144 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. VI. 



Kangene was disagreeable to the last. He asked where 

 we had gone, and, having described the turning point as 

 near the hill Chimbinibe, he complimented ns on going 

 so far, and then sent an offer of three men ; but I preferred 

 not to have those who would have been spies unless he could 

 give five and take on all the loads. He said that he 

 would find the number, and after detaining us some hours 

 brought two, one of whom, primed with beer, babbled out 

 that he was afraid of being killed by us in front. I asked 

 whom we had killed behind, and moved off. The headman 

 is very childish, does women's work — cooking and pound- 

 ing ; and in all cases of that kind the people take after their 

 leader. The chiefs have scarcely any power unless they 

 are men of energy ; they have to court the people rather 

 than be courted. We came much further back on our 

 way from Mapuio's than we liked; in fact, our course is 

 like that of a vessel baffled with foul winds : this is mainly 

 owing to being obliged to avoid places stripped of pro- 

 visions or suffering this spoliation. The people, too, can 

 give no information about others at a distance from their 

 own abodes. Even the smiths, who are a most plodding- 

 set of workers, are as ignorant as the others : they supply 

 the surrounding villages with hoes and knives, and, com- 

 bining agriculture with handicraft, pass through life. An 

 intelligent smith came as our guide from Chimbimbe Hill 

 on the 7th, and did not know a range of mountains about 

 twenty miles off: "it was too far off for him to know 

 the name." 



9th November. — The country over which we actually 

 travel is level and elevated, but there are mountains all 

 about, which when put on the map make it appear to be a 

 mountainous region. We are on the watershed, apparently 

 between the Loangwa of Zumbo on the west, and the Lake 

 -on the east. The Leue or Leuia is said by the people to 

 flow into the Loangwa. The Chigumokire coming from the 



