DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. v. 



CHAPTER V. 



THIRD STATION — KOLOBENG. 

 A.D. 1847-1852. 



Want of rain at Chonuane — Removal to Kolobeng — House-building and public 

 works — Hopeful prospects — Letters to Mr. Watt, his sister, and Dr. Bennett 

 — The church at Kolobeng — Pure communion — Conversion of Sechele — Letter 

 from his brother Charles — His history — Livingstone's relations with the Boers 

 — He cannot get native teachers planted in the east — Resolves to explore 

 northwards — Extracts from Journal — Scarcity of water — Wild animals and 

 other risks — Custom-house robberies and annoyances — Visit from Secretary of 

 London Missionary Society — Manifold employments of Livingstone — Studies 

 in Sichuana — His reflection on this period of his life while detained at Man- 

 yuema in 1870. 



The residence of the Livingstones at Chonuane was of 

 short continuance. The want of rain was fatal to agri- 

 culture, and about equally fatal to the mission. It was 

 necessary to remove to a neighbourhood where water 

 could be obtained. The new locality chosen was on the 

 banks of the river Kolobeng, about forty miles distant 

 from Chonuane. In a letter to the Royal Geographical 

 Society, his early and warm friend and fellow-traveller, 

 Mr. Oswell, thus describes Kolobeng : " The town stands 

 in naked deformity on the side of and under a ridge of 

 red ironstone ; the mission-house on a little rocky eminence 

 over the river Kolobeng." Livingstone had pointed out 

 to the chief that the only feasible way of watering the 

 gardens was to select some good never-failing river, make 

 a canal, and irrigate the adjacent lands. The wonderful 

 influence which he had acquired was apparent from the 

 fact that the very morning after he told them of his 

 intention to move to the Kolobeng, the whole tribe was 



