1849-52-] KOLOBENG—LAKE 'NGAMI. 127 



It was painful to Livingstone to say good-bye to the 

 Bakwains, and (as Mrs. Moffat afterwards reminded him) 

 his friends were not all in favour of his doing so ; but he 

 regarded his departure as inevitable. After a short stay 

 at Kuruman, he and his family went on to Cape Town, 

 where they arrived on the 16th of March 1852, and had 

 new proofs of Mr. Oswell's kindness. After eleven years' 

 absence, Livingstone's dress-coat had fallen a little out of 

 fashion, and the whole costume of the party was somewhat 

 in the style of Robinson Crusoe. The generosity of " the 

 best friend we have in Africa " made all comfortable, Mr. 

 Oswell remarking that Livingstone had as good a right 

 as he to the money drawn from the "preserves on his 

 estate " — the elephants. Mentally, Livingstone traces to 

 its source the kindness of his friend, thinking of One to 

 whom he owed all — "0 divine Love, I have not loved 

 Thee strongly, deeply, warmly enough." The retrospect 

 of his eleven years of African labour, unexampled though 

 they had been, only awakened in him the sense of unpro- 

 fitable service. 



Before closing the record of this period, we must take 

 a glance at the remarkable literary activity which it 

 witnessed. We have had occasion to refer to Living- 

 stone's first letters to Captain Steele, for the Geographical 

 Society ; additional letters were contributed from time 

 to time. His philological researches have also been 

 noticed. In addition to these, we find him writing- two 

 articles on African Missions for the British Quarterly 

 Review, only one of which was published. He likewise 

 wrote two papers for the British Banner on the Boers. 

 While crossing the desert, after leaving the Cape on his 

 first great journey, he wrote a remarkable paper on 

 " Missionary Sacrifices," and another of great vigour on 

 the Boers. Still another paper on Lake 'Ngami was 

 written for a Missionary Journal contemplated, but never 

 started, under the editorship of the late Mr. Isaac Taylor; 



