THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 f 
 
 k
 
 
 UNIVKP"^ITy of CAU^' 
 
 LOS Ar:c::'Li::o 
 
 LILiRARY
 
 THE LIFE & EXPLORATIONS OF 
 FREDERICK STANLEY ARNOT
 
 Frederick Stanley Arnot 
 
 A photo ta'<en on Paddington Station platform in June, iqis, when leaving for Africa for the 
 
 last time.
 
 THE LIFE (Sf EXPLORATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 FREDERICK STANLEY 
 ARNOT 
 
 THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF A ZEALOUS 
 MISSIONARY, INTREPID EXPLORER, y SELF- 
 DENYING BENEFACTOR AMONGST THE 
 NATIVES OF AFRICA 
 
 BY 
 
 ERNEST BAKER 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the RETURN OF THE LORD," ^C. &C, 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS a' A MAP 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 S4S37
 
 TRINTED IN GRBAT BRITAIN
 
 HI 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 I HESITATED long as to the form the Life of Arnot 
 should take, alternating between a descriptive narra- 
 tive and a transcript of his diaries and letters. As I 
 read and re-read these I felt something of the spell that the 
 diaries of David Brainerd, Henry Martyn, and Murray 
 McCheyne have exercised over so many, and I felt that it 
 would be better for the most part to allow Arnot to tell his 
 own story. So I have made a plentiful use of his own words, 
 believing that the result of combining the two methods will 
 be the addition to our literature of a story that will be both 
 interesting from a narrative point of view, and stimulating 
 and inspiring from the devotional standpoint. In the use of 
 letters I have not specified, except on occasions when I have 
 deemed it necessary, to whom they were addressed. 
 
 Arnot must be reckoned, not only amongst the greatest 
 saints and missionaries of modern times, but also amongst its 
 greatest travellers. He made nine journeys to the centre of 
 Africa. Without reckoning the tens of thousands of miles that 
 he had to travel on the ocean to get to Africa and back, with- 
 out counting the journeys around the coast from port to port, 
 and without including the long distances he was able to go in 
 the latter part of his life by train over railways that had then 
 been built, it is estimated that he covered 29,000 miles in all 
 by foot, in hammocks, on the back of donkeys or oxen, or in 
 canoes. This is a record that has probably never been sur- 
 passed in Africa, and it is doubtful if many have equalled it in 
 other parts of the world. 
 
 I am greatly indebted to the hearty co-operation of Mrs. 
 Arnot, the widow of F. S. Arnot, for the loan of diaries, letters, 
 and other papers, and for numerous articles and booklets 
 written by Arnot from time to time. Mrs. Arnot's counsel has 
 been invaluable in deciding what to include and what to 
 eliminate. 
 
 11
 
 12 PREFACE 
 
 Some of the material has of necessity appeared already in 
 Arnot's principal books, Garenganze, Bihe and Garenganze, and 
 Missionary Travels in Central Africa, and grateful acknowledg- 
 ment is hereby made both to Mrs. Arnot and the publishers of 
 these works for permission to use the material contained 
 therein. 
 
 Miss Ray Arnot, Arnot's eldest daughter, who assisted him 
 in his later years in his literary work and correspondence, has 
 been a great help in correcting place-names. 
 
 Then a word must be said for the great traveller's mother, 
 Mrs. Arnot, who is still alive, and, at the time of writing, is 
 eighty-six years of age. She resides in Glasgow and has 
 followed with great interest the progress of this Biography, and 
 has trusted letters of her son to the mercy of the seas, infested 
 in war time with the deadly submarine. Glimpses of him, in 
 a tenderer and more vivid light, can thus be given to the public 
 than could be obtained from a perusal of his journals and 
 letters, which were written with a view to publication. 
 
 ERNEST BAKER. 
 
 Johannesburg, South Africa.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAOe 
 
 I. Beginnings ....... 17 
 
 II. Apbican Apprenticeship ..... 22 
 
 III. Through the Desert ..... 32 
 
 IV. First Experiences with Carriers ... 43 
 V. Spying out the Land ..... 52 
 
 VI. Amongst the Barotse ..... 66 
 
 VII. More about the Barotse .... 90 
 
 VIII. From the Zambesi to Benguella . . .104 
 
 IX. Some Native Beliefs . . . . .122 
 
 X. At and Around Benguella . . . .129 
 
 XI. A Start from Benguella . . . .143 
 
 XII. In Need of Patience . . . . .159 
 
 XIII. In Gabenganze . . . . . .179 
 
 XIV. The People 200 
 
 XV. Anxieties, Prayers and Deliverances . .216 
 
 XVI. Home and Fame . . . . . .231 
 
 XVII. The Second Journey 238 
 
 XVIII. The Third Journey 254 
 
 XIX. Great Britain, British Guiana and Europe . 268 
 
 XX. The Fourth Journey ..... 274 
 
 XXI. The Fifth Journey ..... 285 
 
 XXII. The Sixth and Seventh Journeys . . .301 
 
 XXIII. The Eighth Journey 314 
 
 XXIV. The Last Joutiney and the Home Call . . 322 
 
 13
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Frederick Stanley Arnot 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 F. S. Abnot (aged 23) 
 
 FACING PAUB 
 
 48 
 
 F. S. Arnot (aged 31) 
 
 48 
 
 KuTATu Crossing 
 
 112 
 
 On the Zambesi 
 
 144 
 
 Bih4 
 
 176 
 
 Near Bih6 
 
 208 
 
 A Fetish-man 
 
 288 
 
 A Striking Head-dress 
 
 288
 
 THE LIFE & EXPLORATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 FREDERICK STANLEY ARNOT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BEGINNINGS 
 
 FREDERICK STANLEY ARNOT came of a good stock. 
 His great-grandfather, on his paternal side, was the 
 Rev. William Arnot of the church now known as the 
 Arnot Memorial Church, Kennoway, Fifeshire. A book of 
 sermons entitled Law and Grace, written by him, was greatly 
 esteemed by his fellow ministers at the time of its publication. 
 This William Arnot was a great friend of the Rev. John Newton, 
 the well-known hymn writer. A letter by tliis famous preacher 
 written to Mrs. Arnot on the occasion of the death of her 
 husband has been preserved, and was read by Fred as a boy 
 with great and reverent interest. 
 
 The grandfather of the future missionary was also a William 
 Arnot. He was a publisher in Edinburgh, and connected with 
 the Bible Society in that city. He was alive when Fred was 
 born, and daily remembered his grandsons in prayer. 
 
 Fred's own father was also named William, and at the time 
 of his (Fred's) birth — which took place on September 12th, 
 1858, at 8 Bunbank Terrace, Glasgow — had a shipping con- 
 nection with Australia. 
 
 His mother was the youngest daughter of Neil Macdonald, 
 of Macdonald and Dunn, sewed-muslin manufacturers of 
 Paisley. Mr. Macdonald died before his daughter's marriage 
 with Mr. Arnot. His grandparents belonged to the islands 
 of Skye, from which they fled at the time of the rebellion in 
 connection with Prince Charlie. 
 
 When Fred was about four years of age his parents removed 
 to Hamilton. Here he attended the Gilbertfield School, where,
 
 18 BEGINNINGS 
 
 at the age of six, at the Annual Prize Distribution, he heard Dr. 
 Lixingstone, who had just returned from exploring the Zambesi. 
 His interest in Africa began then. 
 
 As Hamilton was the home of Livingstone a friendship sprang 
 up between the Arnots and the Livingstones ; and on Saturday 
 afternoons Fred used to play with the children of the great 
 traveller. On these occasions they frequently rummaged in the 
 corners of an old attic where many of the curios brought from 
 Africa were kept, and where also the Doctor's books and letters 
 were stored. On one of these occasions Annie Mary, Living- 
 stone's daughter, read to them one of her father's letters in 
 which he told of the cruelties practised by the slave traders. 
 Though only a boy Fred there and then determined that " he 
 would go and help that great man in his work." That resolution 
 was always kept in mind, and it governed his studies and 
 thoughts. Africa became the centre around which his mind 
 revolved. Whenever his home lessons included geography, no 
 matter what part of the world was the subject, he generally 
 finished up with Africa. Asked on one of these occasions how, 
 if no one gave him the money, he would get there, he replied 
 that he would swim. 
 
 Arnot's father was brought up in the Free Church of Scotland,' 
 but when Fred was about ten years of age he became exercised 
 about baptism and meeting to break bread every Lord's Day. 
 As the result of this he joined an assembly of Brethren in 
 Hamilton. At the same time he worked in connection with the 
 Evangelisation Society, and had charge of a work in a little 
 hall called " Back of the Barns," where he carried on a very 
 successful Gospel effort. In this he was helped by members of 
 the assembly in the town, and also by some well-known Brethren 
 from Glasgow. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. and Mrs. W. Arnot removed to Tayport, Fifeshire. 
 Here the father initiated a meeting for the breaking of bread 
 which was first held in a cottage, and afterwards in a small hall 
 in the village. 
 
 As early as his eighth year Fred realised his need of a Sa\'iour ; 
 and in 1869 he found peace through repeating and believing, 
 at two o'clock one morning, the message of John iii. 16. 
 
 Whilst in his early teens he was baptised at the " Mid Wynd " 
 meeting in Dundee, the late Mr. Scott interviewing him regard- 
 ing his religious experience, after which he was received into
 
 BEGINNINGS 19 
 
 the meeting at Tayport where his father was the principal 
 speaker. 
 
 Young Arnot commenced Christian work early. He accom- 
 panied his father in open-air work, and took part in the meetings 
 when he was only fifteen. A Tayport man afterwards remarked : 
 " We used to think he took too much on himself preaching to 
 us men, but now I see the lad was father to the man." 
 
 At the shipbuilding yard in Tayport he spent six months 
 learning how to use tools ; and frequently in later years he would 
 say that the training he received here was very useful to him in 
 Africa. 
 
 In 1876 the family removed back to Glasgow, when Fred 
 entered a wholesale linen merchant's warehouse. There he was 
 once asked to invoice some goods wrongly. He refused, and 
 after a time of anxiety was commended by the head of the firm 
 for acting in accordance with his conscience. In his further 
 business life he travelled much in different parts of Scotland, 
 and in following his tracks to-day one learns how much he was 
 loved and how well he has been remembered. 
 
 In order to fit himself for his work in Africa Arnot would 
 frequently take cross-country journeys guided only by the com- 
 pass. On one occasion he was in a lonely part and in a district 
 of which he was ignorant. He asked his way to the nearest 
 railway station. A coal miner directed him, and as the distance 
 was considerable, and as this stranger knew the nature of the 
 inhabitants, and also saw a few suspicious characters on the 
 road, he called two of his sons, who were also miners, and told 
 them to follow Arnot and guard liim till he reached his destina- 
 tion. This they did. In after years in Central Africa, when 
 welcoming a party of missionaries sent to reinforce him, Arnot 
 was told by one of the new arrivals of the incident, and the 
 narrator added : " I am one of the sons who followed you to 
 guard you, little thinking that I would become a missionary 
 and meet you in Africa." 
 
 In his spare time the future missionary learnt to make shoes, 
 to cut out cloth, and sew it as a tailor. He learnt how to take 
 a watch to pieces, and to put it together again, and practised 
 working as a blacksmith and as a joiner. He also acquired a 
 certain amount of medical and surgical knowledge which on 
 several occasions stood him in good stead, both as to himself 
 and others. To all this he added a careful systematic study of
 
 20 BEGINNINGS 
 
 the Scriptures, the result of which was that all his addresses 
 were edifying as well as suggestive. 
 
 In Glasgow Arnot was connected with the meeting of Brethren 
 held in Parkholm Hall, Paisley Road. By this assembly he was 
 commended to God for the work to which he had consecrated 
 himself, the elder brethren being particularly hearty in their 
 approval of his enterprise, ha\ang carefully marked his diligence 
 in summer pioneer Gospel work in Scottish and EngHsh 
 districts. 
 
 Arnot was twenty-three years of age when he started for 
 Africa. Many of his relatives were opposed to his going in the 
 simple way of trusting his temporal affairs to God, wishing him 
 to take a University training and to go out in connection with 
 a recognised society. But this he did not feel called to do. He 
 went, as he believed, and as the results showed, at the call of 
 God. Several friends shared his desire to evangelise the natives 
 of the Dark Continent. These helped in providing his outfit, 
 and in equipping him for his expedition. But being the agent 
 of no organisation his resources were very slender. To this fact 
 he himself said, upon returning seven years later, he owed his 
 escape from some of the troubles befalhng travellers furnished 
 \vith a large stock of goods ; and, being without the helps and 
 comforts possessed by them, he was obliged to share the lives 
 of the natives in a way that gave him a better knowledge of them 
 than he would otherwise have obtained. 
 
 His intention when leaving was to make for the Zambesi, and 
 to follow up one of the smaller affluents, and so get on to the 
 watershed on the north, where he expected to find a mountain- 
 ous and healthy country. He had been much impressed with 
 the heavy death rate, often as high as 50 per cent, of African 
 missionaries, due to the fact that the mission stations were 
 dotted along the banks of the great rivers. His idea, therefore, 
 was to find a big inland ridge where healthier conditions would 
 be possible, and which would be a centre for missionary work. 
 
 On July 19th, 1881, Arnot sailed by the Dublin Castle 
 for South Africa, accompanied by one who purposed to be his 
 companion in the work. 
 
 Arriving at the Cape on August 13th, Arnot and his friend 
 were much refreshed by meeting with a band of earnest Chris- 
 tian workers who showed much interest in their enterprise. 
 With these the question was considered of making their way
 
 BEGINNINGS 21 
 
 into the interior from Cape Town, but they were led to conclude 
 that Natal offered a more advantageous starting-point, so they 
 proceeded to Durban in a small coasting steamer. They were 
 much impressed by meeting on this vessel four natives from 
 Delagoa Bay who urged them to start work there, promising 
 to build them a house and a chapel, and to give them food and 
 drink. When little hope of their settlement in that centre was 
 given the reply came : " Ah ! white man bring brandy to 
 Delagoa Bay, and guns and powder ; but white man no bring 
 chapel to Delagoa Bay." 
 
 Durban was reached on August 20th. The next day was a 
 Sunday, and the visitors worshipped in the evening in the 
 little Congregational church near the pier, where the Rev. 
 David Russell (since known as the South African Evangelist) 
 was the preacher. The text on that occasion was : ' Verily 
 I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, 
 or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, 
 for My sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundredfold 
 noAv in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, 
 and children, and lands, with persecutions ; and in the world 
 to come eternal life." The word was like a drink from the brook 
 by the way to hearts that were already beginning to feel some- 
 thing of the loneliness to which they were committed. 
 
 The first trial came here. The health of Arnot's companion 
 broke down, and acting under medical advice he felt he must 
 abandon the Journey to the interior, so Arnot had to proceed 
 alone.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 
 
 THE next step was Maritzburg, where Arnot was 
 detained for three months. The country was still 
 in an unsettled condition, due to the Boer War of 
 1880-1, and preparations for a journey to the Zambesi were 
 difficult. The time, however, was well spent. Mission stations 
 in the surrounding country were visited and much useful 
 information gained. Opportunities for preaching to his fellow- 
 countrymen were also seized, and many visits to the sick in 
 the hospitals gladly paid. 
 
 It was in this place that Arnot had the first of his many 
 marvellous escapes, and learnt how near he could be brought 
 to death and yet preserved without a hair of his head being 
 touched. Going to a meeting, when a tremendous thunder- 
 storm was raging, he was startled hy an electric ball falling 
 just at his fr^. The small stones and dust caused by its con- 
 tact with the ground flew all around him. The shock passed 
 through his whole body. Those who saw the ball of fire fall 
 said it seemed to come right down where he stood, and they 
 described the noise when it struck the ground as like the crash 
 of a cannon-ball. Arnot was none the worse for the occurrence 
 and was able to conduct the meeting. 
 
 Arnot made many friends in Maritzburg, and from these 
 he received valuable assistance in fitting himself for the long 
 journey before him. The help was not only with word but 
 with means. He was persuaded to buy a rifle, as he was told 
 by reliable persons that he would be unable to secure natives 
 to travel with him unless he had a gun with which to obtain 
 meat. 
 
 The decision was made during t'Ais waiting time to proceed 
 to Shoshong, the capital of the Bamangwato in Bechuanaland, 
 under the rule of the chief Khama. Here he would be for a 
 while amongst some of his countrymen, and have at the same 
 
 22
 
 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 23 
 
 time the best opportunity of learning the Sechuana language, 
 which is the basis of most of the dialects of the interior 
 tribes. 
 
 Arrangements were made to travel with a transport rider 
 who was taking a number of waggons to Potchcfstroom, and 
 with these Arnot left on November 20th. The waggons started 
 from the Natal capital on the 19th, reaching the top of the hill 
 above the town the same evening. Arnot did not join them 
 till the next morning when some of the Christians of the city 
 accompanied him up the hill to say good-bye. Sixteen Kafiir 
 drivers soon put the oxen and the heavy waggons into 
 motion. 
 
 Now that the country is intersected with railways it is 
 interesting to read Arnot's description of the travelling of his 
 day. " Inland journeys from Maritzburg," he said, " are made 
 by means of ox- waggons, each carrying between three and four 
 tons weight of goods, and drawn by from 16 to 20 oxen. 
 Four or five waggons, however, generally travel together, as 
 the roads in many places are hilly, and in others so marshy 
 that more than one team of oxen is required to get the waggon 
 along. It does look stupid to see so many oxen drawing one 
 waggon over the level roads about town ; but when one sees 
 them out in the country dragging it through a quagmire, with 
 great boulders of stone hidden in the mud every few yards, and 
 then up a tremendously steep hill, one wonders how they 
 manage to get along at all. Sometimes as many as 70 
 oxen have to be yoked to one transport waggon. We hope to 
 make eight or ten miles a day, without many stoppages, if the 
 rivers are fordable." 
 
 Day after day, after leaving Maritzburg, the train of bullock 
 waggons passed the soldiers returning from Northern Natal in 
 consequence of the settlement after the Boer War. Lea\dng 
 the town of Lady smith on their right they went up the Van 
 Reenan Pass, through the Drakensberg Range, to the Free 
 State. Arnot's sleeping accommodation was on the ground 
 under one of the waggons, which he confessed was a little 
 trying with a drenching rain, and with four degrees of frost 
 before the morning. For three days a terrific storm of wind 
 and rain kept them prisoners, and Arnot remained for most 
 of that time wrapped in a sheep-skin kaross, lying under one 
 of the waggons sharing coffee and "scoff" with the drivers,
 
 24 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 
 
 for the white man in charge had ridden off to the nearest 
 hotel. 
 
 INIost of the time on the road was spent with the Kaffirs 
 only, and as he understood but little of their language as yet 
 he was consequently shut up to " converse only with Him 
 whose ear is ever open to us. This," Arnot says, " has turned 
 my solitude into a very precious time, and I can say to His 
 praise that I never felt more free from all care and anxious 
 thought than now. I wonder how it is that Satan has so 
 managed to blindfold me in the past, that my whole life has 
 not been one note of praise. Oh ! stir up every child of God 
 you meet to praise our God more. We little know how much 
 we rob Him by our sad hearts and dull, thankless lives. The 
 Lord has been teaching me a little of the awful sin of unthank- 
 fulness. Two great reasons why God gave up those of old to 
 uncleanness and darkness were, that they glorified Him not 
 as God, neither were thankful." 
 
 Travelling in the Free State was easy except for occasional 
 deep sloughs of black mud when the drivers had to inspan forty 
 or more oxen to one waggon at a time. Proceeding via Harri- 
 smith and Heilbron, and crossing the Vaal River, Potchefstroom 
 was reached on December 23rd. 
 
 For a few days Arnot camped on the Market Square in his 
 small patrol tent, 6 ft. by 3 ft. The fort recently garrisoned 
 by the British was just outside the town and was to him a 
 centre of interest. This had been besieged by a large force 
 of Boers, and had held out in ignorance for some time after 
 peace had been concluded. Evidence of recent happenings 
 were to be seen in the neighbourhood ; remains of horses, oxen, 
 and even natives, lying in the vicinity. Arnot was shown a 
 dug-out provided for the only woman in the garrison, and 
 also a spot where a young soldier fell who had been found sleep- 
 ing whilst on duty in the trenches, and who was condemned 
 to be shot. Rather, however, than be killed by his own country- 
 men he jumped upon the parapet and was immediately shot 
 down by the Boers. " If," says Arnot, " our Captain so treated 
 His sleeping soldiers, who would stand ? How gentle were His 
 words when He found His disciples sleeping for sorrow, ' Why 
 sleep ye ? ' " 
 
 Suitable lodgings were soon found in the town, and for six 
 weeks Potchefstroom was his centre. He made extended tours
 
 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 25 
 
 on horseback from this place to many of the Dutch farms, 
 carrying Scripture portions with him. In the course of these 
 tours he was entertained by Mr. (afterwards General) Cronje 
 and his wife, and also by General Joubert. These helped and 
 cheered him much in his work amongst the Boers. 
 
 At Potchefstroom Arnot met a Mr. Webb, who had been a 
 missionary amongst the Baralongs ; but, owing to a deficit 
 of eighty thousand pounds in funds, the Society he repre- 
 sented had been obliged to retrench and dispense with 
 his services. Consequently he had resumed his trade, 
 which was that of a blacksmith. As a return for help 
 in his occupation Mr. Webb gave Arnot lessons in the 
 Sechuana language. Writing from this centre Arnot said : 
 " Potchefstroom is a lovely place, with such a lot of 
 fruit of every description. The young man with whom 
 I lodge has a large garden and I have undertaken to 
 dry his fruit for him as he has not time. I have been busy 
 with the apricots during the last few days, opening them up 
 and laying them out on reeds to dry in the sun. Peaches and 
 figs come next ; so with this, learning the Sechuana language, 
 and helping Mr. Webb in his business, I am kept pretty busy. 
 The other day I walked out to the British fort just outside the 
 town, where for three months a constant fight was kept up. 
 It is surprising to see the amount of labour and toil they must 
 have gone through in throwing up the immense earth mounds, 
 and in digging the long deep trenches. Eighty-five of our men 
 fell in these trenches, and they are buried here and there very 
 much as they fell." 
 
 A letter of introduction to a friend in Klerskdorp resulted 
 in an introduction, in that town, to Mr. F. C. Selous. This 
 famous hunter was making arrangements to go to Shoshong, 
 and when he found that Arnot wanted to reach the same place 
 he gave him a cordial in\dtation to accompany him, which was 
 joyfully accepted. Returning to Potchefstroom to get his 
 belongings Arnot found that the woman who did his washing 
 had left with, all that he had entrusted to her, and that the 
 Hollander, who had permitted him to graze his mule on his 
 ground had ridden off with it to Kimberley. 
 
 Writing home Arnot said : " Klerksdorp is a nice little 
 place. There is no doctor in this neighbourhood so I have 
 been kept busy in prescribing as best I could. I was very
 
 26 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 
 
 successful with one man, and also with a little girl who had 
 been afflicted for some time with a most distressing complaint. 
 When I left she was eating well and running about with the 
 rest. I was asked to stay in the place as a doctor, which of 
 course I refused to do, although I could make a good thing of 
 it financially. I find that if the healing of bodily sickness were 
 not kept strictly in the second place it would soon get the first 
 place with me, and would at once absorb all my attention." 
 
 Prior to this Arnot had had other experiences of the need of 
 doctors amongst the scattered populations of the veld, as the 
 following letter dated, Potchefstroom, January 20, 1882, will 
 show : "I have just returned from another of my mad freaks. 
 I had intended to visit the chief Monsoia, and was on the look- 
 out for a horse for hire, but failed entirely, so gave up the idea 
 in the meantime. A day or two afterwards an Englishman 
 came and offered me the use of a big white riding mule for a 
 very reasonable hire. So I accepted his offer and went. I 
 heard before I started that the Boers were doing what they 
 could to get up a fight among the Kaffirs, but reports here are 
 so absurd at times, and so little to be trusted, that I thought 
 I had better go on and see for myself, and I am glad I did so, 
 for I now understand the true condition of affairs in that part. ' 
 If Joubert succeeds in driving off the 200 rebel Boers, who 
 have joined Moshite and Monchabie, Monsoia will soon right 
 himself, as England has pledged herself to support him, and 
 has at present a military agent staying with him, so it will 
 only be a question of a very short time till things are settled. 
 It took me three days to reach Lichtenburg, a distance of 76 
 miles, which was awfully hard work on a zigzagging mule. 
 I had a very good reception at Lichtenburg. There are some 
 ten or twelve English people there, and they nearly all turned 
 out, with a few English-speaking Boers, to see the visitor, and 
 to hear his news. I was asked if I was a doctor, or knew any- 
 thing about medicine. I told them I knew a little. I was then 
 first invited to go out and join the camp of the rebel Boers, 
 and then to come to Lichtenburg as doctor, as the nearest 
 medical man they had was a German missionary, some 30 
 miles away, and who practices homseopathy, in consequence 
 of which they are in love with the system." 
 
 The route followed by Arnot and Selous led them through 
 Lichtenburg and Zeerust ; and, again, as in Natal, Arnot met
 
 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 27 
 
 men returning from war. This time it was the Boers who had 
 been in conflict with the Baralongs, one of the Bechuana tribes, 
 and they had with them large droves of cattle which they had 
 captured from the natives. 
 
 Before reaching Zeerust Mr. Selous pressed on ahead to the 
 Limpopo, where he spent some time in collecting natural 
 history specimens for the British and Continental museums. 
 This left Arnot alone for a time. The season was so hot that 
 progress had to be made at night. On one occasion Arnot 
 says he had to walk for five hours through thick bush, in front 
 of the waggons, with a lantern to trace the road, and when no 
 road could be found he had to use his compass. 
 
 The journey from Zeerust to the Limpopo was much enjoyed, 
 the river being described by Arnot as a " beautiful river indeed. 
 The wild animals," he said, " became more numerous here — 
 lions, leopards, etc. ; but with a scherm of thorns all round at 
 night, and a large fire blazing, there is no danger. When the 
 nights are dark they keep one awake with their roaring. I shall 
 be glad when we reach Bamangwato, and I can get settled down 
 to the language. I feel so useless, and sometimes impatient, 
 when so many all round sadly need the Gospel, and I cannot 
 converse with them." 
 
 A long continued drought in these parts compelled the 
 travellers to remain for a fortnight at this spot for the sake 
 of water for the oxen, and whilst here the waggon was daily 
 visited by Bushmen, of whom Arnot says : " These men are 
 supposed to be the lowest type of humanity. They live in a 
 most primitive fashion ; the Whole company will sleep in a 
 little hollow in the ground under a bush ; they come round the 
 waggon for any scraps of meat and offal throwTi away. Grow- 
 ing no grain, they live on wild fruit, and on animals which they 
 kill with their poisoned arrows. Their little children at once 
 proved the connection of these people with the whole human 
 race. Their ways at play, and their sweet ringing laugh, are 
 the same as those of our own children at home." 
 
 Heavy rains falling, the journey was made across the dry 
 desert lying between the Limpopo and Shoshong, the latter 
 place being reached on March 11th, 1882, after thirty-six days' 
 travelling from Potchefstroom. 
 
 Arnot stayed in Shoshong for three months, and had in that 
 time a wonderful and an encouraging object lesson of the power
 
 28 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 
 
 of the Gospel over an African chief. Shoshong was then the 
 capital of the Bamangwato, and Khama had been in power for 
 ten years, long enough to demonstrate what a Christian ruler 
 with autocratic power could do for his people. No other South 
 African chief has ever attempted one half of what Khama has 
 done for those under his rule. 
 
 The late Mr. Hepburn was one of the greatest influences in 
 Khama's life, and he and his devoted wife were at Shoshong 
 at the time of Arnot's visit. They showed much kindness to 
 the visitor, and he profited much from his intercourse with 
 them. A friendship was formed which became one of the most 
 valuable of the many fellowships made by Arnot in Africa. 
 Something of his opinion of Hepburn may be gathered from 
 the following : " The record of Mr. Hepburn's life work, 
 Twenty Years in Khama's Country, is a most inspiring book, 
 and might well be placed in the same category as the lives of 
 Brainerd and Henry Marty n." Mr. Hepburn gave Arnot 
 lessons in Sechuana daily for two months until he and his 
 family left for England on furlough. With the language Arnot 
 made rapid progress, and in return for the help given to him 
 by Hepburn spent a part of his time in teaching English to the 
 two sons of his friends. He was also kept busy in doctoring 
 the natives, and on Sundays he conducted services for the white 
 residents (the traders and their wives) to the number of four- 
 teen. Just at that time traders were in Shoshong from Lake 
 Ngami, the Matabele country, and from the Zambesi. 
 
 Concerning Shoshong itself, Arnot wrote ; " There is a great 
 amount of sickness and death in the tovm ; and no wonder, 
 when one thinks of 20,000 people being crowded together as 
 close as they could well be packed. Two persons can scarcely 
 walk abreast between the houses, which form such a perfect 
 maze to me, that when visiting the sick I have to be guided in 
 and out. Their idea is that this plan affords greater protection 
 from their enemies. The town is sadly in need of a hospital as 
 there is nothing more difficult than to attend to people in the 
 midst of such a mass of filthy humanity. The surgical cases 
 are the most trying, of which I will not harass you with particu- 
 lars. Yesterday, however, I was called upon to cut a young 
 man's leg off that had got fearfully smashed. I was just pre- 
 paring to put him under chloroform when he began to sink 
 rapidly, and died in a few hours. There is another similar case,
 
 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 29 
 
 which I have taken on hand, and which is causing me a good 
 deal of anxiety. Still, God has helped mc wonderfully. Once 
 I master the language 1 will not lay myself out for this sort 
 of work, but meantime I rejoice at the opportunity of getting 
 among the people. I think I have already gained the confidence 
 of some who at first treated me with suspicion. 
 
 " The moral condition of Shoshong is in many respects most 
 exemplary. Since coming here I have not seen an intoxicated 
 person, either black or white, which could not be said by anyone 
 for the same period, in any other town in Africa where the white 
 man trades. The chief, Khama, has put down the drink traffic 
 most effectually. Not only has he forbidden it among his own 
 people, but he will not allow the liquor to pass through his 
 country ; consequently none has passed into Central Africa 
 from this side for some years, unless it be a very small quantity 
 occasionally smuggled in. If a trader is found out once bring- 
 ing drink into the place, even for the use of the white people, 
 he is turned off Khama's territory, and never allowed to enter 
 it again. 
 
 " In many respects Khama is a noble chief, and it would be 
 well if other rulers imitated his unselfish Christian policy. 
 None of his people are allowed to want, if he can help it. If 
 they are too poor to buy, he provides them with a stock of 
 cattle, the increase of which belongs to the poor man ; and 
 thus Khama has distributed during the last few years thousands 
 of cattle to such of his people as have suffered through loss of 
 crops, cattle disease, etc. 
 
 " Although he has stopped all beer-drinking amongst his 
 people, and put down many of the revolting heathen customs 
 in which formerly they delighted, yet they all like their chief, 
 and would almost to a man die for him. 
 
 " Now and then Khama gets up hunts on a large scale to 
 kill the larger kinds of game. These hunting parties go far 
 into the desert, and often suffer greatly from want of food and 
 water ; but the chief is always the first to go without his share, 
 and will not help himself until all are supplied, so that there is 
 not the slightest grumbling on the part of his followers. 
 
 " In spite, however, of all the chief can do, very revolting 
 practices are carried on secretly among his people — such as 
 the murdering of children. A deformed child is at once put 
 to death ; twins are seldom allowed to live. If any peculiar
 
 80 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 
 
 circumstances happen at the birth of a child, or any suspicious 
 omen occur, such as the call of certain animals or birds, the 
 child is murdered. The ordinary way is to pour boiling water 
 down the child's throat, and carry the body out to the wolves ; 
 they also cast out the old people. Some of them still cut their 
 bodies, use enchantments, etc., but their heathen customs are 
 not openly observed. (This was written in 1882.) 
 
 " I can, nevertheless, say confidently that one would see 
 more vice and open immorality on a Saturday night in the 
 High Street, Glasgow, than would be seen in twelve months. 
 
 " The clothing of the people is scanty, but sufficient. They 
 are naturally civil and polite to each other, and when address- 
 ing an older or superior person, finish every sentence with ' my 
 father,' or ' my mother.' Both young and old address me 
 as ' my father,' and often as ' my lord ' ; but it is merely 
 civility. 
 
 " Shoshong is built and ordered after the manner of a military 
 camp, and everything is done by word of command. The 
 gardens are tilled at the word of the chief ; the crops cannot 
 be gathered in till the order is given. Each man is supposed 
 to be able to muster a gun or so many spears. The people in the 
 town live together in what might be called regiments, the huts 
 of each regiment being clustered around the hut of its captain ; 
 and around the town there is a double row of outposts, extend- 
 ing a long way into the veld. 
 
 " I have seen two turn-outs of the army since I came. On 
 one occasion an attack was expected from the Matabele. When 
 the report first came every man at once armed himself, and all 
 began jointly to get themselves into training for fighting. For 
 several mornings in succession they had a grand race of six 
 miles. It was a strange sight to see ten or twelve thousand 
 men, in all sorts of fantastic dresses, running along as hard as 
 they could, all the time shouting and boasting of what they 
 could do. 
 
 " The other day as the wife of one of the residents was 
 recovering from an attack of fever she took a great longing 
 for a pheasant, and could scarcely eat anything else. Her 
 husband could not leave her to go and hunt for one, so I started 
 off in the afternoon and walked to some hills 12 miles away 
 where I shot one pheasant and one guinea-fowl, and returned 
 in time for tea, doing 24 miles in si>- hours. So you must
 
 AFRICAN APPRENTICESHIP 81 
 
 not think of me as a weary-looking, white-faced character 
 wandering through the country. I am much heavier in weight 
 and stronger every way than I ever hoped to be in this country. 
 Ah, well ! This little brag is just en passant by way of 
 giving you confidence, you know."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THROUGH THE DESERT 
 
 FROM the time of Arnot's arrival Khama was very 
 friendly to him, and promised to help him on his 
 journey to the Zambesi with, guides and servants, 
 whenever he was ready to go. It was eventually decided to 
 take the desert route to the north. Khama told Arnot that he 
 was sending Tinka, his chief hunter, to the Mababi, at the 
 extreme north of the Kalahari desert, and that he could go 
 with him if he choose. He promised him every help and com- 
 fort in travelling with Tinka, who was a man of experience and 
 knew every inch of the ground, and had strict orders not to run 
 any risks in trying to cross the desert. Khama also placed one 
 of his waggons, with a span of oxen, at the disposal of Arnot to 
 take him as far as the Mababi, which was as far as they could ga 
 without being hindered by the tsetse fly. " Wherever this 
 insect is found," Arnot wrote, " the ox, the horse, and the 
 European dog die from the effects of its bite, although human 
 beings and wild animals do not suffer. Donkeys too are 
 supposed to be immune." 
 
 Khama also sent orders by Tinka that on reaching the Mababi 
 Arnot was to have as many Basubia men as he needed to assist 
 him on to Panda-ma-tenka, which would be the next stage of 
 his journey, and where he could easily get guides to take him 
 across the Zambesi. 
 
 The trek north began on June 8th, 1882. In addition to the 
 waggon loaned by Khama to take his supplies as far as the 
 Mababi, Arnot bought three donkeys for the transport of his 
 belongings beyond that point. From the journey from the 
 Mababi to the Batoka, north of the Zambesi, and back (for at 
 that time his intention was to return to Shoshong by October 
 or November before the unhealthy season set in), Arnot only 
 took one suit of clothes, one knife, one fork and spoon, one 
 plate, one cup, some soap, beads, calico, wheat-meal, tea, sugar, 
 
 32
 
 THROUGH THE DESERT 83 
 
 coffee, a little powder and lead, all of which was packed into six 
 sailor bolster bags which a Glasgow sailmaker had made for 
 him. 
 
 Khama and his wife joined in the farewell, the chief ex- 
 pressing the wish that God would be with him to save him by 
 the way, and to bring him back in peace. His wife said with 
 tears : " May God go with you, and remain with us, and fill you 
 with blessing." A number of native Christians gave him 
 presents for the way. First one and then another appeared 
 by the side of the road with bundles and bags of food and 
 supplies for the journey. The half-coloured butcher of the town 
 rolled a bundle into the waggon, saying : " These sausages are 
 well spiced, sir ; I have been up all night making them ; hang 
 them to the roof of the waggon." " Nothing," said Arnot, 
 " could have been finer or more encouraging than the way 
 those natives seriously o■^\^led the claims that the Gospel had 
 upon them and the way they did their utmost to speed me on." 
 
 The experiences of the desert journey are best told in 
 Arnot's own words : 
 
 " June is not a good month for travelling in the Kalahari 
 desert. The water holes and pans begin to dry up ; the ' frost 
 by night and the sun by day,' -\vither the grass. As we zig- 
 zagged about from water hole to water hole it seemed that we 
 were constantly on the brink of dire disaster. Usually the guide 
 would report that there was only water sufficient for half of 
 our oxen, so it was necessary to outspan a mile or so to the 
 windward of the water holes. Nothing could surpass the 
 beauty of those desert nights, when for hours I would sit listen- 
 ing to the natives or trying to exercise the Sechuana that I 
 had learned at Shoshong. For the first few weeks, trees, rugged 
 hills and great dry river beds covered the country. 
 
 " There are many wild animals all over the country through 
 which we have to pass. It is only in hunting these, however, 
 that there is any real danger. Every night, when travelling, 
 the natives cut down a lot of thorn bushes, and make with them 
 a thick fence, called a ' scherm,' and two large fires are placed 
 at the opening, thus forming a complete protection. Very 
 seldom will a lion break into a ' scherm,' although at times 
 they walk round it all night. The principal danger is in travel- 
 ling by night, and where water is scarce one is compelled to do 
 so ; but if the party is kept well together, and not allowed to 
 c
 
 34 THROUGH THE DESERT 
 
 scatter, there is very little danger, as a lion will not attack a 
 company." 
 
 " Once when travelling up the Crocodile River (on the way 
 to Shoshong) during the night I was walking behind Mr. Selous' 
 waggon, and a young man was driving some loose cattle not 
 far from me. On reaching the halting place, towards morning, 
 the cattle came up all right, but the young driver was not with 
 them. Search was made in all directions, but ■without result, 
 and we came to the conclusion that a lion had carried him off, 
 even though he was but a little distance from the party. 
 
 " Yesterday (June 13th) we sent the oxen ten miles off to 
 get a drink. Poor animals ! they suffer much from thirst. The 
 hunters too have suffered from hunger. They have as yet not 
 been fortunate in finding game, and have had to go for days 
 with only a little corn, although it is the king's special hunting 
 party. Because of the famine which threatens Shoshong they 
 started with but a small quantity of food, counting on getting 
 some on the road. 
 
 " I am writing (June 18th) in the centre of the north-east 
 part of the great Kalahari desert, hoping to meet some native 
 at the Botletle River going down to Shoshong. We are losing 
 no time by the way, as we shall not have any water for nearly 
 two days and two nights. I have a fair supply of food with me ; 
 for after I had laid in, as I thought, a reasonable store, I found 
 on starting that a bag of rusks, a large loaf of bread, a small crock 
 of butter, some oranges from the Transvaal, a water melon, 
 etc., had been sent to the waggon for me. I am beginning to 
 know my fellow travellers a little more. Tinka is undoubtedly 
 a decent fellow, and I think a true Christian. At first, how- 
 ever, I felt a peculiar sense of loneliness in finding mj^self sur- 
 rounded by black faces, with no one near to whom I could speak 
 in my own tongue, but I have got over that. Two other com- 
 panies of hunters, going on to the Botletle River, have joined 
 us. They are a wild lot, and, away from their own town and 
 chief, seem to enjoy their liberty immensely. The camp at night 
 would make a fine picture on canvas : ten or twelve fires, and 
 round each a crowd of black faces, some of the men singing, 
 talking, laughing, scolding, and others tearing antelope's bones 
 to pieces. All around is pitchy dark, made doubly so by the 
 shade of the dense forest and bush. 
 
 " We have just got to another well, which is, however, almost
 
 THROUGH THE DESERT 35 
 
 dry, and have travelled 40 hours from the last water, during 
 which we only stopped for five hours ; the oxen have been 
 without water for three days. As there is not water enough 
 for the oxen and donkeys they have to go half a day further 
 on. I was glad, I assure you, to lie down and get a little sleep. 
 The endurance of these people astonishes me. Some of them 
 walked the whole time ; and walking two days and a night 
 through loose sand is no easy thing. The first day we stopped 
 two hours for meals, during the night two hours for sleep, and 
 two hours the next day for food. Tinka as yet has no certain 
 news as to water beyond the Botletle River, so it is not clear 
 whether we shall go on or not. I am getting into training by 
 walking a long distance every day, and I can endure a good deal 
 of thirst. The natives drink a lot of water, and seem to suffer 
 if they are without it for a day. 
 
 " We have got thus far (Letlakani Water, June 21st), but arc 
 all very tired. The waters were so very low, and so few and 
 far between that we had to push on, the oxen not being able to 
 get more than one drink at the different wells. Poor animals ! 
 They do look knocked up, their necks all raw mth the galling 
 of the yoke. The wells are very deep, so that to water a span 
 of oxen is no light task, the men having to climb up and down 
 with pails of water. I am busy at making boots, and have 
 successfully finished one, which fits admirably (not to speak of 
 appearance) ; the soles are giraffe hide, the uppers, I think are 
 buffalo, and are stitched with narrow strips of zebra skin. 
 
 " We reached the Botletle River on June 22nd. We stay 
 here eight days altogether, and are outspanned in a most deso- 
 late spot. Behind is the great Kalahari desert, and before us 
 is a great stretch of reeds. A strong wind is constantly blow- 
 ing from the desert, bringing with it clouds of white sand ; but 
 better to have a wind, charged with sand, than one charged 
 with malaria from the reeds. 
 
 " I thought a short account of my first effort at ' village 
 work ' in the interior would interest you, so will tell you some- 
 what about it. At home in eight days one could accomplish a 
 good deal, but not so here, the distance being very great. A 
 meeting is called for this (Sunday) evening at which I am ex- 
 pected to speak ; it will be my first attempt. I am very 
 doubtful as to how I shall make myself understood. Tinka 
 asked me last night to have meetings all along the river, as
 
 86 THROUGH THE DESERT 
 
 the people understood Sechuana, which he thinks I speak 
 well enough ; it will depend upon how I get on this evening. 
 Nothing would be a greater pleasure to me, as many of the 
 people in these towns have never heard the Gospel. 
 
 " This (Sunday) evening around three fires we met for prayer 
 and reading. I got on pretty well, and most seemed to under- 
 stand me. Tinka and the Bamangwato understood every word. 
 All listened with eyes and mouth wide open ; so I am much 
 encouraged, and shall have meetings at all the little towns we 
 come to. To pray in another tongue seems very strange to me, 
 more so than speaking in it to the people. I can scarcely 
 describe the sense of relief felt, after straining to understand the 
 language for four months, to find that I am able in a measure 
 to tell the story I had come to make known. God has helped 
 me much more than my heart will acknowledge. 
 
 " On Monday I got a young Christian from Shoshong, named 
 Ramosi, to accompany me. Like most native Christians, he 
 can read and preach the Gospel pretty well. We intended 
 visiting three villages. The first we came to was Makoako, and 
 to reach it we had a long, tiresome walk, first through deep 
 sand, and then for some miles through reeds by a narrow 
 winding path in which there was scarcely room for one to walk. 
 Arriving at Makoako about midday, we found nearly all the 
 inhabitants asleep. Taking our seats in the kotla (the place of 
 public meeting) we awaited our audience. Those near awoke 
 the others, and soon they all came trooping out of their little 
 huts. They listened closely. The faces of most, however, 
 showed that they were more occupied with criticising than 
 assenting ; still, it is ours to sow, and God's to give the increase. 
 The next village we reached was a small one. The men were all 
 away hunting, and the Avomen out working, so we passed on. 
 We were not, however, able to reach the third village, for my 
 feet were sorely blistered, and so were Ramosi 's. He said the 
 road was killing him. Turning our course for the waggon we 
 reached it after again crossing the stretch of reeds. 
 
 " Tuesday was a very stormy day, the sand blowing all round 
 in great clouds, and we did not venture out ; my feet were also 
 too sore. On Wednesday we started again on the donkeys for a 
 village called Sosineu, which we reached about midday, and 
 found it quite a town. As we entered, the donkeys caused a 
 great sensation. I suppose it was the first time such animals had
 
 THROUGH THE DESERT 37 
 
 been seen there. The people are Makalako, from the Matabele 
 country. They all understand Sechuana well, but are wild and 
 savage looking. Taking our seats in the kotla, one of the head- 
 men sent a messenger to call the people, and he went round 
 shouting in a most frantic manner. Every time he reached the 
 climax of his sentence he threw his arms into the air and jumped 
 up, as if he were calling the people to a war dance. His cry 
 was for all the people, men, women and children, to come for 
 ' Sunday.' In a short time a large crowd gathered, the men 
 sitting in one large ring, the women in another, and we continued 
 the meeting for fully two hours. I had of course to keep very 
 closely to passages of Scriptures, such as the Lord's words in 
 John X. The Shepherd giving his life for the sheep was an illus- 
 tration that seemed to grip their attention. It was one they 
 could understand even better than people at home. They have, 
 however, little idea of what sin is ; but the Spirit of God is able 
 to convince of sin, and may please to use a very feeble word 
 for that end. Ramosi spoke very earnestly on the same subject. 
 It was evening ere we reached the waggon. 
 
 " In the Kalahari desert, through which we have just come, 
 wandering bands of Basarawa or Bushmen, Bakalahari, and 
 Bakalaka are found, all runaway remnants of tribes and races 
 living in the countries adjoining. Certainly these wild men 
 appear to us to be in a very degenerate condition, but their 
 faculties and senses are sharpened to a remarkable degree. 
 As they move about they allow nothing to escape their notice ; 
 they ' read ' the path, and can tell, not only the name of an 
 animal that may have crossed it during the night, but the time 
 of night that it happened to pass. They also seem to know 
 instinctively where water is likely to be found. 
 
 " Crossing the Botletle we moved on slowly, finding a fair 
 supply of water, but the trees were very close together in places 
 and my axe was kept very busy. At Tontgaru we rested for 
 several days ; our Bushman guide assured us that for ten days 
 or so beyond we should find no water in any of the pans. My 
 men shot the game down and feasted to their hearts' content, 
 loading up the waggon with dried meat. Giraffes, ostriches, 
 wildebeeste, elephants, and many other species, come round 
 the water at night to drink. We spent our last day at Tontgaru 
 cleaning and filling our water barrels, setting aside one keg for 
 Khama's hunting horse that Tinka had brought with him. In 
 
 ^•1837 
 
 s
 
 38 THROUGH THE DESERT 
 
 the cool of the evening the oxen were inspanned, and without 
 a word we quietly moved away into the long stretch that lay 
 before us. The sand proved to be unusually heavy ; the dry 
 air and blistering sun seemed as if they would dry us all up like 
 so many Egyptian mummies, in spite of the pint of water we 
 allowed ourselves three times a day. 
 
