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Updated: June 14, 2025
"Chiefs of the Makolo," he said, "ye have to-day heard how Sekosini, the chief witch doctor, and seven of the most powerful and influential among you secretly plotted together to destroy me, and, by so doing, to set you at each other's throats like wolves fighting over a carcass, and ye have also heard what means were adopted to render the plot successful; how six of your number were sent along the Dark Path by the witchcraft of Sekosini, and how another would have taken the same journey but for the superior witchcraft of him who sits here at my side.
"Attend to my words, O chiefs of the Makolo nation!" said Lobelalatutu, raising his voice so that all present might distinctly hear. "Ye were present yesterday when I summoned the eight conspirators before me to defend themselves; and ye heard Ingona, Lambati, Moroosi, and Sekukuni declare that there was no treason in their hearts, but that they had been bewitched and led astray by Sekosini.
Seketulo was instructed to govern the Makolo justly and humanely, to put a stop to the oppression of the people by the chiefs, and, above all, not to make war upon the neighbouring nations save in self-defence.
He was armed with a sheaf of short, broad-bladed stabbing spears, and was seated on a sort of throne entirely covered with an immense kaross of lions' skin. Behind him stood eight savages, as finely built men as himself, whose dress and adornments at once proclaimed them to be chiefs, and persons of very great importance in the Makolo nation.
They accepted the gift with a few words but not too many of thanks, and then, desirous of creating a good impression upon the Makolo as early as might be, they directed the women to wait, and, going to the wagon, took from their store of "notions" a few yards of gaudily printed cotton stuff, two or three yards of brass wire, half a dozen empty two- ounce tobacco tins decorated with gilt and coloured lettering, in the style familiar to all devotees of the weed, a small wooden box containing about a pint of mixed beads, and to each of the smiling and expectant basket-bearers a special present for herself, consisting of a necklet of large particoloured beads, the remaining gifts being of course for the headman in return for his present.
Now, since I became king, I have endeavoured to govern my people even as Seketulo did; and for a long time things have gone very well with us; the number of the Makolo, no longer kept down by war, has greatly increased, as also has our prosperity; for now that war is no longer part of its policy the nation has devoted itself to agriculture and the breeding of cattle, our herds have greatly multiplied, new villages have sprung up, fresh land has every year been brought under cultivation, and all have enough, and more than enough, to satisfy their wants.
The one thing that, after the spreading, well-tilled fields surrounding every village, the great herds of cattle, and the general aspect of prosperity everywhere met with, most impressed the two travellers during their progress through the Makolo country, was the extraordinary courtesy and deference uniformly extended to them by the natives.
But I tell you, Lobelalatutu, that if yonder white man had not interfered and saved you by his magic, I would have fought against you, even to the last man; for I was to have been king in your stead; and I know that under my rule the Makolo nation would have recovered all its lost greatness."
I would that the four Spirits of the Winds, who made me king over the Makolo, were here, for I have faithfully obeyed their injunctions, and they would help me. But you are friends of the Spirits, and it may be that your wisdom will find a way for me. May I speak?" "Speak freely and without fear, O Lobelalatutu!" answered Dick.
It was a dazzling dream that he brought before our eyes, and for a time it blinded me to the evils that lay behind it, and it is only now, when it is too late, that I perceive that evil, and understand that Sekosini befooled and bewitched me to the end that he might be raised to such power as M'Pusa enjoyed during the reign of M'Bongwele, when he and not M'Bongwele actually ruled the Makolo people.
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