512 
SEKELETU’S COMMISSIONS. 
Chap. XXV. 
Makololo, as formerly mentioned, were well acquainted with the 
sugar-cane, as it is cultivated by the Barotse, but never knew 
that sugar could be got from it. When I explained the process 
by wliich it was produced, Sekeletu asked if I could not buy 
him an apparatus for the purpose of making sugar. He said 
that he would plant the cane largely, if he only had the means 
of making the sugar from it. I rephed, that I was unable to 
purchase a mill, when he instantly rejoined, ‘‘Why not take 
ivory to buy it ? ” As I had been living at his expense, I was 
glad of the opportunity to show my gratitude by serving him; 
and when he and his principal men understood that I was w illin g 
to execute a commission, Sekeletu gave me an order for a sugar- 
mill, and for all the different varieties of clothing that he had 
ever seen, especially a mohair coat, a good rifle, beads, brass- 
wire, &c. &c., and wound up by saying, “ and any other beau¬ 
tiful tiling you may see in your own country.” As to the 
quantity of ivory requhed to execute the commission, I said I 
feared tliat a large amount would be necessary. Both he and his 
councillors rephed, “ The ivory is aU your own; if you leave any 
in the country it will be your own fault.” He was also anxious 
for horses. The two I had left with him when I went to Loanda, 
were still hving, and had been of great use to him in hunting the 
giraffe and eland, and he was now anxious to have a breed. This, 
I thought might be obtained at the Portuguese settlements. All 
were very much dehghted with the donkeys we had brought horn 
Loanda. As we found that they were not affected by the bite of 
the tsetse, and there was a prospect of the breed being continued, 
it was gratifying to see the experiment of their introduction so far 
successful. The donkeys came as frisky as kids all the way from 
Loanda, until we began to descend the Leeambye. There we 
came upon so many interlacmg branches of the river, and were 
obliged to drag them through such masses of tangled aquatic 
plants, that we half drowned them, and were at last obliged to 
leave them somewhat exhausted at Naliele. They excited the 
unbounded admiration of my men by their knowledge of the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of plants, which, as they remarked, “ the animals had 
never before seen in tliem own country;” and when the donkeys 
indulged in their music, they startled the inhabitants more than if 
they had been lions. We never rode them, nor yet the horse 
