When waiting,
on one occasion, for the other canoes to come up, I felt no inclination
to leave the one I was in; but my head boatman, Mashauana,
told me never to remain on board while so much vegetable matter
was floating down the stream.
17TH DECEMBER. At Libonta. We were detained for days together collecting
contributions of fat and butter, according to the orders of Sekeletu,
as presents to the Balonda chiefs. Much fever prevailed,
and ophthalmia was rife, as is generally the case before the rains begin.
Some of my own men required my assistance, as well as the people of Libonta.
A lion had done a good deal of mischief here, and when the people
went to attack it two men were badly wounded; one of them had his thigh-bone
quite broken, showing the prodigious power of this animal's jaws.
The inflammation produced by the teeth-wounds proved fatal to one of them.
Here we demanded the remainder of the captives, and got our number
increased to nineteen. They consisted of women and children,
and one young man of twenty. One of the boys was smuggled away in the crowd
as we embarked. The Makololo under-chiefs often act in direct opposition
to the will of the head chief, trusting to circumstances and brazenfacedness
to screen themselves from his open displeasure; and as he does not always
find it convenient to notice faults, they often go to considerable lengths
in wrong-doing.
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