1852-53.] FROM THE CAPE TO LINYANTI. 133 



ment in English. I hope good was done. The people 

 were very attentive indeed. I felt less at a loss than in 

 Union Chapel." 1 He arranged with a mercantile friend, 

 Mr. Rutherfoord, to direct the operations of a native 

 trader, George Fleming, whom that gentleman was to 

 employ for the purpose of introducing lawful traffic in 

 order to supplant the slave-trade. 



It was not till the 8th of June that he left the Cape. 

 His wagon was loaded to double the usual weight from 

 his good nature in taking everybody's packages. His 

 oxen were lean, and he was too poor to provide better. He 

 reached Griqua Town on the 15th August, and Kuruman 

 a fortnight later. Many things had occasioned unex- 

 pected delay, and the last crowning detention was caused 

 by the breaking down of a wheel. It turned out, however, 

 that these delays were probably the means of saving his 

 life. Had they not occurred he would have reached Kolo- 

 beng in August. But this was the very time when the 

 commando of the Boers, numbering 600 colonists and many 

 natives besides, were busy with the work of death and 

 destruction. Had he been at Kolobeng, Pretorius would 

 probably have executed his threat of killing him ; at 

 the least he would have been deprived of all the property 

 that he carried with him, and his projected enterprise 

 would have been brought to an end. 



In a letter to his wife, Livingstone gives full details 

 of the horrible outrage perpetrated shortly before by 

 the Boers at Kolobeng : — 



"Kuruman, 20th September 1852. — Along with this I send you 

 a long letter ; this I write in order to give you the latest news. The 

 Boers gutted our house at Kolobeng; they brought four wagons 

 down and took away sofa, table, bed, all the crockery, your desk 

 (I hope it had nothing in it — Have you the letters?), smashed the 

 wooden chairs, took away the iron ones, tore out the leaves of all the 

 books, and scattered them in front of the house, smashed the bottles 



1 The manuscript of this sermon still exists. The sermon is very simple, 

 scriptural, and earnest, in the style of Bishop Kyle, or of Mr. Moody. 



