Reaching the stockade of Chinsamba in Mosapo, they were much pleased with that chief’s kindness.  Dr. Livingstone followed his usual method, and gained his usual influence.  “When a chief has made any inquiries of us, we have found that we gave most satisfaction in our answers when we tried to fancy ourselves in the position of the interrogator, and him that of a poor uneducated fellow-countryman in England.  The polite, respectful way of speaking, and behavior of what we call ’a thorough gentleman,’ almost always secures the friendship and good-will of the Africans.”

On 1st November, 1863, the party reached the ship, and found all well.  Here, as has been said, two months had to be spent waiting for the flood, to Dr. Livingstone’s intense chagrin.

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 Mission 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 implored 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 impertinence 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 life-time, ended the Universities 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.

As usual, Livingstone found himself blamed for the removal of the Mission.  The Makololo had behaved badly, and they were Livingstone’s people.  “Isn’t it interesting,” he writes to Mr. Moore, “to get blamed for everything?  But I must be thankful in feeling that I would rather perish than blame another for my misdeeds and deficiencies.”