At The River Of Dila We Saw The Spot Where Sebituane Lived,
And Sekwebu Pointed Out The Heaps Of Bones
Of cattle which the Makololo
had been obliged to slaughter after performing a march with great herds
captured from the
Batoka through a patch of the fatal tsetse.
When Sebituane saw the symptoms of the poison, he gave orders to his people
to eat the cattle. He still had vast numbers; and when the Matebele,
crossing the Zambesi opposite this part, came to attack him,
he invited the Batoka to take repossession of their herds,
he having so many as to be unable to guide them in their flight. The country
was at that time exceedingly rich in cattle, and, besides pasturage,
it is all well adapted for the cultivation of native produce.
Being on the eastern slope of the ridge, it receives more rain
than any part of the westward. Sekwebu had been instructed
to point out to me the advantages of this position for a settlement,
as that which all the Makololo had never ceased to regret. It needed
no eulogy from Sekwebu; I admired it myself, and the enjoyment of good health
in fine open scenery had an exhilarating effect on my spirits. The great want
was population, the Batoka having all taken refuge in the hills.
We were now in the vicinity of those whom the Makololo deem rebels,
and felt some anxiety as to how we should be received.
On the 4th we reached their first village. Remaining at a distance
of a quarter of a mile, we sent two men to inform them who we were,
and that our purposes were peaceful. The head man came and spoke civilly,
but, when nearly dark, the people of another village arrived
and behaved very differently. They began by trying to spear a young man
who had gone for water. Then they approached us, and one came forward
howling at the top of his voice in the most hideous manner; his eyes were
shot out, his lips covered with foam, and every muscle of his frame quivered.
He came near to me, and, having a small battle-axe in his hand,
alarmed my men lest he might do violence; but they were afraid
to disobey my previous orders, and to follow their own inclination
by knocking him on the head. I felt a little alarmed too,
but would not show fear before my own people or strangers,
and kept a sharp look-out on the little battle-axe. It seemed to me
a case of ecstasy or prophetic phrensy, voluntarily produced.
I felt it would be a sorry way to leave the world, to get my head chopped
by a mad savage, though that, perhaps, would be preferable to
hydrophobia or delirium tremens. Sekwebu took a spear in his hand,
as if to pierce a bit of leather, but in reality to plunge it into the man
if he offered violence to me. After my courage had been sufficiently tested,
I beckoned with the head to the civil head man to remove him,
and he did so by drawing him aside.
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