Young Leches Are Hidden Beneath It
By Their Dams; And The Makololo Youth Complain Of Being Unable
To Run In The Barotse Land On This Account.
There was evidently
no healthy spot in this quarter; and the current of the river being
about four and a half miles per hour (one hundred yards in sixty seconds),
I imagined we might find what we needed in the higher lands,
from which the river seemed to come.
I resolved, therefore,
to go to the utmost limits of the Barotse country before coming
to a final conclusion. Katongo was the best place we had seen; but,
in order to accomplish a complete examination, I left Sekeletu at Naliele,
and ascended the river. He furnished me with men, besides my rowers,
and among the rest a herald, that I might enter his villages
in what is considered a dignified manner. This, it was supposed,
would be effected by the herald shouting out at the top of his voice,
"Here comes the lord; the great lion;" the latter phrase being "tau e tona",
which, in his imperfect way of pronunciation, became "Sau e tona",
and so like "the great sow" that I could not receive the honor with
becoming gravity, and had to entreat him, much to the annoyance of my party,
to be silent.
In our ascent we visited a number of Makololo villages, and were always
received with a hearty welcome, as messengers to them of peace,
which they term "sleep". They behave well in public meetings,
even on the first occasion of attendance, probably from
the habit of commanding the Makalaka, crowds of whom swarm in every village,
and whom the Makololo women seem to consider as especially under their charge.
The river presents the same appearance of low banks without trees
as we have remarked it had after we came to 16d 16',
until we arrive at Libonta (14d 59' S. lat.). Twenty miles beyond that,
we find forest down to the water's edge, and tsetse.
Here I might have turned back, as no locality can be inhabited by Europeans
where that scourge exists; but hearing that we were not far
from the confluence of the River of Londa or Lunda, named Leeba or Loiba,
and the chiefs of that country being reported to be friendly to strangers,
and therefore likely to be of use to me on my return from the west coast,
I still pushed on to latitude 14d 11' 3" S. There the Leeambye
assumes the name Kabompo, and seems to be coming from the east.
It is a fine large river, about three hundred yards wide,
and the Leeba two hundred and fifty. The Loeti, a branch of which
is called Langebongo, comes from W.N.W., through a level grassy plain
named Mango; it is about one hundred yards wide, and enters the Leeambye
from the west; the waters of the Loeti are of a light color,
and those of the Leeba of a dark mossy hue. After the Loeti
joins the Leeambye the different colored waters flow side by side
for some distance unmixed.
Before reaching the Loeti we came to a number of people
from the Lobale region, hunting hippopotami. They fled precipitately
as soon as they saw the Makololo, leaving their canoes
and all their utensils and clothing. My own Makalaka,
who were accustomed to plunder wherever they went, rushed after them
like furies, totally regardless of my shouting. As this proceeding
would have destroyed my character entirely at Lobale, I took my stand
on a commanding position as they returned, and forced them
to lay down all the plunder on a sand-bank, and leave it there
for its lawful owners.
It was now quite evident that no healthy location could be obtained in which
the Makololo would be allowed to live in peace. I had thus a fair excuse,
if I had chosen to avail myself of it, of coming home and saying
that the "door was shut", because the Lord's time had not yet come.
But believing that it was my duty to devote some portion of my life
to these (to me at least) very confiding and affectionate Makololo,
I resolved to follow out the second part of my plan, though I had failed
in accomplishing the first. The Leeba seemed to come from the N. and by W.,
or N.N.W.; so, having an old Portuguese map, which pointed out the Coanza
as rising from the middle of the continent in 9 Deg. S. lat.,
I thought it probable that, when we had ascended the Leeba (from 14d 11')
two or three degrees, we should then be within one hundred and twenty miles
of the Coanza, and find no difficulty in following it down to the coast
near Loanda. This was the logical deduction; but, as is the case
with many a plausible theory, one of the premises was decidedly defective.
The Coanza, as we afterward found, does not come from any where near
the centre of the country.
The numbers of large game above Libonta are prodigious, and they proved
remarkably tame. Eighty-one buffaloes defiled in slow procession
before our fire one evening, within gunshot; and herds of splendid elands
stood by day, without fear, at two hundred yards distance.
They were all of the striped variety, and with their forearm markings,
large dewlaps, and sleek skins, were a beautiful sight to see. The lions here
roar much more than in the country near the lake, Zouga, and Chobe.
One evening we had a good opportunity of hearing the utmost exertions
the animal can make in that line. We had made our beds on a large sand-bank,
and could be easily seen from all sides. A lion on the opposite shore
amused himself for hours by roaring as loudly as he could,
putting, as is usual in such cases, his mouth near the ground,
to make the sound reverberate. The river was too broad
for a ball to reach him, so we let him enjoy himself,
certain that he durst not have been guilty of the impertinence
in the Bushman country.
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