74 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. iv. 



very knowing ; it would have been better to get some 

 of the older brethren to adopt it. He feared that his 

 zeal had injured the cause he desired to benefit, and in 

 writing to his friend Watt, he said that for months he 

 felt bitter grief, and could never think of the subject 

 without a pang. 1 



A second time he brought forward his proposal, but 

 again without success. Was he then to be beaten ? 

 Far from it. He would change his tactics, however. 

 He would first set himself to show what could be done 

 by native efforts ; he would travel about, wherever he 

 found a road, and, after inquiries, settle native agents 

 far and wide. The plan had only to be tried, under 

 God's blessing, to succeed. Here again we trace the 

 Providence that shaped his career. Had his wishes been 

 carried into effect, he might have spent his life training 

 native agents, and doing undoubtedly a noble work : 

 but he would not have traversed Africa ; he would not 

 have given its death-blow to African slavery ; he would 

 not have closed the open sore of the world, nor rolled 

 away the great obstacle to the evangelisation of the 

 Continent. 



Some glimpses of his Mabotsa life may be got from 

 a letter to his mother (14th May 1845). Usually his 

 letters for home were meant for the whole family and 

 addressed accordingly ; but with a delicacy of feeling, 

 which many will appreciate, he wrote separately to his 

 mother after a little experience of married life : — 



" I often think of you, and perhaps more frequently since I got 

 married than before. Only yesterday I said to my wife, when I thought 

 of the nice clean bed I enjoy now, You put me in mind of my mother ; 

 she was always particular about our beds and linen. I had had rough 

 times of it before. . . . 



" I cannot perceive that the attentions paid to my father-in-law at 



1 "Dr Moffat favoured the scheme of a training seminary, and when he came 

 home afterwards, helped to raise a large sum of money for the purpose. He was 

 strongly of opinion that the Institution should be built at Sechede's ; but, 

 contrary to his view, and that of Livingstone, it has been placed at Kuruman. 



