Vol. II.

Frontispiece.

TRAVELS, RESEARCHES, AND HUNTING ADVENTURES,
BETWEEN THE DIAMOND-FIELDS AND THE ZAMBESI (1872–79).

BY

Dr. EMIL HOLUB.

TRANSLATED BY ELLEN E. FREWER.

WITH ABOUT TWO HUNDRED ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

London:

SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,

CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.

1881.

[All rights reserved.]

LONDON:
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN’S SQUARE.

THIRD JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR.

CHAPTER I.
FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS TO THE MOLAPO.

I was now standing on the threshold of my real design. After three years spent upon the glowing soil of the dark continent, the scene of the[2] endurances and the renown of many an enthusiast, I had now arrived at the time for putting into execution the scheme I had projected. My feelings necessarily were of a very mingled character. Was I sufficiently inured to the hardships that could not be separated from the undertaking? Could I fairly indulge the hope of reaching the goal for which I had so long forsaken home, kindred, and friends? The experience of my two preliminary journeys made me venture to answer both these questions without misgiving. I had certainly gained a considerable insight into the nature of the country; I had learned the character of the contingencies that might arise from the disposition of the natives and their mode of dealing, and I had satisfied myself of the necessity as well as the comfort of having trustworthy associates on whom I could rely. Altogether I felt justified in commencing what I designed to be really a journey of exploration. At the same time I could not be otherwise than alive to the probability that some unforeseen difficulty might arise which no human effort could surmount.

It was a conflict of hopes and fears, but the picture of the Atlantic at Loanda seemed to unfold itself to my gaze, and its attraction was irresistible; hitherto in my lesser enterprises I had been favoured by fortune, and why should she now cease to smile? I felt that there was everything to encourage me, and definitely resolved to face the difficulties that an expedition into the interior of Africa cannot fail to entail.

It was on the 2nd of March, 1875, that I left[3] Dutoitspan. I went first of all to a friend at Bultfontein, intending to stay with him until the 6th, and there to complete my preparations. Not alone was it my scheme to explore Southern-Central Africa, but I hardly expected to return to Cape Colony at all, consequently my arrangements on leaving this time were rather more complicated than they had been on the two previous occasions.

Quitting Bultfontein on the day proposed, I proceeded for eleven miles, and made my first halt by the side of a sandy rain-pool, enclosed by the rising ground that was visible from the diamond-fields. We slept in the mimosa woods, through which the road to the Transvaal runs for several miles, and the deep sand of which is so troublesome to vehicles.

On the 7th we passed the Rietvley and Keyle farms, around which we saw a good many herds of springbocks in the meadow-lands.

The next day’s march took us by the farms at Rietfontein, and Pan Place, and we made our night camp on Coetze’s land. Near these farms, which lay at the foot of the considerable hill called the Plat Berg, I secured some feathered game, amongst which was a partridge. To me the most interesting spot in the day’s journey was a marshy place on Coetze’s farm; it was a pond with a number of creeks and various little islands, which were the habitat of water-fowl, particularly wild ducks, moorhens, and divers. In the evening I called upon Mynheer Coetze, and in the course of conversation mentioned his ponds with their numerous birds. He surprised me somewhat by his reply. “Yes,” he said, “the birds breed there, and we[4] never disturb them; we allow strangers to shoot them, but for our own part we like to see them flying about.” I admired his sentiment, and wished that it was more shared by the Dutch farmers in general.

The property was partially wooded, and extended both into Griqualand West and into the Orange Free State. Amongst other game upon it, there was a large herd of striped gnus.

POND NEAR COETZE’S FARM.

On the next day but one we made the difficult passage of the Vaal at Blignaut’s Pont. From the two river-banks I obtained some skins of birds, and several varieties of leaf-beetles (Platycorynus).[5] At the ferry, on the shore by which we arrived, stood a medley of clay huts, warped by the wind, and propped up on all sides, claiming to be an hotel; on the further shores were a few Koranna huts, the occupiers of which were the ferrymen. For taking us across the river they demanded on behalf of their employer the sum of twenty-five shillings.

The rain had made the ground very heavy, and it was after a very tedious ride that we reached Christiana, the little Transvaal town with which the reader has been already made acquainted, and made our way to Hallwater Farm (erroneously called Monomotapa), where we obtained a supply of salt from the resident Korannas.

We next took a northerly course, and passed through Strengfontein, a farm belonging to Mynheer Weber, lying to the east of the territory of the independent Korannas. The country beyond was well pastured, and contained several farmsteads; although it was claimed by the Korannas, by Gassibone, by Mankuruane, and by the Transvaal government, it had no real ruler. The woods afforded shelter for duykerbocks, hartebeests, and both black and striped gnus, whilst the plains abounded with springbocks, bustards, and many small birds.

After passing Dreifontein, a farm that had only a short time previously been reduced to ashes by the natives from the surrounding heights, we encamped on the Houmansvley, that lay a little further ahead. Near the remains of the place were some huts, from which some Koranna women came out, their intrusive behaviour being in marked contrast[6] with that of some Batlapins, who modestly retired into the background. Not far off was a vley, or marshy pond, where I found some wild ducks, grey herons, and long-eared swamp-owls (Otus capensis). Houmansvley was the last of the farms we had to pass before we entered the territory of the Korannas of Mamusa.

GRAVES UNDER THE CAMEL-THORN TREES AT MAMUSA.

We reached the Harts River valley on the evening of the 15th. Before getting to the river we had to traverse a slope overgrown with grass, and in some places with acacias which must be a hundred years old, and under the shadow of which were some Batlapin and Koranna graves, most of them in a good state of preservation. The river-bed[7] is very often perfectly dry, but as the stream was very much swollen, the current was too strong to allow us to cross without waiting for it to subside; the district, however, was so attractive that it was by no means to be regretted that we were temporarily delayed. The high plateau, with its background of woods, projected like a tongue into the valley, and opposite to us, about three-quarters of a mile to the right, rose the Mamusa hills.

We visited Mamusa, encamping on its little river a short distance from the merchants’ offices under the eastern slope of the hills. A few years back it had been one of the most populous places representing the Hottentot element in South Africa, but now it was abandoned to a few of the descendants of the aged king Mashon and their servants. Some of the people had carried off their herds to the pasture-lands; others had left the place for good, to settle on the affluents of the Mokara and the Konana, on the plains abounding in game that stretched northwards towards the Molapo. This small Koranna principality is an enclave in the southern Bechuana kingdoms, a circumstance which is not at all to their advantage, as any mixture of the Hottentot and Bantu elements is sure to result in the degeneration of the latter.

The merchants received me most kindly. One of them, Mr. Mergusson, was a naturalist, and amused himself by taming wild birds. He showed me several piles, at least three feet high, of the skins of antelopes, gnus, and zebras, which he intended taking to Bloemhof for sale. He and his brother had twice extended their business-journeys as far as Lake Ngami.

[8]

While in the neighbourhood, I heard tidings of the two dishonest servants that I had hired at Musemanyana, and who had decamped after robbing me on my second journey.

Leaving Mamusa on the 17th, we had to mount the bushy highland, dotted here and there with Koranna farmsteads, and in the evening reached the southern end of the grassy quagga-flats. The soil was so much sodden with rain, that in many places the plains were transformed into marshes; on the drier parts light specks were visible, which on nearer approach turned out to be springbock gazelles. On every side the traveller was greeted by the melodious notes of the crowned crane, and the birds, less shy here than elsewhere, allowed him to come in such close proximity, that he could admire the beauty of their plumage. The cackle of the spurred and Egyptian geese could be heard now in one spot and now in another, and wild-ducks, either in rows or in pairs, hovered above our heads.

Our next march afforded us good sport. It was rather laborious, but our exertions were well rewarded, as amongst other booty, we secured a silver heron, some plovers, and some snipes. I had our camp pitched by the side of a broad salt-water lake, proposing to remain there for several days, the surrounding animal-life promising not merely a choice provision for our table, but some valuable acquisitions for my collection.

Vol. II.

Page 9.

SHOOTING WILD GEESE AT MOFFAT’S SALT PAN.

At daybreak next morning, I started off with Theunissen on a hunting-excursion. There had been rain in the night, and the air was somewhat cool, so that it was with a feeling of satisfaction that [9]I hailed the rising sun as its early beam darted down the vale and was reflected in the water. On the opposite shore we noticed a flock of that stateliest of waders, the flamingo, with its deep red plumage and strong brown beak. Close beside them was a group of brown geese wading towards us, and screeching as they came was a double file of grey cranes, whilst a gathering of herons was keeping watch upon some rocks that projected from the water. High above the lake could be heard the melodious long-drawn note of the mahem, and amidst the numbers of the larger birds that thronged the surface of the water was what seemed a countless abundance of moorhens and ducks. I stood and gazed upon the lively scene till I was quite absorbed. All at once a sharp whistle from my companion recalled me to myself. I was immediately aware of the approach of a flock of dark brown geese; though unwieldly, they made a rapid flight, their heavy wings making a considerable whirr. A shot from each of my barrels brought down two of the birds into the reeds; the rest turned sharply off to the left, leaving Theunissen, disappointed at not getting the shot he expected, to follow them towards the plain to no purpose. Great was the commotion that my own shots made amongst the denizens of the lake. Quickly rose the grey cranes from the shallow water, scarce two feet deep, and made for the shore where we were standing. In the excitement of their alarm, the crowned cranes took to flight in exactly the opposite direction; the flamingoes hurried hither and thither, apparently at a loss whether to fly or to run, until one of them catching sight of me rose high into the air, screeching[10] wildly, and was followed by the entire train soaring aloft till they looked no larger than crows; the black geese, on the other hand, left the grass to take refuge in the water, and the smaller birds forsook the reeds, as deeming the centre of the lake the place of safety.

We were not long out. We returned to breakfast, and while we were taking our meal we caught sight of a herd of blessbocks, numbering at least 250 head, grazing in the depression of the hills on the opposite shore. Breakfast, of course, was forgotten and left unfinished. Off we started; the chase was long, but it was unattended with success. Our toil, however, was not entirely without compensation, as on our return we secured a fine grey crane. Pit likewise in the course of the day shot several birds, and in the afternoon excited our interest by saying that he had discovered the nest of a royal crane.

I went to the reedy pool to which he directed me, about a mile and a half to the north of our place of encampment, and on a little islet hardly more than seven feet square, sure enough was a hollow forming the nest, which contained two long white eggs, each about the size of my fist. I took the measurement of the nest, and found it as nearly as possible thirty inches in diameter, and six inches deep.

Vol. II.

Page 11.

HUNTING AMONG THE ROCKS AT MOLEMA.

While I was resting one afternoon in a glen between the hills, I noticed a repetition of what I had observed already in the course of my second journey, namely, that springbocks, in going to drink, act as pioneers for other game, and that blessbocks and gnus follow in their wake, but only when it has been ascertained that all is safe.

[11]

To the lake by which we had been making our pleasant little stay, I gave the name of Moffat’s Salt Lake. On the 23rd we left it, and after quitting its shore, which, it may be mentioned, affords excellent hiding-places for the Canis mesomelas, we had to pass several deepish pools which seemed to abound with moorhens and divers. On a wooded eminence, not far away from our starting-place, we came across some Makalahari, who were cutting into strips the carcase of a blessbock. On the same spot was a series of pitfalls, now partially filled up with sand, but which had originally been made with no little outlay of labour, being from thirty to fifty feet long, and from five to six feet wide.

In the evening we passed a wood where a Batlapin hunting-party, consisting of Mankuruane’s people, had made their camp. They commenced at once to importune us for brandy, first in wheedling, and then in threatening tones.

Game, which seemed to have been failing us for a day or two, became on the 25th again very abundant. The bush was also thicker. A herd of nearly 400 springbocks that were grazing not far ahead, precisely across the grassy road, scampered off with great speed, but not before Theunissen had had the good luck to bring down a full-grown doe. As we entered upon the district of the Maritsana River, the bushveldt continued to grow denser, and the country made a perceptible dip to the north-west. Several rain-glens had to be crossed, and some broad shallow valleys, luxuriantly overgrown, one of which I named the Hartebeest Vale. In the afternoon we reached the deep valley of the Maritsana. On the right hand slope stood a Barolong-Makalahari village,[12] the inhabitants of which were engaged in tending the flocks belonging to Molema’s Town. The valley itself was in many parts very bushy, and no doubt abounded in small game, whilst the small pools from two feet to eight feet deep in the river-bed, here partaking of the nature of a spruit, contained Orange River fish, lizards, and crabs; two kinds of ducks were generally to be seen upon them.

As we passed through a mimosa wood on the morning after, we met two Barolongs, who not only made me aware how near we had come to Molema’s Town, but informed me that Montsua was there, having arrived to preside over a trial in a poisoning case. I had not formed the intention of going into the place, but the information made me resolve to deviate a little from my route, that I might pay my respects to the king and his brother Molema.

Descending the Lothlakane valley, where Montsua was anxious that his heir should fix his residence, we reached the town on the 28th. The Molapo was rather fuller than when I was here last, but we managed to cross the rocky ford, and pitched our camp on the same spot that I had chosen in 1873.

As soon as I heard that the judicial sitting had adjourned, I lost no time in paying my personal respects to the Barolong authorities. I found the king with Molema and several other chiefs at their midday meal, some sitting on wooden stools and some upon the ground; but no sooner were they made acquainted with my arrival, than they hastened to show signs of unfeigned pleasure, making me shake hands with them again and again. Montsua at once began to talk about the[13] cures I had effected at Moshaneng, and begged me to stay for at least a few days. After spending a short time in Molema’s courtyard, we all adjourned to the house of his son, which was fitted up in European style, and where we had some coffee served in tin cups. Molema was upon the whole strong and active, but he was still subject to fits of asthma, and requested me to supply him with more medicine like that he had had before; and so grateful was he for my services, that he gave me a couple of good draught-oxen, one of which I exchanged with his son Matye for an English saddle.

Molema is a thin, slight man of middle height, with a nose like a hawk’s beak, which, in conjunction with a keen, restless eye, gives to his whole countenance a peculiarly searching expression. At times he is somewhat stern, but in a general way he is very indulgent to his subjects, who submit implicitly to his authority; this was illustrated in the issue of the cause over which Montsua was now visiting him to preside. He is very considerate for his invalid wife, and, considering his age, he is vigorous both in mind and body; although his sons and the upper class residents of the town have adopted the European mode of fitting up their houses, he persists in adhering to the native style of architecture.

During our stay here, Mr. Webb had to perform the marriage service for three couples; one of the bridegrooms had a remarkable name, the English rendering of which would be “he lies in bed.” Singular names of this character are by no means unusual among the Bechuana children, any accidental circumstance connected with their parentage or[14] birth being seized upon to provide the personal designation for life. Taking a stroll through the place late in the evening, I heard the sound of hymns sung by four men and ten women, bringing the wedding observances to a close.

BABOON ROCKS.

Wandering about the town, I noticed that although the garments worn were chiefly of European manufacture, the inhabitants very frequently were dressed in skins either of the goat, the wild cat, the grey fox, or the duyker gazelle. Boys generally had a sheepskin or goatskin thrown across their shoulders, although occasionally the skin of a young lion took its place; girls, besides their leather aprons, nearly always covered themselves with an antelope-hide.

[15]

As far as I could learn, the disputes between the Transvaal government and the Barolongs had in great measure subsided, owing to Montsua having threatened, in consequence of the encroachments of the Boers, to allow the English flag to be planted in his villages.

I have already referred to the trial which had brought Montsua to the town, and in order that I may convey a fair idea of the way in which Bechuana justice is administered, I will give a brief outline of the whole transaction.

A Barolong, quite advanced in years, had set his affections upon a fatherless girl of fifteen, living in the town; she peremptorily refused to become his wife, and as he could not afford to buy her, he devised a cunning stratagem to obtain her. He offered his hand to the girl’s mother, who did not hesitate to accept him; by thus marrying the mother, he secured the residence of the daughter in his own quarters; the near intercourse, he hoped, would overcome her repugnance to himself; but neither his appearance nor his conversation, mainly relating to his wealth in cattle, had the least effect in altering her disposition towards him. Accordingly, he resorted to the linyaka. Aware of the pains that were being taken to force her into the marriage, the girl carefully avoided every action that could be interpreted as a sign of regard. As she was starting off to the fields one morning to her usual work, her stepfather called her back, and if her own story were true, the following conversation took place,—

“I know you hate me,” he said.

“E-he, e-he!” she assented.

[16]

“Well, well, so it must be!” he answered, but he stamped his staff with rage upon the ground.

“Yes, so it must be,” replied she.

“But you must promise me,” he continued, “that you will not marry another husband.”

“Na-ya,” she cried, bursting out laughing, “na-ya.”

“Then I’ll poison you,” he yelled.

The girl, according to her own account, was alarmed, and went and told her mother and another woman who were working close by the river. They tried to reassure her, telling her that her stepfather was only in joke, but they did not allay her apprehensions.

That very evening, while she was taking her simple supper of water-melon, he called her off and sent her on some message; when she returned she finished her meal, but in the course of an hour or two she was writhing in most violent agony. In the height of her sufferings, she reminded her mother and the friends who gathered round her of what had transpired in the morning. Her shrieks of pain grew louder and louder, and when they were silenced, she was unconscious. Before midnight she was a corpse.

The stepfather was of course marked out as the murderer; the evidence to be produced against him seemed incontestible; the old man had actually been seen gathering leaves and tubers in the forenoon, which he had afterwards boiled in his own courtyard.

The accused, however, was one of Molema’s adherents; he had served him faithfully for half a century, and Molema accordingly felt it his duty to[17] do everything in his power to protect him, and so sent over to Moshaneng for Montsua to come and take the office of judge at the trial. He was in the midst of the inquiry when I arrived.

Meanwhile, the defendant had complete liberty; he might for the time be shunned by the population, but he walked about the streets as usual, trusting thoroughly to Molema’s clemency and influence, and certain that he should be able to buy himself off with a few bullocks.

The trial lasted for two days; after each sitting the court was entertained with bochabe, a sort of meal-pap.

The evidence was conclusive; the verdict of “guilty” was unanimous. Montsua said he should have been bound to pass a sentence of death, but Molema had assured him there were many extenuating circumstances; and, taking all things into account, he considered it best to leave the actual sentence in his hands. Molema told the convicted man to keep out of the way for a few days until Montsua had ceased to think about the matter, and then sending for him, as he strolled about, passed the judgment that he should forfeit a cow as a peace-offering to the deceased girl’s next-of-kin, the next-of-kin in this case being his wife and himself!

Before quitting the place, I went to take my leave of Mr. Webb. While I was with him a dark form presented itself in the doorway, which I quickly recognized as none other than King Montsua. He had followed me, and, advancing straight to my side, put five English shillings into my hand, requesting me to give him some more of the physic[18] which had done his wife so much good at the time of my visit to Moshaneng.

On the afternoon of the 2nd of April we left Molema’s Town, to proceed up the valley of the Molapo. Next morning we passed the last of the kraals in this direction, in a settlement under the jurisdiction of Linkoo, a brother of Molema’s.

Early morning on this day was extremely cold, and the keen south-east wind made us glad to put on some overcoats. We made a halt at Rietvley, the most westerly of the Molapo farms in the Jacobsdal district, the owner of which was a Boer of the name of Van Zyl, a brother of the Damara emigrant to whom I shall have subsequently to refer.

From this point the farms lay in close proximity to each other, as far as the sources of the Molapo. The river valley extended for about twenty-two miles towards the east, retaining its marshy character throughout, but growing gradually narrower as its banks became more steep and wooded. Although its scenery cannot be said to rank with the most attractive parts of the western frontier of the Transvaal, yet, for any traveller, whether he be ornithologist, botanist, or sportsman, the valley is well worth a visit.

The waggon-track which we had been following led, by way of Jacobsdal and Zeerust, direct to the Baharutse kraal Linokana, by which I had made up my mind to pass. We kept along the road as far as Taylor’s farm, “Olive-wood-dry,” where the density of the forest and the steepness of the slopes obliged us to leave the valley, and betake ourselves to the table-land. Olive-wood-dry is unquestionably one[19] of the finest farms on the upper Molapo; it has a good garden, and is watered by one of the most important of the springs that feed the river, whilst the rich vegetation in the valley, thoroughly protected as it is from cold winds, forms quite an oasis in the plateau of the western Transvaal. A dreary contrast to this was the aspect of the Bootfontein farm, where the people seemed to vegetate rather than to thrive.

In the evening we crossed the watershed between the Orange River and the Limpopo, and spent the night near a small spruit, one of the left-hand affluents of the Malmani, which I named the Burgerspruit. Next day we entered the pretty valley of the Malmani, the richly-wooded slopes of which looked cheerful with the numerous farms that covered them.

Quitting the Malmani valley on the 5th, we journeyed on eastwards past Newport farm, along a plain where the grass was short and sour. In the east and north-east could be seen the many spurs of the Marico hills; the hills, too, of the Khame or Hieronymus district were quite distinct in the distance, all combining to form one of the finest pieces of scenery in what may be called the South African mountain system.

The slope towards the side valley, which we should have to descend in order to reach the main valley, was characterized by a craggy double hill, to which I gave the name of Rohlfsberg. Further down, I noticed a saddle-shaped eminence, which I called the Zizka-saddle. The descent was somewhat difficult, on account of the ledges of rock, but we were amply compensated by the splendid scenery, the[20] finest bit, I think, being that at Buffalo’s-Hump farm, where in the far distance rises the outline of the Staarsattel hills.

By the evening we reached the valley of the Little Marico, and the Weltufrede farm. This belongs to Mynheer von Groomen, one of the wealthiest Boers in the district. His sons have been elephant-hunters for years, and have met with exceptional success, having managed to earn a livelihood by the pursuit. In the paddock of the farm they showed me a young giraffe that they had brought home with them from one of their expeditions.

We could see Jacobsdal from the Weltufrede farm, a few buildings on the banks of a brook, and a neat little church, being all that this embryo town of the western Transvaal had then to show. After leaving it we turned north, then north-east towards Zeerust, the most important settlement in the[22] Marico district. On our way thither we passed one of the most productive farms in the neighbourhood; it belonged to a man named Bootha, and was traversed by the Malmani, which wound its way through a low rocky ridge to its junction with the Marico.

I made a preliminary visit by myself to the little town, but we did not actually move our quarters into Zeerust till next day. It covers a larger area than Jacobsdal, and any one devoted to natural science would find abundant material to interest him in its vicinity. We, however, only remained there a few hours, and started off for Linokana, outside which we encountered Mr. Jensen, who was bringing the mail-bag from the interior. The missionary received us with the utmost cordiality, and gave us an invitation, which I accepted most gratefully, to stay with him for a fortnight; the time that I spent with him was beneficial in more ways than one, as not only did it afford me an opportunity of thoroughly exploring the neighbourhood, but it permitted my companions to enjoy a rest which already they much required.

In 1875, the Baharutse in Linokana gathered in as much as 800 sacks of wheat, each containing 200 lbs., and every year a wider area of land is being brought under cultivation. Besides wheat, they grow maize, sorghum, melons, and tobacco, selling what they do not require for their own consumption in the markets of the Transvaal and the diamond-fields; it cannot be said, however, that their fields are as carefully kept as those of the Barolongs. A great deal of their land has been transferred to the Boer government, and they only retain the ownership of a few farms.

[23]

On the 9th I went to the sources of the Matebe and wandered about the surrounding hills, where mineral ores seem to abound. The following day I employed myself in drawing out a sketch-map of my route, and when I had completed it, I amused myself by an inspection of the plantations and gardens which surround the mission-station. I attended the chapel, where the service consisted of a hymn, the reading of a portion of one of the gospels, then another hymn, followed by a sermon; the impression made upon the congregation as they squatted on their low wooden stools being very marked, and the whole service in its very simplicity being to my mind as solemn as the most gorgeous ritual.

The native postman from Molopolole arrived late on the evening of the 15th, the journey having taken him three days; he only stayed one night, and started back again with the European mail that came through Zeerust from Klerksdorf. To my great surprise it brought me a kind letter from Dr. A. Petermann, the renowned geographer at Gotha.

An English major likewise arrived from the Banguaketse countries; he was in search of ore and was now on his way to Kolobeng and Molopolole; he gave us an interesting account of the reasons that had induced him and Captain Finlayson to explore the north-eastern Transvaal.

The Baharutse girls seem to be particularly fond of dancing, and we hardly ever failed of an evening to hear music and occasionally singing in various parts of the town.

One of the most picturesque spots in the whole[24] neighbourhood is in the valley of the Notuany, about three miles below its confluence with the Matebe; it is enclosed by rocky slopes broken here and there by rich glens and luxuriant woodlands that afford cover for countless birds, whilst in the sedge-thickets on the Matebe wild cats nearly as large as leopards lurk about for their prey.

ON THE BANKS OF THE MATEBE RIVULET.

We left Linokana on the 23rd, and crossed the Notuany, a proceeding that occupied us nearly two[25] hours, as the half-ruined condition of the bridge made it necessary for us to use even more caution than on my previous journey.

I spent a pleasant day in the Buisport glen, and had some good fishing in the pools of the Marnpa stream, as well as some excellent sport on its banks. The upper pools contain many more fish and water-lizards than those near the opening of the glen, for being deeper and more shady they are less liable to get dried up. Some of the mimosas and willows that overhang the stream were sixty feet high, and as much as four feet in diameter.

Next day we passed the Witfontein and Sandfontein farms, both in the Bushveldt. The residents at Witfontein were making preparations for a great hunting-excursion into the interior, where they expressed a hope that they might meet me again. Zwart’s farm I found quite forsaken, its owner having started off on a similar errand the week before; from his last excursion he had brought back some ostriches and elands. Some Boers that we met informed me that fresh stragglers from the Transvaal were continually joining Van Zyl, and that the Damara emigrants would soon feel themselves sufficiently strong to continue their north-westerly progress; their place of rendezvous was on the left bank of the Crocodile River between the Notuany and the Sirorume.

Before the day was at an end we reached Fourier’s farm at Brackfontein, and spent the night there, encamping next day at Schweinfurth’s Pass, in the Dwars mountains. By the evening we had come as far as the springs in the rocks on the spurs of the Chwene-Chwene heights, whence we skirted the[26] town of Chwene-Chwene itself, and after crossing the valley on the Bechuana spruit, took up our quarters on the northern slope of the spur of the Bertha hills. On the banks of the spruit I noticed a deserted Barwa village containing about fifteen huts; they lay in an open meadow, and consisted merely of bundles of grass thrown like a cap over stakes about five feet long bound together at their upper ends.

The Great Marico was reached on the afternoon of the 30th. We made our encampment at a spot where a couple of diminutive islands, projecting above the rapid, made it possible to get across without any danger from crocodiles. The probability of there being an abundance of game on the opposite side induced me to stay for two or three days. Regardless of Pit’s warning that he had seen a lion’s track close by, I selected a place some hundred yards lower down, and resolved to go and keep watch there for whatever game might turn up. I took the precaution to enclose the spot with a low fence.

Soon after sunset I proceeded to carry out my intention. The passage of the river with its somewhat strong current in the dark was troublesome as well as fatiguing. I reached my look-out, which I found by no means comfortable, and as the darkness gathered round me, I became conscious of a strange yearning for my distant home, and the image of my mother seemed to arise so visibly before me, that I could hardly persuade myself that she was not actually approaching. Phantasies of this kind were altogether unusual with me, and as the sense of awe appeared to increase, I began to debate with myself whether I had not better[27] retire from my position and make my way back to the waggon. It came, however, to my recollection that this was just the hour when the crocodiles left the water and made their way to the banks, in order to avoid the rapids.

The night continued to grow darker, and dense masses of cloud rose up to obscure the sky. I came to the final decision that my watch would be to no purpose, and was just about setting out to return, when I became aware of the movement of some great object scarcely ten yards away. Of course in the dark no reliance was to be placed upon my gun; my long hunting-knife was the only weapon on which I had to depend; this I grasped firmly, and stooped down, straining every power of vision to penetrate the gloom; but nothing was to be discerned; only a strange and inexplicable glimmer still moved before my eyes. Again, with startling vividness, the image of my mother rose before me; I could not help interpreting it to betoken that some danger was near, and once more I determined to hasten back at all hazards to our encampment. I placed my foot upon the twigs with which I had built up my fence, and it came down with a crash which sounded sufficiently alarming. Gun in one hand, and knife in the other, I proceeded to grope my way along, but recollecting that my gun was useless, and finding it an incumbrance, I threw it into a bush; after it had fallen I heard a noise like scratching or scraping, and I am much mistaken if I did not distinguish a low growl, and it occurred to me that it was more than likely that some beasts of prey had been stealthily making their way to my place of retreat. Having no longer the shelter[28] of my fence-work I confess a feeling of tremor came over me, and my heart beat very fast. Still slashing about with my hunting-knife, I cut my way through the overhanging boughs, pausing at every step, and listening anxiously to every sound. In spite of all my care I came from time to time into collision with the branches, and I staggered in wonder whether I had not at last encountered some gigantic beast of prey.

It took me a considerable time to get over that hundred yards by which I was separated from the stream, but at length I accomplished it, and reached a narrow rain-channel, that facilitated my descent to the brink of the water. It was with extreme caution that I placed one foot before another, as my sole clue to the direction of the ford was derived from the increase or decrease in the sound of the current; more than once I lost my footing, and fell down bodily into the water, but after a time, with much difficulty, managed to get on to the first of the two islands; upon this I did not rest for a minute, but plunged at once into the main stream, whence I succeeded in gaining the second island. Here I paused long enough to recover my somewhat exhausted breath, and then re-entering the seething waters, tottered over the slippery stones till I found myself safely on the shore. As I set my foot upon the ground I could not do otherwise than experience a great sense of relief, although I was quite aware that there might be danger yet in store. I was so tired that I should have been glad to throw myself upon the ground then and there, but the chance of exposing myself to the crocodiles at that hour was too serious to be risked.

[29]

Just as I was on the point of clambering up the bank I heard a rustling above my head; I kept perfectly silent, and soon discovered that the noise came from a herd of pallahs, on their way to drink. I recognized them by the crashing which their horns made in the bushes, and by their peculiar grunt. Swinging myself up by means of the branches, I reached the top of the bank, and wending my way along the glen, before long recognized the barking of the dogs, which had been disturbed by the antelopes. My whistle quickly brought my faithful Niger to my side, and his company agreeably relieved the rest of my way back to the fires which marked the place of our encampment.

Taking Pit with me next morning, I made an investigation of the place where I had spent so much of the previous dreary night. It was covered with lion-tracks, and the little barricade was completely trampled down. One of my dogs at this place fell a victim to the flies, that settled in swarms on its eyes, ears, and nose, so that the poor brute was literally stung to death.

Shortly afterwards I took Pit on another long excursion inland. Having heard that the colonists are accustomed to creep into the large hyæna-holes under ground, and that when they have ascertained that the hyæna is “at home,” they kindle a fire at its mouth, so that the animal is obliged to make an exit, when it is either shot or killed by clubs, I made Pit put the experiment into practice. We found the hole, and we lighted the fire, but we did not secure our prey; somehow or other Pit was not able to make the smoking-out process go off successfully.

[30]

We continued our journey the same day. A few miles down the river I met an ivory-trader from the Matabele country, who had instructions from the Matabele king to convey the intelligence to the English governor in Kimberley that a white traveller had been killed amongst the Mashonas, on the eastern boundary of his domain.

I had throughout the day noticed such a diversity of birds, reptiles, insects, plants, and minerals, that I was further disposed to try my luck at fishing, and taking my tackle, I lost no time in dropping my line into the river. I succeeded in hooking three large sheat-fish, the smallest of which weighed over six pounds, but they were too heavy for me to drag to land; two of them broke my line, and the other slipped back into the stream. I had almost contrived to get a fourth safely ashore, when my foot slipped, and overbalancing myself, I fell head foremost down the bank; happily a “wait-a-bit” bush prevented my tumbling into the river.

Guinea-fowl I observed in abundance everywhere along the Marico, in parts where the bushes were thick; but I noticed that they never left their roosting-places until the heavy morning dew was dry. The speed at which they ran was quite incredible.

Proceeding on our way we came up with several Bechuana families belonging to the Makhosi tribe, who had been living on Sechele’s territory, near the ruins of Kolobeng; but they had been so much harassed by Sechele that they were now migrating, and about to settle at the foot of the Dwars Mountains. Sechele had been preparing an armed attack upon both the Makhosi and the Bakhatlas, but the[31] latter having gained intelligence of his scheme, took prompt measures to resist him, and made him abandon the design. It is in every way desirable, both for traders and travellers, as well as for the neighbouring colonies, that the integrity of the six existing Bechuana kingdoms should be maintained. Any splitting-up into smaller states would be attended with the same inconveniences as the European colonists and travellers have to suffer on the east coast north of Delagoa Bay.

Whilst we were passing through the light woods of the Marico on the 4th, we caught sight of a water-bock doe in the long grass. Theunissen stalked it very adroitly, but unfortunately his cartridge missed fire, and before Pit could hand him a second, the creature took to flight. In spite of our having had frost for the last two days, the morning was beautifully fine.

Leaving the Marico, only to rejoin it again at its mouth, we traversed the triangular piece of wood which lies between it and the Limpopo. On our way we fell in with a party of Makalakas, who were reduced almost to skeletons, having travelled from the western Matabele-land, 500 miles away, for the purpose of hiring themselves out at the diamond-fields, each expecting in six months to earn enough to buy a gun and a supply of ammunition. We were sorry not to be able to comply with their request that we would give them some meat, but as it happened we had not killed any game for several days.

The next morning found us on the Limpopo; and as I purposed staying here for a few days, we set to work and erected a high fence of mimosa boughs,[32] for the greater security of our bullocks. In the afternoon Theunissen and I made an excursion, in the course of which we shot two apes and four little night monkeys, that were remarkable for their fine silky hair and large bright eyes. As a general rule they sleep all day and wake up at night, when they commence spending a merry time in the trees, hunting insects and moths, eating berries, and licking down the gum of the mimosas.

CROCODILE IN THE LIMPOPO.

One of our servants had a rencontre that was rather alarming, with one of the crocodiles, from which the river derives its name. He was washing[33] clothes upon the bank, when a dark object emerged from the water, startling him so much that he let the garment slip from his hands. He called out, and had the presence of mind to hurl a big stone at the crocodile’s head, and succeeded in clutching the article back just as the huge creature was snapping at it. An adventure of a somewhat similar character happened to myself. Finding that the Limpopo was only three feet deep just below its confluence with the Marico, I determined to make my way across. We felled several stout mimosa stems, and made a raft; but the new wood was so heavy that under my weight it sank two feet into the water. Convinced that my experiment was a failure, I was springing from one side of the raft on to the shore, when a crocodile mounted the other side—an apparition sufficiently startling to make me give up the idea of crossing for the present.

Taking our departure on the 7th, we proceeded down the stream, having as many as fifteen narrow rain-channels to pass on our way. The whole district was one unbroken forest, and we noticed some very fine hardekool trees. On the left the country belonged to Sechele, on the right to the Transvaal republic.

Though our progress was somewhat slow, being retarded by the sport which we enjoyed at every opportunity, we reached the mouth of the Notuany next evening, having passed the first of the two encampments where the Damara emigrants were gathering together their contingent. It contained about thirty waggons, and at least as many tents; large herds of sheep and cows, under the care of armed sentinels, were grazing around, while the[34] people were sitting about in groups, some drinking coffee and some preparing their travelling-gear. I was rather struck by the circumstance that nearly all the women were dressed in black. Some of the men asked us whether we had seen any Boer waggons as we came along; and on our replying that we had passed a good many emigrants, they expressed great satisfaction, and said that their numbers would now very soon be large enough to allow them to start. They all declared their intention to show fight if either of the Bamangwato kings attempted to molest them or oppose their movements. When I spoke to them about the difficulty they would probably experience in conducting so large a quantity of cattle across the western part of the kingdom, where water was always very scarce, they turned a deaf ear to all my representations. It was just the same with the emigrants at the other camp, whom I saw at Shoshong on my return; they would pay no attention to any warning of danger; nothing could induce them to swerve from their design.

When I pressed my inquiries as to their true motive in migrating, they told me that the president had taken up with some utterly false views as to the interpretation of various passages in the Bible, and that the government had commenced forcing upon them a number of ill-timed and annoying innovations. If their fathers, they said, had lived, and grown grey, and died, without any of these new-fangled notions being thrust upon them, why should they now be expected to submit to the novelties against their will? And another thing which they felt to be peculiarly irritating was, that these state[35] reforms were being brought about by a lot of foreigners, and chiefly by a clique of Englishmen. What President Burgers was aiming at effecting would have an effect the very reverse of remedying the deep-seated evils that oppressed them. It seemed to me that the project which they considered the most obnoxious was that for the formation of a railroad which should connect Delagoa Bay with the Transvaal.

Were it not for their own statements, it would be quite incredible that men, who already have had to struggle hard for their property and farms, should for trivial reasons such as these, and at the instigation of one man, give up their homes and wander away into the interior. The first troop of them, without including stragglers, soon amounted to seventy waggons. They were anxious to get possession of the fine pasturage on the Damara territory, and prepared, in the event of opposition, to drive the Damaras away altogether. They experienced so much difficulty through the scarcity of water, that, after reaching Shoshong, they had to return to the Limpopo, and wait until after a plentiful rain had fallen upon the country they had to traverse.

Under the impression that the emigrants intended to purchase whatever land they required, both the Bamangwato kings granted them a safe pass across their dominions; but as soon as it transpired that they were going to establish themselves by force of arms, Khame immediately withdrew his promise. He could not see why his own territory might not be subject to a like invasion. This led the emigrants openly to avow their determination,[36] in the event of a long drought, to overcome the Matabele Zulus, otherwise they would have to fight their way through the eastern Bamangwatos.

At the end of my journey, after my return to the diamond-fields in 1877, I took up this matter publicly, anxious to do anything in my power to prevent any overt conflict between the emigrants and the noble Bamangwato king. The tenour of my views will be apprehended from the concluding paragraph of my first article, published in the Diamond News of March 24th: “It is absurd for people like these Boers, who are not in a condition to make any progress whatever in their own country, and who regard the most necessary reforms with suspicion, to think of founding a new state of their own.”[1]

Two months after writing that article, I heard they were in expectation of securing the friendship of Khamane, while he was living with Sechele at enmity with Khame. Their scheme of raising him to the throne failed, and no better success attended them in their subsequent attempt to form an alliance with Matsheng.

During 1876 and the following year, the condition of the emigrants, as they still lingered about the Limpopo, changed decidedly for the worse; they had ceased to talk about the conquest of a hostile country, but on the contrary took every means to avoid a battle; many of them had succumbed to fever, and sickness continued to make such ravages amongst them that they resolved to start once more. Again they applied to Khame for a safe passage through his land, but made a move in the direction[37] of the Mahalapsi River, instead of to Shoshong, in order to mislead him. Khame meanwhile kept himself all ready for a battle; he drilled his people every day; and having kept spies on the watch, he soon learnt that the emigrant party had fallen into a state of complete decay; but instead of taking advantage of their condition, and seizing their cattle and property, he sent Mr. Hepburn to ascertain the facts of the case; and when he found that the statements already brought to him were confirmed, he renewed his guarantee to them that they should traverse his country in security; he was really afraid that they would fail in the strength to move on at all. Their difficulties increased every day. Between Shoshong and the Zooga the district is one continuous sandy forest, known amongst the Dutch hunters as Durstland; it contained only a few watering-places for cattle, most of these being merely holes in the sand or failing river-beds; dug over night, they would only contain a few buckets full of water in the morning; and this was all the provision they had for their herds; their bullocks, consequently, became infuriated, and ran away, so that when the concourse reached the Zooga they were in a most helpless plight.

Their want of servants, too, was very trying. I saw quite little children leading the draught-oxen, and young girls brandishing the cumbrous bullock-whips. By slow and painful degrees, however, sadly diminished in numbers by sickness, and having suffered the loss of half their goods, they reached Lake Ngami, only to begin another march as tedious and fatal as that they had already accomplished. At last, what might almost be described as a troop of[38] helpless orphans reached Damara, the sole representatives of the wild and ill-fated expedition.

In London in the present year (1880) I heard that the survivors of this wild enterprise were in a condition so destitute that the English Government, assisted by free-will offerings from the Dutch and English residents, had sent out to them several consignments of food and clothing, despatched by steamer, viâ Walvisch Bay. Such was the end of the undertaking originated by a party of headstrong men, who, in ignorant opposition to reform, and from motives of political ill-feeling, rushed with open eyes to the destruction that awaited them.

Before reaching the Notuany, I had found out that the game which at the time of my last visit had been very abundant on the Limpopo, had been considerably reduced by the continual hunting carried on by the emigrants. I found only a few traces of hippopotamuses and some giraffe-tracks in the bushes by the footpath down by the river, but neither had I opportunity for hunting myself, nor did I wish to reveal their existence to the Boers.

During one of our excursions I had a narrow escape of my life. We were chasing a flock of guinea-fowl that were running along in front of us, one of which kept rising and looking back upon us. Coming to a broadish rain-channel about twelve feet in depth, and much overgrown with long grass, I called out to Theunissen, who was close behind me, to warn him to be careful how he came; but his attention was so entirely engrossed by the bird of which he was in pursuit that he did not hear me, and at the very edge of the dip he stumbled[39] and fell forward. His rifle was at full cock, ready for action; his finger slipped and touched the trigger; the bullet absolutely grazed my neck. Another eighth of an inch and I must have been killed on the spot.

To explore the neighbourhood, we remained for a few days upon the banks of the Notuany. I first went southwards down to the confluence of the river with the Limpopo. In striking contrast to the time of my previous visit, when the entire district seemed teeming with game, I had now to wait long under the shade of the mimosas before getting any sport at all; at length a solitary gazelle bounded out of the grass in front of me, and as I was all ready with a charge of hare-shot, I soon put an end to its graceful career. Some Masarwas, dependents of Sechele, residing in the wood close at hand, brought me some pallah-skins, of which I made a purchase.

The shores both of the lower Marico and the Limpopo are composed of granite, gneiss, and grey and red sandstone, the last often containing flints; these rocks sometimes assume very grotesque forms; one, for example, on the bank of the Limpopo, being called “The Cardinal’s Hat;” occasionally they contain also greenstone and ferruginous limestone. To the first spruit running into the Notuany above the Limpopo I gave the name of Purkyne’s Spruit. Some of the mimosas here were ten feet in circumference; here and there I noticed some vultures’ nests, and the trees were the habitat of many birds, amongst which we noticed Bubo Verreauxii and maculosus, Coracias caudata and C. nuchalis and parrots.

I left the Notuany a day sooner than I intended,[40] moving about four miles down the valley of the Limpopo, where the country seemed to promise me some desirable acquisitions. On the 14th, I secured the skins of two cercopithecus, one sciurus, two guinea fowl, and two francolins. An ape that I shot was disfigured and no doubt painfully distressed by two great swellings like abscesses. It was impossible to go a hundred yards along the bank of the river without seeing a crocodile lift its head above the water, to submerge it again just as quickly.

When we quitted the river-side, we proceeded to cross the wooded heights, sandy on one side, rocky on the other, that would bring us to the valley of the Sirorume. On our way, Niger enjoyed the excitement of chasing two spotted hyænas that crossed the path, but he did not succeed in overtaking either of them. By the middle of the day we reached the pond which I have already mentioned as lying on the top of these heights, and soon afterwards found ourselves descending towards the river. The name of Puff-adder valley, which I had given the place, seemed still as appropriate as ever, for we killed two of these snakes that were lying rolled up together just where we passed along. Following a Masarwa track that I remembered in search of water, I came upon a pool some ten feet deep; fastening my cap to my gun-strap, I was about to dip my extemporized bucket below the surface, when I caught sight of something glittering half in and half out of the water, which proved to be another puff-adder trying in vain to escape from a hole.

To judge from the tracks, I should be inclined to say that leopards are almost as abundant as snakes, the thorn-bushes and the crevices in the rocks[41] affording them precisely the kind of hiding-places that they delight in.

In the course of our next day’s march we came to a Bamangwato station. Sekhomo had not had sufficient men at his disposal to keep a station there; the consequence was that Sechele at that time looked upon the locality as his hunting-ground. It appeared to abound not only with giraffes, koodoos, elands, and hartebeests, but likewise with gazelles and wild swine, and numbers of hyænas and jackals.

I reached Khame’s Saltpan on the 17th, and had the bullocks taken to drink at the cisterns in the rocks. Some Bamangwato and Makalahari people were passing by, from whom I obtained several curiosities, amongst which was a remarkable battle-axe. I came across some of the venomous horned vipers, which fortunately give to the unwary notice of their presence by the loud hissing they make.

In the evening five gigantic Makalakas came to the waggon, hoping that I should engage them as servants, but I was too well acquainted with their general character to have anything to do with them.

We remained at the salt-pan until the 19th, and reached Shoshong quite late at night. The town was much altered since my last visit. Khame, after his victory, had set it on fire, and had rebuilt it much more compactly nearer the end of the glen in the Francis Joseph valley. The European quarter was now quite isolated. I was delighted to meet Mr. Mackenzie again, and he kindly invited me to be his guest during the fortnight that I proposed spending in the place.

IT was quite obvious that since my previous visit a great change for the better had taken place in the social condition of the Bamangwatos. At that time Sekhomo had been at the head of affairs, and, indefatigable in promoting heathen orgies, had been the most determined opponent of every reform that had tended to introduce the benefits of civilization. Khame, his eldest son, who had now succeeded him, was the very opposite of his father; the larger number of the adherents who had followed him into his voluntary banishment had returned with him and placed themselves under his authority, so that the population of the town was increased threefold. Khame’s great measure was the prohibition of the sale of brandy; it was a proceeding on his part that not only removed the chief incentive to idleness, but conduced materially to the establishment of peace and order, and made it considerably easier [43]for him to suppress the heathen rites that had been so grievously pernicious.

Vol. II.

Page 43.

BATTLE ON THE HEIGHTS OF BAMANGWATO.

In company with Mr. Mackenzie I paid several visits to Khame, and had ample opportunity of becoming acquainted with his good qualities. My time was much occupied with excursions, in working out the survey of my route between Linokana and Shoshong, and in medical attendance upon sick negroes. Khame offered me one of his own servants to accompany me to the Zambesi, and upon whom I could rely to bring back my waggon to Shoshong, if I should determine to go further north. As remuneration for the man’s services, I was to give him a musket.

Mr. Mackenzie pointed out to me the various places that had been of any importance in the recent contest between the kings. I have already mentioned how Khame, on leaving the town, had been followed by the greater number of the Bamangwatos to the Zooga river, where the district was so marshy that the people were decimated by fever, and Khame was forced to abandon the settlement he had chosen. Resolved to return to Shoshong, he proceeded to assert his claim, not in any underhand or clandestine manner, but by a direct attack upon his father and brother. He openly appointed a day on which he intended to arrive; and advancing from the north-west, made his way across the heights to the rocks overhanging the glen, and commanding a strong position above the town. Sekhomo meanwhile had divided his troops into two parts, and leaving the smaller contingent to protect the town, posted the main body so as to intercept Khame’s approach. Augmented as it was by the[44] people of the Makalaka villages, Sekhomo’s army in point of numbers was quite equal to that of his son; but, as on previous occasions, these Makalakas, fugitives from the Matabele country, proved utterly treacherous; although they professed to be Sekhomo’s allies, they had sent a message of friendship to Khame, assuring him that they should hold themselves in readiness to welcome him at the Shoshon pass. Khame’s attack was so sudden that Sekhomo’s troops were completely disorganized, and before they had time to recover themselves and commence a retreat, the conqueror took advantage of the condition of things to bring his men on to the plateau where the Makalakas had been posted. These unscrupulous rascals being under the impression that Khame’s people had been worsted, and being only anxious to get what cattle they could find, opened a brisk fire, a proceeding which so exasperated the Bamangwatos that they hurried up their main contingent, and having discharged a single volley, set to and felled the faithless Makalakas with the butt ends of their muskets.

In contrast to the incessant rain which had marked my previous visit, the drought was now so protracted that my cattle began to get rather out of condition, but not enough to prevent my starting for the Zambesi on the 4th of June. We proceeded up the Francis Joseph valley, and turning northwards, reached the high plateau on the following day by the way of the Unicorn pass. The scenery was very pretty, the sides of the valley being ever and again formed of isolated rocks, adorned most picturesquely with thick clumps of arboreal euphorbiaceæ.

[45]

On the 6th our course led us across a plain, always sandy and occasionally wooded; and it was quite late in the evening when we reached the Letlosespruit, a stream which never precipitates itself over the granite boulders with much violence, except after heavy rain. The upper strata of the adjacent hills, where ground game is abundant, consist in considerable measure of red sandstone, interspersed with quartzite and black schist, the lower being entirely granite.

The limit of our next day’s march was to be the pools at Kanne. Ranged in a semicircle to our right were more than thirty conical hills, connecting the Bamangwato with the Serotle heights. There was a kraal close to the pools, and the natives, as soon as they were aware of our approach, drove their cattle down to drink, so that by the time we arrived all the water was exhausted, and fresh holes had to be dug.

On the 8th we reached the valley of the Lualaspruit, where the vegetation and surrounding scenery were charming. The formation of the rocks, and especially the signs of erosion in the river-bed were very interesting; in one place were numerous grottoes, and in another were basins or natural arches washed out by the water, which nevertheless only flowed during a short period of the year. The ford was deep and difficult. On crossing it I met with two ivory-traders, one of whom, Mr. Anderson, had been formerly known to me by name as a gold-digger; they had been waiting camped out here for several days, while their servants were ascertaining whether the district towards the Maque plain was really as devoid of water as it[46] had been reported. The Luala and its affluents were now quite dry, and water could only be obtained by persevering digging. Mr. Anderson’s people brought word that the next watering-place could not be reached in less than forty-eight hours, and I immediately gave orders for food enough for two days’ consumption to be cooked while we had water for our use. We fell in with Mr. Anderson’s suggestion that we should travel in his company as far as the salt-lakes.

GROTTOES OF THE LUALA.

[47]

After ascending the main valley of the little river, on the evening of the 10th we reached the sandy and wooded plateau thirty miles in length, that forms a part of the southern “Durstland.” The scarcity of water in front of us made it indispensable that we should hurry on, and after marching till it was quite dark, we only allowed ourselves a few hours’ rest before again starting on a stage which continued till midday, when the excessive heat compelled us once again to halt. No cattle could toil through the deep sandy roads in the hottest hours of the afternoon, so that rest was then compulsory. By the evening, however, we had reached the low Maque plains, remarkable for their growth of mapani-trees; in all directions were traces of striped gnus, zebras, and giraffes, and even lion-tracks in unusual numbers were to be distinctly recognized. We came across some Masarwas, who refused to direct us to a marsh which we had been told was only a few miles away to the right; they were fearful, they said, of being chastised by the Bamangwatos, if it should transpire that they had given the white men any information on such a matter.

The whole of the Maque plain, which is bounded on the west by table-hills, and slopes down northwards to the salt-lake district, consists entirely of mould, equally trying to travellers at all seasons of the year, being soft mire during the rains, and painfully dry throughout the winter season. In the hands of an European landowner, however, that which now serves for nothing better than a hunting-ground might soon be transformed into prolific corn-fields and remunerative cotton-plantations.

[48]

By the time we reached the pools our poor bullocks were quite done up. The ivory-traders had pushed on in front and reached the place before us.

We were here overtaken by a messenger from Khame, who had been despatched to visit all the Bamangwato farms, and to leave the king’s instructions that no hunters should be allowed upon any pretext whatever to remain at any watering-place for more than three days. This prohibition had been brought about by the conduct of the Boers, who had been going everywhere killing the game in the most indiscriminate manner for the sake of their skins, and leaving their carcases for the vultures. The order was probably reasonable enough, but it came at an unfortunate time for us, as the natives at once took us for hunters, and consequently were occasionally far from conciliatory in their behaviour. The very spot where we had encamped had been visited by the Boers only about two months before, and we found a number of the forked runners on which they had dragged the animals behind their waggons.

Vol. II.

Page 49.

TROOP OF OSTRICHES.

North of the Maque plain large serpents are often to be met with. Although they are by no means uncommon in Natal, they are rarely found on the hills of the southern Bechuana countries. Some plants of a semi-tropical form are here represented, not the least noticeable among them being the mapani-tree, with its oleaginous leaves and porous brittle wood. Nevertheless, the temperature in winter is often low, though perhaps not to the same extent as on the table-land on the Vaal and Orange rivers, which is 1200 feet higher. [49]One morning during our stay the pools had a coating of ice nearly half an inch thick.

Whilst hunting a large snake in a thicket on the afternoon of the day after our arrival, I was startled by a loud shout from the waggon. Hurrying back, I found Mr. Anderson all excited because a herd of wild ostriches had just rushed by him on their way to drink at the pool; the sight, however, of the waggon had somewhat alarmed them, and they had turned aside into the mimosa-wood, where they were being chased by the drivers. The pursuit was long and arduous, and the men at last had to return hot and tired, without having been able to get within gunshot of one of the birds.

Still keeping with Mr. Anderson, we started off again next morning, making our way northwards towards a spring seventy miles away, known to the Boers as Bergfontein. In these waterless districts glades of tall grass and rushes alternate with light mapani-woods, game being abundant everywhere. We were overtaken on our way by some Makalaharis and Masarwas proceeding to an eland-hunt, armed with assegais.

Of all the antelopes the eland, especially the male, is the most lusty and well-fed, its heart having been known to be imbedded in a mass of fat weighing twenty-five pounds; the animal is consequently generally so short-breathed that it can be readily overtaken and speared. The Masarwas are very fleet-footed and skilful in hurling their assegais so as mortally to wound the heart or lungs. Mounted Dutch and English hunters chase the elands in the same way as giraffes right up to their waggons, where they shoot them down, thus sparing themselves[50] the trouble of having to transport the skins or carcases from the hunting-ground. I have been told both by hunters and natives, and I think it quite credible, that without any great difficulty elands may be tamed and trained to draw or to carry light burdens.

Shortly afterwards we met two Bamangwatos armed with muskets, and driving a couple of oxen laden with meat. They were accompanied by five Masarwas, each of them also carrying a load of meat weighing over fifty pounds. The party was on its way to Shoshong to get instructions from Khame as to its future proceedings, as some of the Makalakas, banished for their treachery, were prowling about the northern confines of the kingdom, and preventing the Masarwas from rendering allegiance to their rightful master.

Bergfontein, at which we arrived early on the 17th, is a spring situated on a woody slope; it is regarded by the natives as the source of the Nokane stream, which flows northwards, but only in the rainy season. The slope, which is very rugged and clothed with luxuriant vegetation, is the declivity of the Maque plain down to the great salt-lakes. At a short distance from the bank of the Nokane spruit the traveller from the south is greeted by the sight of a cluster of fan-palms, a foretaste of the wonders of tropical vegetation; overtopping all the surrounding trees, they were probably the most southerly specimens of that queen of palm-trees in Central Africa. I shot down some examples of the fruit, and added them to my collection. Encircling the base of the slim stems that were crowned with the magnificent foliage was a wonderful undergrowth of [51]young plants that had germinated from the fallen fruit, the leaves of which had already assumed fine proportions, and were rapidly developing into their fan-like form.

Vol. II.

Page 50.

MASARWAS CHASING THE ELAND.

In the broad but shallow bed of a spruit that lay on the side of a gentle slope, I found a shrub that reminded me of a baobab; it was between four and five feet in height, its lower part immensely thick and fleshy, and covered with a yellowish bark; but scarcely a foot from the ground it contracted into little branches only two or three inches thick, that proceeded direct from the great superficial root. Some of these stems weighed several hundredweight, and on some future occasion I shall hope to obtain a specimen for myself.

From the Makalaharis and Masarwas residing hereabouts I obtained a variety of ornaments and some domestic utensils made of wood and bone, but I was unfortunate enough afterwards to lose them all.

PURSUED BY MATABELE.

All around the hills for the most part were thickly wooded, having no paths except the game-tracks leading generally towards the Nokane. Over these tracks the natives are accustomed to set assegai-traps for catching the game at night; a pile of underwood is heaped up to bring the animals to a standstill; a grass rope with one end very loosely attached to a short stake is carried across the path about a foot above the ground, and supported horizontally by two uprights and a cross-pole placed on the opposite side; the rope is thence taken up to the nearest overhanging bough, and an assegai left suspended from the other end. The slightest jerk made by the movements of the game suffices to detach the loose[52] end of the rope, and the assegai immediately falls. The assegai used for this purpose is generally of very rude construction, being nothing but a rough pole with a rusty spear-head fixed at the end; but its efficiency is due to the point being dipped in a most deadly poison. The wound inflicted by the descending weapon is generally slight in itself, and although only a scratch may be made in the neck, the victim is doomed, as the poison is sure to take quick effect. In the winter months snares of this kind are continually being set, and are always visited as frequently as possible, that the carcase may be dissected soon[53] after death; the flesh close round the wound is cut away, but all the rest is considered by the natives to be perfectly fit for food. Once, while in pursuit of some koodoos, one of Anderson’s people narrowly escaped running into an assegai-trap, being only warned by his servant just in time, and I have myself in the course of my rambles come upon several tracks stopped up in this way.

I wandered during the afternoon with the two traders a considerable distance down the hill to the north, crossing the Nokane and two other dry spruits more than once. On the way I noticed some aloes of unusual size, and some tiger-snails in the long grass in the valleys.

Early on the morning of the 18th we came to the south-east shore of the smallest and most southerly of the three of the great salt-lakes that I was able to visit. Away to the west this lake extended as far as the eye could see, and it took me two hours to travel the length of the eastern coast. It had an uniform depth of barely two feet, and presented a light grey surface edged with stiff arrow-grass, and surrounded by dense bush-forest, whilst round about it, in the very thickest of the grass, were considerable numbers of miniature salt-pans. It is scarcely once a year that it is full of water, for although after violent rains torrents stream down from all directions, very few of these make their way into the lake itself, but stagnate in another and deeper bed close by; the overflow of this, however, escapes into the lake. The name of this salt-pan is Tsitane, the same as that of the most important of the rivers flowing from the heights upon our left, which were the projecting spurs of the slope from the table-land to the[54] lake basin. The greater part of the lake-bottom consists of rock, partly bare and partly covered with the deposit from the rain-torrents. While I was taking the measurement of the eastern shore, I came upon a herd of striped gnus, but without being able to shoot one of them. In the brackish waters of the river, and in the pools near its mouth, there were a good many spoonbills and ducks, and for the first time for a long while I noticed some grunters.

After finishing my sketch-chart of the Tsitane lake next morning, I went out and shot a great horned owl that I found in the trees on the bank.

Every depression in the soil round the smaller pans contains salt. However short a time the rainwater may stand in them, vegetation is sure to be checked; the evaporation is rapid, and so great that the ground is continually crusted with large patches of salt some five inches above the soil, which break in when trodden on. In high winds the salt and salt earth are swept along in great white clouds like dust. The edge of the lake was covered with little chalcedonies and milk-pebbles that had been washed down by the rain.

We quitted the shores of the Tsitane salt-pan on the 21st, but as I had understood from the natives that there would be much difficulty in getting water farther on, and I did not wish to impede the progress of the ivory-traders, we parted company, but only to meet again after a fortnight in the valley of the Panda ma Tenka, and yet again a year later at Shoshong.

It was at the salt-pan that I saw my first baobab, the most southerly specimen along my route, although Mauch had seen some further south in the western[55] Transvaal on the right bank of the Limpopo. The one I noticed was twenty-five feet in height, its circumference measuring nearly fifty-two feet.

On starting northwards we had first to cross the small outlying salt-pans on the Tsitane, then the river itself, and finally to take a course due north right over the basin. The trees of the dense underwood were all more or less stunted, the bush-land alternating with meadow-land overgrown with rich sweet grass and studded with flowers. Near the pans and adjacent streams the soil was brackish, and the vegetation for the most part of a prickly character. Springbocks and duykerbocks, Zulu hartebeests, and striped gnus frequented the woods, which in some parts revealed clearly the vestiges of lions.

All the next day our journey took us past a series of large depressions in the soil, the middle of most of them being marked by small salt-pans, of which I counted no less than forty-two in the course of the day’s progress. We halted for the night near one of them known as the little Shonni; we also crossed some fresh-water pools, at once to be distinguished from salt-pans by the fringe of reeds with which they were surrounded.

We now arrived at the eastern shore of a far larger and deeper lake than the Tsitane, called by the natives Karri-karri; its shores were circled by a number of baobabs, and its geological formation seemed very interesting. Like the Tsitane in shape it was almost an isosceles triangle with its apex far away out of sight in the west. On their western side both these lakes are connected with the north of the Soa salt-pan by means of the Zooga river.

[56]

Some Masarwas bearing traces of the red salt-crust on their ankles came to us offering some baobab-fruit, and asking for maize and tobacco in exchange. We had not much time to spend either in bartering commodities or in exploring the shore of the lake, as the rain came on and compelled us to hurry forwards, otherwise I do not doubt I should have discovered a number of natural curiosities.

At the north-east end of the lake, at one of the principal creeks I crossed the Mokhotsi river, which flows northwards, and carries off the superfluous water of the shallow salt-pan.

Our way next led through a dense mapani-forest, after which we had to cross a dried-up stream sixty feet wide, and from ten to sixteen feet deep, having a decided fall towards the east, and on account of the fine trees that adorned its banks called by the Masarwas the Shaneng, or beautiful river. Parallel to this was a spruit, which the Dutch hunters called Mapanifontein; it is fed by a number of springs, and as it receives a portion of the water of the Shaneng whenever that stream is overfull, its deeper parts are hardly ever dry at any period of the year. I cannot resist the opinion that the Shaneng is an outlet either of the Zooga river or of the Soa salt-lake, and that it empties itself into the Matliutse or one of its affluents. In the course of the afternoon I killed a great bird that was chasing lizards, known amongst the colonists as the jackal-bird.

Vol. II.

Page 57.

THE SOA SALT LAKE.

Towards the evening of the 23rd Anderson overtook us again, and travelling on together we traversed a wood called the Khori, and passing a deserted Masarwa village near the ford, we arrived in good [57]time next morning in sight of the Soa. This was the third of the Great Salt Lakes. Near it we met some Dutch hunters, on a chase for elephants and ostriches.

Thanks to the dry weather, we were able to cross several spruits that ran in and out the various creeks, a proceeding that after much rain would have been quite impracticable. Having chosen a good position for our camping out, we resolved to stay there until the 27th, as we ascertained that there was excellent drinking-water to be found by digging holes in the bed of the Momotsetlani, a river that flowed through the adjacent wood. According to my habit when halting for any longer time than usual, I made several excursions, in the course of which I shot five ducks, two guinea-fowl, that were in unusually large numbers, and a brown stork, the first example of the kind I had seen.

The Soa is the largest salt-pan in the Great Lake basin, extending westward beyond Lake N’gami, and connected with the Limpopo system by the Shaneng; like the Karri-Karri and Tsitane, it is quite shallow, being only four feet deep; it is grey in colour, and is rarely completely full, indeed a great part of it is quite dry. In order to ascertain the exact relations between the basin and Lake N’gami and the Zooga, it would be necessary to take a series of observations for an entire year; during the rainy season, however, travelling is extremely difficult and the climate is very unhealthy, so that it is easy to account for the task not having been accomplished hitherto. The general uniformity of level of the great central South African basin causes the Zooga at some times to flow east and at others to flow west. When the[58] shallow bed of Lake N’gami is filled by its northern and western feeders it sheds its overflow eastwards down the Zooga to the salt-pans, whence it is carried off by the Shaneng, their natural outlet; on the other hand, if the N’gami should be low, it receives itself the overflow of the Zooga, which in its deep bed, overgrown as it is with weeds, is able for a long period to retain the water received from its many affluents; nor is it impossible that it is likewise occasionally fed by waters running over from the western side of the salt-pans.

It took our team more than three hours after our next start to cross the numerous creeks and smaller pans on the shore of the lake: we came to the end of them, however, in the course of the forenoon, and entered upon a plain stretching northwards as far as the eye could reach, and bounded on the east by a mapani-wood. Herds of game were frequent, but not large. We noticed a good many clumps of reeds, and were not disappointed in the expectation of finding fresh-water in proximity to them, inducing us to rest awhile in the place.

I was very busy arranging some of the curiosities that I had collected on my recent rambles, when I was startled by a loud cry of distress. On looking out of the waggon I saw Meriko, my Bamangwato servant, running with all his might through the long grass, and shrieking, in the Sechuana dialect, “They are killing me! they are killing me!” He cleared the bushes like an antelope; in his hurry he had lost both his grass hat and his caama mantle, and had scarcely breath to reach the waggon. Pointing to a number of natives at no great distance from him, with their spears brandished in the air, he[59] gasped out, “Zulus! Matabele! they want to kill me!”

For my part I could not comprehend how it happened that these Matabele should be on Khame’s territory. I began to wonder whether it was possible that war had broken out between the tribes, and I confess that I was not without apprehension that we were going to be attacked. The savages advanced yelling and screeching, and looked like wolves in human form. Unwilling to risk the mischief that might ensue if I fired upon them, I resolved to remain steadily where I was until I had ascertained their real intentions. Meriko’s opinion did not in the least coincide with mine; he could not bring himself to await their approach, but bounding over the pole of the waggon, he scampered off into the bush beyond, but without further outcry, evidently anxious to conceal himself in the long grass. I called out to him that he had more to fear from the lions in the grass than from the Zulus, and that he had better stay in the waggon; so terrified, however, was he at the prospect of falling into the hands of the Matabele, that he turned a deaf ear to my words, and rushed out of sight.

The savage band flocked round the waggon, still flourishing their kiris. Excepting the two ringleaders they proved to be not true Zulus, but belonging to various plundered tribes, having been stolen away as boys by Moselikatze, and brought up as Zulu warriors. They had small leather aprons with fringes, or occasionally a gourd-shell or piece of basket-work on their bodies, otherwise they were quite naked; only some of them wore balloon-shaped head-dresses made of ostrich feathers or other[60] plumage. Their expression was exceedingly wild. The fierce rolling eye was a witness that they belonged to a warlike race, expecting that their commands should be obeyed; and probably there was not one amongst them who would have hesitated to perpetrate a murder if he considered that anything was to be gained by it.

One of the leaders swung himself on to the pole of the waggon, and speaking in broken Dutch gave me to understand that they were “Lo Bengulas,” and that it was their wont to slaughter every captive they made, except he were bought off by a ransom; they were now ready to put their rule into force upon my servants; and as for my dog they should shoot him then and there, unless I paid them down at once a handsome sum to save him.

I put as bold a face as I could upon the matter. I told them that I was not going to be frightened into making them any payment whatever, but that if they would promise to go quietly away from the waggon, I would make them a present all round. I hoped by this device to anticipate their notorious thievish propensities; but although Pit and Theunissen were on the watch, they could not prevent one of the fellows stealing a knife that was lying close to my side, but I caught sight of him just in time, and insisted upon his giving it up again.

After a brief consultation, the two captains drew their followers apart, and made them acquainted with my determination; they all grinned cunningly, and hailed the proposal with shouts of satisfaction. Having had the whole body collected right in front of the waggon, where I could keep my eye upon them, I called the leaders forward and handed to[61] each of them a bowl of gunpowder and about two pounds of lead. One of them first pointed to my pocket-handkerchief, and then ran his finger round his own loins. “Lapiana!” he said, indicating the purpose to which it could be applied. Accordingly I brought out a few yards of calico, and tore it into strips, which were immediately used for girdles, except that a few of the men twisted the stuff round their heads. They requested me to give the captains an extra piece or two; to this I willingly consented, and they all expressed themselves perfectly satisfied. Upon this I turned my back upon the clamorous troop, and retreated calmly to my own people. Soon afterwards they all began slowly to depart, waving their presents over their heads. We were greatly relieved. The hour that had passed since Meriko had come and announced their approach had unquestionably been an anxious time. A few of them had bartered salt with Theunissen for tobacco.

When Meriko could be induced to quit his hiding-place, he informed us that we had now almost reached the bank of the principal feeder of the Soa, called the Nata, where salt may be most readily procured, and whither the Matabele are sent by their rulers every year to collect it. This was the ostensible employment of the gang that had just taken their departure. The Bamangwato king was quite aware of the marauding habits of these parties, but did nothing to control them, although they perpetually disarm any Bamangwatos they may meet, and delight in breaking the legs of the Masarwas.[2]

[62]

HUNTING THE ZULU HARTEBEEST.

To the great satisfaction of poor Meriko we decided to push on immediately to the Nata river. As we proceeded, the game became more and more plentiful. The herds of springbocks were much larger than I should have expected to see so far north, and we noticed a surprising number of gnus, hartebeests, zebras, and ostriches. Although Meriko had in some measure recovered his nervousness, and walked on contentedly with Niger at his side, he kept from[63] time to time jumping up from the ground to the waggon, to look all round and satisfy himself that no Matabele gang was in sight. While mounted up for this purpose he cried out that he could see a herd of “sesephi” (Zulu hartebeests). He described them as about 600 yards to our right. I could not see them myself, but both Pit and Theunissen affirmed that it was a good-sized herd. We all agreed that it would be best to allow the waggon to advance some 300 yards further, and I could then alight, and with my gun all ready for a shot, make my way to a hardekool-tree about 200 yards from the road, and from thence take my aim. Nothing could be simpler than the plan, and I was soon making my way through the long grass by myself on foot.

