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Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

Dr. David Livingstone

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By Dr. David Livingstone

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Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

By Dr. David Livingstone

September, 1997 [Etext #1039]

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Some obvious errors have been corrected.]

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.

Also called, Travels and Researches in South Africa;

or, Journeys and Researches in South Africa.

By David Livingstone [British (Scot) Missionary and Explorer--1813-1873.]

David Livingstone was born in Scotland, received his medical degree

from the University of Glasgow, and was sent to South Africa

by the London Missionary Society. Circumstances led him to try to meet

the material needs as well as the spiritual needs of the people he went to,

and while promoting trade and trying to end slavery, he became

the first European to cross the continent of Africa, which story

is related in this book. Two appendixes have been added to this etext,

one of which is simply notes on the minor changes made

to make this etext more readable, (old vs. new forms of words, names, etc.);

the other is a review from the February, 1858 edition of Harper's Magazine,

which is included both for those readers who want to see a brief synopsis,

and more importantly to give an example of how Livingstone's accomplishments

were seen in his own time. The unnamed reviewer was by no means

as enlightened as Livingstone, yet he was not entirely in the dark, either.

The casual reader, who may not be familiar with the historical period,

should note that a few things that Livingstone wrote, which might be seen

as racist by today's standards, was not considered so in his own time.

Livingstone simply uses the terms and the science of his day --

these were no doubt flawed, as is also seen elsewhere,

in his references to malaria, for example. Which all goes to show

that it was the science of the day which was flawed,

and not so much Livingstone.

I will also add that the Rev. Livingstone has a fine sense of humour,

which I hope the reader will enjoy. His description of a Makololo dance

is classic.

Lastly, I will note that what I love most about Livingstone's descriptions

is not only that he was not polluted by the racism of his day,

but that he was not polluted by the anti-racism of our own.

He states things as he sees them, and notes that the Africans are,

like all other men, a curious mixture of good and evil. This, to me,

demonstrates his good faith better than any other description could.

You see, David Livingstone does not write about Africa as a missionary,

nor as an explorer, nor yet as a scientist, but as a man meeting fellow men.

I hope you will enjoy his writings as much as I did.

Alan R. Light

Monroe, N.C., 1997.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa;

Including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa,

and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast;

Thence Across the Continent, Down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean.

By David Livingstone, LL.D., D.C.L.,

Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow;

Corresponding Member of the Geographical and Statistical Society of New York;

Gold Medalist and Corresponding Member of the Royal Geographical Societies

of London and Paris F.S.A., Etc., Etc.

Dedication.

SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON,

President Royal Geographical Society, F.R.S., V.P.G.S.,

Corr. Inst. of France, and Member of the Academies of St. Petersburg,

Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Brussels, Etc.,

This Work

is affectionately offered as a Token of Gratitude for the kind interest

he has always taken in the Author's pursuits and welfare;

and to express admiration of his eminent scientific attainments,

nowhere more strongly evidenced than by the striking hypothesis

respecting the physical conformation of the African continent,

promulgated in his Presidential Address to the Royal Geographic Society

in 1852, and verified three years afterward by the Author of these Travels.

DAVID LIVINGSTONE.

London, Oct., 1857.

Preface.

When honored with a special meeting of welcome by the Royal

Geographical Society a few days after my arrival in London in December last,

Sir Roderick Murchison, the President, invited me to give the world

a narrative of my travels; and at a similar meeting of the Directors

of the London Missionary Society I publicly stated my intention of sending

a book to the press, instead of making many of those public appearances

which were urged upon me. The preparation of this narrative* has taken

much longer time than, from my inexperience in authorship, I had anticipated.

* Several attempts having been made to impose upon the public, as mine,

spurious narratives of my travels, I beg to tender my thanks

to the editors of the `Times' and of the `Athenaeum' for aiding

to expose them, and to the booksellers of London for refusing to SUBSCRIBE

for any copies.

Greater smoothness of diction and a saving of time might have been secured

by the employment of a person accustomed to compilation;

but my journals having been kept for my own private purposes,

no one else could have made use of them, or have entered with intelligence

into the circumstances in which I was placed in Africa,

far from any European companion. Those who have never carried a book

through the press can form no idea of the amount of toil it involves.

The process has increased my respect for authors and authoresses

a thousand-fold.

I can not refrain from referring, with sentiments of admiration and gratitude,

to my friend Thomas Maclear, Esq., the accomplished Astronomer Royal

at the Cape. I shall never cease to remember his instructions and help

with real gratitude. The intercourse I had the privilege to enjoy

at the Observatory enabled me to form an idea of the almost infinite

variety of acquirements necessary to form a true and great astronomer,

and I was led to the conviction that it will be long before the world

becomes overstocked with accomplished members of that profession.

Let them be always honored according to their deserts;

and long may Maclear, Herschel, Airy, and others live to make known

the wonders and glory of creation, and to aid in rendering

the pathway of the world safe to mariners, and the dark places of the earth

open to Christians!

I beg to offer my hearty thanks to my friend Sir Roderick Murchison,

and also to Dr. Norton Shaw, the secretary of the Royal Geographical Society,

for aiding my researches by every means in their power.

His faithful majesty Don Pedro V., having kindly sent out orders

to support my late companions until my return, relieved my mind of anxiety

on their account. But for this act of liberality, I should certainly

have been compelled to leave England in May last; and it has afforded me

the pleasure of traveling over, in imagination, every scene again,

and recalling the feelings which actuated me at the time.

I have much pleasure in acknowledging my deep obligations

to the hospitality and kindness of the Portuguese on many occasions.

I have not entered into the early labors, trials, and successes

of the missionaries who preceded me in the Bechuana country,

because that has been done by the much abler pen of my father-in-law,

Rev. Robert Moffat, of Kuruman, who has been an energetic and devoted

actor in the scene for upward of forty years. A slight sketch only

is given of my own attempts, and the chief part of the book

is taken up with a detail of the efforts made to open up a new field

north of the Bechuana country to the sympathies of Christendom.

The prospects there disclosed are fairer than I anticipated,

and the capabilities of the new region lead me to hope

that by the production of the raw materials of our manufactures,

African and English interests will become more closely linked

than heretofore, that both countries will be eventually benefited,

and that the cause of freedom throughout the world will in some measure

be promoted.

Dr. Hooker, of Kew, has had the kindness to name and classify for me,

as far as possible, some of the new botanical specimens which I brought over;

Dr. Andrew Smith (himself an African traveler) has aided me in the zoology;

and Captain Need has laid open for my use his portfolio of African sketches,

for all which acts of liberality my thanks are deservedly due,

as well as to my brother, who has rendered me willing aid as an amanuensis.

Although I can not profess to be a draughtsman, I brought home with me a few

rough diagram-sketches, from one of which the view of the Falls of the Zambesi

has been prepared by a more experienced artist.

October, 1857.

Contents.

Introduction.

Personal Sketch -- Highland Ancestors -- Family Traditions --

Grandfather removes to the Lowlands -- Parents -- Early Labors and Efforts

-- Evening School -- Love of Reading -- Religious Impressions --

Medical Education -- Youthful Travels -- Geology -- Mental Discipline --

Study in Glasgow -- London Missionary Society -- Native Village --

Medical Diploma -- Theological Studies -- Departure for Africa --

No Claim to Literary Accomplishments.

Chapter 1.

The Bakwain Country -- Study of the Language -- Native Ideas

regarding Comets -- Mabotsa Station -- A Lion Encounter --

Virus of the Teeth of Lions -- Names of the Bechuana Tribes --

Sechele -- His Ancestors -- Obtains the Chieftainship --

His Marriage and Government -- The Kotla -- First public Religious Services

-- Sechele's Questions -- He Learns to Read -- Novel mode

for Converting his Tribe -- Surprise at their Indifference --

Polygamy -- Baptism of Sechele -- Opposition of the Natives --

Purchase Land at Chonuane -- Relations with the People --

Their Intelligence -- Prolonged Drought -- Consequent Trials --

Rain-medicine -- God's Word blamed -- Native Reasoning -- Rain-maker --

Dispute between Rain Doctor and Medical Doctor -- The Hunting Hopo --

Salt or animal Food a necessary of Life -- Duties of a Missionary.

Chapter 2.

The Boers -- Their Treatment of the Natives -- Seizure of native Children

for Slaves -- English Traders -- Alarm of the Boers -- Native Espionage --

The Tale of the Cannon -- The Boers threaten Sechele --

In violation of Treaty, they stop English Traders and expel Missionaries --

They attack the Bakwains -- Their Mode of Fighting --

The Natives killed and the School-children carried into Slavery --

Destruction of English Property -- African Housebuilding and Housekeeping --

Mode of Spending the Day -- Scarcity of Food -- Locusts -- Edible Frogs --

Scavenger Beetle -- Continued Hostility of the Boers -- The Journey north --

Preparations -- Fellow-travelers -- The Kalahari Desert --

Vegetation -- Watermelons -- The Inhabitants -- The Bushmen --

Their nomad Mode of Life -- Appearance -- The Bakalahari --

Their Love for Agriculture and for domestic Animals -- Timid Character --

Mode of obtaining Water -- Female Water-suckers -- The Desert --

Water hidden.

Chapter 3.

Departure from Kolobeng, 1st June, 1849 -- Companions -- Our Route --

Abundance of Grass -- Serotli, a Fountain in the Desert --

Mode of digging Wells -- The Eland -- Animals of the Desert --

The Hyaena -- The Chief Sekomi -- Dangers -- The wandering Guide --

Cross Purposes -- Slow Progress -- Want of Water -- Capture of a Bushwoman

-- The Salt-pan at Nchokotsa -- The Mirage -- Reach the River Zouga --

The Quakers of Africa -- Discovery of Lake Ngami, 1st August, 1849 --

Its Extent -- Small Depth of Water -- Position as the Reservoir

of a great River System -- The Bamangwato and their Chief --

Desire to visit Sebituane, the Chief of the Makololo --

Refusal of Lechulatebe to furnish us with Guides --

Resolve to return to the Cape -- The Banks of the Zouga -- Pitfalls --

Trees of the District -- Elephants -- New Species of Antelope --

Fish in the Zouga.

Chapter 4.

Leave Kolobeng again for the Country of Sebituane -- Reach the Zouga --

The Tsetse -- A Party of Englishmen -- Death of Mr. Rider --

Obtain Guides -- Children fall sick with Fever -- Relinquish the Attempt

to reach Sebituane -- Mr. Oswell's Elephant-hunting --

Return to Kolobeng -- Make a third Start thence --

Reach Nchokotsa -- Salt-pans -- "Links", or Springs -- Bushmen --

Our Guide Shobo -- The Banajoa -- An ugly Chief -- The Tsetse --

Bite fatal to domestic Animals, but harmless to wild Animals and Man --

Operation of the Poison -- Losses caused by it -- The Makololo --

Our Meeting with Sebituane -- Sketch of his Career --

His Courage and Conquests -- Manoeuvres of the Batoka -- He outwits them

-- His Wars with the Matebele -- Predictions of a native Prophet --

Successes of the Makololo -- Renewed Attacks of the Matebele --

The Island of Loyelo -- Defeat of the Matebele -- Sebituane's Policy --

His Kindness to Strangers and to the Poor -- His sudden Illness and Death --

Succeeded by his Daughter -- Her Friendliness to us -- Discovery,

in June, 1851, of the Zambesi flowing in the Centre of the Continent --

Its Size -- The Mambari -- The Slave-trade -- Determine to send Family

to England -- Return to the Cape in April, 1852 -- Safe Transit through

the Caffre Country during Hostilities -- Need of a "Special Correspondent"

-- Kindness of the London Missionary Society -- Assistance afforded

by the Astronomer Royal at the Cape.

Chapter 5.

Start in June, 1852, on the last and longest Journey from Cape Town --

Companions -- Wagon-traveling -- Physical Divisions of Africa --

The Eastern, Central, and Western Zones -- The Kalahari Desert --

Its Vegetation -- Increasing Value of the Interior for Colonization --

Our Route -- Dutch Boers -- Their Habits -- Sterile Appearance

of the District -- Failure of Grass -- Succeeded by other Plants --

Vines -- Animals -- The Boers as Farmers -- Migration of Springbucks --

Wariness of Animals -- The Orange River -- Territory of

the Griquas and Bechuanas -- The Griquas -- The Chief Waterboer --

His wise and energetic Government -- His Fidelity -- Ill-considered Measures

of the Colonial Government in regard to Supplies of Gunpowder --

Success of the Missionaries among the Griquas and Bechuanas --

Manifest Improvement of the native Character -- Dress of the Natives --

A full-dress Costume -- A Native's Description of the Natives --

Articles of Commerce in the Country of the Bechuanas --

Their Unwillingness to learn, and Readiness to criticise.

Chapter 6.

Kuruman -- Its fine Fountain -- Vegetation of the District --

Remains of ancient Forests -- Vegetable Poison --

The Bible translated by Mr. Moffat -- Capabilities of the Language --

Christianity among the Natives -- The Missionaries should extend

their Labors more beyond the Cape Colony -- Model Christians --

Disgraceful Attack of the Boers on the Bakwains -- Letter from Sechele --

Details of the Attack -- Numbers of School-children carried away

into Slavery -- Destruction of House and Property at Kolobeng --

The Boers vow Vengeance against me -- Consequent Difficulty of getting

Servants to accompany me on my Journey -- Start in November, 1852 --

Meet Sechele on his way to England to obtain Redress from the Queen --

He is unable to proceed beyond the Cape -- Meet Mr. Macabe

on his Return from Lake Ngami -- The hot Wind of the Desert --

Electric State of the Atmosphere -- Flock of Swifts --

Reach Litubaruba -- The Cave Lepelole -- Superstitions regarding it --

Impoverished State of the Bakwains -- Retaliation on the Boers --

Slavery -- Attachment of the Bechuanas to Children --

Hydrophobia unknown -- Diseases of the Bakwains few in number --

Yearly Epidemics -- Hasty Burials -- Ophthalmia -- Native Doctors --

Knowledge of Surgery at a very low Ebb -- Little Attendance given to Women

at their Confinements -- The "Child Medicine" -- Salubrity of the Climate

well adapted for Invalids suffering from pulmonary Complaints.

Chapter 7.

Departure from the Country of the Bakwains -- Large black Ant --

Land Tortoises -- Diseases of wild Animals -- Habits of old Lions --

Cowardice of the Lion -- Its Dread of a Snare -- Major Vardon's Note --

The Roar of the Lion resembles the Cry of the Ostrich --

Seldom attacks full-grown Animals -- Buffaloes and Lions --

Mice -- Serpents -- Treading on one -- Venomous and harmless Varieties --

Fascination -- Sekomi's Ideas of Honesty -- Ceremony of the Sechu for Boys

-- The Boyale for young Women -- Bamangwato Hills -- The Unicorn's Pass --

The Country beyond -- Grain -- Scarcity of Water -- Honorable Conduct

of English Gentlemen -- Gordon Cumming's hunting Adventures --

A Word of Advice for young Sportsmen -- Bushwomen drawing Water --

Ostrich -- Silly Habit -- Paces -- Eggs -- Food.

Chapter 8.

Effects of Missionary Efforts -- Belief in the Deity --

Ideas of the Bakwains on Religion -- Departure from their Country --

Salt-pans -- Sour Curd -- Nchokotsa -- Bitter Waters --

Thirst suffered by the wild Animals -- Wanton Cruelty in Hunting --

Ntwetwe -- Mowana-trees -- Their extraordinary Vitality --

The Mopane-tree -- The Morala -- The Bushmen -- Their Superstitions --

Elephant-hunting -- Superiority of civilized over barbarous Sportsmen --

The Chief Kaisa -- His Fear of Responsibility -- Beauty of the Country

at Unku -- The Mohonono Bush -- Severe Labor in cutting our Way --

Party seized with Fever -- Escape of our Cattle --

Bakwain Mode of recapturing them -- Vagaries of sick Servants --

Discovery of grape-bearing Vines -- An Ant-eater --

Difficulty of passing through the Forest -- Sickness of my Companion --

The Bushmen -- Their Mode of destroying Lions -- Poisons --

The solitary Hill -- A picturesque Valley -- Beauty of the Country --

Arrive at the Sanshureh River -- The flooded Prairies --

A pontooning Expedition -- A night Bivouac -- The Chobe --

Arrive at the Village of Moremi -- Surprise of the Makololo

at our sudden Appearance -- Cross the Chobe on our way to Linyanti.

Chapter 9.

Reception at Linyanti -- The court Herald -- Sekeletu obtains

the Chieftainship from his Sister -- Mpepe's Plot -- Slave-trading Mambari

-- Their sudden Flight -- Sekeletu narrowly escapes Assassination --

Execution of Mpepe -- The Courts of Law -- Mode of trying Offenses --

Sekeletu's Reason for not learning to read the Bible --

The Disposition made of the Wives of a deceased Chief --

Makololo Women -- They work but little -- Employ Serfs --

Their Drink, Dress, and Ornaments -- Public Religious Services in the Kotla

-- Unfavorable Associations of the place -- Native Doctors --

Proposals to teach the Makololo to read -- Sekeletu's Present --

Reason for accepting it -- Trading in Ivory -- Accidental Fire --

Presents for Sekeletu -- Two Breeds of native Cattle --

Ornamenting the Cattle -- The Women and the Looking-glass --

Mode of preparing the Skins of Oxen for Mantles and for Shields --

Throwing the Spear.

Chapter 10.

The Fever -- Its Symptoms -- Remedies of the native Doctors --

Hospitality of Sekeletu and his People -- One of their Reasons for Polygamy

-- They cultivate largely -- The Makalaka or subject Tribes --

Sebituane's Policy respecting them -- Their Affection for him --

Products of the Soil -- Instrument of Culture -- The Tribute --

Distributed by the Chief -- A warlike Demonstration --

Lechulatebe's Provocations -- The Makololo determine to punish him --

The Bechuanas -- Meaning of the Term -- Three Divisions of the great

Family of South Africans.

Chapter 11.

Departure from Linyanti for Sesheke -- Level Country -- Ant-hills --

Wild Date-trees -- Appearance of our Attendants on the March --

The Chief's Guard -- They attempt to ride on Ox-back --

Vast Herds of the new Antelopes, Leches, and Nakongs --

The native way of hunting them -- Reception at the Villages --

Presents of Beer and Milk -- Eating with the Hand --

The Chief provides the Oxen for Slaughter -- Social Mode of Eating --

The Sugar-cane -- Sekeletu's novel Test of Character --

Cleanliness of Makololo Huts -- Their Construction and Appearance --

The Beds -- Cross the Leeambye -- Aspect of this part of the Country --

The small Antelope Tianyane unknown in the South -- Hunting on foot --

An Eland.

Chapter 12.

Procure Canoes and ascend the Leeambye -- Beautiful Islands --

Winter Landscape -- Industry and Skill of the Banyeti --

Rapids -- Falls of Gonye -- Tradition -- Annual Inundations --

Fertility of the great Barotse Valley -- Execution of two Conspirators --

The Slave-dealer's Stockade -- Naliele, the Capital,

built on an artificial Mound -- Santuru, a great Hunter --

The Barotse Method of commemorating any remarkable Event --

Better Treatment of Women -- More religious Feeling -- Belief in

a future State, and in the Existence of spiritual Beings -- Gardens --

Fish, Fruit, and Game -- Proceed to the Limits of the Barotse Country --

Sekeletu provides Rowers and a Herald -- The River and Vicinity --

Hippopotamus-hunters -- No healthy Location -- Determine to go to Loanda --

Buffaloes, Elands, and Lions above Libonta -- Interview with the Mambari --

Two Arabs from Zanzibar -- Their Opinion of the Portuguese and the English

-- Reach the Town of Ma-Sekeletu -- Joy of the People

at the first Visit of their Chief -- Return to Sesheke -- Heathenism.

Chapter 13.

Preliminary Arrangements for the Journey -- A Picho -- Twenty-seven Men

appointed to accompany me to the West -- Eagerness of the Makololo

for direct Trade with the Coast -- Effects of Fever -- A Makololo Question

-- The lost Journal -- Reflections -- The Outfit for the Journey --

11th November, 1853, leave Linyanti, and embark on the Chobe --

Dangerous Hippopotami -- Banks of Chobe -- Trees -- The Course of the River

-- The Island Mparia at the Confluence of the Chobe and the Leeambye --

Anecdote -- Ascend the Leeambye -- A Makalaka Mother defies the Authority

of the Makololo Head Man at Sesheke -- Punishment of Thieves --

Observance of the new Moon -- Public Addresses at Sesheke --

Attention of the People -- Results -- Proceed up the River --

The Fruit which yields `Nux vomica' -- Other Fruits -- The Rapids --

Birds -- Fish -- Hippopotami and their Young.

Chapter 14.

Increasing Beauty of the Country -- Mode of spending the Day --

The People and the Falls of Gonye -- A Makololo Foray -- A second prevented,

and Captives delivered up -- Politeness and Liberality of the People --

The Rains -- Present of Oxen -- The fugitive Barotse --

Sekobinyane's Misgovernment -- Bee-eaters and other Birds --

Fresh-water Sponges -- Current -- Death from a Lion's Bite at Libonta --

Continued Kindness -- Arrangements for spending the Night

during the Journey -- Cooking and Washing -- Abundance of animal Life --

Different Species of Birds -- Water-fowl -- Egyptian Geese --

Alligators -- Narrow Escape of one of my Men -- Superstitious Feelings

respecting the Alligator -- Large Game -- The most vulnerable Spot --

Gun Medicine -- A Sunday -- Birds of Song -- Depravity; its Treatment --

Wild Fruits -- Green Pigeons -- Shoals of Fish -- Hippopotami.

Chapter 15.

Message to Masiko, the Barotse Chief, regarding the Captives --

Navigation of the Leeambye -- Capabilities of this District --

The Leeba -- Flowers and Bees -- Buffalo-hunt -- Field for a Botanist --

Young Alligators; their savage Nature -- Suspicion of the Balonda --

Sekelenke's Present -- A Man and his two Wives -- Hunters --

Message from Manenko, a female Chief -- Mambari Traders -- A Dream --

Sheakondo and his People -- Teeth-filing -- Desire for Butter --

Interview with Nyamoana, another female Chief -- Court Etiquette --

Hair versus Wool -- Increase of Superstition -- Arrival of Manenko;

her Appearance and Husband -- Mode of Salutation -- Anklets --

Embassy, with a Present from Masiko -- Roast Beef -- Manioc --

Magic Lantern -- Manenko an accomplished Scold: compels us to wait --

Unsuccessful Zebra-hunt.

Chapter 16.

