MOTTBE'S EXCUSES. 553 



going among people who can not be trusted because we have used 

 them badly ; but you go with a different message from any they 

 ever heard before, and Jesus will be with you and help you, though 

 among enemies ; and if he carries you safely, and brings you and 

 Ma Robert back again, I shall say he has bestowed a great favor 

 upon me. May we obtain a path whereby we may visit and be 

 visited by other tribes, and by white men !" On telling him my 

 fears that he was still inclined to follow the old marauding sys- 

 tem, which prevented intercourse, and that he, from his influential 

 position, was especially guilty in the late forays, he acknowledged 

 all rather too freely for my taste, but seemed quite aware that the 

 old system was far from right. Mentioning my inability to pay 

 the men who were to accompany me, he replied, "A man wishes, 

 of course, to appear among his friends, after a long absence, with 

 something of his own to show ; the whole of the ivory in the coun- 

 try is yours, so you must take as much as you can, and Sekeletu 

 will furnish men to carry it." These remarks of Marnire are quoted 

 literally, in order to show the state of mind of the most influential 

 in the tribe. And as I wish to give the reader a fair idea of the 

 other side of the question as well, it may be mentioned that Mo- 

 tibe parried the imputation of the guilt of marauding by every pos- 

 sible subterfuge. He would not admit that they had done wrong, 

 and laid the guilt of the wars in which the Makololo had engaged 

 on the Boers, the Matebele, and every other tribe except his own. 

 When quite a youth, Motibe's family had been attacked by a party 

 of Boers ; he hid himself in an ant-eater's hole, but was drawn out 

 and thrashed with a whip of hippopotamus hide. When enjoined 

 to live in peace, he would reply, " Teach the Boers to lay down 

 their arms first." Yet Motibe, on other occasions, seemed to feel 

 the difference between those who are Christians indeed and those 

 who are so only in name. In all our discussions we parted good 

 friends. 



