402 DEPARTURE FROM CASSANGE. 



It was interesting for me to observe the effects of the restrict- 

 ive policy pursued by the Cape government toward the Bechu- 

 anas. Like all other restrictions on trade, the law of preventing 

 friendly tribes from purchasing arms and ammunition only in- 

 jures the men who enforce it. The Cape government, as already 

 observed, in order to gratify a company of independent Boers, 

 whose well-known predilection for the practice of slavery caused 

 them to stipulate that a number of peaceable, honest tribes should 

 be kept defenseless, agreed to allow free trade in arms and ammu- 

 nition to the Boers, and prevent the same trade to the Bechuanas. 

 The Cape government thereby unintentionally aided, and contin- 

 ues to aid, the Boers to enslave the natives. But arms and am- 

 munition flow in on all sides by new channels, and where former- 

 ly the price of a large tusk procured but one musket, one tusk of 

 the same size now brings ten. The profits are reaped by other 

 nations, and the only persons really the losers, in the long run, 

 are our own Cape merchants, and a few defenseless tribes of Bechu- 

 anas on our immediate frontier. 



Mr. Hego, the commandant, very handsomely offered me a 

 soldier as a guard to Ambaca. My men told me that they had 

 been thinking it would be better to turn back here, as they had 

 been informed by the people of color at Cassange that I was 

 leading them down to the sea-coast only to sell them, and they 

 would be taken on board ship, fattened, and eaten, as the white 

 men were cannibals. I asked if they had ever heard of an 

 Englishman buying or selling people ; if I had not refused to take 

 a slave when she was offered to me by Shinte ; but, as I had 

 always behaved as an English teacher, if they now doubted my 

 intentions, they had better not go to the coast ; I, however, who 

 expected to meet some of my countrymen there, was determined 

 to go on. They replied that they only thought it right to tell 

 me what had been told to them, but they did not intend to leave 

 me, and would follow wherever I should lead the way. This 

 affair being disposed of for the time, the commandant gave them 

 an ox, and me a friendly dinner before parting. All the mer- 

 chants of Cassange accompanied us, in their hammocks carried by 

 slaves, to the edge of the plateau on which their village stands, 

 and we parted with the feeling in my mind that I should never 

 forget their disinterested kindness. They not only did every thing 



