Portuguese affair without his going to Lisbon.  A day or two after, Livingstone saw Lord Clarendon, who confirmed Lord Palmerston’s opinion, and assured him that when Lavradio returned, the affair would be settled.  The Lisbon journey was accordingly given up.  The Count returned to London 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 commander and assistant, and a large staff of officers, was too expensive.  All that Livingstone wished was a steam launch, with an economic botanist, a practical mining geologist, and an assistant.  All was to be plain and practical; nothing was wished for ornament or show.