“We are children of Jesus.”  We continued our course, notwithstanding the rain, across the bottom of the Quango Valley, which we found broken by clay shale rocks jutting out, though lying nearly horizontally.  The grass in all the hollows, at this time quite green, was about two feet higher than my head while sitting on ox-back.  This grass, wetted by the rain, acted as a shower-bath on one side of our bodies; and some deep gullies, full of discolored water, completed the cooling process.  We passed many villages during this drenching, one of which possessed a flock of sheep; and after six hours we came to a stand near the River Quango (lat. 9d 53’ S., long. 18d 37’ E.), which may be called the boundary of the Portuguese claims to territory on the west.  As I had now no change of clothing, I was glad to cower under the shelter of my blanket, thankful to God for his goodness in bringing us so far without losing one of the party.

4Th April.  We were now on the banks of the Quango, a river one hundred and fifty yards wide, and very deep.  The water was discolored—­a circumstance which we had observed in no river in Londa or in the Makololo country.  This fine river flows among extensive meadows clothed with gigantic grass and reeds, and in a direction nearly north.

The Quango is said by the natives to contain many venomous water-snakes, which congregate near the carcass of any hippopotamus that may be killed in it.  If this is true, it may account for all the villages we saw being situated far from its banks.  We were advised not to sleep near it; but, as we were anxious to cross to the western side, we tried to induce some of the Bashinje to lend us canoes for the purpose.  This brought out the chief of these parts, who informed us that all the canoe-men were his children, and nothing could be done without his authority.  He then made the usual demand for a man, an ox, or a gun, adding that otherwise we must return to the country from which we had come.  As I did not believe that this man had any power over the canoes of the other side, and suspected that if I gave him my blanket—­the only thing I now had in reserve—­he might leave us in the lurch after all, I tried to persuade my men to go at once to the bank, about two miles off, and obtain possession of the canoes before we gave up the blanket; but they thought that this chief might attack us in the act of crossing, should we do so.  The chief came himself to our encampment and made his demand again.  My men stripped off the last of their copper rings and gave them; but he was still intent on a man.  He thought, as others did, that my men were slaves.  He was a young man, with his woolly hair elaborately dressed:  that behind was made up into a cone, about eight inches in diameter at the base, carefully swathed round with red and black thread.  As I resisted the proposal to deliver up my blanket until they had placed us on the western bank, this chief continued to worry us with his demands