306 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



which is beautifully situated in the midst of fertile plains watered by two 

 splendid rivers, the travellers moralised on the worse than utter failure attending 

 the establishment of the Portuguese on the east coast of Africa. " Not a single 

 art (says Dr. Livingstone) save that of distilling spirits by means of a gun-barrel, 

 has ever been learnt from the strangers ; and if all the progeny of the whites were 

 at once to leave the country, their only memorial would be the ruins of a few 

 stone and mud-built walls, and that blighting relic of the slave-trade, the 

 belief that man may sell his brother man; a belief which is not of native 

 origin, for it is not found except in the track of the Portuguese." Beyond the 

 ruins of their churches at Zumbo, there is nothing in the habits and beliefs of 

 the people to tell that Christianity was once taught there. At Tete, Senna, 

 and Kilimane, where the Jesuits have still establishments, although shorn of 

 their original splendour, their want of success is in deep contrast to the good 

 done among the people of Ambaca, which is still perceptible after several 

 generations. Maintaining a footing in the country only on the sufferance of 

 the Zulus and other native tribes, it is a matter of deep regret that the Portu- 

 guese government should be permitted to stand in the way of the elevation of 

 a people, and the civilization of a vast territory. 



Between Zumbo and the falls, game of all kinds was so abundant that 

 their native attendants got fat, and became fastidious in their eating, declining 

 antelope and preferring buffalo flesh and guinea fowl. The natives were 

 curious and hospitable at all the villages they passed, and their bold and 

 fearless bearing told that they were now beyond the range of the operations 

 of the slave-traders. Families were frequently met marching in single file — 

 the man at the head, carrying nothing save his weapons of defence, his wives 

 and sons and daughters following with their scanty household utensils and 

 comforts. These parties always came in for a share of the white men's 

 abundance of flesh meat. Around the foot of the great tree of audience at 

 every village, or suspended from its branches, were collections of buffalo and 

 antelope horns and skulls, the trophies of the chase. The travellers remarked, 

 that " at these spots were some of the most splendid buffalo heads we have 

 ever seen ; the horns after making a complete circle had commenced a second 

 turn. This would be a rich country for a horn-fancier." 



The only thing edible they wanted in the central plains was vegetables ; 

 now and again they got a supply of sweet potatoes, which allayed the dis- 

 agreeable craving which a continuous diet of meat and meal had induced. 

 After crossing the Kafue, the party got amongst a people of Batoka origin, 

 and belonging to the same tribe as several of the attendants who had left 

 Linyanti with Livingstone. Here they were told that Moselekatse's (Sebi- 

 tuane's great enemy) chief town was above three hundred miles distant, and 

 that the English had come to him and taught him that it was wrong to kill 

 people, and that now he sent out his men to collect and sell ivory. It was 



