Foiled In This Second Attempt To Reach Sebituane, We Returned Again
To Kolobeng, Whither We Were Soon Followed By A Number Of Messengers
From That Chief Himself.
When he heard of our attempts to visit him,
he dispatched three detachments of his men with thirteen brown
Cows
to Lechulatebe, thirteen white cows to Sekomi, and thirteen black cows
to Sechele, with a request to each to assist the white men to reach him.
Their policy, however, was to keep him out of view, and act as his agents
in purchasing with his ivory the goods he wanted. This is thoroughly African;
and that continent being without friths and arms of the sea,
the tribes in the centre have always been debarred from European intercourse
by its universal prevalence among all the people around the coasts.
Before setting out on our third journey to Sebituane, it was necessary
to visit Kuruman; and Sechele, eager, for the sake of the commission thereon,
to get the ivory of that chief into his own hands, allowed all the messengers
to leave before our return. Sekomi, however, was more than usually gracious,
and even furnished us with a guide, but no one knew the path beyond Nchokotsa
which we intended to follow. When we reached that point,
we found that the main spring of the gun of another of his men,
who was well acquainted with the Bushmen, through whose country
we should pass, had opportunely broken. I never undertook to mend a gun
with greater zest than this; for, under promise of his guidance,
we went to the north instead of westward.
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