On At Last Reaching Chibisa's, We Heard That There Was War In The
Manganja Country, And The Slave-Trade Was Going On Briskly.
A
deputation from a chief near Mount Zomba had just passed on its way
to Chibisa, who was in a distant village, to implore him to come
himself, or send medicine, to drive off the Waiao, Waiau, or Ajawa,
whose marauding parties were desolating the land.
A large gang of
recently enslaved Manganja crossed the river, on their way to Tette,
a few days before we got the ship up. Chibisa's deputy was civil,
and readily gave us permission to hire as many men to carry the
Bishop's goods up to the hills as were willing to go. With a
sufficient number, therefore, we started for the highlands on the
15th of July, to show the Bishop the country, which, from its
altitude and coolness, was most suitable for a station. Our first
day's march was a long and fatiguing one. The few hamlets we passed
were poor, and had no food for our men, and we were obliged to go on
till 4 p.m., when we entered the small village of Chipindu. The
inhabitants complained of hunger, and said they had no food to sell,
and no hut for us to sleep in; but, if we would only go on a little
further, we should come to a village where they had plenty to eat;
but we had travelled far enough, and determined to remain where we
were. Before sunset as much food was brought as we cared to
purchase, and, as it threatened to rain, huts were provided for the
whole party.
Next forenoon we halted at the village of our old friend Mbame, to
obtain new carriers, because Chibisa's men, never before having been
hired, and not having yet learned to trust us, did not choose to go
further. After resting a little, Mbame told us that a slave party on
its way to Tette would presently pass through his village. "Shall we
interfere?" we inquired of each other. We remembered that all our
valuable private baggage was in Tette, which, if we freed the slaves,
might, together with some Government property, be destroyed in
retaliation; but this system of slave-hunters dogging us where
previously they durst not venture, and, on pretence of being "our
children," setting one tribe against another, to furnish themselves
with slaves, would so inevitably thwart all the efforts, for which we
had the sanction of the Portuguese Government, that we resolved to
run all risks, and put a stop, if possible, to the slave-trade, which
had now followed on the footsteps of our discoveries. A few minutes
after Mbame had spoken to us, the slave party, a long line of
manacled men, women, and children, came wending their way round the
hill and into the valley, on the side of which the village stood.
The black drivers, armed with muskets, and bedecked with various
articles of finery, marched jauntily in the front, middle, and rear
of the line; some of them blowing exultant notes out of long tin
horns.
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