Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

D >> David Livingstone >> Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa


Mentioning this to the commandant in proof of the impossibility of
granting his request, I had soon an example how quickly a story can grow
among idle people. The five guns were, within one month, multiplied into
a tale of five hundred, and the cooking-pot, now in a museum at Cape
Town, was magnified into a cannon; "I had myself confessed to the loan."
Where the five hundred guns came from, it was easy to divine; for,
knowing that I used a sextant, my connection with government was a
thing of course; and, as I must know all her majesty's counsels, I was
questioned on the subject of the indistinct rumors which had reached
them of Lord Rosse's telescope. "What right has your government to
set up that large glass at the Cape to look after us behind the Cashan
Mountains?"

Many of the Boers visited us afterward at Kolobeng, some for medical
advice, and others to trade in those very articles which their own laws
and policy forbid. When I happened to stumble upon any of them in the
town, with his muskets and powder displayed, he would begin an apology,
on the ground that he was a poor man, etc., which I always cut short by
frankly saying that I had nothing to do with either the Boers or their
laws. Many attempts were made during these visits to elicit the truth
about the guns and cannon; and ignorant of the system of espionage which
prevails, eager inquiries were made by them among those who could jabber
a little Dutch. It is noticeable that the system of espionage is as well
developed among the savage tribes as in Austria or Russia. It is a proof
of barbarism. Every man in a tribe feels himself bound to tell the
chief every thing that comes to his knowledge, and, when questioned by
a stranger, either gives answers which exhibit the utmost stupidity, or
such as he knows will be agreeable to his chief. I believe that in this
way have arisen tales of their inability to count more than ten, as
was asserted of the Bechuanas about the very time when Sechele's father
counted out one thousand head of cattle as a beginning of the stock of
his young son.

In the present case, Sechele, knowing every question put to his people,
asked me how they ought to answer. My reply was, "Tell the truth." Every
one then declared that no cannon existed there; and our friends, judging
the answer by what they themselves would in the circumstances have
said, were confirmed in the opinion that the Bakwains actually possessed
artillery. This was in some degree beneficial to us, inasmuch as fear
prevented any foray in our direction for eight years. During that time
no winter passed without one or two tribes in the East country being
plundered of both cattle and children by the Boers. The plan pursued
is the following: one or two friendly tribes are forced to accompany a
party of mounted Boers, and these expeditions can be got up only in the
winter, when horses may be used without danger of being lost by disease.
When they reach the tribe to be attacked, the friendly natives are
ranged in front, to form, as they say, "a shield"; the Boers then coolly
fire over their heads till the devoted people flee and leave cattle,
wives, and children to the captors. This was done in nine cases during
my residence in the interior, and on no occasion was a drop of Boer's
blood shed. News of these deeds spread quickly among the Bakwains, and
letters were repeatedly sent by the Boers to Sechele, ordering him to
come and surrender himself as their vassal, and stop English traders
from proceeding into the country with fire-arms for sale. But the
discovery of Lake Ngami, hereafter to be described, made the traders
come in five-fold greater numbers, and Sechele replied, "I was made an
independent chief and placed here by God, and not by you. I was never
conquered by Mosilikatze, as those tribes whom you rule over; and the
English are my friends. I get every thing I wish from them. I can not
hinder them from going where they like." Those who are old enough to
remember the threatened invasion of our own island may understand the
effect which the constant danger of a Boerish invasion had on the
minds of the Bakwains; but no others can conceive how worrying were the
messages and threats from the endless self-constituted authorities of
the Magaliesberg Boers; and when to all this harassing annoyance was
added the scarcity produced by the drought, we could not wonder at,
though we felt sorry for, their indisposition to receive instruction.

The myth of the black pot assumed serious proportions. I attempted to
benefit the tribes among the Boers of Magaliesberg by placing native
teachers at different points. "You must teach the blacks," said Mr.
Hendrick Potgeiter, the commandant in chief, "that they are not equal
to us." Other Boers told me, "I might as well teach the baboons on the
rocks as the Africans," but declined the test which I proposed, namely,
to examine whether they or my native attendants could read best. Two of
their clergymen came to baptize the children of the Boers; so, supposing
these good men would assist me in overcoming the repugnance of their
flock to the education of the blacks, I called on them; but my visit
ended in a 'ruse' practiced by the Boerish commandant, whereby I was
led, by professions of the greatest friendship, to retire to Kolobeng,
while a letter passed me by another way to the other missionaries in
the south, demanding my instant recall "for lending a cannon to their
enemies." The colonial government was also gravely informed that the
story was true, and I came to be looked upon as a most suspicious
character in consequence.

