CHAP. VII. SAILOR'S GARDEN. 173 CHAPTER VII. Prepare for a Journey to the Makololo Country.—Sailor's Garden.-Wheat, Time and Mode of Sowing.-Start from Tette May 15th, to take the Makololo home.-Lukewarmness and Desertions.-Evil Effects of Contact with Slaves.-Man Lion and Lion Man.-Reasoning with a Lion.-Popular Belief.-New Path through Kebrabasa Hills.-Sandia. -Elephant-hunt.Game Law.-A Feast of Elephant-meat.—We strike Zambesi by Morumbwa, and complete the Survey of Kebrabasa from End to End.-Banyai again.-View of Kebrabasa.-Chicova Plains and open River.-Sandia's Report of Kebrabasa. FEELING in honor bound to return with those who had been the faithful companions of Dr. Livingstone in 1856, and to whose guardianship and services was due the accomplishment of a journey which all the Portuguese at Tette had previously pronounced impossible, the requisite steps were taken to convey them to their homes. We laid the ship alongside of the island Kanyimbe, opposite Tette, and, before starting for the country of the Makololo, obtained a small plot of land, to form a garden for the two English sailors who were to remain in charge during our absence. We furnished them with a supply of seeds, and they set to work with such zeal that they certainly merited success. Their first attempt at African horticulture met with failure from a most unexpected source; every seed was dug up and the inside of it eaten by mice. "Yes," said an old native, next morning, on seeing the husks, "that is what happens this month; for it is the mouse month, and the seed should have been sown last month, when I sowed mine." The sailors, however, sowed more next day; and, being determined to outwit the mice, they this time covered the beds 174 PREPARE FOR A JOURNEY. CHAP. VII. over with grass. The onions, with other seeds of plants cultivated by the Portuguese, are usually planted in the beginning of April, in order to have the advantage of the cold season; the wheat a little later, for the same reason. If sown at the beginning of the rainy season in November, it runs, as before remarked, entirely to straw; but, as the rains are nearly over in May, advantage is taken of low-lying patches, which have been flooded by the river. A hole is made in the mud with a hoe, a few seeds dropped in, and the earth shoved back with the foot. If not favored with certain misty showers, which, lower down the river, are simply fogs, water is borne from the river to the roots of the wheat in earthen pots; and, in about four months, the crop is ready for the sickle. The wheat of Tette is exported, as the best grown in the country; but a hollow spot at Maruru, close by Mazaro, yielded very good crops, though just at the level of the sea, as a few inches rise of tide shows. A number of days were spent in busy preparation for our journey; the cloth, beads, and brass wire for the trip were sewn up in old canvass, and each package had the bearer's name printed on it. The Makololo, who had worked for the Expedition, were paid for their services, and every one who had come down with the doctor from the interior received a present of cloth and ornaments, in order to protect them from the greater cold of their own country, and to show that they had not come in vain. Though called Makololo by courtesy, as they were proud of the name, Kanyata, the principal head man, was the only real Makololo of the party; and he, in virtue of his birth, had succeeded to the chief place on the death of Sekwebu. The others belonged to the conquered tribes of the Batoka, Bashubia, Ba-Selea, and Barotse. Some of these men had only added to their own vices those of the CHAP. VII. START FROM TETTE. 175 Tette slaves; others, by toiling during the first two years in navigating canoes and hunting elephants, had often managed to save a little, to take back to their own country, but had to part with it all for food to support the rest in times of hunger, and latterly had fallen into the improvident habits of slaves, and spent their surplus earnings in beer and agua ardiente. Every thing being ready on the 15th of May, we started at 2 P.M. from the village where the Makololo had dwelt. A number of the men did not leave with the good-will which their talk for months before had led us to anticipate; but some proceeded upon being told that they were not compelled to go unless they liked, though others altogether declined moving. Many had taken up with slave-women, whom they assisted in hoeing, and in consuming the produce of their gardens. Some fourteen children had been born to them; and in consequence of now having no chief to order them or to claim their services, they thought that they were about as well off as they had been in their own country. They knew and regretted that they could call neither wives nor children their own; the slave-owners claimed the whole; but their natural affections had been so enchained that they clave to the domestic ties. By a law of Portugal the baptized children of slave-women are all free; by the custom of the Zambesi that law is void. When it is referred to, the officers laugh and say, "These Lisbon-born laws are very stringent, but somehow, possibly from the heat of the climate, here they lose all their force." Only one woman joined our party—the wife of a Batoka man; she had been given to him, in consideration of his skillful dancing, by the chief, Chisaka. A merchant sent three of his men along with us, with a present for Sekeletu, and Major Sicard also lent us three more to assist 176 LUKEWARMNESS AND DESERTIONS. CHAP. VII. us on our return, and two Portuguese gentlemen kindly gave us the loan of a couple of donkeys. We slept four miles above Tette, and hearing that the Banyai, who levy heavy fines on the Portuguese traders, lived chiefly on the right bank, we crossed over to the left, as we could not fully trust our men. If the Banyai had come in a threatening manner, our followers might perhaps, from having homes behind them, have even put down their bundles and run. Indeed two of them, at this point, made up their minds to go no farther, and turned back to Tette. Another, Monga, a Batoka, was much perplexed, and could not make out what course to pursue, as he had, three years previously, wounded Kanyata, the head man, with a spear. This is a capital offense among the Makololo, and he was afraid of being put to death for it on his return. He tried in vain to console himself with the facts that he had neither father, mother, sisters, nor brothers to mourn for him, and that he could die but once. He was good, and would go up to the stars to Yesu, and, therefore, did not care for death. In spite, however, of these reflections, he was much cast down until Kanyata assured him that he would never mention his misdeed to the chief; indeed, he had never even mentioned it to the doctor, which he would assuredly have done had it lain heavy on his heart. We were right glad of Monga's company, for he was a merry, good-tempered fellow, and his lithe manly figure had always been in the front in danger; and, from being left-handed, had been easily recognized in the fight with elephants. We commenced, for a certain number of days, with short marches, walking gently until broken in to travel. This is of so much importance that it occurs to us that more might be made out of soldiers if the first few days' marches were easy, and gradually increased in length and quickness. The CHAP. VII. MAN LION. 177 nights were cold, with heavy dews and occasional showers, and we had several cases of fever. Some of the men deserted every night, and we fully expected that all who had children would prefer to return to Tette, for little ones are well known to prove the strongest ties, even to slaves. It was useless informing them that, if they wanted to return, they had only to come and tell us so; we should not be angry with them for preferring Tette to their own country. Contact with slaves had destroyed their sense of honor; they would not go in daylight, but decamped in the night, only in one instance, however, taking our goods, though in two more they carried off their comrades' property. By the time we had got well into the Kebrabasa hills, thirty men, nearly a third of the party, had turned back, and it became evident that, if many more left us, Sekeletu's goods could not be carried up. At last, when the refuse had fallen away, no more desertions took place. Stopping one afternoon at a Kebrabasa village, a man, who pretended to be able to change himself into a lion, came to salute us. Smelling the gunpowder from a gun which had been discharged, he went on one side to get out of the wind of the piece, trembling in a most artistic manner, but quite overacting his part. The Makololo explained to us that he was a Pondoro, or a man who can change his form at will, and added that he trembles when he smells gunpowder. "Do you not see how he is trembling now?" We told them to ask him to change himself at once into a lion, and we would give him a cloth for the performance. "Oh no," replied they; "if we will tell him so, he may change himself and come when we are asleep and kill us." Having similar superstitions at home, they readily became as firm believers in the Pondoro as the natives of the village. We were told M |