PREFATORY LETTER. lxi 



one of them, addressing himself to Sekwebu; and on sucli 

 reports Livingstone rose higher than ever in the love and 

 honour of his crew. Even the people who had been tempted 

 to sell their children felt a bitter resentment against the 

 slave-dealer: and when asked whether they had not received 

 the dealer's goods in exchange, they said they had; but he 

 had done them wrong in tempting them. 



About the end of January, 1856, the party were again on 

 their way; and early in February, Dr Livingstone gave two 

 small tusks in exchange for some calico, which his men 

 were much in need of: for after travelling three months 

 through the bush they were all in a very ragged condition, 

 and some of the men had not a scrap of any covering. The 

 country became greatly changed. They were no longer 

 among beds of micaceous slate, but among beds of sand- 

 stone which, by their decomposition, made the river-fords 

 difficult and treacherous: and sometimes they had to make 

 their way over beds of a reddish clay, and a slippery adhe- 

 sive soil, that was very tiresome to walk upon. The ground 

 was, however, fertile and produced abundant crops of " corn, 

 maize, millet, ground-nuts and pumpkins." When away 

 from the river — which is the great slave-mart — and not them- 

 selves suspected, they were received with every mark of 

 good-will. Provisions were supplied with cheerfulness and 

 in abundance, while they had little or nothing to give in re- 

 turn. In the villages many of the huts are built on raised 

 platforms to protect the people from the lions and hyaenas 

 — two cowardly beasts, but sometimes dangerous in the 

 night; and the lions are extremely abundant, being pro- 

 tected from the hunter's weapons through a strange super- 

 stition before alluded to (p. xviii). 



Hoping to find an easier pathway, and wishing to avoid 

 all treacherous slave-dealers, they afterwards struck into the 

 interior: and on the 13th of February they came to the village 

 of a head-man called Nyampungo, offered him the last piece 



