216 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. x. 



A copy of his reply is before us. After explaining that 

 reporters were more ready to report his geography than 

 his missionary views, he says :— 



" Nowhere have I ever appeared as anything else hut a servant of 

 God, who has simply followed the leadings of His hand. My views of 

 what is missionary duty are not so contracted as those whose ideal is a 

 dumpy sort of man with a Bible under his arm. I have laboured in 

 bricks and mortar, at the forge and carpenter's bench, as well as in 

 preaching and medical practice. I feel that I am ' not my own.' I 

 am serving Christ when shooting a buffalo for my men, or taking an 

 astronomical observation, or writing to one of His children who forget, 

 during the little moment of penning a note, that charity which is 

 eulogised as ' thinking no evil ;' and after having by His help got 

 information, which I hope will lead to more abundant blessing being 

 bestowed on Africa than heretofore, am I to hide the light under a 

 bushel, merely because some will consider it not sufficiently, or even 

 at all, missionary ? Knowing that some persons do believe that open- 

 ing up a new country to the sympathies of Christendom was not a 

 proper work for an agent of a Missionary Society to engage in, I now 

 refrain from taking any salary from the Society with which I was 

 connected ; so no pecuniary loss is sustained by any one." 



Subsequently, when detained in Manyuema, and when 

 his immediate object was to determine the watershed, 

 Dr. Livingstone wrote : — " I never felt a single pang at 

 having left the Missionary Society. I acted for my 

 Master, and believe that all ought to devote their special 

 faculties to Him. I regretted that unconscientious men 

 took occasion to prevent many from sympathising with 

 me. 



