580 BORDER TERRITORY. 



proximate cause of Sebituane's last illness, for it sometimes occa- 

 sions pneumonia. Never having tried it, I can not describe the 

 pleasurable effects it is said to produce, but the hachshish in use 

 among the Turks is simply an extract of the same plant, and 

 that, like opium, produces different effects on different individuals. 

 Some view every thing as if looking in through the wide end of a 

 telescope, and others, in passing over a straw, lift up their feet as 

 if about to cross the trunk of a tree. The Portuguese in Angola 

 have such a belief in its deleterious effects that the use of it by a 

 slave is considered a crime. 



November 28th. The inhabitants of the last of Kaonka's vil- 

 lages complained of being plundered by the independent Batoka. 

 The tribes in front of this are regarded by the Makololo as in a 

 state of rebellion. I promised to speak to the rebels on the sub- 

 ject, and enjoined on Kaonka the duty of giving them no offense. 

 According to Sekeletu's order, Kaonka gave us the tribute of 

 maize-corn and ground-nuts, which would otherwise have gone to 

 Linyanti. This had been done at every village, and we thereby 

 saved the people the trouble of a journey to the capital. My own 

 Batoka had brought away such loads of provisions from their 

 homes that we were in no want of food. 



After leaving Kaonka we traveled over an uninhabited, gently 

 undulating, and most beautiful district, the border territory be- 

 tween those who accept and those who reject the sway of the 

 Makololo. The face of the country appears as if in long waves, 

 running north and south. There are no rivers, though water 

 stands in pools in the hollows. We were now come into the 

 country which my people all magnify as a perfect paradise. 

 Sebituane was driven from it by the Matebele. It suited him 

 exactly for cattle, corn, and health. The soil is dry, and often 

 a reddish sand ; there are few trees, but fine large shady ones 

 stand dotted here and there over the country where towns for- 

 merly stood. One of the fig family I measured, and found to be 

 forty feet in circumference ; the heart had been burned out, and 

 some one had made a lodging in it, for we saw the remains of 

 a bed and a fire. The sight of the open country, with the in- 

 creased altitude we were attaining, was most refreshing to the 

 spirits. Large game abound. We see in the distance buffaloes, 

 elands, hartebeest, gnus, and elephants, all very tame, as no one 



