CHAPTEE XX.
TOWARDS NYASSA.
Departing from Chikuse’s—Thoughts of Nyassa—Difficulties—Gifts to
slaves—Da Costa’s good-bye—Mount Deza—Timidity of women—Mara
the Maravi—His fowl-hunts and his wiles—Lying Angoni—Inquisitive
blacks—Swarming kraals—Arms of the Assegai—The knobkerry—
The Revuqwe—Signs of slave traffic—Slave stampede—“What the
devil is the matter ? ’’—Tortures of slavery—Iron smelting furnaces—
Arab influence in slavery—Mountain scenery—The land of the rising
sun—Nyassa—Salt carriers—“ The white man has seen the lake”—
How to reach Livingstonia—Crowding natives—The troublesome old
men at Pantumbo’s—Women at Pantumbo’s—Objections to proceed—
Look out for the people of Mponda—Distressing march—Fishermen—
A disappointing shot—The luckless chronometer—A beautiful scene—
“ Nyanja senhor!’’—Thoughts of the future—Angoni reluctance to
go on—Sleep disturbing hippos—Alarm of the Nyassa people—A
hostile reception—“ These people are enemies”—The party is surrounded—
Explanations—On the shores of the lake—Oppressive heat
My first sickness—A wretched night—Canoeing—Livingstonia at
last!
Soon after sunrise I was out, and, after the accustomed
bodily shake, hastened to da Costa’s hut, for it was the
morning upon which the escort was to turn up as promised
by Shona the headman. The sky was grey and the atmosphere
cold. Before we had finished the operation of internal
scalding with hot coffee Shona arrived.
Then the people began to gather round, all seeming
brighter and happier than usual, so that their change of
humour had a cheering effect upon me, and made me long
for a start. There could be little doubt that now I would
soon be on the road again.
The pombe feast was over; the funeral ceremonies were
at an end. The slave caravan had left for the east coast.
The king had gone off to his town which lay close by
towards the north. A party of Maravi hunters were to
leave for the north-west. All were astir, and I busied
myself quickly in making final preparations for the march.
Before noon I meant to be era route to the lake.
Hurrah for Nyassa! I would see white friends again,
and be enabled to equip myself afresh for the journey river-
wards to the far Indian Ocean.
At the last moment it appeared as though all the arrangements
would have fallen through. The old man whom
Shona had substituted for himself duly arrived, and, after
receiving payment for the proposed journey, spoke weighty
words to the effect that after all it had struck him that the
king, having been gracious enough to bestow upon him
the most noble Order of the Eing—that is to say, the saucepan
affair which encircles the skull—he could hot go.
I t would be impossible too for his son to proceed, because
he had been a mourner at the last funeral, and now that
the sun had once more risen upon their kraal, shaving of
the head was the order of the day.
Objections of this nature were followed by wild stories of
the white men’s strange propensities, which made it impossible
for the Angoni to go to the town on the lake. While
the debate was proceeding another old gentleman appeared,
who, like the rest, had his own desires with regard to the
supposed inexhaustible store of white man’s bank (cloth).
His particular line of argument was that he knew all about
the road to the lake, and that Shona and the other man
were to take me the wrong way.
With the patriarch’s patience, da Costa haggled with them
all vehemently, but it was not without extraordinarily
strenuous efforts that he managed to get ten men together.
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