220 CONTINUED DEMANDS. 



then dismounted, and, advancing a little toward our prin- 

 cipal opponent, showed him how easily I could kill him, 

 but pointed upward, saying, " I fear God." He did the 

 same, placing his hand on his heart, pointing upward, and 

 saying, "I fear to kill; but come to our village; come: do 

 come." At this juncture, the old head-man, Ionga Panza, 

 a venerable negro, came up, and I invited him and all to 

 be seated, that we might talk the matter over. Ionga 

 Panza soon let us know that he thought himself very ill 

 treated in being passed by. As most skirmishes arise 

 from misunderstanding, this might have been a serious 

 one; for, like all the tribes near the Portuguese settle- 

 ments, people here imagine that they have a right to 

 demand payment from every one who passes through the 

 country; and now, though Ionga Panza was certainly no 

 match for my men, yet they were determined not to forego 

 their right without a struggle. I removed with my men 

 to the vicinity of the village, thankful that no accident had 

 as yet brought us into actual collision. 



The reason why the people have imbibed the idea so 

 strongly that they have a right to demand payment for 

 leave to pass through the country is probably this. They 

 have seen no traders except those either engaged in pur- 

 chasing slaves or who have slaves in their employment. 

 These slave-traders have always been very much at the 

 mercy of the chiefs through whose country they have 

 passed; for, if they afforded a ready asylum for runaway 

 slaves, the traders might be deserted at any moment, and 

 stripped of their property altogether. They are thus 

 obliged to curry favor with the chiefs, so as to get a safe- 

 conduct from them. The same system is adopted to induce 

 the chiefs to part with their people, whom all feel to be the 

 real source of their importance in the country. On tho 

 return of the traders from the interior with chains of slaves, 

 it is so easy for a chief who may be so disposed to take 

 away a chain of eight or ten unresisting slaves, that the 

 merchant is fain to give any amount of presents in order to 



