i2o DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vi. 



a settlement, we shall be able in the course of a very few years to put 

 a stop to the slave-trade in that quarter. It is probable that the 

 mere supply of English manufactures on Sebituane's part will effect 

 this, for they did not like the slave-trade, and promised to abstain. 

 I think it will be impossible to make a fair commencement unless I 

 can secure two years devoid of family cares. I shall be obliged to go 

 southward, perhaps to the Cape, to have my uvula excised and my arm 

 mended (the latter if it can be done only). It has occurred to me 

 that, as we must send our children to England, it would be no great 

 additional expense to send them now along with their mother. This 

 arrangement would enable me to proceed, and devote about two or 

 perhaps three years to this new region ; but I must beg your sanction, 

 and if you please let it be given or withheld as soon as you can con- 

 veniently, so that it might meet me at the Cape. To orphanise my 

 children will be like tearing out my bowels, but when I can find time 

 to write you fully you will perceive it is the only way, except giving 

 up that region altogether. 



" Kuruman will not answer as a residence, nor yet the Colony. If 

 I were to follow my own inclinations they would lead me to settle 

 down quietly with the Bakwains, or some other small tribe, and 

 devote some of my time to my children ; but Providence, seems to call 

 me to the regions beyond, and if I leave them anywhere in this country, 

 it will be to let them become heathens. If you think it right to sup- 

 port them, I believe my parents in Scotland would attend to them 

 otherwise." 



Continuing the subject in a more leisurely way a few 

 weeks later, he refers to the very great increase of traffic 

 that had taken place since the discovery of Lake 'Ngami 

 two years before ; the fondness of the people for Euro- 

 pean articles ; the numerous kinds of native produce 

 besides ivory, such as beeswax, ostrich feathers, etc., of 

 which the natives made little or no use, but which they 

 would take care of if regular trade were established 

 among them. He thought that if traders were to come 

 up the Zambesi and make purchases from the producers 

 they would both benefit themselves and drive the slave- 

 dealer from the market. It might be useful to establish 

 a sanatorium, to which missionaries might come from less 

 healthy districts to recruit. This would diminish the 

 reluctance of missionaries to settle in the interior. For 

 himself, though he had reared three stations with much 



