166 WONDERFUL VALLEY. 



and unhesitatingly recognize the offspring of these unions as 

 equals, and not uncommonly commit to them the most impor- 

 tant trusts. 



The village of Cassange is about half way from the Quango, 

 across the splendid valley which is waiting to become a granary 

 for the world. "This valley is perhaps a hundred miles wide; 

 clothed with dark forests, except where the tall grass covers the 

 meadow land along the Quango, which here and there glances 

 out in the sun as it wends its way northward." It is the vast 

 reality of which the traveller said the view of the Clyde, from 

 the spot whence Mary Queen of Scots witnessed the battle of 

 Langside, is a miniature. The valley was entered on the 30th 

 of March, by descending a precipitous path from the table land, 

 which stood behind them now in the distance like a wall. The 

 eastern half of the valley is the home of border tribes, who have 

 learned meanness and cruelty from their imperfect acquaintance 

 with white people. The western half is the frontier of the 

 Portuguese, with Cassange for its principal town. 



Of course we could not expect that such a station should have 

 anything of architectural beauty. The houses were built of 

 wattle and daub; but they were surrounded by considerable 

 plantations of manioc and maize, and furnished with gardens 

 where many different European vegetables grew splendidly, 

 and both native and imported fruits rewarded the almost care- 

 less efforts of the people. The Makololo, too, were delighted to 

 find here that ivory commanded greatly better prices than they 

 had dreamed of in their own country. They had been accus- 

 tomed to sell two tusks for one gun, so that their surprise and 

 delight were almost amusing when they saw their leader receive 

 for one tusk " two muskets, three small barrels of gunpowder, 

 and English calico and baize enough to clothe the whole party, 

 besides large bunches of beads." 



Many of these trading villages are to be found in this broad 

 valley, and the native Portuguese in them generally become rich 

 in a very few years. 



Livingstone needed to quiet often-recurring anxieties in the 

 breasts of his Makololo as they drew nearer the coast. Their 

 confidence in him was stronger than their fears, however; and 

 though they were cautioned by some that the white people were 



