Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

D >> David Livingstone >> Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa


The two native Portuguese traders of whom we had heard had erected a
little encampment opposite the place where ours was about to be made.
One of them, whose spine had been injured in youth--a rare sight in this
country--came and visited us. I returned the visit next morning. His
tall companion had that sickly yellow hue which made him look fairer
than myself, but his head was covered with a crop of unmistakable wool.
They had a gang of young female slaves in a chain, hoeing the ground
in front of their encampment to clear it of weeds and grass; these were
purchased recently in Lobale, whence the traders had now come. There
were many Mambari with them, and the establishment was conducted
with that military order which pervades all the arrangements of the
Portuguese colonists. A drum was beaten and trumpet sounded at certain
hours, quite in military fashion. It was the first time most of my men
had seen slaves in chains. "They are not men," they exclaimed (meaning
they are beasts), "who treat their children so."

The Balonda are real negroes, having much more wool on their heads and
bodies than any of the Bechuana or Caffre tribes. They are generally
very dark in color, but several are to be seen of a lighter hue; many of
the slaves who have been exported to Brazil have gone from this region;
but while they have a general similarity to the typical negro, I never
could, from my own observation, think that our ideal negro, as seen
in tobacconists' shops, is the true type. A large proportion of the
Balonda, indeed, have heads somewhat elongated backward and upward,
thick lips, flat noses, elongated 'ossa calces', etc., etc.; but there
are also many good-looking, well-shaped heads and persons among them.

17TH, TUESDAY. We were honored with a grand reception by Shinte about
eleven o'clock. Sambanza claimed the honor of presenting us, Manenko
being slightly indisposed. The native Portuguese and Mambari went fully
armed with guns, in order to give Shinte a salute; their drummer and
trumpeter making all the noise that very old instruments would produce.
The kotla, or place of audience, was about a hundred yards square, and
two graceful specimens of a species of banian stood near one end; under
one of these sat Shinte, on a sort of throne covered with a leopard's
skin. He had on a checked jacket, and a kilt of scarlet baize edged with
green; many strings of large beads hung from his neck, and his limbs
were covered with iron and copper armlets and bracelets; on his head he
wore a helmet made of beads woven neatly together, and crowned with a
great bunch of goose-feathers. Close to him sat three lads with large
sheaves of arrows over their shoulders.

When we entered the kotla, the whole of Manenko's party saluted Shinte
by clapping their hands, and Sambanza did obeisance by rubbing his chest
and arms with ashes. One of the trees being unoccupied, I retreated to
it for the sake of the shade, and my whole party did the same. We were
now about forty yards from the chief, and could see the whole ceremony.
The different sections of the tribe came forward in the same way that we
did, the head man of each making obeisance with ashes which he carried
with him for the purpose; then came the soldiers, all armed to the
teeth, running and shouting toward us, with their swords drawn, and
their faces screwed up so as to appear as savage as possible, for the
purpose, I thought, of trying whether they could not make us take to our
heels. As we did not, they turned round toward Shinte and saluted him,
then retired. When all had come and were seated, then began the curious
capering usually seen in pichos. A man starts up, and imitates the most
approved attitudes observed in actual fight, as throwing one javelin,
receiving another on the shield, springing to one side to avoid a third,
running backward or forward, leaping, etc. This over, Sambanza and the
spokesman of Nyamoana stalked backward and forward in front of Shinte,
and gave forth, in a loud voice, all they had been able to learn,
either from myself or people, of my past history and connection with the
Makololo; the return of the captives; the wish to open the country to
trade; the Bible as a word from heaven; the white man's desire for
the tribes to live in peace: he ought to have taught the Makololo that
first, for the Balonda never attacked them, yet they had assailed the
Balonda: perhaps he is fibbing, perhaps not; they rather thought he was;
but as the Balonda had good hearts, and Shinte had never done harm to
any one, he had better receive the white man well, and send him on his
way. Sambanza was gayly attired, and, besides a profusion of beads, had
a cloth so long that a boy carried it after him as a train.

