428 
SOUTHERN AFRICA* 
travelling Eastward thus far, the party did not 
again come near the Leeambye. From this, the 
fact that we could get no more information 
about it in the North, it may fairly be inferred, 
that this noble river the Leeambye, holds an 
Easterly and Westerly course for a considerable 
distance, beyond where we left it. 
" The party having returned together with an 
embassy of Masiko's principal men, bearing a 
present, and friendly message, we left the river, 
and proceeded N". JR. W. through a portion of 
the county called Londa, the paramount chief 
of which is well known to the Portuguese by 
the title of Matiamvo. The inhabitants called 
Balonda, belong to the true woolly headed negro 
race, and differ remarkably from the Bechuanas 
and other tribes in the South, in their treatment 
of females, and in the practice of idolatry. They 
swear by their mothers, and never desert them, 
they allow the women a place and voice in their 
public assemblies, and frequently elevate them 
to the chieftainship. Near every village we ob- 
served an idol, consisting either of an image 
formed of grass and clay, intending to represent 
a lion, or alligator, or a block of wood, on the 
top of which the human face was rudely car- 
ved. In cases of sickness, or of non-success in 
hunting, offerings are made, and drums beat, 
before these idols, during whole nights. The Be- 
