It was quite customary for all white men, before entering Impalera, to send the king a present by way of securing a pass from the banks of the Chobe to his territory. No such impost, however, was demanded from me. It was entirely a voluntary act on my part, that I made an offering of a Snider breech-loader and 200 cartridges.
Unlike supper, breakfast was not served in the open air, but inside the house. The long grass-hut, similar to a gabled roof some eight feet high, was divided by a partition into two compartments, the walls of the front one, in which we took our meal, being decorated with guns, Marutse weapons, elephants’ tusks, and various articles of apparel, amongst which I noticed the uniform of a Portuguese dragoon. I took advantage of the good humour and communicative mood of the king, to gain from him some information about Marutse history and the growth of the kingdom; and as various points were afterwards confirmed by several of the chiefs, it may not be inopportune to introduce them here.
Under the leadership of their chief Sebituani, a branch of the Basutos between the upper courses of the Orange and Vaal rivers emigrated northwards. After forcing their way through the Bechuana countries, and subduing various tribes on the lower Chobe and central Zambesi (amongst whom were the eastern Bamashi and Barutse, who occupied an area of 2000 square miles), they not only succeeded in exacting tribute from other tribes as far eastward as the river Kafue, but they consolidated themselves into the Makololo Empire. Their next king was Sekeletu. The discords that sprung up amongst the people during his reign opened the way for the vanquished Marutse tribe to resume arms against them, and that with such success that after several battles the Makololos residing between the Chobe and the Zambesi, already decimated by disease, were reduced to two men and some boys, while their male population south of the Chobe, who had numbered more than 2000, were in like manner brought down to a mere handful. Had they remained on the right bank of the Chobe, the Makololos would probably have existed to this day; but fearing that the Marutse would be reinforced by the Mabundas and other subject tribes, they made their way towards Lake N’gami in the territory of the western Bamangwatos. There they were sadly deceived; they were received with apparent cordiality, but were ultimately the victims of a cruel stratagem; messengers from King Letshuatabele greeted them with the salutation, “If you come as friends and not as foes, leave your spears and battle-axes and come into the city;” in full confidence they accepted the invitation, but no sooner had they entered the kotla than the citizens barred the entrance with poles and boughs, and massacred them to a man. The women were divided amongst the conquerors, the king having his first choice of the most attractive; the chiefs took the next pick, leaving the rest to be distributed amongst their subjects. From that time women of brown complexion have been found amongst the Bathowanas and people north of the Zambesi, though the dark-skinned tribes always regard it as a sign of degeneration of race. Sepopo subsequently took possession of the whole of the Makololo country, with the exception of the eastern Bamashi territory and their land south of the Chobe, where he did not enter from fear of the Matabele.
To the north of the Marutse was the Mabunda kingdom, which was governed by members of the Marutse royal family. The queen on her death-bed some years before had designated Sepopo’s eldest daughter Moquai as her successor, but Moquai, alarmed at the prospect of persecution from her father, handed over the government to him; and thus it happened that now I found a conjoint Marutse-Mabunda rule, under the sovereignty of Sepopo, a direct descendant of the original royal family of the Marutse.
During breakfast Sepopo sent for the chief representatives of eighteen of the larger tribes and introduced them to me. These tribes are subdivided into eighty-three smaller ones, and their chiefs are all more or less in communication with Sesheke. In addition to those that have been settled for some time within the kingdom, there are the Matabele, Menon’s Malalakas, and the Masarwas scattered in various districts; of these the two latter are fugitive tribes from the south, the Matabele having been tributary to the Bamangwatos, and Menon’s Malalakas to the Matabele.
The Marutse occupy the fertile valleys of the Barotse country on both sides the Zambesi, from Sekhose to about 150 miles south of the confluence of the Kabompo and the Liba. I believe the Barotse valley to be the most productive portion of the kingdom, and as well adapted for agriculture as for cattle-breeding; it abounds in game, but is likewise prolific in wild vegetable products, of which india-rubber is not the least important. The country, formerly the residence of various members of the royal family, contains several towns; the districts east and north-east of it are occupied by the Mabundas, so that it follows that the bulk of the population that lies outside the Barotse is, for the most part, to be found near the rivers Nyoko, Lombe, and Loi.
The district joining the Mabundas on the north is in the occupation of the Mankoë, but it does not extend beyond the west bank of the Zambesi; again to the north of this is the settlement of the Mamboë, on the lower Kabompo and Liba. Around the town of Kavagola, on the upper Zambesi, are the Bamomba and Manengo tribes, while the Masupia region lies for fifty miles up the river from a point about thirty miles below its junction with the Chobe. East of this the Batoka people range for thirty miles below the Victoria Falls, where their frontier is joined by the Matongas, who reside near the middle of the Kashteja, Livingstone’s Majeela. On the lower course of the Kashteja, between the Matongas and Masupias, are the western Makalakas, the eastern Makalakas being farther down the Zambesi, with Wankie’s kraal as their principal property. The Luyana tribe is settled south of the Zambesi to the west of the Masupias, and the other tribes either extend in small districts thence towards the Barotse valley, north of the Matongas, and east of the Mamboë, or have scattered themselves about in little detached settlements here and there over the kingdom.
Vol. II.
Page 147.