ch. xvii MALINGANIRO AND HIS IVORY 
177 
ganiro had accumulated a large quantity of 
ivory ; for, apart from the fact that most of his men 
were elephant hunters, he had acquired a con¬ 
siderable portion of his stock of that precious com¬ 
modity by plundering the villages on the lake shore. 
This knowledge was sufficient to rouse the cupidity 
of the Portuguese, but Fate required another piece 
in order to play the strangely malign little game that 
it had in its mind, and that piece was at hand. 
There lived at Matengula a thorough scoundrel, one 
Abdullah Nkwanda, a negro with a considerable 
admixture of Arab blood in his veins, who, for some 
years, had been trading in a small way in this part 
of the country, and he and the Portuguese were not 
long in putting their heads together and evolving a 
plan worthy of the occasion and the booty at stake. 
Getting permission from Malinganiro, Abdullah 
took up a stock of goods to the chiefs head village 
and announced his intention, were he properly 
treated, of making his home there. Malinganiro 
was delighted with the idea, and by way of giving 
an assurance of his friendliness towards the new¬ 
comer, sent Abdullah Nkwanda one of his 
daughters. 
It did not take Abdullah long to satisfy himself 
that Malinganiro really had plenty of ivory, and, 
what was more important, was willing to dispose of 
it, and the only difficulty that stood in the way of 
N 
