Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/391

 Livingstone o'clock in the morning. He thus mastered Virgil and Horace, and read all that came in his way. He contrived to read in the factory by placing his book on the spinning-jenny, so that he could catch sentences as he passed at his work. He studied botany, zoology, and geology, and spent his few holidays in scouring the country with his brothers in search of scientific specimens. Although Neil Livingstone duly instructed his children in the doctrines of Christianity, David positively disliked religious reading until he met with Dick's 'Philosophy of Religion' and 'Philosophy of a Future State,' and it was not until his twentieth year that he became conscious of strong religious convictions. As he himself relates, 'In the glow of love which Christianity inspires I soon resolved to devote my life to the alleviation of human misery.' An appeal by Charles Gutzlaff, the medical missionary to China, drew his thoughts to that country, and he determined to obtain a medical education to qualify himself for work there. At nineteen he had become a cotton-spinner, and his wages were large enough to support him while attending the medical class in Anderson College, the Greek class in Glasgow University in winter, and the divinity lectures of Dr. Wardlaw in summer. While attending the university session of 1836-7 he, in company with Lyon (now Lord) Playfair and the brothers James and William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), was instructed in the use of tools by Mr. James Young, assistant to the professor of chemistry. In the course of his second session at college Livingstone offered his services to the London Missionary Society, which he selected on account of its unsectarian character. In September 1838 he went to London, passed a preliminary examination, and was sent with Joseph Moore (afterwards missionary at Tahiti, and a friend and correspondent of Livingstone) to the Rev. Richard Cecil at Chipping Ongar in Essex for some months' probation. On its completion he returned to London and devoted himself to medical and scientific study. He placed himself under the guidance of J. Risdon Bennett (afterwards president of the Royal College of Physicians), and walked the hospitals. While pursuing his studies in London he acquired the friendship of Professor Owen and George Wilson. The opium war prevented Livingstone from going to China, and meeting Dr. Robert Moffat [q. v.], the South African missionary, in London, he was led to select that country for his labours. He was admitted a licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow University in the beginning of November 1840; on 20 Nov. he was ordained a missionary in Albion Chapel, London; and on 8 Dec. he embarked in the ship George, under Captain Donaldson, for the Cape of Good Hope. He put in at Rio de Janeiro, where he had his only glimpse of the American continent. The captain instructed him in the use of the quadrant and in taking lunar observations. After a detention of a month at Cape Town he proceeded to Algoa Bay, and landed in Port Elizabeth in May. On 31 July 1841 he arrived by wagon at Kuruman, in the Bechuana country, the most northerly station of the society in South Africa, and the usual residence of Dr. Moffat, who was still absent in England; and in accordance with his instructions, he turned his attention to the formation of a new station further north. Before the end of the year he made a journey of seven hundred miles with a brother-missionary, which confirmed his opinion as to the necessity of native labour in attempting to Christianise so vast a field, and which resulted in a visit to the chief Setshele at Shokwane and the selection of a station 250 miles north of Kuruman as the most suitable spot for fresh operations.

On 10 Feb. 1842 Livingstone set out on a second journey into the interior, and went to Litubaruba, now Molepolole, in Bechuanaland. He secluded himself from Europeans, in order to acquire a knowledge of the native languages and to gain an insight into the life and habits of the Ba-kwena. He took with him two native members of the Kuruman church, and two other natives to look after the wagon. He established friendly relations with several tribes, mastered one dialect,and commenced learning another. He investigated the geology, botany, and natural history of the country he traversed, which included part of the Kalahari desert, and returned in June to Kuruman. Here he remained for some months, journeying among the neighbouring tribes and taking part in the routine work of the station, such as preaching, printing, prescribing for the sick, and building a chapel. In February 1843 he again set out on a journey of four hundred miles among the tribes he had previously visited (Ba-katla, Ba-kwena, and others), journeying without knowing it to within a short distance of Lake Ngami, and returning in June to Kuruman. In accordance with directions at length received from the society at home to found a new settlement in the interior, Livingstone set out in August 1843 with a brother-missionary and three English sportsmen, one of whom, Captain (afterwards Sir) Thomas Steele, proved a