PREFATORY LETTER. xi 



men, are a dead letter and a mockery. Aggression on ag- 

 gression followed; the Negro became no better than a slave 

 to the neighbouring Boers : and to complete their work, they 

 invaded the Bechuana country in 1852; ruined the Christian 

 settlement of Kolobeng; butchered many of the adults, and 

 swept off two hundred school-children into slavery. All 

 Dr Livingstone's property was destroyed or plundered; his 

 house was a heap of ruins ; his books were torn and scattered 

 to the winds. His Christian harvest w T as gone ; and the field 

 in which he had laboured for ten years was made desolate. 

 All means of peacefully carrying on his mission at Kolobeng 

 were at an end. 



A man of less resolute will, and less firm trust in Pro- 

 vidence, might well have despaired of doing more good work in 

 Africa. But hope and courage never left the heart of Living- 

 stone. He conducted his wife and children to Cape-Town, 

 and procured for them a passage to England. " Thus " (to use 

 his own words) "he had for the first time during eleven years 

 revisited the scenes of civilization." He improved himself in 

 the work of scientific observation, under the direction of the 

 Royal Astronomer at the Cape. He prepared himself in every 

 way (within his means) which zeal and prudence and long 

 experience could point out to him. To their honour, be it 

 told, he had the cordial sanction of the London Missionary 

 Society in the great work that was now before him ; and in 

 carrying it on, he was left to his uncontrolled discretion. 

 They had found the right man for their work, and they had 

 the heart to trust him. 



Thus fortified, he turned his face once more, in good hope, 

 towards Central Africa : and in four years of danger and 

 great toil he realized the work which rose within his mind, 

 two years before, when he first saw the great Zambesi, and 

 first heard that the slave-dealer — the pest of Africa — had at 

 length found his way into the country of the Makololo. 

 From the center of South Africa he did "establish a highway" 



