74 START FOB THE COUNTRY OF SEBITUANE. Chap. IV. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Leave Kolobeng again for the country of Sebituane — Reach the Zouga — 

 The tsetse — A party of Englishmen — Death of Mr. Rider — Obtain 

 guides — Children fall sick with fever — Relinquish the attempt to reach 

 Sebituane — Mr. Oswell's elephant-hunting — Return to Kolobeng — 

 Make a third start thence — Reach Nchokotsa — Salt-pans — "Links," 

 or springs — Bushmen — Our guide Shobo — The Banajoa — An ugly 

 chief — The tsetse — Bite fatal to domestic animals, but harmless to wild 

 animals and man — Operation of the poison — Losses caused by it — The 

 Makololo — Our meeting with Sebituane — Sketch of his career — His 

 courage and conquests — Manoeuvres of the Batoka — He outwits them 



— His wars with the Matebele — Predictions of a native prophet — Suc- 

 cesses of the Makololo — Renewed attacks of the Matebele — The island of 

 Loye'lo — Defeat of the Matebele — Sebituane's policy — His kindness to 

 strangers, and to the poor — His sudden illness, and death — Succeeded 

 by his daughter — Her friendliness to us — Discovery, in June, 1851, of 

 the Zambesi flowing in the centre of the continent — Its size — The Mambari 



— The slave-trade — Determine to send family to England — Return to 

 the Cape in April 1852 — Safe transit through the Caffre country during 

 hostilities — Need of a " Special Correspondent" — Kindness of the Lon- 

 don Missionary Society — Assistance afforded by the Astronomer Royal at 

 the Cape. 



Having returned to Kolobeng, I remained there till April, 

 1850, and then left in company with Mrs. Livingstone, our three 

 children, and the chief Seehele, — who had now bought a waggon 

 of his own, — in order to go across the Zouga at its lower end, 

 with the intention of proceeding up the northern bank till we 

 gained the Tamunak'le, and of then ascending that river to visit 

 Sebituane in the north. Sekomi had given orders to fill up the 

 wells which we had dug with so much labour at Serotli, so we 

 took the more eastern route through the Bamangwato town and 

 by Letloche. That chief asked why I had avoided him in our 

 former journeys ? I replied that my reason was that I knew he 

 did not wish me to go to th.3 lake, and I did not want to quarrel 

 with him. " Well," he said, " you beat me then, and I am 

 content." 



Parting with Seehele at the ford, as he was eager to visit 

 Lechulatebe, we went along the northern woody bank of the 



