Ionga Panza Soon Let Us Know
That He Thought Himself Very Ill Treated In Being Passed By.
As Most Skirmishes
Arise from misunderstanding, this might have been
a serious one; for, like all the tribes near the Portuguese settlements,
people
Here imagine that they have a right to demand payment
from every one who passes through the country; and now, though Ionga Panza
was certainly no match for my men, yet they were determined
not to forego their right without a struggle. I removed with my men
to the vicinity of the village, thankful that no accident
had as yet brought us into actual collision.
The reason why the people have imbibed the idea so strongly
that they have a right to demand payment for leave to pass through the country
is probably this. They have seen no traders except those
either engaged in purchasing slaves, or who have slaves in their employment.
These slave-traders have always been very much at the mercy of the chiefs
through whose country they have passed; for if they afforded a ready asylum
for runaway slaves, the traders might be deserted at any moment,
and stripped of their property altogether. They are thus obliged
to curry favor with the chiefs, so as to get a safe conduct from them.
The same system is adopted to induce the chiefs to part with their people,
whom all feel to be the real source of their importance in the country.
On the return of the traders from the interior with chains of slaves,
it is so easy for a chief who may be so disposed to take away
a chain of eight or ten unresisting slaves, that the merchant is fain
to give any amount of presents in order to secure the good-will of the rulers.
The independent chiefs, not knowing why their favor is so eagerly sought,
become excessively proud and supercilious in their demands,
and look upon white men with the greatest contempt.
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