GUN MENDING. 
24:3 
or disagrees with them. I had more or less sport 
with the rest of the camelopards ; one, shot through 
the heart, went headlong at a tearing pace into a 
mapane tree with three forks, about twelve feet from 
the ground, where it remained wedged fast and died 
standing. 
A Kaffir brought an old musket to be mended, 
and, in botching away at the lock, I succeeded in 
breaking it in two places beyond my skill to mend. 
Although I tried to explain to him that it was acci¬ 
dental, and that I was doing all I could to assist him 
without any compensation, and had worked unre¬ 
mittingly at it for near two days, and that it was 
useless to him when he brought it, and consequently 
it was no worse now, he would listen to nothing: I 
had broken his gun, and I must give him another, and 
being a great man, brother to Chapeau, the Captain, 
and having a strong force at command, I was forced 
to submit, take his old useless musket and give him 
one three times the value. There is no arguing 
with a Kaffir ; he said that Wilson, a white man, 
did the same, that is, broke his gun in endeavouring 
to mend it, and instantly went to the wagon and 
gave him a new one. I do not doubt that he did 
so, as he had a lot of muskets. In the Kaffirs’ eyes 
a gun is a gun; they will give no more for a fifty 
guinea one than a new musket worth about 15s. I 
luckily happened to have one I had given 3/. for, 
otherwise I must have given him one worth 25/. 
A party of Bamangwatos followed the wagon 
R 2 
