Chap. XXV. AUTHOR’S INFLUENCE WITH NATIVES. 
513 
which had been given by the Bishop, for fear of hurting them by 
any work. 
Although the Makololo were so confiding, the reader must not 
imagine that they would be so to every individual who might visit 
them. Much of my influence depended upon the good name given 
me by the Bakwains, and that I secured only through a long 
com’se of tolerably good conduct. No one ever gains much in¬ 
fluence in this country without purity and uprightness. The acts 
of a stranger are keenly scrutinized by both young and old, and 
seldom is the judgment pronounced, even by the heathen, unfair 
or uncharitable. I have heard women speaking in admiration of 
a white man, because he was pure, and never was guilty of any 
secret immorality. Had he been, they would have known it, and, 
untutored heathen though they be, would have despised him in 
consequence. Secret vice becomes known throughout the tribe; 
and wlule one unacquainted with the language may imagine a 
peccadillo to be hidden, it is as patent to all as it would be in 
London, had he a placard on his back. 
27^A October, 1855. The first continuous rain of the season 
commenced during the night, the wind being from the N.E., as it 
always was on hke occasions at Kolobeng. The rainy season was 
thus begun, and I made ready to go. The mother of Sekeletu 
prepared a bag of gTOund-nuts, by frying them in cream with a 
little salt, as a sort of sandwiches for my journey. This is con¬ 
sidered food fit for a chief. Others gromid the maize from my 
own garden into meal, and Sekeletu pointed out Sekw4bu and 
Kanyata, as the persons who should head the party intended 
to form my company. Sekwebu had been captured by the 
Matebele when a little boy, and the tribe in which he was a 
captive, had migrated to the country near Tete: he had travelled 
along both banks of the Zambesi several times, and was intimately 
acquainted with the dialects spoken there. I found hiTYi to be a 
person of great prudence and sound judgment, and his subsequent 
loss at the Mamitius has been, ever since, a source of sincere 
regret. He at once recommended our keeping well away from 
the river, on account of the tsetse and rocky country, assigning 
also as a reason for it, that the Leeambye beyond the falls tons 
round to the N.N.E. Manure, who had married the mother of 
Sekeletu, on coming to bid me farewell before starting, said, You 
2 L 