I had not reached the hardekool-tree before I heard a low whistle from Theunissen which I quite understood was to inform me that the hartebeests had been disturbed by the waggon, and were commencing a flight. Hurrying on, I made my way to the tree, when the two foremost of the herd came in sight at full speed. I aimed at the first, and fired. The whole of our people raised a shout, and leaving the oxen to take their chance started off in pursuit, followed by the dogs. My own impression was that I had seen the entire herd scamper off. I returned to the waggon to satisfy myself that the bullocks were grazing quietly, and then hastened after my friends. My surprise was considerable when I discovered that my shot had been successful, and that a magnificent sesephi was lying dead upon the ground.

All the bullocks were so tired that I had quite made up my mind to give them a good rest as soon[64] as we reached the Nataspruit, but there was the preliminary difficulty to be overcome of finding a proper drinking-place, nearly all the pools in the bed being salt. We had, however, been assured two days before by a Masarwa that there were several fresh-water ponds in the district, and accordingly Theunissen and I set out on an expedition of discovery. The river-bed varied in breadth from 100 to 150 feet; it was about twenty feet deep, and manifestly after rain was quite full up to the grass upon its edge. We wandered about for some time searching in vain, but at length Theunissen announced that he had come upon a pool of fresh water, a discovery that we considered especially fortunate, as all the pools beyond appeared again to be salt.

The game-tracks were absolutely countless. For the most part they seemed to belong to the same species that we had noticed on the banks of the Soa, but fresh lion-tracks were quite conspicuous among them. Pit suggested what looked like a suitable place for encamping; Theunissen and myself agreed, but Meriko protested that it was too near the quarters of the Matabele. His objection, however, was not allowed to prevail, and his nervousness was much moderated when he found he was to be entrusted with a breech-loader to keep guard over the bullocks. An extra strong fence was made, considerably higher than usual, and four great fires were lighted, which would keep burning till nearly two o’clock in the morning.

Poor Niger was in a state of great excitement all night. Lions were prowling around us, and the hyænas and jackals kept up such a noise that sound sleep was out of the question, and in my dreams I[65] saw nothing but stuffed lion-skins dancing before my eyes. Just before morning the concert seemed to rise to its full pitch; two jackals yelped hideously in two different keys, the hyænas howled angrily with all their might, while the lion with its deep and sonorous growl might be taken as chorægus to the whole performance.

In the rambles that Pit and I took, the following morning, the lion-traces were so many and so recent that we felt it prudent to keep a very sharp look-out. We crossed the river-bed several times, and observed that the tracks were particularly numerous in the high grounds that commanded a view of the place where the various antelopes, attracted by the salt, would be likely to descend. On our way we passed a tree, the bark of which was torn in a way which showed that it had been used by lions for sharpening their claws; the boughs of the tree were wide-spreading, branching out like a candelabrum, and forming what struck me as a convenient perch. Here I resolved to keep a long watch of some ten or twelve hours. I was determined if I could to see the lions for myself. Accordingly, just before sundown, I took Niger, and accompanied by Pit I returned to the tree, and having made myself comfortable in my concealment, I sent Pit back to the waggon in time for him to arrive while it was still tolerably light.

IN THE TREE.

The sensation of being alone in such a spot was sufficiently strange. I soon began to look about me, and noticed that the trees around were considerably higher than that in which I was perched; the ground was in some places elevated, but thinly grassed, so that the light sand could be distinguished[66] which covers the flaky strata of the salt lakes. Just below me was a bare circular patch, which bore no footprints at all except our own and those of the lions that had passed by; on my left was a rain-channel some six feet deep and twenty feet wide, much overgrown, and opening into the Nataspruit about twenty yards away. The nights were now extremely cold, and appeared especially so in contrast to the high temperature of the day, and I took the precaution of tying myself to one of the strongest boughs, in case I should fall asleep; to tumble off might bring me into closer contact with the monarchs of the forest than might be agreeable; but having made myself secure, I soon[67] settled down in the middle of the triple-forked recess that I had chosen for my ambush.

The sun, meanwhile, had all but set; only a few golden streaks on the highest boughs remained, and these gradually faded away. My insight that night into scenes of animal life proved even far more diversified than I could venture to anticipate.

Amongst the first of the sounds to arrest my attention was the sonorous “quag-ga, quag-ga” of the male zebras; they were on the grass-plains, keeping watch over their herds; with this was soon mingled the melancholy howl of the harnessed jackal, awakening the frightful yell of its brother, the grey jackal; the beasts, I could not doubt, were all prowling round the enclosure of our camp. For some hours the various noises seemed to be jumbled together, but towards midnight they became more and more distinct, so that I could identify them separately, and fancied that I could count the beasts that made them. After a while a peculiar scraping commenced, caused by rhyzænas hunting in the sand for worms and larvæ; it went on all night except during the brief intervals when the busy little creatures were temporarily disturbed by some movement near them.

The gazelles and antelopes came down quite early to lick at the salt mud in the Nata-bed; they evidently were accustomed to get back to their haunts in the open lands before the beasts of prey quitted their lairs in the wood. Some of the little steinbocks (those most graceful of South African gazelles) came down so cautiously along the track that it was only through accidentally looking down that I was aware of their being near me. I think[68] there were three or four of them. They were followed by some other gazelle, of which the movements were so light and rapid that I failed to catch a glimpse of it. After a considerable time a single antelope passed beneath me, of another species larger than the others, making a succession of short leaps, then pausing and bounding on again, but I could not recognize what kind it really was.

The slow, steady tramp of a large herd on the other side of the bank proceeding towards the salt pools, and in the direction of the one fresh-water pool, could not be mistaken; moreover, the crashing of their horns against the wood in the thickets left no doubt of the approach of a number of koodoos. While I was listening to their movements I heard another tread on the game-path beside the river; straining my eyes in that direction I saw a dark form stealthily making its way towards the descent: it was about the size of a young calf, and I could have little doubt that it was a brown hyæna; it sniffed the air at every step, and after stopping a few seconds just beyond the channel started off at a brisk trot.

As the hours of the night waned away I was beginning to think that I should hear or see nothing of the monarch of the forest. I had not, however, to wait much longer before the unmistakable roar, apparently about half a mile away, caught my ear. I could only hope that the beast was on its way once more to sharpen its claws upon the accustomed tree. I had now no heed to give to any other sound; neither the barking of our own dogs beside the waggon, nor the yelling of the jackals around our encampment could distract my attention, and I[69] listened eagerly for at least half an hour before the roaring was repeated; it was now very much nearer; I listened on, and it must have been nearly twenty minutes more when I distinguished its footsteps almost within gunshot. The lion was not in the ordinary track, as I had expected, but right in the long grass in the rain-channel. Its strides were generally rapid, but it paused frequently. I could only hear its movements; it was too dark for me to see. I was sure that it could not be more than about fifteen yards from me, and could hardly restrain myself from firing. I feared, however, that a random shot would only be fired in vain, and with no other effect than that of driving the lion away. Accordingly I waited on. It came still nearer and crouched down somewhere for about another quarter of an hour without stirring an inch. At last I became convinced that it had caught sight of me; I saw the bushes shake, and the great brute looked out as if uncertain whether to make a spring towards me, or to effect its escape. It was a terrible mistake on my part not to fire then and there, but my moment of hesitation was fatal to my design; the lion made a sudden bound, and in an instant had disappeared for good. It was no use to me that Niger’s frantic barking made me aware what direction it had taken. My chance was gone. I was much mortified; but there was no help for it. With the cold night air and my cramped position I was stiff all over, and much relieved when daylight dawned, and Pit appeared with Niger to accompany me back to the warmth and shelter of the waggon.

After my night on the tree, I was not so tired as to prevent my starting next morning on an excursion to examine the formation of the banks of the Nata. We soon noticed two fine storks (Mycteria[71] Senegalensis) wheeling in circles over the stream, on the look-out for some of the fishes that hid themselves under the stones in the shallow salt-pools. I stooped down so as not to startle them, and had the good luck to secure both the birds for my collection.

In the afternoon I took a much longer walk, crossing the plain to the south, curious both to see the quarters of the Matabele people and to inspect the place where they obtained their salt. About three-quarters of a mile from the waggons, we startled a herd of zebras, of the dark species; so impetuous was their flight that I quite expected to see them all dash headlong over the steep bank, but they suddenly stayed their course and turned off short into a narrow rain-channel; they raised a great cloud of dust as they scampered down into the river-bed, whence they clambered up again on the other side where the bank was less steep. On account of the great size of their head and neck they look much larger at a distance than they really are; the peculiar noise they make, “ouag-ga, ouag-ga,” the last syllable very much prolonged, has caused both the Masarwas and the Makalaharis to call them quaggas.

When we got near the quarters of the Matabele gang, I thought it needful to take care that we should be unobserved. In the open plain of course there was nothing to cover our approach, and I turned into the bed of a side-stream that I reckoned would take us in the right direction. I supposed this to be a branch of the Nata leading to the Soa, along which I proposed to go for a mile or so, and then turn off, but we had not proceeded very[72] far before we found the camp of which we had come in search right before us. It was now deserted.

Standing in the middle of the river-bed, I could see a considerable number of pools all full of a salt fluid, the colour of which was a deep red; the soil around was covered with a salt deposit, and fragments of salt beautifully crystallized and resting on a stratum of clay an inch or more thick, were scattered about. Close to these were lying the poles and stakes with which the salt had been broken out of the pools. The departure of the Matabele troop allowed us to examine everything without fear of molestation.

In winter, when the water is low, the pools vary from twelve to eighteen inches in depth; the breadth and length range very widely from thirty to 900 feet. The deposit is sometimes as much as three inches in thickness, extending from bank to bank about six or eight inches under the surface of the water like a stout layer of ice, which when broken discloses the real bottom of the pool nearly another foot below. To walk into the pools is like treading upon needle-crystals, and the feet are soon perceptibly covered with a deposit. Where they are very salt, they are never resorted to either by birds or quadrupeds. Anything thrown into them quickly becomes incrusted, but the beautiful red crystals unfortunately evaporate on being exposed to the air, and it was to little purpose that I carried a number of specimens away with me.

I sent Pit again next day to get a supply of salt for our use. This had first to be boiled to free it from the particles of lime, and afterwards to be[73] crumbled up. We wanted it to preserve the flesh of the game we killed.

The bed in which these pans are situated is really an arm of the Nata, having branched off from it to rejoin it again. As I followed it on my way back to the waggon, I came across the last herds of springbocks that we were to see so far to the north; I likewise saw several herds of striped gnus, that here took the place of black gnus, none of which had appeared this side of Shoshong.

A capital shot was made by Theunissen on the following day; he brought down a steinbock at the distance of nearly 300 yards. Being anxious to procure some jackals’ skins, I laid out several bits of meat covered with strychnine over night, and in the morning, I found no less than four of the beasts lying poisoned beside them; the flesh of one of these was afterwards devoured by some of its own kind, and they too all died in consequence, and were discovered in the bush close by. Palm-bushes and baobabs, that flourish in salt soil just as well as in mould, grow very freely about the lower part of the Nata.

So large had my collection now become, that I made up my mind to send a good portion of it to Mr. Mackenzie at Shoshong by the first ivory-traders whom I should meet and could trust to take charge of it. We did not, however, just at this time fall in with any parties returning to the south.

Although we knew that our encampment was liable to attacks from lions, we found it in many other respects so agreeable that we quitted it with regret, and on the 3rd of July started up the left bank of the Nata, along a deep sandy road on the[74] edge of the eastern plain. On our way we saw a herd of zebras grazing about 500 yards off. Theunissen was again anxious to try his skill as a marksman, and creeping on some fifty yards or more, fired from the long grass; he had taken a good aim and one of the zebras fell, but it sprang up and ran for a dozen yards further, when it fell for the second time. We hurried up, and Pit incautiously seized the animal by the head, and narrowly escaped being severely wounded, for the creature with its last gasp made a desperate plunge and tried to bite. As soon as it was dead, we set to work to skin it, carrying away with us all the flesh, except the neck and breast, to make into beltong. About two miles further on, we came to a good halting-place in the wood, where we could finish the process of preparing the skin. Meriko, with his gun, kept watch over our bullock-team, and whilst Pit helped Theunissen to cut up the meat ready for hanging up, I worked away at the skin, and afterwards at the skull.

The same afternoon I took a short stroll round about, and found that although the bushes were thick, the trees generally were scanty; there were, however, some very fine baobabs here and there. Several beautifully wooded islands in the spruit had steep high banks, and there was a pool some hundred yards long that apparently abounded in tortoises and fish. Our time, however, did not allow us to make any complete examination of the spot; it was desirable for us to hurry on with all speed, and to get across the Zambesi, if we could, before the middle of the month, so that we might stay until December in the more healthy highlands on the watershed.

[75]

We looked about for lion-tracks, but could see none; and being unaware that lions are accustomed very often to wander away from their usual haunts for a day or more, we thought it would be quite sufficient to put up a low fence; but as the night set in cold and dark with a piercing S.S.W. wind that made us all press closely round the fire, we could only regret our mistake and own that we ought to have made it higher. By eight o’clock the darkness was complete, and the wind, still howling, threatened a singularly uncomfortable night; but we consoled ourselves by recollecting that the zebra-skin would be sufficiently dry in the early morning, when we might move off.

Suddenly, so suddenly that we one and all started to our feet, the oxen began to bellow piteously, and to scamper about the enclosure, breaking down the slight fence that bounded it. Niger commenced barking furiously; the other dog whined in miserable fear underneath the waggon, and the bullocks that did not try to make off, crouched together in a corner and lowed feebly. We could not do otherwise than conclude that we were attacked by lions. It happened that Theunissen had only just left us to shorten the tether of the bullocks, and, jumping on to the box of the waggon, I tried to see where he was. I seized my breech-loader; Pit and Meriko in an instant each held up a firebrand, which threw a gleam of light some distance around. But I could not discover Theunissen. I called louder and louder, and hardly know whether I was more relieved or terrified, when, from amongst the struggling cattle, I heard his voice crying, “Help, help!” We hurried out, and quickly ascertained the cause[76] of his alarm. While he was tightening the bullocks’ tethers, the roar of a lion, apparently close at hand, had put the animals into such a state of commotion, that two of them had got loose from the enclosure; and two others had so entangled Theunissen in the ropes, that he and they had all fallen together. It was undoubtedly due to Niger’s vigilance that the lion had retreated.

STARTLED BY LIONS.

Theunissen was fortunately unhurt; and, while we were releasing him from his critical position, the two bullocks that had escaped came back of their own accord. After seeing the whole of the oxen securely fastened to the waggon, I had five large fires lighted,[77] and, late as it was, felled several mapani-trees, with which to raise the height of the fence.

In spite of the heavy rain, we proceeded as soon as we could upon our journey. The downpour, however, had the effect of making the travelling less toilsome, by binding the sand together; though it was not without much difficulty that the bullocks pulled through the deep sand-drifts at the ford where we crossed the spruit. On the farther side we found a deserted encampment, containing the remnants of a broken-down Boer waggon. We saw comparatively little game—only two gnus, a few zebras, and an occasional guinea-fowl or two, of which I brought down one.

During the after-part of the day we were quite out of the woods, and upon a plain where the mapanis stood only singly or in detached clumps with the mimosas. Though reluctant to do so, we were obliged to unfasten the bullocks and allow them to graze awhile in the evening; but we took every precaution to make them safe, so that there should be no repetition of the lion panic. They had hardly been freed from the yokes, when they were startled by an animal dashing wildly at no great distance across the plain. It was a hyæna, which Pit and Theunissen, with my good Niger’s aid, managed to knock over; but it was far from being a single specimen of its kind, as all night long our sleep was interrupted by the incessant music of a regular hyæna-chorus.

Throughout the next morning the journey was very similar to that of the previous day; but in the afternoon we passed along an extensive glade, surrounded with underwood and full of game. A heavy[78] shower provided us with the drinking-water which the soil failed to supply. We saw some ostriches, duykerbocks, and striped gnus on the plain, and, in the distance, some lions on the look-out for zebras. Coming to a wood that seemed a suitable resting-place, I determined to spend the night there.

Before the following evening we arrived at a great forest, stretching nearly 100 miles to the north, and forming a part of the sandy-pool plateau. With the exception of a few glades containing water, the soil is entirely of sand, and is the western portion of the district to which Mohr has given the name of “the land of a thousand pools.” I only apply the term to the region without any appreciable slope, where the rain can have no downfall to the rivers. The pools are almost all fed solely by the rain, and are generally small and overgrown with grass; they retain their supply of water very differently, sometimes for eight months in the year, sometimes only for two. A comparatively small number are fed by springs, and such of them as are perennial have special names given to them by the Madenassanas who live in the underwood; whilst others, full only a part of the year, have been named on various occasions by Dutch or English hunters and ivory-traders. The boundaries of this pool plateau are the Nata and Soa salt-lake on the south, the Zambesi on the north, the Mababi veldt on the west, and the Nata and Uguay rivers on the east. It is the district of Central South Africa where the larger mammalia, such as elephants, rhinoceroses, and giraffes begin to be more abundant; thence extending eastwards and westwards, as well as northwards beyond the Zambesi. In the winter, owing to the[79] deficiency of water, it is always difficult to cross it, and even in the beginning of summer the transit is always a matter of some anxiety, as a poisonous plant which sprouts up amongst the grass from October to December is very injurious to cattle; the evil is so great as very often to induce the traders on their way to do business with the tribes on the Zambesi, to choose the eastern route through the Matabele and Makalaka district; but this proceeding has the disadvantage of exposing them to the dishonesty and untrustworthiness of the natives.

While we were crossing the last glade before entering the forest, Meriko, who was walking on in front with the bullocks, pointed suddenly to the left, and called out something that I did not understand; he was evidently rather excited, and both I and Theunissen, who was sitting with me on the box, were curious to know what had disturbed him. He soon managed to make us comprehend that he had caught sight of two ostriches about 250 yards from the road, and, on looking again, I saw one of them standing near a high bush. Although I was quite aware that, as matter of right, they really belonged to the king of the Bamangwatos, my sportsman’s instinct was far too keen to permit me to go my way without having a chase; accordingly, a very few minutes elapsed before I was stalking them in the grass. Almost directly I discovered the second ostrich, which I had not seen before, squatting on the ground and peeping at me; it did not wait long before it took to running off, but an intervening bush prevented my getting a proper aim at it. I followed on to the more open plain, and just as the two birds[80] together were entering the underwood about 400 yards in front of me, I fired; but my bullet struck a tree, quite close to them, without touching them. Meriko had the laugh of me; he could not refrain from expressing his satisfaction that the property of his liege lord had been uninjured, and pledged himself to report the circumstance to the king on his return to Shoshong.

The bullocks had not a drop of water all day long. It was consequently of the most urgent importance that we should get on to the next spring, and we agreed that there was no alternative but to travel on all night, if need be, in defiance of the difficulties we might encounter. Niger, unbidden, took the lead, followed by Pit carrying a breech-loader; Meriko led the foremost oxen by the bridle, which he held in his left hand, whilst he held up a flaming torch in the other; Theunissen took the reins, and I sat on the box with one loaded gun in my hand, and another behind me ready to be used in any emergency. By eleven o’clock, however, we reached some springs; they proved to be the most southerly of those known to the neighbouring Madenassanas as the Klamaklenyana springs, and here we came across several elephant-hunters whom I had seen before, some of them a few weeks previously, and others at the Soa lake. They were all full of complaints at the bad luck they had experienced.

As implied by their name “four, one behind another,” the Klamaklenyana springs consist of four separate marshy pieces of water, between which, on either hand, are numerous rain-pools, full at various periods of the year. Close to the spring by which we were halting there was a waggon-track, made by[81] the Dutch hunters, which branched off towards the Mababi-veldt.

At this place, too, I fell in with one of Anderson’s servants, named Saul; he was travelling with a Makalahari who had four children, whom he had met at the Nataspruit and invited to join him; he told me he was sure that his master would not disapprove of what he had done, as the man would be very serviceable to him in helping to hunt ostriches.

“Hunt ostriches!” I exclaimed; “how can such a bad shot as you hunt ostriches?”

“Ah, sir,” he answered, “I manage to get at them well enough.”

“How so?” I inquired.

“Well, I always take a man with me, and we look about till we discover a nest, and then we dig a hole pretty close to it in which I hide myself. The birds come to sit, and it doesn’t want a very good shot to knock over an ostrich when it is just at hand. Well, having made sure of one bird, we stick up its skin on a pole near the nest, and except we are seen, and so scare the birds away, a second ostrich is soon decoyed, and I get another chance. In this way I succeed very well; besides, I get lots of eggs.”

Whilst at the springs I learnt the meaning of some of the Masarwa and Bamangwato appellations. I might give numerous examples, but one or two will suffice. I found, for instance, that Khori, the district on the side arm of the Shaneng, means “a bustard,” and that Mokhotsi means “a strong current.”

On leaving our encampment on the 10th we had[82] to travel for two hours through the sandy underwood to the next of the Klamaklenyana springs. Here I met an elephant-hunter named Mayer and a Dutchman, Mynheer Herbst, and only a little further on at another watering-place I fell in with a second Dutchman called Jakobs, and Mr. Kurtin, an ivory-trader. Mr. Kurtin told me that on previous expeditions into this neighbourhood he had lost no fewer than sixty-six oxen through the poisonous plant that I have mentioned. Jakobs entertained us with the accounts of his hunting-expeditions, and particularly with some adventures of the famous Pit Jacobs. Mayer and Herbst were in partnership, and had recently had the satisfaction of shooting a fine female elephant; they had just engaged the services of some Makalakas, who a few days previously had offered themselves to me, but so bad was my opinion of all that branch of the Bantus, and so evil was the appearance of the men themselves, that not only would I have nothing to do with them, but recommended their new employers to get rid of them at once. To their cost, however, they acted without regard to my advice. When I met Mayer some seven months later, he told me that they had robbed him freely and had then run away.

It was about this time that I made my first acquaintance with the Madenassanas, the serfs of the Bamangwatos. They are a fine race, tall and strongly built, especially the men, but with a repulsive cast of countenance, so that it was somewhat surprising to find from time to time some nice-looking faces among the women. Their skin is almost black, and they have stiff woolly hair which hangs down for more than an inch over their forehead[83] and temples, whilst it is quite short all over the skull.

Whenever a Bamangwato makes his expedition to the pool plateau, his first proceeding is to look up some Madenassanas whom he may compel to go hunting with him and assist him in procuring ivory, whether for himself or for the king; but their residences are generally in such secluded and remote places, that it is often very difficult to find them, unless conducted by some of the Madenassanas themselves. The eldest inhabitant in each little settlement is regarded as a sort of inferior chief, so that it is best for any white man, in want of Madenassana help, to make direct application to him. If hired only for a short period, they are sufficiently paid by three or four pounds of beads, or by a few articles of woollen clothing; but if the engagement should extend to anything like six months the remuneration generally expected would be a musket.

Unlike many of the Bantu races, the Madenassanas respect the law of marriage, which is performed with very simple rites; conjugal fidelity is held in the highest esteem, but jealousy, I was told, which rarely shows itself very prominently amongst other tribes, often impels them to serious crimes. They were uniformly spoken of as a very contented people, and certainly they make far better servants than either the Masarwas or Makalaharis. Dwelling as they do, in the north-west corner of the kingdom, far away from Shoshong, their relations with the Bamangwatos are much less servile than those of the Masarwas, who are found all over the country. They have guns of their own, and are visited only once a year by officials sent by the king to collect their[84] tribute, and to appoint them their share of hunting-work.

The Makalakas (of whom I had so low an opinion) were moving about in large numbers between the Nata and Zambesi in 1875 and 1876; they were chiefly fugitives from Shoshong, having been expelled thence by the inhabitants, who were infuriated by their treachery.

When we reached the third spring we found that Jakobs and Kurtin had already settled there before us. Another trader, whom I may distinguish as X., arrived after us on the same day; he had visited Sepopo, the king of the Marutse-land, whither I was directing my course, and he gave me an introduction to a friend of his, whom I should be sure to meet further north on the Panda ma Tenka. I asked him to convey two of my cases of curiosities to Shoshong, but although he promised to deliver them, I am sorry to record that I never heard any more about them. In exchange for 800 lbs. of ivory, Mr. Kurtin sold him two cream-coloured horses, one of which I had myself cured of an illness in Shoshong; the ivory that X. was conveying in two waggons did not weigh less than 7000 lbs., of which 5000 lbs. had been obtained from Sepopo, the rest having been procured by his own people during their excursions on the southern shore of the Zambesi, between the Victoria Falls and the mouth of the Chobe. He warned me that there was great risk of getting fever on the Zambesi, and that in the district ahead of us there was great scarcity of water. In return for some medicines with which I supplied him, he very courteously sent me a good portion of a cow that he had just killed.

[85]

After starting in the afternoon west by north towards the most northerly of the Klamaklenyana springs, we had to pass through a part of the forest, where we saw some fine camel-thorn acacias and mimosas; also some trees like maples, some mochononos, and bushes of fan-palms. The scenery remained very much of the same character all through the next morning’s march, until we reached the spring in time for our midday halt. Between the first and the last of the four springs, I counted twenty-five depressions in the ground that are all full of water after heavy rain.

As we came along, I made several little détours into the woods, and saw buffaloes, striped gnus, Zulu-hartebeests and zebras, and noticed that lion-tracks were by no means wanting. At a point near the spring, where a trader’s road brings them out from the western Matabele, I met three hunters, named Barber, Frank, and Wilkinson. Barber’s skill as a hunter was notorious; he had a mother who was not only a keen observer of animal life, but was so gifted with artistic power of delineating what she saw, that she had published several little works on the subject. Barber likewise showed me his own sketch-book, in which he had made some very clever illustrations of his hunting-adventures.

We went a few miles further before we stopped for the night. Some of the trees that we passed next morning were of remarkably well-developed growth, several of the trunks being sixty feet in height; they belonged to a species called wild syringa by the Dutch, and “motsha” by the Bamangwatos; there is another sort quite as common, which they call “monati.” Near the[86] groves I observed a great many orchids with red blossoms.

About noon we came to a slight hollow, containing a pond known as Yoruah, where we again fell in with our hunting acquaintances. X. had advised them to make it their headquarters for a time, because he had himself been extremely fortunate in killing elephants there during his own stay. There were traces from which it was clear that a herd had passed along quite recently, and it was hoped that they might soon return again. Not wishing that my dogs should cause the hunting-party any annoyance, I pushed on at once without stopping, and reached the Tamafopa, or Skeleton-springs, in good time next day.

Here I made up my mind to stay for a few days, and taking the waggon about half a mile into the forest, fixed upon a station close to some rain-pools that were generally more or less full of water throughout the year; one of my principal objects for this rest was that I might try and get a skin of the sword-antelope, the finest of all the South African species.

Taking a stroll westwards I saw some steinbocks, and observing countless tracks of animals of all sorts, I could not doubt but that the whole district was teeming with life, and accordingly I came to the conclusion that I would spend another night of observation in the open air; even if I failed to accomplish my end with regard to the skin of which I was in quest, I might at least reckon upon being entertained. Instead of going alone as I did before, I resolved this time to take Pit with me, and in reply to my question whether he thought he would[87] be able to keep awake, he told me he had not the least doubt on that point.

About an hour or two before sunset I saw that a thoroughly good enclosure was made round the waggon, and Theunissen undertook to keep a good look-out against lions. I and Pit then made our way towards the spot which I had already selected in a forest glade about 500 yards in circumference, partially overgrown with grass, and about ten feet above the level of the woods; in the centre was a small rain-pool that had been full of water some months back, but was now much covered with weeds, and nearly empty. Near the edge of the glade stood a fine hardekool-tree, and about fifteen yards from this was an Acacia detinens thirty feet high, of which the branches drooped nearly to the ground, and partly sheltered and partly supported a great ant-hill at its side. Altogether the place seemed well adapted for my purpose.

The first thing I made Pit do was to collect some of the branches of the trees, to make a sort of breastwork about two feet high; we reserved an open space of eight feet or more of bare plain between ourselves and the tall grass; and then we carefully examined our guns and put them in perfect readiness for use. The sun was now sinking, and all the birds had gone to roost except a few glossy starlings that kept twittering around the nests which they occupy all through the year. Pit offered a piece of advice which I thought it advisable to follow, and we left our retreat before it was absolutely dark to fetch some branches of acacia to throw over the enclosure as a light covering, and while we were doing this the howling of the jackals at no great[88] distance made us aware that the hour was at hand when the deer would be on the move to drink, and when the beasts of prey would set forth for their nightly prowl.

Taking his usual posture, Pit half lay down, while I, for my part, preferred a squatting position as being the least uncomfortable for a long period of watching. For a little while we kept up a conversation in an undertone, but soon afterwards I suggested that it might be better if we were quite quiet. Half an hour or more might have elapsed when I heard a peculiar sound that induced me to rise cautiously and listen; for a moment or two I was puzzled, but hardly knew whether to be more amused or disgusted to find that the noise had no other origin than the open countenance of my slumbering servant. The poke that I gave him was not particularly gentle. At first he seemed inclined to be aggrieved, but immediately recollected himself, and apologizing for falling asleep, promised now to keep wide awake. I knew his propensity too well to have much confidence in his vigilant intentions, but I really was surprised to find after how brief an interval he had begun to snore again as loud as ever.

Shortly before ten o’clock the moon had risen so high that the whole glade was illuminated by the beams. I was getting somewhat weary of Pit’s music, when my ear caught a distant sound like the trotting of a number of horses. I could see to a considerable distance, and after about a quarter of an hour I found, as I conjectured might be the case, that the noise proceeded from a herd of zebras advancing towards the glade. Looking through the[89] opening between the mimosa and the ant-hill I could make out all their movements. They came on with the utmost caution. They pricked up their ears and stopped at almost every second step, standing awhile as motionless as if carved in stone. Two of the herd were in front; the rest followed at a little distance. I hardly knew whether to fire at once, or to wake up Pit to help me if necessary, but while I was debating in my mind the fellow gave such a tremendous snore that he woke himself; hearing me call, he started up so suddenly that he pulled down the whole of our canopy of acacia boughs, and made such a commotion that the whole of the zebras scampered off without my getting another fair chance of a shot.

My incorrigible man was not long in falling asleep for the third time. Midnight had now passed without any further signs of sport, and it was past one when I fancied that I could hear, although a long way off, the lowing of buffaloes. The sound appeared to come gradually nearer, but after coming almost close it receded again, making me suppose that the herd had got scent of us and had altered their course. It was hardly worth the trouble I took to tell Pit about their movements, as he only groaned in reply and rolled himself over on to his other side.

After this I confess I began to feel somewhat drowsy myself. Yielding to fatigue I fell into a doze, from which I was aroused by what struck me as the rustling of a coming storm. I listened for quite twenty minutes, making out nothing beyond the fact that the noise came from one of the neighbouring pools; after a while, however, I found out[90] that the shrill trumpet-like splash and roar proceeded from a herd of elephants that were enjoying themselves in the water. To rouse Pit was now indispensable. It was no easy matter to make him aware of his position; he muttered something about my wrapping myself up because the wind was blowing and it was cold. This time, however, I was not to be put off, and by giving him a good shaking I brought him to his feet.

My own desire was to leave our shelter and go and set light to two patches of dry grass that I recollected were close at hand. It was a proceeding that I imagined would have the effect of putting the brutes into a high state of alarm, and would bring about a romantic scene such as is rarely witnessed even in the heart of Africa. Pit, however, could not be induced to view the proposal with any favour; he insisted upon what indeed was quite true, that to accomplish what we intended, we should have to cross a great number of the lion-tracks that we knew were there, and that every step would leave us liable to attack before we could be aware of it. As no representations on my part could stir him, and as the moon had set, and it was very dark, I came to the conclusion that perhaps after all discretion was the better part of valour, and yielded my own wish to his. We both of us watched for a long time, but experiencing nothing to keep our interest alive, we at length, one after the other, began to doze again.

I am certain that I had been asleep for a very short time when I was brought to consciousness by a sound that ever makes one oblivious of any other; the roar of a lion was distinctly followed by the low growl of a lioness, both unquestionably[91] within thirty yards of where I was lounging. My hands were benumbed with cold; it was darker than it had been all night, but I rose and dropped upon my knee prepared to fire, having a most uncomfortable consciousness that in all likelihood the animals had been watching us for some time.

“PIT, ARE YOU ASLEEP?”

It did not now require much effort on my part to wake my servant. At the first recognition of the lion’s roar Pit was on his feet in a second. Standing bolt upright, he laid his hands upon the drooping boughs of the mimosa; his hint was worth taking; to escape the spring of the beasts of prey which were[92] only too probably close upon us, we should not lose an instant in climbing up into the tree; the difficulty was how to get there. I had a flat Scotch cap on my head, a pair of long boots, and an overcoat that reached my knees. To pull off my coat and make it a protection for my face was the work of an instant. Pit pushed me up from behind; then he handed me my gun. In my turn I lent him a helping hand up, and as if by magic we found ourselves elevated in the tree, and at least temporarily safe. Our height from the ground was not more than ten feet, but the night continued so dark, and the grass was so high that it was impossible to make out where it would be of any avail to fire. Until it was nearly morning the lions continued to prowl round about, but when dawn appeared they had made off in the same direction as the buffaloes. We afterwards went to examine the pool; there were no longer any signs either of buffaloes or elephants, except the footprints that plainly showed that at least thirty elephants with their cubs had been there during the night. From Theunissen I learnt that a lion and lioness, no doubt the same, had been heard growling within a stone’s throw of the waggon.

After breakfast next day I set out with Pit to follow up the elephants; finding, however, from the condition of the tracks, that they must have had several miles start, I considered that it would be of no use to persevere in the pursuit. The fact, however, of my having been so close to the elephants the previous night stirred up my eagerness, and although I had quite intended to leave Tamafopa that day, I made up my mind to lie in wait a night by myself as near as I could to the pool in[93] which I had heard them disporting themselves. After a good examination of the place I chose a fine hardekool-tree, nearly fifty feet high, from which to keep my look-out, but the lowest branch of it was so much above the ground, that Pit and Meriko had to hoist me up with some strips of oxhide. Once mounted, I was quite satisfied with the position, as it commanded a complete view of the pond. The night was clear and bright, but decidedly wintry, and after a time I felt the cold very severely. It was verging towards midnight, when my hopes were raised by the sound of the tramp which made me sure that a herd of elephants was approaching; my best anticipations, however, had hardly been excited before they were doomed to disappointment, for the noise of the elephants was followed immediately by the crack of a huge African bullock-whip. The waggon of the hunters came nearer, but the herd had turned off into the bushes, and was before long quite out of hearing. I afterwards heard that it was Kurtin, on his way to meet his brother in the Panda ma Tenka valley, who had thus unwittingly spoiled my night’s entertainment.

My sport on the 17th consisted chiefly in an attempt to dig out an ant-eater. On the night of the 18th we killed a couple of jackals. After passing laboriously over great tracts of sand we arrived at the pools at Tamasetze, where we stayed for a night; a very keen wind was blowing down the glade in which the pools were situated, but I fancied I might get the chance I wanted to secure a sword-antelope. I had the waggon removed to the most sheltered place we could find. We were awakened shortly after midnight by a loud cry from Meriko, who had[94] discovered a snake nestling against his legs; the reptile tried to escape, but he mutilated it so terribly that its skin was useless for my collection.

After my recent exertions and nights without sleep, I was not feeling at all well, and was very glad to get as close as I could to the fire. I was occupying myself with my diary when Theunissen, speaking very gently, told me to look behind me; on turning round, I found that I had been sitting with a puff-adder close to my feet, probably enjoying the warmth of the fire as much as myself. This time we were much more cautious in our proceedings, and I was very pleased to be able to enrich my collection with a singularly fine specimen.

Leaving our encampment in the Tamasetze wood early on the morning of July 20th, we proceeded northwards across the grassy hollow. In the afternoon we were overtaken by a Dutch boy on horseback,[96] very miserably clad. He was not more than fourteen years of age, and in reply to my question whither he was going, he told me that his father, who lived in a hut near the next pool, had sent him to take a waggon, and two negroes to attend to it, all the way to the Makalaka country, to barter beads and calico for kaffir-corn.

We arrived next day at the pool of which the lad had spoken. It was called Henry’s Pan, after the name of a hunter’s servant who had killed a giraffe there. I found three Boer families settled at the place, as well as three Dutch hunters, Schmitt and the two brothers Lotriet. For the last month Schmitt had been living in a grass-hut, and had killed a sword-antelope on the day before our arrival. His narratives of hunting-excursions were most interesting.

One of the Henry’s Pan people had a cancer in his lower jaw, and both the Lotriet families—one a party of three, and the other of nine—were suffering from fever. Their huts, wretched structures of dry branches and grass, were quite inadequate to protect them either from sun or rain, and as they lay upon the ground, their condition seemed pitiable in the extreme. They attributed all their hardships to a trader who had unscrupulously enticed them into the district, and wiped his hands of them almost directly afterwards. The account they gave was entirely substantiated by six hunters of whom I subsequently made inquiries; and so convinced was I that the facts ought to be circulated as a warning to others, that I sent the story of the Lotriets to the Diamond News, in which it was inserted under the title of “Dark Deeds.” I am in possession of[97] other narratives of a similar character, which I am reserving for future publication.

So violent had been the fever that one or two of the Lotriets were really dangerously ill, the condition of the whole family being seriously aggravated by the want of clothing and proper medicines. I supplied them with what covering I could, and prescribed for their malady, in return receiving from them a tusk weighing nearly eight pounds, about equivalent in value to the quinine which I had given. Three days previously they had had to part with quite as much ivory for about six ounces of castor-oil.

I made an excursion in which I had the opportunity of getting very near to some koodoo-antelopes, but unfortunately I lost my way in the forest, and did not get back until it was quite late.

In another ramble I came upon a number of holes that had been dug out by elephants, most of them being more than a foot deep, some as much as eighteen inches. Having scented out their favourite roots and tubers, they go down on their knees and use their tusks to make the excavations, and as the soil is often very stony, and the slopes full of rock, the tusks are apt to get very much worn. Sometimes the result of the attrition is so considerable that a difference of four pounds is caused in their weight.

We left Henry’s Pan on the 26th. Water again failed us on our route, and we were obliged to resume a system of forced marches. For some days our road lay through a very monotonous sandy forest. The trees were not generally remarkable, but we noticed one giant baobab, that just above the ground had a circumference of twenty-eight[98] feet ten inches. The variety of birds was very great; birds of prey were represented by the buzzard and the dwarf owl; singing birds by pyrols of two kinds and fly-catchers, the males distinguished by their long tails; the smaller songsters being even more numerous than in places where the vegetation was more luxuriant and diversified. Shrikes were especially numerous, particularly a large kind with a red throat and breast, frequenting low thick bushes. Yellow-beaked hornbills were not uncommon, neither were small-tailed widow-birds, hoopoes, and bee-eaters. I likewise contrived to collect a good many plants, and some varieties of seeds, fruits, and funguses.

A wooded ascent brought us to a plain of tall grass, enclosed on two sides by the forest. Everything about us, animal and vegetable, seemed more and more to partake of a tropical character. I was much struck by the peculiar way in which some of the leguminous trees shed their seeds, the heat of the sun causing the pods to burst with a loud explosion, and to cast the seed to a considerable distance all about. The air was full of myriads of tiny bees, that crept into our clothes, hair, and ears, and made our noses tingle to our great discomfort.

Since leaving the Nata we had been making a continuous ascent, and it seemed that we had now reached the highest point of the plateau. Some of the low hills that we passed contained traces of melaphyr and quartzite; and the soil generally was so stony, that although the baobab throve very fairly, all other trees and shrubs were of singularly stunted growth.

It was on the evening of the 30th that we had[99] the satisfaction of resting our eyes upon the first affluent of the Zambesi, the Deykah. It was nothing more than a little brook, rising close to the spot where we encamped; but it contained some pools of which the water was deep enough to invite us to a bath, had we not been deterred by a prudent consideration of the crocodiles that were said to lurk there. In the adjacent glades the grass had been burnt down; indeed, there were some places where bushes were still smouldering, the fire having unquestionably been kindled by the ostrich-hunters, according to their wont.

The best part of the next day was taken up in crossing a number of valleys the drainage of which flowed into the Deykah, and in going over the intervening hills, some of which were rocky, and others equally sandy; but before daylight failed us we reached the valley of the Panda ma Tenka, a small river, that after flowing first north and then north-west, and taking up various spruits on its way, finally joins the Zambesi below the Victoria Falls. Since the English traders have opened traffic with the natives the place has been a kind of rendezvous alike for them and for the elephant-hunters, and we found several waggons quartered on the left bank. A depôt, consisting of an enclosed courtyard containing a hut and a square magazine, has been built on the spot by Mr. Westbeech, the Zambesi merchant, who resides there himself during a certain portion of the year, and during his absence leaves his business to be transacted by his agents Blockley and Bradshaw. After he has disposed of his ivory in the diamond-fields, he returns with fresh goods, and makes this his starting-point[100] for his expeditions to Sesheke and along the Zambesi.

I found Mr. Blockley at the depôt. I also learnt that one of the waggons belonged to Mr. Anderson, who was very pleased to see me again. Noticing at once the great height of the fences round the enclosures, I was informed that the precaution was indispensable, because “lions ran about like dogs,” the roads everywhere being covered with their tracks.

I am inclined to divide the South African lions into three species; first, the common full-maned lion that is found in Barbary; secondly, the maneless lion; and thirdly, the kind called “krachtmanetye” by the Dutch, distinguished by its short light hair, and by a mane that never reaches below the shoulder. I do not consider the “bondpoote” of the Dutch to be a distinct species, inasmuch as its dark spots are a characteristic of the full-maned lion, and disappear as it advances in age.

The full-maned lions of the northern part of the continent are very rarely to be seen in South Africa. The maneless lions used to be common on the Molapo, and are still to be found in the valley of the central Zambesi and on the lower Chobe, their colour being extremely light; but the most common are those of the short-maned species. They haunt the valley of the Limpopo from the mouth of the Notuany downwards, to the exclusion for the most part of every other kind. It is said that they are especially dangerous between the ages of two and four years.

Ordinarily the South African lion is a most cautious beast. It might almost be supposed that he calculates the chances of every conflict, very rarely[101] returning to any encounter in which he has once been worsted. His usual tactics are to try to intimidate before he attacks; he will either approach with a tremendous roar, or advance with head erect gnashing his teeth; or sometimes he will dash along in a succession of long bounds; or again he will trot up briskly, uttering savage growls. But whichever mode of aggression he may choose, he never fails to keep his eye steadily fixed upon his intended victim. A perfect immovability is the best defence. The least sign of quailing is fatal; and the smallest movement will often infuriate a lion, especially a young lion, and invite an immediate attack. Cases are not unknown, but are comparatively rare, and generally confined to old and experienced lions, when they make their assaults without any of the preliminary devices that I have mentioned. Perhaps most of the instances of this kind would be when the beasts are absolutely suffering from hunger, or when they are exasperated after a chase, or when a lioness is guarding her whelps. It is of great advantage to a hunter, particularly to a novice in the pursuit, to see a lion before the lion sees him, even though it be for ever so short an interval. The most experienced hunter is only too likely to lose his composure if one of the giants of the forest is found face to face with him before he has time to prepare his weapon. No more unfortunate plight can be imagined, than that of a naturalist or a botanist engrossed in his studies, and suddenly disturbed by the growl of a lion close beside him. Natives seated round their fire may perhaps hope to escape, but for the solitary individual in the depths of the wood, there can be no reprieve.

[102]

NOCTURNAL ATTACK BY LION.

In districts where they are much hunted, and where they have consequently become familiar with the sound of fire-arms, as well as in parts where there is hardly any game of the kind for which they care, lions are much more dangerous than in places where their food is plentiful, and where human footsteps rarely penetrate. Most notorious for their audacity are those which haunt the banks of the Maressana and Setlagole rivers, and those that are found in the Matabele country. Except perhaps the fox, no animal surpasses them in the craftiness with which they set themselves to secure their prey. Sometimes a group of them institutes a sort of[103] battue. A few of them creep up and exhibit themselves to the victims they want to catch, thus scaring them back into the very clutch of the main body that lurks behind ready to receive them. Instinct prompts them to adopt this line of proceeding with animals whose speed is too rapid for them to overtake in open pursuit, and with such as are tall and can overlook their movements in the long grass. Horses, zebras, and giraffes, and any animals with solid hoofs form the favourite prey of all lions.

On the day after my arrival at Panda ma Tenka, Blockley invited Anderson and me to sup with him on buffalo-meat and pickled cod, prepared in London by Morton and Co. He told me that Mr. Westbeech had heard of my arrival from Mr. Mackenzie nine months ago, and that he had reported it to King Sepopo, who had willingly granted me permission to pay him a visit, adding that he was pleased to understand that I did not intend injuring his elephants. He said, moreover, that I should be in every way as welcome as Monari—that being the name by which Dr. Livingstone was known in the Marutse district. Blockley had himself spent several months at the royal residence, and had also, at the king’s invitation, once gone out to the relief of Westbeech, having taken a waggon with the greatest difficulty as far as the Barotse valley. I subsequently travelled with him, and much enjoyed his genial company.

During our stay here, I fell in with a number of Bakuenas, under the conduct of one of their princes, on their way to take Sepopo an old mare as a present from Sechele. They recognized me immediately, but I had not retained any recollection of them.

[104]

It happened that Blockley was on the point of starting to visit Sepopo, and I proposed to accompany him. I made arrangements for Theunissen to stay behind in charge of the waggon, gave stringent directions to Meriko to look after the bullocks, and decided to take Pit with me. At this time bullocks were fetching a good price; and I disposed of three of mine, because I found it requisite to get some ivory to replace my stock of ready money, that was all but exhausted. I likewise sold one of my breech-loaders to Mr. Blockley, and spent the proceeds in replenishing our supply of tea, sugar, coffee, and other articles of regular consumption. Mr. Westbeech had commenced doing business with Sepopo four years back, and it was through his influence with the king that the Marutse domains had been thrown open to other merchants. He had the advantage of being able to speak with perfect fluency the three native languages—the Sesuto, the Setebele, and the Sechuana.

We started on the 3rd of August. Blockley took a whole waggonful of wares, which he hoped the king would purchase. The vehicle would be left about nine miles from the mouth of the Chobe, and the goods carried by bearers to the Zambesi, along which they would be conveyed in boats to the new residence of the Marutse-Mabunda sovereign.

For the first few miles our road lay along some interesting hill country, intersected by a number of spruits flowing east and north-east into the Panda ma Tenka; the higher parts were rocky, and generally covered with trees. Overhanging one of the streams was an immense baobab, close to which was said to be the resort of a lion, a dark-maned brute, which[105] had sorely harassed the neighbourhood by its depredations.

In the evening we halted facing a wooded ridge, which would have to be crossed at night, on account of the tsetse-fly with which it was infested. We here met a half-caste, named “Africa,” who had been hunting ostriches twenty miles further on, and who was on his way to Panda ma Tenka, for the purpose of making some purchases of Blockley. Blockley accordingly had to return with him, but he gave his people instructions to proceed on their way for about thirty miles more, and then to wait for him to overtake them again. Africa had seen some of Sepopo’s people on the Chobe, and they had informed him that the king had been very much annoyed by the bad behaviour in his house of the Bakuena prince who had been sent with Sechele’s present.

Several times we heard the roaring of a lion, and so near to us did it seem at the time of our halting, that we not only made up unusually large fires, but took care to keep our guns ready for immediate service. The night was dark, and we could scarcely see ten yards in front of us, but shortly after two o’clock we ventured to start, and got safely through the wood without any inconvenience from the tsetse-fly, finding ourselves at dawn on the plain called the Gashuma Flat. It contained a good many pools, most of them moderately deep, frequented by water-birds. Altogether I have now crossed this plain three times, and never without noticing an abundance of game, but this time I saw zebras, Zulu-hartebeests, and harrisbocks, and, what I had never seen before, an orbeki gazelle. Continuing our journey, we came[106] after a while to another plain, of which, like the last, the soil is so rich as to be quite impassable in the rainy season. Our next halt was near a wood, at a rain-pool called Saddler’s Pan.

After altering our course from north to north-west we came in the course of the following day to a dried up rain-pool, with a number of fan-palms adorning its banks. Westbeech subsequently told me that many most elegant trees of this kind had been felled by hunters and traders on the Gashuma Flat out of pure wantonness.

That evening we reached Schneeman’s Pan, a rain-pool at which Blockley had appointed that we should wait for him. I amused myself by making some inquiries about the Manansas who were in the place, ascertaining some particulars about their manners and customs, and picking up a few fragments of their language. Most of my information was obtained from one of them who had been taken south by a trader, and who had now hired himself to a farmer here, where he had taken the opportunity of learning Dutch, and by his help I made a list of 305 words and phrases in the dialect of the Manansas or Manandshas. The hunters nickname them Mashapatan.

One day after partaking of some round red-shelled beans I had some very decided symptoms of colic, and discovered that the colouring matter in the shells was injurious, and that the first water in which they were boiled ought to be thrown away; it was always quite violet. The natives, as I afterwards learnt, are particular to observe this precaution.

Vol. II.

Page 107.

ELEPHANT HUNTING.

During our stay some of the Manansas brought us a lot of suet, which they wanted us to buy. [107]Whenever a well-fed eland is killed the suet is all melted down in a clay vessel, and preserved in small bags made of the platoides of the animal. Others brought a quantity of greenish-brown honey with an acid flavour, a mild aperient, having quite a stupifying effect when eaten freely. The bees from which it is procured are very small, and are without stings; and from the description which was given of them, I should imagine that they are identical in species with those that I saw in the north of the sandy forest.

Blockley, with two servants, returned in good time on the 8th, and we lost no time in proceeding on our way, in order to get through another district of the tsetse-wood during the night. In due time we reached the upper Leshumo valley, a narrow strip of land bordered by sandy heights, in which the waggon was to be left behind; the oxen were taken out, and were driven back to Schneeman’s Pan as quickly as possible, so as to be clear of the troublesome insects before daybreak.

A messenger was hence despatched to Impalera, a village on the other side of the Chobe, requesting Makumba, the chief of the Masupias, a subject tribe to the Marutse, to send a sufficient number of bearers to carry the merchandise to the Zambesi. Meanwhile we went a little way down the valley, which we found both marshy and rocky, with a number of springbocks continually darting out of the grass in one spot, to take refuge in another lower down.

On a slope which we reached in the course of the next hour, we noticed an immense number of elephant tracks, showing beyond a doubt that an enormous herd had passed that way during the previous night.[108] The separate footprints were not more than an inch deep in the sand, but they extended over an area twenty yards or more wide. From the profusion of stems, boughs, and bushes with which the ground was littered, it was evident that they had rushed along with furious impetuosity; the stems in some instances were as thick as my arm, and trees of double the size had been snapped off, except as far as they were kept from falling by a strip of bark; several of the larger trunks had been broken off with such violence, that the remaining stump was left cleft open to the very root; many of the branches, too, had been torn away with tremendous force, and long shreds of the ragged bark hung waving in the air.

Some fine mimosas afforded a delicious shade, their crowns being too leafy for the sunshine to penetrate; and as we left the depression in which they were growing, we found that the soil became more and more level, till all at once it suddenly sloped down again into the valleys of the Chobe and the Zambesi.

Here was the realization of the vision of my youth! Here I was actually gazing on the stream that had mingled itself with my boyish dreams! Never shall I forget the panorama that then broke upon my view, nor the emotion with which I gazed on the valley beneath me.

Vol. II.

Page 108.

ELEPHANTS ON THE MARCH.

It took me a few minutes to collect my thoughts. The valley in front stretched away three miles to the right, being bounded on the left by a plain that seemed absolutely unlimited. On the side on which I stood it was overhung by wooded rocks. In the middle of it were two islands, formed by the imperfect [109]junction of the two rivers, parting again to meet finally further on. The eastern, or “Prager” island, was flat and small, being only a few hundred yards in breadth, and still less in length; the other was nearly six miles long, varying from two to three miles wide; it had several wooded hills, one peak of which rose conspicuously by itself upon the east, considerably above any of the contiguous heights. Just below this was Impalera, the town of Makumba, and, as it were, the southern “watch-tower” of the Marutse kingdom.

In front of Impalera, and about four miles from me, the Chobe was gleaming beautifully. It was there about 300 yards wide, and bordered with reeds.

The hills on the island are detached portions of the long ridge that makes the rocks and rapids of the Chobe, and which runs along further north so as again to form the rocks and rapids of the Zambesi on a larger scale, whence it is continued till finally it joins the rocky declivity of the plateau beyond the river at the Victoria Falls.

Towards the west the valley was bounded only by the blue line of the horizon.

I gazed long with the intensest interest. There—yes, there, only just beyond that single expanse of reed-thickets—there, lighted up by the rich and gorgeous red of the setting sun—there was the land which from my early childhood it had been my ambition to explore!

BOATING ON THE ZAMBESI.

Vol. II.

Page 111.

IMPALERA.

Towards its mouth the valley of the Chobe varies from half a mile to three miles in breadth, and the valley of the Zambesi under [111]the hills above the Victoria Falls has very much the same character. Except in places where the rocky spurs abut directly on to the stream, the shores of both rivers are sandy, corresponding with those of the Zooga and most of the feeders of the highland basin of central South Africa; the rocks which I have described above the confluence of the stream, being chiefly the declivities of a sandy plateau. Down the Chobe, and throughout the district in that direction, we found the vegetation luxuriant and quite tropical in its character, but upstream, so far as I went, this feature seemed to be less marked. Upon entering the valley a stranger can hardly fail to be struck by the number of strange trees and bushes, nearly all of them producing fruit that may either be eaten or used for some domestic purpose. A notable exception to the general rule is afforded by the moshungulu, a tree of which the fruit, about two feet long and several inches thick, something like a sausage, is poisonous. The difference between the vegetation of the Zambesi valley with its adjacent plateau, and that of the more southern districts, is manifest from the single circumstance, that throughout the entire course of the river the natives can subsist all the year round on the produce of their own trees, as each month brings fruits or its edible seeds to maturity. Animal life is everywhere abundant; birds, fishes, snakes, insects, and especially butterflies, being too numerous to be reckoned. The human race itself may be said to be in a higher state of development.

Nearly opposite Impalera was a little creek overhung by a fine moshungulu. Understanding that this was the usual landing-place for natives coming across[112] the river, I gave orders for a little grass-hut to be put up there for my use. The Chobe was here between 200 and 300 yards across, and so deep that its water was of quite a dark blue colour. As I strolled along beside it I saw considerable numbers of a small water-lily floating on its surface; the species seemed to produce a very limited quantity of petals. The masses of reeds were beyond a question the lurking-places of many crocodiles.

Blockley’s people had been at the place several times before, and at their suggestion I fired off several shots to give the residents of Impalera notice of my arrival. Before long two men put off in a canoe and landed on our shore. The canoe was only the stem of a tree hollowed out with an axe; it was about ten feet long, fourteen inches wide, and ten inches deep. The men were tall and strongly built, and wore the primitive vesture of the Bantu family in the most graceful way I had ever seen, their dark brown skins being set off by their leather waistbands, to which one of them had attached three small and handsome skins, and the other some yards of calico, skilfully arranged before and behind, with the ends gathered round his loins.

On their undertaking to report my arrival to their chief, Makumba, I gave them each a knife. At the same time one of our party made them understand that Georosiana Maniniani (i.e. little George), the name given to Blockley to distinguish him from Westbeech (who, on account of his size, was known as Georosiana Umutunya, or great George), was waiting in the Leshumo valley, expecting a number of bearers to convey the king’s goods to Impalera; also that they were to take down some corn with[113] them, for which Georosiana Maniniani would give them sipaga, talama, and sisipa (small beads, large beads, and strips of calico). All the time we were talking the two men were squatting down on the ground; but as soon as the Manansa servant had made them comprehend his instructions they rose, and saying “Autile intate” (we understand you, friend), proceeded to take leave of me, with the further remark “Camaya koshi” (we go, sir).

Next morning, in an early walk up the valley, I found a surprising variety of traces of animals; there were tracks of buffaloes, koodoos, waterbocks, duykerbocks, orbeki gazelles, jackals, leopards, and lions. I likewise observed a good many hyæna-tracks, and kept continually hearing baboons barking on the hills, being induced several times to send a stray shot among the bushes. Amongst the birds I noticed two kinds of francolins, the guinea-fowl, the scopus, three kinds of plovers, saddle-storks (Mycteria Senegalensis, Shaw), several varieties of ducks, a kind of plectropterus, some spurred geese, a darter, and a kind of cormorant (Phalacrocorax).

To me the scenery that was most attractive was just above the rapids, three miles from our encampment, and about six miles from the mouth of the river. Here it was quite possible to trace the connexion of the Chobe with the Zambesi. Natural channels, full of calm flowing water, opened into the vast expanse of reeds, and the stream spread itself out over the wide marshy region. The rapids themselves rushed through a multitude of rocks, of which some were bare, some covered with sand, some overgrown with sedge, some clothed with trees and[114] brushwood. In one place where the water had worn itself a way between two of the rocky islands, I noticed some well-constructed fish-wheels very similar to those we use in Europe. Birds, especially swamp-birds, were very numerous, having taken up their quarters both on the rocks and on the shore. I was confirmed in my conviction that the river was very full of crocodiles; and at the rapids (which, by the way, I named the Blockley rapids) I noticed some water-lizards.

Our camp in the evening of the same day was visited by a party of seventeen Masupias. They were fine-looking men, with their hair tied up at the top of their heads in little tufts, and adorned with ornaments of great variety, bunches of the hair of gazelles or other small animals, pieces of coral, and strings of beads. They also wore bracelets, mostly of leather, occasionally of ivory. I bought everything that they had brought with them in the way of assegais, knives, kaffir-corn and beans, paying them in beads and calico. One of the men to whom I had given a knife on the previous day brought me a clay pitcher made by their women and full of butshuala (kaffir-corn beer); it was an offering on his part, I was given to understand, that established between us the relationship of “mulekow,” that is to say, I had henceforth the right to claim anything I liked in his house; it is a custom of the nation that sometimes results in much that is evil, as even the women of the household are included in the licence; and when a few days later I was in Impalera it seemed to excite a good deal of astonishment that I made no further use of my mulekow privilege than[115] to ask for fish, beer, corn, and a few insignificant curiosities.

Through “August,” the Manansa servant who acted as interpreter, the visitors informed me that Makumba, the chief, was now on the farther side of the Zambesi elephant hunting; and, moreover, that he was not at liberty to receive me until an answer had been received from Sepopo authorizing my admission. They even declined on this account to take any present from myself to Makumba, and when I afterwards saw the chief, he entered fully into the particulars of the relations of his people with the monarch of the Marutse.

It was soon very evident that our guests had very little regard for the law of “meum and tuum,” and we had to keep a very sharp look-out upon their proceedings throughout their visit.

Next day I received more visits from the Masupias. They were continually asking the servants, who understood their Makololo dialect, whether Georosiani Maniniani had any Matabele people with him in the Leshumo valley, as they were forbidden to permit them to enter the kingdom, even though they might declare that they had the king’s pass, and had I myself insisted upon taking any Matabele attendants, it is quite certain that, like Stanley, I should have had to make my way by force.

By the Marutse and Mashonas the Matabele are held in just as much detestation as are the Mohammedan slave-dealers from the east coast by the natives of Central Africa. Although it is quite possible that with a party of Matabele servants I might have traversed the whole continent from south to north, any white man coming after me[116] would have had to suffer for my exploit. Twice during the reign of Sekeletu on the central Zambesi the Matabele attempted to carry their incursions north of the river, but each time they failed. On the first occasion they crossed the rapids above the Victoria Falls, and got on to an island planted with manza by the Batokas, a people subject to Sekeletu, but the water rose and cut off their retreat, leaving them no means of subsistence except the roots of the manza; the result was that the whole of them died, for the roots, although wholesome enough when dried, are poisonous if they are eaten fresh. The second of the failures occurred to a party of Matabele that was conveyed down the river by a Masupia, who, having conducted them to an island, declared he was so weary that he must go away and fetch some of his people to help him. The Matabele, with a credulity quite unusual to them, allowed the man to depart, and soon found themselves in a trap. The man did not turn up any more. They had a hard time of it; they were quite unskilled in the art of spearing fish; they were afraid on account of the crocodiles to attempt to swim across the river; they could find nothing whatever to eat except the fruit of a few fan-palms, and in a short time their hunger became intense; they were reduced to the emergency of trying to sustain life by eating their leather sandals, which they cut up into pieces with their spears, and soaked; but most of them died, and the rest were easily overpowered by Sekeletu, who sent a few well-manned canoes from Linyanti and carried them off to the Barotse valley, the mother-country of the Marutse, who at that time were his subjects.[117] During my second visit to the Marutse royal quarters I had the opportunity of seeing some of these Matabele, who had come to Sesheke to pay tribute. They still wore the well-known headdress of feathers, but seemed to have lost all the warlike spirit of the Zulus, and Sepopo told me that they had become first-rate husbandmen.

Amongst other visitors on the 12th was a Masupia, a grey-headed little man, who prided himself upon having served under the late king Sekeletu, during whose reign the Makololo empire had been annihilated.

Various commodities were brought over to me from Impalera with the hope that I might purchase them, and I bought a goat for about four yards of calico; the creature was wretchedly thin, having suffered from the stings of the tsetse-fly. It was no sooner slaughtered than I found my mulekow acquaintance sidling up to me; he evidently expected a portion of it as a present, and considered that he had an unquestionable right to visit me as often as he chose at meal-times.

During this day and the following about forty of the Masupias started off in detachments to the Leshumo valley to fetch Blockley’s goods, and to take him the corn he had ordered. The corn was packed in gourd-vessels containing about half a peck each, slung upon poles, the gourd-shells being covered with bast, and tied on with the same material.

Utilized by all the South African tribes, gourd-shells are nowhere put to more various uses than in the Marutse district. By the Mabunda tribe they are branded with ornamental devices[118] of men and animals, and nearly everywhere they are employed for carrying water, being frequently covered with a network of leather; but the vassal tribes of the Bechuanas, the Makalaharis, Barwas, Masarwas, and Madenassanas, not practising agriculture, use ostrich eggs instead. Most of the Bantu tribes preserve fatty substances in the medium-sized gourd-shells, and south of the Zambesi the very small shells are made into snuff-boxes, and some of a flattened cylindrical form are converted into musical instruments.

On the 13th I was joined by a Basuto named April, who had been travelling with Blockley, and was now on his way to get permission from Sepopo to hunt elephants on his territory. He had come in company with eighteen of the Masupias who were returning with Blockley’s merchandise, each man carrying a load of about 60 lbs. They brought word that probably Blockley himself would arrive in the evening, but he did not appear.

That night, for the first time, I heard the deep grunt of the hippopotamus.

In the course of a walk down the river-side next morning I came to some deserted farms of the Masupias, who had fled to the opposite shore after the destruction of the Manansa kingdom, and in several places along the valley I saw the graves of some Masupia chiefs. These graves were mere oval mounds, covered with antelope-skulls and elephant-tusks, so arranged that the points protruded and bent downwards; some were bleached and cracked by exposure, but the smaller ones, weighing about 20 lbs., near the centre of the graves, were generally in a better state of preservation;[119] those which had been deposited most recently were only milk-teeth, and consequently worthless; in all probability they had been placed there since the Marutse had become better acquainted with the value of ivory, so that the deeds of reverence for the departed had not defrauded the rulers of any portion of their revenue. As I returned I passed several sycamores growing on the bank, their stems as well as their branches thickly covered with figs, none of which, however, were yet ripe.

Blockley arrived in the afternoon. He gave each of his bearers a quarter of a pound of beads as payment for their services, but the Masupias rejected all the red beads, refusing to take any but the dark blue. They wanted them, they said, to purchase assegais, and the tribe from which they bought them insisted on having blue beads and no other.

The embarkation of the bearers on their return was an interesting scene. Their canoes, about twenty in number, had been waiting for them in the creek, and late in the afternoon they all pushed off to the opposite shore. They were very slim, varying in length from seven to sixteen feet, and manned by one, two, three, or four men, according to their size. A few of them had to carry back the empty shells that had contained the corn, several were full of firewood, and some conveyed various pieces of the carcase of a great buffalo-cow that had just been killed. The last to leave were my mulekow friend and four others. They were in a large canoe, while he, anxious to display his skill in paddling, had his canoe to himself. He made a great effort to outstrip[120] the others, who did not feel inclined to be left in the rear. He had succeeded in getting a good start, but just as he reached the middle of the stream, the wind caught the folds of his kubu (mantle), and getting entangled by it his movements were obstructed, and he was easily beaten. It was his vanity that had brought about his defeat. He had sold me a couple of hatchets for seven yards of calico, and had made Pit cut him out a garment, which he insisted should use up the whole of it.

Without loss of time Blockley crossed on the 15th, but I was obliged to remain where I was until I heard from the king. I roved about in all directions, and discovered some warm salt springs, and I likewise added to my collection some fish that the Masupias had speared in the creek. Just as I had done on the Limpopo, I stood and watched the crocodiles raise their heads above the water, and snap at the kingfishers and water-birds on the bushes and reeds.

In order to watch the nocturnal movements of the animals I spent the whole of the next night by the river. I chose a sandy spot, shut off on the side towards the water by a thicket of reeds, and waited for the moonlight to enable me to see all that went on in the lagoon. About eleven o’clock a herd of pallahs made their appearance, the leader growling with a low note by way of assuring the rest that all was safe. But nothing interested me so much as the manœuvres of a pair of large otters that emerged from the reeds opposite, and began hunting all round the margin of the creek, their success in catching their prey being far greater than that of the crocodiles. They stood for a few seconds about[121] two feet from the edge of the water, then darted into the nearest clump of reeds, where they foraged with their snouts, and kept returning to devour their prey, which, as far as I could see, consisted entirely of small fish.

Having time on my hands, I next made a longer excursion; but though I much enjoyed my ramble, I was disappointed in not being able to secure either a pallah or a baboon. However I saw some very fine kingfishers (Ceryle maxima), as well as bee-catchers and cuckoos.

In due time the “rumela,” or salute, was fired from the opposite shore by Makumba, as a signal that the messengers had arrived from Sesheke, bringing a favourable answer from the king. It was my duty to acknowledge the salute by returning it, and I took the opportunity of having a few shots at the fruit of the moshungulu-tree; and by knocking down some, and splitting others, I received great applause from the Masupias who were present. A short time afterwards two little canoes were sent over to carry me across.

I estimated both the lower Chobe and the Zambesi as having a depth of between thirty and forty feet, and consequently being quite large enough for ships of considerable burden, but the different reaches are separated so frequently by ridges of rock, that the rapids make all navigation impracticable.

REMOVAL TO NEW SESHEKE.

On landing I was again greeted by Makumba with a salute, which I had again to return in due form. I was much struck as I entered the village by the construction of the huts and their enclosures. They were made of reeds, and built in the double[122] style that I had noticed in the ruins of Mosilili’s town. Their diameter was about nine feet, that of the enclosure in which they stood being twenty-five. The ordinary height of every fence was nearly twelve feet. Never elsewhere had I seen any so tall. The entire length of the reeds was used partly as a protection from the floods of the summer months,[123] but principally as a shelter from the wind. Some of the huts were made of grass as well as reeds. They were shaped like an oven, and consisted of two rooms and a verandah.

On a grass-plot near the middle of the settlement stood the council-hut, a conical roof of straw supported on a few not very substantial piles. Under it I noticed one of the morupas, or drums, that, as I afterwards learnt, are to be found in most Marutse and Masupia villages. The skin of the drum is pierced, and a short stick inserted into the opening, with another stick fixed transversely at its end, the whole instrument being a cylinder of about a foot to a foot and a half long. Their sound, which cannot be compared to anything much better than the creaking of new boots, is made by rubbing the stick with a piece of wet baobab-bast twisted round the hand of the performer. They are rarely brought into use except on occasions when the inhabitants are celebrating the return from a successful lion or leopard hunt with music and dancing.

Makumba himself, a dark skinned Masupia about forty years of age, received me very kindly. He was entertaining three other visitors, two English officers, Captain McLeod and Captain Fairly, and a Mr. Cowley, who had all come from Natal for the sake of some hunting. They had already obtained permission from Sepopo to enter his territory. They had sent him their presents, and were now on the point of returning to their waggon at Panda ma Tenka to complete all their preparations for their expedition. It subsequently transpired that they were greatly disappointed, and received anything but honourable treatment at the hands of the[124] Marutse king. Captain McLeod informed me that he had killed an elephant with tusks weighing 100 lbs., and that Sepopo had taken them, under a promise to give him two others instead on his return to Sesheke.

We were entertained at one of Makumba’s residences with butshuala (kaffir-corn beer), which was brought in wooden bowls, and served out in gourd-shell cups. He was a staunch supporter of the king, and ultimately lost his life in his service. While I was with him, he took the opportunity of enlightening me as to some of Sepopo’s peculiarities, that I might regulate my proceedings accordingly.

