As We Were The Very First White Men The Inhabitants Had Ever Seen,
We Were Visited By Prodigious Numbers.
Among the first who came to see us
was a gentleman who appeared in a gaudy dressing-gown of
Printed calico.
Many of the Makololo, besides, had garments of blue, green, and red baize,
and also of printed cottons; on inquiry, we learned that these
had been purchased, in exchange for boys, from a tribe called Mambari,
which is situated near Bihe. This tribe began the slave-trade
with Sebituane only in 1850, and but for the unwillingness of Lechulatebe
to allow us to pass, we should have been with Sebituane in time to have
prevented it from commencing at all. The Mambari visited in ancient times
the chief of the Barotse, whom Sebituane conquered, and he refused
to allow any one to sell a child. They never came back again till 1850;
and as they had a number of old Portuguese guns marked "Legitimo de Braga",
which Sebituane thought would be excellent in any future invasion of Matebele,
he offered to purchase them with cattle or ivory, but the Mambari
refused every thing except boys about fourteen years of age.
The Makololo declare they never heard of people being bought and sold
till then, and disliked it, but the desire to possess the guns prevailed,
and eight old guns were exchanged for as many boys; these were not
their own children, but captives of the black races they had conquered.
I have never known in Africa an instance of a parent selling
his own offspring. The Makololo were afterward incited to make a foray
against some tribes to the eastward; the Mambari bargaining
to use their guns in the attack for the captives they might take,
and the Makololo were to have all the cattle. They went off
with at least two hundred slaves that year. During this foray the Makololo
met some Arabs from Zanzibar, who presented them with three English muskets,
and in return received about thirty of their captives.
In talking with my companions over these matters, the idea was suggested that,
if the slave-market were supplied with articles of European manufacture
by legitimate commerce, the trade in slaves would become impossible.
It seemed more feasible to give the goods, for which the people now part
with their servants, in exchange for ivory and other products of the country,
and thus prevent the trade at the beginning, than to try to put a stop to it
at any of the subsequent steps. This could only be effected
by establishing a highway from the coast into the centre of the country.
As there was no hope of the Boers allowing the peaceable instruction
of the natives at Kolobeng, I at once resolved to save my family
from exposure to this unhealthy region by sending them to England,
and to return alone, with a view to exploring the country
in search of a healthy district that might prove a centre of civilization,
and open up the interior by a path to either the east or west coast.
This resolution led me down to the Cape in April, 1852,
being the first time during eleven years that I had visited
the scenes of civilization. Our route to Cape Town led us to pass
through the centre of the colony during the twentieth month of a Caffre war;
and if those who periodically pay enormous sums for these inglorious affairs
wish to know how our little unprotected party could quietly travel
through the heart of the colony to the capital with as little
sense or sign of danger as if we had been in England,
they must engage a "`Times' Special Correspondent" for the next outbreak
to explain where the money goes, and who have been benefited
by the blood and treasure expended.
Having placed my family on board a homeward-bound ship, and promised
to rejoin them in two years, we parted, for, as it subsequently proved,
nearly five years. The Directors of the London Missionary Society
signified their cordial approval of my project by leaving the matter
entirely to my own discretion; and I have much pleasure in acknowledging
my obligations to the gentlemen composing that body for always acting
in an enlightened spirit, and with as much liberality
as their constitution would allow.
I have the like pleasure in confessing my thankfulness to the Astronomer Royal
at the Cape, Thomas Maclear, Esq., for enabling me to recall
the little astronomical knowledge which constant manual labor
and the engrossing nature of missionary duties had effaced from my memory,
and in adding much that I did not know before. The promise he made
on parting, that he would examine and correct all my observations,
had more effect in making me persevere in overcoming the difficulties
of an unassisted solitary observer than any thing else; so whatever credit
may be attached to the geographical positions laid down in my route
must be attributed to the voluntary aid of the excellent and laborious
astronomer of the Cape observatory.
Having given the reader as rapid a sketch as possible of events
which attracted notice between 1840 and 1852, I now proceed to narrate
the incidents of the last and longest journey of all, performed in 1852-6.
Chapter 5.
Start in June, 1852, on the last and longest Journey from Cape Town -
Companions - Wagon-traveling - Physical Divisions of Africa -
The Eastern, Central, and Western Zones - The Kalahari Desert -
Its Vegetation - Increasing Value of the Interior for Colonization -
Our Route - Dutch Boers - Their Habits - Sterile Appearance
of the District - Failure of Grass - Succeeded by other Plants -
Vines - Animals - The Boers as Farmers - Migration of Springbucks -
Wariness of Animals - The Orange River - Territory of
the Griquas and Bechuanas - The Griquas - The Chief Waterboer -
His wise and energetic Government - His Fidelity - Ill-considered Measures
of the Colonial Government in regard to Supplies of Gunpowder -
Success of the Missionaries among the Griquas and Bechuanas -
Manifest Improvement of the native Character - Dress of the Natives -
A full-dress Costume - A Native's Description of the Natives -
Articles of Commerce in the Country of the Bechuanas -
Their Unwillingness to learn, and Readiness to criticise.
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