The quantity of hippopotamus meat eaten by our men made some of them ill, and our marches were necessarily short.After three hours'travel on the 13th, we spent the remainder of the day at the village of Chasiribera, on a rivulet flowing through a beautiful valley to the north, which is bounded by magnificent mountain-ranges.Pinkwe, or Mbingwe, otherwise Moeu, forms the south-eastern angle of the range.On the 16th June we were at the flourishing village of Senga, under the headman Manyame, which lies at the foot of the mount Motemwa.Nearly all the mountains in this country are covered with open forest and grass, in colour, according to the season, green or yellow.Many are between 2000 and 3000 feet high, with the sky line fringed with trees; the rocks show just sufficiently for one to observe their stratification, or their granitic form, and though not covered with dense masses of climbing plants, like those in moister eastern climates, there is still the idea conveyed that most of the steep sides are fertile, and none give the impression of that barrenness which, in northern mountains, suggests the idea that the bones of the world are sticking through its skin.
The villagers reported that we were on the footsteps of a Portuguese half-caste, who, at Senga, lately tried to purchase ivory, but, in consequence of his having murdered a chief near Zumbo and twenty of his men, the people declined to trade with him.He threatened to take the ivory by force, if they would not sell it; but that same night the ivory and the women were spirited out of the village, and only a large body of armed men remained.The trader, fearing that he might come off second best if it came to blows, immediately departed.
Chikwanitsela, or Sekuanangila, is the paramount chief of some fifty miles of the northern bank of the Zambesi in this locality.He lives on the opposite, or southern side, and there his territory is still more extensive.We sent him a present from Senga, and were informed by a messenger next morning that he had a cough and could not come over to see us."And has his present a cough too," remarked one of our party, "that it does not come to us?Is this the way your chief treats strangers, receives their present, and sends them no food in return?"Our men thought Chikwanitsela an uncommonly stingy fellow;
But, as it was possible that some of them might yet wish to return this way, they did not like to scold him more than this, which was sufficiently to the point.
Men and women were busily engaged in preparing the ground for the November planting.Large game was abundant; herds of elephants and buffaloes came down to the river in the night, but were a long way off by daylight.They soon adopt this habit in places where they are hunted.
The plains we travel over are constantly varying in breadth, according as the furrowed and wooded hills approach or recede from the river.On the southern side we see the hill Bungwe, and the long, level, wooded ridge Nyangombe, the first of a series bending from the S.E. to the N.W. past the Zambesi.We shot an old pallah on the 16th, and found that the poor animal had been visited with more than the usual share of animal afflictions.He was stone-blind in both eyes, had several tumours, and a broken leg, which showed no symptoms of ever having begun to heal.Wild animals sometimes suffer a great deal from disease, and wearily drag on a miserable existence before relieved of it by some ravenous beast.Once we drove off a maneless lion and lioness from a dead buffalo, which had been in the last stage of a decline.They had watched him staggering to the river to quench his thirst, and sprang on him as he was crawling up the bank.One had caught him by the throat, and the other by his high projecting backbone, which was broken by the lion's powerful fangs.The struggle, if any, must have been short.They had only eaten the intestines when we frightened them off.It is curious that this is the part that wild animals always begin with, and that it is also the first choice of our men.Were it not a wise arrangement that only the strongest males should continue the breed, one could hardly help pitying the solitary buffalo expelled from the herd for some physical blemish, or on account of the weakness of approaching old age.Banished from female society, he naturally becomes morose and savage; the necessary watchfulness against enemies is now never shared by others; disgusted, he passes into a state of chronic war with all who enjoy life, and the sooner after his expulsion that he fills the lion's or the wild-dog's maw, the better for himself and for the peace of the country.
We encamped on the 20th of June at a spot where Dr. Livingstone, on his journey from the West to the East Coast, was formerly menaced by a chief named Mpende.No offence had been committed against him, but he had firearms, and, with the express object of showing his power, he threatened to attack the strangers.Mpende's counsellors having, however, found out that Dr. Livingstone belonged to a tribe of whom they had heard that "they loved the black man and did not make slaves," his conduct at once changed from enmity to kindness, and, as the place was one well selected for defence, it was perhaps quite as well for Mpende that he decided as he did.Three of his counsellors now visited us, and we gave them a handsome present for their chief, who came himself next morning and made us a present of a goat, a basket of boiled maize, and another of vetches.A few miles above this the headman, Chilondo of Nyamasusa, apologized for not formerly lending us canoes."He was absent, and his children were to blame for not telling him when the Doctor passed; he did not refuse the canoes."The sight of our men, now armed with muskets, had a great effect.Without any bullying, firearms command respect, and lead men to be reasonable who might otherwise feel disposed to be troublesome.
