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THE NEW AFRICA 
liate the actual rapacity of a chief, who will certainly get 
all he can out of every one concerned, if there is a pos¬ 
sible chance of trumping up a charge against the unfortunate 
individuals who have given him the opportunity, no matter on 
what trivial score, to sit in judgment on their acts. Old Sakoo- 
nima was a wise man amongst his kind, and, with habitual 
caution, proposed to make himself scarce before getting into the 
clutches of his king. He also certainly cannot be accused of want 
of forethought in having neglected the opportunity to feather 
his own nest from our store of goods while the circumstances 
were favourable to the execution of his plans. However, he 
had served our turn thus far; so, spite of past disputes and 
ill-feeling, we bade him a friendly farewell, which seemed to call 
forth the better instincts in his nature, for with many grins and 
wishes for our future welfare he packed up and left. 
Makoyo, a son of King Debabe’s sister, is a young man of about 
twenty-live years of age, much lighter in colour than the usual 
native, and of exceptional intelligence. A great drawback to 
our conversation with him was the fact that he knew nothing 
of the Makololo or Setchuana language nor of any other but his 
native Mombokooshu. Franz had to talk to another interpreter 
who in his turn transmitted the words to Makoyo. What sub¬ 
stance a conversation may lose or gain by this method, it is 
quite impossible for the uninitiated to believe. Each interpreter 
must be told the whole tale first, before he then translates the 
sense of conditions to the other man, with such additions or 
detractions as personal views on the subject may suggest, and 
then in the next transmission the message is liable to equal 
maltreatment before it finally reaches the ears of the man to 
whom it was intended to be delivered pure. However, Makoyo 
quite understood that it was polite to accept the presents we 
gave him. On that score we have no complaint to make. He 
also seemed to realise that we asked for food in return, but with 
regard to the quantity necessary, or even adequate, as a return 
present for the one pound cost price blanket and other goods we 
gave him, he seemed only to have the vaguest notion of compen- 
