This Conviction
Is Strengthened By The Fact That When A Late Attempt Was Made
To Claim The Honor Of Crossing
The continent for the Portuguese,
the only proof advanced was the journey of two black traders
formerly mentioned, adorned with
The name of "Portuguese".
If a chain of stations had existed, a few hundred names of the same sort
might easily have been brought forward; and such is the love of barter
among all the central Africans, that, had there existed a market for ivory,
its value would have become known, and even that on the graves of the chiefs
would not have been safe.
When about to leave Moyara on the 25th, he brought a root which,
when pounded and sprinkled over the oxen, is believed to disgust the tsetse,
so that it flies off without sucking the blood. He promised to show me
the plant or tree if I would give him an ox; but, as we were traveling,
and could not afford the time required for the experiment,
so as not to be cheated (as I had too often been by my medical friends),
I deferred the investigation till I returned. It is probably
but an evanescent remedy, and capable of rendering the cattle safe
during one night only. Moyara is now quite a dependent of the Makololo,
and my new party, not being thoroughly drilled, forced him to carry
a tusk for them. When I relieved him, he poured forth a shower of thanks
at being allowed to go back to sleep beneath his skulls.
Next day we came to Namilanga, or "The Well of Joy". It is a small well
dug beneath a very large fig-tree, the shade of which renders the water
delightfully cool. The temperature through the day was 104 Deg. in the shade
and 94 Deg. after sunset, but the air was not at all oppressive.
This well received its name from the fact that, in former times,
marauding parties, in returning with cattle, sat down here and were regaled
with boyaloa, music, and the lullilooing of the women from the adjacent towns.
All the surrounding country was formerly densely peopled,
though now desolate and still. The old head man of the place told us
that his father once went to Bambala, where white traders lived,
when our informant was a child, and returned when he had become
a boy of about ten years. He went again, and returned when it was time
to knock out his son's teeth. As that takes place at the age of puberty,
he must have spent at least five years in each journey. He added
that many who went there never returned, because they liked that country
better than this. They had even forsaken their wives and children;
and children had been so enticed and flattered by the finery bestowed
upon them there, that they had disowned their parents and adopted others.
The place to which they had gone, which they named Bambala,
was probably Dambarari, which was situated close to Zumbo.
This was the first intimation we had of intercourse with the whites.
The Barotse, and all the other tribes in the central valley,
have no such tradition as this, nor have either the one or the other
any account of a trader's visit to them in ancient times.
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