108 LIFE OF DA V1D LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



friend, now my wife goes to see the children, and Robus Hae will convey her 

 to you. " I am, Sechele, The son of Mochoasele." 



The report of this disaster raised such a panic among the Bechuanas that 

 Livingstone had great difficulty in engaging any one to accompany him from 

 any of the tribes near Kuruman. At last in conjunction with George 

 Heming, a man of colour, who was on his way to the Makololo country, with 

 the view of opening up a trade with them, half-a-dozen servants were procured. 

 " They were," he says, "the worst possible specimens of those who imbibe 

 the vices without the virtues of Europeans ; but we had no choice, and were 

 glad to get away on any terms." 



At Motilo, forty miles to the north, the travellers met Sechele on his way, 

 as he said, to submit his case " to the Queen of England." He was so firmly 

 impressed with a belief in the justice of Englishmen, that they found it im- 

 possible to dissuade him from making the attempt. On reaching Bloemfontein, 

 he found some English troops just returned from a battle with the Basutos. 

 The officers were much interested in Sechele, invited him to dinner, and sub- 

 scribed a handsome sum amongst them to defray his expenses. He proceeded 

 as far as the Cape, when, having expended all his means, he was compelled to 

 return to his own country without accomplishing his object. 



If anything had been required to prove that the Dutch Boers on the 

 frontier were actuated by selfish interests only, the fact that they were so 

 assured of their ability to chastise the Bakwains for receiving Livingstone and 

 other Englishmen, that they agreed to wait over the Sunday before attacking 

 them, at Sechele's request, would be evidence sufficient. 



Sechele's journey was not altogether in vain, as on his return he adopted 

 a mode of punishment he had seen in the colony — the making criminals work 

 on the public roads. As Livingstone had made up his mind to go into the 

 interior, he became the missionary to his own tribe. So popular did he 

 become, that within a very short period numbers of the tribes formerly living 

 under the Boers attached themselves to him, until he became the most power- 

 ful chief in the district. 



It is facts like these which enable us to form a true idea of the influence 

 of the teaching and example of a noble-minded and self-denying man like 

 Livingstone among the tribes of Central Africa. 



On his way to the north, Livingstone found the unfortunate Bakwains 

 suffering severely from the destruction of their property and the plunder 

 of their cattle. Notwithstanding that Sechele had given orders that no vio- 

 lence was to be offered to the Boers during his absence, a band of young men 

 had ventured out to meet a party of Boers, and as the latter were in a minority 

 they ran off leaving their waggons, which the young men brought in triumph 

 to Letubamba, the head-quarters of the tribe. The Boers were alarmed, and 

 sent four of their number to sue for peace, which was granted on their return- 