 " We are now getting well north, and I feel somehow nearer 
 home by being again in sight of the ' Great Bear ' constellation. 
 It is, however, much warmer here. This is the coldest month of 
 the year ; yet during the day it is very hot, about 85° in the 
 shade ; but the nights are decidedly cold. I get on pretty well 
 with the people ; we have prayer and reading every night and 
 morning, and on Sunday in the afternoon. I do not under- 
 stand the language sufficiently to appeal personally to their 
 hearts. I could not be in a better school, however, for learning 
 the words and idioms of the people ; yet it would be a treat to 
 meet someone with whom I could speak in my ovm. tongue. 
 
 " I did not tell you in my last that when I was at the Bot- 
 letle River there was much fever, and many of the natives died 
 of it. Three of our company were ill, but I had not even a 
 headache. My sleeping accommodation is not the best, rough, 
 but comfortable. When travelling I alwaj^s sleep with my 
 clothes on. In Setobi I have a very faithful and trusty servant ; 
 he takes charge of all my property, and looks after my clothes 
 and goods as though they were his own. Nearly all my spare 
 time is occupied in getting up the Sechuana grammar, and in 
 learning portions of Scripture in Sechuana. It is difficult to 
 read by the fires, and candle light is too expensive for much 
 reading, so that I spend the dark evenings mostly in thinking. 
 Taking it all round my days pass very pleasantly indeed, and 
 also very quickly. There is nothing that I want that I have 
 not got." 
 
 " Since leaving the Botletle we have been travelling 
 through a wild but beautiful country teeming with game of all 
 sorts, I have installed Setobi as my huntsman. The game is 
 large and not difficult to shoot so that he is well able to keep 
 the pot going. It is surprising, however, to see hoAv much 
 these people can eat. Tinka shot two giraffes on Saturday. 
 The flesh was brought in late at night. On Sunday morning 
 they began dividing and cooking, and by Sunday evening only 
 ^ few bones and a few strings of meat hung up to dry were all
 
 THROUGH THE DESERT 39 
 
 that were left of nearly one-and-a-half tons of meat. There 
 were only 20 eaters. My own appetite in fact surprises rae, 
 but of course I am living entirely in the open air, and walking 
 a good deal every day. I can take a hearty meal of two or three 
 pounds of meat and never dream of eating anything with it. 
 
 " I will tell you lots of wild beast stories when I come home. 
 But I do not think you would like them so well if you heard 
 the beasts themselves howling round all night. My ! the 
 roaring and yelping of some of those animals in a pitch-dark 
 night at one's very ear does make one jump and grasp one's 
 gun almost instinctively. There is a terror in the roar of a lion 
 which quite petrifies its victim, and it has somewhat the same 
 effect on the animal nature of man." 
 
 It was on July 13th that the party started from Tontgaru 
 Water, which is quite close to Kama-Kama on Livingstone's 
 route. Arnot's narrative proceeds : " Here we took in our final 
 supply of water and started across the thirst-land for the Mababi 
 flats. Tinka having sent on some men to look for water, we 
 went on for three days and nights with scarcely a stop. It 
 was hard work, the bush being so very dense. I calculated that 
 we travelled 40 miles in 24 hours, or about 30 miles as the crow 
 flies, in a N.W. by W. direction. 
 
 " On the third day we fell in with traces of the disaster that 
 befell the great Boer trek of 1878-9, when only a remnant 
 of some 200 families survived. Waggons, Scotch carts, and 
 other vehicles, ploughs, and bones of horses were scattered 
 along the trail. On the fifth day the bones of oxen lay white 
 around the large trees, where the poor animals had died in 
 scores and hundreds. Then came the graves of the voortrekkers 
 themselves, young and old. 
 
 " Our oxen at last showed signs of collapse, so we sent them 
 on without the waggon. Fortunately for us a company of 
 wandering Bushmen came along, and at our urgent request 
 and fair offer of pay, they began to look round for signs of water. 
 Fixing on a place where a certain bulbous root grew, the little 
 men began with vigour to scoop out the sand with their hands 
 until an inverted cone-shaped hollow of about nine feet deep 
 had been made in the loose sand. Then one Bushman, who 
 looked like the master water-finder of the company, took several 
 lengths of reed in his hand and slid down head first to the 
 foot of the hole, Taking one length of reed, the end of which
 
 40 THROUGH THE DESERT 
 
 had already been stopped up with grass to prevent the sand 
 entering, he pushed it Httle by Httle into the ground. Then he 
 added a second length of reed to the first, making a workman- 
 hke joint with a lump of gum. To the end of the second reed 
 he now applied his mouth, and after sucking and blowing for 
 some time, looked up over his shoulder with a smile of satis- 
 faction. He had tasted water, he said, but we would have to 
 wait. Six hours or so later he slid down the hole, taking wth 
 him this time a tortoise shell, and, again applying his mouth 
 to the reed, sucked up a mouthful of water at a time, squirting 
 it out of the corner of his mouth and filling the tortoise shell. 
 We all drank heartily and thankfully, and in the course of the 
 next day he managed to fill our smaller kegs with the frothy 
 liquid. 
 
 " The oxen and the donkeys did not return until Wednesday 
 evening, having had to go two days' journey before thej'^ found 
 water, and then only a little pan of surface water which they 
 emptied. We found afterwards that, between that and the 
 Mababi River (two days further on), there was not a drop to 
 be had. The cattle could not have gone a day further, as they 
 had already been six days without water — the longest time 
 they have been known to live without it — so that but for that 
 little pan of water, which was found almost unexpectedly, we 
 should have lost both oxen and donkeys, and as Tinka says, 
 ' very few of the people with us would have got through ' ; for 
 when the oxen returned that evening, the Masaroa sucked out 
 of the ground the last drop of water they could procure. 
 
 " As for myself, a verj^ little more of that sort of fare would 
 have been too much for me. I do not mean that I suffered 
 seriously from thirst, but I got into a very reduced state. 
 
 " After gi\'ing the cattle a night's rest, we started early 
 on Thursday morning for the Mababi, Tinka and the other 
 huntsmen of the company riding on to find the nearest water, 
 as we had only a very limited supply in the waggon. I had 
 but a pint and a half for a four days' journey ; nor had we any 
 meat, no game having been killed in the desert. I had meal 
 with me, but could not cook it for want of water, so my staple 
 supply was a few dry peaches which I had brought from Sho- 
 shong. On Friday, July 21st, we were still a long way from 
 the Mababi River. I had finished my, supply of water the day 
 before, and the natives declared that they were all dead.
 
 THROUGH THE DESERT 41 
 
 " My conviction was that we should not suffer from thirst 
 much longer. I was lying back in the waggon, and had just 
 mentioned to the Lord that promise : ' Their water shall be 
 sure,' when a young man of the company asked me if I wished 
 to drink. Three Masaroa, sent by Tinka, had brought three 
 calabashes full of water for us, so that we all had a drink. The 
 next thing was to try and find a little food. Setobi was too 
 much knocked up to go and hunt, so I started with one of 
 Tinka's men to look for something. We walked a long way 
 through thick wood but got nothing ; and then finding we were 
 too far from the waggon to be sure of meeting it again, we 
 decided to make for the Mababi River. 
 
 " After wandering along through thick wood and bush, and 
 patches of long, reedy grass, we struck a footpath leading in 
 the direction of the river. Just as the sun was sinking I shot 
 an antelope ; it rolled over, then got up and ran into some bush. 
 The man who was with me said it would soon die, but that we 
 must push on as the river was very far away yet. So on avc 
 went, the night setting in clear, so that we could see the path. 
 On and on we walked for a long time, till at last through the 
 trees we saw the fires of a camp of Masaroa Bushmen. 
 
 " All had gone to sleep in circular holes about the size of 
 large cart wheels. A small fire burnt in the centre. Hearing 
 us approach, the men sprang instantly to their feet with their 
 weapons in their hands, but seeing that I was a friend and not 
 a lion or a Matabele warrior, they made room for us to lie down 
 beside one of their fires. Towards morning lions came round 
 and disturbed the camp. A few nights before a Jion had 
 dragged a woman off from one of the sleeping groups. The men 
 ran after the brute with tufts of burning grass in their hands, 
 compelling him to drop his prey ; and now that I had come 
 along they wanted me to dress her wounds. Before I left the 
 neighbourhood she was able to walk about again and to see to 
 her domestic duties. 
 
 " At the first s reak of dawn all are astir in these Bushmen 
 encampments. Even the little children scatter like wild things 
 to gather berries, or a red tree seed for their morning's pottage. 
 The women dig up edible roots and bring water from distant 
 water holes in the entrails of one of the larger animals, or in 
 ostrich eggs held together in a roughly made net bag. Tortoise 
 shells are used as cooking pots unless their men folk are rich
 
 42 THROUGH THE DESERT 
 
 enough to buy clay pots from the Bechuana. The men hunt 
 big game, using a small bow and poisoned arrows. One night 
 a hyena had the audacity to come near to some Bushmen 
 sleeping a short distance from my waggon. They rose in an 
 instant and were after him with their spears. It was a clear 
 moonlight night, and we saw the hunters racing along, one 
 on each side of the savage animal, probing him with their 
 spears, and nimbly avoiding his side rushes, and the snap of 
 his powerful jaws. 
 
 " Next morning I started along the river, which we found 
 was close by, to some Basubia towns. On the way I met Tinka 
 returning. He wished to wait for the waggon so I gladly sat 
 down with him, and it came along during the day. These nine 
 long, long days I shall not soon forget." 
 
 In visiting the villages in this district, Arnot says : " I was 
 very well received at the first one. The people all turned 
 out to listen to the Word, and then brought me three baskets of 
 corn. But at the second my reception was a saucy one, and 
 the people were not much inclined to listen to ' this new thing ' ; 
 at first, in fact, they refused altogether. I asked them if they 
 would hear me if I returned. This they promised to do. As 
 I was moving off they changed their minds, and said they would 
 hear me now. The tardiness of the older men in allowing me 
 to read the Word of God, and to speak, seemed to have a good 
 effect in rousing the curiosity of the young men, for they 
 listened eagerly. One man doubly repaid me for all their 
 grunts by a deep sigh, which seemed to come from his heart, 
 and told what the lips could not have spoken."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 
 
 AS Tinka and his men were unable, owing to the preva- 
 lence of the tsetse fly, to proceed beyond the Mababi 
 flat Arnot had to make his o%\ai arrangements for 
 carriers. The first of many trying experiences in engaging and 
 governing a body of natives in Central Africa now came to 
 him. From the villages of the Basubia Arnot succeeded in 
 engaging fifteen porters. His party, including five others not 
 employed by him, but who availed themselves of the oppor- 
 tunity of company in crossing the thirst-land which lies be- 
 tween the Mababi and the Chobe River, started on July 31st, 
 1882. Arnot, with these twenty natives, and his three donkeys, 
 started off in bright spirits. 
 
 " The first march," he says, " was very tiresome, being 
 across the bed of reeds and marsh into which the Mababi 
 River flows — an immense bed of slush, and of reeds which 
 towered a long way above one's head, and at times were so 
 close together that one could not see his neighbour a few steps 
 on before. We found the ground, or rather the layer of rotten 
 reeds and sand, very difficult to walk over, and we sank at 
 times almost up to our knees. I thought we should never 
 get the donkeys through ; but by about four o'clock in the 
 afternoon we managed to get on to solid ground, and made 
 for a Masaroa town, where we expected to find water. The 
 water pit being nearly dry there was nothing for the poor 
 donkeys. We remained there for the night, as I expected the 
 the waters in front would also fail us, and I had made up my 
 mind not to leave until my donkeys had a good drink. The 
 Masaroa kept on drawing water, and scarcely left us enough to 
 drink ; still I waited patiently, and after midnight, when the 
 water had gathered again, I sent out six men who emptied the 
 pit, and brought enough for the donkeys. 
 
 ''August 1st. — We were up before daybreak and off as 
 
 43
 
 44 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 
 
 quickly as possible, having a long and probably dry tramp 
 before us. We got on well to-day, having to go over good firm 
 ground, though the bush was very thick and thorny. Before 
 sundown we chose as comfortable a looking place as possible, 
 and in about half-an-hour's time the men made a kotla. The 
 Basubia know well how to make one snug for the night. They 
 cut down branches of trees and stick them in the ground, 
 forming a half circle, bring wood for the fire (we burn no less 
 than seven big fires all night), and cut grass to sleep on. Then 
 the bundles are brought and laid down at my head, and 
 Sctobi puts the kettle on the fire. After supper, leaving a 
 little in the pots for an early morning repast — we cook but 
 one meal a day — I read to the men in Sechuana and pray. 
 It does not take much rocking to send me to sleep. 
 
 ''^August 2nd. — Made a good start this morning, and walked 
 a long way ; the sand was very heavy, but we pushed on hard, 
 expecting to get water at a place called Caucon. Arriving at 
 the pan we were disappointed to find that elephants had been 
 there before us, and that they had drunk up all the water. 
 This is rather a serious fix, as the donkeys, being almost done 
 up with carrying heavy loads, refuse to eat, and drag along 
 painfully ; besides, our drinking water is exhausted, and we 
 are fully 60 miles from the River Chobe. Two of the men set 
 to work digging a well at the foot of the pan, but after going 
 through a little damp mud, turned up nothing but dry white 
 sand. After prolonged consultation (and, I assure you, I 
 earnestly consulted the Lord in the matter), I decided not to 
 go on further, but the next morning to send the men out in all 
 directions in search of water. The lives of the whole party 
 depended on our finding water on the morrow, as already 
 most of us were much exhausted, having gone over 70 miles 
 of rough, weary country in the last three days. 
 
 ''August 3rd. — Early this morning I sent Setobi with six 
 men and the donkeys in the direction of the Sambuti River, 
 hoping to find water thereabouts. Another party set out in 
 the direction of the Caucon Hill to dig a well in a hollow there, 
 while I ' remained by the stuff ' with a Basubia. We have 
 only about half a pint of water, which at the present moment 
 is worth more to me than half a ton of gold. I am hopeful 
 that Setobi will find water ; if he does not he need not return ; 
 but all is well for it is in my Lord's hands. As yet I have
 
 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 45 
 
 lacked no good thing, and am persuaded He will not leave me 
 now. His presence and His promises are better than water. 
 
 "'Afternoon. — Those who had gone out to dig for water re- 
 turned without finding any, and, looking very downcast, they 
 all began sucking away at the damp mud close by. I tried to 
 suck some water out of the mud, but it was something like 
 the dregs of a farmyard ; so I gave up, and returning to the 
 kotla fell asleep ! I had not slept long when one of the men 
 awoke me with ' Monare ! look ! look ! ' and I saw at some 
 little distance a string of men coming, each with a calabash 
 full of water over his shoulder. Setobi had met a party of 
 Tinka's Bushmen hunters who were following the spoor of 
 the elephants. The Bushmen took Setobi to one of their 
 secret water stores, where the donkeys got a drink, and enough 
 water was also left to succour us. I need not say how thankful 
 I felt for this deliverance. 
 
 ''''August Uh. — We were a little longer in starting this morn- 
 ing as I had to readjust the men's bundles ; they were begin- 
 ning to complain about the weight of them. We made about 
 30 miles to-day over heavy sand, passed the Gorgoli Hills, and 
 camped in the midst of a very dense forest, as we found we 
 could not get through it before sunset. 
 
 ^''August 5th. — Had a long tramp to-day through a beautiful 
 country, thickly wooded and full of game. During the last 
 few days I have seen quite a lot of giraffes ; the country here is 
 full of them. We arrived in the evening at a pit with a little 
 water in it, which we reached after some digging. The men 
 are getting very troublesome, fretting about their loads, and 
 demanding gunpowder ; in fact, they made quite a revolt this 
 afternoon. Bringing their loads to me, they laid them down, 
 saying they would not go further, but would return home 
 unless I gave them my powder. I sat down beside the stuff, 
 looked at them awhile, and soon they began to shoulder their 
 sticks. I said it was all right, and bade them ' Samaea sintly,' 
 i.e. ' Go pleasantly.' This rather amused them ; their scowl- 
 ing faces relaxed a bit, but they began again, trying with their 
 threatenings and impudence to rouse my temper. I answered 
 all their talk ^vith ' I hear you,' until they gradually subsided. 
 You see I am getting a taste of some of the difficulties of 
 travelling in this country. In the evening the man who had 
 been the most troublesome, and had led on the others, seemed
 
 46 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 
 
 somewhat sorry for the way he had spoken to me, and began 
 saying what great respect he had for missionaries. I shall 
 watch him closely in future. Another cause for grumbling 
 turned up in the evening. The food supply was running short, 
 as we had shot no game, and I had to serve out a small 
 allowance. 
 
 " Sunday, August 6th. — I was compelled, for the sake of 
 food for the men, to move off this morning. Going in front to 
 look for game, I came across a large troop of zebras, and also 
 found an ostrich's egg, which will serve for my dinner. We 
 camped about eleven o'clock, and I sent five men out to hunt 
 the zebras. 
 
 " We are now close to the Chobe River. I shall never forget 
 the effect that the first sight of that great stream had, not 
 only upon myself, but also upon the poor men with me. What 
 a feeling of disappointment came over me when I found that I 
 was satisfied with only a few cups full, whereas I felt I could 
 have drunk buckets full. This morning, before starting, the 
 men had a sort of religious service over their guns. Laying 
 their firearms (six in all) down in a row, they all sat around 
 them, and one began to sing a dirge and to tap each gun, v/hile 
 the rest were keeping time by beating the palm of one hand 
 with the fist of the other. They then sprinkled the guns with 
 water, and finished up with a long shout. This they repeated 
 twice, saying it was to make their guns kill well. 
 
 " This evening the men returned with a young zebra. Now, 
 at last, I have found out the reason why they have gone on so 
 unwillingly for a day or so, and are loth to go do^vn and camp 
 on the Chobe, as I would wish. ' Did not the marauding 
 Barotse,' they say, ' live across the river ? If they should 
 happen to see our fires would they not come over and kill us 
 all ? ' They have been hearing from the Masaroa that the 
 Barotse are vowing destruction on the Basubia who fled to 
 the Mababi, saying that when the rains fall they Avill come 
 dowTi and kill them all. It seems that the Barotse have been 
 \'ictorious over the Bashukulumbe, and are now scattering in 
 all directions the inhabitants north of the Zambesi. The last 
 news is that they are among the Batoka in the hills, and are 
 killing them off. Oh, the terribleness of war ! When I was in 
 Natal, the Boer War was threatening to break out again, and 
 feehng was running high. I had scarcely arrived in the Trans-
 
 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 47 
 
 vaal when war broke out among the natives over the border, 
 and I ran a narrow escape of being commandeered for military 
 service. On arriving at Shoshong, the first news I heard was 
 that the Matabele were expected, and that in all directions 
 the cattle of the Bamangwato were coming in. The morning 
 after my arrival there all the men of the town were turned 
 out on parade to prepare for immediate action, but news came 
 in in a few days that the Matabele had turned. At Mababi I 
 heard of ravages and bloodshed, quite near, by a company of 
 the Matabele. The Masaroa of a whole town, whom Tinka 
 was expecting to come and hunt for him, were massacred ; 
 and had the Matabele troop been a Httle stronger they would 
 have come on to the Mababi. Now that I am nearing the 
 Zambesi, reports of war and bloodshed increase more and more. 
 
 ^* August 8th. — A fair supply of zebra flesh has been brought 
 in by the men, and all round the camp to-day flesh, cut in 
 long strips, is hung on long poles to dry. A troop of zebras 
 passed close to our camp, and my three donkeys seeing them 
 started after them at full gallop, and soon joined them, when 
 the troop made off. Setobi, and the other Bechuana, went in 
 pursuit of them. Hour after hour passed by with no news of 
 the donkeys, and I confess I felt very uncomfortable, as the 
 men seemed ready to leave me at a moment's notice. With 
 my donkeys gone, and myself a hundred miles from any in- 
 habited part, what could I do ? Greatly to my relief, just as 
 the sun was setting, the donkeys appeared with the two 
 Bechuana. We are surrounded for miles and miles with thick 
 woods, and it looked a hopeless task to follow them. ' Bob,' 
 however, did not seem to take so well to his new companions 
 as the other two donkeys did, and withdrew from them. 
 Ramatlodi, the Bushman, made up to him, and, wisely mount- 
 ing, whipped him up. ' Bob ' made off at a run, kept most 
 faithfully to the spoor of the other two donkeys and the 
 zebras, and after a long run got up with them. The donkeys 
 were by this time fighting with the zebras, and kicking each 
 other. When Ramatlodi showed himself, the zebras scampered 
 away, and the donkeys submitted to be driven back. The 
 man had gone fully twelve miles after them. 
 
 ""August 9th. — After drying about 200 lbs. of flesh I got a 
 start this evening, and camped close by the Chobe, which flows 
 into the Zambesi.
 
 48 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 
 
 ''^August 10th. — During the night I lost my faithful dog 
 Judy. She was barking away at my side, and I looked up and 
 told her to be quiet. In a short time she began barking again ; 
 then followed a deep growl with a rush, and poor Judy squeaked 
 her last. I had scarcely time to look up ere a tiger had cleared 
 the fires, and was off. The brute must have been very hungry 
 to have ventured so near for a supper. These tigers, properly 
 leopards, are very plentiful and destructive, and, in fact, 
 though not so powerful, are more dangerous than lions. 
 
 " We had a good day's journey along the Chobe to-day ; 
 on the whole the ground was good for walking, but we had to 
 wade through one lagoon. We just get glimpses of this great 
 river, the reeds are so tall and thick. It is, however, a refresh- 
 ing sight to see such an immense body of water rolling along. 
 The men are fond of their river, and have been singing away 
 at their old canoe songs, which are very musical and plaintive. 
 
 ''August llih. — The river is now running in one broad, deep 
 channel close to the path. It is quite a treat to walk along 
 the thickly wooded bank, clad with all sorts of tropical creepers 
 and flowers. The trees are full of monkeys, baboons, and 
 beautiful birds. Every now and then a troop of antelopes 
 scamper past, and on the river are all kinds of rare and splendid 
 water-fowl. To-day I saw an immense hippopotamus rolling 
 about in the water. Everything is the perfection of beauty 
 and symmetry ; and the fearful, suspicious way in which my 
 men creep along declares that ' only man is vile.' They are 
 in mortal dread of their lives. We sighted a town on the other 
 side of the river, and this disturbed them greatly. At first 
 they refused to sleep at the place I had chosen for the night, 
 and wanted to hide in the forest. They declared that the 
 Barotse would cross during the night and kill them all. Talk 
 as I will I cannot lessen their fears. They refuse to go along 
 the river any further, and say that unless I turn trom the 
 river and make for Leshuma across the sand-belt they will 
 forthwith desert. I refused at first, but when I saw that they 
 really meant it I gave in. 
 
 ''August 12th. — After a restless night on the part of the men 
 we started early this morning along the river for one short 
 march. It was most impressive, yet I must say I could not help 
 laughing to see how the men stole along through the high grass, 
 glancing every now and then across the river, fearing that they
 
 o pa-o 
 
 _ " o 
 
 O rt o 
 
 < g^
 
 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 49 
 
 might be seen by their dreaded enemies. At last we turned from 
 the river inland, or, speaking more correctly, west by one 
 point north. The sand was very heavy, and reflected the heat 
 of the sun painfully. We pushed on hard, hoping to reach a 
 Masaroa well in the evening. We had a most tiresome walk, 
 and shortly after sunset arrived at a well, very deep, but with 
 nothing in it. 
 
 " Sunday, Aiigust 13th. — I sent three men to dig the well 
 deeper, hoping to strike water, so that we might rest to-day, 
 but it was in vain, so off we started. The sun was very hot, 
 yet we could not wait, and walked on without resting to take 
 breath more than five or ten minutes at a time. At last we 
 reached a well with some water in it, which, after a little digging, 
 proved sufficient for the night. I feel as if I were lying on raw 
 flesh because my back is so sunburnt. 
 
 ^^ August I4:th. — About midday, as we reached a hill-top, we 
 came in sight of Leshuma with the Zambesi in the distance. I 
 sat down to rest a bit, and wondered at the grace and tender- 
 ness of my God who had brought me thus far. I sang the 
 hymn, ' Simply Trusting,' and it filled my soul — not that my 
 trust has ever been so real as the words of the hymn express, but 
 I felt it was no vain thing to trust the Lord, even though my 
 measure had been very small. Above all, there is a fullness of 
 joy in proving the Word of God, in finding that the same 
 wondrous grace of God which gave us promises is able to 
 fulfil and does fulfil them to us. At length, after a long two 
 months' journey from Shoshong I have reached the Zambesi 
 River without a blister on my feet, and, but for my sorely 
 burnt skin, in perfect health. The sun has in no way affected 
 my head. 
 
 ''August 15th. — The Basubia would not go down to Leshuma 
 until Ramatlodi and I went on to see if the way were clear. 
 I found Leshuma, which had been a trading station, nearly 
 deserted ; only a few Masaroa women and children were there. 
 I sent to let the Basubia know that the way was certainly 
 clear enough, and they stole down, deposited their bundles, 
 and forthwith demanded their pay. They wanted to return at 
 once, and refused to go to Panda-ma-tenka. Ramatlodi also 
 wished to go back, so that I was left with three donkeys, 
 Setobi and a boy, to go on to Panda-ma-tenka. No natives 
 were living near ; they had all fled before a scouring band of
 
 50 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 
 
 Matabele. After a deal of talking I paid off the men, giving 
 each of them fully ten charges of powder, caps, half a bar of 
 lead, and half a yard of cloth, which is big pay. How I was ever 
 to reach Panda-ma-tenka I did not know. After paying all off, 
 I gathered them together, and, mustering all my Sechuana, 
 gave them a long address, speaking for fully an hour. I 
 finished by showing them how cruel they were in forsaking me 
 wdth little food by me, and no means of getting to Panda-ma- 
 tenka. I should have to leave all my goods to be stolen by the 
 Masaroa, or I should have to burn them ; how would they 
 ansAver to Khama when called upon to account for their actions, 
 and how would they answer to God for leaving His servant to 
 perish in the desert ? Ramatlodi was the first to give in, 
 though he was pre\iously bent on returning. He, no doubt, 
 felt the force of my remarks in speaking of Khama, and what 
 he would think of his actions. He said he would not leave me 
 but would go to Panda-ma-tenka. Then three Basubia said 
 they would not leave, and two Masaroa, who before refused 
 my proffered hire, offered their services ; so that with Setobi 
 I have my full complement of carriers. I will drive the donkeys 
 myself, so that we shall get along famously. My purpose is to 
 take a straight hne from here to Panda-ma-tenka. The tempta- 
 tion is certainly strong to go round by the Victoria Falls ; 
 but as neither the time nor the money I have belongs to me, 
 I do not feel justified in adding three or four days' journey 
 for mere sightseeing. 
 
 " This evening, since the Basubia who refused to go further 
 have departed, a much happier feeling seems to be among my 
 men. I have served out as liberal a supply of food to them 
 as I can, and they are talking of how well they will get along. 
 We have three days' desert between this and Panda-ma-tenka, 
 but the men say they are willing to travel day and night if I 
 hke. 
 
 ^'August IQth. — Last night we made a good long journey, 
 and towards morning slept a few hours. The road, though 
 through thick bush and sand, is easily followed. I was up and 
 off before the sun rose, and towards midday we lay dovra in 
 the shade a short time. A small abscess has formed under my 
 toe, causing much pain ; but with a long stick as a crutch, I 
 have managed to keep up with the rest. The night was dark, 
 and the road bad, but we kept on, expecting at carry fresh
 
 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH CARRIERS 51 
 
 start to reach the Gezumba pan before halting. At last we 
 gave in, and lay down beside some thick bush for shelter, 
 knowing we were not far from water. 
 
 ''August 17th. — My toe being very painful, I started before 
 the others and hobbled along. A half-hour's walk brought us 
 to the Gezumba pan, which is within three hours' walk of 
 Panda-ma-tenka. But for my toe I should go on, but shall 
 rest to-day. 
 
 " This is the quickest march I have yet had, doing 60 miles 
 in one day and two nights. The distance was considered by 
 the Bushmen, from whom I got directions as to the road, to be a 
 three days' journey. I hope the donkeys feel grateful. I 
 certainly felt anything but fresh to-day ; the painful shuffling 
 on the outer edge of my foot over the last 20 miles has strained 
 all the muscles of my body. I lanced the toe to-day, and shall 
 get along nicely to-morrow. 
 
 ^'August 18th. — Felt alright this morning, and was able to 
 walk with comparative comfort ; so I set off before the rest, 
 and reached Panda-ma-tenka about midday. It is a little 
 clump of huts on the top of slightly rising ground, surrounded 
 by low marsh. The Jesuits have built a comfortable-looking 
 house and chapel. The rest of the people live in huts, among 
 whom are Mr. Blocklcy, a trader, also a Dutchman, and the 
 wives and families of three or four Hottentot hunters, who at 
 present are out hunting. Mr. Blockley received me very 
 kindly, and gave me a grass hut to live in as long as I may 
 remain here. In a short time my men and donkeys arrived, 
 and I settled with them as liberally as I could. I also sold my 
 donkeys, and packed all my belongings in loads suitable for 
 the shoulders and sticks of the carriers I should engage here. 
 The natives in this district divide the load they carry into 
 two equal parts, fastening them on to the two ends of a stick 
 in Chinese fashion."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 
 
 ARNOT wrote from Panda-ma -tenka on August 18th, 
 1882 : " The missionary, M. Coillard, from Basuto- 
 land, with his heroic wife, had already visited the 
 Zambesi, and had sent messengers up to the Barotse Valley, 
 asking permission from Liwanika to be allowed to return with 
 a party and begin work in his country. Liwanika sent him a 
 warm invitation. Coillard then left for South Africa and 
 Europe in order to raise the interest of his friends and sup- 
 porters in this great Upper Zambesi field. On M. Coillard's 
 return from Europe to South Africa the Gun (Basuto) War 
 broke out, so that he was unable to proceed at once to the 
 Zambesi ; but, hearing that I was passing through Natal on 
 my way to the interior, he wrote asking me to assure Lewanika, 
 if I should succeed in reaching his country, that he had not 
 forgotten his promise and hoped soon to leave Basutoland for 
 the Barotse. It was my ambition to cross the Zambesi and 
 reach the highlands beyond, without going up the river to the 
 Barotse capital, but Mr. Blockley assured me that this was 
 impossible, that the only road open to anyone crossing the 
 Zambesi was that which led to the capital. So adding this 
 report to M. Coillard's request I came to the conclusion that 
 He Whom I sought to serve was directing me to go to the 
 Barotse. 
 
 " I accompanied Mr. Blockley in a waggon journey he was 
 about to make to the junction of the Zambesi and the Chobe 
 Rivers, as he was going there to buy corn from the natives living 
 on the north bank. It was pleasant to be in an ox waggon 
 again." 
 
 " August 25th. — Off as early as possible for the Zambesi. 
 The path lay through a thickly wooded tropical valley, full 
 of rich herbage. We reached the river about midday, but as the 
 wind was very strong and the water rough, the old man in 
 
 62
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 53 
 
 charge of the feny would not answer our call for some time ; 
 so I was able to look round and take a good view of the river. 
 We rested at the point where the waters of the Chobe and the 
 Zambesi meet. The Zambesi at that point is as broad as the 
 Clyde at Dumbarton, and is very deep from bank to bank ; the 
 Chobe is a little narrower. Late in the afternoon the old man 
 started in his canoe, but instead of coming over to us he went 
 a long way up the river and crossed to the island of Inparairie. 
 However, he came down after a time and landed where we 
 were. After talking and waiting he agreed to ferry us over for 
 so much. Three trips took us and our bundles across in his 
 cranky canoe. Everything got wet, and I had to sit down in 
 water. The edge of the canoe — -the trunk of a tree shaped a 
 bit and hollowed out — ^was scarcely a handbreadth from the 
 water, and all the little waves came right in, so that Setobi had 
 a hard half -hour's work in baling out the water. 
 
 " The boatman understood that I was a servant of Mr. 
 Blockley's, and so took me on board his craft without any 
 questions. We had not got far, however, when Mr. Blockley's 
 boy, who was rowing in front, told him I was a Marute, i.e. a 
 teacher. Much alarmed at this, the old man wanted to take 
 me back again. The boy seemed to understand the difficulty, 
 for he put matters right by assuring him that I was not one of 
 the Panda-ma-tenka Marutes (the Jesuits who are staying 
 there), but quite different. After a good deal of explanation 
 on the boy's part, the boatman pushed on and took me across. 
 Mr. Blockley came in the next boatload, and was able to 
 pacify the old man. It seems that he has orders not to allow 
 the Jesuits to cross the river until the chief sends down word. 
 After settling with the boatman, we set off for the next nearest 
 town, intending to sleep there. 
 
 " The north bank of the river rises steep from the water's 
 edge, so our way lay uphill. As the sun was setting I had a 
 grand view of the river, and of miles upon miles of country 
 stretching far south, beautifully undulating and thickly 
 wooded. We arrived at a little Batoka town in the evening, 
 and were well received. The people showed us into a reed 
 yard, with a hut in the centre for our use, but we preferred, 
 as the night was fine, to sleep on the open ground. They gave 
 us a goat to kill, and food for the men, at the same time bringing 
 a supply of firewood and making a grass hut. The reception
 
 54 SPYING OUT THE LAND 
 
 these Batoka gave us was so simple and kindly that they 
 quite won my heart. I felt I had not thought of them in vain, 
 and, without going another step, would willingly have settled 
 amongst them ; but they are a conquered people, and there- 
 fore I must see the king of the country ere I can settle in it. 
 
 " August 26th. — After Mr. Blockley had bought a little corn 
 that was brought here, we set off for the town of Mogumba, 
 the chief of this part of the river. We found it partly deserted 
 through failure of crops, all the men being out hunting, and 
 Mogumba at Shesheke. His chief wife, however, entertained 
 us to the best of her ability. 
 
 " We left Mogumba in the afternoon, and after walking ten 
 or twelve miles, lay down under some trees growing by a clear 
 stream of water, trusting to big fires to keep the lions off us. 
 Tired out, however, with the long walk through grass and 
 bush, we all fell asleep and the fires went out. But God guarded 
 His reckless, would-be servant. For it so happened that we 
 had lain down beside a game pit, and towards morning my men 
 ran out and speared a huge lion that had fallen into it. There 
 was no doubt but that I and my men had taken the place of 
 the bait that allured this monster to his destruction. 
 
 " Sunday, August 27th. — Most of the boys who had offered 
 their services ran off early this morning, so I remained at 
 Mbova until evening, and went a short distance with two men 
 who were willing to go with me. I might as well have remained 
 until Monday, but was anxious to get out of Mbova as quickly 
 as possible, hoping to get a good night's sleep. That town 
 lies in the middle of an immense marsh, and at night it swarms 
 with mosquitoes ; it is also a regular malaria swamp all the 
 year round. I slept at night by the side of a small river in the 
 middle of a thick wood. 
 
 " August 28th. — After some trouble I started this morning, 
 and got on well for a time. It is very pleasant sailing along 
 this immense river. After a few hours, however, the boatmen 
 landed me on the bank, and quietly set to work landing my stuff. 
 I could not believe Shesheke was so near, but they assured me 
 it was near to some trees close by, and that they landed mc 
 to avoid a long bend in the river ; so I let them go, and found 
 out their deceit, to my sorrow, afterwards. The two boys I 
 had with me as carriers were from the same town as the boat- 
 men, and were privy to the plan. After a long six hours' walk,
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 55 
 
 mostly through a labyrinth of broken down reeds, with mud 
 and slush underneath, I arrived at Shesheke, and was glad to 
 find Mr. Westbeech there. (Mr. Westbeech was the first 
 South African trader to visit the Zambesi Valley.) Welcoming 
 me kindly he said that he had been detained for several 
 weeks, much against his will, but was now expecting to be off 
 at once. 
 
 " Ha\dng been introduced to the headmen of the town, I 
 told them my errand, and they listened attentively. Their 
 answer was that I was so far welcome, and that I had perfect 
 liberty to go on to the king, but that the king's headmen were 
 tired of teachers coming to the country and running away 
 again. Their spokesmen referred to M. Coillard's \'isit, and 
 said he promised to return, but had not come. They heard last 
 year that he was coming, and they hear again that he is coming 
 now, but they do not see him. They then spoke of the Jesuits, 
 and how they had deceived them. As to my coming amongst 
 them, they said they did not know what I meant to do, whether 
 I would just see the chief and run away again, or remain. 
 
 " This tribe, or rather these tribes, are governed by the king 
 and his headmen, who have a voice in most affairs. They 
 seemed determined not to be cheated any more. I tried to 
 assure them that my intentions were sincere in coming amongst 
 them, and that I was now willing, if I got permission, to 
 remain with them. That pleased them better ; in fact the 
 whole tribe have been waiting for some teacher, and were 
 compelled to think about receiving the Jesuits, although they 
 did not like them. Boats are expected from the king every day 
 to take them up. 
 
 " The headmen had a long talk over matters, and had 
 Setobi with them to question him all about me. They told 
 me in the afternoon that, as headmen of Shesheke, they had 
 decided to receive me as a teacher into their covuitry, on the 
 understanding that I would not run away and leave them. 
 
 " After a good deal of talking, it was arranged that Mr. 
 Westbeech should go on to the king and tell him of my desire, 
 and get him to send boats down to Shesheke ; and that I 
 should first return with a boat, which the headmen would place 
 at my disposal, to Panda-ma-tenka, and fetch the things I 
 had left, and a few supphes to last me some months among the 
 Barotse.
 
 56 SPYING OUT THE LAND 
 
 " The week I was at Shesheke I had several companies in 
 my Utile reed yard listening ; and one evening I overheard 
 one man — a young headman, who had attended regularly — 
 going over what he had heard. ' The good Shepherd ; He gave 
 His life for the sheep ' (followed by exclamations) ; then, 
 ' Eo Mora oa Modimo ' ('He is the Son of God') — ^this he 
 repeated — ' Mora oa Modimo ' (' Son of God ! Son of God ! ' ) — 
 and he passed on. Not liking to disturb his thoughts I left him 
 alone, thanking God in the depths of my soul that these 
 words had for the time got a place in his mind and made him 
 think. He is a bright, thoughtful, young man, 24 or 25 years 
 of age. 
 
 " Sunday, September 3rd, 1882. — A letter arrived to-day 
 from the Jesuits who had come down to the Leshuma ferry, 
 asking for boats to take them to Shesheke. The headmen sent 
 word that they must wait until a reply came from the king in 
 answer to a message they had sent by Mr. Westbeech. I have 
 spent a pleasant week here, and have got on well with the 
 people. Shesheke is a town of slaves, three-fourths of the 
 population being the absolute property of the other fourth. 
 The people like to come and hear me read out of the Sechuana 
 Testament, and they ask all sorts of childish questions. Their- 
 ignorance, to a man, is absolute, and their depravity complete. 
 Human sacrifices, burning of witches, cutting the flesh, etc., 
 are the outcome of a religion of dark superstition. 
 
 " Sept. 5th. — Left Shesheke in a boat for Mbova. Slept the 
 first night on a reed island, the second on a mud-bank, as the 
 lions were too troublesome for us to sleep on the mainland. 
 
 " Banks of Zambesi, Sept. Gth. — As my big diary letter is not 
 altogether the quite homely letter of a fond son to his mother, 
 but is more a record of facts, I write this in addition. I am 
 now down on my way from Shesheke by boat to Leshuma, and 
 will walk from there to Panda-ma-tenka, and have stopped 
 to-day to give my men a feed. There is quite a famine all 
 along the river just noAV, so I halted this morning and shot 
 a gnu close to the river, Avhich means a lot of fresh meat. I 
 have been compelled against my inclination to take the shoot- 
 ing into my own hands as Setobi was wasting all my ammuni- 
 tion and bringing little in. And travelling at this famine- 
 time is out of the question without a good deal of game meat. 
 Travelling on the river is very pleasant work indeed. It is a
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 37 
 
 lovely river. The size of it would cause one to expect nothing 
 in the way of soft beauty, but some of the inland scenes, and 
 beautifully banked spreading sheets of water, surpass descrip- 
 tion. The boat I am travelling in is the usual hollow tree, but 
 my men make me very comfortable so that I have nothing 
 to do but to lie back with an umbrella over me and read, or 
 enjoy the beautiful river scenery. Those boatmen give me no 
 trouble whatever as Ratua sent a man in charge with them. 
 
 " I have often written to you in former letters about the 
 Jesuits. You know how much I was exercised about them, 
 and their great exertions to close the whole country up against 
 the messengers of the Gospel. Another week or two and they 
 would have succeeded. Their presents were prepared. Every- 
 thing was ready for making what would I fear have proved 
 to be a too successful overture. They only waited for a supply 
 of corn. Now, how was it ? Was it mere chance work that I 
 arrived at Panda-ma-tenka at this very time, and that two 
 days after my arrival Bleckley, much against his will, was 
 compelled to cross the river and come up some distance in 
 search of corn, taking me with him ? How was it that West- 
 beech was detained at Shesheke 25 days waiting for a boat 
 (the only man in the country who could interpret for me), and 
 that when the talking was finished his boat arrived ? It had 
 only been a few miles away all the time in some reeds. As 
 Mr. Westbeech said, my coming now had preserved all the 
 Barotse kingdom, and in fact nearly all the country north of 
 the Zambesi, and south of the Kafue River, for Protestant 
 missionaries. It is, however, too soon to say so yet, but if such 
 should prove to be the case, I am sure you will rejoice with me. 
 Not that I have done anytliing, for indeed I have done nothing 
 but simply move on, but in the might and power and wisdom 
 of our God. 
 
 " SejJt. Sth. — My men tried to frighten me into dealing out 
 to them some extra rations. Coming up to a small reed- 
 covered island, they all landed, professing to be tired ; and as 
 it is not safe to sit in their canoes when they stop — the croco- 
 diles having a trick of coming alongside slyly and whisking one 
 into the water with their tails — I got out with the men, spread 
 my mat, lay down, and read a book that had interested me. 
 My men stole back to the boat and suddenly pushed out to 
 mid-streara and feigned to be paddling off, saying they would
 
 58 SPYING OUT THE LAND 
 
 not return unless I promised them more pay. I lay perfectly 
 still, however, never even looking at them or letting them 
 know that I heard. The book, I remember, was very interest- 
 ing. I had got it from Mr. Westbeech, and it contained the 
 lives of Scottish Covenanters. After having pulled down- 
 stream for some miles, going out of my sight, they returned in 
 about an hour's time and entreated me to enter the boat. 
 I professed to be annoyed at their importunity, shut my book, 
 and got in ; and off we went, the men rowing as they had not 
 done since we started, in order to make up for lost time. 
 
 " God has not opened up my way so far, to leave me now ; 
 this I know. He does not so work. ' The kingdom of God is 
 not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost ' — not earthly comforts, but heavenly and spiritual 
 things. My greedy flesh shrinks from banishment for ' a little 
 while ' from kith and kin, but there are ' better things ' re- 
 maining to me. Let my one desire in this life be to possess to 
 the full those ' better things ' at whatever cost to the lesser. 
 ' Ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the 
 Lord made by fire ' (Lev. ii. 11). It is ours then to lay aside 
 the honey of this life, and let Him Who filleth all things fill us 
 with Himself. 
 
 " I used to like a quiet walk through the woods, and enjoyed 
 the solitude, but I cannot do so here ; the lions are too numer- 
 ous and very dangerous. During this week I have heard of 
 two persons being killed by lions close by. The Lord, however, 
 has wonderfully preserved me from wild animals, though they 
 have been very near to me at times. 
 
 " I am now in the hands of the raw Zambesi native, the 
 noisy, drum beating, quarrelsome forest and river negro ; so 
 different from the quiet and stealthy Bushman, or the more 
 thoughtful Bechuana, whose one business it is to mind sheep 
 and cattle. Although these river men have a bad character, 
 and are fond of blackmailing and plundering, 5^et again and 
 again one or other brought me milk, meal, or some such delicacy 
 from a distant village when they saw that I could hardly eat 
 the boiled corn, dried elephant's flesh and putrid meat stolen 
 from the crocodiles' larders, which was our usual fare. 
 
 " September 12th. — I reached Panda-ma-tenka again yester- 
 day, after a long, dry walk of 85 miles, mostly through heavy 
 sand, from the junction of the Chobe and Zambesi, which took
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 59 
 
 us two days and a half, and not a drop of water did we find 
 for the last 70 miles. The last night and day I suffered a 
 good deal, but thank God for the strength given to take me 
 through. 
 
 " The heat just now is very great, and will be until the 
 rains fall. I fain hoped to get a week's rest here, but the 
 carriers who came with me from Shesheke refuse to stay an 
 hour longer than to-morrow afternoon. They are in terror 
 of their lives, lest the Matabele should come and kill them ; 
 so I have been working night and day making up bundles of 
 cloth, beads, food, etc., and start off to-morrow post haste. 
 To a casual observer, my hastening so to get away would seem 
 like impatience ; but I cannot get other carriers, and must 
 go. Were I to delay too long, they would simply take up their 
 weapons and march off without even giving me warning. The 
 last six weeks of almost constant travelling on foot, through 
 a rough-and-ready country, has reduced me to a bit of bone 
 and muscle — a sort of walking machine. Yet I enjoy the 
 greatest natural blessing — perfect health. I am writing this 
 when I ought to be sleeping, but hope to snatch time on the 
 way down to the river to write more. 
 
 " Quite a famine is raging ; all over the country people are 
 dying of starvation. It has often been hard to get food, and 
 I have lived mostly on the flesh of game dried in the sun. 
 
 " September lUh. — Started again for Shesheke, feeling a 
 little unwell ; as we went on matters did not improve, and 
 my men grew very troublesome. For most of the road, as I 
 have said, there is no water, and my carriers seized all the 
 water we had and demanded payment of it from me. Setobi 
 was getting sick. At last, on the second day, after having gone 
 about 40 miles through the desert, I had to lie down, and very 
 soon became unconscious. I was by this time in a high fever. 
 The men went on and left me and Setobi, who was as helpless 
 as myself. Fortunately a little boy had remained behind with 
 me, so I sent him, young as he was, through 30 miles of danger- 
 ous country to tell Mr. Blockley. He was a brave little chap, 
 and night for him had no terrors. For two nights and a day 
 I tossed about, suffering agonies from thirst and the blazing 
 sun. Vultures hovered overhead by day, and a gazelle looked 
 at me pitifully, and at night the hyena whooped at a distance. 
 On the third day I heard the crack of Blockley's whip a long
 
 60. SPYING OUT THE LAND 
 
 way off, and knew that ni}' messenger had not failed me and 
 that help had come." 
 
