"Livingstone, I presume" (Oct. 27, 1871?)
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Oct 27 22:24:24 UTC 2006
Stanley's journal was two weeks off?
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_http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2003/october/livingstone.php?page=5_
(http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2003/october/livingstone.php?page=5)
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Stanley stepped up crisply to the old man, removed his helmet and extended
his hand. According to Stanley’s journal, it was November 10, 1871. With
formal intonation, representing America but trying to affect British gravity,
Stanley spoke, according to later accounts, the most dignified words that came to
mind: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
“Yes,” Livingstone answered simply.
“I thank God, doctor,” Stanley said, appalled at how fragile Livingstone
looked, “I have been permitted to see you.”
“I feel thankful,” Livingstone said with typical understatement, “I am here
to welcome you.”
London, England, October 27, 1871—On a cool autumn morning, under a sky that
threatened rain, a procession of 13 mourning carriages rolled through the
north entrance of Brompton Cemetery moving toward the grave site of Sir
Roderick Murchison. He would be buried next to his wife. Prime Minister William
Gladstone and a host of dignitaries stepped from their carriages and solemnly
walked to the grave. Murchison was a conservative, and Gladstone the day’s
preeminent liberal, but the two men had crossed paths for a lifetime. “Went to Sir
R. Murchison’s funeral; the last of those who had known me from infancy,”
Gladstone wrote in his journal. “And so a step toward the end is made visible.”
Stanley’s and Livingstone’s journals show that both men had lost track of
time, and their journals were off by days—in Stanley’s case, as much as two
weeks. The date on which Stanley actually found Livingstone was not November
10 but October 27—two years to the day since Bennett had bestowed the Great
Commission upon Stanley. It was also the very day of Murchison’s burial. In fact
—given that Murchison’s funeral ran from 11:00 in the morning until 1:30 in
the afternoon, and taking into account a two-hour time difference, Murchison
would have been lowered into the ground only after his long-lost friend had
been found by Stanley.
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