2o8 DISCOURAGEMENTS. Chap. XVIH 



food immediately, and soon afterwards a goat, which was con- 

 sidered a handsome gift, as domestic animals were scarce in 

 this district, owing probably to the former prevalence of the 

 tsetse. The position of the village was 10° 25' S. lat., 20° 15' 

 E. long. 



On the 20th the same demand of payment for leave to pass 

 was made by old Ionga Panza as by the other Chiboque. I 

 offered the shell presented by Shinte, but Ionga Panza said he 

 was too old for ornaments. We might have succeeded very 

 well with him, had not our two guides from Kangenke com- 

 plicated our difficulties by sending for a body of Ban gala 

 traders, with a view to force us to sell the tusks of Sekeletu 

 and pay them with the price. Wc offered to pay them hand- 

 somely if they would perform their promise of guiding us to 

 Cassange, but they knew no more of the paths than we did ; 

 and my men had paid them repeatedly, and tried to get rid of 

 them, but could not. They now joined our enemies, as did 

 also the traders. Two guns and some beads, belonging to the 

 latter, were standing in our encampment, and the guides 

 seized them and ran off. As my men knew that we should 

 have to replace them, they gave chase, upon which the guides 

 threw down the guns, and, directing their flight, to the village, 

 rushed into a hut. The doorway of a native hut is not much 

 higher than that of a dog's kennel. One of the guides was in 

 the act of stooping to get in, when he received a cut on the 

 projecting part of his body from one of my men, which must 

 have made him wince. The guns were recovered, but the 

 beads were lost in the flight. All my stock could not replace 

 those lost ; and though we explained that we had no part in 

 the theft, the traders replied that we had brought the thieves 

 into the country. 



As we were anxious to effect a peaceful passage through the 

 country, my men offered all their ornaments, and I all my 

 beads and shirts ; but matters could not be arranged without 

 our giving an ox and one of the tusks, ^nd to these terms I 

 was at length compelled to accede. We were all becoming 

 disheartened, and could not wonder that native expeditions 

 from the interior to the coast had generally failed to reach 

 (53) their destinations. Some of my people proposed to return 

 home ; and the prospect of being obliged to return when just 



