From Pole to Pole: A Book for Young People

by Sven Anders Hedin

Another missionary lived at Mabotsa and did all he could to render Livingstone's life miserable. The good doctor hated all quarrelling, and did not wish that white men should set a bad example to the blacks, so he gladly gave way and moved with his wife forty miles northwards. The house in Mabotsa had been built with his own savings, and as the London Missionary Society gave him a salary of only a hundred pounds a year, there could not be much over to build a house. When he left, the natives round Mabotsa were in despair. Even when the oxen were yoked to the waggon, they begged him to remain and promised to build him another house. It was in vain, however; they lost their friend and saw him drive off to the village of Chonuane, which was subject to the chief Sechele.

From the new station Livingstone made a missionary journey eastwards to the country whither the Dutch Boers had trekked from the Cape. They had left the Cape because they were dissatisfied with the English administration of the country, for the English would not allow slavery and proclaimed the freedom of the Hottentots. The Boers, then, founded a republic of their own, the Transvaal, so named because it lay on the other side of the Vaal, a tributary of the Orange River. Here they thought they could compel the blacks to work as bondmen in their service without being interfered with. They took possession of all the springs, and the natives lived on sufferance in their own country. The Boers hated Livingstone because they knew that he was an enemy to the slave trade and a friend to the natives.

Livingstone had plenty of work at the station. He built his house, he cultivated his garden, visited the sick, looked after his guns and waggons, made mats and shoes, preached, taught in his children's school, lectured on medicine, and instructed the natives who wished to become missionaries. In his leisure hours he collected natural history specimens, which he sent home, studied the poisonous tsetse fly and the deadly fever, and was always searching for remedies. He was never idle.

His new place of abode had one serious defect—it was badly situated as regarded rain and irrigation, and therefore Livingstone decided to move again forty miles farther to the north, to Kolobeng, where for the third time he built himself a house. As before, his black friends were much disturbed at his departure, and when they could not induce him to remain, the whole tribe packed up their belongings and went with him. Then clearing, building, and planting went on again. At Kolobeng Livingstone had a fixed abode for quite five years, but this was his longest and last sojourn in one place, for his after-life was a continuous pilgrimage without rest and repose. As usual, he gained the confidence and friendship of the natives.

The worst trouble was the vicinity of the Boers. They accused him of providing Sechele's tribe with weapons and exciting them against the Boers. They threatened to kill all black missionaries who ventured into the Transvaal, and devised plans for getting rid of Livingstone. Under such conditions his work could not be successful, and he longed to go farther north to countries where he could labour in peace without hindrance from white men who were nominally Christians, but treated the natives like beasts. Besides, hard times and famine now came to Kolobeng. The crops suffered from severe drought, and even the river failed. The natives went off to hunt, and the women gathered locusts for food. No child came to school, and the church was empty on Sunday.

Then Livingstone resolved to move still farther northwards, and on June 1, 1849, the party set out. An Englishman named Oswell, who was Livingstone's friend, went with them and bore all the expenses of the journey. He was a man of means, and so several waggons, eighty oxen, twenty horses, and twenty-five servants were provided.

After two months' march they came to the shore of Lake Ngami, which was now seen for the first time by Europeans. The king, Lechulatebe, proved less friendly than was expected. When he heard that Livingstone intended to continue his journey northwards to the great chief Sebituane, he feared that the latter would obtain firearms from the white men and would come down slaying and pillaging to the country round the lake. Finally the expedition was obliged to turn back to Kolobeng. Livingstone, however, was not the man to give in, and he went twice more to the lake, taking his wife and children with him.

On one of these journeys he came to the kingdom of the great and powerful Sebituane, and was received with the most generous hospitality. The chief gave him all the information he wished, and promised to help him in every way. A few days later, however, Sebituane fell ill of inflammation of the lungs and died.

Livingstone then continued his journey north-eastward with Oswell to the large village of Linyanti, and shortly after discovered a river so large and mighty that it resembled one of the firths of Scotland. The river was called the Zambesi. Its lower course had long been known to Europeans, but no one knew whence it came. The climate was unhealthy, and was not suitable for the new mission-station that Livingstone intended to establish. The Makololo people, the tribe of the deceased chief, promised to give him land, huts, and oxen if he would stay with them, but his mind was now occupied with great schemes and he gave up all thoughts of a station. Honest, legitimate trade must first be made to flourish. The Makololo had begun to sell slaves simply to be able to buy firearms and other coveted wares from Europe. If they could be induced to sell ivory and ostrich feathers instead, they would be able to procure by barter all they wanted from European traders and need not sell any more human beings. But to start such a trade a convenient route must first be found to the coast of either the Atlantic or Indian Ocean. A country in which the black tribes were in continual war with one another simply for the purpose of obtaining slaves was not ripe for Christianity. Accordingly Livingstone's plan was clear: first to find a way to the coast, and then to foster an honest trade which would make the slave-trade unnecessary.

Having sent his wife and children to England, Livingstone made his preparations, and in the year 1853 he was at Linyanti, in the country of the Makololo. Here began his remarkable journey to Loanda on the west coast, not far south of the mouth of the Congo. No European had ever travelled this way. His companions were twenty-seven Makololos, and his baggage was as light as possible, chiefly cloth and glass beads, which serve as currency in Africa. He took no provisions, as he thought he could live on what the country afforded.