The beginning of 1861 brought some new features on the scene.  The new steamer, the “Pioneer,” at last arrived, and was a great improvement on the “Ma-Robert,” though unfortunately she had too great draught of water.  The agents of the Universities Missions also arrived, the first, detachment consisting of Bishop Mackenzie and five other Englishmen, and five colored men from the Cape.  Writing familiarly to his friend Moore, apropos of his new comrades of the Church Mission, Livingstone says:  “I have never felt anyway inclined to turn Churchman or dissenter either since I came out here.  The feelings which we have toward different sects alter out here quite insensibly, till one looks upon all godly men as good and true brethren.  I rejoiced when I heard that so many good and great men in the Universities had turned their thoughts toward Africa, and feeling sure that He who had touched their hearts would lead them to promote his own glory, I welcomed the men they sent with a hearty, unfeigned welcome.”

To his friend Mr. Maclear he wrote that he was very glad the Mission was to be under a bishop.  He had seen so much idleness and folly result from missionaries being left to themselves, that it was a very great satisfaction to find that the new mission was to be superintended by one authorized and qualified to take the charge.  Afterward when he came to know Bishop Mackenzie, he wrote of him to Mr. Maclear in the highest terms:  “The Bishop is A 1, and in his readiness to put his hand to anything resembles much my good father-in-law Moffat.”

It is not often that missions are over-manned, but in the first stage of such an undertaking as this, so large a body of men was an incumbrance, none of them knowing a word of the language or a bit of the way.  It was Bishop Mackenzie’s desire that Dr. Livingstone should accompany him at once to the scene of his future labors and help him to settle.  But besides other reasons, the “Pioneer,” as already stated, was under orders to explore the Rovuma, and, as the Portuguese put so many obstacles in the way on the Zambesi, to ascertain whether that river might not afford access to the Nyassa district.  It was at last arranged that the Bishop should first go with the Doctor to the Rovuma, and thereafter they should all go together to the Shire.  In waiting for Bishop Mackenzie to accompany him, Dr. Livingstone lost the most favorable part of the season, and found that he could not get with the “Pioneer” to the top of the Rovuma.  He might have left the ship and pushed forward on foot; but, not to delay Bishop Mackenzie, he left the Rovuma in the meantime, intending, after making arrangements with the Bishop, to go to Nyassa, to find the point where the Rovuma left the lake, if there were such a point, or, if not, get into its headwaters and explore it downward.