Before leaving Impalera I took several walks about the village, and found that it was divided into three groups of homesteads; that nearest the river contained 135 huts; another, where the natives took refuge during floods, contained twenty-five huts; the third, made up of thirty-two huts, lay farther to the west. The women did not wear aprons like the Bechuanas, but had little petticoats reaching to the knee. On the whole, the people were decidedly superior in looks to the Bechuana tribes.

Makumba left the village on the same day that we arrived. His proper home was on the left bank of the Zambesi, the residence at Impalera being occupied by one of his wives and some maids who attended to the fields, and kept the place prepared for him whenever he might choose to pay it a visit. The only reason for his being here now was that he might welcome me in the king’s name; I thanked him for his courtesy, and offered him a present, which he[125] declined, saying that it was as much as his head was worth to accept a gift from either a black man or a white before the king had received one.

Late in the afternoon of the 17th we made our way to a great baobab close to the landing-place on the Zambesi known as “Makumba’s haven.” The boatmen put up a temporary shelter for Blockley and myself, and there I spent my first night on the bank of that great river that for years it had been my chief ambition to behold.

The landing-place was close to the rapids of which I have spoken, and about four miles above the mouth of the Chobe. Before us in the stream were numbers of small islands, some wooded and others overgrown with weeds. Darters were perching on the overhanging branches, and cormorants had taken up their quarters on the ledges of the dark brown rocks. Carefully avoiding the deeper places frequented by crocodiles, the birds kept on diving for fish and returning to their old positions, where they spread out their wings to dry. We shot several of them, but only managed to secure two, as the rest, like a bald buzzard (Haliaëtus vocifer) that I also killed, were carried down the stream and devoured by crocodiles. Hippopotamuses could be heard every ten minutes throughout the night, but the large fire that we made deterred them from coming close to us.

Soon after sunrise I took my first boat-journey on the Zambesi. I found myself in a fragile canoe made of a hollowed tree-stem scarcely eighteen inches wide, its sides being scarcely three inches above the surface of the deep blue stream, that made a dark belt around the diversified verdure of the islets.[126] On the right, like a strong wall six feet in height, rose masses of reeds, extending very often miles away, and occasionally broken into regular arcades by the passage of the hippopotamuses between the river and their pasturage. Rose-coloured convolvuluses, countless in number, twined themselves up the reedstalks, and gave brightness and colour to the rustling forest. On the other hand was a reedy island, encircled with a hedge of the bristly papyrus, the feathery heads of the outer clumps trembling with the motion of the current; in well-nigh every gap of the fantastic foliage glimpses were caught of gaily-feathered birds, crimson, or grey, or white; ever and again a silver or a purple heron would dart out for a moment, whilst aquatic birds, in strange variety, were watching for fish behind the sedge.

Whenever the boatmen turned into one of the less frequented side-channels, there were always to be seen flocks of wild geese and ducks, with spoonbills, sandpipers, and three kinds of mews swarming on the sand-banks; nor could my attention fail to be attracted by the long-drawn cry of the bald buzzards, sitting in pairs upon the trees and hillocks. Every instant seemed to bring to light some fresh specimen of animal life, contributing new interest to the mighty stream.

The very mode of travelling gave an additional charm to the scene, as nothing can be imagined much more picturesque than the canoes, always fleet, however heavily laden, and manned with their dark-skinned crews, deftly plying their paddles, while their leather aprons, bound with coloured calico, fluttered in the wind. The steersman was always at the bow, next to him would sit the passenger,[127] behind whom the oarsmen, varying in number from three to ten or eleven, would row in perfect time, often regulating their movements to a song. Some canoes that I saw were not less than twenty-two feet in length.

Taking into account the dimensions of the islands, I should estimate that the stream, in some parts only 300 yards across, occasionally attained a width of 1000 yards. In many places the shores had been washed away, so that there were no shelving banks. In sedgy spots, about eight feet from the shore, the water was six feet deep, and where the reeds were thick, it got no deeper for twenty feet away from land.

MASUPIA GRAVE.

After paddling along for close upon three hours, I found that the reeds and bushes on the right gave[128] way to a wide grass-plain, to which the Marutse and Masupias had given the name of Blockley’s kraal. It seemed to be full of game, and we left our canoes for a time and went ashore. Herds of buffaloes were visible on the outskirts; here, too, for the first time I saw some letshwe and puku antelopes; they were cropping the pasturage by hundreds; the letshwes were larger and the pukus smaller than blessbocks, and both, like all waterbocks, had shaggy, light-brown hair, and horns bent forward. I likewise saw some groups of rietbocks in the long grass, and in the direction of the woods were herds of zebras, as well as striped gnus, sometimes as many as twenty together.

After re-embarking, we kept close to the shore, with the object of avoiding the hippopotamuses that in the day-time frequent the middle of the stream, only rising from time to time to breathe. Whenever the current made it necessary for us to change to the opposite side of the river, I could see that the boatmen were all on the qui-vive to get across as rapidly as possible, and I soon afterwards learnt by experience what good reason they had to be cautious. We had occasion to steer outwards so as to clear a papyrus island, when all at once the men began to back water, and the one nearest me whispered the word “kubu.” He was pointing to a spot hardly 200 yards ahead, and on looking I saw first one hippopotamus’s head, and then a second, raised above the surface of the stream, both puffing out little fountains from the nostrils. They quickly disappeared, and the men paddled on gently, till they were tolerably close to the place where the brutes had been seen. Both Blockley and I cocked[129] our guns, and had not long to wait before the heads of two young hippopotamuses emerged from beneath the water, followed first by the head of a male and then by that of a female. We fired eight shots, of which there was no doubt that two struck the old male behind the ear. The men all maintained that it was mortally wounded, and probably such was the case; but although we waited about for nearly an hour, we never saw more than the heads of the three others again. It was only with reluctance that the men were induced to be stationary so long; except they are in very small boats and properly armed with assegais they are always anxious to give the hippopotamus as wide a berth as they can.

ON THE BANKS OF THE CHOBE.

Of all the larger mammalia of South Africa I am[130] disposed to believe that to an unarmed man the hippopotamus is the most dangerous. In its normal state it can never endure the sight of anything to which it is unaccustomed or which takes it by surprise. Let it come upon a horse, an ox, a porcupine, a log of wood, or even a fluttering garment suddenly crossing its path, and it will fly upon any of them with relentless fury; but let such object be withdrawn betimes from view, and the brute in an instant will forget all about it and go on its way entirely undisturbed.[3] Although in some cases it may happen that an unprotected man may elude the attacks of a lion, a buffalo, or a leopard except they have been provoked, he cannot indulge the hope of escaping the violence of a hippopotamus that has once got him within reach of its power.

When out of several hippopotamuses in a river one has been wounded, the rest are far more wary in coming to the surface; and should the wound have been fatal, the carcase does not rise for an hour, but drifts down the stream. The Marutse have a very simple but effectual way of landing their dead bodies; a grass rope with a stone attached is thrown across it, and by this means it is easily guided to the shore. The whole river-side population is most enthusiastic in its love of hippopotamus-hunting, and it is owing to the skill of the Marutse natives in this pursuit that they have been brought from their homes in the Upper Zambesi, and established in villages down here, where they may help to keep the court well supplied[131] not only with fresh and dried fish, but particularly with hippopotamus-flesh.

The boats that are used as “mokoro tshi kubu” (hippopotamus-canoes) are of the smallest size, only just large enough for one; they are difficult to manage, but are very swift; the weapons employed are long barbed assegais, of which the shafts are so light that they are not heavier than the ordinary short javelins for military use.

While I was in Sesheke I heard of a sad casualty that had occurred near the town in the previous year. A Masupia on his way down the river saw a hippopotamus asleep on a sandy bank, and believing that he might make it an easy prey, approached it very gently and thrust his spear right under the shoulder. The barb, however, glinted off its side, inflicting only a trifling wound. In a second, before the man had time to get away, the infuriated brute was up, and after him. In vain he rolled himself over to conceal himself in the grass; the beast seemed resolved to trample him to pieces; he held up his right hand as a protection, and it was crushed by the monster’s fangs; he stretched out his left, and it was amputated by a single bite. He was afterwards found by some fishermen in a most mutilated state, barely able to recount his misfortune before he died.

Although I have often tasted hippopotamus-meat, I cannot say that I like it. The gelatinous skin when roasted is considered a delicacy; in its raw state it makes excellent handles for knives and workmen’s tools, as it shrinks as it dries, and takes firm hold upon the metal.

If a hippopotamus is killed within fifty miles of[132] Sesheke half of it is always sent to the king, and the breast reserved for the royal table. It is at night-time that the hippopotamus generally goes to its pasturage, in the choice of which it is very particular, sometimes making its way eight or nine miles along the river-bank, and returning at daybreak to its resort in the river or lagoons, where its presence is revealed by its splashes and snorts. Occasionally it is found asleep in the forests ten miles or more away from the water. In eastern and southern Matabele-land, and in the Mashona country, where they are found in the affluents of the Limpopo and the Zambesi it is a much less difficult matter to capture them, and Matabele traders have told me that they have seen Mashonas attack them in the water with broad-bladed daggers, and soon overpower them.

In time past hippopotamuses were common throughout South Africa, and the carvings of the bushmen would go to prove that they not only frequented the rivers, but found their way to the salt rain-pans; they are still to be found in the rivers of Natal, and I was told in Cape Colony that they are in existence in Kaffraria; but in Central South Africa they are not seen south of the Limpopo.

The Zambesi abounds with crocodiles, but we did not see one that day.

Vol. II.

Page 132.

HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNTING.

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Page 133.

GAME COUNTRY NEAR BLOCKLEY’S KRAAL.

The shores of the river here consisted of alternate strata of clay and earth, varying from two to eighteen inches in thickness, the mould made up of alluvial soil and decayed vegetable matter. In some places where the outflow from some hollow in the plain had made itself a channel to the river, the natives had dammed it up by an embankment of rushes ten feet high. We travelled at the rate of [133]three to three-and-a-half miles an hour; and in the course of the day crossed the river ten times, either to cut off a bend in the stream or to avoid the full current. Towards the right we had an extensive view of Blockley’s kraal, full of life with its innumerable heads of game and cattle, but towards the south and west we were quite shut in by towering banks of reeds grown up into thickets, which, together with the lagoons they form, are the resort of elephants as well as of hippopotamuses. Finding a deserted hut upon a sandy bank, we resolved to spend the night beneath its shelter.

Several of the men set to work immediately with their knives and assegais to cut down a number of reeds, which they tied together into bundles; others with the same implements dug a series of holes into which the reeds were put upright as props; meanwhile three canoes had been sent across the stream to fetch dry grass which was spread over the top of the supports, and thus in marvellously quick time some huts were erected from four to six feet in height.

Next morning on the left-hand shore we passed the mouth of the Kasha or Kashteja, the river called by Livingstone the Majeela, the name by which it is known amongst the Makololos. A few hundred yards above its mouth the stream was in some places hardly more than fifteen yards wide, but although it was only three feet deep, it was quite unsafe to try to wade across it, on account of the crocodiles with which its seething waters abounded. We met several canoes full of people from Makumba’s town, who had been to Sesheke with ivory for Sepopo, and were now returning, having received a present[134] of some ammunition and two woollen shirts apiece.

We paused on our way to refresh ourselves with a bath in a shallow place which we ascertained was safe, and then hurried on with all speed, that we might reach the royal quarters before evening. Some small herds of cattle grazing along the river-side, under the close surveillance of their keepers, apprised us of our approach to the new settlement, which enjoys the advantage of being free from the tsetse fly.

Old Sesheke lay on a lagoon about a mile and a half west of the place where the river makes a sudden bend to the east, and the original Marutse royal residence was in the fertile mother-country of the Barotse, which was eminently fitted for cattle-breeding. Sepopo, however, the present king, had made himself unpopular amongst the Barotse, and had moved away into the Masupia country, although it was a district which, except in a few detached places, was much infested with the tsetse. He had, however, another reason for the change he made; he was dissatisfied with the dealings of the Portuguese traders, whose goods he found to be of very inferior quality as compared with those brought by Westbeech, and accordingly he was anxious to make a move that would bring him into nearer connexion with the traders from the south.

As we approached the royal residence, Blockley proposed that we should announce our arrival by a rumela. The echoes of our shots had hardly died away before some groups of men gathered under the trees, and our salute was answered by another; manifestly the king was amongst the people, superintending[135] the organization of the new settlement. Our boatmen joined in the shouting that was commenced upon the beach, where the clamour lasted for a quarter of an hour, until we reached the landing-place, where several canoes were drawn up under the trees.

In order to have audience of the ruler of the Central Zambesi, I felt that it was becoming on my part to dress myself in my very best, but it was rather aggravating at the last moment to find that my hat had been mislaid. Blockley would scarcely allow me time to overhaul my baggage to get at the missing article, but dragged me off, telling me that the sound of the myrimba was already begun.

I have already mentioned that Sepopo had been expecting me for some months; he had often inquired of Westbeech and Blockley when the nyaka was coming, to travel through the country like Monari (Livingstone); and although since the visit of the great explorer he had had interviews with at least fifteen white men, he was desirous to give me a more imposing reception than any of them.

IN THE PAPYRUS THICKETS.

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Page 137.

RECEPTION AT SEPOPO’S.

A crowd of natives in leather and cotton aprons announced that the king was waiting to receive me, and after proceeding another [137]200 yards I stood face to face with his majesty. He was a man of about five-and-thirty, dressed in European style, with an English hat upon his head, decorated with a fine white ostrich feather. He had a broad, open countenance, large eyes, and a good-humoured expression that betrayed nothing of the tyrant that he really was. Advancing to meet me with a light and easy tread, he smiled pleasantly as he held out his hand, and after greeting Blockley in a similar fashion, he bestowed a nod of recognition on our servant April. He was accompanied by some of the principal court-officials, only one of whom wore trousers; two others had woollen garments fastened across their backs, whilst the rest were only to be distinguished from the general mob by the number of bracelets on their arms. The most noticeable part of the procession was the royal band; on either side of the king were myrimba-players bringing out the most excruciating sounds with a pair of short drumsticks from a keyboard of calabashes suspended from their shoulders by a strap; these were preceded by men with huge tubular drums, upon which they played with their fingers, accompanying the strains with their voices. Followed by this motley throng, we were conducted to a tall mimosa, where we were met by a man in European costume, whom Sepopo introduced to me as Jan Mahura, a Bechuana, who had resided three years with him as interpreter.

Blockley was able to dispense with the services of this corpulent, sly-looking individual, but to me he proceeded formally to introduce his Majesty as “Sepopo, Morena of the Zambesi.” The king then[138] seated himself upon a little wooden stool that a servant had been carrying for him, and made signs to us to be seated on the ground; but seeing that I hesitated about taking such a position in my best suit of black, he sent for two trusses of dry grass upon which Blockley and I had to sit down without more ado.

Sepopo began to besiege Blockley with question after question, and as I was not sufficiently versed in the Sesuto-Serotse dialect to follow their conversation, I entertained myself by criticizing the company. Presently the crowd opened to admit a young man, preceded by a herald, and carrying a great wooden dish which, after making an obeisance, he placed on the open space between us and the king. The odour was quite sufficient to make us aware that the dish contained broiled fish. Sepopo picked out a fish at random and handed it to the chiefs Kapella and Mashoku, who had to eat a portion of it; and having thus satisfied himself that the food was not poisoned, he handed one each to Blockley and me, and took another himself. Our fingers had to do duty in the absence of forks, the mighty sovereign of many and many a thousand miles setting us the example in a very dexterous fashion. We had eaten nothing since breakfast, and were consequently by no means disinclined to make a good meal now; but the etiquette of the country did not permit us to eat more than half a fish, and we were expected to pass over the rest to the chiefs who were sitting next us, they in their turn taking a bit and handing the remnant to their neighbours. Ten fish constituted the whole repast, and the servants were permitted to pick the heads.

The Marutse excel in their methods of dressing[139] fish, some being stewed in their own oil, and others, after they have been dried in the sun, being broiled on ashes. The kinds that are stewed are those known among the Zambesi tribes as tshi-mo, tshi-gatshimshi, and tshi-mashona, all rapacious fish, except the hard-lipped inquisi, being disliked by them. I rarely saw them eat the common flat-headed sheat-fish; they avoid it chiefly because its flesh is so often perforated by a parasite, a sort of spiral worm about an inch long, not unlike a trichina. A great many fish, after being sun-dried, are kept for months, and then packed in baskets and sent to the north for sale.

When we had finished our repast, several servants brought bowls of water, with which the inner circle were expected to moisten their lips. After our primitive method of feeding, it was quite necessary that we should get rid of the grease from our fingers; and to assist us in this, one of the servants brought a platter containing about twenty dirty little green balls of the size of a walnut. The king and the courtiers each took one and rubbed it over their hands, which they afterwards washed. When it came to my turn to help myself to one of the balls, my curiosity to know of what it consisted provoked very general amusement. By the king’s direction Jan Mahura, the interpreter, called out to me, “Smell them, sir,” and I was at once aware that they were of the nature of soap. After washing, Blockley and I dried our hands upon our pocket-handkerchiefs, but Sepopo and his officers scraped the moisture off their fingers with their “libekos.” The outer ranks of the assembly merely rubbed their hands on the dry sand.

[140]

The libeko used by the Bantu tribes in the place of our pocket-handkerchief is a miniature shovel made of very different sizes, being from half an inch to an inch wide, but varying from two inches to ten inches in length. It is usually attached to a small strap or a chain of grass or beads, and its effect is not only to widen the nostrils, but to disfigure the countenance generally.

As the afternoon was advancing, the king rose, and attended by his vocal and instrumental performers, led the way to the landing-place, where we all embarked in three canoes for an airing on the water. We were not long upon the main stream before we turned into a lagoon, whence, after about a quarter of an hour, we entered another side lagoon, which brought us to the landing-place of Old Sesheke. This town, which the king was now leaving for his new settlement, was on the border of a sandy wood, and scarcely twenty-five feet above the valley. Close to it, built of wood or reeds, were the storehouses in which Westbeech put his goods until Sepopo was ready to pay for them in ivory. The courtyard contained three huts, one occupied by Westbeech’s cook, one by his other servants, and a third used as his kitchen. Behind his own little house, and between it and the hedge, stood a fourth hut, about five feet high and seven feet in diameter, similar in shape to a Koranna hut, with a doorway that could only be entered on all fours. This was assigned to me during my residence in the king’s domains.

Vol. II.

Page 140.

PORT OF SHESHEKE.

Before I took possession of my mansion, I was invited, Blockley with me, to join the king at supper. He was in a little cemented courtyard sitting on a [141]mat; we were accommodated in a similar way, and conducted to our seats upon his left hand, the queen and some officials being placed upon his right. The meal consisted of boiled eland flesh served upon plates, and this time we found ourselves provided with knives and forks, which had been introduced by the traders from the west coast. As sauce to the meat we were offered manza, a transparent sort of meal-pap, that upon analyzing, I afterwards ascertained was very nutritious. After supper some impote (honey-beer) was brought in a round-bodied gourd-shell with a twisted neck, and poured out into large tin mugs that had been a present from Westbeech. The butler, after clapping his hands, sat down in the open space in front of the king and drank off the first goblet; the king took the next, and, after sipping it, passed it to the queen on his left, and then received it back from her and offered it to us; although several of the chiefs that were present were allowed to partake of the beverage, no one but ourselves was permitted to put his lips to the royal cup. When the drinking was over, the king rose from his seat, took off his boots, and gave them to the waiting-maid who had brought in the meat, and retired to his house, though not until he had invited me to breakfast with him in the morning.

I had been asleep in my new quarters for about two hours, when I was roused by a noise in the small front room of the storehouse, and looking out I saw a glimmer of light, by which I could distinctly make out that Sepopo and some of his people were rummaging amongst the goods that Blockley had just deposited there; after waiting a little longer, I saw Sepopo come out and walk off with a waggonlantern[142] that Blockley had refused to give him during the day. It was a transaction that opened my eyes to the way which the Marutse king had of getting possession of any articles that might take his fancy.

Before concluding my account of my first day at Sesheke, I may mention a little incident that occurred while we were sitting drinking the impote. Four men arrived laden with ivory, and after depositing the load of tusks in the middle of the enclosure, they clapped their hands and prostrated themselves five times with their foreheads to the ground, crying out, “Shangwe! Shangwe!” They then retired quite into the rear of all the rest, to remain till the meal was over. When the king summoned them, they crept forward, and kept clapping their hands very gently all the time the king was speaking to them, and when he ceased they proceeded with great volubility to recount all the particulars of the hunting-excursion from which they had returned. They were much commended, and told to come in the morning to receive some ammunition and their proper reward. The ivory was crown property, and the guns used by the hunters were only lent to them, and were liable to be recalled at any moment at the royal pleasure.

It was quite customary for all white men, before entering Impalera, to send the king a present by way of securing a pass from the banks of the Chobe to his territory. No such impost, however, was demanded from me. It was entirely a voluntary act on my part, that I made an offering of a Snider breech-loader and 200 cartridges.

Unlike supper, breakfast was not served in the open air, but inside the house. The long grass-hut,[143] similar to a gabled roof some eight feet high, was divided by a partition into two compartments, the walls of the front one, in which we took our meal, being decorated with guns, Marutse weapons, elephants’ tusks, and various articles of apparel, amongst which I noticed the uniform of a Portuguese dragoon. I took advantage of the good humour and communicative mood of the king, to gain from him some information about Marutse history and the growth of the kingdom; and as various points were afterwards confirmed by several of the chiefs, it may not be inopportune to introduce them here.

Under the leadership of their chief Sebituani, a branch of the Basutos between the upper courses of the Orange and Vaal rivers emigrated northwards. After forcing their way through the Bechuana countries, and subduing various tribes on the lower Chobe and central Zambesi (amongst whom were the eastern Bamashi and Barutse, who occupied an area of 2000 square miles), they not only succeeded in exacting tribute from other tribes as far eastward as the river Kafue, but they consolidated themselves into the Makololo Empire. Their next king was Sekeletu. The discords that sprung up amongst the people during his reign opened the way for the vanquished Marutse tribe to resume arms against them, and that with such success that after several battles the Makololos residing between the Chobe and the Zambesi, already decimated by disease, were reduced to two men and some boys, while their male population south of the Chobe, who had numbered more than 2000, were in like manner brought down to a mere handful. Had they remained on the right bank of the Chobe, the Makololos[144] would probably have existed to this day; but fearing that the Marutse would be reinforced by the Mabundas and other subject tribes, they made their way towards Lake N’gami in the territory of the western Bamangwatos. There they were sadly deceived; they were received with apparent cordiality, but were ultimately the victims of a cruel stratagem; messengers from King Letshuatabele greeted them with the salutation, “If you come as friends and not as foes, leave your spears and battle-axes and come into the city;” in full confidence they accepted the invitation, but no sooner had they entered the kotla than the citizens barred the entrance with poles and boughs, and massacred them to a man. The women were divided amongst the conquerors, the king having his first choice of the most attractive; the chiefs took the next pick, leaving the rest to be distributed amongst their subjects. From that time women of brown complexion have been found amongst the Bathowanas and people north of the Zambesi, though the dark-skinned tribes always regard it as a sign of degeneration of race. Sepopo subsequently took possession of the whole of the Makololo country, with the exception of the eastern Bamashi territory and their land south of the Chobe, where he did not enter from fear of the Matabele.

To the north of the Marutse was the Mabunda kingdom, which was governed by members of the Marutse royal family. The queen on her death-bed some years before had designated Sepopo’s eldest daughter Moquai as her successor, but Moquai, alarmed at the prospect of persecution from her father, handed over the government to him; and[145] thus it happened that now I found a conjoint Marutse-Mabunda rule, under the sovereignty of Sepopo, a direct descendant of the original royal family of the Marutse.

During breakfast Sepopo sent for the chief representatives of eighteen of the larger tribes and introduced them to me. These tribes are subdivided into eighty-three smaller ones, and their chiefs are all more or less in communication with Sesheke. In addition to those that have been settled for some time within the kingdom, there are the Matabele, Menon’s Malalakas, and the Masarwas scattered in various districts; of these the two latter are fugitive tribes from the south, the Matabele having been tributary to the Bamangwatos, and Menon’s Malalakas to the Matabele.

The Marutse occupy the fertile valleys of the Barotse country on both sides the Zambesi, from Sekhose to about 150 miles south of the confluence of the Kabompo and the Liba. I believe the Barotse valley to be the most productive portion of the kingdom, and as well adapted for agriculture as for cattle-breeding; it abounds in game, but is likewise prolific in wild vegetable products, of which india-rubber is not the least important. The country, formerly the residence of various members of the royal family, contains several towns; the districts east and north-east of it are occupied by the Mabundas, so that it follows that the bulk of the population that lies outside the Barotse is, for the most part, to be found near the rivers Nyoko, Lombe, and Loi.

The district joining the Mabundas on the north is in the occupation of the Mankoë, but it does not[146] extend beyond the west bank of the Zambesi; again to the north of this is the settlement of the Mamboë, on the lower Kabompo and Liba. Around the town of Kavagola, on the upper Zambesi, are the Bamomba and Manengo tribes, while the Masupia region lies for fifty miles up the river from a point about thirty miles below its junction with the Chobe. East of this the Batoka people range for thirty miles below the Victoria Falls, where their frontier is joined by the Matongas, who reside near the middle of the Kashteja, Livingstone’s Majeela. On the lower course of the Kashteja, between the Matongas and Masupias, are the western Makalakas, the eastern Makalakas being farther down the Zambesi, with Wankie’s kraal as their principal property. The Luyana tribe is settled south of the Zambesi to the west of the Masupias, and the other tribes either extend in small districts thence towards the Barotse valley, north of the Matongas, and east of the Mamboë, or have scattered themselves about in little detached settlements here and there over the kingdom.

Vol. II.

Page 147.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE MARUTSE.

Nearly the whole of these which I have thus briefly enumerated are, with the marked distinction of the Marutse, held as vassals, the people being treated to a certain degree as slaves. However it is not more than a quarter of them who actually pay any tribute, these being chiefly the eastern tribes, such as the Batokas, eastern Makalakas and Mabimbis. As a consequence of Sepopo’s oppression, many of the natives have withdrawn from the kingdom, generally going south, and the difficulty of collecting tribute anywhere has very greatly increased. The imposts levied upon such as can be induced to pay them [147]consist chiefly of cereals, either wheat, kaffir-corn, and maize, or of consignments of dried fruits, gourds, india-rubber, mats, canoes, weapons of any kind, wooden utensils, and musical instruments. Ivory, honey, and manza are crown-property, and it is a capital offence for any one to carry on any transactions with regard to them on his own account. Without exception, all the tribes are bound to supply the Marutse sovereign with a stated number of tusks, both of male and female elephants, and with a stipulated quantity of the skins of a large dark brown species of lemur.

The prevailing language of the kingdom, and the principal medium of correspondence between the different tribes, is that of the extirpated Makololos. Overtaken as they have been by the arm of fate, and swept away from existence as a recognized community, they have yet bequeathed to their conquerors the heritage of their dialect. The enlargement of the kingdom by the annexation of the Mabunda territory, and the ever-increasing traffic with the population south of the Zambesi, have resulted in the Sesuto of the Makololos being adopted as the common tongue. It is of immense advantage to an explorer to be familiar with it, as although it may not be found in its purity, having been corrupted more or less by the admixture of the Serotse, it will rarely fail to enable him to make himself understood in any quarter of the kingdom.

When I asked the king the extent of his dominions, he told me that it took his people fifteen or twenty days to reach the northern frontier; and after making strict inquiries, first of the native chiefs, then of the envoys from the Mashukulumbe,[148] and lastly from the Portuguese traders, and reducing the days’ journeys to miles, I think that I am quite borne out in assigning the boundaries as they are marked in my map; that is to say, with the Mashukulumbe on the north and east, the Bamashis on the west, and the Bamangwatos and Matabele country on the south.

Sepopo’s name in the Serotse dialect means “a dream,” and his mother was called Mangala. After introducing me to the principal chiefs and officials that were then in Sesheke, amongst whom was Kapella the commander-in-chief, he presented Mashoku the executioner, a repulsive Mabunda, and his two fathers-in-law, who were about to become his sons-in-law as well, as, having married their daughters, he was going to give them two of his own young daughters as wives in return.

During the time that these introductions were going on, honey-beer was being drunk, and it occurred to me that Lunga, the handsomest of the ladies, took an uncommonly large share. Very shortly afterwards three Marutse came into the tent uttering a loud cry of “Shangwe,” and each carrying a buffalo’s tail; they had been sent by the king to procure some meat for Blockley and myself. Before I left, Sepopo pointed out to me his two doctors who provided him with charms when he went hunting.

I spent the remainder of the day in making an investigation of the town, returning in the evening to the royal residence, where I found that Makumba had just come in from Impalera, bringing the melancholy intelligence that Y., the trader that I had met at Schneemann’s Pan, and had urged to[149] go on as quickly as possible to my waggon at Panda ma Tenka, had died before reaching there.

On the night of the 20th an event occurred that rather tended to disturb the harmonious relations between Sepopo and myself. By Blockley’s hospitality a very lively evening had been spent in his courtyard, and it was getting on for midnight before his black guests of both sexes had emptied the three great pitchers of beer with which he had entertained them, and had set out on their way home. For a long time afterwards the uproar they made, and the harsh notes of their calabash keyboards, made sleep quite out of the question, but at length I dropped into a doze, from which I was almost immediately aroused by the barking of a dog. I opened my eyes, and at once observed that my hut was peculiarly light, although I had blocked up the entrance with a chest. In another instant I made out that there was a dark figure in the aperture, and that a native was in the very act of taking my clothes, which I had thrown on the top of the chest. The only weapon that was at hand was an assegai which I had bought on the previous day, but it was hanging out of my reach; and before I could get at it, the thief and a partner he had with him had run away towards the huts. I followed as quickly as I could, but too late to see them. On my way I found that they had left a stick and a fish behind. It was not likely that I could get much more sleep that night, and the first thing I did in the morning was to go and tell the king what had happened. He made a very evasive reply, and I could feel evidently enough that my company that day gave him anything but pleasure. Nevertheless I determined to do what[150] I could to sift the matter to the bottom. In spite of the absurdity of expecting to get an applicant, I sent one of Blockley’s servants to the town to circulate the report that I had found a stick, which I should be happy to return to its proper owner. Late in the afternoon a middle-aged man appeared and claimed the stick, and as he said that the fish was also his property, I took him off forthwith to the king. Meanwhile the stolen articles had been concealed, and when the man’s hut was searched by the king’s messenger nothing could be found, and accordingly the man was declared not guilty. I expressed my dissatisfaction with the judgment, whereupon the king said that if I wished it the man should be punished, but as I quite understood that this punishment meant death, I acquiesced in his being released; nevertheless I made it thoroughly well known that I should shoot the very next burglar that I found trying to get into my hut. Sepopo assented to all I said, and repeated my words aloud to the crowd that had been drawn together by the affair.

Later in the evening some Barotse men arrived with their subsidies of corn, one of them being a Matabele who had been captured by Sekeletu. Sepopo took them in and showed them over his hut, of which he was not a little proud.

As it had been intimated to me by Masangu, an official who might be described as the controller of the arsenal, that the king was willing to grant me some favour by way of compensation for my annoyance at the robbery, I considered it a good opportunity to prefer my formal request for permission to explore his dominions. For this purpose I was conducted into the little courtyard, where I found[151] Sepopo sitting with about thirty men squatting around him in perfect silence; my eye, as I entered, at once lighted upon one of these men who was bent down in a peculiarly demure attitude. It struck me immediately that he was not a Marutse native, and on looking again I saw that he was a half-caste.

Having asked the king whether he had heard of my wishes from Westbeech, and receiving an answer in the affirmative, I proceeded to explain to him, as definitely as I could, the object of my journey. He listened to me very attentively, and was silent for some moments, after which he said,—

“Can the white doctor speak Serotse or Sesuto?”

I replied that I knew neither.

“Can he then speak the language of these men?” and he pointed to two of the attendants squatting on the ground beside him, one of which was the sly-looking half-caste that I had already noticed.

On my asking who they were, the man servilely raised his hat, and in a fawning voice informed me that he and the companion at his side were Portuguese traders and good Christians. I further ascertained that they belong to the so-called Mambari, of whom I had heard all kinds of unpleasant stories. Sepopo introduced the man who had spoken to me by the name of Sykendu, adding that he was “a great man” and “a doctor,” but the hypocritical look which the fellow put on only confirmed me in the unfavourable impression I had formed of his character. Finding that I was not acquainted with their language, the king said that he considered it was quite necessary I should learn something of it before leaving Sesheke, as then these men might act[152] as my guides and interpreters, and would be able to render me invaluable assistance.

On further conversation I learnt that the Portuguese traders from Loanda, Mossamedes, and Benguela are thoroughly acquainted with the district between the west coast and Lake Bangweolo, and with all the country eastwards as far as the mouth of the Kafue, the whole of which we are accustomed to consider as “terra incognita;” they not only are acquainted with the rulers of the native states, but are intimate with all the sub-chieftains, knowing their individual peculiarities; they are familiar with the winding of every hill, and the passage of every river; but meanwhile they are most careful, in conjunction with their white colleagues, to keep all their knowledge to themselves, always fearful that the traders of other nations may be attracted to what they are wont to consider their own proper fields for ivory and caoutchouc.

Overhearing that Sepopo was speaking to me about my having the services of two guides, Sykendu came up and put in his word again. He raised his hat, bowed almost to the ground, crossed himself, and swore by the Holy Virgin that he and his brother were two of the best Christians in the interior, and as such would be the most suitable guides I could find. Probably this attestation on his part was made in answer to the suspicious look with which I regarded him and his associate.

Sepopo waited a moment or two to see whether I had more to say, and then remarked that he was satisfied it would be a good thing for me to learn either the Serotse or the Makololo dialect, as it might enable me to avoid what had happened to[153] Monari (Livingstone), who, in consequence of not being able to make himself understood by the chiefs, had been taken for a magician who had come down from heaven with the rain, an impression which he only removed by making them a present of some muskets.

Again Sykendu interrupted the conversation between the king and myself, by saying he supposed that I was aware that the guides always expected a good remuneration for their services, and although Sepopo told him that that would be settled all right, he went on to say that they would require four tusks weighing eighty pounds apiece. I told him that I should give four tusks weighing forty pounds apiece, and that only on condition that I should deposit them with Sepopo, to be handed over to them on their return from Matimbundu, whither they were to conduct me.

However, after all these arrangements had been made, when I really went on my tour from Sesheke, it was not with the two Mambari for my guides. I had meantime learnt that they were slave-dealers, and having various other reasons for distrusting them, I declined their services altogether.

After I had made what I then supposed would be my final contract with the guides, Sepopo promised to provide me with canoes and boatmen to convey me to the Barotse valley, beyond which I should have to procure a change of crews in every fresh district as far as the Mamboë country. The Mamboë, who would ultimately accompany me to the great water, i.e. the sea, would have to be recompensed for their services by a musket apiece; but the boatmen who took me only for the short stages I should[154] find would be satisfied with shirts or pieces of calico. The king moreover undertook to order all the tribes along the river to supply my party with whatever provisions should be requisite. He strongly advised me to wend my way northwards towards Lake Bangweolo, a route, he said, by which I should be able to dispense with canoes and to travel with bearers, and which would be at once more convenient to him and less dangerous to myself.

I have since very much repented that I did not follow this advice, but at that time I was under the conviction that I should be doing much more for the advancement of science by following the Zambesi to its source; I likewise thought that I should find the canoe-voyage less fatiguing to myself, so that my strength might be reserved for the prolonged land-journey that would come after.

My next proceeding might have been at once to return to Panda ma Tenka to conclude my necessary preparations, but I did not leave Sesheke for another day or two, and amused myself on one occasion by going to inspect the site selected for the new town. I came upon a very animated and interesting scene; the building-operations were in full swing, and the river was alive with canoes laden with grass, stakes, and reeds, some going straight along the stream, and some crossing from bank to bank. On the shore, men and women in single file were carrying loads of grass in bundles that almost swept the ground behind them; others were conveying long poles, from which were suspended the great clay vessels, in which the store of corn was being removed from the old granary to the new. Every here and there was what might be called a peripatetic roof,[155] being a thatch in the course of removal, nothing of its means of locomotion being visible but the thirty or forty feet of the bearers, the foremost of whom had some holes pierced in the roof by which they could see their way; many of the people were singing at their work, and some of them carrying heavy burdens passed me at a good smart trot. The very queens found work to do, and I noticed them, assisted by their maids, moving large bundles of the grass. Hearing the words “moro, nyaka makoa,” (good morning, white doctor), I turned and found that the greeting came from Makumba the chief, who was passing by with a number of his people.

Nearly all the residents in the old town were taking down their huts and preparing to migrate, none more busy than Blockley, who was packing up all his goods in readiness to transfer them from his present enclosure to a grass hut that the king had directed should be built for him in the new settlement.

While I was sitting in my hut writing my journal on the following day, I was startled by the cry of “molemo, molemo!” (fire, fire!) and immediately I rushed outside; a single hut was in flames, but as it was standing in the midst of some hundreds more, the reed-thatch roofs of which were all extra dry from the heat of the weather, there was every reason to fear that others would catch fire, and that the brisk east wind that was blowing would fan the flames into a general conflagration. Crowds of women and children came shrieking and holloaing down the pathway from the river, and to increase the commotion, as the fire spread there were the constant reports of the guns that had been left in the huts,[156] the bullets flying about in all directions, and imperilling the lives of all the bystanders. I had hardly managed to get my own little property into a safe place outside the hut, when Blockley came running up to fetch some shovels. All Westbeech’s gunpowder, as well as what he had sold to Sepopo, had been stored in a hut at the edge of the forest, and as nothing was more likely than that the forest itself would catch fire, he was anxious to get the powder away, and to have it buried underground as quickly as possible.

To the west of our quarters and about thirty yards away stood the king’s stable, a building composed of stakes, and on the west was a group of huts, likewise at a considerable distance, so that from these there was no particular danger to be apprehended; but on the north, which was the direction of the fire, there were two huts so close to us, that should they catch light our safety must be seriously compromised; luckily they remained intact, but the crackling flames were getting nearer and nearer to them, lighting up the figures of the men who were doing their utmost to arrest their progress. I had only Pit and one of Blockley’s servants with me; they did what they could to carry up our gourds and clay pitchers full of water from the river, though they smashed a good many of them in their excitement; but I called them off, and made them help me tear down the fence of our enclosure, thus putting a very effectual check upon the spread of any flames towards us. Others of the natives took the hint and did the same, but in spite of all efforts, more than half of Old Sesheke was destroyed.

[157]

Sepopo’s mode of showing his annoyance at what had occurred was somewhat extraordinary. He was in New Sesheke at the time, and when he heard what had happened, and saw the flames rising above the old town, he set to work and vigorously belaboured all his attendants with a thick stick, only giving up from sheer fatigue.

In course of time Blockley came back with the satisfactory intelligence that he had succeeded in saving the gunpowder, and on receiving my congratulations, returned the compliment by expressing his gratification at my having prevented the destruction of the warehouses. I little thought to what a risk I had been exposed, for I was not aware until afterwards that Blockley had a chest containing 700 lbs. of gunpowder in the courtyard itself.

On the following day several canoes arrived from the Barotse, and were placed at my disposal by Sepopo, who urged upon me to lose no time in returning to Panda ma Tenka, completing my preparations, and getting back to Sesheke ready to start. However I did not set out until the 30th, being resolved first to see Blockley settled in his new quarters; my time was fully occupied in making additions to my ethnographical collection, in studying the habits of the native tribes, as exhibited by the representatives who were staying in the place, and especially in learning the Sesuto language. Relying upon the king’s promise that the way to the west coast should be open to me, I now arranged with Blockley for him to take my waggon and various collections back to Shoshong, and to deposit them there until my arrival, and as he was in want of bullocks, I let him have my team in exchange for ivory[158] and articles that I should be likely to find serviceable, such as calico and beads.

Before continuing my personal narrative, and concluding my account of my first visit to the residence of king Sepopo, I think it desirable to give some outline of the characteristics of the various tribes dwelling in his dominions.

With the exception of the Mashonas, on the east of the Matabele, there are none of the South African tribes that exhibit so much energy, as these in the Marutse-Mabunda kingdom. The various products of their handicraft to be found throughout the country mark them out to a student of comparative ethnology as people of a relatively high state of culture, an inference which is further illustrated and confirmed by their skill in boating, fishing, and other similar pursuits. Their aptitude in manipulating metal, horn, bone, wood, or leather, augurs well for their mental capacity, and they are very quick in receiving instruction. Compared with the tribes south of the Zambesi it must be confessed that their moral standard is low, but this proceeds so much from their primitive ignorance, and from their long seclusion from the outer world, and not, as is the case with the Hottentots, from wilful and degraded corruption, that I do not hesitate to express my belief that in this respect they will gradually show many signs of improvement.

Perhaps the evil which is most deeply rooted among them is their superstition. In this they are far worse than most other South African tribes, the Zulus and Matabele being hardly their match in this respect. The effect of the vice is both demonstrated and aggravated by the multitude of human lives that[159] are sacrificed to its demands. The royal house on the Zambesi is the very hot-bed of superstition; magic is the pretext under which the worst of barbarities are perpetrated, and the people, associating the enormities with the sovereigns who sanction them, learn at once to dread and hate their rulers. To deliver the people of the district from their superstitious credulity, would be to remove the greatest hindrance that exists to their future civilization.

Among the Marutse the king has a despotic power extending to the land as well as to the population; until the time however of the present ruler, whose rule is that of a tyrant, it has very rarely happened that any king has stretched his right to interfere with private property. During their own lifetime the reigning sovereigns appoint their successors; these may be of either sex, provided they are born of a Marutse mother—and women are especially welcome as sovereigns among the northern tribes, on the presumption that they are less cruel than men. Amongst the Bechuanas, who are more conservative in their instincts, the eldest son of the principal wife is always recognized as the rightful heir, and so strictly is this rule enforced, that even if the king should die before the heir is born, the eldest son of the widowed queen by another husband would still be held to be the legitimate successor to the throne. In 1875 Sepopo appointed his little daughter of six years of age to be queen at his own demise; by right his eldest daughter Moquai should have been nominated, but as she had been formally designated as the proper sovereign of the Mabundas, he feared that she already had too many friends and supporters in that district, to make it[160] advisable for him to name her as successor to the joint kingdom. The king’s principal wife is always called “the mother of the country.”

The king holds the offices of chief doctor and chief magician, and under the cloke of these two arts, he works upon the credulity of the people by the most hideous crimes, being himself quite aware of the hollowness of his pretences.

Large sources of revenue are open to the king of the Marutse people. Besides his own extensive territories, which are cultivated partly by colonies of subjects, and partly by the royal wives with their staff of labourers, the direct taxes, which include contributions of every article which a prince can require, yield an immense revenue. As a consequence, moreover, of ivory and india-rubber, the staple commodities of the country, being crown property, the king is the chief merchant, and from time to time he makes large purchases of goods to the amount of 3000l. to 5000l., which he gives away to the people who reside near him, or to the chiefs or subjects who may happen to visit him, always stipulating that any guns that may be distributed shall be considered not given, but lent. Notwithstanding his wealth, it will often happen that the king looks with a covetous eye upon some property, perhaps a fine herd of cattle, belonging to one of his more well-to-do subjects, and although he considers he has a perfect right to it, he hardly likes to carry it off by force, but proceeds to get the owner convicted of treason or witchcraft, and put to death, after which he appropriates to himself the property he wants.

Quite undisputed is the king’s power to put to death, or to make a slave of any one of his subjects[161] in any way he chooses; he may take a man’s wife simply by providing him with another wife as a substitute, and he is quite at liberty to demand any children he may wish to devote to the purposes of his magic. Reigning queens may choose any husband they like, perfectly regardless of the consideration whether he is married or not. It is high treason for any subject to retain possession of an article that is either more handsome or more valuable than what belongs to the king, and anything of exceptional quality, whether it has been purchased from neighbouring tribes or from white men, or even manufactured in the country, belongs to the king, or at least is free for him to claim as a matter of course. I could not offer anybody a present of anything the least unusual without finding it invariably refused, the excuse being that no one dared to take for himself what he was not quite sure that Sepopo already possessed.

In their style of building, as in other respects, the Marutse-Mabunda people surpass most of the tribes south of the Zambesi. This remark, however, applies only to the stationary tribes, and does not include the temporary erections put up by those who come for hunting and fishing, either on their own sites or in places marked out for them by the chief or king; such structures are generally found on the river-banks, or on wooded slopes, or in glades where game is likely to resort; but the permanent settlements are scattered over the kingdom, the larger towns being mainly in the Barotse country. The houses in these established towns are as a general rule equally strong and comfortable, and they have the advantage of being very quickly constructed. It may be said[162] that the material required is very abundant, and most conveniently close at hand, but so it is in the case of the tribes much farther south. The northern people are much more adroit in turning their natural advantages to good account. No better example is needed than that of New Sesheke to prove the rapidity of their building-operations; nor can it be objected that their huts are more liable to be burnt down than those of the Bechuana, Zulu, and Hottentot races; the truth is that when any of these are destroyed, they are so easily replaced that the damage is quite inappreciable.

The river-system of the Marutse district is just of the character, on account of its extensive marsh-lands, to provide the inhabitants with most admirable and productive sites for their settlements; all around is an abundance of reeds for building purposes, wood for framework and for laths, besides bast, palm-leaves for making ropes and twine, metal for nails and bolts, and sand and clay for cement. Even if it should happen that in any particular spot there should be a deficiency of any one of these materials, the light canoes are so available, and the natives so ready to assist one another, that the want is soon supplied. The towns are built as close to the rivers as the annual inundations will permit, and are generally surrounded by villages that are for the most part tenanted by the vassal people, who till the fields and tend the cattle of the masters who reside within the town itself. That cleanliness is comparatively great, both in the settlements and amongst the population, is probably to be attributed to the abundance of water always at their command.

I observed that the Marutse themselves were[163] always to be credited with a more masterly style of workmanship than any of the servile tribes around them and in their employ. They had three distinct classes of buildings, one of a double concentric form, another cylindrical, and a third long and low. That which I designate the concentric hut consists of two compartments, the inner being the loftier and in shape like the inferior half of a cone, the outside one considerably lower and cylindrical in its form. The inner hut is covered by a low vaulted roof of its own, over which is placed another roof, conical in its design, and projecting five or six feet beyond the top of the outer compartment, supported at its extremity by a series of upright posts that form a shady verandah running round the whole. After the owner, with the help of his vassals, has procured the materials, and prepared the foundation by making a layer of level cement, the construction of the edifice is left to the women. A royal residence is always built by the royal wives. The circular sites upon which the structures are reared vary from twenty to forty feet in circumference; round their edge a trench is dug some ten or twelve inches deep and about five inches wide, into which are planted loose bundles of strong reeds, when the trench is filled up with soil again. To bind the loose reeds together several palm-leaf cords are woven amongst them, and as these are drawn tighter and tighter they have the effect of giving the structure a conical form, arising from the tapering character of the reeds themselves; these are then trimmed off evenly at a height of about twelve feet from the ground, after which the outside, and not unfrequently the inside also, is plastered over with[164] cement. Meanwhile a low conical roof has been woven by the men, which is placed in position, and left to be cemented on by the women. The doorway, which generally faces the entrance to the enclosure, is a semi-oval aperture cut in the reeds, and finished off all round with a cement moulding. This completes the inner compartment.

For the outer building the foundation is made in precisely the same way; the trench is dug, but the reeds inserted are some two feet at least shorter than before; in consequence however of this being the wall which has to maintain the great burden of the roof, it is always strengthened by a number of peeled stakes driven in firmly against it at intervals of only a few inches apart, and when the whole has been thoroughly cemented over on both sides, the material of which it has been formed is quite undistinguishable. The doorway is cut so as to correspond exactly with that of the inner compartment, and is generally about six feet high and three feet wide. While the outer wall, ordinarily from forty to sixty feet in circumference, is being finished by the women, the men drive in the verandah-poles about a yard or a yard and a half away, and then proceed to put together the upper or principal roof, the lifting of which into position is the greatest difficulty of the whole; the operation is effected by about fifty men raising it from the ground by long levers and gradually getting it supported all round on a number of short stakes; these stakes are then replaced by longer ones, which in their turn are exchanged for others yet longer, until the roof has been elevated by degrees to such a height that its edge can be laid above the top of the inner roof; it is then driven[165] carefully onwards by main force until it properly covers the two enclosures. The ends of the reeds have then to be clipped off even all round the top of the verandah, after which the entire roof is covered with a layer of last year’s grass five or six inches thick, and bound over with a perfect network of palm-cord to make it firm against the wind. Great pains are bestowed upon getting a smooth surface to the cement, particularly where it is laid over the cornice of the inner doorway, which not unfrequently is very delicately moulded. I was told that the former royal residence in the Barotse valley had been very prettily built.

Of the kind of houses that I have been describing the king has three for his own use; they are surrounded by an oval fence, and form the centre of several circles of homesteads, the nearest circle containing eight residences for the queens, built in the Masupia style like ovens, and accommodating two or three ladies apiece; beyond these are placed the storehouse, the culinary offices, and the huts for the royal musicians; the fourth and outer circle consisting of the huts for all the servants of both sexes, and containing likewise the council-hall, which is fitted up very much in European fashion. Ordinarily the chiefs would have their abodes in a wide circle outside the court, but here in New Sesheke, where the royal buildings are bounded on one side by the river, the dwellings are arranged in a semicircle, the ground assigned to each being very accurately marked out. For protection against wild beasts the entrance to the king’s courtyard is closed every night by a strong palisade of reeds.

The second kind of huts, which I have specified[166] as the cylindrical, are chiefly used by a branch tribe of the Marutse. If the walls of these are cemented at all, it is only on the inside, and they are rarely more than about eleven feet in diameter; their tops, however, are occasionally decorated with ornaments made of wood, grass, or straw.

The other description of huts, the gabled, have a low doorway generally in the middle, opposite the entrance to the courtyard, and their reed-roof projects, so as to form an eave that serves to throw off the rain. In the larger erections of this kind, the gable is supported by stakes, and the interior is divided by matting into two apartments, the larger being used for sleeping in, and the other as a reception-room. Any enclosure larger than usual would often be found to contain two of these huts. The more wealthy inhabitants sometimes have a detached granary as well, and chiefs not unfrequently provide themselves with an additional erection which serves as a consultation hall. As a general rule the courtyards are oval, and the principal building exactly faces the entrance.

I should say that two-thirds of the Marutse in Sesheke live in houses such as I have here described, under their chief Maranzian. The huts of the Mabunda people are in many respects not unlike them, but they are shorter and broader, with flatter roofs, and the courtyards in which they stand are quadrilateral instead of oval, composed of stakes about six feet high, driven into the ground five feet or less apart, and connected by a fence of reeds braced on to strong cross-poles.

Besides the three principal houses of the king’s residences, I noticed within the enclosure three[167] small huts, one of which served the double purpose of bath-room and laboratory. It had a straw roof about two feet in diameter, supported on thin stakes, and in the centre was a post five feet high, covered all over with a most promiscuous collection of articles; there were antelopes’ horns, bones, strings of coral, calabash baskets of herbs, bags of poison used for executions, magical instruments in great variety made of wood or ivory, scales of pangolins and crocodiles, a number of snakes’ skins, and a lot of rags. The floor was strewn with miscellaneous things of a similar character, and up in the roof was a small medicine-chest, which had been a present from a Portuguese trader. Several musical instruments were hanging against the sides of the hut. An immense wooden tub was brought in every evening, in which Sepopo took his bath.

In front of the laboratory-hut stood another, with a roof in the form of a prism; this was devoted to the reception of any deformed elephants’ tusks, and to the storing of the many vessels containing the different charms employed by the king when he went out hunting.

Beyond this again was another hut, also with a prism-shaped roof supported by the stem of a tree, where was deposited a collection of elephants’ tails, trophies of the number of animals that had been killed in the neighbourhood; it was also the place of security for a large number of assegais, the finest and best made in the country.

Between the huts and the high reed fence there were several wooden stands holding the clay vessels, and gourds containing the ordinary hunting-charms; and whatever court I entered I never[168] failed to notice a branch of a tree or small dry stem planted in the ground, where the master of the house hung the skulls of antelopes or the upper vertebræ of the larger mammalia as trophies of his prowess. After a hunter’s death these are always placed upon his grave.

While walking along the river side on the 26th, I saw a crocodile rise from the river and snap at a man in a canoe. Fortunately he observed his danger in time, and managed to save himself by leaping on to the sandy bank.

During this day the king gave a Mabunda dance in my honour—a performance of so objectionable a character that the negroes themselves are quite conscious of its impropriety, and refuse to dance it except in masks. In their ideas of music the Marutse-Mabundas seem to be comparatively well advanced. It is quite true, indeed, that in the skilful handling of their instruments they are surpassed by some of the tribes on the east coast, who have more constant intercourse with the Portuguese, and in singing they are not a match for the Matabele Zulus; but here was the first instance that I found of a king with a private band composed entirely of native artistes. Altogether the band consisted of twenty men, but it was very rarely that more than eight or ten of them performed at the same time, the rest being kept in reserve for the night. There were several drummers among them, who played with the palms of their hands or with their fingers upon long conical or cylindrical kettle-drums, over which they walked astride, or upon double drums in the shape of an hour-glass, which were suspended from their necks by a strap. The[169] principal instruments were the myrimbas, or calabash pianos, which were carried in the same way as the double-drums. The two royal zither-players very seldom performed together. All the musicians were obliged to be singers as well, having to screech out the king’s praises between the intervals in the music, or to the muffled accompaniment of their instruments.

KISHI-DANCE.

MASK OF A KISHI-DANCER.

The band was never allowed to perform without express orders from the king, but was required to hold itself in constant readiness; its services were always brought into requisition on his entry into the town, and whenever he honoured any public[170] dances, weddings, or other festivities with his presence. Besides the three kinds of drums, the myrimbas, and the zither-like sylimbas, I noticed that the orchestra included some stringed instruments made of the ribs of fan-palms, as well as some iron bells, one sort being double and without clappers, some rattles made of fruit shells, and various pipes formed of ivory, wood, or reeds. The stringed instruments are used at the elephant-dance, the bells at the kishi-dance, and the rattles at weddings. On the occasion of the Masupia prophetic dance, the king lends a number of hollow bottle-shaped gourd-shells filled with dry seeds, which, when they are rattled, are exceedingly noisy. Rattles, bells, and[171] pipes, as well as guitars of a simple make, were to be found amongst the ordinary population, but all the larger and more elaborate instruments were confined to the royal band, consequently I was unable to get hold of any proper specimen of this class of native handicraft for my collection. In nearly all settlements small drums are kept in the council-hut, and are beaten on the occasion of any successful hunting-excursion, and at funerals.

The Marutse-Mabunda melodies are somewhat monotonous, but they are very numerous, and are of a character that make it evident that a little cultivation would soon effect a decided improvement in them. Of course the ordinary manipulation of the different instruments is purely mechanical; but amongst the king’s zither-players I observed two grey-headed old men, who really displayed some amount of taste. As they hummed I could hear that their voices were precisely in time with their instruments, gradually sinking to a whisper in the pianissimo part, and as gradually rising to a forte when the tune required it. Their performance was a pleasant contrast to the discordant shouts of the head drummer, who strove to compete with the noise of his own huge instrument.

There is one more instrument which I much regret to have met with in the Marutse country at all, but which must not be omitted from the enumeration. I allude to the war-drum. In the council-hall there were four of these ghastly-looking objects. The skins were painted all over with red, to represent blood, and they were filled with fragments of dry flesh and bones, these bones being principally the toes and fingers of the live children of[172] distinguished parents, and supposed to be amulets to protect the rising town of Sesheke from fire and sword, and to guard the kingdom generally from assault and rapine.

Singing amongst the Marutse-Mabunda people is better than amongst the Bechuanas, and may be said in many respects to equal that of the Matabele Zulus, though still inferior in the great songs of war and death.

The dance to which I have said the king invited me on the 26th was called the kishi-dance, and is never performed except by the king’s order. Its main object seems to be to inflame animal passion, and it is danced by two men, one of whom is supposed to represent a woman, or occasionally by two couples. The performers step forward from a group of young people, who are all singing most vigorously, and clapping their hands in time to the great tubular drums that are being sounded. Having turned their faces towards the king, they commence a series of gestures indicating, with many contortions, the advances of one party coquettishly rejected by the other. The costumes being royal property I failed to get possession of any of them. They consist of a mask with a network attached to it, and a peculiar covering for the loins. The masks, which are a specialité in Mabunda handicraft, are modelled by boys from clay and cow-dung, and painted with chalk and red ochre. They are considerably larger than the head, completely covering the neck. Altogether they bear a sort of resemblance to a helmet with a vizor; small openings are left for the eyes and mouth, and sometimes for the nose; upon the top are knobs adorned in the middle[173] with an ornament made from the tail of a striped gnu, and at the sides with bunches of feathers; the tout ensemble is not unlike that of a gurgoyle. Attached to the head-piece, and covering the shoulders, is a long, tight jacket of netted bast, with close-fitting sleeves. Gloves and stockings of the same material are likewise worn. The performer personating a woman wears a woollen skirt, reaching from the waist to the ankles, over which is the skin of an animal hanging down before and behind. The only distinction between the male and female mask is that the ornament on the male is more elaborate, and that a wisp of straw is twisted round the neck of the female. A steel girdle is worn round the waist, to the back of which a number of small bells is attached, keeping up a tinkling upon the slightest movement. The dance is repeated in public almost every fortnight. It attracts a large number of spectators at every performance, but children are not allowed to be present.

On the 27th I saw some people of the Alumba tribe, who had their hair dressed in a very peculiar fashion. Over the scalp it was divided into four rows of tufts, nearly two and a half inches long, which were so thickly plastered over with a mixture of grease and manganese that the mass of the hair was completely embedded, and nothing left to appear but the ends of the tufts. Some of the Marutse wore pangolin scales round their necks, or pieces of a kind of tortoiseshell, with which they are skilful in stanching blood. I was also shown a piece of wood, which is a remedy for whooping-cough, being sucked by children with good effect.

Sepopo made repeated visits to us, always accompanied[174] by a number of servants bringing great quantities of ivory, which he bartered with Blockley for guns and ammunition. Whenever he was going to send his hunters on an excursion, he always had the men into his residence overnight, and gave them about a quart of gunpowder each, taking an account of what he had done. Blockley made great complaints because the king always required a present after every transaction. It was a custom that Westbeech had introduced when he was the sole trader who did business on the Zambesi, and could demand what terms he liked for his goods; but now that other dealers had found their way to Sesheke they were all completely in the king’s power; and the result of the competition was to make them bid such high prices for the ivory that they had good cause to grumble at the bad state of trade.

When I went to the king next day to consult him again about my journey, I found that he had just had an altercation with Blockley, and was consequently rather cross; but by interesting him in some of my travelling experiences, I managed to put him into a good temper again, and he began to show me my proper route, by drawing a map of the Upper Zambesi and its affluents with his stick on the sand. He was much pleased with the interest I took in his communications, and calling to him two Manengos from the Upper Zambesi, who were passing through the place, and who had several times traversed the country, he made them also describe the localities; and to my satisfaction I found that their delineations corresponded precisely with his.

Whatever I had that was new to Sepopo, he not only inquired of what use it was, but almost invariably[175] wanted to have it. He made a great many inquiries about my compass. In order to explain its object I drew a plan of the eastern hemisphere; and then pointing out Africa, showed him the direction I took through the Bechuana countries.

I was invited to pay a visit to the royal kitchen, a department that was under the superintendence of a woman, who had several assistants. Everything was very clean, and the huge corn-bins were placed on wooden stands in little separate huts made of matting and reeds. A fire was kept continually burning on a low hearth in the courtyard, at which, during the time of my visit, a servant was boiling a piece of hippopotamus-flesh. The meat, which was nearly done, was afterwards served on a large wooden dish, then cut up into fragments, placed upon smaller dishes, and so sent in to the queen.

A messenger that evening arriving from Panda ma Tenka brought word that Westbeech and another trader had arrived there from Shoshong, and as I hoped to be off next morning, I sat up nearly all night to work at my drawings. It was quite early when I was summoned to the canoes which were to take me to Makumba’s landing-place, and then wait for Westbeech. The passage down the river was just as pleasant as it had been on the way up. I gave my chief attention to the different varieties of birds, finding some interesting subjects for study in the speckled black-and-white skimmers (Rhynchopinæ), with their lower mandible much elongated, in the huge marabouts, and in the fine kingfishers. The reeds were covered with snails, and the banks literally perforated by crabs. Pools lay close together all along the shore, the stream having fallen eighteen[176] inches in the interval of the few days since I had last passed over it.

ON THE SHORES OF THE ZAMBESI.

We spent the night in a creek, starting off again betimes next morning. The boatmen exerted themselves to their utmost, and our progress was not much short of five miles an hour. On reaching Impalera I found that Westbeech, with a considerable[177] party, had arrived before me; they were now on the point of starting to pay their respects to Sepopo. Their waggons had been left at Panda ma Tenka.

Westbeech, who had married the daughter of a farmer in the Transvaal a few months before, had his young wife with him, and was attended by his clerk Bauren; Francis, the merchant who was travelling with him, had likewise, according to his custom, brought his wife, who had already done much to secure the respect both of the white residents and the natives. They were accompanied by a distant relative named Oppenshaw, who acted as Francis’s clerk. Besides Bauren, Westbeech had also brought a man of the name of Walsh, who had formerly been a soldier, and subsequently a gaoler in Cape Town; he was a proficient in the art of preserving birds’-skins, and had come out to carry on business in that way in the Zambesi district, under the arrangement that he was to share his profits with Westbeech.

The two merchants were anxious to get their visit to Sepopo over as quickly as possible that they might get back to Panda ma Tenka, and start with their wives on a visit to the Victoria Falls. They had brought with them all my correspondence, and I had welcome letters, not only from home, but from various friends in the diamond-diggings. I received about sixty newspapers, the broad white margins of which were subsequently of great service to me, in the dearth of writing-paper; amongst them was a copy of the Diamond News, containing my first article on the subject of my present journey.

My own departure was somewhat delayed by Makumba’s absence from the town; without his[178] assistance I could not procure the bearers which, after crossing the river, I should require to convey the articles that I had collected in Sesheke, and the ivory which I had received from Blockley as payment for my bullocks.

The passage across the river gave me no small amount of anxiety, as independently of my uncertainty about getting bearers, I was much concerned at finding a leak in the ferry-boat as large as my fist, which threatened to do material injury to a good deal of my property. Fortunately, however, on reaching the Leshumo valley I again met Captains M’Leod and Fairly, the English officers, who most considerately, during the time of their visit to Sepopo, allowed me the use of their waggon to take me to Panda ma Tenka. I waited a little while until the team could be fetched, and started off on the night of the 3rd of September. As I went along I noticed that the burning of the grass in the district had caused a diminution in the number of tsetse fly, although the herbage was already beginning to sprout afresh.

When on the following day we reached the Gashuma Flat, we found plenty of game still lurking in places where the grass had not been burned. With the waggon were two horses that the English officers had left in charge of a servant, who seemed to me unpardonably careless. Notwithstanding my warnings, he would persist in riding on considerably ahead. Approaching the baobab I told Pit and the driver to keep a sharp look-out; I had a kind of presentiment that the horses might invite an attack from the lion that was notoriously haunting the spot. We had gone but a very short distance farther, when[179] the driver called out that he could see Captain M’Leod’s servant up in a tree and only one horse beside him; another moment and his keen eye detected a lion retreating to the bushes on our right; I was sitting on the box, and almost immediately afterwards caught sight of the other horse lying disembowelled on the ground, the few small wounds in the neck revealing too clearly how the poor brute had met its end.

The servant’s tale was simple enough. About 300 yards from the tree he had been attacked by the lion and thrown, whereupon the lion, taking no notice of him, began the pursuit of his horse; the horse-cloth had entangled itself in the horse’s legs, and the creature was quickly overtaken and killed. The servant had betaken himself to the first mapani-tree, where we found him. The other horse was grazing quietly close at hand.

We all went some way in pursuit of the lion, but without success.

On my arrival at Panda ma Tenka, I found Westbeech’s enclosure in a state of great animation; several waggons were there, hosts of servants were hurrying about in every direction, and certainly not less than twenty dogs were yelping and running amongst them. Most unfortunately for me the rain during my absence had made its way through the roof of my waggon, and had done so much damage to the leather cases inside that nearly all the dried insects, plants, and seeds that they contained were spoiled. Some of the traders that I had seen here before were seriously ill with fever, and a servant of Khame’s, who had been hired by Africa, the hunter of whom I have already spoken, had been killed by an elephant, a misadventure for which, on his return to Shoshong,[181] Africa found himself obliged to pay a fine of 50l. to the Bamangwato king.

Westbeech and Bauren intended, after their visit to the Victoria Falls, to stay three months at Sesheke; Blockley contemplated at the same time doing some business with the Makalaka princes to the east of the falls, Bradshaw being left meanwhile in charge at Panda ma Tenka to purchase any ivory he could from the Madenassanas and Masarwas. Theunissen at this time had quite enough to occupy him in preparing medicines for the patients laid down with intermittent fever, while I, after having been busy all day in completing my preparations for the Zambesi expedition, spent the hours far into the night in answering my letters and continuing my diary.

It was on the 10th that Westbeech and Francis came back; they each brought about 50 lbs. of ivory, which Sepopo had sent as presents to their wives. On their way they had killed thirty crocodiles and five hippopotamuses. One of the latter had attacked them.

My temporary sojourn was full of anxiety and annoyance. Not only was I harassed by my unsuccessful endeavours to procure bearers, but I was called upon to sustain a disappointment, which I could not do otherwise than feel very keenly. The report was brought to me by one of the traders that Theunissen had made up his mind that he would go no further, but that he should forthwith return to the south. I could not believe it; he had always shown himself so staunch an ally, that I had learnt to confide in him entirely; moreover, I had chosen him out of a number of volunteers[182] as being in every way the most reliable of them all; and now to be told that just at the critical moment when most of all I required a trustworthy associate he was going to forsake me, was a thing that seemed incredible; but on referring to Theunissen himself, I ascertained that the report was only too true.

To add to my difficulties Pit had begun to behave himself in various ways so badly that I had been obliged to get rid of him.

Thus it was that on the very eve of what promised to be the fulfilment of my long-cherished plan, my hopes appeared suddenly dashed to the ground. I was utterly at a loss to know where I could apply for bearers; alone and friendless as I was, I was not even in a position to go and search for them in any of the native villages in the woods to the east. My condition was altogether disheartening.

In my dilemma Westbeech and Francis most considerately came to my assistance. Under the condition that I should first accompany them to “the splendid falls,” they guaranteed to find me bearers enough amongst the Manansas or Batokas that we should fall in with on our way. I felt that I had no alternative but to accept their offer. Before starting I engaged a man as my servant in the place of Pit; he was a Masupia, who had come from the Zambesi to seek employment. I gave him the name of “Elephant.”

As the Victoria Falls were fifty miles to the right of the route which I had proposed taking, it was not part of my original scheme to visit them at all; it was only the circumstances in which I found[183] myself that led me to undertake the journey, but I have since congratulated myself very much upon the decision to which I came.

Leaving my waggon in the charge of Westbeech’s people, I started off with my new friends. The party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Westbeech, Mr. and Mrs. Francis, Bauren, Oppenshaw, Walsh, and myself, besides four Cape half-castes, my own Masupia servant, and twenty Makalakas and Matabele, who were engaged as bearers, and carried our provisions, cooking-apparatus, and wraps. We travelled in a couple of waggons as far as the Gashuma Flat, the way thither being attractive and pleasant for travellers. It was about three o’clock in the morning when we reached the first pools on the plain, whence we altered our course, which previously had been north-north-west, to east-north-east towards the falls.

The next portion of our route lay through a district known to be so much infested by the tsetse-fly, that we left our bullocks and waggons, and proceeded in a cart drawn by six donkeys. We did not, however, start until the 15th, waiting till we had put up a thoroughly substantial fence around the waggons, because we had noticed a number of lion-tracks in the neighbourhood. The plain was adorned with some splendid fan-palms and dense palm-thickets. The grass had been nearly all burnt down, but here and there, in patches where it had begun to sprout again, pretty little orbeki-gazelles were lying in twos or fours quite flat on the ground, and would suddenly start up at our approach and bound away, turning round to gaze at us when they were at a safe distance. Oppenshaw[184] and I started off in pursuit of them, and were induced to go a very considerable way from our party; we were obliged to give up the chase as unsuccessful, and were making our way back, when scarcely thirty yards in front of us, a pair of orbekis sprang up. Oppenshaw fired at one of them as it was turning to look at us, and broke its fore leg just above the ankle; it bounded away on three legs; we fired again, but missed; the gazelle continued its flight, and seemed likely to escape altogether, when a third shot from me caught it on its side and brought it down. It died just as we got up to it, and as we had no servants in attendance, we had to carry it in turns for two hours under a burning sun, till we came to the spot where our companions were camping in the wood.

