AN INCIDENT. 



227 



wandered in order to be destroyed, and what can they do with- 

 out shields among so many ? ' Some of them asked if there 

 were no other parties. Sekeletu had ordered my men not to 

 take their shields, as in the case of my first company. We were 

 looked upon as unarmed, and an easy prey." 



It is impossible but to admire the deliberate courage of Dr. 

 Livingstone under such circumstances. It was the same singular 

 disregard of danger which suffered him to give away at Linyanti 

 all but five of the guns which he had purchased in Loanda, and 

 undertake a new journey with only five, which enabled him to 

 sit so quietly defiant when he might really have been an easy 

 prey to their barbarity. The policy of travelling comparatively 

 unarmed through the country may have been wise enough, but 

 it was a piece of policy which required more nerve than the 

 average man possesses. It was a great consolation to Dr. Liv- 

 ingstone in thinking of this deeply degraded tribe to recall 

 the blessed results of missionary work among' the people of 

 Kuruman, who were quite as depraved and degraded as the 

 Batoka. We should not forget the wonderful power of the gos- 

 pel, when we question the probabilities of the ultimate conver- 

 sion and elevation of even the most barbarous people. There 

 is power in that precious word to melt the hardest heart. And 

 there is light enough there to drive away the gloom from the 

 most benighted intellect. 



Another incident which occurred in this country illustrates 

 the power of a white face over these people, although they had 

 never before seen such a being. 



As Livingstone and his party were approaching a village, 

 about evening, they met a man running to them, bound firmly 

 with cords, entreating to be released. He proved to be a man 

 from a neighboring tribe who had made a home in the village, 

 and had, without any show of excuse, threatened the chief man's 

 life, and he was about paying his own for the privilege of the 

 speech. Livingstone immediately took the case in hand, though 

 an absolute stranger, and, having bound the guilty man to do 

 no violence, released him. There was no complaint on the 

 part of the authorities of the town. His interference seemed 

 to pass as a matter of course. The awe which is inspired in 

 these savages by a white face is to be noticed as quite an offset 



