Two Muskets, Three Small Barrels Of Gunpowder,
And English Calico And Baize Sufficient To Clothe My Whole Party,
With Large
Bunches of beads, all for one tusk, were quite delightful
for those who had been accustomed to give two tusks
For one gun.
With another tusk we procured calico, which here is the chief currency,
to pay our way down to the coast. The remaining two were sold for money
to purchase a horse for Sekeletu at Loanda.
The superiority of this new market was quite astounding to the Makololo,
and they began to abuse the traders by whom they had, while in
their own country, been visited, and, as they now declared, "cheated".
They had no idea of the value of time and carriage, and it was somewhat
difficult for me to convince them that the reason of the difference of prices
lay entirely in what they themselves had done in coming here,
and that, if the Portuguese should carry goods to their country,
they would by no means be so liberal in their prices. They imagined that,
if the Cassange traders came to Linyanti, they would continue
to vend their goods at Cassange prices. I believe I gave them at last
a clear idea of the manner in which prices were regulated
by the expenses incurred; and when we went to Loanda, and saw goods delivered
at a still cheaper rate, they concluded that it would be better for them
to come to that city, than to turn homeward at Cassange.
It was interesting for me to observe the effects of the restrictive policy
pursued by the Cape government toward the Bechuanas. Like all other
restrictions on trade, the law of preventing friendly tribes
from purchasing arms and ammunition only injures the men who enforce it.
The Cape government, as already observed, in order to gratify
a company of independent Boers, whose well-known predilection
for the practice of slavery caused them to stipulate that
a number of peaceable, honest tribes should be kept defenseless,
agreed to allow free trade in arms and ammunition to the Boers,
and prevent the same trade to the Bechuanas. The Cape government
thereby unintentionally aided, and continues to aid, the Boers
to enslave the natives. But arms and ammunition flow in on all sides
by new channels, and where formerly the price of a large tusk
procured but one musket, one tusk of the same size now brings ten.
The profits are reaped by other nations, and the only persons
really the losers, in the long run, are our own Cape merchants,
and a few defenseless tribes of Bechuanas on our immediate frontier.
Mr. Rego, the commandant, very handsomely offered me a soldier as a guard
to Ambaca. My men told me that they had been thinking it would be better
to turn back here, as they had been informed by the people of color
at Cassange that I was leading them down to the sea-coast only to sell them,
and they would be taken on board ship, fattened, and eaten, as the white men
were cannibals.
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