Chap. XIII. 



SEKELETU'S LEPROSY. 



273 



policy in treating the conquered tribes on equal terms with 

 his own Makololo, as all children of the Chief, and equally 

 eligible to the highest honours, had been abandoned by his 

 son, who married none but Makololo women, and appointed 

 to office none but Makololo men. He had become unpopular 

 among the black tribes, conquered by the spear but more 

 effectually won by the subsequent wise and just government 

 of his father. 



Strange rumours w r ere afloat respecting the unseen Se- 

 keletu; his fingers were said to have grown like eagle's 

 claws, and his face so frightfully distorted that no one 

 could recognise him. Some had begun to hint that. he 

 might not really be the son of the great Sebituane, the 

 founder of the nation, strong in battle, and wise in the affairs 

 of state. " In the days of the Great Lion" (Sebituane), said 

 his only sister, Moriantsiane's widow, whose husband Seke- 

 letu had killed, " we had Chiefs and little Chiefs and elders 

 to carry on the government, and the great Chief, Sebituane, 

 knew them, all, and everything they did, and the whole 

 country was wisely ruled ; but now Sekeletu knows nothing 

 of what his underlings do, and they care not for him, and 

 the Makololo power is fast passing away." * 



The native doctors had given the case of Sekeletu up. 



* In 1865, four years after these 

 forebodings were penned, we received 

 intelligence that they had all come to 

 pass. Sekeletu died in the beginning 

 of 1 86-1 — a civil war broke out about 

 the succession to the chieftainship ; a 

 large body of those opposed to the 

 late Chief's uncle, Impololo, being re- 

 gent, departed with their cattle to 

 Lake Ngami ; an insurrection by the 

 black tribes followed; Impololo was 



slain, and the kingdom, of which, 

 under an able sagacious mission, a 

 vast deal might have been made, has 

 suffered the usual fate of African con- 

 quests. That fate we deeply deplore ; 

 for, whatever other faults the Makololo 

 might justly be charged with, they did 

 not belong to the class who buy and 

 sell each other, and the tribes who 

 have succeeded them do. 



