cattle kraals have, in many instances, sprouted, and
present the appearance of curious circular groves dedicated
to some deity. The brick houses of European
origin are the most lasting, the old stores and abodes of
traders, but even these can now hardly be approached
by reason of the thick thorn bushes which, in so
short a space of time, have grown up around them.
Ear up the ravine is the missionary’s house, itself
a ruin overlooking the ruined town. Baboons, and
owls, and vicious wasps now inhabit the rooms where
Moffat lived and Livingstone stayed. There is not a
vestige of human life now to be seen within miles of
Shoshong, which was, three years ago, the capital of
one of the most enlightened chiefs of South Africa.
I must say I looked forward with great interest
to seeing a . man with so wide a reputation for integrity
and enlightenment as Khama has in South
Africa. Somehow, one’s spirit of scepticism is on the
alert on such occasions, especially when a negro is
the case in p o in t; and I candidly admit that I advanced
towards Palapwe fully prepared to find the
chief of the Ba-mangwato a rascal and a hypocrite,
and that I left his capital, after a week’s stay there,
one of his most fervent admirers.
Not only has Khama himself established his reputation
for honesty, but he is supposed to have inoculated
all his people with the same virtue. No One is
supposed to steal in Khama’s country. He regulates
the price of the goat you buy : and the milk vendor
dare not ask more than the regulation price, nor can
you get it for.less. One evening, on our journey from
I Shoshong to Palapwe, we passed a loaded waggon by
I the roadside with no one to guard it save a dog;
I and surely, we thought, such confidence as this im-
! plies a security for property rare enough in South
| Africa.
The aspect of Palapwe is very pleasant. Fine
-timber covers the hill slopes. A large grassy square,
shaded by trees, and with a stream running through
it, has been devoted to the outspanning of the many
waggons which pass through here. There are as yet
but few of those detestable corrugated-iron houses,
for the Europeans have wisely elected to dwell in
daub huts, like the natives. Scattered far and wide
are the clusters of huts in their own enclosures,
governed by their respective indunas.
High up on the hillside Khama has allotted the
choicest spot of all to his spiritual and political
adviser, Mr. Hepburn, the missionary. From here a
lovely view extends over mountain and plain, over
granite Jcopje and the meandering river-bed, far away
into the blue distance and the Kalahari. Behind the
mission house is a deep ravine, thick set with tropical
vegetation, through which a stream runs, called Foto-
foto, which at the head of the gorge leaps over steep
rocks, and forms a lovely cascade of well-nigh a
hundred feet; behind the ravine, on the rocky
heights, baboons and other wild animals still linger,
perturbed in mind, no doubt, at this recent occupa^
tion of their paradise.
Everything in Khama’s town is conducted with
the rigour—one might almost say bigotry—of