Next morning we had a formal presentation, and found Katema seated on a sort of throne, with about three hundred men on the ground around, and thirty women, who were said to be his wives, close behind him.  The main body of the people were seated in a semicircle, at a distance of fifty yards.  Each party had its own head man stationed at a little distance in front, and, when beckoned by the chief, came near him as councilors.  Intemese gave our history, and Katema placed sixteen large baskets of meal before us, half a dozen fowls, and a dozen eggs, and expressed regret that we had slept hungry:  he did not like any stranger to suffer want in his town; and added, “Go home, and cook and eat, and you will then be in a fit state to speak to me at an audience I will give you to-morrow.”  He was busily engaged in hearing the statements of a large body of fine young men who had fled from Kangenke, chief of Lobale, on account of his selling their relatives to the native Portuguese who frequent his country.  Katema is a tall man, about forty years of age, and his head was ornamented with a helmet of beads and feathers.  He had on a snuff-brown coat, with a broad band of tinsel down the arms, and carried in his hand a large tail made of the caudal extremities of a number of gnus.  This has charms attached to it, and he continued waving it in front of himself all the time we were there.  He seemed in good spirits, laughing heartily several times.  This is a good sign, for a man who shakes his sides with mirth is seldom difficult to deal with.  When we rose to take leave, all rose with us, as at Shinte’s.

Returning next morning, Katema addressed me thus:  “I am the great Moene (lord) Katema, the fellow of Matiamvo.  There is no one in the country equal to Matiamvo and me.  I have always lived here, and my forefathers too.  There is the house in which my father lived.  You found no human skulls near the place where you are encamped.  I never killed any of the traders; they all come to me.  I am the great Moene Katema, of whom you have heard.”  He looked as if he had fallen asleep tipsy, and dreamed of his greatness.  On explaining my objects to him, he promptly pointed out three men who would be our guides, and explained that the northwest path was the most direct, and that by which all traders came, but that the water at present standing on the plains would reach up to the loins; he would therefore send us by a more northerly route, which no trader had yet traversed.  This was more suited to our wishes, for we never found a path safe that had been trodden by slave-traders.

We presented a few articles, which pleased him highly:  a small shawl, a razor, three bunches of beads, some buttons, and a powder-horn.  Apologizing for the insignificance of the gift, I wished to know what I could bring him from Loanda, saying, not a large thing, but something small.  He laughed heartily at the limitation, and replied, “Every thing of the white people would be acceptable, and he would