23rd February, 1867.—­Moamba’s village was a mile off, and on the left bank of the Merenge, a larger stream than the Merungu flowing north and having its banks and oozes covered with fine, tall, straight, evergreen trees.  The village is surrounded with a stockade, and a dry ditch some fifteen or twenty feet wide, and as many deep.  I had a long talk with Moamba, a big, stout, public-house-looking person, with a slight outward cast in his left eye, but intelligent and hearty.  I presented him with a cloth; and he gave me as much maere meal as a man could carry, with a large basket of ground-nuts.  He wished us to come to the Merenge, if not into his village, that he might see and talk with me:  I also showed him some pictures in Smith’s ‘Bible Dictionary,’ which he readily understood, and I spoke to him about the Bible.  He asked me “to come next day and tell him about prayer to God,” this was a natural desire after being told that we prayed.

He was very anxious to know why we were going to Tanganyika; for what we came; what we should buy there; and if I had any relations there.  He then showed me some fine large tusks, eight feet six in length.  “What do you wish to buy, if not slaves or ivory?” I replied, that the only thing I had seen worth buying was a fine fat chief like him, as a specimen, and a woman feeding him, as he had, with beer.  He was tickled at this; and said that when we reached our country, I must put fine clothes on him.  This led us to speak of our climate, and the production of wool.

24th February, 1867.—­I went over after service, but late, as the rain threatened to be heavy.  A case was in process of hearing, and one old man spoke an hour on end, the chief listening all the while with the gravity of a judge.  He then delivered his decision in about five minutes, the successful litigant going off lullilooing.  Each person, before addressing him, turns his back to him and lies down on the ground, clapping the hands:  this is the common mode of salutation.  Another form here in Lobemba is to rattle the arrows or an arrow on the bow, which all carry.  We had a little talk with the chief; but it was late before the cause was heard through.  He asked us to come and spend one night near him on the Merenga, and then go on, so we came over in the morning to the vicinity of his village.  A great deal of copper-wire is here made, the wire-drawers using for one part of the process a seven-inch cable.  They make very fine wire, and it is used chiefly as leglets and anklets; the chief’s wives being laden with them, and obliged to walk in a stately style from the weight:  the copper comes from Katanga.

26th February, 1867.—­The chief wishes to buy a cloth with two goats, but his men do not bring them up quickly.  Simon, one of the boys, is ill of fever, and this induces me to remain, though moving from one place to another is the only remedy we have in our power.