44 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. hi. 



keeping the whole country in alarm. The more peaceful 

 tribes had heard of the value of the white man, and of 

 the weapons by which a mere handful of whites had 

 repulsed hordes of marauders. They were therefore dis- 

 posed to welcome the stranger, although this state of 

 feeling could not be relied on as sure to continue, for 

 Griqua hunters and individuals from tribes hostile to the 

 gospel were moving northwards, and not only circulating 

 rumours unfavourable to missionaries, but by their wicked 

 lives introducing diseases previously unknown. If these 

 regions therefore were to be taken possession of by the 

 gospel, no time was to be lost. For himself, Livingstone 

 had no hesitation in going to reside in the midst of these 

 savages, hundreds of miles away from civilisation, not 

 merely for a visit, but, if necessary, for the whole of his 

 life. 



In writing to his sisters after this journey (8th De- 

 cember 1841), he gives a graphic account of the country, 

 and some interesting notices of the people : — 



" Janet, I suppose, will feel anxious to know what our dinner was. 

 We boiled a piece of the flesh of a rhinoceros which was toughness 

 itself, the night before. The meat was our supper, and porridge made 

 of Indian corn-meal and gravy of the meat made a very good dinner 

 next day. When about 150 miles from home we came to a large 

 village. The chief had sore eyes ; I doctored them, and he fed us 

 pretty well with milk and beans, and sent a fine buck after me as a 

 present. When we had got about ten or twelve miles on the way, a little 

 girl about eleven or twelve years of age came up and sat down under 

 my wagon, having run away for the purpose of coming with us to 

 Kuruman. She had lived with a sister whom she had lately lost by 

 death. Another family took possession of her for the purpose of 

 selling her as soon as she was old enough for a wife. But not liking 

 this, she determined to run away from them and come to some friends 

 near Kuruman. With this intention she came, and thought of walk- 

 ing all the way behind my wagon. I was pleased with the deter- 

 mination of the little creature, and gave her some food. But before 

 we had remained long there, I heard her sobbing violently as if her 

 heart would break. On looking round, I observed the cause. A man 

 with a gun had been sent after her, and he had just arrived. I did 

 not know well what to do now, but I was not in perplexity long, for 

 Pomare, a native convert who accompanied us, started up and defended 