 Writing from Shesheke at the end of October Arnot said : 
 " For five weeks I lay at Panda-ma-tenka ; then, hiring 
 Blockley's Scotch cart, I trekked to the Zambesi ferry. My 
 men, I was told, had gone on to Shesheke, so I crossed the 
 river hoping to overtake them on foot. But the fever had left 
 me so weak that I could not follow the path, but wandered off 
 it, and was unable to call back my guide. At last night came 
 on. The path lay over a sharp hill covered with large boulders, 
 in the midst of which I completely lost my way, wandeied 
 about from right to left, then lay down between two boulders, 
 where I found myself fairly comfortable, as the stones were 
 still radiating heat. I had not lain long when I heard a footstep 
 in the distance. On looking up, and watching in the direction 
 from which the sound came, I saw the figure of a man, with 
 a gun over his shoulder, walking along slowly in the direction 
 I had come from. I called, and he at once replied and came over 
 to me, when I found that he was one of the Bushmen I had 
 hired at Leshuma, and that he was out in search of me. With 
 his help I was able to reach Mbova shortly before midnight. 
 The natives there provided me with a hut to sleep in, and^ 
 brought food ; but it was fully ten days ere I recovered the 
 use of my limbs. 
 
 " Upon arriving at Shesheke I lay so still that my men 
 thought I was dead. They drew my blanket over my head, 
 and went off to arrange with Ratua, the chief, as to where to 
 bury me. He pointed out a clump of trees and told them to 
 dig my grave there. But I knew I was recovering, and with 
 a plentiful supply of fresh milk I soon picked up, and was 
 able to proceed with the canoes that Liwanika had sent for 
 me. 
 
 " It is now seven months since I got news of any kind from 
 the old country, and close on twelve months since I saw any 
 periodical. I am quite shut in here ; and, like Noah, have but 
 the one window. The weakness resulting from the fever is 
 lingering and depressing ; but I trust soon to get over it. 
 Excuse my shaky writing. 
 
 " I shall be the first Scotchman, and the second British 
 subject, who has gone beyond Shesheke since Livingstone's 
 visit ; the other is Mr. Westbeech.
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 61 
 
 " This is a copy of the letter I received at Shesheke from 
 Mr. Westbeech : 
 
 " ' Lealui, 5th October, 1882. 
 
 " ' Dear Sir, — I have got permission from the chief for you 
 to come on here, and this without much trouble. He sends you 
 two boats, and both he and I shall anxiously await your 
 arrival. He sends you two responsible people with them — the 
 older one is named Monie-Ki-Umbwa, and the other Mato 
 Kwan. 
 
 " ' You will have purchased food for the road by the time 
 they arrive. If you have not, do so at once. 
 
 " ' Try and gain a good name amongst your boatmen, as 
 they come from different kraals, and, of course, many questions 
 will be asked them. If you shoot anything along the road, 
 take as much as you will require for yourself, and from what 
 part you like best, and give all the remainder to your headman, 
 Monie-Ki-Umbwa, for division amongst your crews. 
 
 " ' The king must have brought about 20,000 head of cattle, 
 taken in war, to the Barotse Valley, exclusive of what have 
 died along the road from poverty and tsetse. 
 
 " ' Remember me to Ratua, and Anshing you health and 
 success, 
 
 " ' I am, yours faithfully, 
 
 " ' George Westbeech.' 
 
 " With fair prospects of a quick journey up the Zambesi, 
 and a friendly reception from the chief Liwanika, I started 
 from Shesheke. During the first few days the journey was very 
 pleasant. Though still very weak, I enjoyed the varied scenes 
 that pass before one on an African river. 
 
 " On one occasion, towards evening, going round a sharp 
 bend in the river close to the bank, we came upon two lions 
 that were sporting on a beautiful sandy beach. The male at 
 once shook his shaggy head, lay down with his paws out as 
 a cat does when watching a mouse, and kept his eye upon us. 
 So close was my boat to the beast that I could distinctly see 
 him closing one eye and opening the other alternately as he 
 lay surveying us. The lioness walked up and down in a restless 
 manner in front of a clump of reeds. The men assured me 
 that she had cubs hidden there. At another point the boat 
 was passing along the side of a steep bank, covered with a net-
 
 62 SPYING OUT THE LAND 
 
 work of roots, in the midst of which the paddler in front of me 
 spied a puff-adder coiled up. He immediately Hfted his spear 
 from between his toes and threw it at the snake, which instantly- 
 uncoiled itself and struck at its assailant, grazing my hat with 
 its fangs. The spear, hov/ever, had done its work, pinning the 
 lower part of its body to the ground, and in a short time my 
 men killed it. 
 
 " Shortly after leaving Shesheke I found the country entirely 
 deserted of people. Occasionally we came upon a few fisher- 
 men throwing their nets, or some wandering Basubia digging 
 for lotus roots among the lagoons and backwaters ; but when 
 they saw us they rushed off and hid themselves in the bush. 
 My men, however, assured me that there w^ere many villages 
 on the hills on each side of the river ; but the poor people seem 
 to dread this great waterway, which no doubt has been used by 
 conquering tribes as a highway for their evil pursuits. 
 
 " Our difficulties began when we entered the cataract region. 
 Although the river was low at this time, the current was so 
 strong at many of the rapids that the boats had to be unloaded 
 and the goods carried overland, that the boats might be 
 dragged up the river empty. At N3^ambe there is a decided 
 fall in the river, and we had to take both boats and goods' 
 overland. 
 
 " After leaving Nyambe we were dependent entirely for 
 food on what we might kill in the bush. We were unfortunate 
 in this, however, and were obliged to have recourse to rather 
 mean ways of getting our supper. Crocodiles abound in this 
 great river, and they are very artful. When the larger game 
 come down to drink they creep up, and seizing them by the 
 nose, drag them under the water. By this means the crocodiles 
 always have their larders well supplied. It is their custom 
 to hide the food thus obtained well under the river's bank until 
 it becomes rather putrid, and to bring it to the surface for 
 airing before eating. I used to lie on the bank of the river 
 and watch these animals come up with perhaps a quarter of an 
 antelope, and by firing at their heads I compelled them to drop 
 their supper, which my men picked up from their boats, but 
 it afforded us anything but a dainty feast. 
 
 " On one occasion we made for the deserted camp of some 
 elephant hunters, hoping to pick up their scraps. My men 
 got a few bones to boil, and I tried to pound and boil for a
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 68 
 
 long time a piece of elephant's skin ; but, after all, it was 
 not possible to eat it. 
 
 " As we approached the Gonye Falls the men had to carry 
 the goods overland for three miles, and afterwards come back 
 for the boats, so that we were delayed some days. I tried very 
 hard to walk across the belt of sand, but failed completely, 
 and my men had to rig up a hammock, and carry me after the 
 boats and goods had been got over. We were entertained at 
 the towTi of Silomba, a small river chief, who provided us with 
 a little meal and maize-corn. 
 
 " From this point the banks of the river are less steep, and 
 the country around us is more flat. A terrific hurricane from 
 the south-west burst upon us one afternoon, lashing the river 
 into violent waves, and compelling my boatmen to flee for 
 shelter. No sooner had we touched the bank than my canoe, 
 which had been gradually filling, sank. Nothing, however, 
 floated away, as the men had taken the precaution to bind my 
 bundles to the canoe with cords. So long as the storm lasted 
 we could do nothing but seek to shelter ourselves under a few 
 bushes. 
 
 " Later on, the men went down to the sunken canoe, and as 
 the water was not deep, they succeeded in removing my goods 
 without much difficulty. Their plan of getting the water out 
 of the canoe was simple but ingenious. They seized the canoe 
 by the bow, jerked it forward, and thus set the water within in 
 motion ; then they pushed the canoe back, and the water flowed 
 out. By repeating this process the canoe was emptied of per- 
 haps a ton of water in a few minutes. 
 
 " Hea\'y rains now set in. It was some days before I could 
 get my blankets dried after their soaking in the river ; and 
 thankful I was to reach the town of Nalolo, who is a sister 
 of the chief Liwanika. She did her best to make us comfortable, 
 and supplied me with food. My men built a long, low shed 
 with reeds and grass, and kindled large fires, and, with sunshine 
 for the next few days, I got my calico, clothes, and other things 
 dried. The few books I had were more or less destroyed. When 
 at last we had got things fairly comfortable again, and were 
 hoping to start next day, heavy dark clouds arose from the 
 south, which increased so quickly that in a short time the 
 whole southern sky was inky-black. My men ran to the river, 
 and drew the boats to shelter on the bank, cut a little extra
 
 64 SPYING OUT THE LAND 
 
 grass and laid it on our shed, and as it faced the north we 
 thought it might afford us sufficient shelter. The hurricane 
 broke mercilessly over our little camp, and with such force 
 as to carry all our shed and carefully made little huts, into the 
 river, leaving me and my newly spread bed and a few precious 
 bundles exposed to the torrents of rain that poured down for 
 the first part of the night, and extinguished all our fires, leaving 
 us in a more desolate and forlorn condition than before. A little 
 sunshine, however, next day enabled me to dry things some- 
 what, and off we started, making our way through a flat, 
 grassy country. My boats were repeatedly chased by hippo- 
 potami. Along the banks of the river we saw large herds of 
 cattle grazing. The population of the Barotse Valley, though 
 considerable, is very much scattered ; but all the people are 
 more or less, breeders of cattle. 
 
 " There is an open door for the Gospel here. I could not, 
 in fact, with any comfort, now leave to return home. All 
 the mass of the people along the river represent many tribes, 
 formerly conquered by the Makololo, a Basuto tribe from the 
 south, whose language is almost identical with that of the 
 Bechuana. These conquered tribes, being all together, re- 
 quired one language, and, of course, they all learnt the Seko- 
 lolo. Twelve years ago or so the Barotse, one of the con- 
 quered tribes, rose up and killed all the Makololo men (leaving 
 only the women alive), but they retained the language of the 
 Makololo, so that amongst these many tribes and peoples I 
 can \yiih comparative ease talk a little of the things of God, 
 seeing that the Sechuana, which I have learned, is almost 
 identical with their tongue. When last up the river large 
 companies listened attentively to the reading of Scripture, 
 and asked many questions. They have heard of teachers living 
 among other tribes, and have a slight idea of one or two of the 
 outward effects of the Gospel, but of the Gospel itself, or of 
 God, they are thoroughly ignorant. They do speak of a god 
 they call ' Nambi,' who lives among the stars, and they acknow- 
 ledge his power over life and death ; but further than that I 
 can say nothing. Otherwise, the depth of their heathenism 
 seems unfathomable ; secret bloodshed, superstition and 
 enchantments everywhere prevail. How we should rejoice and 
 praise the Lord that even the ears of those who have for ages 
 been in such a state should be opened to hea*- God's Word !
 
 SPYING OUT THE LAND 65 
 
 I do greatly thank the Lord for giving me such a privilege as 
 to read and seek to make them understand it ; but the trying 
 part of the work will not, I am sure, be forgotten in your 
 prayers. Oh, the patience that is needed, seeing how bitter 
 and deadly is the opposition of the medicine-men and doctors, 
 who live by their craft ! The power of those men is very great, 
 but ' God is stronger than His foes.' Surely I can but say, 
 ' All my springs are in Thee ' ; for this work is too great for me. 
 " As for my soul's prosperity in this great country, I still 
 ask for your prayers in a special way. I had thought that, 
 being alone and away from all controversies, and many other 
 evil influences, I should attain to a more spiritual and devoted 
 state ; but I have learnt that the one drag to a soul's com- 
 munion with God is a thing tied to it, this old dead self, which, 
 in the absence of Christian fellowship, is more inclined to in- 
 crease in bulk in my solitude than to diminish. Yet, thinking 
 of all, I can but magnify the grace and the wisdom of God."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 AMONGST THE BAEOTSE 
 
 DECEMBER imh, 1882.— I arrived safely at Lealui 
 on Nov. 20th. As the lukamba or landing place 
 for the town was at that season some five miles 
 distant, we had to wait for porters from the king to carry my 
 bundles up to the capital. Night fell, so there v/as nothing for 
 it but to huddle together without fires or shelter, and wait for 
 the morning. We were cold and hungry, and my men so 
 cross that they were ready to fight with one another over 
 anything. Something had to be done, and the idea struck 
 me of starting a needle-threading competition in the dark ; 
 for in Africa the men are more interested in needles and in 
 sewing than the women. To their great surprise I succeeded 
 in threading the needle every time it came round to my turn ;- 
 and so hour after hour passed, but they could not do it, and 
 had to give up from sheer exhaustion without finding out the 
 trick of holding the eye of a needle up to a bright star. 
 
 " With morning hght, porters arrived, and a horse from the 
 king to take me to the reed and grass hut he had prepared. 
 Liwanika came to greet me. I was much taken with his appear- 
 ance — bright and smiling and alert. But, oh dear ! my hut 
 had been built only the day before ; the ground was wet, the 
 grass was wet through and through, and reeked ; firewood 
 was out of the question. A bush with a hollow wood stalk 
 that grew in the plain like the castor-oil plant, was the only 
 firewood available. Bouts of fever laid me prostrate every 
 third or fourth day. I could neither eat nor sleep. 
 
 " To cro"WTi all my miseries I had to witness trials for witch- 
 craft taking place daily in front of my hut. A small company 
 gathered just in front of me, and began an animated dis- 
 cussion, which grew hotter and hotter, and shortly a large 
 fire was kindled, and a pot of water set on it. The two persons 
 charged had to wash their hands in the water, and if, after 
 
 66
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 67 
 
 24 hours, the skin came off, the victims were to be burnt aUve. 
 First one, then the other, dipped his hands in the fiercely boiling 
 water, lifting some up and pouring it over the wrist. Twenty- 
 four hours told its tale, and I saw the poor fellows march off 
 to be burned before a howling, cursing crowd. 
 
 " One evening as I was sitting enjoying the cool evening air 
 at my hut door, two young men came running rapidly towards 
 me. I saw that one was bound, and that the other carried a 
 short club in his hand. When well in front of my hut, and 
 quite on the outskirts of the town, the man with the club 
 gave his prisoner a sharp blow on the back of the head, killing 
 him instantly. This was an execution, and the wild animals 
 and vultures saw to the final disposal of the body. 
 
 " March 2nd, 1883. [To his mother.] — I write this short 
 line in the hope that it may by some means reach you before 
 the large one that is at present in process of scribation which 
 I will send vnih the first certain opportunity. This letter goes 
 to Panda-ma-tenka. From there it is possible that some men 
 may be going to visit Lobengula, the king of the Matabele. 
 From there it may go by occasional post or messenger to Tati. 
 and Shoshong. I cannot write much as it may be opened 
 many times. I am getting on fairly well, and am getting the 
 confidence of many of the people here, and the affection of some 
 who treat me very kindly, chief among whom is the king. To 
 give you a running account of things : I arrived here on the 
 20th of November, 26 days by boat from Shesheke ; much 
 weakness on the road, and one or two relapses of fever. Cata- 
 racts very bad ; rain, rain, all the way ; wet blankets, wet 
 clothes ; robbed by the men the king sent to fetch me, and 
 poor, weak Fred could only lie quietly and smile. Twenty-six 
 days I won't forget, not so much because of any small suffering, 
 but because of the goodness and comfort of the Lord. The 
 king reserved me a house, and gave me an ox to kill. He 
 provided food in abundance, and ordered one of his own 
 servants to live with me and serve me. The king is a man 
 about my own age, very pleasant looking, always smiling, 
 fond of everything European ; eats always with a knife and 
 fork ; favourite pastime making wooden spoons and drum- 
 sticks (drumming goes on in the kotla night and day). The 
 people are fond of noise, and dance and sing continually. They 
 come in troops to my house which is the museum of the town,
 
 68 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 and the white man, I suppose, the living Hon. They want to 
 feel my hair and see my feet. This I bear with, though I get 
 to plain words sometimes. Poor things ! I fear they little 
 understand my mission. The fever has left my mind weak* 
 For some weeks I had forgotten almost everything, could 
 scarce speak my own language. . . . The more I think of it 
 the less possible it seems to me that this letter will reach you, 
 so that to write anything like a long one is difficult. A waggon 
 has arrived at Panda-ma-tenka, and goods have come up for 
 the king, but no letters for me except a few hues from Mr. 
 Westbcech. Where have all my home letters gone to ? Last 
 letters dated 7th April, 1882, near a twelve -month ago. 
 Mr. Westbeech sent me up a small bag of wheat meal, a little 
 tea, coffee and cocoa, for which I am most thankful. At the 
 same time, after a long blank, the king gave me another ox to 
 kill so that I was able to dine on beef, bread and coffee. 
 
 " March 15th, 1883. — Sorry I have not been able to make 
 daily notes. It is only within the last few weeks that I have 
 felt my strength returning in any measure. The first hut the 
 king gave me is now in ruins from the flood. He then gave 
 me another in the centre of the town, but it was dry for one 
 day only. One night of frightfully heavy rains flooded hut' 
 and yard, and sadly wetted my small stock of goods. The 
 rain continued for days. The king could give me no dry hut, 
 so I just had to lie to, day after day, in that filthy round hut, 
 scarcely wide enough for me at full length, with my goods 
 rotting by my side, and a perfect swarm of rats devouring 
 everything, and running over me at night. There for ten long 
 daj's I sat on my stool in semi-darkness by day, or lay by 
 night, in perfect inactivity. At last the rains ceased a bit, 
 and I went out to seek a hut. I got one from a headman and 
 at once entered it. It was dry and comfortable, so I remained 
 there for ten days. The damp house, and about a month's 
 feeding on native porridge (without milk), morning, noon, 
 and night, brought on an attack of dysentery ; yet I cannot 
 but recognise the hand of the Lord in preserving my life in 
 such trying circumstances. 
 
 " Towards the end of February, when the Zambesi overflows 
 its banks for miles on either side, the king and almost all the 
 people removed to their summer town, Mafula. Liwanika 
 invited me into his large boat (made of several canoes) ; and
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 69 
 
 perhaps 2,000 canoes accompanied us. This annual flitting is 
 made the opportunity for a grand display of native African 
 pageantry. Planks, hewn from great mahogany trees, are 
 shaped and seA\Ti together to make a barge capable of carry- 
 ing the king's court intact. Here in the centre stand his 
 seat of state and his drums ; his flesh-pots are cooking over 
 fires kindled on thick layers of clay ; his principal courtiers 
 sit all around, and 40 headmen and nobles of the Valley punt 
 and paddle with long poles, not to speak of the gang of slaves 
 vigorously baling, and three or four ship's carpenters going 
 about with bundles of bark-string oakum, stopping up the 
 innumerable leaks and longing earnestly for the dry land to 
 appear again. Hundreds of canoes, formed in battle array on 
 either side, completed the spectacle. 
 
 " By this time I was on fairly good terms with Liwanika. 
 He and his headmen had decided to wait for M. and Madame 
 Coillard on the one condition that I would remain with him 
 until they arrived. This I gladly consented to do. 
 
 " At Mafula I had much discomfort and losses by robbing. 
 The king was taken ill, and then a lot of goods arrived from 
 Mr. Westbeech. He asked me to receive them, and my hut 
 was packed for days. I had nine men beside my own to 
 provide for and look after for about 20 days. I also had a 
 serious relapse of fever. The place was surrounded with 
 marsh. 
 
 ^^April 8th, 1883. — My sickness is now over, and I am faring 
 well, though food is very dear and scarce. I have had a school 
 here for some little time. The boys learn pretty well, but it 
 requires patience and perseverance to look after them. Hunt- 
 ing a young truant from house to house under a hot sun is not 
 pleasant. The parents show little interest ; in fact, they have 
 little influence over their children. The leather thong rules the 
 family above a certain age. 
 
 " A short time after I began teaching, the king cross-ques- 
 tioned me as to what I had come to teach. I spoke to him of 
 sin, death, and judgment, and of God's love in the gift of His 
 Son, and he listened attentively. ' This,' I said, ' was my 
 first and chief message, besides which I wanted to teach the 
 children to read and write ; also all about the world they live in, 
 and other things that white men know, which are good for all 
 people to know.' The king then said, ' Yes, yes, that is good,
 
 70 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 to read, write, and to know numbers. But don't, don't teach 
 them the Word of God ; it's not nice. My people are not all 
 going to die now. No, no, you must not teach that in this 
 country. We know quite enough about God and dying.' I 
 kept silent till his excitement was over, and then said that wc 
 would talk again when he thought more. The school went on 
 for two months longer, when it had to be stopped because 
 of an affection of my eyes. After recovering I again had talks 
 with his majesty on the above subjects. He never again got 
 excited as before, and would occasionally express his confi- 
 dence in me that I had come to teach them good things. He 
 knew, he said, that I was one of God's men because I shewed 
 that I loved the people and the children ; and one day without 
 my asking he said that I could teach all his people and children 
 the words of God, giving me perfect liberty in his country. 
 
 " For nearly six weeks I suffered severely from acute rheu- 
 matic arthritis — a common sequel to malarial fever. During 
 that time I had to bury myself in my hut ; but those grass- 
 covered hovels are anjiihing but dark, and, in spite of all the 
 bandages and skins A^dth which I covered my head as I lay on 
 the ground, rays of light would come through, intensifying the 
 pain in my eyes. 
 
 " On May 10th we returned to Lealui. 
 
 " A week or so after my return to Lealui two Jesuits came 
 to see the king. Four had left Panda-ma-tenka, but one had 
 to return because of sickness. Another was drowned on the 
 way up, through the upsetting of the boat in the rapids. 
 The king and headmen had a large meeting, and told these 
 priests they could not stay. They were friendly with, me, and 
 I bought a few small things from them. The smallness of their 
 present to the chief, in proportion to the amount of goods 
 they had brought for their OA\'n consumption, was no doubt the 
 cause of the ill-favour shown by Liwanika to them. He went 
 to visit them one afternoon, expecting to get more from them, 
 but AAath no better success, and he came along to my little hut 
 in a very bad humour. Sitting down, he said, ' They are not 
 the men for my country ; they have no sense.' Without 
 waiting for a reply from me, he called one of his men, and sent 
 him to the hut of the Jesuits to ask for a needle and thread. 
 The man r turned with but one needle and a single thread, 
 which Liwanika held up in triumph before me, saying, ' Didn't
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 71 
 
 I tell you these people had no sense ? If they had they would 
 have given me a packet of needles and a bundle of thread.' 
 
 " Haxang recovered somewhat I proposed to return to 
 Panda-ma-tenka hoping to hear of someone coming to join 
 me in the work. For some time before I left Liwanika was 
 more friendly towards me, and I had many talks with him. 
 He did not get so excited as before, and would occasionally 
 express his confidence in me, saying that he believed I had 
 come to teach them good things, assuring me also of my 
 having perfect liberty in his country to teach the Word of 
 God to old and young. My supplies were now completely 
 run out, and on this account also I was compelled to make a 
 trip down the river. As yet, with careful planning, I had been 
 able to buy nearly all I needed. Although the king was always 
 ready to give me presents of food, I generally refused, not 
 wishing to afford the baser sort occasion for remark, as they 
 watch all strangers and visitors with a jealous eye, lest they 
 should rob them of their share of the king's bounty. I have 
 been compelled to part Avith everything saleable, and am 
 now under skins instead of blankets. 
 
 " June 12th, 1883. — The king sent me away in his largest 
 river boat with good men, and with instructions that I was to 
 be landed while the boat was shooting the rapids. Besides 
 Khama's young man, Setobi, a little lad, named Sikinini, 
 accompanied me. We have now been 12 days on the river, but 
 delays have been constant. Oh, these people are slow ! We 
 stopped at Litofe two nights, and I was nearly devoured by 
 mosquitoes and vermin. I have had two fever relapses, but 
 not severe ones. 
 
 " Shesheke. — After a very tedious journey we arrived here. 
 My principal food was buffalo meat, as I had not goods enough 
 to buy sufficient corn for the road. The boats got through 
 the rapids without serious damage. I preferred being wetted 
 with the water to getting my legs cut with rocks and reeds, 
 and did not leave the boat, but we had a narrow escape at one 
 point. 
 
 " Leshuma, July 3rd, 1883. [To his father.] — I received 
 your letter of the 9th August, 1882, only ten days ago. I 
 assure you I was glad to see your handwriting again, and it 
 was the first letter I read. I got 43 in all. I came out from 
 the Barotse now with the intention of going at least as far as
 
 72 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 Shoshong with the hope that there I might meet with someone 
 to join me, but OAving to a short Hne I got from Mr. Beaumont, 
 
 Natal, saying that B had decided not to come, I could 
 
 not find any proper reason for going further than Panda-ma- 
 tenka. Besides I have had such a long journey down the 
 river, so much time put off by the king's headmen in charge of 
 the company, hunting and collecting ivory for trade, that now 
 it is too late for a stranger to the country, as I am, to go out 
 with a light ox-cart as I had planned. The water on the road 
 is drying up so quickly, and travelhng now to Shoshong I 
 should have to be acquainted with all the extra waters off 
 the road. Mr. Westbeech has just come in with a large stock 
 of goods for trade so that I will be able to get from him a fair 
 supply of stuff, although at a long price. My progress in 
 the Barotse has been slow during the past months. In the 
 first place the language spoken there is very much mixed up, 
 the words of many tribes being introduced into the language 
 of the Sekololo, which is a sister language to the Sechuana. 
 And then the fever for a time sadly distorted my mental 
 faculties. It is a distressing fever, and I think I have got 
 over it easily. One thing with the fever here, it never returns, 
 with the same acuteness as at the first. After recovering strength 
 a bit, on my arrival at the king's towTi I tried to get up a 
 small day-school for children, but the king always put it off ; 
 and of course the Barotse would not send their sons until the 
 king gave some consent. They also seemed suspicious of my 
 books, schools, etc. They seemed afraid that their children 
 would become wiser than they and learn the sorceries of the 
 white man. I had but to wait on quietly and leave the matter 
 of a school in stronger hands, studying the language and talking 
 quietly with the people meanwhile. Again I spoke to the 
 king with a little better result, the third time still better, but 
 beyond a mere expression of confidence in me he gave no 
 decided reply. However, I made bold to set about advertising 
 my, as yet, scholarless school. I went to the king's eldest 
 son, and some of his other boys, and to some fathers to get 
 their sons. In a few days three boys came, the king's son 
 and nephew, and another lad. This was my beginning. We 
 went on for a few days ; then I went and told the king of 
 what was going on. He seemed pleased. I complained to him 
 of his nephew who did not seem to care about learning any
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 73 
 
 longer, and latterly was only got to school by a good deal of 
 running after on my part. The king turned to one of his 
 servants at once and ordered him to go and tell his nephew 
 that he must attend school at once, and regularly. From 
 this I saw that I had got his full consent to carry on a 
 school. 
 
 " On the 17th of July I left Leshuma for Panda-ma-tenka 
 with the view of making purchases at Mr. Westbeech's store 
 there. The first day's walk of 20 miles sadly blistered my 
 feet, making one of them very sore. Next day we had hoped to 
 reach the Gashuma Wells, but my sore feet hindered me greatly. 
 I. however, hobbled on until nearly midnight, when we came 
 upon smouldering fires which had been left by a company of 
 raiding Matabele. I called to the men to lie down and rest, 
 knowing that we should come to water after a short march 
 next morning. Before going to sleep I commended all to God, 
 and asked Him in prayer to lead us safely to some place where 
 we should have a supply of water next morning. Little 
 Sikinini, who had heard my request, and probably thought 
 that I was suffering from want of water, could not rest with 
 the others, but started off alone in the direction of the water. 
 After a few hours' sleep we got up to continue our journey, as 
 the day was breaking. To my surprise I met Sikinini coming 
 back with a calabash of water in one hand, and a cup in the 
 other. The little fellow had got to the water during the night, 
 and had brought back a supply for his master. 
 
 " When within about 20 miles of Panda I met a hunter, 
 whose horse I hired, and rode into the town, where I remained 
 five days, and was able to buy enough barter goods to keep me 
 going for six or nine months. The crops have nearly all failed 
 this year at the Barotse, so that living wll be very dear ; and 
 I have to pay a heavy price here for very poor calico ; the 
 white is the best for buying food. 
 
 " Leaving Panda-ma-tenka again on the 26th of July, I 
 arrived at Leshuma on the fourth day. To show how quickly 
 the water dries up here, I may mention that where, ten daj'^s 
 before, we found quite a large piece of water, we now had to 
 dig for it, and only got a little muddy stuff for our trouble. 
 
 ^''August 7th, 1883. — Having now a suitable opportunity I 
 started from Leshuma this morning for the Victoria Falls. 
 Had a pleasant day's walk to the river over desolate country.
 
 71 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 Camped in the evening on the steep, wooded banks of the 
 Zambesi, surrounded by most beautiful scenery. 
 
 ''August 8th. — Walked some distance along the river, stop- 
 ping opposite to Sepupwa's to^\^l to engage one or two more 
 carriers, and buy corn, etc. 
 
 ''August 9th. — The country was very rough and wild ; no 
 path ; constant stumbhng over big boulders, and ploughing 
 through high grass and reeds. The grass in many places is 
 hke long lances, cutting one's hands and face frightfully at 
 times. Mr. E. Selous fell into a game pit, and got hurt slightly. 
 These pits are very cleverly covered over wth sticks, grass, 
 etc., so that they are very dangerous to strangers. 
 
 " On the morning of the sixth day after leaving Leshuma we 
 reached the Falls. I had expected something grand, but 
 never anything so stupendous and terrific as they appear ; 
 yet they are beautiful in the extreme. The depth of the fall of 
 water is about 400 feet. In some parts it breaks, in descending, 
 over projecting crags, and in other parts comes over in one 
 sheer plump. The cloud of spray, in which beautiful rainbows 
 appear, rises a long distance into the air, falhng again over 
 the banks as it is blown by the vnnd, so that the vegetation 
 close to the Falls is of the richest and most tropical character 
 I have yet seen." 
 
 " Here I had a narrow escape from a lion. Walking along 
 alone, a horrid growl and rustle of bushes at my very side 
 startled me. I must have been within a few feet of the monster 
 whose voice was unmistakable. Turning back I walked slowly 
 backward, with my eyes on the spot, and then, when well clear, 
 I went off at a quick walk. I had not a gun with me. On 
 returning to camp I found that two large lions had come up 
 in broad dayhght to within 60 yards of the camp. They were 
 shot at, and one, which was wounded, again came fiercely up 
 at night, and would have done mischief had not all been 
 awake, and kept him off \\ith shouting, scattering fire, etc." 
 
 It was concerning this visit to the Falls that Sir Ralph 
 Williams WTOte several years later, in How I Became a Governor, 
 the follo^^^ng testimony to Arnot : — " At the great Fall (the 
 Victoria) we crawled to the very edge, and lying flat looked 
 down into the chasm below. . . . WTiile thus wondering we 
 were amazed to see two white men coming towards us, who 
 proved to be Mr. Edmund Selous, the brother of the famous
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 75 
 
 hunter, and Mr. Arnot, a Missionary amongst the Barotse and 
 later on I think, a Gold MedaUist of the R.G.S. It was a 
 strange place in which to foregather. Mr. Arnot, the Mission- 
 ary, was a remarkable man. I met him some weeks later, and 
 had many talks "with him. He was the simplest and most 
 earnest of men. He lived a life of great hardship under the 
 care of the king of the Barotse, and taught his children. I 
 remember him telling me Av^ith some pride that his pupils had 
 mastered the alphabet. I have seen many missionaries under 
 varied circumstances, but such an absolutely forlorn man 
 existing on from day to day, almost homeless, without any of 
 the appliances that make life bearable, I have never seen. 
 He was imbued with one desire, and that was to do God 
 ser\'ice. Whether it could be best done in that way I will not 
 here question, but he looked neither right nor left, caring 
 nothing for himself if he could but get one to believe ; at 
 least so he struck me. And I have honoured the recollections 
 of him ever since as being as near his Master as anyone I ever 
 saw." 
 
 Arnot's story continues : 
 
 " On the north side of the river one, Mosotan, has a large 
 to^Ml. I had met him before, and sent word that I wanted to 
 visit his to'wn. He sent two of his men to greet me, with a 
 large calabash of motoha, a native drink, and asked me to go 
 up the river to his drift or ferry. According to promise I 
 went next day, and he was very glad to see me, and gave me 
 a goat for food. In the evening I crossed over and walked to 
 his towTi, and spent the first part of the night surrounded by 
 crowds of his people dancing and drumming. These Batoka 
 are very open to conversation, more so than to be lectured to. 
 I stayed the next day with them, and left early the following 
 morning, travelling back again on the north bank of the river. 
 We came upon many companies of scattered Batoka and 
 Basubia, with whom I had short conversations in passing. 
 Towards the evening of the second day we made for the town 
 of Sepupwa, on an island in the river, and camped there. In 
 the morning we hailed the people, but were told that as the 
 headman of the town was absent they could not speak with 
 us, nor send boats across. I waited and tried to persuade 
 them, but they said they were all slaves, and were afraid to 
 look at strangers. Another day brought us to Mahaha's town,
 
 76 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 close to the Gezangula ferry by which we intended to cross. 
 Our way lay across low, flat country, full of marsh, which we 
 had to wade through, sometimes struggling for miles up to the 
 waist in water and rotting grass. I knew Mahaha pretty well, 
 having met him at Lealui. Next morning we crossed over and 
 walked to Leshuma, where I waited for carriers from Shesheke 
 to take me up the river. 
 
 " Shortly after my return to Leshuma, Ratua, from She- 
 sheke, came down with others saying that the king had sent 
 the headman from the upper river with his boat to take mc 
 up. Ratua laughed outright when he saw me, began by poking 
 my cheeks and saying : — ' There is nothing but fat there, noth- 
 ing but fat ! ' It is quite true what the old man says, but I 
 feel greatly ashamed to own it, that I am really getting fat ; I 
 hope not fat and lazy. He then turned to those around and 
 began describing touchingly the state I was in when I came 
 up to Shesheke sick. ' I came to his hut,' he said. ' I asked 
 Setobi where is the teacher, your master ? ' 'I don't know,' 
 replied Setobi, ' I don't know whether he is in this world or 
 not.' ' I went,' continued Ratua, ' and lifted the door. I 
 saw a blanket. I spoke and touched it. It moved. I said, 
 ' Monare ! Monare ! ' and I heard, ' Eh ! Eh ! ' very small. 
 Next time I came back Setobi said that Monare was dead. 
 I looked in and saw the blanket. It moved like breathing. 
 I spoke out ; I called to him. He answered me with a very 
 weak voice. Next day I went and roused him and took him 
 out to M^ash. Then he got better.' I was much amused at 
 the old man's plaintive story. Had he been a physician, or 
 even a quack, he would have known that a long heavy sleep 
 after a fever is life and not death. He then began picking my 
 cheeks and laughing all over calling me the most youthful 
 names possible. (It is a compliment to a middle-aged or old 
 man in this country to tell him how young and boyish he is.) 
 In this case, of course, he was complimenting me with youth 
 on his side. I began gravely to show him my grey hairs, but 
 these had little weight with him. He only laughed the more 
 and declare them cheats and liars. I was a boy ! a boy ! a 
 boy ! I was forced at last to give in and let him have his own 
 mind out. I am fond of old Ratua (father of lions), a brave, 
 kind and honest, old man, a thorough heathen, but I believe 
 an enemy to the secret devil-like deeds of the magicians and
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 77 
 
 doctors. Most peculiar men those doctors arc. I will write 
 more of them when I learn more, but I hope it may not be 
 experimental knowledge. I have had enough of their ghastly 
 ways which are seen in every line of their ghastly demon-like 
 faces. 
 
 " Shesheke, Sept. 24-th, 1888. — After a very tedious journey 
 I got here safely two days ago. One evening we were benighted 
 on the river. It became very dark, and my men were anxiously 
 paddling up-stream, when a hippopotamus came after the boat 
 I was in, grunting fiercely and gnashing his teeth at us. We 
 pulled hard to get to shallow water, but the beast followed us. 
 I had no powder at hand for my gun. The men jumped out ; 
 bixt being loth to leave the boat at the mercy of the brute, 
 I took my steel and flint and struck fire in his face. This 
 stopped him, and he turned back to deep water. The men 
 would not come on further so we had to camp on the river's 
 bank. 
 
 " On the way up I had a splendid view of two immense lions, 
 walking up and down the white, sandy beach of the river. 
 Although we were within 50 yards or so of them they looked 
 at us quite undisturbed. Oh ! wasn't I sorry that my powder 
 was in another boat. It was very grand to see them so near, 
 the male lion with his large black mane looking at us -with his 
 deep, winking eyes, and the female pacing up and down the 
 sand as they do in cages at home, her head lowered and swing- 
 ing from side to side. 
 
 " Here I have met the Jesuits on their way home. The 
 king has sent them back. They, however, are determined not 
 to give in. The Pope has given them the country, therefore 
 they must get a footing in it. They say they will come back 
 next year and overcome every objection, by presents, I pre- 
 sume. I should think they have already given ten to twenty 
 times as much to the king as I have, and yet they get nothing 
 for it. The king is right when he says that their presents are 
 not from a good heart. They give them to get favour. 
 
 " Yesterday afternoon a company of headmen and wives 
 came to visit me, especially to see my photos. Their remarks 
 were very amusing. I was amused at the comical way the men 
 began chiding the women for their ugly looks, big lips, flat 
 noses, etc., and that the Barotse now would go to the white 
 people for wives, and didn't want them any longer. One poor
 
 78 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 woman got quite beside herself with rage declaring that the 
 white women were soft and useless. They were all greatly- 
 pleased with the picture of the two wee bodies (Arnot's two 
 little sisters). They seemed to think they were not children of 
 this world. 
 
 " I remained at Shesheke for some time as the guest of 
 Ratua. A happy incident occurred which was helpful to the 
 old man. The king had commissioned Ratua to buy for him 
 a very expensive greyhound, which Ratua had done, taking 
 it with him to Shesheke, and intending to send it on to the king. 
 Here the dog broke loose, and made for the road by which it 
 had come. It would have to pass through a country infested 
 ■with lions, and, worst of all, swim the Ungwesi and Zambesi, 
 in both of which crocodiles abound, so that Ratua gave up 
 all hope of ever seeing the dog again, and was much cast dowTi. 
 Shortly before, a horse in his care belonging to the king had 
 been lost, also some goods ; and now, if this dog did not turn 
 up, he might as well dro%Mi himself. He came into my scherm 
 in great distress. I tried to soothe him ; but he added, ' It is 
 no use ; I shall never see the dog again.' The thought struck 
 me that this was an opportunity given me to prove the power 
 of the God I had been speaking to him about two nights before. 
 I prayed silently to the Lord about it, and felt confidence in 
 telling Ratua that the dog would come back. ' No ! No ! ' 
 said he ; ' No ! No ! ' and soon went away. In about an 
 hour afterwards the dog came back. Some men cutting fire- 
 wood had met it and turned it back. Poor Ratua could not 
 find words to thank me and express his belief in the reality 
 of my God. The news went all through the to\^Ti that the 
 teacher's God had sent back the king's dog. The dog must 
 have been caught just about the time I asked the Lord for it. 
 Quite a lively interest sprung up. Ratua to-night said that 
 he and his wives wanted me to have a large meeting vnth all 
 his people in the daytime ; they all wanted much to hear. 
 ' We listen to you praying and singing at night,' said he (when 
 alone I forget that the reed walls of my house are so thin that 
 every word spoken is heard outside), ' but we want you to 
 speak to us more during the day.' I felt like a horse ready for 
 the race pa"sving the ground, but held in ^^^th bit and bridle. 
 Most heartily would I not only talk with them all day, but 
 pour out my very soul upon them, but my little know-
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 79 
 
 ledge of the language compels me to keep to very small 
 companies. 
 
 " Already there is ' a rustling among the leaves.' A silent 
 solemnity has taken the place among many at the mentioning 
 of the things of God, instead of loud laughter and profane 
 questioning. You Avill not fail, dear mother, to tell all those 
 who are praying for Africa about the happy encouragement 
 I have got since coming back again among the people, and stir 
 up all to more prayer and earnestness before God so that 
 we may get all that the gracious Lord may please to call out 
 of this nation, not a hoof left. Praise the Lord ! ' From every 
 nation and tongue and people.' Oh ! my heart goes beyond 
 those tribes to the tribes upon tribes, nations upon nations, 
 extending north, west, east, living to kill and be killed, unknown 
 and knowing nothing. Millions of our fellow-beings knowing 
 not that there is a God, a Saviour, and when told in their old 
 age the precious gospel message of life, which was for all people, 
 they marvel at the fact that they have lived so long without 
 having heard it. I desire that you make this one message 
 knoAvn to all, mother. The heathen wonder ; they are sur- 
 prised ; they cannot understand how it is that those who have 
 knowTi these things, and have believed in God, and in His 
 Son, have never come before to warn them, and to tell them 
 of the true God. These words come from the very heart of 
 Africa, not the words of one man only, but of many. 
 
 " When my place may be taken up here my desire would 
 be to push on north, up by the sources of the Zambesi, up by 
 Lake Bangweolo, and east and v/est and south by the River 
 Chobe. There are tribes upon tribes open and waiting for 
 the Gospel, though they know it not. You will perhaps say 
 that the last part of this is a bit of Fred's spontaneous zeal. 
 Well ! I won't contradict you, but it is zeal that has been 
 tried lately by a few practical tests, and if it burns up a bit at 
 a time it doesn't do so in a cold grate. I know your heart is 
 with me, mother, in all my erratic ways. 
 
 " Oct. 1st. — Left Shesheke this morning for the Barotse. 
 
 " Oct. 5th. — Started early. A strong wind arose and com- 
 pelled us to rest an hour or so. After I had urged Molonda to 
 get into the boats and start again he replied sagely : ' Don't 
 you know that the river has no ears ? There are three things 
 without ears, the river, the wind and the rain. They do not
 
 80 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 hear, as they are in the hand of God. To-day, your own father 
 and mother might be sailing on the river, the wind might rise 
 and swallow them up, but to-morrow you would not come with 
 an assegai to fight the river, you would only drink its 
 water. So now we must sit still until the river and wind be 
 quiet.' (This is a specimen of their droll way of talking and 
 answering.) 
 
 " Lealui, Oct. 22nd. — Nothing of importance occurred during 
 the first part of our journey up the river. My boatmen were 
 very diligent in hunting, so that this time we were fairly well 
 supplied with meat. On one occasion a troop of buffaloes were 
 seen near the water, and all the men started at once in pursuit, 
 whilst I remained by the stuff, sitting quietly reading under 
 my umbrella. In a short time I noticed some curious objects 
 on the tops of the trees, here and there an old shirt, or a little 
 piece of white cloth fluttering in the breeze. The secret of this 
 I soon discovered. My brave crew had overtaken the buffaloes, 
 but after firing a few shots they were attacked by an infuriated 
 old bull, who had compelled them all to climb the trees, and 
 kept them prisoners there for some hours. We were thus 
 obliged to sleep at this place that night, and to make the best 
 of our disappointment. A few days later my men organised 
 another hunt, with the help of a small company of natives we 
 met at the Nyambe Falls. They succeeded in killing a large 
 rhinoceros close by my camp. This gave us a supply of meat 
 sufficient to last for many days, and we were enabled to push 
 on without many delays. 
 
 " At one point I and my crew had a very narrow escape 
 from total destruction. We were pulling along against a heavy 
 stream close to a high precipitous bank of heavy soil, when 
 suddenly the whole bank gave way, falling into the river just 
 alongside of our boat, so that some of the men were thro>vn 
 overboard, and the boat was filled with earth and water. We 
 instantly began baling out, and she soon righted. Had we 
 been a few feet nearer shore we should all have been buried 
 alive. The water under before the landslip was very deep, 
 and flowed in a steady even current. Immediately after the 
 landslip it was but a few feet in depth, and the current was 
 diverted to the middle of the river. 
 
 " Arrived to-day at landing-place for Lealui, and sent word 
 to the king. Next morning ten of the king's men cam.e down
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 81 
 
 with a horse. They shouted out many a hearty welcome, 
 jumping about, hfting up my bundles, and running here and 
 there. Liwanika received me very kindl^'-, and gave me a nice 
 snug hut in the tovm, but said he was going to build me a large 
 one outside the town, on a small mound or hill, a much better 
 site than I had had before. After two days the king sent to 
 mc by his private servant eight children to be instructed (two 
 being his own sons), ranging in age from eight to fifteen. 
 
 " Lealui, Oct. 30th. — Besides teaching the boys the alphabet 
 and numbers, I read a little from the New Testament, and try 
 to explain it to them. We get on famously. How different 
 everything is this year from last ! My health could not be 
 better ; the people, small and great, are kind and thoughtful, 
 and do their best to make me comfortable. The king has given 
 me a present of a cow and a calf, a parrot from the West Coast, 
 a little slave boy (free now), and a handsome waterproof coat 
 brought to him by a Portuguese. 
 
 " Old Mamwia, an elderly Makololo woman, was very glad 
 to see me. She gave me some corn, and kissed my hand over 
 and over again. This old woman came into my hut, shortly 
 after my arrival in the Valley, and sitting down asked me to 
 tell her of ' Jesus, the King of Galilee ' (repeating thus, as I 
 afterwards learned, the last line of an old Sechuana hymn). 
 I answered her by opening the Sechuana New Testament, 
 translated by Dr. Moffat, and reading passages that I knew 
 she must have heard before, had she been, as I supposed, in 
 contact with the missionaries down south. Her face lit up 
 with delight, old memories were awakened, and she crept for- 
 ward and kissed my hand. Her story was that when quite 
 a child she had lived on the Chobe River with her parents. 
 A Mission, led by Dr. Price, brother-in-law of Dr. Livingstone, 
 came to Linyanti, and little Mamwia was employed by one of 
 the missionary ladies. But the missionaries all began to die, 
 and her mistress died, and the rest returned to the south. Then 
 the Barotse came down and killed her father and all her people, 
 and carried her away to their distant Valley. Now 30 years 
 had gone by and she had forgotten all that the missionaries 
 had taught her ; but a love for the Saviour to Whom they had 
 led her remained. And now Mamwia was among the first to 
 welcome me on my return. It was her husband, Gumbela, who 
 took me before the king and all the Barotse headmen, asking
 
 82 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 in the name of the Barotse that I might be better cared for, 
 and my wants supphed. I think old mother Mamwia put him 
 up to this. Next morning I got a fat ox to kill." 
 
