While in Africa, Moffat devoted much of his time preaching the gospel and discussing the Bible, and also taught many of the natives how to read and write.

For a short period, after having applied successfully to the London Missionary Society (LMS)[b] he took an interim post as a farmer, at Plantation Farm in Dukinfield (where he first met Mary his future wife).

Besides his early training as a gardener and farmer, and later as a writer, Moffat developed skills in building, carpentry, printing and as a blacksmith.

Their son John Smith Moffat became an LMS missionary and took over the running of the mission at Kuruman before entering colonial service.

Her husband Robert, wondering why his wife had not attended services that day, came home to find that Mary had steadfastly adopted the child.

Before the missionaries arrived the peoples of this region were often subjected to the plights of European sailors and opportunists which overall effected a hatred and mistrust towards any white man (called "hat-wearers" by the inhabitants).

[15] By September 1816, Moffat was formally commissioned at Surrey Chapel, Southwark in London as a missionary of LMS (on the same day as John Williams) and was sent out to South Africa.

[16] He made the eight-six day voyage from England to Capt Town aboard the sailing ship Alacrity, arriving in the sweltering heat of January, which was midsummer in South Africa.

[16] In 1817 Moffat earned a name for himself when he managed to convert to Christianity Jager Afrikaner, who previously was a notorious bandit and cattle rustler who often terrorized other tribes.

[18][9] Moffat and his wife left the Cape in 1820 and proceeded to Griquatown, where their daughter Mary (who was later to marry David Livingstone) was born.

[19] During this period, Robert Moffat made frequent journeys into the neighbouring regions as far north as the Matabele country.

Whilst in Britain on leave (1839–43) an account of the family's experience, Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa (1842) was published.

[21] During a tribal war, before learning the Sechwana language, Moffat intervened and established peace between the two waring tribes, which earned him gratitude among the native peoples and acclaim and notoriety among his missionary colleagues, both in Africa and in England.

[22] Moffat journeyed along the Kolong river, and found large groups of attentive readers who were in great want of books, which he could hardly supply.

At the gatherings Moffat answered questions to a people who reportedly were anxious to learn to read, reciting over and again what they had heard.

Mosheu generously had given Moffat and his congregation a sheep the evening before, and the wives of the tribesmen took made efforts to provide milk.

The work comprehensively described the living conditions, hardships, customs of the people, and wild life in southern Africa.

[9][27] One of Moffat's foremost efforts in his missionary work was spreading the word of the Gospel among the native peoples in southern Africa.

[16] Eager to have his manuscript printed and distributed, Moffat embarked for Cape Town to have it printed, traveling in covered wagon pulled by oxen With him on the journey was his wife Mary and their two young daughters, Mary and Ann, ages nine and seven respectively, who were to be placed in school in Salem, Grahamstown upon their arrival to the cape.

The Committee of the London Bible Society had forwarded a letter of introduction to Cape Town informing them of Moffat's expectations upon his arrival.

He was thus forced to plead with the governor, Galbraith Lowry Cole,[34] for help and possible use of the government's printing press, which was poorly equipped with only one competent printer, Mr. Van der Zant, at hand.

[39] David Livingston once wrote that Moffat’s translations were “a great work and likely to be of permanent benefit to the people" in southern Africa.

Here Moffat was commended for his long devoted missionary service in Africa, and in particular, for converting the notorious bandit, Jager Afrikaner, into a Christian.

[43] For the last twelve years of his life, Robert spoke throughout England, seeking to raise interest in the mission work in African, and overall.

[45] Robert Moffat died at Leigh, near Tunbridge Wells, on 9 August 1883, at the age of eighty-two, and is buried at West Norwood Cemetery.