134 GENEROSITY OF SENHOR FEREAO. Chap. VI. 



energy would never be dependent on any other country for 

 their food in this. 



Mankokwe now sent a message' to say that he wished us 

 to stop at his village on our way down. He came on board 

 on our arrival there with a handsome present, and said that 

 his young people had dissuaded him from visiting us before ; 

 but now he was determined to see what every one else was 

 seeing. A bald square-headed man, who had been his Prime 

 Minister when we came up, was now out of office, and another 

 old man, who had taken his place, accompanied the Chief. 

 In passing the Elephant Marsh, we saw nine large herds 

 of elephants ; they sometimes formed a line two miles 

 long. On the 26th of October a heavy thunderstorm came 

 on, and some large hailstones fell, to the surprise of our 

 Senna men, who had never seen heavy hail before, though 

 it is not at all unusual for it to fall further inland. A 

 shower fell at Kurutnan which killed kids, fowls, and ante- 

 lopes; another at Kolobeng was destructive to the glass of 

 the mission-house windows. 



On the 2nd of November we anchored off Shamoara, 

 and sent the boat to Senna for biscuit and other provisions. 

 Senhor Ferrao, with his wonted generosity, gave us a present 

 of a bullock, which he sent to us in a canoe. Wishing to know 

 if a second bullock would be acceptable to us, he consulted 

 his Portuguese and English dictionary, and asked the sailor 

 in charge if he would take another; but Jack, mistaking the 

 Portuguese pronunciation of the letter 7^, replied, "Oh no, 

 sir. thank you, I don't want an otter in the boat, they are 

 such terrible biters ! " 



We had to ground the vessel on a shallow sandbank every 

 night ; she leaked so fast, that in deep water she would have 

 sunk, and the pump had to be worked all day to keep her 



