GUIDES OBTAINED FKOM LECHULATEBE. 89 



Zouga with great labor, having to cut down very many trees to 

 allow the wagons to pass. Our losses by oxen falling into pit- 

 falls were very heavy. The Bayeiye kindly opened the pits 

 when they knew of our approach ; but when that was not the 

 case, we could blame no one on finding an established custom of 

 the country inimical to our interests. On approaching the conflu- 

 ence of the Tamunak'le we were informed that the fly called tse- 

 tse* abounded on its banks. This was a barrier we never expect- 

 ed to meet ; and, as it might have brought our wagons to a com- 

 plete stand-still in a wilderness, where no supplies for the children 

 could be obtained, we were reluctantly compelled to recross the 

 Zouga. 



From the Bayeiye we learned that a party of Englishmen, who 

 had come to the lake in search of ivory, were all laid low by fever, 

 so we traveled hastily down about sixty miles to render what aid 

 was in our power. We were grieved to find, as we came near, 

 that Mr. Alfred Rider, an enterprising young artist who had come 

 to make sketches of this country and of the lake immediately after 

 its discovery, had died of fever before our arrival ; but by the aid 

 of medicines and such comforts as could be made by the only En- 

 glish lady who ever visited the lake, the others happily recovered. 

 The unfinished drawing of Lake Ngami was made by Mr. Rider 

 just before his death, and has been kindly lent for this work by 

 his bereaved mother. 



Sechele used all his powers of eloquence with Lechulatebe to 

 induce him to furnish guides that I might be able to visit Sebi- 

 tuane on ox-back, while Mrs. Livingstone and the children re- 

 mained at Lake Ngami. He yielded at last. I had a very 

 superior London-made gun, the gift of Lieutenant Arkwright, on 

 which I placed the greatest value, both on account of the donor 

 and the impossibility of my replacing it. Lechulatebe fell vi- 

 olently in love with it, and offered whatever number of elephants r 

 tusks I might ask for it. I too was enamored with Sebituane ; 

 and as he promised in addition that he would furnish Mrs. Liv- 

 ingstone with meat all the time of my absence, his arguments 

 made me part with the gun. Though he had no ivory at the time 

 to pay me, I felt the piece would be well spent on those terms, and 



* Glossina morsitans, the first specimens of which were brought to England in 

 1 848 by my friend Major Vardon, from the banks of the Limpopo. 



