But now, apparently, he was fixed and settled.  Mabotsa would become a centre from which native missionary agents would radiate over a large circumference.  His own life-work would resemble Mr. Moffat’s.  For influencing the women and children of such a place, a Christian lady was indispensable, and who so likely to do it well as one born in Africa, the daughter of an eminent and honored missionary, herself familiar with missionary life, and gifted with the winning manner and the ready helping hand that were so peculiarly adapted for this work?  The case was as clear as possible, and Livingstone was very happy.

On his way home from Kuruman, after the engagement, he writes to her cheerily from Motito, on 1st August, 1844, chiefly about the household they were soon to get up; asking her to get her father to order some necessary articles, and to write to Colesberg about the marriage-license (and if he did not get it, they would license themselves!), and concluding thus: 

“And now, my dearest, farewell.  May God bless you!  Let your affection be towards Him much more than towards me; and, kept by his mighty power and grace, I hope I shall never give you cause to regret that you have given me a part.  Whatever friendship we feel towards each other, let us always look to Jesus as our common friend and guide, and may He shield you with his everlasting arms from every evil!”

Next month he writes from Mabotsa with full accounts of the progress of their house, of which he was both architect and builder: 

“Mabotsa, 12th September, 1844.—­I must tell you of the progress I have made in architecture.  The walls are nearly finished, although the dimensions are 52 feet by 20 outside, or almost the same size as the house in which you now reside.  I began with stone, but when it was breast-high, I was obliged to desist from my purpose to build it entirely of that material by an accident, which, slight as it was, put a stop to my operations in that line.  A stone failing was stupidly, or rather instinctively, caught by me in its fall by the left hand, and it nearly broke my arm over again.  It swelled up again, and I fevered so much I was glad of a fire, although the weather was quite warm.  I expected bursting and discharge, but Baba bound it up nicely, and a few days’ rest put all to rights.  I then commenced my architecture, and six days have brought the walls up a little more than six feet.

“The walls will be finished long before you receive this, and I suppose the roof too, but I have still the wood of the roof to seek.  It is not, however, far off; and as Mr. E. and I, with the Kurumanites, got on the roof of the school in a week, I hope this will not be more than a fortnight or three weeks.  Baba has been most useful to me in making door and window frames; indeed, if he had not turned out I should not have been advanced so far as I am.  Mr. E.’s finger is the cause in part of