1812. 
AND ARGUMENTS FOR GRANTING IT. 
389 
in possession of fire-arms : and that one of them had, indeed, made 
a promise of letting his father have a musket ; although he had not 
performed it. I then explained to him that such instruments were 
very unsafe for every person excepting those who well understood 
how to use them : and, to impress this the more forcibly on his mind, 
I sent for Gert, and exhibited his mutilated hand as one of the 
distressing consequences to which he would be liable, if I were to 
consent to let him have one. But nothing which could be said, had 
the least effect in turning him from his determination : he replied, 
that weapons of every kind caused accidents to those who used them ; 
that the Bachapins were sometimes, while running hastily, thrown 
down and pierced by their own hassagay, or even lost their lives by 
falling on their own knife. 
When I reflected on my defenceless situation in the midst 
of a populous town, with a few Hottentots, on several of whom, I 
already knew, no dependence could be placed ; and when T considered 
that it was in Mattivi's power, should he be so inclined, to take with- 
out my permission, not one gun only, but all, I judged it imprudent 
any longer to resist his wishes ; more especially as I believed his only 
object to be that of gaining by such a weapon a superiority over the 
neighbouring tribes, whom he represented as incessantly harassing 
his people by irruptions into his country, and by robbing them 
frequently of large herds of cattle. Besides which, I judged that his 
having fire-arms in his possession, could not render him very 
formidable, or even obnoxious, to any one, as the extent of their 
power would be limited by the quantity of gunpowder which he might 
hereafter procure, and of which there was no prospect of his being- 
able to obtain any, unless it should be given, or sold to him, from 
Klaarwater. I also foresaw that if I persisted in my refusal, even 
should he preserve the good faith not to offer me open molestation, 
my stay at Litakun would be rendered unpleasant to myself and 
perhaps unwelcome to him ; in which case I must have departed 
before I had completed my observations on its inhabitants and had 
acquired sufficient experience and knowledge of their manners and 
