LIVINGSTONE'S MISSIONARY TRAVELS 305 



Livingstone's cliief object in coming north was to visit Sebituane, 

 the powerful chief of a great people — the Makololo. This individual 

 had been very kind in former years to Sechele, Livingstone's old ally, 

 and it was with the idea of migrating to the country of the Makololo 

 that the missionary had left Kolobeng for the court of Sebituane. 

 He was, however, prevented from advancing beyond Ngami by the 

 jealousy of Lechulatebe, the most important chief on the shores of 

 the lake. He refused to transport the party across the Zouga, and 

 the determination of Livingstone nearly cost him his life. "Trying 

 hard," he wrote in his journal, "to form a raft at a narrow part, I 

 worked many hours in the water ; but the dry wood was so worm-eaten 

 it would not bear the weight of a single person. I was not then aware 

 of the number of alligators which exist in the Zouga, and never think 

 of my labor in the water without feeling thankful that I escaped their 

 jaws." 



Finding farther advance impossible, Livingstone returned to 

 Kolobeng, taking careful notes of the animal and vegetable life as he 

 went. In the following year ( 1850) he made a second attempt to reach 

 the Makololo country, but without success. He set out a third time in 

 April, 1 85 1, and this time succeeded. The route lay across the worst 

 part of the Kalahari Desert, and more than once death from thirst 

 appeared imminent. When water became more frequent, another 

 danger appeared. The children were so savagely attacked by mos- 

 quitoes, that for a long time they were in a highly feverish state. 

 When they seemed improving, a new cause for alarm arose in the 

 appearance of the tsetse-fly, which threatened to destroy the cattle, 

 their sole means of transport. So great a part has this fly played in 

 African exploration, that a brief description of it may well be given 

 here. 



This dangerous insect, in size about that of the common house 

 fly, owes its fatality to its power of carrying the germs of infection 

 from one person or animal to another, as the mosquito transmits the 

 yellow fever and malaria germs. Fortunately its bite, while fatal to 

 the horse, ox and dog, has little effect upon man. The mule, goat and 

 wild animals generally are also immune. It has, however, been re- 

 cently discovered, as narrated in a former chapter, that the terrible 