In the course of the afternoon we went six miles farther, making altogether an advance of thirteen miles in the day. Beyond the Gashuma Flat and a sandy forest, we crossed four shallow valleys, and made our camp for the night in a fifth, that in point of size was more important than the others; all the spruits except the last two were dry and overgrown with grass, the whole of them becoming deeper towards the south-east, the direction which they took to join the Panda ma Tenka. As we crossed the third of these valleys we saw a herd of giraffes, about 600 yards away.

Between the Gashuma Flat and the place where we encamped we came across the following sorts of game, or their traces:—Orbekis, rietbocks, steinbocks, waterbocks, zulu-hartebeests, koodoos, giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, and zebras.

Vol. II.

Page 184.

A TROOP OF GIRAFFES SURPRISED.

The little river beside which we were staying was [185]called the Checheta. At one part it rippled in narrow streamlets over stones, and at another flowed through a reedy morass, where its clear waters formed a deep broad pool. The soil of the valley was rich, and the grass in some places as much as five feet high. These limpid pools in the upper affluents of the Panda ma Tenka are some of the most interesting spots in the hilly district around the Victoria Falls, and many an hour have I spent by their side stretched upon the grass and investigating the multiplied examples of animal and vegetable life beneath the glittering surface, so clear that I could feel assured that no crocodile was lurking below.

Nevertheless since the long grass on the borders of the South African rivers is very frequently the resort of various animals of the feline race, it is always advisable to throw a few stones into the middle of it before venturing to enter; but this precaution taken, it may be approached with security.

The pond that was closest to our encampment was thirty feet long and twelve feet wide, its depth about six feet. It was fed by a tiny thread of water scarcely three inches wide; its outlet in a reedy thicket being somewhat wider. The water was as clear as crystal, so that every object, even to the bottom, was plainly discernible. Half the pond, or nearly so, was occupied by a network of delicate algæ,—here of a light colour, there of a dark green—and everywhere assuming the most fantastic forms. In some places it seemed to lie in strata one above another like semi-transparent clouds in the azure depths; in the part near the[186] outflow it formed a dark labyrinth of grottoes; whilst on the right it might seem to represent a ruined castle, so well defined was the foundation from which rose the square watch-tower with its circular turret, the tender weeds turning themselves into a Gothic doorway, through which small fish kept darting to and fro. On the top of the tower were some projecting growths, that kept up the similitude of broken battlements.

Making a dark green background were the lower stems of the reeds that rustled above the water, and in the open space between the water-weeds and the margin of the pond rose the three spiral stalks of a large flowering nymphœa, two of them throwing out their flat glossy leaves, and the third a beautiful pale blue lily, that lay like a gleaming star upon the surface of a crystal mirror. Besides the algæ that I have described, there were others at the bottom of the pool, with their lobulated and dentated leaves, rivalling ferns in the gracefulness of their form.

At first this miniature plant-world appeared to lie in motionless repose, and it was not until the eye grew quite accustomed to the scene that it detected the gentle current that the streamlet made. Once perceived, the effect was very charming; the reed-stems were seen to vibrate and quiver with ever-varying degrees of motion, the fictitious towers of algæ were observed to tremble without any disturbance to their general outline; the very grottoes had the appearance of being impelled forward by some secret force to seek admission to some other pool. From the bottom of the water, plants with bright yellow blossoms and serrated cryptogams, stretched up their heads as if they aspired to share the honours [187]of the water-lily, the acknowledged queen of all, and longed, like her, to rock upon the bosom of the lake, to be greeted by the sunbeams, to be refreshed by the morning dew, and sheltered by the shades of night.

Vol. II.

Page 187.

AQUATIC LIFE IN A STILL POOL BY THE ZAMBESI.

Equally fascinating was the exhibition of animal life. In the more open spaces where the range of vision was widest lay some dark-striped fish not unlike perch, perfectly motionless except for the slight vibration of the hinder fins; from the dim recesses of the algæ, bearded sheat-fish would emerge, generally in pairs, and sometimes side by side, sometimes one behind the other, would roll themselves in sport from side to side; and far away right across the reeds by the opposite bank stretched itself as though lifeless a yellow-mottled object, that might at first have been mistaken for a snake, but which on further scrutiny turned out to be a water-lizard biding its time to secure its prey.

Nor were the lower orders of creation less fully represented. Water-beetles and water-spiders abounded; the beetles were species of dytiscus and hydrophilus; the spiders were all activity, some towing themselves up, some with glistening air-bubbles letting themselves descend, and hastening to conceal themselves amidst the intricacies and entanglements of the algæ. The larvæ of the beetles as well as of the dragon-flies were clambering over the filaments of the plants and the stems of the lilies like rope-dancers, whilst the pupæ of the shore-flies were slowly emerging from their mummy-like cases.

The variety of the scene was infinite, and made one loth to turn away.

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We went on the next morning across a great many small streams, the valleys of which were covered with deep dark soil and generally much overgrown; the streams appeared to flow in various directions, south, south-east, south-west, but the whole of them, I imagine, ultimately found their way into the Panda ma Tenka. The valleys were divided from one another either by rocky hills or sandy woods. We saw traces of koodoos, steinbocks, waterbocks, bushvaarks, and of a great many elephants. In the after part of the day we came to a forest in a somewhat more extensive valley, with side-valleys opening into it on either hand. We made our camp for the night close to a perpetual stream, that received the waters both of the main valley and its branches, and was called the Matopa river by the Manansas who formerly lived there. For three-quarters of its course it is a mountain-torrent not more than twenty feet wide and from three to four feet in depth, but towards its mouth, which is below the Victoria Falls, its width materially increases.

On the following morning (September 7th) we left our encampment betimes, in order to reach the falls the same day. All day long and throughout the remainder of the trip, I had to get along in great discomfort. In making provision for my longer journey I had reserved all my good boots, and for immediate use had bought a pair of shoes from a trader at Panda ma Tenka, but after two days wear they fell to pieces, and I was obliged to fasten the fragments together by straps bound round my feet, while, as if to make the difficulty more trying, the road became extremely rough and[189] thorny, and the rocks were heated by the glowing sun.

Arriving at a point where the Matopa valley took a sudden turn to the east, I became conscious of a dull heavy noise, as it might be the rumbling of distant thunder. I was considerably in advance of the others, as the condition of my feet induced me to get a good way forward every now and then, so that I might have the benefit of a rest. Being alone I had no one to explain the cause of the noise, but I was not long in satisfying myself that it must be the roar of the famous cataract. Several times, and in places where the passage was difficult, the Matopa had to be crossed, but in spite of my suffering I kept pushing on ahead, buoyed up by the prospect of a long rest afterwards. I noticed some zebras running on the declivity of the left hand shore in the direction of the cloud of vapour which I could now distinctly see, and I came to the conclusion that it would be well to follow them; they made for a wooded glen leading to the valley, and though of course I could not overtake them I kept to their track. The farther I went the more painful my feet became, until at last I took off the soles of my shoes altogether and made my way barefoot. All day long I had taken no food, and at four o’clock, after forcing my way through a dense thicket, I began to feel very faint. By another effort I mounted a hill, and scrambled through another thicket, when all at once I found myself on the brink of the abyss, into which the seething waters were rolling with a tremendous plunge. The impression of that scene can never be effaced!

But glorious as was the spectacle, bodily exhaustion[190] made me retire from contemplating it. Crawling rather than walking, clinging to bush after bush to save myself from falling, I made my way along the river-bank in search of some wild fruit to sustain me. I had not gone far before I spied out a fruit hanging down from a half-withered stem. I threw up some stones and brought it down, and sure that its thin yellow shell covered a sweet fleshy pulp, I greedily swallowed it, when all at once it occurred to me that the seeds bore a great resemblance to nux vomica; my fear was only too well founded, in a very few minutes I was seized with a most violent sickness, and sunk powerless and prostrate to the ground. It was some time before I could rouse myself sufficiently to creep to the bank of the Zambesi, where I took a large draught of the clear water, which revived me very considerably. To attract the attention of my friends I fired off several shots, but receiving no response had to resign myself to wait awhile.

After about half an hour I felt so far recovered that I ventured to make a move, and had hardly proceeded more than fifty yards when I saw one of our party coming in my direction. We returned together, and before night set in we had chosen our position beneath three wide-spreading trees, rather more than a quarter of a mile from the river, and about half a mile from the falls, and proceeded to erect our “skerms.”

Skerms is the name given to the screens that are put up every night for protection against wild beasts. In districts infested by buffaloes, elephants, or lions, travellers erect one or more of them according to their numbers; they are[191] semi-circular in form, and are made of stakes six feet long driven firmly into the ground, after which branches are twisted in amongst them; along the outer side a line of fires is lighted, and the servants are made to sit up in turn and keep them from going out. In our case we had four skerms, one enclosing a couple of huts for the married folks, another for the four bachelors, a third for the half-castes, whose dignity would not allow them to lie down with Zulus and Makalakas, who consequently required a fourth for themselves.

The spot upon which we had fixed for our encampment was almost in the centre of the real Zambesi valley, between the river and a sandy wooded elevation of the ground, the slope of a high plateau and mountain-system that runs more or less parallel to the stream from the mouth of the Chobe. Along the river-side was a thicket of saro-palms, and between these and the rising ground lay the valley proper, overgrown with long grass, bushes, and trees, amidst which majestic fan-palms and huge baobabs rose predominant.

In spite of the suffering which I continued to endure from the state of my feet, I look upon the three days which I spent in the vicinity of the falls as the most satisfying and enjoyable part of my sojourn in South Africa. To my mind the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi are one of the most imposing phenomena of the world. At many cataracts, particularly at Niagara, our wonder is excited by the stupendous volume of the plunging water; at others, by the altitude of the perpendicular rocks over which the torrent is precipitated; but here our amazement is aroused by the[192] number of cascades and jets into which the down-rushing stream is divided, as well as by the narrowness of the deep ravine into which the raging waters are compressed. The width of the current below the falls is but a thirteenth part of what it is above.

After flowing from west to east, the Zambesi here makes a sudden bend to the south, so that the side on which we were stationed had become the western shore. As the river below does not cover the full breadth of the valley, it is quite practicable for a spectator to take his stand almost anywhere at no great distance below the level of the shore above, and so to view the cataract with his face turned to the north. Unfortunately the constant dash of the spray renders the soil too slippery to allow any one to approach the actual branch of the abyss into which the waters are hurled, but many an effective point of view is to be found within a few hundred yards of the cataract.

Let the reader then imagine himself to have taken his position upon a spot facing a rugged dark brown rocky wall about 200 yards away, rising 400 feet above its base, which is out of sight. Over the top of this are dashing the waters of the Zambesi. About 100 yards from the western bank he sees several islands adorned with tropical vegetation in rich abundance; further on towards the eastern shore and close to the edge of the abyss his eye will light upon nearly thirty bare brown crags that divide the rushing stream into as many different channels. To the left again, between the bright green islands and the western shore, he will observe that the great wall of rock is considerably lower, allowing a ponderous volume of[193] water to rush impetuously as it were into a corner, whence it is precipitated in a broad sheet into the gulf below; beyond this and the next cascade he will see another portion of the surface of the rock, and as he carries his eye along he will be struck with admiration at the jutting peaks that stand out in vivid contrast to the angry foam that seethes between them. The countless jets and streams assume all colours and all forms; some are bright and gleaming, some dark and sombre; some are wide and some are narrow; but as they plunge impetuously into the depth below they make up a spectacle that cannot fail to excite a sensation of mingled astonishment and delight.

Of the jets of water some are so thin that they are dispersed before they reach the lower flood, and bound up again in vapour; others are from ten to fifteen feet in breadth; these dash down with tremendous fury, their edges curled up and broken into angry foam and spray; the largest streams, especially those that pour along from the eastern shore, are caught by the jagged peaks and torn asunder, ending their career by rolling over and over in cascades. In the diversity of the forms the water takes, I believe that the beauty of the Victoria Falls is quite unparalleled.

Nor does the magnificence of the view end with the prospect of the giant waterfall itself. Let us raise our eyes towards the blue horizon; another glorious spectacle awaits us. Stretching far away in the distance are the numerous islands with which the river-bed is studded, the gorgeous verdure of their fan-palms and saro-palms standing out in striking contrast to the subdued azure of the hills[194] behind. All around them, furnishing a deep blue bordering, lies the expanse of the mighty stream that moves so placidly and silently that at first it might seem to be without movement at all; but gradually as it proceeds it acquires a sensible increase in velocity, till checked by the rocky ridge that impedes its flow, it gathers up its force to take its mighty plunge into the deep abyss. Especially beautiful are the islands immediately at the edge of the falls; they are overgrown with palms, aloes, and creepers, and surrounded on three sides by the surging water. As Livingstone had bestowed the name of “Victoria” on the falls in honour of his sovereign, I ventured to call the adjacent hill-district by that of “the Albert Country,” and to designate the various islands after the royal princes and princesses of England.

Not less striking is the effect when we turn towards the chasm or rocky trough that receives the rolling flood. The rock on which we stand is rich with varied vegetation; gigantic sycamores and mimosas on the verge of the declivity, taller than the loftiest poplars, afford a welcome shade, their wondrous crowns of foliage springing from the topmost section of the stem and spreading wide their grateful canopy. Creepers as thick as one’s arm, sometimes straight, sometimes spiral, clamber up to the elevated tree-tops, and make a playground where the apes can sport and exhibit their antics to the spectators concealed from them below. Palm-bushes and ferns contribute to the charm of the scene; the soil is an elastic carpet of moss, adorned at intervals with tiny flowers, or, where the naked rock reveals itself near the brink, interspersed with [195]dark green algæ, singly or in clumps, some small as a pea, some of the size of an egg, lying loosely on its surface.

Vol. II.

Page 194.

THE VICTORIA FALLS.

In a large measure this peculiar vegetation owes its existence to the perpetual fall of spray from the cataract; from every separate cascade clouds of vapour incessantly ascend to such a height that they may be seen for fifty miles away; at one moment they are so dense that they completely block out the view of anything beyond; another moment and a gust of wind will waft them all aside, and leave nothing more than a thin transparent veil; as the density of this increases or diminishes, the islands that lie upon the farther side will seem alternately to recede or advance like visions in a fairy scene.

The effects at sunrise and at sunset are incomparably fine. Arched rainbows play over and amidst the vapoury wreaths, and display the brightness of their hues. The movement of the spray is attended by a suppressed hissing, which, however, is only audible when the wind carries off the deafening roar that rises from the bottom of the abyss. I do not know that it would be absolutely impossible to make one’s way through the bushy thickets to the very edge of the precipice and so to look down to the base of the cataract, but certainly it is not visible from any of the best standpoints for viewing the general scene. The incessant roar that rises from the mighty trough below fills the air for miles around with a rolling as of thunder; to hear it and not see from whence it comes never ceases to be bewildering; the seething waters before us crash against the crags; we find the ground beneath our[196] feet tremble as though there were some convulsion in a subterranean cave beneath; we become every moment more conscious of a desire to witness the origin of the strange commotion; it is hard to suppress the sense of nervousness; no infernal crater in which the elements were all at strife could produce a more thrilling throb of nature! Truly it is a scene in which a man may well become aware of his own insignificance!

There is still another direction in which it remains for us to look. We have yet to make our wondering inspection of the great ravine into which the water in its massive volume is precipitated. That huge ravine is a long zigzag. At first it proceeds for 300 yards due south; it then makes an angle and runs for 1000 yards to the west-south-west; again it turns for 1100 yards to the south-east, and thus it continues to vary its direction. Except where deep chines break in, too precipitous to be crossed, it is not difficult to walk along the edge and to see how perpetually the rugged walls of rock present some fresh diversity of form; at one time they are absolutely perpendicular as though they had been hewn by a mason’s hand, at the next turn they slope like the glacis of a gloomy rampart, and then suddenly they assume the aspect of a huge garden-wall dotted over with clusters of green and crimson in striking contrast with the dull brown ground. Every here and there particles of earth containing the seeds of aloes have been carried into the clefts of the rock, and, nourished by the fertilizing matter already there, have germinated and thriven admirably, as their fine trusses of bloom are present to testify; meanwhile their own seeds are[197] ripening, destined to be conveyed on the bosom of the stream to districts far away, where they may flourish on an unaccustomed soil.

There are places in which the cliffs take the formation of horizontal ledges of bare rock alternating with belts of thriving vegetation; in other parts, notably upon the western shore, may be observed a luxuriant growth of foliage that extends half-way down the surface or occasionally right to the edge of the stream, covering also the sides of the numerous chines that pierce the rocky mass, and afford an outlet for the accumulated rain.

But while I thus describe the general character of the scenery along the entire course of the zigzag, I would not have it overlooked that its peculiar attractiveness arises from the great diversity of conformation which it perpetually presents. This I hope may be better appreciated if I depict one or two of the reaches of the ravine more in detail.

The first short reach on the right or western shore, below the falls and close to them, is hemmed in at first by a perpendicular wall of rock, which, after receding so as almost to form a creek, suddenly juts out into a promontory against which the full torrent of the gathered waters breaks with all its vehemence. The opposite shore upon the eastern side is a range of rocky heights connected with the mainland beyond; upward from its base for about a third of its height it is naked and precipitous, but all above are terraces richly clad with tropical vegetation; its ragged peaks are very striking, and as often as I contemplated it I could not help associating it with the idea I had formed of the hanging gardens of Semiramis.

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Between the second and third longer reaches is a short arm, midway in which there rises a huge projection, steep as any of the rocks around, but consisting of enormous blocks piled one above another; on the north, on the south, and on the east it is lashed by the torrent of the stream; on the west it stands detached from the mainland by a deep dry gully. Upon this isolated eminence, rearing itself to an altitude of 300 feet, not a leaf is to be seen; Flora and all her progeny have been utterly banished from its inhospitable soil, but it bids defiance to the flood: for thousands of years the elements have wreaked their fury on its mass; lightnings have burst upon its summit; Æolus and all his crew have spent their efforts upon its sides; floods of water, that deadliest foe to all the strongholds of earth, have done their utmost to sap its foundations; but yet it stands immovable; it holds its dry valley inviolate, and imperiously bids the rushing stream to seek another channel.

Nor can the waters of the torrent itself fail to arrest our attention as they tear along, with the speed of an arrow, through the deep ravine. The channel along which they flow gradually narrows to about a third of its original width, and the very compression gives intensity to the current, which strikes against one impediment only to gather fresh impetus for dashing against another. The billows roll over the boulders that project above the surface of the flood, or they part asunder as they come in contact with some jutting promontory that impedes their course; but though centuries elapse, they avail not to displace the rocky walls by which they are[199] confined, nor to wear down the barriers by which they are opposed.

It was a subject of much regret to me that our stay could not be prolonged beyond three days. Adequately to explore all the features of the cataract, to visit the islands, and to investigate the character of the opposite shore would be the work of weeks, if not of months; and I am quite resolved that if ever I return to the Victoria Falls my visit shall not be hurried, and I hope that no such drawback as arose from the painful condition of my feet will again interfere to mar my enjoyment of the magnificent scene.

On one of the days that we stayed, I and my servant had a rencontre with a herd of baboons. We caught sight of them in one of the glens or chines which I have mentioned, and to which I afterwards assigned the name of “the baboon glen.” They were on the farther side, and being anxious to obtain a specimen of their skulls, I fired and killed one baboon; but, unfortunately for me, the creature fell into the river. At my second shot I wounded two more. This induced the right wing of the herd to retreat; but the main body kept their ground, and the left flank, moreover, assumed the aggressive, and commenced pelting us so vigorously with stones, that, remembering that I had only one cartridge left, I considered it far more prudent to withdraw than to run the risk of a hand-to-hand encounter. Accordingly we retired, most ignominiously defeated.

Some of the Batokas who resided upon the farther shore, under the dominion of their chief Mochuri, came over to us in their canoes, bringing goats,[200] kaffir-corn beer, and beans for sale. I afterwards met one of them again at Sesheke; he was a sub-chieftain, and a relation of Mochuri’s. Sepopo, supposing that I had never seen a Batoka before, introduced him to me; I recognized the man at once, but he took care not to show that he knew me, as he was conscious of having bought guns of us in direct contravention of the king’s commands, an offence for which he was liable to the sentence of death.

Whilst I was engaged in completing my cartographical survey of the falls, I came across several herds of grazing pallahs. The Cape servants succeeded in shooting one of the graceful creatures, which are the most common of all the antelopes of the Zambesi.

On the evening before our departure we had an adventure with a lion, which terminated in a way that was somewhat amusing. I had returned from an expedition to the falls, and was followed by Walsh, who was coming back from one of his bird-hunts; he came in rather excited, declaring that in crossing a meadow on his way towards the river, he had seen a lion. The spot which he described was only about three-quarters of a mile away, and it did not require a very long consultation before we resolved forthwith to commence a lion-hunt. I confess I was not a little concerned when I heard that the ladies proposed to accompany us; but my objections were soon overruled, Mrs. Francis urging that she had already seen several lions killed, and Mrs. Westbeech, the bride of a few months, insisting that her husband should not go without her.

Vol. II.

Page 201.

THE LION EXPECTED.

The greater part of the Zambesi valley is thickly wooded, but as I have described, there are occasional tracts of meadow, almost bare of trees, bordered towards the stream by hedges of saro-palms. It had been in coming over one of these that Walsh had seen the lion spring from behind a tree, and disappear into the palm-thicket. On reaching the tree we found another tree close beside it, only about fifteen feet high, against the stem of which a pyramidal ant-hill had been erected.

We lost little time in making our arrangements; we divided into four detachments, the first including Westbeech, Francis, Walsh, and myself; the second, Oppenshaw, Bauren, and two of the Cape servants; the third, two more Cape servants, and two Matabele with guns; whilst the fourth was made up of the rest of the servants, who were armed with assegais, kiris, and sticks. The three former detachments were to march upon the thicket from opposite directions; the fourth was to remain at a distance outside to give warning of any movement they should see.

Hardly had we gone ten yards towards the assault, when the ladies’ voices brought us to a stand; they had come to the conclusion that they were unsafe beneath the tree, and requested their husbands to help them on to the top of the ant-hill.

Again we started, proceeding very slowly and with much caution. Just as we got within a few feet of the palm-bushes we were startled by a tremendous roar, sonorous enough to try the nerves of the most experienced hunter, and to make him realize the essential difference between a felis leo and a felis domestica. The hero of the forest was so close to Francis, that it might easily have pounced upon him before we could render any assistance.

[202]

We stood still and gazed upon the bush, but no lion could be seen. Some one suggested it might be prudent to retire a little, and everybody seemed ready enough to act upon the suggestion; accordingly, with our guns cocked and our eyes fixed upon the spot from which the roar had proceeded, we stepped gradually backwards; still no signs of the lion; we resolved to fire, but we fired in vain; we determined to set light to the bush, but all to no purpose; the lion had escaped.

On turning round to look for the other detachments, we discovered that the sound of the roaring had thrown them into a state of dismay; some of them had disappeared entirely; the whole of the fourth company had climbed up into the trees.

Just at this moment our attention was arrested by another cry from the ladies; the wind had fanned the flames of the bushes to which we had set light, and the smoke was driving so densely towards them that they were in danger of being choked; we soon rescued them from their unpleasant situation, and were all but agreed to give up the chase, and to go back again to our camp.

Westbeech, however, made the proposition that the hunt should be continued higher up the river; he was an experienced and daring hunter, and perhaps was a little anxious to exhibit his capabilities to his young wife. In order to carry out the proposal, it would be necessary to cross the meadow over which Walsh had been passing when he first saw the lion. After some hesitation it was settled that the party should undertake a second chase, with the exception of Mrs. Westbeech, who was left in charge of some of the Matabele servants, who were[203] quite content to undertake so pleasant a part of the enterprise.

But although we crossed the meadow, we did not arrive at the bushes; startled by a cry of distress we looked back, but no trace of Mrs. Westbeech could be seen. Our amazement was great; Westbeech himself was the first to recover his composure, and started back with all speed to ascertain what had happened; we followed after, but what was our surprise, when all at once we found that he too had disappeared! We did not notice that the Matabele were in fits of laughter, nor for a while could we understand what Francis, who had run on some way in front, could mean when he turned round and threw his gun upon the grass before our feet, and bade us stop. In another moment Westbeech emerged from under ground, and directly afterwards Mrs. Westbeech reappeared after the same fashion. The explanation of the mystery was not hard to find. The natives had dug pitfall after pitfall to catch game; having no guns, they make great holes in the ground, sometimes ten or twelve feet long and nearly as many deep, so much narrower at the top than at the bottom, that it is impossible for any animals to get out when once in. Into one of these Mrs. Westbeech had had the mischance to fall, and Mr. Westbeech, in his eagerness, had run into another.

Beyond a few scratches, the lady happily had sustained no injury, but the contretemps naturally had the effect of making us abandon all further thought of the chase.

As for the lion, we were informed by some Batokas who came to visit us as usual in the evening, that it[204] was quite true that one was lurking in the neighbourhood; but it was so accustomed to human beings that it gave no cause for anxiety, and the natives were not afraid to pass it, even at night.

Before quitting the vicinity of the Victoria Falls, I may say a few words about the Manansas, the native tribe that is to be found in various parts of what I call the Albert country, and who formerly possessed a kingdom of their own.

The Manansas occupy the hill-country south of the falls, a district that although it may belong by right to the Bamangwatos is always claimed by the Matabele rulers, the inhabitants themselves being invariably the greatest sufferers by the contention. The Bamangwatos ordinarily call them Masarwas, although the two tribes have really nothing in common. They cultivate sheltered spots in the valleys, or pass their lives in hunting without any settled place of residence. When oppressed by the Bamangwatos they take refuge with the Matabele, and when persecuted by the Matabele, they seek protection under the Bamangwatos; or if, as sometimes happens, there seems no way of escape, they submit themselves in the most abject and servile manner to their conquerors. Thus it comes to pass that the Albert country is a sort of debateable land, and it follows that the Bamangwatos are perpetually claiming the Manansas for their vassals, although the Manansas do not actually render them any vassal-service.

Until the year 1838 they had their own independent kingdom that extended as far south as the western Makalakas, and a long way up the Uguay and Kwebu rivers. The kingdom was[205] governed by “a great chief,” who made every sacrifice he could to come to reasonable terms with the encroaching Matabele. But the time came when the bloodthirsty Moselikatze, a very tiger amongst men, having ruined the Makalaka empire and half devoured the Mashonas, proceeded to annihilate the Manansas also. No credence had he to give to the conciliating proposals of the good honest chief; as a Matabele he was quite incapable of putting faith in any promise, or appreciating any right feeling; he was sure that some ulterior motive lurked behind the proposals that were made, and that the chief was only temporizing while his forces were collecting; and so he overpowered him in his own courtyard, pierced him with assegais, tore out his heart, pressed it to the still quivering lips, and shrieked aloud, “You had two hearts; one was false, and you shall eat it!”

Practically this victory and deed of Moselikatze put an end to the Manansas as a nation. Most of the boys were carried off to be trained as Matabele warriors, while of the men who escaped some took refuge with Sepopo, some with the Batoka chief Mochuri to the north, and others with Wankie, the ruler of the north-eastern Makalakas.

While I was in daily intercourse with them, I made repeated inquiries as to whether they had now any recognized chief, but I had great difficulty in getting a definite reply. They always appeared to suspect me; and any one of whom I asked the question seemed to fear that I wanted to put his name down in my “lungalo” (book) in order to betray him to the Matabele king. At length, however, they acknowledged that they all, wherever[206] they might be, owned allegiance to the son of their basely-murdered chief, who had been permitted with a small number of their tribe to settle on a piece of land in the eastern quarter of Wankie’s territory. On my expressing my wonder that they did not all go and join him instead of staying where they were to be worried like dogs, they replied that this was their own country; and I learnt that like the Bushmen of the south they regarded with affection and reverence the wooded heights and pleasant valleys where they first saw the light of day.

In many of their customs the Manansas differ from other South African tribes. Like the Marutse, they treat their women in a way that offers a very favourable contrast to either the Bechuanas or the Matabele. They have a somewhat peculiar mode of wooing; when a young man has been captivated by a maiden of his tribe and has ascertained that he has secured her affection in return—an assurance for which neither Bechuana nor Zulu thinks it necessary to wait—he sends an aged woman to carry the proposal that she should become his wife; this agent is commissioned to portray the young man in glowing colours, to extol the excellence of his temper, to praise his skill in procuring “nyama” (game), to describe the productiveness of his garden, and to enumerate the skins with which he has made his bed soft and comfortable. Hereupon a family council is held; the father, mother, and daughter all have a voice, and if no objection is alleged, the old woman is sent away with the message that the suitor may be admitted. When he enters the hut he must never fail to bring a present; until quite recently this was nearly always a valuable skin of[207] a rare monkey, but since the introduction of beads into the country they have been used as a substitute, and a handful of small blue beads is now the usual offering; when this has been accepted, the girl is at liberty to speak to the man, and is held to have pledged herself to him as his wife. There is an entire absence of those hideous orgies which characterize both the betrothal and marriage ceremonies among other South African tribes, and nothing transpires beyond this simple form before the marriage is deemed to be settled. The next step is for the parents every night to vacate their own hut and retire to another in the courtyard, leaving their usual abode for a week or two at the service of the newly-wedded pair. Every morning the bridegroom goes out to his work, and the parents reoccupy their proper dwelling for the day. Meanwhile the young man continues to acknowledge every favour by repeated gifts of beads; even the ablutions of the morning are recompensed in this way; but at the end of a fortnight or thereabouts, the son-in-law brings the father-in-law either four couples of goats, or eight rows (about 2 lbs.) of beads, whereupon they set to work to build a hut—or two if there were not one already in the possession of the bridegroom—which henceforward he makes his home.

Any breach of conjugal fidelity was, I understood, extremely rare; on the part of the husband indeed it was quite unheard of; the Manansas in this respect being superior to the more cultivated Marutse, amongst whom the demoralizing system of “mulekow” drives the wives into unfaithfulness even against their will.

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When any woman is near her confinement a host of the old women in the neighbourhood come to her house. Their first business is to remove the husband’s gun or assegai into his other hut, or if it should happen, which is rarely the case, that he has not a second, into the hut of one of his neighbours; he is then prohibited from entering the sick chamber for a period of eight days; at the end of that time he is conducted by the bevy of old nurses back to the hut, where he finds his wife and infant, washed in warm water, ready to receive him. The visit, however, which he is thus allowed to make is only temporary; he is not permitted to take up his quarters in his home permanently for another month. Altogether the cleanliness that prevails throughout is a great contrast to the filthiness and impurity of the Hottentots and Makalakas.

When any one dies, his burial takes place in the evening near his own enclosure, the grave, if the soil permits it, being dug to the depth of five feet. An adult is wrapped in his mantle of skins and his assegai is buried with him. The interment is conducted in silence that is broken only by the sobs of the women. Should the deceased be the master of a household all his effects are collected on the day after the funeral, and in the presence of the entire population the eldest son comes forward to take formal possession. If there be a failure of legitimate heirs, some near relative or close friend is appointed, who takes the property and the name of the deceased.

As a general rule it may be said that the Manansas are of middle height and slightly built, but it is somewhat difficult for a traveller to distinguish[209] them, as since the dismemberment of their country they have become very much crossed with the fugitive Matongas and Masupias, and with the tribes north of the Zambesi. Their complexion is dark brown; their heads are small, and they have mild-looking eyes and thick lips.

In their more palmy days their ornaments had probably been more elaborate; but I noticed that the lower classes wore bracelets and ankle-rings of gnu or giraffe-hide, and sometimes of iron wire. Their earrings, always simple in form, were mostly made of some better material. For clothing the men usually had nothing more than a bit of calico about the size of one’s hand, and only rarely was a skin of some small animal fastened round their loins; the women wore a short petticoat of tanned leather.

As servants the Manansas are to be preferred to any other of the South African tribes. I found them remarkably skilful in tracking game, their quiet, cautious method of proceeding often proving more effectual than greater dash and daring. As far also as my experience went, I must say that they are civil and beyond the average for honesty and fidelity. By the more powerful tribes they are regarded with great contempt, and laughed at as “the simpletons of the north,” but nothing worse seems to be alleged against them than their habitual courtesy and good-nature—qualities which, since the Matabele rule has spread from the Limpopo to the Zambesi—have become synonymous with hypocrisy and cowardice. Not content with murder and rapine, the savagery of the Matabele Zulus has gone far to stifle every noble[210] impulse, and to cast mistrust over every friendly word.

Whenever the Manansas are being pursued, and find themselves cut off from every prospect of escape, they will stop, turn round, and advance towards their adversaries with the points of their assegais lowered, and as soon as they come near their conquerors they will lay down their weapons, squat upon the ground, and wait until the enemy has done his worst. During the time when Moshesh was the Bamangwato king, they could generally manage to appease him and stay his acts of oppression by gifts of ivory; but Moselikatze carried off their boys and a great number of their women, while the present Matabele despot commissioned his hordes to plunder everything upon which they could lay their hands. It is only when they have been put in charge of some white man whom the missionaries have introduced as a person of importance to be protected as far as the falls, that orders are given to refrain from robbery or violence. Such, for instance, was the case when Major S. was escorted through the district in 1875; the object of the king in such cases being that the traveller should have no tales of cruelty to tell “the great white queen” of England on his return.

I used to talk to a Manansa who was hired every year by one of the traders, and appeared to be above the level of his fellow-tribesmen in intelligence. Happening to say something about the cowardice imputed to his race, I saw him shake his head and smile. “No,” he replied, “we are not timid pallahs, nor ever have been; but we[211] love our village life and our hunting; we catch our game in pits and not by arms; we give up our elephants’ tusks to the remorseless Matabele; we show them where to hunt the elephants; let them hunt as they will; we want not the blood of the beasts, much less do we thirst for the blood of men!”

It had been a Manansa custom, after the death of a king, for the men to meet together and conduct the heir to the royal residence; then they brought a handful of sand and small stones from the Zambesi, and a hammer; these they gave him as tokens of his sovereignty over the land and over water and iron, symbolizing industry and labour. At the same time they reminded him of the obligation that rested upon him that from the day of his accession to the throne he was to eat the flesh neither of the rhinoceros nor the hippopotamus, as these being “mischievous” animals, would be likely to impart their own evil qualities to him.

Even regarded as unassociated with the magnificence of the Victoria Falls, the Albert country, with its wooded rocks and grassy valleys, is undoubtedly one of the most attractive districts in the whole of South Africa. Intersected by the Zambesi, it is bounded by the sandy pool plateau on the south, and extends as far as the mouth of the Chobe on the west. Geologist, botanist, mineralogist, all alike must find it full of interest. Except the springbock, blessbock, and black gnu, all the larger kinds of mammalia are to be seen that Southern and Central Africa can show. Reptiles are numerous, and crocodiles haunt the banks and troubled waters of the remotest mountain streams. Insects of[212] various sorts abound, the lepidoptera especially exhibiting new species. Let proper means be taken to exterminate the tsetse-fly, and to guard against the prevalence of summer fever, and the rich soil and mild climate of the valleys would be found amply to repay a liberal cultivation, and would yield a profitable return of tropical produce.

It was by a slightly different route that we made our way back to Panda ma Tenka. On the Matopa river our servants shot a wild pig; and a little further up the valley some of our people discovered a dead elephant. Their attention was caught by a disgusting smell, which they thought they recognized; and pushing into the bushes they found the carcase of a huge male elephant, dead from gunshot wounds. The adjacent flesh had been gnawed by lions, and one of the blacks declared that he saw a lion making off as we approached. Westbeech and Francis took possession of the ivory, leaving the carcase to the servants who had smelt it out. They cut off the feet, intending to carry them off as a dainty for their next meal, but the stench of them was so intolerable that we soon made them throw their tit-bit away. When cooked fresh the fleshy substance enclosed beneath the tough skin of the elephant’s foot is accounted as choice a morsel as a bear’s paw, but it is the only fragment of the brute that is in any way suited for human food.

So sore did my feet continue that it was with the greatest difficulty that I dragged myself along. The ladies, as they had done on the way out, walked the greater part of the distance between the falls and the Gashuma Flat; and apart from my own[213] trouble, the whole of us were in perfect health when, on the 24th of September, we reached Panda ma Tenka. There I found two Matongas and a Manansa on the look-out for employment. I engaged them at once, and Westbeech and Francis did their best to assist me in procuring what was requisite for my start again to the Leshumo valley.

ENCOUNTER WITH A TIGER.

HUNTING THE SPUR-WINGED GOOSE.

When I found myself once again sitting in my waggon at Panda ma Tenka, I occupied myself in writing my journal, but I was altogether much[215] dispirited and out of sorts, the continued pain in my feet tending in no slight degree to aggravate my sense of depression. I was temporarily cheered by the companionship of my good dog Niger, who returned to me after having been left behind at the falls; but I felt very keenly the prospect of soon losing him altogether for a time; I was unwilling to expose him to the attacks of the tsetse-fly, and accordingly had arranged for my Bamangwato servant, Meriko, to take him back with him to Shoshong and confide him to the care of Mr. Mackenzie. Could I have foreseen that I was parting with the creature finally, I would not have suffered him to leave my side; I paid Meriko well to attend to him, and took care that he had a proper supply of provisions, but unfortunately it turned out that Mr. Mackenzie was away from home; poor Niger was entrusted to a waggon-driver in the employ of Messrs. Francis and Clark, who just then was starting for Grahamstown, and from that time forward, notwithstanding all my inquiries, I never could ascertain what became of him.

By this time I had come almost to the end of the stock of goods that I had procured for bartering; it was absolutely necessary that the supply should be replenished, and in spite of the exorbitant prices that were asked I had no alternative but to buy what calico, cloth, and beads I could.

On the 27th I had an attack of dysentery, which happily did not prove very serious.

During my stay I made the acquaintance of a man named Henry W., who came from the neighbourhood of Grahamstown; he was an experienced hunter, but somehow or other I could not take to[216] him; I could not get over the barbarities which he permitted during his excursions. On one occasion, after wounding a female elephant that had been pursuing him, he allowed his servants to torture it for a couple of hours with their assegais before he put the poor brute out of its miseries by shooting it dead.

Although there had been no rain in the district for several months, the two days before we left Panda ma Tenka were wet and stormy. When we started we made but a very short progress on the first day, as my baggage proved too heavy for the cart, and I was obliged to halt and send back for a waggon; this did not arrive until the afternoon of the following day, but we lost no time in moving forwards again, and spent the night on the Gashuma Flat. Our encampment was an attraction to several lions that prowled around, ready to pounce upon any animal that might be scared from the enclosure.

Three out of my four servants spoke as many different dialects, Sesupia, Setonga, and Senansa, but they all understood the Sesuto-Serotse, so that from the chatter which they kept up I was able to pick up a number of colloquial expressions.

A short distance before we reached Saddler’s Pan, one of Westbeech’s servants had a narrow escape; having seen some zulu-hartebeests grazing a little way off, he approached them by degrees, and was about to fire when he found himself almost within the clutches of a lion that was watching the very same herd. He was glad enough to make a timely retreat.

Late in the evening of the 4th of October, all safe and sound we reached the Leshumo valley. Next[217] morning I sent my servants forward to the Chobe, and as Westbeech had placed the eight donkeys at my disposal, they took the greater part of my baggage. I myself followed on later in the day, and on my way fell in with two English traders named Brown and Cross, who were pleased to see me; they were returning from a fruitless visit made in the hope of seeing Sepopo; they told me that they had been fortunate enough to kill two magnificent lions, one of them a full-grown male of the maneless species.

I found sixteen boatmen waiting my arrival at the Chobe, and next morning Sepopo sent six more; they were to take both Westbeech’s goods and mine to Sesheke, where the king was very anxious to inspect everything, having been already informed that Westbeech had brought a considerable number of elephant-guns. I should have been quite ready to cross the river that same morning, but the wind was too high for the passage to be attempted prudently; setting aside the prospect of being capsized, which would have been sufficiently unpleasant, there was the risk of falling a victim to the numerous crocodiles. I myself subsequently witnessed some casualties of this kind at Sesheke.

Strolling about, I observed that the poisonous mushungulu-tree was now in full bloom, covered with large crimson blossoms. On my way back from my ramble my attention was arrested by a succession of gun-shots, which I was told were part of a funeral ceremony that was then taking place. A Masupia was being buried, and on an open space between two trees, about 400 yards from the settlement, I saw a dozen or more men running about[218] wildly and letting off their guns, shouting aloud during every interval between their shots: under one of the trees a number of people were sitting drinking beer, and under the other tree was the grave that had been just closed in.

The Masupias are accustomed to make their graves six or seven feet deep and two feet wide, and to bury with the deceased his coat, his mattock, and other weapons; a little corn is likewise thrown into the grave. The friends always spend the rest of the day at the place of interment, and if the buried man has been wealthy a large quantity of meat is consumed as well as the beer. The shouting and running about and the discharge of the guns are supposed to scare away the evil spirits from the spot. I asked one of the bystanders how the person just buried had come by his death; he only raised his eyes to signify that it was all owing to Molemo.

In the course of the day some of the people brought in a quantity of the flesh of a hippopotamus that they had killed; they considered it quite a young animal, but its teeth were full ten inches long.

In the conveyance of my baggage to Makumba’s landing-place I was assisted by a brother of the chief’s, named Ramusokotan; he resided some miles further up the left bank of the Chobe, and was entrusted with the duty of guarding the lower course of the river. On my way to the landing-place I saw several pallah-gazelles, being twice so close to them that I could observe all their movements.

The Zambesi was lower than I had seen it before. As we crossed it we had a narrow escape[219] of being upset by a hippopotamus, another of the three animals of which Blockley had killed the largest on our previous voyage to Sesheke. Remembering the spot, we were trying to pass along as quietly as possible, when Westbeech’s boatmen felt a sudden jerk at one of the paddles close under their canoe; the creature was probably startled for the instant, and allowed the boat to proceed without attacking it; the next moment, however, it made a furious dash towards my boat, which was following close behind. But my men had fortunately been put on their guard by the cries of Westbeech’s crew, and made so vigorous a spurt that when the head of the hippopotamus emerged from the water, it was several yards in the rear.

On arriving at Sesheke I was informed that I was at liberty, if I liked, to occupy one of the new huts just erected by the king, but I preferred accepting Westbeech’s invitation to take up my quarters in his own courtyard, where Blockley also had put up a small warehouse for himself. My first greeting from the king was that I had been too long coming, that I was too late now, and that he could not keep his Marutse men waiting for me; but I went to see him in the afternoon, and took him a variety of little presents, which seemed to put him in a very much better temper, and he was evidently pleased when I tried to speak a few sentences to him in the Sesuto-Serotse language.

It was getting towards evening when Blockley called me out of my hut to witness a curious scene. The king was receiving a visit from his wives who resided in the Barotse valley, and from his daughter Moquai, the Mabunda queen; they were arriving[220] with about forty canoes, those occupied by the royal ladies being covered in the middle by a mat to protect them from the sun and rain. Many of the canoes had thirteen oarsmen, who all rowed standing, such of them as did not convey passengers being laden not only with great mats, pots, and provisions for the way, but with baskets full of presents for the king.

KING SEPOPO.

I called the next morning upon Captain M’Leod, Captain Fairly, and Cowley, whom the king had accommodated in a round hut near the royal enclosure; they were full of complaints because Sepopo persisted in putting off the great elephant-hunt for[221] which they had come the second time. I also went with Westbeech to pay my respects to the newly-arrived queens, most of whom he had already seen in the Barotse valley. Amongst them was the chief wife, Mokena, or “mother of the country.” Altogether I made acquaintance with sixteen of the wives. Sepopo’s favourite was a Makololo named Lunga. The third wife was Marishwati, the mother of Kaika, already nominated as the future heiress to the throne. The fourth wife was named Makaloe; the fifth, Uesi; the sixth, Liapaleng; then came Makkapelo, on whose account two men were put to death in 1874; next in order were Mantaralucha, Manatwa, Sybamba, and Kacindo. The twelfth was called Molechy; this wife, as well as another named Sitan, had been all but drowned by Sepopo for faithlessness.

A seducer of any of the royal wives is at once handed over to the executioner’s assistants, with the instruction that he is “to be sent to fetch buffalo-meat for the king,” meaning that he is to be taken to the woods, and there assegaied. The mode of dealing with an adulterous wife may be illustrated by Sepopo’s proceedings with Sitan. He ordered a number of canoes full of people to push off into the middle of the stream, taking his place in one of them with the culprit. He then had her bound hand and foot, and ducked under the water repeatedly until she became insensible; on her recovering consciousness, he asked her to tell the people how she liked being drowned, and warned her that if ever her offence should be repeated, he should simply put her under water, and leave her there.

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The fourteenth wife was Silala, and there were two others, but both of these had been presented by the king to two of his chiefs. The true heir to the throne had died two years previously. His name was Maritella, and he was the son of Marishwati. Just before his death he was lying on his bed, and complained of being thirsty, whereupon the Barotse chieftain, who happened to be present, poured him out some drink from a pitcher standing by; the lad died very soon afterwards, and Sepopo immediately accused the chieftain of having poisoned him, and condemned him, in spite of his being universally beloved by his people, to be poisoned himself.

The king’s daughter, Moquai, had married Manengo, one of the few Makololos who had survived the general massacre. The king of the Makololos, Sepopo informed me, had died a miserable death, his body having become a mass of ulcers, and after his demise the whole tribe had been distracted by party squabbles.

I was determined to give the king no peace on the subject of my journey, and on the 12th I had a long conference with him and the Portuguese. He told me that although I might make up my mind to stay only two days at each of the towns in the Barotse, the whole boat-journey through his kingdom could not take me less than two months, and that after I had reached the kingdom of the Iwan-yoe, where I should find the sources of the Zambesi, I should have to go on for about another nine weeks to get to Matimbundu.

I went more than once to visit the queens, and always found that they were treated with great[223] respect, their quarters being nearly always surrounded by residents patiently waiting their turn to be admitted to an audience.

On the 14th I received a visit from a dancer. The calves of his legs were covered with bells made of fruit-shells, and his dancing consisted of little more than shaking himself so that the bells were all set in motion.

Amongst the other inmates of Sepopo’s court was a Mambari named Kolintshintshi, who held the office of royal tailor; he had been taken prisoner during one of the raids of the Marutse to the west; two companions who had been captured at the same time had been restored to their home after receiving a liberal present of cattle, whilst Kolintshintshi had been detained.

During the time that I was delayed at Sesheke I took several opportunities of rambling into the surrounding woods, and found a number of trees and bushes that were quite new to me, whilst a great proportion of the kinds that I had already seen in the Bechuana forests appeared here to attain double the height that they did elsewhere. Four-footed game was very plentiful, and I noticed a hartebeest with flat compressed horns, different from any kind with which I was acquainted. Birds, likewise, seemed tolerably numerous, and I found a singular kind of bee-eater (Merops Nubicus), a grey medium-sized hornbill, the great plotus, and two species of spurred plovers with yellow wattles.

Returning from a walk I came across one of the caravans that arrive from the more distant parts of the kingdom, bringing in the periodical tribute for the king. It consisted of about thirty[224] people, but very often a caravan of this kind will include considerably more, because whether the men come voluntarily, or under the compulsion of a chief, they are always obliged to bring their whole households with them. On making their entry into Sesheke the party was arranged mainly with regard to the stature of the people who composed it; a leader went in front, carrying nothing but his weapons and a great bell, which he continued ringing without intermission; following him were the men laden with the elephants’ tusks, the manza-roots, and the baskets of fruit that composed the tribute; then came the women in charge of the travelling-apparatus and provisions, the children all trudging on behind.

On the 19th Westbeech, Bauren, Walsh, and myself made up a party to go and fish in one of the lagoons. We arranged to go two and two in separate boats, but we were so unlucky in our choice that we soon found that we were in perpetual danger of losing our equilibrium, and had to return and exchange into craft of safer dimensions. We had an opportunity during our excursion to observe the way in which the Marutse and Masupias manipulate their nets. Made of bast, with meshes that are somewhat wide, each net is cast out with its ends secured to two boats, which are stationed at a distance from each other, and manned by four oarsmen apiece; when the net is sunk the two boats are made to approach each other at the same point upon the shore where the net is drawn up; the fish are stupified by being knocked with kiris, and then brought to land.

We were witnesses on our way back of a scene[225] that was anything but pleasing. Some girls had been bathing in a creek, and one of them had stolen some beads belonging to another. On discovering that she had been robbed, the owner of the beads fell upon the unfortunate thief, and belaboured her so savagely with the reeds that she tore from the stream, that the culprit fell down and sued for mercy. A man who was standing near attempted to interfere, but nothing could pacify the anger of the infuriated girl; she persisted in administering chastisement, and was not deterred from her violence till she had actually snatched off the leather apron from the victim’s loins.

The same evening I was again invited to supper with the king. On this occasion an episode took place which unfortunately was by no means rare in Sepopo’s court, and which serves to illustrate his habitual cruelty. It was about an hour after sundown, and there was no lack of merriment in the royal enclosure. The king was sitting in his usual fashion—crossed-legged upon a mat. The wives whose turn it was to entertain him were on his right. On his left was spread another mat for myself, his nephew, and his immediate attendants. The rest of the company were arranged opposite to him, in a semicircle. The intervening space was left free for Matungulu, the royal cup-bearer, to dispense the honey-beer, a beverage peculiarly belonging to the court; all honey, as crown property, being sent to the royal kitchen. Men, moreover, are sent out to collect it by the aid of the honey-cuckoo, their expeditions frequently lasting several days. The king took a little draught of the beer, and handed the remainder to Lunga,[226] his favourite wife, with a remark universally supposed to be so witty, that the whole assemblage, according to etiquette, burst into roars of laughter. Meanwhile one of the inferior chiefs took advantage of the noise to approach the king; and, clapping his hands gently without cessation as he spoke, said: “There was a man in my village, my lord king, too weak in his legs to hunt polocholo (game). It has pleased Nyamba (the great god) that all his wives should die; so that he can no longer procure any mabele (corn). This man has now come to settle here with you in Sesheke; but he is old, very old, and his relations are far away in the Barotse.” Sepopo nodded to signify that he quite understood the story. While he had been listening, his eye had again and again glanced towards a distant quarter, where the general crowd were gathered; and when the chief ceased to speak, the king cried out “Mashoku!” In an instant the executioner hastened towards him and received his commission to take care that the old man should no longer be permitted to be a burden to the neighbourhood.

Throughout the kingdom no one was more feared or more hated than the executioner Mashoku. He was a Mabunda; but the peculiar aptitude he had shown for his office had induced the king to raise him to the rank of a chieftain. He was over six feet high, and of a massive build; so ill-shaped, however, was his head, and so repulsive his cast of countenance, that I could never do otherwise than associate him in my mind with a hyæna.

Nothing could be more odious than the way in which Mashoku received his orders. Crawling up[227] on all fours to the royal presence, he grinned with satisfaction at the instructions he received. He kept clapping his hands softly while he was attending; and having taken a sip from the goblet offered him by his royal master, he crawled back to his former place. The king was in high good humour; and after a few more jokes, retired to his bedchamber, whilst the band played their usual serenade from their adjacent hut.

Only too faithfully was the king’s sentence carried out next morning. Before it was light, five men wended their way towards the old man’s hut, one of whom, Mashoku himself, went in and seized his victim by the leg. Quite incapable of making any resistance, the poor man trembled like a leaf. He was dragged off to the river-side, and there thrust into a canoe that was lying in readiness. A few strokes of the paddle brought it into midstream; and while three of the assistant executioners kept it steady, Mashoku and the other man lifted the helpless creature by the shoulders and legs, and held him in the water. A gurgling noise, a few bubbles on the surface of the stream, and all was over. The body was hauled back into the boat, to be thrown into the water again at a spot near the bank where the king’s scavengers always flung their refuse to the crocodiles.

Such is an example of the summary way in which Sepopo would dispose of the friendless and infirm; and as the number of strangers that gathered round the king at Sesheke was considerable, executions of this kind were more frequent than in many other places. Under certain rulers—such for instance as Sepopo’s grandfather, who was much respected by[228] the people—these cruelties fall into disuse, nor are they often practised when a queen holds the reins of government.

Next day I paid a visit to Masangu, to whom, as being responsible for the control of the guns distributed to the king’s vassals, I have already given the designation of governor of the arsenal. He was likewise superintendent of all the native smiths. I found him employed in repairing a gun, for which he was using hammers, chisels, pincers, and bellows, all of his own making, and of the most perfect construction that I had yet seen in South Africa.

He asked me whether I had ever seen the Masupias dance, and drew my attention to the sound of the drums in the royal courtyard. On hearing that I had never been present when any dancing was going forward, he invited me to go with him to the performance that was then about to commence.

All the inhabitants of the Marutse kingdom are fond of dancing, most of the tribes appearing to adopt a style peculiar to themselves. In common with the Bechuanas they have a dance which is performed by girls on reaching the age of maturity. This is repeated day after day for weeks at a time, and, accompanied by singing and castanet playing, is sometimes kept up till midnight, and is supposed to answer the design of uniting the girls of the same age and born in the same neighbourhood in a bond of friendship. There are also betrothal dances and elephant dances, at which a great quantity of butshuala is consumed, the ill-effects of which soon become apparent. On these occasions the instruments of fan-palm are beaten very rapidly with[229] reeds, the time being marked by striking gloves of steel, or bells without clappers. Besides these, again, there are the lion and leopard dances, which are performed by hunters returning from successful expeditions, in conjunction with the villagers, who go out to meet them. In an elephant dance the king himself occasionally takes a part, as likewise in the mokoro, or boat dance.

THE PROPHETIC DANCE OF THE MASUPIAS.

That to which Masangu now invited me to accompany him was known as “the prophetic dance.” It was one of several juggleries peculiar to the Masupia tribe. The largest drums of the royal band are brought out, and while they are beaten about thirty performers stand round, singing and clapping their hands with all their[230] might. Two men then commence dancing in the middle of the open space, and continue their performances for hours together, sometimes from sunrise to sunset, till they sink down almost in a state of exhaustion. In this condition they have to deliver their prophecies about any royal hunt or raid that may be coming off. As a general rule these predictions are favourable, and the dancers are rewarded with presents of beads or calico; but if the event should belie the anticipation, they take good care to keep themselves out of the way, to escape the chastisement that would be sure to fall to their lot.

The two Masupia dancers that I saw had their heads, arms, and loins fantastically adorned with the tails of gnus and zebras. The dance itself seemed to consist principally in hopping from one foot to another, varied by the performers occasionally laying themselves flat on the ground, at one time falling suddenly, at another sinking so gradually that no joint appeared to stir, although the head was kept in a perpetual agitation. Attached to the calves of the legs were little bells and a number of gourd-shells, which acted as rattles; and when the dance is executed in their own homes, the Masupias very often introduce some conjuring tricks, one of which consists in giving a tremendous gash to the tongue, from which flows a stream of blood: but the tongue is immediately afterwards exhibited, and shown to have sustained no injury.

After having devoted some days to a general examination of the fish in the Zambesi, I took an opportunity to make a more precise investigation of several varieties, applying my attention particularly[231] to the sheat-fish (Glanis siluris), which, however, I could not discover differed in any respect from the same species in the more southern rivers, except that it was of a somewhat darker colour. We set some ground-lines in places that appeared to be free from crocodiles, and were successful in getting a very fair haul.

A loud clamour of women’s voices that broke the silence of the night was explained to me to betoken that a Marutse had just died in the village of Katan, a chief on the west. This was followed in the morning by the discharge of guns, indicating that the deceased was being buried.

In the course of that day the king sent a boat to convey Blockley and Bauren to Impalera, to enable them to start on their trading-expedition to the territory of the Makololo prince Wankie. The offer, however, of a single boat to carry a white man, several servants, and all the merchandise, was regarded by Blockley as little less than an insult, and did not tend to heal the unpleasantness which Sepopo’s recent want of courtesy and consideration had provoked. He was not long in visiting our quarters again, coming not only with his full band, but attended by a company of 120 servants, that completely filled our courtyard, his design evidently being to make us sensible how thoroughly we were in his power.

VISIT OF THE QUEENS.

Sepopo had hardly taken his departure, and I had seated myself to finish some sketches that I had begun, when twelve of his queens pushed into my hut. They had heard that I had taken the likenesses of the king and his executioner, and were not only very curious to see them, but anxious[232] to learn how they were done. In their eagerness to handle everything, I almost thought they would squeeze the breath out of my body; one of them took hold of my pencil, several of them felt the surface of my paper, whilst those behind, who could not see, pushed those in front, till their breasts pressed against my shoulders. Certainly they were more obtrusive in their behaviour than any of the Bechuana or Zulu women that I had elsewhere seen. When the royal ladies entered, one of our black servants, who was in the hut, prepared to leave, but knowing the jealous disposition of the king, I[233] thought it advisable to make him remain where he was.

My guests remained with me for about half an hour, when they betook themselves to the small warehouse next door, and began to pester Westbeech very much as they had pestered me. As soon as they had gone, I hung a mat over my doorway, leaving only aperture enough to admit a little light, but the expedient was an utter failure; I had taken much too moderate an estimate of woman’s curiosity. Almost immediately afterwards one voice was heard, “Sikurumela mo’ ndu” (a curtain is hung up), followed by another, “Nyaka chajo” (doctor gone out), and two of the queens were inside, much disconcerted, no doubt, at finding the doctor at home.

Altogether, I consider the Marutse to be the cleanest of all the South African tribes that I came across. Although there are but few shallow sandy spots in the river near the larger settlements, and even these are dangerous on account of the crocodiles, the people will not allow themselves to be deprived of their bath; if the stream is deep or the bank precipitous, they pour the water over their heads. Washing is to them an absolute necessity, and they rinse their mouths and clean their hands after every meal.

I made an excursion on the 23rd to the plain known as Blockley’s kraal, and there saw some puku, letshwe, and water-antelopes. The plain lies under water during the floods; but at its edge, close to the woods, I noticed a number of fields under cultivation; women and children were digging, and men were felling trees, the clearance they made being an enlargement of their master’s estate. On[234] my way back I saw several homesteads already finished, and close beside them some rude, conical huts of grass and reeds, so slightly put together that they could have taken only a few hours to construct. They were intended for the female slaves, and were not allowed to have any enclosure, so that the ingress and egress of their occupants might be under supervision.

Going into a hut next day I found a Mambari doing blacksmiths’ work with some tools that Masangu had lent him; he was sharpening mattocks, and kept his fire alive by means of a pair of the bellows that are in ordinary use among the Marutse. These bellows were somewhat peculiar, and may claim a detailed description. They had two compartments, formed of circular boards covered with leather, and with an aperture in the sides; these were alternately raised and lowered by handles, the air being forced into two wooden tubes that ran parallel to each other into the two compartments; fixed into the ends of the wooden tubes were two shorter tubes made of antelopes’ horns, but these, instead of running parallel, converged in front, and met in a clay nozzle, which was applied to the fire.

I was taking an afternoon stroll along the river-side, when I saw a crowd of natives manifestly in great excitement; it appeared that the body of a girl, who had been killed by a crocodile a few days before, had just been washed ashore. Crocodiles have the habit of drowning human beings, or any animals that they are unable to swallow, by holding them down at the bottom of the water until the cessation of all struggling seems to make them aware that no resistance is to be expected,[235] when they open their jaws and let free their prey. Unless one crocodile is assisted by another, it cannot by itself tear a fresh corpse in pieces; but it has to wait until the process of decomposition sets in, when the gaseous exhalations raise it to the surface in a condition that permits it to be torn asunder and devoured piecemeal. If a crocodile’s attention should be attracted by a fish, or anything else that seems fit for food, it will forsake its larger prey in the day-time, but only to return to it in the evening. I was told by Sepopo and by many of his people, that these reptiles are more dangerous near Sesheke than in most other parts of the kingdom. Shortly before my arrival a man had been dragged by one of them from his boat, and a boy of six years of age had been snapped up while bathing; and during my stay I heard of no less than thirty deaths that were attributed to the rapacity of these creatures.

Small crocodiles are occasionally caught by accident in the fishing-nets; the larger ones have to be captured by an arrangement of great hooks. The crocodile-tackle is very ingenious, and probably may be more easily understood from an illustration than from any verbal description. The bait which conceals the hook is covered by a net, which is attached to a strong bast rope more than twelve feet long by a number of twisted bast threads, the other end of the rope being wound round a bundle of reeds that serves as a float. It is only now and then when the casualties have been unusually numerous that the king gives orders for the tackle to be brought into use, and then the bundle of reeds is laid upon the bank; the hook is generally baited with a piece[236] of putrified dog’s flesh, of which the Marutse believe the crocodile to be especially fond, and is supported on a tripod of reeds, three or four feet above the water, and almost close to its edge. After a crocodile has scented the bait, it usually hovers round it for a long time, sometimes until late in the evening, before it makes a snap at it; but when it attempts to swallow it, the projecting points of the hook prevent the closing of the jaws, and the water rushing into the throat and windpipe makes the brute sink to the bottom, where it soon becomes exhausted; its carcase floats down the stream, either towards the shore or against a sandbank, its position being indicated by the float which it drags after it. Two or three crocodiles have been repeatedly known to be taken in this way during a single night from the setting of five hooks. Except they are found alive on the hook, or are accidentally wounded by fishermen or hunters, they are never speared. Crocodile-snares, like fishing-nets, are all royal property.

On one occasion, when the hooks had been baited overnight, I went down to the river to ascertain the result, and met three large canoes with two men apiece, each of them conveying the carcase of a crocodile big enough to contain a human body. As soon as the carcases were brought to shore, some of Sepopo’s people proceeded to cut off their heads; the eyelids, the coverings of the nostrils, and a few of the scales from the ridge of the back were reserved for the king, to be used as charms.

I did what I could to induce the crowd that had found the body of the poor girl to have it buried, but my pleading was to no purpose; her relatives[237] declared that it was Nyambe’s will that the crocodile should seize her, and therefore the crocodile must be allowed to have her. The body was accordingly left to be devoured at sunset.

Queen Lunga took an opportunity of calling upon me, to introduce her daughter Nyama. She was a girl of fourteen, and had just been married to Sepopo’s eldest son, Monalula, who was half an idiot. Before the wedding she had been sent to reside with her mother and some other of the royal wives in a retired hut in a neighbouring wood, where she was made to fast, and to spend her time in working and in learning her domestic duties; her hair meanwhile had been all shaved off, except an oval patch that was rubbed with manganese. Nyama’s father was Sekeletu, the Makololo prince.

In one of my next rambles through the woods, I came upon a little Mankoë settlement. The people were perhaps the finest men in the Marutse empire. They had long, woolly hair, which they combed up high, giving their heads the effect of being larger than they really were. Their purpose in coming to Sesheke was to assist the king in his projected great hunting-excursion. I noticed that their travelling-utensils of horn and wood were ornamented with carvings scarcely inferior in execution to those of the Mabundas. The four huts in which they were residing were about seven feet in height, and the same in width, and were arranged in the shape of a horseshoe. On my way back I saw several graves of Masupia chieftains, all adorned with ivory; I likewise noticed some calabashes, with sticks thrust right through them, resting mouth downwards on a small ant-hill, and filled with pulverized[238] bone. They were supposed by the Marutse to bring rain.

From a conversation with Sepopo I gathered some information about the constitution of the country and the ranks of the officials. The hierarchy may be divided into four classes; first, the officers of state; secondly, the koshi or viceroys of the tribes in the different provinces; thirdly, the kosanas or makosanas, sub-chieftains who serve under the koshi; and lastly, the personal attendants of the king, whose rank may be said to be intermediate between the two latter classes.

The officers of state were, first, the commander-in-chief, who in Sepopo’s time was a Marutse relation of his named Kapella, and whom he afterwards condemned to death; secondly, there was the controller of the arsenal, having, as I have explained, the supervision of the ammunition and guns distributed to the vassals, an office that under Sepopo was shared by two Masupias, Masango and Ramakocan; next there was the captain of the body-guard, a post then held by Sepopo’s cousin, Monalula, but whose services were only required in time of war; and fourthly, the captain of the younger warriors, who had the command of a special division of the army during a campaign; this office was at present held by a man named Sibendi.

The second class of officials includes all the governors of the more important provinces. They are invested with both civil and military powers. In some of the more extensive districts, as the Barotse, there are several of these chiefs appointed, but they are all subordinate to the one who is chosen to reside at the principal town, and in all[239] cases they are accountable to the head governor of the Barotse, who is regarded as ranking next to the king. In Sepopo’s time this office was filled by Inkambella.

Officials of the third grade were such as held control as deputy-viceroys over separate towns or small villages where cattle-breeding, hunting, or fishing, was carried on in behalf of the king. Their principal duty was to look to the proper payment of the royal tribute; the contribution of cereal products was ordinarily sent to the koshi, who were responsible for forwarding it to the sovereign. It is the law of the land that when a vassal kills a head of game, and even when a freeman slaughters any of his own cattle, the breast must be given to the kosana, or must be sent to the koshi if he should happen to be in the neighbourhood, or must be reserved for the king himself when the royal residence is within reach. The law likewise demands that all matters of importance should be submitted at once to the deputies, who refer them to their superiors to transmit, if need be, to the king himself.

Dignitaries of what I have called the fourth class comprise what may be designated as the king’s privy-council. Nominally they are reputed to rank below the koshi, but practically the monarch holds them as their superiors; they include the state executioner, five or six private physicians, the royal cup-bearer, one or two detectives, the superintendent of the fishermen, and the overseer of the canoes. There was likewise a kind of council belonging to Moquai. Although the king had virtually withdrawn the sovereignty from his daughter, the Mabunda[240] people persisted in regarding her as their proper ruler, and she was allowed to retain her court-retinue, of whom her husband, Manengo, was the head; she had moreover a chancellor and a captain of the guard, both of whom were appointed viceroys in her dominions. I myself made the acquaintance of Sambe, her premier, as well as of several of her chiefs, Nubiana a Marutse, Moquele, Mokoro, and two Masupias, Monamori and Simalumba.

Sepopo had both a privy-council and a general council. Under a queen a privy-council has no existence at all, and in Sepopo’s hands it was entirely his tool, composed of men as cruel as himself. Nor in his time was the general council itself, made up mainly of state officials, much better than a farce; whatever decisions it might arrive at, and whatever sentences it might pass, were completely overruled in the other chamber. Besides the state officials the larger council always included any chiefs or subordinate governors who might be resident near the royal quarters.

Although Sepopo had several times changed his residence he had hitherto generally succeeded in getting a council fairly amenable to his authority; recently, however, his barbarities, and especially the wholesale way in which he was putting people to death upon the slightest pretext, had brought about a spirit of dissatisfaction. Conscious of the growing opposition, the king proceeded to yet greater severity in his dealings, and condemned a number of the leading counsellors, both of the Marutse and Barotse kingdoms, to be executed, an arbitrary measure which only served to hasten his downfall.

By the tribes of the Marutse kingdom in general[241] the larger council was held in high esteem, the privy-council being regarded only with detestation and servile fear.

In Sepopo’s employment there were likewise two old wizen-looking magicians or doctors, Liva and his brother, who exercised almost a supreme control over state affairs. They had practised their craft for more than sixty years; they had served under previous sovereigns, and their experience enabled them now to minister to Sepopo’s suspicions, to manage his temper, and to foster his superstitions. They enjoyed a kind of hereditary reputation, as in spite of the atrocities which they were known to have encouraged, they were regarded by the various tribes with awe rather than with hatred. That there had not been a revolt long ago against Sepopo’s tyranny was mainly to be attributed to the belief that he had those in his secret council who could divine any plot beforehand and frustrate any stratagem that could be devised, and even when his despotism grew so great that the life of the highest in the kingdom was not secure for a day, not a man could be found to lift an assegai against him. At last it happened that a certain charm which he had publicly exhibited and proclaimed to be infallible failed to produce its proper effect; scales as it were fell from the eyes of the populace; they discerned that all his pretensions were hypocrisy and deceit, and proceeded forthwith to expel him from the throne.

The elephant-hunt, so long talked of, came off on the 27th. At dawn of day all Sesheke was in commotion; the royal courtyard, where the king was distributing powder and shot, was so full of[242] men equipped for the excursion that I could only with difficulty make my way across. I hurried to tell my English friends the news, but I found that they had already been apprised of the hunt by one of the chiefs, and that although they had not been invited by the king, they were preparing to join the throng. The excitement between the royal enclosure and the river was very great; as the people ran backwards and forwards they shouted and laughed, and I had never seen them in such high spirits and so generally blithe and genial. A hunt on this extensive scale was very rare; the present occasion had been anticipated for months, and it had a special interest of its own from the circumstance that some white men and the king himself were to take part in the sport. Long rows of canoes lined the river bank, another flotilla having collected on the opposite side, the crews on the sand ready to embark at a moment’s notice. Hurrying on their way to the Kashteja to await the arrival of canoes to take them across were caravans of men, chiefly Mankoë, Mabundas, and Western Makalakas; every chief made his own people arrange themselves in proper order, and despatched the proper contingent to look after the embarkation of the clothes and water-vessels, and especially to look to the guns, which necessarily engrossed a good deal of attention.

As the king was leaving his residence he was confronted by the party of Englishmen, who remonstrated with him very severely because he had failed to keep his promise of inviting them to the hunt. His behaviour towards them had really been abominable. After endeavouring to fall in with his wishes[243] in every way, and having twice come from Panda ma Tenka on purpose, and, moreover, having submitted to be fleeced by him till they had little more than the clothes on their backs, they now found that he was about to start without them. This could not be. No doubt Sepopo had his own motives for his conduct; he was accustomed to consider all elephants as his own property, whether shot by himself or not, and probably he was anxious to conceal what numbers of elephants there were in the country, lest the visits of white men should become too frequent; but he was bound to keep his word, and at length, in deference to the representations of some of the chiefs who were in attendance, he consented that the three sportsmen, as well as a trader named Dorehill, who had paid him a visit the year before, should have a canoe placed at their disposal.