Behind Shinte sat about a hundred women, clothed in their best, which
happened to be a profusion of red baize. The chief wife of Shinte, one
of the Matebele or Zulus, sat in front with a curious red cap on her
head. During the intervals between the speeches, these ladies burst
forth into a sort of plaintive ditty; but it was impossible for any of
us to catch whether it was in praise of the speaker, of Shinte, or of
themselves. This was the first time I had ever seen females present in
a public assembly. In the south the women are not permitted to enter the
kotla; and even when invited to come to a religious service there, would
not enter until ordered to do so by the chief; but here they expressed
approbation by clapping their hands, and laughing to different speakers;
and Shinte frequently turned round and spoke to them.

A party of musicians, consisting of three drummers and four performers
on the piano, went round the kotla several times, regaling us with their
music. Their drums are neatly carved from the trunk of a tree, and have
a small hole in the side covered with a bit of spider's web: the ends
are covered with the skin of an antelope pegged on; and when they
wish to tighten it, they hold it to the fire to make it contract: the
instruments are beaten with the hands.

The piano, named "marimba", consists of two bars of wood placed side
by side, here quite straight, but, farther north, bent round so as to
resemble half the tire of a carriage-wheel; across these are placed
about fifteen wooden keys, each of which is two or three inches broad,
and fifteen or eighteen inches long; their thickness is regulated
according to the deepness of the note required: each of the keys has a
calabash beneath it; from the upper part of each a portion is cut off to
enable them to embrace the bars, and form hollow sounding-boards to the
keys, which also are of different sizes, according to the note required;
and little drumsticks elicit the music. Rapidity of execution seems much
admired among them, and the music is pleasant to the ear. In Angola the
Portuguese use the marimba in their dances.

When nine speakers had concluded their orations, Shinte stood up, and so
did all the people. He had maintained true African dignity of manner all
the while, but my people remarked that he scarcely ever took his eyes
off me for a moment. About a thousand people were present, according to
my calculation, and three hundred soldiers. The sun had now become hot;
and the scene ended by the Mambari discharging their guns.

18TH. We were awakened during the night by a message from Shinte,
requesting a visit at a very unseasonable hour. As I was just in the
sweating stage of an intermittent, and the path to the town lay through
a wet valley, I declined going. Kolimbota, who knows their customs best,
urged me to go; but, independent of sickness, I hated words of the night
and deeds of darkness. "I was neither a hyaena nor a witch." Kolimbota
thought that we ought to conform to their wishes in every thing: I
thought we ought to have some choice in the matter as well, which put
him into high dudgeon. However, at ten next morning we went, and were
led into the courts of Shinte, the walls of which were woven rods, all
very neat and high. Many trees stood within the inclosure and afforded a
grateful shade. These had been planted, for we saw some recently put
in, with grass wound round the trunk to protect them from the sun. The
otherwise waste corners of the streets were planted with sugar-cane and
bananas, which spread their large light leaves over the walls.

The Ficus Indica tree, under which we now sat, had very large leaves,
but showed its relationship to the Indian banian by sending down shoots
toward the ground. Shinte soon came, and appeared a man of upward of
fifty-five years of age, of frank and open countenance, and about
the middle height. He seemed in good humor, and said he had expected
yesterday "that a man who came from the gods would have approached
and talked to him." That had been my own intention in going to the
reception; but when we came and saw the formidable preparations, and all
his own men keeping at least forty yards off from him, I yielded to the
solicitations of my men, and remained by the tree opposite to that under
which he sat. His remark confirmed my previous belief that a frank,
open, fearless manner is the most winning with all these Africans. I
stated the object of my journey and mission, and to all I advanced the
old gentleman clapped his hands in approbation. He replied through a
spokesman; then all the company joined in the response by clapping of
hands too.

After the more serious business was over, I asked if he had ever seen a
white man before. He replied, "Never; you are the very first I have seen
with a white skin and straight hair; your clothing, too, is different
from any we have ever seen." They had been visited by native Portuguese
and Mambari only.

