648 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



good-bye to him, and that after that there was nothing more to detain them, 

 and that they should get to Benguela, the place of his destination, in about 

 seventy days. Six weeks elapsed (a dreary time) before Kasongo turned up, 

 though Cameron sent many messengers to say he was waiting at Kilemba, 

 and wanted to get away. The only thing that happened to divert his atten- 

 tion during this time of waiting, was the discovery that his people had stolen 

 nearly all his beads, in the vain hope of forcing him to retrace his steps. 

 Jumah ibn Salim, however, stood his friend, and supplied him with stores, 

 which he expected would be sufficient to last to Benguela, or at all events 

 to Bihe, where he would be able to get enough to reach the coast. Kasongo's 

 advent was, however, by no means the signal for their immediate departure, 

 for he had to swagger and talk largely about his greatness, and hold many 

 meetings, suitably to impress the stranger with a sense of his influence and 

 importance. One day he held a very large levee, at which all the neigh- 

 bouring chiefs were assembled to do him homage, and where he made a very 

 long speech, in which he asserted that he was the greatest man in the world, 

 and that the only one that could at all compare with him was Mata Yafa, his 

 friend and relation, the chief of Ulunda. 



It seemed to our traveller as if they should now soon start, but Kendele 

 first wanted an agreement made out as to what he was to receive for the work 

 he was to do ; and when this was arranged he began to give himself airs, and 

 to find excuses for delaying their start. He said he had to build a house for 

 Kasongo, but that it would not detain them more than a few days, as it was 

 to be precisely similar to that in which he was living, and which he declared 

 was finished in four days. They left Kilemba for Totela, where the house 

 was to be built, on the 25th of February, 1875, and made a very dilatory 

 march of four days, besides halting two or three in order to give Kendele an 

 opportunity of stealing provisions, as he issued no rations whatever to any 

 one. In fact, even he himself and his women lived on a portion of the plunder 

 brought in by his people, and which he used to extort from them as leader of 

 the caravan. Besides his own carriers, there were also independent bands of 

 people of Bihe and Lovale, who ravaged the country in all directions, and were 

 under no restraint whatever. Kasongo, instead of checking these ruffians, 

 gave them liberty to do as they liked ; he even encouraged them in their 

 atrocities, if in return they would go with him when he went to punish any 

 of his villages, either for not paying tribute at all, or whose tribute he thought 

 insufficient. On these occasions all the males who could not escape were 

 shot down like dogs, and the women and children were seized as slaves. 



Kasongo's house was, after a time, finished; but it was built almost 

 entirely by Cameron's men, and under his superintendence, or it would 

 never have been finished at all. Even when the house was completed there 

 were still more delays. A party of Kendele's men had gone to Kanyoka, a 



