534 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
him, and said, “ Give us the letters, master ; we will 
not wait for the pagans. Our people will be dead before 
we start. Regard them, will you ! They are sprawling 
about the camp without any life in them. Goee — 
Go-ee — Go-ee.” Finally, at noon, the guides and mes- 
sengers departed in company. 
Meanwhile a bale of cloth and a sack of beads were 
distributed, and the strongest and youngest men des- 
patched abroad in all directions to forage for food. 
Late in the afternoon they arrived in camp weakened 
and dispirited, having, despite all efforts, obtained but a 
few bundles of the miserable ground-nuts and sufficient 
sweet potatoes to give three small ones to each person, 
though they had given twenty times their value for 
each one. The heartless reply of the spoiled aborigines 
was, "Wait for the zandu” or market, which was to 
be held in two days at Nsanda ; for, as amongst the 
Babwende, each district has its respective days for 
marketing. Still what we had obtained was a respite 
from death ; and, on the morning of the 5th, the people 
were prepared to drag their weary limbs nearer to the 
expected relief. 
Our route lay along the crest of a ridge, until we 
arrived at a narrow alluvial valley, in which the chief 
village of the Nsanda district is situate, amidst palms, 
ground-nut, and cassava gardens, and small patches of 
beans, peas, and sweet potatoes. From this valley we 
ascended the grassy upland, until we came to what we 
might call Southern Nsanda. We had proceeded about 
200 yards beyond it when a powerful man, followed by 
a large crowd, advanced toward us, and, like him near 
Mwato Wandu, demanded to know why we passed 
through without payment. 
“ Payment ! Payment for what ? Look at my people ; 
they are skin and bone. They are dying for want of 
food in your country. Brother, stand off, or these men 
will be smelling food for themselves, and I would not 
stop them.” 
He became outrageous ; he called for his gun ; his 
followers armed themselves. Observing matters getting 
