284 THE FIRST WHITE MAN. 



On-e village had lately been transferred hither from the 

 country of Matiamvo. They, of course, continue to 

 acknowledge him as paramount chief ; but the frequent 

 instances which occur of people changing from one part 

 of the country to another, show that the great chiefs 

 possess only a limited power. The only peculiarity we 

 observed in these people is the habit of plaiting the beard 

 into a threefold cord. 



The town of the Balonda chief, Cazembe, was pointed 

 out to us as lying to the N.B. and by K. from the town of 

 Shinte, and great numbers of people in this quarter have 

 gone thither for the purpose of purchasing copper anklets, 

 made at Cazembe's, and report the distance to be about 

 five days' journey. I made inquiries of some of the oldest 

 inhabitants of the villages at which we were staying, 

 respecting the visit of Pereira and Lacerda to that town. 

 An old grey-headed man replied that they had often 

 heard of white men before, but never had seen one, and 

 added that one had come to Cazembe when our informant 

 was young, and returned again without entering this part 

 of the country. The people of Cazembe are Balonda or 

 Baloi, and his country has been termed I/onda, L,unda, or 

 L,ui, by the Portuguese. 



It was always difficult to get our guides to move away 

 from a place. With the authority of the chief, they felt 

 as comfortable as king's messengers could, and were not 

 disposed to forego the pleasure of living at free quarters. 

 My Makololo friends were but ill drilled as yet ; and since 

 they had never left their own country before, except for 

 purposes of plunder, they did not take readily to the 

 peaceful system we now meant to follow. They either 

 spoke too imperiously to strangers, or, when reproved for 

 that, were disposed to follow the dictation of every one 

 we met. When Intemese, our guide, refused to stir 

 towards the Leeba on the 31st of January, they would 

 make no effort to induce him to go ; but, having ordered 

 them to get ready, Intemese saw the preparations, and 

 soon followed the example. It took us about four hours 

 to cross the L,eeba, which is considerably smaller here 

 than where we left it, — indeed, only about a hundred 

 yards wide. It has the same dark mossy hue. The 

 villagers lent us canoes to effect our passage ; and, having 

 gone to a village about two miles beyond the river, I had 

 the satisfaction of getting observations for both longitude 



