demanded gunpowder for every thing.  If we had possessed any quantity of that article, we should have got on well, for here it is of great value.  On our return, near this spot we found a good-sized fowl was sold for a single charge of gunpowder.  Next to that, English calico was in great demand, and so were beads; but money was of no value whatever.  Gold is quite unknown; it is thought to be brass; trade is carried on by barter alone.  The people know nothing of money.  A purse-proud person would here feel the ground move from beneath his feet.  Occasionally a large piece of copper, in the shape of a St. Andrew’s cross, is offered for sale.

February 27th.  Kangenke promptly furnished guides this morning, so we went briskly on a short distance, and came to a part of the Kasye, Kasai, or Loke, where he had appointed two canoes to convey us across.  This is a most beautiful river, and very much like the Clyde in Scotland.  The slope of the valley down to the stream is about five hundred yards, and finely wooded.  It is, perhaps, one hundred yards broad, and was winding slowly from side to side in the beautiful green glen, in a course to the north and northeast.  In both the directions from which it came and to which it went it seemed to be alternately embowered in sylvan vegetation, or rich meadows covered with tall grass.  The men pointed out its course, and said, “Though you sail along it for months, you will turn without seeing the end of it.”

While at the ford of the Kasai we were subjected to a trick, of which we had been forewarned by the people of Shinte.  A knife had been dropped by one of Kangenke’s people in order to entrap my men; it was put down near our encampment, as if lost, the owner in the mean time watching till one of my men picked it up.  Nothing was said until our party was divided, one half on this, and the other on that bank of the river.  Then the charge was made to me that one of my men had stolen a knife.  Certain of my people’s honesty, I desired the man, who was making a great noise, to search the luggage for it; the unlucky lad who had taken the bait then came forward and confessed that he had the knife in a basket, which was already taken over the river.  When it was returned, the owner would not receive it back unless accompanied with a fine.  The lad offered beads, but these were refused with scorn.  A shell hanging round his neck, similar to that which Shinte had given me, was the object demanded, and the victim of the trick, as we all knew it to be, was obliged to part with his costly ornament.  I could not save him from the loss, as all had been forewarned; and it is the universal custom among the Makololo and many other tribes to show whatever they may find to the chief person of their company, and make a sort of offer of it to him.  This lad ought to have done so to me; the rest of the party always observed this custom.  I felt annoyed at the imposition, but the order we invariably followed in crossing a