reached Inya-tsu-tsu, a native town situated about three miles to the north of a range of hills called Vunga. I am persuaded that this town is the place marked Vunge on Dr. Livingstone's map, through which he passed on his first journey across Africa, from the west to the east coast, and that the Umrenji river, which passes close to it, is Dr. Livingstone's Molinji. The Makololo escort naturally changed the Um into Mo, and the "r" into "1," and the Doctor adopted their pronuncia- tion. P"rom Inya-tsu-tsu we could see Mount Bungwi, a large hill near the Zambesi, quite plainly ; it lay a little to the east of north by compass, and looked about twenty- five miles distant. Up to this point we had followed one of the Portuguese trade routes, between Tete and Zumbo, but as we were getting too far north I determined to leave it and strike back towards the Mazoe ; so I now endeavoured to obtain guides direct to the country of Magomo, Eastern Mashunaland, or at any rate to some place in that direction. Ever since leaving Tete we had travelled through a very dry, burnt-up country, almost destitute of inhabitants, owing principally, I think, to the great scarcity of water, and pos- sibly also to the presence of tse-tse fly....I found on inquiry that three white Portuguese had visited this part of the country within the memory of Rusambo, but I met no chief beyond him who had ever seen a Portuguese. When I asked him if he had given his country to the Portuguese he said that he had submitted to Ignacio Jesus de Xavier, the black Capitao Mor of Baroma, in order to live, -and that he now paid him an annual tribute in corn and gold dust. This year, i 889, was the third in which he had paid tribute. Augusto told us that Rusambo's country had been given to Ignacio Jesus de Xavier as a praco by the Portuguese Government, on the usual terms ; that is to say, in consideration of the payment of an annual rental, and no questions asked as to the amount of taxes he exacted from the natives. I asked Augusto what would happen should Rusambo, or any native chief in a similar position, refuse to pay up ; and he replied that Colonel Ignacio,as he called him, was able to enforce payment, as he had a strong force of well-armed men in his service, who would either get the corn and gold dust required, or in default take women and children. This year Rusambo's people had had an abundant harvest, and the old chief had a fine lot of fat fowls. He is the only African native I have ever seen who fed his fowls. Every night they were all driven into a large wattle and daub hutch, and morning and evening they received an allowance of grain.

Hanging up in the kraal, one to each hut, were the wooden 
dishes in which the women wash alluvial gold. These dishes 
were all square with rounded corners, and as all the other 
wooden pans I saw for gold washing in many other kraals in 
the Mazoe valley were of exactly the same pattern, and as 
all their other household utensils are round, these wooden pans 
may possibly retain the form of the original pans for gold 
washing introduced into South-P^astern Africa by the gold- 
seeking nations of the ancient world in very remote times. 

On I st September we found that twenty-nine of our forty- 
two carriers from Tete had decamped during the night. Fear 
of punishment by the Portuguese authorities had alone restrained 
the others ; but I did not expect they would go many days 
farther with us, as they were such a miserable lot that although 
there was no earthly cause for alarm, I felt pretty sure that their 
fear of the unknown country and unknown people on ahead 
would soon outweigh their fear of deserting us and running the 
risk of punishment at Tete. We at once set to work collecting 
porters from the surrounding villages, and by the evening had 
enlisted twenty-two to carry twenty-two loads for liberal pay- 
ment as far as Maziwa's, a chief whose town is three days' 
journey (for men carrying loads) from here. The remaining 
loads we left in charge of Rusambo. 

On 5th September, after having travelled through a very 
dry stony country, and passed the villages of two miserable 
famine -stricken chiefs, Chibonga and Matopi, we reached 
Maziwa's. 

