and the Bangala to the Marunja, Mpakiwana
Urangi, Rubunga in Nganza, Gunji, and finally
to Upoto— the present ultimate reach of anything
arriving from the west coast. By this mode of
traffic a keg of powder landed at Funta, Ambriz
Ambrizette, or Kinsembo, requires about five
years to reach the Bangala. The first musket
was landed in Angola in about the latter part
of the fifteenth century, for Diogo Cao only
discovered the mouth of the Congo in 1485. It
has taken 390 years for four muskets to arrive
at Rubunga in Nganza, 965 miles from Point de
Padrao, where Diogo Cao erected his memorial
column in honour of the discovery of the Congo. 1
We discovered cloth to be so abundant
amongst the Babwende that it was against our
conscience to purchase even a fowl, for naturally
the nearer we approached civilization cloth
became cheaper in value, until finally a fowl
cost 4 yards of our thick sheeting! Frank and
I therefore lived upon the same provisions as
our people. Our store of sugar had run out in
Uregga, our coffee was finished at Vinya Njara,
and at Inkisi Falls our tea, alas! alas! came to
an end. To guard against contingencies— for I
thought it possible that, however desperately
we strove to proceed towards the Western
Ocean, we might have been compelled to return
to Nyangwe— I had left at Nyangwe, in charge
o f Abed bin Salem, three tins of tea and a few
rApril 28, 1877/1 FALLING SHORT OF SHOES.
[ Inkisi Falls. J
other small things. At this juncture, how we
wished for them!
Yet we could have well parted with a large
stock of tea, coffee, and sugar in order to obtain
a pair of shoes apiece. Though I had kept
one pair of worn-out shoes by me, my last new
pair had been put on in the jungles of doleful
Uregga, and now six weeks’ rough wear over,
the gritty iron and clink-stone, trap, and granite
blocks along the river had ground through soles
find uppers, until I began to feel anxious. As
for Frank, he had been wearing sandals made
out of my leather portmanteaus, an(l slippers
out of our gutta-percha pontoon; but climbing
over the rocks and rugged steeps wore them to
tatters in such quick succession, that it was with
the utmost difficulty that I was enabled, by appealing
to the pride of the white man, to induce
him to persevere in the manufacture of sandals
for his own use. Frequently, on suddenly arriving
in camp from my wearying labours, I would
discover him with naked feet, and would reprove
h im for shamelessly exposing his white feet to
the vulgar gaze of the aborigines! In Europe
this would not be considered indelicate, but in
barbarous Africa the feet should be covered
as much as the body; for there is a small modicum
of superiority shown even in clothing the feet.
Not only on moral grounds did I urge him to
cover his feet, but also for his own comfort and
Ha