CHANGE OP PATH. 
213 
rather than deliver up one of our number to be a 
slave, we had so far gained our point as to be allowed to 
pass on without having shed human blood. 
In the midst of the commotion, sovoral Chiboquo stole 
pieces of meat out of the sheds of my people, and Moho 
risi, one of the Makololo, went boldly into the crowd and 
took back a marrow-bone from one of them. A few of my 
Batoka seemed afraid, and would perhaps have fled had 
the affray actually begun, but, upon the whole, I thought 
ra y men behaved admirably. They lamented having loft 
their shields at home by command of Sekelotu, who feared 
that, if they carried these, they might be more disposed to 
be overbearing in their demeanor to the tribes we should 
meet. We had proceeded on the principles of peaco and 
conciliation, and the foregoing treatment shows in what 
light our conduct was viewed : in fact, wo wore taken for 
interlopers trying to cheat the rovonue of the tribe. They 
had been accustomed to get a slave or two from every 
slave-trader who passed them, and, now that we disputed 
the right, they viewed the infringement on what they con- 
sidered lawfully duo with most virtuous indignation. 
March 6. — We were informed that the people on the 
west of the Chiboque of Njambi were familiar with the 
visits of slavo-trader 3 ; and it was the opinion of our guides 
from Kangonko that so many of my companions would bo 
demanded from me, in the same manner as the people 
°f Njambi had done, that I should reach the coast without 
a single attendant. I therefore resolved to alter our course 
a nd strike away to the N.N.E., in the hope that at some 
Point farther north I might find an exit to the Portuguese 
settlement of Cassango. We proceeded at first due north, 
With the Kasabi villages on our right and the Jvasau or 
Our left. During the first twenty miles we crossed many 
small, but now swollen, streams, having the usual boggy 
banks; and wherever the water had stood for any length 
Of time it was discolored with rust of iron. 
On the 8th, one of the men had left an ounce or two of 
