Even among those most friendly to Dr. Livingstone's great
aim, and most opposed to the slave-trade, and to the Portuguese policy
in Africa, there were some who doubted whether his proposed methods of
procedure were quite consistent with the rights of the Portuguese
Government. His Royal Highness the Prince-Consort indicated some feeling
of this kind in his interview with Livingstone in 1857. He expressed the
feeling more strongly when he declined the request, made to him through
Professor Sedgwick of Cambridge, that he would allow himself to be
Patron of the Universities Mission. Dr. Livingstone knew well that from
that exalted quarter his plans would receive no active support. That he
should have obtained the support he did from successive Governments and
successive Foreign Secretaries, Liberal and Conservative, was a great
gratification, if not something of a surprise. Hence the calmness with
which he received the intelligence of the recall. Toward the Portuguese
Government his feelings were not very sweet. On them lay the guilt of
arresting a work that would have conferred untold blessing on Africa.
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