So anxious was Livingstone to find a healthy locality, that, leaving Sekelétu, he proceeded to the farthest limit of the Barotse country, but no healthy place could be found. It is plain, however, that in spite of all risk, and much as he suffered from the fever, he was planning, if no better place could be found, to return himself to Linyanti and be the Makololo missionary. Not just immediately, however. Having failed in the first object of his journey--to find a healthy locality--he was resolved to follow out the second, and endeavor to discover a highway to the sea. First he would try the west coast, and the point for which he would make was St. Paul de Loanda. He might have found a nearer way, but a Portuguese trader whom he had met, and from whom he had received kindness, was going by that route to St. Philip de Benguela. The trader was implicated in the slave-trade, and Livingstone knew what a disadvantage it would be either to accompany or to follow him. He therefore returned to Linyanti; and there began preparations for the journey to Loanda on the coast.

During the time thus spent in the Barotse country, Livingstone saw heathenism in its most unadulterated form. It was a painful, loathsome, and horrible spectacle. His views of the Fall and of the corruption of human nature were certainly not lightened by the sight. In his Journal he is constantly letting fall expressions of weariness at the noise, the excitement, the wild savage dancing, the heartless cruelty, the utter disregard of feelings, the destruction of children, the drudgery of the old people, the atrocious murders with which he was in contact. Occasionally he would think of other scenes of travel; if a friend, for example, were going to Palestine, he would say how gladly he would kiss the dust that had been trod by the Man of Sorrows. One day a poor girl comes hungry and naked to the wagons, and is relieved from time to time; then disappears to die in the woods of starvation or be torn in pieces by the hyenas. Another day, as he is preaching, a boy, walking along with his mother, is suddenly seized by a man, utters a shriek as if his heart had burst, and becomes, as Livingstone finds, a hopeless slave. Another time, the sickening sight is a line of slaves attached by a chain. That chain haunts and harrows him.

Amid all his difficulties he patiently pursued his work as missionary. Twice every Sunday he preached, usually to good audiences, the number rising on occasions so high as a thousand. It was a great work to sow the good seed so widely, where no Christian man had ever been, proclaiming every Lord's Day to fresh ears the message of Divine love. Sometimes he was in great hopes that a true impression had been made. But usually, whenever the service was over, the wild savage dance with all its demon noises succeeded, and the missionary could but look on and sigh. So ready was he for labor that when he could get any willing to learn, he commenced teaching them the alphabet. But he was continually met by the notion that his religion was a religion of medicines, and that all the good it could do was by charms. Intellectual culture seemed indispensable to dissipate this inveterate superstition regarding Christian influence.

A few extracts from his Journal in the Barotse country will more vividly exhibit his state of mind:

