Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/221

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LIV
197
LIV

extremity of the African continent to St. Paul de Loanda, the capital of Angola, on the west coast, and thence across South Central Africa in an oblique direction to Quilimane on the east coast. St. Paul de Loando was reached in the August of 1854, and Quilimane in the May of 1856. Preceded by the fame of his great explorations and discoveries, Dr. Livingstone soon afterwards returned home, reaching England in the December of 1856. He made a triumphal tour of Great Britain, indicating the nature and possible results of his discoveries, the Geographical Societies of London and Pars also voting him their gold medals. Having seen through the press and witnessed the success of the volume in which he described his experiences and explorations, he once more quitted England for Africa in the February of 1858. The government placed at his disposal a steamer with which to ascend the Zambesi. He was subsequently heard of as tracing the river Shire to its source in the recently-discovered Lake Nyassa, and us co-operating with the newly-founded Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin mission to Central Africa. His "Missionary Travels" were published in 1857, and in the following year appeared a volume of his "Cambridge Lectures," with an introduction by Professor Sedgwick. After his return to Africa and the exploration of the shores of Lake Nyassa (1861) Dr. Livingstone had the misfortune (in 1862) to lose his wife, who had accompanied him in several journeys. The Zambesi expedition, concluded in 1863, supplied the materials for an interesting book published by him soon after his return to England in 1864. In the next year he once more returned to Africa, landing in Zanzibar in 1866. Early in the following year a report reached England that he had been slain by a party of natives near Lake Nyassa, and in 1867 an expedition went out to inquire into the authenticity of the report, but gained no certain information. At length in June, 1872, news was brought by an American traveller who had been sent out as a correspondent of the New York Herald to make inquiries respecting the fate of the English explorer. In March, 1866, Dr. Livingstone, according to Mr. Stanley's account, started from Zanzibar on an expedition to the district of the N'yassi Lake, but was greatly hindered by the mutinous conduct of his subordinates, who deserted him. At the end of the same year (1866), having collected another band of natives as his attendants, he passed through the countries Bobembena and Barungu on his way to the territory of King Cazembe, and crossed the river Chambezi, formerly described as a mere tributary of the Zambesi. Having reasons for doubting the correctness of this description, as given by Portuguese travellers. Dr. Livingstone was determined to explore the rise and the course of this mysterious river. He perseveringly traversed its banks, visited again Lake Tanganyika, of which he made a new survey, traced the Chambezi through three degrees of latitude, and then returned, viâ King Cazembe's territory, to Ujiji, whence he despatched letters early in 1869. He was now assured that the Portuguese Zambezi and the Chambezi are two distinct rivers, and that the source of the Nile must be found in the latter. After being laid aside for six months in 1869 by a painful illness, he succeeded in identifying a broad lacustrine stream, the Lualaba, with the great Chambezi River, which was now farther explored until he reached a point only about one hundred and eighty miles distant from the part of the Nile to which former exploration had advanced. Here further progress was stopped by the mutiny and desertion of his followers, and left without stores, he was compelled to return to Ujiji, where he arrived in October, 1871. During his first journey, in 1867-69, he found that the length of Lake Tanganyika was three hundred and twenty-three miles, that the river Rusizi flowed into and not out of that lake, that Lake Liemba is fed by Lake Tanganyika, and that a small lake, Muero, about six miles long, is fed by the river Chambezi. Such was the purport of despatches received in June, 1872, and of Mr. Stanley's communications to the British Association at the Brighton meeting.

In January, 1874, intelligence again reached this country that Livingstone was dead. Having been baffled in an attempt to cross Lake Liemba from the north, he had doubled back, and rounding the lake, crossed the Chambezi and the other rivers flowing from it. Traversing the Luapula, he found himself in a marshy country, where he had to wade up to the waist in water for three hours at a time. The result was fever, of which he died at a place called Lobisa. Ten of his followers died on the same march, while seventy-nine continued their route to Unyanyembe. The white man's remains were preserved with the sacredness of a relic, and in the charge of a faithful servant named Chuma, were brought to the coast and shipped to England. As a last mark of honour, this great traveller was buried on the 20th April, 1874, in Westminster Abbey.—F. E.