Nyamoana's Present -- Charms -- Manenko's pedestrian Powers -- An Idol --

Balonda Arms -- Rain -- Hunger -- Palisades -- Dense Forests --

Artificial Beehives -- Mushrooms -- Villagers lend the Roofs of their Houses

-- Divination and Idols -- Manenko's Whims -- A night Alarm --

Shinte's Messengers and Present -- The proper Way to approach a Village --

A Merman -- Enter Shinte's Town: its Appearance --

Meet two half-caste Slave-traders -- The Makololo scorn them --

The Balonda real Negroes -- Grand Reception from Shinte --

His Kotla -- Ceremony of Introduction -- The Orators -- Women --

Musicians and Musical Instruments -- A disagreeable Request --

Private Interviews with Shinte -- Give him an Ox -- Fertility of Soil --

Manenko's new Hut -- Conversation with Shinte -- Kolimbota's Proposal --

Balonda's Punctiliousness -- Selling Children -- Kidnapping --

Shinte's Offer of a Slave -- Magic Lantern -- Alarm of Women --

Delay -- Sambanza returns intoxicated -- The last and greatest

Proof of Shinte's Friendship.

Chapter 17.

Leave Shinte -- Manioc Gardens -- Mode of preparing the poisonous kind --

Its general Use -- Presents of Food -- Punctiliousness of the Balonda --

Their Idols and Superstition -- Dress of the Balonda --

Villages beyond Lonaje -- Cazembe -- Our Guides and the Makololo --

Night Rains -- Inquiries for English cotton Goods -- Intemese's Fiction --

Visit from an old Man -- Theft -- Industry of our Guide --

Loss of Pontoon -- Plains covered with Water -- Affection of the Balonda

for their Mothers -- A Night on an Island -- The Grass on the Plains --

Source of the Rivers -- Loan of the Roofs of Huts -- A Halt --

Fertility of the Country through which the Lokalueje flows --

Omnivorous Fish -- Natives' Mode of catching them --

The Village of a Half-brother of Katema, his Speech and Present --

Our Guide's Perversity -- Mozenkwa's pleasant Home and Family --

Clear Water of the flooded Rivers -- A Messenger from Katema --

Quendende's Village: his Kindness -- Crop of Wool --

Meet People from the Town of Matiamvo -- Fireside Talk --

Matiamvo's Character and Conduct -- Presentation at Katema's Court:

his Present, good Sense, and Appearance -- Interview on the following Day --

Cattle -- A Feast and a Makololo Dance -- Arrest of a Fugitive --

Dignified old Courtier -- Katema's lax Government --

Cold Wind from the North -- Canaries and other singing Birds --

Spiders, their Nests and Webs -- Lake Dilolo -- Tradition --

Sagacity of Ants.

Chapter 18.

The Watershed between the northern and southern Rivers -- A deep Valley --

Rustic Bridge -- Fountains on the Slopes of the Valleys --

Village of Kabinje -- Good Effects of the Belief in the Power of Charms --

Demand for Gunpowder and English Calico -- The Kasai -- Vexatious Trick --

Want of Food -- No Game -- Katende's unreasonable Demand --

A grave Offense -- Toll-bridge Keeper -- Greedy Guides --

Flooded Valleys -- Swim the Nyuana Loke -- Prompt Kindness of my Men --

Makololo Remarks on the rich uncultivated Valleys --

Difference in the Color of Africans -- Reach a Village of the Chiboque --

The Head Man's impudent Message -- Surrounds our Encampment

with his Warriors -- The Pretense -- Their Demand -- Prospect of a Fight --

Way in which it was averted -- Change our Path -- Summer --

Fever -- Beehives and the Honey-guide -- Instinct of Trees --

Climbers -- The Ox Sinbad -- Absence of Thorns in the Forests --

Plant peculiar to a forsaken Garden -- Bad Guides --

Insubordination suppressed -- Beset by Enemies -- A Robber Party --

More Troubles -- Detained by Ionga Panza -- His Village --

Annoyed by Bangala Traders -- My Men discouraged --

Their Determination and Precaution.

Chapter 19.

Guides prepaid -- Bark Canoes -- Deserted by Guides --

Mistakes respecting the Coanza -- Feelings of freed Slaves --

Gardens and Villages -- Native Traders -- A Grave -- Valley of the Quango --

Bamboo -- White Larvae used as Food -- Bashinje Insolence --

A posing Question -- The Chief Sansawe -- His Hostility --

Pass him safely -- The River Quango -- Chief's mode of dressing his Hair --

Opposition -- Opportune Aid by Cypriano -- His generous Hospitality --

Ability of Half-castes to read and write -- Books and Images --

Marauding Party burned in the Grass -- Arrive at Cassange -- A good Supper

-- Kindness of Captain Neves -- Portuguese Curiosity and Questions --

Anniversary of the Resurrection -- No Prejudice against Color --

Country around Cassange -- Sell Sekeletu's Ivory -- Makololo's Surprise

at the high Price obtained -- Proposal to return Home, and Reasons --

Soldier-guide -- Hill Kasala -- Tala Mungongo, Village of --

Civility of Basongo -- True Negroes -- A Field of Wheat --

Carriers -- Sleeping-places -- Fever -- Enter District of Ambaca --

Good Fruits of Jesuit Teaching -- The `Tampan'; its Bite --

Universal Hospitality of the Portuguese -- A Tale of the Mambari --

Exhilarating Effects of Highland Scenery -- District of Golungo Alto --

Want of good Roads -- Fertility -- Forests of gigantic Timber --

Native Carpenters -- Coffee Estate -- Sterility of Country near the Coast --

Mosquitoes -- Fears of the Makololo -- Welcome by Mr. Gabriel to Loanda.

Chapter 20.

Continued Sickness -- Kindness of the Bishop of Angola

and her Majesty's Officers -- Mr. Gabriel's unwearied Hospitality --

Serious Deportment of the Makololo -- They visit Ships of War --

Politeness of the Officers and Men -- The Makololo attend Mass

in the Cathedral -- Their Remarks -- Find Employment

in collecting Firewood and unloading Coal -- Their superior Judgment

respecting Goods -- Beneficial Influence of the Bishop of Angola --

The City of St. Paul de Loanda -- The Harbor -- Custom-house --

No English Merchants -- Sincerity of the Portuguese Government

in suppressing the Slave-trade -- Convict Soldiers --

Presents from Bishop and Merchants for Sekeletu -- Outfit -- Leave Loanda

20th September, 1854 -- Accompanied by Mr. Gabriel as far as Icollo i Bengo

-- Sugar Manufactory -- Geology of this part of the Country --

Women spinning Cotton -- Its Price -- Native Weavers -- Market-places --

Cazengo; its Coffee Plantations -- South American Trees --

Ruins of Iron Foundry -- Native Miners -- The Banks of the Lucalla --

Cottages with Stages -- Tobacco-plants -- Town of Massangano --

Sugar and Rice -- Superior District for Cotton -- Portuguese Merchants

and foreign Enterprise -- Ruins -- The Fort and its ancient Guns --

Former Importance of Massangano -- Fires -- The Tribe Kisama --

Peculiar Variety of Domestic Fowl -- Coffee Plantations --

Return to Golungo Alto -- Self-complacency of the Makololo --

Fever -- Jaundice -- Insanity.

Chapter 21.

Visit a deserted Convent -- Favorable Report of Jesuits and their Teaching

-- Gradations of native Society -- Punishment of Thieves --

Palm-toddy; its baneful Effects -- Freemasons -- Marriages and Funerals --

Litigation -- Mr. Canto's Illness -- Bad Behavior of his Slaves --

An Entertainment -- Ideas on Free Labor -- Loss of American Cotton-seed --

Abundance of Cotton in the country -- Sickness of Sekeletu's Horse --

Eclipse of the Sun -- Insects which distill Water --

Experiments with them -- Proceed to Ambaca -- Sickly Season --

Office of Commandant -- Punishment of official Delinquents --

Present from Mr. Schut of Loanda -- Visit Pungo Andongo --

Its good Pasturage, Grain, Fruit, etc. -- The Fort and columnar Rocks --

The Queen of Jinga -- Salubrity of Pungo Andongo -- Price of a Slave --

A Merchant-prince -- His Hospitality -- Hear of the Loss of my Papers

in "Forerunner" -- Narrow Escape from an Alligator --

Ancient Burial-places -- Neglect of Agriculture in Angola --

Manioc the staple Product -- Its Cheapness -- Sickness --

Friendly Visit from a colored Priest -- The Prince of Congo --

No Priests in the Interior of Angola.

Chapter 22.

Leave Pungo Andongo -- Extent of Portuguese Power --

Meet Traders and Carriers -- Red Ants; their fierce Attack;

Usefulness; Numbers -- Descend the Heights of Tala Mungongo --

Fruit-trees in the Valley of Cassange -- Edible Muscle --

Birds -- Cassange Village -- Quinine and Cathory --

Sickness of Captain Neves' Infant -- A Diviner thrashed --

Death of the Child -- Mourning -- Loss of Life from the Ordeal --

Wide-spread Superstitions -- The Chieftainship -- Charms --

Receive Copies of the "Times" -- Trading Pombeiros --

Present for Matiamvo -- Fever after westerly Winds -- Capabilities of Angola

for producing the raw Materials of English Manufacture --

Trading Parties with Ivory -- More Fever -- A Hyaena's Choice --

Makololo Opinion of the Portuguese -- Cypriano's Debt -- A Funeral --

Dread of disembodied Spirits -- Beautiful Morning Scenes --

Crossing the Quango -- Ambakistas called "The Jews of Angola" --

Fashions of the Bashinje -- Approach the Village of Sansawe --

His Idea of Dignity -- The Pombeiros' Present -- Long Detention --

A Blow on the Beard -- Attacked in a Forest -- Sudden Conversion

of a fighting Chief to Peace Principles by means of a Revolver --

No Blood shed in consequence -- Rate of Traveling -- Slave Women --

Way of addressing Slaves -- Their thievish Propensities --

Feeders of the Congo or Zaire -- Obliged to refuse Presents --

Cross the Loajima -- Appearance of People; Hair Fashions.

Chapter 23.

Make a Detour southward -- Peculiarities of the Inhabitants --

Scarcity of Animals -- Forests -- Geological Structure of the Country --

Abundance and Cheapness of Food near the Chihombo -- A Slave lost --

The Makololo Opinion of Slaveholders -- Funeral Obsequies in Cabango --

Send a Sketch of the Country to Mr. Gabriel -- Native Information

respecting the Kasai and Quango -- The Trade with Luba --

Drainage of Londa -- Report of Matiamvo's Country and Government --

Senhor Faria's Present to a Chief -- The Balonda Mode of spending Time --

Faithless Guide -- Makololo lament the Ignorance of the Balonda --

Eagerness of the Villagers for Trade -- Civility of a Female Chief --

The Chief Bango and his People -- Refuse to eat Beef -- Ambition of Africans

to have a Village -- Winters in the Interior -- Spring at Kolobeng --

White Ants: "Never could desire to eat any thing better" --

Young Herbage and Animals -- Valley of the Loembwe --

The white Man a Hobgoblin -- Specimen of Quarreling --

Eager Desire for Calico -- Want of Clothing at Kawawa's --

Funeral Observances -- Agreeable Intercourse with Kawawa --

His impudent Demand -- Unpleasant Parting -- Kawawa tries to prevent

our crossing the River Kasai -- Stratagem.

Chapter 24.

Level Plains -- Vultures and other Birds -- Diversity of Color in Flowers

of the same Species -- The Sundew -- Twenty-seventh Attack of Fever --

A River which flows in opposite Directions -- Lake Dilolo the Watershed

between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans -- Position of Rocks --

Sir Roderick Murchison's Explanation -- Characteristics of the Rainy Season

in connection with the Floods of the Zambesi and the Nile --

Probable Reason of Difference in Amount of Rain South and North

of the Equator -- Arab Reports of Region east of Londa --

Probable Watershed of the Zambesi and the Nile -- Lake Dilolo --

Reach Katema's Town: his renewed Hospitality; desire to appear

like a White Man; ludicrous Departure -- Jackdaws --

Ford southern Branch of Lake Dilolo -- Small Fish -- Project for

a Makololo Village near the Confluence of the Leeba and the Leeambye --

Hearty Welcome from Shinte -- Kolimbota's Wound --

Plant-seeds and Fruit-trees brought from Angola --

Masiko and Limboa's Quarrel -- Nyamoana now a Widow --

Purchase Canoes and descend the Leeba -- Herds of wild Animals on its Banks

-- Unsuccessful Buffalo-hunt -- Frogs -- Sinbad and the Tsetse --

Dispatch a Message to Manenko -- Arrival of her Husband Sambanza --

The Ceremony called Kasendi -- Unexpected Fee for performing

a surgical Operation -- Social Condition of the Tribes --

Desertion of Mboenga -- Stratagem of Mambowe Hunters -- Water-turtles --

Charged by a Buffalo -- Reception from the People of Libonta --

Explain the Causes of our long Delay -- Pitsane's Speech --

Thanksgiving Services -- Appearance of my "Braves" --

Wonderful Kindness of the People.

Chapter 25.

Colony of Birds called Linkololo -- The Village of Chitlane --

Murder of Mpololo's Daughter -- Execution of the Murderer and his Wife --

My Companions find that their Wives have married other Husbands --

Sunday -- A Party from Masiko -- Freedom of Speech -- Canoe struck

by a Hippopotamus -- Gonye -- Appearance of Trees at the end of Winter --

Murky Atmosphere -- Surprising Amount of organic Life --

Hornets -- The Packages forwarded by Mr. Moffat --

Makololo Suspicions and Reply to the Matebele who brought them --

Convey the Goods to an Island and build a Hut over them -- Ascertain that

Sir R. Murchison had recognized the true Form of African Continent --

Arrival at Linyanti -- A grand Picho -- Shrewd Inquiry --

Sekeletu in his Uniform -- A Trading-party sent to Loanda with Ivory --

Mr. Gabriel's Kindness to them -- Difficulties in Trading --

Two Makololo Forays during our Absence -- Report of the Country to the N.E.

-- Death of influential Men -- The Makololo desire to be nearer the Market

-- Opinions upon a Change of Residence -- Climate of Barotse Valley --

Diseases -- Author's Fevers not a fair Criterion in the Matter --

The Interior an inviting Field for the Philanthropist -- Consultations about

a Path to the East Coast -- Decide on descending North Bank of Zambesi --

Wait for the Rainy Season -- Native way of spending Time during the period

of greatest Heat -- Favorable Opening for Missionary Enterprise --

Ben Habib wishes to marry -- A Maiden's Choice -- Sekeletu's Hospitality --

Sulphureted Hydrogen and Malaria -- Conversations with Makololo --

Their moral Character and Conduct -- Sekeletu wishes to purchase

a Sugar-mill, etc. -- The Donkeys -- Influence among the Natives --

"Food fit for a Chief" -- Parting Words of Mamire -- Motibe's Excuses.

Chapter 26.

Departure from Linyanti -- A Thunder-storm -- An Act of genuine Kindness --

Fitted out a second time by the Makololo -- Sail down the Leeambye --

Sekote's Kotla and human Skulls; his Grave adorned with Elephants' Tusks --

Victoria Falls -- Native Names -- Columns of Vapor -- Gigantic Crack --

Wear of the Rocks -- Shrines of the Barimo -- "The Pestle of the Gods" --

Second Visit to the Falls -- Island Garden -- Store-house Island --

Native Diviners -- A European Diviner -- Makololo Foray --

Marauder to be fined -- Mambari -- Makololo wish to stop

Mambari Slave-trading -- Part with Sekeletu -- Night Traveling --

River Lekone -- Ancient fresh-water Lakes -- Formation of Lake Ngami --

Native Traditions -- Drainage of the Great Valley --

Native Reports of the Country to the North -- Maps -- Moyara's Village --

Savage Customs of the Batoka -- A Chain of Trading Stations --

Remedy against Tsetse -- "The Well of Joy" -- First Traces of Trade

with Europeans -- Knocking out the front Teeth -- Facetious Explanation --

Degradation of the Batoka -- Description of the Traveling Party --

Cross the Unguesi -- Geological Formation -- Ruins of a large Town --

Productions of the Soil similar to those in Angola -- Abundance of Fruit.

Chapter 27.

Low Hills -- Black Soldier-Ants; their Cannibalism --

The Plasterer and its Chloroform -- White Ants; their Usefulness --

Mutokwane-smoking; its Effects -- Border Territory --

Healthy Table-lands -- Geological Formation -- Cicadae --

Trees -- Flowers -- River Kalomo -- Physical Conformation of Country --

Ridges, sanatoria -- A wounded Buffalo assisted -- Buffalo-bird --

Rhinoceros-bird -- Leaders of Herds -- The Honey-guide --

The White Mountain -- Mozuma River -- Sebituane's old Home --

Hostile Village -- Prophetic Phrensy -- Food of the Elephant --

Ant-hills -- Friendly Batoka -- Clothing despised -- Method of Salutation --

Wild Fruits -- The Captive released -- Longings for Peace --

Pingola's Conquests -- The Village of Monze -- Aspect of the Country --

Visit from the Chief Monze and his Wife -- Central healthy Locations --

Friendly Feelings of the People in reference to a white Resident --

Fertility of the Soil -- Bashukulompo Mode of dressing their Hair --

Gratitude of the Prisoner we released -- Kindness and Remarks

of Monze's Sister -- Dip of the Rocks -- Vegetation --

Generosity of the Inhabitants -- Their Anxiety for Medicine --

Hooping-cough -- Birds and Rain.

Chapter 28.

Beautiful Valley -- Buffalo -- My young Men kill two Elephants --

The Hunt -- Mode of measuring Height of live Elephants --

Wild Animals smaller here than in the South, though their Food

is more abundant -- The Elephant a dainty Feeder -- Semalembue --

His Presents -- Joy in prospect of living in Peace -- Trade --

His People's way of wearing their Hair -- Their Mode of Salutation --

Old Encampment -- Sebituane's former Residence -- Ford of Kafue --

Hippopotami -- Hills and Villages -- Geological Formation --

Prodigious Quantities of large Game -- Their Tameness -- Rains --

Less Sickness than in the Journey to Loanda -- Reason --

Charge from an Elephant -- Vast Amount of animal Life on the Zambesi --

Water of River discolored -- An Island with Buffaloes and Men on it --

Native Devices for killing Game -- Tsetse now in Country --

Agricultural Industry -- An Albino murdered by his Mother --

"Guilty of Tlolo" -- Women who make their Mouths "like those of Ducks" --

First Symptom of the Slave-trade on this side -- Selole's Hostility --

An armed Party hoaxed -- An Italian Marauder slain --

Elephant's Tenacity of Life -- A Word to young Sportsmen --

Mr. Oswell's Adventure with an Elephant; narrow Escape --

Mburuma's Village -- Suspicious Conduct of his People --

Guides attempt to detain us -- The Village and People of Ma Mburuma --

Character our Guides give of us.

Chapter 29.

Confluence of Loangwa and Zambesi -- Hostile Appearances --

Ruins of a Church -- Turmoil of Spirit -- Cross the River --

Friendly Parting -- Ruins of stone Houses -- The Situation of Zumbo

for Commerce -- Pleasant Gardens -- Dr. Lacerda's Visit to Cazembe --

Pereira's Statement -- Unsuccessful Attempt to establish Trade

with the People of Cazembe -- One of my Men tossed by a Buffalo --

Meet a Man with Jacket and Hat on -- Hear of the Portuguese and native War

-- Holms and Terraces on the Banks of a River -- Dancing for Corn --

Beautiful Country -- Mpende's Hostility -- Incantations --

A Fight anticipated -- Courage and Remarks of my Men --

Visit from two old Councilors of Mpende -- Their Opinion of the English --

Mpende concludes not to fight us -- His subsequent Friendship --

Aids us to cross the River -- The Country -- Sweet Potatoes --

Bakwain Theory of Rain confirmed -- Thunder without Clouds --

Desertion of one of my Men -- Other Natives' Ideas of the English --

Dalama (gold) -- Inhabitants dislike Slave-buyers --

Meet native Traders with American Calico -- Game-laws --

Elephant Medicine -- Salt from the Sand -- Fertility of Soil --

Spotted Hyaena -- Liberality and Politeness of the People --

Presents -- A stingy white Trader -- Natives' Remarks about him --

Effect on their Minds -- Rain and Wind now from an opposite Direction --

Scarcity of Fuel -- Trees for Boat-building -- Boroma --

Freshets -- Leave the River -- Chicova, its Geological Features --

Small Rapid near Tete -- Loquacious Guide -- Nyampungo, the Rain-charmer --

An old Man -- No Silver -- Gold-washing -- No Cattle.

Chapter 30.

An Elephant-hunt -- Offering and Prayers to the Barimo for Success --

Native Mode of Expression -- Working of Game-laws -- A Feast --

Laughing Hyaenas -- Numerous Insects -- Curious Notes of Birds of Song --

Caterpillars -- Butterflies -- Silica -- The Fruit Makoronga and Elephants

-- Rhinoceros Adventure -- Korwe Bird -- Its Nest -- A real Confinement --

Honey and Beeswax -- Superstitious Reverence for the Lion --

Slow Traveling -- Grapes -- The Ue -- Monina's Village --

Native Names -- Government of the Banyai -- Electing a Chief --

Youths instructed in "Bonyai" -- Suspected of Falsehood --

War-dance -- Insanity and Disappearance of Monahin -- Fruitless Search --

Monina's Sympathy -- The Sand-river Tangwe -- The Ordeal Muavi:

its Victims -- An unreasonable Man -- "Woman's Rights" --

Presents -- Temperance -- A winding Course to shun Villages --

Banyai Complexion and Hair -- Mushrooms -- The Tubers, Mokuri --

The Tree Shekabakadzi -- Face of the Country -- Pot-holes --

Pursued by a Party of Natives -- Unpleasant Threat --

Aroused by a Company of Soldiers -- A civilized Breakfast --

Arrival at Tete.

Chapter 31.

Kind Reception from the Commandant -- His Generosity to my Men --

The Village of Tete -- The Population -- Distilled Spirits --

The Fort -- Cause of the Decadence of Portuguese Power --

Former Trade -- Slaves employed in Gold-washing -- Slave-trade drained

the Country of Laborers -- The Rebel Nyaude's Stockade -- He burns Tete --

Kisaka's Revolt and Ravages -- Extensive Field of Sugar-cane --

The Commandant's good Reputation among the Natives --

Providential Guidance -- Seams of Coal -- A hot Spring --

Picturesque Country -- Water-carriage to the Coal-fields --

Workmen's Wages -- Exports -- Price of Provisions -- Visit Gold-washings --

The Process of obtaining the precious Metal -- Coal within a Gold-field --

Present from Major Sicard -- Natives raise Wheat, etc. --

Liberality of the Commandant -- Geographical Information

from Senhor Candido -- Earthquakes -- Native Ideas of a Supreme Being --

Also of the Immortality and Transmigration of Souls -- Fondness for Display

at Funerals -- Trade Restrictions -- Former Jesuit Establishment --

State of Religion and Education at Tete -- Inundation of the Zambesi --

Cotton cultivated -- The fibrous Plants Conge and Buaze --

Detained by Fever -- The Kumbanzo Bark -- Native Medicines -- Iron,

its Quality -- Hear of Famine at Kilimane -- Death of a Portuguese Lady --

The Funeral -- Disinterested Kindness of the Portuguese.

