Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/154

 would have had to suffer for my exploit. Twice during the reign of Sekeletu on the central Zambesi the Matabele attempted to carry their incursions north of the river, but each time they failed. On the first occasion they crossed the rapids above the Victoria Falls, and got on to an island planted with manza by the Batokas, a people subject to Sekeletu, but the water rose and cut off their retreat, leaving them no means of subsistence except the roots of the manza; the result was that the whole of them died, for the roots, although wholesome enough when dried, are poisonous if they are eaten fresh. The second of the failures occurred to a party of Matahele that was conveyed down the river by a Masupia, who, having conducted them to an island, declared he was so weary that he must go away and fetch some of his people to help him. The Matabele, with a credulity quite unusual to them, allowed the man to depart, and soon found themselves in a trap. The man did not turn up any more. They had a hard time of it; they were quite unskilled in the art of spearing fish; they were afraid on account of the crocodiles to attempt to swim across the river; they could find nothing whatever to eat except the fruit of a few fan-palms, and in a short time their hunger became intense; they were reduced to the emergency of trying to sustain life by eating their leather sandals, which they cut up into pieces with their spears, and soaked; but most of them died, and the rest were easily overpowered by Sekeletu, who sent a few well-manned canoes from Linyanti and carried them off to the Barotse valley, the mother-country of the Marutse, who at that time were his subjects.