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.
