1866.] MATAKA AT HOME. 77 



hiin afloat a good while, but he invariably replied, " How 

 can I stop where I have no mother and no sister?" The 

 affection seems to go to the maternal side. I suggested that 

 he might come after he had married a wife, but I fear very 

 much that unless some European would settle, none of these 

 Nassick boys will come to this country. It would be 

 decidedly better if they were taught agriculture in the 

 simplest form, as the Indian. Mataka would have liked to 

 put his oxen to use, but Abraham could not help him with 

 that. He is a smith, or rather a nothing, for unless he 

 could smelt iron he would be entirely without materials to 

 work with. 



14th-28th July, — One day, calling at Mataka's, I found 

 as usual a large crowd of idlers, who always respond with 

 a laugh to everything he utters as wit. He asked, if he 

 went to Bombay what ought he to take to secure some 

 gold? I replied, "Ivory," he rejoined, "Would slaves not 

 be a good speculation?" I replied that, "if he took slaves 

 there for sale, they would put him in prison." The idea of 

 the great Mataka in " chokee " made him wince, and the 

 laugh turned for once against him. He said that as all the 

 people from the coast crowd to him, they ought to give him 

 something handsome for being here to supply their wants. 

 I replied, if he would fill the fine well-watered country we 

 had passed over with people instead of sending them off to 

 Kilwa, he would confer a benefit on visitors, but we had 

 been starved on the way to him ; and I then told him what 

 the English would do in road-making in a fine country like 

 this. This led us to talk of railways, ships, ploughing with 

 oxen — the last idea struck him most. I told him that I 

 should have liked some of the Nassick boys to remain and 

 teach this and other things, but they might be afraid to 

 venture lest they should be sold again. The men who 

 listened never heard such decided protests against selling 

 each other into slavery before ! 



