TWO SAUCY TRIBES. 105 



of Machingas, who, being all armed with guns, were 

 decidedly inclined to be saucy. 



The first lot, who were assembled on the west bank, 

 and numbered about a hundred men, ordered us to 

 stop; but Mr. Young refused, saying he was in a hurry. 

 They seemed very angry, and told us that we might 

 consider ourselves lucky that there were so few of them 

 there, as if the remainder of" the boys," who were ab- 

 sent with their chief, were present, they would take 

 the boat from us. We took no notice of them, but 

 passed on, and, with the exception of shouting and ges- 

 ticulating, they did not interfere. 



The second tribe we met a couple of miles further 

 on. They consisted of about three hundred men, and 

 were much more determined than those who preceded 

 them. As we approached they assembled on the bank, 

 armed with guns of all sorts, and told us to atop. Mr. 

 Young declined doing so, and made Chinsoro tell them 

 we were English. They replied that they did not be- 

 lieve it, and said we had come to fight, and we should 

 stop till they examined us. Again Mr. Young refused 

 to do so, though I urged strongly the propriety of com- 

 plying with their request. Seeing we took no notice 

 of their peremptory orders, they became very much ex- 

 cited, and some of them, shouting " N'konda! n'konda!" 

 rushed along the bank, performing the most extraor- 

 dinary gesticulations, while others were busy arming 

 themselves, and manning several of some fifty canoes 

 that were moored under the bank. Moloka, who un- 

 derstood the conversation going on amongst them, 

 said to me in his broken English, '' Get English guns 

 ready" (alluding to the four Sniders, in which he had 



