The People Of The Surrounding Villages
Presented Us With Large Quantities Of Food, In Obedience To
The Mandate Of Shinte,
Without expecting any equivalent.
One village had lately been transferred hither from the country of Matiamvo.
They, of course, continue
To acknowledge him as paramount chief;
but the frequent instances which occur of people changing
from one part of the country to another, show that the great chiefs possess
only a limited power. The only peculiarity we observed in these people
is the habit of plaiting the beard into a three-fold cord.
The town of the Balonda chief Cazembe was pointed out to us
as lying to the N.E. and by E. from the town of Shinte,
and great numbers of people in this quarter have gone thither
for the purpose of purchasing copper anklets, made at Cazembe's,
and report the distance to be about five days' journey.
I made inquiries of some of the oldest inhabitants of the villages
at which we were staying respecting the visit of Pereira and Lacerda
to that town. An old gray-headed man replied that they had often
heard of white men before, but never had seen one, and added that one
had come to Cazembe when our informant was young, and returned again
without entering this part of the country. The people of Cazembe
are Balonda or Baloi, and his country has been termed Londa, Lunda, or Lui,
by the Portuguese.
It was always difficult to get our guides to move away from a place.
With the authority of the chief, they felt as comfortable
as king's messengers could, and were not disposed to forego
the pleasure of living at free quarters. My Makololo friends
were but ill drilled as yet; and since they had never left
their own country before, except for purposes of plunder,
they did not take readily to the peaceful system we now meant to follow.
They either spoke too imperiously to strangers, or, when reproved for that,
were disposed to follow the dictation of every one we met.
When Intemese, our guide, refused to stir toward the Leeba
on the 31st of January, they would make no effort to induce him to go;
but, having ordered them to get ready, Intemese saw the preparations,
and soon followed the example. It took us about four hours
to cross the Leeba, which is considerably smaller here
than where we left it - indeed, only about a hundred yards wide.
It has the same dark mossy hue. The villagers lent us canoes
to effect our passage; and, having gone to a village about two miles
beyond the river, I had the satisfaction of getting observations
for both longitude and latitude - for the former, the distance between
Saturn and the Moon, and for the latter a meridian altitude of Canopus.
Long. 22d 57' E., lat. 12d 6' 6" S.
These were the only opportunities I had of ascertaining my whereabouts
in this part of Londa. Again and again did I take out the instruments,
and, just as all was right, the stars would be suddenly obscured by clouds.
I had never observed so great an amount of cloudiness
in any part of the south country; and as for the rains, I believe
that years at Kolobeng would not have made my little tent so rotten and thin
as one month had done in Londa. I never observed in the south
the heavy night and early morning rains we had in this country.
They often continued all night, then became heavier about an hour before dawn.
Or if fair during the night, as day drew nigh, an extremely heavy,
still, pouring rain set in without warning. Five out of every six days
we had this pouring rain, at or near break of day, for months together;
and it soon beat my tent so thin, that a mist fell through on my face
and made every thing damp. The rains were occasionally, but not always,
accompanied with very loud thunder.
FEBRUARY 1ST. This day we had a fine view of two hills called Piri (Peeri),
meaning "two", on the side of the river we had left. The country there
is named Mokwankwa. And there Intemese informed us one of Shinte's children
was born, when he was in his progress southward from the country of Matiamvo.
This part of the country would thus seem not to have been inhabited
by the people of Shinte at any very remote period. He told me himself
that he had come into his present country by command of Matiamvo.
Here we were surprised to hear English cotton cloth much more eagerly
inquired after than beads and ornaments. They are more in need of clothing
than the Bechuana tribes living adjacent to the Kalahari Desert,
who have plenty of skins for the purpose. Animals of all kinds are rare here,
and a very small piece of calico is of great value.
In the midst of the heavy rain, which continued all the morning,
Intemese sent to say he was laid up with pains in the stomach,
and must not be disturbed; but when it cleared up, about eleven,
I saw our friend walking off to the village, and talking
with a very loud voice. On reproaching him for telling an untruth,
he turned it off with a laugh by saying he really had a complaint
in his stomach, which I might cure by slaughtering one of the oxen
and allowing him to eat beef. He was evidently reveling
in the abundance of good food the chief's orders brought us;
and he did not feel the shame I did when I gave a few beads only
in return for large baskets of meal.
A very old man visited us here with a present of maize: like the others,
he had never before seen a white man, and, when conversing with him,
some of the young men remarked that they were the true ancients,
for they had now seen more wonderful things than their forefathers.
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