150 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



observed an idol, consisting either of a clay figure of a lion or alligator, or a 

 block of wood on which a human face was rudely carved. In cases of sickness 

 or failure in any pursuit, offerings of food are presented and drums beat before 

 them during whole nights. The Balonda invariably go armed with short 

 broadswords, large bows and arrows, and guns, and seem to possess but little 

 sense of security in their own country. Cases of kidnapping of children occurred 

 while we were passing, and these with persons who flee from one chieftain to 

 another are generally sold to half-blood Portuguese who visit the country as 

 slave dealers. The country appeared to contain a large population, and it 

 abounds in the necessaries of life. The soil is fertile, and the climate admits 

 of the crops appearing in all the different stages all the year round. 



" The time of our visit was unfortunately the season of the heavy 

 rains, which appear to follow the course of the sun in his progress north. Our 

 experience can scarcely be considered a fair criterion of what may occur 

 during the rest of the year : perpetual drenchings, a hot sun (the temperature 

 never under 84° in the shade), quickly drying our clothing, and frequently 

 sleeping in damp beds, prevented my forming a reliable idea of the salubrity 

 of the climate. My companions, all native Zambesians, had nearly as much 

 sickness as myself — intermittent fever being the complaint from which we all 

 suffered most. The country, however, is elevated, and, abounding in flowing 

 streams, is moreover of great fertility and beauty. The time spent in the 

 way was also longer than may be required at other seasons, because we had 

 to halt early in the afternoons, in order to allow the men to build little huts 

 for shelter during the night. The dense-tangled forests, however, presented 

 an insurmountable obstacle to travelling in waggons, but the plains on our 

 west may not be similarly obstructed. 



"When we came into the vicinity of the Portuguese settlements, the 

 native tribes treated us rather badly. Some levied heavy fines on the most 

 frivolous pretences; others demanded payment for leave to pass at all. I 

 parted with everything I could dispense with, and my men gave all their 

 ornaments and most of their clothes, either for food, fines, or ferries. But 

 when we explained we had nothing to part with besides, it did not in the 

 least appease the violence of the mobs which surrounded us, we must pay 

 either a man, an ox, or a gun, and were looked upon as interlopers, wishing 

 to cheat them out of their dues. At last, on reaching the river Quango, by 

 the generous assistance of a young Portuguese sergeant of Militia, we entered 

 the territory of Portugal, and received the kindest treatment from all classes 

 all the way to Loanda. 



" In that city I arrived nearly knocked up, and suffering from fever and 

 dysentery. Edmund Gabriel, Esq., Her Majesty's Commissioner for the 

 Suppression of the Slave Trade, and the only Englishman I know in the city, 

 most generously received me and my twenty-seven companions into his house. 