 Writing at a later date, concerning Mamwia, Arnot said : 
 " Her husband sent her away to his possession in the country 
 and I heard nothing of her until one day during these months 
 of famine. I had sent my faithful MaKoffee away to buy 
 meal, telling him not to return until he had found some. The 
 first day went by with no food in the hut, and no signs of my 
 servant ; the second day wore on without either breakfast, 
 dinner or tea ; but about ten o'clock, when about to go to bed, 
 a knock came ; then a black head ; and two baskets of food 
 were pushed in. Mamwia had sent her slave woman with a 
 little food that she had managed to secure that day quite 
 unexpectedly. 
 
 " I was much interested in a young man named Simboula. 
 My own two servants — Setobi, and a lad the king gave me 
 to work for me — were very troublesome, and at times, if I was 
 at all unwell, would be away all day. So this poor slave would 
 come at every opportunity, and sit beside me, always cheerful 
 and willing to do anything for his white ' baas.' I took a great 
 liking to him ; but he was sent down to his old master at 
 Mbova. When I was there recently he came to see me. I gave 
 him 2 1 j^ards of cloth for his help to me at Lealui when I greatly 
 needed it. As he looked at me I had to turn away my head, 
 and a big tear rolled down my cheek. Meeting the poor lad 
 brought to my mind many a kind act by night and by day. 
 These cases, with others, stand out more brightly, because of 
 the general feeling of utter indifference and coldness that 
 reigns in the hearts of most of these heathen. 
 
 " Lealui, Dec. 9th. — On the 18th Nov. I heard of the illness 
 of a Mr. Henry Bryden, who had come in from Damaraland to 
 trade with the king and had returned from here to his waggons 
 across the Chobe for more goods. On his way back to the 
 Barotse on foot he took very ill out on the veld, so I started 
 out on the 19th with a hammock and men to bring him in. I 
 myself rode in the hammock. We crossed the river in the morn- 
 ing and travelled through a wide flat ^\dth two small belts of 
 wood, about half-way across, where we rested. In the after- 
 noon we reached a large sand-belt, heavily wooded, through 
 which our path lay. We stopped at a little town belonging to
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 88 
 
 one Mesanga on the face of the hill. This old man is the great 
 gunsmith and carpenter of the natives. We slept there. 
 
 " On the 20th we started early and got through the long 
 belt of wood. The variety of flowers, and their rich fragrant 
 smell were most refreshing. The grass everywhere had shot 
 up after the early rains, sweet and green. The trees were in 
 full fresh foliage. A sweet fruit, not unlike a fig, was very 
 plentiful. Beautiful birds gleamed and scratched about so 
 that in everything the wood we passed through this morning 
 was the perfect ideal of a forest ; but believe me, mother, I 
 would not have preferred a hundred walks in such parts to 
 a stroll in your own ' kail yard.' I find myself constantly 
 looking out for flowers and plants like those at home. If I can 
 associate anything ^vith home it dehghts me. 
 
 " We reached the town of Moleni at night. At this place 
 were two of the king's horses, so I rode on with them another 
 day. I was now among the Mangetti tribe who do not under- 
 stand Sekololo. I fear I will have to make an effort to learn 
 Serotsi so that I may be able to reach these other tribes so 
 close at hand all round about. Here I sent the boys on before 
 to bring Bryden to me as the horses could not go further for 
 the tsetse fly. In four days he became very ill indeed. I was 
 able to help him with medicines, food, etc. 
 
 " Got back on the 28th to find the people collecting for a 
 war with a tribe to the west. They are always fighting here, 
 or going to fight. 
 
 " I hear from Blockley that the Jesuits are going to make 
 a great effort next year to settle here. Two more waggon loads 
 are coming for the Barotse Mission. The king told Blockley 
 that he is determined to have nothing to do with them on any 
 account. ' Monare ' (otherA\ise F. S. A.), he says, ' is my man, 
 and he is quite enough. He comes to me and is not afraid to 
 speak. He is young yet, but wait, that will be a man.' Perhaps 
 what he considers courage and manUness in me others might 
 take for impudence and rashness, with truth on their side. 
 
 " A great many men have been killed here lately, big men 
 as well as slaves, for the most absurd reasons and superstitions. 
 The saddest thing in connection Avith my school is that most 
 of the boys who come are under a secret sentence of death. 
 The poor boys themselves know it, but make as hght of it as 
 possible. One is the son of Sepopo, a former king killed by his
 
 84 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 people here ; two sons of Wanawana, a later king also killed ; 
 and two sons of the present king. It is considered by the nation 
 that it is not safe for these boys to live, so they will be speared 
 when they reach young manhood. I mean to set myself to 
 save the lives of these boys if^I can. 
 
 " It would greatly amuse you if I told you all the tricks 
 and plans the people have tried here to get me married. Here 
 there is a law that men must marry at a certain age, and the 
 king and some of the headmen think it a very bad example 
 that I should remain unmarried, unless it was a part of my 
 religion like the Jesuits. I assured them, of course, that it 
 was no part of my religion. Well ! the conclusion, on their 
 part, was that I would have to marry. So the king appointed 
 me my wife, a daughter of his eldest sister, without ever con- 
 sulting me. And I was invited to a feast where all the king's 
 female relations, and the friends of the damsel, were assembled. 
 I went in perfect ignorance of what was to happen. The king's 
 sister presented me with a pot of mead, and then introduced 
 me to her daughter as my 'wife. I was thunderstruck, and 
 began to boil ^^dth indignation, and to demand their meaning. 
 By acting in such a way they were making an entire mistake. 
 The king, I suppose, could not miderstand my refusing his 
 handsome gift of a princess, rich in cattle, slaves and gardens. 
 I explained to him quietly not to trouble me again with marry- 
 ing. When I wanted to marry I would get a wife of my own 
 nation who would be able to speak with and teach his women. 
 This pleased him. ' That will do,' he said. ' You must bring 
 her the next time you go home and I will be satisfied.' I 
 promised him in a sort of ' I'll ask Mamma ' way. 
 
 " Some of the older women here are very motherly and kind. 
 With them I have long talks. But with the mass of the women 
 and the girls it is impossible for me to reach them ^\^th the 
 Gospel. They are not allowed to sit with the men in a promis- 
 cuous audience as at home. They are very shy of strangers, 
 and very silly and stupid too. More silly creatures than some 
 of these women are I have never seen, but they seem to be 
 tender-hearted and impressionable. At home one hears a 
 great deal about the hard work the womicn have in savage 
 countries, but I do not see it here. The men in the first place 
 have a good deal to do. They lay out the gardens, clear the 
 wood, clear the grass, are regularly out hunting, tend the oxen,
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 85 
 
 milk the cows, prepare skins for themselves, their wives and 
 their children. These latter (the skins) they have to preserve, 
 soften (a long process), and then scav together so as to form 
 different garments. They sew so very neatly with sinew that 
 it takes a whole day to sew a seam a yard long. Then every 
 year a commando of men is out fighting, and in this they all 
 take their turn. They do not do much building. They bring 
 the poles, however, for their houses and set them, whilst the 
 women do the reed and grass work and put the mud on the 
 sides of the houses. The women also do the cooking, hoe and 
 clean the gardens, and reap the crops. But the hoeing is the 
 mere scratching of the surface of the earth ; nature is so rich 
 they have but ' to tickle her, and she smiles into a harvest.' 
 They have far too much time on hand for quarrelling and 
 making rows. I for one am glad when hoeing time comes and 
 the women clear out of town to their gardens. The attention 
 they give to their families does not occupy one half-hour in the 
 twenty-four. The children have simply to sleep where and as 
 they like, most often with the dogs round the fire. Their food 
 they get into their two outstretched hands. But in time of 
 want the children fare badly, and fight for bones vnth the dogs, 
 and dig up roots with their sticks. They are wonderfully hardy. 
 I have seen little boys sleeping out at nights in the cold and 
 drenching rain, without a stitch of covering, and yet without 
 any harm, night after night. 
 
 " Lealui, Jan. 1st, 1884. — Had a long talk with the king this 
 evening about the stars and the sun. He then wanted to know 
 where God dwelt, and what He did with man when dead. 
 I answered that God was not confined to one place, as we are ; 
 that when man's body died, the spirit of him who was a child 
 of God went above and dwelt for ever in the presence of God, 
 and those whom God knew not here in this life were cast into 
 a place of sorrow and burning. ' But v/hy does God do so ? ' 
 he asked. ' What reason has He for putting man from Him ? ' 
 I explained to him something of the righteousness of God ; that 
 He could in no wise clear the guilty. The king argued that 
 here they did not know God's laws ; how then could God 
 punish them for not keeping them ? I answered that God 
 having planted His law in their hearts, they all knew what was 
 right and what was wrong. ' You know,' said I, ' when a man 
 lies to your face and steals from you that he injures you, and
 
 86 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 you call him bad and wicked. So when you to-morrow do the 
 same thing, God judges you with the same judgment with 
 which you judged j^our fellow-creature yesterday.' His only 
 answer was, * Yes ! that is true ; that I understand.' Presently 
 he muttered something about the hardness of man's lot, and 
 I tried to explain God's love to him in the gift of His Son ; and 
 after listening for a little he suddenly bustled away, saying, like 
 Felix, ' Well ! well ! I will call you again to speak about this 
 matter.' 
 
 " Jan. 4:th. — War is the great employment here at present. 
 One impi has just come in with long strings of captives — poor 
 naked women and children. The man who can show by the 
 pieces of skin from the bodies of his victims that he has killed 
 many is danced round by the women as a great hero. 
 
 " 9/^. — The king seems more afraid of the Word of God 
 since our last talk, as he is little inclined to speak again on 
 the subject. 
 
 " IMh. — Candle making to-day, with beeswax and ox fat. 
 
 " 16f/j.— Washing day. 
 
 " 20th. — DoANTi with severe headaches ; no sleep night or 
 day. Silva Porto, the Portuguese traveller, arrived here a 
 few days ago. He has come to trade with Liwanika for ivory, 
 and has brought M-ith him a large quantity of calico, guns and 
 powder. He is most urgent that I should return with him to 
 Bihe. From him I heard of the many tribes occupying West 
 Central Africa with which he, as one of the oldest of the West 
 Coast traders, had come in contact. This remarkable old 
 man landed at St. Paul de Loando as the guns from the fort 
 were booming in honour of Queen Victoria's coronation. He 
 was the first European to visit the Barotse Valley, and letters 
 from him were carried by his men overland to the Portuguese 
 Governor of IMozambique. He had no compunction in telling 
 me that in those early days he bought many slaves, but that 
 now he Avas gradually giving them all their papers of freedom, 
 and that although still a trader he was a missionary like my- 
 self ! Telling me of a visit he paid to a cannibal tribe doA\Ti the 
 Kassai, he said he was so shocked wth what he saw that he 
 returned to them the year after with a quantity of salt blessed 
 by a priest, and making the people come to him at every 
 stopping place, he placed ' holy salt ' on their tongues, charging 
 them never again to eat human flesh.
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 87 
 
 " 26^^. — Two men were tried for witchcraft in front of my 
 yard this morning. They went through the customary ordeal, 
 dipping their hands into the boiHng water as coolly as possible ; 
 for these brutal trials are so common that even the victims 
 show but little concern. In the evening both were brought out 
 of their prison hut, and being found badly scalded, were 
 considered guilty and condemned to the flames. 
 
 " 27th. — The two men were burnt this morning. I asked the 
 king and his people to come to my yard and hear the Gospel, 
 but he seemed annoyed at this public invitation, and said I 
 must be content with the children ; nor would he allow me 
 to speak to him there, saying that the big people did not want 
 to learn these things. 
 
 " 29th. — Headaches very bad. I fall into fits of stupor, 
 probably owing to the great heat, with little rain. 
 
 " Feb. 6th. — Much better ; have been keeping indoors more 
 during the day, and am getting on well with the Testament 
 and a dictionary of Sekololo and Serotsi (the languages of the 
 Makololo and the Barotse). 
 
 " The heat so affects everything that the people of the 
 town are either asleep or lazily lying about, drinking thin beer. 
 Not even a dog is seen. The oxen out in the plain try to stand 
 or lie in each other's shadow, caring little for the rich long grass 
 all round ; the king's horses get into the shade of some hut, 
 and their heads hang wearily between their knees ; scarcely 
 a bird flutters, and the smoke from the little fire at which the 
 boys are cooking my dinner ascends slowly in an even column 
 through the hot air. Such days are generally followed by a 
 tremendous thunderstorm, lightning without intermission, and 
 startUng crashes of thunder, far on into the night. During a 
 severe thunderstorm the natives do not eat, drink or work. 
 
 " 12th. — The valley is now flooded ; one cannot go a few 
 yards from the door without a boat. 
 
 " 20th. — The king and the people of the to^vn, my scholars 
 included, have gone on a grand deer hunt, so I am left alone, 
 with only a few women and slaves in the town. I have taken 
 advantage of this quietness to begin chair making and sewing, 
 and to clean my gun for some duck and goose shooting, my only 
 hope of getting some meat during the king's absence. The 
 slaves of the town got up a fight in their masters' absence, and 
 two men were brought to me to have their wounds stanched
 
 88 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 
 
 and bound up. The one had a knife stab, the other's head and 
 face had been laid open ^\^th an axe. 
 
 " 22?? d. — Last night an attempt was made to break into my 
 house. To-day the king's head servant sent round the town 
 crier, threatening -mth death any who should attempt to steal 
 from me. 
 
 " March Hth. — Have had a run of quartan ague all this 
 month. Hearing that Senhor Porto was laid up, I borrowed 
 a boat and went across the Valley, and found him very ill indeed 
 with ophthalmia. 
 
 " 29th. — News has come up the river to the effect that a 
 waggon has just arrived from Shoshong. M. Coillard has sent 
 a blanket to the king with a few lines from Basutoland, dated 
 April, 1882, to say that he was coming on. The Father-Superior 
 of the Jesuits has also sent a letter and a blanket to the king. 
 They are very energetic and determined to succeed. 
 
 " Lord's Day, March 30th. — Had very few at my house this 
 morning, but a large company at the afternoon meeting, which 
 lasted from three o'clock until sunset. Sitting in a draught I 
 got a chill, and spent most of the night in passing through the 
 three stages of ague. 
 
 " April 9th. — Found Senhor Porto better, but he has lost 
 the sight of one eye. 
 
 " lOth. — The king returned from his hunt and held a grand 
 reception in the kotla, sitting in state in his chair under a big 
 Ashanti umbrella. The people greeted their chief by kneeling 
 in front of him and rolling their heads in the dust. 
 
 " 17th. — There has been quite a plague of serpents here 
 lately. Within the last few days I and my boys killed two in 
 the house and three in the yard. While bathing near my house 
 I saw three serpents hanging from the reeds above my head, 
 and the same day, when landing from a boat, the boy in front 
 sprang back in terror as he pointed out two black cobras coiled 
 in the grass in front of us. One big yellow snake had been 
 sharing my bed for I do not know how long. 
 
 " I8th. — Senhor Porto's man came to ask whether I would 
 go or not, but to this I really cannot say ' Yes ! ' or ' No ! ' 
 My eyes have been failing, and threaten as they did last year. 
 My goods are gone, or nearly so. Strange rumours are afloat, 
 and strange things have been going on since the king's return. 
 I fear it is the beginning of another civil war.
 
 AMONGST THE BAROTSE 89 
 
 " A poor old woman who has always been kind to me was 
 burnt this morning as a witch. She was suspected of putting a 
 crocodile's tooth amongst the king's corn in order to bewitch 
 him, and having been tried by the boiling-pot test was con- 
 demned. I believe it was a trick of some spiteful rascals who 
 were her servants, and had prepared corn for the king, for they 
 brought the tooth to one of the king's head servants. 
 
 " 19th. — Another old man tested by the boiling pot to-day ; 
 he was supposed to have betwitched the king's brother, who, 
 though a young man, is so fat that walking is a difficulty to 
 him ; imagining that his fat was leaving him he decided that 
 this old man must be the wizard. 
 
 " 20^/?. — The old man has, strange to say, come out of the 
 trial uninjured. I saw him twice dip his hands into boiling 
 water, allowing the water to run over his wrists as he lifted 
 his hands out, and yet to-day his skin seems quite natural. 
 The only cavise for this, that I can think of, is that he is nearly 
 a century old, and his hands are as tough as tough can be. 
 This was flourished before me as a great victory, achieved 
 under my very eyes, in favour of the boiling-pot trials. The 
 advocates for this piece of barbarism declare that if the hands 
 of an infant Avho knew nothing of witchcraft were placed in 
 boiling water not a particle of skin would come off. They 
 delight in the practice because by it the rich can get rid of their 
 poorer enemies without staining their own hands with the poor 
 man's blood."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 
 
 " * I ^HE Barotse are a very strange nation. Their country 
 I is bounded on the south by the Zambesi and the 
 Chobe Rivers ; and this hne of demarcation is strictly 
 guarded against all comers. No white man is allowed on any 
 condition to hunt or to travel across that border. The headmen 
 of the country expressed themselves pleased that I had come 
 along ; and several times when I spoke to the king about bring- 
 ing a brother back with me the next time I went south, he 
 objected, and said neither he nor his people wanted white men 
 in their country. At last, however, he said of his own accord, 
 ' Bring your brother with you when you return that I may see 
 him.' 
 
 " Covetousness is the ruling passion of these natives, and it 
 destroys all other natural feelings. Here a man will kill another 
 for his coat. Seeing a defenceless party with, as they think, 
 more of this world's goods than their share, they will try every 
 means to distress, rob, or even kill them, for the sake of their 
 goods. This was one cause of the failure of the L.M.S. Mission, 
 sent to the Zambesi 15 or 20 years ago at the advice of Living- 
 stone. The things they took with them were many and good, 
 and very tempting in the eyes of the natives ; so they tried 
 every means to dispose of the missionaries, and succeeded too 
 well. This is one great cause of the present failure of the Jesuits. 
 One ' father ' was undoubtedly poisoned for the sake of a waggon- 
 load of goods of which he was in charge, and the party was 
 openly robbed at different places to the amount of many 
 hundred pounds. Now, as the people think they have obtained 
 all they are likely to get, they are bent on getting the priests 
 out of the country as soon as possible. 
 
 " I proved this power of avarice over other feelings to a 
 small extent myself. When I first went to the king's town, I 
 had, of course, a few things on hand for buying food, etc. So 
 
 90
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 91 
 
 long as I had even a little I was very much troubled by people 
 coming to me simply to beg for presents, headmen and their 
 wives ; even the king and his wives were not above begging and 
 troubling me in the meanest way for a small present. At last 
 my things were gone, and I had to live, as my boys lived, on 
 porridge and corn ; and I could only buy a meal at a time, 
 tearing up my blankets and sheets, selling them for food, and 
 also my spare clothes, etc. Then the begging and the pestering 
 ceased ; and those who came to my hut did not come to beg 
 and peer into every corner to see if I had an5'"thing nice that 
 they could ask of me. Before, when I used to try and get their 
 attention in conversation, every now and then I would be in- 
 geniously interrupted by the one miserable request ; but when 
 they found me as poor as themselves, if not much poorer, they 
 came to talk, and perhaps would rather bring me a small present 
 than ask for one, and I could get their ears and attention with- 
 out distraction. This world's goods may certainly be helpful 
 in furthering the Gospel, and may be sanctified and accepted 
 by God for that work, but they also can be made a terrible 
 hindrance. My plan now is to live as much from hand to mouth 
 as possible, taking up the river only as many goods as will 
 keep me for four or five months, sending down once or twice 
 in the course of a year to Mr. Westbeech's station for fresh 
 supplies, and living on native food, which I hope daily to 
 become more accustomed to. 
 
 " It was well for the lame man sitting at the gate of the 
 temple that Peter had neither silver nor gold ; so surely it is 
 well for these Africans that he who seeks to bring to them the 
 one priceless treasure should not be burdened with what, in 
 comparison, is trash and tinsel, serving but to blind their eyes 
 to better and heavenly things. Many in South Africa urge the 
 necessity for the missionary's going to the raw African tribes 
 in the guise of a great man with a large retinue of servants and 
 abundance of goods. Then, I have been told, he gets a position 
 in the tribe, and his voice is listened to. But surely this is a 
 fatal mistake, and far from the Divine pattern. In such a case 
 the heathen may easily be brought to believe in the man and his 
 goods, and, in the hope of improving his social position, may 
 make a profession of Christianity without having seen or 
 kno^^'n anything of the meek and lowly Jesus. 
 
 " The African is loth to obey, but fond of imitating. The
 
 92 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 
 
 sum of their own native belief is, that according to the position 
 a man has in this Hfe so will his place be in the next. Goodness 
 or badness, righteousness or sin, are not in their creeds. If 
 a man dies a slave he will have a position akin to that when he 
 is dead ; if one dies a chief he remains a chief, and so on. Thus 
 the more a missionary seeks to attain and keep up a position 
 of power and greatness the more does he confirm those who 
 follow him in retaining their old heathen delusion. When I 
 tried to explain to King Liwanika that a man's position in this 
 world had nothing whatever to do with his place in the next, 
 that God dealt with the hearts of men and not with their skins, 
 that a poor ' matlanka ' (lowest slave) might be seated in the 
 palace of God, and a king or a chief shut out he got very excited 
 and forbade me ever to say such a thing again or ever to teach 
 such things to his people. I told him not to be angry with me 
 as these were not my words but God's. He didn't care ; I 
 might say so, but he and his fathers kncAv enough of God, 
 and of dying, and all that. ' Besides,' said he, ' we are not 
 all going to die just now ; why then speak about it ? ' It was 
 some time before he again came round to talk quietly of the 
 things which, though he little knows it, concern him so much. 
 
 ' ' The native's pride of position is consummate, and for a chief 
 or a free man to come down to the level of a poor ' matlanka ' 
 sinner is humanly impossible. ' Unto the poor the Gospel is 
 preached,' and most gladly would I give all my time among the 
 many poor slaves of this country ; but meanwhile I am not 
 allowed. ' Those are not my people,' the}'' say ; ' they are our 
 dogs.' So it is only by stealth that I get amongst them. 
 
 " I have great hope that blessing awaits the declaring of the 
 Gospel up this river ; but one thing I desire is that what may be 
 done may be very real and entirely of God. Let us go in for 
 real out-and-out conversions to God as among the Thessalon- 
 ians of old, who ' received the Word in much affliction,' so that 
 God's name may be honoured in this country as it was in 
 Macedonia. 
 
 " My one desire is that I may please God by making His 
 Gospel known in all faithfulness and sincerity, so that His name 
 may be glorified by the gathering out from heathendom of 
 those whom He may please to make the subjects of His sove- 
 reign mercy. I rejoice to think that for the people we have a 
 full and complete salvation to carry to everyone, but Godward
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 93 
 
 we can but cast poor, sinful man upon His sovereign grace and 
 mercy. There has been Httle to try me here in the work, but 
 much to encourage. I am thankful to say that I have received 
 much of the confidence of the people ; they trust me now as 
 they did not at first. During my stay at the king's town my 
 time was well occupied. Besides having a small day school and 
 spending time with the people in conversation on the things 
 of God, I was much occupied with doctoring, gun mending, 
 teaching them how to sew, and to make shirts, etc. In the 
 doctoring line I was several times very successful, even in 
 important cases which had been given up by the native magi- 
 cians or doctors. The king Liwanika himself had been long 
 ill, though he had been working away with all his doctors ; 
 he recovered slightly, only to relapse again. One of his head- 
 men, who has the honorary title of ' The king's mat,' asked me 
 to go and see his majesty. I said I did not think I could do 
 much for him, but, if I could not, God could. I told him to go 
 back to the king and that I would follow, which I did, earnestly 
 asking for the Lord's blessing upon the remedy. The next 
 morning the king w^as able to attend a large council meeting 
 and to all appearance looked quite well. Several of the head- 
 men came to congratulate me on my cure ; but when I told 
 them it was God and not man who had restored the king's 
 health, they gravely shook their heads. 
 
 " Nothing of importance can be sanctified without a human 
 sacrifice — in most cases a child. First the fingers and toes are 
 cut off, and the blood is sprinkled on the boat, drum, house, 
 or whatever may be the object in view. The victim is then 
 killed, ripped up, and thrown into the river. The burning of 
 men for witchcraft is carried on to a fearful extent ; not a day 
 passes but someone is tried and burnt. The details of scenes 
 which I have been forced to witness in this line are too hor- 
 rible to put on paper ; many a guiltless victim is marched off 
 to the horrid pile. A few hundred yards from my hut there 
 lies a perfect Golgotha of skulls and human bones, fearful to 
 look upon. Yet one gets somehow used to it and to all their 
 murdering ways. 
 
 " The trial for witchcraft is short and decisive. K one man 
 suspects another of having bewitched him — in fact, if he has a 
 grudge against him — he brings him before the council, and the 
 ordeal of the boiling pot, to which I have already referred, is
 
 94 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 
 
 resorted to. My proposal is, that if they consider it a fair trial 
 of whiteness or blackness of heart, as they call it, then let 
 both the accuser and the accused put their hands into the 
 boiling water. The king is strongly in favour of this proposal, 
 and Avould try any means to stop this fearful system of murder, 
 which is thinning out many of his best men, but the nation is 
 so strongly in favour of the practice that he can do nothing. 
 An old friend of mine, called Wizini, who took quite a fatherly 
 care and interest in me for some peculiar reason of his own, was 
 charged with witchcraft. He pleaded earnestly to be spared 
 the terrible trial, and was reprieved because of his years, but 
 banished from his people and country for life, for no other 
 reason than that a neighbour had an ill-feeling against him. 
 Had he been first to the king with his complaint he might have 
 got his neighbour burnt or banished instead of himself. I much 
 missed this old man. 
 
 " The manners and customs of the negro ' pure and simple ' 
 of the interior remind one of many things mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture. The Barotse have such names as ' Cliild of Sorrow,' 
 ' Child of Joy,' ' Born by the River,' and others, suggested by 
 events occuring at birth. When a man of property dies, leaving 
 no children, his nearest kinsman takes his brother's wives ; and 
 children born of them inherit the dead man's property. This 
 custom, however, is dying out. In 2 Kings ii. 11 it is said of 
 Elisha that it was he who poured water on the hands of Elijah. 
 On the return of a man to his town or house a servant regularly 
 waits with a vessel to pour water on his hands. The average 
 negro is the reverse of cleanly, but there are many laws and 
 customs among them as to cleansing. The better class negro 
 washes his hands regularly before and after meals, but this is 
 because he eats with his fingers. He may use a spoon with tliin 
 porridge or thick milk, but only to ladle the food into the palm 
 of his hand, from which he drops it into his mouth. Houses 
 defiled by dead bodies must be cleansed, and a woman who 
 needs cleansing must live so many days outside the to^Mi, after 
 which she is washed with water, anointed with oil and perfume, 
 the inner fat of an ox is hung round her neck by her husband, 
 and then she returns home. Circumcision is very generally 
 practised by different tribes, and in different ways. 
 
 " The native manner of speech is very quaint, and the mere 
 expectation of good things causes such delight that men \vi\\
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 95 
 
 dance and shout nil night with empty stomachs in prospect 
 of a feast on the morrow. Regard for decency in conversation 
 is utterly unknown. There is a city of refuge among the Barotsc, 
 and anyone incurring the king's wrath, or committing a crime, 
 may find safety by fleeing to this town. The man in charge of 
 it is expected to plead for him before the chief, and he can then 
 return to his house in peace. 
 
 " The African native, as found in his own home, is, like our- 
 selves, a man with all the instincts of a man, and this is shown 
 by the conduct of the lowest slaves. A poor slave, whom I saw 
 kicked out of a hut in which he had sought shelter, folded his 
 arms and calmly said, 'Yes, master, I know you think me to 
 be a dog, but, sir, I am not a dog, I am a man.' There was, for 
 the moment, a dignity and impressiveness about the poor naked 
 fellow, which suVjdued the man who was abusing him, and he 
 was told to return to the hut. 
 
 " Many good laws as to constancy and fidelity are to be found 
 among these people, but their innate cruelty is, I think, with- 
 out comparison and makes war a terrible thing with them. On 
 returning from raiding, the warrior exults in telling the horrible 
 cruelties he has committed. A man will woo a woman with 
 accounts of the devilry he has been guilty of, for the women 
 delight in it, and the remembrance of things I have seen done 
 to captives makes the blood riui cold. Among the Mashuku- 
 lumbe the women and children turn out to applaud their brave 
 warriors, who, I am told, string up by the neck, to tall trees, 
 the little children they have taken captive, a spectacle which 
 gives entertainment to the whole countryside. Their punish- 
 ments are very cruel. Burning alive is, among the Barotsc, 
 a common occurrence ; also tying the victim hand and foot and 
 laying him near a nest of black ants, which in a few days pick 
 his bones clean. 
 
 " When manners and customs are referred to the particular 
 district must be born in mind. Africa is an immense continent, 
 and there is as much variety in the customs of the different 
 tribes as in their languages. Certain tribes take delight in 
 cruelty and bloodshed ; others have a religious fear of shedding 
 human blood, and treat aged people with every kindness to 
 secure their goodwill after death. By other tribes the aged 
 would be cast out as mere food for wild animals. 
 
 " There is an old but waning belief that a chief is a demi-god,
 
 96 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 
 
 and in heavy thunderstorms the Baroste flock to the chief's 
 yard for protection from the hghtning. I have been greatly 
 distressed at seeing them fall on their knees before the chief, 
 entreating him to open the water-pots of heaven and send rain 
 upon their gardens. But last year the chief acknowledged to 
 me that he knew he was unable to do so ; yet he keeps up the 
 delusion for the sake of power. These ancient beliefs of the 
 negro in the power of chief's medicines and enchantments have, 
 as might be supposed, very slender props to rest on, and they 
 are kept up merely to fill a want in the mind, much as a drown- 
 ing man will catch at a straw in his need of something to bear 
 him up. The king's servants declare themselves to be invinc- 
 ible, because they are the servants of god (meaning the king) ; 
 but when some discontented Barotse went to King Sepopo, the 
 late chief, none fled faster than the king's bodyguard. Sepopo, 
 like the present king, would boast that he possessed medicines 
 and enchantments which made his body impervious to spear- 
 bullet ; but when he heard of the insurgents, Sepopo fled in 
 haste, and a bullet through the chest killed him. 
 
 " Man is a very fragile being, and he is fully conscious that 
 he requires supernatural or Divine aid. Apart from the distinct 
 revelation given by God in the first chapter of Romans there is 
 much to prove that the heathen African is a man to whom the 
 living God has aforetime revealed Himself. But he has sought 
 after things of his own imagination and things of darkness to 
 satisfy those convictions and fears which lurk in his breast, and 
 which have not been planted there by the evil one, but by God. 
 Refusing to acknowledge God they have become haters of God. 
 The preaching of the Gospel to them, however, is not a mere 
 beating of the air ; there is a peg in the wall upon which some- 
 thing can be hung, and remain. Often a few young men have 
 received the message with laughter and ridicule, but I have 
 afterwards heard them discuss my words amongst themselves 
 very gravely. I heard one man say to a neighbour, ' Monare's 
 words pierce the heart.' Another remarked that the story of 
 Christ's death Avas very beautiful, but that he knew it was 
 not meant for him ; he was a makalaka (slave), and such a 
 sacrifice was only for white men and princes. 
 
 " Their memories are so acute, that many days after being 
 spoken to, they will return in order to discuss some question 
 which has been weighing on their minds. I judge from their
 
 ?^^ 
 
 ^'1 
 
 A Picturesque Scene in Angola 
 
 .A native hut is standing beneath the beetling rock ; and a man is climbing a palm-tree to cut down nuts.
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 97 
 
 actions that a few among the Barotse have consciously received 
 something of the truth. Molonda, who was a very kind friend 
 to me, repeatedly professed his belief in the things about wliich 
 we had long talks when travelling together from Shesheke ; 
 but he is secretly afraid of the king ; and the putting away of 
 his extra waves would, in his eyes, end his career among the 
 Barotse. Mala, of Secumba, one of the nobles of the land, 
 when he came to the king's town, used to dine and sup with 
 me, and we would read and talk over the Scriptures for hours. 
 Mamwia has suffered much from her husband Gumbela, the 
 king's prime minister, for loving to come and hear the Scrip- 
 tures read, and she professes to know the Lord. Our Lord 
 knows all. He who will not quench the smoking flax, nor break 
 the bruised reed, can nourish the little spark into a flame. 
 
 " During the time I was in the Barotse, the chief of the 
 Matabele, sent a powerful embassy to Liw^anika, bringing 
 presents of spears and shields, and inviting Liwanika to become 
 his blood brother, and to join with the Matabele in resisting the 
 invading white man, I was able to persuade Liwanika that, 
 apart from promises and the power of respective chiefs, Elhama 
 was a better man to make friends with than Lobengula. Loben- 
 gula's men were treated with great hospitality and sent away 
 with many presents, but Liwanika immediately decided to 
 write to Khama asking for his friendship, his daughter to be 
 Liwanika's queen, and a black hunting dog. I wrote the letter 
 for him, and my man, Setobi, w^as the bearer of it. He was, of 
 course, accompanied by several Barotse. Liwanika added a 
 postscript to the effect that Khama was to do all in his power 
 to help M. and Madame Coillard and party forward. It so 
 happened that this letter arrived in time to meet the Coillards, 
 and it is quoted by Miss Macintosh in the interesting life she has 
 written of her uncle and aunt, M. and Madame Coillard. 
 
 " Khama replied to Liwanika by sending a horse instead of 
 his daughter, giving him to understand at the same time that 
 he must join with him, not against the white man, but against 
 the white's man drink if he wished to be Khama's friend. 
 
 ' ' When staying in the Barotse Valley I came into contact 
 with many interesting people. Here was a headman bearing 
 the honourable title of ' the Kling's Mat,' and there were ' home ' 
 and ' foreign ministers ' at Liwanika's court. Also ' the keeper 
 of the city of refuge,' a kind looking old man, who was also the
 
 98 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 
 
 softener of the king's heart when he was angry with his people. 
 Of all these, however, the king's head blacksmith made the 
 most lasting impression upon me, and that chiefly for his son's 
 sake. I think I can see him now splashing across the flooded 
 plains that surround the Lealui, during the first rains, with his 
 son riding astraddle over his shoulder, plying his father the 
 while with all sorts of interesting questions. When first I saw 
 Kakonda, and his father the blacksmith, pass my hut door, I 
 had just recovered somewhat from a long illness and was begin- 
 ning to look around for a few pupils, but it seemed difficult 
 to make a beginning. When his father reached the shed where 
 he usually kindled his fire, and repaired the king's guns, he set 
 Kakonda down to play about with the village children, and soon 
 they all came trooping along to see the standing wonder of the 
 day, the white man. Kakonda had never seen me before, not at 
 least at close quarters. To their great delight they found that 
 the white man v/as about to begin breakfast ; now they would see 
 him ' swallow his needles.' This story of the ' bunch of needles ' 
 I was supposed to swallow each time I took a meal, had gone 
 far and wide, and even Liwanika asked me seriously if it was 
 true. I had no difficulty, of course, in explaining how it all 
 arose from my using a three-pronged steel fork instead of my 
 fingers ; and I had the pleasure of giving tliis great potentate 
 (afterwards so dainty and correct) his first lesson in the use of 
 the knife and fork. But to return to my little crowd of visitors. 
 They were almost too many for me that morning. So I had, 
 with a few sticks and string, constructed a barrier beyond which 
 none were to pass. I soon picked Kakonda out as a little 
 stranger, and while the others were going into fits of laughter 
 over my fork, and other little freaks and fancies peculiar to 
 the white man, Kakonda kept his eyes gravely fixed upon me. 
 At last I saw that his curiosity was getting the better of him, 
 and that he had already crept under the string barrier, and was 
 moving towards my hand as it hung by my side. Of course I 
 pretended not to see him, although all the other little chaps 
 were holding their breath and watching the stranger. At last 
 I felt his cold fingers stroking my hand down from the wrist to 
 the points of the fingers again and again. ' Well, little boy ! 
 What do you want ? ' I asked, as I looked down and met his 
 great, big, wondering, half-tearful eyes. He hesitated but for 
 a moment, and then in a shrill tone of voice asked me to tell him.
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 99 
 
 ' Where was the river that I washed in, for he would hke to 
 wash in that river too.' The dear httle chap little knew how I 
 loved him as I looked at him, and longed as never before to 
 lead him and his companions to the living fountain of waters. 
 So without delay I had the table cleared and started my first 
 class. I explained first of all that the colour of our skins did not 
 matter; the skin is very thin, and on a piece of paper bent 
 over the side of my table, I was able to show how a dot of blood 
 taken from my own white hand, and a dot taken from Kakonda's 
 black hand, were both red, for God had ' made of one blood 
 all the nations of men.' And then I asked them what it was that 
 lay inside of skin, and blood and flesh, right in the middle. All 
 knew, of course, and answered, ' the heart.' The African makes 
 more of the heart than we do. He not only loves and hates in 
 his heart, but he thinks in his heart ; in fact his heart is his soul. 
 But I had no needle long enough to prick the heart to see what 
 colour it was, so I explained how God who made us, sees right 
 through our bodies, which to Him are just like so many clear 
 glass bottles, like the one that I held in my hand with a black 
 stone inside ; and He tells us that our hearts are not some black, 
 some white, but all black, and made blacker each day we live, 
 because it is sin that defiles a man, lying, stealing, etc. But 
 God also tells us of a river that can wash our sins away, and 
 so on. 
 
 " My little class came together for several mornings ; and, 
 between spells of fever, I was able to spell out the Gospel, line 
 upon line. Kakonda's father was killed in a revolt against 
 Liwanika, and his family sold into slavery, or scattered to 
 remote parts ; but one of the boys of that class, thanks to M. 
 Coillard's training, is now Liwanika's Prime Minister, and the 
 British Commissioner in the Barotse speaks of him as ' the one 
 shining light among the Barotse people.' 
 
 " One day Liwanika was sitting in the public court, disposing 
 of slaves that had been brought in from the Matotela and 
 Bankoio as tribute. All the good looking and able bodied were 
 soon disposed of to eager sycophants, who rushed to prostrate 
 themselves at the king's feet in their deep gratitude. But one 
 middle-aged woman and a little boy remained sitting alone. 
 I felt keenly for the woman, she looked so sad, and overcome 
 with shame at her exposed, humiliating position. I could not 
 help her, but on learning that the boy was not her son, I asked
 
 100 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 
 
 that he might be sent along to my hut. He was so worn and 
 emaciated with hunger that it was with difficulty I brought him 
 through. For weeks after he could not see food without making 
 for it. One day I set him to clean a few potatoes, and seated 
 myself on a chair close by to keep guard over my prospective 
 dinner ; but, strange to say, the potatoes began to disappear. 
 In a few minutes there were certainly fewer in the basin than 
 when Sikinini set out to wash and I to watch. So I determined 
 to unravel the mystery, and quietly watched every muscle of 
 his body. I then observed that with the middle toe of his foot 
 he Avas digging a hole in the sand ; when he had dug deep enough 
 the little thief eyed me very steadily, watching for a sudden 
 turn of my head, or a look off in another direction, to drop a 
 potato into the hole and instantly to smooth all over with a 
 quiet gliding movement of the foot. 
 
 " Although 30 years have elapsed since Livingstone first 
 visited the Zambesi and the Barotse Valley, and more than 20 
 years since he was last seen there, yet the remembrance of him, 
 his ways, his words, his physique, is as fresh as yesterday. I 
 carried a photo of him which was recognised readily by those 
 who knew him. I being of the same nation, and no doubt having 
 a national likeness to him, was called by the same name, Monare. 
 This I at first resented, feeling altogether unworthy of such dis- 
 tinction. However, the name has stuck to me, sometimes 
 Monare nyan (Young Monare). I am not his only namesake. 
 At the Barotse they have named many of their children, born 
 at the time of Livingstone's visit — now grown lads — after him. 
 Sekilitu's mother, and one of Sibituane's sisters are still ahve 
 though very old women. I found that they were very full of 
 his memory. One thing surprised me : nowhere was it even as 
 much as mooted that Livingstone was in any way indebted to 
 them, or had received from the Makololo any material help in 
 his travels. Everyone in fact looked upon Livingstone as their 
 great benefactor. Of course there are many absurd stories 
 afloat as to his powers, how he flew down to the bottom of the 
 chasm of the Victoria Falls (Livingstone let down a weighted 
 line, with a piece of paper attached, to see the end of the line 
 better) ; that he could raise the dead and make spirits to appear 
 (the magic lantern which was indeed magic to them) ; that he 
 had a dish of water into which he looked and read instructions 
 as to the road before him (no doubt his compass).
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 101 
 
 " Many of the older men had whole sermons of his off by 
 heart. One old blind man named Zape, who said that he was in 
 Livingstone's service when he was young and could see, had 
 some very vivid recollections of Livingstone. And one evening, 
 at my request, he gave to me and to a lot of young men gathered 
 in my yard, one of Livingstone's sermons. He got up and went 
 through it bravely as follows : ' You people of the Makololo, 
 you great men and warriors, I tell you you are not great men. 
 You are bad and mean. You are not content with living in 
 your own houses and hoeing your own gardens, but you go and 
 attack weak people, and kill them. You see children hoeing 
 the gardens of their mothers, and you take them prisoners. 
 You see men hunting their own food, and herding their oxen, 
 and you kill them. This is very bad. This is a great evil. The 
 Evangalia has gone into all the world to teach men that to be 
 great is to be good.' This was spoken in a high authoritative 
 tone of voice. He dropped this, and in an uncertain fluttering 
 way touched upon one of Livingstone's graphic pictures of the 
 last judgment. Of the Evangalia he had confused notions, 
 thinking that that was the name of a person, but upon my 
 explaining to him the story of God's love, which was the Evan- 
 galia, or the Gospel, it brought many more of Livingstone's 
 words to his mind, and, repeating them as he did to me, it has 
 helped me greatly in explaining the Gospel story in the Sekololo 
 to others. 
 
 " His character among them was unimpeachable. As far 
 down as Natal I heard slander stories told about Livingstone's 
 conduct in the far interior. But surely if there had been an 
 atom of truth in the same I would have heard something to 
 corroborate them in the far interior. The African keeps no such 
 secrets. I was told, however, from some man who came from 
 the West Coast, and had met Livingstone at the Barotse, that 
 Monare was not like me ; he married a native woman and had 
 a child alive near to his country. This I did not for a moment 
 believe. I questioned him closely, and up and down, on the 
 matter, and found that he was confusing Dr. Livingstone with 
 an Arab trader who came to the Barotse at the same time as 
 Livingstone, and who also went to the West Coast in company 
 with Sen. Porto by a different road from Livingstone. 
 
 " Some Bechuana hunters came to the Barotse about this 
 time. Their home was near Kuruman. Dr. Moffat's old station ;
 
 102 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 
 
 but they had been hunting elephants for years in the deserts 
 north of Lake Ngami. One of these hunters was well on in 
 years. He told me he was one of Dr. Moffat's ' children,' and 
 undertook to instruct me in the great missionary's methods. 
 Moshete (his native name) would go, he said, to the chief's 
 councils, and when the business was over he would always stand 
 up book in hand, and preach vigorously. If any chief tried to 
 stop him he never grew angry, but asked so earnestly to be 
 allowed to go on that they always listened to him. So I became 
 more courageous, and repeatedly tried to carry the war more 
 earnestly into the enemy's camp. But for a long time Liwanika 
 cleverly managed to head me off. ' Had he not given me 
 his children to teach ? My words and stories were really only 
 for children,' etc. But one day he added, ' Was there anything 
 in my book suitable for a king to listen to ? ' This gave me a 
 glimmer of hope of some little progress, and I assured him with 
 emphasis, that there was more in the Bible for kings and about 
 kings than any other class of men. ' Well,' he said, ' if that is 
 so, I will give you a proper hearing ; come on a certain day, and 
 I will gather all my nobles, and we ^vill listen to the message 
 that your book has for a king.' 
 
 " But now my troubles began ; I could not think of a suitable 
 message. From morning till night I thumbed my Bible without 
 a gleam of guidance. After a quiet hour of prayer, I turned 
 again to look for my message. The story of Nebuchadnezzar 
 now seemed to stand out before me in golden letters. On the 
 appointed day I went to the kotla and turned to the book of 
 Daniel, translating in short sentences the story of the great 
 Eastern potentate. Liwanika listened intently, turning round 
 to his nobles to see that they were listening too. At last he 
 could not contain his delight, but burst forth with, ' That is 
 what I am going to be. I am the great Nebuchadnezzar of 
 Central Africa.' But when I came to the downfall of the great 
 monarch, how, because of his pride and boastfulness, he was 
 reduced to the level of a beast having claws and eating grass, 
 the king's countenance fell somewhat, so I pressed the truth 
 home on himself, telling him how wicked he was as a man, and 
 as a king, in God's sight, but I was to proceed no further. 
 Liwanika sprang from his chair, and left the enclosure with 
 this strange remark : " What does the white man mean ? I am 
 not going to die to-day.'
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BAROTSE 103 
 
 " For two months I was left severely alone by both chief and 
 counsellors. Then I heard that the chief was ill, ten oxen being 
 driven in in one day for the doctors to sacrifice in the process 
 of preparing remedies, etc. A messenger came to me from 
 Liwanika to say that he had had a dream that I had the 
 medicine that would make him better. As soon, however, as 
 he was assured that there was no one near to hear what we 
 were saying, he forgot all about his health and began to tell me 
 how he abhorred burning witches, selling slaves, and making 
 war on the poor tribes around, but he was helpless, he said ; 
 still, he wished to keep my ' Sunday.' As I listened it seemed 
 clear that he was not ill in body but in mind and conscience. 
 This gave me the opportunity of beginning where I had left 
 off in the history of Nebuchadnezzar, and of pressing home on 
 his acceptance the unconditional gift of God's forgiveness. The 
 king listened patiently, and as I left him, he said, ' Come every 
 morning and teach me.' Troublous times, however, were await- 
 ing Liwanika, and the shadow of a serious revolution was 
 already upon him."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 '* APRIL 22nd, 1884.— Gumbela, and some of my 
 
 j^-i friends, seemed to think it was well that I should 
 leave just now, because of the troubles brewing, so 
 I told Senhor Porto that I would accompany him to Bihe. 
 I had repeatedly asked Liwanika to allow me to proceed up 
 the Zambesi to the tribes living north, but he would not grant 
 my request. These people were the dogs of the Barotse, and 
 missionaries would not be allowed to visit them. So I decided 
 to go West with Senhor Silva Porto. 
 
