Only A Few Years Since These Extensive Highlands
Were Peopled By The Batoka; Numerous Herds Of Cattle Furnished
Abundance Of
Milk, and the rich soil amply repaid the labour of the
husbandman; now large herds of buffaloes, zebras, and antelopes
Fatten on the excellent pasture; and on that land, which formerly
supported multitudes, not a man is to been seen. In travelling from
Monday morning till late on Saturday afternoon, all the way from
Tabacheu to Moachemba, which is only twenty-one miles of latitude
from the Victoria Falls, and constantly passing the ruined sites of
utterly deserted Botoka villages, we did not fall in with a single
person. The Batoka were driven out of their noble country by the
invasions of Moselekatse and Sebetuane. Several tribes of Bechuana
and Basutu, fleeing from the Zulu or Matebele chief Moselekatse
reached the Zambesi above the Falls. Coming from a land without
rivers, none of them knew how to swim; and one tribe, called the
Bamangwato, wishing to cross the Zambesi, was ferried over, men and
women separately, to different islands, by one of the Batoka chiefs;
the men were then left to starve and the women appropriated by the
ferryman and his people. Sekomi, the present chief of the
Bamangwato, then an infant in his mother's arms, was enabled, through
the kindness of a private Batoka, to escape. This act seems to have
made an indelible impression on Sekomi's heart, for though otherwise
callous, he still never fails to inquire after the welfare of his
benefactor.
Sebetuane, with his wonted ability, outwitted the treacherous Batoka,
by insisting in the politest manner on their chief remaining at his
own side until the people and cattle were all carried safe across;
the chief was then handsomely rewarded, both with cattle and brass
rings off Sebetuane's own wives. No sooner were the Makololo, then
called Basuto, safely over, than they were confronted by the whole
Batoka nation; and to this day the Makololo point with pride to the
spot on the Lekone, near to which they were encamped, where
Sebetuane, with a mere handful of warriors in comparison to the vast
horde that surrounded him, stood waiting the onslaught, the warriors
in one small body, the women and children guarding the cattle behind
them. The Batoka, of course, melted away before those who had been
made veterans by years of continual fighting, and Sebetuane always
justified his subsequent conquests in that country by alleging that
the Batoka had come out to fight with a man fleeing for his life, who
had never done them any wrong. They seem never to have been a
warlike race; passing through their country, we once observed a large
stone cairn, and our guide favoured us with the following account of
it:- "Once upon a time, our forefathers were going to fight another
tribe, and here they halted and sat down. After a long consultation,
they came to the unanimous conclusion that, instead of proceeding to
fight and kill their neighbours, and perhaps be killed themselves, it
would be more like men to raise this heap of stones, as their protest
against the wrong the other tribe had done them, which, having
accomplished, they returned quietly home." Such men of peace could
not stand before the Makololo, nor, of course, the more warlike
Matebele, who coming afterwards, drove even their conquerors, the
Makololo, out of the country.
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