ltitudes, not a man is to been
seen. In travelling from Monday morning till late on Saturday afternoon,
all the way from Tabacheu to Moachemba, which is only twenty-one miles of
latitude from the Victoria Falls, and constantly passing the ruined sites
of utterly deserted Botoka villages, we did not fall in with a single
person. The Batoka were driven out of their noble country by the
invasions of Moselekatse and Sebetuane. Several tribes of Bechuana and
Basutu, fleeing from the Zulu or Matebele chief Moselekatse reached the
Zambesi above the Falls. Coming from a land without rivers, none of them
knew how to swim; and one tribe, called the Bamangwato, wishing to cross
the Zambesi, was ferried over, men and women separately, to different
islands, by one of the Batoka chiefs; the men were then left to starve
and the women appropriated by the ferryman and his people. Sekomi, the
present chief of the Bamangwato, then an infant in his mother's arms, was
enabled, through the kindness of a private Batoka, to escape. This act
seems to have made an indelible impression on Sekomi's heart, for though
otherwise callous, he still never fails to inquire after the welfare of
his benefactor.

Sebetuane, with his wonted ability, outwitted the treacherous Batoka, by
insisting in the politest manner on their chief remaining at his own side
until the people and cattle were all carried safe across; the chief was
then handsomely rewarded, both with cattle and brass rings off
Sebetuane's own wives. No sooner were the Makololo, then called Basuto,
safely over, than they were confronted by the whole Batoka nation; and to
this day the Makololo point with pride to the spot on the Lekone, near to
which they were encamped, where Sebetuane, with a mere handful of
warriors in comparison to the vast horde that surrounded him, stood
waiting the onslaught, the warriors in one small body, the women and
children guarding the cattle behind them. The Batoka, of course, melted
away before those who had been made veterans by years of continual
fighting, and Sebetuane always justified his subsequent conquests in that
country by alleging that the Batoka had come out to fight with a man
fleeing for his life, who had never done them any wrong. They seem never
to have been a warlike race; passing through their country, we once
observed a large stone cairn, and our guide favoured us with the
following account of it:--"Once upon a time, our forefathers were g