inducing them to relinquish their demand. They continued to talk
on the subject, with the same confidence as though they had not
heard what I had said ; and both Mattivi and Mollemmi were most
importunate in urging their request. They declared that they intended
to give me the value of it, and would to-morrow send to their
cattle-stations for some fine oxen which they proposed offering to me,
and wére sure that I should not then, refuse to grant what they so
much wished. I repeated over again all I had said, and ventured to
assumé a more positive tone. They continued, however, as much
determined as before, not to desist from importuning ; if so mild a
term can express their manner of asking. Mattivi said ; where was
he to get a gun if I did not give them one ? To this I replied, that
a gun would be of little use to people who could not themselves
make gunpowder and ball : but the moment these words had passed
my lips I felt that I had used but a weak argument ; as he quickly
rejoined, that he expected that I should be friendly enough to supply
him with those things also.
I found myself now so closely pressed by these two, for Molali
said but little, that I thought it not prudent to venture farther m
the subject, without taking some time for deliberation. I therefore
declared that as I had already said so much, I found myself unable
to talk more at present, and begged them to wait till the morning.
Still, however, they both urged their argument, with the same perseverance
; while I, remained obstinate in making the same replies :
nor was it till past nine, and when they felt their legs becoming cold
from sitting so long up in the waggon, that they left me and went
to the fire in my men’s house.
Thither I was also compelled by cold to follow them ; for the
whole day, and more especially the evening, had been rendered
exceedingly chilly by a strong easterly wind. The chief with his
two brothers, and Adam and Muchunka, went away together and
without ceremony or distinction sat down by the side of my people,
where they remained nearly an hour longer, warming themselves and
smoking their pipes.
Every hour at Litakun presented some new and interesting fact
to my observation; and, even in the midst of all the confusion of
novelty, the care which my situation created and the watchfulness
which it demanded could not prevent me from enjoying the contemplation
of the strange scene to which this day’s journey had
brought me. I beheld every where, a harvest of new ideas, and
lamented that I was working alone in so extensive a field, and where
so many eyes were wanted to observe, and so many hands to record.
The existence of supreme power without the least distinction of
ceremony or superiority of outward appearance in the possessor, was
a combination of facts, quite new to me, and of which, the view of
Mattivi as he was sitting at our fire, gave me an instructive proof.
Every one who saw him, knew that he was the person who held
that power; and the consideration of this, seemed to satisfy all his
ambition. He affected nothing different from those around him ; he
squatted oh the ground by their side, and sometimes took a whiff
from Muchunka’s pipe. He frequently on other evenings, took his
seat amongst my Hottentots, and talked with them in very familiar
terms, often asking them for their pipe ; which, there is little douht,
he did with a view to saving his own tobacco; as I did not perceive
that he was equally ready to return them the same favor.
After Mattivi and his party had retired, and we were left once
more by ourselves, excepting two of the chief’s servants who remained
in the hut all night, I discovered, on inquiring where my
men had secured the horses, that neither they, nor the sheep, nor
Andries, nor Stuurnian, had returned home that night; nor had they
been seen or heard of since the teams were loosed from the waggons
and they had gone away to drive the cattle out of the town to pasture.
These Hottentots, it now appeared, had again neglected their duty;
and thus, at a moment when so many other subjects demanded my
attention, were my cares encreased by their worthlessness ; nor could I,
under the pressure of these feelings, scarcely avoid the wish that those
who reduced me to the necessity of hiring such people, and those
who prevented better from engaging in my service, might some day
be placed in a situation to feel all those anxieties and difficulties
which their ungenerous dealing caused me for so many months to
3 c 2