366 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
whom we had lately left. The resemblance was so 
marked, that I need not tire the reader with a new 
description. 
His town was literally, as I had been told, placed 
under the two great peaks ; for just where we stood 
addressing the chief Mjela, their basaltic forms—needle¬ 
like—tapered their points hundreds of feet above the 
group of dwellings. 
The inhabitants, who pushed and eagerly crowded 
forward to see me, said that they had never seen a white 
man before. 
Much to the satisfaction of the bystanders, I presented 
to the chief, through Umfana, a fine coloured blanket, 
of a yellow and red pattern, in alternate squares. It 
was very amusing to see the gratification he evinced 
when he received this present. He made one of his 
slaves stand on a rock in front and hold the blanket 
before him, stretched from hand to hand, so that we had 
an exhibition of a square curtain, with a black knob 
topping over the centre. 
Mjela seemed to be a pretty good sort of fellow. 1 
put a few questions to him about the distance between 
his town and Tette, or Kunyungwi, as these natives 
termed it. 
He proceeded to describe a town which lay upon this 
side of the river. He had not been to Kunyungwi, but 
knew that it was very far away, pointing vaguely towards 
the east, in such a manner that we might be directed 
even beyond the rising sun. 
According to his statements the town which lay ahead, 
away down in the great valley of the Zambesi, was called 
Chibinga, and was three days’ journey from Zingabila. 
At Chibinga, he remarked, was a man who had bought 
gold from him. 
<£ Ali!” thought I, “he must be Portuguese. We 
will soon be at the river, although still very far from 
Tette.” 
Mjela began to talk with great volubility, saying that 
he had been badly treated by the Chibinga people, whom 
he called Mzungo (white). He said that they had 
