CIJMATIC DRAWBACK. 469 



for no good is ever achieved by fierce denunciations. 

 Motibe, his father-in-law, said to me, " Scold him much, 

 but don't let others hear you." 



The Makololo expressed great satisfaction with the 

 route we had opened up to the west, and soon after our 

 arrival a " picho " was called, in order to discuss the 

 question of removal to the Barotse valley, so that they 

 might be nearer the market. Some of the older men 

 objected to abandoning the line of defence afforded by 

 the rivers Chobe and Zambesi, against their southern 

 enemies the Matebele. The Makololo generally have an 

 aversion to the Barotse valley, on account of the fevers 

 which are annually engendered in it as the waters dry 

 up. They prefer it only as a cattle station, for, though 

 the herds are frequently thinned by an epidemic disease 

 (peripneumonia), they breed so fast, that the losses are 

 soon made good. Wherever else the Makololo go, they 

 always leave a portion of their stock in the charge of 

 herdsmen in that prolific valley. Some of the younger 

 men objected to removal, because the rankness of the grass 

 at the Barotse did not allow of their running fast, and 

 because there " it never becomes cool." 



Sekeletu at last stood up, and, addressing me, said, 

 " I am perfectly satisfied as to the great advantages for 

 trade of the path which you have opened, and think that 

 we ought to go to the Barotse, in order to make the 

 way from us to Iyoanda shorter ; but with whom am I 

 to live there ? If you were coming with us, I would 

 remove to-morrow, but now you are going to the white 

 man's country to bring Ma Robert, and when you return, 

 you will find me near to the spot on which you wish to 

 dwell." I had then no idea that any healthy spot existed 

 in the country, and thought only of a convenient central 

 situation, adapted for intercourse with the adjacent tribes 

 and with the coast, such as that near to the confluence 

 of the Leeba and Leeambye. 



The fever is certainly a drawback to this otherwise 

 important missionary field. The great humidity pro- 

 duced by heavy rains and inundations, the exuberant 

 vegetation caused by fervid heat in rich moist soil, and 

 the prodigious amount of decaying vegetable matter, 

 annually exposed after the inundations to the rays of a 

 torrid sun, with a flat surface often covered by forest 

 through which the winds cannot pass, all combine to 



