The Quantity Of Hippopotamus Meat Eaten By Our Men Made Some Of Them
Ill, And Our Marches Were Necessarily Short.
After three hours'
travel on the 13th, we spent the remainder of the day at the village
of Chasiribera, on a rivulet flowing through a beautiful valley to
the north, which is bounded by magnificent mountain-ranges.
Pinkwe,
or Mbingwe, otherwise Moeu, forms the south-eastern angle of the
range. On the 16th June we were at the flourishing village of Senga,
under the headman Manyame, which lies at the foot of the mount
Motemwa. Nearly all the mountains in this country are covered with
open forest and grass, in colour, according to the season, green or
yellow. Many are between 2000 and 3000 feet high, with the sky line
fringed with trees; the rocks show just sufficiently for one to
observe their stratification, or their granitic form, and though not
covered with dense masses of climbing plants, like those in moister
eastern climates, there is still the idea conveyed that most of the
steep sides are fertile, and none give the impression of that
barrenness which, in northern mountains, suggests the idea that the
bones of the world are sticking through its skin.
The villagers reported that we were on the footsteps of a Portuguese
half-caste, who, at Senga, lately tried to purchase ivory, but, in
consequence of his having murdered a chief near Zumbo and twenty of
his men, the people declined to trade with him. He threatened to
take the ivory by force, if they would not sell it; but that same
night the ivory and the women were spirited out of the village, and
only a large body of armed men remained. The trader, fearing that he
might come off second best if it came to blows, immediately departed.
Chikwanitsela, or Sekuanangila, is the paramount chief of some fifty
miles of the northern bank of the Zambesi in this locality. He lives
on the opposite, or southern side, and there his territory is still
more extensive. We sent him a present from Senga, and were informed
by a messenger next morning that he had a cough and could not come
over to see us. "And has his present a cough too," remarked one of
our party, "that it does not come to us? Is this the way your chief
treats strangers, receives their present, and sends them no food in
return?" Our men thought Chikwanitsela an uncommonly stingy fellow;
but, as it was possible that some of them might yet wish to return
this way, they did not like to scold him more than this, which was
sufficiently to the point.
Men and women were busily engaged in preparing the ground for the
November planting. Large game was abundant; herds of elephants and
buffaloes came down to the river in the night, but were a long way
off by daylight. They soon adopt this habit in places where they are
hunted.
The plains we travel over are constantly varying in breadth,
according as the furrowed and wooded hills approach or recede from
the river.
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