xiv PREFATORY LETTER. 



are among the most interesting of his Volume. His pages are 

 pregnant with good suggestions, and rilled with objects of most 

 lively interest. Sebituane was dead. But his successor, Se- 

 keletu, received our Missionary with unhesitating kindness: 

 and many were the rude, but honest, proofs of his good-will. 

 During a halt at Linyanti, and a tour of nine weeks on the 

 Leeambye, our Author tells us " that he had been in closer 

 contact with heathenism than he had ever been before/' and 

 strange are the pictures of savage life which he has put be- 

 fore us. 



As he had in good hope anticipated, when he left Cape 

 Town, he readily persuaded Sekeletu to support him in his 

 plan of discovery. The Makololo were ready for the enter- 

 prise, and anxious for honest commerce with the " children of 

 the sea" — the white men of the far west. The question was 

 discussed in public. They counted the cost and knew the 

 danger; but the popular voice was won : and 27 men (of 

 six distinct tribes, and familiar with several dialects of 

 South Africa) were equipped for the expedition — not as slaves 

 or hired servants, but as companions and helpers to Dr 

 Livingstone, in an object as eagerly desired by the great 

 Chief and many of his people, as by himself. 



Thus supported he began his perilous journey up the 

 Leeambye, in November, 1853, " As I had always believed," 

 he tells us, " that, if we serve God at all, it ought to be done 

 in a manly way, I wrote to my brother, commending our little 

 girl to his care, as I was determined to succeed or perish in 

 the attempt to open up this part of Africa. The Boers, by 

 taking possession of all my goods, had saved me the trouble 

 of making a will; and considering the light heart now left in 

 my bosom, and some faint efforts to perform the duty of 

 Christian forgiveness, I felt that it was better to be one of the 

 plundered party than one of the plunderers." The limits of 

 this letter prevent me from making a longer extract. 



With stout hearts this little crew ascended the upper 