It was about noon when the king and his flotilla started off. He was accompanied by his band, and at least two hundred canoes set out from Sesheke alone, apart from those that joined at other parts of the river. It was with no little reluctance that I refrained from going, but I considered it prudent to do nothing to arouse Sepopo’s suspicions, and feared that by taking part in the hunt I might lead him to suppose that my proposed expedition in his country had some design of interfering with the elephants.

My general rule at this time was to spend my evenings with Westbeech, where with his assistance I tried to converse with the natives, and gathered many particulars about their manners and customs. In his hut I met a Marutse named Uana ea Nyambe, i. e. the child of God, who prided himself very[244] much upon his wisdom, and was often consulted by Sepopo.

On the 29th I stayed at home to keep guard while Westbeech and his servant went out hunting; they were more fortunate than I had been on my last excursion, and returned with a letshwebock that had no less than ten bullets in its body. I believe that the muscles of the neck are more strongly developed in this species of antelope than in any other.

The next day we received a visit from several Marutse who had their foreheads and chests tied up with bandages of snake-skin, to keep off pain, as they explained; they told us that they not unfrequently fastened the bandages round their waists to allay the pangs of hunger; the Makololos use leather straps, and the Matabele strips of calico for the same purpose.

Two boatmen came in a little before sunset to fetch some provisions for the white men on the hunting-ground; they reported that hitherto the chase had been somewhat unsuccessful, but that it was to be resumed in the morning. But about another hour later we were much surprised to see Cowley and Dorehill turn up; they were disappointed, and consequently angry; they told us that they had been stationed in a reed-thicket with the king and the principal members of his suite, and had been waiting for the elephants to be driven up; Sepopo, however, grew so impatient that he fired while the herd was more than sixty yards distant; the consequence was that they immediately took to flight; there were nearly 800 huntsmen following the king, and almost as many beaters, and when the elephants began to run, a sort of panic seized[245] everybody, guns were fired in every direction, often without an aim at all, and in the general pell-mell it was no great wonder that only five elephants should be killed altogether. Cowley and Dorehill affirmed that they had been obliged to throw themselves on the ground to escape the random volley of shot; and they declared, moreover, that the beaters had utterly failed in their work, which would have been done far more effectually by a couple of Masarwas than by the whole host of them. The king had given vent to his anger at the bungling in his usual fashion by thrashing every one within reach with a heavy stick till his arm ached. Before starting, he had been smeared with a variety of ointments which he called a “molemo” to give him influence over the elephants.

Wishing to make rather a longer excursion into the Sesheke woods than I had previously done, I started off before sunrise, and having passed the site of Old Sesheke, turned to the west. On my left lay the Zambesi valley, an apparently boundless plain overgrown with trees and clumps of reeds, and intersected in various places by side-arms of the river, some of them several miles in length. The woods to which I was bending my way were about twenty feet above the level of the water. Some of the lagoons extended right up to the trees, stretching along the edge of the forest for miles, though the river itself was at an average distance of three miles away. Near one of the lagoons I saw a couple of darters, and very singular their appearance was as they perched upon a bare projecting bough, their stumpy bodies and short legs being quite out of proportion to their long, thin necks, that never[246] rested from their snake-like contortions; but a still stranger sight it is to see them swim, the whole of the body being immersed and nothing but the upper part of the neck with the head and sharp beak visible above the water. Until arriving at the Zambesi, I had not seen the darter (Plotus congensis) since I left the eastern parts of Cape Colony. In a way that is scarcely credible without being witnessed, their long, narrow throats are capable of swallowing fish as large as a man’s hand. I shot several, but they all fell into the water, and as the lagoons abounded with crocodiles, it was not without risk that I and my four servants contrived to fish them out again. Shortly afterwards I shot a Francolinus nudicollis.

Noticing some buffalo tracks that apparently led down to the river I determined to follow them, and found that they soon turned back to the woods, past a native village. We continued our way about three miles beyond this, when we observed how the grass alongside the tracks had been quite recently eaten away, and drew an inference that the buffaloes were not likely to be far distant, and that we ought to be on our guard; the trees around us were not of any great height, but the underwood was dense, and the bushes round the glades were rather thick, so that our progress was not at all easy.

We kept on our way, however, and at length came to a spot where the tracks were so unmistakably new, that it was certain the buffaloes must be close at hand. We moved forwards with increased caution, keeping only a few yards apart.

“Narri! narri!” (buffalo! buffalo!) suddenly whispered Chukuru, and beckoned to us to halt.

[247]

“Kia hassibone narri,” (I see no buffalo), I answered, and kept on.

But Chukuru touched me on my shoulder as a sign that I should crouch down; the others took the hint and concealed themselves instantly in the grass.

“Okay?” (where) I asked.

He pointed to four dark objects lying on the ground about 120 yards distant. There could be no mistake. They were four buffaloes. One of them had its head towards me. I took aim and fired; up jumped every one to see the effect. Up sprang the buffaloes, and made off in a gallop. One of them however lagged behind; it rolled over for a moment, but sprang up quickly and overtook the rest; then again it seemed to linger. We had no doubt that it had been wounded, but whether mortally or not we could not tell.

Nothing can exceed the cunning that a buffalo will exhibit when it is wounded or infuriated. Having better powers of discrimination, it is more wary than a hippopotamus, and consequently is not so dangerous to an unarmed man, but once provoked it will fight to the bitter end. It generally makes a little retreat, and conceals itself behind a bush, where it waits for the hunter, and when he comes up makes a dash at him. Attacks of this kind are by no means unfrequent, and huntsmen of considerable experience have been known to be outwitted and seriously injured by these South African buffaloes. Sometimes the angry brute will content itself with tossing its victim into the air, in which case the mischief is generally limited to the dislocation or fracture of a limb, but far more often it[248] holds its antagonist down upon the ground, whilst with its feet it tramples him to death. I heard of an instance on the Limpopo, where a white man and three negroes were killed, and a fourth negro much injured, all by a single buffalo bull.

The buffaloes of which we were in pursuit came to a standstill after about 200 yards; the leader of them turned, and seemed to be scenting us out; then again they started off, but after a very short run the one that was wounded fell behind and appeared anxious to conceal itself under the shelter of a tree. I made my servants approach and attract its attention, while I crept up unobserved till I was within proper range, when I immediately discharged both my barrels. The first shot entered the breast, the second hit the shoulder; and tottering forwards on to the open ground, the animal almost directly fell upon its knees. With shouts of glee my servants ran up to the spot, but on discovering that the buffalo was not dead, they were careful not to go too near, nor would I allow them to touch it until I had contrived to get sufficiently close to send a bullet behind its ear, when it fell back powerless, and its limbs were stiffened in death. The delight of my negroes was unbounded; they danced round the carcase for a few minutes, and then set to work to light a fire, at which they roasted the best part of the heart, and cutting off one of the feet toasted the marrow.

Page 249.

CHASE OF THE WATER-ANTELOPE.

I went home with one of the men in the evening, leaving the rest to dismember the buffalo’s body. There were many lion-tracks about, and as they cut up the joints they were obliged to hang them up out of the lions’ reach. In the midst of their [249]operations a heavy storm came on, which made it quite impossible for them to light a fire, so that they were themselves obliged to spend the night on the branches of a tree.

Before I reached my quarters the wind had begun to blow violently, and just as I was entering the town, I saw a boat capsize with two fishermen and a quantity of fish. Fortunately the men managed to get safely to shore, but the surface of the water was covered with the dead fish, which the current carried inland. In a moment, almost like magic, from every direction there started up a crowd of boys, who began taking possession of the unexpected haul; they tore off their leather aprons, and were filling them with the best and biggest they could find, when all of a sudden their mirth was checked, and they were as eager to scramble out of the water as they had been to plunge in. The well-known red coat of the overseer of the fishermen had been observed in the distance, and the dread of the thick stick of that important official was for the tribe of juvenile freebooters a sufficient notice to quit.

The next morning I was somewhat startled by seeing a large number of men all carrying arms, and hastening towards the woods. I was beginning to wonder whether there had been an alarm of some enemy approaching, when the mystery was solved by the arrival of some young men with a message from their chief that they were going out on a lion-hunt, and inviting us to join them. Four lions had made an attack upon the royal herds, and had killed four cows.

The scene of the disaster was not far away. About 150 yards above our courtyard the Zambesi[250] made a sudden bend from west to north, and then, after awhile, turned at right angles to the east, past New Sesheke; on the opposite side at this last bend was a lagoon that branched off into two arms, and it was on the strip of land between these that the havoc had been committed. Neither Westbeech nor Walsh cared to join the hunt, but I and Cowley accepted the invitation.

Cowley was a good-natured young fellow of eighteen, with a face round and rosy as a girl’s; his manners were very genial, and he had nothing to spoil him, except perhaps a little weakness in his desire to be a Gordon Cumming; he had already killed two lions, and was quite ready to risk his life in adding a third to the number.

Although about 170 natives had assembled with their chief, only four of them were provided with guns. It was not much more than half an hour after I had received my invitation that I arrived at the lagoon, where the whole troop advanced to meet us. It had been already decided that the track of the largest lion should be followed, and the herdsmen were being questioned about the details of the attack. It appeared that they had thought it impossible for any lions to come so near the town, and leaving their herds in a place that was quite unenclosed, they had all gone to sleep in some huts close by.

I understood that it is only when lions have done some injury that the Marutse ever go out to attack them.

Our arrival was the signal to commence operations. The procession was opened by a few natives and a couple of dogs that were put on the liontrack;[251] Maranzian, the chief, went next, followed by Cowley and myself; the rest of the throng came on without much order behind. But it was only in the open places that any particular rank could be kept; the thorn-bushes were often so thick that even the dogs could hardly make their way through, and every one got forward as best he could. The bushes however hardly impeded us so much, or were so uncomfortable as the tall reeds in the dried-up hollows. We persevered for more than an hour without coming in sight of our prey, and the negroes began to joke about the lion feeling itself guilty, and said that it was ashamed to show its face, and glad to hide away; but on leaving the next hollow the dogs commenced growling angrily, and made a rush into another hollow beyond again, about ten feet deep and thirty feet wide. The condition of the trail satisfied us that the lion was concealed here close at hand. We made the crowd of natives halt, Maranzian and I hastened round to the farther side and prepared to fire, Cowley staying on the nearer side, and sending the dogs into the reeds; but we schemed to no purpose, the baying of the hounds made us aware that the lion had got round behind us, and we were obliged to change our position.

Followed by the throng, we proceeded to the open space beyond the reeds, close to the spot in which we imagined that the lion was now concealed, and having chosen our places where we thought we had the best chance of firing at it on its escape, we made the whole crowd shout to the top of their voices, and throw in bits of wood; and when that proved ineffectual we ordered them, whether they liked it[252] or not, to go into the thicket and rummage about with their spears.

It was a very pandemonium. The screaming and yelling of the negroes was quite unearthly, and the noise seemed to grow louder and more frightful as their courage increased at not finding any lion to alarm them. Maranzian, with his four men that had guns, was standing about twenty yards in front of me. We were beginning to think that we were again baulked, when, like a flash of lightning, a lioness made a tremendous spring out of its concealment, and then another spring as sudden into the very midst of the excited crowd of hunters. There were so many of them scattered about between me and the angry brute, that it was out of the question to think of firing, and it made a third bound, and disappeared into another thicket close behind; it knocked over several of the men, but fortunately it did not hurt any of them seriously.

Without the loss of a moment, Maranzian sent his men to drive the lioness to the very extremity of her new retreat. It rather surprised us to find the dogs perfectly silent as we followed them into the thicket, but before long we heard them barking vehemently in the open ground beyond; they had driven out the brute, and were in full pursuit.

As he saw the lioness bounding away in the distance, with the dogs at her heels, Cowley was terribly chagrined at having abandoned his former position, and sighed over his lost chance of adding to his rising renown as a lion-hunter.

Page 253.

LION HUNT NEAR SESHEKE.

Only an artist’s pencil could properly depict the scene at this moment. The plain was more than half a mile long, and nearly as wide; bushwood [253]enclosed it on the north, reed-thickets on the south and west; far in front was the fugitive lioness; the dogs were pressing on at various intervals, whilst the frantic crowd of well-nigh 200 negroes was scampering in the rear; nothing could be imagined more motley than their appearance; their aprons of white, or check, or brown, or red contributed a variety of colour; their leather mantles on their shoulders fluttered wildly in the wind; many of them brandished their assegais as if ready for action; others kept them balanced evenly in their hands; some of them continued to yell at the very top of their voices, and a few could be heard chanting, as if by anticipation, the strains of the lion-dance.

The climax was now at hand, and full of excitement it was. Again the lioness took refuge in a triangular thicket, with its vertex farthest from us. Close beside it was a sandbank, some ten feet high. Maranzian, with a number of men, placed himself on the right side of the thicket; I took up my position on the left, Cowley stationing himself on the sandbank at a point where he conceived the lioness when pressed by the negroes would try to escape. By encouraging words, and where words failed by the free use of a stout stick, Maranzian made a lot of the men go and ransack the reeds, and as they tumbled about they gave the place almost the aspect of a battle-field. The excitement became more intense when there remained but one little corner of the thicket to be explored. Now or never the lioness must be found. Suddenly there was an angry growl, and the beast leaped towards the pursuers. A shot was fired at that moment, but it only struck the sand; the negroes, taken by[254] surprise, fell back, some of them disappearing altogether, a few of them desperately hurling their spears. Once again the lioness retreated, and when the natives had recovered themselves, they saw her crouching down as if prepared for another spring. Here was my chance; catching sight of her head, I took deliberate aim and fired; my shot took good effect, and at the same time a couple of spears hit her on the side. One more growl and she was dead.

It was only for greater precaution that Cowley and I, before we permitted the carcase to be moved, each put another bullet into it, but it was subsequently pierced by more than twenty spears; many of the negroes, as they approached the lifeless body, thrust the points of their assegais into it, muttering some mysterious formula. As it was the king’s cattle that had been slaughtered by the lions, the skull of the brute we had now killed would be employed as a charm, and hung up in the royal kraal.

Cowley and I returned home, leaving the carcase to be brought in afterwards. When it arrived it was received with much shouting and singing. It was carried by four of the strongest of the men on a couple of poles, its paws tied together, and its head hanging down well-nigh to the ground; it was brought into the town just as my own servants were returning with the buffalo-meat, and a large proportion of the male population turned out to greet the hunters. The next thing to be done was to beat the lion-drums, and to announce that the lion-dance would be performed. The procession advanced in two groups, one consisting of the bearers, with the[255] carcase as a trophy of success; the other being the hunters. The leader of the expedition opened the dance, and he was followed by such of the huntsmen as had been nearest at the death; they were accompanied in their performance by the beating of a drum. The dancers next gave a representation of the lion-hunt, running in all directions, and pretending to hurl their spears; the singing was taken up by the two groups alternately, and though it was not so monotonous as some that I heard at other times, yet any melody it might have had was utterly destroyed by the painful discord of the instruments that accompanied it.

After the body of the lioness had been deposited on the ground under a mimosa, we took the opportunity of investigating the wounds. It turned out that my first bullet had passed completely along the left side of the skull, and that immediately on receiving it the wounded beast had fallen so as to leave only the lower part of its face exposed; this we had both struck, and we traced one bullet into the vertebræ of the neck, while the other, Cowley’s we presumed, had shivered the lower skull-bone to splinters.

In making my memoranda of this lion-hunt I used up the last of my writing-paper; it was some that Westbeech had torn out of his own journal and given me. It was now that I found the newspapers that I had received from Shoshong very useful; the parts that were printed on were very serviceable for pressing plants, and I was only too glad to fasten the margins together into sheets by means of mimosa-gum, and to use them for writing on.

After our hunting triumph Maranzian honoured[256] me with a visit next day. In the course of his conversation with Westbeech and myself, he gave us some fresh information about the Barotse, the mother country of the Marutse. Noticing how I made entries in my “lungalo” (book) of all that I had seen in Sesheke, he told me that when I got to the towns of the Barotse I should see many objects much more worthy of being recorded; the buildings, he assured me, were very superior, and he referred especially to the monuments of the kings. What he described, added to what I had heard from Westbeech, as well as from the king, from Moquai, from the chiefs Rattan and Ramakocan, and from the Portuguese, only served to increase the longing with which I looked forward to the journey before me. The conversation afterwards turned upon Maritella, the heir to the throne, who had died. Maranzian said that after his death the king had had all the cattle from the town and environs driven to the grave, and left standing there until they bellowed with hunger and thirst; whereupon he exclaimed: “See, how the very cattle are mourning for my son!”

When the king returned from his great hunting-expedition he was extremely discontented with the result, and consequently very much out of temper. On one of the days the party had sighted more than a hundred elephants in the swamps near Impalera, but although at least 10,000 shots had been fired only four elephants had been killed. I called to see him and he showed me the tusks that had been brought back; there were two weighing 60 lbs., six between 25 lbs. and 30 lbs., four small female tusks, and four from animals so small that they were[257] comparatively of no value. The two largest tusks had been much injured by the bullets.

On the 7th I started off on the longest pedestrian excursion I had yet taken, rambling on for fifty-two miles. Leaving Sesheke in good time, I crossed the western part of Blockley’s kraal and made my way to the Kashteja, where I had to go a long way up the stream before I could find a fording-place. The lower part of this affluent of the Zambesi is flat and meadow-like and bordered with underwood. On my way thither I noticed zebras, striped-gnus, letshwe and puku antelopes, and rietbock and steinbock gazelles. In the river-valley itself the orbekis and rietbocks had congregated in herds, a mode of living which I had never seen before, nor do I think that any other hunter had.

Altogether dissatisfied with their visit to Sesheke, the English officers were now very anxious to leave; but Sepopo would not provide them with canoes, and though they urged their request again on the following day, they were again refused. Blockley returned from Panda ma Tenka on the 9th. I was much pleased to greet once more a man who had shown me so much kindness; and I accompanied him when he paid his visit to Sepopo.

The king at length rejoiced my heart by acceding to my long-cherished wishes; he told me that Moquai and the queens who had come from the Barotse country were about to return, and that I was at liberty to go with them. Fellow-travellers more influential than these distinguished ladies could not be desired.

On my next visit to Sepopo I found the royal courtyard crowded with people. As soon as I entered[258] the house the king asked me whether I had ever seen any Mashukulumbe; and understanding that I had not, he took me by the hand and introduced me to six men who were squatting on the ground. Their appearance was strange, and seemed to invite a careful scrutiny. Their skin was almost black, and their noses generally aquiline, though they had an effeminate cast of countenance, to be attributed very much to their lack of beard and to the sinking in of the upper lip. All hair was carefully removed from every part of their bodies, except the top of the skull, where it was mounted up in a very remarkable fashion.

Page 258.

MASHUKULUMBE AT THE COURT OF KING SEPOPO.

The Mashukulumbe, Sepopo informed me, were the people who lived to the north and east of his territory; and the men who had now arrived were ambassadors who were sent every year to the Marutse court with complimentary presents, and who would go back in a few weeks carrying other presents in return. When at home they go perfectly naked, the women wearing nothing but a little leather strap, hung with bells and fastened round their waists. Their pride is their coiffure, which consists of a conical chignon that fits tight round the head, and is composed of vertical rolls or horizontal tiers, the tresses being most ingeniously plaited together, sometimes crossing and recrossing each other, sometimes kept quite parallel; the whole being finally matted together with gum, which gives it the appearance of really growing from the crown of the head. But this is by no means the case; the hair that is periodically shaved off the entire body, except from the patch of ten or twelve inches in circumference on the head, is all carefully preserved [259]until enough has been accumulated for the headgear; and the master of the house will not unfrequently add the hair of his wives and slaves, twisting it up into bands that are intertwined with his own. I saw a coiffure twelve inches round, worked into a tail more than a yard long that inclined towards the right shoulder; so that every time the man moved, and especially when he stooped, the headdress appeared to be toppling over with him. The average height to which the hair was trained was about ten inches; but in all cases the unusual weight upon the skull had the effect of developing the muscles of the temples till they stood out like cords, not unfrequently as thick as one’s finger. The falling in of the top lip was caused by extracting the upper incisor-teeth, an operation with the Mashukulumbe that corresponds with the boguera of the Bechuanas, and is practised upon youths when attaining the state of manhood, being part of their discipline. One of the Makalaka tribes north of the Zambesi, as well as the Matongas on its bank, break out their top incisor-teeth from the sheerest vanity. Their women say that it is only horses that eat with all their teeth, and that men ought not to eat like horses.

With the help of his attendants, the king was engaged in manufacturing a musical instrument out of the leaf-ribs of a saro-palm. Except just at the ends, the concave surface was hollowed into a furrow, the convex side underneath being scored with a number of little incisions about the thirtieth part of an inch in width. When played, the instrument is struck with small sticks, and is used particularly at the elephant-dance.

[260]

Westbeech, Dorehill, and Cowley left on the 10th for Panda ma Tenka; but Sepopo still refused to provide any canoes for the English officers, who were becoming more impatient than ever to get away.

On the 11th he had a mokoro, or boat-dance, executed through the town. It was supposed to represent a boating-excursion, the principal feature being a boat-song that was sung in chorus. On this occasion the king himself took the leading part, and went through all the gesticulations of a steersman, whilst about seventy of his people had to follow him and imitate the movements of rowers.

Not doubting that the English officers would very soon be permitted to depart, I had devoted some time to the preparation of several articles for insertion in various journals in England and at home; but I now began to fear that the opportunity of entrusting my correspondence to their charge would be again deferred. At length, however, the desired boats were forthcoming, and they were suffered to take their departure. Sepopo made a last effort to detain them, but finally yielded to their solicitations. The boatmen, taking their cue from the king, were at first inclined to be disagreeable; but I interfered and checked their insolence, and they were all brought to reason before the officers proceeded on their way.

My next excursion was towards the north-east. I shot a steinbock, and secured a good variety of coleoptera.

Rising before daybreak on the 21st, I set out on a ramble to the north, not returning till after sunset. The dew in the morning was very heavy; and I was[261] tired in the evening by my long exertions; but I was amply compensated for all inconvenience and fatigue by the many objects of interest that I saw and collected. Many parts of the wood were overgrown with a tall spreading shrub covered with large white blossoms that perfumed the air with their fragrance. In one of the glades I found two new kinds of lilies, one with a handsome violet-coloured flower. A leaf-beetle of a yellow-ochre tint had settled on the other lily; and I likewise discovered another species with red and blue stripes, and two new species of weevils on the young sprouts of the musetta bushes. As I went back I caught three sorts of little rose-beetles on the white-flowering shrubs; and in a dry grassy hollow I found the species of Lytta which I had already seen in Sechele’s country during my second journey.

Having arranged to join a buffalo-hunt on the 24th, I retired to my hut rather earlier than usual on the previous evening; and it was scarcely nine o’clock when I was roused by a noise like sounds of weeping coming from the river. At first I did not take any particular heed; but finding that the noise continued, and that there was a murmur of voices that seemed to increase, I had the curiosity to send Narri, one of my servants, to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. In a few minutes he came running back with the news that Queen Moquai was having one of her maids drowned. Unable to believe that she could be capable of such an act, I hurried out, determined to convince myself by the testimony of my own eyes before I would credit so shameful a report.

A crowd of men and women, brawling, screeching,[262] and laughing, was gathered on the shore; and just as I arrived, the body of a girl, apparently lifeless, was being lifted up the bank. In a few moments, however, she recovered consciousness and was dragged away towards Moquai’s quarters.

I followed in the train, and as I went I elicited the facts of the case. The girl was a slave of Moquai’s, and on the day before had been informed by her mistress that she was to marry a hideous old Marutse wood-carver. Folding her hands upon her breast, she had expressed her desire to be submissive as far as she could, but was quite unable to conceal her aversion to the husband that had been chosen for her; she burst into piteous sobs, which had the effect of making the queen extremely angry, and she dismissed the girl from her presence. Altogether unused to have her wishes questioned, the queen presently had the girl recalled. Again she protested that she was anxious to serve her mistress with all fidelity, but pleaded that she might have nothing to do with the odious old man she was expected to marry. Moquai’s fury had known no bounds; she had sent for the proposed bridegroom, and given him instructions to carry off the girl that very night from the royal hut to the river, to hold her under the water till she was half dead, and thence to take her to his own quarters, where she would wake up again a “mosari”—a married woman.

The orders were duly executed; and I had not been awake long next morning before I heard the singing and beating of drums that betokened that the nuptial dance was being performed in Moquai’s courtyard before the door of the newlymarried[263] pair. On going to the spot I found ten men kicking up their heels and slowly twisting themselves round in an oval course, while a man in the middle pirouetted in the contrary direction, and beat time with the bough of a tree; they all wore aprons of roughly-tanned leather, mostly the skins of lynxes and grey foxes, and many of them had the calves of their legs, as in the other dances, covered with bells or fruit-shells. The singing of the man in the middle was accompanied by the beating of two of the large drums; and four more dancers were squatted on the ground, ready to relieve any of the ten men that were tired out. Two boys of about ten years of age were amongst the dancers; and various passers-by stayed and took a turn at the performance for the sake of having a share in the kaffir-corn beer which the queen would distribute when the dance was over. Every now and then the whole of the dancers would put shoulder to shoulder, sing aloud in chorus, and quicken their pace to a great rapidity. The dance would be repeated at intervals for no less than three days.

I passed the place again on the afternoon of the following day as I was on my way back from the woods, and found the huts appropriated to the attendants in the queen’s enclosure still in a state of uproar; there was still the group of dancers; a number of extra performers were drinking from the brimming pitchers of butshuala that were continually replenished; while many spectators, attracted by the sound of the drums, added the hum of their voices to the general merriment. The unfortunate bride alone seemed to have no enjoyment[264] of the festivity; dejected and miserable, she sat in front of her hut, with her head resting on her hands, and her eyes gazing vacantly towards the next enclosure; manifestly she neither saw nor heard anything that was going on.

A day or two afterwards we were surprised by a serenade from Sepopo and Moquai, who were accompanied by a band of eight musicians, including two performers on the myrimbas, or gourd-shell pianos, and four on the morupas, or long drums. Not to offend the king, I stayed at home all day.

SEPOPO’S DOCTOR.

At noon on the following day Westbeech returned from Panda ma Tenka with guns for the king. Two Portuguese also made their appearance in the town. They called themselves Señhores; but one was as black as a Mambari, though he indignantly repudiated the appellation. His name was Francis[265] Roquette, and including some black women, he had twenty servants in his train, who all had their woolly hair shaved off, except a small tuft standing up at the top of their head like a back-comb. Both the Portuguese had arrived from the north, having come from one of the Mashukulumbe countries, where they had bartered the great bulk of their goods, and had brought the small residue to Sesheke, consisting of flint-guns, cases of coarse gunpowder, some lead and iron bullets, and a little calico.

A MABUNDA.

A MAKOLOLO.

Long before this time my servants had finished making the canvas coverings for my baggage; and as far as I was concerned I was ready to set out. It was therefore with unbounded satisfaction that I saw the council-chamber being furbished up, the great drums being put into readiness, and the various other indications that the queens were really about to take their departure.

Expectation was not much longer deferred. On the 1st of December I started on the expedition for which I had waited so eagerly and so long.

On the morning fixed for the start one of the Marutse sub-chieftains came to me with a message that I was to accompany him to the river side. There I found three of the royal canoes waiting for me; but as they barely sufficed to carry my baggage, I had to ask for a fourth, my servants for the present having to follow on foot.

MANKOË.

It was about noon when we quitted Sesheke. We proceeded at good speed past a number of islands, creeks, and lagoons, at which I should have been glad to linger, and could only regret that the[267] approach of the unhealthy season made it necessary to hurry forwards, and quite prevented me from drawing up either a proper map or detailed plan of the river-bed. The shore, sandy and sloping, was covered with a layer of turf and clay about a foot deep; and during the first part of our voyage I noticed several plants that I should very much have liked to stay and gather; but I could not venture to stop, as I was anxious to overtake the queens, who had started some hours earlier.

TYPES OF MARUTSE.

Towards evening we arrived at a place which required very careful navigation; some trunks of trees that had been washed down by the stream had become imbedded in the ground, and formed dangerous impediments in the line of traffic; we succeeded, however, in passing them with safety, and just about sunset reached the spot where the royal[268] ladies had landed. It was a bare sandy place on the bank, enclosed on two sides by sedge, and sheltered from the wind by tall bushes. The serving-maids had already lighted several fires, and had commenced their cooking, and a number of boats had been despatched to fetch reeds to build the huts for the night’s accommodation.

In the course of the day’s progress I had noticed a great many water-birds and swamp-birds, as well as starlings, finches, and kingfishers, all along the river.

Had I followed my own inclinations I should have stayed close to the spot where the queens had landed; but my boatmen recommended a place a few miles further on. Not suspecting any artifice on their part, I acceded to the proposal, though it turned out that their only motive was to separate me from the royal flotilla, that I might not have the protection of the queens if they should be inclined to be insolent or misconduct themselves in any way. It was quite late before we reached the landing-place to which they carried me, and which was a Mamboë settlement, containing a few huts occupied by fishermen and hippopotamus-hunters; their character being sufficiently indicated by the nets hung out on poles ornamented by crocodiles’ heads, and by the quantities of fish that were lying about. We found our quarters for the night in a grass-hut thirty yards long, but not more than ten feet wide and about ten feet high.

While we were reloading our boats in the morning the royal squadron came in sight, and we awaited its arrival. The Mamboë in the place sent the queens a bullock which had been slaughtered the evening[269] previously, and Mokena, “the mother of the country,” was courteous enough to send me one of the hind-quarters. I made my own boatmen keep up with the others all the morning, and we made our way along with good speed. The boats were all well manned; and as they darted about, sometimes in the rear and sometimes well to the front, threading their way between the islands on the dark blue water, and past the luxuriant mimosas on the banks, they formed a picture that I should willingly have done my best to transfer to paper if I had not felt that every available moment ought to be employed in making the best survey I could of the cartographical features of the stream.

When it was necessary to give the energetic boatmen a rest we lay to for something under an hour against a sandbank opposite a Marutse settlement on the right-hand shore. They all enjoyed their dacha-pipes, while the queens partook of some light refreshment; one of them, Mamangala, thoughtfully sending me some broiled fish for my luncheon. The river-scenery, and the examples of animal life, corresponded very much with what I had noticed the day before.

Towards evening we arrived at a place where some recent travellers had left about twenty huts. Here we resolved to land; and, indeed, it was high time that we did so, as a storm was gathering, and it began to rain before I could get my baggage on shore. The fourth boat for which I had asked was here awaiting me. The storm continued till near midnight; and as the huts were not waterproof I was induced to use my wraps to protect my packages. While sitting dozing upon one of my boxes[270] I slipped off, and woke to find myself lying in a great pool of water that had dripped through the thatch. Of such a night’s rest it was hardly to be expected that I should escape the consequences.

I yielded next morning to the solicitations of the boatmen, and started, much against my inclination, on a hunting-excursion across the plain stretching far away from the Sesheke woods towards the west. Overgrown with grass four or five feet high, the plain was full of swamps, and was subject to floods that left nothing unsubmerged except the few hillocks on which the Marutse had erected some straggling villages, the largest of which is called Matonga. The whole expedition was damp and dreary, and as far as sport was concerned absolutely fruitless. Before I reached our encampment, when we had only about another mile to go, I was seized with a sudden weariness, which increased so rapidly that I was unable to move a step, and my servants had to carry me the rest of the way back. I understood the symptoms only too well, and could come to no other conclusion than that I was in the preliminary stage of fever.

The boatmen were inclined to be very angry because we had come back without bringing a supply of game, and were also ready to make a disturbance with the villagers in Matonga for not procuring them enough corn and beer. I began to fear that I should have a difficulty with them; but happily Sekele, the sub-chieftain who had the oversight of things, took my part and brought them to reason.

During the night one of Moquai’s waiting-women was reported to be missing, and it was soon found[271] that she had taken her way back towards Sesheke. Some messengers were sent, who quickly overtook her; she proved to be the bride who had been forced into marriage against her wishes.

Continuing our voyage, we entered a narrow side-arm of the river lying between the left shore and the most northerly of a wooded group of islands, to which I gave the name of Rohlf’s Islands.

A MAMBARI.

A MATONGA.

Upon the mainland was Sekhose, the most westerly of the Masupia settlements, where for many years there has been a good system of husbandry, manza and beans being grown, as well as other crops. The Marutse only grow what they require for their own use, and to make up their tribute; but the Masupias, Batokas, and eastern Makalakas do somewhat more than this, selling the overplus to the hunters and traders who come from the south; but even they hardly cultivate more than the sandy slopes and the wooded declivities in the neighbourhood of ant-hills, leaving the marsh-lands completely untilled; yet these are the districts which would[272] prove most fertile, and with the mild climate and the means of irrigation at their command, seem to me to hold out a grand prospect for the future. Away in the interior of the country are vast tracts of meadow-land, often miles in extent, that are now enclosed with primæval forest, but which might be transformed into prolific fields, while the rivers might, like the Zambesi, be utilized for watering them. The tribes are all ambitious and industrious; and if once the plough shall be introduced, and a free trade opened either to the south or east, the Marutse kingdom, it may be predicted, will exhibit a rapid development.

About twelve miles from Sesheke the woods came right down to the river bank, a foretoken of the chain of hills that accompanied the stream from the Barotse valley. East of Sesheke, half way between the Makumba rapids and the mouth of the Kashteja, where the country began to rise, I had noticed a cessation of the palms and papyrus, and west of Sekhose, where the stream has a considerable fall, was the commencement of the southern Barotse rapids and the cataracts of the central Zambesi. They are caused by ridges of rocks running either straight or transversely across the river, connecting links, as it were, between the hills on either side. The peaks of these reefs made countless little islands; and the further we went the more interesting I found their variety, some being brown and bare, whilst others were overgrown with reeds, or occasionally with trees of no inconsiderable height. Within fourteen miles I counted, besides a cataract, as many as forty-four rapids. In some cases the river-bed beneath them presented a continuous, sloping surface of rock,[273] while in others it fell abruptly in a series of steps; rapids again were formed by great boulders that projected above the water, and I noticed one instance where the rocks made almost a barrier across the river, whilst only here and there were the gaps through which the current forced its way.

Were it not that the rapids are avoided by crocodiles, they would be impassable for canoes; but the absence of crocodiles makes it possible for the natives to disembark, and push or drag their craft across the obstacle. In places that are especially dangerous, it is found necessary to stow the baggage on the top of the boulders, and to take the boat over the rapid empty.

The first rapids at which we arrived were called by the natives Katima Molelo. Our oars sufficed to carry us over the first stretch of them, but afterwards the boatmen were obliged to get out and pull every canoe after them, taking care to lose no time in jumping in again, well aware that the deep water just beyond was almost sure to be a lurking-place for crocodiles.

On the 5th we crossed the rapids known as Mutshila Aumsinga, which, as I found to my cost, only too justly had the reputation of being the most dangerous of any of the Sesheke and Nambwe cataracts. I was still feeling very unwell, and could not even sit in my canoe without much pain; but there was nothing in my condition that alarmed me, and I continued to work at my chart of our course.

The Mutshila Aumsinga rapids are formed by a considerable slope in the river-bed, combined with the projection of numerous masses of rock above the[274] water. But the chief danger in crossing them arises from another cause. Between a wooded island and the left-hand shore are two side-currents, about fifty yards broad, formed by some little islands at their head; and as no part of the rapids is sufficiently shallow for boats to be lifted across them, the strength of the rowers has to be put to the test by pulling against the full force of the stream, and is consequently liable to be exhausted.

ASCENDING THE ZAMBESI.

The boat in which I was sitting happened to be the third in the order of procession. It carried my journals, all my beads and cartridges, and the presents intended for the native kings and chiefs. Like[275] all my other boats it was too heavily laden, and not adequately manned. The second boat just ahead of me conveyed my gunpowder, my medicines, and provisions, and all the plants and insects that I had collected at Sesheke, the bulk of my specimens having been left with Westbeech to send back to Panda ma Tenka. Observing that the crew in front were experiencing the utmost difficulty in holding their own against the current, I shouted to them to catch hold of the branches of some overhanging trees; I was most anxious to see them at least keep their bow in the right direction. My voice was lost in the roar of the waters. I could see that the oars of the men were slipping off the surface of the rock that was as smooth as a mirror, and that the men, although obviously aware of their peril, were paddling wildly and to no purpose at all. My heart misgave me. Nothing could save the boat; still I could not bring myself to believe that fate was about to deal so hardly with me. I could not realize that just at the moment when a threatening fever made me especially require my medicines I was about to lose them all. I could not face the contingency of having my stock of provisions, on which I depended not only for the prosecution of my journey, but for my very maintenance, totally destroyed; neither could I resign myself to the loss of all the natural curiosities that I had laboured for so many days to accumulate. I called vehemently upon my own crew to hasten to the rescue; but they, in their alarm at the desperate plight of the others, were quite powerless; they were utterly bewildered, and were letting themselves drift into the fury of the current; but happily they were within reach of the drooping[276] branches of a tree, at which they clutched only just in time to make their boat secure. By this time the boat in front had twisted round, and presented its broadside to the angry flood. Nothing could save it now. Heedless of the state of fever I was in, I should have flung myself into the current, determined to help if I could, had not the boatmen held me back. Not that any assistance on my part could have been of any avail, for in another moment I saw that the paddles were all broken, the men lost their equilibrium, and, to my horror, the boat was overturned.

MY BOAT WRECKED.

At the greatest risk, by the combined exertions[277] of both crews, the capsized canoe was after some time set afloat again, and a few trifling articles were gathered up, but the bulk of my baggage was irrecoverably lost.

Thus ended all my schemes; thus vanished all my visions for the future.

No one can conceive the keenness of my disappointment. The preparations of seven previous years had proved fruitless. Here I was, not only suffering in body from the increasing pains of fever, but dejected in spirit at the conviction that I must forthwith abandon my enterprise.

An hour after that deplorable passage of the Mutshila Aumsinga, which never can be effaced from my memory, we landed on the right-hand bank of the Zambesi, just below a Mabunda village called Sioma. My servants, who had continued following on foot, were ferried across, and we made our encampment before it grew dark. We were rather surprised to be told by the residents that the neighbourhood was infested with lions, and that the village was night after night ravaged by their attacks; and, for my own part, I was inclined to believe that the stories were made up as a pretext to induce us to move on. In exchange for some beads I obtained a quantity of kaffir-corn beer, which I distributed to the boatmen in acknowledgment of the exertions they had made in my service. Finding that I was not intimidated by the representations they made, and pleased moreover with the beads I had spent among them, the natives became more hospitable, and gave us their advice and assistance in collecting the roofs of seven deserted huts, which we placed closely side by side in a semicircle, resting one edge on the ground,[278] and propping up the other on poles, so that from the wood the encampment looked merely like a lot of grass-piles. I had several large fires lighted in front.

During the voyage that had ended so disastrously, I had noticed some trees on the river-bank with a whitish bark, growing from twenty to forty feet in height. What was most remarkable about them was the way in which, from the boughs that overhung the river, masses of red-brown roots descended like a beard, sometimes as much as six feet in length.

The rain fell heavily all the next morning, and in the afternoon the wind blew so icy cold, that although the servants did all they could to cover up the front of my hut with mats, my body suffered from repeated chills. My illness increased so much that I was quite unable to turn myself without assistance. I had a sort of couch extemporized out of some packing-cases, on which I reclined and got what rest I could. While I was lounging in this way, I heard a conversation going on outside the hut amongst my servants, who supposed that I was asleep. One of them, Borili, was saying that it was a lucky thing that Nyaka (the doctor) was sick, and proposed that they should all make off with my property to the southern bank of the Chobe. The rest of them did not seem altogether inclined to acquiesce, but I made up my mind to nip anything like a conspiracy in the bud. Calling them all in, I made each of them a present of beads, except Borili, whom I asked whether he expected a gun from me when we parted, as a remuneration for his services. Of course he told me he should reckon on his gun;[279] but he looked somewhat surprised when I replied that he was much mistaken, and that having found out that he was a bad servant and a thief, I should keep my eye on him, and that if he repeated his misconduct, I should send him back to Sesheke for Sepopo to punish. He knew what that meant.

Towards evening, the fever having slightly abated, I made the servants lift me on to the ground, where I sat with my back supported against the bed. In this position I received a visit from some Mabundas, from whom I obtained various specimens of their handicraft. To one of the boatmen I was able, out of the very limited stock of drugs that I had left, to give an emetic that proved very effectual. He had made himself ill by eating too freely of the fruit of a shrub called ki-mokononga; the symptoms of the man and the smell of the fruit made me inclined to believe that he was suffering from the effects of prussic acid. The fruit itself was about an inch long, and half-an-inch thick; it had a yellowish pulp, an oval kernel, and in flavour was not unlike bitter almonds. The emetic soon relieved the sufferer, and next day he was ready for work again.

The Mabunda chief from Sioma came to see me, and in the intervals between the attacks of fever I took the opportunity to ask him, as well as the guides and boatmen, all the questions I could about the land and population of the Marutse empire. Our conversation generally turned upon the Livangas, Libele, and Luyanas, the tribes between the Chobe and the Zambesi, and upon the independent Bamashi, on the lower Chobe, who are also called Luyanas, and are subject to three princes of their own, Kukonganena, Kukalelwa, and Molombe.

[280]

Our experience at night proved that the Mabundas had not exaggerated much in what they told us about the lions. After sunset we heard their chorus begin, and it did not cease till dawn. I should not think the animals were more than 150 yards away from us. Up in the little village the people had to be on the watch to keep them at bay, and kept on shouting and beating a drum, while nearly every enclosure was illumined by a fire. My own boatmen sat up, spear in hand, nearly all night, and weird enough their shadows were as they fell upon the fence. No lions, however, ventured to attack us.

For the next two days I was worse rather than better, and vain were my efforts to amuse myself with either my diary or my sketch-book. My disorder was aggravated by the ungenial weather, and even in the most violent fits of fever I was conscious of a feeling of shivering under the keen north-east blast. I endeavoured to keep up my spirits, but writing, which was my sole resource, was a painful trial to me, and the lines danced before my eyes.

I could not bear the thought of going back to Sesheke, and determined to make a vigorous endeavour once again to go ahead. Accordingly on the 8th we started, but the exertion was too much for me, and in the evening I had to be carried ashore. Scarcely had I been laid down in a grass-hut left by some previous passengers, when I was seized with such an attack of sickness and diarrhœa, that I really began to fear that I should not live till morning.

Page 280.

NIGHT VISIT FROM LIONS AT SIOMA.

Page 281.

IN THE MANEKANGO RAPIDS.

Except at the Victoria Falls, the part of the river [281]over which we had been passing was in itself the most interesting that I had yet seen. We had crossed forty-two rapids, and had now come to the most southerly of the Barotse cataracts, here about 1000 feet wide. I was removed on the following morning to a more roomy hut that had been prepared for Queen Moquai, and in which she had waited my arrival; imagining, however, that I had turned back, she had proceeded on her way, but when she heard where I was, she sent her husband Manengo back from her next landing-place to inquire after me.

The last rapids that I crossed were the most dangerous of all in the Marutse country; one of them was known as Manekango, the other was Muniruola. They were formed by ridges of rocks extending right across the river, with an average height of not much over two feet and a half, but the openings were so few and narrow that the water dashed through with the fiercest violence. I had to submit to be laid upon the reef while the men dragged the boat through the rifts at the most imminent peril.

The sickness, which had a little abated, returned again towards evening, and I had considerable difficulty in drawing my breath. In the morning I was so far relieved that I was able to take a few spoonfuls of maizena.

In the course of that day Inkambella, the most important man in the country next to Sepopo, passed down the river.

To hold out any longer was simply impossible. I grew worse and worse. I felt that I had no alternative than to yield to necessity, and calling the boatmen together, I announced my intention[282] of going back. To my surprise I found that my resolution had been forestalled; boats were already waiting, ready to retrace our course. In spite of my weakness I was inclined to take my people to task for presuming to decide for me, but I was given to understand that they were only obeying orders; it transpired that Sepopo had given definite instructions that my health was to be particularly studied while I was in his country; as I was a doctor, the king had been anxious that no mischief should befall me, and regarding me as a sort of magician, he feared that some dire calamity would happen to his kingdom if I were to die while under his protection.

When the men had placed me in one boat, and my servant Narri in another, they declined to start until I had distributed some presents amongst them, and I heard an altercation going on, which I was too weak to check, because my servants had detected them trying to steal some of my goods.

All day long the sun glowed fiercely down, and I was tortured with the most agonizing thirst. Once, in the hope of obtaining a little relief, I let my fevered hands hang from the boat’s side in the water, but my people instantly replaced them on my knees, with the warning that I must not entice the crocodiles to follow us.

After a painful night in an encampment a few miles to the east of Katonga, I was put on board again and carried on to Sesheke. I was conveyed by the boatmen to Westbeech’s hut. He did not recognize me.

OTTER-SHOOTING ON THE CHOBE.

For a time I continued to indulge the hope that I should have to remain at Sesheke only for a short period, and that I should soon be convalescent and able to start afresh upon the[284] journey I had been compelled to give up. But I grew worse instead of better, and as the unhealthy season was now coming on, both Westbeech and Sepopo advised me to leave the Marutse district altogether, to return to the south, and not to resume my travels until my health was completely restored. To me, however, this suggestion looked tantamount to a proposal to postpone my project indefinitely, and I was loth to acquiesce.

I received visits, not only from the king, but from a number of the chiefs with whom I had made acquaintance, and while they all expressed their sympathy with me in my illness, they declared they had foreseen it. It was their unanimous opinion that I had stayed too long in Sesheke, the king himself reprimanding me for having taken my trip to the Victoria Falls and losing my chance of starting earlier, although every one knew that the blame rested entirely with himself, and that he had detained me from October to December, and even then had furnished me with boats only at Moquai’s solicitation.

Since my departure the hut that I had occupied had been appropriated to another purpose, but Westbeech kindly found me accommodation at his store.

Sepopo’s unpopularity was very much on the increase. Inkambella, the great chief whom I mentioned as passing as I lay at the Nambwe cataract, had been on his way to Sesheke to pay homage to the king, but the reverence and affection with which he was regarded made him an object of aversion to Sepopo, who would willingly have disposed of him. No one, however, could be found to assassinate him, and the only resource was to have him[285] accused of high treason, the other Barotse chiefs being included in the charge; they were, however, all adjudged not guilty. Westbeech and Jan Mahura were present at the trial, and, as an instance of how Sepopo’s authority was on the wane, they told me that Mahura had plainly called him a fool, and denounced him as the greatest traitor in the country.

When Sepopo next visited me he was indulging in the excitement of the mokoro-dance, and was attended by a large court retinue. He was in a patronizing mood, and made a great fuss with me, calling me his mulekow; but when Inkambella arrived shortly afterwards, he moved off at once to Westbeech’s quarters.

On the evening of the following day I was attacked with such violent spasms in the chest that I writhed upon the ground in agony, and it was as much as four men could do to hold me still; it was not until Westbeech had administered a dose of ipecacuanha, which made me sick, that I could draw my breath at all freely. Subsequent attacks of a similar kind recurred at intervals during the sixteen months that my illness lasted, but I always found that the same remedy gave me relief.

For several days I was unable to rise from my bed. As I lay all alone I had only too much time to brood over my disappointment and frustrated scheme. I found, however, that in the way of sickness I was not by any means a solitary sufferer; some people that came from the Chobe brought the intelligence that M’Leod, Fairly, Dorehill, Cowley, with several of their attendants, and my late servant Pit, were all ill with fever at Panda ma Tenka.

It was not until the 19th that I was able to leave[286] my room at all, but, with the help of my servants, I then made an effort to walk a little way on the grass outside our enclosure. A fresh inconvenience was now beginning to annoy us, for we were perpetually tormented by the mosquitoes, which at certain seasons are quite a plague on the Zambesi; every evening, and especially at night, these bloodthirsty little pests renew their attacks upon man and beast, and even woollen coverings form no protection from their sharp beaks. The only stratagem by which I could escape the irritation they caused was the unsavoury one of allowing my servants to burn a heap or two of cow-dung inside my hut.

In order to get something fresh for our larder, Westbeech and Walsh went out for a morning’s goose-hunting. It was vexatious that my state of health did not permit me to go even a little way with them. At this time of year the geese, and other birds of the duck breed, frequented the open parts of the marshes, and sportsmen, guided by their cackle, had to get at them in boats, pushing their way through the reeds. The best time for hunting them is when there is a moderate wind, as then the rustle of the reeds overpowers the noise made by the boats. When Sepopo heard of the success that had attended the expedition, he bought a lot of Westbeech’s shot, and sent some of his own people on a similar errand, and I should suppose with similar good luck, as when I breakfasted with the king a morning or two afterwards, I noticed several geese upon the table.

From the manner in which they were served, I could perceive that it was a dish to which the Marutse were by no means unaccustomed. The[287] people generally take their meals sitting on straw or rush mats, sometimes inside the huts, and sometimes just in front of the entrance. All solid food is taken up with the fingers, but anything of a semifluid character is conveyed to the mouth by means of wooden spoons.

There is little to add to my previous account of the royal meals. The queens and white men invited to breakfast sat facing the east, but at supper, which was nearly always taken in the open air, they had their seats always placed on the king’s left hand. The king sipped the goblet of kaffir-corn beer before passing it first to the favourite wife, and then to the other lady-guests, and if no ladies were present, it was handed on to the court officials at once. Besides the kaffir-corn beer, honey-beer was occasionally introduced at supper, and the cup-bearer invariably tasted it before offering it to the king. As the whole of the honey in the country belongs to the crown, the beverage made from it is only consumed at court; and on occasions of festivity it is not passed beyond the circle of the royal family and certain distinguished guests, except to those from whom the king had already asked or was about to ask a favour. The honey is not purified for its preparation, but the beer is made by simply pouring water on to the honeycomb thrown into gourd-shells, and left to stand for about twelve hours in the sun.

After the 24th I was able to take more regular exercise, and went several times into the town with the object of exchanging my travelling-gear, now unfortunately of no service to me, for some local and ethnographical curiosities. Two-thirds of the plants that I collected were new to me, and most of those[288] that were found on the river-bank belonged to the Zambesi highland.

As the mosquitoes prevented us from sleeping, I used to sit up and talk with Westbeech. I obtained from him all the information I could about the western Makalakas who resided on the Maitengwe as subjects of the Matabele. Some of these people I had already seen at Shoshong, and I had heard a good deal about them from Mr. Mackenzie.

About this time, Sepopo, not feeling very well, sent out instructions that no white men were to be admitted to his courtyard until further orders. No doubt Sykendu was at the bottom of this prohibition; he was always on the alert to do anything to revive the failing trade of his fellow-countrymen, and lost no opportunity of damaging the character of the merchants from the south.

Sepopo’s fishermen came to us every day with fish for sale. The Marutse fisher-craft may be divided into the two sections of reptile-hunting and fishing proper. It is only a few tribes that devote themselves systematically to the pursuit of the great reptiles, the crocodile and the water-lizard; but fishing proper is carried on by every one of the Zambesi tribes, from the Kabombo to far beyond the Victoria Falls, their skill in their art being superior to that of the residents on the coast, or even of the natives at Lake N’gami, who are said to be by no means wanting in expertness. Besides its importance as an article of diet, fish constitutes a regular portion of the royal tribute.

There are five principal ways of fishing. The first method consists in net-fishing, and may be estimated as the most remunerative. The nets used[289] by the Marutse are of excellent quality; they are made with meshes of different sizes from bast twisted into cords about as thick as a man’s finger; they vary from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, and are provided with proper weights; they are carefully cleaned and dried whenever they have been used, and this contributes very much to their durability. It is in the larger lagoons that they are generally supplied, especially in those of which the confines are not marshy. The Marutse, Manubas, and Masupias have the highest reputation for skilfulness, and have established fishing-stations, some permanent, others only for a season, all along the river.

A second way of catching fish adopted by the Marutse people is by weels, which are used either when the river is very low or very high, in which latter case they are placed against the dams; but at seasons when the water is low and parted into several streams at the rapids, they are fixed right in the current between two blocks of rock; in construction they are obliged to be narrow, seldom more than a foot in diameter, and they are mostly about a yard and a half long; in shape they are much like those used in Europe; they are made of strong reeds, and are fixed with their mouths facing the stream.

Another method consists in enclosing certain portions of the inundated plains, just at the time of the first abatement of the waters, with circular dams or embankments of earth. The flood subsides rapidly, and the fish are easily secured, the muddiness of the water facilitating their capture. In level places, especially near towns or villages, I noticed the remains of a good many of these dams, and I was[290] told that the inquisi is very often caught in this way.

A fourth plan practised in the country is the simple device of blocking up the mouths of the small lagoons, where sedge is either wanting altogether or very scanty, with coarse mats made of strong rushes. This mode of fishing, which is carried on from May to August, while the floods are going down, is said to be very successful. The rain-channels that make their way to the river are not unfrequently stopped up in the same fashion.

SPEARING FISH.

But next to net-fishing there is no kind of fishing[291] that can compare either in attractiveness or in efficiency with the last of the five methods to which I refer. The Zambesi people are all remarkably dexterous in fishing with the spear, and sometimes can secure water-lizards as well as fish by this means. Otters are likewise captured in this way, the assegais employed being proportioned in size to the purpose for which they are used; generally the point is not above four inches long, attached to a quadrilateral shaft, one barb being affixed to each side.

Sepopo’s annoyance at his illness daily increased; he considered that it was brought about by sorcery on the part of some of his subjects, and with a view of liberating himself from the spell under which he imagined he was lying, he gave orders for a large number of executions, a proceeding that opened the way for any one to get rid of an enemy or rival, as he had only to accuse him of high treason, and sentence of death was pretty sure to be passed forthwith. Still finding that he did not recover his health, the king sent for Sykendu, and told him that he would have him executed too, if his disorder did not quickly take a turn for the better. The Mambari promised to effect a speedy cure, but stipulated that it must be on condition that Sepopo gave him a handsome Makololo or Masupia woman for a wife; he had frequently made the same request before without effect, but succeeded now in extracting the promise from the anxious king.

I held out as long as I could, but yielding at length to the general advice, I consented to leave Sesheke, and to return to Panda ma Tenka.

There had been many days on which I had been[292] unable to leave my bed or my hut, but during these I received a number of visits from the chieftains, and learnt many particulars about the social life of the Marutse people. It appears to me a convenient place here to insert some of the facts that I elicited.

WALK THROUGH SESHEKE.

Except they have been declared free by the sovereign, members of all the subject tribes, except the Marutse and Mabundas, are regarded as slaves, but even the Marutse, although exempt from vassal-service, may be condemned to it for any misdemeanour, or by falling into disgrace with the king. The children of any vassal who may have married a Marutse wife are also regarded as vassals, and bound to perform the same service as their father. The price of a slave in Sesheke is a boat,[293] or a cow, or a couple of pieces of calico; in the western part of the kingdom it is much lower, and in the north, in the upper Kashteja, a slave may be purchased for a few strings of beads. There are no public slave-markets, but slaves may be bought in any of the villages. The Mambari, who are the chief buyers and vendors, set the negroes the vilest of examples. With their prayer-books in their hand, they endeavour to represent themselves as Christians to any one who can read or write, but they are utterly unworthy of the name they pretend to bear, and so far from advancing in any way the civilization of the superstitious tribes on the Zambesi, they only minister to their deeper degradation.

Unless a man is an absolute vassal in the strictest sense, he may, with his master’s permission, have several wives, and free women who have not been given away or sold as slaves are allowed to choose what husbands they please. The preference given to female rulers causes the weaker sex to be treated with far more consideration than they receive amongst the Bechuana and Zulu races, where they are reckoned as servants, not to speak of the Masarwas, who treat their women as mere beasts of burden.

On the 10th we received the melancholy news that Bauren, Westbeech’s assistant, had died of fever at Panda ma Tenka.

The next day, Kapella, the commander-in-chief, came to our quarters with a message from the king to say that he was sending six boats to convey Westbeech’s ivory to Impalera. Westbeech sent word back that he required double that number of boats, and moreover that he was not ready to start[294] for a day or two; but I took the opportunity of packing up my own baggage and departing, relying on the promise given me by Westbeech that he would follow me in three days. We did not doubt that the extra boats would be duly sent, and I only carried the provisions that were requisite to supply my wants for the time; I little dreamed that Sepopo would be five weeks before he provided the additional boats, and the consequence was that I was exposed to the severest privation that I had experienced throughout my journey.

I propose devoting the following chapter to a description of the manners and customs of the various tribes in the empire at large, but before bringing my account of Sesheke to a close, I may be allowed to mention some of the chief characteristics of the more important tribes that reside in Marutse-land proper.

For courage and bravery none of the Marutse-Mabunda tribes can compete with the Zulus and Amaswazies of the south; but leaving the Matabele colony in the Barotse out of the reckoning, the Mamboë and Masupias may in this respect be considered to bear the palm. The Masupia elephant-hunters exhibit great fearlessness in all encounters with wild beasts, though even they are surpassed by the Mamboë in their adroitness in killing hippopotamuses and crocodiles. Both Mamboë and Mabundas are well qualified for hard labour and for employment as bearers, the former being probably the finest and most muscular men in the whole empire. The Manansas have the reputation of being somewhat cowardly, but I found them very good and trustworthy servants. With all native races, pride[295] goes very much hand-in-hand with courage, and consequently while it is highly developed amongst the Matabele, it is at a very low ebb amongst the Marutse-Mabundas; and notwithstanding that the Marutse make the other tribes feel that they are a dominant race, they exhibit nothing of the arrogance of conscious power that characterizes the Zulus. Even the Matabele settled in the Barotse have been influenced by their peaceful surroundings, and have exhibited something of the qualities of tamed lions; and altogether the relations between master and servant in the districts about the Zambesi are much more friendly than amongst the tribes to the south.

The Mamboë, and all the more northerly tribes that seldom come to court, are particularly unassuming in their demeanour; and although the natives of the Chobe district, the Batokas and Matongas on the Zambesi, as well as the Marutse, can be very overbearing with white men, the blame is more often than not to be attributed to the white men themselves. But haughtiness of this kind can scarcely be called pride, and I observed that a little firmness and severity rarely failed to bring the offenders to reason, and to check their disposition to be insolent.

The blindness of the obedience which is ordinarily rendered to rulers is exemplified by the fidelity of the people to Sepopo; but I am obliged to record that a corresponding faithfulness does not extend itself to conjugal life. Although I am prepared to allow that marriage in many instances may be the result of mutual affection, I am convinced that marriage-vows are very rarely considered binding, as the mulekow system too plainly testifies.[296] This odious regulation is like a plague-spot amongst the people; it not only destroys anything like conjugal felicity, but has the most demoralizing effect upon the rising generation, as bringing them up with the idea that affection has nothing to do with married life. Though originally confined to the western and south-western tribes, it has now generally spread all over the kingdom.

With regard to affection between parents and children, I have no hesitation in saying that it is displayed chiefly on the side of the parents, who often lavish a care upon their offspring that is very ill-requited when they become old and infirm.

From my own experience I should not advise any traveller in the Marutse-Mabunda kingdom to trust himself unreservedly to servants provided by the king; it is far better to ask a chief or some other person of importance to act as guide, and to chastise with the kiri all unruly boatmen and bearers; but before starting it is necessary that all stipulations with the sovereign should be definitely settled.

It is unadvisable to be over-liberal, and each tribe should be treated as its character demands. From what I have already said it may be inferred that a little kindness prevails much with the Mamboë and Manansas; but more reserve must be used with the Marutse and Mankoë. The Matabele require a serious if not a stern demeanour; and it is necessary to recollect that with the Makalakas everything must be kept under lock and key. Whoever the ruler is, he should be treated with marked civility; and if there should be any difference of opinion with him, it is best to try and[297] conceal it; but should courtesy fail, and he begins to be in any way overreaching in his demands, he should be resisted calmly and firmly, without precipitate recourse to forcible measures. As so few of the tribes are remarkable for bravery, it follows that whenever a traveller finds his progress interrupted, or his designs thwarted, he will best surmount the difficulty, or provide for his safe retreat, by preserving a resolute and fearless bearing.

A MASUPIA.   A PANDA.

Their human sacrifices, their manner of slaughtering their domestic animals, and the use of barbed assegais for destroying game, demonstrate that a brutal cruelty is one of the predominant failings of these people; and yet malice and perfidy are extremely rare, the Makalakas alone being guilty of the latter vice. All tribes profess a certain amount of indebtedness to the white men, the measure of[298] gratitude increasing in proportion to the simplicity of their mode of living, or the farther they are removed to the north, north-east, or north-west of the Victoria Falls and the mouth of the Chobe.

Vanity is common, no doubt, to all savage races, but the Marutse-Mabunda tribes indulge in it with greater tact than the people farther south. Their moral standard is very low, but this, as I have before had occasion to remark, is the result of ignorance rather than of corruption; and I believe that instruction and good example, combined with a little gentle pressure put upon the rulers by white men, would in a very few years work a marvellous amendment; but to bring about a reformation, it must be confessed that the kings should be very different men from Sepopo. The first thing that it behoves a stranger to do is to set his face against the mulekow system. It is the proper way in which he should seek to gain respect for himself; and it is of great advantage to let the people know that no such custom is tolerated in any other country.

The system, too, by which the sovereign takes for wives any women he will, must also be broken down before any great moral improvement can be expected. They nearly always have to marry him in defiance of their own wishes, and are only free to refuse under the penalty of death; consequently they are seldom otherwise than unfaithful. Sepopo took care to expose every breach of fidelity that came to his knowledge; but the general example of the queens was so utterly bad, that even women who had been free to marry at their own choice, never held themselves bound to keep the marriage vow inviolate.

[299]

As one proof that the few white men who have visited the Zambesi district have exercised some influence on the habits of the population, it may be recorded that the natives have begun to wear a kind of clothing, however primitive, instead of going, like their northern neighbours, the Mashukulumbe, absolutely naked.

SINGULAR ROCK.

DROWNING USELESS PEOPLE.

In the several preceding chapters I have had various occasions to refer to different customs and characteristics of the Marutse-Mabunda people that attracted[301] my attention; but I propose to devote the present chapter to some further details before resuming the account of my travelling experiences.

Before it was split up into its present large number of tribes, the Bantu family believed in the existence of a powerful invisible God; and by no people has the conception been so well preserved as by the Marutse, inasmuch as they retain an idea, however indistinct, of an Omnipotent Being who observes every action and disposes of every individual at his own will.

They shrink from pronouncing His name, generally substituting for it the word “molemo,” which has a very comprehensive meaning, as besides signifying God, it is used to denote good and evil spirits, medicines, poisons, charms, and amulets. Their real designation of the unseen Deity is “Nyambe,” and if ever they pronounce it they raise both hands and eyes to the sky, and not unfrequently they use the same gestures without mentioning the name at all. They assume that the Supreme Being resides “mo-chorino,” i.e. in the azure of the heavens, and I have heard them allude to him as “He who lives above,” or simply as “He.” If a man dies a natural death, it is said that Nyambe has called him away, or if any one is killed in battle or by wild beasts, or by the fury of the elements, it is all supposed to have occurred at the bidding of Nyambe. A criminal sentenced to death meets his fate with submission, not doubting that Nyambe is sending the punishment due to his crime, or if any innocent person is condemned, as often happened during Sepopo’s government, both he and his friends will hope to the last that Nyambe will interfere for[302] his protection from the poison, or from whatever else is to be the means of death.

The people also believe in good and evil spirits, the latter of which they endeavour to exorcise, or at least to propitiate, by means of charms, such as bones of men or beasts, hippopotamus’ teeth, bits of wood, pieces of bark, and calabash-gourds, which are enclosed in baskets made of bast, and hung up on poles three or four feet high.

Most of the Marutse-Marunda tribes hold the belief of continued existence after death, and the principal reasons alleged by the Masupias for depositing great elephants’ tusks on the grave of a chief are that he may be consoled for his separation from his property, and may be induced to extend to them his protection, now more powerful than ever by reason of his nearness to Nyambe.

Besides ascribing their calamities to the operation of evil spirits, they often think that they arise from the displeasure of a departed chief, who consequently has to be propitiated by certain ceremonies at his grave. For instance, if a member of the royal family is ill, he is carried, by the permission of the authorities, to the grave of the most important chieftain deceased in the neighbourhood, and there some dignitary, not unfrequently the king himself, will repeat a form of prayer supplicating the departed on behalf of the patient, and entreating him to intercede with Nyambe that he may be restored to health.

Page 302.

SEPOPO’S HEAD MUSICIAN.

The mode of living throughout the empire is certainly less rude than that of the tribes south of the Zambesi. Agriculture is so remunerative, and cattle-breeding in two-thirds of the country is [303]so successful, the other third, in spite of its being infested by the tsetse-fly, is so abundant in game, the rivers and lagoons produce such quantities of fish, and the forests yield so many varieties of fruits and edible roots and seeds, that, unlike many of the Bechuana tribes, the natives never suffer from want during the summer rains. In husbandry and in cattle-breeding alike they have great advantages in their abundance of water, their fertile soil, and their genial climate.

The fields are weeded with great assiduity by the women, and most of them are sufficiently drained by long furrows. As harvest-time approaches huts and raised platforms are erected in the vicinity, so that guard may be kept over the produce; children as well as adults are set to perform this office, which has to be maintained night and day. The corn is threshed by laying the ears on large skins or on straw mats, and then beating it with sticks. A certain proportion of the ingathering is allotted to the women to dispose of as they please; and to judge from the hard bargains they drove with myself and the white traders, they seem to manipulate their property with considerable advantage to themselves. The men, too, always demanded more for the goods that belonged to the women than they did for their own, saying the wife had fixed the price, and that if they could not obtain it they were to carry the things back again.

Apart from the tribute which they have to provide for the king and for the local chief, a family of five people, to meet their own requirements, will cultivate, according to their means, one, two, or three of the ordinary plots of ground, running about[304] three-quarters of an acre each. Two-thirds of the tilled soil are in the wooded parts of the country, and the land is first cleared by the men and boys, who cut down the underwood and the lower branches of the trees, the wood thus obtained being used for the fences, and the weeds and faggots being burnt for manure. September and October are the usual months for sowing; but gourds, leguminous plants, and tobacco are sown any time up to December; the growth of the two latter crops being so extremely rapid that they often ripen by January, whilst kaffir-corn and maize are ready by February, beans coming in during both these months.

The crops most extensively cultivated are the two kinds of kaffir-corn, the red and the white; they both thrive admirably, and form the staple of the cereal impost, and the chief material of external traffic. Both sorts are identical with those that are found throughout South Africa.

There is a third kind of corn which is only occasionally seen in the district, called “kleen-corn” by the Dutch hunters, and “rosa” by the Marutse. The grains are small, not unlike hemp-seed, and when ground they produce a black flour that binds better for bread-making than either of the two sorghum-like species. The Marutse regard it as being especially choice, and it is double the price of the others.

Maize is very frequently cultivated, and with good success; but there is a still larger preponderance of crops of the gourd tribe, such as various species of water-melons, edible gourds, and bottle gourds, which are only grown for the sake of their shells.[305] About as common as these are two species of beans, one small and almost colourless, the other larger and of a crimson or purple tint. Like mabele (common corn), rosa, and imboni (maize), these beans, known respectively as the “li-tu” and the “di-nowa,” form a certain part of the contribution to the royal revenue. When boiled with meat or with hippopotamus-bacon they have a flavour which is reckoned superior to our European species.

MARUTSE-MABUNDA CALABASHES FOR HONEY-MEAD AND CORN.

Three other vegetable products must be added to the list, viz. manza, masoshwani (Arachis hypogæa) and cotton. The manza is all crown property, and is[306] sent to the royal quarters whole; it is there ground and used for a kind of pap without salt. The arachis, which forms part of the tribute, being identical with the ground-nut of the West Coast, is grown nearly everywhere; it is eaten by the natives after it has been roasted in the shell, and not unfrequently utilized by Europeans as a substitute for coffee. The cotton is cultivated for domestic use, and is woven into good strong fabrics; but it is hardly ever seen except in the eastern districts. The growth of all these crops furnishes a proof that rice might be cultivated with advantage.

Round about the huts and amongst the corn and maize may be seen luxuriant masses of sugar-cane (imphi) which is grown not so much for food as for a means of relieving thirst; it is the same sort that is found throughout South Africa, and here ripens between December and February.

The spots chosen for the tobacco plantations are generally hollows, from ten to twenty square yards in area. After being dried and pounded, the tobacco is slightly moistened and made into conical or circular pellets, in the corn-mortars. As a general rule, that which is grown by the Marutse tribes is of closer substance, keeps better, and contains a larger amount of nicotine than that produced amongst the surrounding people.

Considering the climate and the ample means of irrigation, I cannot help being of opinion that all our cereals, especially wheat, would thrive perfectly well in this country, and that not only rice and coffee in the eastern districts, but likewise the vine and many descriptions of European fruits could hardly fail to ripen admirably.

