Cum: XXV. THE DONKEYS. 337 



Makololo ^ere well acquainted with the sugarcane, hut 

 aever knew that sugar could be got from it. When I explain- 

 ed the process by which it was produced, Sekeletu gave me 

 an order for a sugar-mill. He also ordered all the different 

 varieties of clothing that he had ever seen, especially a mohair 

 coat, a good rifle, beads, brass-wire, &c. &c, and wound up by 

 saying, " and any other beautiful thiug you may see in your 

 own country." As to the quantity of ivory required to 

 execute the commission, I said I feared that a large amount 

 would be necessary. Both he and his councillors replied, 

 " The ivory is all your own ; if you leave any in the country 

 it will be your own fault." He was also anxious for horses, as 

 the two I had left with him when I went to Loanda had been 

 of great use to him in hunting the giraffe and eland. The 

 donkeys, which I had brought from Loanda, travelled very 

 well until we reached the Zambesi ; but the amount of wate v 

 they were obliged subsequently to cross exhausted theft, 

 strength considerably, and we were at last obliged to leave 

 them at Kaliele. They excited the unbounded admiration of 

 my men by their discrimination of different kinds of plants, 

 which, as they remarked, " the animals had never before seen 

 in their own country;" and when they indulged in their 

 music they startled the inhabitants more than if the,; had 

 been lions. As they were not affected by the bite of the 

 tsetse, there was every probability of the experiment of their 

 introduction proving successful. 



27th October, 1855. — The first continuous rain of the season 

 commenced during the night with the wind from the N.E., as 

 at Kolobeng on similar occasions. The rainy season was 

 thus begun, and I made ready to go. The mother of Sekeletu 

 prepared a bag of ground-nuts, by frying them in cream with 

 a little salt, as a sort of sandwich for my journey. This is 

 considered food fit for a chief. Others ground the maize from 

 my own garden into meal, and Sekeletu pointed out Sekwebu 

 and Kanyata as the persons who should head the party 

 intended to form my company. Sekwebu had been captured 

 by the Matebele when a little boy, and the tribe in which he 

 was a captive had migrated to the country near Tete : he had 

 travelled along both banks of the Zambesi several times, and 

 was intimately acquainted with the dialects spoken there. He 



