In regard to the spot selected for a mission, there were many considerations in its favor.  In the immediate neighborhood of Kuruman the chiefs hated the gospel, because it deprived them of their supernumerary wives.  In the region farther north, this feeling had not yet established itself; on the contrary, there was an impression favorable to Europeans, and a desire for their alliance.  These Bechuana tribes had suffered much from the marauding invasions of their neighbors; and recently, the most terrible marauder of the country, Mosilikatse, after being driven westward by the Dutch Boers, had taken up his abode on the banks of a central lake, and resumed his raids, which were keeping the whole country in alarm.  The more peaceful tribes had heard of the value of the white man, and of the weapons by which a mere handful of whites had repulsed hordes of marauders.  They were therefore disposed to welcome the stranger, although this state of feeling could not be relied on as sure to continue, for Griqua hunters and individuals from tribes hostile to the gospel were moving northward, and not only circulating rumors unfavorable to missionaries, but by their wicked lives introducing diseases previously unknown.  If these regions, therefore, were to be taken possession of by the gospel, no time was to be lost.  For himself, Livingstone had no hesitation in going to reside in the midst of these savages, hundreds of miles away from civilization, not merely for a visit, but, if necessary, for the whole of his life.

In writing to his sisters after this journey (8th December, 1841), he gives a graphic account of the country, and some interesting notices of the people: 

“Janet, I suppose, will feel anxious to know what our dinner was.  We boiled a piece of the flesh of a rhinoceros which was toughness itself, the night before.  The meat was our supper, and porridge made of Indian corn-meal and gravy of the meat made a very good dinner next day.  When about 150 miles from home we came to a large village.  The chief had sore eyes; I doctored them, and he fed us pretty well with milk and beans, and sent a fine buck after me as a present.  When we had got about ten or twelve miles on the way, a little girl about eleven or twelve years of age came up and sat down under my wagon, having run away for the purpose of coming with us to Kuruman.  She had lived with a sister whom she had lately lost by death.  Another family took possession of her for the purpose of selling her as soon as she was old enough for a wife.  But not liking this, she determined to run away from them and come to some friends near Kuruman.  With this intention she came, and thought of walking all the way behind my wagon.  I was pleased with the determination of the little creature, and gave her some food.  But before we had remained long there, I heard her sobbing violently, as if her heart would break.  On looking round, I observed the cause.  A man with a gun had been sent after her, and