Chap. IX. PRESENTS TO SEKELETU. 191 



pediency of combining the two professions, I was glad of the 

 proposal of one of the most honourable merchants of Cape Town, 

 Mr. H. E. Eutherford, that he should risk a sum of money in 

 Fleming's hands, for the purpose of attempting to develop a trade 

 with the Makololo. It was to this man I suggested Sekeletu 

 should sell the tusks which he had presented for my acceptance, 

 but the chief refused to take them back from me. The goods 

 which Fleming had brought were ill adapted for the use of the 

 natives, but he got a pretty good load of ivory in exchange ; and 

 though it was his first attempt at trading, and the distance tra- 

 velled over made the expenses enormous, he was not a loser by 

 the trip. Other traders followed, who demanded 90 lbs. of ivory 

 for a musket. The Makololo, knowing nothing of steelyards, but 

 supposing that they were meant to cheat them, declined to trade 

 except by exchanging one bull and one cow elephant's tusk for 

 each gun. This would average 70 lbs. of ivory, which sells at 

 the Cape for 5s. per pound, for a secondhand musket worth 10s. 

 I, being sixty miles distant, did not witness this attempt at barter, 

 but, anxious to enable my countrymen to drive a brisk trade, told 

 the Makololo to sell my ten tusks on their own account for what- 

 ever they would bring. Seventy tusks were for sale, but, the 

 parties not understanding each other's talk, no trade was esta- 

 blished ; and when I passed the spot some time afterwards, I 

 found that the whole of that ivory had been destroyed by an 

 accidental fire, which broke out in the village when all the people 

 were absent. Success in trade is as much dependent on know- 

 ledge of the language as success in travelling. 



I had brought with me as presents an improved breed of goats, 

 fowls, and a pah of cats. A superior bull was bought, also as a 

 gift to Sekeletu, but I was compelled to leave it on account of its 

 having become footsore. As the Makololo are very fond of im- 

 proving the breed of their domestic animals, they were much 

 pleased with my selection. I endeavoured to bring the bull, in 

 performance of a promise made to Sebituane before he died. 

 Admiring a calf which we had with us, he proposed to give me a 

 cow for it, which in the native estimation was offering three times 

 its value. I presented it to him at once, and promised to bring 

 him another and a better one. Sekeletu was much gratified by 

 my attempt to keep my word given to his father. 



They have two breeds of cattle among them. One called the 



