14 SECHELE. Chap. I. 



individual is indicated by the terms Mo or Le. Thus Mokwam 

 is a single person of the Bakwain tribe, and Lekoa is a single 

 white man or Englishman — Makoa being Englishmen. 



I attached myself to the tribe called Bakuena, or Bakwains, 

 the chief of which, named Sechele, was then living with his 

 people at a place called Shokuane. I was from the first struck 

 by his intelligence, and by the marked manner in which we both 

 felt drawn to each other. As this remarkable man has not only 

 embraced Christianity, but expounds its doctrines to his people, 

 I will here give a brief sketch of his career. 



His great-grandfather Mochoasele was a great traveller, and 

 the first that ever told the Bakwains of the existence of white 

 men. In his father's lifetime two white travellers, whom I sup- 

 pose to have been Dr. Cowan and Captain Donovan, passed 

 through the country (in 1808), and descending the river Limpopo, 

 were, with their party, all cut off by fever. The rain-makers 

 there, fearing lest their waggons might drive away the rain, 

 ordered them to be thrown into the river. This is the true 

 account of the end of that expedition, as related to me by the 

 son of the chief at whose village they perished. He remembered, 

 when a boy, eating part of one of the horses, and said it tasted 

 like zebra's flesh. Thus, they were not killed by the Bangwaketse, 

 as reported, for they passed the Bakwains all well. The Bakwains 

 were then rich in cattle ; and as one of the many evidences of the 

 desiccation of the country, streams are pointed out where thou- 

 sands and thousands of cattle formerly drank, but in which 

 water now never flows, and where a single herd could not find 

 fluid for its support. 



When Sechele was still a boy, his father, also called Mochoasele, 

 was murdered by Ins own people for taking to himself the wives 

 of Iris rich underchiefs. The children being spared, their friends 

 invited Sebituane, the chief of the Makololo, who was then in 

 those parts, to reinstate them in the chieftainship. Sebituane 

 surrounded the town of the Bakwains by night ; and just as it 

 began to dawn Ins herald proclaimed in a loud voice that he had 

 come to revenge the death of Mochoasele. This was followed by 

 Sebituane's people beating loudly on their shields all round the 

 town. The panic was tremendous, and the rush like that from a 

 theatre on fire, while the Makololo used their javelins on the 



