Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
My chief object in coming to the lake was to visit Sebituane, the great
chief of the Makololo, who was reported to live some two hundred miles
beyond. We had now come to a half-tribe of the Bamangwato, called
Batauana. Their chief was a young man named Lechulatebe. Sebituane
had conquered his father Moremi, and Lechulatebe received part of his
education while a captive among the Bayeiye. His uncle, a sensible
man, ransomed him; and, having collected a number of families together,
abdicated the chieftainship in favor of his nephew. As Lechulatebe had
just come into power, he imagined that the proper way of showing his
abilities was to act directly contrary to every thing that his uncle
advised. When we came, the uncle recommended him to treat us handsomely,
therefore the hopeful youth presented us with a goat only. It ought to
have been an ox. So I proposed to my companions to loose the animal
and let him go, as a hint to his master. They, however, did not wish to
insult him. I, being more of a native, and familiar with their customs,
knew that this shabby present was an insult to us. We wished to purchase
some goats or oxen; Lechulatebe offered us elephants' tusks. "No, we can
not eat these; we want something to fill our stomachs." "Neither can I;
but I hear you white men are all very fond of these bones, so I offer
them; I want to put the goats into my own stomach." A trader, who
accompanied us, was then purchasing ivory at the rate of ten good large
tusks for a musket worth thirteen shillings. They were called "bones";
and I myself saw eight instances in which the tusks had been left to rot
with the other bones where the elephant fell. The Batauana never had
a chance of a market before; but, in less than two years after our
discovery, not a man of them could be found who was not keenly alive to
the great value of the article.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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