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Taking all the various articles of food into account, we find that, after game, ordinary kaffir-corn, kleen-corn, maize, and gourds hold a foremost place; next comes fish; then follow in diminished proportions, sour milk, fresh milk, beef, mutton, goats’ flesh, forty-two species of wild fruits, the two kinds of beans, ground-nuts, fowls, wild birds, manza and honey. Meat is generally boiled in covered earthenware pots, or roasted in the embers, either with or without a spit. In their way of dressing meat, the people are really very clever, and I do not believe that dishes so savoury could be found throughout South Africa as those which are served in the better-class residences of the Marutse, and this is the more surprising when it is remembered that they lead a far more secluded life than any of the Bechuana tribes.

Wild birds are either roasted or boiled, and served up with their head-feathers or crests unremoved, on handsome perforated dishes. Many tribes reject certain kinds of wild game through superstitious motives; some will not touch the pallah; others will not eat the eland; and still more refuse to taste hippopotamus-meat; while, on the other hand, there are some of the Marutse people who enjoy the flesh of certain wild beasts of prey which the great majority of South Africans would hold to be utterly revolting. Both meat and fish are dried and preserved without undergoing any salting process. The various kinds of corn are either boiled or pounded in mortars, and then made into pap with milk or water, maize being boiled or baked, both in its green and dried state. Beans are boiled, and earth-nuts baked; gourds and water-melons are cut up and[308] boiled, the latter being also eaten raw. Manza requires a somewhat careful preparation; when green the roots contain poisonous properties, but after being thoroughly dried and finely pounded they may be safely mixed into a pap something like arrowroot, which forms an excellent sauce for meat of any kind. Wild fruits are baked, both when fresh, and when they have been dried in the sun; sometimes, too, they are stewed in milk, and occasionally they are reduced to pulp; some sorts are ripening at all periods of the year, so that there is an unfailing supply of this means of subsistence.

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Salt has to be brought from such long distances, either from the west or south-west, that it is only the wealthier people that can afford to use it at all.

BARK BASKET AND CALABASHES FOR HOLDING CORN, USED BY THE MABUNDAS.

The poorer people have only one regular meal a day, which is taken in the evening; the well-to-do classes have two daily meals; the first an hour and a half or two hours after sunrise, and the other at sunset. Beer is usually drunk after every meal. Of the two kinds of beer made from kaffir-corn, one is strong, called matimbe; the second sort, known as butshuala, being much weaker; besides these, there is a sweet beer made from wild fruits, that produced from the morula fruit being like cider; and there is likewise the honey-beer, or impote, which I have had to mention several times before.

Besides being clever in their cooking, the Marutse-Mabundas are very clean; they always keep their materials in well-washed wooden or earthenware bowls, or in suitable baskets or calabashes. They were the first people that I saw making butter. Their cleanliness in their work only corresponds to that of their persons, and I am repeating what I have elsewhere observed in stating that rather than lose their bath they are always ready to run the risk of being snapped up by crocodiles.

They smoke more tobacco than any of the tribes among whom it has been introduced by the white men, accustoming themselves to it from their earliest youth, and all of them, including young girls, take snuff. The snuff which they use is a compound of tobacco ashes, pulverized nymphæa-stalks, and the secretion from the glands of the Rhabdogale mustelina. Tobacco is usually made up into little cakes, which are strung together in rows.

[310]

In spite of its simplicity the costume of the Marutse may be pronounced more graceful than that of the majority of South African tribes. Instead of the leather fringe of the Zulus, or the narrow strap of the Bechuanas and Makalakas, the men wear leather aprons, which are fastened round their waist-belts, from the front to the back. Tribes like the Batokas, Manansas, Masupias, and Marutse, who frequently visit the southern side of the Zambesi, and consequently come more in contact with white men, wear cotton aprons, for which they generally require nearly three yards of calico; they are by no means particular about colour, but if they are unable to procure a piece of sufficient length (which they call a sitsiba), they make a point of getting at least enough for an apron to reach down to the knees in front. Those who wear leather aprons make them of the skins of the smaller mammalia, the Marutse and Masupias using those of the scopophorus and cephalopus, which are pierced all round the edge with square or circular holes, and the head part thrust through the girdle. The Manansas wear a small flap about as wide as their hand, made of calico, cloth, or leather.

In the style of their mantles, too, the Marutse subjects show a marked difference from the other branches of the great Bantu family. They prefer those of a circular shape, something like a Spanish mantilla, and reaching to their hips. Small mantles made of letshwe and puku skins are also worn. The sovereign and some of the principal officials occasionally attire themselves in European costume, but more often than not they wear nothing but their aprons, covering themselves in a woollen wrap in[311] rainy weather. The waistband is made of every variety of material; sometimes of the hide of gnus, gazelles, or elephants, sometimes of the skins of water-lizards, boas, cobras, and other snakes, and occasionally of simple plaited grass or straw.

MABUNDA LADLE AND CALABASHES.

Boys go entirely naked until some time between their sixth and tenth years of age. Little girls on attaining their fourth year begin by wearing tiny aprons made of twisted cords about ten inches long, and sometimes ornamented with brass rings; when ten years old they have small square leather aprons[312] fastened to a belt. Many of them, who are affianced when very young, wear two aprons, a short one in front, and a longer one behind.

Married women have short petticoats of roughly tanned leather, generally cowhide, with the hair inside; these reach to their knees, and are fastened on by double waistbands. A red-brown substance that is prepared from bark, and has a somewhat agreeable odour, is rubbed into the outer surface. Women who are suckling their infants wear mantles of letshwe-skin like the men, which are generally thrown across their back, and drawn over their bosom on the approach of a stranger.

In bad weather the women, and sometimes the men too, wrap themselves up in a huge circular leather cloak reaching to the ankles, and fastened at the throat with a strap or a brooch of wood or metal; it requires to be held together in front by the hand. As a rule the people go barefooted, which is much more practicable on their sandy soil than in the thorny districts south of the Zambesi; for long journeys, however, they wear sandals made of rough leather, which are fastened to the great toe and ankle by a strap across the instep.

The eastern vassal tribes who grow cotton make pieces of calico of all sizes, from handkerchiefs to sheets. The smaller pieces are used for men’s aprons, and the larger, which are one or two yards wide, and from one and a half to two and a half yards long, are used for domestic purposes; their narrower ends are all finished off with fringes, varying from four to sixteen inches in length. The Mashonas weave similar articles of clothing, but employ bast for the material instead of cotton.

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The position held by the women of the Marutse empire is better than that of their southerly neighbours. Although they till the soil, and assist in the erection of huts, all the hardest work, such as hunting, fishing, and the collection of building materials, is performed by the men. I generally found the elder people at work, the men gathering wild fruit in the woods, and the women in the fields, either superintending the young or engaged in some of the less arduous labour. The sons of the poorer people, and slave boys, usually act as shepherds, sometimes by themselves, but more generally under supervision, whilst boys of the upper class go hunting, either with assegais or guns. At harvest-time a very serviceable occupation is found for them in watching over the crops and scaring away the gazelles and birds; they are likewise employed to warn the villagers of the approach of any antelopes, buffaloes, or elephants.

It is not the habit of the Marutse to indulge in much sleep; they generally retire to rest late, and go to their work an hour or two before sunrise. Their recreations seldom begin until the close of the day, the lower their rank the later. They sleep chiefly upon mantles, skins, or straw mats. The king’s bed consisted of forty-five splendid mantles, piled one upon another, and three or four of the queens were appointed every night to keep watch over his slumbers.

The training of the children is entrusted to the women, though the boys soon escape the maternal eye, and associate more with the fathers. The children of freemen are allowed to have slave-children as companions and playmates, and as[314] these are to form their future retinue, they often have a great influence upon the rising generation, who become much more attached to them than to those who have the natural authority over them; in fact, the children in this way are often so much indulged that I have known boys of only twelve years of age have quite the upper hand of their fathers. Boys are instructed in the use of weapons while they are quite young, and soon acquire the art of building a hut. The girls are kept strictly to their work, and the householder always expects the daughters to take a share in the maintenance of the family as soon as possible. Until ten or twelve years of age they are chiefly employed in fetching water.

Marriages are celebrated by noisy demoralizing orgies, of which, as at funerals, a large consumption of kaffir-corn beer and a special dance are the principal features. Children, as I have remarked, are often affianced at an early age, and the marriage is consummated as soon as the girl arrives at maturity. Not unfrequently a man of rank, although already he may have several other wives and a number of children, obtains the daughter of a friend for a wife, arranging meanwhile to give one of his own daughters to his new father-in-law in return, thus making him his son-in-law likewise. Sepopo, it has been mentioned, held this double relationship to several of the koshi and kosanas.

When a girl reaches her maturity, the fact is formally announced to all her companions, an invitation is sent round, and they visit her at her own home every evening for about a week, and execute[315] a dance, which is accompanied by singing and castanet-playing. The performance is generally kept up until a very late hour. If the girl is a daughter or near relation of the king or a koshi, she is carried off by her people to some out-of-the-way place in a neighbouring wood or reed-thicket, where she has to reside in seclusion for eight days, attended only by her own maid, except that in the evening she is visited by her friends, who perfume her head, and instruct her in her conjugal duties, so that at the end of her probation she may be ready to go to her husband. I have already described the marriage-dance, in which only men take part. As a rule, even in the case of vassals, it lasts for three days and nights. A vassal may only marry by the consent of his lord, who assigns him one of his slave women as a wife.

In complete contrast to the tribes south of the Zambesi, who bury their dead at night in secluded spots near their homes, or under the hedges; the Marutse-Mabundas celebrate their funerals with music, singing, shouting, and firing of guns. Many of them mark the place of interment by depositing on it the hunting-trophies of the deceased, such as the skulls of gazelles and zebras, that during his lifetime have been preserved upon poles. Sometimes trees are planted in an oval form round the grave, which never fails in being protected by some means or other from desecration by wild animals. The ceremonies observed at funerals, it is only reasonable to suppose, are associated with certain ideas of a future existence. Monuments of more elaborate construction are said to exist in the Barotse, the mother country of the dominant tribe, where a[316] mausoleum is erected to the memory of every important member of the royal family. It is a matter of much regret to me that I failed to get far enough north to enable me to inspect these monuments; the only accounts that I received of them were from Sepopo and several of the chiefs, and from Westbeech and Blockley, who, under the king’s authority, had visited the district in 1872 and 1873.

Audiences with the king are conducted in prescribed form. When subjects who have come from distant provinces enter the royal courtyard they keep repeating the cry “tow-tu-nya” over and over again, and then squat down close to the entrance in silence, and wait until they are summoned; in course of time they are generally introduced by their own koshi or kosana residing in Sesheke, who crawls up to the king and announces their arrival; on their admittance they have to creep forwards on their knees, and when within a few yards of the king they have to halt and keep clapping their hands gently, while their leader acts as spokesman. As soon as they have received the royal answer, the audience is at an end, and they have to retire in the same way as they advanced. Visitors from the neighbourhood greet the king with the cry of “shangwe-shangwe;” other forms of salutation are “shangwe-koshi,” and “rumela-rarumela intate,” the former of these being more particularly addressed to white men.

There is one form of salutation to a stranger which is observed by every householder, from the king downwards. After a few words have been exchanged, the host produces a snuff-box that hangs from his neck or his waistband by a strap, or[317] from his bracelet, and having opened it, offers it to his guest; though, sometimes, instead of passing the box, he empties its contents into his own left hand, from which he takes a pinch himself, and then extends his half-opened palm to those about him.

Travelling is performed with the help of bearers, who are either hired for the entire distance, or from tribe to tribe, the conditions being rigidly investigated by the king. In return for a supply of bearers the king expects a present of a breech-loader and 200 cartridges, or three elephant-guns, or muzzle-loaders, and recently looks for some articles of clothing in addition; and every governor of a province that is traversed has to be presented either with a gift of clothes or with a good blanket. If hired for two months a servant receives a cotton sheet, or three yards of calico, or a pound of small blue beads. No subject may be engaged as servant to a white man for a period of more than six months without the consent of the sovereign, except the transaction be a private one between a koshi and his slave. For a year’s service the remuneration on the Zambesi was usually a musket, the servant of course being kept by the employer, and receiving an occasional present of tobacco, or dacha. If bearers and boatmen are under the supervision of a good overseer they do their work very well, are contented with one meal a day, and with intervals of one rest of half an hour, and about five more of a quarter of an hour each, they will march or row from daybreak until after four o’clock in the afternoon. Immediately upon halting they light a fire with a brand which they always carry with them, and commence smoking their dacha-pipes.

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But without a good makosana or overlooker the case is very different. Then the traveller, especially a white man, is exposed to all sorts of annoyances, and not only will the servants do all in their power to hinder his progress, but the more indulgently he acts, the worse they will be. The baggage is generally carried on their heads, or on a stick placed across the shoulder, very heavy packages being conveyed on a long pole by two or four men. They travel on an average at the rate of nearly three miles an hour. On the river, boats make from three and a half to four and a half miles against the stream, and from five and a half to seven miles with the stream, if unimpeded by rapids, and not interfered with by hippopotamuses.

When travelling alone the natives take very few provisions. The small two-oared boats that convey the corn-tribute to Sesheke are nearly always so heavily laden that the boatmen take nothing with them but a little fish, satisfied to get what food they can upon their way by gathering wild fruits from the banks, and by knocking over with their thoboni-sticks, which they use with an aim that seldom errs, some of the birds in the rushes, which their noiseless advance allows them to approach without disturbing.

The administration of justice in the Marutse kingdom is a topic not without its interest. By the formation of the greater council the cause of judicial equity was materially advanced, but unfortunately this institution, founded by a constitutional ruler now long deceased, has latterly lost much of its prestige, and has received almost its death-blow under the despotism of Sepopo. For the last ten years[319] justice has been set at defiance more and more. Long established customs, having the sanction of law, are fondly clung to by the natives, who naturally resent any interference with their privileges, and it was Sepopo’s attempt to suppress the ancient usages that first estranged him from his subjects. The laws of property, the social relations between the tribes, the law of succession to the throne, the recognized rule of treaties, and the criminal code, were all completely subverted by him, being either abrogated altogether, or remodelled to suit his own fancy. It seems, however, a matter of certainty that under Wana-Wena, his successor, the greater part of the old Marutse law will be re-established.

Minor differences are adjusted by the kosanas and makosanas, more important charges being referred to the governing chiefs; but all offences of a serious character, if they are committed within moderate distance of the royal residence, are tried before the king and the greater council. Murder, which is of rare occurrence, is always punished with death. More executions took place at the royal quarters than in any other part of the country, because any one who incurred any unpopularity in the provinces was tolerably sure to be dragged thither upon a charge of high treason. When once Sepopo’s suspicions were aroused against an individual, he had no respect of persons; neither close relationship, faithful service, nor official rank had any weight with him, and he would credit no evidence; in such cases the mere accusation of high treason, murder, desertion, selling ivory or honey, stealing royal property, adultery with one of the queens, or manslaughter,[320] was quite enough to secure a conviction, and the accused would forthwith be condemned to be poisoned and burnt. Brawling, causing bodily injury to others, and pilfering, were punished by hard labour in the king’s fields, or by slavery for life. When the king had no personal interest in a case he suffered the council to pass sentence without interference on his own part, and when any criminal was declared to be worthy of death, the sentence ran that he was to be poisoned by the judgment of God.

I was myself a witness of an execution under this sentence. It was a singularly calm morning, and after a night disturbed by a grand carousal of the people, there was perfect silence. Before daybreak, however, the stillness was broken by the noise of the Mamboë starting off with their canoes and nets to get the daily supply of fish for the court, and being aroused, I went out, as I had occasionally done before, to watch their departure. As I was returning I met a group of about twenty people hurrying off towards the woods; a second glance explained the cause that had brought them out so early. At the head of the party was that Mabunda hyæna, Mashoku, the king’s executioner; he was attired in a gaily checked woollen shirt, reaching almost to his heels, and close behind him was a dejected-looking man of middle age; then followed two old creatures, like walking mummies, who, by their fez-like headgear, were at once known as the king’s physicians, and the ruling spirits of his secret council; next came four young men armed with assegais. Two little clusters of people brought up the rear; in the foremost of these was a woman and two children; the last batch was screeching and[321] shouting with excitement. As I stood watching the proceedings I heard a voice whispering close behind me—it only confirmed what I had already supposed—“Camaya mo mositu, ku umubulaya mona mo” (they are going to the woods to kill that man there). I looked round, and found that I was being informed of what was going on by one of the Sesheke boys who used to sell me his fish for beads.

I ascertained that the unfortunate who was being dragged to execution had been accused of high treason by some of his neighbours, who were jealous of his crops, and Sepopo had condemned him to death in spite of the general wish of the council to acquit him; but it happened that Sepopo was more unwell than usual, and it was made a part of the charge that his illness was brought about by some charms that the man had devised.

On reaching the woodland glade that was the place of execution, Mashoku tore off the condemned man’s leather apron, and broke his wooden and ivory bracelets, the four young men in attendance fastening on him another apron made of some leaves that they gathered on the spot. In the middle of the glade stood a sort of low gallows, consisting of two upright posts, five feet high and three feet apart, with one horizontal crossbar along the top, and another about a third of the way up. There were several piles of ashes lying about, from which projected some charred human bones.

Mashoku made his victim sit down upon the lower crossbar and take hold of the uprights with each hand. One of the four assistants then brought out a small gourd-bottle, and he was followed by a second carrying a wooden bowl. Having poured out into[322] the bowl a black decoction with which he had been supplied by the king, Mashoku ordered the man to swallow it. The order was immediately obeyed; but no sooner had he drunk the contents of the bowl than all his relations who were present rushed up in the hope of seeing him vomit the draught. “Father, husband, brother, friend!” they cried; “fear not! you are innocent. Your foes were jealous; they grudged you your mabele! Nyambe knows you are a good man! Nyambe grant you to vomit the poison!” But meanwhile the accusers took advantage of any opportunity they could get to revile the poor creature bitterly; they shook their fists at him; they spat in his face; they called him scoundrel, thief, cheat; declared that he was getting only his deserts, and that his bones should be burned as the bones of a traitor.

According to the old Marutse law, every condemned malefactor has to drink a bowl of poison; if after swallowing it, he falls down, succumbing to its influence, he is declared guilty, and his body is at once burnt; if, on the other hand, he vomits what he has taken, he is discharged as innocent; the respite, however, is practically only temporary, as the poison is almost certain to have caused such a disorder in the blood that death ensues in the course of a year or two. In his general subversion of all the long established ordinances of the kingdom, Sepopo set aside this rule just when he pleased, and often gave his executioner private orders to proceed to burn the accused under any circumstances.

Several instances of this were related to me. When he moved from the Barotse to Sesheke he[323] was unable, on account of the tsetse-fly in the neighbourhood, to bring his cattle with him; some large herds belonging to one of the chieftains aroused his envy, and the owner was soon a doomed man. He was brought to judgment and condemned, but evacuating the poison, he escaped; he was brought to trial again with the same result; the third time he was not permitted to get off, but his body, by private orders, was exposed to the fire till he was dead. On another occasion, after I left Sesheke, the wife of the chief Mokoro was sentenced to death; the poison test declared her innocent, but the executioner informed her that he was commissioned by the king to burn her alive next day all the same. To avoid her fate the wretched woman flung herself into the river, where a huge crocodile seized her and mangled her body frightfully before carrying it to the bottom.

But to resume my account of the victim in the wood. When the clamour around him ceased a little, and the accusers grew tired of reviling him, the two old doctors came forward and twisted him round and round, to make the poison, as they said, work itself into his system. They then made him resume his old position on the scaffold, where all the hubbub of the sympathizers and enemies was again renewed, the impatience of both parties continually increasing till they saw whether the poison would act as an emetic or a narcotic. Their curiosity was not set at rest for half an hour, when the man at last fell senseless to the ground. This was the signal for the executioner’s deputies to proceed to business; without losing an instant they pounced upon the[324] body and carried it off to the fire already kindled; it was in vain for wife or friends to protest; the poor wretch’s head was held over the flames until the face was half-burned away, and he was choked. A quantity of brushwood was then added, and the body, as rapidly as possible, was consumed in the bonfire. The relations, uttering loud lamentations, began to return homewards, but they were careful to suppress all their wailing on reaching the town, lest their tokens of grief should excite the king’s anger, and provoke him to further barbarities.

During this reign of terror many who thought themselves likely to come under suspicion tried to leave the country, and some even committed suicide to avoid coming under the royal sentence. Runaways who were caught were either assegaied by their pursuers, or brought back to Sepopo for execution; if any of them were interceded for either by an important chief or by any of the white men, it was very likely that the application would be received with a very gracious acquiescence, but the chances were that a few days afterwards he would be again accused and convicted afresh.

In cases of theft neither the king nor any of his officials will punish a man except upon his own confession, or upon the evidence of a number of witnesses. No pains are ever taken by the authorities to discover or apprehend a thief; they simply say to a complainant, “Bring your man here, and then we can deal with him.”

I have already mentioned that two respited criminals acted as scavengers at the royal residence. These men had always to be up and to complete[325] their work before any one was stirring; and occasionally they had to remove corpses out of the thoroughfares, as Sepopo regarded all dead bodies, except those of his own people at the court, merely as offal, and gave orders that they should be treated as other rubbish.

It is only giving the Marutse people fair credit for their medical knowledge to say that it is certainly in advance of that of other South African tribes; on this superior knowledge the physicians in the secret council have devised their sorceries in such a way as to gain for themselves a kind of awe from the common people; their acquaintance with the medicinal or poisonous properties of many plants is such as might enable them to be of universal service, were they not actuated by the desire to maintain their hold upon the ignorant by the old routine of magic. Apart, however, from this, I found that they quite understood the treatment of dysentery, fever, coughs, colds, wounds, and snake-bites, although their remedies were always accompanied by mysterious ceremonies to inspire the faith which, perhaps, after all, contributed very largely to the cure. As with the Bechuanas, bleeding was quite a common operation; it was performed with metal, horn, or bone lancets upon the temples, cheeks, arms, breast, and shoulders, the blood being drawn out by bone suckers; it was adopted in cases of neuralgia to relieve any local pain, and was supposed to reduce inflammation in any of the neighbouring organs. Plants of which the medicinal qualities had been ascertained were dried and used in powder and decoctions, or sometimes they were burnt and reduced to charcoal. The animal substances[326] employed for medicine were bone-dust, scales of the pangolin, and the glandular secretions and excrements of certain mammalia. In one respect the Mabunda doctors differed from the Bechuanas, in having no external indication to mark their profession, unless their extreme old age might be interpreted as a badge of their calling.

The prevalence of superstition is no doubt the principal and most serious obstacle to the intellectual development of the Marutse-Mabunda tribes. It was the awe with which his subjects regarded him that enabled Sepopo, in spite of his atrocities, so long to maintain his power over them; the aged doctors that he kept about him never failed to inculcate the most superstitious notions upon the people, and the influence they exercised was very largely increased by the manifest efficacy of many of the remedies they used; there was no room left to question the sacredness of the person of the sovereign.

It would be absolutely impossible to enumerate all the charms that are employed, and I will only pause to recapitulate a few of them.

At the commencement of a war, after the completion of a new town, or in any season of general calamity, certain portions of the human body, removed during life, are deposited in special places in vessels designed for the purpose.

Bracelets and chestbands made of buffalo fat are supposed to keep off various disorders, and to act as a protection in cases of pursuit.

Fat, taken from the heart of a domestic animal, and fastened crosswise to a stick, and placed near the hut of any fugitive from his country, is[327] imagined to be sure before long to overpower his senses and to make him reel home again like a drunkard to receive his proper punishment.

Pulverized and charred bones of mammalia, birds, and amphibious animals are sold to hunters to ensure their fleetness in the chase, the powder being either carried in bags about the person, or rubbed into incisions made in the arms and legs.

All kinds of pharmaceutical preparations obtained from white men are regarded as possessing magic properties, as are also the skins of rare animals, such as the great black lemur, the eyes, nostrils, and ridge of the tail of the crocodile, the horns of the Cephalopus Hemprichii and of the Scopophorus Urebi, beads of any scarce sort, and any abnormal growth in the hair, on the bones, or on the horns of animals.

Other charms consist of small bags made of the skin of the python, belts and chestbands cut from the skins of snakes and lizards, and little shells fastened together into headbands, necklaces, bracelets, and girdles. The shells, as well as other products of marine animals, have been introduced by the Portuguese, and are in great demand.

Instead of being worn about the body, charms and amulets are often deposited in some secret place known only to the master of the house. All along the enclosure at the back of his reception-hut, Sepopo had a row of clay-pots and calabashes containing a great collection of charms, besides those that were stored in his laboratory. The receptacles were very diversified. Those that were uncovered consisted of bags and baskets made of bast, grass, or straw, rude wooden dishes of many[328] sizes, pots and pans of baked or unbaked clay, generally covered with patterns and glazed, either supported by wooden legs or hung upon poles, and calabashes that were generally arranged under little roofs of their own. The closed receptacles were makenke baskets, tiny baskets made of palm-leaves, small calabashes in the shape of an hour-glass with wooden stoppers, horns of gazelles with the end plugged up, goats’ horns engraved all over, and the horns of the larger kinds of antelopes, such as harrisbocks and gemsbocks, neatly carved and in shape like powder-flasks. All of them were provided with straps by which they could be hung up. I also noticed some boxes that had been carefully carved out of wood, reeds, birds’ or animals’ bones, hippopotamus’ and elephants’ tusks, fruit-shells, and various sorts of claws; and there were bags made of skins, and even the intestines and the bladders of certain animals, while some were merely fragments of woollen cloth or cotton sewn together. The greatest care seemed to be bestowed on the preservation of every article of this character.

If it could be transferred to a European museum, Sepopo’s medicine-hut would be in itself a very remarkable and promiscuous ethnological collection; but, unfortunately, it is very difficult for any one to obtain objects of this sort at all, as the natives are extremely reluctant to part with the most trifling thing that is credited with the possession of magic properties.

Liquids, poured out in front of the entrance of a house or courtyard, are supposed to act as a spell upon the master or any one who may inadvertently step across the place while it is still damp. Illness,[329] as I have had occasion to remark, is nearly always presumed to be the result of magic or malevolence. My own profession, and the general character of my occupation, as well as my success from time to time in relieving certain cases of sickness, caused me to be regarded in the Marutse kingdom as a magician, and at least had the satisfactory result of ensuring me more respect than white men generally get. The nostrums used for medical purposes were known only by the king, his confidential doctors, and the executioner, who did not fail to extort a large price for their commodities.

Before any inhuman measure on which the king had set his mind could be carried in the council, it was frequently found unavoidable to have several sittings; but if any of the members were ascertained to be persistently obstructive, measures were soon found for getting rid of them, and they were perpetually being accused of high treason or some other crime, and thus removed out of the way. Sepopo’s propensity for human sacrifices was by no means in accordance with the usual practice of the country, and it was only by coercing his secret council that he succeeded in perpetrating his superstitious barbarities.

In this way it was that while New Sesheke was being built, Sepopo brought it about that a resolution should be passed by the secret tribunal to the effect that in order to save the new town from the fate of the old, the son of one of the chiefs should be killed; but that his toes and fingers should first be cut off, and preserved as a charm in a war-drum.

In spite of the secrecy which was enjoined, the[330] rumour of the resolution came to one of the chiefs, who communicated it privately to many of his friends. This was about the end of September, when Blockley was the only white man left in Sesheke. Night after night groups of men were to be seen stealthily making their way past his quarters to the woods; they were the servants of the chiefs, carrying away the young boys whither they hoped to have them out of the tyrant’s reach, and some little time elapsed before either the king or his executioner was aware of the steps that were being taken to frustrate the bloody order.

The appointed day arrived. Mashoku’s emissaries were sent to ascertain from which of the chieftains’ enclosures a victim might most readily be procured, but one by one they returned and reported that not a child was to be found. At last, however, one of the men brought word that he had seen a solitary boy playing outside his father’s fence. Apprised of this, the king immediately sent directions to the father to go out at once and procure some grass and reeds for a hut that he was building, and then charged Mashoku to lose no time. As soon as he had satisfied himself that the man had left his home, Mashoku sent his messenger to fetch the child to the royal courtyard, where, although the place was full of people, a perfect silence prevailed. The king was in a terribly bad temper, and no one dared to breathe a word. The executioner’s assistant made his way to the abode of the chief, and was greeted by the mistress of the house with a friendly “rumela;” he then proceeded to tell her that the kosana, her husband, was just setting out in his canoe, and that he had sent him to say he wished[331] his little son to go with him. The mother acquiesced, and the boy was delighted to accompany the man, who of course took him off to the royal courtyard, where a sign from Mashoku announced their arrival to the moody king. Sepopo started to his feet, and accompanied by his band, made his way towards the river, the child being led behind him. Bewildered as the poor little victim was, he was somewhat reassured by the direction they were taking; but all at once he was alarmed at the shrieks of a chieftain’s wife, whose house they were passing, and who, knowing the purpose on which they were bent, cried out in horror.

At the river the whole party, numbering nearly seventy, embarked and crossed to the opposite side. The myrimbas were left behind, but the large drums were taken over. Shortly after landing the king seated himself on a little stool; he made the executioner, a few of his own personal attendants, and the members of his secret council form an inner circle; beyond them he placed the drummers; and, outside these, he ordered the rest of the company to group themselves, so as to conceal from the town the deed that was being perpetrated. The poor boy by this time had almost fainted from fear; but when, at a nod from the king, the executioners seized him, he began to scream aloud with terror. The drummers were ordered to play with all their might, so that the piteous shrieks should not be heard; several assistants were then summoned to hold the child, so that resistance was impossible, and the two doctors set themselves deliberately to work to amputate finger after finger, and toe after toe.

[332]

No drumming could drown the heart-rending cries of the sufferer. The people of Sesheke could hear him, in the midst of his torture, calling out, “Ra, ra, kame, ra, ra!” (Father, O my father!) and “umu umu bulaya” (they are killing me!); but though a large crowd was thus made aware of what was going on, no one dared to raise a hand to rescue the miserable sufferer.

When the doctors had finished their cruel operation, the hapless boy was strangled, and knocked on the head with a kiri. The whole party then returned to their boats, which were pushed off into midstream, where, as if by accident, they were formed into a circle; but, in reality, with the design of concealing the corpse as it was dropped into the water. Meanwhile the weeping mother had made her way down to the bank, and regardless alike of the crocodiles and of the displeasure of the tyrant, waded into the stream and demanded her son—her darling Mushemani. But to Sepopo a mother’s grief was nothing; he landed quite unconcerned, and proceeded with his myrmidons to enjoy his pots of butshuala, while the doctors stored away the dismembered toes and fingers in a war-drum.

This narrative I give as related to me in its general outline on my second return to Sesheke by two of the resident chiefs, the details being filled in by Blockley, whose quarters were just opposite to the scene of the murder.

Before crossing the Zambesi I had been told about the industrial skill of Sepopo’s people, and had been given to understand that amongst the southern tribes the Mashonas particularly excelled. Prevented as I was from visiting the country, I[333] had no opportunity of forming an opinion that is conclusive; but, judging from various specimens that I saw, I am inclined to believe that there are some of the Marutse tribes, that in certain branches of industry surpass even the Mashonas.

Amongst cooking-utensils, those that are made of clay form an important class. Many of them are in the shape of vases, some ornamented round the neck with patterns of a lighter or a darker colour, others polished so that they seemed to be entirely covered with glaze; the lower parts were never ornamented, nor did I see any with handles. The clay vessels that are used as corn-bins are immensely large, and most frequently urn-shaped; they are made more roughly than the cooking-vessels, and always of unbaked clay; they are shut in at the top by a lid made also of clay, and in front, close to the ground, they have a semi-circular opening about as wide as one’s hand, protected by an interior slide which may be raised and lowered by means of horizontal handles; occasionally they are made so large that it requires as many as sixteen men to lift them, and, when moved, they are carried on poles. For the most part clay utensils are manufactured by women, and are used in the preparation of kaffir-corn beer, for holding water and milk, and for ordinary culinary purposes.

Utensils of wood are most commonly made by men, particularly by the men of the Mabundas; they are burnt all over inside with red-hot irons, a process which is so skilfully performed that it gives them the appearance of ebony; many of them are ornamented with raised carvings, running in symmetrical patterns round the edge and neck; and[334] some of them have perforated bosses, which serve the purpose of handles. All of them are provided with carved lids.

The variety of wooden vessels is as large as that of the earthenware, and their shapes quite as diversified. The dishes used for minced meats are good specimens of their kind, and exhibit some of the best carving of the Mabundas. As a general rule wooden pots are either conical or cylindrical in shape, rounded inside at the bottom, and are used for holding meal, beans, small fruits, and beer. As an intermediate production between the pots and the dishes, there are bowls with lips or spouts.

Wooden dishes are either oval or round, those to which I have just alluded are oval, and are hollowed into the form of a boat, and are repeatedly to be seen with a horizontal rim of fretwork; they are perfectly black, and without handles. Except in the houses of the upper classes they are rarely to be met with, and the most elaborately worked of any that I saw belonged to the king; but although all the oval dishes are large, I noticed a good many amongst the Matabele that were double or treble the size of any of Sepopo’s; all of them had handles at the end, and they were usually kept for serving heavy joints to a number of guests. Not unfrequently they are ornamented with a kind of arabesque carving, raised about half an inch above the surface, a mode of decorating their work in which I believe that the Mashonas carry off the palm.

Of round dishes there are a good many varieties; all of them appeared to have bosses projecting more or less, to serve as handles, and they were nearly[335] always curved at the bottom, though in some rare cases they had a small flat surface at the bottom about the size of a crown-piece; the edges are generally notched. No household is ever without them, as they are especially serviceable for holding milk and oil, and all substances of a fatty nature.

The dried shells of nearly all the gourds are universally utilized as vessels, and on account of their light weight, there is no purpose to which they are so generally applied as that of carrying water, both for domestic use and for travelling. In variety of natural form, as well as in their artificial adaptations to use, they exhibit a still greater diversity than either the clay or the wooden wares. For common purposes they are polished to yellow, various shades of brown and brick red, and are often covered with a network of grass or bast; but those that are reserved for rare or more important occasions, are generally branded with well-executed devices. The Mabundas are notoriously skilful in this kind of work, particularly in figures. Amongst the designs thus burnt in I saw arabesques that were sometimes very elaborate, figures of men, animals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects; representations of huts, oars, weapons, and implements of many kinds; pictures of the sun and moon, besides scenes of hunting or of fighting, of which two especially attracted my attention, depicting with considerable minuteness the capture of a besieged town, and showing the stone breastworks that have now ceased to be erected as defences in warfare.

It must be confessed that on the whole the designs were executed with a certain amount of skill, and, considered as the production of savages,[336] indicated a kind of artistic power; though I could not pretend to compare them in this respect with the carvings of the Bushmen. Occupying, as they do, a prominent place in the industrial products of the central Zambesi, these carved calabashes must be allowed to indicate a decided advance upon anything of the kind that is to be seen on the southern side of the river. The gourds chosen for the purpose are partly grown in the maize-fields, and partly close round the huts. The smallest-sized gourds were made into snuff-boxes, but not so frequently as among the Bechuanas.

I observed also some very handsome spoons, and some large ladles, made from a peculiar kind of gourd that grows thick at one end; not a few of these were ornamented with devices elaborated with much patience; their general colour was yellow, brown, or chocolate. Not all their spoons are made from gourds, as I saw some made of wood, two feet long, and used for serving out meal-pap or stewed fruit; many of those used for meals are also wood; and altogether I am disposed to think that throughout the savage tribes of Africa none would be found to use wooden utensils more neatly finished off than the spoons of the Mabundas. I may add, that in addition to other wooden productions, I saw some well-made mortars for pounding corn, and some sieves, dexterously put together with broad wood-shavings, to be used for sifting meal.

The Marutse-Mabunda people likewise do a good deal of good basket-work. Perhaps the simplest specimen of this would be found in the circular corn-bags, made of grass or baobab rind,[337] about two feet long and not quite so wide; another sort of bag, hardly more elaborate in its make, is woven from reeds, from the stalks of plants, or from fan-palm leaves; these are of larger dimensions, and are really sacks for carrying dried fish and the heavier descriptions of fruit. Most of the tribes are skilful in making bags of thick bast, and in putting together very rapidly a kind of sweep-net. A basket that is of very easy manufacture is made from pieces of a bark very much resembling our red birch, sewn together with bast. It is nothing more than a tube closed at one end, and having a piece of wood thrust through the other, or a strap attached to form a handle. It is generally used at the ingathering of fruit. Basket-making of a superior character is exemplified in the makuluani baskets, which are manufactured from the lancet-shaped leaflets of the fan-palm; these are very strongly made, and with their close-fitting covers and firm texture, are sufficiently solid to serve the purpose of boxes or chests; so various are they in form, that it is rare to see two alike. The Matabele who have settled in the Barotse valley weave grass and straw into basket-work, so fine and compact that it is quite watertight, and can be used for drinking-cups.

The best specimens of this kind of handicraft are found in the makenke baskets made by the tribes in the Barotse, in spite of the material out of which they are formed being somewhat unmanageable. This material is the root-fibre of the mosura, a tree not unlike a maple. There are two kinds of them, one without any covering, and generally of uniform shape and size; the other with a close-fitting lid, and found in endless diversity of form and dimensions.[338] As works of skill, there is not much to choose between them; they always have elaborate patterns woven into them with fibres that have either been burnt black or dyed of a darker colour than the rest. Except in the Barotse, they are very scarce, and in Sesheke there is the greatest difficulty in obtaining one at all.

Knives of the kind used by men in their daily occupations, and for ordinary domestic purposes, are worn without any sheath, and consist of a thin pointed iron blade, often bent round into a sickle shape, with a handle made of the skin of snakes or lizards. Weapons of offence are assegais of various kinds, daggers, hatchets, knives, and kiris; those of defence being shields and sticks.

There is a large variety of assegais, all of them exhibiting good form and workmanship, and carefully adapted to the different uses for which they are designed. Altogether they struck me as the best specimens that I had seen in South Africa, and they are far superior to those of either the Bechuanas or Makalakas. Amongst the stronger and more uncommon of the assegais are those belonging to the chieftains, and serving as insignia of their office; they vary from five feet to six and a half feet in length, a third part of which is iron; the shafts are the most substantial that are made north of the Zambesi, and are generally carved or ornamented with indented lines or circles.

The assegai that is used for hand-to-hand fights is a most formidable weapon, especially as wielded by the Matabele. It has a kind of gutter running along the blade; the neck is formed of embossed rings; the shaft is short and strong, and weighted[339] at the end with an iron band as thick as one’s finger. When it is to be hurled as a javelin, an assegai has a different character; it is much lighter, and has a longer shaft, the length being frequently as much as seven feet; the blade is quite plain, and the neck altogether slighter.

For hunting purposes there are assegais of a good many different sizes; the necks of these are furnished with either single or double barbs, and the blades are sometimes harpoon-shaped, and sometimes like an ordinary spear-head. They may be divided into two leading groups, one being such as are used for killing gazelles and the smaller mammalia; the other including those adapted to buffaloes, lions, zebras, panthers, and wild game generally.

Of all the various sorts of assegais, perhaps the longest is the crocodile spear, of which the most remarkable feature is the head, which carries four barbs, two close to the blade, and the other two, which are bent upward, just where the neck joins the shaft. There are also two special javelins adapted for killing otters; the blades of these are narrow, but very sharp, and averaging about six inches in length. The water-lizard assegai corresponds with the war assegai in every respect, except that its blade is only half as long. Not unlike this is the weapon used for spearing fish, only it has a point much more rounded; all the upward bent barbs, and those projecting outwards from the sides, exhibit very clever workmanship, and every one of the many kinds seems to answer its purpose well.

In its construction no assegai is more simple than that used in hippopotamus-hunting; the shaft of this is made of soft wood, and from two to three feet[340] long. The elephant assegai is entirely of iron, becoming thicker and broader at its lower end, and covered in the middle with a piece of leather. There is a very rude sort of assegai which is often buried in pits, point uppermost, and succeeds occasionally very well as a stratagem for trapping water-antelopes.

Before concluding my summary of thrusting weapons, I must not omit to mention the Marutse-Mabunda daggers. They are distinguished from those of the Bamangwatos, which are by no means despicable weapons, and from those of the Matabele, which are singularly formidable, by the tastefulness of their workmanship. They are remarkable, too, for their perforated sheaths, which, like the handles, are covered with ebony-like carvings; the blades are of iron, and generally of inferior quality to those of either assegais or hatchets.

The sticks which are employed as missiles are from a yard to a yard and a half long; they are double as thick at one end as they are at the other, the lighter extremity being in the usual way about as thick as one’s finger.

Hatchets are made of different shapes by different tribes; not only are they better than those of the southerly tribes as regards form, lightness, and choice of material, but they possess a decided advantage in being firmly set in their sockets, which the tomahawks of the Bechuanas, Kaffirs, Makalakas, and Matabele seldom or never are. The handles are cut out of strong well-seasoned wood, with ornamental patterns burnt in. The weapon generally is so light, that it seems like a toy in the hands of a man, though it can perform very effectual service in close encounters.

[341]

Such knives as are used for particular purposes, like wood-carving, and those that are worn as weapons of defence, are longer in the blade, and altogether more carefully made than the common domestic knives; slightly curved at the end, they are made very strong at the back, and are often found highly ornamented, the handles, into which they are well secured, being usually flat, and occasionally elaborately carved.

The kiris, just as they were elsewhere, were short round sticks, with a knob at one end. Amongst the Marutse they were made either of some hard kind of wood or of rhinoceros horn. Those of wood are the more common. The knobs are about as large as a man’s fist, and are not unfrequently scooped out. Ordinarily, the stick part is about two feet long, and from one inch to two inches thick; it is more often than not highly polished; its extremity is sometimes sharpened, sometimes rounded, and examples are met with from time to time in which the end is finished off by an iron ferule.

No weapon of defence is so important as the shield. The Marutse, however, do not excel in its manufacture, like the tribes farther south; what they use is generally made of black and white cowhide, and is upon the whole very like the shield of the Bechuanas, though larger than that of the Zulus or Masarwas.

As the last in my list of weapons, I may refer to the long sticks that are used for defensive purposes; many of these run from six to eight feet in length, their usual thickness being only about an inch; both ends terminate in a ferule of twisted iron.

At the time of my brief sojourn in the district, the[342] number of guns that had been introduced into the country from the south and west amounted to 500 flint muskets, 1500 ordinary percussion muskets, eighty percussion elephant-guns, 150 rifles, thirty double-barrelled guns of various sorts, ten breech-loaders, and three revolvers. After I left, the great bulk of these were thrown into the Zambesi by the people in revolt, and as they were not replaced, I do not suppose that the entire number of fire-arms in the kingdom would exceed 1100 or 1200 at the most.

In the manufacture of such clothing as they wear, the Marutse tribes fail to exhibit anything like the same skill as in other branches of handicraft. The shape of the various articles of their attire is not bad, but they have not the knack, elsewhere common, of arranging a number of skins so that a garment has the appearance of being formed out of one single fur; nor do they ever think of mending any holes or rents with pieces of skin that correspond in kind or colour with the surrounding parts. The Bechuana sorts his skins with much care, according to their colour, size, or length of hair, and only uses those of one species of animal for the same garment; among the Marutse, on the other hand, we find all kinds of fur patched promiscuously together without any regard to symmetry. Their mantles, too, are not finished off by being ornamented with claws or tails like those of the Bechuanas. In the matter of sewing, the tribes north and south of the river may be said to be about on a par; it is done by means of an awl and the finest animal sinews that can be procured.

Such skins as have to be prepared for making into aprons, sandals, straps, or bags, are thoroughly[343] damped, and kept rolled up for some time; the hair is then scraped off with the hand, or a blunt knife; each skin is then turned face downwards to the ground, where it is fixed firmly with wooden pegs; with the help of a wedge-shaped piece of iron, or a scraper made on purpose and called a “pala,” or, in cases where the hide is very thick, with a sort of brush made of ten or twenty nails some five or six inches long, every particle of flesh or sinew is cleared away, after which some oily substance is rubbed thoroughly in upon both sides. The process is finally completed by the men, who, in time to a tune, apply the friction of their hands till the skin is quite dry and supple.

The handkerchiefs and sheets that I have mentioned must rank amongst the best specimens of the industrial skill of the country; without being in any degree coarse, the texture is substantial, and dark stripes are often woven with very good effect upon a lighter ground.

For agricultural work there is hardly any other implement except the mattock, which however is a much more efficient tool than is generally met with to the south. The hatchet employed for cutting wood is very similar in shape to the battle-axe; it is made of very good iron, and is sometimes ornamented with raised patterns; the handle is quite straight, and about two feet long. In hollowing out canoes and wooden bowls, and in preparing planks, the people use hatchets of various sizes, nearly all of them made in the same shape as the “pala.” Their hammers are made of iron of superior quality, and are better than any used by the Bechuanas. The chisels, both the hard chisels[344] for working metal, and those for soft materials, are of many different sizes, and are either curved or straight; their nails are both round and square. For boring and drilling they use gimlets very like our own, these as well as their screws being all manufactured by a file. Their tongs and pincers seem of a very primitive character, nevertheless, they answer their purpose sufficiently well; the anvils at which the smiths work are all of the rudest construction.

MABUTSE-MABUNDA PIPES.

I observed three different kinds of oars in use, the long, the short, and the hunting-oars. The last are the exclusive property of the king, and in common with some of the others, form part of the tribute. The long oars are over ten feet, the short about six feet long, and are made of stout straight stems; at[345] their paddle ends the short are usually broader than the long, and have their extremities run out to a point instead of being cut straight off; both these kinds are occasionally carved or branded with ornamental designs, although not so often as the hunting-oars. These hunting-oars have a forked end, and are bound together by an iron clamp across them, to keep them from splitting; they are generally about ten feet long; the principal time for using them is during floods, when they are brought out for letshwe and puku chasing.

PIPES FOR SMOKING DACHA.

Tobacco-pipes are of two kinds, the one that is least elaborate being of more common use in the west of the country, the other in the south. The[346] former is not unlike a Turkish pipe, consisting of a straight stem about a yard long, of the thickness of a man’s thumb, occasionally carved, attached to a small clay bowl, that is likewise generally decorated with carved devices. The second form differs from the first solely in having a calabash for a stem, the smaller end of which constitutes the mouthpiece. A native rarely forgets his pipe, even on his shortest journeys, especially if he is travelling with a white man, and carries his tobacco in a little cotton or leather bag that is tied to his mantle or waistbelt. For longer journeys the dacha-pipe is an indispensable companion; the water reservoirs of these exhibit an infinite variety of form. Dacha is composed of the dried leaves of a kind of hemp, which is planted round nearly all the South African huts; when smoked through water it is slightly intoxicating in its effects. The pipes consist of three parts; the bowl, the stem, and the horn containing the water, the broad end of the horn forming the mouthpiece by which the smoke is inhaled. An inclination to cough is induced by the inhalation, and the more violent the tendency the greater the enjoyment.

Although snuff-boxes of home manufacture, as well as those introduced by white men, are found throughout South Africa, I nowhere saw such a variety as amongst the Marutse. The materials utilized for this purpose are almost too diversified to enumerate; ivory, hippopotamus tusks, the bones of animals and birds, stag’s horn, rhinoceros horn, claws, snakes’ skins, leather, wood, reeds, gourd shells, and any fruit husks that were either globular or oval; besides all these, not a few metal boxes were to be met with that were of foreign make,[347] and had been brought into the country by Europeans.

The boxes made of ivory most frequently have small circular patterns burnt in, and they are attached to the mantle or bracelet by a string of beads, a piece of bast, or a strap; they were, as far as I could judge, used exclusively by the upper classes. The most like them were the boxes made of rhinoceros horn. Both kinds have only one small aperture at the top, while those of the Bechuanas have a second opening at the bottom.

Of all the kinds, that which struck me as most simple is made of reeds and the bones of birds; it is the sort commonly used by boys and young girls; but another form, hardly less simple, is that in ordinary use amongst the Makalakas, made of the horns of animals, either wild or domestic, and nearly always more or less carved; undoubtedly, however, the kind which is most frequently to be seen consists merely of fruit-shells, and of which four or five at once are often attached by a strap to the mantle, all of them polished carefully into a shining black, or a dark violet or plum colour. The most elaborate carvings appear to be lavished on the wooden boxes, which are worn by the Mamboë and Manansas, but the poorer classes amongst these often carry their snuff in little cotton or leather bags.

Indispensable as I have said the dacha-pipe is to the native on his longer journeys, and his tobacco-pipe when he leaves home at all, yet no necessity of life is so absolutely requisite to him as his snuff-box, and whether at work or at leisure, at home or abroad, sleeping or waking, he never fails to have it within reach.

[348]

Besides snuff-boxes, amulets and cases for charms are continually worn as ornaments, the materials of which they are composed being of the most heterogeneous character, and in addition to the variety already enumerated, comprising teeth, scales, tortoiseshell, husks, seeds, feathers, grass, and tallow.

Amongst metal ornaments, besides rings, bracelets, and anklets, I saw a good many earrings of iron, copper, and brass; gold I never saw. The iron and copper articles were partly produced from the native smelting-furnaces, and partly composed of the wire introduced by Europeans; all the brass things were made of imported metal. Foreign jewellery was rarely worn in its original form, but the material was almost invariably melted down, and reproduced in a design to suit the taste of the country. Nothing in this way is in greater requisition than the anklets, of which the queens and the wives of men of rank wear from two to eight on each leg. The poorer classes have their bracelets and anklets generally made of iron, and do not wear so many of them. It is comparatively rare to see any made of copper. Ordinarily only one or two rings are worn on each foot, but the wives of the koshi and kosanas are not unfrequently to be seen with four. As the king makes a rule of buying all the best and strongest imported wire for himself, the subjects have to be satisfied with the inferior qualities; the result is that all the good jewellery is found near Sesheke and in the Barotse, and amongst the tributary Makalakas and Matongas, and its quality degenerates altogether in the more remote east and north-east countries, where it is seldom anything better than what is produced from the[349] native iron. The little earrings, whether of iron, brass, or copper, hardly differ at all from those of the Bechuanas.

Not a few ornaments are made of bone and ivory; amongst these again bracelets and anklets predominate. All rings in ivory are turned upon a lathe, and made precisely to fit the part on which they are to be worn; their finish is little short of faultless, and even when left plain, without any carvings, they are really elegant examples of workmanship. I obtained a few of them as curiosities, but only with great difficulty. Ivory is also worked up into little oblong cases, bars, and disks, that are fastened to the hair by bast strings passed through the holes with which they are perforated. Hair-pins in great variety are made from bone and hippopotamus ivory, and trinkets of all sizes are cut out of the tips of large horns and the thicker substance of the horns of the gazelle; they are either twisted into the hair, or strung together to form bracelets. The delicate long-toothed combs of the Marutse are a striking illustration of their skill, and amongst the finest specimens of wood-carving in all South Africa.

Slaves make their bracelets and other ornaments, whether for the neck or feet, from the untanned skins of gnus, zebras, and antelopes, with the hair outside; the Masarwas also make headbands from the manes of zebras. Hair of all kinds, and the bristles of many animals, are worked up into tufts, fringes, bosses, balls, and pads, which are fastened to straps and bound round the chin for dancing; many of them are, however, used like the trinkets, for the decoration of the hair. Plumes of two[350] or three handsome feathers are often fastened on the head, especially on such occasions as a visit to the royal residence, the festival dances, or expeditions either for hunting or for war. Amongst the Matabele people these plumes are a remarkably conspicuous feature, and I succeeded in procuring one which was considerably larger than the head of the man who had been accustomed to wear it.

Another art in which the Marutse excel is that of weaving grass, wood-fibre, bast, or straw, into the neatest of bracelets, in a way even superior to the Makalakas, who have the repute of being very adroit in work of this kind. The boys who do the greater part of this weaving are very particular in their choice of material, and will only gather certain kinds of grass at the right season, which, after being dyed most carefully yellow or crimson to suit their taste, they make up with great patience into elaborate designs; it is in this respect that their work is superior to that of the Makalakas, who although they are dexterous enough in manipulating the fibre, are comparatively indifferent to the quality of the substance they are weaving.

Threaded so as to be worn as bracelets, or fastened together in pairs so as to fit the back of the head, claws of birds and of many animals are used as ornaments, and I have known three small tortoise-shells placed in a row along the top of the skull. The little shells brought by the Portuguese, small round tarsus and carpus bones polished black, seeds, and small fruits with hard rinds, are further examples of the almost endless variety of decorations in which the Marutse-Mabundas delight.

Page 351.

SCENE ON THE ZAMBESI SHORES AT SESHEKE.

[351]

Although several of the ornaments that have been introduced by the traders pass as currency, nothing in this respect can compare with beads, of which different tribes exhibit a preference for certain colours. Hereabouts the violet, the yellow, and the pink were reckoned as of no value at all; those which were most highly appreciated were the light and dark blue, after which rank the vermilion, Indian red, white, black, and green. The whole of these are of the kind of small beads about one-twentieth of an inch in diameter. Amongst the medium-sized beads, about one-fifth of an inch long, those seem to be most sought after which are variegated, or have white spots on a dark ground, but sulphur-coloured and green are likewise in good request. To every tribe alike the shape of the beads is quite a matter of indifference.

No matter how ill a traveller in the Marutse district may be, nor how many bearers he may require, if only he has a good stock of blue beads, he may always be sure of commanding the best attention and of securing the amplest services; his beads will prove an attraction irresistible to sovereign and subject, to man, woman, and child, to freeman and bondsman alike.

It may fairly be claimed for the Marutse that they have decidedly better taste in the use of beads as ornaments than any of the tribes south of the Zambesi. They avoid crowding them on to their lower extremities, like the Bakuenas and Bamangwatos, or huddling them round their necks and arms, like the Makalakas; but they string them, and arrange them with considerable grace on different parts of their body.

[352]

Nearly all the tribes bestowed great pains on the arrangement of their hair. Some of them combed it out regularly; others, the Mankoë for instance, whose hair was extra long, kept it powdered in a way that helped to set off their well-formed figures to advantage, and many plaited it into little tufts containing three or four tresses each; but I did not observe that any of them covered it with manganese, like the Bechuanas, or twisted it into a coronetted tier like the Zulus.

A good deal of ingenuity is exhibited in making playthings of clay for the young. Very often these take the shape of kishi dancers in various attitudes, or of hunters, or of animals, particularly those with horns, or of elephants and hippopotamuses. The clay selected for the purpose is dark in colour, and the puppets vary from two to five inches in length. Toys are likewise made of wood, especially by the Mabundas, spoons and sticks ornamented with figures being great favourites with the children.

Mats form another item in the native industry, and are used for different purposes, according to the material of which they are made—it may be of rushes, grass, straw, or reeds. They are always neatly finished off, and frequently have darker bands or borders of some sort woven into the pattern; in colour they are usually a bright yellow, and the ornamental part black or red.

Bolsters are carved of wood, and however primitive they might be in design, I saw many of which the details were very elaborate in execution. The stools in common use are simply short round blocks of wood, about ten or twelve inches high, and five or six inches broad, slightly curved at the top;[353] but some of these were very laboriously carved, and stood upon carefully cut fluted pedestals. Wherever a man of rank goes it is part of his dignity to be followed by an attendant carrying his stool.

My list of the Marutse handicraft would hardly be complete if I omitted to mention the fly-flappers. These are made in two parts, the handle and the whisk; the handles are either wood, reed, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, or buffalo hide; or occasionally they are formed of the horns of a gazelle or a rhinoceros; the whisks are composed of the long hair of the withers or tails of animals, of manes or feathers, no material being more common than the tails of bullocks, gnus, and jackals. The brush is fastened either inside or outside the handle, with bast, grass, horsehair, or sinew; and in most cases the handle is carved, though sometimes it is decorated instead with rings of horsehair or bands of snake-skin.

CAMP IN THE LESHUMO VALLEY.

Convinced that to remain any longer in Sesheke would be to endanger my life, I had consented, but with extreme reluctance, to take my departure. The[355] boatmen who were conveying me knew perfectly well that I was going away from Sepopo for good, and did not allow many hours to pass before they began to show that they did not care what became of me, and insisted on drawing up at a place where there was no better accommodation than a couple of miserable huts, that had been put up for the use of the fishermen who periodically visited the lagoons. I made my servants carry me on shore, and sent them out to get some fish. They only procured five, of which I gave them four, and had the other broiled for myself.

After dinner I discovered that the boatmen had made up their minds to go no farther that day, although nothing could be more unhealthy or less suitable for a night encampment than the spot where they had pulled up. The two huts were on a reedy island just opposite a swamp; and, to make matters worse, I found that as my boat had been the last to arrive, they had both been appropriated by the crews that had landed before me, so that I was obliged to wait while my servants erected me another. This took them about two hours and a half; and when with the help of the boatmen they had put my baggage inside, they found that they had made it so small that it was with the utmost difficulty that they squeezed me in afterwards and laid me upon my boxes. It was so low that my face actually touched the roof, which was made of the grass that had been washed ashore by the last year’s floods, and, being still damp, emitted a most unpleasant smell, which, combined with the exhalations from the swamp, made the atmosphere intolerably oppressive. Sleep[356] under the circumstances was quite impossible, and I lay brooding sadly over my frustrated plans and my final disappointment. The snorting of the hippopotamuses in the water, and the cry of the herons, were the only sounds that broke the stillness.

Before midnight some small dark clouds arose, and gradually overspread the heavens, till not a star was to be seen. To my exhausted system the sultriness became more than ever trying, and the hours wore away without affording me the least refreshment.

Soon after sunrise we resumed our journey down the stream, but the slovenly and care-for-naught way in which the boatmen handled the baggage, and the general tone of their behaviour, warned me what I had to expect. The more I hurried them, the slower they went, and after a while, finding that a slight breeze was getting up, they pulled up all of a sudden at a sandbank, and declared that they would not proceed another inch.

I promised them beads, I threatened them with punishment from Sepopo, my servants blustered and stormed; but it was all to no purpose, the men only laughed; some of them went away and laid themselves down to sleep on the sand; others remained where they were, and appeared to chuckle over my weakness, enjoying the helplessness of my condition. This was a state of things that I was not disposed to allow. The remedy was not far to find. I was quite aware that the Marutse people were acquainted with very few guns better than the old musket. Taking my seat at the bow of my boat, I began handling my breech-loader. After letting it flash for a few minutes in the sun, I took aim at a reedstalk[357] standing just between two groups of the refractory boatmen, who, whether they were really asleep or not, in a moment started to their feet. Not many minutes afterwards I fired again, hitting the mark I had selected with due precision. My third shot grazed the stump of the reed I had already broken. The little expedient I had adopted answered admirably, every one of the fellows seemed instantaneously to return to his senses; the boats began to glide off into the water as it were by some secret magic, and we were very soon on our way again. The boatmen begged me not to fire any more; they did not like the noise; they would pull hard, and would bring me very quickly where I could shoot plenty of “polocholo” (game). Within three hours I landed at Makumba’s baobab.

WANA WENA, THE NEW KING OF THE MARUTSE.

The sky was now quite clear, and the refreshing[358] breeze that blew down from the hills over the Impalera Island acted on me like a stimulant. I took my gun and brought down some of the baobab fruit that was hanging over me, and whilst the crews were unloading the boats, my own people made their way to the woods to get more fruit.

For crossing the Chobe on the 15th I was obliged to pay three times the ordinary amount of passage money. This extortion was practised on me simply because it was known that I was leaving the kingdom.

Having a great dread of passing the night in the marshy Chobe district, I sent my servants forward at once with a portion of my baggage to the Leshumo valley, where Blockley had placed two waggons at my disposal until Westbeech should arrive. For myself I required a little rest, but quite intended to follow them before the evening. I engaged a number of Masupias to conduct me and carry on the rest of the luggage to the place of rendezvous, but just as we were on the point of starting a violent storm came on, and compelled me after all to remain where I was; I was consequently obliged to spend the night in the miserable hut where Bauren, who had died at Panda ma Tenka a few days since, had first been taken ill. In the morning I began my slow and painful march, and found myself necessitated to take a whole day in accomplishing a distance which is ordinarily traversed in a few hours. Almost every hundred yards I was obliged to stop and rest, while the perspiration poured from my body, and as a consequence of my exertions I had to lie by completely all the next day.

As I felt myself tolerably well recruited on the[359] 17th, I was very anxious to go out and do a little botanizing in the immediate neighbourhood of our waggons; the rain, however, came down so continuously, that I had no chance of indulging my wishes. For the last few days I had been expecting Westbeech, and his non-arrival was giving me some uneasiness, as my small stock of tea, sugar, and salt had come to an end; accordingly it was a pleasant surprise to me when my servants returned from one of their rambles and brought a good supply of honey.

During the night which I had been forced to spend on the bank of the Chobe, my forehead and my hands had been stung all over by some very venomous mosquitoes, and the places now came into pustules, of which I carried the scars for months. I had much to harass me and to contribute to my discomfort, but amidst all my grievances I had the satisfaction of being attended by trustworthy and industrious servants; I could only regret that they were not to be induced to take my breech-loader and procure some game from the woods; their assegais were quite unfit for the purpose of killing gazelles, elephants, or buffaloes, which were the animals that chiefly haunted the locality. Only two nights before our arrival a large herd of elephants had passed quite close to the spot where the waggons were stationed.

With the assistance of my people, I took a little walk on the 19th, and collected some plants and insects. For pressing my botanical specimens I used the only two books that I had saved, and as these were octavo volumes instead of quarto, many of the plants had to be divided under the prospect of being[360] joined together again at some future time; I was careful to keep a special note-book, in which, besides other particulars, I recorded the different names by which the plants were called by the Masupias, the Manansas, and the Matongas respectively. Of such funguses as I could neither press nor dry I took sketches, an employment that gave me occupation on a number of sleepless nights. My entomological curiosities had to be stored away in a wide-mouthed pickle-jar that Westbeech had given me, having thoughtfully filled it with slips of writing-paper, which he knew would be useful; the insects were killed by plunging the jar several times into boiling water in my coffee-pot.

The beetles that seemed to me to be most abundant were the ground-beetles (Cicindela, Mantichora granulata, Carabidæ), scarabæidæ, leaf-beetles, weevils, and sand-beetles (Psammodes). Of this last genus there are such countless varieties that they excite the astonishment of even the phlegmatic Dutch farmers; they have thick hard tails, which they raise every few seconds, and give a tap to the ground or floor on which they are crawling; this habit has made the Dutchmen say that they are knocking, or calling for one another. I was glad to find the Mantichora and the Anthia thoracica, which are very interesting; they live in holes already made in the ground, or in cavities scraped out by themselves, often so deep that it was quite a wonder how they could be pierced in the loose sand; their industry seemed to keep them at work all day long, and they had a habit of rearing themselves up on their long legs, as though they were making a survey of what was going on all round. Another habit they[361] have—well known to the Dutch, but of which I, as a novice, had an experience far from pleasant some years previously—whenever they are captured they discharge a very offensive fluid from their body; and I can testify that it is ill-luck for the entomologist if this flies into his face and eyes.

On the next day Westbeech’s servant Diamond, accompanied by some Manansas, arrived at the waggons. They had all been out on a hunting-excursion.

I felt myself again a little better, and would not lose the opportunity of going out for a few miles. I was particularly anxious to obtain some birds’ skins; but although I had the best assistance of my people, I was quite unequal to follow a bird to any distance, so that I only succeeded in bagging a black swallow-tailed shrike. My exertions, however, were rewarded in another way, as I made a good collection both of plants and insects. During my stay in the Leshumo Valley I added nearly 3000 botanical and about 500 entomological specimens to my collection. During my walk I came upon several smelting-furnaces, made of the smallest of bricks; they were about six feet long and three feet wide, and had, I conjectured, been put up fifty or sixty years before by the Marutse vassals, who had resided on this side of the Zambesi before the settlement of the free-booting kingdom of the Matabele Zulus.

A day or two afterwards some Masupias came from Impalera bringing corn for sale, and Diamond, as a contribution from his hunting-expedition, brought me some buffalo-beef; he seemed inclined to grumble at the alacrity the buffalo-bulls displayed in getting out of his way, and said that the density of the[362] summer foliage made it very hard to get at them. We were thus well supplied for the time, but I had been so long debarred from taking animal food, that the buffalo-meat did not at all agree with my digestion. My servants, however, were all delighted at the change in their accustomed bill of fare.

I had indulged the hope that I should find the higher ground adjacent to the little Leshumo river much more healthy than the mouth of the Chobe. My disappointment was consequently great to find, that morning after morning the whole valley was full of fog, which after rain was always especially dense. The result was that I felt deplorably ill all the early part of every day; and although I revived somewhat later on as the fog lifted a little, I remained so extremely sensitive to the least breath of wind, that even in these hottest months of January and February, I always had to wear two coats whilst I was engaged in writing or botanizing.

On the 23rd I received a visit from a company of Marutse men, who rather surprised me by saying that they had come from the south. The party consisted of a chieftain named Moia and several adherents. Moia was the brother of Kapella, Sepopo’s commander-in-chief, and had been condemned to death by Sepopo about a year before. Some liquid had been poured in front of the king’s residence, and as the king was feeling more than usually unwell, he came at once to the conclusion that he had been bewitched, and Moia’s enemies had taken advantage of the circumstance to charge him with the deed, the consequence being that in order to escape being sentenced to be burnt or[363] poisoned he had to fly the country. He had betaken himself to Shoshong, where Khame had received him most kindly and allowed him to remain; but discovering after a while that the fugitive was being consumed with the desire to get back to his home, the king resolved to send him to Sepopo, with an autograph letter demonstrating Moia’s entire innocence of the crime that had been laid to his charge. For my own part I was convinced that Sepopo would never be persuaded, and I advised the chief to beware how he placed himself within the tyrant’s reach; but the longing to return to his wife and children was too intense to allow him to listen to any voice of caution, and he continued his homeward way.

By this time I was so destitute of provisions that I was obliged to send two of my servants to the Zambesi, and get them to bring me some of the Masupia people from whom I might purchase a supply of kaffir-corn and maize, and I requested them if possible to buy me a goat. Unfortunately the servants missed their way, and I had to send two others instead of them, so that there was a delay of four-and-twenty hours before the Masupia dealers arrived. When they came, they brought besides the corn a number of interesting curiosities, amongst which was the horn of an enormous rhinoceros.

A celestial phenomenon occurred on the following evening, so remarkable that I think it ought to be recorded. It was almost sunset; in the west and south there was a narrow strip of blue sky, whilst in the east, where a storm was rising, there were repeated flashes of lightning. When only a small[364] section of the sun’s disk was visible, a strange fiery glow arose about 45° above the eastern horizon, and seemed entirely to overpower the central portion of the arch of a rainbow opposite, leaving only the extremities to be seen down in the east-north-east and south-east; as the sun disappeared, the glow faded gradually away, but so remarkably that every tint in the rainbow seemed to be absorbed in the prevailing colour, and the entire arch was a gorgeous red. In the course of the next few minutes the glow reappeared, but this time only to rise about 10° above the horizon. The entire spectacle was not of long duration; the brilliancy became gradually dim, and in the course of about a quarter of an hour, the valley was shrouded in the obscurity of night.

Two of my own servants and some of Diamond’s party were here attacked by influenza, but the complaint was soon relieved by the administration of emetics. The weather was unfavourable, and brought on several relapses of my own fever, which, although I managed in various ways to alleviate them, invariably left me extremely weak and incapable of any exertion. A short time afterwards several of Diamond’s people began to sicken with typhus.

All through this dreary time, the occasional hunting-excursions were all we had to look to in the way of excitement. April, the Basuto, had the good-luck to kill a buffalo-bull, and when the flesh was brought to the camp there was a regular banquet in the evening, accompanied by singing and dancing; even the invalid negroes sucked some fragments of the half-cooked meat which they were quite unable to swallow. Diamond likewise went[365] out, but returned on the 2nd of February without bringing any material contribution to our stores; he had come upon a herd of elephants, but they had startled him so completely by their rush, that he did not recover himself in time to get a shot at them.

When it was announced to me that part of Westbeech’s ivory had arrived at Impalera, I was much cheered by the expectation that Westbeech himself would immediately follow. My means of purchasing corn were now so nearly exhausted that I could not help growing more and more anxious.

On the 7th I was equally surprised and distressed by the arrival of a party of about thirty Masupias, who proved to be bailiffs on the hunt for Moia and Kapella. Moia had carried Khame’s letter to Sesheke, where his appearance caused a great sensation, as the return of a condemned fugitive was a thing quite unprecedented. The particulars of what ensued I afterwards learnt from Westbeech, who told me that he had been summoned to the royal enclosure, which he found in great commotion. The king had just received Khame’s letter written in Sechuana, professed himself to be highly gratified by the contents, and had sent for Westbeech to write a reply, in which he gave his assurance that Moia should have a free pardon. But that very night he sent Mashoku a list of twelve names of chiefs who were to be executed forthwith, amongst them Inkambella, Maranzian, Kapella, and Moia.

