122 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vi. 



seed had once been sown in any place it would not remain 

 dormant, but would excite the desire for further know- 

 ledge ; and on the whole it would be better for the people 

 to be thrown somewhat on their own resources than to 

 have everything done for them by missionaries from 

 Europe. In regard to the Bakwains, though they had 

 promised well at first, they had not been a very teachable 

 people. He was not inclined to blame them ; they had 

 been so pinched by hunger and badgered by the Boers 

 that they could not attend to instruction ; or rather, 

 they had too good an excuse for not doing so. "I have 

 much affection for them," he says in his Journal, " and 

 though I pass from them I do not relinquish the hope 

 that they will yet turn to Him to whose mercy and love 

 they have often been invited. The seed of the living 

 Word will not perish." 



The finger of Providence clearly pointed to a region 

 farther north in the country of the Barotse or beyond it. 

 He admitted that there were pros and cons in the case. 

 Against his plan, — some of his brethren did not hesitate 

 to charge him with being actuated by worldly ambition. 

 This was the more trying, for sometimes he suspected his 

 own motives. Others dwelt on what was due to his 

 family. Moreover, his own predilections were all for a 

 quiet life. And there was also the consideration, that as 

 the Directors could not well realise the distances he would 

 have to travel before he reached the field, he might 

 appear more as an explorer than a missionary. On the 

 other hand, — 



"I am conscious," lie says, "that though there is much impurity in 

 my motives, they are in the main for the glory of Him to whom I have 

 devoted myself. I never anticipated fame from the discovery of the 

 Lake. I cared very little about it, but the sight of the Tamanak'le, and 

 the report of other large rivers beyond, all densely populated, awakened 

 many and enthusiastic feelings. . . . Then, again, consider the multi- 

 tude that in the Providence of God have been brought to light in the 

 country of Sebituane ; the probability that in our efforts to evangelise 

 we shall put a stop to the slave-trade in a large region, and by means 



