212 A " PICHO " — ITS RESULTS. 



free from this insect plague. There, however, the slave- 

 trade had defiled the path, and no one ought to follow 

 in its wake unless well armed. The Mambari had informed 

 me that many English lived at Loanda, so I prepared to 

 go thither. The prospect of meeting with countrymen 

 seemed to overbalance the toils of the longer march. 



A " picho " was called to deliberate on the steps pro- 

 posed. In these assemblies great freedom of speech 

 is allowed ; and on this occasion one of the old diviners 

 said, " Where is he taking you to ? This white man is 

 throwing you away. Your garments already smell of 

 blood." It is curious to observe how much identity of 

 character appears all over the world. This man was 

 a noted croaker. He always dreamed something dread- 

 ful in every expedition, and was certain that an eclipse 

 or comet betokened the propriety of flight. But Sebit- 

 uane formerly set his visions down to cowardice, and 

 Sekeletu only laughed at him now. The general voice 

 was in my favour ; so a band of twenty-seven were 

 appointed to accompany me to the west. These men 

 were not hired, but sent to enable me to accomplish an 

 object as much desired by the chief and most of his people 

 as by me. They were eager to obtain free and profitable 

 trade with white men. The prices which the Cape 

 merchants could give, after defraying the great expenses 

 of a long journey hither, being very small, made it scarce 

 worth while for the natives to collect produce for that 

 market ; and the Mambari, giving only a few bits of 

 print and baize for elephants' tusks worth more pounds 

 than they gave yards of cloth, had produced the belief 

 that trade with them was throwing ivory away. The 

 desire of the Makololo for direct trade with the sea-coast 

 coincided exactly with my own conviction, that no per- 

 manent elevation of a people can be effected without 

 commerce. Neither could there be a permanent mission 

 here, unless the missionaries should descend to the level 

 of the Makololo, for, even at Kolobeng, we found that 

 traders demanded three or four times the price of the 

 articles we needed, and expected us to be grateful to 

 them besides, for letting us have them at all. 



The three men whom I had brought from Kuruman 

 had frequent relapses of the fever ; so, rinding that instead 

 of serving me I had to wait on them, I decided that they 

 should return to the south with Fleming as soon as he 



