Chap. XXYII. BORDER TERRITORY. 541 



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

 sions pneumonia. Never having tried it, I cannot 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 indivi- 

 duals. Some view everything 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 

 villages, 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 subject, and enjoined on Kaonka the duty of giving them no 

 offence. 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 pro- 

 visions from their homes that we were in no want of food. 



After leaving Kaonka we travelled 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 

 formerly 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 



