Rain and clouds so constantly, I could not get our latitude till last night, 10 deg. 14’ 6” S. On 8th got lunars.  Long. 31 deg. 46’ 45” E. Altitude above sea, 4700 feet, by boiling-point and barometer.

8th February, 1867.—­The chief demands one of my boxes and a blanket; I explain that one day’s rain would spoil the contents, and the boys who have blankets, not being slaves, I cannot take from them what I have given.  I am told that he declares that he will take us back to the Loangwa; make war and involve us in it, deprive us of food, &c.:  this succeeds in terrifying the boys.  He thinks that we have some self-interest to secure in passing through the country, and therefore he has a right to a share in the gain.  When told it was for a public benefit, he pulled down the underlid of the right eye.[49] He believes we shall profit by our journey, though he knows not in what way.

It is possibly only a coincidence, but no sooner do we meet with one who accompanied Speke and Burton to Tanganyika, than the system of mulcting commences.  I have no doubt but that Janje told this man how his former employers paid down whatever was demanded of them.

10th February, 1867.—­I had service in the open air, many looking on, and spoke afterwards to the chief, but he believes nothing save what Speke and Burton’s man has told him.  He gave us a present of corn and ground-nuts, and says he did not order the people not to sell grain to us.  We must stop and eat green maize.  He came after evening service, and I explained a little to him, and showed him woodcuts in the ‘Bible Dictionary,’ which he readily understood.

11th February, 1867.—­The chief sent us a basket of hippopotamus flesh from the Chambeze, and a large one of green maize.  He says the three cloths I offered are still mine:  all he wants is a box and blanket; if not a blanket, a box must be given, a tin one.  He keeps out of my way, by going to the gardens every morning.  He is good-natured, and our intercourse is a laughing one; but the boys betray their terrors in their tone of voice, and render my words powerless.

The black and white, and the brownish-grey water wagtails are remarkably tame.  They come about the huts and even into them, and no one ever disturbs them.  They build their nests about the huts.  In the Bechuana country, a fine is imposed on any man whose boys kill one, but why, no one can tell me.  The boys with me aver that they are not killed, because the meat is not eaten! or because they are so tame!!

13th February, 1867.—­I gave one of the boxes at last, Chitapangwa offering a heavy Arab wooden one to preserve our things, which I declined to take, as I parted with our own partly to lighten a load.  Abraham unwittingly told me that he had not given me the chiefs statement in full when he pressed me to take his cow.  It was, “Take and eat the one you like, and give me a blanket.”  Abraham said “He has no blanket.”