Two hundred children, who had been gathered into schools, were carried away
as slaves. Mr. Livingstone's library was wantonly destroyed,
not carried away; his stock of medicines was smashed, and his furniture
and clothing sold at auction to defray the expenses of the foray.
Mr. Pretorius, the leader of the marauding party, died not long after,
and an obituary notice of him was published, ending with the words,
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."
Leaving his desolate home, Livingstone proceeded on his journey. On the way
he met Sechele, who was going, he said, to see the Queen of England.
Livingstone tried to dissuade him.
"Will not the Queen listen to me?" asked the chief.
"I believe she would listen, but the difficulty is to get to her."
"Well, I shall reach her."
And so they parted. Sechele actually made his way to the Cape,
a distance of a thousand miles, but could get no farther,
and returned to his own country. The remnants of the tribes
who had formerly lived among the Boers gathered around him,
and he is now more powerful than ever.
It is slow traveling in Africa. Livingstone was almost a year
in accomplishing the 1500 miles between Cape Town and the country
of the Makololo. He found that Mamochisane, the daughter of Sebituane,
had voluntarily resigned the chieftainship to her younger brother, Sekeletu.
She wished to be married, she said, and have a family like other women.
The young chief Sekeletu was very friendly, but showed no disposition
to become a convert.
