260 EMPLOYMENTS OF MAKOI.OLO. Chap. XX 



purpose of putting down the trade of those that buy and sell 

 black men." They replied, " Truly ! they are just like you P 

 and all their fears seemed to vanish at once, for they went 

 forward amongst the men, and the jolly tars handed them 

 a share of the bread and beef which they had for dinner. 

 The commander allowed them to fire off a cannon ; and 

 having the most exalted ideas of its power, they were greatly 

 pleased when I told them, " That is what they put down the 

 slave-trade with." The size of the brig-of-war amazed them. 

 " It is not a canoe at all," they remarked, " it is a town !" The 

 sailors' deck they named "the Kotla;" and then, as a climax 

 to their description of this great ark, added, "and what 

 sort of a town is it that you must climb up into with a 

 rope ?" 



In the beginning of August I suffered a severe relapse, 

 which reduced me to a mere skeleton. I was then unable to 

 attend to my men for a considerable time ; but when I 

 recovered from this last attack I was thankful to find that 

 I was free from that lassitude which, after my first recovery, 

 showed the continuance of the malaria in the system. I found 

 that my men had, on their own motion, established a brisk 

 trade in firewood. They sallied forth early in the morn- 

 ings for the uncultivated parts of the adjacent country, and, 

 having collected a bundle of firewood, brought it back to the 

 city, and sold it to the inhabitants ; and as they gave larger 

 quantities than the regular wood-carriers, they found no 

 difficulty in meeting with purchasers. A ship freighted with 

 coal for the cruisers having arrived from England, they were 

 engaged to unload her at sixpence a-day. They continued at 

 this work for upwards of a month, and nothing could exceed 

 their astonishment at the vast amount of cargo contained in 

 a single ship. With the money so obtained they purchased 

 clothing, beads, and other articles to take back to their own 

 country. Their ideas of the value of different kinds of goods 

 differed materially from those of the natives on the coast. 

 The latter preferred the thinnest fabrics, provided they had 

 gaudy colours and a large extent of surface, probably from 

 the circumstance of calico being the chief circulating medium 

 among them. The Makololo, on the other hand, when offered 

 a choice of different fabrics, at once selected the strongest 



