Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/275

 of being upset by a hippopotamus, another of the three animals of which Blockley had killed the largest on our previous voyage to Sesheke. Remembering the spot, we were trying to pass along as quietly as possible, when Westbeech’s boatmen felt a sudden jerk at one of the paddles close under their canoe; the creature was probably startled for the instant, and allowed the boat to proceed without attacking it; the next moment, however, it made a fyrious dash towards my boat, which was following close behind. But my men had fortunately been put on their guard by the cries of Westbeech’s crew, and made so vigorous a spurt that when the head of the hippopotamus emerged from the water, it was several yards in the rear.

On arriving at Sesheke I was informed that I was at liberty, if I liked, to occupy one of the new huts just erected by the king, but I preferred accepting Westbeech’s invitation to take up my quarters in his own courtyard, where Blockley also had put up a small warehouse for himself. My first greeting from the king was that I had been too long coming, that I was too late now, and that he could not keep his Marutse men waiting for me; but I went to see him in the afternoon, and took him a variety of little presents, which seemed to put him in a very much better temper, and he was evidently pleased when I tried to speak a few sentences to him in the Sesuto-Serotse language.

It was getting towards evening when Blockley called me out of my hut to witness a curious scene. The king was receiving a visit from his wives who resided in the Barotse valley, and from his daughter Moquai, the Mabunda queen; they were arriving