98 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



adapted for general use, and contains less of a provincial character than it 

 otherwise would have done. It is owing to this circumstance that if a word 

 is objected to, ten to one but the objector is familiar only with a dialect 

 peculiar to a minority of the Bechuana nation. 



" Then there is the extensive prevalence of that language and its 

 grammatical exactitude. It is totally different from all European languages, 

 and the Bush or Hottentot. Its forms and inflections are nearly perfect, and 

 tribes, which have through war or other degrading influences lost much of the 

 expressiveness of their dialects, admire the Sichuana Testament on account of 

 the little loss that language has sustained. Sebituane has planted it on the 

 banks of the Zambesi. It is the court language there, as the Norman-French 

 was in our court some centuries ago. He encountered great difficulties in 

 crossing the Kalahari desert. The extreme thirst which his people and cattle 

 underwent in passing along nearly the same route as that at present pursued 

 in our course to the Lake Ngami, resulted in the loss of nearly all his cattle — 

 hundreds in the frenzy of thirst fled back to Mushue, Lopeps, &c, and were 

 captured by tribes living on this side of the desert. He went before us to 

 prepare our way. The existence of the Kalahari desert excludes the shadow 

 of the shade of foundation for the idea that any white man ever crossed it 

 before Mr. Oswell and myself. Even the Griquas, who were well acquainted 

 with the desert, always attempted to go through it. Those who succeeded 

 subsequently to the period of our discovery did so with the entire loss of 

 waggons and oxen. The idea of passing, as it were, round the end of the 

 desert instead of through it, never entered any one's head until we put it in 

 practice. 



" In our late journey to the country of Sebituane, or the region situated 

 about two hundred miles beyond the Lake Ngami, we followed our usual 

 route towards the Zouga until we came to Nahokotsa. From thence our 

 course became nearly due north. 



" Early on the morning of the 19th of June we found ourselves on the 

 banks of the River Chobe, lat. 18° 20' south, long. 26° east. 



" The extensive regions to the north-north-east and north-west of the 

 Chobe and Sesheke rivers, under the sway of the late Sebituane, and now 

 governed by his people called Makololo, in the name of his daughter, is for 

 hundred of miles nearly a dead level. In passing over one hundred miles 

 from the point where the waggons stood to the River Sesheke, we saw no hill 

 higher than an ant hill. The country is intersected by numerous deep rivers, 

 and adjacent to each of these, immense reedy bogs or swamps stretch away in 

 almost every direction. Oxen cannot pass through these swamps ; they sink 

 in up to the belly, and on looking down the holes made by their legs, the 

 parts immediately under the surface are seen to be saturated with water. 



" The rivers are not like many in South Africa, mere ' nullahs,' con- 



