The Honey-Guides Were Very Assiduous In Their Friendly Offices,
And Enabled My Men To Get A Large Quantity Of Honey.
But, though bees abound,
the wax of these parts forms no article of trade.
In Londa it may be said
to be fully cared for, as you find hives placed upon trees
in the most lonesome forests. We often met strings of carriers
laden with large blocks of this substance, each 80 or 100 lbs. in weight,
and pieces were offered to us for sale at every village;
but here we never saw a single artificial hive. The bees were always found
in the natural cavities of mopane-trees. It is probable that
the good market for wax afforded to Angola by the churches of Brazil
led to the gradual development of that branch of commerce there.
I saw even on the banks of the Quango as much as sixpence paid for a pound.
In many parts of the Batoka country bees exist in vast numbers,
and the tribute due to Sekeletu is often paid in large jars of honey;
but, having no market nor use for the wax, it is thrown away. This was
the case also with ivory at the Lake Ngami, at the period of its discovery.
The reports brought by my other party from Loanda of the value of wax
had induced some of my present companions to bring small quantities of it
to Tete, but, not knowing the proper mode of preparing it,
it was so dark colored that no one would purchase it; I afterward saw
a little at Kilimane which had been procured from the natives
somewhere in this region.
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