192 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. VII. 



blankets, which he is willing to part with for two of our 

 cloths, each of which is larger than it, but he declines to 

 receive it, because we have new ones. I invited him, since 

 he disbelieved my assertions, to look in our bales, and if 

 he saw none, to pay us a fine for the insult : he consented 

 in a laughing way to give us an ox. All our personal 

 intercourse has been of the good-natured sort. It is the 

 communications to the boys, by three men who are our 

 protectors, or rather spies, that is disagreeable ; I won't let 

 them bring these fellows near me. 



15th February. — He came early in the morning, and I 

 showed that I had no blanket, and he took the old one, 

 and said that the affair was ended. A long misunderstanding 

 would have been avoided, had Abraham told me fully what 

 the chief said at first. 



16th February. — The chief offered me a cow for a piece 

 of red serge, and after a deal of talk and Chitapangwa 

 swearing that no demand would be made after the bargain 

 was concluded, I gave the serge, a cloth, and a few beads for 

 a good fat cow. The serge was two fathoms, a portion of 

 that which Miss Coutts gave me when leaving England in 

 1858. 



The chief is not so bad, as the boys are so cowardly. 

 They assume a chirping, piping tone of voice in speaking to 

 him, and do not say what at last has to be said, because in 

 their cringing souls they believe they know what should be 

 said better than I do. It does not strike them in the least 

 that I have grown grey amongst these people ; and it is 

 immense conceit in mere boys to equal themselves to me. 

 The difficulty is greater, because when I do ask their 

 opinions I only receive the reply, "It is as you please, 

 sir." Very likely some men of character may arise and 

 lead them ; but such as I have would do little to civilise. 



nth February. — Too ill with rheumatic-fever to have 

 service ; this is the first attack of it I ever had — and no 



