Going To Africa Was Not His Original Intention

Another fact about David Livingstone is that he did not originally go to Africa. Despite the fact that Livingstone had heeded Gützlaff's appeal for missionaries to go to China, the LMS directors were hesitant to send recruits because of the impending First Opium War. They wanted him to be engaged in the West Indies "in preference to South Africa," Cecil informed him when he asked to extend his probationary training at Ongar. He stated in a letter to the LMS directors dated July 2, 1839, that the West Indies were by that point well-served by doctors and that he had never been particularly drawn to a permanent pastorate. He continued receiving theological instruction from Cecil with LMS approval till the end of the year before starting his medical studies again.

He returned to Mrs. Sewell's missionary boarding home in Aldersgate, where he had previously lodged whilst in London, when he started his clinical study in January 1840. The missionary Robert Moffat, who was at the time in England with his family to promote the work of his LMS mission in Kuruman in South Africa, periodically paid the other guests there a visit. At the time, European explorers had not yet traveled much of the interior of Africa. Livingstone was completely engrossed in Moffat's stories. He promptly embarked on his missionary journey to Bechuanaland (modern-day Botswana), hoping to advance abolitionism in southeast Africa.