324 the author's influence with the natives. 



the unbounded admiration of my men by their knowledge 

 >of the different kinds of plants, which, as they remarked, 

 u the animals had never before seen in their own country ;" 

 and when the donkeys indulged in their music thev 

 startled the inhabitants more than if they had been lions. 

 We never rode them, nor yet the horse which had been 

 given by the bishop, for fear of hurting them by any 

 work. 



Although the Makololo were so confiding, the reader must 

 not imagine that they would be so to every individual who 

 might visit them. Much of my influence depended upon 

 the good name given me by the Bakwains, and that I 

 secured only through a long course of tolerably good con- 

 duct. No one ever gains much influence in this country 

 without purity and uprightness. The acts of a stranger 

 are keenly scrutinized by both young and old; and seldom 

 is the judgment pronounced, even by the heathen, unfair 

 or uncharitable. I have heard women speaking in admira- 

 tion of a white man because he was pure and never was 

 guilty of any secret immorality. Had he been, they would 

 have known it, and, untutored heathen though they be, 

 would have despised him in consequence. Secret vice 

 becomes known throughout the tribe; and, while one un- 

 acquainted with the language may imagine a peccadillo to 

 be hidden, it is as patent to all as it would be in London 

 had he a placard on his back. 



27th October, 1855. — The first continuous rain of the 

 season commenced during the night, the wind being from 

 the N.E., as it always was on like occasions at Kolobeng. 

 The rainy season was thus begun, and I made ready to go 

 The mother of Sekeletu prepared a bag of groundnuts, by 

 frying them with cream with a little salt, as a sort of sand- 

 wiches for my journey. This is considered food fit for a 

 chief. Others ground the maize from my own garden into 

 meal, and Sekeletu pointed out Sekwebu and Kanyata as 

 the persons who sin uid head the party intended to form 

 my company. Sekwebu had been captured by the Matebele 



