It Is Not Likely That Their
Enterprise Will Lead Them Further North, For Chasundu Informed Us
That The Babisa Under-Sell The Agents From Tette.
He had tried to
deal with the latter when they first came; but they offered only ten
fathoms of calico for a tusk, for which the Babisa gave him twenty
fathoms and a little powder.
Ivory was brought to us for sale again
and again, and, as far as we could judge, the price expected would be
about one yard of calico per pound, or possibly more, for there is no
scale of prices known. The rule seems to be that buyer and seller
shall spend a good deal of time in trying to cheat each other before
coming to any conclusion over a bargain.
We found the Lesungwe a fine stream near its source, and about forty
feet wide and knee-deep, when joined by the Lekudzi, which comes down
from the Maravi country.
Guinea-fowl abounded, but no grain could be purchased, for the people
had cultivated only the holmes along the banks with maize and
pumpkins. Time enough had not elapsed since the slave-trader's
invasion, and destruction of their stores, for them to raise crops of
grain on the adjacent lands. To deal with them for a few heads of
maize was the hungry bargaining with the famished, so we hastened on
southwards as fast as the excessive heat would allow us. It was
impossible to march in the middle of the day, the heat was so
intolerable; and we could not go on at night, because, if we had
chanced to meet any of the inhabitants, we should have been taken for
marauders.
We had now thunder every afternoon; but while occasional showers
seemed to fall at different parts, none fell on us. The air was
deliciously clear, and revealed all the landscape covered everywhere
with forest, and bounded by beautiful mountains. On the 31st October
we reached the Mukuru-Madse, after having travelled 660 geographical
miles, or 760 English miles in a straight line. This was
accomplished in fifty-five travelling days, twelve miles per diem on
an average. If the numerous bendings and windings, and ups and downs
of the paths could have been measured too, the distance would have
been found at least fifteen miles a day.
The night we slept at the Mukuru-Madse it thundered heavily, but, as
this had been the case every afternoon, and no rain had followed, we
erected no shelter, but during this night a pouring rain came on.
When very tired a man feels determined to sleep in spite of
everything, and the sound of dropping water is said to be conducive
to slumber, but that does not refer to an African storm. If, when
half asleep in spite of a heavy shower on the back of the head, he
unconsciously turns on his side, the drops from the branches make
such capital shots into his ear, that the brain rings again.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 252 of 263
Words from 130908 to 131409
of 136856