Chapter 32.

Leave Tete and proceed down the River -- Pass the Stockade of Bonga --

Gorge of Lupata -- "Spine of the World" -- Width of River --

Islands -- War Drum at Shiramba -- Canoe Navigation -- Reach Senna --

Its ruinous State -- Landeens levy Fines upon the Inhabitants --

Cowardice of native Militia -- State of the Revenue -- No direct Trade

with Portugal -- Attempts to revive the Trade of Eastern Africa --

Country round Senna -- Gorongozo, a Jesuit Station --

Manica, the best Gold Region in Eastern Africa -- Boat-building at Senna --

Our Departure -- Capture of a Rebel Stockade -- Plants Alfacinya and Njefu

at the Confluence of the Shire -- Landeen Opinion of the Whites --

Mazaro, the point reached by Captain Parker -- His Opinion

respecting the Navigation of the River from this to the Ocean --

Lieutenant Hoskins' Remarks on the same subject -- Fever, its Effects --

Kindly received into the House of Colonel Nunes at Kilimane --

Forethought of Captain Nolloth and Dr. Walsh -- Joy imbittered --

Deep Obligations to the Earl of Clarendon, etc. -- On developing

Resources of the Interior -- Desirableness of Missionary Societies

selecting healthy Stations -- Arrangements on leaving my Men --

Retrospect -- Probable Influence of the Discoveries on Slavery --

Supply of Cotton, Sugar, etc., by Free Labor -- Commercial Stations --

Development of the Resources of Africa a Work of Time -- Site of Kilimane --

Unhealthiness -- Death of a shipwrecked Crew from Fever --

The Captain saved by Quinine -- Arrival of H. M. Brig "Frolic" --

Anxiety of one of my Men to go to England -- Rough Passage in the Boats

to the Ship -- Sekwebu's Alarm -- Sail for Mauritius -- Sekwebu on board;

he becomes insane; drowns himself -- Kindness of Major-General C. M. Hay --

Escape Shipwreck -- Reach Home.

Appendix. -- Latitudes and Longitudes of Positions.

Appendix. -- Book Review in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, February, 1858.

Appendix. -- Notes to etext.

--------------------------------------------------

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa.

--------------------------------------------------

Introduction.

Personal Sketch -- Highland Ancestors -- Family Traditions --

Grandfather removes to the Lowlands -- Parents -- Early Labors and Efforts

-- Evening School -- Love of Reading -- Religious Impressions --

Medical Education -- Youthful Travels -- Geology -- Mental Discipline --

Study in Glasgow -- London Missionary Society -- Native Village --

Medical Diploma -- Theological Studies -- Departure for Africa --

No Claim to Literary Accomplishments.

My own inclination would lead me to say as little as possible about myself;

but several friends, in whose judgment I have confidence,

have suggested that, as the reader likes to know something about the author,

a short account of his origin and early life would lend additional interest

to this book. Such is my excuse for the following egotism;

and, if an apology be necessary for giving a genealogy,

I find it in the fact that it is not very long, and contains only one incident

of which I have reason to be proud.

Our great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, fighting for

the old line of kings; and our grandfather was a small farmer in Ulva,

where my father was born. It is one of that cluster of the Hebrides

thus alluded to by Walter Scott:

"And Ulva dark, and Colonsay,

And all the group of islets gay

That guard famed Staffa round."*

* Lord of the Isles, canto 4.

Our grandfather was intimately acquainted with all the traditionary legends

which that great writer has since made use of in the "Tales of a Grandfather"

and other works. As a boy I remember listening to him with delight,

for his memory was stored with a never-ending stock of stories,

many of which were wonderfully like those I have since heard

while sitting by the African evening fires. Our grandmother, too,

used to sing Gaelic songs, some of which, as she believed, had been composed

by captive islanders languishing hopelessly among the Turks.

Grandfather could give particulars of the lives of his ancestors for

six generations of the family before him; and the only point of the tradition

I feel proud of is this: One of these poor hardy islanders

was renowned in the district for great wisdom and prudence;

and it is related that, when he was on his death-bed,

he called all his children around him and said, "Now, in my lifetime,

I have searched most carefully through all the traditions

I could find of our family, and I never could discover

that there was a dishonest man among our forefathers. If, therefore,

any of you or any of your children should take to dishonest ways,

it will not be because it runs in our blood: it does not belong to you.

I leave this precept with you: Be honest." If, therefore,

in the following pages I fall into any errors, I hope they will be dealt with

as honest mistakes, and not as indicating that I have forgotten

our ancient motto. This event took place at a time when the Highlanders,

according to Macaulay, were much like the Cape Caffres,

and any one, it was said, could escape punishment for cattle-stealing

by presenting a share of the plunder to his chieftain.

Our ancestors were Roman Catholics; they were made Protestants

by the laird coming round with a man having a yellow staff,

which would seem to have attracted more attention than his teaching,

for the new religion went long afterward, perhaps it does so still,

by the name of "the religion of the yellow stick".

Finding his farm in Ulva insufficient to support a numerous family,

my grandfather removed to Blantyre Works, a large cotton manufactory

on the beautiful Clyde, above Glasgow; and his sons,

having had the best education the Hebrides afforded,

were gladly received as clerks by the proprietors, Monteith and Co.

He himself, highly esteemed for his unflinching honesty, was employed

in the conveyance of large sums of money from Glasgow to the works,

and in old age was, according to the custom of that company, pensioned off,

so as to spend his declining years in ease and comfort.

Our uncles all entered his majesty's service during the last French war,

either as soldiers or sailors; but my father remained at home,

and, though too conscientious ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer,

by his kindliness of manner and winning ways he made the heart-strings

of his children twine around him as firmly as if he had possessed,

and could have bestowed upon them, every worldly advantage.

He reared his children in connection with the Kirk of Scotland --

a religious establishment which has been an incalculable blessing

to that country -- but he afterward left it, and during the last

twenty years of his life held the office of deacon of an independent church

in Hamilton, and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting me,

from my infancy, with a continuously consistent pious example,

such as that ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully portrayed

in Burns's "Cottar's Saturday Night". He died in February, 1856,

in peaceful hope of that mercy which we all expect through

the death of our Lord and Savior. I was at the time on my way below Zumbo,

expecting no greater pleasure in this country than sitting by our cottage fire

and telling him my travels. I revere his memory.

The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often seen

among the Scottish poor -- that of the anxious housewife striving to make

both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put into the factory as a "piecer",

to aid by my earnings in lessening her anxiety. With a part

of my first week's wages I purchased Ruddiman's "Rudiments of Latin",

and pursued the study of that language for many years afterward,

with unabated ardor, at an evening school, which met between

the hours of eight and ten. The dictionary part of my labors

was followed up till twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere

by jumping up and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be

back in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my work,

with intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night.

I read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil and Horace

better at sixteen than I do now. Our schoolmaster -- happily still alive --

was supported in part by the company; he was attentive and kind,

and so moderate in his charges that all who wished for education

might have obtained it. Many availed themselves of the privilege;

and some of my schoolfellows now rank in positions far above

what they appeared ever likely to come to when in the village school.

If such a system were established in England, it would prove

a never-ending blessing to the poor.

In reading, every thing that I could lay my hands on was devoured

except novels. Scientific works and books of travels

were my especial delight; though my father, believing,

with many of his time who ought to have known better, that the former

were inimical to religion, would have preferred to have seen me

poring over the "Cloud of Witnesses", or Boston's "Fourfold State".

Our difference of opinion reached the point of open rebellion on my part,

and his last application of the rod was on my refusal to peruse Wilberforce's

"Practical Christianity". This dislike to dry doctrinal reading,

and to religious reading of every sort, continued for years afterward;

but having lighted on those admirable works of Dr. Thomas Dick,

"The Philosophy of Religion" and "The Philosophy of a Future State",

it was gratifying to find my own ideas, that religion and science

are not hostile, but friendly to each other, fully proved and enforced.

Great pains had been taken by my parents to instill the doctrines

of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in understanding

the theory of our free salvation by the atonement of our Savior, but it was

only about this time that I really began to feel the necessity and value

of a personal application of the provisions of that atonement to my own case.

The change was like what may be supposed would take place

were it possible to cure a case of "color blindness". The perfect freeness

with which the pardon of all our guilt is offered in God's book

drew forth feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us with his blood,

and a sense of deep obligation to Him for his mercy has influenced,

in some small measure, my conduct ever since. But I shall not again

refer to the inner spiritual life which I believe then began,

nor do I intend to specify with any prominence the evangelistic labors

to which the love of Christ has since impelled me. This book will speak,

not so much of what has been done, as of what still remains to be performed,

before the Gospel can be said to be preached to all nations.

In the glow of love which Christianity inspires, I soon resolved

to devote my life to the alleviation of human misery. Turning this idea over

in my mind, I felt that to be a pioneer of Christianity in China

might lead to the material benefit of some portions of that immense empire;

and therefore set myself to obtain a medical education,

in order to be qualified for that enterprise.

In recognizing the plants pointed out in my first medical book,

that extraordinary old work on astrological medicine, Culpeper's "Herbal",

I had the guidance of a book on the plants of Lanarkshire, by Patrick.

Limited as my time was, I found opportunities to scour the whole country-side,

"collecting simples". Deep and anxious were my studies

on the still deeper and more perplexing profundities of astrology,

and I believe I got as far into that abyss of phantasies as my author said

he dared to lead me. It seemed perilous ground to tread on farther,

for the dark hint seemed to my youthful mind to loom toward

"selling soul and body to the devil", as the price of the unfathomable

knowledge of the stars. These excursions, often in company with brothers,

one now in Canada, and the other a clergyman in the United States,

gratified my intense love of nature; and though we generally returned

so unmercifully hungry and fatigued that the embryo parson shed tears,

yet we discovered, to us, so many new and interesting things,

that he was always as eager to join us next time as he was the last.

On one of these exploring tours we entered a limestone quarry --

long before geology was so popular as it is now. It is impossible to describe

the delight and wonder with which I began to collect the shells found in

the carboniferous limestone which crops out in High Blantyre and Cambuslang.

A quarry-man, seeing a little boy so engaged, looked with that pitying eye

which the benevolent assume when viewing the insane. Addressing him with,

"How ever did these shells come into these rocks?" "When God made the rocks,

he made the shells in them," was the damping reply. What a deal of trouble

geologists might have saved themselves by adopting the Turk-like philosophy

of this Scotchman!

My reading while at work was carried on by placing the book

on a portion of the spinning-jenny, so that I could catch

sentence after sentence as I passed at my work; I thus kept up

a pretty constant study undisturbed by the roar of the machinery.

To this part of my education I owe my present power of completely abstracting

the mind from surrounding noises, so as to read and write with perfect comfort

amid the play of children or near the dancing and songs of savages.

The toil of cotton-spinning, to which I was promoted in my nineteenth year,

was excessively severe on a slim, loose-jointed lad, but it was well paid for;

and it enabled me to support myself while attending medical and Greek classes

in Glasgow in winter, as also the divinity lectures of Dr. Wardlaw,

by working with my hands in summer. I never received a farthing of aid

from any one, and should have accomplished my project of going to China

as a medical missionary, in the course of time, by my own efforts, had not

some friends advised my joining the London Missionary Society on account of

its perfectly unsectarian character. It "sends neither Episcopacy,

nor Presbyterianism, nor Independency, but the Gospel of Christ

to the heathen." This exactly agreed with my ideas of what

a missionary society ought to do; but it was not without a pang

that I offered myself, for it was not quite agreeable to one

accustomed to work his own way to become in a measure dependent on others;

and I would not have been much put about though my offer had been rejected.

Looking back now on that life of toil, I can not but feel thankful

that it formed such a material part of my early education;

and, were it possible, I should like to begin life over again

in the same lowly style, and to pass through the same hardy training.

Time and travel have not effaced the feelings of respect I imbibed

for the humble inhabitants of my native village. For morality, honesty,

and intelligence, they were, in general, good specimens of the Scottish poor.

In a population of more than two thousand souls, we had, of course,

a variety of character. In addition to the common run of men,

there were some characters of sterling worth and ability,

who exerted a most beneficial influence on the children and youth of the place

by imparting gratuitous religious instruction.* Much intelligent interest

was felt by the villagers in all public questions, and they furnished a proof

that the possession of the means of education did not render them

an unsafe portion of the population. They felt kindly toward each other,

and much respected those of the neighboring gentry who,

like the late Lord Douglas, placed some confidence in their sense of honor.

Through the kindness of that nobleman, the poorest among us

could stroll at pleasure over the ancient domains of Bothwell,

and other spots hallowed by the venerable associations of which

our school-books and local traditions made us well aware;

and few of us could view the dear memorials of the past

without feeling that these carefully kept monuments were our own.

The masses of the working-people of Scotland have read history,

and are no revolutionary levelers. They rejoice in the memories

of "Wallace and Bruce and a' the lave," who are still much revered

as the former champions of freedom. And while foreigners imagine

that we want the spirit only to overturn capitalists and aristocracy,

we are content to respect our laws till we can change them,

and hate those stupid revolutions which might sweep away

time-honored institutions, dear alike to rich and poor.

* The reader will pardon my mentioning the names of two of these

most worthy men -- David Hogg, who addressed me on his death-bed

with the words, "Now, lad, make religion the every-day business

of your life, and not a thing of fits and starts; for if you do not,

temptation and other things will get the better of you;"

and Thomas Burke, an old Forty-second Peninsula soldier,

who has been incessant and never weary in good works for about forty years.

I was delighted to find him still alive; men like these

are an honor to their country and profession.

Having finished the medical curriculum and presented a thesis on a subject

which required the use of the stethoscope for its diagnosis, I unwittingly

procured for myself an examination rather more severe and prolonged than usual

among examining bodies. The reason was, that between me and the examiners

a slight difference of opinion existed as to whether this instrument

could do what was asserted. The wiser plan would have been

to have had no opinion of my own. However, I was admitted

a Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. It was

with unfeigned delight I became a member of a profession

which is pre-eminently devoted to practical benevolence,

and which with unwearied energy pursues from age to age

its endeavors to lessen human woe.

But though now qualified for my original plan, the opium war was then raging,

and it was deemed inexpedient for me to proceed to China.

I had fondly hoped to have gained access to that then closed empire

by means of the healing art; but there being no prospect of an early peace

with the Chinese, and as another inviting field was opening out

through the labors of Mr. Moffat, I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa;

and after a more extended course of theological training in England

than I had enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840,

and, after a voyage of three months, reached Cape Town.

Spending but a short time there, I started for the interior

by going round to Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded inland,

and have spent the following sixteen years of my life,

namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary labors there

without cost to the inhabitants.

As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by habits of writing,

and which are so important to an author, my African life

has not only not been favorable to the growth of such accomplishments,

but quite the reverse; it has made composition irksome and laborious.

I think I would rather cross the African continent again

than undertake to write another book. It is far easier to travel

than to write about it. I intended on going to Africa to continue my studies;

but as I could not brook the idea of simply entering into other men's labors

made ready to my hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching,

manual labor in building and other handicraft work, which made me generally

as much exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings as ever I had been

when a cotton-spinner. The want of time for self-improvement

was the only source of regret that I experienced during my African career.

The reader, remembering this, will make allowances for the mere

gropings for light of a student who has the vanity to think himself

"not yet too old to learn". More precise information on several subjects

has necessarily been omitted in a popular work like the present;

but I hope to give such details to the scientific reader

through some other channel.

Chapter 1.

The Bakwain Country -- Study of the Language -- Native Ideas

regarding Comets -- Mabotsa Station -- A Lion Encounter --

Virus of the Teeth of Lions -- Names of the Bechuana Tribes --

Sechele -- His Ancestors -- Obtains the Chieftainship --

His Marriage and Government -- The Kotla -- First public Religious Services

-- Sechele's Questions -- He Learns to Read -- Novel mode

for Converting his Tribe -- Surprise at their Indifference --

Polygamy -- Baptism of Sechele -- Opposition of the Natives --

Purchase Land at Chonuane -- Relations with the People --

Their Intelligence -- Prolonged Drought -- Consequent Trials --

Rain-medicine -- God's Word blamed -- Native Reasoning -- Rain-maker --

Dispute between Rain Doctor and Medical Doctor -- The Hunting Hopo --

Salt or animal Food a necessary of Life -- Duties of a Missionary.

The general instructions I received from the Directors of the London

Missionary Society led me, as soon as I reached Kuruman or Lattakoo,

then, as it is now, their farthest inland station from the Cape,

to turn my attention to the north. Without waiting longer at Kuruman

than was necessary to recruit the oxen, which were pretty well tired

by the long journey from Algoa Bay, I proceeded, in company with

another missionary, to the Bakuena or Bakwain country,

and found Sechele, with his tribe, located at Shokuane.

We shortly after retraced our steps to Kuruman; but as the objects in view

were by no means to be attained by a temporary excursion of this sort,

I determined to make a fresh start into the interior as soon as possible.

Accordingly, after resting three months at Kuruman, which is

a kind of head station in the country, I returned to a spot

about fifteen miles south of Shokuane, called Lepelole (now Litubaruba).

Here, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the language,

I cut myself off from all European society for about six months,

and gained by this ordeal an insight into the habits, ways of thinking,

laws, and language of that section of the Bechuanas called Bakwains,

which has proved of incalculable advantage in my intercourse with them

ever since.

In this second journey to Lepelole -- so called from a cavern of that name --

I began preparations for a settlement, by making a canal to irrigate gardens,

from a stream then flowing copiously, but now quite dry.

When these preparations were well advanced, I went northward

to visit the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka,

living between 22 Degrees and 23 Degrees south latitude.

The Bakaa Mountains had been visited before by a trader,

who, with his people, all perished from fever. In going round

the northern part of these basaltic hills near Letloche

I was only ten days distant from the lower part of the Zouga,

which passed by the same name as Lake Ngami;* and I might then (in 1842)

have discovered that lake, had discovery alone been my object.

Most part of this journey beyond Shokuane was performed on foot,

in consequence of the draught oxen having become sick.

Some of my companions who had recently joined us, and did not know

that I understood a little of their speech, were overheard by me

discussing my appearance and powers: "He is not strong; he is quite slim,

and only appears stout because he puts himself into those bags (trowsers);

he will soon knock up." This caused my Highland blood to rise,

and made me despise the fatigue of keeping them all at the top of their speed

for days together, and until I heard them expressing

proper opinions of my pedestrian powers.

* Several words in the African languages begin with the ringing sound

heard in the end of the word "comING". If the reader puts an `i'

to the beginning of the name of the lake, as Ingami,

and then sounds the `i' as little as possible, he will have

the correct pronunciation. The Spanish n [ny] is employed

to denote this sound, and Ngami is spelt nyami -- naka means a tusk,

nyaka a doctor. Every vowel is sounded in all native words,

and the emphasis in pronunciation is put upon the penultimate.

Returning to Kuruman, in order to bring my luggage to our proposed settlement,

I was followed by the news that the tribe of Bakwains,

who had shown themselves so friendly toward me, had been driven from Lepelole

by the Barolongs, so that my prospects for the time

of forming a settlement there were at an end. One of those periodical

outbreaks of war, which seem to have occurred from time immemorial,

for the possession of cattle, had burst forth in the land,

and had so changed the relations of the tribes to each other,

that I was obliged to set out anew to look for a suitable locality

for a mission station.

In going north again, a comet blazed on our sight, exciting the wonder

of every tribe we visited. That of 1816 had been followed

by an irruption of the Matebele, the most cruel enemies

the Bechuanas ever knew, and this they thought might portend something as bad,

or it might only foreshadow the death of some great chief.

On this subject of comets I knew little more than they did themselves,

but I had that confidence in a kind, overruling Providence,

which makes such a difference between Christians and both

the ancient and modern heathen.

As some of the Bamangwato people had accompanied me to Kuruman,

I was obliged to restore them and their goods to their chief Sekomi.

This made a journey to the residence of that chief again necessary,

and, for the first time, I performed a distance of some hundred miles

on ox-back.

Returning toward Kuruman, I selected the beautiful valley of Mabotsa

(lat. 25d 14' south, long. 26d 30'?) as the site of a missionary station,

and thither I removed in 1843. Here an occurrence took place

concerning which I have frequently been questioned in England,

and which, but for the importunities of friends, I meant to have kept in store

to tell my children when in my dotage. The Bakatla of the village Mabotsa

were much troubled by lions, which leaped into the cattle-pens by night,

and destroyed their cows. They even attacked the herds in open day.

This was so unusual an occurrence that the people believed that

they were bewitched -- "given," as they said, "into the power of the lions

by a neighboring tribe." They went once to attack the animals,

but, being rather a cowardly people compared to Bechuanas in general

on such occasions, they returned without killing any.

It is well known that if one of a troop of lions is killed,

the others take the hint and leave that part of the country.

So, the next time the herds were attacked, I went with the people,

in order to encourage them to rid themselves of the annoyance

by destroying one of the marauders. We found the lions on a small hill

about a quarter of a mile in length, and covered with trees.

A circle of men was formed round it, and they gradually closed up,

ascending pretty near to each other. Being down below on the plain

with a native schoolmaster, named Mebalwe, a most excellent man,

I saw one of the lions sitting on a piece of rock within the now closed

circle of men. Mebalwe fired at him before I could, and the ball struck

the rock on which the animal was sitting. He bit at the spot struck,

as a dog does at a stick or stone thrown at him; then leaping away,

broke through the opening circle and escaped unhurt. The men were afraid

to attack him, perhaps on account of their belief in witchcraft.

When the circle was re-formed, we saw two other lions in it;

but we were afraid to fire lest we should strike the men,

and they allowed the beasts to burst through also. If the Bakatla had acted

according to the custom of the country, they would have speared the lions

in their attempt to get out. Seeing we could not get them

to kill one of the lions, we bent our footsteps toward the village;

in going round the end of the hill, however, I saw one of the beasts

sitting on a piece of rock as before, but this time he had a little bush

in front. Being about thirty yards off, I took a good aim at his body

through the bush, and fired both barrels into it. The men then called out,

"He is shot, he is shot!" Others cried, "He has been shot by another man too;

let us go to him!" I did not see any one else shoot at him,

but I saw the lion's tail erected in anger behind the bush,

and, turning to the people, said, "Stop a little, till I load again."

When in the act of ramming down the bullets, I heard a shout. Starting,

and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me.

