Mentioning This To The Commandant In Proof Of The Impossibility Of Granting
His Request, I Had Soon An Example How Quickly A Story Can Grow
Among Idle People.
The five guns were, within one month,
multiplied into a tale of five hundred, and the cooking-pot,
now
In a museum at Cape Town, was magnified into a cannon;
"I had myself confessed to the loan." Where the five hundred guns came from,
it was easy to divine; for, knowing that I used a sextant,
my connection with government was a thing of course; and, as I must know
all her majesty's counsels, I was questioned on the subject of
the indistinct rumors which had reached them of Lord Rosse's telescope.
"What right has your government to set up that large glass at the Cape
to look after us behind the Cashan Mountains?"
Many of the Boers visited us afterward at Kolobeng, some for medical advice,
and others to trade in those very articles which their own laws
and policy forbid. When I happened to stumble upon any of them in the town,
with his muskets and powder displayed, he would begin an apology,
on the ground that he was a poor man, etc., which I always cut short by
frankly saying that I had nothing to do with either the Boers or their laws.
Many attempts were made during these visits to elicit the truth about
the guns and cannon; and ignorant of the system of espionage which prevails,
eager inquiries were made by them among those who could jabber a little Dutch.
It is noticeable that the system of espionage is as well developed
among the savage tribes as in Austria or Russia. It is a proof of barbarism.
Every man in a tribe feels himself bound to tell the chief
every thing that comes to his knowledge, and, when questioned by a stranger,
either gives answers which exhibit the utmost stupidity, or such as he knows
will be agreeable to his chief. I believe that in this way
have arisen tales of their inability to count more than ten,
as was asserted of the Bechuanas about the very time when Sechele's father
counted out one thousand head of cattle as a beginning of the stock
of his young son.
In the present case, Sechele, knowing every question put to his people,
asked me how they ought to answer. My reply was, "Tell the truth."
Every one then declared that no cannon existed there; and our friends,
judging the answer by what they themselves would in the circumstances
have said, were confirmed in the opinion that the Bakwains actually
possessed artillery. This was in some degree beneficial to us,
inasmuch as fear prevented any foray in our direction for eight years.
During that time no winter passed without one or two tribes
in the East country being plundered of both cattle and children by the Boers.
The plan pursued is the following: one or two friendly tribes
are forced to accompany a party of mounted Boers, and these expeditions
can be got up only in the winter, when horses may be used
without danger of being lost by disease.
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