318 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



Pitsane (the latter the factotum of Dr. Livingstone in his journey to and 

 from Loanda), and several Batoka men being sent with them to aid them in 

 their journey, and bring the merchandise left at Tete, and a supply of 

 medicine for Sekeletu, who was then nearly cured of his loathsome complaint. 

 Although he and his people were suffering from famine, Sekeletu had been 

 generous in his treatment of Dr. Livingstone and his companions ; and when 

 they left he gave them six oxen for their support until they reached the 

 country below the falls, where food was more abundant. The party 

 passed down the valley of the Zambesi, sometimes by land and sometimes in 

 canoes — the latter being either bought or borrowed, or freely loaned for their 

 use without reward, according to the friendly or unfriendly character of the 

 proprietors. Below the junction of the Kafue with the Zambesi, they met a 

 half-caste ivory hunter named Sequasha, who, along with a large number of 

 armed slaves, had been hunting elephants since they passed up the river. He 

 told them that his men had killed 210 elephants during the trip. This 

 Sequasha was an unscrupulous villain. Shortly before this he had entered into 

 a league with the headman of a chief called Mpangwe, near Zumbo, to kill the 

 chief. With a picked party of slaves, armed with loaded muskets, he visited 

 the unsuspecting chief, who received him kindly ; and while he was minister- 

 ing to their wants, the chief and twenty of his people were shot in cold blood. 

 For this diabolical service he received ten tusks, and the headman usurped the 

 place of his murdered master. Sequasha earned a plentiful supply of wares 

 with him to purchase tusks and food, and among other articles he had a 

 quantity of American clocks, which got him into trouble with a tribe of 

 Banvai. He set them all a-going in the presence of the chief, who was 

 greatly frightened at the strange noise they made, and imagining that they 

 were intended to bewitch himself and his people, it was decided that Sequahas 

 should pay a heavy fine of cloth and beads for his imprudence. 



They again met Sequasha at Senna, when he confessed to having brought 

 down 25,800 lbs. of ivory. At Tete he was afterwards cast into prison, the 

 reason given being his disorderly conduct in the interior — the true reason 

 being the desire to share a part of his wealth. He was soon after set at 

 liberty, no doubt after he had compounded with the authorities. 



At the Mburuma Rapids the party had a striking instance of the presence 

 of mind and devotion of the Makololo. While passing the most dangerous of 

 the rapids, the two canoes filled with water, and were in danger of being 

 swamped, when of course the whole party must have perished. Two men 

 without a moment's hesitation leaped out of each cf the canoes, and ordered a 

 Batoka man to do the same, as " the white men must be saved." " I cannot 

 swim," said the Batoka. " Jump out then, and hold on to the canoe ?" 

 Swimming alongside, they guided the canoes down the swift current, to the 

 foot of the rapid, and then ran them ashore to bale them out. 



