All The Corn, Clothing,
And Furniture Of The People, Too, Had Been Consumed In The Flames
Which The Boers Had Forced The Subject Tribes To Apply To The Town
During The Fight, So That Its Inhabitants Were Now Literally Starving.
Sechele had given orders to his people not to commit any act of revenge
pending his visit to the
Queen of England; but some of the young men
ventured to go to meet a party of Boers returning from hunting,
and, as the Boers became terrified and ran off, they brought their wagons
to Litubaruba. This seems to have given the main body of Boers an idea
that the Bakwains meant to begin a guerrilla war upon them.
This "Caffre war" was, however, only in embryo, and not near
that stage of development in which the natives have found out
that the hide-and-seek system is the most successful.
The Boers, in alarm, sent four of their number to ask for peace!
I, being present, heard the condition: "Sechele's children must be
restored to him." I never saw men so completely and unconsciously in a trap
as these four Boers were. Strong parties of armed Bakwains occupied
every pass in the hills and gorges around; and had they not promised much more
than they intended, or did perform, that day would have been their last.
The commandant Scholz had appropriated the children of Sechele
to be his own domestic slaves. I was present when one little boy,
Khari, son of Sechele, was returned to his mother; the child had been allowed
to roll into the fire, and there were three large unbound open sores
on different parts of his body. His mother and the women received him
with a flood of silent tears.
Slavery is said to be mild and tender-hearted in some places.
The Boers assert that they are the best of masters, and that,
if the English had possessed the Hottentot slaves, they would have received
much worse treatment than they did: what that would have been it is difficult
to imagine. I took down the names of some scores of boys and girls,
many of whom I knew as our scholars; but I could not comfort
the weeping mothers by any hope of their ever returning from slavery.
The Bechuanas are universally much attached to children.
A little child toddling near a party of men while they are eating
is sure to get a handful of the food. This love of children may arise,
in a great measure, from the patriarchal system under which they dwell.
Every little stranger forms an increase of property to the whole community,
and is duly reported to the chief - boys being more welcome than girls.
The parents take the name of the child, and often address their children
as Ma (mother), or Ra (father). Our eldest boy being named Robert,
Mrs. Livingstone was, after his birth, always addressed as Ma-Robert,
instead of Mary, her Christian name.
I have examined several cases in which a grandmother has taken upon herself
to suckle a grandchild.
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