184 Seven Years in Central Africa, [July, 
away as usual, saying I did not buy people, but back he came, 
beseeching me to relieve him of this little burden ; he had been 
taken in war, and his captor was going off on another errand, 
and wished to be rid of him. I would not believe that the boy 
was captured without his mother; he, however, insisted that it 
was so. I sent Kasoma to find out, and he reported that there 
was no appearance of the child's mother; so I bought him for 
four yards of white calico. He has ever since been ailing, can 
seldom be made to smile, and only looks up half tearfully with 
his large dark eyes. By his language I judge that he belongs to 
some far-off tribe, but we have not been able by any amount of 
compromise to come to an understanding with each other yet. 
Chinze, the fourth little one, was bought by a Bihe trader, had 
been suffering for long from very sore feet, and was quite unable 
to go with the rest to Bihe. The man asked me to take care of 
her until his return, a year or so hence, but I would not consent 
to do so unless he made the child over to me, as I could not think 
of giving her up again after a year. We finally agreed on the 
matter, so the little girl Chinze is now mine. Were I to give her 
up, she would just be sold at the coast ; I think I shall manage 
to cure the feet within a month or two. At this rate, in this 
centre of the slave traffic, there is no saying what the limits of 
my family will be. These last two little things, Segunda and 
Chinze, have been, I may say, forced upon me. I cannot but 
acknowledge the hand of God in the matter ; it will hinder me 
from going round among the villages as I might otherwise do ; 
still, the training of these is of the utmost importance, and will 
tell directly on the work in the years to come, if the Lord permit. 
SLAVE BUYING. 
The Bihe men who are still with me are anxious to be off to 
their own country, and I shall be glad to see them away. 
They would have left long ere this, but were afraid of being 
molested by the Garenganze, because of the treatment the latter 
have received at Bihe. Keeping them all these months has been 
a great expense and trial to me. When we arrived here in 
February, I gave each of my men so many beads, besides 
cloth, promising them that I would try and procure for each one 
a small tooth of ivory before they left, provided they did not 
