278 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xm. 



" We are now on our way down to the sea, in hopes of meeting 

 the new steamer for which you and other friends exerted yourselves 

 so zealously. We are in the old ' Asthmatic,' though we gave her up 

 before leaving in May last. Our engineer has been doctoring her 

 bottom with fat and patches, and pronounced it safe to go down the 

 river by dropping slowly. Every day a new leak bursts out, and he is 

 in plastering and scoring, the pump going constantly. I would not 

 have ventured again, but our whaler is as bad — all eaten by the 

 teredo, — so I thought it as well to take both, and stick to that which 

 swims longest. You can put your thumb through either of them ; 

 they never can move again ; I never expected to find either afloat, 

 but the engineer had nothing else to do, and it saves us from buying 

 dear canoes from the Portuguese. 



" 20th Dec. — One day, above Senna, the 'Ma-Eobert' stuck on a 

 sandbank and filled, so we had to go ashore and leave her." 



The correspondence of this year indicates a growing 

 delight at the prospect of the Universities Mission. It 

 was this, indeed, mainly that kept up his spirits under 

 the depression caused by the failure of the " Ma-Robert," 

 and other mishaps of the Expedition, the endless delays 

 and worries that had resulted from that cause, and the 

 manner in which both the Portuguese and the French 

 were counter- working him by encouraging the slave-trade. 

 While professedly encouraging emigration, the French 

 were really extending slavery. 



Here is his lively account of himself to his friend 

 Mr. Moore :— 



" Tette, 28th November 1860. 

 " My dear Moore, — And why didn't you begin when you were 

 so often on the point of writing, but didn't 1 ? This that you have 

 accomplished is so far good, but very short. Hope you are not too 

 old to learn. You have heard of our hindrances and annoyances, and, 

 possibly, that we have done some work notwithstanding. Thanks to 

 Providence, we have made some progress, and it is likely our operations 

 will yet have a decided effect on slave-trading in Eastern Africa. I 

 am greatly delighted with the prospect of a Church of England mission 

 to Central Africa. That is a good omen for those who are sitting in 

 darkness, and I trust that in process of time great benefits will be con- 

 ferred on our own overcrowded population at home. There is room 

 enough and to spare in the fair world our Father has prepared for all 

 His progeny. I pray to be made a harbinger of good to many, both 

 white and black. 



