When Sekeletu Was Installed In The Chieftainship, He Felt His Position
Rather Insecure, For It Was Believed That The Incantations Of Mpepe
Had An Intimate Connection With Sebituane's Death.
Indeed, the latter
had said to his son, "That hut of incantation will prove fatal
to either you or me."
When the Mambari, in 1850, took home a favorable report of this new market
to the west, a number of half-caste Portuguese slave-traders were induced
to come in 1853; and one, who resembled closely a real Portuguese,
came to Linyanti while I was there. This man had no merchandise,
and pretended to have come in order to inquire "what sort of goods
were necessary for the market." He seemed much disconcerted by
my presence there. Sekeletu presented him with an elephant's tusk and an ox;
and when he had departed about fifty miles to the westward,
he carried off an entire village of the Bakalahari belonging to the Makololo.
He had a number of armed slaves with him; and as all the villagers
- men, women, and children - were removed, and the fact was unknown
until a considerable time afterward, it is not certain whether his object
was obtained by violence or by fair promises. In either case,
slavery must have been the portion of these poor people. He was carried
in a hammock, slung between two poles, which appearing to be a bag,
the Makololo named him "Father of the Bag".
Mpepe favored these slave-traders, and they, as is usual with them,
founded all their hopes of influence on his successful rebellion.
My arrival on the scene was felt to be so much weight in the scale
against their interests. A large party of Mambari had come to Linyanti
when I was floundering on the prairies south of the Chobe.
As the news of my being in the neighborhood reached them
their countenances fell; and when some Makololo, who had assisted us
to cross the river, returned with hats which I had given them,
the Mambari betook themselves to precipitate flight. It is usual for visitors
to ask formal permission before attempting to leave a chief,
but the sight of the hats made the Mambari pack up at once.
The Makololo inquired the cause of the hurry, and were told that,
if I found them there, I should take all their slaves and goods from them;
and, though assured by Sekeletu that I was not a robber,
but a man of peace, they fled by night, while I was still sixty miles off.
They went to the north, where, under the protection of Mpepe, they had erected
a stockade of considerable size. There, several half-caste slave-traders,
under the leadership of a native Portuguese, carried on their traffic,
without reference to the chief into whose country they had unceremoniously
introduced themselves; while Mpepe, feeding them with the cattle of Sekeletu,
formed a plan of raising himself, by means of their fire-arms, to be
the head of the Makololo.
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