320 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xv. 



While waiting here he received a letter from Bishop 

 Tozer, the successor of Bishop Mackenzie, informing 

 him that he had resolved to abandon the Mission on 

 the continent and transfer operations to Zanzibar. Dr. 

 Livingstone had very sincerely welcomed the new Bishop, 

 and at first liked him, and thought that his caution 

 would lead to good results. Indeed, when he saw that 

 his own scheme was destroyed by the Portuguese, he had 

 great hopes that what he had been defeated in, the Mis- 

 sion would accomplish. Some time before, his hopes had 

 begun to wane, and now the news conveyed in Bishop 

 Tozer's letter was their death-blow. In his reply he im- 

 plored the Bishop to reconsider the matter. After urging 

 strongly some considerations bearing on the duty of 

 missionaries, the reputation of Englishmen, and the 

 impression likely to be made on the native mind, he 

 concluded thus : — " I hope, dear Bishop, you will not 

 deem me guilty of hnpertinence in thus writing to you 

 with a sore heart. I see that if you go, the last ray of 

 hope for this wretched, trodden-down people disappears, 

 and I again from the bottom of my heart entreat you to 

 reconsider the matter, and may the All-wise One guide 

 to that decision which will be most for His glory." 



And thus, for Livingstone's lifetime, ended the Uni- 

 versities Mission to Central Africa, with all the hopes 

 which its bright dawn had inspired, that the great Church 

 of England would bend its strength against the curse of 

 Africa, and sweep it from the face of the earth. Writing 

 to Sir Thomas Maclear, he said that he felt this much 

 more than his own recall. He could hardly write of it ; 

 he was more inclined " to sit down and cry." No mission 

 had ever had such bright prospects ; notwithstanding all 

 that had been said against it, he stood by the climate as 

 firmly as ever, and if he were only young, he would go 

 himself and plant the gospel there. It would be done 

 one day without fail, though he might not live to see it. 



