This We Felt To Be A Misfortune,
As The People All Suspect A Man Who Comes Telling His Own Tale;
But there being no help for it, we went on, and found the head man
of a village on the
Rivulet Kalomba, called Kangenke,
a very different man from what his enemy represented. We found, too,
that the idea of buying and selling took the place of giving for friendship.
As I had nothing with which to purchase food except a parcel of beads
which were preserved for worse times, I began to fear that we should soon
be compelled to suffer more from hunger than we had done.
The people demanded gunpowder for every thing. If we had possessed
any quantity of that article, we should have got on well,
for here it is of great value. On our return, near this spot
we found a good-sized fowl was sold for a single charge of gunpowder.
Next to that, English calico was in great demand, and so were beads;
but money was of no value whatever. Gold is quite unknown;
it is thought to be brass; trade is carried on by barter alone.
The people know nothing of money. A purse-proud person would here feel
the ground move from beneath his feet. Occasionally a large piece of copper,
in the shape of a St. Andrew's cross, is offered for sale.
FEBRUARY 27TH. Kangenke promptly furnished guides this morning,
so we went briskly on a short distance, and came to a part of the Kasye,
Kasai, or Loke, where he had appointed two canoes to convey us across.
This is a most beautiful river, and very much like the Clyde in Scotland.
The slope of the valley down to the stream is about five hundred yards,
and finely wooded.
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