On learning from some of the people that "Shinte's mouth was bitter
for want of tasting ox-flesh," I presented him with an ox, to his great
delight; and, as his country is so well adapted for cattle, I advised
him to begin a trade in cows with the Makololo. He was pleased with the
idea, and when we returned from Loanda, we found that he had profited by
the hint, for he had got three, and one of them justified my opinion of
the country, for it was more like a prize heifer for fatness than any
we had seen in Africa. He soon afterward sent us a basket of green maize
boiled, another of manioc-meal, and a small fowl. The maize shows by
its size the fertility of the black soil of all the valleys here, and so
does the manioc, though no manure is ever applied. We saw manioc attain
a height of six feet and upward, and this is a plant which requires the
very best soil.

During this time Manenko had been extremely busy with all her people
in getting up a very pretty hut and court-yard, to be, as she said, her
residence always when white men were brought by her along the same path.
When she heard that we had given an ox to her uncle, she came forward
to us with the air of one wronged, and explained that "this white man
belonged to her; she had brought him here, and therefore the ox was
hers, not Shinte's." She ordered her men to bring it, got it slaughtered
by them, and presented her uncle with a leg only. Shinte did not seem at
all annoyed at the occurrence.

19TH. I was awakened at an early hour by a messenger from Shinte; but
the thirst of a raging fever being just assuaged by the bursting forth
of a copious perspiration, I declined going for a few hours. Violent
action of the heart all the way to the town did not predispose me to be
patient with the delay which then occurred, probably on account of
the divination being unfavorable: "They could not find Shinte." When I
returned to bed, another message was received, "Shinte wished to say all
he had to tell me at once." This was too tempting an offer, so we
went, and he had a fowl ready in his hand to present, also a basket
of manioc-meal, and a calabash of mead. Referring to the
constantly-recurring attacks of fever, he remarked that it was the only
thing which would prevent a successful issue to my journey, for he had
men to guide me who knew all the paths which led to the white men.
He had himself traveled far when a young man. On asking what he would
recommend for the fever, "Drink plenty of the mead, and as it gets in,
it will drive the fever out." It was rather strong, and I suspect he
liked the remedy pretty well, even though he had no fever. He had always
been a friend to Sebituane, and, now that his son Sekeletu was in his
place, Shinte was not merely a friend, but a father to him; and if a son
asks a favor, the father must give it. He was highly pleased with the
large calabashes of clarified butter and fat which Sekeletu had sent
him, and wished to detain Kolimbota, that he might send a present back
to Sekeletu by his hands. This proposition we afterward discovered
was Kolimbota's own, as he had heard so much about the ferocity of the
tribes through which we were to pass that he wished to save his skin.
It will be seen farther on that he was the only one of our party who
returned with a wound.

We were particularly struck, in passing through the village, with the
punctiliousness of manners shown by the Balonda. The inferiors, on
meeting their superiors in the street, at once drop on their knees
and rub dust on their arms and chest; they continue the salutation of
clapping the hands until the great ones have passed. Sambanza knelt down
in this manner till the son of Shinte had passed him.

We several times saw the woman who occupies the office of drawer of
water for Shinte; she rings a bell as she passes along to give warning
to all to keep out of her way; it would be a grave offense for any one
to come near her, and exercise an evil influence by his presence on the
drink of the chief. I suspect that offenses of the slightest character
among the poor are made the pretext for selling them or their children
to the Mambari. A young man of Lobale had fled into the country of
Shinte, and located himself without showing himself to the chief. This
was considered an offense sufficient to warrant his being seized and
offered for sale while we were there. He had not reported himself, so
they did not know the reason of his running away from his own chief, and
that chief might accuse them of receiving a criminal. It was curious
to notice the effect of the slave-trade in blunting the moral
susceptibility: no chief in the south would treat a fugitive in this
way. My men were horrified at the act, even though old Shinte and his
council had some show of reason on their side; and both the Barotse
and the Makololo declared that, if the Balonda only knew of the policy
pursued by them to fugitives, but few of the discontented would remain
long with Shinte. My men excited the wonder of his people by stating
that every one of them had one cow at least in his possession.

