212 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



country, or traverse it to reach the game haunts beyond. 

 Such insolence was never heard of in a Kaffir before ; 

 they would fight their way in and burn down Soshong 

 if necessary. But this was all braggadocio ; they knew 

 better than attempt to coerce Kama, for past expe- 

 riences had taught them that he was not a man to 

 be trifled with. 



The decision of the Bechuana king was not to be 

 wondered at, when it is a well-known fact that the 

 Boers had enslaved, and even at the present time held 

 in bondage, numbers of his subjects. Again, another 

 reason is that the Boers spare no game they meet with, 

 cow elephants or tuskless elephants are all the same to 

 them, and are destroyed in countless numbers even 

 when no use can be made of their flesh. 



A countryman here narrated a circumstance that all 

 right-minded persons would think a disgrace to the 

 perpetrators. Kama granted permission to three Boers 

 to hunt for ivory in one of his very best velts ; after 

 having obtained a rich harvest, the elephants betook 

 themselves to the fly (tsetse) country, where their 

 persecutors dared not follow, on account of their 

 horses. However, not satisfied with the reward they 

 had received, they turned to and killed seven hundred 

 buffaloes for the sake of their skins. The whole 

 plain actually reeked with carnage. When Kama heard 

 of this he went to them, and asked how they dared kill 

 his cattle. Were they not the food of his children 

 when the heavens refused to give rain ? and forthwith 

 he drove them out. 



Unjustifiable acts such as these can have no excuse, 

 nor can the Boers expect to be otherwise treated when 

 they commit them than to be forbidden to visit the 



