ut in the end he triumphed over his enemies,
and established himself for a time on the great river Zambesi. Haunted
with a longing for intercourse with the whites, he proposed to descend
the river to the eastern coast. He was dissuaded from this purpose by
the warnings of a native prophet. "The gods say, Go not thither!" he
cried; then turning to the west, "I see a city and a nation of black
men--men of the water; their cattle are red; thine own tribe are
perishing, and will all be consumed; thou wilt govern black men, and
when thy warriors have captured the red cattle, let not their owners be
killed; they are thy future tribe; let them be spared to cause thee to
build." So Sebituane went westward, conquered the blacks of an immense
region, spared the lives of the men, and made them his subjects, ruling
them gently. His original people are called the Makololo; the subject
tribes are styled Makalaka.

Sebituane, though the greatest warrior in the south, always leading his
men to battle in person, was still anxious for peace. He had heard of
cannon, and had somehow acquired the idea that if he could only procure
one he might live in quiet. He received his visitors with much favor.
"Your cattle have all been bitten by the tsetse," he said, "and will
die; but never mind, I will give you as many as you want." He offered
to conduct them through his country that they might choose a site for a
missionary station. But at this moment he fell ill of an inflammation of
the lungs, from which he soon died.

"He was," writes Mr. Livingstone, "the best specimen of a native chief
I ever met; and it was impossible not to follow him in thought into the
world of which he had just heard when he was called away, and to realize
somewhat of the feeling of those who pray for the dead. The deep, dark
question of what is to become of such as he must be left where we find
it, believing that assuredly the Judge of all the earth will do right."

Although he had sons, Sebituane left the chieftainship to his daughter
Mamochisane, who confirmed her father's permission that the missionaries
might visit her country. They proceeded a hundred and thirty miles
farther, and were rewarded by the discovery of the great river
Zambesi, the very existence of which, in Central Africa, had never been
suspected. It was the dry season, and the river was at its lowest;
but it was from three to six hundred yards broad, flowing with a deep
current toward the east.