Editing David Livingstone (section)

==Vision for Africa==
[[File: Dance of Landeens.jpg|thumb|[[Zulu people|Zulu]] dance, at [[Chupanga|Shupanga]] on the [[Zambesi]], to collect tribute from Portuguese merchants]]
Though Livingstone had responded to [[Karl Gützlaff|Gützlaff's]] call for missionaries to China, the looming [[First Opium War]] made the LMS directors cautious about sending recruits there. When he asked to extend his probationary training at Ongar, Cecil told him of their wish that he should be employed in the [[West Indies]] "in preference to South Africa". On 2 July 1839 he wrote to the LMS directors that the West Indies was by then well served by doctors, and he had always been attracted to other parts of the world rather than a settled [[pastor]]ate. With LMS agreement, he continued to get theological tuition from Cecil until the end of the year, then resumed medical studies.{{sfn | Ross | 2002 | pp=19–20}}<ref>{{cite web | last=Livingstone | first=David |title=Letter to John Arundel, 2 July 1839 | website=Livingstone Online | url=https://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_000459&view_pid=liv%3A000459 | access-date=17 March 2022}}</ref>

On beginning his clinical training in January 1840, he returned to Mrs. Sewell's  missionary [[boarding house]] in [[Aldersgate]], where he had stayed previously when in London.<ref name="Lawrence" />{{sfn | Ross | 2002 | pp=19–20}}
Others staying there were visited occasionally by the missionary [[Robert Moffat (missionary)|Robert Moffat]], who was then in England with his family to publicise the work of his LMS mission at [[Kuruman]] in South Africa.  Livingstone questioned him repeatedly about Africa, and as Moffat later recalled; "By and by he asked me whether I thought he would do for Africa. I said I believed he would, if he would not go to an old station, but would advance to unoccupied ground, specifying the vast plain to the north, where I had sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages, where no missionary had ever been."<ref name="Blaikie" />

He was excited by Moffat's vision of expanding missionary work to the north of [[Bechuanaland]], and by the hotly debated topic of Christianity and commerce. The LMS missionary [[John Philip (missionary)|John Philip]], after discussion with the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolitionist]] [[Fowell Buxton]], published ''Researches in South Africa'' in 1828, proposing that Christianity would always bring "civilisation" including [[free trade]] and [[Free-produce movement|free labour]]. This argument was reinforced for Livingstone when he attended the [[Niger expedition of 1841#Meeting of 1 June 1840|Exeter Hall meeting of 1 June 1840]] where Buxton powerfully made the case that the African slave trade would be ended if chiefs, instead of having to sell slaves, could obtain desired European goods through "legitimate trade", its effect augmented by Christian missions preaching the gospel and introducing school education.<ref name="Vetch" />{{sfn | Ross | 2002 | pp=24–25}}

===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 [[Ordination|ordained]] at the same service as him, and Ross's wife. During the long voyage he studied Dutch and the [[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 [[Candelária Church|the cathedral]] and scenery, but not by the drunkenness of British and American sailors, so he gave them [[Tract (literature)|tracts]] in a dockside bar.
On 15 March 1841 the ship arrived at [[Simon's Town|Simon's Bay]], and for a month while it unloaded and loaded, the three stayed at [[Cape Town]] with Mr and Mrs [[John Philip (missionary)|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 [[1820 Settlers|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.{{sfn | Ross | 2002 | pp=25, 33–36, 37–40}}

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-wagon|ox-cart]] to the [[Kuruman Moffat Mission|Kuruman Mission]]. The Moffats had not yet returned from Britain, and he immersed himself in Tswana life. From September to late December he trekked {{convert|750|mi|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,{{sfn | Ross | 2002 | pp=39–43}} near [[Zeerust]], North West Province, South Africa.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thema |first1=B.C. |title=The Church and Education in Botswana During the 19th Century |journal=Botswana Notes and Records |date=1968 |volume=1 |pages=1–4 |publisher=[[Botswana Society]] |jstor=40979214 }}</ref>

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.{{sfn | Ross | 2002 | pp=43–45}} 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".<ref>{{cite book | last1=Livingstone | first1=D. | last2=Schapera | first2=I. | title=Livingstone's Missionary Correspondence, 1841–1856 | publisher=University of California Press | year=1961 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M9X7vglJLgAC&pg=PA48 | access-date=14 October 2021 | page=48}}</ref>

The Moffats, accompanied by two new missionary families, reached the [[Vaal River]] in January 1844. Livingstone rode out to meet them there, and 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 Moffat Livingstone|Mary]], who had been born and brought up in Africa.{{sfn | Ross | 2002 | pp=44–46, 49}}

[[File:David Livingstone attacked by a lion in Africa. Lithograph. Wellcome V0018847.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Deacon Mebalwe shooting, distracting the lion which had overpowered Livingstone]]
[[File:Livingstone and the Lion.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Livingstone Memorial Sculpture in [[Blantyre, South Lanarkshire|Blantyre]], Scotland]]
[[Lion]]s often attacked the herds of the Mabotsa villagers, and on 16 February, Mebalwe and Livingstone joined them defending sheep.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Personal Life of David Livingstone/CHAPTER IV | website=Wikisource, the free online library | url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Personal_Life_of_David_Livingstone/CHAPTER_IV | access-date=15 October 2021}}</ref> 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.{{sfn | Livingstone | 1857 | pp=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.33342/page/n28 11–13]}}<ref>{{cite web | last=Volz | first=Stephen | title=Molehabangwe, Mebalwe | website=Dictionary of African Christian Biography | date=21 September 2021 | url=https://dacb.org/stories/botswana/molehabangwe-mebalwe/ | access-date=14 October 2021}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Blaikie" />

Livingstone and Mary were married on 9 January 1845.<ref>{{cite web | title=Digital Catalogue Record; liv_002823|quote=Certificate of Marriage for David Livingstone and Mary (Moffat) Livingstone, Attested by Robert Moffat | website=Livingstone Online | url=https://livingstoneonline.org/in-his-own-words/catalogue?query=liv_002823 |date=9 January 1845 | access-date=15 October 2021}}</ref>

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".{{sfn | Jeal | 2013 | pp=65, 73–74}} At [[Kolobeng Mission]] Livingstone converted [[Sechele I|Chief Sechele]] in 1849 after two years of patient persuasion. Only a few months later Sechele lapsed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Livingstone|first=David |editor=Isaac Schapera|title=Livingstone's private journals, 1851–1853|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgQrAAAAIAAJ|year=1960|publisher=University of California Press|page=304}}</ref>