The Batoka, Of Course, Melted Away Before Those Who Had Been
Made Veterans By Years Of Continual Fighting, And Sebetuane
Always
justified his subsequent conquests in that country by alleging that
the Batoka had come out to fight with a
Man fleeing for his life, who
had never done them any wrong. They seem never to have been a
warlike race; passing through their country, we once observed a large
stone cairn, and our guide favoured us with the following account of
it:- "Once upon a time, our forefathers were going to fight another
tribe, and here they halted and sat down. After a long consultation,
they came to the unanimous conclusion that, instead of proceeding to
fight and kill their neighbours, and perhaps be killed themselves, it
would be more like men to raise this heap of stones, as their protest
against the wrong the other tribe had done them, which, having
accomplished, they returned quietly home." Such men of peace could
not stand before the Makololo, nor, of course, the more warlike
Matebele, who coming afterwards, drove even their conquerors, the
Makololo, out of the country. Sebetuane, however, profiting by the
tactics which he had learned of the Batoka, inveigled a large body of
this new enemy on to another island, and after due starvation there
overcame the whole. A much greater army of "Moselekatse's own"
followed with canoes, but were now baffled by Sebetuane's placing all
his people and cattle on an island and so guarding it that none could
approach.
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