the poisoned arrow securing them from pillage and annoy

ance.

Water being the scarcest and most valuable commodity in the country, is carefully hidden, to preserve it from any wandering band who might take it by force. Livingstone's method of conciliating them, and gaining their good opinion, was by sitting down quietly and talking to them in a friendly way until the precious fluid, which no amount of domineering or threatening could have brought forth, was produced.

The progress of the party was necessarily slow, as they could only march in the mornings and evenings, and the wheels of the waggons in many places sank deep in the loose sand. In some places the heat was so great that the grass and twigs crumbled to dust in the hand. Hours and days of toilsome journeyings were sometimes rewarded by the arrival at a spring, where the abundant water fertilised a small tract around, on which the grass flourished rank and green, affording a welcome meal to the horses and oxen after they had slaked their burning thirst at the spring; although often for many hours the eyes of the party were not gladdened by the sight of such an oasis. At times

their courage almost died within them, and men and cattle staggered on mechanically, silent, and all but broken in spirit. After being refreshed, the three travellers would enjoy a few hours' hunting at the game which was always abundant at such places, and set out again on their journey with renewed vigour and high hopes as to the accomplishment of their purpose, in striking contrast to the despair and dread which had been their experience only a few hours previous.

The travellers came upon several great tracts of salt-pans, which lay glittering in the sun, shewing so like lakes that, on sighting the first one, Mr. Oswell threw his hat up into the air at the sight, "and shouted a huzza which made the

Bakwains think him mad. I was a little behind," says Livingstone, "and was as completely deceived by it as he, but as we had agreed to allow each other to behold the lake at the same instant, I felt a little chagrined that he had, unintentionally, got the first glance. We had no idea that the long looked-for lake was still more than three hundred miles distant." These mirages were so perfect that even the Hottentots, the horses, and the dogs, ran towards them to slake their burning thirst.

After reaching the river Zouga their further progress was easy, as they had only to follow its course to find the object of their search, from which it appeared to flow. Sebituane had given orders to the tribes on the banks of the river to assist the travellers in every way, an injunction which did not appear to be needed to ensure them kindly treatment at the hands of the Bayeiye, as they were called. On inquiring from whence a large river which flows into the Zouga from the north came from, Livingstone was told that it came "from a country full of rivers- -so many that no one can tell their number." This was the first confirmation of the reports he had previously received from travelled Bakwains, and satisfied him that Central Africa was not a "large sandy plateau," but a land teeming with life and traversed by watery highways, along which Christianity and commerce and the arts of peace would in the future be conveyed to vast regions never as yet visited by civilised man. From that moment the desire to penetrate into that unknown region became more firmly rooted in his mind; and his enthusiastic hopes found vent in his letters to England to his friends and correspondents.

On the 1st of August 1849, Livingstone and his companions stood on the shore of Lake Ngami, and the existence of that fine sheet of water was established. It is almost a hundred miles in circumference, and at one time must have been of far greater extent, and it was found to

be about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, from which it is eight hundred miles distant. They found flocks of water-birds in and about the lake and the country in the neighbourhood of it, and the river running into it abounded in animal life. This was the first successful exploration of Livingstone which drew the attention of the general public towards him, and for a period of twenty-five years he was destined to engage the public attention to an extent unpreIcedented in the annals of modern travel and adventure. Finding it impossible, from the unfriendliness of Lechulatebe, chief of the Batauana tribe, to visit Sebituane, as he had intended, the travellers passed up the course of the Zouga, the banks of which they found to be plentifully covered with vegetation and splendid trees, some of them bearing edible fruits. Wild indigo and two kinds of cotton they found to be abundant. The natives make cloth of the latter, which they dye with the indigo. Elephants, hippopotami, zebras, giraffes, and several varieties of antelopes were found in great abundance. A species of the latter, which is never found at any distance from watery or marshy ground, hitherto unknown to naturalists, was met with in considerable numbers. Several varieties of fish abound in the river, which are caught by the natives in nets, or killed with spears. Some of these attain to a great size, weighing as much as a hundredweight.

The following letter was addressed by Dr. Livingstone to Mr. Tidman, Foreign Secretary, London Missionary Society :-

"Banks of the River Zouga, 3rd September 1849. "DEAR SIR,-I left my station, Kolobeng (situate 25° south lat., 26° east long.), on the 1st of June last, in order to carry into effect the intention of which I had previously informed you-viz., to open a new field in the north, by penetrating the great obstacle to our progress, called the Desert, which, stretching away on our west, north-west,