304 
DAVID LIVINGSTONE , THE BELOVED MISSIONARY 
the settled life of Moffat was to fall to his lot. He was reserved for 
a greater and more difficult work. 
Passing over some of the events of his life in Africa, we will only 
say here that after three years’ probation and instruction his friend, 
the chief Sechele, received baptism. But his people held back, for a 
severe drought had visited the country, which the tribal “rain makers” 
said was due to the fact that the white man had bewitched the rain, 
so that it would not yield to their incantations. 
Livingstone decided that the only chance for success in his labors 
and prosperity for the tribe amongst whom he had cast his lot was to 
move to a more favored region; and Sechele and his people being noth¬ 
ing loath, the whole community moved westward to the river Kolobeng, 
about forty miles distant. Under Livingstone’s direction canals and 
trenches were cut in connection with the river, and a complete system 
of irrigation introduced. Sechele built the school-house at his own 
expense, and Livingstone once more had to make a home. 
“Our house,” he says, “at the river Kolobeng, which gave a name 
to the settlement, was the third which I had reared with my own hands. 
A native smith taught me to weld iron; and, having improved by 
scraps of information in that line from Mr. Moffat, and also in car¬ 
pentering and gardening, I was becoming handy at almost any trade, 
besides doctoring and preaching; and, as my wife could make candles, 
soap and clothes, we came nearly up to what may be considered as 
indispensable in the accomplishments of a missionary family in Cen¬ 
tral Africa, namely, the husband to be a jack-of-all-trades without 
doors, and the wife a maid-of-all-work within.” 
It is pleasing to look at Livingstone in his daily life and labor. 
He has* left us a vivid picture, too full of detail for insertion here. 
Everything he required he had to make from the raw material; there 
were no manufacturers or “middlemen” at Kolobeng. “You want 
bricks to build a house,” he tells us, “and must forthwith proceed to the 
field, cut down a tree, and saw it into planks to make the brick moulds; 
the materials for doors and windows, too, are standing in the forest; 
and, if you want to be respected by the natives, a house of decent 
dimensions, costing an immense amount of human labor, must be 
built.” He tells us further on that every brick and stick of the three 
large houses he had built had to be put square by his own hand. 