 " May 1st. — As the king sent word that a boat was ready for 
 me, I packed up, sending to his house what things I was unable 
 to take with me, and giving the key of my house to one of his 
 servants. When I went to say good-bye he shook hands long 
 and warmly, saying, ' You are my friend, come back very soon. 
 But,' he added in a tone of sadness, ' you may not find me 
 here.' 
 
 " May 3rd. — ^Alarming news as to the Barotse. Plans are 
 laid for a revolt against Liwanika, and it is intended to set up 
 the son of Sekuferu. 
 
 " May 4th. — I arranged to-day with Senhor Porto about 
 carriers, and shall ride upon an ox instead of being carried in 
 a hammock, as he proposed, for that would be too comfortable 
 a way of travelling, and might make me discontented and 
 extravagant at other times. Liwanika gave me a young ox 
 as a parting gift. I broke him in, and he proved a most valuable 
 riding animal. 
 
 ' ' May 8th. — I set out with Senhor Porto, not without much 
 pain and difficulty on my part, owing to an accident which I 
 met with last night, and which, but for the mercy of God, 
 might have been a very serious one. I had been repairing some 
 guns for the Barotse, and, on firing a breechloader, the hinge 
 of the block gave way, and my face and right eye were badly 
 
 104
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 105 
 
 scorched by the explosion. To add to my misfortune, my 
 riding ox was sent off by mistake in the early morning, so I had 
 to be led by my little boy for ten weary miles, most of the way 
 wading up to the knees in water, and then through rough bush. 
 Reached the town of Kangete and camped there. 
 
 " May 10th. — Started on a small ox of Senhor Porto's. Our 
 road lay through thick forest, and a sorry journey the ox and 
 and I made between us. The footpath was bad and narrow 
 enough, but my ox had no idea of keeping to it, and dragged 
 me about in all directions. After any delay, in catching sight 
 of Senhor Porto's oxen he would canter straight towards them, 
 leaving either me, or bits of my distressed clothing, detained 
 by the ' wait-a-bit ' thorn bushes. I managed with difficulty 
 to retain my hat, but the bandage I had round my eyes was 
 left in the thorns. At last I sent the ox about his business 
 and lay down quite out of breath, and, I fear, sadly out of 
 temper. Some of the carriers came to urge me on, but it was 
 of no use, till a female slave, carrying some provisions on her 
 head, gave me a cool drink and some coarse bread, which sent 
 me on my journey, moralising on the superior humanity of 
 women. 
 
 " May 12th. — My own ox was secured this morning, and I 
 got on much better with him. Started from Kakap long before 
 cock-crow (Senhor Porto carries a cock with him to crow), and 
 early in the day we reached Osore, a lake of considerable size, 
 and camped there. My eyes are gradually getting better 
 through the constant application of poultices of ox-dung, 
 heated in a pan. 
 
 " May 13th. — ^Crossed, on the shoulders of a stout Bihe 
 porter, a deep-running river, and camped by the Nyengo. 
 
 " May lUh. — Passed through much water on the Nyengo 
 flat, my ox swimming bravely with me on his back. Camped 
 at Relva. 
 
 " May 15th. — A tedious journey through a dense, dark 
 forest, which smelt like a dank dungeon, with moss and lichen, 
 but no grass. Camped at Ka-kinga on the River Ninda, as 
 the upper part of the Nyengo is called, where the Ambuella, 
 a small tribe of the Bambunda race, are living. 
 
 " May 19th. — ^Travelled along the right bank of the Ninda. 
 
 " May 20th. — A wild-looking company of Bambunda 
 hunters came to the camp ; they dress their hair to imitate
 
 106 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 the horns of wild animals, and one had a stick through his nose. 
 In this part the Bambundu are peaceable, but further on they 
 form robber gangs, and would be dangerous to a small party. 
 
 " May list. — Journeyed along the Ninda. Ever since 
 leaving the Barotse Valley we have been constantly ascending, 
 so that now we are travelling through hilly country, very cold 
 at night, with sharp touches of frost, but during the day the 
 sun is strong. I have tried to walk barefoot, my boots being 
 worn out, but the sand was so hot after half an hour's hopping 
 along I had to give in, with four large blisters on my feet ; 
 this is Avinter hefe. 
 
 " May 22«d!. — To-day we reached the source of the Ninda, 
 which flows from a range of hills dividing the water flow 
 between the Zambesi and Quando rivers. Here the hills are 
 high and thickly wooded. 
 
 " May 23;-d. — Crossed the hills and reached the source of 
 the River Shuhmgo, tributary to the Kumbule, which again is 
 tributary to the Quando River. Following the Shulongo we 
 came to the Kumbule, a large, beautiful stream, which seemed 
 to dance along over a bed of silver sand, so bright that it was 
 painful to look at it. Orange, green, and other bright coloured 
 water weeds were growing in abundance, and were beautifully 
 mixed. All the rivers and little streams have the same bright 
 appearance in this part of the country, showing that ' Afric's 
 sunny fountains ' is no mere poetic dream ; but the sands are 
 silver, not ' golden,' as in Heber's hymn. It is a pity to see 
 such a fertile, and undoubtedly healthy country, so thinly 
 populated. 
 
 " May 2'isih. — Crossed hilly country, densely wooded, and 
 reached the River Shikoloi, running south through a valley. 
 
 " 3Iay 25th. — The oxen refusing to cross the river, were sent 
 up-stream to look for a ford. 
 
 " May 26th. — ^There being no sign of the oxen we started for 
 the Kuti River, crossing four hills and three valleys. 
 
 " May 27th. — One of the carriers, who has a familiar spirit, 
 being asked to diAane why the oxen would not cross the Shikoloi, 
 called up the spirit of an old servant of Senhor Porto's, who 
 said that he had stopped the oxen because presents had not 
 been given to his friends after his death. One of his friends 
 was amongst the company of carriers. The events that fol- 
 lowed bore out the diviner's theory only too truly. We . hould.
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 107 
 
 however, have said that the friend of the aggrieved dead man 
 was one of the ox herds, and not merely one of the carriers. 
 For when the lost oxen did turn up, the slaves in charge 
 declared that when dri\ang the unwilling cattle across the river, 
 one of them broke away from the rest and escaped into the 
 forest. After days of searching they found a torn piece of ox- 
 hide which they had brought with them that their master 
 might look at it and see with his own eyes if this was not a part 
 of the skin of his own ox, who had doubtless been torn by a 
 lion. The brethren of Joseph, with his coat of many colours in 
 their hands, could not have presented a more doleful spectacle. 
 Senhor Porto had been suffering badly from ophthalmia and 
 could not inspect the skin, and so let the matter drop. But 
 I could see that the skin had been hacked around with a knife, 
 and that the tooth of a wild animal had never touched it. 
 
 ' ' May SQth. — Deciding to visit the line of small towns along 
 this river belonging to the Bakuti, a people akin to the Balu- 
 chaze, we got a boat and pulled up the stream, stopping at all 
 the huts and small villages. The people showed much frank- 
 ness, and said how glad they were to see an ' English ' for the 
 first time. I asked them to gather together at their chief town 
 in two days' time, and then I would speak to them. 
 
 " May Slst. — All day buying food, which the people bring 
 in abundance. I never saw food anywhere in Africa so cheap 
 as it is here. A piece of calico, about the size of a handkerchief, 
 will buy about 20 lbs. of meal or a calabash of honey. 
 
 " June 1st, 1884. — In the afternoon a goodly company had 
 assembled to be spoken to, all men, for everywhere in Africa 
 the women are the most conservative and the most difficult 
 to persuade into receiving anything new, and here they had 
 shut themselves up in their huts. These people had lived in 
 such seclusion that they knew nothing of teachers living 
 amongst other tribes, the limit of their knowledge being the 
 West Coast trader, his goods, his ivory, and, in past years, his 
 string of slaves. Speaking through my interpreter, Antonio, 
 I told them in the simplest language of God the Creator, of 
 man's departure from Him, of the sending forth of God's Son 
 as a Saviour, and of His now sending messengers throughout 
 the world to call men back to Himself. Their close attention 
 made me feel that the Spirit of God was blessing the Word, 
 and at the end they expressed their thanks by clapping their
 
 108 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 hands. The chief then said that they could not tell how happy 
 they were that I had spoken in that way to them ; he had 
 believed in a great God Who had made all things, but he 
 wanted to know that God, that he might pray to Him at all 
 times. 
 
 " Senhor Porto says that these people are exceptionally 
 simple and honest ; he has never known them to steal any of 
 the goods that he has left in the charge of their chief from time 
 to time. They live in square houses built close to the River 
 Kuti, which forms their highway ; each person possesses a 
 boat, and, as there is a continual traffic going on, the river 
 presents a very lively appearance. The hair of these people 
 receives more dressing than their bodies ; the men wear a skin 
 before and behind from the girdle, but the women use calico 
 for their clothing. They have blankets made of the inner 
 bark of a large tree, beaten soft. 
 
 " June Uh. — Many gathered at the villages, and we had a 
 good time this morning. One man showed great interest, and 
 said afterwards, ' This day I am a child of Jesus Christ : now 
 I will pray to God alone.' Some wished me to return to-morrow, 
 but the chief said, ' No, we shall tire the white man by his 
 coming so far ; we will gather together, and go to his camp.' 
 
 " June 5th. — A goodly number came to the camp to-day. 
 
 " Ju7ie 6th. — Had a long talk with the chief and the man 
 who said he was a child of Jesus Christ, and told them that 
 though I was leaving, I would, God willing, return to them. 
 The chief replied that they would look much for my return, 
 that they would not forget the good news brought to them, and 
 that they would pray God to bring me back in safety. I have 
 hope toward God that these two men have indeed drunk of that 
 living water, of which if a man drink he shall never thirst again. 
 As yet I have not been able to fulfil my promise of returning, 
 but should be indeed glad to do so. 
 
 " June 8th. — Started for the village of Kwawewe, but 
 learning that the people had moved away and were living 
 amongst the reeds some distance off, I at last found their huts, 
 but in the chief's absence was not allowed to visit them. 
 
 " June 9th. — The chief came to-day, saying he was sorry 
 he was absent yesterday, but that now he had brought his 
 people to hear what I had to say. I spoke to them all in my 
 hut, and the chief, who seems to be a sensible, cautious man,
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 109 
 
 thanked me repeatedly, and wanted to give me a little boy 
 as a present. 
 
 " June IBth. — Started early in the morning, the main body 
 of the carriers being behind. We passed several villages safely, 
 the people only coming out to look at us, but when we reached 
 one of their large towns they gathered round us dancing, 
 shouting, and yelling to us to stop, and swinging their weapons 
 over their heads. They then laid hold on some of the carriers, 
 and drove off my ox, so I ran back and kept them off the 
 goods until Senhor Porto came up with some more men. I 
 was within a very small inch of getting my head split with an 
 axe. Springing from his hammock Senhor Porto seized his 
 gun, which made the ruffians fall back. Having recovered 
 my ox, I started off with the boys and women carriers, while 
 Senhor Porto and some armed men kept the Baluchaze at bay. 
 
 " June lUh. — Reached the town of Herero, who is headman 
 of the Baluchaze living along the Kuti. He proved as dis- 
 agreeable as liis people, demanding from us an ox and some 
 leopard skins. I sent word to Herero that I was a man of 
 peace, who had come from far, and that I hoped to return to 
 them shortly. 
 
 " June 15th. — Got off without further trouble, Senhor Porto 
 having given some leopard skins to the chief. Left the Kuti, 
 and, crossing a very steep hill, descended to the River Kuvan- 
 gui, a rapid and deep stream, which I crossed by a frail wooden 
 bridge, the carriers going further up to a ford. Keeping by this 
 river for four hours we passed Kankanga's, and then camped 
 at the town of Kkshima's daughter. I speak of ' towns ' ; but 
 though the people are in considerable numbers, gathered close 
 together imder their chief, their huts are so hidden and scattered 
 in dense wood, that to a passer-by the only signs of the presence 
 of human beings are certain narrow and winding footpaths 
 here and there. 
 
 " The regular camping places are generally on the border of 
 some forest, where the porters can get sufficient poles to erect 
 rude frameworks, the spaces of which are filled with leafy 
 branches ; and in the rainy season a rough thatch covering 
 is added. We were busy getting our camp into order when some 
 Baluchaze came, evidently bent upon mischief. Getting 
 nothing for their impudence they left us. In a short time, 
 however, we saw the long grass on all sides of us on fire. All
 
 110 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 our men turned out, and beating down the flames as they 
 approached our camp, they succeeded in stamping out the fire. 
 We then called the men together and discovered that eight 
 of our number were missing, so that our worst suspicions con- 
 cerning these Baluchaze were confirmed. They had set fire 
 to the grass around our camp to distract our attention while 
 they carried off all the stragglers they could catch. We found 
 that two of our men had been taken some distance, but the 
 other six were still in the neighbourhood. 
 
 " Calling for volunteers I procured from the bottom of my 
 trunk a pistol that Mr. Westbeech had given me, and set to 
 cleaning and loading it. We soon had 30 smart young men 
 ready to follow up the robbers. I lined them up, and as all 
 claimed kinship with the stolen men 1 knew that they could be 
 relied upon. And now what about a short prayer ? I fumbled 
 with my pistol. Certainly to the African mind I knew I could 
 not have it both ways. So after a struggle I hastened back 
 to my box, replaced the pistol, and then in the midst of the 
 men I knelt and humbly asked God, for Jesus' sake, to give 
 us back the two stolen men. And so off we set. The light 
 was just sufficient to enable us to find the trail ; soon darkness 
 fell as on we sped in silence. 
 
 " After a weary ten-mile journey over the hills we came 
 upon the robbers, and found them ready to fight, as they only 
 thought we had come to recover by force the stolen men. 
 I made every effort to get between my own men and the 
 Baluchaze, and, as a sign of my peaceful intentions, I held up 
 one of their native stools in front of the threatening crowd and 
 then sat down upon it, urging them to sit down and talk with 
 me. The old chief, seeing the younger men fall back, began 
 to chide them for being afraid, and rushing forward he levelled 
 his gun at me, ready to fire. By this time our Bihe men had 
 their guns to their shoulders, but I called upon them not to 
 fire. The young men, fearing that their old chief would bring 
 mischief upon them if he shot me, laid hold of him, took his 
 gun from him, and marched him off to a hut close by, in the 
 most ignominious manner, with his hands behind his back. 
 At last, one by one, they came near and sat down, and we 
 talked the matter over. They said they were not angry with 
 us, but with other white men who were their enemies, and they 
 at last promised to bring down the two captives next day to
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA HI 
 
 camp. They kept their word, and the stolen men were brought 
 back next day ; presents were exchanged, and thus ended 
 what had been to me a very trying ordeal. 
 
 " June 21st. — At the head of the Rovangwe River some men, 
 who remained behind with a worn-out ox, were attacked by 
 a roving company of Baluchaze ; but a few carriers, observing 
 what had happened, laid down their loads and ran back to 
 their assistance, and the robbers decamped. 
 
 " June 22nd. — Left the Okovangu Valley, crossed a high 
 range of hills, in the midst of which runs the Sinsoy River, 
 and rea,ched the Kwando River in the afternoon. It is nearly 
 two years since I first struck this river some distance below 
 Linyanti, where it is broad and reedy, taking hours to cross 
 while here it is but eight or ten feet broad. 
 
 " June 23rd. — As we go up the Kwando the scenery becomes 
 more expanded and grand. The hills on each side are high and 
 wide apart, and covered on the tops with dense forest. Bright, 
 rapid streams run down every valley. It is strange to find 
 every stream in this part of the country full in the dry season ; 
 during the rains they are low. The hills here seem to be one 
 mass of sand, firm though very porous. They absorb the rains 
 as they fall, and months pass before the water reaches the bed 
 of clay underlying these sand hills. The rivers run off this 
 clay bed, and all through the dry season the water trickles 
 into them from both banks and all along their courses. 
 
 " June 2Uh. — Reached the head of the Kwando, which 
 rises very quietly out of a pool about 15 ft. in diameter. Our 
 camp being soon crowded with people, of whom there are many 
 here, I told one of the fathers of the tribe something of my 
 mission, and of the God whom I served. The old man ran off 
 excitedly to bring some other old men, who greeted me with 
 clapping of hands, and to them he retailed with great energy 
 what I had said to him. I told them I was only journeying to 
 get cloth wherewith to buy food, and would return soon. But 
 my old friend wanted to know exactly when I would come back. 
 Would I return when the corn was so high, or so high, or so 
 high ? — lifting the hand a foot or so each time. 
 
 " June 25th. — Crossed the Kutau and Biseque ; camped 
 at Kambuti, at the head of the latter river. The Biseque joins 
 the Kutau, which falls into the Lungebungo, a tributary of the 
 Zambesi. For some time back I have been travelling almost
 
 112 FROM THE ZAMSESl TO BENGUELLA 
 
 entirely on foot, as my riding ox is quite done up for want of 
 grass, which the frost by night and the sun by day have withered 
 to tinder. Walking 15 miles a day through deep sand and 
 under a hot sun is not easy work, and on hearing of it Senhor 
 Porto was quite angry, saying that I should surely be ill after 
 it ; so between us we tigged up a hammock, and he has given 
 me four of his own men to carry it. To-day I enjoyed my 
 hammock ride amazingly. 
 
 " June 26th. — ^At Kambuti. This is the first place where 
 I have seen the domestic pig in native territory. 
 
 " June 27th. — Reached the Kansambe River, and camped 
 at Brut we. The Kansambe is a small river running east, not 
 west, as Serpa Pinto has it in his map ; it joins the Kuango 
 on its western side, which runs parallel with the Kutau into the 
 Lungebungo. Crossed a liigh range of hills, and camped by 
 the Kambimbia, flowing west ; its waters go by the Nyonga and 
 Kuito to the Okovangu River, which flows into Lake Ngami. 
 
 " June 29th. — Crossed the Kuito River. The Baluchaze 
 are not found further west ; they belong to the Ambuella race, 
 which is the same as the Baluchaze, their language being merely 
 a different dialect. Like all hill men, they are wild and trouble- 
 some, continually roving about. Among themselves, however, 
 these natives are very plaj^ul and childlike, and seem very 
 fond of one another. Many of the Bachokwe live amongst 
 them, but do not wander much from home like the hill people. 
 Some who had been a short distance away, and travelled in 
 our company, seemed to be quite overcome with joy at getting 
 home again. Their friends were not satisfied with merely 
 embracing them, but caressed them in the most affectionate 
 manner. It reminded me of the conduct of a poor Masaroa 
 woman, who with her husband and baby had been captured 
 by a company of raiding Matabele. Her little boy of ten had 
 escaped in the fray, and remained behind ; but on the way her 
 husband was killed, and the woman, watching her opportunity, 
 ran away from her captors. After a wearisome journey of 
 over 70 miles through a most dreary and desolate country, 
 with her little babe on her back, she returned to the place where 
 her boy was. Taking him in her arms, with all the warmth of 
 a true mother, she burst into tears, saying, ' Ah, my boy, you 
 have lost your father, and you do not know how near you were 
 to losing me ! '
 
 Z p 
 
 3 2 
 
 ^ I 
 
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 f-4 M
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 118 
 
 " Their attachment to one another, although a beautiful 
 feature in their character, is embarrassing at times to strangers, 
 for, on seeking to strike a bargain with one of them, you 
 find you have a dozen to deal with. The same thing happens 
 when one thinks he is injured, be he young or old. A cry is 
 raised, and all come to the rescue. In this way I have seen the 
 most serious disturbances arise out of the merest trifle. 
 
 " July 2nd. — Following the course of the Onda River, we 
 passed through a fine open country, crossing a running stream 
 of water every half-hour, some large, some small, but all 
 running rapidly. During the dry season the whole country 
 could be put under water by irrigation. Why it should be 
 almost entirely deserted by the Kimbanda I cannot say. We 
 reached the town of ICabango, who had recently died ; the 
 Kjmbanda were very civil, and careful not to give offence. 
 
 " July 3rd. — Camped by the Letot River. Here a trouble 
 that had been brewing for a long time amongst the men, broke 
 out. We were now getting near to Bihe, and one of the men 
 insisted that another who owed him something should pay his 
 dc?bt before they entered their own country. The other refused 
 to acknowledge his indebtedness, and hot words led to blows. 
 Seizing his gun, already loaded, the debtor pulled the trigger 
 twice while aiming at the other's breast, but being only a 
 flint lock it missed fire on both occasions. The creditor in self- 
 defence rushed on liis assailant with a club, and compelled him 
 to drop his gun by breaking two of his fingers. The injured 
 man then seized his knife from his belt, rushed at the man 
 he had failed to shoot, and stabbed him, the knife entering 
 rather deeply into the abdomen. By this time the men in camp 
 had come to the rescue, and prevented further mischief by 
 separating the antagonists. 
 
 " July Uh. — Spent four hours in crossing the Quanza River ; 
 such confusion I never saw, everyone rushing into the water 
 to get his own load into the boats. I stood up to the waist in 
 water, with a big stick, to prevent the men from overloading 
 the long canoes. Ultimately all got over safely, and camped 
 at Yapepa, close by the Kukema River, 
 
 " July 5th. — Crossed in boats, and after a long day's journey 
 lodged at Chikoma's town, the same who found Cameron far 
 in the interior in very destitute circumstances, and brought him 
 out to Bihe, whence he reached Benguella.
 
 114 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 " I am now in Bihe territory, and mark a decided change 
 for tiie better in the outward appearance of everything. Every- 
 one is well dressed ; the men wear hats and coats and a rather 
 long cloth kilt ; the women wrap themselves in cotton cloth 
 from the armpits downwards ; bright, grotesque patterns 
 being the rage amongst them. Their houses are square and 
 well built, with hinged doors and native-made iron locks ; 
 all, of course, in imitation of the Portuguese. Their gardens 
 are large, well tilled, and neatly furrowed, quite like our fields 
 at home. But they are sadly given to drink and immorality, 
 it being an undeniable fact that those tribes which live near 
 Europeans, and imitate them, are more depraved in their 
 manners than the tribes of the interior. 
 
 " July 14th. — We safely reached Belmonte, Senhor Porto's 
 residence in Bihe, and he kindly entertained me. Bihe is the 
 name of a district, which is thickly peopled. To-day we went 
 to see the king of these parts, a man about 60 years of age, 
 who looks all fat and g6od humour ; he is lodged in the centre 
 of a large town, quite a city. Senhor Porto said that we were 
 fortunate in finding him sober, as his normal condition is much 
 the reverse. 
 
 " July I6th. — Bad news has come from Bailundu to the 
 effect that the American missionaries have been robbed and 
 turned out of house and home. 
 
 " July 19th. — Men who were sent to Bailundu informed us, 
 on their return, that they found the missionaries' houses in the 
 hands of the natives, but where the missionaries had gone, or 
 what had become of them, they could not learn. I cannot 
 think of sitting here when my brethren are thus in trouble, 
 so start to-morrow to see and hear for myself. 
 
 " July 22nd. — Crossed the Kutato River, and reached the 
 town of Dungenugo, the son of the reigning king of Bailundu, 
 who said that it was entirely owing to the conduct of a European 
 trader that the missionaries had left the country. 
 
 " July 2Uh. — Passed many towns, the people of which 
 brouglit out dishes of maize beer for me and my men to drink. 
 Two men met me at some distance from Atinda to run my 
 hammock into the town ; they ran so fast that they broke the 
 hammock pole, and instead of ha^ang a grand entrance into 
 the town, I was landed rolling in the dust just before the gate. 
 
 " July 25th. — Reached the town of Chikulu, the chief man
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 115 
 
 in the country at present, and had a long palaver with him and 
 a few of the headmen, through my interpreter Jumbo. They 
 had been persuaded by an evil disposed trader and rum dis- 
 tiller that the little tins containing meat, etc., were full of 
 fetish enchantments, intended by the missionaries for the 
 destruction of the Bailundu kingdom. The missionaries had 
 to flee, seemingly taking nothing but their wives and little 
 children. It was distressing to see all round the destruction 
 of valuable property. Books of all kinds, photographs, letters, 
 clothing, tins of sugar, tea, etc., were in every native's hands. 
 With all my energy I spoke out to these Bailundu people as to 
 the way in which they had permitted men to be turned out 
 of house and home who had come to them with a message of 
 peace from the true God ; they had treated them as they 
 would not treat their dogs. 
 
 " Chikulu sent for the trader, who tried at once to make 
 friends with me, but being in no gentle mood I brought him to 
 the point, and asked what charge he had against the Americans. 
 ' Oh,' said he, ' I thought they were Jews, and not Christian 
 missionaries I ' He was compelled to explain matters to the 
 natives, and I asked Chikulu if he was satisfied ; to which 
 he replied, ' Perfectly,' adding that as the trader had only been 
 telling lies, he himself was willing, if I would only say the 
 word to lay hands on him then and there. I said I had come, 
 not with any authority or intention to punish him, but to see 
 justice done to my friends, and that Chikulu must gather the 
 mis.sionaries' goods together and keep them in safety until their 
 return. My visit, I am thankful to say, ended in his sending 
 one of his headmen and 50 carriers to bring back the mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 " The despotic power of the chiefs makes all mission work 
 very uncertain in Africa at present, except where law and 
 order are established and upheld, and therefore prayer for 
 those ' in authority ' in Africa is especially needed. Any whim 
 or sudden enmity of the chief, and fetish divination, or, as in 
 this case, the e\'il counsel of an interested trader, may lead to 
 the overthrow of years of work, and it may take a long time 
 before it can be resumed. On this occasion it was my most 
 unexpected arrival from the interior that led to an unusually 
 speedy turn of the tide in favour of the missionaries. Though 
 Bailundu and Bihe are within the province of Benguella,
 
 116 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 Portuguese authority has not yet very much influence there. 
 In the far interior the perils of missionaries are of course 
 greater, but in the Western half of Africa things are in this 
 respect much better than in the Eastern half. 
 
 " Senhor Porto has been very kind to me. He is quite a 
 gentleman. He has been trading in the interior for over 40 
 years. He is now close on 70 years old, but hale and strong, 
 and is ever planning long trading journeys for the future. So 
 you see Africa is not such a deadly country after all to the 
 Europeans. 
 
 " August I6tk, 1884. — Here at Bihe we have a civil war on 
 foot just now. The greater part of the nation is with the king 
 to put down the young claimant to the throne. However, 
 everyone is in camp. Even Senhor Porto was called out, but 
 made the excuse that he was too old. I was at Bailundu at 
 the time, else I might have been forced to join the camp. I 
 had left my gun at Bihe. This they took, so if I am not fighting, 
 at least my artillery is at work. The Bailundu are also by this 
 time all on the war-path, so I will have to remain here until 
 the fighting is over ere I can get carriers. 
 
 " The work in which I have been most blessed, and which 
 has been most joyous to me, and for which I seem to have most 
 aptitude, is pioneer and out of the way work. As a teacher of 
 children I want aptness, and am about as uneasy on the 
 teacher's chair as on the scholar's bench at home. Tins, how- 
 ever, is not excusable and ought to be overcome. Again, with 
 the raw savage negro I get on, I think, very well. I have any 
 amount of patience, and though they fall out with me a dozen 
 times in the day I never fall out with them, so there is no 
 quarrelling. Because of this they call me many curious names, 
 and say, ' Monare ! he wouldn't injure his greatest enemy.' As 
 the result of this policy I had the unspeakable satisfaction of 
 seeing the whole town turned out to flog a young man by 
 making him run the gauntlet between two long rows of slim 
 fellows armed with stripes of hippo hide. It was on my behalf, 
 but not at my suggestion. He charged me with committing 
 a shameful crime, which I know in my heart of hearts cannot 
 be brought against me by anyone, and wanted me to pay so 
 much cloth to shut his mouth. I was indignant beyond all 
 expression, and drove him out of my yard. He brought the 
 matter up before the headmen who soon found out that he was
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 117 
 
 lying, and that he was a rogue and a thief. His skin soon 
 healed after the flogging, and he had the good sense to come 
 and beg my pardon. I never saw the young men of the town 
 go about the matter so heartily as the flogging of that young 
 man. All day long they danced about with their strips of 
 hide showing how nicely they gave him a cut over the back 
 or just across the fleshy part, and boasting of the great 
 things they would do to the next man who would dare to 
 injure Monare. 
 
 " Oct. 16th, 1884. — I do not think there is anything so 
 essential to real service for God in a wholly heathen country 
 as an entire separation and devotion to the work, so that even 
 isolation often has its advantages. I have found that one's 
 time cannot be divided and laid out beforehand as at home. 
 Amongst the Barotse I have risen to, say, a day of writing, but 
 it turned out to be an all-day meeting. At festival seasons at 
 Lealui crowds of people used to come in from all the country 
 round ; at such times it was, from morning light until mid- 
 night, one constant stream of people passing through my 
 house, all curious to see, some to hear, and some wanting to 
 speak of what had been said on a former visit. Again, on 
 making short trips amongst the villages I found the press of 
 work almost unbearable at times, from pure lack of strength. 
 The work is trying, but all engrossing, and it needs one to be 
 wholly free from all temporal things. At home the earnest 
 street preacher may gather a few little children around him 
 after much noise and singing ; but in heathen Africa one is 
 sometimes glad, in coming up to a village, to hide oneself. 
 Everything is laid aside ; the child toddles out to the field to 
 call its mother ; the hunters return and call in their dogs ; 
 and the cattle are driven to their enclosures, that the herdsmen 
 may come and listen to the white man's words. The more 
 isolated and ignorant the people the more eager they are. 
 Wherever I was able to make the character of my errand 
 known, their willingness, their intelligent enquiry, their excite- 
 ment even, quite wore me out. 
 
 " I expected to have been back to such precious work by 
 this time, but the Good Shepherd knows what is best for His 
 sheep. Meanwhile I have been getting rid of some of my 
 fever legacies. Ague now seems to be a thing of the past. 
 My spleen, which was so much swollen that I could not lie
 
 118 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 with comfort in any position, is now almost reduced to its 
 proper condition. My body has in every way picked up in 
 this fine healthy country. 
 
 " The languages, though of course perplexing to a stranger, 
 are undoubtedly easy, both in construction and pronunciation. 
 Speaking as they do in fidelity to the natural law of euphony, 
 they are wonderfully accurate. When reducing the languages 
 to a written form, missionaries find that if they can but dis- 
 cover any grammatical rule it has almost no exceptions. 
 African languages are not to be learned at all correctly by 
 direct conversation with the natives. They are more accu- 
 rately acquired by constantly listening to their conversation 
 one with another. Their manner of conversing with a European 
 is absurd and very misleading. Not only do they distort their 
 own language greatly, but they are constantly using outlandish 
 sounds, which they think belong to the white man's tongue, 
 and which thej^ in their smartness have picked up. 
 
 " Again, if a European wishes to be intelligible to the raw 
 native wlio has not been tutored to understand the sounds of 
 strange longues, he must remember that African languages are 
 composed not only of sounds, but of accentuated sounds. If 
 he does not pay the closest attention to this, though he may 
 be able to speak fluently to the natives in a white man's store 
 or town, he will require a person to interpret his words to a 
 company of raw \illagcrs. The Bushman's language goes to 
 an extreme in this respect ; certain sounds and clicks accented 
 differently, pitched in a higher or lower key, shrill or deep- 
 sounding, have all their different meanings ; their language 
 is consequently very musical. To hear the little children 
 speaking and laughing in their play is often like listening to 
 the tinkling of a musical box. 
 
 " Oct. 23rd, 1884.— Met Mr. and Mrs. Sanders, the American 
 missionaries, to-day at Bailundu, and had a happy time with 
 them. Their hearts are indeed in the work here, and they 
 mean to go on in the name of the Lord. It was soul-stirring 
 to see them, and their little caravan, wending their way across 
 the wooded hill to their old home at Bailundu, having been 
 robbed, plundered, forced to fly almost for life, but coming 
 back again undaunted. 
 
 " The arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Sanders brought my study 
 of Ovimbundu superstitions to a close. I was so glad to see
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 119 
 
 them that it did not dawn upon me for some time that my 
 clothes were hardly respectable. An old coat of Senhor Porto's 
 buttoned up to my neck betrayed the fact that I had not a 
 shirt to my back. Just then a young native came bouncing 
 along with a flowing white shirt on his back that Mrs. Sanders 
 recognised as part of their stolen belongings, and it was a clear 
 case of ' stand and deliver.' The shirt came over his head and 
 through a bath of soap suds, and on to my back, ere the sun 
 set that day. 
 
 " I thought of waiting at Bailundu until Senhor Porto 
 came along, but learning that he would be delayed for some 
 days in building a bridge, I went on. On the way I met a 
 company from the far interior. They were not different from 
 the rest of the people, but in my present state of mind they were 
 naturally of great interest to me. They were from the chief 
 Msidi, of Garenganze, and had been sent with a letter to the 
 king's brother-in-law, Coimbra, a half-caste, who- read to me 
 the letter just received from Msidi. It was dated this year, 
 was written in a wretched sort of Portuguese, possibly by some 
 half -taught black, and contained an earnest appeal that white 
 men might come to Garenganze. I looked with amazement 
 on the piece of rude, well-travelled paper. Of course it was 
 as traders that he wanted white men, but I felt I had something 
 even better than good trade, which, if Msidi could only com- 
 prehend, he would gladly receive. The brother-in-law was 
 delighted to hear of my proposal to go thither, and sent for 
 a black, lanky slave from that part ; he knew exactly the place 
 where Livingstone died, at Ilala, by Lake Bangweolo. I may 
 yet get this man to go with me, but the guide I have already 
 employed knows all the country. 
 
 " Let us look up and take courage ; the Lord reigneth. 
 Surely he has taken many ways to show me from the first His 
 desire to guide me ; He comes down to our weak faith, as He 
 did in Gideon's case, and repeats the signs until we are filled 
 with shame at our blindness and tardiness. I think it is now 
 clear that I mvist seek another way to the Batoka, Liwanika's 
 Barotse ' dogs ' ; in this case the Lord may feed the ' dogs ' 
 before the ' children.' I shall be at liberty, so far as I can 
 learn, to come as near to the Barotse as possible, and yet 
 remain outside their sway ; and were I to go down among 
 them at any time, I should, humanly speaking, suffer no harm,
 
 120 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 
 
 having so many friends amongst them. I might be able, by 
 going between both, to unite these two great countries, and 
 secure a way for others, through the Barotse, to the north, 
 which at present, through jealousy, is shut. 
 
 " I am told that Garenganze is as healthy as Bailundu ; if 
 so, there is no fever there ; one might hope to live, and not 
 merely exist. I shall make a particular request to each chief 
 by the way to have a young man ready to run with my letters 
 as they come from the interior or the coast, and think this plan 
 would work in time of peace. Native news in this way flies like 
 the wind, and why not my letters ? The only question would 
 be the amount of pay. 
 
 " The Governor of Benguella took the trouble to write to 
 Senhor Porto to take care of me, and bring me safely to the 
 coast. Perhaps because of the trouble the Americans had at 
 Bailundu, the Governor feared that I, being English, might 
 suffer from the Bailundu, and bring down an English inquisition 
 upon him. Senhor Porto is my guardian in the meantime, 
 and although I have been running about to my heart's content, 
 I fear he would consider me ungrateful were I to go to Ben- 
 guella before him, so I must wait here for a couple of days, as 
 he has been detained on the road. Strange that patience 
 towards the end of a journey is far harder than patience at the 
 beginning. Staying a whole week here, within three days or 
 so of the coast, seems intolerable. 
 
 " A Portuguese called to-day, and after talking for some 
 time he remarked that at Benguella they were expecting one 
 * Padre Arnot ' from the East Coast. He knew that I had 
 come from the East, but could not recognise the Padre. I 
 heard him laughing when I told him that I was the Padre. 
 
 " True and faithful service is not thrown away as the follow- 
 ing shows : Mr. W. W. Bagster, now gone home, gave three 
 years ago a Testament to Coimbra, with whom I am staying, 
 the reading of which touched him, and Mr. Sanders has since 
 had long talks with him. Coimbra is anxious about his soul. 
 Although I had not been speaking to him in a personal way, 
 he took down his Testament this morning and turned to 
 Mark x. 29, saying to me, ' This is my trouble.' He could not 
 leave wives, children, houses, and all. I told him that the 
 Lord did not ask him to leave anything, but to receive, and that 
 when God's love filled his heart he would know by the power
 
 FROM THE ZAMBESI TO BENGUELLA 121 
 
 of love how to serve Him. He said that he was greatly relieved, 
 and that his way seemed more clear ; he did not desire any 
 longer to live with more than one wife, but he could not turn 
 into the fields those who were the mothers of his children, nor 
 put away his children. The good Lord will not quench the 
 smoking flax. 
 
 " Nov. 9ih, 1884.— At Catumbella at last. Waiting for 
 Senhor Porto ; a sharp attack of dysentery deatined me. I 
 ate too freely of bananas. Fortunately Senhor Porto came 
 along just then. He engaged 20 hammock carriers and packed 
 me off to Benguella. My men carried me all that night down 
 through a series of steep passes strewn with boulders. Leopards 
 kept up a constant barking roar. When morning broke we 
 reached a river into which I was glad to roll myself, and with 
 the cold water flowing over my fevered body I went off into 
 a sound sleep for several hours. On resuming the journey 
 again I knew I was better, and as the sun grew round and red 
 we came in sight of the sea."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOME NATIVE BELIEFS 
 
 THE following extracts are from letters A\Titten towards the 
 end of 1884 concerning the beliefs of the various tribes 
 through whom Arnot had passed up till then. 
 " ' Nambi,' the one great spirit who made all and rules over 
 all, the Barotse believe in, but they look upon him as an austere 
 person, who only heaps sorrow, death, and punishment upon 
 them. All good that comes to them they trace to the power 
 and intercession of the spirit of some departed chief or fore- 
 father. The idea they seem to have is that those departed 
 spirits, whom they worship, have a sympathy which ' Nambi ' 
 has not, a sympathy with them in all the joys and sorrows 
 connected with their journey ings, crops, hunts, cattle, wives, 
 etc., because they, while in the body, experience the same. 
 Alas I they little know at what a cost our God has provided 
 for us, and for them too, a Saviour and High Priest, who feels 
 for us as no man can feel, who suffered and sorrowed as no man 
 ever did, and who yet has verily a fellow-feeling with us. The 
 religion of these Upper-River people is widely different from 
 that of the other tribes. It has been known to some that they 
 believed in one supreme God, but no more was known about 
 them. There are many other interesting ceremonies of theirs 
 connected with the offering of oxen, corn, beads, and cloth, 
 concerning which I hojje to get more information. They have 
 their diviners, seers, magicians, and doctors, who work with 
 a mass of beads, human bones, speaking horns, claws of wild 
 animals, and a whole host of things, all of which together they 
 call ' Lequalo,' and to read them, so as to prophesy about them, 
 is ' Noqualo.' They give this name to the Word of God and all 
 other books of the white man. The only difference they think, 
 between our ' Lequalo ' and theirs is that ours is a confused 
 mass of little black marks on paper, and theirs is surely much 
 more sensible, as it consists of substantial things. 
 
 122
 
 SOME NATIVE BELIEFS 123 
 
 " When going to pray the Barotsc make offerings to the 
 spirits of their forefathers under a tree, bush, or grove, planted 
 for the purpose, and they take a larger or smaller offering, 
 according to the measure of their request. If the offering be 
 beer, they pour it upon the ground ; if cloth, it is tied to a horn 
 stuck in the ground ; if an ox be slaughtered, the blood is poured 
 over this horn, which is, in fact, their altar. 
 
 " The tribes we have passed through (from the Zambesi to 
 the Kuito) seem to have one common religion, if it can be called 
 by that name. They say there is one Great Spirit who rules 
 over all the other spirits ; but so far as I can learn, they worship 
 and sacrifice to the spirits of ancestors, and have a mass of 
 fetish medicines and enchantments. The hunter takes one 
 kind of charm Math him, and the warrior another. For divining 
 they have a basket filled with bones, teeth, finger nails, claws, 
 seeds, stones and such like articles which are rattled by the 
 diviner till the spirit comes and speaks to him by the movement 
 of these things. When the spirit is reluctant to be brought up 
 a solemn dirge is chanted by the people. All is attention while 
 the diviner utters a string of short sentences in different tones, 
 which are repeated after him by the audience. 
 
 " These professional diviners are no doubt smart fellows, 
 arch rogues though they be. The secret of their art lies in con- 
 stant repetition of every possibility in connection with the dis- 
 aster they are called upon to explain, until they finally hit upon 
 that which is in the minds of their clients. As the people sit 
 around and repeat the words of the diviner it is easy for him to 
 detect in their tone of voice, or to read in their faces, the sus- 
 pected source of the calamity. A man whom I knew had a 
 favourite dog which was attacked one night by a leopard, but 
 succeeded in escaping with one of its eyes torn out. To ascer- 
 tain the reason of this calamity the owner sent across the Valley 
 to call one of these diviners. When the man arrived he was told 
 that a disaster had befallen my acquaintance, and was asked to 
 find out by divination what it was. Beginning in the morning, 
 he enquired respecting the man's family, without mentioning 
 their names. All the members of the family and their connec- 
 tions, male and female, young and old, at home or absent, were 
 carefully gone over. Not getting any clue, he left the relatives, 
 and came to the oxen, questioning the spirits concerning them ; 
 but still receiving no reply through the fragments, which he
 
 124 SOME NATIVE BELIEFS 
 
 continually shook in his basket, he next enquired about the 
 goats. This was not satisfactory, and at last he thought of the 
 dog. In the faces and tone of voice of his audience it was not 
 difficult to discern that he had hit the mark, and after hours of 
 dreary waiting his oracular utterance, obtained, of course, from 
 the bones and claws, that something had befallen the dog, 
 seemed to come as a relief. He now asked if the dog was dead ; 
 then if it was stolen ; then if it was wounded ! Slyly reading 
 the response in their countenances, he said, ' Yes, it is wounded.' 
 Follo■\^^ng up the trail he touched upon all possibilities that 
 occurred to him, his audience mechanically repeating his ques- 
 tions, till at last he demanded of the spirit, ' Was it a leopard ? ' 
 All the company roused up as they echoed, ' Was it a leopard ? ' 
 while they cast a knowing look of satisfaction at one another. 
 ' Yes ! ' the diviner replied, ' it v/as a leopard.' Then all present 
 shouted, ' It was a leopard.' But that was not enough. The 
 cause of the disaster had to be traced still further back. What 
 demon so possessed this particular leopard that it should attack 
 the dog of this wealthy man ? So other questions had to be 
 asked, and the same process was continued. At last, towards 
 evening, the di\'iner arrived at the same conclusion that the 
 owner of the dog had come to early that morning on hearing 
 of the accident to his dog, namely, that the spirit of the father 
 of one of his wives had been grieved at the man's long absence 
 from his town and family, and employed the leopard to tear 
 the dog's eye as a gentle reminder that it was time he should 
 be going back to his own village. 
 
 " I have detailed the foregoing incident at some length to 
 give some idea of the measure of religious enlightenm.ent that 
 these poor people have. Yet among all those tribes there is an 
 open door for a messenger of the Gospel. Every time I have 
 been able to gain their ear, unhindered by any quarrel, they 
 have showTi much interest and delight, and have acknowledged 
 that they are living in darkness, and in ignorance of the great 
 Spirit who rules over all. 
 
 " In Chikulu's yard (Chikulu is the chief of the Bailundu) 
 there is a small, roughly cut image, which, I believe, represents 
 the spirit of a forefather of his. One day a man and woman came 
 in and rushed up to this image, dancing, howling, and foaming 
 at the mouth, apparently mad. A group gathered round and 
 and declared that the spirit of Chikulu's forefather had taken
 
 SOME NATIVE BELIEFS 125 
 
 possession of this man and woman, and was about to speak 
 through them. At last the ' demon ' began to grunt and groan 
 out to poor Chikulu, who was doAvn on his knees, that he must 
 hold a hunt, the proceeds of which were to be given to the 
 people of his town ; must kill an ox, provide so many large 
 pots of beer, and proclaim a grand feast and dance. Further- 
 more all this was to be done quickly. The poor old man 
 was thoroughly taken in, and in two days' time the hunt was 
 organised. 
 
 " Thus I find, as amongst the Barotse, that divining and 
 prophesying, with other religious and superstitious means are 
 resorted to, in order to secure private ends, and to offer sacrifice 
 to the one common god, the belly. The more I see of them, the 
 more I am persuaded that they have no other god, and this I 
 tell them continually. 
 
 " At another time a man came to Senhor Porto's to buy an ox. 
 He said that some time ago he had killed a relation by witch- 
 craft to possess himself of some of his riches, and that now he 
 must sacrifice an ox to the dead man's spirit, which was 
 troubling him. This killing by witchcraft is a thing most 
 sincerely believed in ; and on hearing this man's cold blooded 
 confession of what was at least the intent of his heart, it made 
 me understand why the Barotse put such demons into the fire. 
 
 " Among the Ovimbundu, old and renowned witches are 
 thro^vn into some river, though almost every man will confess 
 that he practises witchcraft to avenge himself of wrong done, 
 and to punish his enemies. One common process is to boil 
 together certain fruits and roots, with which the ■wizard daubs 
 his body, in order to enlist the aid of the demons, and the decoc- 
 tion is then throwai in the direction of the victim, or laid in his 
 path, that he may be brought under the bewitching spell. 
 
 " These West Africans have not that attachment to other 
 members of their own tribe which is seen among the Zulu, 
 the Bechuana, and even the Zambesi tribes, where each man 
 is his neighbour's brother. Here they live to bite and devour 
 one another. The most trival mistake or breach of etiquette 
 is a crime, and has to be paid for dearly. A man who acci- 
 dentally knocked over a small pot of fat was fined thirty shil- 
 lings' worth of beeswax. A stranger passing through the 
 country is hable to be entrapped into paying heavy fines. If 
 a slave steals, say a few ears of corn out of a garden, he is
 
 126 SOME NATIVE BELIEFS 
 
 seized, and if not redeemed by his master's paying a large com- 
 pensation, he is at once sold. 
 
 " Death is surrounded by many strange and absurb super- 
 stitions. It is considered essential that a man should die in 
 his own country, if not in his own town. On the way to Bail- 
 undu, shortly after leaving Bihe territory, I met some men 
 running at great speed, carrying a sick man tied to a pole, in 
 order that he might die in his o\yn country. I tried to stop 
 them, but they were running as fast as their burden would 
 allow them down a steep rocky hill. By the sick man's con- 
 vulsive movements I could see that he was in great pain, 
 perhaps in his death throes, hence the great haste. If a Bailundu 
 dies in Bihe, the Bihe people have to pay the Bailundu heavily 
 for the shameful conduct of the Bihe demons in killing a 
 stranger, and vice versa. 
 
