178 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. ix. 



Bakwains. They were, in many respects, a different 

 people from before. Any one who should be among the 

 Makololo as he had been, would be thankful for the state 

 of the Bakwains. The seed would always bear fruit, but 

 the husbandman had need of great patience, and the end 

 was sure. 



Sekeletu had not been behaving well in Livingstone's 

 absence. He had been conducting marauding parties 

 against his neighbours, which even Livingstone's men, 

 when they heard of it, pronounced to be "bad, bad." 

 Livingstone was obliged to reprove him. A new uniform 

 had been sent to the chief from Loanda, with which he 

 appeared at church, " attracting more attention than the 

 sermon." He continued however to show the same friend- 

 ship for Livingstone, and did all he could for him when he 

 set out eastwards. A new escort of men was provided, 

 above a hundred and twenty strong, with ten slaughter 

 cattle, and three of his best riding oxen ; stores of food 

 were given, and a right to levy tribute over the tribes 

 that were subject to Sekeletu as he passed through their 

 borders. If Livingstone had performed these journeys 

 with some long-pursed society or individual at his back, 

 his feat even then would have been wonderful ; but it be- 

 comes quite amazing when we think that he went without 

 stores, and owed everything to the influence he acquired 

 with men like Sekeletu and the natives generally. His 

 heart was much touched on one occasion by the disin- 

 terested kindness of Sekeletu. Having lost their way on a 

 dark night in the forest, in a storm of rain and lightning, 

 and the luggage having been carried on, they had to pass 

 the night under a tree. The chiefs blanket had not been 

 carried on, and Sekeletu placed Livingstone under it, 

 and lay down himself on the wet ground. ' ' If such men 

 must perish before the white by an immutable law of 

 heaven," he wrote to the Geographical Society (25th 

 January 1856), " we must seem to be under the same sort 



