnote 56: See Appendix No. IV.]

Most men, after receiving such _carte blanche_ as Lord Clarendon had
given to Livingstone, would have been drawing out plans on a large
scale, regardless of expense. Livingstone's ideas were quite in the
opposite direction. Instead of having to press Captain Washington, he
had to restrain him. The expedition as planned by Washington, with
command