CHANGE OF PATH. 213 



lie rather than deliver up one of our number to be a 

 slave, we had so far gained our point as to be allowed to 

 pass on without having shed human blood. 



In the midst of the commotion, several Chiboque stole 

 pieces of meat out of the sheds of my people, and Moho- 

 risi, one of the Makololo, went boldly into the crowd and 

 took back a marrow-bone from one of them. A few of my 

 Batoka seemed afraid, and would perhaps have fled had 

 the affray actually begun, but, upon the whole, I thought 

 my men behaved admirably. They lamented having left 

 their shields at home by command of Sekeletu, who feared 

 that, if they carried these, they might be more disposed to 

 be overbearing in their demeanor to the tribes we should 

 meet. We had proceeded on the principles of peace and 

 conciliation, and the foregoing treatment shows in what 

 light our conduct was viewed : in fact, we were taken for 

 interlopers trying to cheat the revenue of the tribe. They 

 had been accustomed to get a slave or two from every 

 slave-trader who passed them, and, now that we disputed 

 the right, they viewed the infringement on what they con- 

 sidered lawfully due with most virtuous indignation. 



March 6. — We were informed that the people on the 

 west of the Chiboque of Njambi were familiar with the 

 visits of slave-traders ; and it was the opinion of our guides 

 from Kangenke that so many of my companions would be 

 demanded from me, in the same manner as the people 

 of Njambi had done, that I should reach the coast without 

 a single attendant. I therefore resolved to alter our course 

 and strike away to the N.N.E., in the hope that at some 

 point farther north I might find an exit to the Portuguese 

 settlement of Cassange. We proceeded at first due^ north, 

 with the Kasabi villages on our right and the Kasau on 

 our left. During the first twenty miles we crossed many 

 small, but now swollen, streams, having the usual boggy 

 banks ; and wherever the water had stood for any length 

 of time it was discolored with rust of iron. 



On the 8th, one of the men had left an ounce or two of 



