Often ha would say that the true road to influence was patient continuance in well-doing.

It is remarkable that, from the very first, he should have seen the charm of that method which he employed so successfully to the end.
In the course of this journey, Livingstone was within ten days of Lake 'Ngami, the lake of which he had heard at the Cape, and which he actually discovered in 1849; and he might have discovered it now, had discovery alone been his object.

Part of his journey was performed on foot, in consequence of the draught oxen having become sick: "Some of my companions," he says in his first book, "who had recently joined us, and did not know that I understood a little of their speech, were overheard by me discussing my appearance and powers: 'He is not strong, he is quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts himself in those bags (trousers); he will soon knock up.' This caused my Highland blood to rise, and made me despise the fatigue of keeping them all at the top of their speed for days together, and until I heard them expressing proper opinions of my pedestrian powers." We have seen how full Livingstone's heart was of the missionary spirit; how intent he was on making friends of the natives, and how he could already preach in one dialect, and was learning another.

But the activity of his mind enabled him to give attention at the same time to other matters.

He was already pondering the structure of the great African Continent, and carefully investigating the process of desiccation that had been going on for a long time, and had left much uncomfortable evidence of its activity in many parts.