248 A "PICHO."— ITS EESULTS. 



A " picho" was called to deliberate on the steps proposed. In 

 these assemblies great freedom of speech is allowed ; and on this 

 occasion one of the old diviners said, " Where is he taking you 

 to ? This white man is throwing you away. Your garments al- 

 ready smell of blood." It is curious to observe how much iden- 

 tity of character appears all over the world. This man was a 

 noted croaker. He always dreamed something dreadful in every 

 expedition, and was certain that an eclipse or comet betokened 

 the propriety of flight. But Sebituane formerly set his visions 

 down to cowardice, and Sekeletu only laughed at him now. The 

 general voice was in my favor ; so a band of twenty-seven were 

 appointed to accompany me to the west. These men were not 

 hired, but sent to enable me to accomplish an object as much de- 

 sired by the chief and most of his people as by me. They were 

 eager to obtain free and profitable trade with white men. The 

 prices which the Cape merchants could give, after defraying the 

 great expenses of a long journey hither, being very small, made 

 it scarce worth while for the natives to collect produce for that 

 market ; and the Mambari, giving only a few bits of print and 

 baize for elephants' tusks worth more pounds than they gave 

 yards of cloth, had produced the belief that trade With them 

 was throwing ivory away. The desire of the Makololo for di- 

 rect trade with the sea-coast coincided exactly with my own con- 

 viction that no permanent elevation of a people can be effected 

 without commerce. Neither could there be a permanent mis- 

 sion here, unless the missionaries should descend to the level 

 of the Makololo, for even at Kolobeng we found that traders de- 

 manded three or four times the price of the articles we needed, 

 and expected us to be grateful to them besides for letting us have 

 them at all. 



The three men whom I had brought from Kuruman had fre- 

 quent relapses of the fever; so, finding that instead of serving 

 me I had to wait on them, I decided that they should return to 

 the south with Fleming as soon as he had finished his trading. 

 I was then entirely dependent on my twenty-seven men, whom I 

 might name Zambesians, for there were two Makololo only, while 

 the rest consisted of Barotse, Batoka, Bashubia, and two of the 

 Ambonda. 



The fever had caused considerable weakness in my own frame, 