This was too much even for Mashoku. Alarmed at the prospect of such wholesale slaughter, the executioner immediately let Kapella know what was in store for him, and without the loss of a moment the commander-in-chief aroused his two[366] wives, his brother, who was sleeping in an adjoining hut, his young son, and three of his most trustworthy servants, and took to flight. On the way to the river-bank Kapella had called upon Westbeech, and informed him of the desperate step he was driven to take; and he, ever a friend in need, had supplied him with ammunition and a number of necessaries for the journey.

Taking possession of the first two canoes they could find, the fugitives hurried down the stream, and while it was still dark found themselves twenty miles away from Sesheke; here they landed, sent their boats adrift, and proceeded on foot towards the Masupia settlement above Impalera. This was under the jurisdiction of a brother of Makumba’s, a staunch ally of Sepopo’s; but Kapella hoped to reach the place while the natives were still in bed, and to make use of their boats to cross the Chobe. It was a most difficult journey; the passage through the reeds was in some places dangerous in the extreme, and Kapella would never have risked it but in the greatest emergency. However, nothing went amiss, and the party all arrived safely before dawn; but early as it was, some of the Masupia fishermen were already on the move. Terrified at the sight of two armed chiefs, and probably recognizing who they were, they water-logged their canoes, and ran off to raise an alarm in the town. This was Kapella’s opportunity; quick as thought he had the canoes dragged to land, emptied them of the water, and made use of them to ferry his party to the opposite shore.

The chieftain, on hearing what had occurred, took no immediate action. He was aware that Kapella[367] was a wonderful shot, and this rather indisposed him to take any precipitate measures to arrest him. He came to the decision that a council of the village should be called, and during the hours of deliberation the fugitives were getting safely far away, so that when the bailiffs arrived at our quarters they had no chance of overtaking them, and after ransacking the woods for a short time they gave up the pursuit and took themselves off.

Diamond’s next hunting-expedition proved a great success; and he shot a fine buffalo. He made his servants put him up a grass hut close to the place where the carcase was lying, that it might be guarded from the attacks of any beasts of prey; but not only had the old sportsman now lost much of his former zest, but he had contracted rather too great a love for brandy, so that although he distinctly heard the beasts gnawing at the prey, he did not rouse himself to go to the rescue. The consequence was that in the morning it was found that the carcase had been considerably mangled by lions, the entrails especially having furnished the materials for their feast. We were, however, all glad to see the hind-quarters, quite free from mutilation, conveyed safely to our camp.

A few evenings afterwards Diamond came to me in great haste, and told me that two Marutse men had just come in search of Kapella and Moia, with strict orders from Sepopo to kill them at once if they could find them. I did not wait to see the men, but sent out peremptory instructions that they were to be off about their business, or they would have to rue their delay. My vexation was very great when I afterwards ascertained that Diamond,[368] through his ignorance of the Serotse dialect, had quite misunderstood their errand. It turned out that instead of being bailiffs acting on behalf of Sepopo, they were two of Kapella’s own servants, whom their master had sent to beg for some food.

The 12th was quite a day of bustle; both in the morning and in the afternoon several troops of Masupias arrived from Impalera with ivory, and one of Westbeech’s servants passed through on his way to Panda ma Tenka to fetch bullocks for the waggons. That night I slept better than usual; the feeling that Westbeech was really on his way towards me revived my drooping spirits, and I was inclined next morning to rise at an early hour, and as soon as Narri had dressed me, I took my seat upon the box of the waggon, enjoying the morning air, which although probably by no means healthy, certainly seemed very refreshing. As Narri was preparing the kaffir-corn coffee, he drew my attention to the sound of voices a long way down the valley. I inquired of the other servants what it meant, and after listening for a few seconds they unanimously affirmed that it was Westbeech’s cavalcade, carrying their burdens of ivory and singing as they marched.

As I sat pondering, only occasionally saying a word to Narri, my attention was suddenly arrested by the dusky form of a man advancing towards the camp, and within fifty yards of us. He was quite unarmed. I hardly believed my eyes, and yet I felt that I could not be mistaken. The man undoubtedly was Kapella, no longer the powerful commander, but a sad and dejected fugitive. I was too weak to alight from[369] the waggon and go to meet him, but he was immediately at my side. “Help me, help me, intate (friend),” he cried; “I am hungry; my wife, my child, my brother are starving in the woods!” Probably he would have said more, but his keen ear caught the sound of the Masupias singing almost close at hand, and he paused; his face, ordinarily beaming with good nature, became distorted with terror. The excitement of the moment seemed to give me renewed strength. I can hardly tell how I did it, but I leaned back, and catching hold of a sack containing about a bushel of corn that was lying in the waggon, I lifted it into Kapella’s arms. He smiled, and made a hasty gesture of thanks; and before the Masupias had come in sight he had made his way into the long grass towards his retreat.

One of the heaviest storms that I ever remember in South Africa occurred a few days afterwards. It came on suddenly, and so violently that my servants were obliged to throw sand and earth upon the fires, that the wind should not carry the flames into the dry grass; and the downpour of rain was so great, that I had to use all my wraps and extra clothing to protect my collections. The top of the waggon swayed to and fro in the gale; and cumbrous as the vehicle was, it rattled and shook as if it were the plaything of the hurricane. One of the grass-huts was completely overturned, and several others in which my people had sought shelter had their sides blown in, and it was only owing to the lightness of the material of which they were constructed, that no injury was done to life or limb. When the storm had subsided in the evening, they found that it was necessary to build[370] two entirely new huts, one for themselves and one for my baggage, so that the waggons which we had been occupying should be left free for Westbeech’s ivory.

Westbeech’s long-anticipated arrival took place on the 16th. He complained very much of Sepopo’s behaviour to him after my departure, and avowed his intention of never going so far as Sesheke again, but of disposing of his goods in the valley of the Chobe. He gave me all the latest news, and said that the disposition to revolt, and the determination to dethrone the king, were fast gaining ground among the chiefs. A recent proceeding on Sepopo’s part had done much to accelerate the growth of the general disaffection. In his rage at Kapella’s flight, he had not only, as usual, vented his temper on his attendants by laying about him with his kiri, but he had openly declared his intention of preparing a charm which should have such an effect upon the senses of the fugitives that they would be sure to make their way back to Sesheke; once there, they should be handed over to Mashoku. Accordingly he gave orders that an ox should be slaughtered, that the fat from the region of the heart should be affixed to the end of some cleft-sticks, and that the sticks should be planted in front of the doors of the huts of the runaways. It was the first time that Sepopo had ever prepared any incantations, or even mentioned his system of charms in public, and the eyes of his people were only now opened to the detestable humbug which was the chief feature of his character.

Nor was it only his own subjects that had become thoroughly dissatisfied with his proceedings. The[371] Portuguese traders had failed to get payment for the goods they had supplied, and had been put off time after time with equivocal excuses.

It was further reported, that most likely Jan Mahura, with his brother, would find his way next day to the Leshumo valley. He had just received a payment, after five years, for his services as interpreter, and felt only too certain that his life was now quite insecure beyond the Zambesi.

Westbeech had still left a small portion of his property in Sesheke, under the charge of Fabi, his half-caste cook, who could not accompany him, because Asserat, the wife Sepopo had given him, refused to go to the south. But the bulk of Westbeech’s ivory, weighing altogether 11,080 lbs., had now arrived at the Leshumo valley.

On the 17th my servant Elephant was taken ill with inflammation under the knee, a disorder that is very common among the Masupias and Matongas. It is called “tshi kana mirumbe,” and may generally be cured by the application of bean-flour poultices.

Two days later the waggons were packed. The bullocks arrived at midnight, and we started without delay for Panda ma Tenka.

RUINS OF ROCKY SHASHA.

Taking a south-easterly route, we drove on to Schneeman’s Pan, where we halted for the rest of[373] the day. Throughout the early morning, nothing could be more agreeable than the odour of the white cinque-foiled blossoms of the mopondo shrubs. In the evening we started off again, and travelled all night and some part of the next day until we came to the edge of the Gashuma Flat. Here we were obliged to pause for a time, because the recent rains had transformed the meadows into perfect swamps. The grass, known by the natives as matumbe, was in many places six or seven feet high, so that we did not see a great quantity of game. Whilst we were halting, we were overtaken by six Marutse who had hastened after us to bring some buffalo horns of mine that Westbeech had accidentally left behind at Sesheke, as well as an elephant’s tusk weighing 25 lbs. They followed us as far as Panda ma Tenka, under the excuse that they wanted to get some lucifer-matches for Sepopo, but their real motive was to ascertain whether Kapella had joined our party.

Ever since I had become aware of Kapella’s circumstances I had endeavoured to keep him supplied with corn from my own and Westbeech’s store, and he had left the Leshumo valley, going on ahead of us towards the Gashuma Flat, where we again fell in with him and with Moia. Amongst their attendants I recognized one of the boatmen who had behaved so badly to me after starting from Sesheke.

As not a single head of game had been shot by one of our party for some days, the arrival of a goat, which Bradshaw sent us from Panda ma Tenka, was a very agreeable surprise. Another night’s journey took us beyond the tsetse district,[374] and after putting up the heavy waggons beside one of the Panda ma Tenka affluents, we proceeded in advance to the settlement itself. It was sad to see how fever had reduced both Bradshaw and my former servant Pit to the merest skeletons.

Soon after our arrival Westbeech made me the unwelcome communication that the tsetse-fly had committed such havoc amongst his bullocks that he was absolutely unable to fulfil the contract he had made when he purchased my team. He could not take my waggon to the south, and had no alternative but to ask me to transfer my packages to one of those in which he was conveying his own ivory. The removal of my property occupied me some time on the 27th.

We here met an ivory-dealer who had just come from Shoshong. He told us that Khame was still using all his influence to check the importation of brandy, and with regard to myself he observed that the people of Shoshong would be much surprised to see me back again, as they had been quite sure that I should never return to the south.

After clearing out my waggon, I spent the rest of the day in trying to make good any deficiencies in my collections. I bought 1300 beetles from Bradshaw, for which I gave him 20l., and paid him in ivory for forty bird-skins besides; Walsh also for some of my ivory let me have sixty-three more bird-skins.

On the following afternoon we left the valley. Westbeech showed me every possible consideration on the way to Shoshong, but naturally I could not feel anything like the same independence as when travelling in my own waggon; there were many[375] places in which we only halted a few hours where I should have been glad to stay on indefinitely, and I saw enough of the West Matabele country to satisfy me that an explorer might find things of interest in it to occupy him for a year at least.

During our passage along the valley our dogs started two vlakvarks. White men seized their guns, black men followed with their assegais, and a hot chase lasted for twenty minutes before the creatures were brought down. Although it has more formidable tusks than any other of its species, in comparison with the European wild boar, the vlakvark is a feeble, spiritless creature; its skin is extremely thin, and nothing gives it so remarkable an appearance as its conspicuous white whiskers.

I did not get much sleep on the first night after the transfer of my boxes; they had been so shaken about in their day’s journey that I could not lie down to rest until I had properly rearranged them. Next morning while passing over the last of the grassy glades that are so frequent between the Zambesi district and the sandy pool plateau, I observed that herds of ostriches had been along the game-tracks. Had I been independent I should certainly have stayed a day or two and made a deliberate investigation of some of the habits of these birds by following up their traces into the woods; but here, as along the rest of the way, although I took every available opportunity of seeing what I could, and devoted much of the night to recording what I had seen by day, I was constantly deploring the rapid pace at which we had to travel.

Before reaching Henry’s Pan on the 3rd of[376] February, I noticed that a herd of at least twenty giraffes had preceded us on our road. As we approached the Tamasetze pools we were met by a horseman whom we recognized as a trader named Webster, who had formerly been an associate of Anderson, an ivory-dealer that I have already mentioned. Anderson had now gone back, and Webster, as he informed us, was here in the neighbourhood of Tamasetze hunting ostriches, being encamped almost close by with two others, one of whom, named Mayer, I had met at one of the Klamaklenyana springs whilst travelling northwards; the other I will simply designate as Z. This Z., who professed that he had once been a trader, had now come into this district under rather peculiar circumstances. The Zoological Society of London had written out to Cape Town for a young white rhinoceros, for which they offered the sum of 500l., and attracted by the liberal bidding, Z. had resolved to try his chance of securing the prize.

His first proceeding was to provide himself with a supply of barter goods which he reckoned he could dispose of at a profit of some 500 per cent., including a very considerable proportion of “fire-water,” for which he felt certain the demand would be great. He was quite aware that the likeliest place in which to obtain a rhinoceros such as he wanted was in the Mashona country; but he had been guilty of some offence in Matabele-land, so that he was afraid to apply to the king for permission to re-enter his dominions. Accordingly he betook himself to Shoshong, but as it came to Khame’s knowledge that he was bringing brandy for sale, he was[377] forthwith ordered to return to the south. However, he was unwilling to be diverted from his purpose, and went to Khame and gave him a distinct promise that he would carry back all the spirit and dispose of it to the Damara emigrants on the Limpopo. Khame, not apprehending the ruse that was to be played, expressed himself satisfied. Z. started off towards the Limpopo, but was back again so quickly that his return awakened some suspicion; however, by pointing to his empty waggons, and declaring that he had found a readier sale than he anticipated, he succeeded in making the king believe that it was all fair. The truth was he had only concealed his casks in the woods.

Receiving the king’s permission to proceed, Z. now started on his venture. He lost no time in picking up his contraband goods, and made his way north-west through West Matabele and Makalaka-land towards the sandy pool plateau, giving out to the Zulus that he was Captain Y., and that he was anxious to obtain permission to visit the Victoria Falls. He sent messengers to Lo Bengula, the Zulu king at Gubuluwayo, to that effect, but spending several months afterwards on the pool plateau, he lost the four horses he had brought with him; however he succeeded in disposing of all his goods except four kegs of spirits of wine.

Meanwhile Khame had heard of his proceedings through some travelling Bamangwatos, and from the Masarwas and Madenassanas, who resided near the plateau, and Z., aware that his smuggling had been discovered, was in a state of great alarm lest he should be prohibited from returning to the south; for reasons already stated, he was even more afraid[378] of falling into the hands of Lo Bengula, and as he was obliged to abandon his scheme of getting the rhinoceros, he hailed our arrival as a circumstance that might be turned to his advantage.

Poor Mayer was terribly altered since I saw him last; the ravages of fever in a few weeks had pulled him down so much that I hardly knew him. Several of Z.’s servants were also suffering from weakness which the fever had brought on, and he wished me to prescribe for them. I could only tell him that I had not a grain of medicine left, having given the last which I had bought of Bradshaw to Pit and Jan Mahura’s son; at the same time I instructed him that he would materially benefit the men’s muscles if he would make them rub their ankles with some of his brandy. It was then he told me that he had no brandy left, having sold everything except some spirits of wine. That, I replied, would answer the purpose just as well.

But Z. had no idea of employing his spirits of wine for any such beneficent object; he diluted his alcohol as freely as he dared with water, and took an early opportunity of selling it to my fellow-travellers, principally to Westbeech, for 33l. The atrocious stuff completely overpowered Westbeech, and Z. took advantage of his condition to induce him to purchase his team, thereby ensuring that it should not fall into Khame’s hands.

I am only too ready to draw a veil over the proceedings of the rest of that sojourn at Tamasetze; they are even now painful in the retrospect; suffice it to say, that they ended in an arrangement by which Z. was to be conveyed to the south as Westbeech’s[379] guest. He seemed to rejoice in the recollection that although his expedition had not brought him any vast profit, at least it had entailed no serious loss.

Leaving Tamasetze on the 7th, we went on past the Tamafopa and Yoruah pools towards the most northerly of the Klamaklenyana springs, where a road branched off to the south-east to the Makalaka country. The deplorable effects of Z.’s alcohol extended beyond our stay at Tamasetze, and the man who drove the waggon in which I was riding remained so drunk that several times the vehicle was in danger of being overturned, and more than once I was obliged to take the reins, thus exposing myself in a way which in my condition of health proved very bad.

At the Yoruah pools Bradshaw had a relapse; Diamond and a waggon-driver fell ill; my own servant, Elephant, had an attack of dysentery, and two more of Westbeech’s people showed symptoms of fever; in consequence of such an amount of sickness we halted for nearly two days, an interval of which I took all the advantage I could to add to my store of natural curiosities. We did not reach the springs until the 12th, and started again the same evening. Game was very scarce on the plateau, obviously owing to the fact that the hollows in the woods were so full of rainwater that the animals had no occasion to resort to the springs near the roads.

As the result of my premature exposure I had a severe shivering fit next night, and to add to my misfortune our tipsy driver failed to get out of the way of a bough that protruded across the road, and the concussion was so severe that all the coleoptera[380] that I had collected during the last five days were damaged, and many of them quite destroyed.

We had a toilsome march next day through a dense sandy underwood. In the night a herd of rhinoceroses and some elephants crossed our path, and shortly afterwards we came to a glade called Tamasanka, containing some pools that never dry up. The water in them was clear, but Westbeech told me that if kept in a vessel for two or three days it always begins to thicken. I had no opportunity of proving the fact for myself.

In the afternoon I for the first time saw a widow-bird (Vidua paradisea), a species of finch which is very common on the west coast; I also found fly-catchers, pyroles, small speckled-green woodpeckers, and the Vidua regia. As a general rule birds abounded more in the open parts of the pool plateau than in the densely wooded district where the ponds lay in small glades.

For the two succeeding days the track was so thickly overgrown with grass that we had some difficulty in determining our proper route. The servants, in investigating the path, were highly delighted at finding the half-eaten carcase of a giraffe that had probably been killed by lions.

On the 16th we came to a region which is almost a precise counterpart of the Maque plain, being covered with mapani-trees and abounding in pools full of fish. The natives call it the Libanani, and it forms the south-eastern extremity of the plateau. It now belongs to the eastern Bamangwatos and the Matabele; but in Moselikatze’s time it belonged exclusively to the Matabele, being the most westerly part of their territory; its outlying parts, however,[381] were so continually ravaged by lions, that no safety could be secured for cattle, which consequently had all to be withdrawn. The woods are thick only at the edge of the ponds, which I imagine are all in the line of what was the bed of a river, that in all likelihood has now been dry for centuries.

From the open character of the adjacent country the Libanani glade has a special charm for sportsmen. It abounds in many varieties of game, from the duykerbock to the elephant, and here, as in other parts of the plateau, the ornithologist will find a most interesting field for study in the waders and swimming-birds. Both by day and by night, too, birds of prey are perpetually to be observed, and in the moist places, where the soil is carpeted with flowers, sun-birds and bee-eaters may be seen in swarms, while in the boughs that overhang the water, the bright blue Alcedo cristata, the Halcyon Swainsonii and the black-and-white Ceryle rudis are perpetually sporting. I must also include in my list the giant heron (Ardea Goliath), and the beautiful little Nettapus Madagascariensis. This is of the goose tribe; it is from twelve to fourteen inches long; its head, neck, and back are of a glossy dark green; underneath it is white, except the breast and sides, which are of a reddish brown; its face and throat are also white, and it has a bright green spot on either side of its neck.

Attractive as the diversity of animal life makes the Libanani, there are two reasons why it is very undesirable to make a lengthened stay there; in the first place the pools at the end of summer exhale a very malarious atmosphere, and in the second, it is infested with yellow cobras, which, in the way to[382] which I have elsewhere referred, lie in wait in the trees overhanging the game tracks. Westbeech told me that in dry winters the ponds contain so little water that the fish in them, of which the glanis is the most common species, can be easily caught with the hands. It was here that for the first time for many months I heard the howl of the silver jackal (Canis mesomelas). I found that many of the plants were identical with those that grew in the salt-lake basin, and was consequently confirmed in my opinion that the Libanani is one of the lowest parts of the whole pool-plateau district. I noticed also some handsome palm-bushes, the first I had seen since I left the vicinity of the Zambesi.

Winter was said to be the best time for game, and this was confirmed by the small amount of success that some of our party had in going out to shoot for the replenishment of our larder; but even at this period of the year I noticed the tracks of a considerable number of animals across our path, amongst them those of the black rhinoceros.

A long drive on the 18th brought us into the valley of the Nata, which we should subsequently have to cross. The river here had all the characteristics of a sandy spruit, opening at intervals into pools, the banks being overgrown with grass six or seven feet high, and containing a number of hollows, which after floods are left full of water, corresponding in this respect with many South African streams, particularly those included in the Limpopo system.

Our road next lay through a dense mapani-wood. Four years previously, Westbeech had been the first traveller to use this route by the Nata and Maytengue rivers to the Matabele country, and I accordingly[383] gave the track the name of the “Westbeech road.” In the evening we came to a grass plain almost entirely enclosed by woods, where the Maytengue river in its course from the Makalaka lands is said to lose itself in the soil.

The Maytengue appears to diminish both in breadth and depth towards its mouth, and its banks are literally riddled with pitfalls. We crossed a great many deep but narrow dry rain-channels, hundreds of which find their way to the river, but flow for so short a time that they hardly make any appreciable difference to the stream, which consequently dwindles away in the lower part of its wide sandy bed; the longer section of its course runs through the fine hill-country occupied by Menon’s Makalakas.

Throughout the whole of the next day we followed the right hand bank of the stream. Bradshaw had an attack of dysentery, and Westbeech was so far from well that I insisted upon his coming for a time under my immediate charge. Ever since we left Panda ma Tenka the weather had been very trying, the days, and especially the afternoons, being extremely sultry, the nights bitterly cold.

Just before we crossed the Maytengue on the 21st, my attention was called to a tall hollow mapani-tree, beneath which a Makalaka chief had been buried. The people had a superstition that their “morimo,” or unseen god, resided in the tree, and as they passed by were in the habit of dropping their bracelets into the hollow trunk. They had the same belief about one of the caves in the hills, and carried presents every year to the spot.

The country became more elevated as we proceeded, and some hills of granite rose in front of us,[384] though not lofty enough to shut out the view of the real Makalaka heights in the background. On arriving at the first of these hills, Westbeech, with Bradshaw, walked off to obtain an interview with Menon; he was anxious to get the chief to provide him an escort as far as Gubuluwayo the capital, where he wanted to see a friend of his, named Philipps, who was staying with Lo Bengula, and to induce him to go on with him to Shoshong, and assist him in settling his accounts. The high esteem in which Westbeech was held by the Makalakas ensured him a kind reception from Menon, who not only granted the request that was made, but lost no time in paying a return visit.

Ever since we had entered the Maytengue valley, Z. had been in a perpetual fidget. Whether we were on the move or at rest his uneasiness continued just the same; he was always on the look-out, and there seemed no end to his fancies. He had never been a favourite with any of our party, and Westbeech openly avowed his disapproval of all his business transactions; finding, therefore, that there was no one on the road who cared for his society, he would try and seek refuge with me, confined as I was to my waggon. But even here his nervousness did not desert him: as he sat beside me he would continually ask whether I did not hear a noise in the woods, or had not seen some one disappearing in the bushes. At night, too, when we were all round the camp-fire I generally found that he took his place at my side, although he was never still long together, but kept creeping away to peer into the darkness. I remonstrated with him for his strange behaviour, without succeeding for a long time in getting anything[385] out of him; after a while, however, he told me that on a previous visit, as he and his servants were returning single file from an elephant-hunt, a gun had accidentally gone off and killed one of Menon’s people, and he now feared that he might be recognized and accused of the deed. Understanding that we were here encamping close to Menon’s residence, his alarm became more intense than ever, and he kept most cautiously in the rear of the waggons, not suffering his face to be seen until the chief’s visit was over.

Menon was a gaunt-looking man of about fifty years of age, and an arrant hypocrite. All his attendants had countenances as ignoble as his own. It is in order that the tribe may be distinguished from their brethren north of the Zambesi that I have designated them as Menon’s Makalakas. Together with their southern compatriots they were subjugated by the Matabele Zulus in 1837. Up to that time they had been peaceful agriculturists and cattle-breeders; but now they do very little in the way of rural pursuits, and have become the most notorious thieves and the greatest rascals in South Africa, a change entirely to be attributed to the demoralizing and vicious influence of their oppressors.

The six attendants of the chief squatted round our fire, and Menon, wrapped in a mangy mantle of wild cats’ skins, remained standing. He scanned every one so carefully, that it was quite apparent he was looking for some one in particular, and an expression of dissatisfaction rested on his face as he closed his scrutiny. He spoke of the death of his servant, saying that he had heard all about the affair from a man who had been in company with the victim,[386] adding that he had been assured by one of his spies that the perpetrator of the deed was a white man, who had joined our party at the Nata river. Disappointed at not identifying the individual he wanted, Menon began to vent his annoyance by demanding toll from Walsh and myself, under the pretext that we had entered his territory for the first time. Westbeech, who was the only one among us who understood the Makalaka dialect, told us to be quiet and to take no notice of the chief, and then proceeded to give him such a lecture on the duty of hospitality, that he very soon altered his tone, and promised that he would send us a goat, adding that he was sorry that he was unable to give us a cow, as the Matabele had stolen all his cattle. We acknowledged his politeness by making him a present of powder and shot, which he accepted as graciously as he could.

After he was gone, one of his attendants, a mean-looking creature, lingered behind with our servants near the fire; the behaviour of the fellow was peculiar, and I kept my eye on him. He was pretending to warm himself, but it was easy to see that he was looking behind the waggons. All at once he stirred the fire into a blaze. He had caught sight of Z., who, not observing that a stranger was amongst our party, had returned from his retreat in the rear. He inquired nervously of me whether Menon had asked any questions about him, and when I replied that he had alluded to the death of the Makalaka, he jumped up and swore that Menon was a great liar. At this moment Menon’s man, who most probably had heard what passed, got up and walked quietly away.

[387]

“Look,” I said to Z., “that fellow is one of Menon’s spies!”

Z. clenched his fist and made a movement as if he would run after him, but his courage failed him, and he remained where he was.

When we retired at night to our waggons, it was manifest that Z. was still very uneasy, and by the glances he threw in all directions he showed that he was apprehensive of some sudden attack.

Of the men who came with Menon, two were armed with assegais, and four carried kiris. Some of the Makalakas have muskets.

The Makalaka women wear short leather petticoats, covered with white and violet beads; they are fairly expert in various kinds of handicraft, but the specimens I saw were on the whole inferior to the work of the Bechuanas.

It appeared to me that the Maytengue valley has all the elements of a future El Dorado. There is excellent pasturage on the wooded downs, and for the naturalist it is a region full of delight; the great drawback to its being properly explored is the unsatisfactory character of the natives.

When Westbeech, accompanied by a servant on horseback and a few Makalakas on foot, set out on his visit to Gubuluwayo, the rest of us proceeded on our way, but only for about three miles. We halted under a morula-tree, staying for the double purpose of purchasing corn and melons, and receiving the goat that Menon had promised us. We soon came upon a great assembly of Makalakas, and at first imagined that some festival was being celebrated. We were not long, however, in being informed that Menon was about to hold an assize, and[388] that Z. was forthwith to be summoned to take his trial. And so it proved; Z. was sent for, and as the cause was to be tried in Sechuana, Jan Mahura was appointed to act as interpreter. The trial was of short duration, and Z. was adjudged guilty. Menon’s sentence was somewhat remarkable; it was to the effect that it did not matter whether the white man had really shot the Makalaka or not; it did not matter whether the gun had or had not gone off accidentally; the white man must make compensation, both to the dead man’s relatives and to himself, the dead man’s master.

Great was Z.’s alarm; his face turned crimson; he trembled with agitation; he began to assert his innocence with such volubility that Jan Mahura in vain tried to keep pace with him. At last, finding that the defendant was only damaging his own case, the interpreter took up the matter independently, and argued with such good effect, that in spite of the outcry of the relations of the deceased, Menon ruled that a fine should be inflicted, consisting of a coloured woollen shirt, a blanket, and seven pocket-handkerchiefs, instead of the musket and ammunition and the lot of woollen goods he had intended to demand. He insisted, moreover, that the shirt should fall to his own lot as arbitrator; and as soon as he received it, he doubled it up and was walking away quite content. But the relations were not to be pacified quite so easily; they flung the blanket and the handkerchiefs down before Z.’s feet, and abusing him vehemently as a murderer, made such an outcry that Menon was obliged to come back. Jan Mahura’s tact again proved adequate to the occasion. He whispered to Z. that he should offer blanket and[389] handkerchiefs all to the chief, and so secure him as an ally. Menon accepted the contribution, sent all the complainants quickly to the right about, and thus put an end to the whole affair.

The Makalakas appear to have very much the same aptitude for pilfering as the Masupias have for conjuring, and I was told of a circumstance which may serve to illustrate their thievish propensities. An ivory-trader purchased a tusk of a party of them and stowed it away in his waggon; another party soon afterwards brought a second tusk, but they asked a price for it so much higher that the trader hesitated; they urged him to have it weighed, and in the middle of the weighing process another lot of Makalakas arrived bringing a third tusk. Meantime, the first tusk was being deftly abstracted from the waggon. The men represented that they were in a great hurry, and induced the trader to buy the two tusks together. Having got their payment, the sellers made their way off quickly into the woods. The trader carried off his new purchase to compare what he had just bought with the tusk he had left in the waggon, and his chagrin may be better imagined than described when he found that the ivory had disappeared, and that after paying for three tusks he was only in possession of two.

As ivory can only be sold by clandestine means, when the natives want to dispose of any of the contraband article they generally come to a traveller in a party, and while some of them carry on the negotiations, the others watch their opportunity for laying their hands upon anything and everything within reach. It may almost be affirmed that nothing is safe except it has been tied or screwed to[390] the panels of the waggon. Their dishonesty, as I have said, is ingrained, so thoroughly has it been instilled into them or forced upon them by the Matabele. During any conversation with them it is advisable to keep them at a distance, and to take care that at least one servant is left on each side of the waggon, and that even he is prohibited from talking with them. When, however, they find themselves baffled, and obliged to retire without securing any plunder, or when any of them has been detected in a theft, they will go back to their people, and declare that it is of no use trying to rob the white man, because he has “a good medicine;” meaning that he possesses a charm which enables him to see what is going on in one place while he is engaged in another.

In addition to their other disgusting qualities all the Makalakas south of the Zambesi, especially those under Matabele rule, are indescribably dirty. With the exception of those who have been in service under white men, I believe the majority of them have not washed for years, and I saw women wearing strings upon strings of beads, several pounds in weight, of which the undermost layers were literally sticking to their skins.

Since their subjugation to the Matabele, their mode of building their huts has very much degenerated, and most of their little villages are not much better than collections of ruins. Some few of them may be said to be fairly industrious; but almost the sole remaining virtue at all conspicuous in this sunken people is their extreme modesty and decorum, which is hardly equalled in any other of the South African tribes.

[391]

Above the underwood through which we passed in the afternoon rose a great number of granite hills, varying from twenty to seventy feet in height, and either pyramidal or conical in form. The further we advanced along the bank of the Maytengue, the finer the scenery became. From time to time we passed some more of the morula-trees that I have mentioned; each family in a village is allotted one or more of these, according to the population of the place, for its own special use; they are usually enclosed by a fence placed about three yards away from the stem, the object of which is to save the wild fruit from being devoured by animals as it falls. The pulp of the fruit is made into a beverage which has very much the character of cider, and the kernel, if I am rightly informed, is occasionally pounded and used as meal.

Our road several times brought us quite close to the Maytengue, and the country in the valley was often very charming. On the way I chanced to be a witness of a very affecting meeting between a negro and his aged mother; and various incidents were related to me by Diamond and others that all tended to confirm my belief that many a native has really refined feelings lurking in his breast which are only waiting for civilization to draw forth.

Our afternoon camp was made in the vicinity of several villages, of which the residents told us that a few days previously Menon had received a visit from a troop of Matabele soldiers, who had come to demand boys as recruits for their last-formed regiment. Menon had refused to comply, and it was only too likely, they said, that the refusal would cost him his life, as although the Makalakas are[392] fairly supplied with guns, their villages are so small and scattered, that they are soon overpowered by such a force as the Matabele can bring against them. It was by mere force exercised in this way, and by carrying off the young lads violently from their parents, that in 1837 Moselikatze with a complement of only forty warriors began to found a kingdom which at present has an aggregate of about 20,000 fighting-men.

On the following day our route lay amongst the numerous granite hills, every few hundred yards opening a new and pleasant prospect to our view. At our first halting-place we fell in with a sub-chieftain named Henry, who was an old acquaintance of Westbeech’s, and out of regard to him provided sorghum, maize, and melons for the benefit of Bradshaw, who remained far from well. Henry had his people under very good control, and as long as we were near him we felt pretty secure against any great annoyance; during our halt, however, we were surprised by the sudden appearance of one of those scourges of the district, a Matabele warrior, who came blustering up and shouting, “Hulloa, white men! you have some of Sepopo’s people there. Give them up, or pay for them. If you don’t, one by one I’ll kill them all.” He had his gun in one hand, and in the other he brandished his kiri, which once very nearly touched my face. I was inclined to be angry, but controlled my temper, and warned the swaggering idiot off in a way that made all the Makalakas roar with laughter. Finding that he could make no impression upon me, he went to Bradshaw and Walsh, who merely laid their hands upon their rifles, an action which the fellow pretended[393] that he was to take as a challenge, whereupon he began to storm more furiously than ever; but when they advanced towards him and showed that they were in earnest, he lost no time in beating a retreat, to the unbounded amusement of the lookers-on.

The next drive took us through fresh mountain scenery, the heights being clothed with the candelabra-euphorbias as I had seen them on the Bamangwato hills. The fields that we passed were of considerable extent; the farmsteads were large and well enclosed; the dwelling-houses situated in their most prominent parts. At intervals of about every eighty yards in the enclosure was a simple wooden pitfall. The whole of the Makalaka villages, however, were but a mere wreck of what they had been before the Matabele invaded the Matoppo mountains.

The village that we had last passed was called Kasheme, and before the day was gone we came to another named Bosi-mapani. The settlements hereabouts were very numerous, and the next morning we arrived at another, where, although we halted and unyoked our teams half a mile away from the residences, we were soon visited by a number of the people, who wanted to sell us provisions. Bradshaw, after bargaining with a party of the Makalakas, bought a goat and a sheep, but it happened at the moment that all our servants were engaged at the waggons, and that there was no one at hand to drive the purchase home to our encampment. After a while one man was procured, but before he could get near them, the animals had all scampered off. The cunning Makalakas had set their shepherd-boys to[394] sound their pipes close by, and as soon as the goat and the sheep heard the accustomed note they galloped away, each to its separate herd. Our man succeeded in overtaking and capturing one of the sheep, but the other two creatures got clean away. It was in vain that we threatened to report the dealers to Lo Bengula. They took our threats in the calmest way, and walked off to their homes, contriving, before they went, to get possession of Westbeech’s pocket-knife. It is scarcely necessary to say, that neither the goat nor the sheep was ever recovered.

By the 25th we had diverged somewhat from the Maytengue. Most of the granite hills were now on our left; but we could see others still more important rising on the southern horizon in front of us.

The visits that from time to time continued to be made to us by Matabele soldiers were a perpetual source of uneasiness to Z.; he appeared to dread them much more than the Makalakas, and the mere sight of any Zulu made him creep back as rapidly and as stealthily as he could to his waggon. None of them ever recognized him, but it happened once during a noonday halt, that he came into collision with two of them in a way that almost cost him his life. Distinguishable at once as Matabele by their feather head-dresses, and by their aprons of wild cats’ tails, two young fellows came to the waggon begging for a “lapiana” (a piece of calico). Z.’s little dog flew at them, growling and barking, and one of them in his annoyance was about to give the animal a tremendous blow with his kiri, which probably would have dashed its brains out. Z. came rushing forward, flushed with rage, to protect his dog, and shook his fist in the face of the intruders.[395] It was just the excuse for a fight which the Matabele wanted; a regular scrimmage ensued, and two to one as they were, a kiri would inevitably very soon have descended on Z.’s head if Bradshaw and I had not interfered in time. We held our guns in our hands, but when the young rascals saw that we did not raise them, they struck their kiris upon the ground and broke out into a storm of abuse, which they were still continuing, when an old Matabele, his rank as a warrior indicated by his leather circlet covered by hair, made his appearance on the scene. Hearing what had transpired, he caught hold of a good stout bough of a tree, and laid it vigorously about the shoulders of the offenders. He treated them exactly like naughty little boys, and they, like little boys, crept back in disgrace, keeping their grumbling to themselves.

In the course of the afternoon we came to a village named Kambusa. It consisted only of about fifteen huts, and belonged to a man of the name of Tantje, whom Westbeech knew very well, so that we had no fear of meeting with any annoyance in it. Tantje’s residence had two enclosures, one of stakes round his hut, and another of thorn-bushes outside his fields. This was the last of the Makalaka villages we had to pass; five-and-twenty years ago they extended another hundred miles to the south, but now we were close to the boundary of the province, and before the evening we had crossed the existing frontier.

Upon the shore of the little river Ashangena, about 600 yards away from the road, Diamond drew my attention to a bush, beneath which he informed me that Mr. Frank Oates, an Englishman, had been[396] buried. He had been hunting in the district, and had taken fever and died. His death had really occurred in the Makalaka country, but it was necessary to bring him to be buried at the frontier. His brother, Mr. William Oates, in 1874 erected a gravestone over the spot.

We had two small streams to cross before we came to the Matliutse, which crossed our path transversely. During the last stage of our journey through Makalaka-land we had crossed no fewer than seventeen rain-streams, all of them flowing into the Maytengue, and yet forming, I believe, not more than a tenth part of the affluents of that river. The scenery was as fine as any I saw during my hurried journey through the country. The soil was chiefly granite, thickly veined with quartz, and in many places marked with dark slate-coloured mica, the strata being variously horizontal, vertical, or oblique, generally towards the top of the hills slanting downwards at an angle of seventy degrees to the south-west. I saw nothing more interesting than the picturesque masses of granite that crowned the slopes of the hills; so strange and fantastic were their forms that I could not resist entering them upon my chart with names corresponding to what seemed to be their shapes. One on the Matliutse I called “the cap;” another on the next spruit, “the two sparrows;” another, “the club;” and a fourth, to the right of the road, the most striking of all, I named “the pyramid.” The scenery gave me some idea how charming the country must be in the highlands in the upper parts of the Matliutse, Shasha, Tati, and Rhamakoban, which are all of them affluents of the Limpopo.

[397]

As I crossed the two Shasha rivers next day it became perfectly clear to my mind that the Shaneng must flow either into the Matliutse or one of its tributaries. The district seemed full of game, but not to the same extent as in former years. The animals of which I saw most were pallahs, zulu-hartebeests, harrisbocks, and zebras.

In the evening we halted on the right-hand shore of the rocky Shasha, a stream that has derived its name from the character of its bed. I took the opportunity of getting out a little distance towards the east, where, on one of the granite mounds, I found some ruins that had played their part in the history of central South Africa. The hill was isolated, and not so high as those near it, and it had been fortified by a wall composed of blocks of granite laid one upon another, without being fixed by cement of any kind. The wall was about 140 feet long, and enclosed a space of ground as nearly as possible on the top of the hill, being built on the natural crags in such a way that the artificial rampart it formed hardly rose in some parts many inches from the ground, whilst in other places it was six feet high; in thickness it varied from twelve to eighteen inches. It had an entrance facing the north, and there it projected so as to make a kind of avenue. The blocks of which it was made were flat, and varying in size from four to ten inches in length, three to six inches in width, and two to ten inches in depth, the flat sides being irregular trapeziums. My impression was that the occupants of this limited fortress—whether permanent or temporary there was nothing to decide—had also erected a superior palisade of wood or bushes above[398] the top of the masonry; but as we were bound to recommence our journey in about two hours and a half, I had no opportunity of making a deliberate survey, or of commencing any excavations which might throw more light upon the subject. We had only time that evening to go a little farther, and the gathering twilight brought us to a halt on the left-hand shore of the river, which we crossed.

After traversing as many as twelve tributaries of the rocky Shasha, we crossed the sandy Shasha, which is connected with its fellow-stream, finding the scenery at the point where we quitted the river as beautiful as any in the whole West Matabele country. The abundance and variety of plants were truly marvellous; and on the slopes where the stems of the euphorbias were mouldering, I found numerous scolopendra, two kinds of scorpions, some lizards, and many sorts of insects. Since I had entered the Makalaka country I had had no return of fever; and although I was still very weak, I persevered in my naturalist’s pursuits, finding that the enjoyment refreshed me and more than compensated for a little extra fatigue. In many places the river was sandy, but not unfrequently the bed was of granite, that formed a sort of basin, or opened in a channel, by which the water threaded its way to the south, to lose itself in the marshes of the valley. The next stream at which we arrived was the Tati, and its bed was not only sandy, but so deep, and the banks so steep, that we had very considerable difficulty in getting across.

Two days later we found ourselves pushing our way along the right-hand bank of the Rhamakoban,[399] crossing fourteen of its little tributaries, besides three of the Tati, the whole of which after heavy rain are sure to be full of water. The district about the Rhamakoban is noted amongst elephant-hunters for its great abundance of game; giraffes, zebras, grey pallahs, harrisbocks, gnus, hyænas, and bustards are frequently to be seen, lions, ostriches, and rhinoceroses being by no means rare. We were making our way forward with the best speed we could, because Bradshaw, who was in charge during Westbeech’s absence, had announced that his stock of corn, meal, tea, sugar, and salt was running short, and that it was necessary that we should reach the next settlement to procure fresh supplies.

After crossing eight of its right-hand tributaries we kept along the valley of the Rhamakoban until we turned into another valley, which led us under the highlands back again to the bank of the Tati. On our way I noticed some more of the remarkable rocks, and gave to one of them the name of “the tablets,” and to another that of “the white boundary stone,” close to which our road was joined by the road leading to the central Matabele-land. All this time we were passing a number of mapani-trees, constituting almost a forest, occasionally broken by extensive glades.

At the place where we again came upon the Tati, we saw on the slope of two low hills several buildings in the European style; only two of these, however, were occupied, one by Pit Jacobs, the elephant-hunter, the other by a Scotch ivory-trader named Brown. A few years back there had been no lack of life in the place; gold-diggers had congregated from all parts of the world in search of the[400] precious metal, but the discovery that only quartz gold, and not alluvial, was to be obtained, damped their ardour and soon thinned their ranks. Various companies were formed to carry on the work, but they were ultimately obliged to abandon it on account of the insufficiency of machinery. The real cause of the failure was the distance from the coast, every piece of machinery, however simple its character, costing five or six times its own value for its transport up the country.

As a general rule not more than seven ounces of gold were found in a ton of quartz, though I was told that exceptional cases had been known where the ton had yielded twenty-four ounces. As well as carrying on his own business, Mr. Brown was now acting as agent for the companies in liquidation, as some of their property was still undisposed of. I saw the remains of the steam-engine by which the quartz had been pounded still standing in the Tati valley, a short distance below the settlement; the rock containing the gold had been brought from a spot some way inland, but when the pits, although they were by no means deep, once became filled with water, there was no second engine to empty them, and consequently the whole work was brought to a standstill.

Mr. Brown was away from home at the time of our arrival, having gone to Gubuluwayo to be married by Mr. Thompson, the resident missionary, to Miss Jacobs; his managing clerk, however, received us very courteously, and we were invited to take up our quarters in the place until Westbeech’s return.

Besides these two residents, I was not a little[401] surprised to find that the Lotriets, whom I had met at Henry’s Pan, had settled at Tati, and were living in some grass-huts.

All waggons on their way from the Bamangwato country to the Matabele are bound to stop at Tati for a change of bullocks, and most of the traders keep extra teams of their own there to avoid unnecessary delay. The Matabele had at one time possessed immense herds of cattle, plundered for the most part from their neighbours, but the Roi-water plague, which had been brought in from the south, had made such frightful ravages among them that the king had ordained and enforced the measure to check any further spread of the disease.

There is always a guard of Matabele troops stationed at Tati, who are supposed to have surveillance over the countries to the south-east; but as far as I could make out their chief business consisted in annoying every white man who arrived, and in arresting all Makalakas on their way back from the diamond-fields, and after administering a severe flogging, seizing their guns and ammunition in the name of the king.

BOER’S WIFE DEFENDING HER WAGGON AGAINST KAFIRS.

At this time the Matabele kingdom was only second in power to any of the native tribes south of the Zambesi, and now, since the subjugation of the southern Zulus, it must rank as absolutely the most powerful of all. It is considerably more than 300 miles long, and from 250 to 300 miles broad. According to Mr. Mackenzie, Moselikatze, the founder of this extensive kingdom, was the son of Matshobane, a Zulu captain in Natal; he was taken prisoner by Chaka, the most powerful of the Zulu chiefs, who subsequently, when he[402] found out the courage of his captive, gave him the command of one of his marauding expeditions; but Moselikatze, instead of returning with his booty, carried it off to the heart of what is now the Transvaal country, subdued the Bakhatlas, Baharutse, and other Bechuana tribes, and finally settled in the highlands round the Marico and its tributaries. Here he was attacked by the Griqua chief, Berend-Berend, whom he defeated and killed. All this, however, was but the beginning of a series of engagements. Two Zulu armies in succession were sent after him as a recreant, one by Chaka,[403] and the other by his successor Dingan, but both failed to dislodge him. His next assailants were the Boers, who were most anxious to get rid of such a dangerous neighbour, and to drive him from the beautiful Marico country, which they coveted for themselves. To accomplish their aim they sent out a considerable force in 1836, and attacking the Zulu at the foot of one of the hills, completely defeated him. Moselikatze gathered together the little remnant of his force, including only forty “ring-heads” (full grown warriors), and quitted the district, making his way to the north, and laying waste the whole country as he proceeded. It was his plan to found a new settlement on the other side of the Zambesi; but the tsetse-fly did what it seemed forbidden to human hand to do, and checked his career. He was in consequence obliged to fall back, and began to attack first the Makalaka villages, and then to carry his ravages on to the Manansas and others. His mode of dealing with these agricultural settlements was to set fire to them in the middle of the night, to kill the men as they rushed out of their burning huts, and to carry off the women and children, as well as the cattle. In this way his power began again to increase, until after a while South Africa had a new Zulu empire. All the stolen boys were brought up as soldiers, and such as were capable of bearing arms were at once incorporated into the army; the women were given to the warriors, the cattle being deemed the king’s special property, and serving to maintain his ever increasing regiments. Whenever Moselikatze observed any signs of his warriors treating the women better than their cattle he came to the conclusion[404] that the men were growing effeminate, and at once gave peremptory orders for the dangerous women to be slaughtered. During his annual marauding expeditions into the neighbourhood, thousands of helpless creatures lost their lives, for besides the men, all people incapable of work, young children, and babies, and some of the women, were relentlessly massacred.

From my own observation, and from what I gathered from Mr. Mackenzie, Westbeech, and the traders, I should describe the Matabele Zulu government as a military despotism, with supreme control over every man and beast, and every acre of land in the country. Each division of the army is under the command of an “induna” or chief, with several sub-chiefs holding commission as officers. The rank and file fulfil their commanders’ orders with blind obedience, but the superior and inferior chiefs are always at rivalry, and if they fail to win the approbation of the king by their feats of bravery, they try and curry favour with him by carrying him tales of slander against each other. The king keeps several executioners, who perpetrate their deeds under cover of night; and as the kaffir-corn beer which is served out with the meat at supper rarely fails to induce a sound sleep, the opportunity is readily found for what is known as “the king’s knife” to do its work.

Mr. Mackenzie told me of an instance that will serve as an illustration of what I have been saying. The bravest man in Moselikatze’s army was Monyebe, one of the superior chiefs, who in acknowledgment of his services had been rewarded by the king with a number of presents. This so far aroused the jealousy[405] of the other chiefs that they conspired to accuse him to the king of witchcraft and treachery. Moselikatze allowed himself to listen to their slander, and without giving Monyebe a chance of exonerating himself, kept the accusation a thorough secret from him, and gave permission to the chiefs to kill him. Next morning nothing more remained of the king’s favourite than a few ashes smouldering at the door of his hut.

MASARWAS DRINKING.

When Mr. Mackenzie visited Matabele-land in 1863, he found very few real Zulu soldiers; the flower of the army consisted of Bechuanas, who as boys had either been stolen or exacted as tribute by Moselikatze during his residence in the Transvaal, the younger regiments being principally[406] composed of Makalaka and Mashona lads recently enlisted.

In times of peace the boys are sent out to take care of the cattle, but on their return home they are always carefully instructed in the use of weapons. This constant exercise makes them so strong and muscular that a Masarwa straight from the Kalahari Bushveldt, and another having undergone his training with the Matabele, could not be recognized as belonging to the same tribe. The Matabele warriors live in barracks, and domestic life is quite unknown; only in very exceptional cases is it allowable for any one but a chief to treat his wife otherwise than as a slave, though it must be allowed that there is hardly any appreciable difference between the two conditions. The king does not prevent people of other tribes from practising their own religious and superstitious ceremonies, subject to the general prohibition that no subject of his may be a Christian. The ivory-traders followed the missionaries into the country; they found a ready sale for guns and ammunition, but the natives were little disposed to purchase any articles of clothing.

Every year before starting on their expeditions of plunder the Matabele perform their Pina ea Morimo, or religious war-dance. The warriors assemble on the parade-ground in full military costume, their heads, breasts, and loins being adorned with coverings made of black ostrich feathers. A black bull is led forward and baited till it is angry; it is then chased by the soldiers, until, covered with blood, it sinks lame and exhausted to the ground; a few practised strokes then sever the muscles; the flesh is stripped off in cutlets and held for a few minutes before a[407] fire, and the men proceed eagerly to devour the half roasted meat, convinced that in swallowing it in this semi-raw condition they are acquiring the strength and courage that will equip them for their undertaking.

The European settlement on the Tati was surrounded by low hills, partly formed of ferruginous mica, quartz, and granite, some being isolated mounds, whilst others were portions of the slope of the river-valley. I made excursions to them in all directions, although I was warned to be on my guard against the lions that haunted the neighbourhood.

On arriving at the settlement I found that Pit Jacobs, like Mr. Brown, was away from home. He had gone elephant-hunting with one of his sons.

I went to the hills next day and saw numbers of pits, some fifty feet deep, that had been made by the diggers in their search for gold; and on one hill to the north, contiguous to the slope of the Tati valley, I found another ruin, consisting of the remains of a wall that formed a rampart round the hill-top, joined on to a second wall three times its size that ran round the next hill a little lower down. It was over three feet thick, and, like what I had previously seen, made of stones, blocks of iron mica, piled together without cement. On the inside it could be seen how the erection was made of oblong lumps of various dimensions, but outside, probably with some view to symmetry and decoration, there had been inserted double rows of stone hewn into a kind of tile, and placed obliquely one row at right angles to the other. Each inclosure had an entrance facing the north, that of the largest being protected by the wall on the right projecting outwards,[408] whilst on the left it curved inwards towards the centre. Altogether the resemblance between these ruins and those we had seen before on the Shasha was very striking; to my mind they conveyed the impression that the walls might originally have been put up with some reference to the gold that was being found in the locality; but I look for a future visit, in which I may be able to make such investigations as may settle whether they were erected by the Mashonas in the east or by the people of Monopotapa.

Hearing on my return that Pit Jacobs had come home, I called and stayed some hours with him. It could hardly be otherwise than with intense interest that I listened to the recounting of the many episodes in the experience of five-and-twenty years of a man who had acquired the reputation of being the second-best elephant-hunter in all South Africa.

Numerous as lions are in other parts, I never heard of them being so bold as they notoriously are in the neighbourhood of the Tati station. The gold-diggers suffered greatly from their depredations, and they had been known to get inside kraals enclosed by a thorn-fence six feet high, and the same thickness at its base. Brown and Pit Jacobs had often seen them prowling in the night in the space between their houses, and one morning, while the mining operations were going on, a native labourer on entering the coal-cellar to get fuel for the engine, was pounced upon by a lion, that would certainly have torn him to pieces if it had not been that it was old and its teeth blunt. On another occasion a lioness had been shot at midday; and within the last few days Mr. Brown’s horse had been dragged from the[409] stable, which was well protected by a strong fence, except on the side facing the house. These are facts that illustrate the persistent daring of the lions in the locality, and of which an example now came within my own experience.

LIONESS ATTACKING CATTLE ON THE TATI RIVER.

I had occasion to make some purchases, and on the morning of the 2nd of April called at the office of Mr. Brown’s foreman. Whilst we were transacting our business, a negro came rushing in with the intelligence that lions were among the cattle. No time was to be lost in giving chase. I hurried with what speed I could down to our camp, nearly a[410] quarter of a mile away, to get my Snider and some cartridges, and communicated the news to Bradshaw, who entered into the spirit of the thing at once, and seized his double-barrelled muzzle-loader, a weapon with which he had often done wonders. We quickly made up a party of about twenty, including besides ourselves a lot of half-armed negroes, Pit Jacobs’ son, and the half-caste hunter Africa, the two latter being on horseback. Leaving the hill surmounted with the ruins on our left, we worked our way up the river-valley, which was here from 200 to 300 yards wide, to a spot close to the river where there was a mass of mimosas. On our way the negroes told us that the lions, only the day before, had attacked some cattle down at a watering-place that had been dug in the sand at the river-side, not very distant from where we were; a lioness had seized a cow by the heel in a very unusual way, and had dragged it to the ground. Acting upon this information, we turned our course in that direction, and in a short time arrived at a mimosa, upon which we were told that the terrified herdsmen had taken refuge on the previous day. We discovered the herdsman’s dog still lingering near the tree, and guided by its barking, we followed on to a glade, where, we caught sight of the head of a cow above the long grass, and in another moment ascertained that it was being mangled by a great lioness. Without a word of warning, before we were aware of his intention, Africa fired. No luckier shot was ever aimed. The bullet hit the brute in the back, and shattered the vertebral column; it rolled over in the grass behind its prey. The dog, which was famous among the Tati people for its courage, and which[411] already had been disturbing the lioness at its meal, now darted forward, and seizing it by the ear drew back the head, while the negroes pummelled away at its sides. The ill-fated cow was not quite dead, although the lioness had begun to gnaw at its entrails; we put the poor thing at once out of its misery. Africa was kind enough to make me a present of the skin of the lioness.

Since I met Africa on the Chobe, Khame had banished him from the Bamangwato country on account of his poaching propensities with regard to elephants and ostriches; he had now come to Tati, and hoped to induce Lo Bengula to accept payment from him and allow him to hunt ostriches on his land.

Until the 7th my time was fully occupied in making a geological investigation of the neighbourhood, and in making records of some of the interesting adventures of Pit Jacobs, Bradshaw, and another Boer hunter, who had just arrived. One day Africa received a visit from his son, who brought him some puku-meat; he cautioned us to be more than ever on our guard against lions, saying that at his own encampment, only a few miles away, he hardly ever passed a night without being disturbed by them. Another ivory-dealer arrived next day from the south, by way of Shoshong; he seemed to be a keen man of business, but nothing more; like other people, he complained of the number of lions in the neighbourhood, and mentioned that water was scarce between this place and Shoshong.

Westbeech arrived from Gubuluwayo on the following day. He was accompanied by his friend Philipps, and by F., an ivory-trader. Mr. Brown and his young bride returned likewise at the same[412] time. Westbeech brought a document attested by Lo Bengula’s mark, granting permission for elephant-hunting on his western territory in consideration of the payment of a salted carcase of a horse. Mr. Brown and the trader both told me several things that entertained me about Lo Bengula. The king had a very corpulent sister, who exercised a very considerable influence over him. On being asked one day why she did not get married, she replied that she was too fat to walk, and as her brother was the only person in the country who kept a waggon, she thought it was far better for her to remain where she was, and not to entertain any idea of having a husband.

It is my own impression about Westbeech that he never turned to such good account as he might the favour he enjoyed with Lo Bengula; I think too that he yielded over much to Sepopo, and failed to manage Khame judiciously. In the course of his twelve years’ residence amongst the various tribes he had mastered all their languages in a way that could not fail to give him a great advantage at the different courts. As a proof of his familiarity with Lo Bengula, I was told that during his last visit he and some friends (probably some of the ivory-traders, or the two missionaries who resided in the vicinity of the royal quarters) went to call upon the king just at the moment when the dish (which, by the way, I may mention was rarely washed) was brought in containing the dinner for the high table. Without waiting for any invitation, Westbeech calmly proceeded to help himself, and to hand some of the food to his companions. The indunas, who were waiting in expectation, began to grumble;[413] “George,” they said, “is treating the king like a child.” “Yes,” replied Westbeech; “I have been trusted by Moselikatze himself to drive his waggon and treat him as a child; and surely if I may do this with Moselikatze, I may do it with his son too; I am treating Lo Bengula as my child.” The answer seemed thoroughly to satisfy the chiefs, and they clapped their hands in applause.

I asked the Masupia servant whom Westbeech had taken with him to Gubuluwayo, whether the Matabele women were handsome? “O, not at all,” was his answer; “they wear no aprons, and are not tattooed.” Their well-built forms and comely features had evidently made no impression upon the man.

Before closing my notes about Tati, I cannot help mentioning an incident that occurred in Pit Jacobs’ house, in February, 1876. Jacobs himself, with two of his sons and his elder daughter, had gone on a hunting-excursion to South Matabele-land, leaving his wife, his younger daughter, just now married to Mr. Brown, his two little boys, and a Masarwa servant in the house. The house was what is locally known as a “hartebeest” building, its four walls consisting of laths plastered over with red brick earth, and covered in with a gabled roof made of rafters thatched with grass. Inside, of the same material as the walls, was a partition dividing the house into two apartments, of which the larger was the living-room, and the other the sleeping-chamber of the family. In the larger room, amongst other furniture, stood a sewing-machine that Mr. Brown had just bought as a present for his intended wife; in the other room, opposite the door, were two beds.[414] On this particular evening, the door of the house, which was made in two parts, had the upper division open; the window in front was likewise open, and a kitten was sitting on the sill. Mr. Brown had just called to pay an evening visit, and Mrs. Jacobs had gone to put the two boys to bed, laying herself down for a few minutes beside one of them.

Now the whole village was aware that a half-starved leopard was haunting the place, trying one cattle-kraal after another, and doing serious mischief amongst the poultry; every fence ought to have been well guarded, but somehow or other the leopard had gained an entrance into Jacobs’ enclosure, and catching sight of the kitten in the open window, made a spring to seize it. The kitten, however, was not taken unawares, but leaping from the window-sill hid itself under the sewing-machine, and the leopard, missing its aim, bounded through the window right into the middle of the room, where the two lovers were sitting.

They called out in alarm, but were hardly more terrified than the brute itself, which, in order to escape, rushed into the bedroom, and under the bed where Mrs. Jacobs was lying. Catching sight of it, she cried out to know what it was, and in order to pacify her, Mr. Brown and her daughter replied that most likely it was a dog. Satisfied in her own mind that a dog would not have made them scream out in such alarm, and concluding that it was a hyæna, she started up, took the child by which she was lying in her arms, and ran into the living-room.

Page 415.

LEOPARD IN PIT JACOBS’ HOUSE.

Finding that she had brought out only one of the little boys, Brown thought it was best to tell her the truth, which made her so agitated that she would [415]have gone back quite unprotected to the other bed, if she had not been prevented by force.

The immediate question now was how the brute could be disposed of. There was a loaded elephant-gun hanging up inside the partition, but in the commotion no one thought of it. Brown took hold of a kitchen-knife, but afterwards it was remembered that the Masarwa servant had an old assegai; the man was soon sent for; Brown took the spear; Miss Jacobs held the lantern; Mrs. Jacobs clung to her daughter, and the servant kept close behind. At the appearance of the light, the leopard was more terrified than ever, and the hubbub of voices, English, Dutch, and Sesarwa, only increased its alarm. Making a sudden spring it lighted on the bed, where the child was sleeping. The little fellow slumbered on peacefully, and knew nothing of what happened until the next morning.

With such an excited cluster of people at his elbow, it was not very surprising that Brown made a bad aim with his assegai; the point merely grazed the creature’s skin, and in an instant it flew at his breast, so that he could feel its claws upon his neck; losing his balance he fell over; the women came tumbling on him, dragging the old Masarwa on the top of them all, the commotion putting the leopard into such a state of bewilderment that it never used a fang, but bounded forth, first into the other room, and then through the open portion of the door.

Thus relieved of their anxiety, and finding no harm done, they all laughed heartily, and congratulated each other at the happy issue of an adventure which might have had a tragical dénouement.

[416]

Leaving the Tati station on the 10th, we made our way through wooded hills till we came again to the sandy Shasha, which receives the Tati and many other tributaries of a similar character. Close to where we halted, at the mouth of a dried-up spruit, there was a small deep pool in the river-bed, containing crocodiles.

In the course of the next two days we crossed as many as fourteen spruits that were affluents of the Shasha, Matliutse, and Seribe rivers, our road all along being very bad, and obstructed with rocks.

One whole day we halted on the Matliutse, which now, instead of the Tati, forms part of the boundary between the Matabele and Bamangwato territories. Here there was an interesting double row of hills, some being conical, and some perfectly hexagonal in shape.

The heat now became extremely oppressive, and after crossing the Kutse-Khani and Lothlakane rivers, we halted by the bank of a third, named the Gokwe, where our animals were encouraged to drink freely on account of the dearth of water which we were led to expect during our next stage. After passing a hilly country we came on the following afternoon to the Serule, and caught sight of the chain of the Choppo mountains running south to south-west, their highest points being at the two extremities of the ridge.

On the 16th we entered the valley of the Palachwe, crossing the bed of the Lotsane the same day. It is my belief that these two rivers unite at the foot of the Choppo heights, and continue their course below the northern declivity. The Lotsane ford was one of the most troublesome on the whole way from[417] Matabele-land, and some years ago had a bad name amongst the hunters and ivory-traders, on account of its being haunted by a large number of lions that were reputed to be unusually audacious.

The drive of the next day brought us through some hilly country, where there were a good many rain-pools, only three of which, however, retained any water in the winter. The second of the series was called Lemone Pan, and both here, and at the next, we found Bamangwato cattle-stations. Much to Z.’s discomfort, a number of Matabele people had accompanied our caravan all the way from Tati.

At night we made our camp at the Chakane Pan, the last of the three rain-pools, where we were told that Sechele was at war with the Bakhatlas on his territory. As we were unable to kill any game, and the provisions that we had brought from Tati were beginning to run short, we slaughtered one of our reserve bullocks. After starting again we crossed the Tawani, and found ourselves in the course of the night on the bank of the sandy Mahalapsi river. Early in the morning we were at the foot of the Bamangwato hills and close to Shoshong.

Being afraid to meet Khame, Z. parted company with us at this time, and turned towards the Damara emigrants on the Limpopo.

Hearing that the prolonged drought had scorched up all the grass, and that the Shoshong springs yielded hardly enough water to supply the needs of the population, a good many of our party resolved to rest where they were, and it was only a few of us who proceeded up the Francis Joseph Valley to the town, which was reached after an easy march.

RETURN TO THE DIAMOND FIELDS.

Not only did my kind friend Mr. Mackenzie give me a hearty welcome, but he insisted upon my becoming his guest for as long a time as he remained in[419] Shoshong. I am sure that his hospitality, and that which I subsequently received from Mr. Jensen, did more than anything else towards re-establishing my shattered health. I remember that the first time I again tasted proper bread I felt as happy as a king.

On the very day of my arrival I went with Westbeech to visit Khame. To Westbeech’s surprise the king immediately began to interrogate him about Z.; he had heard that he had been travelling with us, and we were forced to acknowledge that he had only left us early that morning. Khame lost no time in sending out a body of armed men to capture him; and when they returned in the evening unsuccessful, he despatched a troop of horsemen with orders to search the whole district as far as the Khame Saltpan.

The men brought in their prisoner in the morning; they had been attracted by the glimmer of a fire in the bushveldt, and alighting from their horses, they had laid their hands upon Z. before he had time to make use of his revolver. He professed to be extremely indignant at his arrest; but the king upbraided him severely for his violation of his orders, and sentenced him to pay a fine of 100l. It was in vain for Z. to protest, and to assert that he had not the means to raise such a sum. Khame replied that he was quite aware that Westbeech had not yet paid him for the team and the waggon that he had bought of him, and that he should hand over the money to himself instead.

At the same sitting Khame publicly fined two traders’ agents 10l. apiece for having been found tipsy outside their quarters on the outskirts of the town, telling them that if they were determined to[420] drink, they must confine themselves to their own houses or their own waggons; he for his part was quite resolved that they should not make an exhibition of themselves before his subjects.

The Matabele who had come with us were the bearers of a letter from Lo Bengula, inviting Khame to co-operate with the President of the Transvaal Republic in preventing the advance of the Damara emigrants.

My late travelling-companions only stayed at Shoshong two or three days, and then started for the south, leaving me with Mr. Mackenzie. Before his departure, Westbeech cleared out the ivory from a waggon of which he was not in immediate want, and placed the vehicle at my disposal. On the 25th and 26th I was feeling considerably better, and found much amusement in inspecting all the collections I had made. There was a Captain G. staying in the place, on his way back from a hunting-tour on the Limpopo, who expressed himself highly delighted with what I showed him. In the evening I wrote my journal, except when Mr. Mackenzie kept me in conversation, and supplied me with additional particulars about the Bamangwatos. It was a great satisfaction to me to find that I could now converse with Khame in Sechuana, without the aid of an interpreter.

Page 420.

KORANNA HOMESTEAD NEAR MAMUSA.

Three weeks passed away without anything transpiring particularly to record, until the 13th of May, when the native postman brought the news that war had broken out in the Transvaal between the Boers and Sekokuni. During my leisure time I undertook, at Khame’s request, to prescribe for some of his people who were ill; Mr. Mackenzie [421]kindly provided the drugs that were requisite. On the 15th I despatched a letter to Lord Derby, the Foreign Secretary, containing a report of the slavery in the Marutse empire.

Almost daily at this time we received accounts of the atrocities that were being committed by the Bakuenas and Bakhatlas, the two rival tribes that were at war upon Sechele’s territory. Towards the end of the month the girls’ boguera was commenced at Shoshong, but Khame assured me it was for the last time.

At the beginning of June Mr. Mackenzie began to prepare for his move to Kuruman, whither he had been summoned to found a large training-college. I did what I could to assist him in his packing, but I was still so weak that I could not be of much service; indeed, during the hot weather I was so exhausted by visiting my patients, that I was obliged to ask the king to allow me the use of a horse.

We heard here that Matsheng and some other Bechuana chiefs had settled upon the right bank of the Limpopo without recognizing the authority of the Transvaal Republic, so that the Limpopo could hardly now be said to be the actual northern boundary of the country; and on the 13th we received the further intelligence that the Bakhatlas had been worsted in their attack upon Molopolole, the Bakuena capital, having been unable to make a stand against their opponents’ breech-loaders.

It was on the 17th that we started from Shoshong with a caravan of seven waggons. Besides Mr. Mackenzie and myself, there were Mr. Mackenzie’s[422] colleague, Mr. Hepburn, and Mr. Thompson and Mr. Helm, the two missionaries from Matabele-land, who were going to attend a conference at Molopolole.

At Khame’s Saltpan we were honoured by a farewell visit from the king himself, who said he could not resist coming once more to shake hands with Mr. Mackenzie, the friend to whom he owed so much. When he arrived he found several waggons belonging to a trader who asked permission to pass through his country, but recognizing him as a man who had been disposing of some brandy to his people about a year ago, he peremptorily refused to comply with his request, and sent him back immediately to the south.

The deficiency of water made our journey to the Limpopo extremely toilsome. Instead of crossing the Sirorume as usual, we made a circuit to avoid the arid and sandy woods upon its bank. We halted at the mouth of the Notuany for three days, and whilst there I made the acquaintance of Captain Grandy, the African explorer, then on his way to Matabele-land. He died some time afterwards of fever.

The track that we followed up the Limpopo valley bore every indication of not having been used for years; it was painfully bad, being everywhere either blockaded by stones or covered with deep sand. On the 1st of July we halted, and stayed the next day as well, at one of the pools on the Notuany, that I have elsewhere described as being fed by springs as well as by the overflow of the river, and consequently contain water long after the stream itself is dry. This pool was about 150 yards long, and about twenty yards wide, and full of fish.

[423]

One of the wheels of the waggon in which Mr. Mackenzie was travelling having broken, we had to wait while Mr. Hepburn went forward to Mochuri, the next town on our route, belonging to the western Bakhatlas, to procure a new one from the traders there. The damage being made good, we all proceeded to Mochuri, where we learnt the full particulars of the late engagement—the remnant of the Bakhatla defeated force having returned there on the preceding day. They had succeeded so far as to approach Molopolole unawares. They had killed sixteen Kalahari herdsmen, and had made themselves masters of all their cattle. They had defied all the efforts of the residents to recover their herds, and it was only at last, when they found themselves face to face with the breech-loaders which the Bakuenas had procured from the traders, that they were obliged to retreat and abandon their booty. Ten of them had fallen on the spot; four of the wounded had made their way home; but numbers of them, in spite of Sechele, the Bakuena king, being a Christian, were overtaken and massacred according to the custom of the tribe. They had, they avowed, been goaded on to make their attack because the Bakuenas had pillaged their cattle-stations, and cut off the hands and feet of many of the women.

Formerly the Bakhatlas had resided in the Transvaal; but after the occupation of the Boers, most of them left, and settled under two separate chiefs in Sechele’s territory, becoming known respectively as the eastern and western Bakhatlas. Sechele had now demanded the same tribute from them as he exacted from the Makhosi and the Batlokas, and it[424] was their refusal to pay this that had brought them into their present contention.

