Chap. XX.] SOUTHERN AFRICA, 103 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE MATABILI DESCRIBED-ARRIVAL AT THE 

 RIVER SIMALAKATE. 



The history of the assassination of one of the Hot- 

 tentot followers of Captains Sutton and Moult ry, 

 to which allusion was made in a former part of this 

 nari'ative, is brief. Like most of his tribe, being un- 

 able to keep his hands from picking and stealing, 

 he purloined a musket from the king's kraal; 

 and, presuming also to aspire to the alFections of 

 Truey, Moselekatse's favourite concubine, his body 

 was one morning picked up pierced with assagais. 

 A boy belonging also to one of those gentlemen dis- 

 appeared about the same time, but his fate and his 

 crime remained equally veiled in obscurity. 



The death of the trader Gibson, which formed 

 one of the reasons adduced by the worthy Mission- 

 aries at Mosega to dissuade us from prosecuting 

 our journey, was caused by the insalubrious climate 

 of the country bordering on the sea-coast. It is the 

 invariable policy of all African chiefs, to deter tra- 

 vellers from visiting tribes residing beyond them, 

 by exaggerated representations of peril, hoping by 

 these means to eftect a monopoly of tratfic. Gibson 

 had long been engaged in trading speculations, and 

 in hunting elephants, amongst the tribes in the in- 