Another incident, which occurred while we were here, may be mentioned,
as of a character totally unknown in the south. Two children, of seven
and eight years old, went out to collect firewood a short distance from
their parents' home, which was a quarter of a mile from the village, and
were kidnapped; the distracted parents could not find a trace of them.
This happened so close to the town, where there are no beasts of prey,
that we suspect some of the high men of Shinte's court were the guilty
parties: they can sell them by night. The Mambari erect large huts of a
square shape to stow these stolen ones in; they are well fed, but aired
by night only. The frequent kidnapping from outlying hamlets explains
the stockades we saw around them; the parents have no redress, for even
Shinte himself seems fond of working in the dark. One night he sent for
me, though I always stated I liked all my dealings to be aboveboard.
When I came he presented me with a slave girl about ten years old; he
said he had always been in the habit of presenting his visitors with a
child. On my thanking him, and saying that I thought it wrong to take
away children from their parents, that I wished him to give up this
system altogether, and trade in cattle, ivory, and bees'-wax, he urged
that she was "to be a child" to bring me water, and that a great man
ought to have a child for the purpose, yet I had none. As I replied that
I had four children, and should be very sorry if my chief were to take
my little girl and give her away, and that I would prefer this child to
remain and carry water for her own mother, he thought I was dissatisfied
with her size, and sent for one a head taller; after many explanations
of our abhorrence of slavery, and how displeasing it must be to God
to see his children selling one another, and giving each other so much
grief as this child's mother must feel, I declined her also. If I could
have taken her into my family for the purpose of instruction, and then
returned her as a free woman, according to a promise I should have made
to the parents, I might have done so; but to take her away, and probably
never be able to secure her return, would have produced no good effect
on the minds of the Balonda; they would not then have seen evidence of
our hatred to slavery, and the kind attentions of my friends would, as
it almost always does in similar cases, have turned the poor thing's
head. The difference in position between them and us is as great as
between the lowest and highest in England, and we know the effects of
sudden elevation on wiser heads than hers, whose owners had not been
born to it.

Shinte was most anxious to see the pictures of the magic lantern; but
fever had so weakening an effect, and I had such violent action of the
heart, with buzzing in the ears, that I could not go for several days;
when I did go for the purpose, he had his principal men and the same
crowd of court beauties near him as at the reception. The first picture
exhibited was Abraham about to slaughter his son Isaac; it was shown
as large as life, and the uplifted knife was in the act of striking the
lad; the Balonda men remarked that the picture was much more like a god
than the things of wood or clay they worshiped. I explained that this
man was the first of a race to whom God had given the Bible we now held,
and that among his children our Savior appeared. The ladies listened
with silent awe; but, when I moved the slide, the uplifted dagger moving
toward them, they thought it was to be sheathed in their bodies instead
of Isaac's. "Mother! mother!" all shouted at once, and off they rushed
helter-skelter, tumbling pell-mell over each other, and over the little
idol-huts and tobacco-bushes: we could not get one of them back again.
Shinte, however, sat bravely through the whole, and afterward examined
the instrument with interest. An explanation was always added after
each time of showing its powers, so that no one should imagine there was
aught supernatural in it; and had Mr. Murray, who kindly brought it from
England, seen its popularity among both Makololo and Balonda, he would
have been gratified with the direction his generosity then took. It was
the only mode of instruction I was ever pressed to repeat. The people
came long distances for the express purpose of seeing the objects and
hearing the explanations.

One can not get away quickly from these chiefs; they like to have the
honor of strangers residing in their villages. Here we had an additional
cause of delay in frequent rains; twenty-four hours never elapsed
without heavy showers; every thing is affected by the dampness; surgical
instruments become all rusty, clothing mildewed, and shoes mouldy; my
little tent was now so rotten and so full of small holes that every
smart shower caused a fine mist to descend on my blanket, and made me
fain to cover the head with it. Heavy dews lay on every thing in the
morning, even inside the tent; there is only a short time of sunshine in
the afternoon, and even that is so interrupted by thunder-showers that
we can not dry our bedding.

The winds coming from the north always bring heavy clouds and rain; in
the south, the only heavy rains noticed are those which come from the
northeast or east. The thermometer falls as low as 72 Degrees when
there is no sunshine, though, when the weather is fair, the protected
thermometer generally rises as high as 82 Degrees, even in the mornings
and evenings.

