336 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



The Portuguese had introduced rum into the country through 

 which they were now traveling, in connection with the slave 

 trade, and its painfully degrading effects were manifested among 

 the people. One chief remarked that the white men were greatly 

 favored by their God, who was so kind as to send them guns 

 and powder from heaven, and to cause rivers of rum to flow 

 through their country all the year round. He said he would 

 like to live on the banks of such a river. 



WILD DOGS. 



THE expedition proceeded up the river above three hundred 

 miles, to the head of navigation, and from thence by oxen, don- 

 keys, and on foot to a place near Bazizulu, where there is a very 

 dense jungle. Here the attention of Charles Livingstone was 

 attracted by a ferocious yelping like dogs fighting. Proceeding 

 forward to locate the sound, he was astonished to behold a troop 

 of dogs wrangling over the remains of a buffalo, which they had 

 killed and nearly devoured. This was a strange sight, for wild 

 dogs were not previously known. This singular animal has a 

 large head and jaws of great power ; the ears are long, the color 

 black and yellow in patches, with a white tuft at the tip of the 

 tail. They hunt their game in packs, and perseveringly follow 

 the animal they first start till they bring him down. The Balala 

 of the Kalahari desert are said to have formerly tamed them and 

 to have employed them to hunt. An intelligent native at Kolo- 

 beng remembered when a boy to have seen a pack of the dogs 

 returning from a hunt in charge of their masters, who drove them 

 like a herd of goats, and for safety kept them in a pit. 



A HIPPOPOTAMUS ATTACKED AY ALLIGATORS. 



THE explorers continued their journey along the banks of the 

 Zambesi until the Zongwe river was reached, up which they went 

 by canoes nearly fifty miles, then crossed the country to Victoria 

 Falls. Being now in the Makololo country, Livingstone's first 

 inquiries were for Sekeletu and the fate of the Mabotsa mission. 

 The report was most discouraging, for Sekeletu was fatally 

 afflicted with leprosy and his power among the tribe wholly lost 



