318 A MORAL LESSON. CHAP. XIV. tic evil which must be grappled with if any good is to be done, so here it was necessary frequently, yet in a kindly way, to point out the evils of marauding. A wagon with Mr. Helmore's name on it being in the chief's possession, a doubt was expressed whether the person said to have given it had any power to dispose of the property of the orphan children; and Sekeletu was told that, should Mr. Moffat, in answer to a letter, say that the doubt had weight, the wagon ought to be paid for in ivory: this the chief readily agreed to; and had it been possible for one with the wisdom, experience, and conciliating manners of Mr. Moffat to have visited the Makololo, he would have found them easily influenced to fairness, and not at all the unreasonable savages they were represented to be. Unquestionably a great amount of goodness exists in the midst of all their evil, and we know of no more desirable field for an active and sensible missionary. In trying to benefit them, it was often pointed out that the necessary consequence of these lawless forays, such as that they had made the year before against a tribe of Damaras to the west, was to produce a lawless state at home. They did not relish the idea of the reflected action on themselves, nor did they like being plainly told that those who shed the blood of other tribes, and then returned to kill each other at home on charges of witchcraft, were the only real sorcerers; that murdering the children of the same Great Father, for the sake of cattle which did not belong to them, entailed guilt in His sight; that those who gave no peace to others could hope from the Supreme Ruler for none among themselves. It all seemed reasonable and true; they would not dispute it; "They needed the Book of God. But the hearts of black men are not the same as those of the whites. They had real sorcerers among them. If that was guilt which custom led CHAP. XIV. DIVINE SERVICE AT SESHEKE. 319 them to do, it lay between the white man and Jesus, who had not given them the Book, nor favored them as He had the whites." None ever attempted to justify the shedding of human blood; but some, in reference to cattle-lifting, said, "Why should these Makalaka"-a term of contempt for all the blacker tribes-"possess cattle if they can not fight for them?" Ma-Sekeletu asserted that it was Moselekatse who had made the Makololo covetous, or yellow-hearted, pelutsetla. He had taken their cattle, and subsequent hunger had made them greedy of the oxen of other tribes. She being the chief's mother, we may imagine what his education on the maternal side has been. They often try to make peace, notwithstanding, among themselves. Two men were wrangling and cursing each other one day, when Moikele, a Makololo man, rose, and, to prevent mischief, quietly took their spears from the corner in which they stood, and, sitting down beside Dr. Livingstone, remarked, "It is the nature of bulls to gore each other." This is probably the idea that lies at the bottom of Muscular Heathenism, if not of Muscular Christianity. 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 320 CLEAR REASONING. CHAP. XIV. 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 had 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. СНАР. ХѴ. LESHORE AND HIS MEN. 321 CHAPTER XV. Departure from Sesheke on the 17th of September, 1860.—Convoyed by Pitsane and Leshore.-Embassy to Sinamane.-Leshore and his Crew.-Mobita and the Canoe-men.-Zambesi Fish, Ngwesi and Konokono.-Fish-bone Medicine. Renew the Garden at Mosi-oa-tunya.-Kalunda and Moamba Falls. Native desire of Pleasing. - Hospitality of the Batoka. - Native Fruits.-Valuable oil-yielding Tree.-Indian Trees in the centre of Africa. -Golongwe.-Great Heat.-Corns on the Feet not peculiar to the Civilized.-River Longkwe.-Gipsy Bellows in Africa.-Tin.-Chilombe Islet. -Native Dress.-Sinamane and his Long Spears. WE left Sesheke on the 17th of 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 honor to us, was sent on a diplomatic mission to Sinamane. No tribute was exacted by Sekeletu from Sinamane; but, as he had sent in his adhesion, he was expected to act as a guard in case of the Matebele wishing to cross and attack the Makololo. As we intended to purchase canoes of Sinamane in which to descend the river, Leshore was to commend us to whatever help this Batoka chief could render. It must be confessed that Leshore's men, who were all of the black subject tribes, really needed to be viewed by us in the most charitable light; for Leshore, on entering any village, called out to the inhabitants, "Look out for your property, and see that my thieves don't steal it." Two young Makololo, with their Batoka servants, accompanied us to see if Kebrabasa could be surmounted, and to X 322 イ MOBITA AND HIS CANOE-MEN. CHAP. XV. bring a supply of medicine for Sekeletu's leprosy; and half a dozen able canoe-men, under Mobita, who had previously gone with Dr. Livingstone to Loanda, were sent to help us in our river navigation. Some men on foot drove six oxen which Sekeletu had given us as provisions for the journey. It was, as before remarked, a time of scarcity; and, considering the dearth of food, our treatment had been liberal. By day the canoe-men are accustomed to keep close under the river's bank from fear of the hippopotami; by night, however, they keep in the middle of the stream, as then those animals are usually close to the bank on their way to their grazing-grounds. Our progress was considerably impeded by the high winds, which at this season of the year begin about eight in the morning, and blow strongly up the river all day. The canoes were poor leaky affairs, and so low in parts of the gunwale that the paddlers were afraid to follow the channel when it crossed the river, lest the waves might swamp us. A rough sea is dreaded by all these inland canoe-men; but, though timid, they are by no means unskillful at their work. The ocean rather astonished them afterward, and also the admirable way that the Nyassa men managed their canoes on a rough lake, and even among the breakers, where no small boat could possibly live. On the night of the 17th we slept on the left bank of the Majeele, after having had all the men ferried across. An ox was slaughtered, and not an ounce of it was left next morning. Our two young Makololo companions, Moloka and Ramakukane, having never traveled before, naturally clung to some of the luxuries they had been accustomed to at home. When they lay down to sleep, their servants were called to spread their blankets over their august persons, not forgetting their feet. This seems to be the duty of the Makololo |