I was upon a little height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both

came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear,

he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor

similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake

of the cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess, in which there was

no sense of pain nor feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all

that was happening. It was like what patients partially under

the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation,

but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any

mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror

in looking round at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced

in all animals killed by the carnivora; and if so, is a merciful provision

by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death. Turning round

to relieve myself of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my head,

I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe, who was trying to shoot him

at a distance of ten or fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one,

missed fire in both barrels; the lion immediately left me,

and, attacking Mebalwe, bit his thigh. Another man, whose life

I had saved before, after he had been tossed by a buffalo,

attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe.

He left Mebalwe and caught this man by the shoulder, but at that moment

the bullets he had received took effect, and he fell down dead.

The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been

his paroxysms of dying rage. In order to take out the charm from him,

the Bakatla on the following day made a huge bonfire over the carcass,

which was declared to be that of the largest lion they had ever seen.

Besides crunching the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds

on the upper part of my arm.

A wound from this animal's tooth resembles a gun-shot wound;

it is generally followed by a great deal of sloughing and discharge,

and pains are felt in the part periodically ever afterward.

I had on a tartan jacket on the occasion, and I believe

that it wiped off all the virus from the teeth that pierced the flesh,

for my two companions in this affray have both suffered

from the peculiar pains, while I have escaped with only the inconvenience

of a false joint in my limb. The man whose shoulder was wounded showed me

his wound actually burst forth afresh on the same month of the following year.

This curious point deserves the attention of inquirers.

The different Bechuana tribes are named after certain animals,

showing probably that in former times they were addicted to animal-worship

like the ancient Egyptians. The term Bakatla means "they of the monkey";

Bakuena, "they of the alligator"; Batlapi, "they of the fish": each tribe

having a superstitious dread of the animal after which it is called.

They also use the word "bina", to dance, in reference to

the custom of thus naming themselves, so that, when you wish to ascertain

what tribe they belong to, you say, "What do you dance?"

It would seem as if that had been a part of the worship of old.

A tribe never eats the animal which is its namesake,

using the term "ila", hate or dread, in reference to killing it.

We find traces of many ancient tribes in the country in individual members

of those now extinct, as the Batau, "they of the lion";

the Banoga, "they of the serpent"; though no such tribes now exist.

The use of the personal pronoun they, Ba-Ma, Wa, Va or Ova, Am-Ki, &c.,

prevails very extensively in the names of tribes in Africa.

A single individual is indicated by the terms Mo or Le.

Thus Mokwain is a single person of the Bakwain tribe,

and Lekoa is a single white man or Englishman -- Makoa being Englishmen.

I attached myself to the tribe called Bakuena or Bakwains, the chief of which,

named Sechele, was then living with his people at a place called Shokuane.

I was from the first struck by his intelligence, and by the marked manner

in which we both felt drawn to each other. As this remarkable man

has not only embraced Christianity, but expounds its doctrines to his people,

I will here give a brief sketch of his career.

His great-grandfather Mochoasele was a great traveler,

and the first that ever told the Bakwains of the existence of white men.

In his father's lifetime two white travelers, whom I suppose to have been

Dr. Cowan and Captain Donovan, passed through the country (in 1808),

and, descending the River Limpopo, were, with their party,

all cut off by fever. The rain-makers there, fearing lest their wagons

might drive away the rain, ordered them to be thrown into the river.

This is the true account of the end of that expedition,

as related to me by the son of the chief at whose village they perished.

He remembered, when a boy, eating part of one of the horses,

and said it tasted like zebra's flesh. Thus they were not killed

by the Bangwaketse, as reported, for they passed the Bakwains all well.

The Bakwains were then rich in cattle; and as one of the many evidences

of the desiccation of the country, streams are pointed out

where thousands and thousands of cattle formerly drank,

but in which water now never flows, and where a single herd

could not find fluid for its support.

When Sechele was still a boy, his father, also called Mochoasele,

was murdered by his own people for taking to himself

the wives of his rich under-chiefs. The children being spared,

their friends invited Sebituane, the chief of the Makololo,

who was then in those parts, to reinstate them in the chieftainship.

Sebituane surrounded the town of the Bakwains by night;

and just as it began to dawn, his herald proclaimed in a loud voice

that he had come to revenge the death of Mochoasele. This was followed

by Sebituane's people beating loudly on their shields all round the town.

The panic was tremendous, and the rush like that from a theatre on fire,

while the Makololo used their javelins on the terrified Bakwains

with a dexterity which they alone can employ. Sebituane had given orders

to his men to spare the sons of the chief; and one of them, meeting Sechele,

put him in ward by giving him such a blow on the head with a club

as to render him insensible. The usurper was put to death;

and Sechele, reinstated in his chieftainship, felt much attached to Sebituane.

The circumstances here noticed ultimately led me, as will be seen by-and-by,

into the new, well-watered country to which this same Sebituane

had preceded me by many years.

Sechele married the daughters of three of his under-chiefs, who had,

on account of their blood relationship, stood by him in his adversity.

This is one of the modes adopted for cementing the allegiance of a tribe.

The government is patriarchal, each man being, by virtue of paternity,

chief of his own children. They build their huts around his,

and the greater the number of children, the more his importance increases.

Hence children are esteemed one of the greatest blessings,

and are always treated kindly. Near the centre of each circle of huts

there is a spot called a "kotla", with a fireplace; here they work, eat,

or sit and gossip over the news of the day. A poor man attaches himself

to the kotla of a rich one, and is considered a child of the latter.

An under-chief has a number of these circles around his;

and the collection of kotlas around the great one in the middle of the whole,

that of the principal chief, constitutes the town. The circle of huts

immediately around the kotla of the chief is composed of

the huts of his wives and those of his blood relations.

He attaches the under-chiefs to himself and his government by marrying,

as Sechele did, their daughters, or inducing his brothers to do so.

They are fond of the relationship to great families.

If you meet a party of strangers, and the head man's relationship

to some uncle of a certain chief is not at once proclaimed by his attendants,

you may hear him whispering, "Tell him who I am." This usually involves

a counting on the fingers of a part of his genealogical tree,

and ends in the important announcement that the head of the party

is half-cousin to some well-known ruler.

Sechele was thus seated in his chieftainship when I made his acquaintance.

On the first occasion in which I ever attempted to hold

a public religious service, he remarked that it was the custom of his nation,

when any new subject was brought before them, to put questions on it;

and he begged me to allow him to do the same in this case.

On expressing my entire willingness to answer his questions, he inquired

if my forefathers knew of a future judgment. I replied in the affirmative,

and began to describe the scene of the "great white throne,

and Him who shall sit on it, from whose face the heaven and earth

shall flee away," &c. He said, "You startle me: these words

make all my bones to shake; I have no more strength in me;

but my forefathers were living at the same time yours were, and how is it

that they did not send them word about these terrible things sooner?

They all passed away into darkness without knowing whither they were going."

I got out of the difficulty by explaining the geographical barriers

in the North, and the gradual spread of knowledge from the South,

to which we first had access by means of ships; and I expressed

my belief that, as Christ had said, the whole world would yet be enlightened

by the Gospel. Pointing to the great Kalahari desert,

he said, "You never can cross that country to the tribes beyond;

it is utterly impossible even for us black men, except in certain seasons,

when more than the usual supply of rain falls, and an extraordinary

growth of watermelons follows. Even we who know the country

would certainly perish without them." Reasserting my belief

in the words of Christ, we parted; and it will be seen farther on

that Sechele himself assisted me in crossing that desert which had previously

proved an insurmountable barrier to so many adventurers.

As soon as he had an opportunity of learning, he set himself to read

with such close application that, from being comparatively thin,

the effect of having been fond of the chase, he became quite corpulent

from want of exercise. Mr. Oswell gave him his first lesson in figures,

and he acquired the alphabet on the first day of my residence at Chonuane.

He was by no means an ordinary specimen of the people,

for I never went into the town but I was pressed to hear him read

some chapters of the Bible. Isaiah was a great favorite with him;

and he was wont to use the same phrase nearly which the professor of Greek

at Glasgow, Sir D. K. Sandford, once used respecting the Apostle Paul,

when reading his speeches in the Acts: "He was a fine fellow, that Paul!"

"He was a fine man, that Isaiah; he knew how to speak." Sechele invariably

offered me something to eat on every occasion of my visiting him.

Seeing me anxious that his people should believe the words of Christ,

he once said, "Do you imagine these people will ever believe

by your merely talking to them? I can make them do nothing

except by thrashing them; and if you like, I shall call my head men,

and with our litupa (whips of rhinoceros hide) we will soon make them all

believe together." The idea of using entreaty and persuasion to subjects

to become Christians -- whose opinion on no other matter

would he condescend to ask -- was especially surprising to him.

He considered that they ought only to be too happy to embrace Christianity

at his command. During the space of two years and a half he continued

to profess to his people his full conviction of the truth of Christianity;

and in all discussions on the subject he took that side,

acting at the same time in an upright manner in all the relations of life.

He felt the difficulties of his situation long before I did,

and often said, "Oh, I wish you had come to this country

before I became entangled in the meshes of our customs!" In fact,

he could not get rid of his superfluous wives, without appearing to be

ungrateful to their parents, who had done so much for him in his adversity.

In the hope that others would be induced to join him in his attachment

to Christianity, he asked me to begin family worship with him in his house.

I did so; and by-and-by was surprised to hear how well he conducted the prayer

in his own simple and beautiful style, for he was quite a master

of his own language. At this time we were suffering from

the effects of a drought, which will be described further on,

and none except his family, whom he ordered to attend, came near his meeting.

"In former times," said he, "when a chief was fond of hunting, all his people

got dogs, and became fond of hunting too. If he was fond of dancing or music,

all showed a liking to these amusements too. If the chief loved beer,

they all rejoiced in strong drink. But in this case it is different.

I love the Word of God, and not one of my brethren will join me." One reason

why we had no volunteer hypocrites was the hunger from drought, which was

associated in their minds with the presence of Christian instruction;

and hypocrisy is not prone to profess a creed which seems to insure

an empty stomach.

Sechele continued to make a consistent profession for about three years;

and perceiving at last some of the difficulties of his case,

and also feeling compassion for the poor women, who were by far

the best of our scholars, I had no desire that he should be in any hurry

to make a full profession by baptism, and putting away all his wives but one.

His principal wife, too, was about the most unlikely subject in the tribe

ever to become any thing else than an out-and-out greasy disciple

of the old school. She has since become greatly altered, I hear,

for the better; but again and again have I seen Sechele send her out of church

to put her gown on, and away she would go with her lips shot out,

the very picture of unutterable disgust at his new-fangled notions.

When he at last applied for baptism, I simply asked him how he,

having the Bible in his hand, and able to read it, thought he ought to act.

He went home, gave each of his superfluous wives new clothing, and all

his own goods, which they had been accustomed to keep in their huts for him,

and sent them to their parents with an intimation that he had no fault

to find with them, but that in parting with them he wished to follow

the will of God. On the day on which he and his children were baptized,

great numbers came to see the ceremony. Some thought,

from a stupid calumny circulated by enemies to Christianity in the south,

that the converts would be made to drink an infusion of "dead men's brains",

and were astonished to find that water only was used at baptism.

Seeing several of the old men actually in tears during the service,

I asked them afterward the cause of their weeping; they were crying

to see their father, as the Scotch remark over a case of suicide,

"SO FAR LEFT TO HIMSELF". They seemed to think that I had

thrown the glamour over him, and that he had become mine.

Here commenced an opposition which we had not previously experienced.

All the friends of the divorced wives became the opponents of our religion.

The attendance at school and church diminished to very few besides

the chief's own family. They all treated us still with respectful kindness,

but to Sechele himself they said things which, as he often remarked,

had they ventured on in former times, would have cost them their lives.

It was trying, after all we had done, to see our labors so little appreciated;

but we had sown the good seed, and have no doubt but it will yet spring up,

though we may not live to see the fruits.

Leaving this sketch of the chief, I proceed to give an equally rapid one

of our dealing with his people, the Bakena, or Bakwains.

A small piece of land, sufficient for a garden, was purchased

when we first went to live with them, though that was scarcely necessary

in a country where the idea of buying land was quite new.

It was expected that a request for a suitable spot would have been made,

and that we should have proceeded to occupy it as any other

member of the tribe would. But we explained to them that we wished to avoid

any cause of future dispute when land had become more valuable;

or when a foolish chief began to reign, and we had erected

large or expensive buildings, he might wish to claim the whole.

These reasons were considered satisfactory. About 5 Pounds worth of goods

were given for a piece of land, and an arrangement was come to

that a similar piece should be allotted to any other missionary,

at any other place to which the tribe might remove.

The particulars of the sale sounded strangely in the ears of the tribe,

but were nevertheless readily agreed to.

In our relations with this people we were simply strangers

exercising no authority or control whatever. Our influence depended

entirely on persuasion; and having taught them by kind conversation

as well as by public instruction, I expected them to do what

their own sense of right and wrong dictated. We never wished them to do right

merely because it would be pleasing to us, nor thought ourselves to blame

when they did wrong, although we were quite aware of the absurd idea

to that effect. We saw that our teaching did good to the general mind

of the people by bringing new and better motives into play. Five instances

are positively known to me in which, by our influence on public opinion,

war was prevented; and where, in individual cases, we failed,

the people did no worse than they did before we came into the country.

In general they were slow, like all the African people

hereafter to be described, in coming to a decision on religious subjects;

but in questions affecting their worldly affairs they were keenly alive

to their own interests. They might be called stupid in matters

which had not come within the sphere of their observation,

but in other things they showed more intelligence than is to be met with

in our own uneducated peasantry. They are remarkably accurate

in their knowledge of cattle, sheep, and goats, knowing exactly

the kind of pasturage suited to each; and they select with great judgment

the varieties of soil best suited to different kinds of grain.

They are also familiar with the habits of wild animals, and in general

are well up in the maxims which embody their ideas of political wisdom.

The place where we first settled with the Bakwains is called Chonuane,

and it happened to be visited, during the first year of our residence there,

by one of those droughts which occur from time to time

in even the most favored districts of Africa.

The belief in the gift or power of RAIN-MAKING is one of the most

deeply-rooted articles of faith in this country. The chief Sechele

was himself a noted rain-doctor, and believed in it implicitly. He has often

assured me that he found it more difficult to give up his faith in that

than in any thing else which Christianity required him to abjure.

I pointed out to him that the only feasible way of watering the gardens

was to select some good, never-failing river, make a canal,

and irrigate the adjacent lands. This suggestion was immediately adopted,

and soon the whole tribe was on the move to the Kolobeng,

a stream about forty miles distant. The experiment succeeded admirably

during the first year. The Bakwains made the canal and dam

in exchange for my labor in assisting to build a square house for their chief.

They also built their own school under my superintendence.

Our house at the River Kolobeng, which gave a name to the settlement,

was the third which I had reared with my own hands. A native smith taught me

to weld iron; and having improved by scraps of information in that line

from Mr. Moffat, and also in carpentering and gardening,

I was becoming handy at almost any trade, besides doctoring and preaching;

and as my wife could make candles, soap, and clothes,

we came nearly up to what may be considered as indispensable

in the accomplishments of a missionary family in Central Africa,

namely, the husband to be a jack-of-all-trades without doors,

and the wife a maid-of-all-work within. But in our second year

again no rain fell. In the third the same extraordinary drought followed.

Indeed, not ten inches of water fell during these two years,

and the Kolobeng ran dry; so many fish were killed that the hyaenas

from the whole country round collected to the feast, and were unable to finish

the putrid masses. A large old alligator, which had never been known

to commit any depredations, was found left high and dry in the mud

among the victims. The fourth year was equally unpropitious,

the fall of rain being insufficient to bring the grain to maturity.

Nothing could be more trying. We dug down in the bed of the river

deeper and deeper as the water receded, striving to get a little

to keep the fruit-trees alive for better times, but in vain.

Needles lying out of doors for months did not rust;

and a mixture of sulphuric acid and water, used in a galvanic battery,

parted with all its water to the air, instead of imbibing more from it,

as it would have done in England. The leaves of indigenous trees

were all drooping, soft, and shriveled, though not dead;

and those of the mimosae were closed at midday, the same as they are

at night. In the midst of this dreary drought, it was wonderful to see

those tiny creatures, the ants, running about with their accustomed vivacity.

I put the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil,

in the sun, at midday, and found the mercury to stand at 132 Deg. to 134 Deg.;

and if certain kinds of beetles were placed on the surface,

they ran about a few seconds and expired. But this broiling heat

only augmented the activity of the long-legged black ants:

they never tire; their organs of motion seem endowed with the same power

as is ascribed by physiologists to the muscles of the human heart,

by which that part of the frame never becomes fatigued,

and which may be imparted to all our bodily organs in that higher sphere

to which we fondly hope to rise. Where do these ants get their moisture?

Our house was built on a hard ferruginous conglomerate,

in order to be out of the way of the white ant, but they came in

despite the precaution; and not only were they, in this sultry weather,

able individually to moisten soil to the consistency of mortar

for the formation of galleries, which, in their way of working,

is done by night (so that they are screened from the observation of birds

by day in passing and repassing toward any vegetable matter

they may wish to devour), but, when their inner chambers were laid open,

these were also surprisingly humid. Yet there was no dew,

and, the house being placed on a rock, they could have no subterranean passage

to the bed of the river, which ran about three hundred yards below the hill.

Can it be that they have the power of combining the oxygen and hydrogen

of their vegetable food by vital force so as to form water?*

* When we come to Angola, I shall describe an insect there

which distills several pints of water every night.

Rain, however, would not fall. The Bakwains believed that I had bound Sechele

with some magic spell, and I received deputations, in the evenings,

of the old counselors, entreating me to allow him to make only a few showers:

"The corn will die if you refuse, and we shall become scattered.

Only let him make rain this once, and we shall all, men, women, and children,

come to the school, and sing and pray as long as you please."

It was in vain to protest that I wished Sechele to act

just according to his own ideas of what was right, as he found the law

laid down in the Bible, and it was distressing to appear hard-hearted to them.

The clouds often collected promisingly over us, and rolling thunder

seemed to portend refreshing showers, but next morning the sun would rise

in a clear, cloudless sky; indeed, even these lowering appearances

were less frequent by far than days of sunshine are in London.

The natives, finding it irksome to sit and wait helplessly

until God gives them rain from heaven, entertain the more comfortable idea

that they can help themselves by a variety of preparations, such as charcoal

made of burned bats, inspissated renal deposit of the mountain cony --

`Hyrax capensis' -- (which, by the way, is used, in the form of pills,

as a good antispasmodic, under the name of "stone-sweat"*),

the internal parts of different animals -- as jackals' livers,

baboons' and lions' hearts, and hairy calculi from the bowels of old cows --

serpents' skins and vertebrae, and every kind of tuber, bulb, root, and plant

to be found in the country. Although you disbelieve their efficacy

in charming the clouds to pour out their refreshing treasures,

yet, conscious that civility is useful every where, you kindly state

that you think they are mistaken as to their power. The rain-doctor selects

a particular bulbous root, pounds it, and administers a cold infusion

to a sheep, which in five minutes afterward expires in convulsions.

Part of the same bulb is converted into smoke, and ascends toward the sky;

rain follows in a day or two. The inference is obvious. Were we as much

harassed by droughts, the logic would be irresistible in England in 1857.

* The name arises from its being always voided on one spot,

in the manner practiced by others of the rhinocerontine family;

and, by the action of the sun, it becomes a black, pitchy substance.

As the Bakwains believed that there must be some connection

between the presence of "God's Word" in their town and these

successive and distressing droughts, they looked with no good will

at the church bell, but still they invariably treated us

with kindness and respect. I am not aware of ever having had an enemy

in the tribe. The only avowed cause of dislike was expressed

by a very influential and sensible man, the uncle of Sechele.

"We like you as well as if you had been born among us;

you are the only white man we can become familiar with (thoaela);

but we wish you to give up that everlasting preaching and praying;

we can not become familiar with that at all. You see we never get rain,

while those tribes who never pray as we do obtain abundance."

This was a fact; and we often saw it raining on the hills ten miles off,

while it would not look at us "even with one eye". If the Prince

of the power of the air had no hand in scorching us up,

I fear I often gave him the credit of doing so.

As for the rain-makers, they carried the sympathies of the people

along with them, and not without reason. With the following arguments

they were all acquainted, and in order to understand their force,

we must place ourselves in their position, and believe, as they do,

that all medicines act by a mysterious charm. The term for cure

may be translated "charm" (`alaha').

MEDICAL DOCTOR. Hail, friend! How very many medicines you have about you

this morning! Why, you have every medicine in the country here.

RAIN DOCTOR. Very true, my friend; and I ought; for the whole country

needs the rain which I am making.

M. D. So you really believe that you can command the clouds?

I think that can be done by God alone.

R. D. We both believe the very same thing. It is God that makes the rain,

but I pray to him by means of these medicines, and, the rain coming,

of course it is then mine. It was I who made it for the Bakwains

for many years, when they were at Shokuane; through my wisdom, too,

their women became fat and shining. Ask them; they will tell you

the same as I do.

M. D. But we are distinctly told in the parting words of our Savior

that we can pray to God acceptably in his name alone,

and not by means of medicines.

R. D. Truly! but God told us differently. He made black men first,

and did not love us as he did the white men. He made you beautiful,

and gave you clothing, and guns, and gunpowder, and horses, and wagons,

and many other things about which we know nothing. But toward us

he had no heart. He gave us nothing except the assegai, and cattle,

and rain-making; and he did not give us hearts like yours.

We never love each other. Other tribes place medicines about our country

to prevent the rain, so that we may be dispersed by hunger, and go to them,

and augment their power. We must dissolve their charms by our medicines.

God has given us one little thing, which you know nothing of.

He has given us the knowledge of certain medicines by which

we can make rain. WE do not despise those things which you possess,

though we are ignorant of them. We don't understand your book,

yet we don't despise it. YOU ought not to despise our little knowledge,

though you are ignorant of it.

M. D. I don't despise what I am ignorant of; I only think you are mistaken

in saying that you have medicines which can influence the rain at all.

R. D. That's just the way people speak when they talk on a subject

of which they have no knowledge. When we first opened our eyes,

we found our forefathers making rain, and we follow in their footsteps.

You, who send to Kuruman for corn, and irrigate your garden,

may do without rain; WE can not manage in that way. If we had no rain,

the cattle would have no pasture, the cows give no milk,

our children become lean and die, our wives run away to other tribes

who do make rain and have corn, and the whole tribe become dispersed and lost;

our fire would go out.

M. D. I quite agree with you as to the value of the rain; but you can not

charm the clouds by medicines. You wait till you see the clouds come,

then you use your medicines, and take the credit which belongs to God only.

R. D. I use my medicines, and you employ yours; we are both doctors,

and doctors are not deceivers. You give a patient medicine. Sometimes God

is pleased to heal him by means of your medicine; sometimes not -- he dies.

When he is cured, you take the credit of what God does. I do the same.

Sometimes God grants us rain, sometimes not. When he does,

we take the credit of the charm. When a patient dies,

you don't give up trust in your medicine, neither do I when rain fails.

