228 
THE CHIEF SANSAWE. 
spoke very contemptuously of the poor things we offered 
him instead We told his messengers that the tusks were 
Sokelctu’s : every thing was gone except my instruments, 
which could be of no use to them whatover. One of them 
begged some meat, and, when it was refused, said to my 
men, “ You may as well give it, for we shall take all after 
we have killed you to-morrow.” Tho more humbly wo 
spoke, the more insolent the Bashinje became, till at last 
we were all feeling savage and sulky, but continued to 
speak as civilly as we could. They aro fond of argument, 
and, when I denied their l’ight to demand tribute from a 
white man who did not trado in slaves, an old white- 
headed negro put rather a posing question “ You know 
that God has placed chiefs among us whom we ought to 
support. Iiow is it that you, who have a book that tells 
you about him, do not come forward at once to pay this 
chief tribute like every one else ?” I replied by asking, 
“How could I know that this was a chief, who had allowed 
mo to remain a day and a half near him without giving mo 
any thing to eat ?” This, which to tho uninitiated may 
seem sophistry, was to the Central Africans quite a rational 
question ; for he at once admitted that food ought to have 
been sent, and added that probably his chiof was only 
making it ready for me, and that it would come soon. 
After being wearied by talking all day to different par- 
ties sent by Sansawc, we were honored by a visit fro® 
himself: ho is quite a young man, and of rather a pleasing 
countenance. There cannot have been much intercourse 
between real Portuguese and these peoplo even here, a® 
close to tho Quango, for Sansawo asked mo to show hi® 
my hair, on the ground that, though he had heard of »*> 
and some white men had oven passed through his country, 
he had never seen straight hair before. This is quite P° s ‘ 
Bible, as most of the slave-traders are not Portuguese, hut 
half-castes. The difference between their wool and our ha® 
caused him to burst into a laugn, and tho contrast betwecD 
the exposed and unexposod parts of my skin, when exhibit 
