36 
ESPIONAGE —TALE OF THE CANNON. 
Chap. II. 
Mentioning tliis to the commandant in proof of the impossi¬ 
bility of granting his request, I had soon an example how quickly 
a story can grow among idle people. The five guns were, witliin 
one month, multiplied into a tale of five hundred, and the 
cooking-pot, now in a museum at Cape Town, was magnified 
into a cannon; “ I had myself confessed to the loan.” Where 
the five hundred guns came from, it was easy to divine; for, 
knowing that I used a sextant, my connection with Government 
was a thing of course; and, as I must know all Her Majesty’s 
counsels, I was questioned on the subject of the indistinct rumours 
wliich had reached them of Lord Eosse’s telescope. ‘‘What 
right has your government to set up that large glass at the 
Cape to look after us behind the Cashan Mountains ? ” 
Many of the Boers visited us afterwards at Kolobeng, some for 
medical advice, and others to trade in those very articles which 
their own laws and policy forbid. Wlien I happened to stumble 
upon any of them in the town, with Iris muskets and powder dis¬ 
played, he would begin an apology, on the ground that he was a 
poor man, &c., which I always cut short by frankly saying that I 
had notliing to do with either the Boers or their laws. Many 
attempts were made during these visits to elicit the truth about 
the guns and camion; and, ignorant of the system of espionage 
which prevails, eager inquiries were made by them among those 
who could jabber a little Dutch. It is noticeable that the system 
of espionage is as well developed among the savage tribes as in 
Austria or Eussia. It is a proof of barbarism. Every man in a 
tribe feels himself bound to tell the cliief everytliing that comes 
to his knowledge, and, when questioned by a stranger, either gives 
answers wliich exhibit the utmost stupidity, or such as he knows 
will be agreeable to his cluef. I believe that in this way have 
arisen tales of their inability to count more than ten, as was 
asserted of the Bechuanas about the very time when Sechele’s 
father counted out one thousand head of cattle as a beginning of 
the stock of his young son. 
In the present case Sechele, knowing every question put to his 
people, asked me how they ought to answer. My reply was, 
“Tell the truth.” Every one then declared that no cannon 
existed there; and our friends, judging the answer by what they 
themselves would in the chcumstances have said, were confirmed 