If you wish me to leave off my medicines, why continue your own?

M. D. I give medicine to living creatures within my reach, and can see

the effects, though no cure follows; you pretend to charm the clouds,

which are so far above us that your medicines never reach them.

The clouds usually lie in one direction, and your smoke goes in another.

God alone can command the clouds. Only try and wait patiently;

God will give us rain without your medicines.

R. D. Mahala-ma-kapa-a-a!! Well, I always thought white men were wise

till this morning. Who ever thought of making trial of starvation?

Is death pleasant, then?

M. D. Could you make it rain on one spot and not on another?

R. D. I wouldn't think of trying. I like to see the whole country green,

and all the people glad; the women clapping their hands,

and giving me their ornaments for thankfulness, and lullilooing for joy.

M. D. I think you deceive both them and yourself.

R. D. Well, then, there is a pair of us (meaning both are rogues).

The above is only a specimen of their way of reasoning, in which,

when the language is well understood, they are perceived to be

remarkably acute. These arguments are generally known,

and I never succeeded in convincing a single individual of their fallacy,

though I tried to do so in every way I could think of. Their faith

in medicines as charms is unbounded. The general effect of argument

is to produce the impression that you are not anxious for rain at all;

and it is very undesirable to allow the idea to spread

that you do not take a generous interest in their welfare.

An angry opponent of rain-making in a tribe would be looked upon

as were some Greek merchants in England during the Russian war.

The conduct of the people during this long-continued drought

was remarkably good. The women parted with most of their ornaments

to purchase corn from more fortunate tribes. The children scoured the country

in search of the numerous bulbs and roots which can sustain life,

and the men engaged in hunting. Very great numbers of the large game,

buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, tsessebes, kamas or hartebeests,

kokongs or gnus, pallahs, rhinoceroses, etc., congregated at some fountains

near Kolobeng, and the trap called "hopo" was constructed,

in the lands adjacent, for their destruction. The hopo consists of two hedges

in the form of the letter V, which are very high and thick near the angle.

Instead of the hedges being joined there, they are made to form a lane

of about fifty yards in length, at the extremity of which a pit is formed,

six or eight feet deep, and about twelve or fifteen in breadth and length.

Trunks of trees are laid across the margins of the pit, and more especially

over that nearest the lane where the animals are expected to leap in,

and over that farthest from the lane where it is supposed

they will attempt to escape after they are in. The trees form

an overlapping border, and render escape almost impossible.

The whole is carefully decked with short green rushes, making the pit

like a concealed pitfall. As the hedges are frequently about a mile long,

and about as much apart at their extremities, a tribe making a circle

three or four miles round the country adjacent to the opening,

and gradually closing up, are almost sure to inclose a large body of game.

Driving it up with shouts to the narrow part of the hopo,

men secreted there throw their javelins into the affrighted herds,

and on the animals rush to the opening presented at the converging hedges,

and into the pit, till that is full of a living mass. Some escape by running

over the others, as a Smithfield market-dog does over the sheep's backs.

It is a frightful scene. The men, wild with excitement,

spear the lovely animals with mad delight; others of the poor creatures,

borne down by the weight of their dead and dying companions,

every now and then make the whole mass heave in their smothering agonies.

The Bakwains often killed between sixty and seventy head of large game

at the different hopos in a single week; and as every one, both rich and poor,

partook of the prey, the meat counteracted the bad effects

of an exclusively vegetable diet. When the poor, who had no salt,

were forced to live entirely on roots, they were often troubled

with indigestion. Such cases we had frequent opportunities of seeing

at other times, for, the district being destitute of salt,

the rich alone could afford to buy it. The native doctors,

aware of the cause of the malady, usually prescribed some of that ingredient

with their medicines. The doctors themselves had none, so the poor

resorted to us for aid. We took the hint, and henceforth cured the disease

by giving a teaspoonful of salt, minus the other remedies.

Either milk or meat had the same effect, though not so rapidly as salt.

Long afterward, when I was myself deprived of salt for four months,

at two distinct periods, I felt no desire for that condiment,

but I was plagued by very great longing for the above articles of food.

This continued as long as I was confined to an exclusively vegetable diet,

and when I procured a meal of flesh, though boiled in

perfectly fresh rain-water, it tasted as pleasantly saltish

as if slightly impregnated with the condiment. Milk or meat,

obtained in however small quantities, removed entirely

the excessive longing and dreaming about roasted ribs of fat oxen,

and bowls of cool thick milk gurgling forth from the big-bellied calabashes;

and I could then understand the thankfulness to Mrs. L.

often expressed by poor Bakwain women, in the interesting condition,

for a very little of either.

In addition to other adverse influences, the general uncertainty,

though not absolute want of food, and the necessity of frequent absence

for the purpose of either hunting game or collecting roots and fruits,

proved a serious barrier to the progress of the people in knowledge.

Our own education in England is carried on at the comfortable

breakfast and dinner table, and by the cosy fire, as well as in

the church and school. Few English people with stomachs painfully empty

would be decorous at church any more than they are when these organs

are overcharged. Ragged schools would have been a failure

had not the teachers wisely provided food for the body as well as

food for the mind; and not only must we show a friendly interest

in the bodily comfort of the objects of our sympathy as a Christian duty,

but we can no more hope for healthy feelings among the poor,

either at home or abroad, without feeding them into them,

than we can hope to see an ordinary working-bee reared into a queen-mother

by the ordinary food of the hive.

Sending the Gospel to the heathen must, if this view be correct,

include much more than is implied in the usual picture of a missionary,

namely, a man going about with a Bible under his arm.

The promotion of commerce ought to be specially attended to,

as this, more speedily than any thing else, demolishes that sense of isolation

which heathenism engenders, and makes the tribes feel themselves

mutually dependent on, and mutually beneficial to each other.

With a view to this, the missionaries at Kuruman got permission

from the government for a trader to reside at the station,

and a considerable trade has been the result; the trader himself

has become rich enough to retire with a competence. Those laws

which still prevent free commercial intercourse among the civilized nations

seem to be nothing else but the remains of our own heathenism.

My observations on this subject make me extremely desirous to promote

the preparation of the raw materials of European manufactures in Africa,

for by that means we may not only put a stop to the slave-trade,

but introduce the negro family into the body corporate of nations,

no one member of which can suffer without the others suffering with it.

Success in this, in both Eastern and Western Africa, would lead,

in the course of time, to a much larger diffusion of the blessings

of civilization than efforts exclusively spiritual and educational

confined to any one small tribe. These, however, it would of course

be extremely desirable to carry on at the same time at large

central and healthy stations, for neither civilization nor Christianity

can be promoted alone. In fact, they are inseparable.

Chapter 2.

The Boers -- Their Treatment of the Natives -- Seizure of native Children

for Slaves -- English Traders -- Alarm of the Boers -- Native Espionage --

The Tale of the Cannon -- The Boers threaten Sechele --

In violation of Treaty, they stop English Traders and expel Missionaries --

They attack the Bakwains -- Their Mode of Fighting --

The Natives killed and the School-children carried into Slavery --

Destruction of English Property -- African Housebuilding and Housekeeping --

Mode of Spending the Day -- Scarcity of Food -- Locusts -- Edible Frogs --

Scavenger Beetle -- Continued Hostility of the Boers -- The Journey north --

Preparations -- Fellow-travelers -- The Kalahari Desert --

Vegetation -- Watermelons -- The Inhabitants -- The Bushmen --

Their nomad Mode of Life -- Appearance -- The Bakalahari --

Their Love for Agriculture and for domestic Animals -- Timid Character --

Mode of obtaining Water -- Female Water-suckers -- The Desert --

Water hidden.

Another adverse influence with which the mission had to contend

was the vicinity of the Boers of the Cashan Mountains,

otherwise named "Magaliesberg". These are not to be counfounded

with the Cape colonists, who sometimes pass by the name.

The word Boer simply means "farmer", and is not synonymous with our word boor.

Indeed, to the Boers generally the latter term would be quite inappropriate,

for they are a sober, industrious, and most hospitable body of peasantry.

Those, however, who have fled from English law on various pretexts,

and have been joined by English deserters and every other variety

of bad character in their distant localities, are unfortunately

of a very different stamp. The great objection many of the Boers had,

and still have, to English law, is that it makes no distinction

between black men and white. They felt aggrieved by their supposed losses

in the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, and determined

to erect themselves into a republic, in which they might pursue,

without molestation, the "proper treatment of the blacks".

It is almost needless to add that the "proper treatment"

has always contained in it the essential element of slavery,

namely, compulsory unpaid labor.

One section of this body, under the late Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter,

penetrated the interior as far as the Cashan Mountains,

whence a Zulu or Caffre chief, named Mosilikatze, had been expelled

by the well-known Caffre Dingaan; and a glad welcome was given them

by the Bechuana tribes, who had just escaped the hard sway of that

cruel chieftain. They came with the prestige of white men and deliverers;

but the Bechuanas soon found, as they expressed it, "that Mosilikatze

was cruel to his enemies, and kind to those he conquered;

but that the Boers destroyed their enemies, and made slaves of their friends."

The tribes who still retain the semblance of independence

are forced to perform all the labor of the fields, such as manuring the land,

weeding, reaping, building, making dams and canals, and at the same time

to support themselves. I have myself been an eye-witness of Boers

coming to a village, and, according to their usual custom,

demanding twenty or thirty women to weed their gardens,

and have seen these women proceed to the scene of unrequited toil,

carrying their own food on their heads, their children on their backs,

and instruments of labor on their shoulders. Nor have the Boers

any wish to conceal the meanness of thus employing unpaid labor;

on the contrary, every one of them, from Mr. Potgeiter and Mr. Gert Krieger,

the commandants, downward, lauded his own humanity and justice

in making such an equitable regulation. "We make the people work for us,

in consideration of allowing them to live in our country."

I can appeal to the Commandant Krieger if the foregoing is not

a fair and impartial statement of the views of himself and his people.

I am sensible of no mental bias toward or against these Boers;

and during the several journeys I made to the poor enslaved tribes,

I never avoided the whites, but tried to cure and did administer remedies

to their sick, without money and without price. It is due to them to state

that I was invariably treated with respect; but it is most unfortunate

that they should have been left by their own Church for so many years

to deteriorate and become as degraded as the blacks,

whom the stupid prejudice against color leads them to detest.

This new species of slavery which they have adopted serves to supply

the lack of field-labor only. The demand for domestic servants

must be met by forays on tribes which have good supplies of cattle.

The Portuguese can quote instances in which blacks become so degraded

by the love of strong drink as actually to sell themselves;

but never in any one case, within the memory of man,

has a Bechuana chief sold any of his people, or a Bechuana man his child.

Hence the necessity for a foray to seize children. And those individual Boers

who would not engage in it for the sake of slaves can seldom resist

the two-fold plea of a well-told story of an intended uprising

of the devoted tribe, and the prospect of handsome pay

in the division of the captured cattle besides.

It is difficult for a person in a civilized country to conceive

that any body of men possessing the common attributes of humanity

(and these Boers are by no means destitute of the better feelings

of our nature) should with one accord set out, after loading

their own wives and children with caresses, and proceed to shoot down

in cold blood men and women, of a different color, it is true,

but possessed of domestic feelings and affections equal to their own.

I saw and conversed with children in the houses of Boers who had,

by their own and their masters' account, been captured,

and in several instances I traced the parents of these unfortunates,

though the plan approved by the long-headed among the burghers

is to take children so young that they soon forget their parents

and their native language also. It was long before I could give credit

to the tales of bloodshed told by native witnesses, and had I received

no other testimony but theirs I should probably have continued skeptical

to this day as to the truth of the accounts; but when I found

the Boers themselves, some bewailing and denouncing, others glorying in

the bloody scenes in which they had been themselves the actors,

I was compelled to admit the validity of the testimony, and try to account

for the cruel anomaly. They are all traditionally religious,

tracing their descent from some of the best men (Huguenots and Dutch)

the world ever saw. Hence they claim to themselves the title of "Christians",

and all the colored race are "black property" or "creatures".

They being the chosen people of God, the heathen are given to them

for an inheritance, and they are the rod of divine vengeance on the heathen,

as were the Jews of old. Living in the midst of a native population

much larger than themselves, and at fountains removed many miles

from each other, they feel somewhat in the same insecure position

as do the Americans in the Southern States. The first question

put by them to strangers is respecting peace; and when they receive reports

from disaffected or envious natives against any tribe, the case assumes

all the appearance and proportions of a regular insurrection.

Severe measures then appear to the most mildly disposed among them

as imperatively called for, and, however bloody the massacre that follows,

no qualms of conscience ensue: it is a dire necessity for the sake of peace.

Indeed, the late Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter most devoutly believed himself to be

the great peacemaker of the country.

But how is it that the natives, being so vastly superior in numbers to

the Boers, do not rise and annihilate them? The people among whom they live

are Bechuanas, not Caffres, though no one would ever learn that distinction

from a Boer; and history does not contain one single instance

in which the Bechuanas, even those of them who possess fire-arms,

have attacked either the Boers or the English. If there is such an instance,

I am certain it is not generally known, either beyond or in the Cape Colony.

They have defended themselves when attacked, as in the case of Sechele,

but have never engaged in offensive war with Europeans.

We have a very different tale to tell of the Caffres,

and the difference has always been so evident to these border Boers that,

ever since those "magnificent savages"* obtained possession of fire-arms,

not one Boer has ever attempted to settle in Caffreland, or even face them

as an enemy in the field. The Boers have generally manifested

a marked antipathy to any thing but "long-shot" warfare,

and, sidling away in their emigrations toward the more effeminate Bechuanas,

have left their quarrels with the Caffres to be settled by the English,

and their wars to be paid for by English gold.

* The "United Service Journal" so styles them.

The Bakwains at Kolobeng had the spectacle of various tribes

enslaved before their eyes -- the Bakatla, the Batlokua, the Bahukeng,

the Bamosetla, and two other tribes of Bakwains were all groaning

under the oppression of unrequited labor. This would not have been felt

as so great an evil but that the young men of those tribes, anxious to

obtain cattle, the only means of rising to respectability and importance

among their own people, were in the habit of sallying forth,

like our Irish and Highland reapers, to procure work in the Cape Colony.

After laboring there three or four years, in building stone dikes and dams

for the Dutch farmers, they were well content if at the end of that time

they could return with as many cows. On presenting one to their chief,

they ranked as respectable men in the tribe ever afterward. These volunteers

were highly esteemed among the Dutch, under the name of Mantatees.

They were paid at the rate of one shilling a day and a large loaf of bread

between six of them. Numbers of them, who had formerly seen me

about twelve hundred miles inland from the Cape, recognized me

with the loud laughter of joy when I was passing them at their work

in the Roggefelt and Bokkefelt, within a few days of Cape Town.

I conversed with them and with elders of the Dutch Church, for whom

they were working, and found that the system was thoroughly satisfactory

to both parties. I do not believe that there is one Boer,

in the Cashan or Magaliesberg country, who would deny that a law was made,

in consequence of this labor passing to the colony, to deprive these laborers

of their hardly-earned cattle, for the very cogent reason that,

"if they want to work, let them work for us their masters,"

though boasting that in their case it would not be paid for.

I can never cease to be most unfeignedly thankful that I was not born

in a land of slaves. No one can understand the effect

of the unutterable meanness of the slave-system on the minds of those who,

but for the strange obliquity which prevents them from feeling

the degradation of not being gentlemen enough to pay for services rendered,

would be equal in virtue to ourselves. Fraud becomes as natural to them

as "paying one's way" is to the rest of mankind.

Wherever a missionary lives, traders are sure to come;

they are mutually dependent, and each aids in the work of the other;

but experience shows that the two employments can not very well be combined

in the same person. Such a combination would not be morally wrong,

for nothing would be more fair, and apostolical too, than that the man

who devotes his time to the spiritual welfare of a people

should derive temporal advantage from upright commerce,

which traders, who aim exclusively at their own enrichment,

modestly imagine ought to be left to them. But, though it is right

for missionaries to trade, the present system of missions

renders it inexpedient to spend time in so doing. No missionary

with whom I ever came in contact, traded; and while the traders,

whom we introduced and rendered secure in the country, waxed rich,

the missionaries have invariably remained poor, and have died so.

The Jesuits, in Africa at least, were wiser in their generation than we;

theirs were large, influential communities, proceeding on the system

of turning the abilities of every brother into that channel

in which he was most likely to excel; one, fond of natural history,

was allowed to follow his bent; another, fond of literature,

found leisure to pursue his studies; and he who was great in barter

was sent in search of ivory and gold-dust; so that while in the course

of performing the religious acts of his mission to distant tribes,

he found the means of aiding effectually the brethren

whom he had left in the central settlement.* We Protestants,

with the comfortable conviction of superiority, have sent out missionaries

with a bare subsistence only, and are unsparing in our laudations of some

for not being worldly-minded whom our niggardliness made to live

as did the prodigal son. I do not speak of myself, nor need I to do so,

but for that very reason I feel at liberty to interpose a word

in behalf of others. I have before my mind at this moment

facts and instances which warrant my putting the case in this way:

The command to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature"

must be obeyed by Christians either personally or by substitute.

Now it is quite possible to find men whose love for the heathen and devotion

to the work will make them ready to go forth on the terms "bare subsistence",

but what can be thought of the justice, to say nothing of the generosity,

of Christians and churches who not only work their substitutes

at the lowest terms, but regard what they give as charity!

The matter is the more grave in respect to the Protestant missionary,

who may have a wife and family. The fact is, there are many cases

in which it is right, virtuous, and praiseworthy for a man

to sacrifice every thing for a great object, but in which it would be

very wrong for others, interested in the object as much as he,

to suffer or accept the sacrifice, if they can prevent it.

* The Dutch clergy, too, are not wanting in worldly wisdom.

A fountain is bought, and the lands which it can irrigate

parceled out and let to villagers. As they increase in numbers,

the rents rise and the church becomes rich. With 200 Pounds per annum

in addition from government, the salary amounts to 400 or 500 Pounds a year.

The clergymen then preach abstinence from politics as a Christian duty.

It is quite clear that, with 400 Pounds a year, but little else

except pure spirituality is required.

English traders sold those articles which the Boers most dread,

namely, arms and ammunition; and when the number of guns

amounted to five, so much alarm was excited among our neighbors

that an expedition of several hundred Boers was seriously planned

to deprive the Bakwains of their guns. Knowing that the latter

would rather have fled to the Kalahari Desert than deliver up their weapons

and become slaves, I proceeded to the commandant, Mr. Gert Krieger,

and, representing the evils of any such expedition, prevailed upon him

to defer it; but that point being granted, the Boer wished to gain another,

which was that I should act as a spy over the Bakwains.

I explained the impossibility of my complying with his wish,

even though my principles as an Englishman had not stood in the way,

by referring to an instance in which Sechele had gone with his whole force

to punish an under-chief without my knowledge. This man,

whose name was Kake, rebelled, and was led on in his rebellion

by his father-in-law, who had been regicide in the case of Sechele's father.

Several of those who remained faithful to that chief were maltreated by Kake

while passing to the Desert in search of skins. We had just come to live

with the Bakwains when this happened, and Sechele consulted me.

I advised mild measures, but the messengers he sent to Kake

were taunted with the words, "He only pretends to wish to follow

the advice of the teacher: Sechele is a coward; let him come and fight

if he dare." The next time the offense was repeated,

Sechele told me he was going to hunt elephants; and as I knew

the system of espionage which prevails among all the tribes,

I never made inquiries that would convey the opinion

that I distrusted them. I gave credit to his statement.

He asked the loan of a black-metal pot to cook with, as theirs of pottery

are brittle. I gave it and a handful of salt, and desired him

to send back two tit-bits, the proboscis and fore-foot of the elephant.

He set off, and I heard nothing more until we saw the Bakwains carrying home

their wounded, and heard some of the women uttering the loud wail of sorrow

for the dead, and others pealing forth the clear scream of victory.

It was then clear that Sechele had attacked and driven away the rebel.

Mentioning this to the commandant in proof of the impossibility of granting

his request, I had soon an example how quickly a story can grow

among idle people. The five guns were, within one month,

multiplied into a tale of five hundred, and the cooking-pot,

now in a museum at Cape Town, was magnified into a cannon;

"I had myself confessed to the loan." Where the five hundred guns came from,

it was easy to divine; for, knowing that I used a sextant,

my connection with government was a thing of course; and, as I must know

all her majesty's counsels, I was questioned on the subject of

the indistinct rumors which had reached them of Lord Rosse's telescope.

"What right has your government to set up that large glass at the Cape

to look after us behind the Cashan Mountains?"

Many of the Boers visited us afterward at Kolobeng, some for medical advice,

and others to trade in those very articles which their own laws

and policy forbid. When I happened to stumble upon any of them in the town,

with his muskets and powder displayed, he would begin an apology,

on the ground that he was a poor man, etc., which I always cut short by

frankly saying that I had nothing to do with either the Boers or their laws.

Many attempts were made during these visits to elicit the truth about

the guns and cannon; and ignorant of the system of espionage which prevails,

eager inquiries were made by them among those who could jabber a little Dutch.

It is noticeable that the system of espionage is as well developed

among the savage tribes as in Austria or Russia. It is a proof of barbarism.

Every man in a tribe feels himself bound to tell the chief

every thing that comes to his knowledge, and, when questioned by a stranger,

either gives answers which exhibit the utmost stupidity, or such as he knows

will be agreeable to his chief. I believe that in this way

have arisen tales of their inability to count more than ten,

as was asserted of the Bechuanas about the very time when Sechele's father

counted out one thousand head of cattle as a beginning of the stock

of his young son.

In the present case, Sechele, knowing every question put to his people,

asked me how they ought to answer. My reply was, "Tell the truth."

Every one then declared that no cannon existed there; and our friends,

judging the answer by what they themselves would in the circumstances

have said, were confirmed in the opinion that the Bakwains actually

possessed artillery. This was in some degree beneficial to us,

inasmuch as fear prevented any foray in our direction for eight years.

During that time no winter passed without one or two tribes

in the East country being plundered of both cattle and children by the Boers.

The plan pursued is the following: one or two friendly tribes

are forced to accompany a party of mounted Boers, and these expeditions

can be got up only in the winter, when horses may be used

without danger of being lost by disease. When they reach the tribe

to be attacked, the friendly natives are ranged in front,

to form, as they say, "a shield"; the Boers then coolly fire over their heads

till the devoted people flee and leave cattle, wives, and children

to the captors. This was done in nine cases during my residence

in the interior, and on no occasion was a drop of Boer's blood shed.

News of these deeds spread quickly among the Bakwains, and letters

were repeatedly sent by the Boers to Sechele, ordering him

to come and surrender himself as their vassal, and stop English traders

from proceeding into the country with fire-arms for sale.

