TO AGNES LIVINGSTONE.

“Bombay, 20th Sept., 1865.—...  By advice of the Governor, I went up to Nassick to see if the Africans there under Government instruction would suit my purpose as members of the Expedition.  I was present at the examination of a large school under Mr. Price by the Bishop of Bombay.  It is partly supported by Government.  The pupils (108) are not exclusively African, but all showed very great proficiency.  They excelled in music.  I found some of the Africans to have come from parts I know—­one from Ndonde on the Rovuma—­and all had learned some handicraft, besides reading, writing, etc., and it is probable that some of them will go back to their own country with me.  Eight have since volunteered to go.  Besides these I am to get some men from the ‘Marine Battalion,’ who have been accustomed to rough it in various ways, and their pensions will be given to their widows if they should die.  The Governor (Sir Bartle Frere) is going to do what he can for my success.

     “After going back to Bombay I came up to near Poonah, and am
     now at Government House, the guest of the Governor.

“Society here consists mainly of officers and their wives....  Miss Frere, in the absence of Lady Frere, does the honors of the establishment, and very nicely she does it.  She is very clever, and quite unaffected—­very like her father....

“Christianity is gradually diffusing itself, leavening as it were in various ways the whole mass.  When a man becomes a professor of Christianity, he is at present cast out, abandoned by all his relations, even by wife and children.  This state of things makes some who don’t care about Christian progress say that all Christian servants are useless.  They are degraded by their own countrymen, and despised by others, but time will work changes.  Mr. Maine, who came out here with us, intends to introduce a law whereby a convert deserted by his wife may marry again.  It is in accordance with the text in Corinthians—­If an unbelieving wife depart, let her depart.  People will gradually show more sympathy with the poor fellows who come out of heathenism, and discriminate between the worthy and unworthy.  You should read Lady Buff Gordon’s Letters from, Egypt.  They show a nice sympathizing heart, and are otherwise very interesting.  She saw the people as they are.  Most people see only the outsides of things....  Avoid all nasty French novels.  They are very injurious, and effect a lasting injury on the mind and heart.  I go up to Government House again three days hence, and am to deliver two lectures,—­one at Poonah and one at Bombay.”

Some slight reminiscences of Livingstone at Bombay, derived from admiring countrymen of his own, will not be out of place, considering that the three or four months spent there was the last period of his life passed in any part of the dominions of Great Britain.