ii2 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. vi. 



With his very tender conscience and deep sense of 

 spiritual realities, Livingstone was afraid, as in the case 

 of Sehamy eight years before, that he had not spoken to 

 him so pointedly as he might have done. It is awfully 

 affecting to follow him into the unseen world, of which he 

 had heard for the first time just before he was called 

 away. In his Journal, Livingstone gives way to his 

 feelings as he very seldom allowed himself to do. His 

 words bring to mind David's lament for Jonathan or for 

 Absalom, although he had known Sebituane less than a 

 month, and he was one of the race whom many Boers and 

 slave-stealers regarded as having no souls : — 



" Poor Sebituane, my heart bleeds for thee ; and what would I not 

 do for thee now 1 I will weep for thee till the day of my death. 

 Little didst thou think when, in the visit of the white man, thou 

 sawest the long cherished desires of years accomplished, that the sen- 

 tence of death had gone forth ! Thou thoughtest that thou shouldest 

 procure a weapon from the white man which would be a shield from 

 the attacks of the fierce Matebele ; but a more deadly dart than theirs 

 was aimed at thee ; and though thou couldest well ward off a dart — 

 none ever better — thou didst not see that of the king of terrors. I 

 will weep for thee, my brother, and I would cast forth my sorrows in 

 despair for thy condition ! But I know that thou wilt receive no 

 injustice whither thou art gone ; ' Shall not the Judge of all the earth 

 do right V I leave thee to Him. Alas ! alas ! Sebituane. I might 

 have said more to him. God forgive me. Free me from blood-guilti- 

 ness. If I had said more of death I might have been suspected as 

 having foreseen the event, and as guilty of bewitching him. I might 

 have recommended Jesus and His great atonement more. It is, 

 however, very difficult to break through the thick crust of ignorance 

 which envelops their minds." 



The death of Sebituane was a great blow in another 

 sense. The region over which his influence extended was 

 immense, and he had promised to show it to Livingstone 

 and to select a suitable locality for his residence. This 

 heathen chief would have given to Christ's servant what 

 the Boers refused him ! Livingstone would have had his 

 wish — an entirely new country to work upon, where the 

 name of Christ had never yet been spoken. So at least 

 he thought. Sebituane's successor in the chiefdom was 



