DEMAND OF "A MAN." 201 



met by a very unceremonious demand for "an ox or a man." 

 This was a notoriously uncivil man to all travellers ; he had 

 heard of the Chetoques having forced the party to give them 

 an ox as they went toward the coast the previous year, and, 

 encouraged by their success, presumed to attempt a similar levy, 

 unconscious of the change which had come over the spirit of 

 the white man in such matters. The history of this affair, as 

 given by Dr. Livingstone himself, is so graphic and so illustra- 

 tive or African life that we prefer to allow him to put it in his 

 own way. " To this provoking demand," says he, "I replied 

 that the goods were my property and not his ; that I would 

 never have it said that a white man had paid tribute to a 

 black, and that I should cross the Kasai in spite of him. He 

 ordered his people to arm themselves, and when some of my 

 men saw them rushing for their bows, arrows and spears, they 

 became somewhat panic-stricken. I ordered them to move 

 away, and not to fire unless Kawawa's people struck the first 

 blow. I took the lead, and expected them all to follow, as 

 they usually had done, but many of my men remained behind. 

 When I knew this, I jumped off the ox and made a rush to 

 them with the revolver in my hand. Kawawa ran away among 

 his people, and they turned their backs too. I shouted to my 

 men to take up their luggage and march ; some did so with 

 alacrity, feeling that they had disobeyed orders by remaining ; 

 but one of them refused, and was preparing to fire at Kawawa, 

 until I gave him a punch on the head with the pistol, and made 

 him go too. I felt here, as elsewhere, that subordination must 

 be maintained at all risks. We all moved into the forest, the 

 people of Kawawa standing about a hundred yards off, gazing, 

 but not firing a shot or an arrow. But he was not to be balked 

 of his supposed rights by the unceremonious way in which they 

 left him ; for, when they had reached the ford of the Kasai, 

 about ten miles distant, they found that he had sent four of 

 his men with orders to the ferrymen to refuse passage. They 

 were informed that they must deliver up all the articles men- 

 tioned, and one of the men besides. This demand for one of 

 the number always nettled every heart. The canoes were taken 

 away before their eyes, and they were supposed to be quite help- 

 less without them, at a river a good hundred yards broad and 



