106 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vi. 



the Bakoba, that the water of the Teoge, the river that falls into the 

 'Ngami at the north-west point of it, flows with great rapidity. 

 Canoes ascending, punt all the way, and the men must hold on by 

 reeds in order to prevent their being carried down by the current. 

 Large trees, spring-bucks and other antelopes, are sometimes brought 

 down by it. Do you wonder at my pressing on in the way we have 

 done 1 The Bechuana mission has been carried on in a cul-de-sac. I 

 tried to break through by going among the Eastern tribes, but the 

 Boers shut up that field. A French missionary, Mr. Fredoux, of 

 Motito, tried to follow on my trail to the Bamangwato, but was turned 

 back by a party of armed Boers. When we burst through the barrier 

 on the north, it appeared very plain that no mission could be success- 

 ful there, unless we could get a well-watered country leaving a passage 

 to the sea on either the east or west coast. This project I am almost 

 afraid to meet, but nothing else will do. I intend (d. V.) to go in next 

 year and remain a twelvemonth. My wife, poor soul — I pity her ! — 

 proposed to let me go for that time while she remained at Kolobeng. 

 You will pray for us both during that period." 



A week later (August 24, 1850) he writes to the 

 Directors that no convenient access to the region can 

 be obtained from the south, the lake being 870 miles 

 from Kuruman : — 



"We must have a passage to the sea on either the eastern or 

 western coast. I have hitherto been afraid to broach the subject on 

 which my perhaps dreamy imagination dwells. You at home are 

 accustomed to look on a project as half finished when you have 

 received the co-operation of the ladies. My better half has promised 

 me a twelvemonth's leave of absence for mine. Without promising 

 anything, I mean to follow a useful motto in many circumstances, and 

 Try again." 



On returning to Kolobeng, Mrs. Livingstone was de- 

 livered of a daughter — her fourth child. An epidemic was 

 raging at the time, and the child was seized and cut off, at 

 the age of six weeks. The loss, or rather the removal, 

 of the child, affected Livingstone greatly. " It was the 

 first death in our family," he says in his Journal, "but 

 was just as likely to have happened had we remained at 

 home, and we have now one of our number in heaven." 



To his parents he writes (4th December 1850): — 



" Our last child, a sweet little girl with blue eyes, was taken from 

 us to join the company of the redeemed, through the merits of Him 



