There Was Evidently
No Healthy Spot In This Quarter; And The Current Of The River Being
About Four And A Half Miles Per Hour (One Hundred Yards In Sixty Seconds),
I Imagined We Might Find What We Needed In The Higher Lands,
From Which The River Seemed To Come.
I resolved, therefore,
to go to the utmost limits of the Barotse country before coming
to a final conclusion.
Katongo was the best place we had seen; but,
in order to accomplish a complete examination, I left Sekeletu at Naliele,
and ascended the river. He furnished me with men, besides my rowers,
and among the rest a herald, that I might enter his villages
in what is considered a dignified manner. This, it was supposed,
would be effected by the herald shouting out at the top of his voice,
"Here comes the lord; the great lion;" the latter phrase being "tau e tona",
which, in his imperfect way of pronunciation, became "Sau e tona",
and so like "the great sow" that I could not receive the honor with
becoming gravity, and had to entreat him, much to the annoyance of my party,
to be silent.
In our ascent we visited a number of Makololo villages, and were always
received with a hearty welcome, as messengers to them of peace,
which they term "sleep". They behave well in public meetings,
even on the first occasion of attendance, probably from
the habit of commanding the Makalaka, crowds of whom swarm in every village,
and whom the Makololo women seem to consider as especially under their charge.
The river presents the same appearance of low banks without trees
as we have remarked it had after we came to 16d 16',
until we arrive at Libonta (14d 59' S. lat.). Twenty miles beyond that,
we find forest down to the water's edge, and tsetse.
Here I might have turned back, as no locality can be inhabited by Europeans
where that scourge exists; but hearing that we were not far
from the confluence of the River of Londa or Lunda, named Leeba or Loiba,
and the chiefs of that country being reported to be friendly to strangers,
and therefore likely to be of use to me on my return from the west coast,
I still pushed on to latitude 14d 11' 3" S. There the Leeambye
assumes the name Kabompo, and seems to be coming from the east.
It is a fine large river, about three hundred yards wide,
and the Leeba two hundred and fifty. The Loeti, a branch of which
is called Langebongo, comes from W.N.W., through a level grassy plain
named Mango; it is about one hundred yards wide, and enters the Leeambye
from the west; the waters of the Loeti are of a light color,
and those of the Leeba of a dark mossy hue. After the Loeti
joins the Leeambye the different colored waters flow side by side
for some distance unmixed.
Before reaching the Loeti we came to a number of people
from the Lobale region, hunting hippopotami.
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