Chap. XV. 
MAMBAPJ TPADEPS. 
271 
montanus, tliougli the country is perfectly flat, and was finely 
marked down to the feet, as all the zebras are in these parts. 
To our first message, offering a visit of explanation to Ma- 
nenko, we got an answer, with a basket of manioc-roots, that we 
must remain where we were till she should visit me. Having 
waited two days already for her, other messengers arrived with 
orders for me to come to her. After four days of rains and 
negotiation, I declined going at all, and proceeded up the river 
to the small stream Makondo (lat. 13° 23' 12" S.), wliich enters 
the Leeba from the east, and is between twenty and thirty yards 
broad. 
January 1854.—We had heavy rains almost every day; 
indeed the rainy season had fairly set in. Baskets of the purple 
fruit called mawa were frequently brought to us by the villagers ; 
not for sale, but from a belief that their chiefs would be pleased 
to hear that they had treated us well; we gave them pieces of 
meat in return. 
Wlien crossing at the confluence of the Leeba and Makondo, 
one of my men picked up a bit of a steel watch-chain of Engbsh 
manufacture, and we were informed that tins was the spot where 
the Mambari cross in coming to Masiko. Their visits explain 
why Sekelenke kept his tusks so carefully. These Mambari are 
very enterprising merchants: when they mean to trade with a 
town, they deliberately begin the affair by building lints, as if 
they knew that little business could be transacted without a 
liberal allowance of time for palaver. They bring Manchester 
goods into the heart of Africa; these cotton prints look so won¬ 
derful that the Makololo could not believe them to be the work 
of mortal hands. On questioning the Mambari they were an¬ 
swered that English manufactures came out of the sea, and beads 
were gathered on its shore. To Africans our cotton-mills are 
fairy di-eams. “ How can the irons spin, weave, and print so 
beautifully ? ” Our country is like what Taprobane was to our 
ancestors : a strange realm of light, whence came the diamond, 
muslin, and peacocks; an attempt at explanation of our manu¬ 
factures, usually elicits the expression, “ Truly! ye are gods! ” 
When about to leave the Makondo, one of my men had dreamed 
that Mosantu was shut up a prisoner in a stockade; this dream 
depressed the spirits of the whole party, and when I came out of 
