Another Day I Saw A Poor Boy
Going To The Water To Drink, Apparently In A Starving Condition.
This Case I Brought Before The Chief In Council, And Found That His Emaciation
Was Ascribed To Disease And Want Combined.
He was not one of the Makololo,
but a member of a subdued tribe.
I showed them that any one professing
to claim a child, and refusing proper nutriment, would be guilty of his death.
Sekeletu decided that the owner of this boy should give up his alleged right
rather than destroy the child. When I took him he was so far gone
as to be in the cold stage of starvation, but was soon brought round
by a little milk given three or four times a day. On leaving Linyanti
I handed him over to the charge of his chief, Sekeletu, who feeds his servants
very well. On the other hand, I have seen instances in which
both men and women have taken up little orphans and carefully reared them
as their own children. By a selection of cases of either kind,
it would not be difficult to make these people appear
excessively good or uncommonly bad.
I still possessed some of the coffee which I had brought from Angola,
and some of the sugar which I had left in my wagon. So long
as the sugar lasted, Sekeletu favored me with his company at meals;
but the sugar soon came to a close. The Makololo, as formerly mentioned,
were well acquainted with the sugar-cane, as it is cultivated by the Barotse,
but never knew that sugar could be got from it. When I explained the process
by which it was produced, Sekeletu asked if I could not buy him an apparatus
for the purpose of making sugar. He said that he would plant the cane largely
if he only had the means of making the sugar from it. I replied
that I was unable to purchase a mill, when he instantly rejoined,
"Why not take ivory to buy it?" As I had been living at his expense,
I was glad of the opportunity to show my gratitude by serving him;
and when he and his principal men understood that I was willing
to execute a commission, Sekeletu gave me an order for a sugar-mill,
and for all the different varieties of clothing that he had ever seen,
especially a mohair coat, a good rifle, beads, brass-wire, etc., etc.,
and wound up by saying, "And any other beautiful thing you may see
in your own country." As to the quantity of ivory required to execute
the commission, I said I feared that a large amount would be necessary.
Both he and his councilors replied, "The ivory is all your own;
if you leave any in the country it will be your own fault."
He was also anxious for horses. The two I had left with him
when I went to Loanda were still living, and had been of great use to him
in hunting the giraffe and eland, and he was now anxious to have a breed.
This, I thought, might be obtained at the Portuguese settlements.
All were very much delighted with the donkeys we had brought from Loanda.
As we found that they were not affected by the bite of the tsetse,
and there was a prospect of the breed being continued, it was gratifying
to see the experiment of their introduction so far successful.
The donkeys came as frisky as kids all the way from Loanda
until we began to descend the Leeambye.
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