ioo DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vi. 



They passed along its north-east border, and had tra- 

 versed about half of the distance, when one day it seemed 

 most unexpectedly that they had got to their journey's 

 end. Mr. Oswell was a little in advance, and having 

 cleared an intervening thick belt of trees, beheld in the 

 soft light of the setting sun what seemed a magnificent 

 lake twenty miles in circumference ; and at the sight 

 threw his hat in the air, and raised a shout which made 

 the Bakwains think him mad. He fancied it was 'Ngami, 

 and, indeed, it was a wonderful deception, caused by a 

 large salt-pan gleaming in the light of the sun ; in fact, 

 the old but ever new phenomenon of the mirage. The 

 real 'Ngami was yet 300 miles farther on. 



Livingstone has given ample details of his progress in 

 the Missionary Travels, dwelling especially on his joy 

 when he reached the beautiful river Zouga, whose waters 

 flowed from 'Ngami. Providence frustrated an attempt 

 to rouse ill-feeling against him on the part of two men 

 who had been sent by Sekomi, apparently to help him, 

 but who now went before him and circulated a report 

 that the object of the travellers was to plunder all the 

 tribes living on the river and lake. Half-way up, the 

 principal man was attacked by fever, and died ; the 

 natives thought it a judgment, and seeing through 

 Sekomi' s reason for wishing the expedition not to suc- 

 ceed, they by and by became quite friendly, under 

 Livingstone's fair and kind treatment. 



A matter of great significance in his future history 

 occurred at the junction of the rivers Tamanak'le and 

 Zouga : — 



" I inquired," he says, " whence the Tamanak'le came. ' Oh ! 

 from a country full of rivers, — so many, no one can tell their number, 

 and full of large trees.' This was the first confirmation of statements 

 I had heard from the Bakwains who had been with Sebituane, that 

 the country beyond was not the ' large sandy plateau ' of the philosophers. 

 The prospect of a highway, capable of being traversed by boats to an 

 entirely unexplored and very populous region, grew from that time 



