DEPARTURE FROM CASSANGE. 349 



the Bechuanas. Like all other restrictions on trade, the 

 law preventing friendly tribes from purchasing arms and 

 ammunition, only injures the men who enforce it. The 

 Cape Government, as already observed, in order to 

 gratify a company of independent Boers, whose well-known 

 predilection for the practice of slavery caused them to 

 stipulate, that a number of peaceable honest tribes should 

 be kept defenceless, agreed to allow free trade in arms and 

 ammunition to the Boers, and prevent the same trade to 

 the Bechuanas. The Cape Government thereby uninten- 

 tionally aided, and continues to aid, the Boers to enslave 

 the natives. But arms and ammunition flow in on all 

 sides by new channels, and where formerly the price of a 

 large tusk procured but one musket, one tusk of the same 

 size now brings ten. The profits are reaped by other 

 nations, and the only persons really the losers, in the 

 long run, are our own Cape merchants, and a few defence- 

 less tribes of Bechuanas on our immediate frontier. 



Mr. Rego, the Commandant, very handsomely offered 

 me a soldier as a guard to Ambaca. My men told me 

 that they had been thinking it would be better to turn back 

 here, as they had been informed by the people of colour 

 at Cassange that I was leading them down to the sea- 

 coast only to sell them, and they would be taken on board 

 ship, fattened, and eaten, as the white men were cannibals. 

 I asked if they had ever heard of an Englishman buying or 

 selling people ; if I had not refused to take a slave when 

 she was offered to me by Shinte ; but as I had always 

 behaved as an Bnglish teacher, if they now doubted my 

 intentions, they had better not go to the coast ; I, however, 

 who expected to meet some of my countrymen there, 

 was determined to go on. They replied that they only 

 thought it right to tell me what had been told to them, but 

 they did not mtend to leave me, and would follow wherever 

 I should lead the way. This affair being disposed of 

 for the time, the Commandant gave them an ox, and me 

 a friendly dinner before parting. All the merchants of 

 Cassange accompanied us, in their hammocks carried by 

 slaves, to the edge of the plateau on which their village 

 stands, and we parted with the feeling in my mind that I 

 should never forget their disinterested kindness. They 

 not only did everything they could to make my men and 

 me comfortable during our stay, but, there being no 

 hotels in Loanda, they furnished me with letters of recom- 