These notices of the Boers are not intended to produce a sneer at their
ignorance, but to excite the compassion of their friends. They are
perpetually talking about their laws; but practically theirs is only the
law of the strongest. The Bechuanas could never understand the changes
which took place in their commandants. "Why, one can never know who is
the chief among these Boers. Like the Bushmen, they have no king--they
must be the Bushmen of the English." The idea that any tribe of men
could be so senseless as not to have an hereditary chief was so absurd
to these people, that, in order not to appear equally stupid, I was
obliged to tell them that we English were so anxious to preserve the
royal blood, that we had made a young lady our chief. This seemed to
them a most convincing proof of our sound sense. We shall see farther on
the confidence my account of our queen inspired.

The Boers, encouraged by the accession of Mr. Pretorius, determined at
last to put a stop to English traders going past Kolobeng, by dispersing
the tribe of Bakwains, and expelling all the missionaries. Sir George
Cathcart proclaimed the independence of the Boers, the best thing that
could have been done had they been between us and the Caffres. A treaty
was entered into with these Boers; an article for the free passage of
Englishmen to the country beyond, and also another, that no slavery
should be allowed in the independent territory, were duly inserted, as
expressive of the views of her majesty's government at home. "But what
about the missionaries?" inquired the Boers. "YOU MAY DO AS YOU PLEASE
WITH THEM," is said to have been the answer of the "Commissioner". This
remark, if uttered at all, was probably made in joke: designing men,
however, circulated it, and caused the general belief in its accuracy
which now prevails all over the country, and doubtless led to the
destruction of three mission stations immediately after. The Boers, four
hundred in number, were sent by the late Mr. Pretorius to attack the
Bakwains in 1852. Boasting that the English had given up all the blacks
into their power, and had agreed to aid them in their subjugation by
preventing all supplies of ammunition from coming into the Bechuana
country, they assaulted the Bakwains, and, besides killing a
considerable number of adults, carried off two hundred of our school
children into slavery. The natives under Sechele defended themselves
till the approach of night enabled them to flee to the mountains; and
having in that defense killed a number of the enemy, the very first
ever slain in this country by Bechuanas, I received the credit of having
taught the tribe to kill Boers! My house, which had stood perfectly
secure for years under the protection of the natives, was plundered in
revenge. English gentlemen, who had come in the footsteps of Mr. Cumming
to hunt in the country beyond, and had deposited large quantities of
stores in the same keeping, and upward of eighty head of cattle as
relays for the return journeys, were robbed of all, and, when they came
back to Kolobeng, found the skeletons of the guardians strewed all over
the place. The books of a good library--my solace in our solitude--were
not taken away, but handfuls of the leaves were torn out and scattered
over the place. My stock of medicines was smashed; and all our furniture
and clothing carried off and sold at public auction to pay the expenses
of the foray.

I do not mention these things by way of making a pitiful wail over my
losses, nor in order to excite commiseration; for, though I do feel
sorry for the loss of lexicons, dictionaries, &c., which had been the
companions of my boyhood, yet, after all, the plundering only set me
entirely free for my expedition to the north, and I have never since had
a moment's concern for any thing I left behind. The Boers resolved to
shut up the interior, and I determined to open the country, and we shall
see who have been most successful in resolution, they or I.

A short sketch of African housekeeping may not prove uninteresting to
the reader. The entire absence of shops led us to make every thing we
needed from the raw materials. You want bricks to build a house, and
must forthwith proceed to the field, cut down a tree, and saw it into
planks to make the brick-moulds; the materials for doors and windows,
too, are standing in the forest; and, if you want to be respected by
the natives, a house of decent dimensions, costing an immense amount of
manual labor, must be built. The people can not assist you much; for,
though most willing to labor for wages, the Bakwains have a curious
inability to make or put things square: like all Bechuanas, their
dwellings are made round. In the case of three large houses, erected by
myself at different times, every brick and stick had to be put square by
my own right hand.

