ARAB SLAVE HUNTERS. 123 



Portuguese, opposite Benguela. I thought of going westward on my further 

 travels in company with him, but the sight of gangs of poor wretches in 

 chains at the stockade induced me to resolve to proceed alone. 



" Some of the Mambari visited us subsequently to their flight, of which 

 I spoke before. They speak a dialect very much resembling the Barotse. 

 They have not much difficulty in acquiring the dialects, even though but 

 recently introduced to each other. They plait their hair in threefold cords, 

 and arrange it down by the sides of the head. They offered guns and 

 powder for sale at a cheaper rate than traders can do who come from the Cape 

 Colony ; but the Makololo despise Portuguese guns, because different from 

 those in the possession of other Bechuanas — the bullets are made of iron. 

 The slave-merchant seemed anxious to show kindness, influenced probably by 

 my valuable passport and letter of introduction from the Chevalier Duprat, 

 who holds the office of arbitrator in the British and Portuguese mixed com- 

 mission in Cape Town. This is the first instance in which the Portuguese 

 have seen the Leeambye in the interior. The course of Pereira* must be 

 shifted northwards. He never visited the Barotse : so the son and companions 

 of Santuru assert ; and the event of the visit of a white man is such a remark- 

 able affair among Africans, it could scarcely be forgotten in a century. 



" I have not, I am sorry to confess, discovered a healthy locality. The 

 whole of the country of Sebituane is unhealthy. The current of the river is 

 rapid as far as we went, and showed we must have been on an elevated table- 

 land ; yet the inundations cause fever to prevail very extensively. I am at a 

 loss what to do, but will not give up the case as hopeless. Shame upon us 

 missionaries if we are to be outdone by slave-traders! I met Arabs from 

 Zanzibar, subjects of the Imaum of Muscat, who had been quite across the 

 continent. They wrote Arabic fluently in my note-book, and boldly avowed 

 that Mahomet was greatest of all the prophets. 



" At one time, as I mentioned above, I thought of going West in 

 company with the slave-traders from Katongo, but a variety of considerations 

 induced me to decide on going alone. I think of Loanda, though the distance 

 is greater, as preferable to Benguela, and as soon as the rains commence will 

 try the route on horseback. Trees and rivers are reported, which would 

 render travelling by means of a waggon impossible. The Portuguese are 

 carried in hammocks hung on poles ; two slaves carry a man. It does not 

 look well. 



" I am sorry to say that the Boers destroyed my celestial map, and 

 thereby rendered it impossible for me to observe as many occultations as I 

 had intended. I have observed very few ; these I now send to Mr. Maclear, 

 in order that he may verify my lunars. If I am not mistaken, we have placed 



* A. Portuguese traveller. 



