LIVINGSTONE'S MISSIONARY TRAVELS 
Livingstone's chief object in coming north was to visit Sebituane, 
the powerful chief of a great people—the Makololo. This individual 
had been very kind in former years to Sechele, Livingstone's old ally, 
and it was with the idea of migrating to the country of the Makololo 
that the missionary had left Kolobeng for the court of Sebituane. 
He was, however, prevented from advancing beyond Ngami by the 
'jealousy of Lechulatebe, the most important chief on the shores of 
the lake. He refused to transport the party across the Zouga, and 
the determination of Livingstone nearly cost him his life. “Trying 
hard," he wrote in his journal, “to form a raft at a narrow part, I 
worked many hours in the water; but the dry wood was so worm-eaten 
it would not bear the weight of a single person. I was not then aware 
of the number of alligators which exist in the Zouga, and never think 
of my labor in the water without feeling thankful that I escaped their 
jaws." 
Finding farther advance impossible, Livingstone returned to 
Kolobeng, taking careful notes of the animal and vegetable life as he 
went. In the following year (1850) he made a second attempt to reach 
the Makololo country, but without success. He set out a third time in 
April, 1851, and this time succeeded. The route lay across the worst 
part of the Kalahari Desert, and more than once death from thirst 
appeared imminent. When water became more frequent, another 
danger appeared. The children were so savagely attacked by mos¬ 
quitoes, that for a long time they were in a highly feverish state. 
When they seemed improving, a new cause for alarm arose in the 
appearance of the tsetse-fly, which threatened to destroy the cattle, 
their sole means of transport. So great a part has this fly played in 
African exploration, that a brief description of it may well be given 
here. 
This dangerous insect, in size about that of the common house 
fly, owes its fatality to its power of carrying the germs of infection 
from one person or animal to another, as the mosquito transmits the 
yellow fever and malaria germs. Fortunately its bite, while fatal to 
the horse, ox and dog, has little effect upon man. The mule, goat and 
wild animals generally are also immune. It has, however, been re¬ 
cently discovered, as narrated in a former chapter, that the terrible 
