526 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
in the government of the country. The reins of govern¬ 
ment have been indeed centred in the country of the 
Baroze or Ungenge since the time of Chicreto, the son and 
successor of Chibitano, and while all the tribes of the 
West bestow upon the vast empire the name of Lui or 
Ungenge, those of the South distinguish it by the desig¬ 
nation of Baroze. Later on in the chapter I shall have 
occasion to say something of the history of this people, 
between the last visit of Livingstone and my passage 
through the territory, but for the present I continue the 
narrative of my adventures under the reign of Lobossi 
and of his counsellor and intimate Gambella. 
The political organisation of the Kingdom of the Lui 
is very different to that of the other people I had visited 
in Africa. It possesses two distinct ministries, that of 
war and foreign affairs, the last being subdivided into two 
sections, each having a minister of its own. One of them 
has to do with Western, the other with Southern affairs, 
so that while the former deals with the Portuguese in 
Benguella, the latter has to treat with the English at the 
Cape. At the time of my arrival, the King’s counsellors 
were four, two of them not being in office ; the ministry 
for foreign affairs was entrusted to a certain Matagja, 
whilst Gambella, the President of the King’s Council, had 
the double charge of war and Southern foreign affairs. I 
made myself acquainted with these details the better to 
regulate my conduct in the serious matters I had to nego¬ 
tiate. I was advised at daybreak that King Lobossi was 
prepared to receive me. I at once undid my traps, and 
put on the only complete suit of clothes I possessed; 
repairing subsequently to the great Square, in which the 
audience was to be held. 
I found the King seated in a high-backed chair, in the 
middle of the open place, and behind him stood a negro, 
shading him with a parasol. He was a young man about 
20, of lofty stature, and proportionately stout. He wore 
a cashmere mantle over a coloured shirt, and, in lieu of 
cravat, had a numerous collection of amulets hanging on 
his chest. His drawers were of coloured cashmere, dis¬ 
playing Scotch thread stockings, perfectly white, and he 
