BOERS AFRAID OF FREE TRADE. 217 



" Better turn back, Kama won't let you into the 

 elephant country more than us, and you don't know 

 what a hard time you will have before getting to 

 Bamanwatto." Then another will add, " It will take 

 you eighteen days to do it, and there is no water 

 between Crocodile Biver and Soshong." 



Never mind, we shall see what we shall see; but 

 turn back I will not, till I interview Kama; and if I am 

 not much mistaken in what I have heard of his character, 

 he will not only grant me permission to go on, but give 

 me some of his people as guides. 



The fact is, the Boers are jealous, and, had they the 

 power, would stop every one from passing here. The 

 ivory and feathers of the whole interior they consider 

 theirs by right, and oppose all persons who may possibly 

 obtain a share in this trade. Again, they particularly 

 object to Englishmen entering far Kaffir-land, for they 

 are certain to hear of their slave-hunting propensities, 

 the numerous brutal outrages they have committed on 

 the inoffensive native population, as well as the way 

 they have swindled every one, from king to peasant, 

 of grain, carosses, and other productions of this distant 

 sun-dried land. Moreover, Englishmen have a way of 

 speaking out their minds and calling a spade a spade, 

 and travelling away down into the Old Colony, and 

 communicating with newspapers and persons of standing 

 there. And as public feeling at present exists, the Boers 

 are not altogether popular with the colonial government, 

 and they know it. And who can be certain but that 

 these hated Englishmen might not take it in their heads 

 to annex them and release all their folks (slaves) ? Who 

 knows, indeed, if they let so many people go up North, 

 that when they come back again they will not talk about 



