those who were entitled to presents. And so far from their being disappointed that I had given them no toys, they had scarcely left my waggon, when they greeted each other with much good humour: "This man does not treat us like children; he gives us things that are useful.' In giving them useful articles, instead of trifles, they felt that I paid a compliment to their understandings, which, perhaps, pleased them as much as the presents themselves.

The form of government among this tribe is monarchical, the office of king is hereditary, and the theory of government is that of an absolute despotism; but the king is checked in the exercise of his power by his poverty, and the circumstances of his chiefs. The king is assisted by a council, composed of his chiefs, but this assembly is deliberative only, and the executive department of the government rests in the hands of the king. Several cases were related to me, in which the king exercised a despotic authority; but each of those cases was followed by a diminution of the number of his subjects. Such is the attachment of this people to the principle of hereditary monarchy, that no instance is known in the country of any of the chiefs having usurped this distinction; but if a chief is dissatisfied, he may withdraw with his followers from under the king's authority, and join another tribe; and, in a thinly-peopled country, and among tribes whose whole wealth consists in cattle, this must be a circumstance of frequent occurrence. To this check, which must form a considerable security against the abuse of power, we may add another. All great questions, and all questions relating to peace or war, are decided on in public assemblies, which are designated in their language by the name of Peetshos.

The place allotted for these public assemblies is in the centre of the town; it is of a circular form, and is surrounded by a fence. The whole tribe assembles on these occasions. The centre of the circle, which is elevated above the seats of the people, is reserved for those who are to address the assembly, and direct its movements. These assemblies have something in them of an imposing nature. I heard a very respectable individual, who was present at one of them, declare that he considered himself as rewarded for the trouble of his journey by that spectacle; but as the interest of a Peetsho must depend, in a great measure, on the importance of the subject which is under discussion, the effects upon a stranger would not always be the same. I had not the gratification of seeing one of these public assemblies, but I was present at a council. They had at that time nothing before them to produce excitement, and in reply to my solicitation to Mateebé, to assemble a Peetsho, I received the following apology, which induced me to relinquish my suit:— "I may call together the people," said he, "but the meeting would disappoint you. We can do nothing on public occasions, unless we have something to excite us; and our hearts are now like the desert without rain."

The most remarkable feature in the Peetsho is the existence of two things hitherto deemed incompatible in many civilized countries, the exercise of arbitrary power in the head of the government, with a perfect freedom of debate. Every speaker on these occasions has the privilege of pointing out to the king his faults, and of reminding him of his duty; and this right is exercised with so much latitude, that his personal and domestic

concerns are not allowed to escape observation. It is the prerogative of the king to open and close the assembly; his opening speech generally relates to the affair on which they are assembled; and his concluding one is, for the most part, taken up in defending himself and his government against the complaints which may have been urged against them, by the different speakers. No man is allowed to speak after the king; and the moment he has concluded his address, a band of warriors rush from behind him, to the space which had been previously occupied by the speakers, and brandishing their arms, offer defiance to the king's enemies. This defiance is answered by shouts from the people; and in ten minutes after the scene is over, the king, and the speakers who had been most severe in their animadversions on his conduct and government, will be seen together, manifesting the most perfect cordiality to each other.

The same thing occurred on a limited scale in the council at which I was present. One of the chiefs told Mateebé, on this occasion, that he was entirely under the government of his queen Mahoota; that it was owing to her influence over him, that he did not enjoy the supreme pleasure of an old man, a young wife; that while he was governed by the queen, he would never be respected by his subjects; that he bore no more resemblance to Mallahowan, his father, "than the stunted shrub to the large spreading tree. To these, and other remarks of a similar nature, Mateebé replied with the greatest composure, and without the slightest expression of displeasure on his countenance. In reference to the remarks made on the influence which Mahoota had over him, he was very brief: he

appeared to feel that he was treading on delicate ground; and he insinuated, with some archness, that a young wife might have as much influence over a man as an old one; but when he came to reply to the comparison which had been instituted between himself and his father, he passed it over with the following remark: —“ I admit that my father was a great man: he was a much greater man than I am; but in making the comparison you have done, you have forgot that my father had circumstances in his favour which I never possessed my father had wise and warlike chiefs, and a good and brave people."

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One of the most intelligent and high-spirited individuals in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, who was present at one of these Peetshos, assured me that he never met with any thing that struck him so much as the anomaly in the government of this people I have described. "I could scarcely credit my own ears," that gentleman remarked, "when I compared the absolute power of the king with the freedom of speech which I witnessed on that occasion. At the very moment that Mateebé was listening to animadversions upon himself and his government, which would have exposed the subjects of any government in Europe to the severest pains and penalties, such was the power of this man, that he could have pierced any of the speakers through with his assagai, without incurring the risk of the smallest disturbance; and yet, such was his command of temper, that it did not at the time appear to give him the slightest uneasiness. The assembly broke off without any apparent irritation on either side, and the king appeared to place as much confidence in his faithful reprovers, as he did in any

other part of the group with which he was surrounded." A gentleman present when the above conversation took place, had recourse to a very short method of resolving the difficulty. He maintained that this practice among the Bechuanas was a fragment left us of the condition of man in a natural state of society; that where there are no restrictions, there can be no resistance; that freedom of speech is the safety-valve of a state; and that, by its influence in exposing and preventing abuses, and in allowing the humours of discontent to escape, it was as beneficial to the governor as to those under his authority. This was a subject into which no one else in the company felt disposed to enter; and a different turn was given to the conversation by a gentleman present, who remarked, that these were subjects for the conversation of philosophers and statesmen, and that those under authority, as we were, had nothing to do with the laws but to obey them.