124 
NO HEALTHY LOCATION 
commanding position as they returned, and forced them to 
lay down all tho plunder on a sand-bank, and leave it there 
for its lawfhl owners. 
It was now quite evident that no healthy location could 
be obtained in which the Makololo would bo allowed to live 
in peace. 1 nad thus a fair excuse, if I had chosen to avail 
myself of it, of coming home and saying that the “door 
was shut,” because the Lord’s time had not yet come. But 
bolieving that it was my duty to devote some portion of 
my life to these (to mo at least) very confiding and affec- 
tionate Makololo, I resolved to follow out the second part 
of my plan, though I had failed in accomplishing tho first. 
The Leeba seemed to come from the N. and by W., or 
N.N.W. ; so, having an old Portuguese map, which pointed 
out the Coanza as rising from tho middle of the continent 
in 9° S. lat., 1 thought it probable that, when we had as- 
cended the Leeba (from 14° 11') two or three degrees, we 
should then be within one hundred and twenty miles of 
tho Coanza, and find no difficulty in following it down to 
the coast near Loanda. This was the logical deduction ; 
but, as is the case with many a plausiblo theory, ono of 
the premises was decidedly defective. The Coanza, as we 
afterward found, does not come from anywhore near the 
centre of tho country. 
The numbers of large game above Libonta are prodigious, 
and they proved romarkably tamo. Eighty-one buffaloes 
defiled in slow procession beforo our fire ono evening, within 
gunshot ; and herds of splendid elands stood by day, with- 
out fear, at two hundred yards' distance. They were all of 
the striped variety, and, with their forearm markings, largo 
dewlaps, and sleek skins, were a beautiful sight to see. 
The lions here roar much more than in tho country neat 
tho lake, Zouga, and Chobe. Ono evening we had a good 
opportunity of hearing the utmost exertions the animal 
can make in that line. Wo had made our beds on a large 
sand-bank, and could bo easily seen from all sides. A lion 
on tho opposite shore amused himself for hours by roaring 
