The Men Who Took The Cows Carried A Number Of Hoes
To Purchase Goats Besides.
Lechulatebe took the cows and sent back
an equal number of sheep.
Now, according to the relative value
of sheep and cows in these parts, he ought to have sent sixty or seventy.
One of the men who had hoes was trying to purchase in a village
without formal leave from Lechulatebe; this chief punished him
by making him sit some hours on the broiling hot sand (at least 130 Deg.).
This farther offense put a stop to amicable relations
between the two tribes altogether. It was a case in which a very small tribe,
commanded by a weak and foolish chief, had got possession of fire-arms,
and felt conscious of ability to cope with a numerous and warlike race.
Such cases are the only ones in which the possession of fire-arms does evil.
The universal effect of the diffusion of the more potent
instruments of warfare in Africa is the same as among ourselves.
Fire-arms render wars less frequent and less bloody. It is indeed
exceedingly rare to hear of two tribes having guns going to war
with each other; and, as nearly all the feuds, in the south at least,
have been about cattle, the risk which must be incurred from long shots
generally proves a preventive to the foray.
The Makololo were prevailed upon to keep the peace during my residence
with them, but it was easy to perceive that public opinion was against
sparing a tribe of Bechuanas for whom the Makololo entertained
the most sovereign contempt.
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