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.
When they reach the tribe
to be attacked, the friendly natives are ranged in front,
to form, as they say, "a shield"; the Boers then coolly fire over their heads
till the devoted people flee and leave cattle, wives, and children
to the captors. This was done in nine cases during my residence
in the interior, and on no occasion was a drop of Boer's blood shed.
News of these deeds spread quickly among the Bakwains, and letters
were repeatedly sent by the Boers to Sechele, ordering him
to come and surrender himself as their vassal, and stop English traders
from proceeding into the country with fire-arms for sale.
But the discovery of Lake Ngami, hereafter to be described,
made the traders come in five-fold greater numbers, and Sechele replied,
"I was made an independent chief and placed here by God, and not by you.
I was never conquered by Mosilikatze, as those tribes whom you rule over;
and the English are my friends.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 72 of 1070
Words from 21503 to 21756
of 306638
