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PDFHere is his lively account of himself to his friend Mr. Moore:
“TETTE, 28th November, 1860.
“MY DEAR MOORE,—And why didn’t you begin when you were so often on the point of writing, but didn’t? This that you have accomplished is so far good, but very short. Hope you are not too old to learn. You have heard of our hindrances and annoyances, and, possibly, that we have done some work notwithstanding. Thanks to Providence, we have made some progress, and it is likely our operations will yet have a decided effect on slave-trading in Eastern Africa. I am greatly delighted with the prospect of a Church of England mission to Central Africa. That is a good omen for those who are sitting in darkness, and I trust that in process of time great benefits will be conferred on our own overcrowded population at home. There is room enough and to spare in the fair world our Father has prepared for all his progeny. I pray to be made a harbinger of good to many, both white and black.
“I like to hear that some abuse me now, and say that I am no Christian. Many good things were said of me which I did not deserve, and I feared to read them. I shall read every word I can on the other side, and that will prove a sedative to what I was forced to hear of an opposite tendency. I pray that He who has lifted me up and guided me thus far, will not desert me now, but make me useful in my day and generation. ’I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ So let it be.
“I saw poor Helmore’s grave lately. Had my book been searched for excellencies, they might have seen a certain cure for African fever. We were curing it at a lower and worse part of the river at the very time that they were helplessly perishing, and so quickly, that more than a day was never lost after the operation of the remedy, though we were marching on foot. Our tramp was over 600 miles. We dropped down stream again in canoes from Sinamanero to Chicova—thence to this on shank’s nag. We go down to the sea immediately, to meet our new steamer. Our punt was a sham and a snare.
“My love to Mary
and all the children, with all our friends
at Congleton.”
In a letter to Mr. James Young, Dr. Livingstone gives good reasons for not wishing to push the colonization scheme at present, as he had recommended to the Universities Mission to add a similar enterprise to their undertaking:
“If you read all I have written you by this mail, you will deserve to be called a literary character. I find that I did not touch on the colonization scheme. I have not changed in respect to it, but the Oxford and Cambridge mission have taken the matter up, and as I shall do all I can to aid them, a little delay will, perhaps, be advisable.
“We are waiting for our steamer, and expect her every day; our first trip is a secret, and you will keep it so. We go to the
