He At Once Recommended Our Keeping
Well Away From The River, On Account Of The Tsetse And Rocky Country,
Assigning
Also as a reason for it that the Leeambye beyond the falls
turns round to the N.N.E. Mamire,
Who had married the mother of Sekeletu,
on coming to bid me farewell before starting, said, "You are now going
among people who can not be trusted because we have used them badly;
but you go with a different message from any they ever heard before,
and Jesus will be with you and help you, though among enemies;
and if he carries you safely, and brings you and Ma Robert back again,
I shall say he has bestowed a great favor upon me. May we obtain a path
whereby we may visit and be visited by other tribes, and by white men!"
On telling him my fears that he was still inclined to follow
the old marauding system, which prevented intercourse, and that he,
from his influential position, was especially guilty in the late forays,
he acknowledged all rather too freely for my taste, but seemed quite aware
that the old system was far from right. Mentioning my inability
to pay the men who were to accompany me, he replied, "A man wishes,
of course, to appear among his friends, after a long absence,
with something of his own to show; the whole of the ivory in the country
is yours, so you must take as much as you can, and Sekeletu will furnish men
to carry it." These remarks of Mamire are quoted literally,
in order to show the state of mind of the most influential
in the tribe. And as I wish to give the reader a fair idea
of the other side of the question as well, it may be mentioned
that Motibe parried the imputation of the guilt of marauding
by every possible subterfuge. He would not admit that they had done wrong,
and laid the guilt of the wars in which the Makololo had engaged
on the Boers, the Matebele, and every other tribe except his own.
When quite a youth, Motibe's family had been attacked by a party of Boers;
he hid himself in an ant-eater's hole, but was drawn out and thrashed
with a whip of hippopotamus hide. When enjoined to live in peace,
he would reply, "Teach the Boers to lay down their arms first."
Yet Motibe, on other occasions, seemed to feel the difference
between those who are Christians indeed and those who are so only in name.
In all our discussions we parted good friends.
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.
On the 3d of November we bade adieu to our friends at Linyanti, accompanied by
Sekeletu and about 200 followers. We were all fed at his expense,
and he took cattle for this purpose from every station we came to.
The principal men of the Makololo, Lebeole, Ntlarie, Nkwatlele, etc.,
were also of the party. We passed through the patch of the tsetse,
which exists between Linyanti and Sesheke, by night.
The majority of the company went on by daylight, in order to prepare our beds.
Sekeletu and I, with about forty young men, waited outside the tsetse
till dark. We then went forward, and about ten o'clock it became
so pitchy dark that both horses and men were completely blinded.
The lightning spread over the sky, forming eight or ten branches at a time,
in shape exactly like those of a tree. This, with great volumes
of sheet-lightning, enabled us at times to see the whole country.
The intervals between the flashes were so densely dark as to convey
the idea of stone-blindness. The horses trembled, cried out,
and turned round, as if searching for each other, and every new flash
revealed the men taking different directions, laughing, and stumbling
against each other. The thunder was of that tremendously loud kind
only to be heard in tropical countries, and which friends from India
have assured me is louder in Africa than any they have ever heard elsewhere.
Then came a pelting rain, which completed our confusion.
After the intense heat of the day, we soon felt miserably cold,
and turned aside to a fire we saw in the distance. This had been made
by some people on their march; for this path is seldom without
numbers of strangers passing to and from the capital.
My clothing having gone on, I lay down on the cold ground,
expecting to spend a miserable night; but Sekeletu kindly covered me
with his own blanket, and lay uncovered himself. I was much affected
by this act of genuine kindness. If such men must perish
by the advance of civilization, as certain races of animals do before others,
it is a pity. God grant that ere this time comes they may receive that Gospel
which is a solace for the soul in death!
While at Sesheke, Sekeletu supplied me with twelve oxen - three of which
were accustomed to being ridden upon - hoes, and beads to purchase a canoe
when we should strike the Leeambye beyond the falls.
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