FAITHFULNESS OF THE PEOPLE. 399 



sought by it, the testimony of Dr. Livingstone to the character, 

 customs and promise of the people in all the broad region which 

 then acknowledged the authority of Sekeletu is unshaken, while 

 his personal experience of their faithfulness and kindness cancels 

 that of his more unfortunate friends. There was no particular 

 reason why the chief who would deal so unjustly by the mission 

 party should so carefully cultivate the friendship of Livingstone. 

 There would have been no trouble in concocting an explanation 

 of their loss had he desired to appropriate the many valuable 

 articles which had been seven or eight years in his care. These 

 were found by Dr. Livingstone just as he left them ; they had 

 been guarded most sacredly during four years, and the wagon 

 had stood there since 1853. Naturally enough, while his heart 

 grieved for the noble man who had fallen on the spot, after 

 laying two dear children and a devoted wife under the strange 

 sod, and while he sympathized deeply with those who had shared 

 the suffering, only escaping with their lives, his greatest anxiety 

 was that the interest of the world might not be diminished by 

 the accounts of their misfortunes. And it could hardly be ex- 

 pected that, however much he might lament the faults he knew 

 they had, he should forget the services they had done him, or 

 ignore their expressions of esteem and confidence. When he 

 went over to Linyanti he was escorted by men furnished by Se- 

 keletu, and rode the chiefs own horse. When he arrived, the 

 head men, Mosale and Pekonyane, received him cordially, and 

 lamented that they had so little to offer him. Oh, had he only 

 arrived the year previous, when there w r as abundance of milk 

 and corn and beer! 



Very early the next morning the old town-crier, Ma-Pulen- 

 yane, of his own accord made a public proclamation, which, in 

 the perfect stillness of the town long before dawn, was striking: 

 " I have dreamed ! I have dreamed ! I have dreamed ! Thou, 

 Mosale, and thou, Pekonyane, my lords, be not faint-hearted, 

 nor let your hearts be sore, but believe all the words of Monare 

 (the doctor), for his heart is white as milk towards the Makololo. 

 I dreamed that he was coming, and that the tribe would live if 

 you prayed to God and gave heed to the word of Monare." 

 Ma-Pulenyane showed Dr. Livingstone the burying-place where 

 poor Helmore and seven others were laid, distinguishing those 



