304 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xiv. 



gives all the particulars of the illness and its termination. 

 Then he thinks o£ the good and gentle Lady Murchison — 

 " la spirituelle Lady Murchison/' as Humboldt called her, 

 — and writes to her : "It will somewhat ease my aching 

 heart to tell you about my dear departed Mary Moffat, 

 the faithful companion of eighteen years." He tells of 

 her birth at Griqua Town in 1821, her education in 

 England, their marriage and their love. " At Kolobeng, 

 she managed all the household affairs by native servants 

 of her own training, made bread, butter, and all the 

 clothes of the family ; taught her children most carefully ; 

 kept also an infant and sewing school — by far the most 

 popular and best attended we had. It was a fine sight 

 to see her day by day walking a quarter of a mile to the 

 town, no matter how broiling hot the sun, to impart 

 instruction to the heathen Bakwains. Ma-Robert's name 

 is known through all that country, and 1800 miles beyond. ■ 

 ... A brave, good woman was she. All my hopes of 

 giving her one day a quiet home, for which we both had 

 many a sore longing, are now dashed to the ground. 

 She is, I trust, through divine mercy, in peace in the 

 home of the blest. . . . She spoke feelingly of your kind- 

 ness to her, and also of the kind reception she received 

 from Miss Burdett Coutts. Please give that lady and 

 Mrs. Brown the sad intelligence of her death." 



The reply of Mrs. Moffat to her son-in-law's letter 

 was touching and beautiful. "I do thank you for the 

 detail you have given us of the circumstances of the last 

 days and hours of our lamented and beloved Mary, our 

 first-born, over whom our fond hearts first beat with 

 parental affection I" She recounts the mercies that were 

 mingled with the trial — though Mary could not be called 

 eminently pious, she had the root of the matter in her, 

 and though the voyage of her life had been a trying and 

 stormy one, she had not become a wreck. God had 

 remembered her ; had given her during her last year the 



