4-J.3 PROJECT FOX A MAKOI<OI£> VISAGE. 



met with everywhere. A species of small fish, about the 

 size of the minnow, is caught in bagfuls, and dried in the 

 sun. The taste is a pungent aromatic bitter, and it was 

 partaken of freely by my people, although they had never 

 met with it before. On many of the paths which had been 

 flooded, a nasty sort of slime of decayed vegetable matter 

 is left behind, and much sickness prevails during the drying 

 up of the water. We did not find our friend Mozinkwa at 

 his pleasant home on the I^okaloeje ; his wife was dead, 

 and he had removed elsewhere. He followed us some dis- 

 tance, but our reappearance seemed to stir up his sorrows. 

 We found the pontoon at the village in which we left it. 

 It had been carefully preserved ; but a mouse had eaten a 

 hole in it, and rendered it useless. 



We traversed the extended plain on the north bank of 

 the I^eeba and crossed this river a little farther on at 

 Kanyonke's village, which is about twenty miles west of 

 the Peri hills, our former ford. The first stage beyond 

 the Ireeba, was at the rivulet I^oambo, by the village of 

 Chebende, nephew of Shinte ; and next day, we met 

 Chebende himself, returning from the funeral of Samoana, 

 his father. He was thin and haggard-looking, compared 

 to what he had been before, the probable effect of the orgies 

 in which he had been engaged. Pitsane and Mohorisi, 

 having concocted the project of a Makololo village on the 

 banks of the Leeba, as an approach to the white man's 

 market, spoke to Chebende, as an influential man, on 

 the subject, but he cautiously avoided expressing an 

 opinion. The idea which had sprung up in their own 

 minds of an establishment somewhere near the confluence 

 of the Leeba and Leeambye, commended itself to my 

 judgment at the time, as a geographically suitable point 

 for civilization and commerce. The right bank of the 

 I^eeba there is never flooded ; and from that point there 

 is communication by means of canoes to the country of 

 the Kanyika, and also to Cazembe and beyond, with but 

 one or two large waterfalls between. There is no obstruc- 

 tion down to the Barotse valley ; and there is probably 

 canoe navigation down the Kafue or Bashukulompo river, 

 though it is reported to contain many cataracts. It flows 

 through a fertile country, well peopled with Bamasasa, 

 who cultivate the native produce largely. 



As this was the middle of winter, it may be mentioned 

 that the temperature of the water in the morning was 47 °, 



