TAKING THE LOAN OF A CANOE. 191 



If we kept going for 6 successive days, both men and oxen showed symptoms 

 of knocking up, although they were a most willing company, and all were 

 anxious to get home. It was therefore necessary to give another day weekly 

 for rest, besides Sunday. The starchy nature of the food had, I believe, 

 considerable influence on the rate of progress. In winding through forest, 

 I could not make any approach to a reckoning of distance ; an observation was 

 always necessary. The zigzag would make the day's march to be probably 

 not much under 20 miles in these cases. 



" I had indulged the hope of proceeding to the head-quarters of Matiamvo, 

 who seems to be located 19 days east-north-east of Cabango, or on lat. 8° 20' S., 

 long. 22° 32' E. But the long delay had now made such an inroad into 

 our stock of goods that we saw clearly, by the time of our arrival there, 

 we should be unable either to give a suitable present to the prince, or 

 pay our way afterwards to the south. This alone would not have proved a 

 barrier, for a branch of the Leeambye or Zambesi is reported to flow south- 

 wards from a part a few days east of his town, 23° or 24° E. long. (?), and it 

 would have been of great importance to have discovered water conveyance all 

 the way down to the country of the Makololo. But it is universally asserted 

 and believed that Matiamvo will on no account permit any white man, or even 

 native trader, to pass in that direction ; it is his own principal resort for ivory. 

 The tribes living there kill many elephants, and bring the ivory to him as 

 tribute. They are called Kanyika and Kanyoka, or Banyika and Banyoka. 

 Having but slender acquaintance with the Londa dialect, we felt that neither 

 pay nor persuasion could be effectively employed to secure permission to follow 

 our object ; so we decided on leaving Cabango to proceed south-east to our 

 friend Katema, and thence down the Leeba. 



" The people among whom we now travelled being Balonda only, we 

 got on very comfortably, except in one instance, in which a chief named 

 Kawawa, who had heard of our treatment by the Chiboque in going north, 

 presumed on his possessing the fords of the Kasai, so far as to demand tribute 

 from the white man. Nothing could exceed the civilities which passed between 

 us on the Sunday of our stay in his town. But when we offered to cross the 

 river he mustered all his forces to compel payment of ' a gun, an ox, a man, 

 a barrel of powder, a black coat ! or a book which would tell him if Matiamvo 

 had any intention of sending to cut off his head.' Unless we had submitted 

 to everything, as the Mambari do, and given a bad precedent for all white 

 men afterwards, we were obliged to part with ' daggers drawn.' The canoes 

 were all concealed among the reeds, but my men were better sailors than his; 

 and having taken the loan of one by night, in order to show how scrupulously 

 honest we were, we left it and a few beads on their own side of the river, and 

 thanked them next morning for their kindness amidst shouts of laughter. 



" The route we followed to Katema, being considerably to the east of that 



