SKKEIvETU'S COMMISSIONS. 477 



decided that the owner of this boy should give up his 

 alleged right, rather than destroy the child. When I 

 took him, he was so far gone as to be in the cold stage of 

 starvation, but was soon brought round by a little milk 

 given three or four times a day. On leaving I,inyanti, 

 I handed him over to the charge of his chief Sekeletu, who 

 feeds his servants very well. On the other hand, I have 

 seen instances in which both men and women have taken 

 up little orphans, and carefully reared them as their own 

 children. By a selection of cases of either kind, it would 

 not be difficult to make these people appear excessively 

 good or uncommonly bad. 



I still possessed some of the coffee which I had brought 

 from Angola, and some of the sugar which I had left in 

 my waggon. So long as the sugar lasted, Sekeletu favoured 

 me with his company at meals ; but the sugar soon came 

 to a close. The Makololo, as formerly mentioned, were 

 well acquainted with the sugar-cane, as it is cultivated by 

 the Barotse, but never knew that sugar could be got from 

 it. When I explained the process by which it was pro- 

 duced, Sekeletu asked if I could not buy him an apparatus 

 for the purpose of making sugar. He said that he would 

 plant the cane largely, if he only had the means of making 

 the sugar from it. I replied, that I was unable to purchase 

 a mill, when he instantly rejoined, " Why not take ivory 

 to buy it ? " Asl had been living at his expense, I was 

 glad of the opportunity to show my gratitude by serving 

 him ; and when he and his principal men understood that 

 I was willing to execute a commission, Sekeletu gave me 

 an order for a sugar-mill, and for 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 thing 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, The two I had left with him 

 when I went to Loanda, were still living, and had been of 

 great use to him in hunting the giraffe and eland, and he 

 was now anxious to have a breed. This, I thought might 

 be obtained at the Portuguese settlements. All were very 

 much delighted with the donkeys we had brought from 