But the discovery of Lake Ngami, hereafter to be described,

made the traders come in five-fold greater numbers, and Sechele replied,

"I was made an independent chief and placed here by God, and not by you.

I was never conquered by Mosilikatze, as those tribes whom you rule over;

and the English are my friends. I get every thing I wish from them.

I can not hinder them from going where they like." Those who are old enough

to remember the threatened invasion of our own island may understand

the effect which the constant danger of a Boerish invasion had

on the minds of the Bakwains; but no others can conceive how worrying

were the messages and threats from the endless self-constituted authorities

of the Magaliesberg Boers; and when to all this harassing annoyance

was added the scarcity produced by the drought, we could not wonder at,

though we felt sorry for, their indisposition to receive instruction.

The myth of the black pot assumed serious proportions.

I attempted to benefit the tribes among the Boers of Magaliesberg

by placing native teachers at different points. "You must teach the blacks,"

said Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, the commandant in chief,

"that they are not equal to us." Other Boers told me,

"I might as well teach the baboons on the rocks as the Africans,"

but declined the test which I proposed, namely, to examine whether

they or my native attendants could read best. Two of their clergymen

came to baptize the children of the Boers; so, supposing these good men

would assist me in overcoming the repugnance of their flock

to the education of the blacks, I called on them; but my visit ended

in a `ruse' practiced by the Boerish commandant, whereby I was led,

by professions of the greatest friendship, to retire to Kolobeng,

while a letter passed me by another way to the other missionaries

in the south, demanding my instant recall "for lending a cannon

to their enemies." The colonial government was also gravely informed

that the story was true, and I came to be looked upon

as a most suspicious character in consequence.

These notices of the Boers are not intended to produce a sneer

at their ignorance, but to excite the compassion of their friends.

They are perpetually talking about their laws; but practically

theirs is only the law of the strongest. The Bechuanas could never understand

the changes which took place in their commandants. "Why, one can never know

who is the chief among these Boers. Like the Bushmen, they have no king --

they must be the Bushmen of the English." The idea that any tribe of men

could be so senseless as not to have an hereditary chief

was so absurd to these people, that, in order not to appear equally stupid,

I was obliged to tell them that we English were so anxious

to preserve the royal blood, that we had made a young lady our chief.

This seemed to them a most convincing proof of our sound sense.

We shall see farther on the confidence my account of our queen inspired.

The Boers, encouraged by the accession of Mr. Pretorius,

determined at last to put a stop to English traders going past Kolobeng,

by dispersing the tribe of Bakwains, and expelling all the missionaries.

Sir George Cathcart proclaimed the independence of the Boers, the best thing

that could have been done had they been between us and the Caffres.

A treaty was entered into with these Boers; an article for

the free passage of Englishmen to the country beyond, and also another,

that no slavery should be allowed in the independent territory,

were duly inserted, as expressive of the views of her majesty's government

at home. "But what about the missionaries?" inquired the Boers.

"YOU MAY DO AS YOU PLEASE WITH THEM," is said to have been

the answer of the "Commissioner". This remark, if uttered at all,

was probably made in joke: designing men, however, circulated it, and caused

the general belief in its accuracy which now prevails all over the country,

and doubtless led to the destruction of three mission stations

immediately after. The Boers, four hundred in number,

were sent by the late Mr. Pretorius to attack the Bakwains in 1852.

Boasting that the English had given up all the blacks into their power,

and had agreed to aid them in their subjugation by preventing

all supplies of ammunition from coming into the Bechuana country,

they assaulted the Bakwains, and, besides killing a considerable

number of adults, carried off two hundred of our school children into slavery.

The natives under Sechele defended themselves till the approach of night

enabled them to flee to the mountains; and having in that defense killed

a number of the enemy, the very first ever slain in this country by Bechuanas,

I received the credit of having taught the tribe to kill Boers!

My house, which had stood perfectly secure for years

under the protection of the natives, was plundered in revenge.

English gentlemen, who had come in the footsteps of Mr. Cumming

to hunt in the country beyond, and had deposited large quantities of stores

in the same keeping, and upward of eighty head of cattle as relays

for the return journeys, were robbed of all, and, when they came back

to Kolobeng, found the skeletons of the guardians strewed all over the place.

The books of a good library -- my solace in our solitude --

were not taken away, but handfuls of the leaves were torn out

and scattered over the place. My stock of medicines was smashed;

and all our furniture and clothing carried off and sold at public auction

to pay the expenses of the foray.

I do not mention these things by way of making a pitiful wail over my losses,

nor in order to excite commiseration; for, though I do feel sorry

for the loss of lexicons, dictionaries, &c., which had been

the companions of my boyhood, yet, after all, the plundering only set me

entirely free for my expedition to the north, and I have never since

had a moment's concern for any thing I left behind. The Boers resolved

to shut up the interior, and I determined to open the country,

and we shall see who have been most successful in resolution, they or I.

A short sketch of African housekeeping may not prove uninteresting

to the reader. The entire absence of shops led us to make

every thing we needed from the raw materials. You want bricks

to build a house, and must forthwith proceed to the field,

cut down a tree, and saw it into planks to make the brick-moulds;

the materials for doors and windows, too, are standing in the forest;

and, if you want to be respected by the natives, a house of decent dimensions,

costing an immense amount of manual labor, must be built.

The people can not assist you much; for, though most willing

to labor for wages, the Bakwains have a curious inability

to make or put things square: like all Bechuanas, their dwellings

are made round. In the case of three large houses, erected by myself

at different times, every brick and stick had to be put square

by my own right hand.

Having got the meal ground, the wife proceeds to make it into bread;

an extempore oven is often constructed by scooping out a large hole

in an anthill, and using a slab of stone for a door. Another plan,

which might be adopted by the Australians to produce something better

than their "dampers", is to make a good fire on a level piece of ground,

and, when the ground is thoroughly heated, place the dough

in a small, short-handled frying-pan, or simply on the hot ashes;

invert any sort of metal pot over it, draw the ashes around,

and then make a small fire on the top. Dough, mixed with a little leaven

from a former baking, and allowed to stand an hour or two in the sun,

will by this process become excellent bread.

We made our own butter, a jar serving as a churn; and our own candles

by means of moulds; and soap was procured from the ashes of the plant salsola,

or from wood-ashes, which in Africa contain so little alkaline matter that

the boiling of successive leys has to be continued for a month or six weeks

before the fat is saponified. There is not much hardship in being

almost entirely dependent on ourselves; there is something of the feeling

which must have animated Alexander Selkirk on seeing conveniences

springing up before him from his own ingenuity; and married life

is all the sweeter when so many comforts emanate directly

from the thrifty striving housewife's hands.

To some it may appear quite a romantic mode of life;

it is one of active benevolence, such as the good may enjoy at home.

Take a single day as a sample of the whole. We rose early,

because, however hot the day may have been, the evening, night, and morning

at Kolobeng were deliciously refreshing; cool is not the word,

where you have neither an increase of cold nor heat to desire,

and where you can sit out till midnight with no fear of coughs or rheumatism.

After family worship and breakfast between six and seven,

we went to keep school for all who would attend -- men, women, and children

being all invited. School over at eleven o'clock, while the missionary's wife

was occupied in domestic matters, the missionary himself

had some manual labor as a smith, carpenter, or gardener,

according to whatever was needed for ourselves or for the people;

if for the latter, they worked for us in the garden, or at some

other employment; skilled labor was thus exchanged for the unskilled.

After dinner and an hour's rest, the wife attended her infant-school,

which the young, who were left by their parents entirely to their own caprice,

liked amazingly, and generally mustered a hundred strong;

or she varied that with a sewing-school, having classes of girls

to learn the art; this, too, was equally well relished. During the day

every operation must be superintended, and both husband and wife

must labor till the sun declines. After sunset the husband went into the town

to converse with any one willing to do so, sometimes on general subjects,

at other times on religion. On three nights of the week,

as soon as the milking of the cows was over and it had become dark,

we had a public religious service, and one of instruction on secular subjects,

aided by pictures and specimens. These services were diversified

by attending upon the sick and prescribing for them,

giving food, and otherwise assisting the poor and wretched.

We tried to gain their affections by attending to the wants of the body.

The smallest acts of friendship, an obliging word and civil look,

are, as St. Xavier thought, no despicable part of the missionary armor.

Nor ought the good opinion of the most abject to be uncared for,

when politeness may secure it. Their good word in the aggregate forms

a reputation which may be well employed in procuring favor for the Gospel.

Show kind attention to the reckless opponents of Christianity

on the bed of sickness and pain, and they never can become

your personal enemies. Here, if any where, love begets love.

When at Kolobeng, during the droughts we were entirely dependent on Kuruman

for supplies of corn. Once we were reduced to living on bran,

to convert which into fine meal we had to grind it three times over.

We were much in want of animal food, which seems to be

a greater necessary of life there than vegetarians would imagine.

Being alone, we could not divide the butcher-meat of a slaughtered animal

with a prospect of getting a return with regularity. Sechele had,

by right of chieftainship, the breast of every animal slaughtered

either at home or abroad, and he most obligingly sent us a liberal share

during the whole period of our sojourn. But these supplies

were necessarily so irregular that we were sometimes fain to accept

a dish of locusts. These are quite a blessing in the country,

so much so that the RAIN-DOCTORS sometimes promised to bring them

by their incantations. The locusts are strongly vegetable in taste,

the flavor varying with the plants on which they feed. There is

a physiological reason why locusts and honey should be eaten together.

Some are roasted and pounded into meal, which, eaten with a little salt,

is palatable. It will keep thus for months. Boiled, they are disagreeable;

but when they are roasted I should much prefer locusts to shrimps,

though I would avoid both if possible.

In traveling we sometimes suffered considerably from scarcity of meat,

though not from absolute want of food. This was felt more especially

by my children; and the natives, to show their sympathy,

often gave them a large kind of caterpillar, which they seemed to relish;

these insects could not be unwholesome, for the natives devoured them

in large quantities themselves.

Another article of which our children partook with eagerness

was a very large frog, called "Matlametlo".*

* The Pyxicephalus adspersus of Dr. Smith. Length of head and body,

5-1/2 inches; fore legs, 3 inches; hind legs, 6 inches.

Width of head posteriorly, 3 inches; of body, 4-1/2 inches.

These enormous frogs, which, when cooked, look like chickens,

are supposed by the natives to fall down from thunder-clouds,

because after a heavy thunder-shower the pools, which are filled

and retain water a few days, become instantly alive with this loud-croaking,

pugnacious game. This phenomenon takes place in the driest parts

of the desert, and in places where, to an ordinary observer,

there is not a sign of life. Having been once benighted

in a district of the Kalahari where there was no prospect of getting water

for our cattle for a day or two, I was surprised to hear

in the fine still evening the croaking of frogs. Walking out

until I was certain that the musicians were between me and our fire,

I found that they could be merry on nothing else but a prospect of rain.

From the Bushmen I afterward learned that the matlametlo makes a hole

at the root of certain bushes, and there ensconces himself

during the months of drought. As he seldom emerges, a large variety of spider

takes advantage of the hole, and makes its web across the orifice.

He is thus furnished with a window and screen gratis; and no one but a Bushman

would think of searching beneath a spider's web for a frog.

They completely eluded my search on the occasion referred to;

and as they rush forth into the hollows filled by the thunder-shower

when the rain is actually falling, and the Bechuanas are cowering under

their skin garments, the sudden chorus struck up simultaneously from all sides

seems to indicate a descent from the clouds.

The presence of these matlametlo in the desert in a time of drought

was rather a disappointment, for I had been accustomed to suppose

that the note was always emitted by them when they were chin-deep in water.

Their music was always regarded in other spots as the most pleasant sound

that met the ear after crossing portions of the thirsty desert;

and I could fully appreciate the sympathy for these animals shown by Aesop,

himself an African, in his fable of the "Boys and the Frogs".

It is remarkable that attempts have not been made to any extent

to domesticate some of the noble and useful creatures of Africa in England.

The eland, which is the most magnificent of all antelopes,

would grace the parks of our nobility more than deer. This animal,

from the excellence of its flesh, would be appropriate to our own country;

and as there is also a splendid esculent frog nearly as large as a chicken,

it would no doubt tend to perpetuate the present alliance

if we made a gift of that to France.

The scavenger beetle is one of the most useful of all insects,

as it effectually answers the object indicated by the name.

Where they abound, as at Kuruman, the villages are sweet and clean,

for no sooner are animal excretions dropped than, attracted by the scent,

the scavengers are heard coming booming up the wind. They roll away

the droppings of cattle at once, in round pieces often as large

as billiard-balls; and when they reach a place proper by its softness

for the deposit of their eggs and the safety of their young,

they dig the soil out from beneath the ball till they have quite let it down

and covered it: they then lay their eggs within the mass.

While the larvae are growing, they devour the inside of the ball

before coming above ground to begin the world for themselves.

The beetles with their gigantic balls look like Atlas

with the world on his back; only they go backward, and, with their heads down,

push with the hind legs, as if a boy should roll a snow-ball with his legs

while standing on his head. As we recommend the eland to John Bull,

and the gigantic frog to France, we can confidently recommend this beetle

to the dirty Italian towns and our own Sanitary Commissioners.

In trying to benefit the tribes living under the Boers

of the Cashan Mountains, I twice performed a journey of about

three hundred miles to the eastward of Kolobeng. Sechele had become

so obnoxious to the Boers that, though anxious to accompany me in my journey,

he dared not trust himself among them. This did not arise from

the crime of cattle-stealing; for that crime, so common among the Caffres,

was never charged against his tribe, nor, indeed, against any Bechuana tribe.

It is, in fact, unknown in the country, except during actual warfare.

His independence and love of the English were his only faults.

In my last journey there, of about two hundred miles,

on parting at the River Marikwe he gave me two servants,

"to be," as he said, "his arms to serve me," and expressed regret that

he could not come himself. "Suppose we went north," I said, "would you come?"

He then told me the story of Sebituane having saved his life,

and expatiated on the far-famed generosity of that really great man.

This was the first time I had thought of crossing the Desert to Lake Ngami.

The conduct of the Boers, who, as will be remembered,

had sent a letter designed to procure my removal out of the country,

and their well-known settled policy which I have already described,

became more fully developed on this than on any former occasion.

When I spoke to Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter of the danger of hindering

the Gospel of Christ among these poor savages, he became greatly excited,

and called one of his followers to answer me. He threatened to attack

any tribe that might receive a native teacher, yet he promised

to use his influence to prevent those under him from throwing obstacles

in our way. I could perceive plainly that nothing more could be done

in that direction, so I commenced collecting all the information I could

about the desert, with the intention of crossing it, if possible.

Sekomi, the chief of the Bamangwato, was acquainted with a route

which he kept carefully to himself, because the Lake country

abounded in ivory, and he drew large quantities thence periodically

at but small cost to himself.

Sechele, who valued highly every thing European, and was always

fully alive to his own interest, was naturally anxious to get

a share of that inviting field. He was most anxious to visit Sebituane too,

partly, perhaps, from a wish to show off his new acquirements,

but chiefly, I believe, from having very exalted ideas of the benefits

he would derive from the liberality of that renowned chieftain.

In age and family Sechele is the elder and superior of Sekomi;

for when the original tribe broke up into Bamangwato, Bangwaketse,

and Bakwains, the Bakwains retained the hereditary chieftainship;

so their chief, Sechele, possesses certain advantages over Sekomi,

the chief of the Bamangwato. If the two were traveling or hunting together,

Sechele would take, by right, the heads of the game shot by Sekomi.

There are several vestiges, besides, of very ancient partitions

and lordships of tribes. The elder brother of Sechele's father,

becoming blind, gave over the chieftainship to Sechele's father.

The descendants of this man pay no tribute to Sechele,

though he is the actual ruler, and superior to the head of that family;

and Sechele, while in every other respect supreme, calls him Kosi, or Chief.

The other tribes will not begin to eat the early pumpkins of a new crop

until they hear that the Bahurutse have "bitten it", and there is

a public ceremony on the occasion -- the son of the chief being the first

to taste of the new harvest.

Sechele, by my advice, sent men to Sekomi, asking leave for me to pass

along his path, accompanying the request with the present of an ox.

Sekomi's mother, who possesses great influence over him, refused permission,

because she had not been propitiated. This produced a fresh message;

and the most honorable man in the Bakwain tribe, next to Sechele, was sent

with an ox for both Sekomi and his mother. This, too, was met by refusal.

It was said, "The Matebele, the mortal enemies of the Bechuanas,

are in the direction of the lake, and, should they kill the white man,

we shall incur great blame from all his nation."

The exact position of the Lake Ngami had, for half a century at least,

been correctly pointed out by the natives, who had visited it

when rains were more copious in the Desert than in more recent times,

and many attempts had been made to reach it by passing through the Desert

in the direction indicated; but it was found impossible,

even for Griquas, who, having some Bushman blood in them,

may be supposed more capable of enduring thirst than Europeans.

It was clear, then, that our only chance of success was by going round,

instead of through, the Desert. The best time for the attempt

would have been about the end of the rainy season, in March or April,

for then we should have been likely to meet with pools of rain-water,

which always dry up during the rainless winter. I communicated my intention

to an African traveler, Colonel Steele, then aid-de-camp

to the Marquis of Tweedale at Madras, and he made it known to two

other gentlemen, whose friendship we had gained during their African travel,

namely, Major Vardon and Mr. Oswell. All of these gentlemen

were so enamored with African hunting and African discovery

that the two former must have envied the latter his good fortune in being able

to leave India to undertake afresh the pleasures and pains of desert life.

I believe Mr. Oswell came from his high position at a very considerable

pecuniary sacrifice, and with no other end in view but to extend

the boundaries of geographical knowledge. Before I knew of his coming,

I had arranged that the payment for the guides furnished by Sechele

should be the loan of my wagon, to bring back whatever ivory he might obtain

from the chief at the lake. When, at last, Mr. Oswell came,

bringing Mr. Murray with him, he undertook to defray

the entire expenses of the guides, and fully executed his generous intention.

Sechele himself would have come with us, but, fearing that

the much-talked-of assault of the Boers might take place during our absence,

and blame be attached to me for taking him away, I dissuaded him against it

by saying that he knew Mr. Oswell "would be as determined as himself

to get through the Desert."

Before narrating the incidents of this journey, I may give some account

of the great Kalahari Desert, in order that the reader may understand

in some degree the nature of the difficulties we had to encounter.

The space from the Orange River in the south, lat. 29 Degrees,

to Lake Ngami in the north, and from about 24 Degrees east long.

to near the west coast, has been called a desert simply because

it contains no running water, and very little water in wells.

It is by no means destitute of vegetation and inhabitants,

for it is covered with grass and a great variety of creeping plants;

besides which there are large patches of bushes, and even trees.

It is remarkably flat, but interesected in different parts

by the beds of ancient rivers; and prodigious herds of certain antelopes,

which require little or no water, roam over the trackless plains.

The inhabitants, Bushmen and Bakalahari, prey on the game

and on the countless rodentia and small species of the feline race

which subsist on these. In general, the soil is light-colored soft sand,

nearly pure silica. The beds of the ancient rivers contain

much alluvial soil; and as that is baked hard by the burning sun,

rain-water stands in pools in some of them for several months in the year.

The quantity of grass which grows on this remarkable region is astonishing,

even to those who are familiar with India. It usually rises in tufts

with bare spaces between, or the intervals are occupied by creeping plants,

which, having their roots buried far beneath the soil,

feel little the effects of the scorching sun. The number of these

which have tuberous roots is very great; and their structure is intended

to supply nutriment and moisture, when, during the long droughts,

they can be obtained nowhere else. Here we have an example of a plant,

not generally tuber-bearing, becoming so under circumstances where

that appendage is necessary to act as a reservoir for preserving its life;

and the same thing occurs in Angola to a species of grape-bearing vine,

which is so furnished for the same purpose. The plant to which

I at present refer is one of the cucurbitaceae, which bears a small,

scarlet-colored, eatable cucumber. Another plant, named Leroshua,

is a blessing to the inhabitants of the Desert. We see a small plant

with linear leaves, and a stalk not thicker than a crow's quill;

on digging down a foot or eighteen inches beneath, we come to a tuber,

often as large as the head of a young child; when the rind is removed,

we find it to be a mass of cellular tissue, filled with fluid

much like that in a young turnip. Owing to the depth beneath the soil

at which it is found, it is generally deliciously cool and refreshing.

Another kind, named Mokuri, is seen in other parts of the country,

where long-continued heat parches the soil. This plant

is an herbaceous creeper, and deposits under ground a number of tubers,

some as large as a man's head, at spots in a circle a yard or more,

horizontally, from the stem. The natives strike the ground

on the circumference of the circle with stones, till, by hearing

a difference of sound, they know the water-bearing tuber to be beneath.

They then dig down a foot or so, and find it.

But the most surprising plant of the Desert is the "Kengwe or Keme"

(`Cucumis caffer'), the watermelon. In years when more than the usual

quantity of rain falls, vast tracts of the country are literally covered

with these melons; this was the case annually when the fall of rain

was greater than it is now, and the Bakwains sent trading parties every year

to the lake. It happens commonly once every ten or eleven years,

and for the last three times its occurrence has coincided with

an extraordinarily wet season. Then animals of every sort and name,

including man, rejoice in the rich supply. The elephant,

true lord of the forest, revels in this fruit, and so do

the different species of rhinoceros, although naturally so diverse

in their choice of pasture. The various kinds of antelopes feed on them

with equal avidity, and lions, hyaenas, jackals, and mice,

all seem to know and appreciate the common blessing. These melons are not,

however, all of them eatable; some are sweet, and others so bitter

that the whole are named by the Boers the "bitter watermelon".

The natives select them by striking one melon after another with a hatchet,

and applying the tongue to the gashes. They thus readily distinguish

between the bitter and sweet. The bitter are deleterious,

but the sweet are quite wholesome. This peculiarity of one species of plant

bearing both sweet and bitter fruits occurs also in a red, eatable cucumber,

often met with in the country. It is about four inches long,

and about an inch and a half in diameter. It is of a bright scarlet color

when ripe. Many are bitter, others quite sweet. Even melons in a garden

may be made bitter by a few bitter kengwe in the vicinity.

The bees convey the pollen from one to the other.

The human inhabitants of this tract of country consist of

Bushmen and Bakalahari. The former are probably the aborigines

of the southern portion of the continent, the latter the remnants of

the first emigration of Bechuanas. The Bushmen live in the Desert

from choice, the Bakalahari from compulsion, and both possess

an intense love of liberty. The Bushmen are exceptions in language, race,

habits, and appearance. They are the only real nomads in the country;

they never cultivate the soil, nor rear any domestic animal

save wretched dogs. They are so intimately acquainted

with the habits of the game that they follow them in their migrations,

and prey upon them from place to place, and thus prove

as complete a check upon their inordinate increase as the other carnivora.

