1884.] From the Zambesi to Benguella. 125 
saying so. Africa is a very trying country in every sense of the 
word. It is not always the bright, smart, active man who does 
for Africa ; for such a man to find himself in the hands of some 
, miserable creatures, and actually made a plaything of by them, 
would often be utterly unbearable. To find that when he is 
* planning to make a few days' quicker march, his men are planning 
a few days' extra slow march; to have to deal with men who, 
directly they think they have become indispensable, delight to 
exercise the most cruel tyranny \ to find one's self surrounded by 
lip-friends only, whose hearts are like drawn swords, as a general 
rule — these are discoveries so utterly foreign to first impressions 
of the negro races that the hearts of many sink under them. The 
white man who comes to Africa thinks, as a rule, that the negro 
looks up to him as an essentially superior being; but let him 
hear them discussing round their camp fires, as I have often 
done when supposed by them to be lying asleep, and he will 
think differently. Is there a race under the sun which does not 
in its heart of hearts believe " We are the people"? 
In thinking of journeying alone, friends at home interested 
in this pioneer work will see that it is not an undue hastening on 
my part. I must get my goods up to Bihe in time for a final 
start this dry season, so as to reach and cross the Lovale flats, 
near the sources of the Zambesi, before they are flooded. Other- 
wise the journey would be much more difiicult. 
DECIDE TO GO TO GARENGANZE. 
I shall, God willing, first make for those high ranges of 
mountains which are marked in some maps just above the 
Barotse country, and shall engage carriers — some I have already 
partly engaged — for Msidi's town, which is among the hills in 
the country called, in the interior, the Garenganze. 
From the first I was very desirous of going at least in that 
direction, but was prevented, no doubt for a wise purpose, from 
going beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the Zambesi 
River, as the Barotse do not want any " good things " to go to 
the tribes under their sway. 
I have seen large companies of natives from that part, and 
have many times conversed with them. From native sources 
in the interior, I learn that the Garenganze is one of the most 