LIVINGSTON, Edward, an eminent American legislator, younger brother of Robert R, was born in the state of New York on the 23rd of May, 1764. He became an advocate at New York, of which city he was appointed mayor, and in 1793 he entered congress. His efforts, begun there and then, to mitigate the severity of the American penal code were attended with little success. An active supporter of Jefferson at the presidential election of 1801, he was rewarded for his zeal by being appointed United States district attorney for New York. After the cession of Louisiana, negotiated by his brother, he removed to New Orleans and practised as an advocate. He was there during the war with England; and throughout the defence of New Orleans, both as secretary and aid-de-camp, he assisted General Jackson, with whom he had formed an intimacy when the two were fellow-members of congress. In 1815 he was a member of the Louisiana legislature, by which his services were sought in the reform of the state laws; and in 1823 he was commissioned to construct a new criminal code. "A System of Penal Laws for the United States of America," printed by congress in 1828, and drawn up by Livingston at its request, does not seem to have been ever adopted. In 1829 he became senator for Louisiana, and in 1831 he was appointed by his old friend. General Jackson, secretary of state for foreign relations. In 1833 he went to France as minister plenipotentiary, and enjoyed the unexpected pleasure during his mission of seeing accepted by the chamber of deputies in 1835 those demands of the United States which, rejected by successive ministries and chambers in France, threatened to plunge the two countries into war. After this triumph he returned home to his estate on the banks of the Hudson, and died suddenly on the 23rd of May, 1836.—F. E.

LIVINGSTON, John, a Scottish presbyterian clergyman who took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical conflicts of the seventeenth century, was a descendant of Alexander, fifth Lord Livingston, and was born in 1603. He was educated at the university of Glasgow, and was licensed to preach in 1625. He was called to several vacant churches; but the restrictions placed on the popular will by the episcopal regulations prevented his settlement. In 1627 he became chaplain to the earl of Wigton. While holding this situation the celebrated revival of religion at the Kirk of Shotts in 1630 was brought about by his preaching. Shortly after he accepted the charge of the parish of Killinchie in the north of Ireland, where he was twice suspended by the bishop; but on the first occasion was reinstated by an order from Lord Strafford. In consequence of the persecutions which he underwent he twice set sail for America, but on both occasions was driven back, and ultimately relinquished the attempt. In 1638 he was appointed minister of Stranraer, and held that office for ten years. When the contest between Charles I. and the Scottish people began, Mr. Livingston was nominated one of the army chaplains, and was present in the campaign of 1640. In 1648 he was translated to Ancrum; and two years later he was a member of the embassy sent to treat with Charles II. at the Hague. During the Commonwealth he lived in the quiet discharge of his parochial duties; but after the Restoration he fell under the displeasure of the government, and was banished. The remainder of his life was spent at Rotterdam in the study of biblical literature and the preparation of a Polyglot Bible. He died in 168?, in the seventieth year of his age.—J. T.

LIVINGSTON, Robert R., an American politician and diplomatist, was born at New York on the 27th November, 1746. A successful lawyer, he took the anti-English side in the American revolution; and as a member of the first general congress was one of the committee which drew up the declaration of independence. He became United States secretary for foreign relations, and chancellor of the state of New York. Afterwards, as minister plenipotentiary of Paris, he negotiated with Napoleon the sale of Louisiana by France to the United States. During his residence in Paris he assisted and encouraged Fulton in the way detailed in the memoir of that inventor.—(See Fulton, Robert). Livingston returned to the United States in 1805, and devoted himself to agricultural improvements.—F. E.

LIVIUS, Andronicus. See Andronicus.

LIVIUS, Titus, the Roman historian, was born at Patavium