This Mode, With The Somewhat Egyptian Cast Of Countenance
In Other Parts Of Londa, Reminded Me Strongly Of The Paintings Of That Nation
In The British Museum.
We had now rain every day, and the sky seldom presented
that cloudless aspect and clear blue so common
In the dry lands of the south.
The heavens are often overcast by large white motionless masses,
which stand for hours in the same position, and the intervening spaces
are filled with a milk-and-water-looking haze. Notwithstanding these
unfavorable circumstances, I obtained good observations
for the longitude of this important point on both sides of the Quango,
and found the river running in 9d 50' S. lat., 18d 33' E. long.
On proceeding to our former station near Sansawe's village,
he ran to meet us with wonderful urbanity, asking if we had seen Moene Put,
king of the white men (or Portuguese); and added, on parting,
that he would come to receive his dues in the evening. I replied that,
as he had treated us so scurvily, even forbidding his people
to sell us any food, if he did not bring us a fowl and some eggs
as part of his duty as a chief, he should receive no present from me.
When he came, it was in the usual Londa way of showing
the exalted position he occupies, mounted on the shoulders of his spokesman,
as schoolboys sometimes do in England, and as was represented
to have been the case in the southern islands when Captain Cook visited them.
My companions, amused at his idea of dignity, greeted him with a hearty laugh.
He visited the native traders first, and then came to me with two cocks
as a present. I spoke to him about the impolicy of treatment we had received
at his hands, and quoted the example of the Bangalas, who had been conquered
by the Portuguese, for their extortionate demands of payment for firewood,
grass, water, etc., and concluded by denying his right to any payment
for simply passing through uncultivated land. To all this he agreed;
and then I gave him, as a token of friendship, a pannikin of coarse powder,
two iron spoons, and two yards of coarse printed calico.
He looked rather saucily at these articles, for he had just received
a barrel containing 18 lbs. of powder, 24 yards of calico,
and two bottles of brandy, from Senhor Pascoal the Pombeiro.
Other presents were added the next day, but we gave nothing more;
and the Pombeiros informed me that it was necessary to give largely,
because they are accompanied by slaves and carriers who are
no great friends to their masters; and if they did not secure
the friendship of these petty chiefs, many slaves and their loads
might be stolen while passing through the forests. It is thus
a sort of black-mail that these insignificant chiefs levy;
and the native traders, in paying, do so simply as a bribe
to keep them honest. This chief was a man of no power,
but in our former ignorance of this he plagued us a whole day in passing.
Finding the progress of Senhor Pascoal and the other Pombeiros
excessively slow, I resolved to forego his company to Cabango
after I had delivered to him some letters to be sent back to Cassange.
I went forward with the intention of finishing my writing, and leaving
a packet for him at some village. We ascended the eastern acclivity
that bounds the Cassange valley, which has rather a gradual ascent
up from the Quango, and we found that the last ascent, though apparently
not quite so high as that at Tala Mungongo, is actually much higher.
The top is about 5000 feet above the level of the sea,
and the bottom 3500 feet; water boiling on the heights at 202 Deg.,
the thermometer in the air showing 96 Deg.; and at the bottom at 205 Deg.,
the air being 75 Deg. We had now gained the summit of the western
subtending ridge, and began to descend toward the centre of the country,
hoping soon to get out of the Chiboque territory, which, when we ascended
from the Cassange valley, we had entered; but, on the 19th of April,
the intermittent, which had begun on the 16th of March, was changed into
an extremely severe attack of rheumatic fever. This was brought on
by being obliged to sleep on an extensive plain covered with water.
The rain poured down incessantly, but we formed our beds
by dragging up the earth into oblong mounds, somewhat like graves
in a country church-yard, and then placing grass upon them.
The rain continuing to deluge us, we were unable to leave for two days,
but as soon as it became fair we continued our march.
The heavy dew upon the high grass was so cold as to cause shivering,
and I was forced to lie by for eight days, tossing and groaning
with violent pain in the head. This was the most severe attack I had endured.
It made me quite unfit to move, or even know what was passing outside
my little tent. Senhor Pascoal, who had been detained by the severe rain
at a better spot, at last came up, and, knowing that leeches abounded
in the rivulets, procured a number, and applied some dozens
to the nape of the neck and the loins. This partially relieved the pain.
He was then obliged to move forward, in order to purchase food
for his large party. After many days I began to recover,
and wished to move on, but my men objected to the attempt
on account of my weakness. When Senhor Pascoal had been some time
at the village in front, as he had received instructions from his employer,
Captain Neves, to aid me as much as possible, and being himself
a kindly-disposed person, he sent back two messengers to invite me to come on,
if practicable.
It happened that the head man of the village where I had lain twenty-two days,
while bargaining and quarreling in my camp for a piece of meat,
had been struck on the mouth by one of my men.
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