After I had made what I then supposed would be my final contract with the guides, Sepopo promised to provide me with canoes and boatmen to convey me to the Barotse valley, beyond which I should have to procure a change of crews in every fresh district as far as the Mamboë country. The Mamboë, who would ultimately accompany me to the great water, i.e. the sea, would have to be recompensed for their services by a musket apiece; but the boatmen who took me only for the short stages I should find would be satisfied with shirts or pieces of calico. The king moreover undertook to order all the tribes along the river to supply my party with whatever provisions should be requisite. He strongly advised me to wend my way northwards towards Lake Bangweolo, a route, he said, by which I should be able to dispense with canoes and to travel with bearers, and which would be at once more convenient to him and less dangerous to myself.
I have since very much repented that I did not follow this advice, but at that time I was under the conviction that I should be doing much more for the advancement of science by following the Zambesi to its source; I likewise thought that I should find the canoe-voyage less fatiguing to myself, so that my strength might be reserved for the prolonged land-journey that would come after.
My next proceeding might have been at once to return to Panda ma Tenka to conclude my necessary preparations, but I did not leave Sesheke for another day or two, and amused myself on one occasion by going to inspect the site selected for the new town. I came upon a very animated and interesting scene; the building-operations were in full swing, and the river was alive with canoes laden with grass, stakes, and reeds, some going straight along the stream, and some crossing from bank to bank. On the shore, men and women in single file were carrying loads of grass in bundles that almost swept the ground behind them; others were conveying long poles, from which were suspended the great clay vessels, in which the store of corn was being removed from the old granary to the new. Every here and there was what might be called a peripatetic roof, being a thatch in the course of removal, nothing of its means of locomotion being visible but the thirty or forty feet of the bearers, the foremost of whom had some holes pierced in the roof by which they could see their way; many of the people were singing at their work, and some of them carrying heavy burdens passed me at a good smart trot. The very queens found work to do, and I noticed them, assisted by their maids, moving large bundles of the grass. Hearing the words “moro, nyaka makoa,” (good morning, white doctor), I turned and found that the greeting came from Makumba the chief, who was passing by with a number of his people.
Nearly all the residents in the old town were taking down their huts and preparing to migrate, none more busy than Blockley, who was packing up all his goods in readiness to transfer them from his present enclosure to a grass hut that the king had directed should be built for him in the new settlement.
While I was sitting in my hut writing my journal on the following day, I was startled by the cry of “molemo, molemo!” (fire, fire!) and immediately I rushed outside; a single hut was in flames, but as it was standing in the midst of some hundreds more, the reed-thatch roofs of which were all extra dry from the heat of the weather, there was every reason to fear that others would catch fire, and that the brisk east wind that was blowing would fan the flames into a general conflagration. Crowds of women and children came shrieking and holloaing down the pathway from the river, and to increase the commotion, as the fire spread there were the constant reports of the guns that had been left in the huts, the bullets flying about in all directions, and imperilling the lives of all the bystanders. I had hardly managed to get my own little property into a safe place outside the hut, when Blockley came running up to fetch some shovels. All Westbeech’s gunpowder, as well as what he had sold to Sepopo, had been stored in a hut at the edge of the forest, and as nothing was more likely than that the forest itself would catch fire, he was anxious to get the powder away, and to have it buried underground as quickly as possible.
To the west of our quarters and about thirty yards away stood the king’s stable, a building composed of stakes, and on the west was a group of huts, likewise at a considerable distance, so that from these there was no particular danger to be apprehended; but on the north, which was the direction of the fire, there were two huts so close to us, that should they catch light our safety must be seriously compromised; luckily they remained intact, but the crackling flames were getting nearer and nearer to them, lighting up the figures of the men who were doing their utmost to arrest their progress. I had only Pit and one of Blockley’s servants with me; they did what they could to carry up our gourds and clay pitchers full of water from the river, though they smashed a good many of them in their excitement; but I called them off, and made them help me tear down the fence of our enclosure, thus putting a very effectual check upon the spread of any flames towards us. Others of the natives took the hint and did the same, but in spite of all efforts, more than half of Old Sesheke was destroyed.
Sepopo’s mode of showing his annoyance at what had occurred was somewhat extraordinary. He was in New Sesheke at the time, and when he heard what had happened, and saw the flames rising above the old town, he set to work and vigorously belaboured all his attendants with a thick stick, only giving up from sheer fatigue.
In course of time Blockley came back with the satisfactory intelligence that he had succeeded in saving the gunpowder, and on receiving my congratulations, returned the compliment by expressing his gratification at my having prevented the destruction of the warehouses. I little thought to what a risk I had been exposed, for I was not aware until afterwards that Blockley had a chest containing 700 lbs. of gunpowder in the courtyard itself.
On the following day several canoes arrived from the Barotse, and were placed at my disposal by Sepopo, who urged upon me to lose no time in returning to Panda ma Tenka, completing my preparations, and getting back to Sesheke ready to start. However I did not set out until the 30th, being resolved first to see Blockley settled in his new quarters; my time was fully occupied in making additions to my ethnographical collection, in studying the habits of the native tribes, as exhibited by the representatives who were staying in the place, and especially in learning the Sesuto language. Relying upon the king’s promise that the way to the west coast should be open to me, I now arranged with Blockley for him to take my waggon and various collections back to Shoshong, and to deposit them there until my arrival, and as he was in want of bullocks, I let him have my team in exchange for ivory and articles that I should be likely to find serviceable, such as calico and beads.
Before continuing my personal narrative, and concluding my account of my first visit to the residence of king Sepopo, I think it desirable to give some outline of the characteristics of the various tribes dwelling in his dominions.