Chap. XXIV. KINDNESS OF THE PEOPLE. 493 



preserving us from all the dangers of strange tribes and disease. 

 We had a similar service in the afternoon. The men gave us 

 two fine oxen for slaughter, and the women supplied us abun- 

 dantly with milk, meal, and butter. It was all quite gratuitous, 

 and I felt ashamed that I could make no return. My men ex- 

 plained the total expenditure of our means, and the Libontese 

 answered gracefully, " It does not matter ; you have opened a 

 path for us, and we shall have sleep." Strangers came flocking 

 from a distance, and seldom empty-handed. Their presents I 

 distributed amongst my men. 



Our progress down the Barotse valley was just like tins. 

 Every village gave us an ox, and sometimes two. The people 

 were wonderfully kind. I felt, and still feel, most deeply 

 grateful, and tried to benefit them in the only way I could, 

 by imparting the knowledge of that Saviour, who can comfort 

 and supply them in the time of need, and my prayer is, that 

 he may send his good Spirit to instruct them and lead them into 

 his kingdom. Even now, I earnestly long to return, and make 

 some recompense to them for their kindness. In passing them 

 on our way to the north, their liberality might have been sup- 

 posed to be influenced by the hope of repayment on our return, 

 for the white man's land is imagined to be the source of every 

 ornament they prize most. But though we set out from Loanda 

 with a considerable quantity of goods, hoping both to pay our 

 way through the stingy Chiboque, and to make presents to 

 the kind Balonda, and still more generous Makololo, the many 

 delays caused by sickness made us expend all my stock, and all 

 the goods my men procured by their own labour at Loanda, and 

 we returned to the Makololo as poor as when we set out. Yet 

 no distrust was shown, and my poverty did not lessen my in- 

 fluence. They saw that I had been exerting myself for their 

 benefit alone, and even my men remarked, " Though we return 

 as poor as we went, we have not gone in vain." They began 

 immediately to collect tusks of hippopotami and other ivory for 

 a second journey. 



