Chap. XXIII. 
CIVILITY OF A FEMALE CHIEF. 
461 
general direction we ought to follow, and also if any deviation 
occurred from our proper route; but to avoid impassable forests 
and untreadable bogs, and to get to the proper fords of the rivers, 
we always tried to procure a guide, and he always followed the 
common path from one village to another when that lay in the 
direction we were going. 
After leaving Cabango on the 21st, we crossed several little 
streams running into the Chihombo on our left, and in one of 
them I saw tree ferns (Cyathea dregei) for. the first time in Africa. 
The trunk was about four feet high and ten inches in diameter. 
We saw also grass trees of two varieties, wliich in damp locahties 
had attained a height of forty feet. On crossing the Chihombo, 
which we did about twelve miles above Cabango, we found it 
waist-deep and rapid. We were dehghted to see the evidences of 
buffalo and hippopotami on its banks. As soon as we got away 
from the track of the slave-traders, the more kindly spirit of the 
southern Balonda appeared, for an old man brought a large 
present of food from one of the villages, and volunteered to go as 
guide himself. The people, however, of the numerous villages 
which we passed, always made efforts to detain us, that they 
might have a little trade in the way of furnishing our suppers. 
At one village, indeed, they would not show us the path at all, 
unless we remained at least a day with them. Having refused, 
we took a path in the dhection we ought to go, but it led us 
into an inextricable thicket. Eetm^ning to the village again, we 
tried another footpath in a similar direction; but this led us into 
an equally impassable and trackless forest. We were thus forced 
to come back and remain. In the following morning they put 
us in the proper path, which in a few hours led us through a 
forest, that would otherwise have taken us days to penetrate. 
Beyond this forest we found the village of Nyakalonga, a sister 
of the late Matiamvo, who treated us handsomely. She wished 
her people to guide us to the next village, but tliis they declined 
unless we engaged in trade. She then requested us to wait an 
hour or two till she could get ready a present of meal, manioc- 
roots, ground-nuts, and a fowl. It was truly pleasant to meet 
with people possessing some civihty, after the hauteur we had 
experienced on the slave-path. She sent her son to the next 
village without requiring payment. The stream wliich ran past 
