4 o DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. hi. 



ride, or shoot at abundance of all sorts of game as our 

 inclination leads us ; but there is a great drawback : we 

 can't study or read when we please. I feel this very 

 much. I have made but very little progress in the 

 language (can speak a little Dutch), but I long for the 

 time when I shall give my undivided attention to it, and 

 then be furnished with the means of making known the 

 truth of the gospel." While at the Cape, Livingstone 

 had heard something of a fresh-water lake ('Ngami) which 

 all the missionaries were eager to see. If only they would 

 give him a month or two to learn the colloquial language, 

 he said they might spare themselves the pains of being 

 " the first in at the death." It is interesting to remark 

 farther that, in this first journey, science had begun to 

 receive its share of attention. He is already bent on 

 making a collection for the use of Professor Owen, 1 and 

 is enthusiastic in describing some agatised trees and other 

 curiosities which he met with. 



Writing to his parents from Port Elizabeth, 19th May 

 1841, he gives his first impressions of Africa. He had 

 been at a station called Hankey : — 



" The scenery was very fine. The white sand in some places 

 near the "beach drifted up in large wreaths exactly like snow. One 

 might imagine himself in Scotland were there not a hot sun overhead. 

 The woods present an aspect of strangeness, for everywhere the eye 

 meets the foreigndooking tree from which the bitter aloes is extracted, 

 popping up its head among the mimosa bushes and stunted acacias. 

 Beautiful humming-birds fly about in great numbers, sucking the 

 nectar from the flowers, which are in great abundance and very 

 beautiful. I was much pleased with my visit to Hankey. . . The 

 state of the people presents so many features of interest, that one may 

 talk about it and convey some idea of what the Gospel has done. The 

 full extent of the benefit received can, however, be understood only 

 by those who witness it in contrast with other places that have not 

 been so highly favoured. My expectations have been far exceeded. 

 Everything I witnessed surpassed my hopes, and if this one station is 

 a fair sample of the whole, the statements of the missionaries with 

 regard to their success are far within the mark. The Hottentots of 

 Hankey appear to be in a state similar to that of our forefathers in 



1 This collection never reached its destination. 