Having got the meal ground, the wife proceeds to make it into bread; an
extempore oven is often constructed by scooping out a large hole in an
anthill, and using a slab of stone for a door. Another plan, which might
be adopted by the Australians to produce something better than their
"dampers", is to make a good fire on a level piece of ground, and,
when the ground is thoroughly heated, place the dough in a small,
short-handled frying-pan, or simply on the hot ashes; invert any sort of
metal pot over it, draw the ashes around, and then make a small fire
on the top. Dough, mixed with a little leaven from a former baking, and
allowed to stand an hour or two in the sun, will by this process become
excellent bread.

We made our own butter, a jar serving as a churn; and our own candles
by means of moulds; and soap was procured from the ashes of the plant
salsola, or from wood-ashes, which in Africa contain so little alkaline
matter that the boiling of successive leys has to be continued for
a month or six weeks before the fat is saponified. There is not much
hardship in being almost entirely dependent on ourselves; there is
something of the feeling which must have animated Alexander Selkirk on
seeing conveniences springing up before him from his own ingenuity; and
married life is all the sweeter when so many comforts emanate directly
from the thrifty striving housewife's hands.

To some it may appear quite a romantic mode of life; it is one of active
benevolence, such as the good may enjoy at home. Take a single day as
a sample of the whole. We rose early, because, however hot the day may
have been, the evening, night, and morning at Kolobeng were deliciously
refreshing; cool is not the word, where you have neither an increase of
cold nor heat to desire, and where you can sit out till midnight with no
fear of coughs or rheumatism. After family worship and breakfast between
six and seven, we went to keep school for all who would attend--men,
women, and children being all invited. School over at eleven o'clock,
while the missionary's wife was occupied in domestic matters, the
missionary himself had some manual labor as a smith, carpenter, or
gardener, according to whatever was needed for ourselves or for the
people; if for the latter, they worked for us in the garden, or at some
other employment; skilled labor was thus exchanged for the unskilled.
After dinner and an hour's rest, the wife attended her infant-school,
which the young, who were left by their parents entirely to their own
caprice, liked amazingly, and generally mustered a hundred strong; or
she varied that with a sewing-school, having classes of girls to learn
the art; this, too, was equally well relished. During the day every
operation must be superintended, and both husband and wife must labor
till the sun declines. After sunset the husband went into the town to
converse with any one willing to do so, sometimes on general subjects,
at other times on religion. On three nights of the week, as soon as the
milking of the cows was over and it had become dark, we had a public
religious service, and one of instruction on secular subjects, aided
by pictures and specimens. These services were diversified by attending
upon the sick and prescribing for them, giving food, and otherwise
assisting the poor and wretched. We tried to gain their affections by
attending to the wants of the body. The smallest acts of friendship, an
obliging word and civil look, are, as St. Xavier thought, no despicable
part of the missionary armor. Nor ought the good opinion of the most
abject to be uncared for, when politeness may secure it. Their good
word in the aggregate forms a reputation which may be well employed
in procuring favor for the Gospel. Show kind attention to the reckless
opponents of Christianity on the bed of sickness and pain, and they
never can become your personal enemies. Here, if any where, love begets
love.

When at Kolobeng, during the droughts we were entirely dependent on
Kuruman for supplies of corn. Once we were reduced to living on bran,
to convert which into fine meal we had to grind it three times over. We
were much in want of animal food, which seems to be a greater necessary
of life there than vegetarians would imagine. Being alone, we could
not divide the butcher-meat of a slaughtered animal with a prospect
of getting a return with regularity. Sechele had, by right of
chieftainship, the breast of every animal slaughtered either at home or
abroad, and he most obligingly sent us a liberal share during the whole
period of our sojourn. But these supplies were necessarily so irregular
that we were sometimes fain to accept a dish of locusts. These are quite
a blessing in the country, so much so that the RAIN-DOCTORS sometimes
promised to bring them by their incantations. The locusts are strongly
vegetable in taste, the flavor varying with the plants on which they
feed. There is a physiological reason why locusts and honey should be
eaten together. Some are roasted and pounded into meal, which, eaten
with a little salt, is palatable. It will keep thus for months. Boiled,
they are disagreeable; but when they are roasted I should much prefer
locusts to shrimps, though I would avoid both if possible.

