Bruce, I am permitted to reproduce.
[Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE FROM LIVINGSTONE'S DIARY.
THE ORIGINAL IS WRITTEN ON PAPER 7 INCHES BY 4-3/8 INCHES.]
This entry in his diary was written on the eve of Livingstone's great
journey to the West Coast. Having sent his wife and family to England,
he determined to find a way from the centre of Africa to the West
Coast. It was a forlorn hope; but, says Livingstone, "Cannot the love
of Christ carry the missionary where the slave trade carries the
trader? I shall open up a path to the interior or perish."
On the 11th of November, 1853, he left Linyante, having overcome
Sekeletu's objection to let him go, and arrived at Loando, on the West
Coast, on 31st May, 1854, after a variety of adventures, and being
reduced by fever to a mere skeleton.
The sight of the sea, which gladdened Livingstone's heart, astonished
his native escort beyond description. "We were marching along with our
father," they said, "believing that what the ancients had told us was
true--that the world had no end; but all at once the world said to us,
'I am finished, there is no more of me'.
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