ar-cane, as it is cultivated by the Barotse, but
never knew that sugar could be got from it. When I explained the process
by which it was produced, Sekeletu asked if I could not buy him an
apparatus for the purpose of making sugar. He said that he would plant
the cane largely if he only had the means of making the sugar from it.
I replied that I was unable to purchase a mill, when he instantly
rejoined, "Why not take ivory to buy it?" As I had been living at his
expense, I was glad of the opportunity to show my gratitude by serving
him; and when he and his principal men understood that I was willing to
execute a commission, Sekeletu gave me an order for a sugar-mill, and
for all the different varieties of clothing that he had ever seen,
especially a mohair coat, a good rifle, beads, brass-wire, etc., etc.,
and wound up by saying, "And any other beautiful thing you may see in
your own country." As to the quantity of ivory required to execute the
commission, I said I feared that a large amount would be necessary. Both
he and his councilors replied, "The ivory is all your own; if you leave
any in the country it will be your own fault." He was also anxious for
horses. The two I had left with him when I went to Loanda were still
living, and had been of great use to him in hunting the giraffe and
eland, and he was now anxious to have a breed. This, I thought, might
be obtained at the Portuguese settlements. All were very much delighted
with the donkeys we had brought from Loanda. As we found that they were
not affected by the bite of the tsetse, and there was a prospect of the
breed being continued, it was gratifying to see the experiment of their
introduction so far successful. The donkeys came as frisky as kids all
the way from Loanda until we began to descend the Leeambye. There we
came upon so many interlacing branches of the river, and were obliged
to drag them through such masses of tangled aquatic plants, that we half
drowned them, and were at last obliged to leave them somewhat exhausted
at Naliele. They excited the unbounded admiration of my men by their
knowledge of the different kinds of plants, which, as they remarked,
"the animals had never before seen in their own country;" and when the
donkeys indulged in their music, they startled the inhabitants more than
if they had been lions. We never rode them, nor yet the horse which had
been given by the bishop, for fear of hurting them by any work.
Although the Makolol
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