Their Country Has Been Visited
By Successive Scourges During The Last Half Century, And They Are Now
"A Nation Scattered
And peeled." When Sebituane came,
the cattle were innumerable, and yet these were the remnants only,
left by a chief
Called Pingola, who came from the northeast.
He swept across the whole territory inhabited by his cattle-loving countrymen,
devouring oxen, cows, and calves, without retaining a single head. He seems
to have been actuated by a simple love of conquest, and is an instance
of what has occurred two or three times in every century in this country,
from time immemorial. A man or more energy or ambition than his fellows
rises up and conquers a large territory, but as soon as he dies
the power he built up is gone, and his reign, having been one of terror,
is not perpetuated. This, and the want of literature, have prevented
the establishment of any great empire in the interior of Africa.
Pingola effected his conquests by carrying numbers of smith's bellows
with him. The arrow-heads were heated before shooting into a town,
and when a wound was inflicted on either man or beast, great confusion ensued.
After Pingola came Sebituane, and after him the Matebele of Mosilikatse;
and these successive inroads have reduced the Batoka to a state in which
they naturally rejoice at the prospect of deliverance and peace.
We spent Sunday, the 10th, at Monze's village, who is considered
the chief of all the Batoka we have seen.
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