SLA YE HUNTERS AT LINYANT1. 109 



ing Sechele's three children, whom Schloz, the Boer leader, had carried off 

 as slaves. One of them had three large unbound open sores on its body, 

 caused by falling into the fire. This, and the general appearance of the poor 

 children, spoke eloquently of the cruel treatment they had been subjected to. 



A larger fall of rain than ordinary having taken place, the travellers 

 found little difficulty in crossing the hem of the Kalahari desert. Water 

 melons and other succulent roots were abundant. They met an English 

 traveller, Mr. J. Macabe, who had crossed the desert at its widest part, his 

 cattle on one occasion subsisting on the water melons for twenty-one days. 

 Macabe had, previous to Livingstone's discovery of Lake Ngami, written a 

 letter in one of the Cape papers, recommending a certain route as likely to 

 lead to it. The Trans-vaal Boers fined him five hundred dollars for writing 

 about " onze velt," our country, and imprisoned him until it was paid. Mr. 

 Macabe's comrade, a Mr. Maher, fell a victim to the hatred engendered by the 

 Boers. A tribe of Barolongs having taken him for a Boer, shot him as he 

 approached their village. When informed that he was an Englishman their 

 regret at the misadventure was extreme. 



At Linyanti the capital of the Makololo, the travellers were heartily 

 welcomed by Sekeletu, the son of Sebituane, who had succeeded to his sister. 

 Mamoschisane had found it impossible to carry out her father's wishes ; and 

 this could hardly be wondered at, since one of these was that she should have 

 no husband, but use the men of the tribe or any number of them she chose, 

 just as he himself had done by the women ; but these men had other wives, 

 and as Livingstone drily puts it, in a proverb of the country, " The temper 

 of women cannot be governed," and they made her miserable by their 

 remarks. She chose one man who was called her wife, and her son the child 

 of Mamoschisane' s wife; but disliking the arrangement, shortly after her 

 father's death she declared she would never govern the Makololo. Sekeletu, 

 who was afraid of the pretensions of Mpepe, another member of the family, 

 urged her to continue as chief, offering to remain with her and support her 

 authority in battle. She wisely persisted in her determination to abdicate, 

 indicating Sekeletu as her successor. " I have been a chief only because my 

 father wished it. I always would have preferred to be married and have a 

 family like other women. You, Sekeletu, must be chief, and build up your 

 father's house." 



Sekeletu was afraid of Mpepe, whose pretensions were favoured by the 

 Mambari tribe and the half-caste Portuguese, who carried on the slave trade 

 between the tribes in the interior and the dealers in human flesh on the coast. 

 All their hopes of being able to carry on their trade lay in the success of his 

 rebellion. Previous to Livingstone's arrival at Linyanti, a large party of 

 Mambari had arrived there ; but on the receipt of intelligence that Living- 

 stone was approaching, they fled so precipitately as not even to take leave of 



