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.

A grander idea than the mere founding of a missionary station now developed itself in the mind of Mr. Livingstone.  European goods had just begun to be introduced into this region from the Portuguese settlements on the coast; at present slaves were the only commodity received in payment for them.  Livingstone thought if a great highway could be opened, ivory, and the other products of the country, might be bartered for these goods, and the traffic in slaves would come to an end.

He therefore resolved to take his family to Cape Town, and thence send them to England, while he returned alone to the interior, with the purpose of making his way either to the east or the west coast.

He reached the Cape in April, 1852, being the first time during eleven years that he had visited the scenes of civilization, and placed his family on board a ship bound for England, promising to rejoin them in two years.

In June he set out from Cape Town upon that long journey which was to occupy five years.  When he approached the missionary stations in the interior, he learned that the long-threatened attack by the Boers had taken place.  A letter from Sechele to Mr. Moffat told the story.  Thus it ran: 

“Friend of my heart’s love and of all the confidence of my heart, I am Sechele.  I am undone by the Boers, who attacked me, though I had no guilt with them.  They demanded that I should be in their kingdom, and I refused.  They demanded that I should prevent the English and Griquas from passing.  I replied, These are my friends, and I can not prevent them.  They came on Saturday, and I besought them not to fight on Sunday, and they assented.  They began on Monday morning at twilight, and fired with all their might, and burned the town with fire, and scattered us.  They killed sixty of my people, and captured women, and children, and men.  They took all the cattle and all the goods of the Bakwains; and the house of Livingstone they plundered, taking away all his goods.  Of the Boers we killed twenty-eight.”

Two hundred children, who had been gathered into schools, were carried away as slaves.  Mr. Livingstone’s library was wantonly destroyed, not carried away; his stock of medicines was smashed, and his furniture and clothing sold at auction to defray the expenses of the foray.  Mr. Pretorius, the leader of the marauding party, died not long after, and an obituary notice of him was published, ending with the words, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”