me alone, they always retired the moment my dinner or breakfast
was brought to me. This gave me a few moments’ relief from the
fatigue of incessant conversation ; for, when one person was satisfied
with seeing and hearing me, another came and took his place: and
this routine, with scarcely any intervals, continued from the time I
rose in the morning, till the hour at night when they retired to sleep.
In the evening Mollemmi wished me to see some oxen which
he had brought for the purchase of another gun. I was now forced
to declare most positively, that I would not give up any more arms;
and refused even to look at the oxen, though he entreated me in a
submissive and friendly tone, to see what fine cattle he had selected
for me. As I had experienced the unpleasant consequences of entering
into any conversation on the subject, I resolved to' make a trial ol the
efficacy of silence. After having once pronounced the refusal, I gave
no further opinion; I made not the least reply to his remarks. In this
mode of treating the business, I persisted, with an unshaken obstinacy,
in spite of the most teasing solicitation ; and was extremely
happy to perceive that it produced the desired effect.
The chieftains who were now assembled as before, said nothing
on this occasion ; and both Mattivi and Mollemmi at length appeared
to relinquish the demand. They even confessed that they were so
much pleased at having obtained one, that they would not again make
mention of another, as they saw that more could not be spared.
Mattivi now repeated, that other white-men had promised his father a
gun, but that, as I was the only person who had let them have one,
he by this could perceive that I was a very great chief; and therefore,
that he would in future trade with no one but me and my
people ; that he would sell the ivory to nobody else ; but would save
it all for me, when I came again. There then followed much more
nonsense of this kind; and after I had heard enough to convince me
that it had no meaning, I rose and left the circle.
But the piicho or assembly remained sitting in easy conversation
for nearly an hour longer. At these assemblies or councils, Mattivi,
Serrakutu, and Mollemmi, took their turns in presiding; or rather
in conducting, and more especially attending to, the debate: for the
chief himself must at all times have been thé real president, though
I am not able to state the rules by which the members of the piicho,
and the officiating president, are guided in giving their opinions and
in managing the business of the meeting.
Besides a nightly watch of six or seven Bachapins stationed
round the outside of Mattivi’s cattle-enclosure, four of his servants
came every night to sleep in the Hottentots’ hut ; so that these
poor fellows were as much tormented by company, as their master.
No sooner had they filled a pipe and put it to their mouth, than one
or other of the natives cried out, Lee ki rôlci ! * (Give me smoke !)
to which I advised them to answer, Ba-p'elu (Wait a little) ; an
expression, of which I was myself obliged to make frequent use.
But they found it impossible, by any artifice, to save their tobacco ;
and -at last, to conceal it, they resolved to leave off all smoking in
their presence. This they mentioned to me as a most distressing
grievance ; and though I could not sympathize in these feelings, I
pitied them for their sufferings under this privation, which, to a
Hottentot, I knew could not be a trifling restraint.
In addition to this, I saw the necessity of imposing on them
another restriction, by desiring them to be circumspect in what they
said to each other ; as it appeared to me that the four men, who slept
in their hut, were placed there as spies upon us. One of them,
named Champâni, had paid frequent visits to Klaarwater, and had
lived among those Hottentots till he had acquired a knowledge of
Dutch, sufficient to enable him to understand the general tenor of
our conversation, and to express himself intelligibly.
But this restraint on their smoking was not their greatest inconvenience:
their fear had been so strongly excited by the violent
debates respecting the gun, that they all confessed themselves to feel
very uneasy at this place and ardently to desire to return home.
Some even ventured to hint, in an indirect manner, that they did not
intend to go farther northwards. This confession, or the last part of
* The word rold is probably a corruption of the Dutch word rooken, ‘ to smoke,’
which they may have learnt from the Hottentots.