578 SELOLE'S HOSTILITY. Chap. XXYIII. 



highlands, but when we descended into the lowlands of Angola, 

 and here also, they began to fret on account of it. I myself felt 

 an oppressive steam in ess in the atmosphere, winch I had not 

 experienced on the higher lands. 



As the game was abundant and my party very large, I had 

 still to supply then wants with the gun. We slaughtered the 

 oxen only when unsuccessful in hunting. We always entered 

 into friendly relations with the head-men of the different villages, 

 and they presented grain and other food freely. One man gave a 

 basinful of rice, the first we met with in the country. It is never 

 seen in the interior. He said he knew it was "white man's 

 com," and when I wished to buy some more, he asked me to give 

 him a slave. This was the first symptom of the slave-trade on 

 this side of the country. The last of these friendly head-men 

 was named Mobala ; and having passed him in peace, we had no 

 anticipation of anything else ; but after a few horns we reached 

 Selole or Chilole, and found that he not only considered us enemies, 

 but had actually sent an express to raise the tribe of Mburuma 

 against us. All the women of Selole had fled, and the few people 

 we met, exhibited symptoms of terror. An armed party had 

 come from Mburuma hi obedience to the call, but the head-man 

 of the company, being Mburuma's brother, suspecting that it was 

 a hoax, came to our encampment and told us the whole. When 

 we explained our objects, he told us that Mburuma, he had no 

 doubt, would receive us well. The reason why Selole acted in 

 tliis foolish manner, we afterwards found to be this : an Italian 

 named Simoens, and nicknamed Siriatoinba (don't eat tobacco), 

 had married the daughter of a chief called Sekokole, living north 

 of Tete. He armed a party of fifty slaves with guns, and, 

 ascending the river in canoes some distance beyond the island 

 Meya makaba, attacked several inhabited islands beyond, securing 

 a large number of prisoners, and much ivory. On Ins return, the 

 different chiefs, at the instigation of his father-in-law, who also did 

 not wish him to set up as a chief, united, attacked and dispersed the 

 party of Simoens, and killed liim while trying to escape on foot. 

 Selole imagined that I was another Italian, or, as he expressed it, 

 " Siriatoinba risen from the dead." In his message to Mburuma 

 he even said that Mobala, and all the villages beyond, were 

 utterly destroyed by our fire-amis, but the sight of Mobala him? 



