for the first twenty-five miles, but not sufficient to
interrupt navigation with canoes or with any other craft.
Nearly the whole of this aquatic plant proceeds from a
marsh on the west, and comes into the river a little
beyond a lofty bill called Mount Morambala. Above that
there is hardly any. As we approached the villages, the natives
collected in large numbers, armed with bows and poisoned
arrows; and some, dodging behind trees, were observed taking
aim as if on the point of shooting. All the women had
been sent out of the way, and the men were evidently
prepared to resist aggression. At the village of a Chief named
Tingane, at least five hundred natives collected and ordered
us to stop. Dr. Livingstone went ashore; and on his explaining
that we were English and had come neither to take slaves
nor to fight, but only to open a path by which our countrymen
might follow to purchase cotton, or whatever else they
might have to sell, except slaves, Tingane became at once
quite friendly. The presence of the steamer, which showed
that they had an entirely new people to deal with, probably
contributed to this result; for Tingane was notorious for being
the barrier to all intercourse between the Portuguese black
traders and the natives further inland; none were allowed
to pass him either way. He was an elderly, well-made man,
grey-headed, • and over six feet high. Though somewhat
excited by our presence, he readily complied with the request
to call his people together, in order that all might know what
our objects were.
In commencing intercourse with any people we almost
always referred to the English detestation of slavery. Most of
them already possess some information respecting the efforts
made by the English at sea to suppress the slave-trade; and
our work being to induce them to raise and sell cotton, instead
of capturing and selling their fellow-men, our errand appears
quite natural; and as they all have clear ideas of their own
self-interest, and are keen traders, the reasonableness of the
proposal is at once admitted; and as a belief in a Supreme
Being, the Maker and Euler of all things, and in the continued
existence of departed spirits is universal, it becomes quite
appropriate to explain that we possess a Book containing a Be-
yelation of the will of Him, to whom in their natural state they
recognise no relationship. The fact that His Son appeared
among men, and left His words in His Book, always awakens
attention; but the great difficulty is to make them feel that
they have any relationship to Him, and that He feels any
interest in them. The numbness of moral perception exhibited,
is often discouraging; but the mode of communication, either
by interpreters, or by the imperfect knowledge of the
language, which not even missionaries of talent can overcome
save by the labour of many years, may, in.part, account for
the phenomenon. However, the idea of the Father of all
being displeased with His children, for selling or killing each
other, at once gains their ready assent: it harmonizes so
exactly with their own ideas of right and wrong. But, as in
our own case at home, nothing less than the instruction and
example of many years will secure their moral elevation.
The dialect spoken here closely resembles that used at
Senna and Tette. We understood it at first only enough to
know whether our interpreter was saying what we bade him, or
was indulging in his own version. After stating pretty nearly
what he was told, he had an inveterate tendency to wind up
with “ The Book says you are to grow cotton, and the
English are to come and buy it,” or with some joke of his
own, which might have been ludicrous, had it not been
seriously distressing.