Cn£v. I. HIS CHIEFTAINSHIP. lb 



embraced Christianity, but expounds its doctrines to his 

 people, I will here give a brief sketch of his career. 



His great-grandfather Mochoasele was a great traveller, and 

 the first that ever told the Bak wains of the existence of white 

 men. In his father's lifetime two white men, whom I .suppose 

 to have been Dr. Cowan and Captain Donovan, passed through 

 the country (in 1808), and descended the river Limpopo. 

 They and their party all died of fever. The rain-makers, 

 fearing lest their waggons might drive away the rain, ordered 

 them to be thrown into the stream. A son of the chief at 

 whose village they perished remembered, when a boy, par- 

 taking of one of the horses, and said it tasted like zebra's 

 flesh. The Bakwains were then rich in cattle ; and it is one 

 of the many evidences of the subsequent desiccation of the 

 country, that streams are pointed out where thousands and 

 thousands of cattle formerly drank, and in which water now 

 never flows. 



When Sechele was still a boy, his father, also named 

 Mochoasele, was murdered by his own people for taking to 

 himself the wives of his rich underchiefs. The children were 

 spared, and their friends invited Sebituane, the chief of the 

 Makololo, who was then in those parts, to reinstate them in 

 the chieftainship. He undertook the task, and surrounded 

 the town of the Bakwains by night. Just as it began to dawn 

 his herald proclaimed in a loud voice that he had come to 

 revenge the death of Mochoasele. His followers, who encircled 

 the place, beat loudly on their shields, and the panic was 

 tremendous. There was a rush like that from a theatre on 

 fire, while the Makololo used their javelins on the terrified 

 fugitives with a dexterity which they alone can employ. 

 Sebituane had given orders that the sons of Mochoasele should 

 fee spared. One of the men, meeting Sechele, put him in 

 ward by giving him such a blow on the head with a club 

 as to render him insensible. The usurper was killed, and 

 Sechele was restored to the chieftainship. 



He married the daughters of three of his underchiefs who, 

 on account of their blood relationship, had stood by him in his 

 adversity. This is one of the modes adopted for cementing 

 the allegiance of a tribe. They are fond of the relationship 

 to great families. If you meet a party of strangers, and the 



