3to LIVINGSTONE'S MISSIONARY TRAVELS 



disease known as sleeping sickness is transmitted by a species of the 

 tsetse-fly. 



At the end of this third journey Livingstone reached the court of 

 Sebituane, and looked on the face of the man whose name was the 

 most widely known and feared throughout the region between Cape 

 Colony and the Zambesi. He was a man in the prime of life, tall and 

 -strong, of an olive color, and "more frank in his answers than any 

 'jther chief I ever met." His career had been a checkered one, and it 

 was due to his great courage and ability that he had won for himself 

 the position he held as chief of the warlike Makololo. He received 

 Livingstone most warmly, and it was a keen sorrow to the latter and 

 a great blow to his hopes when Sebituane died within a month of his 

 arrival. 



Sebituane was succeeded by Mamochisane, his daughter, and she 

 gave Livingstone and Oswell permission to go anywhere they pleased 

 throughout her country. They at once marched northward to find the 

 great river of which the natives had spoken, and at the end of Jnne, 

 185 1, their search was rewarded at Sesheke by the discovery of the 

 Zambesi in the heart of Africa. 



This was a discovery of great geographical importance, besides 

 bearing directly on Livingstone's cherished scheme of finding and 

 opening routes to the oceans on either hand. Though it was then the 

 dry season the stream was of evident importance. Livingstone says 

 of it: "The river was at its lowest, and yet there was a breadth of 

 from three hundred to six hundred yards of deep flowing water. At 

 the period of its annual inundation it rises fully twenty feet in per- 

 pendicular height, and floods fifteen or twenty miles of land adjacent 

 to its banks." 



The idea which now arose in the traveler's mind was to follow 

 this large stream from its source to its outlet on the coast. But this 

 he could not do without parting from his family, and he accordingly 

 resolved to send them to England, to remain there while his explora- 

 tions continued. He accordingly took them to Cape Town, which he 

 had last seen eleven years before. Their absence was to be for two 

 years, but the exigencies of African travel were such that five years 

 passed before he saw them again. And when they met he had sprung 



