So DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. iv. 



three being in indifferent health. Mebalwe the catechist 

 was also with them. Taking a different route they came 

 on another Bakhatla tribe, whose country abounded in 

 metallic ores, and who, besides cultivating their fields, 

 span cotton, smelted iron, copper, and tin, made an alloy 

 of tin and copper, and manufactured ornaments. Living- 

 stone had constantly an eye to the industries and com- 

 mercial capabilities of the countries he passed through. 

 Social reform was certainly much needed here; for the 

 chief, though not twenty years of age, had already forty- 

 eight wives and twenty children. They heard of another 

 tribe, said to excel all others in manufacturing skill, and 

 having the honourable distinction, " they had never been 

 known to kill any one." This lily among thorns they were 

 unable to visit. Three tribes of Bakhalaka whom they 

 did visit were at continual war. 



Deriving his information from the Boers themselves, 

 Livingstone learned that they had taken possession of 

 nearly all the fountains, so that the natives lived in the 

 country only by sufferance. The chiefs were compelled 

 to furnish the emigrants with as much free labour as 

 they required. This was in return for the privilege of 

 living in the country of the Boers ! The absence of law 

 left the natives open to innumerable wrongs which the 

 better-disposed of the emigrants lamented, but could 

 not prevent. Livingstone found that the forcible seizure 

 of cattle was a common occurrence, but another custom 

 was even worse. When at war, the Dutch forced natives 

 to assist them, and sent them before them into battle, to 

 encounter the bafctle-axes of their opponents, while the 

 Dutch fired in safety at their enemies over the heads of 

 their native allies. Of course all the disasters of the war 

 fell on the natives ; the Dutch had only the glory and 

 the spoil. Such treatment of the natives burned into 

 the very soul of Livingstone. He was specially distressed 

 at the purpose expressed to pick a quarrel with Sechele, 



