But the people are now humbled
by the scourgings they have received, and seem to be in a favorable state
for the reception of the Gospel. The gradual restoration of their former
prosperity in cattle, simultaneously with instruction,
would operate beneficially upon their minds. The language is
a dialect of the other negro languages in the great valley;
and as many of the Batoka living under the Makololo understand
both it and the Sichuana, missionaries could soon acquire it
through that medium.
Monze had never been visited by any white man, but had seen
black native traders, who, he said, came for ivory, not for slaves.
He had heard of white men passing far to the east of him to Cazembe,
referring, no doubt, to Pereira, Lacerda, and others,
who have visited that chief.
The streams in this part are not perennial; I did not observe one
suitable for the purpose of irrigation. There is but little wood;
here and there you see large single trees, or small clumps of evergreens,
but the abundance of maize and ground-nuts we met with shows
that more rain falls than in the Bechuana country, for there
they never attempt to raise maize except in damp hollows
on the banks of rivers. The pasturage is very fine for both cattle and sheep.
My own men, who know the land thoroughly, declare that
it is all garden-ground together, and that the more tender grains,
which require richer soil than the native corn, need no care here.
It is seldom stony.
