476 
OPPOSITION TO MONARRI.— SORCERY. 
26 July, 
said that they would promise to furnish more than fifty men armed 
with muskets and mounted on good horses, in case the Cape govern- 
ment would send ammunition and a strong commando. Mattivi 
talked very seriously with him, and appeared warmly desirous that 
I should return to the Colony and bring back a more numerous 
party ; for, said he, if Mondrri means to go among the tribes beyond 
Litakun, with so few men as he has now with him, he will only go 
there for his death, and I shall therefore oppose his proceeding 
farther in that direction. 
This declaration was too important, and interested me too 
closely, not to create some uneasiness in my mind, lest he should 
eventually attempt forcibly to restrain me from travelling in that 
quarter. As to the truth of the story, or the just foundation there 
might be for these pretended fears for my safety, I believed Mattivi, 
as little as I had believed the Klaarwater tales ; because, I could 
discern through that flimsy veil, motives which had no connection 
whatever with my safety or with my success. 
He told Berends, that he had just received information that the 
oxen, which had been sent to him as a present from Mokkaba (or 
Makkaba) the Nuakketsi Chief, were so infected with the poison of 
sorcery, for the purpose of causing his death, that he did not dare to 
make use of them. He added, that as there happened to be one of these 
among the oxen which he had given me, he should take it back and 
give me another ; for, that if I should retain it and take it home to 
my country, it would induce ill-will between my nation and his. When 
Berends offered to take these oxen from him in barter, Mattivi was 
highly averse from the proposal, and declared very positively, that he 
would never consent to any of his friends having one of them. 
Soon after these Hottentots left me, the whole town was thrown 
into a state of alarm, by intelligence brought by a small party of 
Bachapins who had just arrived from their out-posts or cattle-stations 
situated at a considerable distance northward. This party had 
travelled with their utmost speed since the morning of the day 
before, and hasted directly to Mattivi, to inform him that four of 
these cattle-stations had been attacked in the night by a large body 
