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. 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.
