58 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap hi. 



either missionary or trader, and by the sentiments of other mission- 

 aries who have investigated the subject according to their opportunities. 

 In reference to the population, I may mention that I was led in 

 England to believe that the population of the interior was dense, and 

 now since I have come to this country I have conversed with many, 

 both of our Society and of the French, and none of them would reckon 

 up the number of 30,000 Bechuanas." 



He then proceeds to details in a most characteristic 

 way, giving the number of huts in every village, and 

 being careful in every case, as his argument proceeded on 

 there being a small population, rather to overstate than 

 understate the number : — 



"In view of these facts and the confirmation of them I have 

 received from both French and English brethren, computing the 

 population much below what I have stated, I confess I feel grieved to 

 hear of the arrival of new missionaries. Nor am I the only one who 

 deplores their appointment to this country. Again and again have I 

 been pained at heart to hear the question put, — Where will these new 

 brethren find fields of labour in this country 1 Because I know that 

 in India or China there are fields large enough for all their energies. 

 I am very far from undervaluing the success which has attended the 

 labours of missionaries in this land. No ! I gratefully acknowledge 

 the wonders God hath wrought, and I feel that the salvation of one 

 soul is of more value than all the effort that has been expended ; but 

 we are to seek the field where there is a possibility that most souls 

 will be converted, and it is this consideration which makes me 

 earnestly call the attention of the Directors to the subject of statistics. 

 If these were* actually returned — and there would be very little 

 difficulty in doing so — it might, perhaps, be found that there is not a 

 country better supplied with missionaries in the world, and that in 

 proportion to the number of agents compared to the amount of popula- 

 tion, the success may be inferior to most other countries where efforts 

 have been made." 



Finding that a brother missionary was willing to 

 accompany him to the station he had fixed on among 

 the Bakhatlas, and enable him to set to work with the 

 necessary arrangements, Livingstone set out with him in 

 the beginning of August 1843, and arrived at his destina- 

 tion after a fortnight's journey. Writing to his family, 

 "in sight of the hills of Bakhatla," August 21st, 1843, 

 he says : " We are in company with a party of three 