During the last few days we had shot a little game and 
seen fresh rhinoceros tracks, and near Maziwa's village we saw 
much spoor of elands, Burchell's zebras, sable antelopes, koo- 



XV TROUBLE WITH OUR CARRIERS 283 

doos, etc. We camped at the foot of the hill on which Maziwa's 
village was situated, but there were two or three more villages 
about, all subject to the same chief and all perched on the 
summits of high rocky hills. The people here had very little 
food to sell, and appeared very poor and famine- stricken. 
Maziwa is an independent chief on a very small scale, being 
beyond Portuguese influence, either direct or indirect. Yet 
this is scarcely a correct statement, as he has been raided upon 
by one of the black CapitSo Mors from the north, who are 
supposed to be subject to the Portuguese. 

At this place we had a lot of trouble. In the first place 
Rusambo's men, having fulfilled their bargain, returned home, 
and we were left with twenty-two loads for which we wanted 
carriers, whom I thought we should have obtained from Maziwa 
without difificulty. However, Maziwa turned out to be singularly 
avaricious and grasping, even for a Kafir, and I never knew a 
Kafir yet, whose mind has been uninfluenced by contact with 
Europeans, who, when the opportunity presented itself, failed 
to make a large profit out of another man's necessity. 
Believing he had got us in a fix, Maziwa thought he would be 
able not only to skin us, but to pick the flesh from our bones, 
figuratively speaking. He demanded ten yards of calico per 
man for carrying our loads a distance of less than twenty 
miles, and wanted a large present for himself into the bargain. 
It was impossible to comply with this exorbitant demand, as, 
had we done so, the next petty chief, when he learned what 
Maziwa had screwed out of us, would have wanted at least as 
much to put us a short distance farther on our journey, and in 
this way in a very short time we should have been left without 
any goods at all. During the day I did a lot of tallcing to 
Maziwa ; but he remained obdurate, and was deaf to all argu- 
ment, persuasion, sarcasm, invective, and insult, for he thought 
we were in his power and would have to agree to his terms, 
however exorbitant. One of his remarks was, that an elephant 
had come and died in his country, and he and his people 
would fatten on the carcase. 

In the evening, our thrice-accursed Shakundas from Tete, 
who were probably in communication with Maziwa, thinking 
that now we were in a mess they would be able to make 



284 TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE IN AFRICA chap. 

capital out of our misfortunes, came up in a body and 
demanded ten yards of calico per man to carry their loads 
two days' journey farther, threatening to leave in the night if 
we did not comply with their request. Though boiling over 
with indignation we were obliged to talk quietly with them, 
and argue and temporise, for if these fourteen men had left us, 
plantes la, with only Augusto and five boys, we could never 
have removed the greater part of our thirty-seven loads, and 
the expedition would have come to an end. After much 
discussion we gave the Shakundas each a common shirt, 
and they then promised to cany our goods as far as we 
wanted to go. 

The next morning Maziwa came down to our camp with a 
good many of his tribe, but we found him even more unreason- 
able than he had been the previous day, and after a short and 
.stormy interview he again retired to his kraal. I now resolved 
to destroy a portion of our goods, and to push on without 
Maziwa's aid. With the fourteen Shakundas and our five boys 
(three from Quillimani and Augusto's two), we had nineteen 
carriers for thirty-seven loads. I now went through every- 
thing and made up nineteen loads of what we most required, 
and then collected the remaining things, principally trading 
goods and provisions, about seven hundredweights altogether, 
into an immense heap. We then collected large quantities of 
fuel and set the pyre alight. It seemed a pity to sacrifice 
goods that had been carried so far, but it was much better 
than submitting to the extortions of a 

MISERABLE SAVAGE .... 

 During this operation Maziwa and his greedy clansmen stood 
looking on from the hill, and the old chief, as he saw the 
calico and blankets which he coveted being licked up and 
destroyed by the flames, lost all his self-possession, and 
declaimed loudly against us from his coign of vantage. I did 
not understand him, but Augusto told us that he said we were 
his enemies, and that every one was his enemy who came from 
Tete ; that if he had men enough he would kill us and seize 
our goods, and finally threatened that if we went on he would 
follow and raise the country on us. As we had four good 
breech-loading rifles, and all our Shakundas were armed with 
muskets belonging to Senhor Martins Da Gama Baixa..