was, and the strength of his party j as they remarked, he said,
when they saw us, that we were only eleven in number, and that
none excepting two were large men or seemed to be very strong.
The detachment of Bachapins who were sent in pursuit of these
robbers, returned on the next day, without having fallen in with
them or with any of the cattle. I found that the search had been
soon given up, and that the whole of this display of spirit and
promptitude had ended in nothing. Mattivi, as if ashamed that I
should see any appearance of pusillanimity, and to cover his want of
resolution in tamely submitting to the loss, told me that he had now
sent out only a few men merely to trace the direction in which the
oxen had been driven oif, and to ascertain what tribe had taken
them ; but that after my departure, he should go himself with a large
army and bring them away with him, even should they have been
carried to the enemy’s chief town; and that his reason for not
doing so immediately, was, the fear that, if he left me alone and
unprotected, the Nuakketsies, who would know of my situation,
would send a party to murder me and all my men.
In this story he forgot that I knew the robbers were Batammakas,
and not Nuakketsies. Which proves that in Africa, as well as in
Europe, he who attempts to fabricate a tale, or make a misrepresentation
to answer his own views, will surely betray himself, and give
evidence that he has been wilfully guilty of an untruth. But
Mattivi’s inveterate hatred against the latter tribe, was the real cause
of his casting the odium of the robbery upon them, in order to raise
in my mind a prejudice against them and to deter me from any idea
of travelling into their country.
When I questioned Muchunka, who was at all times ready to
support whatever Mattivi asserted, why those three Nuakketsies were
suffered to trade at Litakun and were entertained as friends, if they
were believed to be spies and robbers ; he replied, that to put a man to
death in their town, even an enemy who visits them in a peaceable
manner, is viewed as a very ‘ ugly’ act; it being only in battle, that
they kill their enemies. And in order to give me a suitable idea of
the magnitude and power of the Sachapin nation, he added, that if,
their Chief were to order the whole of his people to assemble for a
great war, I should behold so countless a multitude, that my eyes
would open wide with wonder. His men would stand, he said, so
closely together that they would tread on each other, and the ground
all about us would be crowded with them, like reeds on the bank of
a river. Whether my interpreter’s assertions were well-founded or
not, I could not but admire the beautiful simile which he employed,
and which so expressively conveyed the idea of a multitude.
Mattivi complained greatly of the frequent losses of cattle, which
his people continued to sustain from the north-eastern tribes, and
spoke, with painful recollection, of the former attacks from the
Caffres to the south, and who have been already noticed as having
emigrated from Kafferland to the banks of the Gariep. But now,
that he possessed a gun, he said, he considered himself able to defend
himself from the latter, and should therefore remove back
again to Nokanniin, a place to the south-west of the Kamhanni mountains,
where the chief town of the Bachapins formerly stood, and
where he himself was born.
31st. He this morning accompanied two of my Hottentots who
went out in search of game. His object was to learn their mode of
hunting, and the manner of using the gun ; as he took his own with
him. The men were unsuccessful, through scarcity of animals, and
he, as might be expected, through want of skill ; although he fell in
with a springbuck and fired at it.
In the mean time Speelman and Philip were employed in exploring
the banks of the river, for birds. The former, who was the
keener sportsman in this department, added to my ornithological
collection more than any of my other Hottentots. Juli, however,
was in this respect, very little inferior to him, either in the number,
or in the value and rarity, of the objects which his zeal and industry
procured for me. I ranked myself only as the third, and Philip as
the fourth ; but the rest of my people were at a great distance behind,
and most of them were unable to boast that they had contributed
even a single bird.
Here, for the first time, I met with, in its wild state, a handsome
3 r 2