I have made but very little progress in the language (can speak a little Dutch), but I long for the time when I shall give my undivided attention to it, and then be furnished with the means of making known the truth of the gospel." While at the Cape, Livingstone had heard something of a fresh-water lake ('Ngami) which all the missionaries were eager to see.

If only they would give him a month or two to learn the colloquial language, he said they might spare themselves the pains of being "the first in at the death." It is interesting to remark further that, in this first journey, science had begun to receive its share of attention.

He is already bent on making a collection for the use of Professor Owen[19], and is enthusiastic in describing some agatized trees and other curiosities which he met with.
[Footnote 19: This collection never reached its destination.] Writing to his parents from Port Elizabeth, 19th May, 1841, he gives his first impressions of Africa.

He had been at a station called Hankey: "The scenery was very fine.

The white sand in some places near the beach drifted up in large wreaths exactly like snow.
One might imagine himself in Scotland were there not a hot sun overhead.