The idea of his going to Africa became a settled thing, and was soon carried into effect.
"I had occasion" (Dr.Moffat has informed us) "to call for some one at Mrs.Sewell's, a boarding-house for young missionaries in Aldersgate street, where Livingstone lived.

I observed soon that this young man was interested in my story, that he would sometimes come quietly and ask me a question or two, and that he was always desirous to know where I was to speak in public, and attended on these occasions.

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.

At last Livingstone said: 'What is the use of my waiting for the end of this abominable opium war?
I will go at once to Africa.' The Directors concurred, and Africa became his sphere." It is no wonder that all his life Livingstone had a very strong faith in Providence, for at every turn of his career up to this point, some unlooked-for circumstance had come in to give a new direction to his history.