On Making Inquiries To Ascertain Whether Santuru, The Moloiana, Had Ever
Been Visited By White Men, I Could Find No Vestige Of Any Such Visit;*
There Is No Evidence Of Any Of Santuru's People Having Ever Seen A White Man
Before The Arrival Of Mr. Oswell And Myself In 1851.
The people have,
it is true, no written records; but any remarkable event here
is commemorated in names, as was observed by Park to be the case
in the countries he traversed.
The year of our arrival is dignified
by the name of the year when the white men came, or of Sebituane's death;
but they prefer the former, as they avoid, if possible, any direct reference
to the departed. After my wife's first visit, great numbers of children
were named Ma-Robert, or mother of Robert, her eldest child;
others were named Gun, Horse, Wagon, Monare, Jesus, etc.;
but though our names, and those of the native Portuguese who came in 1853,
were adopted, there is not a trace of any thing of the sort
having happened previously among the Barotse: the visit of a white man
is such a remarkable event, that, had any taken place during the last
three hundred years, there must have remained some tradition of it.
-
* The Barotse call themselves the Baloiana or little Baloi,
as if they had been an offset from Loi, or Lui, as it is often spelt.
As Lui had been visited by Portuguese, but its position
not well ascertained, my inquiries referred to the identity of Naliele
with Lui.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 339 of 1070
Words from 97152 to 97411
of 306638
