1 64 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



side of the river before sunrise the next morning. 

 Just where they struck the southern branch of the 

 Chobi there were no trees or bushes on its northern 

 bank, only open grass lands and reed beds to which 

 the tse-tse flies never crossed, although the river 

 was only fifty yards broad, and they simply swarmed 

 all along the wooded southern bank. 



At this time, 1853, Sebitwane, who possessed 

 great numbers of cattle, was living not in the open 

 grass country, which has always been free from '* fly," 

 but at Linyanti, which was situated beyond the 

 northern branch of the Chobi and was surrounded 

 on all sides by sandy ridges on which grew forest 

 trees and bushes. In 1861 Linyanti was again 

 visited by Dr. Livingstone, in company with his 

 brother Charles and Dr. (now Sir John) Kirk. 

 Sekeletu, the son of Sebitwane, was then the chief 

 of the Makololo, and these people were still rich in 

 cattle. After Sekeletu's death a civil war broke 

 out between two rival claimants to the chieftainship 

 which so weakened the Makololo, that a coalition 

 of the remnants of the various tribes they had 

 conquered and reduced to servitude some forty 

 years previously rose in rebellion against their 

 rulers, and under the leadership of Sepopo, the 

 uncle of Lewanika, the present chief of the Barotse, 

 absolutely destroyed them as a people, killing every 

 male down to the new-born infants, but sparing all 

 the young females and girl children, who were 

 subsequently taken as wives by their captors. 



After the destruction of the Makololo tribe, the 

 country between the Chobi and the Zambesi was 

 once more given back to nature. 



In 1879 I crossed both branches of the Chobi 

 and visited the site of the once important native 

 town of Linyanti. I there found several relics of 

 the ill-fated Makololo mission party (sent to that 

 tribe by Dr. Livingstone's advice), in the shape of 



