TIPO TIPO'S GAMP. 641 



tipo's camp. The country through which they travelled was exceedingly 

 beautiful and fertile, and was filled with groves of nutmeg-trees, and large 

 quantities of oil-palms. Everywhere they saw numerous tracks of elephants; 

 and sometimes they heard them trumpeting in the jungles. 



Cameron found, on his arrival at Tipo-tipo's camp, not so-much a camp 

 as a neatly-built and well-arranged town. Besides the principal trader, Tipo- 

 tipo himself, there were four or five smaller ones. Tipo-tipo, and the armed 

 followers from Zanzibar and Unyanyembe, amounted to nearly a thousand ; 

 in addition to these, slaves and native hangers on raised the sum total to up- 

 wards of two thousand five hundred. Arrived at this place, our traveller at 

 once sent some of his men, with guides belonging to the district, to ask per- 

 mission from the chief of the country to the west of the Lomami to pass 

 through his territory, as none of the Arabs had been allowed to pass that 

 way, though native traders were constantly going to and returning from 

 Lake Sankorra, which they reported as being fifteen marches distant. Cloth 

 and beads, obtained from traders who came there from the west, were shown 

 in confirmation of this report. The cloth and beads were of a different sort 

 altogether from any that were brought from Zanzibar. Cowries, too, which 

 were greatly in demand at Nyangwe, were here a perfect drug in the mar- 

 ket, owing to the large quantities that came from the West Coast. 



The traveller had not been at Tipo-tipo's camp more than two days 

 before he received a visit from Kasongo, the chief of the district. It was a 

 visit characterised by much parade and pomp. The first to arrive were 

 drummers and marimba players belonging to several petty chiefs ; then there 

 came a sort of master of the ceremonies, with a huge carved stick, that looked 

 like the sign of his office, followed by the small chiefs, each of whom he 

 announced in due form; and at last came Kasongo himself, and two of his 

 daughters, with a retinue of men, armed with spears and bows and arrows. 

 A clear space having been formed, Kasongo and his daughters executed a 

 sort of dance, accompanied by the musicians, and some singers, who chanted 

 a monotonous recitative. A large open hut, which was the general rendez- 

 vous of the traders, and where they usually passed the day, was now spread 

 •with carpets and mats in honour of the chief's arrival; when he had finished 

 his dance, he entered this hut. Here he and Cameron had a long palaver; 

 at first, he said he would go himself to the chief on the opposite side of the 

 Lomami, and try to make terms with him about the stranger's passing through 

 to the westward; but afterwards he drew away from this promise, saying 

 that he was too old to travel and that he could not go himself, but he would 

 send some of his head men instead to carry on the negotiations. 



Cameron waited for a day or two, and then, accompanied by Tipo-tipo, 

 and most of the principal Arab people, he returned Kasongo's visit. Ha 

 found the chief seated in a clear, open grassy plot, in the centre of his village, 

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