216 NALIELE. Chap. XII. 



east of this. He had given them cattle, ivory, and children, 

 and had received in return a large blunderbuss to be mounted 

 as a cannon. When the slight circumstance of my having 

 covered the body of the chief with my own, deranged the whole 

 conspiracy, the Mambari, in their stockade, were placed in very 

 awkward circumstances. It was proposed to attack them and 

 drive them out of the country at once, but, dreading a com- 

 mencement of hostilities, I urged the difficulties of that course, 

 and showed that a stockade defended by perhaps forty muskets 

 would be a very serious affair. " Hunger is strong enough for 

 that," said an under-chief ; " a very great fellow is he." They 

 thought of attacking them by starvation. As the chief sufferers 

 in case of such an attack would have been the poor slaves chained 

 in gangs, I interceded for them, and the result of an intercession 

 of which they were ignorant was, that they were allowed to 

 depart in peace. 



Naliele, the capital of the Barotse, is built on a mound which 

 was constructed artificially by Santuru, and was his storehouse 

 for grain. His own capital stood about five hundred yards to 

 the south of that, in what is now the bed of the river. All that 

 remains of the largest mound in the valley are a few cubic yards 

 of earth, to erect which, cost the whole of the people of Santuru 

 the labour of many years. The same thing has happened to 

 another ancient site of a town, Linangelo, also on the left bank. 

 It would seem, therefore, that the river in this part of the valley 

 must be wearing eastwards. No great rise of the river is required 

 to submerge the whole valley ; a rise of ten feet above the 

 present low-water mark would reach the highest point it ever 

 attains, as seen in the markings of the bank on which stood 

 Santuru's ancient capital, and two or three feet more would 

 deluge all the villages. This never happens, though the water 

 sometimes comes so near the foundations of the huts, that the 

 people cannot move outside the walls of reeds which encircle 

 their villages. When the river is compressed among the high 

 rocky banks near Gonye, it rises sixty feet. 



The influence of the partial obstruction it meets with there, is 

 seen in the more winding course of the river north of 16° ; and 

 when the swell gets past Katima-molelo, it spreads out on the 

 lands on both banks towards Sesheke. 



