REACH THE LEEAMBYE.

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neying, as on this occasion, his attendants were fed by the chief, an ox or two being selected from his own herds, if there were any in the neighborhood; if not, the head man of the nearest village presented one or two for the purpose. The people of the villages presented the party, on their arrival, with draughts of the beer of the country, and milk. As elands, antelopes, and other kinds of game, were frequently met with in the plains between Linyanti and the Leeambye, they never wanted for food. The party struck the Leeambye at a village considerably above Sesheke, where it is about six hundred yards broad. After crossing to the north side of the river, several days were spent in collecting canoes. During this interval, Livingstone took the opportunity of going in pursuit of game to support the party, and to examine the adjacent country. The country is flat, diversified with small treecovered mounds, which are too high to be covered by the floods during the rainy season. The soil on the flat parts is a rich loam; and this, and the abundant floods during the rainy season, enable the natives to raise large supplies of grain and ground-nuts. Vast numbers of a small antelope, about eighteen inches high, new to naturalists, named the tianyane, are found on these plains, together with many of the larger antelopes, including a new or striped variety of the eland; buffaloes and zebras were found on the plains; so that there was no difficulty in the way of providing for so large a party.

This journey was undertaken by Livingstone and Sekeletu with the object of finding a healthy spot for establishing the headquarters of the Makololo within friendly or defensible territory. The low-lying and swampy districts they had been compelled, for purposes of safety from their numerous enemies, to occupy, was exer

cising a fatal influence on the physique and the increase of the tribe. Fevers were common: Livingstone him. self had suffered severely from an attack. And the intelligent chief, and the head men of the tribe, were wise enough to understand the value of the counsel of their missionary friend, when he advised the removal of the bulk of the tribe to a more elevated and healthy locality. Such a position had to be sought for beyond the reach of the annual inundations, which, for a period, transformed the course of the river for miles into lakes and swamps; as when the waters subsided, the miasma arising from the wet soil and the rotting vegetation, under a tropical sun, made the district a hotbed of fever and dysentery. Coming from the comparatively cold and hilly region of the south, the Makololo suffered more severely from the effects of the climate than the various tribes of Makalaka Sebituane had found living in the district, and made subject to his rule. From choice they lived in the neighborhood of the river; and their agriculture is entirely dependent on the annual floods. They cultivate dura (a kind of grain), maize, beans, ground-nuts, pumpkins, watermelons, and cucumbers; and in the Barotse valley, along the course of the Leeambye, the sugar-cane, sweetpotato, &c., are added to the agricultural produce, the fer.ility of the soil being increased by rude efforts at irrigation.

Having collected thirty-three flat-bottomed canoes, capable of conveying one hundred and sixty men, the imposing flotilla, rowed by Makalaka men, who are more skilful watermen than the Makololo, moved rapidly up the broad waters of the Leeambye; the great explorer enjoying an exhilaration of spirits natural to an adventurous man, who, first of all his countrymen, passed up

ON THE LEEAMBYE.

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this noble stream, and who saw clearly the great and important part which a magnificent natural highway like this would play in the civilizing of the numerous tribes of Central Africa. At many places the river is more than a mile broad, its surface broken by islands, small and large. The islands and the banks are thickly covered with trees, among which are the date-palm, with its gracefully curved fronds, and the lofty palmyra, with its feathery mass of foliage towering over all. Elephants, and the larger species of game, were very abundant; but in consequence of the presence of that destructive insect, the tsetse, the villagers on the banks had no domestic cattle. The inhabitants of the valley of the river here are known as Banyete, and are, from their skill in making various utensils, the handicraftsmen of the neighboring tribes. They make neat wooden vessels with lids, wooden bowls, and, after Livingstone had introduced the idea of sitting on stools, they exercised their taste and ingenuity on the construction of these in a variety of shapes. Wicker baskets made of the split roots of trees, and articles of domestic and agricultural utility in pottery and iron, were also among the products of their skill. Iron ore is dug out of the earth, and smelted, and fashioned into rude hoes, almost the only implement of husbandry known at this period.

The Banyete never appear to have been a warlike people. War is either caused by slavery, or the possession of cattle; and as the slave-dealers had never reached their peaceful habitations, and the tsetse rendered the possession of cattle impossible, they had lived secure from the ambitious and selfish designs of more powerful and warlike tribes. Tribute was regularly paid to Şekeletu in the simple articles constructed by their indus

trial skill; and, in exchange, they lived contented and happy under his protection. When the river is low, a series of rapids make navigation difficult for considerable distances; but they met with no serious obstacle until they reached the falls of Gonye; where the river, narrowing into a space of seventy or eighty yards wide, falls a distance of thirty feet. There they had to carry the canoes for about a mile over land.

At this place Livingstone heard of a tradition of a man who took advantage of the falls to lead a portion of the river over the level country below for the purposes of irrigation. The garden was pointed out; and, though neglected for generations, they dug up an inferior kind of potato, which they found to be bitter and waxy. If properly cultivated and irrigated, Livingstone appears to think that the valleys through which the great rivers and their affluents flow might be made as productive as the valley of the Nile; to which that of the Zambesi bears a striking resemblance. The intelligent and generally peaceable character of the tribes visited by Livingstone in Central Africa is a guaranty, that with the introduction of agricultural implements, and the humanizing influence of contact with civilization, such a desirable state of matters may speedily follow the opening-up of the country for purposes of legitimate trade with Europeans.

The valley of the Barotse, a district inhabited by a people of that name, subject to the Makololo, which extends west to the junction of the Leeambye and Leeba, is about one hundred miles in length, and from ten to thirty miles in width, with the Leeambye winding down the middle. The whole of this valley is inundated not by local rain-fall, but by the flooding of the river, just as

the Nile valley is flooded by the overflow of that river. The villages of the Barotse are built on mounds, which are at a sufficient elevation to be secure from the annual floods. These mounds are, for the most part, artificial, and are said to have been raised by a famous chief of the Barotse, named Santuru, who planted them with trees; which gave a grateful shade, besides adding to the beauty of the scenery. As this valley is free from the dreaded tsetse, the Barotse are rich in cattle, which find abundant food in the rich pasturage. At the approach of the floods they retire to the high grounds, where food is less abundant, and fall off in condition. Their return, on the subsidence of the river, is a season of rejoicing among the people, because the season of plenty has returned once

more.

In one of the Barotse towns, Mpepe's father lived; and as he and another man had counselled Mamochisane to kill Sekeletu, and marry Mpepe, they were led forth, and tossed into the river. On Livingstone remonstrating against this off-hand shedding of human blood, Nokuane, who had been one of the executioners on this occasion, as well as in the execution of Mpepe, excused the act by saying, "You see we are still Boers: we are not yet taught;" surely a terrible sarcasm, coming from a savage, on the doings of civilized men. At Naliele, the capital of the Barotse, which is built on a mound raised by Santuru, the party were visited by some of the Mambari. The pure Mambari are as black as the Barotse; but many of them were half-caste Portuguese, and could read and write. The head of the party Livingstone believed to be a true Portuguese. Mpepe had given them full permission to trade in his district; and they had not been slow to take advantage of the permission in exchanging the