that we were but ten days from that fort.  One of them, a Mashona man, who had come from a great distance to the southwest, was anxious to accompany us to the country of the white men; he had traveled far, and I found that he had also knowledge of the English tribe, and of their hatred to the trade in slaves.  He told Sekwebu that the “English were men”, an emphasis being put upon the term men, which leaves the impression that others are, as they express it in speaking scornfully, “only things”.  Several spoke in the same manner, and I found that from Mpende’s downward I rose higher every day in the estimation of my own people.  Even the slaves gave a very high character to the English, and I found out afterward that, when I was first reported at Tete, the servants of my friend the commandant said to him in joke, “Ah! this is our brother who is coming; we shall all leave you and go with him.”  We had still, however, some difficulties in store for us before reaching that point.

The man who wished to accompany us came and told us before our departure that his wife would not allow him to go, and she herself came to confirm the decision.  Here the women have only a small puncture in the upper lip, in which they insert a little button of tin.  The perforation is made by degrees, a ring with an opening in it being attached to the lip, and the ends squeezed gradually together.  The pressure on the flesh between the ends of the ring causes its absorption, and a hole is the result.  Children may be seen with the ring on the lip, but not yet punctured.  The tin they purchase from the Portuguese, and, although silver is reported to have been found in former times in this district, no one could distinguish it from tin.  But they had a knowledge of gold, and for the first time I heard the word “dalama” (gold) in the native language.  The word is quite unknown in the interior, and so is the metal itself.  In conversing with the different people, we found the idea prevalent that those who had purchased slaves from them had done them an injury.  “All the slaves of Nyungwe,” said one, “are our children; the Bazunga have made a town at our expense.”  When I asked if they had not taken the prices offered them, they at once admitted it, but still thought that they had been injured by being so far tempted.  From the way in which the lands of Zumbo were spoken of as still belonging to the Portuguese (and they are said to have been obtained by purchase), I was inclined to conclude that the purchase of land is not looked upon by the inhabitants in the same light as the purchase of slaves.