92 
TEE SLAVE-TEADE. 
CnAr. IV. 
quered, and lie refused to allow any one to seU. a cliild. They 
never came back again till 1850; and as they had a number 
of old Portuguese guns, marked “Legitimo de Braga,” which 
Sebituane thought would be excellent in any future invasion of 
Matebele, he offered to purchase them with cattle or ivory, but 
the Mambari refused everything except boys about fourteen years 
of age. The Makololo declare they never heard of people being 
bought and sold till then, and dishked it, but the desire to possess 
the guns prevailed, and eight old guns were exchanged for as 
many boys; these were not their ovm children, but captives of 
the black races they had conquered. I have never known in 
Africa an instance of a parent selling liis own offspring. The 
Makololo were afterwards incited to make a foray against some 
tribes to the eastward; the Mambari bargaining to use their guns 
in the attack for the captives they might take, and the Makololo 
were to have aU the cattle. They went off with at least two 
hundred slaves that year. During this foray the Makololo met 
some Arabs from Zanzibar, who presented them with tlrree English 
muskets, and in return received about thirty of their captives. 
In talking with my companion over these matters, the idea 
was suggested that, if the slave-market were supplied with articles 
of European manufacture by legitimate commerce, the trade in 
slaves would become impossible. It seemed more feasible to 
give the goods, for which the people now part with their servants, 
in exchange for ivory and other products of the country, and 
thus prevent the trade at the beginning, than try to put a stop 
to it at any of the subsequent steps. This could only be effected 
by estabhsliing a Ihghway from the coast into the centre of the 
country. 
As there was no hope of the Boers allowing the peaceable 
instruction of the natives at Eolobeng, I at once resolved to save 
my family from exposure to this unhealthy region by sending 
them to England, and to return alone, with a view to exploring 
the country in search of a healthy district that might prove a 
centre of civilization, and open up the interior by a path to either 
the east or west coast. Tliis resolution led me doTO to the Cape 
in April, 1852, being the first time during eleven years that I had 
visited the scenes of civilization. Our route to Cape Town led 
us to pass through the centre of the colony during the twentieth 
