CH A PT ER II.
Meet Makololo at Tette — Murder of six of them by Bonga, the son of Nyaude •
—Ravages of smallpox — Makololo supported not according to public orders,..
but by the private bounty of Major Sicard—Convict class called “ Incor-
rigibles ” — Superstitions about mangoes, coffee, and rain-making — Secui^ng
slaves by means of domestic ties — Case of voluntary slavery Cruel nature
of half-castes --^Native love of trade—Native medical profession—Elephant
and crocodile schools of medicine -— Dice doctors and their use as detective
police — Senna and indigo plants—Coal, gold, and iron—Ascent to Kebra-
basa Rapids — Black glaze on rocks — Tribe of Badema — A traveller’s tale
—•The river Luia—Hippopotamus flesh — Difficult travelling—Curative
sleep Sunstroke—Morumbwa Cataract—Kebrabasa surveyed from end
to end.
The ship anchored in the stream, off, Tette, on the 8th
September, 1858, and Dr. Livingstone went ashore in the
boat. No sooner did the Makololo* recognise him, than they
rushed to the water’s edge, and manifested great joy at seeing^
him again. Some were hastening to embrace him, but others
cried out, “ Don’t touch him, you will spoil his new clothes.”
The five headmen came on board and listened in quiet sadness
to the story of poor Sekwebu, who died at the Mauritius on his
way to England. “ Men die in any country,” they observed,
and then told us that thirty of their own number had died
of smallpox, having been bewitched by the people of Tette,
who envied them because, during the first year, none of
their party had died. Six of their young men, becoming
* Makololo, Manganja, Ajawa, Ba-
toka, Matebele, Babisa, Bawe, &c. &c.,
are all plural nouns ; Ma, Ba, A, being
plural prefixes winch the Arabs change
into Wa, as Wanyassa, the people of
Nyassa, or Manganja, Wabisa, who
call themselves Babisa, and sometimes
Avisa. It has not been deemed necessary
to add s to words already
plural.
tired of cutting firewood for a meagre pittance, proposed
to go and dance for gain before some of the neighbouring
Chiefs. “ Don’t go,” said the others, “ we don’t know the
people of this country; ” but the young men set out and
visited an independent half-caste Chief, a few miles to the north,
named Chisaka, who some years ago burned all the Portuguese
villas on the north bank of the river; afterwards the young
men went to Bonga, son of another half-caste Chief, who bade
defiance to the Tette authorities, and had a stockade at the
confluence, of the Zambesi and Luenya, a few miles below that
village,* Asking the Makololo whence they came, Bonga
rejoined, “ Why do you come from my enemy to me ? You
have brought witchcraft medicine to kill me.” In vain they
protested that they did not belong to the country; they were
strangers, and had come from afar with an Englishman. The
superstitious savage put them all to death. “We do not
grieve,” said their companions, “ for the thirty victims of the
smallpox, who were taken away by Morimo (God) ; but our
hearts are sore for the six youths who were murdered by
Bonga.” Any hope of obtaining justice on the murderer was
out of the question. Bonga once caught a captain of the Portuguese
army, and forced him to perform the menial labour of
pounding maize in a wooden mortar. No punishment followed
on this outrage. The Government of Lisbon has since
given Bonga the honorary title of Captain, by way of coaxing
him to own their authority; but he still holds his stockade.
One of the headmen remarked “ that they had some pigs ;
* This is not that Bonga, brother of
Mariano, who was carrying on war in
another quarter: the word means a
“ tig e r-c a ta n d this was the son of
Nyaude, who, when the whole force
of Tette was mustered at the Luenya,
was sent up the opposite bank by his
father, and burned all the village, save
the church and fort.