We Came Down A Branch Of The Leeambye Called Marile,
Which Departs From The Main River In Latitude 15d 15' 43" S.,
And Is A Fine Deep Stream About Sixty Yards Wide.
It makes
the whole of the country around Naliele an island.
When sleeping at a village
in the same latitude as Naliele town, two of the Arabs mentioned
made their appearance. They were quite as dark as the Makololo,
but, having their heads shaved, I could not compare their hair
with that of the inhabitants of the country. When we were about to leave
they came to bid adieu, but I asked them to stay and help us to eat our ox.
As they had scruples about eating an animal not blooded in their own way,
I gained their good-will by saying I was quite of their opinion
as to getting quit of the blood, and gave them two legs of an animal
slaughtered by themselves. They professed the greatest detestation
of the Portuguese, "because they eat pigs;" and disliked the English,
"because they thrash them for selling slaves." I was silent about pork;
though, had they seen me at a hippopotamus two days afterward,
they would have set me down as being as much a heretic as any of that nation;
but I ventured to tell them that I agreed with the English,
that it was better to let the children grow up and comfort their mothers
when they became old, than to carry them away and sell them across the sea.
This they never attempt to justify; "they want them only
to cultivate the land, and take care of them as their children."
It is the same old story, justifying a monstrous wrong
on pretense of taking care of those degraded portions of humanity
which can not take care of themselves; doing evil that good may come.
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