504 CLIMATE — DISEASES. Chap. XXV. 



enemies the Matebele. The Makololo generally have an aversion 

 to the Barotse valley, on account of the fevers which are annually 

 engendered in it as the waters dry up. They prefer it only as 

 a cattle station, for, though the herds are frequently thinned by 

 an epidemic disease {'peripneumonia), they breed so fast, that the 

 losses are soon made good. Wherever else the Makololo go, they 

 always leave a portion of their stock in the charge of herdsmen 

 in that prolific valley. Some of the younger men objected to 

 removal, because the rankness of the grass at the Barotse did not 

 allow of their running fast, and because there " it never becomes 

 cool." 



Sekeletu at last stood up, and, addressing me, said, "I am 

 perfectly satisfied as to the great advantages for trade of the 

 path which you have opened, and think that we ought to go to 

 the Barotse, in order to make the way from us to Loanda shorter ; 

 but with whom am I to live there ? If you were coming with us, I 

 would remove to-morrow, but now you are going to the white 

 man's country to bring Ma Bobert, and when you return, you 

 will find me near to the spot on which you wish to dwell." I 

 had then no idea that any healthy spot existed in the country, 

 and thought only of a convenient central situation, adapted for 

 intercourse with the adjacent tribes and with the coast, such as 

 that near to the confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye. 



The fever is certainly a drawback to this otherwise important 

 missionary field. The great humidity produced by heavy rains 

 and inundations, the exuberant vegetation caused by fervid heat 

 in rich moist soil, and the prodigious amount of decaying vegetable 

 matter, annually exposed after the inundations to the rays of a 

 torrid sun, with a flat surface often covered by forest through 

 which the winds cannot pass, all combine to render the climate 

 far from salubrious for any portion of the human family. But 

 the fever, thus caused and rendered virulent, is almost the only 

 disease prevalent in it. There is no consumption or scrofula, 

 and but little insanity. Smallpox and measles visited the country 

 some thirty years ago and cut off many, but they have 

 since made no return, although the former has been almost 

 constantly in one part or another of the coast. Singularly 

 enough, the people used inoculation for this disease ; and in 

 one village, where they seem to have chosen a malignant case 