 " When a man dies at home his body is placed on a rude 
 table, and his friends meet for days around the corpse, drinking, 
 eating, shouting, and singing, until the body begins actually to 
 fall to pieces. Then the body is tied in a faggot of poles and 
 carried on men's shoulders up and down some open space, 
 followed by doctors and drummers. The doctors demand of 
 the dead man the cause of his death, whether by poison or 
 witchcraft, and if by the latter, who was the witch ? Most 
 of the deaths I have known of in negro-land were from pulmon- 
 ary diseases, but all were set dovm. to \dtchcraft. The jerking 
 of the bier to and fro, causing the men bearing it to stumble 
 hither and thither, is taken as the dead man's answer ; thus, 
 as in the case of spirit rapping at home, the reply is spelled 
 out. The result of this enquiry is implicitly believed in, and, 
 if the case demands it, the witch is drowned. There might be 
 some reason for their superstition if the dead body were laid 
 upon the ground and allowed to jerk itself ; but to put the 
 corpse on the shoulders of six drunken men, and to say that 
 the jerking and stumbling are caused by the inanimate body 
 is so thoroughly ridiculous that one cannot imagine how it 
 ever entered the minds of men to judge and condemn their 
 fellow creatures by such a process as this. Compared with it 
 the Barotse boiling water ordeal is reasonable. ^'*} 
 
 " After all these knotty points are settled the poor man^gets 
 a decent burial, but chiefs and great men do not get to rest 
 so soon. Their bodies have been kept above ground two years
 
 SOME NATIVE BELIEFS 127 
 
 after death. When a chief dies they at first say that he is sick 
 or asleep, and all the business of the state is conducted by a 
 man who sits in a hut beside the dead body. 
 
 " The people have a great fear of death, which they do not 
 seem to look upon as a certainty, and as the natural end of life. 
 At least to say so in conversation gives offence. They would 
 fain believe that death is a mishap, an evil brought about by 
 fetish agencies ; but for which, man would be immortal. Conse- 
 quently, all their so-called rehgious observances and charms are 
 meant to counteract the influence of these evil fetishes by other 
 fetishes. Before starting on a journey a man will spend always 
 a fortnight in preparing charms to overcome evils by the way, 
 and to enable him to destroy his enemies. If he be a trader, he 
 desires to find favour in the eyes of chiefs, and a hberal price 
 for his goods. As there is no Umit to a man's fears, supersti- 
 tions, avarice, or hatred of his enemies, so there is no limit to 
 the number of his charms ; and at the end of his journey he finds 
 himself loaded with such things, sown into belts and hung in 
 little horns around his neck. 
 
 " As to the articles used in the composition of charms, I 
 may say that everything under the sun is used. I have been 
 told here that they can turn the hills into water with some of 
 them, can make an ox impervious to bullet or spear, can create 
 a living lion out of the skin of a dead one, and can bring death 
 or sickness upon anyone. 
 
 " Many half-castes and Portuguese believe strongly in the 
 charms of the Ovimbundu tribes; but on questioning them 
 closely as to certain of the mysterious things alleged to be done, 
 I always find that the thing has happened in the night time, 
 and that the fetish doctors will not cast their charms or work 
 miracles at any other times. How close the connection between 
 spiritual and literal darkness. 
 
 " In conversation with the people of Bihe about the one true 
 God I find that they profess to believe in His existence, and 
 say that there is and must be a great Spirit over and above all, 
 whom they call Suku, but that they do not know him. They 
 do not appear in any way to connect Suku with the things which 
 are daily occurring around them. I cannot even say that they 
 truly believe him to be a universal God, for they always speak 
 of the white man as being under a separate set of gods and 
 spirits from themselves.
 
 128 SOME NATIVE BELIEFS 
 
 " Judging according to human judgment, I should say that 
 the missionary of the Gospel would find the ground here very 
 hard indeed. Besides the mass of superstition, which surpasses 
 anything I ever heard of in Africa, there have been for nearly 
 two centuries many evil and brutalising influences working 
 upon the people, and few humanising ones. During all this 
 time rum and the slave trade have had full scope. For the 
 greater part of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there 
 were many Roman Catholic missionaries at work all along the 
 West Coast, and for some little way into the interior ; but the 
 only remaining trace of them or tlieir work are a few Christian 
 ' relics ' added to the heap of native charms, and here and there 
 a wooden cross standing at the head of some pagan's grave, 
 sharing the ground with fantastic heathen images and symbols. 
 Many thoughts come into one's mind on looking upon such a 
 scene of confusion. Only the one confident assurance that there 
 is a God who liveth could strengthen the heart of any servant 
 of the Lord coming to this part."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 BENGUELLA, Nov. lli/i.— Arrived here early tliis 
 morning in the company of Senhor Porto. Nothing 
 could have been more hearty than the reception I 
 received from Mr. and Mrs. Walter, of the American Board of 
 Missions, and nothing more delightful to me than meeting 
 with these earnest Christian friends after my long exile. 
 
 " Nov. 12th. — Called on the Governor of Benguella. He was 
 very pleasant, inquiring about Africa Central, and has promised 
 me letters to Bihe and Bailundu, guaranteeing my protection. 
 This he did because of the cool way I was robbed by the Bihe 
 chief. 
 
 " Nov. 15th. — Sent off to Bailundu for fifty carriers to be here 
 on or about the 10th of January. Mr. Walter has asked me to 
 return inland as soon as possible so as to give the missionaries 
 at Bailundu as much help as I can before I start for the interior. 
 
 " Nov. 16th. — Had a meeting on the American barque Horace 
 Scow this forenoon. About eighteen present in all. It was a 
 great privilege to have the opportunity of preaching Christ 
 once more in my own tongue. It was nearly too much for me. 
 I don't know — it seems strange to say it — but to me it seems one 
 of the hard things by going off to the dark, heathen parts of the 
 country, to give up the preaching of the Gospel in all its 
 fullness, as one can do to an intelligent audience. But that I 
 fear is one of the many fancied ' hard things ' that we are too 
 apt to fill our thoughts with, for surely it is a higher pri\alege 
 to be able to speak of Him in places where His name has never 
 been mentioned. 
 
 " Dec. 5th, 1884. — Welcome letters from home to-day. 
 German man-of-war came into the Bay with Prof. Nachtigall 
 on board. He called and asked many questions. Home friends 
 seem to be all in favour of the Garenganze project. This is 
 good. They are even reconciled to my going alone. 
 I 129
 
 130 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 " Dec. 9th. — Benguella is a very quiet, unbusiness-like place. 
 The Custom House duties are very heavy ; they average 25 
 per cent on everything, and this on the value of goods here, 
 not on invoice value, so that all goods imported are of necessity 
 expensive. I should say that the place is unhealthy ; the 
 Portuguese, at least, consider it so, as the most of their convicts 
 are sent here, and all government officials, while in office here, 
 are reckoned as serving double time. It is not so at Loanda. 
 
 " It seems as if the sea had throwTi up a sand dyke, forming 
 the present shore ; much of the country inside appears to be 
 at a level lower than the sea ; consequently it has no drainage. 
 Fortunately, little rain falls ; even now, though it is the rainy 
 season, green spots are only to be seen in a few hollows. The 
 heat is very great, but every afternoon a fresh breeze comes 
 off the sea, which makes the evenings pleasant. I am in the 
 best of health. 
 
 " May the Lord be pleased to look upon my work for His 
 name's sake, and may I be in His hands like soft clay, impress- 
 sionable. Surely the one thing needful for perfect service is 
 that we be susceptible to His sympathies and to the guidings 
 of His Spirit. God will not guide and lead us into His work 
 unless we first have hearts in sympathy with Him as to that 
 work. So let us hang and wait upon God, that we may go 
 forth as men ' driven of the Spirit.' 
 
 " I had now to consider seriously the advisability of return- 
 ing to the interior alone, in case of no one coming forward to 
 join me. On that subject I then wrote my impressions : I have 
 a growing conviction that some one or two are being prepared 
 for the work here, but any will not do ; excuse my saying so. 
 Africa is a very trying country in every sense of the word. It 
 is not always the bright, smart, active man who does for 
 Africa ; for such a man to find himself in the hands of some 
 miserable creatures, and actually made a plaything of by them, 
 would often be utterly unbearable. To find that when he is 
 planning to make a few days' quicker march, his men are 
 planning a few days' extra slow march ; to have to deal with 
 men who, directly they think they have become indispensable, 
 delight to exercise the most cruel tyranny ; to find oneself 
 surrounded by lip-friends only, whose hearts are like drawn 
 swords, as a general rule — these are discoveries so utterly 
 foreign to first impressions of the negro races that the hearts
 
 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 131 
 
 of many sink under them. The white man who comes to Africa 
 thinks, as a rule, that the negro looks up to him as an essentially 
 superior being ; but let him hear them discussing round their 
 camp fires, as I have often done when supposed by them to be 
 lying asleep, and he Avill think differently. Is there a race under 
 the sun which does not in its heart of hearts believe, ' We 
 are the people ' ? 
 
 " In thinking of journeying alone, friends at home interested 
 in this pioneer work will see that it is not an undue hastening 
 on my part. I must get my goods up to Bihe in time for a 
 final start this dry season, so as to reach and cross the Lovale 
 flats near the sources of the Zambesi, before they are flooded. 
 OtherA\ise the journey would be much more difficult. I shall, 
 God willing, first make for those high ranges of mountains 
 which are marked in some maps just above the Barotse country, 
 and shall engage carriers — some I have already partly engaged 
 — for Msidi's to^^^l, which is among the hills in the country 
 called, in the interior, Garenganze. From the first I was very 
 desirous of going at least in that direction, but was prevented, 
 no doubt for a wise purpose, from going beyond the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the Zambesi River, as the Barotse do not 
 want any ' good things ' to go to the tribes under their sway. 
 I have seen large companies of natives from that part, and have 
 many times conversed with them. From native sources in the 
 interior, I learn that the Garenganze is one of the most densely 
 populated districts of Central Africa. The people there are 
 famed for the abundance of their corn, rice, sugar-cane, etc., 
 and they work large copper mines, cleansing and smelting the 
 copper out of the ore in a very perfect way, of which I have 
 seen many samples. The question, whether I should merely 
 go on a visit to the chief asking his permission to return, or 
 whether I should go prepared to settle, should the way be open, 
 is one difficult to decide. If the simple invitation of the chief 
 of the country were the only thing desired, that might be 
 obtained by sending a messenger ; but nothing counts like a 
 personal \'isit. I therefore propose to go to the Garenganze, 
 hoping, with God's help, to get the permission, not only of the 
 chief and headmen, but also of the people, to remain among 
 them. It is more and more evident to me that much Christian 
 diplomacy is required for the estabhshment and carrying on 
 of African mission work. The people are not so many poor,
 
 132 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 intelligent monkeys ; and this I have learned, that, fond as 
 they are of presents, they are not to be bought by money. 
 It may, however, be different with those on the coast. 
 
 " Going merely as a visitor will not prevent my remaining 
 for one or two years. It requires all that time in Africa ere the 
 people will venture to say that they know you. If friends at 
 home could just get one glimpse of the burning need here, the 
 open sore, and the willingness withal to hear, they would sym- 
 pathise with me a little in my desire to remain as long as possible 
 and at all cost, providing at the same time all things honestly, 
 and receiving ' nothing from the Gentiles ' ; for the moment 
 one begins to do so, he is branded by his enemies as ' an eater- 
 up of the people.' The work of carrying the gospel to Africa's 
 millions is going on, for it is the Lord's work, and it will go on 
 in spite of any of us ; but time is passing, and I would say to 
 myself and to others, ' Let us in all our service be prompt. Let 
 us ever have our loins girt for the ready, speedy carrying out 
 of the will of our Lord.' 
 
 " Dec. 25th, Christmas. — (To his mother.) ' This day must 
 not pass without a letter to you. I know how happy you will 
 be with all your big boys at home, and all off to Aunty's in the 
 afternoon. I don't doubt but that you will be consoling your- 
 self by thinking, " Well ! Fred is a little nearer this Christmas 
 than last, and that he wll have the company of someone," 
 etc. But this is not so, mother of mine. I am, as far as com- 
 pany goes, as much alone this Christmas as I have been in the 
 last three spent in Africa. An English man-of-war, H.M.S. 
 Forward, came down from Loanda, wanted me and the Walters 
 to return with them to spend the "festive season " with the 
 Governor- General and the British Consul at Loanda, promising 
 at the same time to bring us back in a fortnight's time. The 
 officer-in-charge, Lieut. Furlonger, had heard of my journey 
 across (it seems to be a great feat in the eyes of these men), and 
 wanted to be " at my service," took me on board, said " here's 
 my carpenter, my sailmaker, blacksmith, etc., just say if you 
 want anything done ; could he make a tent for me, etc., etc. 
 Did I want ammunition ? Could give me some. Anything 
 from Loanda ? It's a British vessel, and we are quite at your 
 service." If I had thought he really meant what he said, I 
 would have politely asked him to turn that big gun upon that 
 Customs House, and then in a playful way clear off a few of
 
 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 138 
 
 the Portuguese vile institutions, Avhisky mills and millers (the 
 Custom dues are awful, 20 per cent, the lowest, on value of 
 common things such as potatoes, 40 per cent and 50 per cent on 
 ordinary things. The dues on cloth are more than the price at 
 home). Well ! I did not accept of his invitation to go to 
 Loanda. So here I am with Dick cooking up a bit of soup. I 
 have just been oiling a canvas coat to make it waterproof, and 
 writing " rush away " letters promiscuously. Not a single 
 Portuguese looks in here unless it be from across the street. I 
 hear the distant jingling of a kirk bell, the spasmodic bowlings 
 of some drunk, having his " merry Christmas " out ; the 
 children's voices are shriller ; the women passing up and down 
 speak in a more light and laughing way. These, and such 
 like tokens of " This is Christmas Day " reach my ears and 
 eyes, but nothing more. My heart is with the dear home 
 gathering. 
 
 " ' I am sure you will have many anxious thoughts as to my 
 future journey. This time I go with my eyes more open to all 
 that is before me. If there was anything of a boyish tone of 
 adventure — and constant exhilaration arising from hearing and 
 seeing many new and strange things — when I left Natal three 
 years ago, I must confess that has gone now, and there is 
 nothing new or novel to me in seeing on every hand constant 
 exhibitions of a depraved and superstitious humanity ; instead 
 of being exhilarating it is beyond all expression, depressing. 
 And yet I can say from the depth of my heart at no time have 
 I felt more enthusiastic about any journey than now. I am 
 sure you do acknowledge and thank the Lord ^vith me for the 
 truly gracious way in which He has been pleased to display 
 His good will towards me in this country. 
 
 " ' It is a long time since I thought of this country, and some- 
 times, even yet, I wonder if it is not a dream. Is the long, long 
 desire of heart accomplished ? I scarcety ever, as far back as 
 my memory takes me, opened a book, or watched a tradesman 
 at his work, \^dthout the thought ever being in my mind, " Will 
 this be of use for Africa ? I must remember that for Africa." 
 So that I find all those old things turning up continuously. 
 
 " ' True I am labouring under a disadvantage in being alone, 
 but it may be to the advantage of the work that I go forward 
 alone, and make proper search and arrangements for a station. 
 As Mr. G. says I would not have been altogether justified in
 
 134 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 starting out from home Avithout a companion, but since I lost 
 him I can only wait patiently on the Lord's time. 
 
 " ' I have an impression that it would be good for the work, 
 and for the success of the Gospel, in the heart of one of these 
 faraway African tribes, that such a one should be married to 
 a devoted Christian woman. I am persuaded more and more 
 that it requires gentlest things to overcome roughest things. 
 The African's mode of lining is purely and intensely pastoral, 
 the people are at the best scattered. They are shepherds 
 and cattle herds. They are hunters, and cultivators of the 
 ground. Markets or places of public meeting, unless it be a 
 king's court, are not native to them. They love to be 
 scattered up and down in clumps of little villages. Now 
 imagine one or two young men in the centre of, or close by, 
 one of these clumps of family villages, surrounded by native 
 family life in a way one would never dream of at home, the only 
 steady residents being a few old men, women and children, and 
 boys under ten. All the rest go and come ; they go off on a 
 hunt, a raid or a trading excursion. Now a single man remain- 
 ing behind, if he wants to behave himself discreetly, according 
 to native law, will keep rigidly within his own yard on such an 
 occasion, and only converse with the old men ; to do ought else 
 would be a breach of etiquette. When the husbands are at 
 home of course he can speak freely to all. If, on the contrary, 
 he were a married man, he, as well as his wife, would have 
 access at all times to every one. Because of this, with many 
 other things of a more serious nature, I have been persuaded 
 that it would be a mistake for another to come out single as I 
 am. Not that I can say I feel I have made a mistake in doing 
 so ; on the contrary, so long as I am engaged in the present 
 department of the work, that is prospecting, I could not be 
 better than the way I am. But I see clearly two sides or two 
 divisions in the work : first, the prospecting and travelling 
 part; secondly, the "doing of the work of the evangelist." 
 In the meantime I am bound to the first, and for some time at 
 least would have to remain in that capacity more or less, bring- 
 ing in supplies, and, as the Lord of the harvest sends forth 
 labourers, from time to time. For the second division I could 
 not think of any more fit than a married couple. The members 
 of this American Mission have, I understand, sent home word 
 to their Society, " not to send out any more missionaries un-
 
 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 135 
 
 married." An African can understand an unmarried man travel- 
 ling among them, but not living among them. It is in many 
 places against native law. Some of my enemies at the Barotse 
 (magicians and doctors) brought this up against me, and the 
 question was put to the king in open court, and had not the 
 king waived the law and decided in my favour, I could have 
 been legally driven out of the country. He, however, first of 
 all tried all he could to persuade me to marry among them, mth 
 offers of rich presents of land and cattle and slaves and a 
 princess. I thought then that I would have to lift my luggage 
 and go, but the matter was overruled in my favour.' 
 
 " Jan. \st, 1885. — The first day of the so-called New Year 
 receives notice generally and I suppose ought to be honoured 
 by at least a few lines in all well-conducted journals. The word 
 has passed men's mouths, ' The old year is dead ! ' Only in 
 point of time, however. The deeds of last year, as seeds, will 
 order the harvest of this year's reaping for most men. The old 
 year is not dead. It has yet to live. 
 
 " Jan. Uh. — Just heard from Mr. Sanders that 50 carriers 
 are about to start for me and will be here in 10 days or so. I 
 have only 11 loads ready for them. My hope is in God. He 
 hath said those that put their trust in Him shall not be put to 
 shame. 
 
 " Jan. 17th. — News has just come in of an outbreak at 
 Caconda (12 days W.S.W. from here) against Portuguese 
 authority. About 200 coloured Portuguese soldiers are there 
 at present, or on the road, with two small field pieces. 
 
 " Jan. 20th. — In this country one learns to wait. In fact 
 this whole country, when one compares it with what one hears 
 of the busy outside world, seems to be, and has been, in a 
 waiting condition from the beginning of time, like a high sand- 
 bank, the last to be carried by the waters of a rushing, swelling 
 stream. Europe has been a sort of human volcano, every now 
 and then bursting out and sending off streams of human lava 
 to cover the earth. North and South America are well occupied, 
 and it seems to me that it will only be a question of a few years 
 ere the tide be turned towards Central Africa. I am persuaded 
 that a richer country in minerals, woods and water, is not to 
 be found. And the great mass of the interior country is 
 healthy. 
 
 " Jan. 22,nd. — This afternoon carriers arrived for me. Mr.
 
 136 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 Sanders had only got them with difficulty. When one considers 
 how some 80 loads belonging to Sen. Porto lie at Bailmidu for 
 want of carriers, and how trade here has suffered so much 
 because the people of the interior are afraid to come down 
 because of the war with Caconda, it is quite a surprise that I 
 should get men now. 
 
 " Feb. 3rd,1885. — I started on Jan. 27th, on my return journey 
 to Bihe, with twenty-five porters. They are all in good spirits, 
 and seem to be quite a respectable lot. I slept one night at 
 Catumbella with the agent of a Dutch house, and after crossing 
 about 20 miles of rough country, reached the foot of the Esupwa 
 Pass. The road mnds through very rugged places, betAveen 
 large boulders with high mountains on either side. We reached 
 the top of this rugged ascent yesterday and camped by the 
 Olombingo Hill, the double top of which is quite a landmark 
 for many miles east and west. I put up my tent, which I had 
 made during my stay at Benguella, to-day for the first time. 
 It looked much trimmer, and was more easily put up than I 
 expected. The plan of it is a simple ridged tent, the roof shed 
 comes to 18 inches from the ground, then a short wall falls. 
 The ridge pole which I carry with me is a tepoia pole which I can 
 use in the daytime for my hammock if I require to be carried. 
 At night, when setting up the tent, all that is wanted is two 
 forked sticks, 7 feet long, stuck in the ground outside of the 
 tent measurements. The ridge is placed on these, and the tent 
 is thrown over and pegged down on each side. 
 
 " Feb. Mh. — We reached Chivulu, where there is an indepen- 
 dent native ruler. As I had to communicate Avith this town, I 
 sent him a present of fifteen yards of calico, which was accepted 
 as toll money. At Chivanda, a little further on, another in- 
 dependent ruler also accepted a similar present. 
 
 " Feb. 8th. — Arrived at Ohumbe, on the borders of the 
 Bailundu country. Most of my men belonged to this district, 
 so I had to remain here as their guest for some days. They took 
 me to their village, on the top of a high hill overlooking an 
 immense stretch of country, and entertained me to the best of 
 their ability with fowls, goats, and meal. Too much of such 
 kindness, however, was rather embarrassing, as I was anxious 
 to proceed on my journey to Bihe ; so on the 10th I succeeded 
 with much difficulty in arousing my porters out of their houses, 
 and managed to make a short march in the afternoon. Two
 
 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 137 
 
 daj's brought me to Chilumc, where I found Mr. and Mrs. 
 Sanders in good spirits. Here I paid off my Ohumbe men, 
 intending to collect a fresh company of porters to take me on 
 to Bihe. 
 
 " Feb. 26th. — Sent on letter to Bihe asking for men to come 
 down for me. 
 
 " March 6th, 1885. — Started from Bailundu vrith 30 carriers. 
 These have been sent by the chief of Bihe. I travel with a 
 hammock and four men. These men have lots of news as to the 
 Barotse. The details they tell me about the troubles in that 
 country are very sad. It seems that at least four or five of my 
 scholars have been killed because of their relationship to the 
 king. 
 
 " March 10th. — Arrived at Belmonte. The journey has been 
 so far a pleasant one, though many of the rivers were much 
 swollen. On one occasion, on crossing one of them on the 
 shoulders of one of my men, I looked down into the clear 
 water, when about half-way across, and saw to my surprise 
 that the man was balancing himself on a fallen tree, about the 
 thickness of a person's arm, which appeared to form part of a 
 submerged bridge over the river. My position was so ridiculous, 
 and I so shook with laughter, that the man began to sway 
 about, and finally losing his balance, we were both plunged 
 into the river, with the sunken tree between us. He stupidly 
 held on to my foot so tenaciously that, but for a kick from my 
 other, he might have drowned me. By swimming I was able 
 to reach the other side safely. 
 
 " March 12th. — Having stored my goods in Senhor Porto's 
 house, I invited a few headmen in Bihe to visit me at Belmonte, 
 where I told them of my desire to proceed to the interior. There 
 is every prospect of getting plenty of men. 
 
 " March ISth. — Walked over to see Chipongi, the chief of 
 Bihe. He at first professed to be very cross at my coming to 
 him without rum. This, he said, was an open act of rebellion 
 on my part. Had he not ordered that every one coming into his 
 country should bring him tribute in rum. The present (6 
 pieces of cloth and a chair) which I had brought him was 
 sUghted. ' Take it away ! Go ! ' he said. I only answered 
 softly, and thanked him for returning my cloth. I said I was 
 sorry that he was so disappointed, but I had thought of giving 
 him something better than fire-water. The cloud soon passed
 
 138 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 off. He did not like to lose his cloth altogether, and as the 
 matter could not be remedied he passed it over with a few 
 bitter grunts when I had promised him an additional 50 yards 
 and a jacket. The letters that I had Avith me were then read. 
 The letter from the Governor- General of Loanda caused quite 
 a sensation. The chief showed me an official letter from the 
 Governor of Benguella which showed that Edwardo Braza was 
 sent by the Portuguese Governor of Benguella to expel and 
 plunder the American missionaries. This letter closes with a 
 prayer that ' God would protect and keep the chief of Bihe in 
 His holy guard.' This same letter also accounts for the plun- 
 dering of the two loads which were sent on to me. 
 
 " March IMh. — Returned from visiting the chief to Porto's 
 house. The chief sent a man with me for another piece of 
 cloth, and sent me at the same time a good-sized pig, an excel- 
 lent representative of himself. It seems that no justice or 
 anything else can be got out of him but for money. Mr. Sanders 
 wanted from him a medical book worth about 4s. He declarec^ 
 that although the book indeed belonged to Mr. Sanders, and 
 that, although Mr. Sanders had committed no offence against 
 him, nevertheless he would not give up that book for less than 
 a bale of cloth and a gun. He also declared that if Mr. Sanders 
 wanted to build again at Bihe he must pay 1,000,000 reis for 
 the land. This was opposed stoutly by some of the headmen 
 who declared that the chief could not sell the land, and that 
 to ask such a price for a book was ridiculous. The chief 
 promised to send a letter to the Governor- General in reply to 
 his. We shall see then a little more of what is in his heart. But 
 in truth, though he makes great professions as to his loyalty to 
 the Portuguese, etc., and asks for a Portuguese chief to come to 
 Bihe, yet he has no other thought than to get rum and cloth. 
 Two priests are expected in Bihe in April and it seems that the 
 chief has allotted to them the site that Mr. Sanders had to build 
 on. They (the priests) have already sent on a jar of whisky. 
 
 " March 17th. — As I hoped to receive letters from home, and 
 then to purchase goods for the inland journey, I again started 
 for the coast. The men I had engaged for my tepoia demanded 
 prepayment, so rather than break the rule I preferred to walk. 
 I had not gone far, however, when I saw the tepoia and five 
 men come trotting after me. I shall let them have the privilege 
 of carrying me all the way.
 
 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 139 
 
 " March 24dh. — Arrived on the 20th at Ohumbe, where Mr. 
 Sanders was delighted with the letters I brought from Bihe. 
 Made an early start this morning for the coast, travelled seven 
 and a half hours and crossed the Keve River. After all ' the 
 road ' is my allotted sphere seemingly in this life. I had 
 planned at least to have 20 days' rest in the company of 
 Brother Sanders and his wife at Bailundu, hoping that we 
 might at least become acquainted with each other. 
 
 " March 27th. — Met the mail box on the road to-day. Opened 
 it and found an abundant home mail and was much cheered by 
 all the good reports of friends at home. There seems to be a 
 unanimous consent to my returning to the Garenganze. Mr. 
 Groves and Dr. McLean both write. They warn me against 
 forgetting the true aim and object of all my travelling to 
 make known Christ, doing above all things ' the work of an 
 evangelist.' 
 
 " April 2nd, 1885. — Arrived in Benguella this forenoon. 
 Found that Mr. Walter had taken everything that had come 
 from Scotland for me out of the Customs House. A huge 
 printing press is altogether useless for me. I never could take 
 such a heavy thing into the interior with me. Seventy or 80 
 men could not begin to carry it away. Two Westley-Richard 
 carbines, a magic-lantern, a Bible, some clothing, cotton cloth, 
 and a few books were very acceptable. 
 
 ''^ April 7th. — The Lord graciously delivered me of the care 
 of the printing press. I was in a dilemma this morning to 
 know -what to do with it, intending to find storage for it some- 
 where in town, when a most unexpected offer of purchase came 
 from a man who did not even know Mr. Walter or I had a press 
 for sale, but thought the former would get him one from 
 America. After a little bargaining he bought it for £15, and 
 the type for £17. With this money I will be able to buy a 
 much more satisfactory thing. 
 
 " I shall be most eager for a copy of the Revised Bible. If 
 you send it through the mail it will reach me at Bihe — a small 
 print edition. It will be a great pleasure to me looking over 
 every passage during the weary months of travelling. I shall 
 wait an extra month at Bihe so as to get it. 
 
 " April 8th. — I write to a friend at home as follows : 
 
 " ' In yours of January 30th, you speak of two points, about 
 which you are exercised, in connection with my work in Africa.
 
 140 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 I could not think of starting on such a journey as is before me, 
 planning to return within a certain time, or intending to move 
 about in an aimless manner. My earnest hope and prayer to 
 God is, that He will lead me among a people for whom He has 
 a present message. To a great extent my work may only be 
 preparing for others to enter in. Three years ago, while at the 
 Zambesi, I had no other desire than to remain there. My ways, 
 however, are in God's hands. I am still ready to go back 
 again to the Barotse if I get the slightest indication that the 
 field is open there, but it seems as if it were not. This 
 Garenganze route appears to be the one for my return into 
 the interior, and I start on it with joy and gladness, not know- 
 ing that I shall ever reach that place, nor what may be found 
 for me to do by the way. I can say honestly that I have no 
 plan to follow out, but am fully persuaded that it is necessary 
 to remain in some place, so that one's message may be rightly 
 known and understood. Whether that place be the Garen- 
 ganze, or somewhere short of it, God knoweth. I trust He 
 will guide me, and I earnestly entreat special prayer for this. 
 
 " ' Ere you receive this letter I hope to have left Benguella. 
 I have enough, according to human foresight, to provide all 
 things honestly, and all things necessary, for two years to come. 
 For this I heartily thank our God. May I hold all as His, 
 seeking grace to spend every yard of calico to profit, and to His 
 glory. I purpose starting from Bihe with about forty loads 
 — a very small caravan for Africa, as the usual number of 
 carriers is about 200 or 300.' 
 
 " May 6th, 1885. — In writing to Dr. McLean to-day I refer 
 to my letter of Jan. 2nd, inserted in the April Echoes of Service 
 and add : ' In the present frame of my mind I have a horror of 
 doing anything in the future calculated to bring upon me the 
 world's easily deluded gaze. I have an instinctive feeling that 
 the moment I pass from the ranks of the humble unknown and 
 little-heard-of missionary band, who are known only to the 
 spiritual and the godly, and whose prayers are better than gold 
 to me — the moment I say I pass from among these — and enter 
 amongthe known and recognised by journalist and pamphleteers, 
 I shall feel as a child removed from the warm hearth of a 
 cottage home to the richer but colder boards of a charity house. 
 My full persuasion is that if work, real work for God, is to be 
 carried on at all in this country it must be done more and more
 
 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 141 
 
 in the spirit of quietness and prayer. Anything approaching 
 to ostentatiousness in me or in my letters I trust will be care- 
 fully watched for and rebuked by those who receive them ; and 
 that all who may seek to join in this blessed, blessed work be 
 exhorted much to avoid the very appearance of presuming to 
 be anything, or of being numbered among the numbers of 
 missionaries.' 
 
 " May 10th. — Mr. Sanders writes from Bailundu that the 
 Balunda have returned from their three years' campaign. The 
 result of the final raid was disaster, seemingly, and in a fit of 
 disappointment the chief picked a quarrel with a friendly 
 village and took about 20 captives and a handful of cattle 
 away. Twenty-five men will be down for me in a few days, 
 so I shall get a start soon on the long journey. 
 
 " May I9th.—The need that I feel of God's very help in this 
 journey seems to press upon me as a heavy load. I cannot pray, 
 nor read, nor receive strength from the Word as at other times. 
 Still I feel a calm peace, as in the presence of a covenant sealed 
 by the immutable, unchangeable One ; the presence of Him who 
 only is. The material part of the journey gives me little concern. 
 It is returning again into the midst of the dark heathen country 
 as a bearer for the first time in many parts of the name of 
 Christ. And believing that the Lord willingly makes use of 
 the least of things and services for the spreading abroad of the 
 knowledge of His name, my prayer and burden is, that the 
 least impression made upon those people, the faintest remem- 
 brance that anyone may retain of me as I pass along, by means 
 of a look, a kind touch, a word, a something, though they know 
 it not, may savour of Christ. 
 
 " May 23rd. — No word of my carriers yet, making me some- 
 what impatient these last few days. But why should I feel so ? 
 The only way to explain the impatience of one professedly set 
 out to do the Lord's work is that he hath in his heart some selfish 
 end in view, some plan which is purely his own, which causes 
 him to be impatient. For the time for the accomplishment of 
 our own plan ' is always ready,' but the Lord's time is definite 
 and perfect. For He who ' hath appointed the day in which He 
 will judge the world,' He who knew of ' that hour,' the culmin- 
 ating point, ' the fulness of time,' worketh by no other rule in 
 the little and seemingly insignificant ordering of our daily lives. 
 At times I have great and strong convictions of this. At other
 
 142 AT AND AROUND BENGUELLA 
 
 times my carnal impatience of delay, and restlessness, show me 
 how much there is of selfish aim and interest in all I do. 
 
 " May 28th. — Twice within these few daj^s the Lord has been 
 pleased to answer special prayer. On Monday I asked Him to 
 persuade a man to pay me 17,000 reis he owed me as balance 
 of price of press. I was indeed in sheer need of the money to 
 meet my running expenses. The answer came in six hours' 
 time and after a delay of two months since the former part 
 payment. He brought the money without my having reminded 
 him of the debt for some time. Again, last night I gave vent to 
 long waiting, and expecting the arrival of my carriers, in prayer 
 asking the Lord to consider my weakness and send them 
 speedily. This morning the tailor close by called me into his 
 shop to tell me that the men I was waiting for had arrived at 
 Catumbella, nine miles off. Is there anything too small for 
 our bringing to Him ? Does He not by His ' gentleness ' tempt 
 us to trust Him wholly. 
 
 " May 31st. — My carriers came do\ra to-day."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 BENGUELLA, June 2nd, 1885.— In taking farewell of 
 the coast once more, many thoughts of all across the 
 ocean occupy me, and I feel as if I were leaving you 
 all again. But with God's help I can say, these things do not 
 move me. Indeed, never have I felt such a strong desire to be 
 back again to my happy life and work in the distant parts 
 of this country. Until the last Liverpool steamer came in, two 
 weeks ago, I had a silent hope that someone might yet come 
 to join me in this journey. Loath as I am to invite, or even 
 to encourage anyone to do so, I firmly believe that the right 
 person will come in the right time. The longer I wait, and the 
 more I cast the matter entirely upon God, the more assurance 
 I get of His perfect ordering, and the more strength and joy 
 He gives me in my position here." 
 
 Arnot left Benguella on June 3rd and arrived at Bailundu 
 on the 16th. The journey from the coast was uneventful. 
 He was delayed, however, at Bailundu until August 24th, 
 but the time was not lost. He profited not a little by the 
 company of Mr. and Mrs. Sanders who assisted him in the 
 study of the Umbundu language. The journal and letters 
 continue : 
 
 " August 20th, 1885. — A long day's walking brought me to 
 Dungeunga's town where I shall have to wait a day or two. 
 The time between the day I first met Mr. Sanders at Chilume 
 (Bailundu) and my taking leave of him at the same place 
 looks like a last night's dream. The happy fellowship of 
 believers, the monthl}^ communications with home, are all past 
 and I am back again to my normal condition with my face 
 turned toward the lonely far-off interior. I rejoice that it is 
 for Christ's sake I go. Surely our Lord's service, the privilege 
 of running even the least of His errands, is worthy to be pre- 
 ferred as our chief joy. And will He not, in His boundless 
 
 143
 
 144 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 compassion, give us daily and hourly the needed strength and 
 heart comfort. 
 
 " Aug. 22nd. — I feel very comfortable and easy now when 
 travelling. Before, when I was green to the ways and customs 
 of travelling, each man I had was so much wiser than I, and 
 all tried to boss me ; but now the tables are turned. In fact, 
 I know much more about it than most of them. A single word 
 from me as to time of camping, time of starting, pay, or any- 
 thing of that sort, is decisive, and obeyed without objection. 
 And being better able to understand the nature of their quarrels, 
 and their own laws for settling their disputes, I can generally 
 settle ' the matter ' in a satisfactory way when it is referred 
 to me and thus keep peace in the camp. In fact I am so exact- 
 ing in the matter of peace and quietness that my little camp is 
 a perfect heaven compared to Porto's, who never interferes 
 with his men and won't hear their disputes until they come 
 to raising clubs and guns and knives, and then it is a case of 
 putting some in irons, heavy fining, and all that sort of thing. 
 It is marvellous the effect my growing beard has upon them. 
 I had always been in the habit of shaving until six or eight 
 months ago. Now they address me generally as ' Sekulu ' — 
 old man — and sometimes remark : ' Before he deceived us 
 by shaving ! but we were not deceived ; his eyes are old,' etc. 
 The natives never have any beard to speak of until they are 40. 
 
 " Aug. 27th. — Arrived at Belmonte, Bihe. I had scarce paid 
 off my Balunda men when I booked 20 for the Garenganze. 
 The trader to whom I gave medicine for dysentery with good 
 effect gave me a present to-day of three bottles of claret and 
 five of port wine. Seeing I had not any wane with me I thought 
 perhaps I had better take it ; it may be of service. He (the 
 trader) -will not leave here for two months or so, so I will get 
 off before him, greatly to my satisfaction. 
 
 " Aug. 29th. — Went over to visit the chief to-day ; had, on 
 the whole, a pleasant visit. I gave him nine pieces of cloth. 
 
 " Aug. 30th. — This morning a letter came from Chipongi, 
 the chief, wanting more presents. I sent him a shawl and a 
 shirt. In his letter he says I can proceed on my journey after 
 he returns from an antelope hunt. The begging of these chiefs 
 causes a most uncomfortable strain on one. It is the bane of 
 travelling in Africa ; still I must get on, and I must also have 
 something with me.
 
 Iff^!^ 
 
 < O 
 
 a .= 
 
 T r
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 145 
 
 " Sept. 1st, 1885. — Hitherto I find I have been making a 
 sad mistake in putting off the needful hours of prayerful study 
 of the Word until the evening. The weakness of my eyes has 
 compelled me to give up night reading, and so, when not 
 travelling, I have set apart the morning and early forenoon 
 hours to this study, and feel marvellously refreshed and 
 strengthened thereby. The days seem to fly from me. Is 
 there not something in the sound of His voice that constrains 
 us to follow Him ? ' Draw me ; we will run after Thee ' ; 
 ' My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.' If we do not 
 acquaint ourselves early with His drawing love, and with His 
 voice, how shall we run and follow. 
 
 " Sept. Idth. — My carriers are coming in one by one : first 
 to talk and bargain about the journey, then, after a certain 
 amount of time simmering over the matter at their own 
 villages, return to get booked, and to tie up ; then back again 
 they go to their villages to sit on their little wooden stools, and 
 snuff, and consult the village divine, with promises of large 
 rewards on their return, as to the road, prospects of food, etc., 
 and having by this time worked themselves up to the ' plunging 
 in ' pitch — just as we boys used to do in the bathing boxes on 
 the Portobello Sands — wall return to seal and bargain by 
 carrying off their loads to their own villages. When all have 
 been lifted I go out to camp, a few hours off, towards the 
 villages of my carriers, and, at the silent signal of the British 
 Union Jack hoisted up a tree, the carriers will know to take 
 their last snuff out of the \dllage cane, and start off for a year's 
 toil at least. And indeed they have a hard job of it, a 60 lb. 
 load, a blistering sun, and heavy sand under their bare feet, 
 hot enough to bake bread in ; and this for 12 to 15 miles a day 
 is no joke. I, with my fat sleek ox and comfortable helmet, in 
 comparison, travel luxuriously. 
 
 " By the by I told you in my last how I had refused to get 
 wine at Benguella for the interior, and how my first fee in 
 Bihe was eight bottles of better wine than I would have thought 
 to buy. Well ! there was another little thing I needed, and 
 that was a saddle for my ox. The canvas-padded thing I used 
 was a hot and sweaty thing and very uncomfortable. I tried 
 to get one at Benguella, but none there ! The other day I was 
 turning out all my material to make a new one, straps of goat 
 skin, yes, a canvas bag, a piece of leather about the size of ray
 
 146 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 two hands. I could make little out of it, so laid all aside, and 
 sat down, ruminating, when a man arrives with a letter, 
 written in good Portuguese, to the effect that a young man, 
 named Quilernee, had a saddle to sell ; would the white man 
 buy it for thirty yards of cloth ? ' Of course ! Where is it ? ' 
 ' The boy is just behind with it.' And sure enough in a few 
 minutes here comes saddle, stirrups, and belly-band, all com- 
 plete and in fair condition. Its history I suppose to be as 
 follows : Some Dutch hunter's horse had died doAvn by the 
 Kavungu ; the saddle had been given to some natives who 
 sold it to this Bihe trader on his journey down there. At least 
 he brought the saddle from that direction somewhere. So I 
 am supplied with a snug seat for the journey, all ordered and 
 found by Him ' Whose I am and Whom I (seek to) serve.' 
 
 " The probabilities of my visiting Lake Bangweolo are, in 
 the meantime, out of the question. I should certainly like to 
 see where my noble countryman fell, and all that, but until I 
 have learned the language of the country I shall consider any 
 unnecessary travelling a waste of time and money. But I shall 
 likely send to Chitambo (as I am told he is now at the Garen- 
 ganze) and get his news, as his side of the story. It may be 
 that he who left such decided impressions upon many who 
 met him while in life, did not fail to make a lasting impression 
 upon the hearts of those he died among. Noble, brave old 
 Livingstone ! What an honour it would be to take up even 
 some of the threads of his life work. From continually hearing 
 him spoken of by the natives I have formed opinions of him 
 independently altogether of what's written or has been said at 
 home about him. 
 
 " I have received lately a fresh impulse in studying the 
 Scriptures, and try to give the first four hours of the day 
 entirely to that, part of which time is taken up with 
 analysing each sentence carefully with the help of Bengel's 
 Gnomon (index) and the Greek grammar, and marvel con- 
 tinually at the Divine beauty and explicitness of the text. 
 
 " Sept. 15th. — Quite a lot of Bachokwe arrived here (Bel- 
 monte) to-day from Kasembe, near to the Uleva River, with 
 rubber for sale. Their leader had been up to the Congo River 
 and had met ' Buli ' (Stanley) and seemed distressed about the 
 possible loss of trade which the occupation of that country by 
 the whites would mean to them.
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 147 
 
 " Sept. \Qih. — My carriers give me nothing but disappoint- 
 ment. A few who have offered their serAdces are so utterly 
 unreasonable in their demands that it is evident they have 
 no intention of going with me. Nothing is lost by these delays ; 
 all is conscious gain. I think labourers, or intending labourers 
 in Africa, ought to take much heed to these words, ' Ye have 
 need of patience.' It seems at times as if everything was at a 
 deadlock, and every one around in a sound slumber. At last 
 a little rustling is heard, and after a while a move is made ; 
 but so surely as a halt occurs, all relax into profound inaction. 
 I have been busy negotiating with carriers all this month ; 
 hundreds say they are willing to go. I only want 30, and yet 
 it takes weeks and even months to get them up to the carrying 
 point ; still, they do come, and I got my fifteenth load tied 
 up to-day. 
 
 " The chief here, in a favourable interview, has given me, 
 according to native custom, ' the road ' to the Garenganze, 
 and I got off very cheaply in only having to pay, as tribute, 
 about 100 yards of cotton cloth ; but my stock was small, and 
 I claimed a special privilege as having come from the interior, 
 as the natives do. A young Portuguese trader, for the same 
 privilege, gave three four-gallon kegs of rum, a case of gin, 
 600 yards of cloth, 50 lb. of powder, and one or two guns. 
 A Portuguese priest told me he had to give one four-gallon keg 
 of rum, 200 yards of cloth, two blankets, six shirts, his own 
 silver watch, and some other small things. Senhor Porto never 
 returns from the coast without bringing as tribute far more 
 than this. 
 
 " Sept. 2\st. — Sent on seven loads to Kapoko with 24 yards 
 to the chief. He writes me very kindly assuring me of a speedy 
 crossing of the Kwanza. News has come in that the Matabele 
 have come up to the Barotse raiding. 
 
 " Sept. 2Qth. — A few days ago I noticed a little boy, about 
 eight or nine years of age, who belongs to a towTi close by, 
 going about with both hands in a sad condition. The left one 
 was completely distorted, and three of the fingers were joined 
 together in one suppurating mass. The right hand was com- 
 pletely skinned, and the arms were more or less badly scalded. 
 Upon inquiry I learned that the boy had been visiting, with 
 some of his village mates, the town of one of Chipongi's sisters. 
 When playing about he had stolen some beans belonging to this
 
 148 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 woman, who, to punish the child, put both his hands into a pot 
 of water then boihng on the fire. The left hand was so much 
 injured that she must have left it in the water for a few seconds. 
 I understand that this creature in human shape has not even 
 been called in question for her cruelty. The child was a slave. 
 
 " Oct. 2nd, 1885. — It seems that by accident the yard and 
 huts of the chief of Bihe have been burned down. He coolly 
 sends to the Portuguese trader and myself for five pieces of 
 cloth. I send him three 12-yard pieces, at the same time 
 apprising him of my intended departure. Indeed, I must be 
 out of this at once. There is no end to this chief's begging. 
 
 " Oct. 5th. — I have been advised not to think of starting 
 until the chief's return from his hunt. I have spent indeed a 
 restless week, part of my goods already gone some time. Am 
 I kept here waiting seemingly for an indefinite length of time ? 
 In this frame of mind I had been until this evening, but I have 
 been humbled by a sight of the worthlessness of all my works. 
 Were I able to arrange for a start to-morrow in my own strength 
 what would it amount to ? It certainly would not give pleasure 
 to God, neither would it honour His Spirit. I was enabled 
 to confess my foolish and sinful impatience to God, and, 
 feeling the inward strength of His Spirit, my willingness to wait 
 His pleasure. While still on my knees, I was startled by four 
 shots close by. It was the men returning from the king's hunt. 
 Having killed a male antelope the farce was over and the king 
 reinstated in his capital once more. I cannot look upon this 
 incident without feelings of gratitude to my most tender and 
 patient Lord. Why should He thus so mercifully lead me into 
 that state of mind in which I could but profit by the coming 
 news ? Or was it that He knew beforehand at what time I 
 would learn my lesson and submit myself to Him that He 
 ordered the end of the hunt ? 
 
 " Oct. 9th. — Sent most of my goods out to camp with a 
 feeling of intense satisfaction that at last another stage was 
 reached in the slow business of ' getting a start.' At no time 
 I think does a traveller in this country stand more in need of 
 dogged patience. 
 
