Chap. XII. GROUND STREWN WITH AGATES. 261 



his death. He nearly inflicted a great injury upon us, there- 

 fore, we said, he must pay a fine." As Mr. Baldwin had 

 nothing with him wherewith to pay, they were taking care 

 of him till he should receive beads from his wagon two days 

 distant. 



Mashotlane's education had been received in the camp of 

 Sebituane, where but little regard was paid to human life. 

 He was not yet in his prime, and his fine open countenance 

 presented to us no indication of the evil influences which 

 unhappily, from infancy, had been at work on his mind. 

 The native eye was more penetrating than ours; for the 

 expression of our men was, " He has drunk the blood of 

 men — you may see it in his eyes." He made no further 

 difficulty about Mr. Baldwin ; but, the week after we left, he 

 inflicted a severe wound on the head of one of his wives with 

 his rhinoceros-horn club. She, being of a good family, left 

 him, and we subsequently met her and another of his wives 

 proceeding up the country. 



The ground is strewn with agates for a number of miles 

 above the Falls ; but the fires, which burn off the grass yearly, 

 have injured most of those on the surface. Our men were 

 delighted to hear that they do as well as flints for muskets ; 

 and this, with the new ideas of the value of gold (dalama) and 

 malachite, that they had acquired at Tette, made them con- 

 ceive that we were not altogether silly in picking up and 

 looking at stones. 



