84 RETALIATION ON BOEKS. Chap. VI. 



went in remained there for ever, and added, " If the teacher 

 is so mad as to kill himself, let him do so alone, we shall not 

 be to blame." The declaration of Sechele, that he would 

 follow where I led, produced the greatest consternation. 

 There was little enough to reward curiosity. An entrance 

 about ten feet square became narrowed into two water- worn 

 branches, ending in round orifices through which the water 

 once flowed. The only inhabitants it seems ever to have had 

 were baboons. 



I never saw the Bakwains looking so haggard and lean as at 

 this time. Most of their cattle had been swept away by the 

 Boers, and all their corn, clothing, and furniture had been con- 

 sumed in the flames. They were now literally starving. Some 

 young men having ventured to go to meet a party of Boers 

 returning from hunting, the latter were terrified and ran off. 

 The young men brought their waggons to Litubaruba, and the 

 affrighted colonists conceived an idea that the Bakwains had 

 commenced a guerilla war. The Boers sent four of their 

 number to ask for peace ! I was present and heard the con- 

 dition : " Sechele's children must be restored to him." Strong 

 bodies of armed Bakwains occupied every pass in the hills ; and 

 had not the four ambassadors promised much more than they 

 performed, that day would have been their last. The comman- 

 dant Scholz had taken the children of Sechele to be his own 

 domestic slaves. I saw one of them returned to his mother. 

 He had been allowed to roll into the fire, and there were 

 three large unbound sores on his body. His mother and the 

 women received him with floods of tears. I took down the 

 names of some scores of boys and girls, many of whom I knew 

 to be our scholars ; but I could not comfort the weeping 

 mothers with any hope of their return from captivity. The 

 Boers know from experience that adults may as well be left 

 alone, for escape is so easy in a wild country that no fugitive 

 slave-law can come into operation. They therefore seize only 

 the young, that they may forget their parents and remain in 

 perpetual bondage. 



The Bechuanas are universally much attached to children. 

 A little child who toddles near a party of men while they are 

 eating is sure to get a handful of the food. The parents take the 

 name of the offspring, and often address them as Ma (mother), 



