Mokele, The Headman Of Sesheke, And Sebituane's Sister, Manchunyane,
Were Ordered To Provide Us With Food, As Sekeletu's Wives, To Whom
This Duty Properly Belonged, Were At Linyanti.
We found a black
trader from the West Coast, and some Griqua traders from the South,
both in search of ivory.
Ivory is dear at Sesheke; but cheaper in
the Batoka country, from Sinamane's to the Kafue, than anywhere else.
The trader from Benguela took orders for goods for his next year's
trip, and offered to bring tea, coffee, and sugar at cent. per cent.
prices. As, in consequence of a hint formerly given, the Makololo
had secured all the ivory in the Batoga country to the east, by
purchasing it with hoes, the Benguela traders found it unprofitable
to go thither for slaves. They assured us that without ivory the
trade in slaves did not pay. In this way, and by the orders of
Sekeletu, an extensive slave-mart was closed. These orders were
never infringed except secretly. We discovered only two or three
cases of their infraction.
Sekeletu was well pleased with the various articles we brought for
him, and inquired if a ship could not bring his sugar-mill and the
other goods we had been obliged to leave behind at Tette. On hearing
that there was a possibility of a powerful steamer ascending as far
as Sinamane's, but never above the Grand Victoria Falls, he asked,
with charming simplicity, if a cannon could not blow away the Falls,
so as to allow the vessel to come up to Sesheke.
To save the tribe from breaking up, by the continual loss of real
Makololo, it ought at once to remove to the healthy Batoka highlands,
near the Kafue. Fully aware of this, Sekeletu remarked that all his
people, save two, were convinced that, if they remained in the
lowlands, a few years would suffice to cut off all the real Makololo;
they came originally from the healthy South, near the confluence of
the Likwa and Namagari, where fever is almost unknown, and its
ravages had been as frightful among them here, as amongst Europeans
on the Coast. Sebituane's sister described its first appearance
among the tribe, after their settling in the Barotse Valley on the
Zambesi. Many of them were seized with a shivering sickness, as if
from excessive cold; they had never seen the like before. They made
great fires, and laid the shivering wretches down before them; but,
pile on wood as they might, they could not raise heat enough to drive
the cold out of the bodies of the sufferers, and they shivered on
till they died. But, though all preferred the highlands, they were
afraid to go there, lest the Matebele should come and rob them of
their much-loved cattle. Sebituane, with all his veterans, could not
withstand that enemy; and how could they be resisted, now that most
of the brave warriors were dead? The young men would break, and run
away the moment they saw the terrible Matebele, being as much afraid
of them as the black conquered tribes are of the Makololo.
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