496 
MATTIVrS PROOFS OF THE MURDER. 
31 July, 
MattivVs story ran thus. — A long time ago, when he was on a 
warlike expedition against the Nuakketsies, his people obtained, 
among various articles of plunder, many things of European manu- 
facture which he knew to have belonged to those persons. Being 
afterwards at the chief town of the Barolongs under Makrakki, he 
there saw a quantity of clothes and many knives, of the same manu- 
facture, which that people said they had received from the Nuak- 
ketsies. At a subsequent period when he was at peace with this 
last-mentioned tribe, he visited them in consequence of a friendly 
invitation from Mokkaba their Chief ; and then saw a great number 
of other articles which were certainly part of the contents of the 
waggons belonging to those travellers. He particularized, a red- 
painted board, knives, clothes, and other things which, by his descrip- 
tion, were a pair of men's-braces, and an epaulette. On my asking if 
he saw any guns, he said ; No, the guns were beaten to pieces, and 
the barrels made use of for sharpening their knives upon. Expect- 
ing to discover, in his account, some traces of watches, or of optical 
or mathematical instruments, I inquired if he saw any things of 
shining metal different from those which he had seen in my posses- 
sion ; for I had been careful to conceal from the natives every article 
of this description : but he replied, that he had observed nothing but 
clothes, and the goods which he had specified. Molaali, he said, had 
brought home a green-handled knife ; but this was lost on the day 
before I arrived at Litakun. Happening to cast his eye upon a metal 
tea-pot which was standing in the waggon, he remarked that one of 
his people was bringing away a similar pot, but at length finding it 
heavy and troublesome to carry, he threw it away on the road. 
When I asked if he could not send the man to fetch it, and promised 
to reward him liberally, he said ; that could not be done, as it was 
thrown away at a spot too far off. I expressed a strong wish that, as 
the Nuakketsies were now at peace, he should send a party of his 
men to Melitta to purchase for me some of the goods which had 
belonged to my countrymen. This was a request with which nothing 
could induce him to comply, as the inhabitants of that town, he 
asserted, would certainly murder every Bachapin who came there. 