 " Oct. lOth. — Into first camp at Mokumba by the Longwali 
 River. Shot at a large buck and wounded him, had a long 
 hunt with my dog on the wounded animal's spoor, but had to 
 return as the rain was threatening and I had not yet set up
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 149 
 
 my tent. A few hours every day now will have to be taken up 
 with hunting for game. A head of game keeps the men in 
 good spirits, supplies food, and smooths the way wonderfully. 
 
 " Oct. 11th. — In camp to-day. I hear that nearly all the 
 carriers I had engaged have, for different reasons, withdrawn. 
 So I have to do a good deal of last month's work over again. 
 Sent off messengers in all directions to call for carriers. Was 
 willing to accept offers for one day's journey, if they would 
 come. 
 
 " Oct. 12th. — In camp, arranging with men to take me on 
 as far as Kapoko at least. 
 
 " Oct. 13th. — Had prospect of getting another start this 
 morning. After a hasty cup of coffee, by way of breakfast, I 
 took down my tent and bundled it up. Those who had promised 
 to come for loads were very dilatory, and it was towards mid- 
 day before we began to get the loads out of camp. Sending 
 some on ahead in charge of Kasoma, I told him to camp at 
 a place called Nyani, some four miles off, and I remained 
 behind, as there were still a few loads for which there were no 
 carriers. In the evening I was able to overtake Kasoma and 
 the others, and in the dark paid off all the day-workers, got 
 my loads together, and threw a sheet of waterproof canvas over 
 them. I had, however, barely got under cover myself when 
 a heavy storm came on, threatening to drive everything before 
 it. The carriers had gone off to their villages close by for 
 shelter, and I was left alone in the damp and darkness, holding 
 on grimly to the flapping canvas of my tent. At last the 
 storm abated somewhat, and I got a few hours' undisturbed 
 sleep before morning. 
 
 " Oct. lUh. — Marched a few miles in the same hand-to- 
 mouth fashion. Camped by Kangango's by the Shambundwe. 
 Kangango is quite a big man in his way. I gave him eight 
 yards of material for which he returned me two fowls and 
 some beer for the men, and conducted himself civilly. I 
 counted 14 villages here. 
 
 " Oct. 15th. — Early this morning crossed the Uyowe River, 
 on the east side of which I counted 12 villages known as 
 Kakomo. The thickly wooded hill between these two districts 
 would be a splendid place for a mission station, being within 
 easy walk from both. 
 
 " Reached Kapoko's about midday. In going over the hill,
 
 150 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 before reaching this place, I was delighted with the magnificent 
 view. Before me stretched the Kukema Valley running into 
 the Kwanza Valley, and there, far away beyond, like an ocean 
 horizon, lay the great interior flat — flat in comparison to the 
 country between here and the coast. The extent of the view 
 one gets here is most impressive, and has awakened in me a 
 thousand thoughts concerning the silent interior — my past 
 experience there, past preservation and blessing, present joy, 
 and hope for the future. All seemed to get full expression in 
 ' My Lord and my God ! ' 
 
 " In the evening I visited Kapoko. His toAvnti is large and 
 very clean. The chief sent me word that he was mourning the 
 death of a child, and that I was to return to-morrow, mean- 
 while I was to leave my present, which I did, viz. 32 yards of 
 calico. A little later in the evening three of his headmen came 
 to me with a story of great dissatisfaction, said to be from 
 Kapoko, to the effect that my present was too small. ' I 
 surely thought,' they said, ' that Kapoko was a very small 
 man, seeing I had sent him so small a present.' I listened to 
 their story with much attention. And then in the most serious 
 manner began to assure them of the great respect I had for 
 Kapoko, that I knew that he was a very great man, and asked 
 the royal messengers to go back and assure his majesty that 
 the smallness of the present spoke only of my smallness, but 
 not at all of his, and that if I was only so much bigger I would 
 think nothing of giving Kapoko bales of cloth. The poor old 
 men dropped their frowning visages and looked at each other 
 in a stupified way. Some of the young men, however, behind 
 could not hold themselves in but burst out laughing, which 
 was the sign for a general burst of laughter. We all parted 
 a short time after the best of friends ; the king's prime minister, 
 who was the leading one of the group, leaving me the assur- 
 ance of a good fat pig on the morrow. 
 
 " Oct. IQth. — My last night's visitors came back this morning 
 saying that Kapoko would give me nothing less than an ox, 
 and that he had sent to the Kwanza to procure one for me from 
 one of his villages, and it would arrive on the morrow. I told 
 them that I was very hungry, and that a sheep would be worth 
 more to me to-day than an ox to-morrow. In the end a fat 
 sheep was sent to my camp. 
 
 " Oct. nth. — Kapoko came himself to visit me to-day. They
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 151 
 
 carried him in a palanquin. He is a very old and frail man. 
 I must confess I am most favourably impressed with him. He 
 is very kindly both in his look and manner. He wanted 
 to know if I could hunt and proposed that I should 
 go down to the river to-morrow to shoot a hippopotamus. I 
 readily consented provided his men found the hippo. My man 
 tells me, though, that he gave instructions to his servants to 
 take me to one of his cattle posts to shoot an ox. ' Handsome 
 is who handsome does.' To say the least it was neatly done. 
 
 " Here I again made what proved to be almost a futile effort 
 to collect carriers. 
 
 " Oct. 2Srd. — Left Kapoko's capital to-day for Cisamba, six 
 miles N.E. towards the Kwanza. This is another step forward. 
 Three Garenganze men came to my camp. They said they had 
 decided to return with me. They had been sent by their chief 
 to look for traders. They had found in me a real white man, 
 so could not do better than return home with me. The chief 
 one of the three had on large ivory A\Tistlets about 6 in. wide 
 as a sign that he was sent by the chief. Their language seems 
 clearly to be of the Bantu family. 
 
 " Oct. 24:th. — Here at Cisamba it is very hot and the vegeta- 
 tion by the river has a tropical look. This is the last of the 
 Ovimbundu villages. The people seem to be devoted to the 
 interior trade. 
 
 " Oct. 2&h. — Preparing for a start to-morrow, God willing. 
 It has been a long trying business getting together out of the 
 crowd the few who are Avilling to start on so long a journey 
 with no more tempting offer of pay than I am able to give, viz. 
 equal to 15 yards of cloth to each contractor for each load, 
 paid here ; and 20 yards to each porter at the end of the 
 journey (60 travelling days) with 2 yards and salt to each man 
 every 10 camps as rations. The contractors have the responsi- 
 bility of building the camps, seeing the loads housed for the 
 night, and arranging about guides, etc. 
 
 " My own man, Kasoma, who has been with me for six 
 months as interpreter, etc., has got together five men as porters. 
 His wife also goes with him. He will remain with us at the 
 Garenganze and promises to be as useful as he has been. 
 
 " Lokumba, my head ' sekulu,' seems to be a very worthy 
 man, reasonable and active — ^two most valuable accomphsh- 
 ments.
 
 152 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 " My carriers represent the variety common to all peoples. 
 
 " Chipooka stammers as he speaks, but is lively under all 
 circumstances. He has a bad festering toe which, however, 
 does not prevent him carrying his 60 lb. load. Though limping 
 badly, his only response to expressions of sympathy is a broad 
 grin. He seems to think it a very ridiculous toe. 
 
 " Saombo is another representative man, perfectly hideous 
 in his looks, but vanity has made his ugliness look comical. All 
 who come to the camp, he seems to think, have come to see 
 him. When the usual semicircle of aboriginal strangers gather 
 in front of my tent he is fit no more for camp building, but 
 must come and sit do'sMi in front of all, clapping his thighs 
 with delight, trying to crack jokes, the very existence of 
 which in our minds, even for a moment, is rendered im- 
 possible by volumes of hoarse laughter from his tremendous 
 mouth. 
 
 " Then we have the sulky grumbler amongst us. He has 
 always something to complain of. Now his load is not right, 
 next his rations, then his pay, or a thorn pricks his foot and he 
 can carry no longer that day. The work has to be done but 
 certainly not by him. Only one or two of such in a company 
 can reasonably be borne with. 
 
 " I spend each evening sitting round the camp fire ^vith my 
 men, trying in a thousand ways to convey to them intelligent 
 thoughts as to my mission. It is of the first importance that 
 they should understand me, and be able to give an answer to 
 the thousands in the interior who will ask them what this 
 white man has come for. 
 
 " In reviewing the occupants of my camp I must not over- 
 look my faithful dog and a parrot. The latter I bought for a 
 trifle for the sake of my boys. Really he is a most ridiculous 
 bird. Generally in the evening, or towards the end of a march, 
 when everyone is going along quietly, Polly breaks out into an 
 old man's laugh, or goes through the sounds heard at a native 
 dog hunt : ' Kwata ! Kwata ! ' (Catch it ! Catch it !) ; then 
 a shouting of men ; ' to-to ! ' for guns going off ; finishing 
 up with the pitiful crying of a wounded animal. He also sings 
 some native airs, the whole caravan shouting out the chorus ; 
 then another turn from Polly, until every one breaks down 
 with laughter ; it is so ridiculous. 
 
 " I have been teaching my dog a lesson or two in grace.
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 153 
 
 He is so lively and fond of stealing that I have had to punish 
 him severely, and drive him to lie down beside my chair. Now 
 whenever he is in fault, and I shout to him, he makes straight 
 for my chair or his bed beside the goods. There he knows he 
 is safe. I suppose he argues that was always the end of his 
 punishments, so it is better at the first sign of ^\Tath to go 
 straight to the e7id of the punishment, and thus miss the 
 punishment. 
 
 " A contractor and five men have given up their loads 
 because I would not pay them beforehand — a ruse to get to 
 their homes again. Two or three days will mend the breach 
 I hope. Have sent back to hunt for some more. Once I get 
 across the Kwanza all will go smoothly I hope. 
 
 " Oct. 27th. — I have managed to make up the number of 
 my men again, at least in my book, but it is hard to say how 
 many will turn up to-morrow. Kasoma, my mainstay, has met 
 someone here who got the loan of a gun from him some long 
 time ago, and here the fellow leaves everything and goes off 
 after his trashy gun. We were to start to-morrow but I fear 
 we will make another mess. Patience, however, and its end, 
 are surely linked. The perfect end is patience perfected. I 
 know it is no mere treadmill I am set to, but that each day, 
 each hour, of obedient waiting, is a day, and an hour, of 
 positive gain. 
 
 " Oct. 2Sth. — Nearly all the carriers I had engaged from 
 the villages around Kapoko have been ordered to leave me. 
 This is the second time my carriers have been driven from me 
 here. Also the first batch who left me did so by the orders of 
 a small chief. In my simplicity I did not then fully understand 
 the situation, but now I see that not a few influentials, in this 
 country of interior traders, are set against my going to the 
 Garenganze. My man, Kasoma, assures me of the truth of this 
 and says they are all very jealous about a white man going 
 into the interior, especially an ' English,' of whose power in 
 swallowing trade they have a superstitious fear. As I cannot 
 imagine an}'- worse motive in the minds of my opposers than 
 this, their own interest, I fully forgive them for all the trouble 
 they are giving me. They do not understand my errand. How 
 could they ! Meanwhile I send off 13 loads post haste. I also 
 Bend off messengers, here and there, to pick up carriers. It is 
 doubling my expenses, but my only chance now of succeeding
 
 154 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 at all (with God's blessing) is, at all cost, to make a rapid move 
 for the east bank of the Kwanza. 
 
 " About four o'clock in the afternoon Lekomba came in 
 with two men and the prospect of more to-morrow. So I 
 started off for camp 10 miles distant, leaving Kasoma to come 
 on with what men turn up to-morrow, and what loads he 
 cannot fetch to store in the house of one who, I am told, is a 
 trusty man. 
 
 " I got into camp late, and very tired and almost starved 
 out. We have left all Bihe villages behind to my great joy. 
 I have goods enough here to take me on. The Garenganze men, 
 who return to their country with me, are indignant at the 
 conduct of these Biheans, and declare that Msidi, their king, 
 when he hears of the way they have tried to hinder a white 
 man from coming to him will be very angry. They also say 
 that if I want 100 carriers to return mth me to the coast their 
 chief will give them to me. So that I see clearly that this may 
 be the plan for opening up that country, first to get there, and 
 then to employ the bone and muscle of the country to bring 
 others there. 
 
 " I have been comforted this morning with these words and 
 promise, ' Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, 
 I also Avill keep thee from the hour of trial.' ' He that openeth 
 and no man shutteth,' said this. 
 
 " Oct. 29//i. — Kasoma came on to-day with four loads, 
 leaving 10 behind without carriers. 
 
 " Oct. SOth. — Had a long day's march. Passed a caravan 
 of traders just come from the Lunda country. They had many 
 slaves. I counted about 30 mere infants. Some of these were 
 trotting along whilst others were being carried. One little 
 thing seemed to be hanging over a young man's shoulder, dead 
 or nearly so. Many of the slaves looked terribly afraid of me 
 and my ox. I suppose they thought they had now arrived at 
 the long-talked-of land of monsters. The traders said they had 
 bought them from an army returning from pillaging. 
 
 " Oct. 31st. — Travelled seven hours and camped close by 
 the Kwanza (a httle below where the Kuiba flows in on the 
 east bank). I have thus gone down the Kwanza a long way 
 to avoid crossing three large rivers instead of one (the Kukema, 
 the Cuanja and the Kuiba). 
 
 " We passed a caravan from the Luba country. They had
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 155 
 
 been attacked by people living on the Lualaba and robbed, 
 some of their number being killed. One of the Garenganze 
 natives travelling with me was a long way behind. The 
 travellers attacked him, threatening to kill him in revenge for 
 the death of their fellows in the interior, but beyond stealing 
 his hat and something of mine which he was carrying they did 
 no harm. 
 
 " Nov. 1st, 1885. — After paying other eight yards to the 
 chief of Tolonoka we started to cross the Kwanza. We em- 
 ployed five boats, to the owners of which I paid four yards 
 each and two yards to each paddler. I turned out my finest 
 cloth and everything went along with comparative smoothness. 
 The heat to-day has been most unbearable. After standing 
 about the river for several hours, directing the crossing of my 
 goods and my ox, I was half stupid with the heat and could 
 scarce sit on my ox after starting for the camp. 
 
 " Two of my carriers have run off, so I had to pack their 
 loads on my ox and push along. 
 
 " The appearance now of the country is of an immense flat, 
 hills taking the form of low sand-belts with scrubby bush on 
 their tops. The natives have the wild look of the interior 
 inhabitants and are much more sparely clad. The villages are 
 very small and far between. 
 
 " Nov. 2nd. — Rain coming down in torrents, as it used to 
 do at the Barotse, the result of yesterday's intense heat. Of 
 course we remain in camp, thankful indeed to have got on so 
 far. I find that every one of my men speaks of the heat of 
 yesterday as being exceptional, so I am satisfied that it was not 
 any special weakness on my part when I felt overcome and 
 knocked up. 
 
 " I am secretly informed that some of my carriers are wholly 
 untrustworthy and intend forsaking me in the Lovale country. 
 To be forewarned is not to be exactly forearmed in this case, for 
 what can I do ? I know that not one man with me is free from 
 the bondage of the enemy. They are his to do his bidding. So 
 with the best of my men I would depend only upon the power 
 of God to keep them faithful to me in this journey. No tact 
 or precaution on my part can do this. 
 
 " This evening a man tying up his load threw off one of 
 my valuable tins of biscuits, saying he could not carry that, 
 his load was already too heavy. I had no option but to open it
 
 156 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 and divide some of the biscuits through some other loads, and 
 to give the rest away. 
 
 " Nov. Srd. — Got a good start this morning. I packed my 
 ox, and it proved a perfect success every way, requiring no 
 attention on the road. He kept up with the men. The road 
 passed many old and ruined villages, ruined by raiding parties 
 from Bihe. The few villages inhabited were very ^^Tetched and 
 half-built looking. The people turned out in full force to see 
 the ox carrying a load of salt, the first time I suppose anything 
 of the sort has been seen in this part of the country. The people 
 seem to be all in a bad way — no food, villages out of repair, 
 badly clothed, indeed some are on the verge of nakedness. 
 I sent the chief 20 yards of cloth. He sent back saying he was 
 delighted to see me in his country and wanted to give me a 
 present, but how could he on top of so little cloth. After some 
 palaver I consented to give 16 yards more. His present to me 
 was a good fat sheep and a basket of meal. He also sent his 
 brother to guide me on to some villages further up the Kuiba 
 where I can get food to buy. 
 
 " Nov. Uh. — Keeping to the S.E. for five hours this morning 
 we came to the Kuiba River again. From the point where I 
 am camped I can see the hills at Kapoko across the Kuiba, 
 Kwanza and Kukema valleys. I have got back to the regular 
 caravan route which crosses these three rivers, and which I 
 have wisely avoided. I am so well pleased with my walking 
 that I have made up my mind to stick to it and to turn the 
 ox into a porter for food for the road. Camped at Mosibe's 
 town. 
 
 " Nov. 5th. — The 12 yards I sent to Mosibe yesterday has not 
 pleased, but he says he Avill teach me a thing to-day in the way 
 of giving. About midday he came along dressed out in his 
 best. Behind him was a whole herd of oxen, out of which 
 I was asked to kill one, which I did, a good fat ox and no 
 mistake. Of course I added to my present : a blanket, coat 
 and 24 yards of cloth — not by any means a dear ox. 
 
 " The way these people trouble me for rum is beyond descrip- 
 tion. They believe every glass bottle they see, or kettle, or 
 vessel of any kind belonging to me, is full of rum. If I drink 
 coffee they declare I drink rum. ' Rum ! Rum ! ' rings in 
 my head from morning until night. I have with me one un- 
 fortunate bottle, unknown to anyone with me, and the terror
 
 A START FROM BENGUELLA 157 
 
 of that bottle being discovered is beyond my power to endure, 
 so to-day I opened the box it was in and buried the bottle at 
 night. This leaves me only a little in my medicine box. 
 
 " Nov. 8th. — Waiting still for Cinyama who stayed behind 
 to try and get carriers for the loads I left with him. My men 
 have been showing every sign of discontent and impatience, 
 demanding their payment in advance. When I remember that 
 nearly all my regular carriers were recalled or otherwise 
 hindered from leaving Bihe with me, and that most of them 
 I have with me are ' free lances ' picked up here and there 
 and going for the sake of spoil, I am enabled to understand 
 and excuse much. How blessed also to know that I am but a 
 subaltern ; the Lord is commander. 
 
 " Cinyama came along to-day with the last of my loads. 
 So I go on fairly well set up with every comfort. Am rather 
 short, however, of cloth for paying my men as their demands 
 are greater than they would have been had I retained the 
 carriers engaged at first. 
 
 " Nov. 9th. — A general grumbling and discontent all over 
 the camp this morning. ' Pay ' was evidently the subject 
 under consideration. On the whole the men were reasonable 
 in their demands. One or two, however, I noticed were un- 
 reasonable, and I marked them. They were all naturally afraid 
 that I would not keep to my promise and give them the amount 
 agreed upon at the journey's end. So many Portuguese 
 traders have taken advantage of them that way. I managed 
 to hold out quietly until Cinyama and three other ' sekulus ' 
 guaranteed to stand security for the good faith of the men 
 if I would pay them. So I paid them each 24 yards of fine 
 cloth, leaving but a small balance to be paid at the end of the 
 journey in the form of beads. I managed, however, to use up 
 in paying, the loads of those men who were most unreasonable. 
 I also gave them all a much better quality of cloth than they 
 expected to get. Then came a busy afternoon tying, sewing 
 up, repacking, etc., for a final start. All were in first-rate 
 spirits. There was no more word of returning. To add to the 
 general satisfaction reigning both in me and in the men a 
 messenger came across the river from Kapoko with a letter to 
 me containing a message for my men in which he declared that 
 he, Kapoko, was my sworn friend and that the men who went 
 with me must treat me well, for to injure ' Monare ' was to
 
 158 A START FROM BENGUELLA 
 
 injure Kapoko. A very good and kind letter. The only fault 
 it had was it was behind time. For some reason or other 
 Kapoko declined his gracious help when I was in his country, 
 and did not prevent his headmen from molesting me. Now 
 he sends after me, a six days' journey, his declaration of 
 friendship."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 MOSIBE, Nov. 10th, 1885.— Rain all the morning, so 
 remain here another day and thankful I am for the 
 rest. Everything seems ready and the men are all 
 quiet and contented. 
 
 " Have begun to transcribe the language of the Garenganze 
 in one of Max Miiller's outline dictionaries and according to his 
 principles of using the English alphabet. My object is to get 
 an exact photograph of each word, and not in any way to decide 
 as to the alphabet proper for that language. First, I ^vrite the 
 words as I hear them from the natives of Garenganze who are 
 with me, in a pocket-book, and, after hearing them several 
 times, I carefully transfer them to the outline dictionary. 
 
 " In the evening I took an affectionate farewell of my friend 
 Mosibe. He gave me another ox to eat on my return journey. 
 
 " My men have made a general demand for a ' bundera,' so I 
 have unrolled the British ensign which a lad will carry. To 
 travel without a ' bundera ' means bad luck to them. 
 
 " Three companies of native traders have joined me. I feel 
 a thousand miles nearer to my destination than I did a few 
 weeks ago, showing, of course, how much I am a creature of 
 circumstances. 
 
 " Nov. 11th. — Got an early start this morning. Reached 
 Kazombo, a clump of villages, the last of the Valuimbe. The 
 population seems to be very scarce, and food only of the poorest 
 sort is to be had. There are many fine-looking people amongst 
 these Valuimbe, but they have been spoiled so by their wretched 
 Bihe neighbours that a line of sadness seems to have been 
 woven through them. Lofty foreheads, long serious-looking 
 faces, fantastically cut heads of hair, and sparse clothing are 
 points noticeable. 
 
 " Nov. 12th. — Pouring wet day and very cold, quite over- 
 powering after yesterday's heat. I was quite feverish all night. 
 
 169
 
 160 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 The reaction from strain of work during these last few days, 
 and the long walk under yesterday's glaring sun, have proved 
 a little too much for me. I remain here at Kazombo buying 
 food, as the report is that food is very scarce for 10 days ahead. 
 
 " I have just heard a report, which I have reason to believe 
 to be true, that the Matabele have arrived at the Barotse, 
 killing off the people by hundreds and that they have cleared 
 the country of cattle. 
 
 " Nov. ISth. — A very long day's journey to-day. Crossed 
 the Kulabe and Undumba rivers, and passed through a large 
 tract of deserted country with here and there the ruins of 
 villages. Much of the land had the appearance of having been 
 cultivated but a few years ago. My men tell me that the 
 Chibokwe, who used to live here, have all moved south to 
 virgin country. 
 
 " It is refreshing to meet with a case of hearty gratitude from 
 even one of those for whom one seeks to labour. A young man 
 travelling with my company has been lame for a long time 
 from a broken toe which would not heal. I have been dressing 
 it and doctoring it for three weeks every day, and at last it 
 shows signs of healing. He came to me to-day with his face 
 beaming with joy saying that at last he could walk, ' I have 
 nothing but myself to pay you with,' he said, with tears in his 
 eyes. 
 
 " Nov. IMh. — A long seven hours' journey. Crossed three 
 good-sized rivers unknown to map makers. Camped near the 
 head of the Yalowa. The country is well wooded and has 
 abundance of water, but uninhabited by either man or beast. 
 How the greed of other nations has scourged and stripped 
 Africa, as those silent hills declare ! 
 
 " Nov. IGth. — Passed through an interesting country in 
 regard to the river systems of Africa. In the early morning 
 passed the head of the Kutia flowing N.W. to the Kwanza. 
 An hour and a half later we reached the head of the Monyangwe 
 flowing N.E. to the Kassai and on to the Congo. Another 
 hour and a half and we reached the feeders of the Elume flow- 
 ing E. and S.E. to the Zambesi. We also encountered tremend- 
 ous showers of rain at this point, drenching everyone and nearly 
 everything. We trudged on for an hour in the storm. I shall 
 not soon forget tliis ' fountain of waters.' 
 
 " Nov. 18th. — Marched for eight hours through a country
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 161 
 
 bearing all the signs of having been at one time inhabited, but 
 now deserted. Was compelled to press on for want of food. 
 
 " Nov. 19th. — It was a pleasant sight to-day to see even 
 a few women in a field hoeing, and to hear their cry of welcome. 
 I managed to buy some bird-seed from some natives by the 
 roadside. In the evening we reached the Lumese River, all 
 very tired. I felt an unspeakable sense of thankfulness at 
 getting over this part of the journey. It has been so hungry 
 and so ghastly, for human bones and skulls were met with 
 every few hours' journey. 
 
 " Nov. 20th. — A short journey brought us to Peho. On the 
 map this place is marked with a dot and a circle round it. 
 It might be mistaken for a walled city, but on getting over 
 the hill I could find no trace of either town or village. There 
 was not even a garden or cultivated field to be seen. Could this 
 really be Peho ? My men proposed that we go up the valley 
 and camp close by the ' capital.' I went on confidently expect- 
 ing to see something. We camped, however, in thick bush. 
 About an hour after the chief. Soma Kalenge, came down 
 through the bushes. He is a young fellow about two-and- 
 twenty. He was drunk with honey beer. His followers were 
 all most disappointing in their appearance. 
 
 " I gave him 80 yards of cloth, and had to add to it a jacket, 
 a pair of trousers, a hat, a pair of shoes, and a lot of smaller 
 things. It was a case of give and get on, or refuse and remain 
 to starve, for scarce a bite of food could be got at any price. 
 Indeed the fellow made me quite nervous by his constant 
 begging, then demanding. He would pry into everything, sit 
 on my chair, take off my hat, feel my skin, let off my gun, and 
 a host of things. 
 
 " In the evening, hoping to find the chief sober, I went to 
 visit him. The ' capital ' I found to be a few scattered huts 
 in a wood. I do not suppose there were 20 people — men, Avomen 
 and children — in the whole place. The chief got a rickety old 
 chair out of a grass hut for me to sit on. It did not look as 
 if it had been sat on for many years. He gave me a goat, and 
 wanted to know to a day how long it would take him to learn 
 to read and write. He said that I must not think of leaving 
 to-morrow. I must give the blood of the goat, which he had 
 given me to slaughter, time to sink under the surface before I 
 could leave my camp, according to the custom of the Chibokwe. 
 
 L
 
 162 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 The only thing the chief had to show me in his town was his 
 ' three mothers.' He wanted me to show these my white arm. 
 The solemn way in which he declared that he was born of three 
 mothers completely upset me and I laughed out, at which he 
 looked quite doAMicast and said, ' Did I think he was an 
 ordinary person ? ' 
 
 " Nov. 21st. — The chief came to visit me again this morning, 
 and sat a weary two hours in my tent looking at everything. 
 Then began the begging. I managed to put him off until the 
 afternoon. He wants a box with lock and key, a suit of clothes 
 like mine, hat, boots, shirt, plates, a knife and fork, etc. etc. 
 We shall see ! 
 
 " In the evening he returned ; then began a long game of 
 try and pull — begging this, demanding that, exchanging this, 
 refusing some other thing, opening loads in perfect desperation 
 that I had never thought to open until my journey's end — 
 until I was completely used up. I felt every bit of patience and 
 good humour had entirely gone. Never did I meet with such a 
 miserable and trying crew. It seemed at times that they 
 would be pleased with nothing but all I had. Darkness, how- 
 ever, put an end to the fight. He professed to be satisfied after 
 getting 60 yards of cloth out of me, one of my jackets and 
 trousers, shirt, candles, tin fruit, and some powder from one 
 of my men, etc. He left, giving me abundant assurances of 
 his intention to return to-morrow. I had intended going by 
 the Luena road, but he would not permit me, saying I must 
 keep on Cameron's road. My men are uproarious about this, 
 saying ' No food there. We will never reach our destination.' 
 However, I have no alternative. I am no fighting man. I am 
 instructed to be subject to the powers that be. And these 
 Peho folk robbed a caravan a few weeks ago for some trivial 
 reason, and took over 60 teeth of ivory. I might take the 
 Luena road in spite of those here, and get clear off but I know 
 I could not return to Peho again in peace. I thank the Lord for 
 bringing me through this day in such quietness, in spite of myself 
 I may say. And I know that He will keep me all the days. 
 
 " Nov. 22nd.- — Very wet looking this morning. A shower of 
 rain fell as we were getting ready to start. It cleared a little, 
 and I felt justified in ordering a start. We had not gone far, 
 however, when the rain came down in sheets and continued 
 for about two hours. There was no help for it but to push on
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 163 
 
 to the nead of the Luena River, where we camped. There are 
 a few scattered huts here occupied by retainers of Peho, but 
 no food for sale save a few mushrooms and some manioc. After 
 all, rain and mud are better things to the traveller than hunger 
 and never-to-be-contented chiefs. 
 
 " Nov. 23rd. — Constant rain this morning so remain in camp. 
 My men are pretty nearly at their wits' end with hunger and 
 bad weather. 
 
 " Nov. 24<th. — A dark wet morning. I had hoped to remain 
 to-day again in camp, but the men would not hear of it, so 
 off we started and marched for more than three hours in a 
 drenching rain, and ^vith a cold east wind, down the Luena 
 River. ' Cold and rain -will not kill us,' the men said, ' but 
 hunger will. We must get to some place where there is food.' 
 Our course lay along the north bank of the Luena. The rain 
 cleared off towards midday when we had two hours of fair 
 weather which gave us time to cross the river and camp on its 
 east bank. 
 
 " Nov. 25th. — A long seven hours' steady march through 
 a virgin forest, i.e. one not annually swept by grass fires like 
 other parts of the country. It was most tortuous work, it 
 being impossible to step out of the deep, narrow path, as the 
 whole forest seemed to be covered by layer upon layer of fallen 
 trees and branches, all of which were woven together into one 
 woody mass by a long dense ferny moss. Camped at the head 
 of the Shemoi River where there is quite a number of people. 
 Mosiko, the chief, came to visit me. I gave him eight yards of 
 cloth, some salt and ten cartridges. In the evening a crowd 
 came along to the camp with drums and singing. They have 
 all the wild ways of my old interior friends. They are fond of 
 night dancing. 
 
 " Nov. 2Gth. — These people have danced and drummed and 
 sung all night until I have been nearly demented, yet to have 
 turned them off would have been a great incivility. This 
 morning I had to pay them four yards of cloth and 2 lb. of 
 salt for their pains in afflicting me. They gave me, however, 
 two pigs, a goat and some fowls. 
 
 " Nov. 27th. — A short but hot journey along the Shemoi 
 River brought us to camp at Boma's. During the first two 
 hours the road was lined with people. Nothing was to be seen 
 but trees and footpaths, but there were the people in crowds.
 
 164 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 So I had to suppose that their towns were close by and that 
 they had expected my coming. They were very civil and 
 evidently delighted by the shouting they made. They said 
 that a white man had never passed this way before, and that 
 I was the first they had ever seen. They had heard, however, 
 of Cameron passing to the north. As my face and hands are 
 something nearer bro^\^^ than white I had to show them my 
 arms. When I did so they all gave a shout ' Culungu ! ' (it is 
 God) and whooped and whooped. It was so deafening that I 
 was glad to whip on my ox and get off. 
 
 " In return for my eight yards, Boma sent me a good pig 
 (the third pork "within three days) and his people threatened 
 me with another night's serenading. I confess a cold sweat 
 broke over me at the very thought of it. Travelling all day 
 under such a sun (it is now at its hottest) gives one a splitting 
 headache relieved only by a night's sleep. But to have sun 
 by day and drums and singing all night would, I fear, put an 
 end to my earthly career. I sent a present of meat to the town 
 beseeching them not to come to the camp. 
 
 " Nov. 28th. — The musicians of Boma have shown them- 
 selves to be a worthy people. They contented themselves 
 Math coming only half-way to my camj^, and there they danced 
 and sang until morning. Extraordinary people ! They have 
 no capacity to contain a little extra excitement, but must 
 dance and drum it out. 
 
 " This morning I was escorted a long way on the road by 
 a band of children — ^laughing, singing, merry little ones ! 
 No sight so reminds me of home, and none is so touching. 
 
 " Crossed a wooded hill and camped by the Dala Cavala, 
 a large river which flows into the Luena. Here also there are 
 many people. They are more scattered and come from all 
 directions. Food is abundant and cheap : a young pig for 
 I yard of limbo and a fowl for two to three spoonfuls of salt. 
 The people are poorly clad but healthy-looking. 
 
 " Nov. 29th, Sunday. — Remained in camp. Four of my 
 men, who were buying wax yesterday, say they will remain 
 here and Mill lay down their loads. I simply told them that 
 if they would return they would have to go as they were with 
 only their clothes around them, and that I had no intention 
 of paying them for carrying my goods into the forest and 
 leaving them there. I also threatened to take their wax and
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 105 
 
 all they had from them, which I certainly had a right to do 
 and would have done. I further told them that on my return 
 to Bihe I would bring a charge against them. In this nearly 
 all the rest of the men supported me, and by evening they 
 had decided to take their loads and to go on quietly. 
 
 " I spent most of the afternoon reading and explaining, as 
 best I could, passages of Scripture in Portuguese to the two 
 mulattoes who are with me. They in turn explained to my 
 carriers, who told all over again to the crowd of aboriginals 
 around. 
 
 " Nov. 30th. — Early this morning we again reached the 
 Luena River, now quite a large stream, and had much trouble 
 in getting the goods across by a roughly-made bridge, half sunk 
 in the river. I took my ox further up to clear water, and drove 
 him across, and then rolling my clothes, hke a great turban, 
 round my head, I swam after him. 
 
 " We had not gone far on the other side when a company 
 met us vnth drums and a goat tied, asking me to camp by their 
 town. I gave Sumbula, the chief, eight yards, a little salt and 
 ten cartridges. In the evening he came along to my camp 
 with some meal and entreated me to remain to-morrow and 
 eat an ox with him. I tried all I could to avoid this as it would 
 mean my giving more cloth, but he was not to be beaten off. 
 He used every argument he could, saying were I but to eat his 
 ox all the people round would know him to be a liberal and a 
 great chief, and a friend of the white man. He urged me not 
 to think of what I would have to pay him, upon which he 
 lifted a twig and broke it throwing a part over each shoulder, 
 their mode of giving a receipt for debt, implying that the 
 ox he gave me was bought and paid for. To refuse after this 
 would be far from wise, so I agreed to eat the ox. Sumbula 
 spent the afternoon with me, and was very pleased to talk 
 as long as I liked. I gave him a hat and a dress of print-cloth 
 as a token of our friendship, and he gave a guide to take us, 
 by a shorter route, to the next camp. 
 
 " I sat up until late writing out my diary for mother, as sleep 
 was impossible on account of five drums and 30 lusty voices 
 serenading. 
 
 " Dec. 1st, 1885. — Feehng far from fresh this morning, and 
 certainly very unequal to my task of eating an ox. The sound 
 of drums is in every chamber of my brain.
 
 166 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 " Dec. 2nd. — Arrived at the head of the Chonga River. 
 Here there were many villages, and a perfect crowd of people 
 came to the camp. The pressing and crowding until late at 
 night to get a look at the white man was somewhat trying ; 
 they meant well, so I had no option but to take it patiently 
 and all in good part. These people have been away in the 
 Lunda country raiding, and have been completely beaten. 
 They are coming back in twos and threes with nothing but 
 sticks in their hands. Many have been killed. All about they 
 are much downcast and fear more evil awaits them, as with 
 an African one evil leads to another. I took the opportunity 
 of pointing out to a circle of natives around my tent the 
 miserable hves they lived because they had so many things 
 to trust in and so many things to fear. I told them of the 
 perfect contentment and peace I enjoyed because I trusted 
 only in God, and counted all other things as nothing. The 
 exclamation came in reply from every lip : ' But how can we 
 do so when we do not know God ? ' 
 
 " Dec. 3rd. — Reached the capital of the Kangombe to-day. 
 The Chibokwe country is passed, and I am now in the Lovale, 
 i.e. ' The Flats.' The Balovale (people of the fiats) are in many 
 respects superior to the Bachokwe, in the sense that they make 
 better inhabitants of a country, being less given to wandering. 
 I am amused to see how fond they are of singing-birds ; these 
 have a regular current value among them, and their neatly- 
 made cages are to be seen hanging about all their %dllages. I 
 notice here, close by my camp, that they have made a large 
 fish dam. I have never before seen natives, untaught by 
 whites, dam a river for any purpose. Kangombe is quite a 
 powerful man. His fame has spread far. 
 
 " Dec. Uh. — Remained in camp. Kangombe came to see 
 me ; a very small - looking man indeed, who seemed quite 
 afraid to come into my tent, and wanted to sit down on the 
 ground. I gave him my chair, but that was another difiEiculty 
 for him. How was he to sit on it ? At last he ventured side- 
 ways on the furthest corner of it, looking suspiciously at the 
 back of the chair. He never asked for anything, but kept 
 looking about him, and then at me, with a pair of eyes like 
 needles for sharpness. He was sorry I could only remain with 
 him one day, and gave me a goat as a present. 
 
 " Dec. 6th. — There is a company of Garenganze, I am told,
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 167 
 
 camped a few days from here. They are in distress. Some 
 Bihe traders have been stirring up the Balovale to rob them in 
 payment for goods of theirs lost in the interior. 
 
 " Dec. 7th. — The man in charge of the Garenganze caravan 
 has come on to me in great distress saying that he and his 
 companions are beset by Biheans, who threaten to rob them 
 if not to kill them. The camp of Biheans we passed yesterday 
 are active in this affair. Some six teeth have already been 
 paid by the Garenganze. This man in charge is only too anxious 
 to get rid of his ivory and to return with me. They are at a 
 loss to know what to do. I cannot advise them. I say if they 
 want to return they can go with me, but that if they Avant 
 to go on I can say nothing. I know that the chief of Bihe will 
 not rob them, whatever his people may do outside of his 
 country enraged with losses in the interior. 
 
 " Dec. 8th. — At the request of the leader of the Garenganze 
 caravan I remain in camp again to-day. They have, however, 
 decided to go on to Bihe, as to return to their country would 
 mark them as cowards. The leader, a son of Msidi, the Garen- 
 ganze chief, asked me to sell him some cloth to buy provision.^ 
 with on the road. He said his father would most surely pay 
 me. I gave him some cloth, a little powder, and a gun which 
 one of my men was carrying. 
 
 " Dec. 9th. — Was not much surprised to find this morning 
 that four of my men had run off during the night. At first I 
 thought there was no help for it but to leave the loads here. 
 However, after a little delay men were found willing to carry 
 the loads on to the border of the Lunda country. 
 
 " We camped by the Lumese River. My men are crying 
 ' hunger ' and want me to dispense rations here six days short 
 of the regular place for receiving the same. I do not feel at 
 liberty to pay them. It is not a case of getting along at any 
 cost. After much talking and loud threatening, a little too 
 loud to be fulfilled, 10 more carriers packed up and started 
 for the road by which they had come. I made no compromise 
 whatever with them and was fully prepared to remain here, 
 and began looking about to see what sort of building material 
 the country possessed. My men, however, have thought better 
 of it as they have returned by another road to camp, all except 
 the four who left last night. 
 
 " Dec. lOlh. — Crossed the Lumese River this morning on
 
 168 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 a wooden bridge and entered upon a flat, thinly wooded land. 
 We are now nearly at the end of the Lovale country proper 
 although many of the Balovale wiU be met with in the Lunda 
 country on ahead. Women chiefs are very plentiful among 
 these people. Every little district has its male and female 
 chief Uving in different villages, often brother and sister or 
 mother and son. There is not much difference seemingly 
 between the sexes among the Lovale as to liberty, work, etc. 
 Men, working in the fields, are as common a sight as women. 
 Women also come about camp on business of their own, such 
 as selling wax, etc., without appearing to be in subjection to 
 anyone. Indeed they are rather too free and too much at 
 liberty, I think, considering the low moral condition of 
 themselves and of the tribes around. 
 
 " The Lovale people seem to be much given to music and 
 night dancing. Every day my camp is beset more or less \vith 
 musicians, fiddlers, singers and comic dancers. Singing-birds 
 are to be seen in all their \dllages. 
 
 " The appearance of their villages seems to be quite in keep- 
 ing with their light-headed ways. A few grass huts (often 
 neatly built and ornamented) scattered round a large tree 
 in the bush. Little is done in the way of clearing, and often 
 the grass and weeds of the forest nearly overtop the houses so 
 that they appear to one approaching like so many beehives. 
 
 " The custom of selling their own children (a practice, the 
 traders tell me, peculiar to the Balovale) is now nearly extinct, 
 but is quite in keeping with the temperament of the people. 
 
 " The Balovale are faithful practisers of circumcision, and 
 the rite, I am told, is gone through Math much ceremony. 
 
 " Dec. 11th. — A short journey brought us to the border of 
 the Kifumadshe Flat (there is no lake as marked in the map). 
 The river of this name rises in the centre of a flat, flooded and 
 impassable from January to April or May ; it could not even 
 be called a marsh, as the ground here is sandy and firm, "with 
 grass and trees growing upon a host of mounds made by ants. 
 I went out in the afternoon to try and get some meat for my 
 men, and shot an antelope. My men look on this as a good 
 omen for the journey on ahead, as every day now game 
 increases. 
 
 " Dec. 12th. — Rain this morning ; remain in camp. Every 
 day now lost \^'ill tell on us crossing this flat as it is rapidly
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 169 
 
 filling with water, and in a very short time will be quite 
 impassable. 
 
 " Dec. ISth. — Another wet, threatening morning. After a 
 little palaver and delay, however, I decided to start. To get 
 away from the habitable parts of the earth was, I confess, 
 a strong inducement, as I am exhausted with the begging of 
 the people. Every few miles, and there is a little chieftain to 
 be pacified \Ndth a gift. It is most amusing to see the airs of 
 greatness they choose to put on. One man may have under 
 him a few villages containing in all perhaps 100 souls, and a 
 few pigs, and he calls himself a king and will not listen to any 
 reasonable talk, and will keep my men trotting backwards and 
 forwards between my camp and his capital (?) a whole day 
 with bits of presents and talk. No matter how much or how 
 little I choose to give at the first th: dignity of such kings 
 is not satisfied with less than a ' three times giving.' 
 
 " The first few hours in the flat were most fatiguing, wading 
 in water up to the knees. Further on the ground was firmer. 
 About midday we camped, choosing a clump of mounds 
 formed by colonies of termites, each mound being large enough 
 to contain three small grass huts, or rather shelters. I pitched 
 my tent on one. Thus my tent was scattered over something 
 like a square mile of marsh. Though the water around me is 
 knee deep, I feel quite snug in my tent on this dry spot. 
 
 " Dec. lUh. — Six long hours of one continual wade brought 
 us again to camp in the midst of water. I managed to pitch 
 my tent on a clump of small tufts or clods. And by a skilful 
 placing of my chair and cot bed in such a way so that each foot 
 got a clod to rest on, I managed to keep above water. 
 
 " Dec. 16th. — Crossed the Kifumadshe River and camped 
 quite late. Here my men began to misbehave to the best of 
 their ability, laying down their loads, demanding more rations, 
 then meat : ' Meat, Monare, give us meat ; why don't you 
 hunt ? you are starving us.' I lifted my gun to go. I was, 
 I must confess, sadly out of temper, and kept scolding them 
 while I was tugging the cover off my gun, when it suddenly 
 went off, shattering the point of my left forefinger. There was 
 no one who could dress a wound, so I thought the cleanest and 
 safest way would be to cut off the top joint of the finger. I got 
 a lancet out of my case, and my man, Kasoma, cut according 
 to my directions. This effectually cooled my anger ; indeed,
 
 170 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 I was compelled to rejoice at the mercy of God. Two verses 
 came forcibly to my mind : ' You only have I known of all the 
 families of the earth : therefore I will punish you for all your 
 iniquities ' ; and ' the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh 
 not His saints.' I have given way time after time lately to 
 fits of temper, with no one by to rebuke me. I acknowledge 
 His great goodness and pity towards me in thus rebuking me. 
 My men cannot understand my joy. 
 
 " Dec. 17th. — Slept nearly all night. Arose once or twice 
 to bathe my hand. Started early this morning. My finger 
 shows signs of healing up rapidly. No swelling or pain beyond 
 the injured part. This accident has effectually calmed down 
 my men, for the present at least. Not a word about more 
 rations, heavy loads, etc., but all are doing their best to please 
 me, bringing wild fruit to me and standing round with long faces. 
 Happily they acknowledge that it was chiefly because of their 
 troubling yesterday that I got ' mad ' and shot off my finger. 
 
 " Dec. 18th. — Remained here so that my men might lay 
 in a stock of fish. 
 
 " Dec. 19th. — A short journey along the Lutembwa brought 
 us to another small chief. Being a relative of Katema's, he 
 would have me remain next day, which I did to my sorrow. 
 All forenoon was spent in holding out against his demands. 
 I had given him eight yards of cloth, for which he gave me a 
 goat, and then wanted more cloth, a jacket, etc. After four 
 or five hours of this work I began to doze in my chair, and the 
 chief rose and left ; he sent his man in the morning, however, to 
 ask for more. I could but refuse and tell the man to go home. 
 
 " Dec. 20th. — Delayed this morning waiting on a guide as 
 the chief did not turn up according to his promise. We marched 
 a few hours along the Lutembwa and camped at Kapwita. In 
 the afternoon chief No. 1 turned up, with his little stool, 
 retinue, etc. He had brought a goat and some meal. I paid 
 him six yards. A little later chief No. 2 came along. He 
 was a ' big man,' and every one who had come to the camp 
 declared that he was their chief. I gave him the usual tribute, 
 regretting only my liberality to the former ' pretender.' To- 
 wards evening, however, another lot came along from Kapwita, 
 the ' true chief,' the ' great chief.' At this my indignation 
 began to come out. ' Three chiefs for the one camp ! ' Never ! 
 I would not hear of it. After much discussion and quarrelling
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 171 
 
 between my men and the people, I had to fork out again eight 
 yards to No. 3, whom I have no doubt is the real chief of 
 the place, if chief there be. But the whole thing was cleverly 
 planned. No device is forgotten or opportunity lost to delay 
 and fleece me. 
 
 " In spite of their troublesome ways there is much about 
 these Balunda I like. Their villages are kept clean and they 
 have good gardens, and the men work in the fields as well as 
 the women. They seem to be more ' religious ' than their 
 neighbours. One sees continually in the forests small clearings 
 about the trunk of some immense tree, with a double rail 
 round, and some ' fetish thing ' in front, in the shape of a horn 
 or image, and there the people come to offer to their forefathers. 
 Many fetish huts are also to be seen in their villages. 
 
