18 THE BAKWAIN COUNTRY 



CHAPTER I. 



DR. LIVINGSTONE A MISSIONARY IN THE BAKWAIN COUNTRY. 



The general instructions I received from the Directors 

 of the London Missionary Society led me, as soon as I 

 reached Kuruman or Lattakoo, then, as it is now, their 

 farthest inland station from the Cape, to turn my attention 

 to the north. Without waiting longer at Kuruman than 

 was necessary to recruit the oxen, which were pretty well 

 tired by the long journey from Algoa Bay, I proceeded, in 

 company with another missionary, to the Bakuena or 

 Bakwain country, and found Sechele, with his tribe, located 

 at Shokuane. We shortly after retraced our steps to Kuru- 

 man ; but as the objects in view were by no means to be 

 attained by a temporary excursion of this sort, I determined 

 to make a fresh start into the interior as soon as possible. 

 Accordingly, after resting three months at Kuruman, which 

 is a kind of head-station in the country, I returned to a 

 spot about fifteen miles south of Shokuane, called Lepelole, 

 (now Litubaruba.) Here, in order to obtain an accurate 

 knowledge of the language, I cut myself off from all Eu- 

 ropean society for about six months, and gained by this 

 ordeal an insight into the habits, ways of thinking, laws, 

 and language of that section of the Bechuanas called Bak- 

 wains, which has proved of incalculable advantage in my 

 intercourse with them ever since. 



In this second journey to Lepelole — so called from a 

 cavern of that name — I began preparations for a settle- 

 ment, by making a canal to irrigate gardens, from a stream 

 then flowing copiously, but now quite dry. When these 

 preparations were well advanced, I went northward to 

 vip ; t the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka, living 

 between 22° and 28° south latitude. The Bakaa Mountains 

 had been visited before by a trader, who, with his people, 

 all perished from fever. In going round the northern part 



