MAEIANO'S CRUELTY. . 331 



with great bravery against the enemy, others were as coolly 

 shooting at their own slaves who were retreating to the river. 



It may be noticed that Mariano, who was proving so very 

 annoying to the Portuguese, was a half-caste, as were most of 

 the chiefs who have most seriously opposed the authority of the 

 colonists. Indeed this class of men are the scourge of the whole 

 country ; they are the keenest slave-hunters, and most blood- 

 thirsty warriors, the most atrocious villains generally, who are 

 to be encountered. A gentleman of the highest standing told 

 Dr. Livingstone that it was no uncommon event for his family 

 to be disturbed while at dinner by a slave rushing into the apart- 

 ment, pursued by one of Mariano's men, spear in hand. But 

 the people who have pretended to colonize in such a community, 

 on the false basis of mixed marriages with barbarous tribes, and 

 encouraging a trade so demoralizing as that which has distin- 

 guished the Portuguese enterprises in Africa, can hardly be sur- 

 prised or complawi that they have such a harvest of trouble 

 and failure. The folly of the Portuguese method was abun- 

 dantly manifested by the eagerness with which the natives ex- 

 tended their most cordial hospitalities to the English expedition, 

 which they very quickly came to understand as representing a 

 very different method and superior design. Even the rebels 

 under Mariano, on finding that Dr. Livingstone and his party 

 were Englishmen, not seeking slaves, but having at heart the 

 real improvement of the country and the elevation of the people, 

 received them with shouts of joy and welcome. 



The Maruru, who occupy the country around Mazaro, like 

 the people generally who have had contact with white people 

 only in the Lisbon subjects, have become very distrustful, as 

 well as covetous ; they required to be paid for all services, and 

 wanted their pay in advance ; and the travellers naturally sus- 

 pected that the favorite canoe-song of the men — the chorus of 

 which was, "Thou art slippery, slippery, truly" — was intended 

 to be a witty explanation of their demands for advance pay. 



The white settlers on the west side of the Zambesi were hardly 

 happier than the people of the other bank. The Zulus, or 

 Laudeens, lord it there, and the merchants of Senna are under 

 the necessity of paying dearly for peace or forfeiting everything 

 by war ; for never did landlord keep a sharper eye on tenants 



