A short distance before we reached Saddler’s Pan, one of Westbeech’s servants had a narrow escape; having seen some zulu-hartebeests grazing a little way off, he approached them by degrees, and was about to fire when he found himself almost within the clutches of a lion that was watching the very same herd. He was glad enough to make a timely retreat.
Late in the evening of the 4th of October, all safe and sound we reached the Leshumo valley. Next morning I sent my servants forward to the Chobe, and as Westbeech had placed the eight donkeys at my disposal, they took the greater part of my baggage. I myself followed on later in the day, and on my way fell in with two English traders named Brown and Cross, who were pleased to see me; they were returning from a fruitless visit made in the hope of seeing Sepopo; they told me that they had been fortunate enough to kill two magnificent lions, one of them a full-grown male of the maneless species.
I found sixteen boatmen waiting my arrival at the Chobe, and next morning Sepopo sent six more; they were to take both Westbeech’s goods and mine to Sesheke, where the king was very anxious to inspect everything, having been already informed that Westbeech had brought a considerable number of elephant-guns. I should have been quite ready to cross the river that same morning, but the wind was too high for the passage to be attempted prudently; setting aside the prospect of being capsized, which would have been sufficiently unpleasant, there was the risk of falling a victim to the numerous crocodiles. I myself subsequently witnessed some casualties of this kind at Sesheke.
Strolling about, I observed that the poisonous mushungulu-tree was now in full bloom, covered with large crimson blossoms. On my way back from my ramble my attention was arrested by a succession of gun-shots, which I was told were part of a funeral ceremony that was then taking place. A Masupia was being buried, and on an open space between two trees, about 400 yards from the settlement, I saw a dozen or more men running about wildly and letting off their guns, shouting aloud during every interval between their shots: under one of the trees a number of people were sitting drinking beer, and under the other tree was the grave that had been just closed in.
The Masupias are accustomed to make their graves six or seven feet deep and two feet wide, and to bury with the deceased his coat, his mattock, and other weapons; a little corn is likewise thrown into the grave. The friends always spend the rest of the day at the place of interment, and if the buried man has been wealthy a large quantity of meat is consumed as well as the beer. The shouting and running about and the discharge of the guns are supposed to scare away the evil spirits from the spot. I asked one of the bystanders how the person just buried had come by his death; he only raised his eyes to signify that it was all owing to Molemo.
In the course of the day some of the people brought in a quantity of the flesh of a hippopotamus that they had killed; they considered it quite a young animal, but its teeth were full ten inches long.
In the conveyance of my baggage to Makumba’s landing-place I was assisted by a brother of the chief’s, named Ramusokotan; he resided some miles further up the left bank of the Chobe, and was entrusted with the duty of guarding the lower course of the river. On my way to the landing-place I saw several pallah-gazelles, being twice so close to them that I could observe all their movements.
The Zambesi was lower than I had seen it before. As we crossed it we had a narrow escape of being upset by a hippopotamus, another of the three animals of which Blockley had killed the largest on our previous voyage to Sesheke. Remembering the spot, we were trying to pass along as quietly as possible, when Westbeech’s boatmen felt a sudden jerk at one of the paddles close under their canoe; the creature was probably startled for the instant, and allowed the boat to proceed without attacking it; the next moment, however, it made a furious dash towards my boat, which was following close behind. But my men had fortunately been put on their guard by the cries of Westbeech’s crew, and made so vigorous a spurt that when the head of the hippopotamus emerged from the water, it was several yards in the rear.
On arriving at Sesheke I was informed that I was at liberty, if I liked, to occupy one of the new huts just erected by the king, but I preferred accepting Westbeech’s invitation to take up my quarters in his own courtyard, where Blockley also had put up a small warehouse for himself. My first greeting from the king was that I had been too long coming, that I was too late now, and that he could not keep his Marutse men waiting for me; but I went to see him in the afternoon, and took him a variety of little presents, which seemed to put him in a very much better temper, and he was evidently pleased when I tried to speak a few sentences to him in the Sesuto-Serotse language.
It was getting towards evening when Blockley called me out of my hut to witness a curious scene. The king was receiving a visit from his wives who resided in the Barotse valley, and from his daughter Moquai, the Mabunda queen; they were arriving with about forty canoes, those occupied by the royal ladies being covered in the middle by a mat to protect them from the sun and rain. Many of the canoes had thirteen oarsmen, who all rowed standing, such of them as did not convey passengers being laden not only with great mats, pots, and provisions for the way, but with baskets full of presents for the king.