He Entered Into A Long Detail
Of His Troubles With Masiko, Who Had Prevented Him From Cultivating
That Friendship With The Makololo Which I Had Inculcated,
And Had Even Plundered The Messengers He Had Sent With Kolimbota
To The Barotse Valley.
Shinte was particularly anxious to explain
that Kolimbota had remained after my departure of his own accord,
and that
He had engaged in the quarrels of the country without being invited;
that, in attempting to capture one of the children of a Balobale man,
who had offended the Balonda by taking honey from a hive
which did not belong to him, Kolimbota had got wounded by a shot in the thigh,
but that he had cured the wound, given him a wife, and sent
a present of cloth to Sekeletu, with a full account of the whole affair.
From the statement of Shinte we found that Kolimbota had learned,
before we left his town, that the way we intended to take was so dangerous
that it would be better for him to leave us to our fate;
and, as he had taken one of our canoes with him, it seemed evident
that he did not expect us to return. Shinte, however, sent a recommendation
to his sister Nyamoana to furnish as many canoes as we should need
for our descent of the Leeba and Leeambye.
As I had been desirous of introducing some of the fruit-trees of Angola,
both for my own sake and that of the inhabitants, we had carried
a pot containing a little plantation of orange, cashew-trees,
custard-apple-trees (`anona'), and a fig-tree, with coffee,
aracas (`Araca pomifera'), and papaws (`Carica papaya'). Fearing that,
if we took them farther south at present, they might be killed by the cold,
we planted them out in an inclosure of one of Shinte's principal men,
and, at his request, promised to give Shinte a share when grown.
They know the value of fruits, but at present have none except wild ones.
A wild fruit we frequently met with in Londa is eatable,
and, when boiled, yields a large quantity of oil, which is much used
in anointing both head and body.
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