124 NO HEALTHY LOCATION. 



commanding position as they returned, and forced them to 

 lay down all the plunder on a sand-bank, and leave it there 

 for its lawful owners. 



It was now quite evident that no healthy location could 

 be obtained in which the Makololo would be allowed to live 

 in peace. 1 nad thus a fair excuse, if I had chosen to avail 

 myself of it, of coming home and saying that the " door 

 was shut," because the Lord's time had not yet come. But 

 believing that it was my duty to devote some portion of 

 my life to these (to me at least) very confiding and affec- 

 tionate Makololo, I resolved to follow out the second part 

 of my plan, though I had failed in accomplishing the first. 

 The Leeba seemed to come from the N. and by TV., or 

 N.N. TV. ; so, having an old Portuguese map, which pointed 

 out the Coanza as rising from the middle of the continent 

 in 9° S. lat., I thought it probable that, when we had as- 

 cended the Leeba (from 14° 11') two or three degrees, we 

 should then be within one hundred and twenty miles of 

 the Coanza, and find no difficulty in following it down to 

 the coast near Loanda. This was the logical deduction ; 

 but, as is the case with many a plausible theory, one of 

 the premises was decidedly defective. The Coanza, as we 

 afterward found, does not come from anywhere near the 

 centre of the country. 



The numbers of large game above Libonta are prodigious, 

 and they proved remarkably tame. Eighty-one buffaloes 

 defiled in slow procession before our fire one evening, within 

 gunshot; and herds of splendid elands stood by day, with- 

 out fear, at two hundred yards' distance. They were all of 

 the striped variety, and, with their forearm markings, large 

 dewlaps, and sleek skins, were a beautiful sight to see. 

 The lions here roar much more than in the country near 

 the lake, Zouga, and Chobe. One evening we had a good 

 opportunity of hearing the utmost exertions the animal 

 can make in that line. We had made our beds on a large 

 Band-bank, and could be easily seen from all sides. A lion 

 on the opposite shore amused himself for hours by roaring 



