CAREER OF SEBITUANE. 73 



man, in crossing that same Desert which we had mastered 

 long afterwards. As he has been most remarkable in his 

 career, and was unquestionably the greatest man in all 

 that country, a short sketch of his life may prove in- 

 teresting to the reader. 



Sebituane was about forty-five years of age ; of a tall 

 and wiry form, an olive or coffee-and-milk colour, and 

 slightly bald ; in manner cool and collected, and more 

 frank in his answers than any other chief I ever met. 

 He was the greatest warrior ever heard of beyond the. 

 colony, for, unlike Mosilikatse, Dingaan, and others, he 

 always led his men into battle himself. When he saw 

 the enemy he felt the edge of his battle-axe and said., 

 " Aha ! it is sharp, and whoever turns his back on the 

 enemy will feel its edge." So fleet of foot was he, that 

 all his people knew there was no escape for the coward;, 

 as any such would be cut down without mercy. In 

 some instances of skulking, he allowed the individual to* 

 return home ; then calling him, he would say, " Ah,, 

 you prefer dying at home to dying in the field, do you > 

 You shall have your desire." This was the signal for his. 

 immediate execution. 



He came from the country near the sources of the lyikwa 

 and Namagari rivers in the south, so we met him eight 

 hundred or nine hundred miles from his birthplace. He 

 was not the son of a chief, though related closely to the 

 reigning family of the Basutu ; and when in an attack 

 by Sikonyele the tribe was driven out of one part, Sebi- 

 tuane was one in that immense horde of savages driven 

 back by the Griquas from Kuruman in 1824.* He then 

 fled to the north with an insignificant party of men and 

 cattle. At Melita the Bangwaketse collected the Bak- 

 wains, Bakdtla, and Bahurutse, to " eat them up.'" 

 Placing his men in front, and the women behind the 

 cattle, he routed the whole of his enemies at one blow. 

 Having thus conquered Makdbe, the chief of the Bang- 

 waketse, he took immediate possession of his town and 

 all his goods. 



Sebituane subsequently settled at the place called 

 Litubaruba, where Sechele now dwells, and his people 

 suffered severely in one of those unrecorded attacks by 



* See an account of this affair in Moffat's "Missionary Enterprise 

 in Africa." 



