Chap. XVII r. CHANGE OF PATH. 343 



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 viewed 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 

 discoloured 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. 

 Summer was now nearly over at Kuruman, and far advanced 

 at Linyanti, 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 inha- 

 bitants are favoured 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 



