1847-52] THIRD STATION. 97 



the only jDernianent home they ever had. During these 

 years several of their children were born, and it was the 

 only considerable period of their lives when both had 

 their children about them. Looking back afterwards 

 on this period, and its manifold occupations, whilst de- 

 tained in Manyuema, in the year 1870, Dr. Livingstone 

 wrote the following striking words : — 



" I often ponder over my missionary career among the Bakwains or 

 Bakwaina, and though conscious of many imperfections, not a single 

 pang of regret arises in the view of my conduct, except that I did not 

 feel it to be my duty, while spending all my energy in teaching the 

 heathen, to devote a special portion of my time to play with my 

 children. But generally I was so much exhausted with the mental 

 and manual labour of the day, that in the evening there was no fun 

 left in me. I did not play with my little ones while I had them, and 

 they soon sprung up in my absences, and left me conscious that I had 

 none to play with." 



The heart that felt this one regret in looking back to 

 this busy time must have been true indeed to the instincts 

 of a parent. But Livingstone's case was no exception to 

 that mysterious law of our life in this world, by which, 

 in so many things, we learn how to correct our errors 

 only after the opportunity is gone. Of all the crooks in 

 his lot, that which gave him so short an opportunity of 

 securing the affections and moulding the character of his 

 children seems to have been the hardest to bear. His 

 long detention at Manyuema appears, as we shall see 

 hereafter, to have been spent by him in learning more 

 completely the lesson of submission to the will of God ; 

 and the hard trial of separation from his family, entailing 

 on them what seemed irreparable loss, was among the 

 last of his sorrows over which he was able to write the 

 words with which he closes the account of his wife's 

 death in the Zambesi and its Tributaries, — " Fiat, 



DOMINE, VOLUNTAS TUA !" 



G 



