While stung into more than ordinary energy by the atrocious deeds he witnessed around him, Livingstone was living near the borders of the unseen world.  He writes to Sir Thomas Maclear on the 27th October, 1862: 

“I suppose that I shall die in these uplands, and somebody will carry, out the plan I have longed to put into practice.  I have been thinking a great deal since the departure of my beloved one about the regions whither she has gone, and imagine from the manner the Bible describes it we have got too much monkery in our ideas.  There will be work there as well as here, and possibly not such a vast difference in our being as is expected.  But a short time there will give more insight than a thousand musings.  We shall see Him by whose inexpressible love and mercy we get there, and all whom we loved, and all the lovable.  I can sympathize with you now more fully than I did before.  I work with as much vigor as I can; and mean to do so till the change comes; but his prospect of a home is all dispelled.”

In one of his despatches to Lord Russell, Livingstone reports an offer that had been made by a party consisting of an Englishman and five Scotch working men at the Cape, which must have been extremely gratifying to him, and served to deepen his conviction that sooner or later his plan of colonization would certainly be carried into effect.  The leader of the party, John Jehan, formerly of the London City Mission, in reading Dr. Livingstone’s book, became convinced that if a few mechanics could be induced to take a journey of exploration it would prove very useful.  His views being communicated to five other young men (two masons, two carpenters, one smith), they formed themselves into a company in July, 1861, and had been working together, throwing their earnings into a common fund, and now they had arms, two wagons, two spans of oxen, and means of procuring outfits.  In September, 1862, they were ready to start from Aliwal in South Africa[66].

[Footnote 66:  The recall of Livingstone’s Expedition and the removal of the Universities Mission seem to have knocked this most promising scheme on the head.  Writing of it to Sir Roderick Murchison on the 14th December, 1862, he says:  “I like the Scotchmen, and think them much better adapted for our plans than those on whom the Universities Mission has lighted.  If employed as I shall wish them to be in trade, and setting an example of industry in cotton or coffee planting, I think they are just the men I need brought to my band.  Don’t you think this sensible?”]

After going to Johanna for provisions, and to discharge the crew of Johanna men whose term of service had expired, the Expedition returned to Tette.  On the 10th January, 1863, they steamed off with the “Lady Nyassa” in tow.  The desolation that had been caused by Marianno, the Portuguese slave-agent, was heart-breaking.  Corpses floated past them.  In the morning the paddles had to be cleared of corpses caught by the floats during the night.  Livingstone summed up his impressions in one terrible sentence: