384 A MAN TOSSED BY A BUFFALO. Chap. XXIX 



soul of a chief, and for other superstitious purposes. The last 

 expedition to Cazembe was somewhat of the same nature as 

 the others, but it failed in establishing a commerce, because 

 the people of Cazembe, who had come to Tete to invite the 

 Portuguese to visit them, had not been allowed to trade freely 

 with whom they liked. Cazembe reciprocated this policy, and 

 prohibited his people from furnishing the party with food 

 except at his own price ; and the expedition, being half-starved 

 in consequence, returned in a state of high dudgeon. 



When we left the Loangwa we thought we had got rid of 

 the hills ; but there are some behind Mazanzwe, though five 

 or six miles off from the river. Tsetse and the hills had 

 destroyed two riding oxen, and when the little one that I now 

 rode knocked up I was forced to march on foot. The bush 

 being very dense and high, we were going along among the 

 trees, when three buffaloes suddenly dashed through our line. 

 My ox set off at a gallop, and when I glanced back I saw one 

 of the men up in the air about five feet above a buffalo which 

 was tearing along with a stream of blood running down his 

 flank. When I got back to the poor fellow I found that he 

 had lighted on his face, and, though he had been carried on 

 the horns of the buffalo about twenty yards before getting the 

 final toss, the skin was not pierced nor was a bone broken. 

 When the beasts appeared he had thrown down his load and 

 stabbed one in the side. It turned suddenly upon him, and, 

 before he could use a tree for defence, carried him off. We 

 shampooed him well, and in about a week he was able to 

 engage in the hunt again. 



At Zumbo we had entered upon old grey sandstone, with 

 shingle in it, dipping generally towards the south, and form- 

 ing the bed of the river. The Zambesi is very broad here, and 

 contains many inhabited islands. We slept opposite one on 

 the 16th, called Shibanga. The nights are warm, the tem- 

 perature never falling below 80°; it was 91° even at sunset. 

 On the morning of the 17th we were pleased to see a person 

 coming from the island of Shibanga, with jacket and hat on, 

 but quite black. He had come from the Portuguese settle- 

 ment at Tete, and he informed us that that town was situated 

 on the other bank of the river, and that the Portuguese had 

 been fighting- with the natives for the last two years. H« 



