accused of high treason, the other Barotse chiefs being included in the charge; they were, however, all adjudged not guilty. Westbeech and Jan Mahura were present at the trial, and, as an instance of how Sepopo’s authority was on the wane, they told me that Mahura had plainly called him a fool, and denounced him as the greatest traitor in the country.
When Sepopo next visited me he was indulging in the excitement of the mokoro-dance, and was attended by a large court retinue. He was in a patronizing mood, and made a great fuss with me, calling me his mulekow; but when Inkambella arrived shortly afterwards, he moved off at once to Westbeech’s quarters.
On the evening of the following day I was attacked with such violent spasms in the chest that I writhed upon the ground in agony, and it was as much as four men could do to hold me still; it was not until Westbeech had administered a dose of ipecacuanha, which made me sick, that I could draw my breath at all freely. Subsequent attacks of a similar kind recurred at intervals during the sixteen months that my illness lasted, but I always found that the same remedy gave me relief.
For several days I was unable to rise from my bed. As I lay all alone I had only too much time to brood over my disappointment and frustrated scheme. I found, however, that in the way of sickness I was not by any means a solitary sufferer; some people that came from the Chobe brought the intelligence that M‘Leod, Fairly, Dorehill, Cowley, with several of their attendants, and my late servant Pit, were all ill with fever at Panda ma Tenka.
It was not until the 19th that I was able to leave
