"Well," He Said, "You Beat Me Then, And I Am Content."
Parting with Sechele at the ford, as he was eager to visit Lechulatebe,
we went along the northern woody bank
Of the Zouga with great labor,
having to cut down very many trees to allow the wagons to pass.
Our losses by oxen falling into pitfalls were very heavy.
The Bayeiye kindly opened the pits when they knew of our approach;
but when that was not the case, we could blame no one on finding
an established custom of the country inimical to our interests.
On approaching the confluence of the Tamunak'le we were informed
that the fly called tsetse* abounded on its banks. This was a barrier
we never expected to meet; and, as it might have brought our wagons
to a complete stand-still in a wilderness, where no supplies for the children
could be obtained, we were reluctantly compelled to recross the Zouga.
-
* `Glossina morsitans', the first specimens of which were brought to England
in 1848 by my friend Major Vardon, from the banks of the Limpopo.
-
From the Bayeiye we learned that a party of Englishmen,
who had come to the lake in search of ivory, were all laid low by fever,
so we traveled hastily down about sixty miles to render what aid
was in our power. We were grieved to find, as we came near,
that Mr. Alfred Rider, an enterprising young artist who had come to make
sketches of this country and of the lake immediately after its discovery,
had died of fever before our arrival; but by the aid of medicines
and such comforts as could be made by the only English lady
who ever visited the lake, the others happily recovered.
The unfinished drawing of Lake Ngami was made by Mr. Rider
just before his death, and has been kindly lent for this work
by his bereaved mother.
Sechele used all his powers of eloquence with Lechulatebe to induce him
to furnish guides that I might be able to visit Sebituane on ox-back,
while Mrs. Livingstone and the children remained at Lake Ngami.
He yielded at last. I had a very superior London-made gun,
the gift of Lieutenant Arkwright, on which I placed the greatest value,
both on account of the donor and the impossibility of my replacing it.
Lechulatebe fell violently in love with it, and offered
whatever number of elephants' tusks I might ask for it.
I too was enamored with Sebituane; and as he promised in addition
that he would furnish Mrs. Livingstone with meat all the time of my absence,
his arguments made me part with the gun. Though he had no ivory at the time
to pay me, I felt the piece would be well spent on those terms,
and delivered it to him. All being ready for our departure,
I took Mrs. Livingstone about six miles from the town, that she might have
a peep at the broad part of the lake. Next morning we had other work to do
than part, for our little boy and girl were seized with fever.
On the day following, all our servants were down too with the same complaint.
As nothing is better in these cases than change of place,
I was forced to give up the hope of seeing Sebituane that year;
so, leaving my gun as part payment for guides next year,
we started for the pure air of the Desert.
Some mistake had happened in the arrangement with Mr. Oswell, for we met him
on the Zouga on our return, and he devoted the rest of this season
to elephant-hunting, at which the natives universally declare
he is the greatest adept that ever came into the country.
He hunted without dogs. It is remarkable that this lordly animal
is so completely harassed by the presence of a few yelping curs
as to be quite incapable of attending to man. He makes awkward attempts
to crush them by falling on his knees; and sometimes places his forehead
against a tree ten inches in diameter; glancing on one side of the tree
and then on the other, he pushes it down before him, as if he thought thereby
to catch his enemies. The only danger the huntsman has to apprehend is
the dogs running toward him, and thereby leading the elephant to their master.
Mr. Oswell has been known to kill four large old male elephants a day.
The value of the ivory in these cases would be one hundred guineas.
We had reason to be proud of his success, for the inhabitants
conceived from it a very high idea of English courage;
and when they wished to flatter me would say, "If you were not a missionary
you would just be like Oswell; you would not hunt with dogs either."
When, in 1852, we came to the Cape, my black coat eleven years out of fashion,
and without a penny of salary to draw, we found that Mr. Oswell
had most generously ordered an outfit for the half-naked children,
which cost about 200 Pounds, and presented it to us, saying he thought
Mrs. Livingstone had a right to the game of her own preserves.
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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 37 of 295
Words from 37093 to 38100
of 306638
