55 8 NATIVE'S IDEAS OF THE ENGLISH. 



again quite rotten. One of my men, after long sickness,, 

 which I did not understand, died here. He was one of 

 the Batoka, and, when unable to walk, I had some diffi- 

 culty in making his companions carry him. They wished 

 to leave him to die when his case became hopeless. 

 Another of them deserted to Mozinkwa. He said that his 

 motive for doing so was that the Makololo had killed both 

 his father and mother, and, as he had neither wife nor 

 child, there was no reason why he should continue longer 

 with them. I did not object to his statements, but said 

 if he should change his mind he would be welcome to 

 rejoin us, and intimated to Mozinkwa that he must not be 

 sold as a slave. We are now among people inured to slave- 

 dealing. We were visited by men who had been as far as 

 Tete or Nyungwe, and were told that we were but ten days 

 from that fort. One of them, a Mashona man, who had 

 come from a great distance to the S.W., was anxious to 

 accompany us to the country of the white men ; he had 

 travelled far, and I found that he had also knowledge of 

 the English tribe, and of their hatred to the trade in 

 slaves. He told Sekwebu that the " English were men," 

 an emphasis being put upon the term men, which leaves 

 the impression that others are, as they express it in 

 speaking scornfully, " only things." Several spoke in the 

 same manner, and I found that from Mpende's down- 

 wards I rose higher every day in the estimation of my 

 own people. Even the slaves gave a very high character 

 to the English, and I found out afterwards that, when 

 I was first reported at Tete, the servants of my friend 

 the Commandant said to him in joke, " Ah ! this is our 

 brother who is coming ; we shall all leave you and go with 

 him." We had still, however, some difficulties in store 

 for us before reaching that point. 



The man who wished to accompany us came and told 

 us before our departure that his wife would not allow him 

 to go, and she herself came to confirm the decision. 

 Here the women have only a small puncture in the upper 

 lip, in which they insert a little button of tin. The 

 perforation is made by degrees, a ring with an opening in 

 it being attached to the lip, and the ends squeezed 

 gradually together. The pressure on the flesh between 

 the ends of the ring causes its absorption, and a hole is 

 the result. Children may be seen with the ring on the lip, 

 but not yet punctured. The tin they purchase from the 



