“Kuruman will not answer as a residence, nor yet the Colony.  If I were to follow my own inclinations, they would lead me to settle down quietly with the Bakwains, or some other small tribe, and devote some of my time to my children; but Providence seems to call me to the regions beyond, and if I leave them anywhere in this country, it will be to let them become heathens.  If you think it right to support them, I believe my parents in Scotland would attend to them otherwise.”

Continuing the subject in a more leisurely way a few weeks later, he refers to the very great increase of traffic that had taken place since the discovery of Lake ’Ngami two years before; the fondness of the people for European articles; the numerous kinds of native produce besides ivory, such as beeswax, ostrich feathers, etc., of which the natives made little or no use, but which they would take care of if regular trade were established among them.  He thought that if traders were to come up the Zambesi and make purchases from the producers they would both benefit themselves and drive the slave-dealer from the market.  It might be useful to establish a sanatorium, to which missionaries might come from less healthy districts to recruit.  This would diminish the reluctance of missionaries to settle in the interior.  For himself, though he had reared three stations with much bodily labor and fatigue, he would cheerfully undergo much more if a new station would answer such objects.  In referring to the countries drained by the Zambesi, he believed he was speaking of a large section of the slave-producing region of Africa.  He then went on to say that to a certain extent their hopes had been disappointed; Mr. Oswell had not been able to find a passage to the sea, and he had not been able to find a station for missionary work.  They therefore returned together.  “He assisted me,” adds Livingstone, “in every possible way.  May God reward him!”

In regard to mission work for the future an important question arose, What should be done for the Bakwains?  They could not remain at Kolobeng—­hunger and the Boers decided that point.  Was it not, then, his duty to find and found a new station for them?  Dr. Livingstone thought not.  He had always told them that he would remain with them only for a few years.  One of his great ideas on missions in Africa was that a fair trial should be given to as many places as possible, and if the trial did not succeed the missionaries should pass on to other tribes.  He had a great aversion to the common impression that the less success one had the stronger was one’s duty to remain.  Missionaries were only too ready to settle down and make themselves as comfortable as possible, whereas the great need was for men to move on, to strike out into the regions beyond, to go into all the world.  He had far more sympathy for tribes that had never heard the gospel than for those who