to be engaged, deeds of sympathy, consideration, and kindness, which, when viewed in detail, may seem thrown away, if steadily persisted in, are sure, ultimately, to exercise a commanding influence.  Depend upon it, a kind word or deed is never lost.”

Evidently, Dr. Livingstone felt himself in a difficult position at the head of this enterprise.  He was aware of the trouble that had usually attended civil as contrasted with naval and military expeditions, from the absence of that habit of discipline and obedience which is so firmly established in the latter services.  He had never served under Her Majesty’s Government himself, nor had he been accustomed to command such men as were now under him, and there were some things in his antecedents that made the duty peculiarly difficult.  On one thing only he was resolved:  to do his own duty to the utmost, and to spare no pains to induce every member of the Expedition to do his.  It was impossible for him not to be anxious as to how the team would pull together, especially as he knew well the influence of a malarious atmosphere in causing intense irritability of temper.  In some respects, though not the most obvious, this was the most trying period of his life.  His letters and other written papers show one little but not uninstructive effect of the pressure and distraction that now came on him—­in the great change which his handwriting underwent—­the neat, regular writing of his youth giving place to a large and heavyish hand, as if he had never had time to mend his pen, and his only thought had been how to get on most quickly.  Yet we see also, very clearly, how nobly he strove after self-control and conciliatory ways.  The tone of courtesy, the recognition of each man’s independence in his own sphere, and the appeal to his good sense and good feeling, apparent in the instructions, show a studious desire, while he took and intended to keep his place as Commander, to conceal the symbols of authority, and bind the members of the party together as a band of brothers.  And though in his published book, The Zambesi and its Tributaries, which was mainly a report of his doings to the Government and the nation, he confined himself to the matters with which he had been intrusted by them, there are many little proofs of his seeking wisdom and strength from above with undiminished earnestness, and of his striving, as much as ever, to do all to the glory of God.

As the swift motion of the ship bears him farther and farther from home, he cannot but think of his orphan children.  As they near Sierra Leone, on the 25th March, he sends a few lines to his eldest son: