CHANGE OF PATH. 37 1 



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 view- 

 ed the infringement on what they considered lawfully due with 

 most virtuous indignation. 



March 6th. 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. We saw a " nakong" antelope 

 one day, a rare sight in this quarter ; and many new and pretty 

 flowers adorned the valleys. We could observe the difference 

 in the seasons in our northing in company with the sun. Sum- 

 mer was now nearly over at Kuruman, and far advanced at Lin- 

 yanti, but here we were in the middle of it ; fruits, which we had 

 eaten ripe on the Leeambye, were here quite green ; but we were 

 coming into the region where the inhabitants are favored with two 

 rainy seasons and two crops, i. e., when the sun is going south, 

 and when he comes back on his way to the north, as was the case 

 at present. 



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

 powder at our sleeping-place, and went back several miles for 

 it. My clothing being wet from crossing a stream, I was com- 

 pelled to wait for him ; had I been moving in the sun I should 

 have felt no harm, but the inaction led to a violent fit of fever. 

 The continuance of this attack was a source of much regret, for 

 we went on next day to a small rivulet called Chihune', in a 

 lovely valley, and had, for a wonder, a clear sky and a clear 



