The Makololo Have Never Lost
Their Love For This Fine, Healthy Region.
But the Matebele, a Caffre or Zulu tribe, under Mosilikatse,
crossed the Zambesi, and, attacking Sebituane in this choice spot,
captured his cattle and women.
Rallying his men, he followed
and recaptured the whole. A fresh attack was also repulsed,
and Sebituane thought of going farther down the Zambesi,
to the country of the white men. He had an idea, whence imbibed
I never could learn, that if he had a cannon he might live in peace.
He had led a life of war, yet no one apparently desired peace
more than he did. A prophet induced him to turn his face again
to the westward. This man, by name Tlapane, was called a "senoga" -
one who holds intercourse with the gods. He probably had a touch of insanity,
for he was in the habit of retiring no one knew whither,
but perhaps into some cave, to remain in a hypnotic or mesmeric state
until the moon was full. Then, returning to the tribe quite emaciated,
he excited himself, as others do who pretend to the prophetic AFFLATUS,
until he was in a state of ecstasy. These pretended prophets
commence their operations by violent action of the voluntary muscles.
Stamping, leaping, and shouting in a peculiarly violent manner,
or beating the ground with a club, they induce a kind of fit,
and while in it pretend that their utterances are unknown to themselves.
Tlapane, pointing eastward, said, "There, Sebituane, I behold a fire:
shun it; it is a fire which may scorch thee. The gods say, go not thither."
Then, turning to the west, he said, "I see a city and a nation of black men -
men of the water; their cattle are red; thine own tribe, Sebituane,
is perishing, and will be all consumed; thou wilt govern black men,
and, when thy warriors have captured red cattle, let not the owners be killed;
they are thy future tribe - they are thy city; let them be spared
to cause thee to build. And thou, Ramosinii, thy village
will perish utterly. If Mokari removes from that village
he will perish first, and thou, Ramosinii, wilt be the last to die."
Concerning himself he added, "The gods have caused other men to drink water,
but to me they have given bitter water of the chukuru (rhinoceros).
They call me away myself. I can not stay much longer."
This vaticination, which loses much in the translation, I have given
rather fully, as it shows an observant mind. The policy recommended was wise,
and the deaths of the "senoga" and of the two men he had named,
added to the destruction of their village, having all happened soon after,
it is not wonderful that Sebituane followed implicitly the warning voice.
The fire pointed to was evidently the Portuguese fire-arms,
of which he must have heard. The black men referred to were the Barotse,
or, as they term themselves, Baloiana; and Sebituane spared their chiefs,
even though they attacked him first. He had ascended the Barotse valley,
but was pursued by the Matebele, as Mosilikatse never could forgive
his former defeats. They came up the river in a very large body.
Sebituane placed some goats on one of the large islands of the Zambesi
as a bait to the warriors, and some men in canoes to co-operate
in the manoeuvre. When they were all ferried over to the island,
the canoes were removed, and the Matebele found themselves completely
in a trap, being perfectly unable to swim. They subsisted for some time
on the roots of grass after the goats were eaten, but gradually became
so emaciated that, when the Makololo landed, they had only to perform
the part of executioners on the adults, and to adopt the rest
into their own tribe. Afterward Mosilikatse was goaded on by his warriors
to revenge this loss; so he sent an immense army, carrying canoes with them,
in order that no such mishap might occur again. Sebituane had by this time
incorporated the Barotse, and taught his young men to manage canoes;
so he went from island to island, and watched the Matebele on the main land
so closely that they could not use their canoes to cross the river any where
without parting their forces. At last all the Makololo and their cattle
were collected on the island of Loyelo, and lay all around, keeping watch
night and day over the enemy. After some time spent in this way,
Sebituane went in a canoe toward them, and, addressing them by an interpreter,
asked why they wished to kill him; he had never attacked them,
never harmed their chief: "Au!" he continued, "the guilt is on your side."
The Matebele made no reply; but the Makololo next day saw
the canoes they had carried so far lying smashed, and the owners gone.
They returned toward their own country, and fever, famine, and the Batoka
completed their destruction; only five men returned to Mosilikatse.
Sebituane had now not only conquered all the black tribes
over an immense tract of country, but had made himself dreaded even by
the terrible Mosilikatse. He never could trust this ferocious chief, however;
and, as the Batoka on the islands had been guilty of ferrying his enemies
across the Zambesi, he made a rapid descent upon them, and swept them all
out of their island fastnesses. He thus unwittingly performed
a good service to the country by completely breaking down the old system
which prevented trade from penetrating into the great central valley.
Of the chiefs who escaped, he said, "They love Mosilikatse,
let them live with him: the Zambesi is my line of defense;"
and men were placed all along it as sentinels. When he heard of our wish
to visit him, he did all he could to assist our approach.
Sechele, Sekomi, and Lechulatebe owed their lives to his clemency;
and the latter might have paid dearly for his obstructiveness.
Sebituane knew every thing that happened in the country, for he had
the art of gaining the affections both of his own people and of strangers.
When a party of poor men came to his town to sell their hoes or skins,
no matter how ungainly they might be, he soon knew them all.
A company of these indigent strangers, sitting far apart
from the Makololo gentlemen around the chief, would be surprised
to see him come alone to them, and, sitting down, inquire if they were hungry.
He would order an attendant to bring meal, milk, and honey, and, mixing them
in their sight, in order to remove any suspicion from their minds,
make them feast, perhaps for the first time in their lives, on a lordly dish.
Delighted beyond measure with his affability and liberality,
they felt their hearts warm toward him, and gave him all the information
in their power; and as he never allowed a party of strangers to go away
without giving every one of them, servants and all, a present,
his praises were sounded far and wide.
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