Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
In this second journey to Lepelole--so called from a cavern of that
name--I began preparations for a settlement, by making a canal to
irrigate gardens, from a stream then flowing copiously, but now quite
dry. When these preparations were well advanced, I went northward to
visit the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka, living between 22
Degrees and 23 Degrees south latitude. The Bakaa Mountains had been
visited before by a trader, who, with his people, all perished from
fever. In going round the northern part of these basaltic hills near
Letloche I was only ten days distant from the lower part of the Zouga,
which passed by the same name as Lake Ngami;* and I might then (in 1842)
have discovered that lake, had discovery alone been my object. Most part
of this journey beyond Shokuane was performed on foot, in consequence
of the draught oxen having become sick. Some of my companions who had
recently joined us, and did not know that I understood a little of their
speech, were overheard by me discussing my appearance and powers: "He
is not strong; he is quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts
himself into those bags (trowsers); he will soon knock up." This caused
my Highland blood to rise, and made me despise the fatigue of keeping
them all at the top of their speed for days together, and until I heard
them expressing proper opinions of my pedestrian powers.
* Several words in the African languages begin with the ringing sound
heard in the end of the word "comING". If the reader puts an 'i'
to the beginning of the name of the lake, as Ingami,
and then sounds the 'i' as little as possible, he will have
the correct pronunciation. The Spanish n [ny] is employed
to denote this sound, and Ngami is spelt nyami--naka means a tusk,
nyaka a doctor. Every vowel is sounded in all native words,
and the emphasis in pronunciation is put upon the penultimate.
Returning to Kuruman, in order to bring my luggage to our proposed
settlement, I was followed by the news that the tribe of Bakwains,
who had shown themselves so friendly toward me, had been driven from
Lepelole by the Barolongs, so that my prospects for the time of forming
a settlement there were at an end. One of those periodical outbreaks
of war, which seem to have occurred from time immemorial, for the
possession of cattle, had burst forth in the land, and had so changed
the relations of the tribes to each other, that I was obliged to set out
anew to look for a suitable locality for a mission station.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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