This Man Returned On The Seventh Day, Having
Travelled 240 Geographical Miles.
One of the packages was too heavy
for him, and he left it behind.
As the Doctor wished to get some
more medicine and papers out of the wagon left at Linyanti in 1853,
he decided upon going thither himself. The chief gave him his own
horse, now about twelve years old, and some men. He found everything
in his wagon as safe as when he left it seven years before. The
headmen, Mosale and Pekonyane, received him cordially, and lamented
that they had so little to offer him. Oh! had he only arrived the
year previous, when there was abundance of milk and corn and beer.
Very early the next morning the old town-crier, Ma-Pulenyane, of his
own accord made a public proclamation, which, in the perfect
stillness of the town long before dawn, was striking: "I have
dreamed! I have dreamed! I have dreamed! Thou Mosale and thou
Pekonyane, my lords, be not faint-hearted, nor let your hearts be
sore, but believe all the words of Monare (the Doctor) for his heart
is white as milk towards the Makololo. I dreamed that he was coming,
and that the tribe would live, if you prayed to God and give heed to
the word of Monare." Ma-Pulenyane showed Dr. Livingstone the
burying-place where poor Helmore and seven others were laid,
distinguishing those whom he had put to rest, and those for whom
Mafale had performed that last office. Nothing whatever marked the
spot, and with the native idea of HIDING the dead, it was said, "it
will soon be all overgrown with bushes, for no one will cultivate
there." None but Ma-Pulenyane approached the place, the others stood
at a respectful distance; they invariably avoid everything connected
with the dead, and no such thing as taking portions of human bodies
to make charms of, as is the custom further north, has ever been
known among the Makololo.
Sekeletu's health improved greatly during our visit, the melancholy
foreboding left his spirits, and he became cheerful, but resolutely
refused to leave his den, and appear in public till he was perfectly
cured, and had regained what he considered his good looks. He also
feared lest some of those who had bewitched him originally might
still be among the people, and neutralize our remedies. {4}
As we expected another steamer to be at Kongone in November, it was
impossible for us to remain in Sesheke more than one month. Before
our departure, the chief and his principal men expressed in a formal
manner their great desire to have English people settled on the
Batoka highlands. At one time he proposed to go as far as Phori, in
order to select a place of residence; but as he afterwards saw
reasons for remaining where he was, till his cure was completed, he
gave orders to those sent with us, in the event of our getting, on
our return, past the rapids near Tette, not to bring us to Sesheke,
but to send forward a messenger, and he with the whole tribe would
come to us. Dr. Kirk being of the same age, Sekeletu was
particularly anxious that he should come and live with him. He said
that he would cut off a section of the country for the special use of
the English; and on being told that in all probability their
descendants would cause disturbance in his country, he replied,
"These would be only domestic feuds, and of no importance." The
great extent of uncultivated land on the cool and now unpeopled
highlands has but to be seen to convince the spectator how much room
there is, and to spare, for a vastly greater population than ever, in
our day, can be congregated there.
On the last occasion of our holding Divine service at Sesheke, the
men were invited to converse on the subject on which they had been
addressed. So many of them had died since we were here before, that
not much probability existed of our all meeting again, and this had
naturally led to the subject of a future state. They replied that
they did not wish to offend the speaker, but they could not believe
that all the dead would rise again: "Can those who have been killed
in the field and devoured by the vultures; or those who have been
eaten by the hyenas or lions; or those who have been tossed into the
river, and eaten by more than one crocodile, - can they all be raised
again to life?" They were told that men could take a leaden bullet,
change it into a salt (acetate of lead), which could be dissolved as
completely in water as our bodies in the stomachs of animals, and
then reconvert it into lead; or that the bullet could be transformed
into the red and white paint of our wagons, and again be reconverted
into the original lead; and that if men exactly like themselves could
do so much, how much more could He do who has made the eye to see,
and the ear to hear! We added, however, that we believed in a
resurrection, not because we understood how it would be brought
about, but because our Heavenly Father assured us of it in His Book.
The reference to the truth of the Book and its Author seems always to
have more influence on the native mind than the cleverness of the
illustration. The knowledge of the people is scanty, but their
reasoning is generally clear as far as their information goes.
We left Sesheke on the 17th September, 1860, convoyed by Pitsane and
Leshore with their men. Pitsane was ordered by Sekeletu to make a
hedge round the garden at the Falls, to protect the seeds we had
brought; and also to collect some of the tobacco tribute below the
Falls. Leshore, besides acting as a sort of guard of honour to us,
was sent on a diplomatic mission to Sinamane.
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