I had accomplished the journey from Kobis in five days. With unencumbered oxen, it might, with some exertion, be made in half this time.
Lecholètébè requested me to pitch my tent in his immediate vicinity; but, feeling fatigued, and well knowing the inconvenience of being in too close proximity to the natives, we encamped on the south side of the Zouga.
I determined to pay my respects to the chief at an early hour on the following morning. To make a favorable impression on the mind of savages at the first interview is of great importance, as much of their future good-will toward one depends on this, and scarcely any thing propitiates them more than outward show.
Accordingly, at the contemplated hour, I donned my best apparel, which consisted of jacket and trowsers of fine white duck, a handsome red velvet sash, lined with silk of the same color, and a gold-embroidered skull-cap.
The two last articles of dress were a memento of a dear female friend, and I had pledged myself to wear them on the first grand occasion.
Having crossed the Zouga River, a few minutes’ walk brought me to Batoana town, the capital and residence of Lecholètébè. I found the chief seated on a wooden stool, in the midst of forty or fifty of his followers, drinking coffee within a stout semicircular palisading. He was attired in a half-European and half-barbarous costume; his lower extremities were immersed in a pair of wide moleskin trowsers; he had incased his feet in socks and “veld” shoes, while from his shoulders depended gracefully a very handsome jackal caross. This latter, however, he almost immediately exchanged for waistcoat and jacket.
Piet the Griqua, and a Bechuana man, whom a trader (then at the Lake) had kindly placed at my disposal, were my interpreters. After the first salutations were over, I explained to the chief the motives of my visit, the friendly wishes of the British government at the Cape, and so forth. He listened to my story with apparent attention and in profound silence, eyeing me the whole time suspiciously. But he asked no question, nor did he venture any remark.
Having conveyed to him all I had to say, I prepared to depart. Previously, however, to taking leave, I requested him to have the goodness to give me some information about his country, to which he abruptly replied,
“I know nothing at all!”
“Is there, then,” I said, “none of your people who can furnish me with some account of it?”