
How I found Livingstone
- Pages
- about 572
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 10 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
On the sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-nine, I was in Madrid, fresh from the carnage
at Valencia. At 10 A.M. Jacopo, at No.-- Calle de la Cruz, handed me a
telegram: It read, "Come to Paris on important business." The telegram
was from Mr. James Gordon Bennett, jun., the young manager of the 'New
York Herald.'
Down came my pictures from the walls of my apartments on the second
floor; into my trunks went my books and souvenirs, my clothes were
hastily collected, some half washed, some from the clothes-line half
dry, and after a couple of hours of hasty hard work my portmanteaus were
strapped up and labelled "Paris."
At 3 P.M. I was on my way, and being obliged to stop at Bayonne a
few hours, did not arrive at Paris until the following night. I went
straight to the 'Grand Hotel,' and knocked at the door of Mr. Bennett's
room.
"Come in," I heard a voice say. Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Ah, yes! sit down; I have important business on hand for you."
After throwing over his shoulders his robe-de-chambre Mr. Bennett asked,
"Where do you think Livingstone is?"
"Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be found, and I am going to
send you to find him."
"What!" said I, "do you really think I can find Dr Livingstone? Do you
mean me to go to Central Africa?"
"Yes; I mean that you shall go, and find him wherever you may hear that
he is, and to get what news you can of him, and perhaps"--delivering
himself thoughtfully and deliberately--"the old man may be in
want:--take enough with you to help him should he require it. Of
course you will act according to your own plans, and do what you think
best--BUT FIND LIVINGSTONE!"
A short sample. Read the whole book
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