Some months were passed in this country, which is described
as fertile and well-cultivated - producing millet, maize, yams,
sweet potatoes, cassava, beans, pumpkins, water-melons, and the like.
The sugar-cane grows plentifully, but the people had never learned
the process of making sugar. They have great numbers of cattle,
and game of various species abounds. On one occasion
a troop of eighty-one buffaloes defiled slowly before their evening fire,
while herds of splendid elands stood, without fear,
at two hundred yards' distance. The country is rather unhealthy,
from the mass of decayed vegetation exposed to the torrid sun.
After due consideration, Livingstone resolved to make his way to Loanda,
a Portuguese settlement on the western coast. Sekeletu, anxious to open
a trade with the coast, appointed twenty-seven men to accompany the traveler;
and on the 11th of November, 1853, he set out on his journey.
Three or four small boxes contained all the baggage of the party.
The only provisions were a few pounds of biscuits, coffee, tea, and sugar;
their main reliance being upon the game which they expected to kill,
and, this failing, upon the proceeds of about ten dollars' worth of beads.
They also took with them a few elephants' tusks, which Sekeletu sent
by way of a trading venture.
The river up which they paddled abounds in hippopotami.
These are in general harmless, though now and then a solitary old bull
who has been expelled from the herd vents his spleen by pitching into
every canoe that passes. Once their canoe was attacked by a female whose calf
had been speared, and nearly overturned. The female carries her young
upon her back, its little round head first appearing above the surface
when she comes up to breathe.
By the order of the chief the party had been furnished with eight oxen
for riding, and seven intended for slaughter. Some of the troop
paddled the canoes, while others drove the cattle along the bank.
African etiquette requires that a company of travelers,
when they come in sight of a village, shall seat themselves under a tree,
and send forward a messenger to announce their arrival and state their object.
The chief then gives them a ceremonious reception, with abundance
of speech-making and drumming. It is no easy matter to get away
from these villages, for the chiefs esteem it an honor
to have strangers with them. These delays, and the frequent heavy rains,
greatly retarded the progress of the travelers.
They had traveled four months, and accomplished half of their journey
before encountering any show of hostility from the tribes
through which they passed. A chief, named Njambi, then demanded tribute
for passing through his country; when this was refused he said
that one of Livingstone's men had spit on the leg of one of his people,
and this crime must be paid for by a fine of a man, an ox, or a gun.
This reasonable demand was likewise refused, and the natives seemed
about to commence hostilities; but changed their minds upon witnessing
the determined attitude of the strangers.
