In about half an hour after this, he came to ask me for snuff for
himself; although he knew that he was to receive his presents at the
first opportunity when it could be done privately. I gave him my
box, which had been previously filled, and he took the half of it ;
being perhaps ashamed to betray so much covetousness as to take the
whole, after having emptied my hand but a few minutes hefore.
During the whole of the day, the natives continued asking for tobacco,
and I found myself at last obliged now and then to give a little.
When I assured them I had no more left, they were so incredulous
that they felt the outside of my coat-pocket to ascertain the truth;
nor would they believe that its contents could be aught else, till I
had taken every thing out to show them. All this was done with
good humour ; and I was sometimes able to stop their importunities
by some joking remark.
Mattivi and Mollemmi now renewed their request for one of the
guns; and as I was at this time prepared with a plan on my part,
which should ultimately frustrate theirs, I had no objection to the
debate; although I still wished to induce them to relinquish their
object. I repeated the arguments I had before used, respecting the
impossibility of disarming my own men, and of giving up my only
means of procuring food or of obtaining those skins of animals, the
hunting of which, I said, was one of the principal purposes of my
journey into the Interior. I represented to them, that as my party
was so small in number, I ought not to weaken it by giving up any
part of our arms; while, on the other hand, they were so numerous
and powerful a nation, that nothing could harm them; and that a
musket in addition to their present means of defence, would add very
little to their strength. But they immediately convinced me that
| e’en tho’ vanquished, they could argue still,’ and obstinately persisted
in their demand. I asked Mattivi why his father had not, if a gun
was so necessary to them, obtained one from other white men who
had formerly visited him ; to which he replied, that as he was at that
time, only a young man, and under Mulihaban, he had no authority to
act in such an affair, and could not presume to interfere in matters of
business; otherwise the Bachapins would have been long before now
in possession of fire-arms: and that one of them had, indeed, made
a promise of letting his father have a musket; although he had not
performed it. I then explained to him that such instruments were
very unsafe for every person excepting those who well understood
how to use them : and, to impress this the more forcibly on his mind,
I sent for Gert, and exhibited his mutilated hand as one of the
distressing consequences to which he would be liable, if I were to
consent to let him have one. But nothing which could be said, had
the least effect in turning him from his determination: he replied,
that weapons of every kind caused accidents to those who used them ;
that the Bachapins were sometimes, while running hastily, thrown
down and pierced by their own hassagay, or even lost their lives by
falling on their own knife.
When I reflected on my defenceless situation iq the midst
of a populous town, with a few Hottentots, on several of whom, I
already knew, no dependence could be placed; and when I considered
that it was in Mattivi’s power, should he be so inclined, to take without
my permission, not one gun only, but all, I judged it imprudent
any longer to resist his wishes; more especially as I believed his only
object to be that of gaining by such a weapon a superiority over the
neighbouring tribes, whom he represented as incessantly harassing
his people by irruptions into his country, and by robbing them
frequently of large herds of cattle. Besides which, I judged that his
having fire-arms in his possession, could not render him very
formidable, or even obnoxious, to any one, as the extent of their
power would be limited by the quantity of gunpowder which he might
hereafter procure, and of which there was no prospect of his being
able to obtain any, unless it should be given, or sold to him, from
Klaarwater. I also foresaw that if I persisted in my refusal, even
should he preserve the good faith not to offer me open molestation,
my stay at Litakun would be rendered unpleasant to myself and
perhaps unwelcome to him; in which case I must have departed
before I had completed my observations on its inhabitants and had
acquired sufficient experience and knowledge of their manners and