The chief subsistence of the Bushmen is the flesh of game,

but that is eked out by what the women collect of roots and beans,

and fruits of the Desert. Those who inhabit the hot sandy

plains of the Desert possess generally thin, wiry forms,

capable of great exertion and of severe privations. Many are of low stature,

though not dwarfish; the specimens brought to Europe have been selected,

like costermongers' dogs, on account of their extreme ugliness;

consequently, English ideas of the whole tribe are formed in the same way

as if the ugliest specimens of the English were exhibited in Africa

as characteristic of the entire British nation. That they are like baboons

is in some degree true, just as these and other simiae are in some points

frightfully human.

The Bakalahari are traditionally reported to be the oldest

of the Bechuana tribes, and they are said to have possessed

enormous herds of the large horned cattle mentioned by Bruce,

until they were despoiled of them and driven into the Desert

by a fresh migration of their own nation. Living ever since

on the same plains with the Bushmen, subjected to the same

influences of climate, enduring the same thirst, and subsisting

on similar food for centuries, they seem to supply a standing proof

that locality is not always sufficient of itself to account

for difference in races. The Bakalahari retain in undying vigor

the Bechuana love for agriculture and domestic animals.

They hoe their gardens annually, though often all they can hope for

is a supply of melons and pumpkins. And they carefully rear

small herds of goats, though I have seen them lift water for them

out of small wells with a bit of ostrich egg-shell, or by spoonfuls.

They generally attach themselves to influential men

in the different Bechuana tribes living adjacent to their desert home,

in order to obtain supplies of spears, knives, tobacco, and dogs, in exchange

for the skins of the animals they may kill. These are small carnivora of

the feline species, including two species of jackal, the dark and the golden;

the former, "motlose" (`Megalotis capensis' or `Cape fennec'),

has the warmest fur the country yields; the latter,

"pukuye" (`Canis mesomelas' and `C. aureus'), is very handsome

when made into the skin mantle called kaross. Next in value

follow the "tsipa" or small ocelot (`Felis nigripes'),

the "tuane" or lynx, the wild cat, the spotted cat, and other small animals.

Great numbers of `puti' (`duiker') and `puruhuru' (`steinbuck') skins

are got too, besides those of lions, leopards, panthers,

and hyaenas. During the time I was in the Bechuana country,

between twenty and thirty thousand skins were made up into karosses;

part of them were worn by the inhabitants, and part sold to traders:

many, I believe, find their way to China. The Bakwains bought tobacco

from the eastern tribes, then purchased skins with it from the Bakalahari,

tanned them, and sewed them into karosses, then went south to purchase

heifer-calves with them, cows being the highest form of riches known,

as I have often noticed from their asking "if Queen Victoria had many cows."

The compact they enter into is mutually beneficial, but injustice and wrong

are often perpetrated by one tribe of Bechuanas going among

the Bakalahari of another tribe, and compelling them to deliver up the skins

which they may be keeping for their friends. They are a timid race,

and in bodily development often resemble the aborigines of Australia.

They have thin legs and arms, and large, protruding abdomens,

caused by the coarse, indigestible food they eat. Their children's eyes

lack lustre. I never saw them at play. A few Bechuanas may go into

a village of Bakalahari, and domineer over the whole with impunity;

but when these same adventurers meet the Bushmen, they are fain

to change their manners to fawning sycophancy; they know that,

if the request for tobacco is refused, these free sons of the Desert

may settle the point as to its possession by a poisoned arrow.

The dread of visits from Bechuanas of strange tribes causes the Bakalahari

to choose their residences far from water; and they not unfrequently

hide their supplies by filling the pits with sand and making a fire

over the spot. When they wish to draw water for use, the women come

with twenty or thirty of their water-vessels in a bag or net on their backs.

These water-vessels consist of ostrich egg-shells, with a hole

in the end of each, such as would admit one's finger.

The women tie a bunch of grass to one end of a reed about two feet long,

and insert it in a hole dug as deep as the arm will reach;

then ram down the wet sand firmly round it. Applying the mouth

to the free end of the reed, they form a vacuum in the grass beneath,

in which the water collects, and in a short time rises into the mouth.

An egg-shell is placed on the ground alongside the reed,

some inches below the mouth of the sucker. A straw guides the water

into the hole of the vessel, as she draws mouthful after mouthful from below.

The water is made to pass along the outside, not through the straw.

If any one will attempt to squirt water into a bottle

placed some distance below his mouth, he will soon perceive

the wisdom of the Bushwoman's contrivance for giving the stream direction

by means of a straw. The whole stock of water is thus passed

through the woman's mouth as a pump, and, when taken home,

is carefully buried. I have come into villages where, had we acted

a domineering part, and rummaged every hut, we should have found nothing;

but by sitting down quietly, and waiting with patience

until the villagers were led to form a favorable opinion of us,

a woman would bring out a shellful of the precious fluid

from I know not where.

The so-called Desert, it may be observed, is by no means

a useless tract of country. Besides supporting multitudes of both

small and large animals, it sends something to the market of the world,

and has proved a refuge to many a fugitive tribe -- to the Bakalahari first,

and to the other Bechuanas in turn -- as their lands were overrun

by the tribe of true Caffres, called Matebele. The Bakwains, the Bangwaketze,

and the Bamangwato all fled thither; and the Matebele marauders,

who came from the well-watered east, perished by hundreds

in their attempts to follow them. One of the Bangwaketze chiefs,

more wily than the rest, sent false guides to lead them on a track where,

for hundreds of miles, not a drop of water could be found,

and they perished in consequence. Many Bakwains perished too.

Their old men, who could have told us ancient stories,

perished in these flights. An intelligent Mokwain related to me

how the Bushmen effectually balked a party of his tribe

which lighted on their village in a state of burning thirst.

Believing, as he said, that nothing human could subsist without water,

they demanded some, but were coolly told by these Bushmen that they had none,

and never drank any. Expecting to find them out, they resolved to watch them

night and day. They persevered for some days, thinking that at last

the water must come forth; but, notwithstanding their watchfulness,

kept alive by most tormenting thirst, the Bakwains were compelled to exclaim,

"Yak! yak! these are not men; let us go." Probably the Bushmen

had been subsisting on a store hidden under ground, which had eluded

the vigilance of their visitors.

Chapter 3.

Departure from Kolobeng, 1st June, 1849 -- Companions -- Our Route --

Abundance of Grass -- Serotli, a Fountain in the Desert --

Mode of digging Wells -- The Eland -- Animals of the Desert --

The Hyaena -- The Chief Sekomi -- Dangers -- The wandering Guide --

Cross Purposes -- Slow Progress -- Want of Water -- Capture of a Bushwoman

-- The Salt-pan at Nchokotsa -- The Mirage -- Reach the River Zouga --

The Quakers of Africa -- Discovery of Lake Ngami, 1st August, 1849 --

Its Extent -- Small Depth of Water -- Position as the Reservoir

of a great River System -- The Bamangwato and their Chief --

Desire to visit Sebituane, the Chief of the Makololo --

Refusal of Lechulatebe to furnish us with Guides --

Resolve to return to the Cape -- The Banks of the Zouga -- Pitfalls --

Trees of the District -- Elephants -- New Species of Antelope --

Fish in the Zouga.

Such was the desert which we were now preparing to cross --

a region formerly of terror to the Bechuanas from the numbers of serpents

which infested it and fed on the different kinds of mice,

and from the intense thirst which these people often endured

when their water-vessels were insufficient for the distances

to be traveled over before reaching the wells.

Just before the arrival of my companions, a party of the people of the lake

came to Kolobeng, stating that they were sent by Lechulatebe,

the chief, to ask me to visit that country. They brought

such flaming accounts of the quantities of ivory to be found there

(cattle-pens made of elephants' tusks of enormous size, &c.),

that the guides of the Bakwains were quite as eager to succeed

in reaching the lake as any one of us could desire. This was fortunate,

as we knew the way the strangers had come was impassable for wagons.

Messrs. Oswell and Murray came at the end of May, and we all made a fair start

for the unknown region on the 1st of June, 1849. Proceeding northward,

and passing through a range of tree-covered hills to Shokuane,

formerly the residence of the Bakwains, we soon after entered

on the high road to the Bamangwato, which lies generally

in the bed of an ancient river or wady that must formerly have flowed N. to S.

The adjacent country is perfectly flat, but covered with open forest and bush,

with abundance of grass; the trees generally are a kind of acacia

called "Monato", which appears a little to the south of this region,

and is common as far as Angola. A large caterpillar, called "Nato",

feeds by night on the leaves of these trees, and comes down by day

to bury itself at the root in the sand, in order to escape

the piercing rays of the sun. The people dig for it there,

and are fond of it when roasted, on account of its pleasant vegetable taste.

When about to pass into the chrysalis state, it buries itself in the soil,

and is sometimes sought for as food even then. If left undisturbed,

it comes forth as a beautiful butterfly: the transmutation

was sometimes employed by me with good effect when speaking with the natives,

as an illustration of our own great change and resurrection.

The soil is sandy, and there are here and there indications

that at spots which now afford no water whatever there were formerly

wells and cattle stations.

Boatlanama, our next station, is a lovely spot in the otherwise dry region.

The wells from which we had to lift out the water for our cattle are deep,

but they were well filled. A few villages of Bakalahari were found near them,

and great numbers of pallahs, springbucks, Guinea-fowl, and small monkeys.

Lopepe came next. This place afforded another proof

of the desiccation of the country. The first time I passed it,

Lopepe was a large pool with a stream flowing out of it to the south;

now it was with difficulty we could get our cattle watered

by digging down in the bottom of a well.

At Mashue -- where we found a never-failing supply of pure water

in a sandstone rocky hollow -- we left the road to the Bamangwato hills,

and struck away to the north into the Desert. Having watered the cattle

at a well called Lobotani, about N.W. of Bamangwato, we next proceeded

to a real Kalahari fountain, called Serotli. The country around is covered

with bushes and trees of a kind of leguminosae, with lilac flowers.

The soil is soft white sand, very trying to the strength of the oxen,

as the wheels sink into it over the felloes and drag heavily. At Serotli

we found only a few hollows like those made by the buffalo and rhinoceros

when they roll themselves in the mud. In a corner of one of these

there appeared water, which would have been quickly lapped up by our dogs,

had we not driven them away. And yet this was all the apparent supply

for some eighty oxen, twenty horses, and about a score of men.

Our guide, Ramotobi, who had spent his youth in the Desert, declared that,

though appearances were against us, there was plenty of water at hand.

We had our misgivings, for the spades were soon produced;

but our guides, despising such new-fangled aid, began in good earnest

to scrape out the sand with their hands. The only water we had any promise of

for the next seventy miles -- that is, for a journey of three days

with the wagons -- was to be got here. By the aid of both spades and fingers

two of the holes were cleared out, so as to form pits

six feet deep and about as many broad. Our guides were especially earnest

in their injunctions to us not to break through the hard stratum of sand

at the bottom, because they knew, if it were broken through,

"the water would go away." They are quite correct, for the water seems to lie

on this flooring of incipient sandstone. The value of the advice was proved

in the case of an Englishman whose wits were none of the brightest, who,

disregarding it, dug through the sandy stratum in the wells at Mohotluani:

the water immediately flowed away downward, and the well became useless.

When we came to the stratum, we found that the water flowed in on all sides

close to the line where the soft sand came in contact with it.

Allowing it to collect, we had enough for the horses that evening;

but as there was not sufficient for the oxen, we sent them back to Lobotani,

where, after thirsting four full days (ninety-six hours),

they got a good supply. The horses were kept by us as necessary

to procure game for the sustenance of our numerous party.

Next morning we found the water had flowed in faster than at first,

as it invariably does in these reservoirs, owing to the passages

widening by the flow. Large quantities of the sand come into the well

with the water, and in the course of a few days the supply, which may be equal

to the wants of a few men only, becomes sufficient for oxen as well.

In these sucking-places the Bakalahari get their supplies;

and as they are generally in the hollows of ancient river-beds,

they are probably the deposits from rains gravitating thither;

in some cases they may be the actual fountains, which, though formerly

supplying the river's flow, now no longer rise to the surface.

Here, though the water was perfectly inaccessible to elands,

large numbers of these fine animals fed around us; and, when killed,

they were not only in good condition, but their stomachs actually contained

considerable quantities of water.

I examined carefully the whole alimentary canal, in order to see

if there were any peculiarity which might account for the fact

that this animal can subsist for months together without drinking,

but found nothing. Other animals, such as the duiker (`Cephalopus mergens')

or puti (of the Bechuanas), the steinbuck (`Tragulus rupestris')

or puruhuru, the gemsbuck (`Oryx capensis') or kukama,

and the porcupine (`Hystrix cristata'), are all able to subsist without water

for many months at a time by living on bulbs and tubers containing moisture.

They have sharp-pointed hoofs well adapted for digging,

and there is little difficulty in comprehending their mode of subsistence.

Some animals, on the other hand, are never seen but in the vicinity of water.

The presence of the rhinoceros, of the buffalo and gnu (`Catoblepas gnu'),

of the giraffe, the zebra, and pallah (`Antilope melampus'), is always

a certain indication of water being within a distance of seven or eight miles;

but one may see hundreds of elands (`Boselaphus oreas'),

gemsbuck, the tolo or koodoo (`Strepsiceros capensis'),

also springbucks (`Gazella euchore') and ostriches, without being

warranted thereby in inferring the presence of water

within thirty or forty miles. Indeed, the sleek, fat condition of the eland

in such circumstances would not remove the apprehension of perishing by thirst

from the mind of even a native. I believe, however, that these animals

can subsist only where there is some moisture in the vegetation

on which they feed; for in one year of unusual drought we saw

herds of elands and flocks of ostriches crowding to the Zouga from the Desert,

and very many of the latter were killed in pitfalls on the banks.

As long as there is any sap in the pasturage they seldom need water.

But should a traveler see the "spoor" of a rhinoceros, or buffalo, or zebra,

he would at once follow it up, well assured that before he had gone many miles

he would certainly reach water.

In the evening of our second day at Serotli, a hyaena, appearing suddenly

among the grass, succeeded in raising a panic among our cattle.

This false mode of attack is the plan which this cowardly animal

always adopts. His courage resembles closely that of a turkey-cock.

He will bite, if an animal is running away; but if the animal stand still,

so does he. Seventeen of our draught oxen ran away, and in their flight

went right into the hands of Sekomi, whom, from his being unfriendly

to our success, we had no particular wish to see. Cattle-stealing,

such as in the circumstances might have occurred in Caffraria,

is here unknown; so Sekomi sent back our oxen, and a message

strongly dissuading us against attempting the Desert.

"Where are you going? You will be killed by the sun and thirst,

and then all the white men will blame me for not saving you."

This was backed by a private message from his mother. "Why do you pass me?

I always made the people collect to hear the word that you have got.

What guilt have I, that you pass without looking at me?" We replied

by assuring the messengers that the white men would attribute our deaths

to our own stupidity and "hard-headedness" (tlogo, e thata),

"as we did not intend to allow our companions and guides to return

till they had put us into our graves." We sent a handsome present to Sekomi,

and a promise that, if he allowed the Bakalahari to keep the wells

open for us, we would repeat the gift on our return.

After exhausting all his eloquence in fruitless attempts to persuade us

to return, the under-chief, who headed the party of Sekomi's messengers,

inquired, "Who is taking them?" Looking round, he exclaimed,

with a face expressive of the most unfeigned disgust, "It is Ramotobi!"

Our guide belonged to Sekomi's tribe, but had fled to Sechele;

as fugitives in this country are always well received, and may even afterward

visit the tribe from which they had escaped, Ramotobi was in no danger,

though doing that which he knew to be directly opposed

to the interests of his own chief and tribe.

All around Serotli the country is perfectly flat, and composed of

soft white sand. There is a peculiar glare of bright sunlight

from a cloudless sky over the whole scene; and one clump of trees and bushes,

with open spaces between, looks so exactly like another,

that if you leave the wells, and walk a quarter of a mile in any direction,

it is difficult to return. Oswell and Murray went out on one occasion

to get an eland, and were accompanied by one of the Bakalahari.

The perfect sameness of the country caused even this son of the Desert

to lose his way; a most puzzling conversation forthwith ensued

between them and their guide. One of the most common phrases of the people

is "Kia itumela", I thank you, or I am pleased; and the gentlemen

were both quite familiar with it, and with the word "metse", water.

But there is a word very similar in sound, "Kia timela", I am wandering;

its perfect is "Ki timetse", I have wandered. The party had been

roaming about, perfectly lost, till the sun went down; and,

through their mistaking the verb "wander" for "to be pleased", and "water",

the colloquy went on at intervals during the whole bitterly cold night

in somewhat the following style:

"Where are the wagons?"

REAL ANSWER. "I don't know. I have wandered. I never wandered before.

I am quite lost."

SUPPOSED ANSWER. "I don't know. I want water. I am glad,

I am quite pleased. I am thankful to you."

"Take us to the wagons, and you will get plenty of water."

REAL ANSWER (looking vacantly around). "How did I wander?

Perhaps the well is there, perhaps not. I don't know. I have wandered."

SUPPOSED ANSWER. "Something about thanks; he says he is pleased,

and mentions water again." The guide's vacant stare while trying to remember

is thought to indicate mental imbecility, and the repeated thanks

were supposed to indicate a wish to deprecate their wrath.

"Well, Livingstone HAS played us a pretty trick, giving us in charge

of an idiot. Catch us trusting him again. What can this fellow mean

by his thanks and talk about water? Oh, you born fool! take us to the wagons,

and you will get both meat and water. Wouldn't a thrashing

bring him to his senses again?" "No, no, for then he will run away,

and we shall be worse off than we are now."

The hunters regained the wagons next day by their own sagacity,

which becomes wonderfully quickened by a sojourn in the Desert;

and we enjoyed a hearty laugh on the explanation of their midnight colloquies.

Frequent mistakes of this kind occur. A man may tell his interpreter

to say that he is a member of the family of the chief of the white men;

"YES, YOU SPEAK LIKE A CHIEF," is the reply, meaning, as they explain it,

that a chief may talk nonsense without any one daring to contradict him.

They probably have ascertained, from that same interpreter,

that this relative of the white chief is very poor, having scarcely any thing

in his wagon.

I sometimes felt annoyed at the low estimation in which

some of my hunting friends were held; for, believing that the chase

is eminently conducive to the formation of a brave and noble character,

and that the contest with wild beasts is well adapted for fostering that

coolness in emergencies, and active presence of mind, which we all admire,

I was naturally anxious that a higher estimate of my countrymen

should be formed in the native mind. "Have these hunters,

who come so far and work so hard, no meat at home?" -- "Why, these men

are rich, and could slaughter oxen every day of their lives." -- "And yet

they come here, and endure so much thirst for the sake of this dry meat,

none of which is equal to beef?" -- "Yes, it is for the sake of play besides"

(the idea of sport not being in the language). This produces a laugh,

as much as to say, "Ah! you know better;" or, "Your friends are fools."

When they can get a man to kill large quantities of game for them,

whatever HE may think of himself or of his achievements,

THEY pride themselves in having adroitly turned to good account

the folly of an itinerant butcher.

The water having at last flowed into the wells we had dug

in sufficient quantity to allow a good drink to all our cattle,

we departed from Serotli in the afternoon; but as the sun, even in winter,

which it now was, is always very powerful by day, the wagons were dragged

but slowly through the deep, heavy sand, and we advanced only six miles

before sunset. We could only travel in the mornings and evenings,

as a single day in the hot sun and heavy sand would have knocked up the oxen.

Next day we passed Pepacheu (white tufa), a hollow lined with tufa,

in which water sometimes stands, but it was now dry; and at night

our trocheamer* showed that we had made but twenty-five miles from Serotli.

* This is an instrument which, when fastened on the wagon-wheel,

records the number of revolutions made. By multiplying this number

by the circumference of the wheel, the actual distance traveled over

is at once ascertained.

Ramotobi was angry at the slowness of our progress, and told us that,

as the next water was three days in front, if we traveled so slowly

we should never get there at all. The utmost endeavors of the servants,

cracking their whips, screaming and beating, got only nineteen miles

out of the poor beasts. We had thus proceeded forty-four miles from Serotli;

and the oxen were more exhausted by the soft nature of the country,

and the thirst, than if they had traveled double the distance over a hard road

containing supplies of water: we had, as far as we could judge,

still thirty miles more of the same dry work before us. At this season

the grass becomes so dry as to crumble to powder in the hands;

so the poor beasts stood wearily chewing, without taking

a single fresh mouthful, and lowing painfully at the smell of water

in our vessels in the wagons. We were all determined to succeed;

so we endeavored to save the horses by sending them forward with the guide,

as a means of making a desperate effort in case the oxen should fail.

Murray went forward with them, while Oswell and I remained

to bring the wagons on their trail as far as the cattle could drag them,

intending then to send the oxen forward too.

The horses walked quickly away from us; but, on the morning of the third day,

when we imagined the steeds must be near the water, we discovered them

just alongside the wagons. The guide, having come across

the fresh footprints of some Bushmen who had gone in an opposite direction

to that which we wished to go, turned aside to follow them.

An antelope had been ensnared in one of the Bushmen's pitfalls.

Murray followed Ramotobi most trustingly along the Bushmen's spoor,

though that led them away from the water we were in search of;

witnessed the operation of slaughtering, skinning, and cutting up

the antelope; and then, after a hard day's toil, found himself

close upon the wagons! The knowledge still retained by Ramotobi

of the trackless waste of scrub, through which we were now passing,

seemed admirable. For sixty or seventy miles beyond Serotli,

one clump of bushes and trees seemed exactly like another;

but, as we walked together this morning, he remarked,

"When we come to that hollow we shall light upon the highway of Sekomi;

and beyond that again lies the River Mokoko;" which,

though we passed along it, I could not perceive to be a river-bed at all.

After breakfast, some of the men, who had gone forward on a little path

with some footprints of water-loving animals upon it, returned with

the joyful tidings of "metse", water, exhibiting the mud on their knees

in confirmation of the news being true. It does one's heart good

to see the thirsty oxen rush into a pool of delicious rain-water,

as this was. In they dash until the water is deep enough to be nearly level

with their throat, and then they stand drawing slowly in

the long, refreshing mouthfuls, until their formerly collapsed sides

distend as if they would burst. So much do they imbibe, that a sudden jerk,

when they come out on the bank, makes some of the water run out again

from their mouths; but, as they have been days without food too,

they very soon commence to graze, and of grass there is always

abundance every where. This pool was called Mathuluani;

and thankful we were to have obtained so welcome a supply of water.

After giving the cattle a rest at this spot, we proceeded down

the dry bed of the River Mokoko. The name refers to the water-bearing stratum

before alluded to; and in this ancient bed it bears enough of water

to admit of permanent wells in several parts of it. We had now

the assurance from Ramotobi that we should suffer no more from thirst.

