560 AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
the plain ; and it is difficult to travel out of it in any 
direction but the west, which leads to Benguella, with¬ 
out coming across that redoubted insect. 
The foregoing is a brief summary of what I saw 
and learned in this interesting country, which, in the 
first instance, prior, that is to say, to the invasion of 
Chibitano, was visited by a Portuguese (Silva Porto), 
was subsequently seen by David Livingstone under 
the empire of the Macololos, and which I found in 
ANT HILLS. 
very different circumstances, under the Luina dynasty 
in 1878. 
Resuming the narrative of my own trying adventures 
on the 5th of September, the day following the revela¬ 
tion of Mariana, I resolved that the traitors should be 
betrayed by one of their own party, and cast my eyes 
upon Verissimo Goncalves. I called him into my hut, 
and showed him, before saying a word, an imaginary 
letter despatched to Benguella, wherein I informed the 
Governor that, having reason to mistrust him, I had to 
request the authorities to seize his wife, son and mother, 
and hold them as hostages; so that, if perchance I fell 