"27th August, 1853.--The more intimately I become acquainted with barbarians, the more disgusting does heathenism become. It is inconceivably vile. They are always boasting of their fierceness, yet dare not visit another tribe for fear of being killed. They never visit anywhere but for the purpose of plunder and oppression. They never go anywhere but with a club or spear in hand. It is lamentable to see those who might be children of God, dwelling in peace and love, so utterly the children of the devil, dwelling in fear and continual irritation. They bestow honors and flattering titles on me in confusing profusion. All from the least to the greatest call me Father, Lord, etc., and bestow food without recompense, out of pure kindness. They need a healer. May God enable me to be such to them....
"31st August.--The slave-trade seems pushed into the very centre of the continent from both sides. It must be profitable....
"September 25, Sunday.--A quiet audience to-day. The seed being sown, the least of all seeds now, but it will grow a mighty tree. It is as it were a small stone cut out of a mountain, but it will fill the whole earth. He that believeth shall not make haste. Surely if God can bear with hardened impenitent sinners for thirty, forty, or fifty years, waiting to be gracious, we may take it for granted that his is the best way. He could destroy his enemies, but He waits to be gracious. To become irritated with their stubbornness and hardness of heart is ungodlike....
"13th October.--Missionaries ought to cultivate a taste for the beautiful. We are necessarily compelled to contemplate much moral impurity and degradation. We are so often doomed to disappointment. We are apt to become either callous or melancholy, or, if preserved from these, the constant strain on the sensibilities is likely to injure the bodily health. On this account it seems necessary to cultivate that faculty for the gratification of which God has made such universal provision. See the green earth and blue sky, the lofty mountain and the verdant valley, the glorious orbs of day and night, and the starry canopy with all their celestial splendor, the graceful flowers so chaste in form and perfect in coloring. The various forms of animated life present to him whose heart is at peace with God through the blood of his Son an indescribable charm. He sees in the calm beauties of nature such abundant provision for the welfare of humanity and animate existence. There appears on the quiet repose of earth's scenery the benignant smile of a Father's love. The sciences exhibit such wonderful intelligence and design in all their various ramifications, some time ought to be devoted to them before engaging in missionary work. The heart may often be cheered by observing the operation of an ever-present intelligence, and we may feel that we are leaning on his bosom while living in a world clothed in beauty, and robed with the glorious perfections of its maker and preserver. We must feel that there is a Governor among the nations who will bring all his plans with respect to our human family to a glorious consummation. He who stays his mind on his ever-present, ever-energetic God, will not fret himself because of evil-doers. He that believeth shall not make haste."
"26th October.--I have not yet met with a beautiful woman among the black people, and I have seen many thousands in a great variety of tribes. I have seen a few who might be called passable, but none at all to be compared to what one may meet among English servant-girls. Some beauties are said to be found among the Caffres, but among the people I have seen I cannot conceive of any European being captivated with them. The whole of my experience goes toward proving that civilization alone produces beauty, and exposure to the weather and other vicissitudes tend to the production of deformation and ugliness....
"28th October.--The conduct of the people whom we have brought from Kuruman shows that no amount of preaching or instruction will insure real piety.... The old superstitions cannot be driven out of their minds by faith implanted by preaching. They have not vanished in either England or Scotland yet, after the lapse of centuries of preaching. Kuruman, the entire population of which amounted in 1853 to 638 souls, enjoys and has enjoyed the labors of at least two missionaries,--four sermons, two prayer-meetings, infant schools, adult schools, sewing schools, classes, books, etc., and the amount of visible success is very gratifying, a remarkable change indeed from the former state of these people. Yet the dregs of heathenism still cleave fast to the minds of the majority. They have settled deep down into their souls, and one century will not be sufficient to elevate them to the rank of Christians in Britain. The double influence of the spirit of commerce and the gospel of Christ has given an impulse to the civilization of men. The circulation of ideas and commodities over the face of the earth, and the discovery of the gold regions, have given enhanced rapidity to commerce in other countries, and the diffusion of knowledge. But what for Africa? God will do something else for it; something just as wonderful and unexpected as the discovery of gold."

It needs not to be said that his thoughts were very often with his wife and children. A tender letter to the four little ones shows that though some of them might be beginning to forget him, their names were written imperishably on his heart:

