146 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vn. 



say how gladly he would kiss the dust that had been 

 trod by the Man of Sorrows. One day a poor girl comes 

 hungry and naked to the wagons, and is relieved from 

 time to time ; then disappears to die in the woods of 

 starvation or be torn in pieces by the hyenas. Another 

 day, as he is preaching, a boy, walking along with his 

 mother, is suddenly seized by a man, utters a shriek as if 

 his heart had burst, and becomes, as Livingstone finds, a 

 hopeless slave. Another time, the sickening sight is a 

 line of slaves attached by a chain. That chain haunts 

 and harrows him. 



Amid all his difficulties he patiently pursued his work 

 as missionary. Twice every Sunday he preached, usually 

 to good audiences, the number rising on occasions so high 

 as a thousand. It was a great work to sow the good seed 

 so widely, where no Christian man had ever been, pro- 

 claiming every Lord's Day to fresh ears the message of 

 Divine love. Sometimes he was in great hopes that a 

 true impression had been made. But usually, whenever 

 the service was over, the wild savage dance with all its 

 demon noises succeeded, and the missionary could but 

 look on and sigh. So ready was he for labour that when 

 he could get any willing to learn, he commenced teaching 

 them the alphabet. But he was continually met by the 

 notion that his religion was a religion of medicines, and 

 that all the good it could do was by charms. Intellectual 

 culture seemed indispensable to dissipate this inveterate 

 superstition regarding Christian influence. 



A few extracts from his Journal in the Barotse country 

 will more vividly exhibit his state of mind : — 



" 27//i August 1853. — The more intimately I become acquainted 

 with barbarians, the more disgusting does heathenism become. It is 

 inconceivably vile. They are always boasting of their fierceness, yet 

 dare not visit another tribe for fear of being killed. They never visit 

 anywhere but for the purpose of plunder and oppression. They never 

 go anywhere but with a club or spear in hand. It is lamentable to 

 see those who might be children of God, dwelling in peace and love, 



