st a field--this huddling together of laborers in
sparsely peopled districts, instead of sending them forth over the whole
of Africa, India, and China, to preach the gospel to every creature. He
felt deeply that both the Church at home, and many of the missionaries
on the spot, had a poor conception of missionary duty, out of which came
little faith, little effort, little expectation, with a miserable
tendency to exaggerate their own evils and grievances, and fall into
paltry squabbles which would not have been possible if they had been
fired with the ambition to win the world for Christ.

But what it was a positive relief for him to whisper in the ear of an
intimate friend, it demanded the courage of a hero to proclaim to the
Directors of a great Society. It was like impugning their whole policy
and arraigning their wisdom. But Livingstone could not say one thing in
private and another in public. Frankly and fearlessly he proclaimed
his views:

"The conviction to which I refer is that a much larger share
of the benevolence of the Church and of missionary exertion
is directed into this country than the amount of population,
as compared with other countries, and the success attending
those efforts, seem to call for. This conviction has been
forced upon me, both by a personal inspection, more extensive
than that which has fallen to the lot of any other, either
missionary or trader, and by the sentiments of other
missionaries who have investigated the subject according to
their opportunities. In reference to the population, I may
mention that I was led in England to believe that the
population of the interior was dense, and now since I have
come to this country I have conversed with many, both of our
Society and of the French, and none of them would reckon up
the number of 30,000 Bechuanas."

He then proceeds to details in a most characteristic way, giving the
number of huts in every village, and being careful in every case, as his
argument proceeded on there being a small population, rather to
overstate than understate the number:

"In view of these facts and the confirmation of them I have
received from both French and English brethren, computing the
population much below what I have stated, I confess I feel
grieved to hear of the arrival of new missionaries. Nor am I
the only one who deplores their appointment to thi