96 LARGE VILLAGE. 



smoking, asked for the chief of our party. I immedi- 

 ately sent to the boat for Mr. Young, and on his put- 

 ting in an appearance, they stated that their chief, 

 whose name was Maramia, on hearing of our arrival, 

 had sent them to say that it was too late for him to come 

 to see us that night, but that he would do so the first 

 thing in the morning ; also that he had prepared huts 

 for us and our men, if we chose to come and spend 

 the night in the village. This was certainly very 

 civil, but the invitation was declined ; and I have 

 every reason to believe that we were well watched 

 during the night, which was dark, for several times, 

 on going a little distance from camp to listen for the 

 sound of man or beast, I distinctly heard footsteps 

 not far from me in the jungle. In consequence 

 of this a good look-out was kept all night, but our 

 rest was undisturbed. We were off early in the 

 morning, and taking one of the natives with us as a 

 guide, steered for the village of Moochikara, where 

 Maramia lived and ruled — about a mile from where 

 we slept last night. 



A nice breeze again favoured us, and on rounding a 

 bend in the river some ten minutes after we started, 

 the village appeared in view on the west bank, which 

 was crowded with above five hundred men, all armed 

 with guns, amongst which I noticed many old double- 

 barreled flint muskets. The village extended over half 

 a mile of ground, and was by far the largest I had seen 

 in the country. All this denoted that this tribe, who 

 call themselves Machingas, is both powerful and war- 

 like. They were decidedly finer men in every way 

 than the Manganjas or Ajawahs, 



