sansawe's idea op dignity 289 



reminded me strongly of the paintings of that nation in 

 the British Museum. 



We had now rain every day, and the sky seldom pre- 

 sented that cloudless aspect and clear blue so common in 

 the dry lands of the south. The heavens are often over- 

 cast by large white motionless masses, which stand for 

 hours in the same position; and the intervening spaces are 

 filled with a milk-and-water-looking haze. Notwithstand- 

 ing these unfavorable circumstances, I obtained good od- 

 servations for the longitude of this important point on both 

 sides of the Quango, and found the river running in 9° 50' S. 

 lat., 18° 33' E. long. 



On proceeding to our former station near Sansawe's 

 village, he ran to meet us with wonderful urbanity, asking 

 if we had seen Moene Put, king of the white men, (or Por- 

 tuguese,) and added, on parting, that he would come to 

 receive his dues in the evening. I replied that, as he had 

 treated us so scurvily, even forbidding his people to sell us 

 any food, if he did not bring us a fowl and some eggs as 

 part of his duty as a chief, he should receive no present 

 from me. When he came, it was in the usual Londa way 

 of showing the exalted position he occupies, mounted on 

 the shoulders of his spokesman, as schoolboys sometimes 

 do in England, and as was represented to have been the 

 case in the southern islands when Captain Cook visited 

 them. My companions, amused at his idea of dignity, 

 greeted him with a hearty laugh. He visited the native 

 traders first, and then came to me with two cocks as a 

 present. I spoke to him about the impolicy of treatment 

 we had received at his hands, and quoted the example of 

 the Bangalas, who had been conquered by the Portuguese 

 for their extortionate demands of payment for firewood, 

 grass, water, &c, and concluded by denying his right to 

 any payment for simply passing through uncultivated land. 

 To all this he agreed ; and then I gave him, as a token of 

 friendship, a pannikin of coarse powder, two iron spoons, 

 and two yards of coarse printed calico He looked rather 



T 25 



