Chap. XXHL CIVILITY OF A FEMALE CHIEF. 461 



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 leavinsr Cabano;o 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, wliich 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 

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

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

 winch we passed, always made efforts to detain us, that they 

 might have a little trade in the way of furnishing our suppers. 

 At one village, indeed, they woidd not show us the path at all, 

 unless we remained 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. Keturning 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 remain. 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 clays 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 wliich ran past 



