478 IvIYINGSTONE'S INFLUENCE. 



Loanda. As we found that they were not affected by the 

 bite of the tsetse, and there was a prospect of the breed 

 being continued, it was gratifying to see the experiment 

 of their introduction so far successful. The donkeys came 

 as frisky as kids all the way from I,oanda, until we began 

 to descend the L,eeambye. There we came upon so many 

 interlacing branches of the river, and were obliged to drag 

 them through such masses of tangled aquatic plants, that 

 we half drowned them, and were at last obliged to leave 

 them somewhat exhausted at Naliele. They excited the 

 unbounded admiration of my men by their knowledge of 

 the different lands of plants, which, as they remarked, 

 " the animals had never before seen in their own country ; " 

 and when the donkeys indulged in their music, they 

 startled the inhabitants more than if they had been lions. 

 We never rode them, nor yet the horse which had been 

 given by the Bishop, for fear of hurting them by any work. 



Although the Makololo were so confiding, the reader 

 must not imagine that they would be so to every individual 

 who might visit them. Much of my influence depended 

 upon the good name given me by the Bakwains, and that 

 I secured only through a long course of tolerably good 

 conduct. No one ever gains much influence in this 

 country without purity and uprightness. The acts of a 

 stranger are keenly scrutinized by both young and old, 

 and seldom is the judgment pronounced, even by the 

 heathen, unfair or uncharitable. I have heard women 

 speaking in admiration of a white man, because he was 

 pure, and never was guilty of any secret immorality. 

 Had he been, they would have known it, and, untutored 

 heathen though they be, would have despised him in 

 consequence. Secret vice becomes known throughout 

 the tribe ; and while one unacquainted with the language 

 may imagine a peccadillo to be hidden, it is as patent to 

 all as it would be in London, had he a placard on his 

 back. 



27 th October, 1855. — T ne & rs ^ continuous rain of the 

 season commenced during the night, the wind being from 

 the N.K., as it always was on like occasions at Kolobeng. 

 The rainy season was thus begun, and I made ready to go. 

 The mother of Sekeletu prepared a bag of ground nuts, 

 by frying them in cream with a little salt, as a sort of 

 sandwiches for my journey. This is considered food fit 

 for a chief. Others ground the maize from my own garden 



