10 COMETS— LIONS. Chap. 1 



had recently joined us, and did not know that I understood a 

 little of their language, were overheard by me discussing my 

 appearance : " He is not strong, he is quite slim, and only ap- 

 pears stout because he puts himself into those bags (trousers); 

 he will soon knock up." This made my Highland blood rise, 

 and 1 kept them all at the top of their speed for days together, 

 until I heard them express a favourable opinion of my pedestrian 

 powers. 



I returned to Kuruman, to bring my luggage to our proposed 

 settlement, and was followed by the news that the tribe of 

 Bakwains, who had shown themselves so friendly towards 

 me, had been driven from Lepelole by the Barolongs. Thus 

 my prospect of forming a settlement there was for the present 

 at an end. One of the periodical wars, for the possession of 

 cattle, had burst forth in the land, and had so changed the 

 relations of the tribes to each other, that I was obliged to set 

 out anew to look for a suitable locality for a station. As we 

 journeyed north again, a comet blazed on our sight, exciting 

 the wonder of every tribe we visited. That of 1816 had been 

 (2) followed by an irruption of the Matebele, a tribe of Caffres, 

 and the most cruel enemies the Bechuanas ever knew. The 

 present prodigy they thought might prove as portentous, or 

 might only foreshadow the death of a principal personage. 

 As some of the Bamangwato people had accompanied me to 

 Kuruman, I was obliged to restore them and their goods to 

 their chief Sekomi. This made it necessary to go back to his 

 residence, and, for the first time, I travelled a distance of 

 some hundred miles on ox-back. Returning towards Kuruman, 

 I selected the beautiful valley of Mabotsa (lat. 25° 14' south, 

 long. 26° 30' ?) as the site of a missionary station; and thither 

 I removed in 1843. Here an occurrence took place, which, 

 but for the importunities of friends, I meant to have kept to 

 tell my children when in my dotage. 



The Bakatla of the village Mabotsa were troubled by lions, 

 which leaped into the cattle-pens by night and destroyed 

 their cows. They even attacked the herds in open day. This 

 was so unusual an occurrence that the people believed them- 

 selves bewitched — " given," as they said, " into the power of 

 the lions by a neighbouring tribe." They went once to attack 

 the animals, but, being rather cowardly in comparison with 



