142 PEOM OLENDA TO MATOLO. Chap. VIII, 



He was an Ashango man, a chief in his own conntry, 

 and probably sold into slavery on account of witch- 

 craft. He was a savage of noble bearing, and appa- 

 rently of good disposition. He had several wives 

 and a large family of children. The other slaves 

 called him father, and he exercised quite a patriarchal 

 authority over them. These plantations supply the 

 household of the chief of the clan with food, and his 

 wives have also small patches of clearing in the same 

 place, which they cultivate themselves with the help 

 of others. The majority of the slaves were inherited 

 by old Olenda, and a great number had known no 

 other master. This village was not the only slave- 

 farm owned by the late chief, but it was the largest 

 of them. 



I found here very stringent sanitary regulations 

 against the prevailing epidemic. Every one showing 

 tbe first symptoms of the small-pox was instantly 

 carried away to a neighbouring village, or collection 

 of huts, set apart for the purpose. This was full of 

 patients, and was called by the negroes the small-pox 

 village. 



We spent the night here, and early the next morn- 

 ing Ondonga arrived with the porters. The first dis- 

 agreeable news I heard was that several of them had 

 run away before starting, taking, of course, their pay 

 with them. I next discovered that three of my boxes 

 were missing. Notwithstanding the protestations of 

 Ondonga, I was convinced that he was at the bottom 

 of another plot to rob me in the midst of my troubles. 

 He appeared, however, rather alarmed at what had 

 been done, and in the course of the day tbe boxes 



