In This Light, A European Colony Would Be
Considered By The Natives As An Inestimable Boon To Intertropical
Africa.
Thousands of industrious natives would gladly settle round
it, and engage in that peaceful pursuit of agriculture and trade of
which they are so fond, and, undistracted by wars or rumours of wars,
might listen to the purifying and ennobling truths of the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
The Manganja on the Zambesi, like their countrymen on
the Shire, are fond of agriculture; and, in addition to the usual
varieties of food, cultivate tobacco and cotton in quantities more
than equal to their wants. To the question, "Would they work for
Europeans?" an affirmative answer may be given, if the Europeans
belong to the class which can pay a reasonable price for labour, and
not to that of adventurers who want employment for themselves. All
were particularly well clothed from Sandia's to Pangola's; and it was
noticed that all the cloth was of native manufacture, the product of
their own looms. In Senga a great deal of iron is obtained from the
ore and manufactured very cleverly.
As is customary when a party of armed strangers visits the village,
Pangola took the precaution of sleeping in one of the outlying
hamlets. No one ever knows, or at any rate will tell, where the
chief sleeps. He came not next morning, so we went our way; but in a
few moments we saw the rifle-loving chief approaching with some armed
men. Before meeting us, he left the path and drew up his "following"
under a tree, expecting us to halt, and give him a chance of
bothering us again; but, having already had enough of that, we held
right on:
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