And his cattle; one or the other must perish; he ordered the men
to drink, for if they survived they could fight for more cattle.
In the morning his cattle were all gone, and he returned to the north.
Here a long course of warfare awaited him, but in the end
he triumphed over his enemies, and established himself for a time
on the great river Zambesi. Haunted with a longing for intercourse
with the whites, he proposed to descend the river to the eastern coast.
He was dissuaded from this purpose by the warnings of a native prophet.
"The gods say, Go not thither!" he cried; then turning to the west,
"I see a city and a nation of black men - men of the water;
their cattle are red; thine own tribe are perishing, and will all be consumed;
thou wilt govern black men, and when thy warriors have captured
the red cattle, let not their owners be killed; they are thy future tribe;
let them be spared to cause thee to build." So Sebituane went westward,
conquered the blacks of an immense region, spared the lives of the men,
and made them his subjects, ruling them gently. His original people
are called the Makololo; the subject tribes are styled Makalaka.
Sebituane, though the greatest warrior in the south, always leading his men
to battle in person, was still anxious for peace. He had heard of cannon,
and had somehow acquired the idea that if he could only procure one
he might live in quiet. He received his visitors with much favor.
"Your cattle have all been bitten by the tsetse," he said,
"and will die; but never mind, I will give you as many as you want."
He offered to conduct them through his country that they might choose
a site for a missionary station. But at this moment he fell ill
of an inflammation of the lungs, from which he soon died.
"He was," writes Mr. Livingstone, "the best specimen of a native chief
I ever met; and it was impossible not to follow him in thought
into the world of which he had just heard when he was called away,
and to realize somewhat of the feeling of those who pray for the dead.
The deep, dark question of what is to become of such as he must be left
where we find it, believing that assuredly the Judge of all the earth
will do right."
Although he had sons, Sebituane left the chieftainship
to his daughter Mamochisane, who confirmed her father's permission
that the missionaries might visit her country. They proceeded
a hundred and thirty miles farther, and were rewarded by the discovery
of the great river Zambesi, the very existence of which, in Central Africa,
had never been suspected. It was the dry season, and the river
was at its lowest; but it was from three to six hundred yards broad,
flowing with a deep current toward the east.
A grander idea than the mere founding of a missionary station
now developed itself in the mind of Mr. Livingstone. European goods had
just begun to be introduced into this region from the Portuguese settlements
on the coast; at present slaves were the only commodity received
in payment for them. Livingstone thought if a great highway could be opened,
ivory, and the other products of the country, might be bartered
for these goods, and the traffic in slaves would come to an end.
He therefore resolved to take his family to Cape Town,
and thence send them to England, while he returned alone to the interior,
with the purpose of making his way either to the east or the west coast.
He reached the Cape in April, 1852, being the first time during eleven years
that he had visited the scenes of civilization, and placed his family
on board a ship bound for England, promising to rejoin them in two years.
In June he set out from Cape Town upon that long journey which was to occupy
five years. When he approached the missionary stations in the interior,
he learned that the long-threatened attack by the Boers had taken place.
A letter from Sechele to Mr. Moffat told the story. Thus it ran:
"Friend of my heart's love and of all the confidence of my heart,
I am Sechele. I am undone by the Boers, who attacked me,
though I had no guilt with them. They demanded that I should be
in their kingdom, and I refused. They demanded that I should prevent
the English and Griquas from passing. I replied, These are my friends,
and I can not prevent them. They came on Saturday, and I besought them
not to fight on Sunday, and they assented. They began on Monday morning
at twilight, and fired with all their might, and burned the town with fire,
and scattered us. They killed sixty of my people, and captured women,
and children, and men. They took all the cattle and all the goods
of the Bakwains; and the house of Livingstone they plundered,
taking away all his goods. Of the Boers we killed twenty-eight."
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.
