It Was His Own Fault That He Was Killed." The Makololo On
The Other Hand Rescued A Woman At Senna By Entering The Water, And
Taking Her Out Of The Crocodile's Mouth.
It is not assumed that their religion had much to do in the matter.
Many Mohammedans might contrast favourably
With indifferent
Christians; but, so far as our experience in East Africa goes, the
moral tone of the follower of Mahomed is pitched at a lower key than
that of the untutored African. The ancient zeal for propagating the
tenets of the Koran has evaporated, and been replaced by the most
intense selfishness and grossest sensuality. The only known efforts
made by Mohammedans, namely, those in the North-West and North of the
continent, are so linked with the acquisition of power and plunder,
as not to deserve the name of religious propagandism; and the only
religion that now makes proselytes is that of Jesus Christ. To those
who are capable of taking a comprehensive view of this subject,
nothing can be adduced of more telling significance than the well-
attested fact, that while the Mohammedans, Fulahs, and others towards
Central Africa, make a few proselytes by a process which gratifies
their own covetousness, three small sections of the Christian
converts, the Africans in the South, in the West Indies, and on the
West Coast of Africa actually contribute for the support and spread
of their religion upwards of 15,000 pounds annually. {7} That
religion which so far overcomes the selfishness of the human heart
must be Divine.
Leaving Kota-kota Bay, we turned away due West on the great slave
route to Katanga's and Cazembe's country in Londa. Juma lent us his
servant, Selele, to lead us the first day's march. He said that the
traders from Kilwa and Iboe cross the Lake either at this bay, or at
Tsenga, or at the southern end of the Lake; and that wherever they
may cross they all go by this path to the interior. They have slaves
with them to carry their goods, and when they reach a spot where they
can easily buy others, they settle down and begin the traffic, and at
once cultivate grain. So much of the land lies waste, that no
objection is ever made to any one taking possession of as much as he
needs; they can purchase a field of cassava for their present wants
for very little, and they continue trading in the country for two or
three years, and giving what weight their muskets possess to the
chief who is most liberal to them.
The first day's march led us over a rich, well-cultivated plain.
This was succeeded by highlands, undulating, stony, and covered with
scraggy trees. Many banks of well rounded shingle appear. The
disintegration of the rocks, now going on, does not round off the
angles; they are split up by the heat and cold into angular
fragments. On these high downs we crossed the River Kaombe. Beyond
it we came among the upland vegetation - rhododendrons, proteas, the
masuko, and molompi. At the foot of the hill, Kasuko-suko, we found
the River Bua running north to join the Kaombe. We had to go a mile
out of our way for a ford; the stream is deep enough in parts for
hippopotami. The various streams not previously noticed, crossed in
this journey, had before this led us to the conclusion, independently
of the testimony of the natives, that no large river ran into the
north end of the Lake. No such affluent was needed to account for
the Shire's perennial flow.
On September 15th we reached the top of the ascent which, from its
many ups and downs, had often made us puff and blow as if broken-
winded. The water of the streams we crossed was deliciously cold,
and now that we had gained the summit at Ndonda, where the boiling-
point of water showed an altitude of 3440 feet above the sea, the air
was delightful. Looking back we had a magnificent view of the Lake,
but the haze prevented our seeing beyond the sea horizon. The scene
was beautiful, but it was impossible to dissociate the lovely
landscape whose hills and dales had so sorely tried our legs and
lungs, from the sad fact that this was part of the great slave route
now actually in use. By this road many "Ten thousands" have here
seen "the Sea," "the Sea," but with sinking hearts; for the universal
idea among the captive gangs is, that they are going to be fattened
and eaten by the whites. They cannot of course be so much shocked as
we should be - their sensibilities are far from fine, their feelings
are more obtuse than ours - in fact, "the live eels are used to being
skinned," perhaps they rather like it. We who are not philosophic,
blessed the Providence which at Thermopylae in ancient days rolled
back the tide of Eastern conquest from the West, and so guided the
course of events that light and liberty and gospel truth spread to
our distant isle, and emancipating our race freed them from the fear
of ever again having to climb fatiguing heights and descend wearisome
hollows in a slave-gang, as we suppose they did when the fair English
youths were exposed for sale at Rome.
Looking westwards we perceived that, what from below had the
appearance of mountains, was only the edge of a table-land which,
though at first undulating, soon became smooth, and sloped towards
the centre of the country. To the south a prominent mountain called
Chipata, and to the south-west another named Ngalla, by which the Bua
is said to rise, gave character to the landscape. In the north,
masses of hills prevented our seeing more than eight or ten miles.
The air which was so exhilarating to Europeans had an opposite effect
on five men who had been born and reared in the malaria of the Delta
of the Zambesi.
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