512 SEKELETU'S COMMISSIONS. Chap. XXV. 



Makololo, as formerly mentioned, were well acquainted with the 

 sugar-cane, as it is cultivated by the Barotse, but never knew 

 that sugar could be got from it. When I explained the process 

 by which it was produced, Sekeletu asked if I could not buy 

 him an apparatus for the purpose of making sugar. He said 

 that he would plant the cane largely, if he only had the means 

 of making the sugar from it. I replied, that I was unable to 

 purchase a mill, when he instantly rejoined, " Why not take 

 ivory to buy it ? " As I had been living at his expense, I was 

 glad of the opportunity to show my gratitude by serving him ; 

 and when he and his principal men understood that I was willing 

 to execute a commission, Sekeletu gave me an order for a sugar- 

 mill, and for all the different varieties of clothing that he had 

 ever seen, especially a mohair coat, a good rifle, beads, brass- 

 wire, &c. &c, and wound up by saying, " and any other beau- 

 tiful thing you may see in your own country." As to the 

 quantity of ivory required to execute the commission, I said I 

 feared that a large amount would be necessary. Both he and his 

 councillors replied, " The ivory is all your own ; if you leave any 

 in the country it will be your own fault." He was also anxious 

 for horses. The two I had left with linn when I went to Loanda, 

 were still living, and had been of great use to him in hunting the 

 giraffe and eland, and he was now anxious to have a breed. This, 

 I thought might be obtained at the Portuguese settlements. All 

 were very much delighted with the donkeys we had brought from 

 Loanda. As we found that they were not affected by the bite of 

 the tsetse, and there was a prospect of the breed being continued, 

 it was gratifying to see the experiment of then introduction so far 

 successful. The donkeys came as frisky as kids all the way from 

 Loanda, until we began to descend the Leeambye. There we 

 came upon so many interlacing branches of the river, and were 

 obliged to drag them through such masses of tangled aquatic 

 plants, that we half drowned them, and were at last obliged to 

 leave them somewhat exhausted at Naliele. They excited the 

 unbounded admiration of my men by their knowledge of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of plants, which, as they remarked, " the animals had 

 never before seen in then own country ;" and when the donkeys 

 indulged in their music, they startled the inhabitants more than if 

 they had been lions. We never rode them, nor yet the horse 



