David Livingstone
Mission stations

Livingstone left London on 17 November 1840, passenger on a sailing brig bound for the Cape of Good Hope, along with two other LMS missionaries: Ross, who had been ordained at the same service as him, and Ross's wife. During the long voyage he studied Dutch and Tswana language, and the captain gave him extensive tuition in navigation. At Rio de Janeiro, unlike the other two, he ventured ashore and was impressed by the cathedral and scenery, but not by drunkenness of British and American sailors so he gave them tracts in a dockside bar.On 15 March 1841 the ship arrived at Simon's Bay, and for a month while it unloaded and loaded, the three stayed at Cape Town with Mr and Mrs Philip. As resident director of the LMS, Philip had continued their policy that all people were equal before God and in law, leading to disputes with Boers, and with British settlers as Philip held that Xhosa people were not to blame for the Xhosa Wars over extending the Cape Colony. Missionary factions disagreed over this, and over his emphasis on missionary work among Griqua people of the colony, while others like Moffatt wanted more focus on new areas. There were also tensions between artisan missionaries engaged for lay expertise, and ordained missionaries.

The ship took Livingstone and the Rosses on to Algoa Bay, from 19 May to 31 July they were on the long trek by ox-cart to the Kuruman Mission. The Moffats had not yet returned from Britain, and he immersed himself in Tswana life. From September to late December he trekked 750 miles (1,210 km) with the artisan missionary Roger Edwards, who had been at Kuruman since 1830 and had been told by Moffat to investigate potential for a new station. They visited and discussed the area called Mabotsa, Botswana, near Zeerust, North West Province, South Africa.

In 1842 Livingstone went on two treks with African companions, the principals were mission members Paul and Mebalwe, a deacon. In June 1843, Edwards got LMS approval to set up a mission station with his wife at Mabotsa. Livingstone moved there by agreement, and joined them in the physical work of building facilities. He wrote to tell LMS secretary Arthur Tidman, saying he would be delighted to call Mabotsa "the centre of the sphere of my labours", but would try to hold himself "in readiness to go anywhere, provided it be forward".

The Moffats, accompanied by two new missionary families, reached the Vaal River in January 1844, Livingstone rode out to meet them there, then sat in the Moffats' ox-cart talking with Robert for hours during the seventeen or eighteen days it took to get home to Kuruman. For the first time, he met their daughter Mary, who had been born and brought up in Africa.

Lions often attacked herds of the Mabotsa villagers, on 16 February, Mebalwe and Livingstone joined them defending sheep. Livingstone got a clear shot at a large lion, but while he was re-loading it attacked, crushing his left arm, and forced him to the ground. His life was saved by Mebalwe diverting its attention by trying to shoot the lion. He too got bitten. A man who tried spearing it was attacked just before it dropped dead.

Livingstone's broken bone, even though inexpertly set by himself and Edwards, bonded strongly. He went for recuperation to Kuruman, where he was tended by Moffat's daughter Mary, and they became engaged. His arm healed, enabling him to shoot and lift heavy weights, though it remained a source of much suffering for the rest of his life, and he was not able to lift the arm higher than his shoulder.

Livingstone and Mary were married on 9 January 1845.

Livingstone was obliged to leave his first mission at Mabotsa in Botswana in 1845 after irreconcilable differences emerged between him and his fellow missionary, Rogers Edwards, and because the Bakgatla were proving indifferent to the Gospel. He abandoned Chonuane, his next mission, in 1847 because of drought and the proximity of the Boers and his desire "to move on to the regions beyond". At Kolobeng Mission Livingstone converted Chief Sechele in 1849 after two years of patient persuasion. Only a few months later Sechele lapsed.
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