Alexander, the only scientific traveler subsequently sent out from England by the Geographical Society, in despair of the lake, and of discovery by the oft-tried eastern route, explored the neighborhood of the western coast instead[30].  The President frankly ascribed Livingstone’s success to the influence he had acquired as a missionary among the natives, and Livingstone thoroughly believed this.  “The lake,” he wrote to his friend Watt, “belongs to missionary enterprise.”  “Only last year,” he subsequently wrote to the Geographical Society, “a party of engineers, in about thirty wagons, made many and persevering efforts to cross the desert at different points, but though inured to the climate, and stimulated by the prospect of gain from the ivory they expected to procure, they were compelled, for want of water, to give up the undertaking.”  The year after Livingstone’s first visit, Mr. Francis Galton tried, but failed, to reach the lake, though he was so successful in other directions as to obtain the Society’s gold medal in 1852.

[Footnote 30:  Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xx. p. xxviii.]

Livingstone was evidently gratified at the honor paid him, and the reception of the twenty-five guineas from the Queen.  But the gift had also a comical side.  It carried him back to the days of his Radical youth, when he and his friends used to criticise pretty sharply the destination of the nation’s money.  “The Royal Geographical Society,” he writes to his parents (4th December, 1850), “have awarded twenty-five guineas for the discovery of the lake.  It is from the Queen.  You must be very loyal, all of you.  Next time she comes your way, shout till you are hoarse.  Oh, you Radicals, don’t be thinking it came out of your pockets!  Long live Victoria[31]!”

[Footnote 31:  In a more serious vein he wrote in a previous letter:  “I wonder you do not go to see the Queen.  I was as disloyal as others when in England, for though I might have seen her in London, I never went.  Do you ever pray for her?” This letter is dated 5th February, 1850, and must have been written before he heard of the prize.]

Defeated in his endeavor to reach Sebituane in 1849, Livingstone, the following season, put in practice his favorite maxim, “Try again.”  He left Kolobeng in April, 1850, and this time he was accompanied by Sechele, Mebalwe, twenty Bakwains, Mrs. Livingstone, and their whole troop of infantry, which now amounted to three.  Traveling in the charming climate of South Africa in the roomy wagon, at the pace of two miles and a half an hour, is not like traveling at home; but it was a proof of Livingstone’s great unwillingness to be separated from his family, that he took them with him, notwithstanding the risk of mosquitoes, fever, and want of water.  The people of Kolobeng were so engrossed at the time with their employments, that till harvest was over, little missionary work could be done.