( 150. ) 



CHAPTEE VII. 



Crosses the Loangwa. Distressing march. The king-hunter. Great hunger. 

 Christmas feast necessarily postponed. Loss of goats. Honey-hunters. 

 A meal at last. The Babisa. The Mazitu again. Chitembo's. End 

 of 1866. The new year. The northern brim of the great Loangwa 

 Valley. Accident to chronometers. Meal gives out. Escape from a 

 Cobra capella. Pushes for the Chambeze. Death of Chitane. Great 

 pinch for food. Disastrous loss of medicine chest. Bead currency. 

 Babisa. The Chambeze. Beaches Chitapangwa's town. Meets Arab 

 traders from Zanzibar. Sends off letters. Chitapangwa and his 

 people. Complications. 



16^ December, 1866. — We could get no food at any price on 

 15th, so we crossed the Loangwa, and judged it to be from 

 seventy to a hundred yards wide : it is deep at present, and 

 it must always be so, for some Atumboka submitted to the 

 Mazitu, and ferried them over and back again. The river 

 is said to rise in the north; it has alluvial banks with 

 large forest trees along them, bottom sandy, and great sand- 

 banks are in it like the Zambesi. No guide would come, 

 so we went on without one. The " lazies " of the party 

 seized the opportunity of remaining behind — wandering, as 

 they said, though all the cross paths were marked.* This 

 evening we secured the latitude 12° 40' 48" S., which would 

 make our crossing place about 12° 45' S. Clouds prevented 

 observations, as they usually do in the rainy season. 



* In coming to cross roads it is the custom of the leader to " mark " 

 all side paths and wrong turnings by making a scratch across them 

 with his spear, or by breaking a branch and laying it across : in this 

 way those who follow are able to avoid straying off the proper road. — Ed. 



