CiiAP. XXVII. MONZE AKD HIS WIFE. 363 



We spent Sunday the 10th at Monze's village, who is con- 

 sidered the chief of all the Batoka we have seen. He lives 

 near the hill Kisekise, whence we had a view of at least thirty 

 miles of open undulating country, covered with short grass, 

 and having but few trees. These open lawns would in any 

 other land be turned to good account as pasture, but the 

 people have now only a few goats and fowls. They are located 

 all over the country in small villages, and are said to have 

 adopted this wide-spread mode of habitation in order to give 

 alarm should any enemy appear. In former times they lived 

 in large towns. In the distance (S.E.) we see ranges of dark 

 mountains along the banks of the Zambesi, and are told of 

 the existence there of a rapid named Kansala, which is said 

 to impede the navigation. The river is reported to be placid 

 between that and the Victoria Falls up stream, and between 

 that and Kebrabasa, twenty or thirty miles above Tete, down 

 stream. On the north we have a distant range of mountains, 

 said to be on the banks of the Kafue. 



The chief Monze came to us on Sunday morning, wrapped in 

 a large cloth, and rolled himself about in the dust, screaming 

 " Kina bomba." One of his wives accompanied him, and was 

 much excited at her first sight of a white man ; she would have 

 been comely if her teeth had been spared ; she carried a little 

 battle-axe in her hand, and helped her husband to scream. 

 We rather liked Mcnze, for he soon became sociable, and 

 kept up conversation during the greater part of the day. One 

 head-man of a village after another arrived, each with a liberal 

 supply of maize, ground-nuts, and corn. Monze gave us a 

 goat and a fowl, and appeared highly satisfied with a present 

 of some handkerchiefs of printed cotton ; when I put a gaudy- 

 coloured one as a shawl about his child, he said that he would 

 send for all his people to make a dance about it. When I 

 told them that my object was to open up a path, whereby they 

 might avoid the guilt of selling their children, and asked 

 Monze and his men if they would like a white man to live 

 amongst them, they all expressed high satisfaction, and pro- 

 mised to protect both the white man and his property. It 

 would be of great importance to have stations in this healthy 

 region, to serve as part of a chain of communication between 

 the interior and the coast. Monze had never been visited by 



