Villagers were no doubt pleased with being allowed to retire unscathed,
and we were also glad to get away without having shed a drop of blood,
or having compromised ourselves for any future visit. My men were delighted
with their own bravery, and made the woods ring with telling each other
how "brilliant their conduct before the enemy" would have been,
had hostilities not been brought to a sudden close.
I do not mention this little skirmish as a very frightful affair.
The negro character in these parts, and in Angola, is essentially cowardly,
except when influenced by success. A partial triumph over any body of men
would induce the whole country to rise in arms, and this is the chief danger
to be feared. These petty chiefs have individually but little power,
and with my men, now armed with guns, I could have easily
beaten them off singly; but, being of the same family, they would readily
unite in vast numbers if incited by prospects of successful plunder.
They are by no means equal to the Cape Caffres in any respect whatever.
In the evening we came to Moena Kikanje, and found him a sensible man.
He is the last of the Chiboque chiefs in this direction,
and is in alliance with Matiamvo, whose territory commences
a short distance beyond. His village is placed on the east bank of the Quilo,
which is here twenty yards wide, and breast deep.
The country was generally covered with forest, and we slept every night
at some village. I was so weak, and had become so deaf
from the effects of the fever, that I was glad to avail myself
of the company of Senhor Pascoal and the other native traders.
Our rate of traveling was only two geographical miles per hour,
and the average number of hours three and a half per day, or seven miles.
Two thirds of the month was spent in stoppages, there being
only ten traveling days in each month. The stoppages were caused by sickness,
and the necessity of remaining in different parts to purchase food;
and also because, when one carrier was sick, the rest refused
to carry his load.
One of the Pombeiros had eight good-looking women in a chain
whom he was taking to the country of Matiamvo to sell for ivory.
They always looked ashamed when I happened to come near them,
and must have felt keenly their forlorn and degraded position.
I believe they were captives taken from the rebel Cassanges.
The way in which slaves are spoken of in Angola and eastern Africa
must sound strangely even to the owners when they first come from Europe.
In Angola the common appellation is "o diabo", or "brutu";
and it is quite usual to hear gentlemen call out, "O diabo!
