other questions,. I asked him if the Nuakketsies or their chief had
ever alleged any cause of complaint against those white-men, or if
my countrymen had in any manner given them offence:— he replied;
No, none whatever. When I inquired if their bones were still to be
found, and offered for them a great reward if they could by any
possible means be brought to me, he said that these had been all
beaten into very small pieces and thrown into the fire. I promised
payment in my best beads for any part of those waggons, or of the
iron-work belonging to them; but the waggons, he said, were burnt,
and the iron was all converted into knives, hatchets and hassagays :
some European clothes, however, were still to be seen at Melitta (the
chief town of the Nuakketsies), as were also the sheep and oxen ; but
the horses were killed a short time afterwards, and the saddles were
burnt. On expressing a desire to obtain some of the white-men’s
hair, which, I said, had probably been saved as a curiosity, he replied
that that also had been thrown into the fire. When I asked him,
relatively to the contents of those waggons, whether he had seen any
very extraordinary things, different from any which had ever before
been brought into the country, he was unable to answer until the
Chief told him to say, a great number of gilt chains exactly like that
which I had presented to MattTvi. I proceeded at first to question
him very particularly as to all the circumstances of the alleged murder,
in order to derive some internal evidence which might convince me
either of the truth or falsity of his testimony; but Muloja himself
and Mattlvi and all the chieftains who sat round us, finding that their
story could not stand against this scrutiny, began to show themselves
displeased at my making such minute inquiries; and the man,
apparently confused in his account, asked roughly, why I put so many
questions, as though I doubted his veracity: he had, he said, beheld
the whole affair with his own eyes, and had seen Mokkaba’s people
cut off their heads and arms; and that ought to be enough to convince
me that it was the Nuakketsies who had put all the party, to
death, excepting, however, only one of the Klaarwater Hottentots; who
escaped and took refuge in Makrakki’s town, where, by order of that
chief, he was stabbed the next morning. Muloja here forgot that he
had, in the beginning of his examination, and to evade several of my
questions, declared that, although he Was then at Melitta, he was not
himself present at the murder; but had heard the whole account of
it from those who actually did see it. I therefore desired him, since
my mode of questioning was thought not agreeable, to relate, as he
pleased, whatever he knew of the affair. He then proceeded with
his story: it was so evidently inconsistent and contradictory,, with
respect to, not only what I had already heard from other mouths, but
even the different parts of his own account, that the weakest credulity
could scarcely have listened to it with patience. I, however; took
the trouble, during this examination, of writing down his answers, as
it was my intention, I told them, to communicate the information to
the Cape Government: but the whole tale was dressed up in a manner;
and attended with a degree of management, so unlike the plain and
simple clothing and the air of truth, that I could not but feel disgusted
at their mean and dishonorable attempts, to prejudice strangers against
their enemies, by the base arts of falsehood. As the declaration of
my total disbelief of Muloja’s evidence, could have been productive
of no good to any party, but rather, of danger to ourselves; I made
no remark on the subject, excepting that I should by the first opportunity
send a letter to Cape Town to make known what I had now
heard. On this, the whole assembly exclaimed with great satisfaction,
that, what I said was very good; evidently rejoicing at the
prospect of a great body of white-men being sent to exterminate the
Nuakketsies. It would be useless here to repeat a fabricated tale of
events which never took place, as I rose from the assembly with a
strong conviction that, however little was the doubt which could be
entertained of the melancholy fate of my unfortunate countrymen
and their companions, the Nuakketsies were certainly not the perpetrators
of the crime. with which their enemies the Bachapins now
charged them.
In consequence of the request which I had before made of Mattivi,
that he would order his people to produce for my inspection, every
article of European manufacture obtained from the Nuakketsies and
VOL. II. 3 t