In traveling we sometimes suffered considerably from scarcity of meat,
though not from absolute want of food. This was felt more especially by
my children; and the natives, to show their sympathy, often gave them
a large kind of caterpillar, which they seemed to relish; these insects
could not be unwholesome, for the natives devoured them in large
quantities themselves.

Another article of which our children partook with eagerness was a very
large frog, called "Matlametlo".*

* The Pyxicephalus adspersus of Dr. Smith.
Length of head and body, 5-1/2 inches;
fore legs, 3 inches;
hind legs, 6 inches.
Width of head posteriorly, 3 inches;
of body, 4-1/2 inches.

These enormous frogs, which, when cooked, look like chickens, are
supposed by the natives to fall down from thunder-clouds, because after
a heavy thunder-shower the pools, which are filled and retain water a
few days, become instantly alive with this loud-croaking, pugnacious
game. This phenomenon takes place in the driest parts of the desert, and
in places where, to an ordinary observer, there is not a sign of life.
Having been once benighted in a district of the Kalahari where there
was no prospect of getting water for our cattle for a day or two, I
was surprised to hear in the fine still evening the croaking of frogs.
Walking out until I was certain that the musicians were between me
and our fire, I found that they could be merry on nothing else but
a prospect of rain. From the Bushmen I afterward learned that the
matlametlo makes a hole at the root of certain bushes, and there
ensconces himself during the months of drought. As he seldom emerges, a
large variety of spider takes advantage of the hole, and makes its
web across the orifice. He is thus furnished with a window and screen
gratis; and no one but a Bushman would think of searching beneath
a spider's web for a frog. They completely eluded my search on the
occasion referred to; and as they rush forth into the hollows filled by
the thunder-shower when the rain is actually falling, and the Bechuanas
are cowering under their skin garments, the sudden chorus struck up
simultaneously from all sides seems to indicate a descent from the
clouds.

The presence of these matlametlo in the desert in a time of drought was
rather a disappointment, for I had been accustomed to suppose that the
note was always emitted by them when they were chin-deep in water. Their
music was always regarded in other spots as the most pleasant sound that
met the ear after crossing portions of the thirsty desert; and I could
fully appreciate the sympathy for these animals shown by Aesop, himself
an African, in his fable of the "Boys and the Frogs".

It is remarkable that attempts have not been made to any extent to
domesticate some of the noble and useful creatures of Africa in England.
The eland, which is the most magnificent of all antelopes, would
grace the parks of our nobility more than deer. This animal, from the
excellence of its flesh, would be appropriate to our own country; and as
there is also a splendid esculent frog nearly as large as a chicken, it
would no doubt tend to perpetuate the present alliance if we made a gift
of that to France.

The scavenger beetle is one of the most useful of all insects, as it
effectually answers the object indicated by the name. Where they abound,
as at Kuruman, the villages are sweet and clean, for no sooner are
animal excretions dropped than, attracted by the scent, the scavengers
are heard coming booming up the wind. They roll away the droppings of
cattle at once, in round pieces often as large as billiard-balls; and
when they reach a place proper by its softness for the deposit of their
eggs and the safety of their young, they dig the soil out from beneath
the ball till they have quite let it down and covered it: they then lay
their eggs within the mass. While the larvae are growing, they devour
the inside of the ball before coming above ground to begin the world for
themselves. The beetles with their gigantic balls look like Atlas with
the world on his back; only they go backward, and, with their heads
down, push with the hind legs, as if a boy should roll a snow-ball with
his legs while standing on his head. As we recommend the eland to John
Bull, and the gigantic frog to France, we can confidently recommend this
beetle to the dirty Italian towns and our own Sanitary Commissioners.

In trying to benefit the tribes living under the Boers of the Cashan
Mountains, I twice performed a journey of about three hundred miles to
the eastward of Kolobeng. Sechele had become so obnoxious to the Boers
that, though anxious to accompany me in my journey, he dared not
trust himself among them. This did not arise from the crime of
cattle-stealing; for that crime, so common among the Caffres, was never
charged against his tribe, nor, indeed, against any Bechuana tribe. It
is, in fact, unknown in the country, except during actual warfare. His
independence and love of the English were his only faults. In my last
journey there, of about two hundred miles, on parting at the River
Marikwe he gave me two servants, "to be," as he said, "his arms to serve
me," and expressed regret that he could not come himself. "Suppose we
went north," I said, "would you come?" He then told me the story
of Sebituane having saved his life, and expatiated on the far-famed
generosity of that really great man. This was the first time I had
thought of crossing the Desert to Lake Ngami.

