HOSPITALITY OF THE NATIVES. 307 



party : antelopes were so tame that they might be shot from the 

 canoe. But beyond fourteen degrees of south latitude the 

 natives had guns, and had themselves destroyed the game, so 

 that I and my party had to live on charity. The people, how- 

 ever, in that central region were friendly and hospitable : but 

 they had nothing but vegetable productions ; the most abundant 

 was the cassava, which, however nice when made into tapioca 

 pudding, resembles in its more primitive condition nothing so 

 much as a mess of laundress' starch. There was a desire in 

 the various villages through which we passed to have intercourse 

 with us, and kindness and hospitality were shown us ; but when 

 we got near the Portuguese settlement of Angola the case was 

 changed, and payment was demanded for everything. But I 

 had nothing to pay with. Now the people had been in the 

 habit of trading with the slavers, and so they said I might give 

 one of my men in payment for what I wanted. When I showed 

 them that I could not do this, they looked upon me as an in- 

 terloper, and I was sometimes in danger of being murdered. 



As we neared the coast, the name of England was recognized, 

 and we got on with ease. Upon one occasion, when I was 

 passing through the parts visited by slave-traders, a chief who 

 wished to show me some kindness offered me a slave-girl ; upon 

 explaining that I had a little girl of my own, whom I should 

 not like my own chief to give to a black man, the chief thought 

 I was displeased with the size of the girl and sent me one a 

 head taller. By this and other means I convinced my men of 

 my opposition to the principle of slavery ; and when we arrived 

 at Loanda I took them on board a British vessel, where I took 

 a pride in showing them that those countrymen of mine and 

 those guns were there for the purpose of putting down the slave- 

 trade. They were convinced from what they saw of the honesty 

 of Englishmen's intentions ; and the hearty reception they met 

 with from the sailors made them say to me, " We see they are 

 your countrymen, for they have hearts like you." On the jour- 

 ney the men had always looked forward to reaching the coast ; 

 they had seen Manchester prints, and other articles imported 

 therefrom, and they could not believe they were made by mortal 

 hands. On reaching the sea, they thought they had come to 

 the end of the world. They said, " We marched along with 



