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The Personal Life of David Livingstone by William Garden Blaikie
page 61 of 618 (09%)
fell in his way. Years passed, and as no communication reached him, Mr.
Owen was disposed to class the promise with too many others made in the
like circumstances. But on his first return to this country Livingstone
presented himself, bearing the tusk of an elephant with a spiral curve.
He had found it in the heart of Africa, and it was not easy of
transport. "You may recall," said Professor Owen, at the Farewell
Festival in 1858, "the difficulties of the progress of the weary sick
traveler on the bullock's back. Every pound weight was of moment; but
Livingstone said, 'Owen shall have this tusk,' and he placed it in my
hands in London." Professor Owen recorded this as a proof of
Livingstone's inflexible adherence to his word. With equal justice we
may quote it as a proof of his undying gratitude to any one that had
shown him kindness.

[Footnote 17: Not in the same _parish_, as stated afterward by Professor
Owen. Hunter was born in East Kilbride, and Livingstone in Blantyre. The
error is repeated in notices of Livingstone in some other quarters.]

On all his fellow-students and acquaintances the simplicity, frankness,
and kindliness of Livingstone's character made a deep impression. Mr.
J.S. Cook, now of London, who spent three months with him at Ongar,
writes: "He was so kind and gentle in word and deed to all about him
that all loved him. He had always words of sympathy at command, and was
ready to perform acts of sympathy for those who were suffering." The
Rev. G.D. Watt, a brother Scotchman, who went as a missionary to India,
has a vivid remembrance of Livingstone's mode of discussion; he showed
great simplicity of view, along with a certain roughness or bluntness of
manner; great kindliness, and yet great persistence in holding to his
own ideas. But none of his friends seem to have had any foresight of
the eminence he was destined to attain. The Directors of the Society
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