I had been, during a nine weeks’ tour, in closer contact with heathenism than I had ever been before; and though all, including the chief, were as kind and attentive to me as possible, and there was no want of food (oxen being slaughtered daily, sometimes ten at a time, more than sufficient for the wants of all), yet to endure the dancing, roaring, and singing, the jesting, anecdotes, grumbling, quarreling, and murdering of these children of nature, seemed more like a severe penance than any thing I had before met with in the course of my missionary duties.  I took thence a more intense disgust at heathenism than I had before, and formed a greatly elevated opinion of the latent effects of missions in the south, among tribes which are reported to have been as savage as the Makololo.  The indirect benefits which, to a casual observer, lie beneath the surface and are inappreciable, in reference to the probable wide diffusion of Christianity at some future time, are worth all the money and labor that have been expended to produce them.

Chapter 13.

Preliminary Arrangements for the Journey—­A Picho—­Twenty-seven Men appointed to accompany me to the West—­Eagerness of the Makololo for direct Trade with the Coast—­Effects of Fever—­A Makololo Question—­The lost Journal—­Reflections—­The Outfit for the Journey—­11th November, 1853, leave Linyanti, and embark on the Chobe—­Dangerous Hippopotami—­Banks of Chobe—­Trees—­The Course of the River—­The Island Mparia at the Confluence of the Chobe and the Leeambye—­ Anecdote—­Ascend the Leeambye—­A Makalaka Mother defies the Authority of the Makololo Head Man at Sesheke—­Punishment of Thieves—­Observance of the new Moon—­Public Addresses at Sesheke—­Attention of the People—­Results—­Proceed up the River—­The Fruit which yields ’Nux vomica’—­Other Fruits—­The Rapids—­Birds—­Fish—­Hippopotami and their Young.

Linyanti, September, 1853.  The object proposed to the Makololo seemed so desirable that it was resolved to proceed with it as soon as the cooling influence of the rains should be felt in November.  The longitude and latitude of Linyanti (lat. 18d 17’ 20” S., long. 23d 50’ 9” E.) showed that St. Philip de Benguela was much nearer to us than Loanda; and I might have easily made arrangements with the Mambari to allow me to accompany them as far as Bihe, which is on the road to that port; but it is so undesirable to travel in a path once trodden by slave-traders that I preferred to find out another line of march.

Accordingly, men were sent at my suggestion to examine all the country to the west, to see if any belt of country free from tsetse could be found to afford us an outlet.  The search was fruitless.  The town and district of Linyanti are surrounded by forests infested by this poisonous insect, except at a few points, as that by which we entered at Sanshureh and another at Sesheke.  But the lands both east and west of the Barotse valley are free from this insect plague.  There, however, the slave-trade had defiled the path, and no one ought to follow in its wake unless well armed.  The Mambari had informed me that many English lived at Loanda, so I prepared to go thither.  The prospect of meeting with countrymen seemed to overbalance the toils of the longer march.