The children and young
women were seized as slaves, and the village sacked.
Sequasha sent
the message to Namakusuru: "I have killed the lion that troubled
you; come and let us talk over the matter." He came and brought the
ivory. "No," said the half-caste, "let us divide the land:" and he
took the larger share for himself, and compelled the would-be usurper
to deliver up his bracelets, in token of subjection on becoming the
child or vassal of Sequasha. These were sent in triumph to the
authorities at Tette. The governor of Quillimane had told us that he
had received orders from Lisbon to take advantage of our passing to
re-establish Zumbo; and accordingly these traders had built a small
stockade on the rich plain of the right bank of Loangwa, a mile above
the site of the ancient mission church of Zumbo, as part of the royal
policy. The bloodshed was quite unnecessary, because, the land at
Zumbo having of old been purchased, the natives would have always of
their own accord acknowledged the right thus acquired; they pointed
it out to Dr. Livingstone in 1856 that, though they were cultivating
it, is was not theirs, but white man's land. Sequasha and his mate
had left their ivory in charge of some of their slaves, who, in the
absence of their masters, were now having a gay time of it, and
getting drunk every day with the produce of the sacked villages. The
head slave came and begged for the musket of the delinquent ferryman,
which was returned. He thought his master did perfectly right to
kill Mpangwe, when asked to do it for the fee of ten tusks, and he
even justified it thus: "If a man invites you to eat, will you not
partake?"
We continued our journey on the 28th of June. Game was extremely
abundant, and there were many lions. Mbia drove one off from his
feast on a wild pig, and appropriated what remained of the pork to
his own use. Lions are particularly fond of the flesh of wild pigs
and zebras, and contrive to kill a large number of these animals. In
the afternoon we arrived at the village of the female chief, Ma-
mburuma, but she herself was now living on the opposite side of the
river. Some of her people called, and said she had been frightened
by seeing her son and other children killed by Sequasha, and had fled
to the other bank; but when her heart was healed, she would return
and live in her own village, and among her own people. She
constantly inquired of the black traders, who came up the river, if
they had any news of the white man who passed with the oxen. "He has
gone down into the sea," was their reply, "but we belong to the same
people." "Oh no; you need not tell me that; he takes no slaves, but
wishes peace: you are not of his tribe." This antislavery character
excites such universal attention, that any missionary who winked at
the gigantic evils involved in the slave-trade would certainly fail
to produce any good impression on the native mind.
CHAPTER VI.
Illness - The Honey-guide - Abundance of game - The Baenda pezi - The
Batoka.
We left the river here, and proceeded up the valley which leads to
the Mburuma or Mohango pass. The nights were cold, and on the 30th
of June the thermometer was as low as 39 degrees at sunrise. We
passed through a village of twenty large huts, which Sequasha had
attacked on his return from the murder of the chief, Mpangwe. He
caught the women and children for slaves, and carried off all the
food, except a huge basket of bran, which the natives are wont to
save against a time of famine. His slaves had broken all the water-
pots and the millstones for grinding meal.
The buaze-trees and bamboos are now seen on the hills; but the jujube
or zisyphus, which has evidently been introduced from India, extends
no further up the river. We had been eating this fruit, which,
having somewhat the taste of apples, the Portuguese call Macaas, all
the way from Tette; and here they were larger than usual, though
immediately beyond they ceased to be found. No mango-tree either is
to be met with beyond this point, because the Portuguese traders
never established themselves anywhere beyond Zumbo. Tsetse flies are
more numerous and troublesome than we have ever before found them.
They accompany us on the march, often buzzing round our heads like a
swarm of bees. They are very cunning, and when intending to bite,
alight so gently that their presence is not perceived till they
thrust in their lance-like proboscis. The bite is acute, but the
pain is over in a moment; it is followed by a little of the
disagreeable itching of the mosquito's bite. This fly invariably
kills all domestic animals except goats and donkeys; man and the wild
animals escape. We ourselves were severely bitten on this pass, and
so were our donkeys, but neither suffered from any after effects.
Water is scarce in the Mburuma pass, except during the rainy season.
We however halted beside some fine springs in the bed of the now dry
rivulet, Podebode, which is continued down to the end of the pass,
and yields water at intervals in pools. Here we remained a couple of
days in consequence of the severe illness of Dr. Kirk. He had
several times been attacked by fever; and observed that when we were
on the cool heights he was comfortable, but when we happened to
descend from a high to a lower altitude, he felt chilly, though the
temperature in the latter case was 25 degrees higher than it was
above; he had been trying different medicines of reputed efficacy
with a view to ascertain whether other combinations might not be
superior to the preparation we generally used; in halting by this
water he suddenly became blind, and unable to stand from faintness.
The men, with great alacrity, prepared a grassy bed, on which we laid
our companion, with the sad forebodings which only those who have
tended the sick in a wild country can realize.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 47 of 134
Words from 46977 to 48032
of 136856
