242 LIVINGSTON. [Dec. 15, 1856. 



garden and her own house. The husband has no garden and no house, and his 

 wives feed him. I have heard a man say, " Why, they will not feed me ; they will 

 give me nothing at all." A man may have five wives, and sometimes the wives 

 combine and make a strike against him. When he comes home he goes to Mrs. 

 One. She says, *' I have nothing for you ; you must go to Mrs. Two." He 

 then goes to Mrs. Two, and she says, " You can go to the one you love best ;" 

 and in this way the husband is sent from one to the other, until he gets quite 

 enraged. In the evening I have seen the poor fellow get up in a tree, and in a 

 voice loud enough to be heard by the whole village, cry out, " I thought I had 

 married five wives, but I find I have married five witches ; they will not let me 

 have any food." The punishment a woman receives for striking her husband, I 

 thought very odd, the first time I saw it in the town of Sechele. 'J'lie chiefs place 

 is usually in the centre of the town. If a woman happens to forget herself so 

 far as to give her husband a blow, she is brought into the centre of the to\\ n, 

 and is obliged to take him on her back and carry him home, amid the jeering and 

 laughter of the people, some of the women crying out, " Give it to him again." 

 Slavery exists in the country, i. e. domestic slavery ; but the exportation of slaves 

 is effectually repressed. I found in Angola, that slaves could scarcely be sold at 

 all. I saw boys of 14 years of age, sold for the low sum of 12s. If they could 

 send these to Brazil, they would fetch a very much higher price, perhaps 60 

 dollars. In passing along, we went in company with some native Portuguese, 

 who were going into the interior, and who had eight slave women with them, 

 and were taking them towards the centre of the country to sell them for ivory. 

 It shows that the trade is turning back towards the interior. In passing through 

 the country, I found that the English name had penetrated a long way in. The 

 English are known as the tribe •' that likes the black man.'''' The Portuguese, 

 unfortunately, had been fighting with them near Tete ; but the natives had 

 been aided by half-breeds, and kept the Portuguese shut up at Tete, two 

 whole years. In coming down the river, I knew nothing of this war. Once we 

 saw great numbers of armed men going along the hills and collecting into a large 

 force, and all the women and children sent out of the way. When we got to 

 where they were, some of the great men came to ask what I was ? " Are you 

 a Mozungo ?" — that is the name they apply to the Portuguese ; I did not know 

 it, however, at that time. " No," I said, " I am a Lekoa." " Then," they said, 

 " they did not know the Lekoa." I showed them my arm. I could not show 

 my face as anything particularly white, but I showed my arm, and said, " Have 

 the Mozungo skin like that?" "No, no; we never saw such white skin." 

 " Have they long hair like mine ? " — the Portuguese make a practice of cutting 

 the hair short. " No ; you must then be one of the white tribe ' that loves the 

 black man.' " " Yes, I am." I was then in the midst of the belligerents, without 

 having any wish to engage in the quarrel. They finally allowed me to pass. 

 Once when Ave came to a tribe, one of my head men seemed to have become 

 insane and ran away, and we lost three days seeking for him. This tribe de- 

 manded payment for leave to pass, and I gave them a piece of cloth. In order 

 to intimidate us they got up the war dance, and we made them another offer, 

 and gave another piece of cloth. But this was not satisfactory, and then they 

 got up their war dance in full armour, with their guns and drums and everything 

 quite warlike, in the sight of our encampment. My men had been perfectly 

 accustomed to fighting ; they were quite veterans, but in appearance they were 

 not near so fine as these well-fed Zambesians. My men said to me, *' Will 

 you allow us to keep their wives ? " They th(jught they were intimidating us, 

 but my men were perfectly sure of beating them. One of my chief men seemed 

 to be afraid, because they never make a war dance without intending to attack, 

 and got up during the night and said, *' There they are, there they are ! " and ran 

 off, and we never saw him again. 



The country is full of lions, and the natives behcve that the souls of their 