Twice we found rain-water in the Mokoko before we reached Mokokonyani,

where the water, generally below ground elsewhere, comes to the surface

in a bed of tufa. The adjacent country is all covered with low, thorny scrub,

with grass, and here and there clumps of the "wait-a-bit thorn",

or `Acacia detinens'. At Lotlakani (a little reed), another spring

three miles farther down, we met with the first Palmyra trees

which we had seen in South Africa; they were twenty-six in number.

The ancient Mokoko must have been joined by other rivers below this,

for it becomes very broad, and spreads out into a large lake,

of which the lake we were now in search of formed but a very small part.

We observed that, wherever an ant-eater had made his hole,

shells were thrown out with the earth, identical with those

now alive in the lake.

When we left the Mokoko, Ramotobi seemed, for the first time,

to be at a loss as to which direction to take. He had passed only once

away to the west of the Mokoko, the scenes of his boyhood. Mr. Oswell,

while riding in front of the wagons, happened to spy a Bushwoman running away

in a bent position, in order to escape observation. Thinking it to be a lion,

he galloped up to her. She thought herself captured, and began to deliver up

her poor little property, consisting of a few traps made of cords;

but, when I explained that we only wanted water, and would pay her

if she led us to it, she consented to conduct us to a spring.

It was then late in the afternoon, but she walked briskly before our horses

for eight miles, and showed us the water of Nchokotsa.

After leading us to the water, she wished to go away home,

if indeed she had any -- she had fled from a party of her countrymen,

and was now living far from all others with her husband --

but as it was now dark, we wished her to remain. As she believed herself

still a captive, we thought she might slip away by night; so, in order that

she should not go away with the impression that we were dishonest,

we gave her a piece of meat and a good large bunch of beads;

at the sight of the latter she burst into a merry laugh,

and remained without suspicion.

At Nchokotsa we came upon the first of a great number of salt-pans,

covered with an efflorescence of lime, probably the nitrate.

A thick belt of mopane-trees (a `Bauhinia') hides this salt-pan,

which is twenty miles in circumference, entirely from the view of a person

coming from the southeast; and, at the time the pan burst upon our view,

the setting sun was casting a beautiful blue haze over

the white incrustations, making the whole look exactly like a lake.

Oswell threw his hat up in the air at the sight, and shouted out a huzza

which made the poor Bushwoman and the Bakwains think him mad.

I was a little behind him, and was as completely deceived by it as he;

but, as we had agreed to allow each other to behold the lake

at the same instant, I felt a little chagrined that he had, unintentionally,

got the first glance. We had no idea that the long-looked-for lake was still

more than three hundred miles distant. One reason of our mistake was,

that the River Zouga was often spoken of by the same name as the lake,

viz., Noka ea Batletli ("River of the Batletli").

The mirage on these salinas was marvelous. It is never, I believe,

seen in perfection, except over such saline incrustations.

Here not a particle of imagination was necessary for realizing

the exact picture of large collections of water; the waves danced along above,

and the shadows of the trees were vividly reflected beneath the surface

in such an admirable manner, that the loose cattle, whose thirst

had not been slaked sufficiently by the very brackish water of Nchokotsa,

with the horses, dogs, and even the Hottentots ran off

toward the deceitful pools. A herd of zebras in the mirage

looked so exactly like elephants that Oswell began to saddle a horse

in order to hunt them; but a sort of break in the haze

dispelled the illusion. Looking to the west and northwest from Nchokotsa,

we could see columns of black smoke, exactly like those from a steam-engine,

rising to the clouds, and were assured that these arose

from the burning reeds of the Noka ea Batletli.

On the 4th of July we went forward on horseback toward what we supposed

to be the lake, and again and again did we seem to see it;

but at last we came to the veritable water of the Zouga,

and found it to be a river running to the N.E. A village of Bakurutse

lay on the opposite bank; these live among Batletli,

a tribe having a click in their language, and who were found by Sebituane

to possess large herds of the great horned cattle. They seem allied

to the Hottentot family. Mr. Oswell, in trying to cross the river,

got his horse bogged in the swampy bank. Two Bakwains and I managed

to get over by wading beside a fishing-weir. The people were friendly,

and informed us that this water came out of the Ngami. This news gladdened

all our hearts, for we now felt certain of reaching our goal. We might,

they said, be a moon on the way; but we had the River Zouga at our feet,

and by following it we should at last reach the broad water.

Next day, when we were quite disposed to be friendly with every one,

two of the Bamangwato, who had been sent on before us by Sekomi

to drive away all the Bushmen and Bakalahari from our path,

so that they should not assist or guide us, came and sat down by our fire.

We had seen their footsteps fresh in the way, and they had watched

our slow movements forward, and wondered to see how we, without any Bushmen,

found our way to the waters. This was the first time they had seen Ramotobi.

"You have reached the river now," said they; and we, quite disposed to laugh

at having won the game, felt no ill-will to any one. They seemed to feel

no enmity to us either; but, after an apparently friendly conversation,

proceeded to fulfill to the last the instructions of their chief.

Ascending the Zouga in our front, they circulated the report

that our object was to plunder all the tribes living on the river and lake;

but when they had got half way up the river, the principal man

sickened of fever, turned back some distance, and died.

His death had a good effect, for the villagers connected it with the injury

he was attempting to do to us. They all saw through Sekomi's reasons for

wishing us to fail in our attempt; and though they came to us at first armed,

kind and fair treatment soon produced perfect confidence.

When we had gone up the bank of this beautiful river about ninety-six miles

from the point where we first struck it, and understood that we were still

a considerable distance from the Ngami, we left all the oxen and wagons,

except Mr. Oswell's, which was the smallest, and one team, at Ngabisane,

in the hope that they would be recruited for the home journey,

while we made a push for the lake. The Bechuana chief of the Lake region,

who had sent men to Sechele, now sent orders to all the people on the river

to assist us, and we were received by the Bakoba, whose language

clearly shows that they bear an affinity to the tribes in the north.

They call themselves Bayeiye, i.e., men; but the Bechuanas call them Bakoba,

which contains somewhat of the idea of slaves. They have never

been known to fight, and, indeed, have a tradition that their forefathers,

in their first essays at war, made their bows of the Palma Christi,

and, when these broke, they gave up fighting altogether.

They have invariably submitted to the rule of every horde which has overrun

the countries adjacent to the rivers on which they specially love to dwell.

They are thus the Quakers of the body politic in Africa.

A long time after the period of our visit, the chief of the Lake,

thinking to make soldiers of them, took the trouble to furnish them

with shields. "Ah! we never had these before; that is the reason

we have always succumbed. Now we will fight." But a marauding party

came from the Makololo, and our "Friends" at once paddled quickly,

night and day, down the Zouga, never daring to look behind them

till they reached the end of the river, at the point where we first saw it.

The canoes of these inland sailors are truly primitive craft:

they are hollowed out of the trunks of single trees by means of iron adzes;

and if the tree has a bend, so has the canoe. I liked the frank and manly

bearing of these men, and, instead of sitting in the wagon, preferred a seat

in one of the canoes. I found they regarded their rude vessels

as the Arab does his camel. They have always fires in them,

and prefer sleeping in them while on a journey to spending the night on shore.

"On land you have lions," say they, "serpents, hyaenas, and your enemies;

but in your canoe, behind a bank of reed, nothing can harm you."

Their submissive disposition leads to their villages being frequently visited

by hungry strangers. We had a pot on the fire in the canoe by the way,

and when we drew near the villages devoured the contents.

When fully satisfied ourselves, I found we could all look upon any intruders

with perfect complacency, and show the pot in proof of having devoured

the last morsel.

While ascending in this way the beautifully-wooded river,

we came to a large stream flowing into it. This was the River Tamunak'le.

I inquired whence it came. "Oh, from a country full of rivers --

so many no one can tell their number -- and full of large trees."

This was the first confirmation of statements I had heard

from the Bakwains who had been with Sebituane, that the country beyond

was not "the large sandy plateau" of the philosophers.

The prospect of a highway capable of being traversed by boats

to an entirely unexplored and very populous region,

grew from that time forward stronger and stronger in my mind;

so much so that, when we actually came to the lake, this idea occupied

such a large portion of my mental vision that the actual discovery

seemed of but little importance. I find I wrote, when the emotions caused

by the magnificent prospects of the new country were first awakened

in my breast, that they "might subject me to the charge of enthusiasm,

a charge which I wished I deserved, as nothing good or great

had ever been accomplished in the world without it."*

* Letters published by the Royal Geographical Society.

Read 11th February and 8th April, 1850.

Twelve days after our departure from the wagons at Ngabisane

we came to the northeast end of Lake Ngami; and on the 1st of August, 1849,

we went down together to the broad part, and, for the first time,

this fine-looking sheet of water was beheld by Europeans.

The direction of the lake seemed to be N.N.E. and S.S.W. by compass.

The southern portion is said to bend round to the west,

and to receive the Teoughe from the north at its northwest extremity.

We could detect no horizon where we stood looking S.S.W.,

nor could we form any idea of the extent of the lake, except from

the reports of the inhabitants of the district; and, as they professed

to go round it in three days, allowing twenty-five miles a day

would make it seventy-five, or less than seventy geographical miles

in circumference. Other guesses have been made since as to its circumference,

ranging between seventy and one hundred miles. It is shallow,

for I subsequently saw a native punting his canoe over seven or eight miles

of the northeast end; it can never, therefore, be of much value

as a commercial highway. In fact, during the months preceding

the annual supply of water from the north, the lake is so shallow

that it is with difficulty cattle can approach the water

through the boggy, reedy banks. These are low on all sides, but on the west

there is a space devoid of trees, showing that the waters have retired thence

at no very ancient date. This is another of the proofs of desiccation

met with so abundantly throughout the whole country. A number of dead trees

lie on this space, some of them imbedded in the mud, right in the water.

We were informed by the Bayeiye, who live on the lake,

that when the annual inundation begins, not only trees of great size,

but antelopes, as the springbuck and tsessebe (`Acronotus lunata'),

are swept down by its rushing waters; the trees are gradually driven

by the winds to the opposite side, and become imbedded in mud.

The water of the lake is perfectly fresh when full, but brackish when low;

and that coming down the Tamunak'le we found to be so clear, cold, and soft,

the higher we ascended, that the idea of melting snow was suggested

to our minds. We found this region, with regard to that

from which we had come, to be clearly a hollow, the lowest point

being Lake Kumadau; the point of the ebullition of water,

as shown by one of Newman's barometric thermometers, was only between

207-1/2 Deg. and 206 Deg., giving an elevation of not much more

than two thousand feet above the level of the sea. We had descended

above two thousand feet in coming to it from Kolobeng.

It is the southern and lowest part of the great river system beyond,

in which large tracts of country are inundated annually by tropical rains,

hereafter to be described. A little of that water, which in the countries

farther north produces inundation, comes as far south as 20d 20',

the latitude of the upper end of the lake, and instead of

flooding the country, falls into the lake as into a reservoir.

It begins to flow down the Embarrah, which divides into the rivers

Tzo and Teoughe. The Tzo divides into the Tamunak'le and Mababe;

the Tamunak'le discharges itself into the Zouga, and the Teoughe

into the lake. The flow begins either in March or April,

and the descending waters find the channels of all these rivers dried out,

except in certain pools in their beds, which have long dry spaces

between them. The lake itself is very low. The Zouga is but

a prolongation of the Tamunak'le, and an arm of the lake

reaches up to the point where the one ends and the other begins.

The last is narrow and shallow, while the Zouga is broad and deep.

The narrow arm of the lake, which on the map looks like

a continuation of the Zouga, has never been observed to flow either way.

It is as stagnant as the lake itself.

The Teoughe and Tamunak'le, being essentially the same river,

and receiving their supplies from the same source (the Embarrah or Varra),

can never outrun each other. If either could, or if the Teoughe

could fill the lake -- a thing which has never happened in modern times --

then this little arm would prove a convenient escapement

to prevent inundation. If the lake ever becomes lower

than the bed of the Zouga, a little of the water of the Tamunak'le

might flow into it instead of down the Zouga; we should then have

the phenomenon of a river flowing two ways; but this has never been observed

to take place here, and it is doubtful if it ever can occur in this locality.

The Zouga is broad and deep when it leaves the Tamunak'le,

but becomes gradually narrower as you descend about two hundred miles;

there it flows into Kumadau, a small lake about three or four miles broad

and twelve long. The water, which higher up begins to flow in April,

does not make much progress in filling this lake till the end of June.

In September the rivers cease to flow. When the supply has been

more than usually abundant, a little water flows beyond Kumadau,

in the bed first seen by us on the 4th of July; if the quantity were larger,

it might go further in the dry rocky bed of the Zouga, since seen

still further to the east. The water supply of this part of the river system,

as will be more fully explained further on, takes place in channels prepared

for a much more copious flow. It resembles a deserted Eastern garden,

where all the embankments and canals for irrigation can be traced,

but where, the main dam and sluices having been allowed to get out of repair,

only a small portion can be laid under water. In the case of the Zouga

the channel is perfect, but water enough to fill the whole channel

never comes down; and before it finds its way much beyond Kumadau,

the upper supply ceases to run and the rest becomes evaporated.

The higher parts of its bed even are much broader and more capacious

than the lower toward Kumadau. The water is not absorbed so much as lost

in filling up an empty channel, from which it is to be removed

by the air and sun. There is, I am convinced, no such thing in the country

as a river running into sand and becoming lost. The phenomenon,

so convenient for geographers, haunted my fancy for years; but I have failed

in discovering any thing except a most insignificant approach to it.

My chief object in coming to the lake was to visit Sebituane,

the great chief of the Makololo, who was reported to live some

two hundred miles beyond. We had now come to a half-tribe of the Bamangwato,

called Batauana. Their chief was a young man named Lechulatebe.

Sebituane had conquered his father Moremi, and Lechulatebe

received part of his education while a captive among the Bayeiye.

His uncle, a sensible man, ransomed him; and, having collected

a number of families together, abdicated the chieftainship

in favor of his nephew. As Lechulatebe had just come into power,

he imagined that the proper way of showing his abilities

was to act directly contrary to every thing that his uncle advised.

When we came, the uncle recommended him to treat us handsomely,

therefore the hopeful youth presented us with a goat only.

It ought to have been an ox. So I proposed to my companions

to loose the animal and let him go, as a hint to his master.

They, however, did not wish to insult him. I, being more of a native,

and familiar with their customs, knew that this shabby present

was an insult to us. We wished to purchase some goats or oxen;

Lechulatebe offered us elephants' tusks. "No, we can not eat these;

we want something to fill our stomachs." "Neither can I;

but I hear you white men are all very fond of these bones, so I offer them;

I want to put the goats into my own stomach." A trader, who accompanied us,

was then purchasing ivory at the rate of ten good large tusks

for a musket worth thirteen shillings. They were called "bones";

and I myself saw eight instances in which the tusks had been left

to rot with the other bones where the elephant fell. The Batauana never had

a chance of a market before; but, in less than two years after our discovery,

not a man of them could be found who was not keenly alive

to the great value of the article.

On the day after our arrival at the lake, I applied to Lechulatebe

for guides to Sebituane. As he was much afraid of that chief, he objected,

fearing lest other white men should go thither also, and give Sebituane guns;

whereas, if the traders came to him alone, the possession of fire-arms

would give him such a superiority that Sebituane would be afraid of him.

It was in vain to explain that I would inculcate peace between them --

that Sebituane had been a father to him and Sechele, and was

as anxious to see me as he, Lechulatebe, had been. He offered to give me

as much ivory as I needed without going to that chief;

but when I refused to take any, he unwillingly consented to give me guides.

Next day, however, when Oswell and I were prepared to start,

with the horses only, we received a senseless refusal; and like Sekomi,

who had thrown obstacles in our way, he sent men to the Bayeiye with orders

to refuse us a passage across the river. Trying hard to form a raft

at a narrow part, I worked many hours in the water; but the dry wood

was so worm-eaten it would not bear the weight of a single person.

I was not then aware of the number of alligators which exist in the Zouga,

and never think of my labor in the water without feeling thankful

that I escaped their jaws. The season was now far advanced;

and as Mr. Oswell, with his wonted generous feelings, volunteered,

on the spot, to go down to the Cape and bring up a boat,

we resolved to make our way south again.

Coming down the Zouga, we had now time to look at its banks.

These are very beautiful, resembling closely many parts of the River Clyde

above Glasgow. The formation is soft calcareous tufa,

such as forms the bottom of all this basin. The banks are perpendicular

on the side to which the water swings, and sloping and grassy on the other.

The slopes are selected for the pitfalls designed by the Bayeiye

to entrap the animals as they come to drink. These are about

seven or eight feet deep, three or four feet wide at the mouth,

and gradually decrease till they are only about a foot wide at the bottom.

The mouth is an oblong square (the only square thing made by the Bechuanas,

for every thing else is round), and the long diameter at the surface

is about equal to the depth. The decreasing width toward the bottom

is intended to make the animal wedge himself more firmly in

by his weight and struggles. The pitfalls are usually in pairs,

with a wall a foot thick left uncut between the ends of each,

so that if the beast, when it feels its fore legs descending,

should try to save itself from going in altogether by striding the hind legs,

he would spring forward and leap into the second with a force

which insures the fall of his whole body into the trap.

They are covered with great care. All the excavated earth is removed

to a distance, so as not to excite suspicion in the minds of the animals.

Reeds and grass are laid across the top; above this the sand is thrown,

and watered so as to appear exactly like the rest of the spot.

Some of our party plumped into these pitfalls more than once,

even when in search of them, in order to open them to prevent

the loss of our cattle. If an ox sees a hole, he carefully avoids it;

and old elephants have been known to precede the herd and whisk off

the coverings of the pitfalls on each side all the way down to the water.

We have known instances in which the old among these sagacious animals

have actually lifted the young out of the trap.

The trees which adorn the banks are magnificent. Two enormous baobabs

(`Adansonia digitata'), or mowanas, grow near its confluence with the lake

where we took the observations for the latitude (20d 20' S.).

We were unable to ascertain the longitude of the lake,

as our watches were useless; it may be between 22 Deg. and 23 Deg. E.

The largest of the two baobabs was 76 feet in girth.

The palmyra appears here and there among trees not met with in the south.

The mokuchong, or moshoma, bears an edible fruit of indifferent quality,

but the tree itself would be a fine specimen of arboreal beauty

in any part of the world. The trunk is often converted into canoes.

The motsouri, which bears a pink plum containing a pleasant acid juice,

resembles an orange-tree in its dark evergreen foliage, and a cypress

in its form. It was now winter-time, and we saw nothing of the flora.

The plants and bushes were dry; but wild indigo abounded, as indeed it does

over large tracts of Africa. It is called mohetolo, or the "changer",

by the boys, who dye their ornaments of straw with the juice.

There are two kinds of cotton in the country, and the Mashona,

who convert it into cloth, dye it blue with this plant.

We found the elephants in prodigious numbers on the southern bank.

They come to drink by night, and after having slaked their thirst --

in doing which they throw large quantities of water over themselves,

and are heard, while enjoying the refreshment, screaming with delight --

they evince their horror of pitfalls by setting off in a straight line

to the desert, and never diverge till they are eight or ten miles off.

They are smaller here than in the countries farther south.

At the Limpopo, for instance, they are upward of twelve feet high;

here, only eleven: farther north we shall find them nine feet only.

The koodoo, or tolo, seemed smaller, too, than those we had been

accustomed to see. We saw specimens of the kuabaoba,

or straight-horned rhinoceros (`R. Oswellii'), which is a variety

of the white (`R. simus'); and we found that, from the horn being

projected downward, it did not obstruct the line of vision,

so that this species is able to be much more wary than its neighbors.

We discovered an entirely new species of antelope, called leche or lechwi.

It is a beautiful water-antelope of a light brownish-yellow color.

Its horns -- exactly like those of the `Aigoceros ellipsiprimnus',

the waterbuck, or tumogo, of the Bechuanas -- rise from the head with

a slight bend backward, then curve forward at the points. The chest, belly,

and orbits are nearly white, the front of the legs and ankles deep brown.

From the horns, along the nape to the withers, the male has

a small mane of the same yellowish color with the rest of the skin,

and the tail has a tuft of black hair. It is never found a mile from water;

islets in marshes and rivers are its favorite haunts, and it is quite unknown

except in the central humid basin of Africa. Having a good deal of curiosity,

it presents a noble appearance as it stands gazing, with head erect,

at the approaching stranger. When it resolves to decamp, it lowers its head,

and lays its horns down to a level with the withers; it then begins

with a waddling trot, which ends in its galloping and springing over bushes

like the pallahs. It invariably runs to the water, and crosses it

by a succession of bounds, each of which appears to be from the bottom.

We thought the flesh good at first, but soon got tired of it.

Great shoals of excellent fish come down annually with the access of waters.

The mullet (`Mugil Africanus') is the most abundant. They are caught in nets.

The `Glanis siluris', a large, broad-headed fish, without scales, and barbed

-- called by the natives "mosala" -- attains an enormous size and fatness.

They are caught so large that when a man carries one over his shoulder

the tail reaches the ground. It is a vegetable feeder,

and in many of its habits resembles the eel. Like most lophoid fishes,

it has the power of retaining a large quantity of water

in a part of its great head, so that it can leave the river,

and even be buried in the mud of dried-up pools, without being destroyed.

Another fish closely resembling this, and named `Clarias capensis'

by Dr. Smith, is widely diffused throughout the interior,

and often leaves the rivers for the sake of feeding in pools.

As these dry up, large numbers of them are entrapped by the people.

A water-snake, yellow-spotted and dark brown, is often seen swimming along

with its head above the water: it is quite harmless, and is relished as food

by the Bayeiye.

They mention ten kinds of fish in their river; and, in their songs of praise

to the Zouga, say, "The messenger sent in haste is always forced

to spend the night on the way by the abundance of food you place before him."

The Bayeiye live much on fish, which is quite an abomination

to the Bechuanas of the south; and they catch them in large numbers

by means of nets made of the fine, strong fibres of the hibiscus,

which grows abundantly in all moist places. Their float-ropes

are made of the ife, or, as it is now called, the `Sanseviere Angolensis',

a flag-looking plant, having a very strong fibre, that abounds

from Kolobeng to Angola; and the floats themselves are pieces of a water-plant

containing valves at each joint, which retain the air in cells

about an inch long. The mode of knotting the nets is identical with our own.

They also spear the fish with javelins having a light handle,

which readily floats on the surface. They show great dexterity

in harpooning the hippopotamus; and, the barbed blade of the spear

being attached to a rope made of the young leaves of the palmyra,

the animal can not rid himself of the canoe, attached to him in whale fashion,

except by smashing it, which he not unfrequently does

by his teeth or by a stroke of his hind foot.

On returning to the Bakurutse, we found that their canoes for fishing

were simply large bundles of reeds tied together. Such a canoe

would be a ready extemporaneous pontoon for crossing any river

that had reedy banks.