SOUTHEEN AFRICA. 107 



served, that he had ah^eady said there was no road through 

 that country. We hiug'hed and expressed a wish to look 

 for one : hut he rejoined, that his anxiety for oui' safety 

 would not allow him to hear of our travelling- in that 

 direction, — that should any accident befal us, the white 

 king- would undoubtedly attribute blame to him, and he 

 therefore must insist upon our giving up the intention. 

 Through this flimsy veil, however, we could distinguish 

 motives that were in no way connected with our safety. 

 The chieftain was naturally desirous of concealing-^ as far 

 as possible, the havoc that his people had made amongst 

 the emio-rant farmers : and he was above all thino-s anxious 

 to obtain further presents on our return from the interior. 

 We saw the necessity of waiving* the subject for the present, 

 but secretly determined to attack him anon with his own 

 weapons. 



He soon became extremely eager to have a sight of 

 our various wares, but we steadily resisted his teasing 

 importunities to examine the contents of the boxes. Know- 

 ing that all savages possess the sordid passion of avarice 

 in an extraordinary degree, and have the insatiate desire 

 of accumidating property for the mere pleasure of possessing- 

 it, we had omitted no precaution to keep his Majesty in 

 profound ignorance of the nature and extent of our sup- 

 plies. To have permitted him to see the contents of the 

 waggons, would most assuredly' have tempted him to prac- 

 tise every unfair and extortionate stratagem to obtain pos- 

 session of them. We only, therefore, placed in his way 

 as baits, those trinkets that we designed he should take, 

 and these, as well as everything else that met his eye, he 

 never failed to appropriate. A pair of my shoes having 

 been casually exposed, though much too small, Mere in- 

 stantly seized and donned, and the operation of trying 

 them on was highly diverting. A silken waist-cord was 



