Chap. XXV. TRADING PARTY TO LOANDA. 331 



to show the friendly feelings of the white men, and their 

 eagerness to enter into commercial relations with the Mako- 

 lolo. I then requested my companions to give a true account 

 of what they had seen. The wonderful things lost nothing in 

 the telling, the climax always being that they had finished the 

 whole world, and had turned only when there was no more 

 land. One glib old gentleman asked — " Then you reached 

 Ma Robert (Mrs. L.) ?" They were obliged to confess that 

 she lived a little beyond the world ! The presents were 

 received with expressions of great satisfaction and delight, 

 and on Sunday, when Sekeletu made his appearance at church 

 in his uniform, he attracted more attention than the sermon ; 

 but the expressions they used towards myself were so very 

 flattering that I felt inclined to shut my eyes to this peccadillo. 

 Sekeletu immediately made arrangements to send a fresh party 

 with a load of ivory to Loanda, while my companions remain- 

 ed at home to rest themselves. This party arrived on the 

 west coast, but the ivory had been disposed of to some Portu- 

 guese merchants in the interior, and the men had been obliged 

 to carry it down to Loanda. Mr. Gabriel, having learnt that 

 they were in the city, went to them, and pronounced the 

 names Pitsane, Mashauana, when all started up and crowded 

 round him. He behaved to them in the same liberal manner 

 as he had done to my companions, and they departed for their 

 distant home after bidding him a formal and affectionate adieu. 

 The Makololo expressed great satisfaction with the route 

 we had opened up to the west, and soon after our arrival a 

 " picho " was called, in order to discuss the question of re- 

 moval to the Barotse valley, so that they might be nearer the 

 market. Some of the older men objected to abandoning the 

 line of defence afforded by the rivers Chobe and Zambesi 

 against their southern enemies the Matebele. The Makololo 

 generally dislike the Barotse valley, on account of the fevers 

 which are engendered in it by the subsidence of the waters. 

 They prefer it only as a cattle station, for, though the herds 

 are frequently thinned by an epidemic disease {peripneumonia), 

 they breed so fast that the losses are soon made good. Wher- 

 ever else the Makololo go, they always leave a portion of their 

 Btock in the charge of herdsmen in that prolific valley. Some of 

 the younger men objected to removal, because the rankness of 



