CHAPTER 4.
Leave Kolobeng again for the Country of Sebituane--Reach the Zouga-- The Tsetse--A Party of Englishmen--Death of Mr.Rider--Obtain Guides--Children fall sick with Fever--Relinquish the Attempt to reach Sebituane--Mr.Oswell's Elephant-hunting--Return to Kolobeng--Make a third Start thence--Reach Nchokotsa--Salt-pans--"Links", or Springs--Bushmen--Our Guide Shobo--The Banajoa--An ugly Chief--The Tsetse--Bite fatal to domestic Animals, but harmless to wild Animals and Man--Operation of the Poison--Losses caused by it--The Makololo-- Our Meeting with Sebituane--Sketch of his Career--His Courage and Conquests--Manoeuvres of the Batoka--He outwits them--His Wars with the Matebele--Predictions of a native Prophet--Successes of the Makololo--Renewed Attacks of the Matebele--The Island of Loyelo--Defeat of the Matebele--Sebituane's Policy--His Kindness to Strangers and to the Poor--His sudden Illness and Death--Succeeded by his Daughter--Her Friendliness to us--Discovery, in June, 1851, of the Zambesi flowing in the Centre of the Continent--Its Size--The Mambari--The Slave-trade--Determine to send Family to England--Return to the Cape in April, 1852--Safe Transit through the Caffre Country during Hostilities--Need of a "Special Correspondent"-- Kindness of the London Missionary Society--Assistance afforded by the Astronomer Royal at the Cape.
Having returned to Kolobeng, I remained there till April, 1850, and then left in company with Mrs.Livingstone, our three children, and the chief Sechele--who had now bought a wagon of his own--in order to go across the Zouga at its lower end, with the intention of proceeding up the northern bank till we gained the Tamunak'le, and of then ascending that river to visit Sebituane in the north.

Sekomi had given orders to fill up the wells which we had dug with so much labor at Serotli, so we took the more eastern route through the Bamangwato town and by Letloche.

That chief asked why I had avoided him in our former journeys.

I replied that my reason was that I knew he did not wish me to go to the lake, and I did not want to quarrel with him.

"Well," he said, "you beat me then, and I am content." Parting with Sechele at the ford, as he was eager to visit Lechulatebe, we went along the northern woody bank of the Zouga with great labor, having to cut down very many trees to allow the wagons to pass.