His wagon was
loaded to double the usual weight from his good nature in taking
everybody's packages. His oxen were lean, and he was too poor to provide
better. He reached Griqua Town on the 15th August, and Kuruman a
fortnight later. Many things had occasioned unexpected delay, and the
last crowning detention was caused by the breaking down of a wheel. It
turned out, however, that these delays were probably the means of saving
his life. Had they not occurred he would have reached Kolobeng in
August. But this was the very time when the commando of the Boers,
numbering 600 colonists and many natives besides, were busy with the
work of death and destruction. Had he been at Kolobeng, Pretorius would
probably have executed his threat of killing him; at the least he would
have been deprived of all the property that he carried with him, and his
projected enterprise would have been brought to an end.
In a letter to his wife, Livingstone gives full details of the horrible
outrage perpetrated shortly before by the Boers at Kolobeng:
"_Kuruman, 20th September_, 1852.
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