314 LIFE OF DA V1D LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



At the falls they met an Englishman, a Mr. Baldwin, from Natal, who 

 had reached them, his only guide for the greater part of the way being his 

 pocket compass. He had anticipated the arrival of his waggon by two days. 

 Mashotlam had ferried him across the stream, and when nearly over he had 

 jumped out and swam ashore. "If" said the chief, " he had been devoured 

 .by one of the crocodiles which abound there, the English would have blamed 

 us for his death. He nearly inflicted a great injury upon us, therefore, we 

 said, he must pay us a fine." Mr. Baldwin was, when Dr. Livingstone and 

 his friends met him, contentedly waiting the arrival of his waggon, so that he 

 might pay the fine. 



On reaching Sesheke, where Sekeletu was, Dr. Livingstone found matters 

 in a bad way with the Makololo. Sekeletu was suffering from leprosy, and 

 had withdrawn himself from the sight of his people. A long-continued 

 drought had almost destroyed the crops, and the country was suffering from 

 a partial famine. The illness and inactivity of Sekeletu had induced chiefs 

 and headmen at a distance to do as they pleased ; which meant too often the 

 ill-usage of their immediate dependants, and the plundering of neighbouring 

 and friendly tribes. 



On the arrival of the party an unbroken stream of visitors poured in 

 upon them, all desirous of paying their respects to Dr. Livingstone, and to 

 tell him the haps and mishaps which had befallen them during his absence. 

 All were in low spirits. Sekeletu, believing himself bewitched, had slain a 

 number of his chief men, together with their families ; distant friendly tribes 

 were revolting ; famine was upon them, and the power of the Makololo was 

 passing away. These forebodings were only too soon realised. In 1864 

 Sekeletu died ; and in the struggle which ensued for the succession, the wide 

 kingdom his father had conquered and ruled over, with a wisdom unexampled 

 among his peers, was broken up. 



They found Sekeletu sitting in a covered waggon, which was enclosed in 

 a high wall of reeds. His face was slightly disfigured by the thickening and 

 discolouration of the skin where the leprosy had passed over it. He had a 

 firm belief that he had been bewitched. As the doctors of his own tribe 

 could do nothing for him, a female doctor of the Manyeti tribe was endea- 

 vouring to cure him at the time of Dr. Livingstone's arrival. After some 

 difficulty she allowed the white men to take her patient in charge, and under 

 their treatment he all but recovered. : 



The two horses left by Dr. Livingstone in 1853 were still alive, notwith- 

 standing the severe discipline to which they had been subjected. Sekeletu 

 had a great passion for horses, and about a year before the arrival of Living- 

 stone and his friends from Tete, a party of Makololo were sent to Benguela 

 on the west coast, who had purchased five horses, but they had all died on the 

 journey, through being bewitched as they believed, and they arrived with 