Mochuri struck me as one of the cleanest Bechuana towns that I ever saw. It is situated in a depression between two hills, being surrounded by a high thorn-fence, and having all the enclosures about its farmsteads well cemented and neatly preserved. Until 1876 the Bakhatlas were the only central Bechuana tribe that cultivated tobacco and used it as an article of commerce. Besides being agriculturists, they spend a good deal of their time in tanning leather. Nearly all of them speak Dutch.

MISSION HOUSE IN MOLOPOLOLE.

Here I had to part with Mr. Mackenzie and the other missionaries. It was with a heavy heart that[425] I said good-bye. They had to turn off for about thirty miles to the east to go to Molopolole; I had to continue my way south towards Chwene-Chwene. As a farewell kindness, Mr. Mackenzie induced the chief to let me have a couple of young lions.

After leaving the valley of the Notuany I had to cross a wide plain, where the soil was salt, and consequently the growth of grass was very scanty. I did not stay longer than was absolutely necessary at Chwene-Chwene, as it was suffering so much from drought that holes thirty feet deep had to be dug in the rocky beds of the spruits before any water could be obtained. While we were halting next upon the northern slope of the Dwars Mountains, we incautiously allowed my two little lions to make their escape. It took us two hours to catch them; nor could we put them back into their cage again without getting our hands scratched and bitten considerably.

Instead of proceeding south-west from Brackfontein through Buisport, I turned due south across the bushveldt to Linokana, noticing on the way that the little Morupa stream quite lost itself in the shallow depressions of its bed, so that it is only after heavy rain that it makes its way over the grass plains to the Great Marico.

Mr. Jensen welcomed me most cordially when I arrived at Linokana on the 8th. I was also highly delighted to have a visit from my old friend Eberwald, who had come all the way from the Leydenburg gold-fields on purpose to see me. He was of great assistance to me while I remained in the place, and proceeded with me on my way south. He[426] did his best to acknowledge the hospitality that he received from Mr. Jensen by working for him in his garden.

Moilo, the chief, was dead, and had been succeeded by his nephew, who came from Moshaneng. His name was Kopani. He was a Baharutse chief, subordinate to the Transvaal government. The war was still going on in the east, the whites decidedly getting the worst of it. In the Marico district, as elsewhere, there had been a conscription of men, cattle, and waggons, much to the dissatisfaction of the agriculturists.

I had a roomy cage made for my two lions, but unfortunately just as it was finished the female died.

Mr. Mackenzie joined me again unexpectedly on the 5th of August. He was on his way to Kuruman, and was accompanied by Mr. Williams, who had come from Molopolole to consult me about his health. Next day I paid my four servants—To, Narri, Burilli, and Chukuru—their wages, telling them they might now go back to the Zambesi; and in the prospect of again securing their services, I gave them something more than was really their due. As two of them were Matongas, I had taken the opportunity, while they were with me, of turning my slight knowledge of the Senansa and Sesuto-Serotse dialects to account, to acquire something of the Setonga.

Mr. Wehrmann, a missionary who resided amongst the eastern Bakhatlas, informed me that their town Melorane was a few miles to the west of the Great Marico. The chief of the western Bakhatlas was a son of Rhamananis, named Linsh.

[427]

In order to get sufficient money to carry me back to the diamond fields I had to resort to medical practice. Amongst my patients was a trader, who had been thrown out of a waggon through Westbeech’s bad driving, and had been a good deal hurt. Another patient was the Dutch minister, De Vries, and by curing him I made a number of friends in the neighbourhood, where he was much beloved.

About this time I received a very courteous answer from Lord Derby in reply to the letter which I had sent him from Shoshong. A few days afterwards I took my departure from Linokana; and choosing the nearest route to Mamusa, went past Oisthuizen’s Farm, and along the southern portion of the west frontier of the Marico district. The stony condition of the road made the whole journey very toilsome.

Whilst rambling about in the neighbourhood of Dornplace Farm on the Molapo, I came to a rocky lake, named Joubert’s Lake, after the owner of the farm. It is probably the smallest of all the lakes in South Africa, and lies in a deep hollow, about a hundred yards long by fifty yards wide; less than twenty yards from the shore it was 800 feet deep, and the farmer informed me that in the rainy season the water rose some four or five feet higher than it was when I saw it; he likewise expressed his belief that the lake was in communication with the Molapo, which flows at no great distance, and on a lower level. I formed an opinion that the lower rocks are of hard grey limestone, and that at the bottom there are caves and grottoes by which the lake is fed. The shores, which were both steep and rocky, were all alive with large brightbrown[428] rock-rabbits, rock-pigeons, and starlings, as well as with innumerable bees. Mr. Joubert related to me some interesting hunting-adventures, and gave graphic descriptions of three very exciting lion-hunts. In former times lions, especially of the maneless breed, seem to have been very numerous on the Molapo. In common with other farmers, Mr. Joubert expressed great dissatisfaction with the Transvaal Republic. He held the post of field-cornet, and tried to induce me to employ any influence I might have in urging the British Government to annex the Molapo valley. The complaints of the way in which justice was administered were very bitter; the farmers murmuring, moreover, that after the Republic had conceded to them the purchase of farms and land, it was impotent to protect them from the Barolongs, to whom the territory by ancient right belonged.

Starting off again on the 30th, I was not long in reaching Rietvley Farms, where several families resided, but I made no stay, leaving again the same afternoon for Poolfontein. This was formerly a farm, but is now a settlement of Barolongs, who migrated from the neighbourhood of Potchefstroom under their chief Matlabe, and are industrious agriculturists. Mr. Hansen was here working very hard on behalf of the Hermannsburg Mission, but the majority of the population were Wesleyans. A spring that I saw in the neighbourhood was issuing from one of the deep cavities in the hard limestone, and at no great distance from this I noticed a small rock-pool, on the surface of which was a little floating island of grass.

Hence to the Harts River, which we crossed about[429] a day’s journey from Mamusa, our way led over the Quagga Flats. The grass was low and the soil dry, consequently the game, which is generally very abundant, had retreated to moister and better concealed districts. I found the underwood very dense in the shallow valley at the source of the Maretsane.

Water-birds were plentiful at a salt-pan at which I arrived on the 1st of November, but unfortunately at this date I had so many indications of a return of fever, that neither here nor at the Calvert or Helmore lakes, was I in a condition to enjoy any sport.

Continuing my journey three days later, I paid a visit to the Harm Saltlake, where some Boers contrive to make a miserable livelihood by hunting and by selling salt.

The Mackenzie and the Livingstone salt-pans lay in the next day’s route, and after a drive of some hours over marshy soil, we came to a pond encircled by tall sedge, in the middle of which there seemed to be a rock-pool; as far as I know, it is the only one of the kind on the plain between the Harts and Molapo. As we approached we were almost deafened by the chorus of bird-cries that rose from its banks. We put up for the night in two deserted huts that had belonged to some Dutch hunters, who had left the tokens of their calling behind them in a great accumulation of the bones of the gnus and antelopes they had killed. I was sorry that there was no boat at hand in which I could make an investigation of the bottom of the pond. Besides the numerous swamp-birds and water-fowl, there was a great variety of finches in the sedge; and before night closed in, it was a remarkable sight to see the thousands of[430] swallows that came back from their day’s flight across the boundless plains.

Crossing the Harts River on the 9th, we found it so swollen by the rain that the transit was somewhat dangerous, but we arrived safely at Mamusa on the next day, and at Houmansvley on the day after. Mr. Houman, the resident proprietor, gave me a courteous welcome, and I stayed with him until the 14th, when I continued my way south, till I came to Hallwater Farm, where there were a good many Korannas.

NIGHT JOURNEY.

The nearer I approached the diamond-fields, the more disheartened and out of spirits I felt. I had[431] not 2l. in my possession, and I owed Mr. Jensen 120l., a sum considerably more than I could realize by the sale of my waggon and team, which would fetch much less here than they would if I could have sold them in the Transvaal.

While I was in Christiana I was pleased to make the acquaintance of a trader named Sanders, who had been travelling in the tropical parts of the west coast.

On my way down the Vaal valley I had another attack of fever, which came on so violently, that when I arrived at Kimberley on the 26th, I was thoroughly ill.

FINGO BOY.

When now for the fourth time I reached the diamond fields I was perfectly insolvent. It was impossible to conceal from myself the difficulty I should find in re-establishing my medical practice, as an absence of a year and nine months had made me little better than a stranger in the place; and yet it was upon my practice alone that I had to rely for obtaining the means of discharging my obligations. Reluctant as[433] I was to leave my designs unaccomplished, I could not resist the desire that came over me to return home and recruit my broken health. The question of means, however, had to be entertained, and the idea occurred to me that perhaps a public exhibition of my collection of natural and ethnographical curiosities might yield me some profit, which I could apply to the expense of a homeward passage. My friend Herr Werner came to see me as soon as he heard of my arrival, and voluntarily advanced me money enough to make my exhibition scheme feasible.

My next step was to take my waggon off to Bultfontein, as I could live for a time in greater retirement there than in Kimberley. I hired a small house close to my friend, who, although he was no longer rich, showed me every kindness during my illness. My residence was modest enough; it contained only one apartment, consisting of four bare clay walls; the floor was of the same material; but worst of all, the roof was of zinc, which made it insupportably hot in the summer. Such as it was, however, I made it serve as the temporary store of all my collections, and took up my quarters there with Eberwald, who remained in the place, acting as my assistant in preparing medicines for my patients, the number of which increased so rapidly that I could not fail to be cheered and encouraged to look forward to the future with something like equanimity.

In front of what I called my “house,” and not far from it, stood an old erection, now roofless, and there I placed the great lion-cage that Eberwald and I had made, and all round I arranged a number of other cages of many kinds and sizes, containing the rest of[434] the animals and birds that I had brought with me. Strangers coming to the diamond-fields from the Colony, the Free State, or the Transvaal, rarely failed to come and make an inspection of my pets, nearly all of which were perfectly tame; and some of the visitors afterwards sent me several rare zoological specimens as additions to my stock.

MY HOUSE IN BULTFONTEIN.

So large did my professional practice grow in the course of the following year, that all Eberwald’s time was occupied in dispensing my medicines, so that he had no opportunity of attending to my menagerie; the consequence was that the charge of it had to be entrusted to two negroes, who neglected their duty abominably, and failed to keep the animals either clean or properly fed. I had taken pains to[435] have all the cages made as roomy as possible, but they rotted through exposure to the weather, and some few of the animals escaped and were killed, being probably eaten by the neighbouring blacks; but these were nothing in comparison with the number of those that died from negligence and mismanagement. By the time I left the place, more than two-thirds of the whole had disappeared. Round the cages that contained the smaller birds I planted ivy and several kinds of creepers, beneath which the little prisoners hopped about and twittered, well protected by a bower of natural foliage from the scorching sun.

I have no space in which to enter upon a detailed account of all the habits of the occupants of the various cages. It was a great pleasure to me to observe them for the best part of two years. My surviving lion was especially attached to me, and would always extend his paws to caress me whenever I approached his cage, and it was only out of regard to the nervousness of others that I did not venture occasionally to allow him his liberty. I refused an offer of 100l. for him when he was five months old, but by the time I lost him he had cost me double that sum. I had occasion to go to the Free State for a fortnight’s visit, and during my absence his cage was allowed to remain so dirty, that when I returned the poor beast was suffering from an illness too far advanced to be arrested. Throughout its last days I always went to see it as often as I returned from my rounds, and it never failed to start to its feet with an alacrity that startled any visitor who was standing by, and even when it grew too weak to stand it would drag itself towards the[436] front bars of its den the instant it heard my voice. Though amongst my pets I had tame jackals that were constantly running away and coming back again, and affectionate little jumping-hares that allowed themselves to be fondled like babies, none of them could ever console me for the loss of “Prince,” my young lion, the pride of my whole collection.

Besides what I have mentioned, my menagerie contained apes and baboons, hedgehogs, reed-rats, a caracal, a mangusta, black and white striped weasels, hyæna-wolves, mountain-hares, ground-squirrels, striped mice, blind mice, pangolins, several steinbocks, duykerbocks, springbocks, and a rock-rabbit; and amongst the birds I may enumerate three brown South African eagles, a crested eagle, two species of kites, red falcons, various kinds of sparrow-hawks, secretary-birds, brown and black vultures (Gyps socialis), two kinds of owls, parrots, black and white crows, grosbeaks and insectivorous song-birds, a hornbill, a pelican, a darter, and several varieties of wild geese and herons.

By the beginning of 1877 I had finished all my arrangements, and opened my exhibition of curiosities in the public hall at Kimberley. It proved financially a failure, and in spite of the co-operation of many kind friends, I found myself out of pocket by the transaction. In order, therefore, to meet my liabilities and to forward my project of returning for a time to Europe, I had to fall back upon my medical practice with more assiduity than ever.

Notwithstanding that the value of diamonds was still further depreciated, as a consequence of the prolonged drought the price of corn was much higher,[437] so that the cost of living was largely increased. It was a great satisfaction to me that I was able to purchase a horse. I was fortunate in buying a good sound animal, that did as much work as the whole three together that I had to keep in 1873.

Largely, however, as my business developed, and beneficial as it was in replenishing my pocket, the perpetual exertion told seriously on my health, and I was obliged to seize an opportunity of taking a holiday when most of my patients seemed unlikely to require any immediate attention. I made up my mind to visit Mr. Wessel at his neighbouring farm in the Free State, where I was received with the most liberal hospitality. While I was staying there I saw a number of those remarkable carvings on rocks done by the Bushmen, which had recently been inspected by Stow the geologist, and by Captain Warren.

Though the Bushman tribe is gradually dying out, they are still to be found in certain parts of Cape Colony, but remaining, even to the present time, as impervious as ever to the influences of civilization. Formerly they occupied the rocky caves in the slopes from the heights, both in the colony and in the Free State. They are probably the oldest inhabitants of South Africa; but now one branch of them seems to have blended with the Bantu families on the north, whilst another has become amalgamated with the Hottentots more to the east. They hunt the game which they spy out from their elevated resorts with the most primitive bows and arrows; but low as is the grade of their intellectual culture, they have the very wonderful art of decorating the rocky walls of their dwellings with[438] representations of quadrupeds, tortoises, lizards, snakes, fights, hunts, and the different heavenly bodies.

As the game became gradually destroyed by the European colonists, the Bushmen began to make raids upon the white men’s cattle, the result of which was to pave the way for their own annihilation. The true Bushman, as distinguished from the many half-breeds, has a passionate love for his rocky home, and whether he enters service by a voluntary contract or under compulsion, he will take the first opportunity of stealing a sheep and making off to his beloved hills. Instances of periods of stipulated service being faithfully fulfilled are very rare.

But as I have already intimated, these people are not altogether of the low grade of humanity that at first sight they appear to be, and a traveller may penetrate far into Central Africa before finding another tribe so skilful in its manipulation of stone, and in the manufacture of vessels out of wood, bone, or ostriches’ eggs; but most remarkable of all is the way in which, by the aid of the rudest tools, they have adorned their primitive homes with carvings that will long survive any productions of their contemporaries, the Bantus and Hottentots.

The drawings that are made inside the caves are chiefly upon sandstone in ochre of various colours. Stow, the geologist, has devoted a good deal of attention to them, and has taken many copies of the designs; and if ever it be my good fortune to recommence my South African researches, I hope to bring away some larger specimens than my want of proper tools enabled me now to obtain.

Page 438.

ROCK INSCRIPTIONS BY BUSHMEN.

[439]

Besides the carvings that I collected, I succeeded in getting several of the curious tools, consisting simply of triangular pieces of flint, with which the outlines of the engravings are cut; these are likewise used for several domestic purposes. Another implement not uncommon among them was a heavy stone fastened to the thicker end of a pointed stick, sometimes 3 feet long, though occasionally not more than half that length, its use being either to dig up edible roots, or to make holes in search of water. Stones, it may be mentioned, are not unfrequently found on which the engraving had only been partially made, and where there has been an attempt to obliterate the design by the application of emery and another stone. In some cases the objects are indicated only by lines of shading, while in others they are chiselled entirely out of the rock. These last are the most striking of all, and I believe that the eighteen specimens that I brought home with me from Wessel’s farm are unique in Europe. Amongst the subjects are the bust of a bushman, a woman carrying a load, an ostrich with a rider on its back, an ostrich meeting a rhinoceros, a jackal chasing a gazelle, but many of them are single figures of cows, gnus, and antelopes.

In the course of my sojourn at the farm I collected a large number of insects, birds, bird-skins, and plants, and before leaving my hospitable quarters I was invited by the neighbours to join them in some hunting-excursions. I went out twice, and on each occasion we were accompanied by a party of horsemen, a number of natives on foot, and by a pack of dogs. The object of the chase was to hunt hyænas and animals that live in holes in the earth, but, for[440] myself, I was desirous of obtaining some live porcupines, jumping-hares, and earth-pigs. The first expedition was made by day. Those of us who were on horseback surrounded a rocky crag, and sent the natives with the dogs to beat up the hill; our success, however, was most indifferent, as we discovered that the hyænas had been alarmed in time to make their escape.

The second excursion was by night over a district composed of grass plains studded with bushes and ant-hills, and bordered, especially on the east, by wooded crags. It was as beautiful a night as I ever remember, the moonlight being perfectly unclouded. I had been out inspecting the carvings for a long time that day, and contemplated taking a still longer ride on the morrow. I therefore left my own horse at home, and was mounted on one that my kind host had lent me, and that was well accustomed to the locality. The dogs, of which every farmer had contributed several to make up the pack, were put upon the scent, and we had hardly been galloping more than five minutes before we heard them baying at the foot of a hill a little distance to our right. We spurred on our steeds, but gave them their heads, as they could see better than we could the blocks of stone that lay on the ground among the bushwood. We soon came up to the struggling mass in the midst of which was an object that kept glittering as it rolled over and over in the moonlight. It proved to be a porcupine which the dogs were rending to pieces; in spite of the armament of quills with which nature has endowed it, the porcupine has a remarkably fragile skin, so that it is easily torn by any animal that once makes good its hold [441]upon it, and thus, although we dismounted without loss of time and beat off the hounds, we were too late to prevent the prey being lacerated, and it was in a very mangled condition that it fell to the lot of the fleet-footed Basutos.

Page 440.

CAPTURE OF AN EARTH-PIG.

Two more porcupines, a jumping-hare, and a South African skunk, all had a similar fate, and then the dogs took a circuitous route back again to the hills, and started an earth-pig (Orycteropus capensis). To escape its pursuers, the creature made an effort to burrow in the earth, and had partially succeeded, when we came up to it. Our men did their very best to secure it, but it rolled them over and over like so many balls, and got clean away.

The earth-pig is undeniably the strongest of all the edentata. Its body is long and round, and it has long powerful nails at the end of its claws, of which the sinews are remarkable for their strength; its fleshy wedge-shaped tail acts as a great support to its body, and though it sometimes uses it as a means of defence, it seems to be of most service when the creature is bounding away in flight. The tail likewise comes into requisition when, squatting on its hind quarters, it digs away at an ant-hill, for it is known to be one of the largest ant-eaters in South Africa. Its skin is tough and bristly, defying the fangs of the jackal, and it has a pair of long ears that are keenly alive to sound. The skin is used in the colony for making certain parts of harness. Other enemies to ants are the short-tailed pangolins, the hyæna-wolf, the mangusta, and the plover.

After our last failure we gave up our chase, and rode slowly home; but my friends were unwilling[442] that I should be disappointed in my wish to carry away with me some of their live birds and animals, and subsequently assisted me in procuring a nice collection, amongst them some weaver-birds, which, however, did not live long.

During one of my rambles about the farm, I caught sight of a cobra, five feet long, in a weaver-bird’s nest. I was fortunate in killing it at my first shot, and found that it had destroyed several old birds and devoured a number of eggs.

The time of this last visit of mine to the diamond-fields was a period of vast importance to South Africa. Events were then taking place which, as far as my judgment goes, could not have otherwise than a wide influence upon the country generally, especially with regard to the solution of the native question; I allude to the conflicts between the colony and the tribes on the east, and those between Griqualand West and the tribes farther still in that direction, all which minor conflicts were the forerunners of a great Zulu war. Another disturbing element was the annexation of the Transvaal by the British Government.

My views upon this subject generally were stated in a pamphlet which I put into circulation at the time; and as a great deal of what I then said has actually come to pass, I hope I may be excused if I here refer to that little publication, which was issued not simply at my own option, but by the desire of several influential men in South Africa, to weigh the comparative merits of the several aspects of this subject. “Recent events,” I wrote, “clearly show that in South Africa, as in North America, England has taken greater hold upon the continent than any[443] other colonized nation. Her mode of action has been in many respects the same in either case, but the native element here differs so much from that in America that it was impossible for the same treatment to have a like effect. The European colonists were ruled by two very opposite prejudices; one party, overlooking the fact that the natives had been accustomed time out of mind to their burdens, regarded them as wrongfully oppressed; the other party deeming all negroes as of so inferior a race as to be scarcely human at all. Practical men who by long residence in the country had gained some insight into the native character, and who consequently took a more moderate view of the case, were in so great a minority, both with respect to numbers and position, that they were unable to exercise any influence.”

When I wrote my pamphlet in 1875 I did not know to how great an extent my ideas corresponded with those of many experienced colonists, but ultimately these ideas seemed to gain such ground that they became the basis of public questions.

There are certain tribes of South Africa who in their intellectual development and adult powers of comprehension seem to me to be about equal to children of our own of six years of age; and there are tribes that, according to their varying degrees of culture, possess separate tribal characteristics just in the same way as may be noticed amongst the individual members of a civilized family. One tribe, for instance, will be remarkable for its good-nature, one for its industry, and another for its thievish propensities. No doubt these various traits, as far as they are independent of association,[444] may be accounted for in a great degree by the larger or smaller size of the brain.

The Hottentots, Griquas, and Korannas may perhaps not inaptly be compared to children that allow themselves to be attracted by anything that amuses them, and clutch at whatever takes their fancy. For this reason alone, in spite of anything they may acquire of the mechanical arts of reading and writing, they must be unfit to be admitted as yet to the privileges of a civilized race. It seems to me indispensable that before they can be held entitled to the ordinary rights of citizenship they must be cultivated to receive correct views about labour, capital, and wages, to appreciate better methods of husbandry and architecture, to take more pains about the cleanliness of their persons, and especially to recognize the moral principle that should guide their transactions alike amongst themselves and with the white men.

Hitherto the worst obstacle to civilization has been superstition; nor can I believe that much will be accomplished towards the elevation of the natives until they are brought to understand that the supply of the necessaries of life is not dependent upon the influence of magicians, fetishes, and rain-doctors.

I ventured to point out to the Government that a different future awaited the South African negroes from that of the North American Indians, and that accordingly we ought to protect them from some of the abuses by which the latter were decimated. For one thing, there ought to be restrictions put upon the sale of brandy to the black population in the colony; but more than this, there should[445] be an absolute prohibition of its introduction into any of the adjacent native independencies. The rulers of a few tribes are already rendering considerable assistance in this way by preventing the sale of alcohol in any form upon their territory; and I am glad to testify that in at least a part of Africa the measure has been beneficial both to white men and blacks. Beyond this, I pointed out that it was necessary, alike for the Government and for private individuals, to pay particular attention to the separate characters of the tribes and of the chiefs with whom they were holding intercourse; and I went so far as to point out that the application of several native rulers to be incorporated with the English colonies ought to be entertained with the utmost caution.

The cases of Mankuruane, the Batlapin ruler, of Sechele, the Bakuena king, and still more recently that of the Damara people, and that of Khame, the sovereign of the Bamangwatos, have proved much of what I stated in my pamphlet; and I am now more than ever satisfied that the portrayal I made of the Zulu character was in every respect accurate. Whatever opinion I may once have held, I have long ceased to think that after once quelling the Zulu power it is desirable for Great Britain to extend her colonial possessions in South Africa. I am convinced, on the other hand, that it would work far better for the interests of trade and for the ultimate opening up of the continent, if one or more commissioners, duly authorized, were maintained permanently at the separate independent native courts—arms and ammunition being, of course, excluded as articles of traffic.

[446]

There has hitherto been an erroneous impression in Europe that the English are greedy to devour all the land in South Africa on which they can lay their hands; but the opponents and critics of their colonial policy do not seem to understand that in well nigh every case the cession of the territory has been made by voluntary surrender on the part of the native rulers. Before I undertook my third journey I entertained a very sanguine hope that there would be a highway of commerce opened into Central Africa, but my expectation all centred on the idea that this was impossible until the entire district between the Vaal and the Zambesi should be subjected to British rule. I see things now very differently, and am consequently gratified to know that in several instances Great Britain has declined to annex native territories, even although they have been ready to submit to her authority.

Just at the time when my pamphlet was written, several of the native princes were, it was said, on the point of making their spontaneous cession; and it was my desire to warn the Government to act with caution in every transaction of the kind. I said: “Here is Mankuruane, the Batlapin king, with one tribe, and here is Montsua, the Barolong king, with another. They tell us that they want to be numbered among our subjects, but before their request is complied with they should be made to declare whether it is by their own wish or by that of their people that they seek to be reckoned as British subjects; they should be forced to confess whether it was their friendship to the English or their fear and hatred of other white men that prompted them to make the proposal; they should[447] be bound to declare whether it was not simply because they were threatened by some neighbouring chief that they sought English protection; or, again, they should be obliged to disclose the truth as to whether there was a rival chief in the territory whom it was sought to paralyze. Two years after they had been annexed the Damaras acknowledged that they had had no other motive in seeking incorporation under the British sceptre, except this last of getting rid of a rival chief. Further than this, I beg to suggest the necessity, even after the true origin of the proposal has been ascertained, of making strict investigation into the character of the chief and the grade of culture of the tribe, before any treaty of affiliation is concluded.”

As I have already said the war with the colonial Kaffirs broke out during my last stay in the Diamond-fields, and Griqualand West became the scene of a like misfortune. In both wars the right cause had the victory. That the little colony of Griqualand West, with its insignificant number of white men, should have brought the conflict to so speedy and satisfactory a termination with such slight expense and trifling loss of life, was owing to two causes, first, that the governor was an experienced soldier, and secondly, that the Diamond-fields were occupied by a brave and true-hearted population. The history of the province during the last three years gives ample proof of this, and I refer especially to the war which it has had to maintain with the Griquas, Masarwas, and Batlapins, under their chiefs Mora, Donker-Maglas and others. These natives, who have hitherto turned a deaf ear to the beneficial precepts of the white man, being strengthened by the[448] addition of many foul elements, such as fugitive rebels from the colony, and runaway thieves and other criminals from the west, from Kuruman, and from the farther side of the Lange-Bergen, had suddenly fallen upon the neighbouring settlers, and after massacring them, had ransacked their houses. These crimes led to another war. The negro-robbers had taken into account that Griqualand West could receive no assistance from the colony, which was already occupied with the Kaffir war, and they had likewise reckoned that the thousands of natives who were employed in the Diamond-fields would mutiny at the same time, burn down the buildings, annihilate the population, and carry off the booty; whilst they, the originators of the war, would meanwhile be plundering the roadside hotels and stores, as well as laying waste the farms.

I was myself a witness of the position of the whites at that critical time. Fortunately the purifying process that had been going on at the Diamond-fields by the withdrawal of adventurers, had left few but true-hearted men behind, and Major Lanyon, who then represented the government, thoroughly understood the state of affairs. In Colonel Warren, who has since succeeded as governor, he had an associate who never shunned danger, and was always prepared for emergencies. Thus by what seemed almost like supernatural energy, Griqualand West was defended, women and children were saved from destruction, and the Europeans gained for themselves the respect without which it is impossible to live at peace and in harmony with the natives.

COLONEL WARREN.

Major Lanyon issued an appeal in which he called upon all the residents in the central diggings to[449] combine to protect their new home from destruction; the result of this was that in a few days more than six hundred men had come forward, all capable of bearing arms, and ready to shed their blood for their people. About two hundred of these were volunteers, the rest were young men and diamond-diggers, who expressed a wish to be enrolled in the civilian corps. Horses were purchased without delay, and the men were drilled by day and by night, the military instruction being given by diggers, merchants, or any others who had been themselves trained. The corps was further reinforced by 400 Basutos. Setting out against the foe, they[450] surprised the natives in the midst of one of their marauding forays, and drove them back to the hills. What ensued was a sort of guerilla war. No sooner forced to surrender one of their stone barricades, than seeking another from which they were driven out as quickly, the natives at length had to yield; Colonel Warren had demonstrated that he had all the talents of a general, and the men enlisted from the diggings had proved that they well understood how to do their duty.

So successful had I been in my practice, that I began to indulge the hope that I could start for Europe in December, 1877; but when I came to reckon up the actual cost of conveying my numerous large packages and my cases of live-stock, I found it impossible to carry out my intention so soon. The carriage of all the collection that I had made on my two previous journeys had already been generously defrayed by Herr Naprstek, of Prague, and the same kind friend now again sent me 20l., and the Vienna Geographical Society remitted me 40l., but this would be barely enough to convey a waggon and my animals as far as the coast. Under the circumstances I came to the conclusion that I would postpone my departure for another year, by which time I did not doubt that I should have saved enough to cover all the expenses of my passage, and to leave me a small reserve fund in addition; by carrying out this plan I should also be travelling through the Orange Free State and the east province of Cape Colony, at a season when the best pasturage could be secured for the bullocks.

I took an opportunity of sending on twenty-one[451] of my chests by a transport-waggon that went to Port Elizabeth, where the Austrian Vice-Consul, Herr Allenberg, stored them in his warehouses until my arrival; but it did not suit my purpose to travel by such a conveyance myself, because I wished on my way to stop wherever I pleased to make geological and palæontological observations, which could not be done if I were to be hampered by the proceedings of a driver who was not under my own control.

Matters, however, turned out better for me than I had anticipated. An unexpected and munificent gift of 1000 florins from the Emperor of Austria, 60l. from the Bohemian National Society, 200 florins from the “Svatabor Club,” and a loan of 1000 florins from a kind lady patroness placed me in a position to start as soon as I was disposed, and I proceeded to quit the Diamond-fields six months before the date I had fixed.

A series of mischances that befell me on my way to Port Elizabeth made such unlooked-for inroads upon my resources, that I again found it necessary to stop, and betook myself once more to medical practice at Cradock. The success that attended me was so satisfactory that in August I was enabled to resume my journey. To drive my waggon I hired a man who had formerly been servant to a merchant whom I knew at Kimberley.

My party was now increased by the addition of three children, who were to accompany me to the south. Amongst my numerous patients and acquaintances none had shown me greater attention than my next-door neighbour at Bultfontein, and as an acknowledgment of his good offices, I agreed to[452] take one of his sons with me to look after my birds and other pets, and to be instructed as soon as possible in more important work. I promised that if the boy turned out well, I would try and take him on with me to be educated in Europe. In order that he should not occupy too much of my time, and interrupt me in my studies, a young Bechuana maid-servant was sent to take charge of him. The third of these young people was Philip Schneeman, about thirteen years of age, the son of a Dutchman whose family I had attended professionally for many weeks. Schneeman had already shown his gratitude to me by assisting me at every opportunity he could, and he now entrusted me with his eldest son upon the condition that in return for his services I should make him an educated man. The father was one of those unfortunate characters only too commonly to be met with in the Diamond-fields, who having come out with visions of wealth had met with nothing but trouble and disappointment; he considered he was doing the best for his boy in engaging him to me, but poor Philip, before he reached Cradock, had begun to pine so painfully for his home that I had no alternative but to send him back to his parents, who meanwhile had settled in the Bürgensdorf district. The other boy turned out so careless and mischievous that I was only too glad to send him away at the same time.

In concluding the narrative of my stay in the Diamond-fields I cannot help expressing my gratitude for the general courtesy of my patients, and returning my best thanks to many other residents for their kind advice, sympathy, and numerous acts of friendship. I would not omit[453] to acknowledge the favours I received from the editors of various newspapers, and I beg to thank Miss Matilda Proksch, of Leydenburg, for the revision of my articles inserted in the South African English journals.

Besides being delayed in Cradock, I was compelled by various circumstances to spend a considerable time in Port Elizabeth, so that altogether my homeward journey was somewhat prolonged.

BELLA.

Shortly after leaving Bultfontein I had to cross the Modder River, the passage being attended with much difficulty. The river-bed is full of deep holes containing numerous fish, and the entire valley is really a channel worn by the rain in the soft soil,[455] the steep slopes on either side being clothed with trees and bushes that are the habitat of countless birds. The prettiest part of the stream is at its junction with the Riet River. As implied by its name (Modder or Mud River) many places on its bank are extremely miry, and so trying are these spots to bullocks, wearied by their long journeys, that not unfrequently they sink down and are unable to rise again.

I just touched at Jacobsdal, which I found much increased since my visit in 1872, and then went on towards the little town of Philippolis. On my way I passed the Riet River hotel. The old iron and canvas erection had been replaced by a substantial stone building, and I was quite astonished when the landlord recollected me, asking me whether I had not been there six years before with Mr. Michaelis and Mr. Rabinowitz.

While staying at Kalke Farm I found a good many oolitic fossils, which increased in number as I went southwards. The bare, monotonous aspect of the country made me aware that the district I was approaching had been suffering from prolonged drought; it might literally be said to be scorched up, not a single green blade of grass was to be seen, and one uniform shade of brown overspread the soil and rocks alike.

Through the courtesy of many of the residents, my stay in Philippolis was extremely pleasant. I made several excursions in company with Dr. Knobel and Dr. Igel, and obtained some additions to my collection. Amongst other things I secured some live birds, and a full-grown springbuck doe. Mr. Schultze, a merchant, made me a present of a[456] beautiful quartz druse, which I had noticed in his drawing-room in 1872, but had not then the means of purchasing. The postmaster, Mr. Försterlein, also gave me a very interesting object, a talisman that had been given him by a Basuto doctor in acknowledgment of some service; it was a tablet of black wood about an inch and a half long, half as wide, and about a third of an inch thick, in which was set a piece of rock crystal. Some Basutos to whom Mr. Försterlein had happened to show it were anxious to buy it, one of them offering two cows in exchange.

After leaving Philippolis, I was for a few days Mr. Schultze’s guest at his farm at Ottersport, where for the first time I had an opportunity of seeing tame ostriches. Now that the feather trade is on the decline, it is less expensive to keep the birds in this way than to hunt them wild; and they are bred in such numbers in South Africa, particularly in Cape Colony and the Free State, that in 1879 there were at least 100,000 of them. Directly it is out of the shell an ostrich chick is worth 5l., a half-grown bird varies from 20l. to 50l., and as much as 150l. has been paid for brooding-hens. Ostriches are generally bred in the localities where sheep and cattle-breeding has proved unremunerative.

The greatest difficulty that the ostrich farmer has to contend with is the parasite plague. From five to twenty-five per cent. of the birds each year die from being infested by tape-worms, which swarm in thousands and eat their way into the body; a great number of them are likewise attacked by palisade worms, occasionally a yard long, that gnaw into the muscles of the heart. Not unfrequently the[457] parasites take possession of the eggs before the shell is formed; and from an English newspaper that I recently received from the Cape I learnt that some ostriches’ eggs had been found quite full of worms.

Having crossed the river at Mr. Ross’s ford, I arrived at Colesberg. Here I had so hospitable a reception, that I did not like to refuse the request made by a number of my friends that I would deliver a lecture. It was the first that I had ever attempted, but the result was so satisfactory that I ventured to plead in this way for the opening up of Central Africa from the south in some of the other towns of the colony.

In company with Mr. Knobel I paid a visit to the Colesberg hill. It is equally interesting to the botanist, the geologist, and the zoologist. The number of mountain-hares, rock-rabbits, birds of prey, starlings, pigeons, snakes, lizards, spiders, and other insects that I saw more than repaid the exertion of the clamber.

Hence my next stage was towards Cradock, not however by the shortest route, because of the parched state of the district, but viâ Middleburg, so as to find better fodder for the bullocks. The first destination on the route was Kuilfontein, Mr. Murray’s farm, where Mr. Knobel told me he had seen some fossilized animal remains in a wall. I obtained permission of the owner to take as much of the wall down as I wanted, and found some fine pieces of the skeletons of saurians embedded in hard sandstone; they belonged principally to the dicynodon and to the lacertan and crocodilian species; besides these I discovered a fossil plant in the grey sandstone overlying the dicynodon strata[458] that are common in the eastern province of the colony. I stayed over a week at the farm, and so pleasant was my entertainment, and so full of interest my fossil investigations that I should have been delighted to avail myself of the hospitable invitation to remain longer, but I knew that in consequence of the drought Mr. Murray was at a great expense in buying food for part of his cattle, and in sending the other part off to a distance where some grass survived, and I would not permit myself to encroach upon his kindness longer than I could help. My host, during the time I was with him, took me for several excursions around Kuilfontein, and I found strata of clay-slate containing small mollusks, as well as traces of huge lizards, probably dicynodons. The only game that I saw was springbucks, bustards, grunters, partridges, wild pigeons, and wild ducks. On the farm itself I secured three of the herons that are nearly tame, and build every year on the pastures beside the springs.

The continuation of the extreme drought made the latter stages of my journey to Cradock very arduous. At Newport Farm I found some pretty fossils, including some impressions of lizards. Here, again, I had a hearty welcome, and was sorry not to be able to accept an invitation to join a party that was being arranged for gazelle-hunting and fishing. The Newport Farm scenery is the best in the Middleburg district, and I look forward to making good use of a photographic apparatus on a future visit.

My intention had originally been to stay only a few days in Cradock to recruit my bullocks, all of which were now very weary, a few of them[459] having succumbed to insufficient food. But, as I have said, I found myself detained by a different cause, and I had to apply myself to my old profession to recover various losses that I had sustained. I have a most grateful remembrance of the kindness I received from many of the resident families, and their cordiality did much to alleviate the temporary difficulties by which I was harassed.

Before I finally made up my mind to settle for a few months in the town, I remained quartered in my waggon about half a mile further up the opposite bank of the Fish River. I soon had about twenty patients, and had to ride into Cradock several times a day. My horse Mosco did me good service, although on one occasion he very nearly came to grief.

NARROW ESCAPE NEAR CRADOCK.

There were two rain-channels that had to be crossed before arriving at the bridge; these were more than three feet deep, and I was told that after a very few hours’ rain they were filled with the water that rushed down from the slopes of the hills, amid a cluster of which the town is situated. After fourteen months’ drought, when I had been in my retreat about six weeks, there came a succession of wet days; the consequence was that both channels were quickly filled with muddy water, in one stream nearly red, in the other nearly yellow. One morning at this time I was summoned to the town, but patients in such numbers had come to consult me at my waggon that I could not set out until the afternoon. The Fish River roared at my side, but I kept on my way, and crossed the first of the little affluents in safety; but on arriving at the second I found a[460] group of nearly thirty people brought to a standstill on its bank. They were for the most part laundresses, who had gone out in the morning as usual to the sulphurous springs, a mile or two further up the river, but on their return had found their progress arrested by the sudden rising of the flood. I was greatly tempted to turn my horse’s head round, and if I could have believed that the case was of trifling importance, I should unhesitatingly[461] have gone back; but the account of the symptoms that the messenger had brought inclined me to suspect that the case was serious, and I felt that I ought to persevere if possible. The torrent seethed in front of me; the red turbid stream was certainly thirty feet wide, and its depth had increased to quite four feet. Not far below was a hollow, some ten feet in depth, and into this the waters plunged in an angry cataract. I relied, however, with all confidence upon my horse, and urged him into the stream. Very few steps had he taken before I felt him tremble, but at a word of encouragement from me he went forwards again. In order to avoid the cataract, I thought it best to guide him a little to the right, but unfortunately the stream proved to be violent beyond all expectation. Mosco stumbled, but happily his head and mine remained above water; by a vigorous effort he recovered himself, and after a fatiguing struggle was nearing the opposite side, when again he missed his footing, and came down upon his knees. I momentarily expected to be rolled into the torrent, but had the presence of mind to give my horse his head; one dash, and he fixed his forefeet into the soft clay of the shore; an instant’s pause, and with a desperate bound he carried me safe to terra firma.

It was during the time of my residence in Cradock that the Zulu war, the most important event that has occurred in South Africa for the last quarter of a century, was going on. For the advancement of civilization that war was a necessity, and it must not be supposed either that it was a mere arbitrary proceeding on the part of Sir Bartle Frere, or that the British Government had no valid reason for[462] taking up arms. It was, I am convinced, the wisest step that Sir Bartle Frere, as a statesman, could have taken; he foresaw the danger that threatened the colony from Zululand; he was perfectly aware of Cetewayo’s warlike preparations; and he knew, moreover, that all the force that had been collected was eager for a conflict with the whites. The colonists in Natal, and the residents in the south-east of the Transvaal, had been perpetually complaining of the encroachments which the Zulus made, whilst for the last ten years numbers of the Zulus themselves had been taking refuge in both these districts from the cruelty and oppression of the king and the indunas.

If the English Government had not taken the initiative, the whole horde of Zulus, bloodthirsty as hounds, would have overrun Natal, and probably 20,000 lives or more would have been sacrificed. Cetewayo had long made up his mind what he would do; his scheme might cost him many lives, but hundreds and thousands of lives were of little account to him considering the numerical strength of his tribe as compared with all others; it sufficed for him to rely on the courage and daring of his warriors, and thus he was encouraged to indulge his one great vision of becoming master of Natal. Had his venture proved successful, the first terrible result of the victory achieved by him would have been a general rising of the adjacent tribes in revolt against the white men.

I know indeed that there are many men both in South Africa and in England who regard the Zulu war as a great act of injustice, but I can only express my conviction that the opinion they form is founded[463] upon a complete misunderstanding of the character of the natives as a whole, and of the Zulus in particular; I can only believe of them that they have never been in contact with natives, so as to become aware of the bare-faced line of action they pursue; and generally I should presume of them that in the view they take they are blinded by the prejudice that every negro is a poor oppressed creature, ever ill-used, abused, and trampled on.

In England, after my return, I had several opportunities of talking over this matter with various influential people, and found that whenever I expressed my belief that there was a happy future in store for the natives of South Africa, my anticipations were uniformly regarded with extreme surprise. The general impression seemed to be that the black man was becoming extinct as the result of oppression, and that the outbreak of the Zulu war was only an additional proof of this. That there has hitherto been a failure in the relations between white men and coloured in so many places is, I conceive, attributable to the entire misapprehension of the character and position of the native; either he has been treated as a being scarcely endued with human qualities at all, or, by the opposite extreme, he has been encouraged to regard himself as in every respect the equal of his master. To give a negro the rights of civilization, and to entitle him to enjoy its privileges before training him to use them aright, is only like treating a child as though he were a full-grown man, and the result has been to make him presume upon his alleged equality to take up arms against his superiors.[464] Other things that have been very fatal to the establishment of a proper relationship are the introduction of alcoholic liquors, the spread of contagious diseases, and the want of integrity on the part of those commissioned by the government to open traffic with the natives, and who have only too often consulted their own selfish interests without the least regard to the welfare of those with whom they were sent to deal. On this latter point, however, as far as South Africa is concerned, there is not much to be said; the veracity of the reports made by the commissioners can be easily put to the test, and the slightest abuse of power is quickly visited by chastisement. In the previous chapter I have attempted to show that the authorities are now in a fair way of understanding the best mode of dealing with the natives. With respect to the sale of spirits, we find, incredible as we might have imagined it, that it has been prohibited by several native princes, and that some of the colonial governments have, if not forbidden, at least limited the traffic with the independent tribes.

With so warlike a people as the Zulus, a settlement of the question of their relations with the colonists could not possibly be arrived at without an appeal to arms; and it has to be remembered that it was a question as important to South Africa as “the Eastern Question” to many of the European powers. My long residence amongst many of the tribes, and especially my peculiar sphere of work, gave me repeated opportunities of seeing them in different aspects, and of considering their relations not only with each other, but with the English and[465] Dutch colonists, and it was mainly on this account that I ventured to publish my pamphlet and other articles.

I am quite aware that this is hardly the place to enter into any full details concerning the Zulu war, of which the general history is universally known, but I cannot forbear making one or two observations.

The disaster that befell the British force at the commencement of the campaign was, I think, to be attributed first, to the mistake of supposing that the Zulu method of attack would be the same as that of the Kaffirs; secondly, to the circumstance that the numbers of the Zulu warriors had been so much underrated that an insufficient English force was brought into the field against them; not that Sir Bartle Frere was in any way responsible for this, as he had already asked for reinforcements; and thirdly, that there had not been diligence enough exercised in reconnoitring the country. But if the defeat brought its indignity, it was soon obliterated by the victory that ensued, when general, officers, and men, regained their laurels in contending with the most martial of African people upon the most unfavourable of soils. It was the victory of Ulundi, not any achievements of Sir Garnet Wolseley, that was the crowning-point of the campaign, and I cannot but consider that it was premature on the part of the English Government to supersede Sir Bartle Frere, and to recall Lord Chelmsford, before the war was actually at an end. The consequence has been that the treaty made with the Zulus has not been of a character to ensure a permanent peace with the native element in South Africa.

[466]

The truth of my convictions seems to me to be borne out by the recent rising of the Basutos against the Cape Government with respect to disarmament. Had peace been concluded with the Zulus in strict accordance with the general feeling that rules in the colonies, the Basutos would never have ventured upon rebellion; but the leniency of the policy pursued by the Government towards the Zulu chiefs was regarded by the other native tribes not in any way as a generous forbearance, but as an indication of weakness.

The object of disarmament, which undoubtedly in some instances has answered very well, is twofold; its first design is to bring about peace in South Africa; its second to secure a permanent satisfactory solution of the entire native question. By purchasing fire-arms of the people and refusing to sell them any, it is thought that tribes warlike by hereditary character, and tribes that have been rendered warlike by the acquisition of guns, may be converted into peaceful husbandmen and cattle-breeders; the process should be gradual, but the main object being once attained, it might then be safe for the Government to issue gun-licences to any individuals who should require them for hunting purposes.

On my way back to Europe I happened to fall in with Lord Chelmsford and his staff; at my first interview with him he thanked me for the candour with which I had expressed my opinions during the war. He was accompanied by Sir Evelyn Wood, whose personal bravery has won for him a high renown in the British army. This distinguished officer was not a little surprised when I showed him[467] some telegrams demonstrating that I had been in direct communication with Natal all throughout the campaign; one of these contained the announcement of his own victory over the Zulus at Kambula.

I can safely say that since my return to Europe my regard for South Africa has in no degree diminished, in spite of the calumnies published in one of the South African newspapers by Westbeech and Anderson, although they, as well as the newspaper itself, applauded all that I said while I was out there. It was gratifying to find that the most influential of the papers had all reviewed my proceedings with strict impartiality. I shall always take a deep interest in the progress of the colony, and cannot do otherwise than entertain a pleasant recollection of the kindness I received from both English and Dutch colonists.

Before the war was over I had earned the means I required for continuing my journey, and accordingly I proceeded towards Port Elizabeth. On reaching Grahamstown I took up my quarters in a house in Bathurst Street, where there was a yard large enough to allow my horse and most of my live-stock to run about. My brief visit was rendered very enjoyable by the courtesy of many of the principal residents. I obtained some interesting natural curiosities, including a live lynx from Dean Williams, and some trilobites from Mr. Glanville, the curator of the museum. I also made several additions to my collection of minerals, and procured a number of exotics from the Botanical Gardens. Of the live birds that I secured, three-fourths died on the day that I went on to Port Elizabeth;[468] an icy rain began to fall, and as we had some miles to travel by road to the nearest[4] station many of my animals, in spite of my care, succumbed to the inclement weather.

MAIN STREET IN PORT ELIZABETH.

I arrived at Port Elizabeth in the evening of the same day that I left Grahamstown. It was a great pleasure to me to see the sea again, and throughout the six weeks that I stayed there I rarely allowed a day to pass without riding out to Cape Recif, or to the mouth of the Zwartkop river or even farther, to make collections upon the shore. I gave several lectures in the town, for one of which I received 60l. from the Chamber of Commerce. Much kindness [469]was shown me by the editors of the Eastern Telegraph and the Eastern Herald, and several residents took a warm interest in my scientific pursuits. Mr. Holland pointed out to me, at several places on the coast, piles of bones and shells, the remains of the meals of the ancient inhabitants; but as my attention was only drawn to them shortly before my departure, I had not time to ascertain whether they had been accumulated by the Bushmen; if not, I should be inclined to suppose they must be the relics of some extinct tribe.

Page 469.

FINGO VILLAGE AT PORT ELIZABETH.

The twenty-one packages that I had sent on to Port Elizabeth a year ago were all in good condition. Those that I had now brought with me raised the number to forty-seven; and two more, subsequently added at Cape Town, made a total of forty-nine to be conveyed to Europe.

My intention was to take all my collection from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town by the Union Steamship Company’s “Arab,” and after staying at Cape Town for a fortnight to proceed homewards in the “German.” Accordingly, after seeing all my baggage carefully stowed on board the little cutter that acted as tender to the “Arab”—that lay at anchor about half a mile out—I went back into the town to pay some farewell visits. My consternation may in a measure be imagined when returning a few hours afterwards, I found all my cases piled up promiscuously on the beach. The rope by which the tender was being towed through the surf had broken, and the vessel had been washed back to the shore, but not until she had begun to fill with water.

The great wonder was that the craft had not been dashed against the wooden landing-stage; I[470] could not be too thankful that the collision had been averted; it would have brought all my labours of the last four years to a deplorable end. I had proposed bringing my good horse Mosco with me, and was much disappointed that circumstances prevented me from including him with my general baggage.

As the “Arab” was bound to leave that day, and it was too late for me to get my property conveyed on board, I consented to go without it, leaving it in charge of Herr von Mosenthal, the newly-appointed Austrian Consul, who most kindly undertook to have it forwarded to Cape Town.

The same cordial reception awaited me at Cape Town as I had found at Port Elizabeth, and I delivered several lectures, one of them before the Philosophical Society, which, a year before, had elected me one of their corresponding members. It was here that I had the honour of an introduction to Sir Bartle Frere and several of the members of his staff; I also made the acquaintance of many of the most distinguished members of both houses of the Cape Parliament, and of the leading scientific men and newspaper editors of the place. All alike entered warmly into my plans for the exploration of Central South Africa, and for the opening up of the great continent from the south. The very day that I left Cape Town Mr. Brown did me the honour of bringing forward a motion (which, at the desire of the Government, was only withdrawn on account of my departure) that my services should be secured for making an investigation of the district between the Vaal and the Zambesi.

I passed most of my time on the sea-shore, still adding to my collection of fishes and sponges. Algoa[471] Bay supplied me with numbers of cephalopods, mollusks, sea-snails, aphrodites, and algæ; the surrounding neighbourhood with a considerable variety of plants and fossils.

Before finally quitting Cape Town I received a gift of 40l., which was very acceptable, as I had again been compelled to spend part of the money that I had reserved for my passage.

It was on the 5th of August, 1879, that I embarked on board the “German.” After an absence of seven years, I had been drawn homewards by an irresistible desire to see my kindred and friends. Green Point and the summit of Table Mountain faded from my view, and I was again upon the bosom of the ocean that on my outward voyage had so nearly cost me my life, but which now lay calm and placid till I set my foot safely once more on the soil of Europe.

I would not omit to express my obligation to the Directors of the Union Steamship Company, who franked my baggage all the way from Cape Town to Southampton, nor would I fail to acknowledge the kindness of the Hon. Mr. Littleton, the son of Lord Hatherton, who placed 100l. at my disposal, which materially assisted me in forwarding my collection to Vienna.

My ethnological specimens collected from about thirty[5] tribes of South Africa, and those of my natural[472] history collections amounted to more than 30,000; of these a selection of nearly 12,500[6] was made, and by the permission of the Board of Trade was exhibited in the Pavillon des Amateurs in Vienna. The exhibition was open from May to October, 1880.

Of the live animals that I brought with me, I gave the caracal, the two brown eagles, and a secretary-bird to the London Zoological Society, and the rest I took to Austria. I have already mentioned that the Crown Prince Rudolph did me the honour to accept the two royal cranes. My baboon, which was remarkably tame, and a grey South African crane I sent to the town council of Prague for the public park, and I presented the dark-brown vulture, and one of the long-armed Zanzibar monkeys to the Physiocratical Society of that city.

I stayed several weeks in London, and contributed a paper to the Royal Geographical Society. Many kindnesses were shown me by various English families, and I very gratefully acknowledge the assistance I received in the transmission of my large collection to my home.

[473]

If my life and health be preserved, I have it in my heart to return as soon as may be to the scene of my researches. In the first place, I am anxious to make a more accurate survey of the places that I have already visited; but more than all, I am longing to extend to Central Africa those investigations for which “seven years in South Africa” have given me so much experience.

• Acacias, i. 78.
• Accidents, i. 3, 116, 129, 208; ii. 274.
• Albert Country, ii. 194, 211.
• Algoa Bay, i. 11.
• Algæ, ii. 185, 195.
• Aloes, i. 410.
• Alumba tribe, ii. 173.
• Amulets, i. 332; ii. 327.
• Anthills, i. 127, 313.
• Assegai-traps, i. 35; ii. 51.
• Assegais, ii. 338.

• Baboons, i. 74, 82, 85, 244; ii. 199.
• Baharutse, ii. 22.
• Bakuenas, i. 310, 316, 321; ii. 103.
• Balearia regulorum, i. 148.
• Bamangwato district, i. 364.
• Bamangwatos, i. 370;
• their history, i. 376, seqq.
• Banquaketse district, i. 304.
• Baobab, ii. 53, 97.
• Barolongs, i. 246, 269, 282, 294.
• Barotse Valley, ii. 145.
• Barwas, i. 345.
• Basutos, i. 83, 214; ii. 143.
• Batlapins, i. 119, 125; ii. 11.
• Batlokas, i. 411.
• Batokas, ii. 199.
• Beads, ii. 351.
• Bechuanas, i. 102, 315, 327, 392; ii. 15.
• Bee-hunt, i. 22.
• Beetles, i. 161, 278; ii. 261, 360.
• Beltong, i. 188.
• Birds, varieties of, i. 105, 190; ii. 98.
• Blessbocks, i. 146, 156; ii. 10.
• Blignaut’s Pont, ii. 4.
• Bloemhof, i. 143.
• Bluewilde beest, i. 107.
• Boers, i. 33, 43, 59; ii. 48.
• Bogueras, i. 398; ii. 420.
• Buffaloes, ii. 89, 246, 361, 364, 367.
• Buisport, i. 413; ii. 25.
• Bultfontein, i. 64; ii. 3, 431.
• Bushbocks, i. 27.
• Bushmen, ii. 435.
• Bustards, i. 48, 267.

• Canoes, ii. 119, 125.
• Cape Town, i. 4, 7, 9; ii. 465.
• Celestial phenomenon, ii. 363.
• Cetewayo, i. 9; ii. 458.
• Chelmsford (Lord), ii. 461, 462.
• Chenalopex, i. 137, 275.
• Chobe River, ii. 108, 121, 358.
• Christiana, i. 141, 202; ii. 5, 428.
• Chuai Jungmann, i. 276.
• Chukuru, i. 417.
• Chwene-Chwene, i. 411; ii. 423.
• Cobras, i. 113, 234; ii. 440.
• Coffeefontein, i. 49.
• Colesberg, i. 38; ii. 453.
• Conflagration, i. 223; ii. 155.
• Cradock, i. 30; ii. 455.
• Crane (S. African grey), i. 42, 183; ii. 9;
• (royal or crowned) i. 148; ii. 10.
• Crocodiles, i. 408; ii. 32, 234.
• Cucumber, i. 364.

• Damara Emigrants, i. 25, 33.
• Dances, reed, i. 295;
• kishi, ii. 168;
• prophetic, ii. 170, 229;
• lion, ii. 254;
• boat, ii. 260;
• nuptial, ii. 262;
• Matabele war-dance, ii. 405.
• Darters, i. 180; ii. 125, 245.
• Deykah River, ii. 99.
• Diamond fields, i. 50, 58, 65, 426; ii. 430.
• Dolos, i. 330, 350.
• Dornveldt, i. 409.
• Doves, i. 47.
• Drought, i. 135, 222; ii. 44, 64, 97.
• Drums, ii. 123, 171.
• Dutch hunters, i. 389; ii. 96.
• Dutoitspan, i. 51, 63, 209, 420.
• Duykerbocks, i. 99.
• Dwars Mountains, i. 412; ii. 25.

• Earth-pigs, ii. 439.
• Elands, ii. 49.
• Elephants, i. 27; ii. 90, 92, 97, 107, 212.
• Elephant-hunt, ii. 241.
• Elephant-hunters, ii. 20, 82, 85, 123.
• Euphorbias, i. 17.
• Executioner (Mashoku), ii. 148, 226, 320.

• Fan-palms, ii. 50.
• Fauresmith, i. 43.
• Fig-marigolds, i. 16.
• Fish, i. 317, 405; ii. 30, 139.
• Fishing, ii. 224, 288.
• Fish River, i. 37; ii. 456.
• Fossils, i. 19; ii. 454.
• Francis Joseph Valley, i. 365; ii. 416.
• Francolin (S. African), i. 402.
• Frere (Sir Bartle), i. 6, 9; ii. 457, 465.
• Funnel chasms, i. 169.

• Gashuma Flat, ii. 105, 178, 183, 216, 373.
• Gassibone, i. 132.
• Giraffes, i. 343, 356.
• Gnus, i. 107, 157, 188, 200, 271.
• Gold-diggings, ii. 399.
• Gong Gong, i. 108.
• Gourd-shells, ii. 117, 335.
• Grahamstown, i. 30; ii. 463.
• Graves, ii. 6, 118, 218, 237, 315.
• Griqualand West, ii. 445.
• Griquas, i. 96.
• Grottoes, i. 173; ii. 45.
• Guinea-fowl, i. 159; ii. 30.

• Hallwater Farm, i. 192; ii. 5, 428.
• Hartebeest, i. 227; ii. 63.
• Harts River, i. 110; ii. 6, 428.
• Heaths, i. 18.
• Hebron, i. 62, 94, 125, 205.
• Henry’s Pan, ii. 96.
• Hippopotamus, ii. 128, 219.
• Honey, i. 363; ii. 107.
• Hoogeveldt, i. 421.
• Horse whims, i. 68.
• Huts, Koranna, i. 97, 102;
• Gassibone’s, i. 134;
• Barolong, i. 294;
• Bakuena, i. 316;
• Masarwa, i. 347;
• Bamangwato, i. 391;
• Masupia, ii. 121;
• Marutse, ii. 163.
• Hyæna-dogs, i. 302.
• Hyænas, i. 145, 255; ii. 29, 77.

• Iguanas, i. 139.
• Illness, i. 3, 357, 410; ii. 190, 270, 278 seqq., 285, 358.
• Impalera, ii. 109, 121, 124, 358.
• Ivory-traders, ii. 43, 84, 99, 177, 376.

• Jackals, ii. 67, 73, 382.
• Jacobsdal, i. 50; ii. 451.
• Joubert’s Lake, ii. 425.

• Kapella, ii. 138, 148, 238, 365, 373.
• Karri-Karri Saltpan, ii. 55.
• Kashteja River, ii. 133, 257.
• Khamane, i. 385.
• Khame, king of Bamangwatos, i. 335, 369, 377; ii. 35;
• his prohibition of sale of brandy, ii. 42, 374, 376, 418;
• farewell visit from, ii. 421.
• Khame’s Saltpan, i. 403; ii. 44, 421.
• Khari, i. 377.
• Khatsisive, king of Banquaketse, i. 291, 305.
• Kimberley, i. 60, 67.
• King-finch (Vidua Capensis), i. 178.
• Kiri, i. 109; ii. 341.
• Klamaklenyana springs, ii. 80.
• Klerksdorp, i. 162.
• Klipdrift, i. 101.
• Kobuque Pass, i. 311.
• Konana, i. 261.
• Koodoo antelopes, ii. 68.
• Kopjes, i. 64.
• Korannas, i. 84, 96; ii. 5.
• Kotlas, i. 318, 374, 394.

• Lanyon (Major), ii. 446.
• Leopard, ii. 413.
• Leshumo Valley, ii. 178, 216, 358.
• Letshwe antelopes, ii. 128, 244.
• Libanani, ii. 380.
• Libeko, ii. 140.
• Likatlong, i. 118.
• Limpopo River, i. 408; ii. 31, 421.
• Linokana, i. 416; ii. 22, 424.
• Linyakas, ii. 330, 395.
• Lions, i. 192, 262; ii. 27, 65, 69, 76, 90, 100, 179, 200, 249, 367, 407, 423, 433.
• Litta or Lytta, i. 285; ii. 261.
• Livingstone (Dr.), i. 314; ii. 103, 135.
• Lizards, i. 392.
• Lo Bengula, ii. 410.
• Locusts, i. 75, 134, 199, 252.
• London Geographical Society, ii. 468.
• Lycaon pictus, i. 301.
• Lydenburg, i. 423.
• Lynx, i. 309.

• Madenassanas, ii. 82.
• Mahura’s Town (Taung), i. 120.
• Makalakas, ii. 31, 41, 44;
• Menon’s, ii. 145, 383, 389.
• Makalahari, i. 258, 364; ii. 11.
• Makalolos, i. 379; ii. 143.
• Makumba, ii. 107, 123.
• Malau’s Heights, i. 286.
• Malays, i. 7.
• Malmani River, ii. 19.
• Mambari, ii. 150, 293.
• Manansas, ii. 106, 204.
• Mankoë, ii. 237.
• Mapani-tree, ii. 48.
• Maquassie River, i. 150;
• hills, i. 192.
• Maque plain, ii. 47.
• Maritsana River, ii. 11.
• Markets, i. 72; ii. 22.
• Marutse-Mabundas, history, ii. 143–146;
• culture, ii. 158;
• cleanliness, ii. 233;
• character, ii. 294;
• religion, ii. 300;
• manners and customs, ii. 302 seqq.;
• industry and handicraft, ii. 332, seqq.
• Masarwas, i. 345.
• Mashukulumbe, ii. 258.
• Masupa, i. 304.
• Masupias, ii. 112.
• Matabele Zulus, i. 380; ii. 59, 115, 205, 400.
• Matebe River, ii. 24.
• Matliutse River, ii. 396.
• Matonga, i. 270.
• Matsheng, i. 380; ii. 420.
• Maytengue River, ii. 383.
• Medical practice, i. 13, 45, 53, 92, 210, 424; ii. 425, 431.
• Menagerie, ii. 431, 434.
• Meliera Canorus, i. 239.
• Menon, ii. 385.
• Mimosas, i. 277, 288, 404.
• Missionaries: Brown, i. 238;
• Webb, i. 280; ii. 13;
• Price, i. 315;
• Williams, i. 315;
• Hephrun, i. 373;
• Mackenzie, i. 373; ii. 41, 417, 423, 424;
• Jensen, i. 417; ii. 22, 424.
• Modder River, i. 46; ii. 451.
• Moffat’s Salt Lake, ii. 11.
• Moilo, i. 417; ii. 424.
• Molapo River, i. 278; ii. 18.
• Molema, i. 279; ii. 13.
• Molema’s Town, i. 279; ii. 12.
• Moloi, i. 334.
• Molopolole, i. 310, 313.
• Monkeys, i. 138; ii. 32.
• Monomotapa, i. 196.
• Montsua, i. 280, 291; ii. 12, 17.
• Mooi River, i. 165.
• Moquai, Sepopo’s daughter, ii. 144, 159, 219, 261, 281.
• Morula-trees, ii. 391.
• Moselikatze, i. 380; ii. 205, 392, 401.
• Moshaneng, i. 294.
• Moshungulu-tree, ii. 111, 270.
• Mosquitoes, ii. 286, 359.
• Mountain groups, i. 293.
• Mulekow, ii. 114, 207, 298.
• Musemanyana, i. 251.
• Mutshila Aumsinga rapids, ii. 273.
• Myrimbas, ii. 137.

• Nata River, ii. 64, 382.
• Native question, views on, ii. 440.
• Nautilus, i. 15.
• Nectariniæ (sun-birds), i. 29.
• New Year’s Day, i. 354.
• Night watch, ii. 26, 65, 86.
• Notuany River, i. 408; ii. 24, 39, 431.

• Oates, Frank, ii. 396.
• Orange Free State, i. 59.
• Orange River, i. 39.
• Orbeki gazelles, ii. 105, 183.
• Ostriches, ii. 49, 79, 81, 375, 453.
• Otters, i. 177; ii. 120.

• Pallah Antelopes, i. 409; ii. 200.
• Panda ma Tenka, ii. 99, 180, 374.
• Parrots, i. 286.
• Philippolis, i. 39; ii. 452.
• Plat Berg, i. 205; ii. 3.
• Pniel, i. 94.
• Port Elizabeth, i. 12; ii. 464.
• Potchefstroom, i. 164, 422.
• Puff-adder (Vipera arietans), i. 406; ii. 40, 94.
• Puku antelopes, ii. 128.

• Quagga Flats, i. 251, 254; ii. 8, 427.
• Quaggas, ii. 71.

• Races of South Africa, i. 213.
• Rain doctors, i. 330;
• their ceremonies, i. 337.
• Rapids, ii. 272.
• Reed-rats, i. 187.
• Rhamakoban River, ii. 398.
• Rhyzœna, i. 76, 143; ii. 67.
• Rietbocks, i. 177.
• Riet River, i. 46;
• hotel on, i. 49; ii. 452.
• Rock-rabbits, i. 305.
• Rohlf’s Pass, i. 412.
• Ruins, ii. 397, 406.

• Salt, i. 198.
• Saltpans, i. 76, 197, 276, 403; ii. 53, 72.
• Sandy pool plateau, ii. 78.
• Schneemann’s Pan, ii. 106, 372.
• Schweinfurth’s Pass, i. 412; ii. 25.
• Scopus umbretta, i. 112.
• Sechele, king of Bakuenas; history, i. 314;
• visit to, i. 319;
• policy, i. 382; ii. 30;
• war with Bakhatlas, ii. 422.
• Sekeletu, ii. 143.
• Sekhomo, late king of Bamangwatos, i. 335, 368, 376, 389; ii. 42.
• Sepopo, king of Marutse-Mabundas; change of residence, ii. 134;
• appearance, ii. 137;
• supper with, ii. 141;
• dominions, ii. 147;
• pilfering propensities, ii. 149;
• interviews with, ii. 150, 174;
• mode of chastisement, ii. 157, 245;
• revenue, ii. 160;
• residence, ii. 165;
• laboratory, ii. 167;
• band, ii. 137, 168;
• wives, ii. 221, 231, 268;
• cruelty, ii. 225, 329;
• officials, ii. 238;
• council, ii. 240;
• magic, ii. 241;
• unpopularity, ii. 284, 370;
• meals, ii. 287;
• illness, ii. 291;
• medicine-hut, ii. 328.
• Sesheke, ii. 133, 140, 154, 282.
• Sesuto language, ii. 147, 216.
• Shaneng River, ii. 56.
• Shasha Rivers, ii. 397.
• Sheat-fish, ii. 30, 231.
• Shoshon River, i. 364, 367.
• Shoshong, i. 367; ii. 42.
• Sirorume River, i. 405.
• Skerms, ii. 190.
• Skins, i. 152; ii. 342.
• Snakes, i. 20, 79, 113, 234, 356, 406; ii. 94, 440.
• Soa Saltpan, ii. 57.
• Springbockfontein, i. 130.
• Springbocks, i. 31, 254; ii. 11.
• Spitzkopf, i. 126.
• Steinbocks, i. 99; ii. 67.
• Storks, ii. 70.
• Storm, i. 272; ii. 367.
• Sugar-cane, i. 127.
• Swallows, i. 164.

• Table Mountain, i. 2.
• Tamafopa Springs, ii. 86.
• Tamasanka, ii. 380.
• Tamasetze, ii. 93, 376.
• Tati River, ii. 399.
• Taung, i. 120, 235.
• Tortoises, i. 105.
• Transvaal, ii. 419, 426.
• Tsetse fly, ii. 105, 183, 374.
• Tsitane Saltpan, ii. 53.

• Usnea, i. 25.

• Vaal River, i. 61, 94, 219.
• Vaalstone, i. 62, 205.
• Vegetation on Chobe River, ii. 111.
• Victoria Falls, ii. 191, seqq.
• Vlakvarks, ii. 375.

• Wana Wena, ii. 319.
• Warren (Colonel), ii. 446.
• Waterbock, ii. 31.
• Weaver-birds, i. 78, 122, 284.
• Weltufrede Farm, ii. 20.
• Wild dog, i. 301.
• Wild goose, i. 137, 275.
• Wood (Sir Evelyn), ii. 462.

• Yochoms, i. 258.
• Yoruah Pool, ii. 86, 379.

• Zambesi River, ii. 99, 108, 121, 125, 266.
• Zebras, ii. 71, 74, 88.
• Zeerust, i. 420; ii. 22.
• Zizka saddle, ii. 19.
• Zooga River, ii. 58.
• Zoological Society of London, ii. 376.
• Zulus (Matabele), i. 380; ii. 59, 205.
• Zulu War, ii. 457.
• Zuur Mountains, i. 24.
• Zwartkop River, i. 14; ii. 464.

THE END.

LONDON:
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN’S SQUARE.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.