Chap. IY. GUIDES OBTAINED FKOM LECHULATEBE. 
75 
Zouga with great labour, having to cut down very many trees to 
allow the waggons to pass. Our losses by oxen falling uito 
pitfalls were very heavy. The Bayeiye kindly opened the pits 
when they knew of our approach; but when that was not the 
case, we could blame no one on finding an established custom of 
the country inimical to our interests. On approaching the con¬ 
fluence of the Tamunak’le we were informed that the fly called 
tsetse * abounded on its banks. This was a barrier we never 
expected to meet; and as it might have brought our waggons to 
a complete stand-still in a ^vilderness, where no supplies for the 
cliildren could be obtained, we were reluctantly compelled to 
recross the Zouga. 
From the Bayeiye we learned that a party of Englishmen, who 
had come to the lake in search of ivory, were all laid low by 
fever; so we travelled hastily dovm about sixty miles to render 
what aid was in our power. We were grieved to find as we came 
near that Mr. Alfred Eider, an enterprising young artist who had 
come to make sketches of this country and of the lake imme¬ 
diately after its discovery, had died of fever before our arrival; 
but, by the aid of medicines and such comforts as could be made 
by the only English lady who ever visited the lake, the others 
happily recovered. The unfinished dramng of Lake Ngami was 
made by Mr. Eider just before Ins death, and has been kindly 
lent for tins work by his bereaved mother. 
Sechele used all his powers of eloquence with Lechulatebe to 
induce him to furnish guides that I might be able to visit Sebi- 
tuane on ox-back, while Mrs. Livingstone and the cliildren re¬ 
mained at Lake Ngami. He yielded at last. I had a very 
superior London-made gun, the gift of Lieutenant Arkwright, on 
which I placed the greatest value both on account of the donor 
and the impossibility of my replacing it. Lechulatebe fell 
violently in love with it, and offered whatever number of elephants’ 
tusks I might ask for it. I too was enamoured with Sebituane; 
and, as he promised in addition that he would furnish Mrs. Living¬ 
stone with meat aU the time of my absence, his arguments made 
me part with the gun. Though he had no ivory at the time to 
pay me, I felt the piece would be weU spent on those terms, and 
* Qlossina morsitans; the first specimens of which were brought to Eng¬ 
land in 1848 by my friend Major Yardon, from the banks of the Limpopo. 
