228 A "PICHO"— ITS EESULTS. Chap. XIII. 



A "picho" was called to deliberate on the steps proposed. 

 In these assemblies great freedom of speech is allowed ; and on 

 this occasion one of the old diviners said, " Where is he taking 

 you to ? This white man is throwing you away. Your gar- 

 ments already smell of blood." It is curious to observe how 

 much identity of character appears all over the world. This 

 man was a noted croaker. He always dreamed something 

 dreadful in every expedition, and was certain that an eclipse 

 or comet betokened the propriety of flight. But Sebituane 

 formerly set his visions down to cowardice, and Sekeletu only 

 laughed at him now. The general voice was in my favour ; so 

 a band of twenty-seven were appointed to accompany me to the 

 west. These men were not hired, but sent to enable me to 

 accomplish an object as much desired by the clnef and most of 

 his people as by me. They were eager to obtain free and 

 profitable trade with white men. The prices which the Cape 

 merchants could give, after defraying the great expenses of a 

 long journey hither, being very small, made it scarce worth while 

 for the natives to collect produce for that market; and the 

 Mambari, giving only a few bits of print and baize for elephants' 

 tusks worth more pounds than they gave yards of cloth, had 

 produced the belief that trade with them was throwing ivory 

 away. The desire of the Makololo for direct trade with the sea- 

 coast coincided exactly with my own conviction, that no per- 

 manent elevation of a people can be effected without commerce. 

 Neither could there be a permanent mission here, unless the 

 missionaries should descend to the level of the Makololo, for, 

 even at Kolobeng, we found that traders demanded three or four 

 times the price of the articles we needed, and expected us to be 

 grateful to them besides, for letting us have them at all. 



The three men whom I had brought from Kuruman had 

 frequent relapses of the fever ; so, finding that instead of serving 

 me I had to wait on them, I decided that they should return to 

 the south with Fleming as soon as he had finished his trading. 

 I was then entirely dependent on my twenty-seven men, whom I 

 might name Zambesians, for there were two Makololo only, while 

 the rest consisted of Barotse, Batoka, Bashubia, and two of the 

 Ambonda, 



The fever had caused considerable weakness in my own frame, 



