874 
©EPAKTUKE FEOM CASSANGE. 
Chap. XIX. 
It was interesting for me to observe the effects of the restric¬ 
tive policy, piu’sued by the Cape government towards the Bechu- 
anas. Like aU other restrictions on trade, the law of preventing 
friendly tribes from purchasing arms and ammmntion, only in¬ 
jures the men who enforce it. The Cape Government, as already 
observed, in order to gxatify a company of independent Boers, 
whose weU-known predilection for the practice of slavery caused 
them to stipulate, that a number of peaceable honest tribes should 
be kept defenceless, agreed to allow free trade in arms and ammu¬ 
nition to the Boers, and prevent the same trade to the Bechuanas. 
The Cape Government thereby unintentionally aided, and con¬ 
tinues to aid, the Boers to enslave the natives. But arms and 
ammunition flow in on all sides by new channels, and where 
formerly the price of a large tusk procured but one musket, one 
tusk of the same size now brings ten. The profits are reaped 
by other nations, and the only persons really the losers, in the 
long run, are our own Cape merchants, and a few defenceless 
tribes of Bechuanas on our immediate frontier. 
Mr. Bego, the Commandant, very handsomely offered me a 
soldier as a guard to Ambaca. My men told me that they had 
been thiTikiug it would be better to tm-n back here, as they had 
been informed by the people of colour at Cassange that I was 
leading them down to the sea-coast only to sell them, and they 
would be taken on board ship, fattened, and eaten, as the white 
men were cannibals. I asked if they had ever heard of an 
Englishman buying or selling people; if I had not refused to take 
a slave when she was offered to me by Shinte; but as I had 
always behaved as an Enghsh teacher, if they now doubted my 
mtentions, they had better not go to the coast: I, however, who 
expected to meet some of my countrymen there, was determined 
to go on. They repHed that they only thought it right to tell 
me what had been told to them, but they did not intend to leave 
me, and would follow wherever I should lead the way. This 
affair being disposed of for the time, the Commandant gave them 
an ox, and me a friendly dinner before parting. All the mer¬ 
chants of Cassange accompanied us, in their hammocks carried by 
slaves, to the edge of the plateau on wliich then village stands, 
and we parted with the feeling in my mind that I should never 
forget then disinterested limdness. They not only did everythiug 