"Sekelétu's Town, Linyanti, 2d October.--MY DEAR ROBERT, AGNES, AND THOMAS AND OSWELL,--Here is another little letter for you all. I should like to see you much more than write to you, and speak with my tongue rather than with my pen; but we are far from each other--very, very far. Here are Seipone, and Meriye and others who saw you as the first white children they ever looked at. Meriye came the other day and brought a round basket for Nannie. She made it of the leaves of the palmyra. Others put me in mind of you all by calling me Rananee, and Rarobert, and there is a little Thomas in the town, and when I think of you I remember, though I am far off, Jesus, our good and gracious Jesus, is ever near both you and me, and then I pray to Him to bless you and make you good.
"He is ever near. Remember this if you feel angry or naughty. Jesus is near you, and sees you, and He is so good and kind. When He was among men, those who heard Him speak said, 'Never man spake like this man,' and we now say, 'Never did man love like Him.' You see little Zouga is carried on mamma's bosom. You are taken care of by Jesus with as much care as mamma takes of Zouga. He is always watching you and keeping you in safety. It is very bad to sin, to do any naughty things, or speak angry or naughty words before Him.
"My dear children, take Him as your Guide, your Helper, your Friend, and Saviour through life. Whatever you are troubled about ask Him to keep you. Our God is good. We thank Him that we have such a Saviour and Friend as He is. Now you are little, but you will not always be so, hence you must learn to read and write and work. All clever men can both read and write, and Jesus needs clever men to do his work. Would you not like to work for Him among men? Jesus is wishing to send his gospel to all nations, and He needs clever men to do this. Would you like to serve Him? Well, you must learn now, and not get tired learning. After some time you will like learning better than playing, but you must play, too, in order to make your bodies strong and be able to serve Jesus.
"I am glad to hear that you go to the academy. I hope you are learning fast. Don't speak Scotch. It is not so pretty as English. Is the Tau learning to read with mamma? I hope you are all kind to mamma. I saw a poor woman in a chain with many others, up at the Barotse. She had a little child, and both she and her child were very thin. See how kind Jesus was to you. No one can put you in chains unless you become bad. If, however, you learn bad ways, beginning only by saying bad words or doing little bad things, Satan will have you in the chains of sin, and you will be hurried on in his bad ways till you are put into the dreadful place which God hath prepared for him and all who are like him. Pray to Jesus to deliver you from sin, give you new hearts, and make you his children. Kiss Zouga, mamma, and each other for me.--Your ever affectionate father,
"D. LIVINGSTON."

A letter to his father and other relations at Hamilton, 30th September, 1853, is of a somewhat apologetic and explanatory cast. Some of the friends had the notion that he should have settled somewhere, "preaching the simple gospel," and converting people by every sermon:

"You see what they make of the gospel, and my conversation on it, in which my inmost Heart yearned for their conversion. Many now think Jesus and Sebituane very much the same sort of person. I was prevented by fever and other matters from at once following up the glorious object of this journey: viz., while preaching the gospel beyond every other man's line of things made ready to our hands, to discover a healthy location for a mission, and I determined to improve the time by teaching to read. This produced profound deliberation and lengthened palavers, and at length the chief told me that he feared learning to read would change his heart and make him content with one wife like Sechéle. He has four. It was in vain I urged that the change contemplated made the affair as voluntary as if he would now change his mind from four to thirty, as his father had. He could not realize the change that would give relish to any other system than the present. He felt as the man who is mentioned by Serles as saying he would not like to go to heaven to be employed for ever singing and praising on a bare cloud without anything to eat or drink....
"The conversion of a few, however valuable their souls may be, cannot be put into the scale against the knowledge of the truth spread over the whole country. In this I do and will exult. As in India, we are doomed to perpetual disappointment; but the knowledge of Christ spreads over the masses. We are like voices crying in the wilderness. We prepare the way for a glorious future in which missionaries telling the same tale of love will convert by every sermon. I am trying now to establish the Lord's kingdom in a region wider by far than Scotland. Fever seems to forbid; but I shall work for the glory of Christ's kingdom--fever or no fever. All the intelligent men who direct our society and understand the nature of my movements support me warmly. A few, I understand, in Africa, in writing home, have styled my efforts as 'wanderings.' The very word contains a lie coiled like a serpent in its bosom. It means traveling without an object, or uselessly. I am now performing the duty of writing you. If this were termed 'dawdling,' it would be as true as the other.... I have actually seen letters to the Directors in which I am gravely charged with holding the views of the Plymouth Brethren, So very sure am I that I am in the path which God's Providence has pointed out, as that by which Christ's kingdom is to be promoted, that if the Society should object, I would consider it my duty to withdraw from it....
"P.S.--My throat became well during the long silence of traveling across the desert. It plagues again now that I am preaching in a moist climate."

Dr. Livingstone now began his preparations for the journey from Linyanti to Loanda. Sekelétu was kind and generous. The road was impracticable for wagons, and the native trader, George Fleming, returned to Kuruman, The Kuruman guides had not done well, so that Livingstone resolved to send them back, and to get Makololo men instead. Here is the record of his last Sunday at Linyanti: