Mokompa Feared That The Tribe Was Breaking Up, And Lamented The
Condition Into Which They Had Fallen In Consequence Of Sekeletu's
Leprosy; He Did Not Know What Was To Become Of Them.
He sent two
canoes to take us up to Sesheke; his best canoe had taken ivory up to
the
Chief, to purchase goods of some native traders from Benguela.
Above the Falls the paddlers always stand in the canoes, using long
paddles, ten feet in length, and changing from side to side without
losing the stroke.
Mochokotsa, a messenger from Sekeletu, met us on the 17th, with
another request for the Doctor to take ivory and purchase a horse.
He again declined to interfere. None were to come up to Sekeletu but
the Doctor; and all the men who had had smallpox at Tette, three
years ago, were to go back to Moshobotwane, and he would sprinkle
medicine over them, to drive away the infection, and prevent it
spreading in the tribe. Mochokotsa was told to say to Sekeletu that
the disease was known of old to white men, and we even knew the
medicine to prevent it; and, were there any danger now, we should be
the first to warn him of it. Why did not he go himself to have
Moshobotwane sprinkle medicine to drive away his leprosy. We were
not afraid of his disease, nor of the fever that had killed the
teachers and many Makololo at Linyanti. As this attempt at
quarantine was evidently the suggestion of native doctors to increase
their own importance, we added that we had no food, and would hunt
next day for game, and the day after; and, should we be still ordered
purification by their medicine, we should then return to our own
country.
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