90 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. v. 



that is needed here. It was at first very difficult for him 

 to comprehend how the most flagrant injustice and in- 

 humanity to the black race could be combined, as he 

 found it to be, with kindness and general respectability, 

 and even with the profession of piety. He only came to 

 comprehend this when, after more experience, he under- 

 stood the demoralisation which the slave-system produces. 

 It was necessary for the Boers to possess themselves of 

 children for servants, and believing or fancying that in 

 some tribe an insurrection was plotting, they would fall 

 on that tribe and bring off a number of the children. 

 The most foul massacres were justified on the ground that 

 they were necessary to subdue the troublesome tendencies 

 of the people, and therefore essential to permanent peace. 

 Livingstone felt keenly that the Boers who came to live 

 among the Bakwains made no distinction between them 

 and the Caffres, although the Bechuanas were noted for 

 honesty, 'and never attacked either Boers or English. 

 On the principle of elevating vague rumours into alarm- 

 ing facts, the Boers of the Cashan Mountains, having 

 heard that Sechele was possessed of fire-arms (the number 

 of his muskets was five !) multiplied the number by a 

 hundred, and threatened him with an invasion. Living- 

 stone, who was accused of supplying these arms, went to 

 the Commandant Krieger, and prevailed upon him to 

 defer the expedition, but refused point-blank to comply 

 with Krieger' s wish that he should act as a spy on the 

 Bakwains. Threatening messages continued to be sent to 

 Sechele, ordering him to surrender himself, and to pre- 

 vent English traders from passing through his country, 

 or selling fire-arms to his people. On one occasion 

 Livingstone was told by Mr. Potgeiter, a leading Dutch- 

 man, that he would attack any tribe that might receive a 

 native teacher. Livingstone was so thoroughly identified 

 Avith the natives that it became the desire of the colonists 

 to get rid of him and all his belongings, and complaints 