The conduct of the Boers, who, as will be remembered, had sent a letter
designed to procure my removal out of the country, and their well-known
settled policy which I have already described, became more fully
developed on this than on any former occasion. When I spoke to Mr.
Hendrick Potgeiter of the danger of hindering the Gospel of Christ among
these poor savages, he became greatly excited, and called one of his
followers to answer me. He threatened to attack any tribe that might
receive a native teacher, yet he promised to use his influence to
prevent those under him from throwing obstacles in our way. I could
perceive plainly that nothing more could be done in that direction, so I
commenced collecting all the information I could about the desert, with
the intention of crossing it, if possible. Sekomi, the chief of the
Bamangwato, was acquainted with a route which he kept carefully to
himself, because the Lake country abounded in ivory, and he drew large
quantities thence periodically at but small cost to himself.

Sechele, who valued highly every thing European, and was always fully
alive to his own interest, was naturally anxious to get a share of that
inviting field. He was most anxious to visit Sebituane too, partly,
perhaps, from a wish to show off his new acquirements, but chiefly, I
believe, from having very exalted ideas of the benefits he would derive
from the liberality of that renowned chieftain. In age and family
Sechele is the elder and superior of Sekomi; for when the original
tribe broke up into Bamangwato, Bangwaketse, and Bakwains, the Bakwains
retained the hereditary chieftainship; so their chief, Sechele,
possesses certain advantages over Sekomi, the chief of the Bamangwato.
If the two were traveling or hunting together, Sechele would take, by
right, the heads of the game shot by Sekomi.

There are several vestiges, besides, of very ancient partitions and
lordships of tribes. The elder brother of Sechele's father, becoming
blind, gave over the chieftainship to Sechele's father. The descendants
of this man pay no tribute to Sechele, though he is the actual ruler,
and superior to the head of that family; and Sechele, while in every
other respect supreme, calls him Kosi, or Chief. The other tribes will
not begin to eat the early pumpkins of a new crop until they hear that
the Bahurutse have "bitten it", and there is a public ceremony on the
occasion--the son of the chief being the first to taste of the new
harvest.

Sechele, by my advice, sent men to Sekomi, asking leave for me to pass
along his path, accompanying the request with the present of an ox.
Sekomi's mother, who possesses great influence over him, refused
permission, because she had not been propitiated. This produced a
fresh message; and the most honorable man in the Bakwain tribe, next to
Sechele, was sent with an ox for both Sekomi and his mother. This, too,
was met by refusal. It was said, "The Matebele, the mortal enemies of
the Bechuanas, are in the direction of the lake, and, should they kill
the white man, we shall incur great blame from all his nation."

The exact position of the Lake Ngami had, for half a century at least,
been correctly pointed out by the natives, who had visited it when rains
were more copious in the Desert than in more recent times, and many
attempts had been made to reach it by passing through the Desert in the
direction indicated; but it was found impossible, even for Griquas,
who, having some Bushman blood in them, may be supposed more capable of
enduring thirst than Europeans. It was clear, then, that our only chance
of success was by going round, instead of through, the Desert. The best
time for the attempt would have been about the end of the rainy season,
in March or April, for then we should have been likely to meet with
pools of rain-water, which always dry up during the rainless winter. I
communicated my intention to an African traveler, Colonel Steele, then
aid-de-camp to the Marquis of Tweedale at Madras, and he made it known
to two other gentlemen, whose friendship we had gained during their
African travel, namely, Major Vardon and Mr. Oswell. All of these
gentlemen were so enamored with African hunting and African discovery
that the two former must have envied the latter his good fortune in
being able to leave India to undertake afresh the pleasures and pains of
desert life. I believe Mr. Oswell came from his high position at a very
considerable pecuniary sacrifice, and with no other end in view but to
extend the boundaries of geographical knowledge. Before I knew of his
coming, I had arranged that the payment for the guides furnished by
Sechele should be the loan of my wagon, to bring back whatever ivory he
might obtain from the chief at the lake. When, at last, Mr. Oswell came,
bringing Mr. Murray with him, he undertook to defray the entire expenses
of the guides, and fully executed his generous intention.