Of the events connected with this visit to England, want of space precludes us from giving details.  A great wave of missionary enthusiasm at that time swept over the country, and Moffat found himself hurried from town to town with but scant opportunities for rest.  In May, 1840, he preached the Anniversary Sermon for the London Missionary Society, and, at their Annual Meeting, Exeter Hall was packed so densely that after making his speech in the large upper hall, Moffat had to give it again in the smaller hall below.

An anecdote related in the course of his speech at the Bible Society’s May Meeting shows the value set by a native woman upon a single Gospel in the native tongue.  “She was a Matabele captive,” said Moffat.  “Once, while visiting the sick, as I entered her premises, I found her sitting weeping, with a portion of the Word of God in her hand.  I said, ’My child what is the cause of your sorrow?  Is the baby still unwell?’ ‘No,’ she replied, ‘my baby is well,’ ‘Your mother-in-law?’ I inquired.  ’No, no,’ she said, ‘it is my own dear mother, who bore me.’  Here she again gave vent to her grief, and, holding out the Gospel of Luke, in a hand wet with tears, she said, ’My mother will never see this word; she will never hear this good news!  Oh, my mother and my friends, they live in heathen darkness; and shall they die without seeing the light which has shone on me, and without tasting that love which I have tasted!’ Raising her eyes to heaven she sighed a prayer, and I heard the words again, ’My mother, my mother!’”

His hope when he landed had been to get the printing of the Sechwana New Testament speedily accomplished, and to return to South Africa before winter; but it was not until January, 1843, that he was able once again to sail for Africa.

In 1840 two new missionaries were set apart for the Bechwana mission—–­ William Ross and David Livingstone.  With them Robert Moffat was able to send five hundred copies of the Sechwana New Testament.

As the sheets were passing through the press, it was suggested to him that the Psalms would be a valuable addition to the work.  With his characteristic energy he immediately commenced the task, and, a few months after the sailing of Ross and Livingstone, he had the joy of sending to Africa over two thousand copies of the New Testament, with which the Psalms had been bound up.  By the end of 1843 six thousand copies had been sent out.  A revision of the book of Scripture Lessons was also undertaken and carried through the press.  A demand was made upon him to write a book, in response to which he prepared his well known work, “Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa,” which was published in 1842, and met with great success.