224 GUIDES PREPAID. 



no more troubled by the demand for an ox ! We now 

 slaughtered another ox, that the spectacle might not be 

 seen of the owners of the cattle fasting while the Chiboque 

 were feasting. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



DR. LIVINGSTONE REACHES THE WEST COAST OP AFRICA. 



24th. — Ionga Panza's sons agreed to act as guides into 

 the territory of the Portuguese if I would give them the 

 shell given by Shinte. I was strongly averse to this, and 

 especially to give it beforehand, but yielded to the entreaty 

 of mypeople to appear as if showing confidencein these hope- 

 ful youths. They urged that they wished to leave the shell 

 with their wives as a sort of payment to them for enduring 

 their husbands' absence so long. Having delivered the pre- 

 cious shell, we went west-by-north to the river Chikapa, 

 which here (lat. 10° 22' S.) is forty or fifty yards wide, 

 and at present was deep; it was seen flowing over a rocky, 

 broken cataract with great noise about half a mile above 

 our ford. We were ferried over in a canoe made out of a 

 single piece of bark sewed together at the ends, and having 

 sticks placed in it at different parts to act as ribs. 



Next morning our guides went only about a mile, and 

 then told us they would return home. I expected this 

 when paying them beforehand, in accordance with the en- 

 treaties of the Makololo, who are rather ignorant of the 

 world. Yery energetic remonstrances were addressed to 

 the guides, but they slipped off one by one in the thick 

 forest through which we were passing, and I was glad to 

 hear my companions coming to the conclusion that, as we 

 were now in parts visited by traders, we did not require 

 the guides, whose chief use had been to prevent misappre- 

 hension of our objects in the minds of the villagers. 



