498 CIVILITY OF A FEMALE CHIEF. 



general direction we ought to follow, and also if any deviation 

 occurred from our proper route ; but, to avoid impassable forests 

 and untreadable bogs, and to get to the proper fords of the rivers, 

 we always tried to procure a guide, and he always followed the 

 common path from one village to another when that lay in the 

 direction we were going. 



After leaving Cabango on the 21st, we crossed several little 

 streams running into the Chihombo on our left, and in one of 

 them I saw tree ferns (Cyathea dregei) for the first time in Africa. 

 The trunk was about four feet high and ten inches in diameter. 

 We saw also grass trees of two varieties, which, in damp localities, 

 had attained a height of forty feet. On crossing the Chihombo, 

 which we did about twelve miles above Cabango, we found it 

 waist-deep and rapid. We were delighted to see the evidences of 

 buffalo and hippopotami on its banks. As soon as we got away 

 from the track of the slave-traders, the more kindly spirit of the 

 southern Balonda appeared, for an old man brought a large pres- 

 ent of food from one of the villages, and volunteered to go as guide 

 himself. The people, however, of the numerous villages which 

 we passed always made efforts to detain us, that they might have 

 a little trade in the way of furnishing our suppers. At one vil- 

 lage, indeed, they would not show us the path at all unless we re- 

 mained at least a day with them. Having refused, we took a path 

 in the direction we ought to go, but it led us into an inextricable 

 thicket. Returning to the village again, we tried another footpath 

 in a similar direction, but this led us into an equally impassable 

 and trackless forest. We were thus forced to come back and re- 

 main. In the following morning they put us in the proper path, 

 which in a few hours led us through a forest that would otherwise 

 have taken us days to penetrate. 



Beyond this forest we found the village of Nyakalonga, a sister 

 of the late Matiamvo, who treated us handsomely. She wished 

 her people to guide us to the next village, but this they declined 

 unless we engaged in trade. She then requested us to wait an 

 hour or two till she could get ready a present of meal, manioc 

 roots, ground-nuts, and a fowl. It was truly pleasant to meet 

 with people possessing some civility, after the hauteur we had 

 experienced on the slave-path. She sent her son to the next 

 village without requiring payment. The stream which ran past 



