Teach; c. 1680 – 1718 ) included a character “whose thoughts were wholly devoted
to that abstruse and perplexing search after the lost tribes of Israel.”^31 The ten
tribes also continued to feature in nonfictional travel literature.^32
Finally, the same period also saw the translation and republication of a raft of
older narratives touching on the ten tribes theme. Benjamin of Tudela, for in-
stance,waspopularinLondonduringthe 1780 s, when a new, detailed, critical, and
annotated translation (from the Hebrew) of his travelogue came out in several
editions.^33 The geographer John Pinkerton’s ( 1758 – 1826 )General Collection of the
Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the Worldfeatured
Benjamin of Tudela’s narrative, translated from Montano’s Latin version.^34
By the nineteenth century, as opportunities for travel increased dramatically,
the ten tribes became an integral part of it. One could run into the tribes pretty
much anywhere in the world, or at least hear rumors about their residence, which
was always “nearby.” One could also always run into other people who were
looking for the ten tribes, as happened to David Livingstone during his famous
Zambezi expedition. The celebrated traveler apparently ran into numerous ten
tribes seekers; at least, this is the impression one gets from his diaries and letters.
At one point, he tells about annoying encounters with a type of traveler who
complains “that his proper position was unjustly withheld because special search
was not directed toward ‘the ten lost tribes.’” Mentioning the ten tribes in such a
context presented an occupational hazard; Livingstone wryly notes, “It is danger-
ous to rally such a one, for the irate companion may quote Scripture, and point to
their habitat ‘beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.’”^35 Livingstone bitterly complained
about all those who “had come to discover the ‘Ten lost tribes,’ as if, of all things
in the world, we had not plenty of Jews already.”^36 One gets the impression that
Africa was swarming with travelers looking for the tribes; evidently, Livingstone
had come to loathe both them and the ten tribes they were seeking.
Livingstone himself ultimately went missing. Henry Morton Stanley
( 1841 – 1904 ), whose own obsession and mission was finding the Scottish
explorer in Africa, later became the subject of a parody in New York in which
the ten tribes played the key role. The spoof depicted a conversation between
Stanley and James Gordon Bennett ( 1795 – 1872 ), theHeraldowner who had
paid him to find Livingstone and generate a good adventure story:
MR. BENNETT (in bed, 4 A.M.) Mr. Stanley, have the Ten Tribes ever
been found?
MR. STANLEY (in room adjoining, also in bed) No, sir; not to my knowledge.
MR. BENNETT Can they be found?
MR. STANLEY I should judge so.