MOTIBE'S EXCUSES. 479 



into meal, and Sekeletu pointed out Sekwdbu and Kanyata, 

 as the persons who should head the party intended to 

 form my company. Sekwebu had been captured by the 

 Matabele when a little boy, and the tribe in which he was 

 a captive, had migrated to the country near Tete ; he 

 had travelled along both banks of the Zambesi several 

 times, and was intimately acquainted with the dialects 

 spoken there. I found him to be a person of great pru- 

 dence and sound judgment, and his subsequent loss at the 

 Mauritius has been, ever since, a source of sincere regret. 

 He at once recommended our keeping well away from the 

 river, on account of the tsetse and rocky country, assigning 

 also as a reason for it, that the I^eeambye beyond the falls 

 turns round to the N.N.E. Mamire, who had married the 

 mother of Sekeletu, on coming to bid me farewell before 

 starting, said, " You are now going among people who 

 cannot be trusted, because we have used them badly, but 

 you go with a different message from any they have ever 

 heard before, and Jesus will be with you, and help you, 

 though among enemies ; and if he carries you safely and 

 brings you and Ma Robert back again, I shall say he has 

 bestowed a great favour upon me. May we obtain a 

 path whereby we may visit and be visited by other tribes, 

 and by white men ! " On telling him my fears that he 

 was still inclined to follow the old marauding system, 

 which prevented intercourse, and that he, from his in- 

 fluential position, was especially guilty in the late forays, 

 he acknowledged all rather too freely for my taste, but 

 seemed quite aware that the old system was far from 

 right. Mentioning my inability to pay the men who were 

 to accompany me, he replied, " A man wishes, of course, 

 to appear among his friends after a long absence with 

 something of his own to show : the whole of the ivory in 

 the country is yours, so you must take as much as you 

 can, and Sekeletu will furnish men to carry it." These 

 remarks of Mamire are quoted literally, in order to show 

 the state of mind of the most influential in the tribe. 

 And as I wish to give the reader a fair idea of the other 

 side of the question as well, it may be mentioned, that 

 Motibe parried the imputation of the guilt of marauding 

 by every possible subterfuge. He would not admit that 

 they had done wrong, and laid the guilt of the wars in 

 which the Makololo had engaged on the Boers, the Mata- 

 bele, and every other tribe except his own. When quite 



