528 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
people, I explained to the King that I was not a merchant, 
but came to visit him by order of the King of Portugal, 
and that I had that to say to him which could not well 
be said before so numerous an assembly. He replied 
that he knew and understood that it was so, and that the 
reception he had given me the evening before, and the one 
he made me on this occasion, must prove that he did not 
confound me with any trader whatsoever ; that I was his 
guest, and that we should have time to talk about affairs, 
as he hoped to have the happiness of keeping me for 
some time in his court. After this amiable expression of 
opinion, he dismissed me, and I returned to my house in 
a high fever. 
I found in my court-yard no fewer than 30 oxen, which 
the King had sent me as a present. The favourite slave 
of Lobossi hinted that it would be an act of delicacy on 
my part to order the animals to be slaughtered, to offer 
the best leg of beef to the King, and distribute meat 
among the courtiers. I thereupon gave orders to 
Augusto to act accordingly, and, the whole of the cattle 
having been killed, the flesh was divided among my car¬ 
riers and the people of the court. I took good care to 
send to the King and the four Counsellors the better 
parts, not forgetting to make Gambella’s the choicest, 
and letting him know that I did so. The hides, which 
are highly esteemed by the people, I presented to Matagja 
and Gambella. 
At 1 o’clock I was received by the King in private 
audience in a house of the same semi-cylindrical shape, 
but of large dimensions, being upwards of 60 feet long 
by 25 broad. Lobossi, on this occasion, was seated on a 
stool, and opposite him were the four Counsellors upon a 
bench, attended by some grandees, among whom was a 
hale old man, whose sympathetic and expressive face 
greatly struck me. This was Machauana, the former 
companion of Livingstone on the journey which the cele¬ 
brated explorer made from the Zambesi to Loan do, and 
of whom he speaks in his ‘ Journal ’ in such high terms 
of praise. An enormous pot of quimbombo was placed in 
the middle of the room, and after the King had drunk of 
