We spent Sunday, the 10th, at Monze’s village, who is considered the chief of all the Batoka we have seen.  He lives near the hill Kisekise, whence we have a view of at least thirty miles of open undulating country, covered with short grass, and having but few trees.  These open lawns would in any other land, as well as this, be termed pastoral, but the people have now no cattle, and only a few goats and fowls.  They are located all over the country in small villages, and cultivate large gardens.  They are said to have adopted this wide-spread mode of habitation in order to give alarm should any enemy appear.  In former times they lived in large towns.  In the distance (southeast) we see ranges of dark mountains along the banks of the Zambesi, and are told of the existence there of the rapid named Kansala, which is said to impede the navigation.  The river is reported to be placid above that as far as the territory of Sinamane, a Batoka chief, who is said to command it after it emerges smooth again below the falls.  Kansala is the only rapid reported in the river until we come to Kebrabasa, twenty or thirty miles above Tete.  On the north we have mountains appearing above the horizon, which are said to be on the banks of the Kafue.

The chief Monze came to us on Sunday morning, wrapped in a large cloth, and rolled himself about in the dust, screaming “Kina bomba,” as they all do.  The sight of great naked men wallowing on the ground, though intended to do me honor, was always very painful; it made me feel thankful that my lot had been cast in such different circumstances from that of so many of my fellow-men.  One of his wives accompanied him; she would have been comely if her teeth had been spared; she had a little battle-axe in her hand, and helped her husband to scream.  She was much excited, for she had never seen a white man before.  We rather liked Monze, for he soon felt at home among us, and kept up conversation during much of the day.  One head man of a village after another arrived, and each of them supplied us liberally with maize, ground-nuts, and corn.  Monze gave us a goat and a fowl, and appeared highly satisfied with a present of some handkerchiefs I had got in my supplies left at the island.  Being of printed cotton, they excited great admiration; and when I put a gaudy-colored one as a shawl about his child, he said that he would send for all his people to make a dance about it.  In telling them that my object was to open up a path whereby they might, by getting merchandise for ivory, avoid the guilt of selling their children, I asked Monze, with about 150 of his men, if they would like a white man to live among them and teach them.  All expressed high satisfaction at the prospect of the white man and his path:  they would protect both him and his property.  I asked the question, because it would be of great importance to have stations in this healthy region, whither agents oppressed by sickness might retire, and which would serve, moreover, as part of a chain