On 3d July a very sad entry occurs:  “Received a note from Oswell, written in April last, containing the sad intelligence of Sir Roderick’s departure from among us.  Alas! alas! this is the only time in my life I ever felt inclined to use the word, and it bespeaks a sore heart; the best friend I ever had,—­true, warm, and abiding,—­he loved me more than I deserved; he looks down on me still.”  This entry indicates extraordinary depth of emotion.  Sir Roderick exercised a kind of spell on Livingstone.  Respect for him was one of the subordinate motives that induced him to undertake this journey.  The hope of giving him satisfaction was one of the subordinate rewards to which he looked forward.  His death was to Livingstone a kind of scientific widowhood, and must have deprived him of a great spring to exertion in this last wandering.  On Sir Roderick’s part the affection for him was very great.  “Looking back,” says his biographer, Professor Geikie, “upon his scientific career when not far from its close, Murchison found no part of it which brought more pleasing recollections than the support he had given to African explorers—­Speke, Grant, notably Livingstone.  ’I rejoice,’ he said, ’in the steadfast tenacity with which I have upheld my confidence in the ultimate success of the last-named of these brave men.  In fact, it was the confidence I placed in the undying vigor of my dear friend Livingstone which has sustained me in the hope that I might live to enjoy the supreme delight of welcoming him back to his own country.’  But that consummation was not to be.  He himself was gathered to his rest just six days before Stanley brought news and relief to the forlorn traveler on Lake Tanganyika.  And Livingstone, while still in pursuit of his quest, and within ten months of his death, learned in the heart of Africa the tidings which he chronicled in his journal[76].”

[Footnote 76:  Life of Sir R. I. Murchison, vol. ii. pp. 297-8.]

At other times he is ruminating on mission-work: 

“10_th July_.—­No great difficulty would be encountered in establishing a Christian mission a hundred miles or so from the East Coast....  To the natives the chief attention of the mission should be directed.  It would not be desirable or advisable to refuse explanation to others; but I have avoided giving offense to intelligent Arabs, who, having pressed me, asking if I believed in Mohamed, by saying, ’No, I do not; I am a child of Jesus bin Miriam,’ avoiding anything offensive in my tone, and often adding that Mohamed found their forefathers bowing down to trees and stones, and did good to them by forbidding idolatry, and teaching the worship of the only One God.  This they all know, and it pleases them to have it recognized.  It might be good policy to hire a respectable Arab to engage free porters, and conduct the mission to the country chosen, and obtain permission from the chief to build temporary houses....  A couple of Europeans beginning and carrying