216 
NALIELE. 
Chap. XII. 
east of this. He had given them cattle, ivory, and children, 
and had received in retmm a large blunderbuss to be mounted 
as a cannon. Wlien the slight circumstance of my having 
covered the body of the chief with my own, deranged the whole 
conspiracy, the Mambari, in their stockade, were placed in very 
awkward circumstances. It was proposed to attack them and 
drive them out of the country at once, but, dreading a com¬ 
mencement of hostilities, I urged the difficulties of that course, 
and showed that a stockade defended by perhaps forty muskets 
would be a very serious affair. “ Hunger is strong enough for 
that,” said an under-chief; “ a very great fellow is he.” They 
thought of attacking them by starvation. As the chief sufferers 
in case of such an attack would have been the poor slaves chained 
in gangs, I interceded for them, and the result of an intercession 
of which they were ignorant was, that they were allowed to 
depart in peace. 
Naliele, the capital of the Barotse, is built on a mound which 
was constructed artificially by Santou, and was his storehouse 
for gTain. His own capital stood about five hundred yards to 
the south of that, in what is now the bed of the river. All that 
remains of the largest mound in the valley are a few cubic yards 
of earth, to erect which, cost the whole of the people of Santuru 
the labour of many years. The same thing has happened to 
another ancient site of a town, Linangelo, also on the left bank. 
It would seem, therefore, that the river in this part of the valley 
must be wearing eastwards. No gveat rise of the river is required 
to submerge the whole valley; a rise of ten feet above the 
present low-water mark would reach the highest point it ever 
attains, as seen in the markings of the bank on which stood 
Santmm’s ancient capital, and two or three feet more would 
deluge all the villages. This never happens, though the water 
sometimes comes so near the foundations of the huts, that the 
people cannot move outside the walls of reeds which encircle 
their villages. When the river is compressed among the high 
rocky banks near Gonye, it rises sixty feet. 
The influence of the partial obstruction it meets with there, is 
seen in the more winding course of the river north of 16° ; and 
when the swell gets past Katima-molelo, it spreads out on the 
lands on both banks towards Seslieke. 
