Like all missionaries, Livingstone was doomed to suffer disappointments.  Thus after labouring at Kolobeng for ten years the Boers, annoyed with him for endeavouring to teach them that the natives should be treated with kindness and consideration, made an attack on his house when he was absent.  They slaughtered a number of the men and women, carried away 200 children into slavery, and burnt down the mission station.  Livingstone was deeply grieved about the capture of the children, but as to his own loss he merely says:  “The Boers by taking possession of all my goods have saved me the trouble of making a will”.

Still on, on into the dark continent went Livingstone.  Not dark to him, for he loved the natives and possessed such powers of attraction that wherever he settled he won their affections.

After taking leave of Sechele he travelled several hundred miles to the territory of Sebituane.

On the road Livingstone and his family had a terribly anxious time.  The water in the waggons was all but finished, they were passing through a desert land, their guide had left them.  The children were suffering from thirst; his wife, though not uttering a word of reproach, was in an agony of anxiety for her little ones, and Livingstone was fearful lest they should perish in this desert country.  When hope had nearly vanished some of the party who had gone out searching for water returned with a supply.  They were soon after welcomed by Sebituane, the greatest chief in Central Africa, who gave them food to eat, soft skins to lie upon, and made much of them.

After the death of Sebituane his son Sekeletu was equally friendly, as may be gathered from this page of Livingstone’s diary, which, by the kindness of his daughter, Mrs. Bruce, I am permitted to reproduce.

[Illustration:  REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE FROM LIVINGSTONE’S DIARY.  THE ORIGINAL IS WRITTEN ON PAPER 7 INCHES BY 4-3/8 INCHES.]

This entry in his diary was written on the eve of Livingstone’s great journey to the West Coast.  Having sent his wife and family to England, he determined to find a way from the centre of Africa to the West Coast.  It was a forlorn hope; but, says Livingstone, “Cannot the love of Christ carry the missionary where the slave trade carries the trader?  I shall open up a path to the interior or perish.”

On the 11th of November, 1853, he left Linyante, having overcome Sekeletu’s objection to let him go, and arrived at Loando, on the West Coast, on 31st May, 1854, after a variety of adventures, and being reduced by fever to a mere skeleton.

The sight of the sea, which gladdened Livingstone’s heart, astonished his native escort beyond description.  “We were marching along with our father,” they said, “believing that what the ancients had told us was true—­that the world had no end; but all at once the world said to us, ’I am finished, there is no more of me’.”

At Loando friends tried to persuade Livingstone to go to England by sea, but he had promised Sekeletu to return with the men who accompanied him on his great journey, and would not be turned from his purpose.  And he arrived at Linyante on the return journey with every one of the 27 men he had taken with him safe and sound!