Dr Livingstone, I presume?

  

„Dr Livingstone, I presume?” - słowa nieobce osobom choćby lekko obytym 

z językiem angielskim. Znane, lubiane i powtarzane w różnych sytuacjach
i w różnych wariacjach. Ale kto zna historię?

David Livingstone (1813-1873) był szkockim pionierem i eksploratorem Afryki.     W 1840 roku wyruszył na ten kontynent i dwa cele przyświecały tej podróży: odkrywać dalej Czarny Ląd i ukrócić proceder handlu niewolnikami. Wrócił do Wielkiej Brytanii i po serii pasjonujących wykładów został uznany za bohatera.       W 1864 wyjechał ponownie do Afryki z expepydcją by znaleźć źródło Nilu. Miesiące rozciągały się w lata i słuch wszelki po nim zaginął. Niepokój w kraju był tak wielki, że sięgnął za Ocean i w 1871 roku George Bennett, edytor New York Herald, zlecił reporterowi Henry Morton Stanley misję znalezienia Livingstone. Stanley zorganizował grupę około 200 ludzi i wylądował na wschodnim wybrzeżu Afryki 21 marca 1871 roku. Po prawie ośmiu miesiącach przemierzania Czarnego Lądu, dnia 10 listopada 1871 r., dotarł do małej wioski Ujiji u wybrzeży Jeziora Tanganika – i tam znalazł Livingstona.

Poniższy tekst pochodzi z biografii: Byron Farwell „The Man Who Presumed: 

a Biography of Henry M. Stanley” (1957); Henry Stanley: How I Found Livingstone (1872).  

   

“We push on rapidly. We halt at a little brook, then ascend the long slope of a naked ridge, the very last of the myriads we have crossed. We arrive at the summit, travel across, and arrive at its western rim, and Ujiji is below us, embowered in the palms, only five hundred yards from us! At this grand moment we do not think of
 the hundreds of miles we have marched, of the hundreds of hills that we have ascended and descended, of the many forests we have traversed, of the jungles and thickets that annoyed us, of the fervid salt plains that blistered our feet, of the hot suns that scorched us, nor the dangers and difficulties now happily surmounted. Our hearts and our feelings are with our eyes, as we peer into the palms and try to make out in which hut or house lives the white man with the gray beard we heard about on the Malagarazi.

We are now about three hundred yards from the village of Ujiji, and the crowds are dense about me. Suddenly I hear a voice on my right say, 'Good morning, sir!'

Startled at hearing this greeting in the midst of such a crowd of black people, I turn sharply around in search of the man, and see him at my side, with the blackest of faces, but animated and joyous, - a man dressed in a long white shirt, with a turban of American sheeting around his woolly head, and I ask, 'Who the mischief are you?'

'I am Susi, the servant of Dr. Livingstone,' said he, smiling, and showing a gleaming row of teeth.

'What! Is Dr. Livingstone here?'
'Yes, Sir.'

'In this village?'

'Yes, Sir'

'Are you sure?'

'Sure, sure, Sir. Why, I leave him just now.'

In the meantime the head of the expedition had halted, and Selim said to me: 'I see the Doctor, Sir. Oh, what an old man! He has got a white beard.' My heart beats fast, but I must not let my face betray my emotions, lest it shall detract from the dignity of a white man appearing under such extraordinary circumstances.

So I did that which I thought was most dignified. I pushed back the crowds, and, passing from the rear, walked down a living avenue of people until I came in front of the semicircle of Arabs, in the front of which stood the white man with the gray beard. As I advanced slowly toward him I noticed he was pale, looked wearied, had a gray beard, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, had on
a red-sleeved waistcoat and a pair of gray tweed trousers. I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of such a mob, - would have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did not know how he would receive me; so I did what cowardice and false pride suggested was the best thing, - walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?'

'Yes,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly.

I replace my hat on my head and he puts on his cap, and we both grasp hands, and
I then say aloud, 'I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you.'

He answered, 'I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.'”