his own country:  he would go westwards to Maranda’s, and nowhere else.  A “set-in” rain came on after dark, and we went on through slush, the trees sending down heavier drops than the showers as we neared the Loangwa; we forded several deep gullies, all flowing north or north-west into it.  The paths were running with water, and when we emerged from the large Mopane Forest, we came on the plain of excessively adhesive mud, on which Maranda’s stronghold stands on the left bank of Loangwa, here a good-sized river.  The people were all afraid of us, and we were mortified to find that food is scarce.  The Mazitu have been here three times, and the fear they have inspired, though they were successfully repelled, has prevented agricultural operations from being carried on.

Mem.—­A flake of reed is often used in surgical operations among the natives, as being sharper than their knives.

FOOTNOTES: 

[34] A cloth means two yards of unbleached calico.

[35] Chuma remembers part of the words of her song to be as follows:—­

Kowe! kowe! n’andambwi, M’vula leru, korole ko okwe, Waie, ona, kordi, mvula!

He cannot translate it as it is pure Manganja, but with the exception of the first line—­which relates to a little song-bird with a beautiful note, it is a mere reiteration “rain will surely come to-day.”—­ED.

CHAPTER VII.

Crosses the Loangwa.  Distressing march.  The king-hunter.  Great hunger.  Christmas feast necessarily postponed.  Loss of goats.  Honey-hunters.  A meal at last.  The Babisa.  The Mazitu again.  Chitembo’s.  End of 1866.  The new year.  The northern brim of the great Loangwa Valley.  Accident to chronometers.  Meal gives out.  Escape from a Cobra capella.  Pushes for the Chambeze.  Death of Chitane.  Great pinch for food.  Disastrous loss of medicine chest.  Bead currency.  Babisa.  The Chambeze.  Beaches Chitapangwa’s town.  Meets Arab traders from Zanzibar.  Sends off letters.  Chitapangwa and his people.  Complications.

16th December, 1866.—­We could get no food at any price on 15th, so we crossed the Loangwa, and judged it to be from seventy to a hundred yards wide:  it is deep at present, and it must always be so, for some Atumboka submitted to the Mazitu, and ferried them over and back again.  The river is said to rise in the north; it has alluvial banks with large forest trees along them, bottom sandy, and great sandbanks are in it like the Zambesi.  No guide would come, so we went on without one.  The “lazies” of the party seized the opportunity of remaining behind—­wandering, as they said, though all the cross paths were marked.[36] This evening we secured the latitude 12 deg. 40’ 48” S., which would make our crossing place about 12 deg. 45’ S. Clouds prevented observations, as they usually do in the rainy season.