Instead Of
Following The Road By Which We Had Come, We Resolved To Go South
Along The Lesungwe, Which Rises At Zunje, A Peak On The Same Ridge As
Mvai, And A Part Of Kirk's Range, Which Bounds The Country Of The
Maravi On Our West.
This is about the limit of the beat of the
Portuguese native traders, and it is but recently that, following our
footsteps, they have come so far.
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.
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