CATTLE AXD TSETSE. 315 



been infested by the tsetse, but that, as the people killed 

 off the game on which, in the absence of man, the tsetse 

 must subsist, the insect was starved out of the country. 

 It is now found only where wild animals abound, and the 

 Balonda, by the possession of guns, having cleared most 

 of the country of all the large game, we may have happened 

 to come just when it was possible to admit of cattle. 

 Hence the success of Katema, Shinte, and Matiamvo with 

 their herds. It would not be surprising, though they 

 know nothing of the circumstance ; a tribe on the Zambesi, 

 which I encountered, whose country was swarming with 

 tsetse, believed that they could not keep any cattle 

 because " no one loved them well enough to give them 

 the medicine of oxen ; " and even the Portuguese at 

 I/oanda accounted for the death of the cattle brought 

 from the interior to the sea-coast, by the prejudicial 

 influence of the sea air ! One ox which I took down to 

 the sea from the interior, died at Loanda, with all the 

 symptoms of the poison injected by tsetse, which I saw 

 myself, in a district a hundred miles from the coast. 



WMle at the villages of the Kasabi, we saw no evidence 

 of want of food among the people. Our beads were very 

 valuable, but cotton cloth would have been still more so ; 

 as we travelled along, men, women, and children came 

 running after us, with meal and fowls for sale, which we 

 would gladly have purchased had we possessed any 

 English manufactures. When they heard that we had 

 no cloth, they turned back much disappointed. 



The amount of population in the central parts of the 

 country may be called large, only as compared with the 

 Cape Colony or the Bechuana country. The cultivated 

 land is as nothing compared with what might be brought 

 under the plough. There are flowing streams in abundance 

 which, were it necessary, could be turned to the purpose 

 of irrigation with but little labour. Miles of fruitful 

 country are now lying absolutely waste, for there is not 

 even game to eat off the fine pasturage, and to recline 

 under the evergreen shady groves winch we are ever 

 passing in our progress. The people who inhabit the 

 central region are not all quite black in colour. Many 

 incline to that of bronze, and others are as light in hue as 

 the Bushmen ; who, it may be remembered, afford a 

 proof that heat alone does not cause blackness, but that 

 neat and moisture combined, do very materially deepen 



