80 THE THIRD ATTEMPT. 



When Sebituane heard of the attempts of Livingstone to reach 

 him, he immediately sent his messengers to the chiefs, with 

 presents, requesting them to render all the assistance they could 

 to the missionary. He sent thirteen brown cows to Lechulatebe, 

 thirteen white cows to Sekomi, and thirteen black cows to 

 Sechele ; but though these chiefs were all deeply indebted to 

 Sebituane, and greatly dependent on his clemency, so great was 

 their unwillingness to have the remoter regions of the continent 

 brought into contact with the world outside that they still per- 

 sisted in hindering the advance of Livingstone in every possible 

 manner. Even Sechele, whose friendship was a thing of years, 

 and fixed by his own conversion, took advantage of the absence 

 of Livingstone to allow all the messengers of Sebituane to go 

 back without him. The opposition was annoying, it was not 

 discouraging. 



Waiting only for returning health, the party resumed their 

 travelling trim and set out on the third journey. We little 

 think, who so quietly talk of the light of civilization and Chris- 

 tianity spreading gradually over the entire earth, how stoutly 

 the darkness resists it, how heroically the pioneers of knowledge 

 and gospel hope have striven in their work. The track was 

 about the same as in former journeys, as far as Nchokotsa. 

 From there it led across a flat, hard country several hundred 

 miles. The salt pans, which so thoroughly deceived the dis- 

 coverer in his first visit, and which are found quite frequently 

 on this broad plain, invite the attention of the curious. Here 

 too are found a great number of wells and never-failing springs, 

 among; which the Bushmen were found — a friendlier home than 

 the desert. These precious fountains have their limit though. 

 Beyond them a wide and cheerless waste resists with its passive 

 strength the advance of the traveller. Before entering on this 

 dreary scene Livingstone secured a Bushman guide ; the guide's 

 name was Shobo. Shobo did not excite their hopes ; he was a 

 prophet of evil on the water question. It required more than 

 heroism — it required Christianity — to strengthen a man for this 

 awful undertaking. As the party advanced the desolation 

 deepened. They had left all signs of life miles behind them ; 

 there was only the sand. The single piece of vegetation was a 

 low, mean-looking scrub. "Not a bird, not an insect, enliy- 



