Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/500

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Seven Years in South Africa.

did his best to acknowledge the hospitality that he received from Mr. Jensen by working for him in his garden.

Moilo, the chief, was dead, and had been succeeded by his nephew, who came from Moshaneng. His name was Kopani. He was a Baharutse chief, subordinate to the Transvaal government. The war was still going on in the east, the whites decidedly getting the worst of it. In the Marico district, as elsewhere, there had been a conscription of men, cattle, and waggons, much to the dissatisfaction of the agriculturists.

I had a roomy cage made for my two lions, but unfortunately just as it was finished the female died.

Mr. Mackenzie joined me again unexpectedly on the 5th of August. He was on his way to Kuruman, and was accompanied by Mr. Wilhams, who had come from Molopolole to consult me about his health. Next day I paid my four servants—To, Narri, Burilli, and Chukuru—their wages, telling them they might now go back to the Zambesi; and in the prospect of again securing their services, I gave them something more than was really their due. As two of them were Matongas, I had taken the opportunity, while they were with me, of turning my slight knowledge of the Senansa and Sesuto-Serotse dialects to account, to acquire something of the Setonga.

Mr. Wehrmann, a missionary who resided amongst the eastern Bakhatlas, informed me that their town Melorane was a few miles to the west of the Great Marico. The chief of the western Bakhatlas was a son of Rhamananis, named Linsh.