18(37.] CHITAPANGWA'S ENVOY. 175 



present, as lie was the greater man, and said that if we 

 gave him two fathoms of calico, he would order all the 

 people to bring plenty of food, not here only, but all the 

 way to the paramount chief of Lobemba, Chitapangwa. I 

 proposed that he should begin by ordering Chaokila to give 

 us some in return for our present. This led, as Chaokila 

 told us, to the cloth being delivered to the deputy, and we 

 saw that all the starvelings south of the Chambeze were 

 poor dependants on the Babemba, or rather their slaves, 

 who cultivate little, and then only in the rounded patches 

 above mentioned, so as to prevent their conquerors from 

 taking away more than a small share. The subjects are 

 Babisa — a miserable lying lot of serfs. This tribe is en- 

 gaged in the slave-trade, and the evil effects are seen in 

 their depopulated country and utter distrust of every one. 



19th January. — Baining most of the day. Worked out 

 the longitude of the mountain-station said to be Mpini, 

 but it will be better to name it Chitane's, as I could not get 

 the name from our maundering guide ; he probably did not 

 know it, Lat. 11° 9' 2" S. ; long. 32° 1' 30" E. 



Altitude above sea (barometer) 5353 feet ; 

 Altitude above sea (boiling-point) 5385 feet. 



Diff. 32* 



Nothing but famine and famine prices, the people living 

 on mushrooms and leaves. Of mushrooms we observed that 

 they choose five or six kinds, and rejected ten sorts. One 

 species becomes as large as the crown of a man's hat ; it is 

 pure white, with a blush of brown in the middle of the 

 crown, and is very good roasted; it is named "Motenta;" 

 another, Mofeta ; 3rd, Bosefwe ; 4th, Nakabausa ; 5th, Chi- 

 sinibe, lobulated, green outside, and pink and fleshy inside ; 



Top of mountain (barometer) 6638 feet. 



