Chap. XVIII. CHANGE OP PATH. 231 



wanted to fight, and, if so, they must begin first and bear the 

 o-uilt before God. I then sat silent for some time. It was 



o 



certainly rather trying, because I knew that the Chiboque 

 would aim at the white man first ; but I was careful not to 

 appear flurried, and, having four barrels ready for instant 

 action, looked quietly at the savage scene around. The chief 

 and his counsellors, seeing themselves in greater danger than 

 I was, and influenced perhaps by the air of cool preparation 

 which my men displayed, at last put the matter before us in 

 this way : " You say you are quite friendly : but how can we 

 know it unless you give us some of your food, and you take 

 some of ours ? If you give us an ox we will give you what- 

 ever you may wish, and then we shall be friends." In accord- 

 ance with the entreaties of my men I gave an ox ; and being 

 asked what I should like in return, I mentioned food, as the 

 thing which we most needed. In the evening Kjambi sent a 

 very small basket of meal, and two or three pounds of the 

 flesh of our own ox ! with the apology that he had no fowls, 

 and very little food of other kinds. It was impossible to 

 avoid laughing at the coolness of these generous creatures. I 

 was truly thankful nevertheless that we had so far gained our 

 point as to be allowed to pass on without having shed human 

 blood. 



March 6th. — We were informed that the people living to 

 the west of the Chiboque of Njambi w T ere familiar with the 

 visits of slave-traders ; and as it was the opinion of our guides 

 from Kangenke that so many of my companions would be 

 exacted of me that I should reach the coast without a single 

 attendant, I resolved to strike away to the N.N.E., in the 

 hope that at some point farther north I might find an exit to 

 the Portuguese settlement of Cassange. We proceeded at first 

 due north, with the Kasabi villages on our right, and the 

 Kasau on our left. During the first twenty miles we crossed 

 many swollen streams, having the same boggy banks as I 

 have already described, and wherever the water had stood for 

 any length of time it was discoloured with rust of iron. We 

 gaw a tw nakong " antelope one day, a rare sight in this 

 quarter; and many pretty flowers adorned the valleys. "We 

 could observe the difference in the seasons as we advanced 

 northwards iD company with the sun. Suinm.O! v>is now 



