Chap. IX. AFRICAN INDUSTRY. 199 



niorial. A Chief of more than ordinary ability arises and, 

 subduing all his less powerful neighbours, founds a 

 kingdom, which he governs more or less wisely till he dies. 

 His successor not having the talents of the conqueror cannot 

 retain the dominion, and some of the abler under-chiefs set up 

 for themselves, and, in a few years, the remembrance only of 

 the Empire remains. This, which may be considered as the 

 normal state of African society, gives rise to frequent and 

 desolating wars, and the people long in vain for a power able 

 to make all dwell in peace. In this light, a European colony 

 would be considered by the natives as an inestimable boon to 

 intertropical Africa. Thousands of industrious natives would 

 gladly settle round it, and engage in that peaceful pursuit of 

 agriculture and trade of which they are so fond, and, undis- 

 tracted by wars or rumours of wars, might listen to the 

 purifying and ennobling truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 The Manganja on the Zambesi, like their countrymen on 

 the Shire, are fond of agriculture ; and, in addition to the 

 usual varieties of food, cultivate tobacco and cotton in 

 quantities more than equal to their wants. To the 

 question, " Would they work for Europeans ? " an affirmative 

 answer may be given, if the Europeans belong to the class 

 which can pay a reasonable price for labour, and not to that of 

 adventurers who want employment for themselves. All were 

 particularly well clothed from Sandia's to Pangola's ; and it 

 was noticed that all the cloth was of native manufacture, the 

 product of their own looms. In Senga a great deal of iron 

 is obtained from the ore and manufactured very cleverly. 



As is customary when a party of armed strangers visits the 

 village, Pangola took the precaution of sleeping in one of 

 the outlying hamlets. No one ever knows, or at any rate 

 will tell, where the Chief sleeps. He came not next morn- 



