HOSTILITY OF THE BOERS. 43 



in the opinion that the Bakwains actually possessed artillery. 

 This "was in some degree beneficial to us, inasmuch as fear pre- 

 vented any foray in our direction for eight years. During that 

 time no winter passed without one or two tribes in the East 

 country being plundered of both cattle and children by the Boers. 

 The plan pursued is the following : one or two friendly tribes are 

 forced to accompany a party of mounted Boers, and these expe- 

 ditions can be got up only in the winter, when horses may be 

 used without danger of being lost by disease. When they reach 

 the tribe to be attacked, the friendly natives are ranged in front, 

 to form, as they say, "a shield ;" the Boers then coolly fire over 

 their heads till the devoted people flee and leave cattle, wives, 

 and children to the captors. This was done in nine cases during 

 my residence in the interior, and on no occasion was a drop of 

 Boer's blood shed. News of these deeds spread quickly among 

 the Bakwains, and letters were repeatedly sent by the Boers to 

 Sechele, ordering him to come and surrender himself as their vas- 

 sal, and stop English traders from proceeding into the country 

 with fire-arms for sale. But the discovery of Lake Ngami, here- 

 after to be described, made the traders come in five-fold greater 

 numbers, and Sechele replied, "I was made an independent chief 

 and placed here by God, and not by you. I was never conquer- 

 ed by Mosilikatze, as those tribes whom you rule over ; and the 

 English are my friends. I get every thing I Avish from them. I 

 can not hinder them from going where they like." Those who are 



old enouo'h to remember the threatened invasion of our own island 

 o 



may understand the effect which the constant danger of a Boerish 

 invasion had on the minds of the Bakwains ; but no others can 

 conceive how worrying were the messages and threats from the 

 endless self-constituted authorities of the Magaliesberg Boers ; and 

 when to all this harassing annoyance was added the scarcity pro- 

 duced by the drought, we could not wonder at, though we felt sorry 

 for, their indisposition to receive instruction. 



The myth of the black pot assumed serious proportions. I 

 attempted to benefit the tribes among the Boers of Magaliesberg 

 by placing native teachers at different points. " You must teach 

 the blacks," said Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, the commandant in 

 chief, "that they are not equal to us." Other Boers told me, "I 

 might as well teach the baboons on the rocks as the Africans," 



