It Was Rather Trying For Me,
Because I Knew That The Chiboque Would Aim At The White Man First;
But
I was careful not to appear flurried, and, having four barrels
ready for instant action, looked quietly at the savage
Scene around.
The Chiboque countenance, by no means handsome, is not improved
by the practice which they have adopted of filing the teeth to a point.
The chief and counselors, seeing that they were in more danger than I,
did not choose to follow our decision that they should begin
by striking the first blow, and then see what we could do,
and were perhaps influenced by seeing the air of cool preparation
which some of my men displayed at the prospect of a work of blood.
The Chiboque at last put the matter before us in this way:
"You come among us in a new way, and say you are quite friendly:
how can we know it unless you give us some of your food,
and you take some of ours? If you give us an ox, we will give you
whatever you may wish, and then we shall be friends." In accordance with
the entreaties of my men, I gave an ox; and when asked what I should like
in return, mentioned food as the thing which we most needed.
In the evening Njambi sent us a very small basket of meal,
and two or three pounds of the flesh of our own ox! with the apology
that he had no fowls, and very little of any other food.
It was impossible to avoid a laugh at the coolness of the generous creatures.
I was truly thankful, nevertheless, that, though resolved to die
rather than deliver up one of our number to be a slave,
we had so far gained our point as to be allowed to pass on
without having shed human blood.
In the midst of the commotion, several Chiboque stole pieces of meat
out of the sheds of my people, and Mohorisi, one of the Makololo,
went boldly into the crowd and took back a marrow-bone from one of them.
A few of my Batoka seemed afraid, and would perhaps have fled
had the affray actually begun, but, upon the whole, I thought my men
behaved admirably. They lamented having left their shields at home
by command of Sekeletu, who feared that, if they carried these,
they might be more disposed to be overbearing in their demeanor to the tribes
we should meet. We had proceeded on the principles of peace and conciliation,
and the foregoing treatment shows in what light our conduct was viewed;
in fact, we were taken for interlopers trying to cheat
the revenue of the tribe. They had been accustomed to get a slave or two
from every slave-trader who passed them, and now that we disputed the right,
they viewed the infringement on what they considered lawfully due
with most virtuous indignation.
MARCH 6TH. We were informed that the people on the west
of the Chiboque of Njambi were familiar with the visits of slave-traders;
and it was the opinion of our guides from Kangenke that
so many of my companions would be demanded from me, in the same manner
as the people of Njambi had done, that I should reach the coast
without a single attendant; I therefore resolved to alter our course
and strike away to the N.N.E., in the hope that at some point farther north
I might find an exit to the Portuguese settlement of Cassange.
We proceeded at first due north, with the Kasabi villages on our right,
and the Kasau on our left.
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