24TH. We expected to have started to-day, but Sambanza, who had been
sent off early in the morning for guides, returned at midday without
them, and drunk. This was the first case of real babbling intoxication
we had seen in this region. The boyaloa, or beer of the country, has
more of a stupefying than exciting nature; hence the beer-bibbers are
great sleepers; they may frequently be seen lying on their faces
sound asleep. This peculiarity of posture was ascribed, by no less an
authority than Aristotle, to wine, while those who were sent asleep by
beer were believed "to lie upon their backs."

Sambanza had got into a state of inebriation from indulging in mead,
similar to that which Shinte presented to us, which is much more
powerful than boyaloa. As far as we could collect from his incoherent
sentences, Shinte had said the rain was too heavy for our departure, and
the guides still required time for preparation. Shinte himself was busy
getting some meal ready for my use in the journey. As it rained nearly
all day, it was no sacrifice to submit to his advice and remain.
Sambanza staggered to Manenko's hut; she, however, who had never
promised "to love, honor, and obey him," had not been "nursing her wrath
to keep it warm," so she coolly bundled him into the hut, and put him to
bed.

As the last proof of friendship, Shinte came into my tent, though
it could scarcely contain more than one person, looked at all the
curiosities, the quicksilver, the looking-glass, books, hair-brushes,
comb, watch, etc., etc., with the greatest interest; then closing the
tent, so that none of his own people might see the extravagance of which
he was about to be guilty, he drew out from his clothing a string of
beads, and the end of a conical shell, which is considered, in regions
far from the sea, of as great value as the Lord Mayor's badge is in
London. He hung it round my neck, and said, "There, now you HAVE a proof
of my friendship."

My men informed me that these shells are so highly valued in this
quarter, as evidences of distinction, that for two of them a slave
might be bought, and five would be considered a handsome price for
an elephant's tusk worth ten pounds. At our last interview old Shinte
pointed out our principal guide, Intemese, a man about fifty, who was,
he said, ordered to remain by us till we should reach the sea; that I
had now left Sekeletu far behind, and must henceforth look to Shinte
alone for aid, and that it would always be most cheerfully rendered.
This was only a polite way of expressing his wishes for my success. It
was the good words only of the guides which were to aid me from the next
chief, Katema, on to the sea; they were to turn back on reaching him;
but he gave a good supply of food for the journey before us, and, after
mentioning as a reason for letting us go even now that no one could say
we had been driven away from the town, since we had been several days
with him, he gave a most hearty salutation, and we parted with the wish
that God might bless him.




Chapter 17.

Leave Shinte--Manioc Gardens--Mode of preparing the poisonous kind--Its
general Use--Presents of Food--Punctiliousness of the Balonda--
Their Idols and Superstition--Dress of the Balonda--Villages beyond
Lonaje--Cazembe--Our Guides and the Makololo--Night Rains--Inquiries
for English cotton Goods--Intemese's Fiction--Visit from an old
Man--Theft--Industry of our Guide--Loss of Pontoon--Plains covered
with Water--Affection of the Balonda for their Mothers--A Night on an
Island--The Grass on the Plains--Source of the Rivers--Loan of the
Roofs of Huts--A Halt--Fertility of the Country through which the
Lokalueje flows--Omnivorous Fish--Natives' Mode of catching them--
The Village of a Half-brother of Katema, his Speech and Present--Our
Guide's Perversity--Mozenkwa's pleasant Home and Family--Clear Water of
the flooded Rivers--A Messenger from Katema--Quendende's Village: his
Kindness--Crop of Wool--Meet People from the Town of Matiamvo--Fireside
Talk--Matiamvo's Character and Conduct--Presentation at Katema's Court:
his Present, good Sense, and Appearance--Interview on the following
Day--Cattle--A Feast and a Makololo Dance--Arrest of a Fugitive--
Dignified old Courtier--Katema's lax Government--Cold Wind from the
North--Canaries and other singing Birds--Spiders, their Nests and
Webs--Lake Dilolo--Tradition--Sagacity of Ants.



26TH. Leaving Shinte, with eight of his men to aid in carrying our
luggage, we passed, in a northerly direction, down the lovely valley
on which the town stands, then went a little to the west through pretty
open forest, and slept at a village of Balonda. In the morning we had
a fine range of green hills, called Saloisho, on our right, and were
informed that they were rather thickly inhabited by the people of
Shinte, who worked in iron, the ore of which abounds in these hills.