ls of the longer march.

A "picho" was called to deliberate on the steps proposed. In these
assemblies great freedom of speech is allowed; and on this occasion one
of the old diviners said, "Where is he taking you to? This white man is
throwing you away. Your garments already smell of blood." It is curious
to observe how much identity of character appears all over the world.
This man was a noted croaker. He always dreamed something dreadful in
every expedition, and was certain that an eclipse or comet betokened
the propriety of flight. But Sebituane formerly set his visions down to
cowardice, and Sekeletu only laughed at him now. The general voice was
in my favor; so a band of twenty-seven were appointed to accompany me to
the west. These men were not hired, but sent to enable me to accomplish
an object as much desired by the chief and most of his people as by me.
They were eager to obtain free and profitable trade with white men. The
prices which the Cape merchants could give, after defraying the great
expenses of a long journey hither, being very small, made it scarce
worth while for the natives to collect produce for that market; and the
Mambari, giving only a few bits of print and baize for elephants' tusks
worth more pounds than they gave yards of cloth, had produced the belief
that trade with them was throwing ivory away. The desire of the Makololo
for direct trade with the sea-coast coincided exactly with my own
conviction that no permanent elevation of a people can be effected
without commerce. Neither could there be a permanent mission here,
unless the missionaries should descend to the level of the Makololo, for
even at Kolobeng we found that traders demanded three or four times the
price of the articles we needed, and expected us to be grateful to them
besides for letting us have them at all.

The three men whom I had brought from Kuruman had frequent relapses of
the fever; so, finding that instead of serving me I had to wait on them,
I decided that they should return to the south with Fleming as soon
as he had finished his trading. I was then entirely dependent on my
twenty-seven men, whom I might name Zambesians, for there were two
Makololo only, while the rest consisted of Barotse, Batoka, Bashubia,
and two of the Ambonda.

The fever had caused considerable weakness in my own frame, and a
strange giddiness when I looked up suddenly to any celestial object, for
every thing seemed to rush to the left, and