 " Dec. 2l5^. — Kapwita came along this morning very early 
 with a whole crowd. He was not pleased with his tribute 
 and came to return it. I refused to take it back and after a 
 little talk I gave him two yards more and got off out of camp. 
 Our road lay at once across the Lutembwa valley. Nearly all 
 the way the water was waist deep. A beautiful mangrove- 
 like forest lay midway, also submerged in water. Each immense 
 tree had a fern-covered clump at its roots, and in some places 
 the branches and forest creepers were festooned with long 
 lichen-like moss of a pale transparent colour, streaming down 
 in icicle-like prongs touching the glistening water, and con- 
 trasting beautifully mth the deep emerald-green moss in the 
 water. When we came to one open spot like a lagoon, thus 
 decked all round, I thought, in the clear morning light, it was 
 a place of the most delicate and delightful scenery I had yet 
 seen. 
 
 " Reached old Katema early in the day. I am glad to say 
 there is a ' chief ' here. 
 
 " Dec. 22nd. — This morning Katema sent me a present of 
 a woman slave with infant in arms — a pitiful sight. The chief's 
 messengers said that food was to follow, but that Katema 
 could not give to a white man a present of food only. I asked 
 them as a favour to take the woman back ; and if they would 
 only send her to her own village and among her own people, 
 and never think of giving her away again to strangers, I should 
 be more than pleased. The chief, however, did not quite under- 
 stand my message, and thought I had refused the slave
 
 172 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 because she was full grown, and so he sent back word that 
 to-morrow he would send me a young boy or girl. Though 
 suffering a good deal from my finger, which was ulcerating, I 
 determined to go to his village and explain the matter. I 
 found he was a good-looking man. He knew Livingstone and 
 was sorry to hear of his death. He was quite satisfied mth 
 my explanation about the slave. We parted the best of friends. 
 I call him a coloured gentleman. I am sorry I cannot spend 
 more time with him, but I am hastening to Nana Kandundu, 
 where I hope to get a little rest, and where many of my 
 men, I hear, intend to leave me. I have some most trouble- 
 some men in my camp, who are never, never satisfied. Still 
 I rejoice in the opportunity of learning to bear patiently 
 even with such. They compel me daily to walk by the river of 
 my God. 
 
 " Dec. 2Mh. — The grumbling of yesterday has broken out 
 in quite a storm this morning. ' More rations ! ' ' Starva- 
 tion ! ' ' We cannot carry further.' I know some of my men 
 are rather short of food. But certainly it is their OAvn fault. 
 Nearly all the cloth I divided amongst them at the Lumese 
 has been spent for vicious purposes. A band this morning 
 have gone through the camp, threatening to belabour with 
 leather thongs the first to lift his load. I left the matter 
 entirely in the Master's hands, being assured that if Matema 
 was the place to which He had sent me, He would not allow 
 me to go further. So I withdrew from the camp, never dreaming 
 that a march could be made to-day. While sitting on a log 
 I suddenly saw a general move among the men ; they came 
 out, one after another, and went off, scarcely saying a word. 
 The truth was, the camp was literally alive with ' army ants,' 
 which came rushing in from all directions ; and anyone who 
 knows anything about the African ant will at once understand 
 why my carriers turned out so speedily. 
 
 " We made a good day's journej'^, crossing two flooded rivers. 
 The first one I crossed on the back of my ox and he swam 
 bravely. At the second a boat was waiting. I got in and 
 crossed, and had scarce got on the other side when my ox of 
 his own accord sprang in and swam after me. We camped by 
 a few fishermen's huts, basking under the sublime name of 
 Kalilangumbu. Neither I nor my men seemed to understand 
 very well how we managed to get here, yesterday and this
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 178 
 
 morning having been spent in giving and hearing loud declara- 
 tions that we never should. My men have gone about their 
 hut building without a word, and seem to be rather bashful. 
 They will break out, however, as evening falls. The light of 
 the sun is not in keeping %\-ith their meanness. And all this 
 fighting and troubling is simply to prepare me for a general 
 desertion at Nana Kandundu (now kno^vTl as Kavungu). 
 
 " Some Bihe traders have been murdered by the natives 
 of the Lualaba (not \\ithout reason) and this has softened the 
 hearts of most of my men. 
 
 " In the evening I called my men together, intending to 
 give them rations. They, however, could not agree together 
 and kept scolding each other. At last I packed up my cloth 
 and all went to their huts again. 
 
 " Dec. 25//i. — Started this morning without any delay. 
 Passed through a beautiful piece of country. The path was 
 lined with branching palms and tropical plants. The road, 
 however, suddenly turned and led through a series of black 
 slime-holes. The contrast was worthy of a description from the 
 pen of a Bunyan. We camped at Nambanja. 
 
 " I paid my men one yard each to keep their pots going until 
 Nana Kandundu. They discussed the matter a while, and see- 
 ing I was determined to give no more took the cloth. I hope 
 that this will be the last of this troubling. At Nana Kandundu 
 it \vill be a case either of go or leave me. My goods I can leave 
 vnth. the chief there and go on to the Garenganze with few men 
 and send back for my loads. 
 
 " Dec. 2Gth. — A long day's journey brought us to Katonge. 
 Here the hills on the east side of the Zambesi are in sight. 
 My brave men, having ceased for the time to quarrel with me, 
 have been letting out their spleen one against another. On 
 the road they had two free fights \nth sticks. Then they fell 
 on the Garenganze men who are with me, and took a gun from 
 them. 
 
 " Dec. 27th. — Remained in camp this morning to settle the 
 dispute. My men say that their fellows were robbed some 
 time ago by men from the interior, that the Garenganze came 
 from the interior, and therefore they must now pay them for 
 their fellows' loss. I paid 12 yards of calico to get back the 
 gun, seeing it was useless to dispute with people bent on 
 robbery.
 
 174 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 " Dec. 2Sth. — Another quarrel this morning between my 
 men and the people of the country. A little dog in the camp 
 was ill and vomited, and a native, who had come to sell meal, 
 sat down beside the dog, and some of the vomit came on his 
 arm. We all declared it was his o^vn fault, and would not pay 
 for this offence ; so he and his friends waylaid us on the road, 
 caught a straggler, and took his gun from him. 
 
 " We camped on the east bank of the Luvua, a large river 
 flowing into the Zambesi. 
 
 " Dec. SOth. — A long march to-day brought us to Nana 
 Kandundu's town. Towards the end of the journey I began 
 to stoop as usual, and when I got into camp I was down ; 
 liver giving me great pain, being much swollen. 
 
 " Dec. 31st. — Was unable to get up to-day, and could not 
 pay off the few men. How many, or rather how few, will go 
 on with me is very uncertain. Nana Kandundu came to visit 
 me. She is a smart-looking, elderly woman, and seemingly 
 quite equal to her position. 
 
 " Jan. 1st, 1886. — This morning I called my men together 
 to give them rations, and to know who would journey further 
 and who would not. I discovered that eight were willing to 
 go on ; the rest wished to return from here. I said, ' All 
 right ! ' and gave them their rations. 
 
 " Jan. 2nd. — Busy packing and making ready, as the few 
 men I have left may change their minds if I delay long here. 
 
 " Jan. Srd. — Three more carriers have withdrawn to-day. 
 
 " Paid a visit to the chief tainess, and arranged with her 
 about leaving some of my loads. She promised to take every 
 care of them. 
 
 " On returning to camp in the evening I was distressed to 
 find my men negotiating with some wild Balunda for a woman 
 slave and child (a little boy of five or six years). The woman 
 had been bargained for, but the price of the child was disputed. 
 At last the Balunda said they would not sell the child, and were 
 pulling him out of the arms of his mother, who was clutching 
 him frantically. At this I interfered, and stopped the pro- 
 ceedings. They took the hint ; for before I had time to look 
 round me, they snatched up their cloth, including the price 
 offered for the child, and cleared away from the camp. This 
 slave buying is a wretched business. I am utterly powerless 
 to interfere in the matter. It is seldom, however, that they
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 175 
 
 purchase in camp ; they usually go off to the villages to do 
 this. Many of the Bihe traders say that they would rather 
 have slaves than ivory. Every caravan we pass has strings 
 of slaves. 
 
 " Jan. 5th. — 111 this morning with swollen spleen. In bed 
 nearty all day. 
 
 " Jan. 6th. — Much better. Have sent 15 loads to Nana's 
 village, and am preparing to start to-morrow. 
 
 " Jan. 8th. — Started this morning in fair style with eight 
 brave carriers for the 15 days' long march to the Lualaba — a 
 risky journey to undertake, as we shall meet wth no food by 
 the way except that which I may procure with my gun. For 
 my part I am glad to be off, as I have been suffering the whole 
 time at Nana Kandundu from my old Zambesi remittent fever, 
 which shows me clearly that anywhere near the Zambesi 
 is not the place for me. Marched for six hours ; camped at 
 Kamisambu by the Loungashi. 
 
 " Jan. lOth. — Marched for eight hours through beautiful 
 country, more tropical-looking than any other part of Africa 
 I have been in. Small rivers without number. During the 
 day we were overtaken by several tremendous showers of rain, 
 soaking everyone and everything thoroughly. I got into camp 
 at Maringa, feeling so cold that I was sure an attack of fever 
 awaited me ; but a big fire, a dose of quinine, and a cup of hot 
 tea brought me round. 
 
 " Jan. 11th. — Made a late start this morning. Had some 
 trouble in arranging my carriers' loads. They were all over- 
 laden with meal, and blamed my loads for breaking their 
 backs. Crossed the Luake River, a large and rapid stream, but 
 with much trouble, as there was a cataract at this point. 
 
 " Jan. 12th. — Reached Sacindonga early this morning. Here 
 I met with a few wandering Balunda, but the country is practi- 
 cally desolate. Remains of former towns and large cultivated 
 fields, now all weeds, exist on all sides. War parties from 
 the Lovale, led chiefly by Kangombe, have wrought these 
 devastations. 
 
 " Jan. ISth. — Remain in camp this morning, as one of my 
 carriers is ill, and the rest go off foraging for food in villages 
 some distance away. 
 
 " Jan. lUh. — Marched this morning until midday. Camped 
 at a place called Tambwe. No signs of inhabitants anywhere.
 
 176 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 " Jan. 15th. — A toilsome day's journey. We lost our way, 
 and wandered for some hours before getting back to the path 
 again. Reached camp about four in the afternoon. 
 
 " Jan. IQth. — Pushed on and made two ordinary days' 
 journey in one, reaching a camp very late, but only to find it 
 occupied by a company of Bihe traders from the Garenganze. 
 They say I am now within sixteen days' journey of my destina- 
 tion — most welcome news. 
 
 " Jan. 17th. — In camp to-day. Men have gone off to the 
 Zambesi River, which is quite near, to buy food. We are 
 all very tired and glad of the rest. 
 
 " Jan. Idth. — This morning I gave up my ox to a lad in the 
 company, who had been bought by one of my men at Nana 
 Kandundu, and could not walk further. The carriers could not 
 well understand my doing so, as the white men to whom they 
 are accustomed generally advocate in such cases leaving the 
 poor wretches to perish by the roadside. Reached the ill-famed 
 camping place of ' Olohosi ' in the afternoon. The name means 
 ' The Lions.' There are many stories about natives camping 
 here and being seized while asleep and carried off by lions. An 
 extra barricade was built round the camp with great pains. 
 A house had to be made for my ox, and every precaution was 
 taken by my credulous crew, so that the lions had little pros- 
 pect of supping at our expense that night, though many of 
 the more ' daring ' of our number thought they heard the 
 monsters roaring at a distance during the night. I think that 
 they have long since taken their departure from Olohosi, as, 
 judging from the number of barricades, other passing travellers 
 seem to have been as much on their guard against affording 
 the lions a meal as we were. 
 
 " Jan. 20th. — My men were longer getting astir this morning 
 than usual. We generally start about the time of the ' cooing of 
 the pigeons,' but we did not this morning until ' the dew was 
 dry.' Crossed the Lokoshe River, about 20 j^ards wde here. 
 It flows into the Luburi, which empties itself into the Lualaba, 
 so that I am now within the lines of the Congo Free State, and 
 am doubtless the first white man to cross its southern frontier. 
 
 " Jan. 21st. — We have now been 12 days in this hungry 
 country. The few beans we were able to bring from Sacindonga 
 did not last long, and our sacks of cassava meal, bought at 
 Nana Kandundu, are almost finished. I had hoped to have
 
 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 177 
 
 shot some game, but nothing is to be seen, not even the spoor 
 of any. We were therefore forced to press on without losing 
 any time. The bodies of two natives by the roadside, who had 
 evidently died of hunger, certainly did not encourage us, 
 though it was a warning for my men to take longer marches. 
 
 " Jan. 22nd. — Crossed the Luburi this morning — a heavy 
 stream, 35 feet wide — upon a fairly good bridge. Camped at 
 Kapa. Our food being now used up, all the carriers started 
 off, as soon as we got into camp, for some Samba villages 
 reported to be further down the Luburi. 
 
 " Jan. 23rd. — Men returned with only a few cassava roots. 
 We crossed the Lufupa River about midday, and camped at 
 dusk. We had scarcely made a shelter for the goods when the 
 rain came down in sheets. The night was pitch dark ; there 
 was nothing but forest all round ; everyone was tired out, and 
 we had no shelter. We managed, however, to go to sleep, 
 and to forget our hunger and destitution. 
 
 " Just as I was dropping off, I heard a prolonged ominous 
 rustle among the dank grass and leaves that made my litter. 
 I suspected that a snake, roused by the warmth of my body, 
 was drawing closer. As soon as I awoke in the morning, I 
 remembered my bedmate, and with one spring, cleared both 
 bed and bedding. Then -with the help of my boys I fished my 
 rugs away, and after beating around with long sticks, out 
 wriggled a deadly black mamba, some six feet long, which we 
 quickly despatched. 
 
 " Jan. 24!th. — Men all gone off in search of Samba villages. 
 I started on ahead with one to look for game, following a long 
 while on the track of a zebra, encouraged by its fresh foot- 
 prints ; but as they led across a marsh I gave up, and went 
 towards our next camping place. When crossing a small flat 
 I saw four pigs in the distance. Creeping up on all fours I 
 managed to get within 120 yards of them, when they saw me 
 and prepared to clear off. As one young hog turned to take 
 another look at me, I took aim and fired. The lead entered his 
 breast and traversed the whole body. The old hog turned 
 back in a great rage to look after his fellow, when another 
 bullet from my gun pierced his two shoulders, and he lay down 
 with his head resting on the other. They were both of the 
 wart-hog species ; the old one, a splendid animal weighing 
 over 200 lb., and having tusks a foot in length. Thus the Lord
 
 178 IN NEED OF PATIENCE 
 
 delivered me and my men from sinking from sheer hunger ; 
 for we had nothing to eat. When my men came along I had 
 the greatest difficulty in keeping them off the meat ; some 
 were tearing it and eating it raw like wolv^es. 
 
 " The country here is very beautiful, the forest not so 
 dense, and the hills high and richly clad to the tops. Though 
 this is the hottest time of the year the nights are quite cold. 
 I never sleep without a fire in my hut, though I have blankets 
 enough. During the day a cool breeze is always blowing. I 
 presume the altitude is considerable. 
 
 " Jan. 25th. — Marched but a short way. I shall not soon 
 forget the hearty expressions the men threw out one to the 
 other as they marched along in Indian file this morning. ' Don't 
 you remember what things we said of the white man and his 
 God ? What names we called them ! But the white man's 
 God has not only been with us, but has filled our bellies with 
 pig meat.' And so their eyes were not closed ; they were 
 willing to acknowledge that God had fed them. Kasoma's 
 wife is taken seriously ill. How she is to be got along I know 
 not. 
 
 " Jan. 26th. — ^Made another short march to the Muilo 
 copper mines. Some of the men have gone back to carry 
 Kasoma's wife in a hammock. 
 
 " Jan. 21th. — Remained in camp. Men gone off in search 
 of food. 
 
 " Jan. 28th. — Started this morning early with two of my 
 men to look for game ; had gone but a short way when I saw 
 that, up a valley, some animals were moving about in the long 
 grass. Taking a round through the bush with one of my men 
 I got up, by dint of careful stalking, close to the animals, when, 
 to my surprise, I found myself in front of five full-grown 
 leopards. I refrained from shooting, as their flesh could not 
 have been of use, and I have no licence to fight with wild 
 animals. Four of the leopards cantered off at first sight of me ; 
 the old one remained, and seemed as if he would attack me, 
 swinging his tail about and crouching. I kept my ground 
 calmly, about 20 yards from him, with my rifle cocked. As 
 soon, however, as he saw his four relatives off at a safe distance, 
 he trotted slowly after them, then broke into a canter. Got 
 into camp, late and tired. Kasoma's \vife is riding on my ox 
 to-day ; it is the ambulance animal of the company."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 " TAN. 29th, 1886 — Crossing a hill this morning we came in 
 
 / full sight of the valley of the Lualaba — a beautiful view 
 •^ indeed. An hour's journey along the bank of the river 
 brought us to the ferry. We were all taken over without 
 delay, and at length I set foot on Garenganze soil. Mangala, 
 the chief of the ferry, received me well, cooking some food for 
 me, and showing real hospitality. The appearance of this 
 man, and of his village, favourably impress me in view of my 
 future stay in this country. 
 
 " Jan. SOth. — Rested to-day. A hunter brought in the meat 
 of a buffalo, so we have food enough. A relative of Msidi sent 
 a large basket of beans, and having also bought some onions, I 
 managed with the help of Dick to prepare quite a sumptuous 
 feast. 
 
 " This afternoon we were saddened by the death of Kasoma's 
 wife. News has also come in of the killing of Kazembe, of Lake 
 Mweru, a chief who has long been a sworn enemy of Msidi, and 
 who till lately was wandering at large with a few followers, and 
 hunted by the Garenganze. 
 
 " Kasoma's wife was buried. My men went through the 
 usual ceremony of questioning the corpse as to the cause of 
 death. The answer was that a female slave, long since dead, had 
 come to take her, because at the slave's death no drums were 
 beaten. This reply was made out from the varied jerkings of 
 the pole to which the corpse was tied, and which was borne on 
 the shoulders of two men. 
 
 " Feb. 2nd, 1886. — Reached Moelo's town. All were delighted 
 when we came to fields of corn and abundance of food ; a 
 very pleasant sight after so many days of hunger while passing 
 through a deserted country. 
 
 " Feb. 3rd. — Remained in camp ; my men eating to their 
 
 179
 
 180 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 hearts' content. Moelo sent me three baskets of corn and half 
 a wild hog. 
 
 " Feb. Uh. — Marched to-day through beautifully hilly 
 country. Camped in a hollow surrounded by steep hills, within 
 two hours' march of Molenga's old town. I had sent a man on 
 ahead yesterday to advise Molenga of my coming, as is the 
 custom. To my surprise I had not been in camp more than ten 
 minutes when people came to meet me, carrying loads of food : 
 maize corn, pumpkins, fresh beans, all cooked, and a load of 
 corn besides. 
 
 " Feb. 5th. — Arrived at Molenga's old town ; he has built 
 another, an hour's journey further on. He sent a headman to 
 greet me, and in the evening his three drummers came to escort 
 us on our visit to him on the morrow. Molenga is the second 
 man in the Garenganze kingdom, captain of the forces, etc. 
 
 " Feb. 6th. — Scarcely had we reached Molenga's this morning 
 and built our camp when the chief's present arrived : a tooth of 
 ivory (about 30 lb.), a good fat goat, and 29 loads of corn — 
 enough to disconcert me ; for I had only given him as yet eight 
 yards of calico. My first thought was to return the ivory, but 
 all protested loudly against my doing so, saying I could not 
 offer Molenga a greater insult. I went to greet the chief with 
 nothing in my hand, and was welcomed most warmly. He rose 
 and gave me his seat, saying again and again how glad he 
 was to see me and how welcome I was to the Garenganze 
 country. 
 
 " Feb. 7th. — Sent Molenga this morning a present of a small 
 keg of powder, some cloth and a blanket, nothing hke the value 
 of the ivory and food he gave me. Still he seems to be quite 
 satisfied, saying it is I, and not my goods, that they welcome. 
 
 " Feb. Sth. — Upon going up to the chief's house this morning 
 I was surprised to find none but women about the place. The 
 natural conclusion was that the men were all away hunting ; 
 but no, they were all off in the fields with Molenga. Taking 
 the paths to the fields I found Molenga in the midst of a con- 
 siderable clearing, directing 25 stalwart men, with long-handled 
 hoes, which they were using in fine style, hoeing to the beat of 
 a drum. It was what might be called a healthy sight. I sat 
 down and talked awhile with the chief. In a short time women 
 came with baskets of roasted corn for the hoers' breakfast. They 
 tell me that it is the regular custom in this country for the men
 
 IN GARENGANZE 181 
 
 to do all the heavy work of tilling, and the women to do the 
 after work of clearing, etc., with light, short-handled hoes. 
 
 " Feb. 9th. — Marched again this morning, and camped at 
 Kalasa's to^vn, on the east bank of the Lukuruwe River. Some 
 messengers came into camp, sent by Msidi to overtake a com- 
 pany of his men, bound for Bihe, whom we met yesterday. It 
 seems that one of the company, while stealing food in a field, 
 killed a man who was attempting to defend his corn. On 
 hearing of this Msidi sent to stop the men ; not so much that 
 the murderer might be punished as that certain rites might 
 be performed to remove the stain of innocent blood. Other- 
 wise some disaster might have befallen the party. 
 
 " Feb. lOth. — A toilsome m.arch through beautiful hills. To 
 the south lay the Sombwe Hill and others beyond, in which are 
 the inhabited caves which Livingstone was on his way to visit 
 when death overtook him on the south of Lake Bangweolo. 
 
 " Feb. nth. — A long tramp over very rough mountain 
 country brought us to Uleya, only one day's journey from 
 our destination. 
 
 " Feb. 12th. — Remain here and send on Kasoma with letter 
 to Msidi and 24 yards of cloth. And now as I draw near to the 
 capital of the great chief, and hear from the villages along the 
 route of the extra tall, well-sharpened stake that Msidi has in 
 the middle of his courtyard on which to place the head of the 
 first white man who comes into the country to spy out his store- 
 houses of ivory and mountains of copper, I confess to many 
 anxious days and nights of prayer. 
 
 " Feb. I3th. — Marched to Kungofo. Towards the end of the 
 journey the road lay through wxll-tillcd gardens for three miles. 
 A frightful storm came down shortly after we had camped and 
 threatened to swamp everything. The cooking business was 
 paralysed ; we had to go to bed with what supper could other- 
 wise be provided. My man, Kasoma, returned from Msidi with 
 a small tooth of very white ivory to indicate how white the king's 
 heart was towards me, and with many messages of satisfaction. 
 
 " Feb. I'ith. — A short journey brought us close to the capital. 
 I was sho^vn a hill close by where I might build. On getting to 
 the spot it pleased me every way. It was in the midst of 
 villages, on high ground, commanding a view of the whole 
 country, but not difficult of approach. I named it Mount 
 Rehoboth.
 
 182 IN GARENG4NZE 
 
 " Feb. 15th. — Late this evening the chief's messenger, who 
 had come in the morning with promises of food, came to say 
 that the food the chief had sent for had not j^et come so in place 
 he sent me a small tooth of ivory, to keep my heart up. 
 
 " I expected to have had an early interview Math the king, 
 but discovered that it was not the custom to receive entire 
 strangers at once, so I was placed in a sort of quarantine. 
 During this time they were deciding, to their own wisdom and 
 skill, whether my intentions in coming to the country were good 
 or bad, and whether my heart was as white as my skin. Diviners 
 and doctors from far and near were employed for this purpose. 
 
 " Some of their tests were certainly rather childish, though 
 they had a grim humour about them. One was the placing of 
 a little piece of bark at night in a certain decoction of some 
 carefully compounded native medicines. Next morning, if this 
 piece of bark appeared quite sound, it would show that my 
 heart was sound, and that I had come to the Garenganze 
 country without evil intentions. If, however, this little 
 fragment of bark turned out to be unsound, or in any way 
 decomposed, it would have proved that my heart was rotten, 
 and that I was not to be trusted. 
 
 " Another test was on this wise : They cut off the head of a 
 live fowl, which was then thrown into the middle of the yard, 
 and the diviner, watching its dying struggles, judged as to my 
 designs from the position in which it lay when dead. If the 
 neck had pointed in the direction of my camp, danger from that 
 quarter would have been indicated ; but, if not, then I and my 
 companions were clear. All things turned out in my favour. 
 They had nothing against me, and so were willing to obey their 
 king's command and unite in giving me a hearty welcome to 
 their country. 
 
 " Feb. IGth. — A large basket of rice and a goat to-day. In 
 the evening corn and beer for the men in abundance, and a 
 message for all of us to come to the chief to-morrow, and to 
 come in style, as he was going to give a grand reception. We 
 must fire off volleys, etc. 
 
 " Feb. 11th. — Went with my eight men, this morning, all 
 dressed in our finest, I on my ox, to the chief's town. The town 
 has not much of an appearance as the chief has newly come to 
 this part. Mukurru can scarcely be called a town or village, but 
 an immense inhabited place bordering on a range of hills, the
 
 IN GARENGANZE 183 
 
 houses of the chief's wives forming centres all over. He is said 
 to have five hundred. 
 
 " We reached the yard where Msidi was awaiting me. I 
 found him an old-looking man, with rather a pleasant, smooth 
 face, and a short beard, quite white. As I approached he rose 
 from his chair and came forward to meet me, folding his arms 
 round me in a most fatherly way ; indeed his reception was 
 quite affecting. Behind and on either side of him were large 
 companies of women ; these he introduced to me as his wives. 
 After the ceremony of shaking hands with wives, brothers, 
 cousins and other relatives was over, he sent for the nurse of 
 one of his children, who brought a child about 18 months old. 
 This little boy was placed by Msidi upon my knee before all the 
 company as his present, and he assured me that he was my 
 child henceforth. Yota is the child's name. 
 
 " Feb. \^th. — Had a visit from two sons of the chief. Kalasa, 
 the eldest, is a fine-looking fellow. They conducted themselves 
 very mannerly. Indeed, all the chief's family and people are 
 wonderfully well behaved for Africans. Immorality is, of 
 course, very great ; but respectful, courteous behaviour 
 towards one another is insisted upon by the king. He opposes 
 all hashish smoking, and is not favourable to the use of tobacco 
 in any form. He insists upon his sons acquiring a knowledge 
 of useful employments. Kalasa is quite a skilful worker in 
 horn, making, out of the horns of large animals, powder 
 flasks, neatly mounted with copper and brass. Another of 
 Msidi's sons is a proficient blacksmith. Their livelihood 
 does not depend upon these trades, but they are followed as 
 accomplishments. 
 
 " Feb. 19th. — Had a long interview with the king, who asked 
 many questions about the Barotse. He told me that my old 
 friend, Liwanika, had come up close to his country and intended 
 coming on to the Garenganze. 
 
 " March 1st, 1886. — Each day brings something with it to 
 do. I have had several interviews with the chief and am getting 
 on well with him. He is very kind in his way. Indeed he is a 
 strange mixture. He is fierce and cruel as a soldier and in his 
 ambition for power and gain, but kind and generous as a father 
 over his people. Hearing him talk of his wars, and seeing all 
 round his yard human skulls, brought in baskets as a proof of 
 his soldiers' valour, the sensation creeps over one of being in a
 
 184 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 monster's den, but this is immediately expelled when trays of 
 food are brought in, and the old chief comes doAVTi from his 
 stool and himself deals out food for his people, giving special 
 attention to a group of aged and decrepit, a leper and a silly 
 woman, and then mixing up in a separate dish some porridge 
 and broth for my dog, which is standing by. He has the name 
 of being very kind among his people, but at the same time very 
 strict. He does not stop at taking their heads off. One young 
 man who returned with me to his own country, instead of going 
 on to Benguella with his companions, saved his head by starting 
 at once for Loanda with a company bound for that place. 
 
 " During one of my first interviews with the king I was intro- 
 duced to several traders, of Arab descent, from Zanzibar. The 
 Arabs have been long in communication with the Garenganze 
 country, which is know^l to them as Katanga, famous all over 
 Eastern Africa for its copper and salt. Arab caravans come 
 from Lake Tanganyika in the north for copper to supply the 
 markets of Uganda. I found that these Arabs made good use 
 of their time at Katanga in promulgating infamous stories about 
 the English. They were, I was told, most assiduous in their 
 efforts to poison the mind of Msidi against me in particular, 
 when they heard of my coming. After listening to a long 
 harangue from them, however, he quickly replied : ' I am sure 
 I cannot answer your words. I do not know these English 
 people. I certainly do not know this man who is now coming ; 
 but one thing I know — / knozv you Arabs.'' So he was prepared 
 to suspend judgment concerning me from his knowledge of the 
 men who were seeking to prejudice him against me. 
 
 " A few sick folk have been coming to my camp. But on the 
 whole my camp is exceptionally quiet and free from visiting, 
 owing no doubt to the fact that I have been giving no presents. 
 Food is not very plentiful, but sufficient. Have got two milking 
 goats. From these I get about a cupful of very refreshing milk 
 which helps over my breakfast of rice and maize porridge. 
 
 " I have been able by degrees to make known to the king my 
 object in coming to his country. He had heard of Livingstone's 
 approach from the east, and of his death at Ilala, and was much 
 interested when I told him that I was a man of peace like 
 Livingstone, and hailed from the same country and towTi. I 
 also told him that I was willing to remain among his people, 
 and to send back Cinyana, with the few men who had come with
 
 IN GARENGANZE 185 
 
 me, to Bihe, to bring on others who might think of joining me 
 in this country. 
 
 " It was difficult, of course, in a few interviews fully to 
 disclose to a mind so dark my true object in coming to the 
 country. And I sought for special %\dsdom to explain to him 
 the nature of my message, waiting for a suitable opportunity 
 to present itself. I feared that were I to keep back from his 
 ears the more bitter and pungent things in connection with the 
 story of man's ruin and God's love until afterwards, he would 
 conclude that I had knowingly deceived him. One day he 
 asked me to breakfast at his house, and our conversation went 
 on, as at other times, respecting the nature and reality of God's 
 existence. I then spoke to him in words like these : ' Great 
 and mighty chief as you are in the eyes of men, in the sight of 
 God there is no difference between you and the poorest, vilest 
 slave in your country, and you need God's mercy just as he 
 does.' My words impressed him, and I was uncertain for a few 
 moments as to the result. At last, with an effort, he leaned 
 forward thoughtfully, and said : ' It must be so, if God is as 
 great as you say ; and if He is so high above us all, then we 
 must be all the same in His sight.' Instead of alienating me 
 from him, we were, through this plain speaking, drawn closer 
 together, and our conversations became more frequent and 
 interesting. 
 
 " March 3rd. — Went to visit the chief this morning. He took 
 me to see some of his towns. On the way we passed a house, in 
 the course of construction, which had no less than 15 compart- 
 ments, all on the ground floor, and all covered by one immense 
 roof, a tremendous undertaking for natives. We went on to 
 the town of his chief wife, who lives in a two-storied house with 
 an inside staircase. She, however, was sick and unable to 
 entertain us, so we went to the house of another wife, who had 
 also a good square house with four compartments. She at 
 once set her servants to work to prepare food for us. A goat 
 was killed, and rice was dealt out to be ground for bread. 
 True primitive hospitality, but quite unsuited to the patience 
 of ' civilised ' folk, for before the animal was skinned, cut up 
 and cooked, the sun was getting low. It was pitch dark when 
 I reached camp in the evening. 
 
 " The chief, as usual, had much to say. At one time he 
 called me aside to tell me that he had a gold mine in his country,
 
 186 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 and that he wanted me to inspect it for him. I told him that 
 if he had a mine of gold he had better keep it to himself and 
 show it to no one, as we whites were not people when we smelt 
 gold, that if he showed the mine to white people they would 
 come in and take it by force. At this he said he would show it 
 to me if I promised not to tell my friends. I assured him it 
 would not be safe for him even to do that as my friends would 
 be sure to ask me and I could not tell them a lie. 
 
 " March 7th. — The chief held a grand reception to-day to 
 receive a company of Bachikumbi who have come from Lake 
 Bangweolo with a present. Msidi turned out in a litter carried 
 by about 20 men, and with his immense head-dress of red 
 parrot feathers, and flaming coloured clothes hanging all round 
 him, he made an imposing appearance. 
 
 " March 12th. — Called on the chief again to-day and found 
 I had been successful in curing a favourite wife who had been 
 sick. The chief sent a hunter off to kill and bring in the flesh 
 of a buffalo as my pay. A leprous woman has also been greatly 
 relieved by me with crystal caustic. The chief is quite taken 
 up about my house and wants to build me a big one with six 
 compartments. 
 
 " March 13th. — Called out in haste this evening to see 
 another sick wife some two miles off. 
 
 " March IMh. — Received this morning a basket of rice and 
 a goat as fees for medicine. Was pleased with the intelligent 
 way some of my men connected what I said to them on 
 former occasions with verses which I read to them to-day 
 in Luke xv. 
 
 " March 29th. — Returned from a trip to the Lufira River ; 
 passed through the many villages of the place forming Msidi's 
 Mukurru. I had quite a ' progress,' the people everywhere glad 
 to see me. The Lufira flows through a great grassy plain, more 
 or less flooded during the rainy season, but dry in the summer 
 and abounding Avith large herds of game. On the east side of 
 the river there is a majestic range of mountains, rising abruptly 
 from the plain to a height of about 3,000 feet. There are many 
 villages along the Lufira, small and poorly built, and occupied 
 chiefly by Lamba fishermen. I shot six animals for my men and 
 returned with some meat for my own supplies. The amount of 
 wild geese and golden crested cranes, and other water fowl 
 quite astonished me. Like Nchemiah, however, I had the
 
 IN GARENGANZE 187 
 
 secret of my work in my heart, and unable to tell it, but I 
 viewed a part of the wall. 
 
 ^^ April 5th, 1886. — Began clearing the ground for my cottage. 
 Though IMsidi promises me every help from his people, they 
 are not so accustomed to build as the Ovimbundu. While some 
 of the men who have come wdth me return to Nana Kandundu, 
 with extra porters provided by Msidi, others will remain here 
 to help in building. After measuring out a piece of ground, 
 80 ft. by 15 ft., I began to dig a deep trench for the foundation. 
 The lads found nothing but rock under the surface, so that it 
 was laborious work picking and digging a trench deep enough 
 to well embed the poles, which were to form the walls of the 
 house. Whilst a few of us busied ourselues in digging out 
 this trench others went to the bush to cut the poles, and for 
 each one brought in I paid them 20 beads. 
 
 " April 22nd. — Alarming news reached me to-day about the 
 little company I sent off to Nana Kandundu. One of their 
 number came running into camp in a great state of excitement, 
 saying he had travelled from the Lualaba River in four days, 
 and that the lives of my Bihe men were in danger. News had 
 also come that three Garenganze caravans had been plundered 
 and many men killed, one at Bihe, another in the Lovale 
 country, and the third in the Lunda country, but all at the 
 instigation of Bihe chiefs and traders, who thought that they 
 had been unjustly dealt with in certain transactions they had 
 with Msidi. I went down to confer on the matter w^ith the 
 king, but he had little to say, so there is not much prospect of 
 getting the few loads I left at Nana Kandundu brought on at 
 present. 
 
 " April 26th. — Two of the men I had sent to Nana Kandundu 
 returned to-day ; the rest have crossed the Lualaba and have 
 gone on to Bihe. The chief proposes that I start back at once 
 to Nana Kandundu for the things I left there, sending my men 
 on to Bihe. It appears that the news that came here was 
 brought by a runaway who belonged to the caravan of Garen- 
 ganze sacked at Bihe. This man was disposed with the rest 
 as slaves. All excepting the two sons of Msidi and the leader 
 of the expedition were sold. The latter is said to have com- 
 mitted suicide. If this be true, it is the first case I have heard 
 of by a native African. Kovingevinge, the leader of the 
 caravan sacked in the Lunda country, met, on his return,
 
 188 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 a small company of Bihe traders, and is reported to have 
 murdered them all. This will only increase the trouble between 
 the two countries. 
 
 " May Uh, 1886. — The chief has held a general council, and 
 the general decision, as to the Bihe question, is that the road 
 must not be closed and that Msidi should send one of his sons 
 with a large caravan to settle this matter. 
 
 " May 6ih. — Have been asked to go and visit a sick man 
 two days' journey from here. 
 
 " May 8th. — Was well received by Kagoma, the sick man 
 I was called to see. I found him suffering from a sort of 
 leprous sores which had afflicted him for eight years. Five 
 witches had been killed meanwhile but without any effect on 
 his sores. I began at once to treat him with silver caustic. 
 
 " May 15th. — Started for my camp this morning. Kagoma, 
 of course, is not cured, but greatly relieved. Nearly all his 
 sores have dried up under the caustic treatment, though they 
 may break out again. I left him some of the medicine. He 
 loaded me up with corn and rice, and seeing I had already 
 ' eaten ' a goat in his village, and have had abundance of food 
 daily, I am, according to native ideas, paid well. They cannot 
 understand what it costs me to travel those hard, dry, hot 
 roads. They doubtless see nothing in me of the disinterested- 
 ness of my Master. 
 
 " May 17th. — Called on the chief. Found him head over 
 ears in arranging a large caravan for Nana Kandundu, there 
 to intercept Bihe traders with his ivory. He said he was just 
 waiting my return to ask me to take charge of this company, 
 and to arrange for him with the chief there a site where his 
 people might build a market and remain there trading. Should 
 Nana Kandundu be occupied in this friendly way by Msidi it 
 will mean regular communications between there and here. 
 It will also greatly help my labours in the Garenganze as I 
 shall then be able to communicate with the coast. Indeed 
 should labourers come forward I should hope to see Nana 
 Kandundu occupied as a station. 
 
 " May 23rd. — Have been in bed nearly all this week with 
 fever. Am feeling somewhat better this morning. 
 
 " May 24//i. — Kagoma has sent me a further present of 
 rice and corn. 
 
 " June 5th, 1886. — All last month I was feeding on corn
 
 IN GARENGANZE 189 
 
 mush and beans, with a chicken for Sunday's dinner, and am 
 beginning to feel what the natives call ' meat hunger,' so have 
 decided to start off to the country again to look for meat. 
 
 " June 7th. — Made an early start. Reached Kalolo, the 
 town of Monkobe. The people here had evidently not seen a 
 white man before for they seemed very uncertain about me, 
 and stood a long way off, gazing in groups. The young men 
 who were with me spent their strength in vain efforts to assure 
 them that no danger was to be anticipated from my presence. 
 A large hut was provided for me, and plenty of raw food laid 
 down, and Monkobe came in towards evening. He seemed to 
 be much more reasonable than the others, and told his wife to 
 cook me food, which she did ; and to their astonishment I 
 partook of it. Few were willing, nevertheless, to sleep in their 
 to\\'Ti that night. It was enough to have seen my footprint on 
 the path. ' His feet are not like men's feet ; they are like those 
 of the zebra,' they said. In the evening I kindled a large fire 
 in front of my hut, knowing something of the attraction this 
 is to these poor naked people, and after sitting some time I saw 
 it had an effect. A little group gathered on the other side of 
 the fire, and through the smoke and flames I with difficulty 
 distinguished their eyes from their mouths, as all were wide 
 open. The numbers gradually increased, until they were no 
 longer able to hide themselves behind the fire ; and watching 
 my opportunity, I began a conversation with them through 
 a young man I had with me as interpreter, but a sorry helper 
 he was. His debauchery became so abominable that I had 
 literally to drive him off. 
 
 " Ju7ie 15th. — Before returning to my camp I visited a few 
 other villages, and met from time to time with strange recep- 
 tions. One man, who had heard the night before of the coming 
 of this ' son of the great spirit,' appeared with a pot of small 
 beer, hastily prepared, and after politely requesting us to 
 refresh ourselves with his gift, told me that some of his children 
 had gone along the road upon which we were travelling some 
 days before, and as there was a possibility of our meeting them 
 as they returned, he hoped I would not capture or rob them. 
 He remarked aside, to one of my men, that doubtless I had 
 cloth in my basket to buy slaves with at the Lufira. 
 
 " At Kaunga Kasare I went out in the evening and shot a 
 wild hog and a zebra. These kept us all next day cutting up
 
 190 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 and drying. I took another round in the bush the day after 
 without success. On the day following, however, I encountered 
 a troop of hartebecste and shot only two cows as these are 
 large antelopes. By the way, I also shot another wild hog. 
 After remaining at Kaunga drying the meat, I started for my 
 camp with three good loads, a month'<^ provision at least. Slept 
 twice by the way. On reaching camp found that Msidi had 
 been mindful to send me a basket of meal and some corn in 
 my absence. 
 
 " June 27ih. — Have just got out of bed after some days of 
 bilious fever. The chief has just returned from the town of 
 one of his wives, and he is all in haste to get his caravans 
 started for Nana Kandundu and Bihe. On hearing of my ill- 
 ness he sent me four young pigeons with the message that I 
 must not on any account take medicines from native doctors ; 
 they would only kill me. 
 
 " June 80th. — Having recovered somewhat, I was able to go 
 out in my hammock to visit the village of Chipenza, a few 
 hours' journey north of my camp. Here I spent a couple of 
 days and suffered severely from headaches. During a long 
 afternoon's talk in the yard the two ways of Scripture was the 
 subject I tried to make plain to them. I pointed out the 
 crookedness of their ways — deception, lying, stealing, murder- 
 ing, etc., with their trust in idols and fetish things to deliver 
 them from the penalty of their deeds ; and in contrast I showed 
 the straightness and evenness of God's ways. At the end of 
 each sentence the headman turned to explain all I had said to 
 the villagers. One bright-looking young man, on hearing the 
 description of God's ways, replied with much animation, ' A 
 road to run on ! ' How often it is that those we seek to teach, 
 teach us. 
 
 " July 7th, 1886. — The recovery mentioned under the above 
 date was of short duration, my sickness returning with much 
 pain and with the entire loss of the strength of my limbs. I 
 am able to sit up to-day, but cannot move out of my hut yet. 
 Msidi sent me a kind message and says that he will not hear 
 of my going to Nana Kandundu, that I must remain and his 
 men will bring all my things in perfect safety. I can look to 
 him for that. He has decided to send a wife of his, who is 
 also a niece of the chief of Bihe, to Bihe, to negotiate on his 
 bel'.alf about the opening again of the road for trade. So the
 
 IN GARENGANZE 191 
 
 Garenganze porters who go for my things will go in her com- 
 pany as far as Nana Kandundu and will not again be afraid of 
 the Bihe traders. They will not therefore turn baek as they did 
 the last time they set not. 
 
 " I \^Tote home as folloAvs : ' The fact that my health during 
 this dry season has been very uncertain, and has broken down 
 several times, must not give you the impression that this 
 country is unhealthy ; on the contrary, I consider it to be as 
 healthy as any part of Central Africa I have been in. There 
 are no malarial swamps anywhere near. During the hot rainy 
 season I enjoyed the best of health, and that is considered the 
 most unhealthy period for Europeans, but my constitution, 
 already impaired from my stay in the Barotse, evidently can- 
 not stand the dry and, at times, cold winds of this season. 
 I do not think that a new-comer, \vith healthy blood in his 
 veins, will be at all affected by these \vinds ; neither do I think 
 that I shall suffer so much when my house is finished and 
 plastered. In the meantime I am living in a grass hut. 
 
 " ' My journal up to this point will at least serve to show 
 that the country is open and the people accessible. My progress 
 in the languages has been, contrary to my expectations, slow 
 and difficult. The people are shy, and do not come readily to 
 me, but I am ever welcome among them ; in the meantime, 
 however, poor health prevents me from visiting them as often 
 as I would wish. I much more enjoy visiting among the 
 villages than in the capital, which is almost wholly under the 
 sway of the king's wives, who are given to vicious and 
 dissolute habits. Indeed, I am compelled, from reasons of 
 propriety, to abstain from visiting their compounds, even when 
 invited, unless accompanied by a messenger from Msidi.' 
 
 " July 12th. — My poverty, I may say, is complete. My 
 bed sheets and tablecloth, in fact everything saleable has gone 
 for food. I am now living on the fag end of a garden of sweet 
 potatoes which I bought some months ago, on a basket of rice 
 I got as medical fee, and on a bag of native corn one of the 
 chief's head wives gave me as she was gathering in her harvest. 
 I had given her a dress when I came. So I get along. The 
 other morning I was lying in bed distressing myself on my 
 scanty fare, having no sauce to sweeten my meal or my rice, 
 the goats having dried up some months ago, and wondering 
 when I was to get any, when, to my surprise, here comes a leg
 
 192 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 of beef from the chief. He had killed one of his six or eight 
 small oxen, the last thing one would have dreamed of as he 
 thinks everything of his few cattle. This bit of fresh meat 
 brought me round wonderfully. I went in for two meals a day, 
 and lived high for three or four days. I am down again to 
 herbs, however. In all things we have the privilege of being 
 thankful to God and content with the things we have. 
 
 " Shortly after my recovery, Dick was taken seriously ill. 
 I was not able to attend to him as I would have wished, but 
 the other children did all they could for him. His illness was, 
 however, the death-blow to my stock of fowls. These are 
 very plentiful in Garenganze, and I bought a large number 
 of them on my arrival, hoping by careful breeding to raise a 
 good stock. During my illness quite a number had been cooked, 
 and now when Dick was laid down, all that remained were 
 used in preparing chicken soup for him. 
 
 " My other little boy, Johnny, was bought by Kasoma in 
 the Lunda country without my knowledge. I saw he was 
 a bright httle fellow and took him from Kasoma. Though 
 young, he does a wonderful amount of work, and is very intelli- 
 gent ; says he is going to learn to write. Besides being very 
 active, he is about the prettiest black boy I have seen. 
 
 " The third, Segunda, is a mere infant. When brought to 
 my camp here for sale, no one would have him, so at last they 
 brought him on to my hut which was outside the rest. I 
 turned the man away as usual, saying I did not buy people, 
 but back he came, beseeching me to relieve him of this little 
 burden. He had been taken in war, and his captor was going 
 off on another errand and wished to be rid of him. I would not 
 believe that the boy was captured without his mother ; he, 
 however, insisted that it was so. I sent Kasoma to find out, 
 and he reported that there was no appearance of the child's 
 mother ; so I bought him for four yards of calico. He has ever 
 since been ailing, can seldom be made to smile, and only looks 
 up half tearfully with his large dark eyes. By his language I 
 judge that he belongs to some far-off tribe. We have not been 
 able by any amount of compromise to come to an understanding 
 with each other yet. 
 
 " Chinze, the fourth little one, was bought by a Bihe trader, 
 had been suffering for long from very sore feet, and was quite 
 unable to go with the rest to Bihe. The man asked me to
 
 IN GARENGANZE 193 
 
 take care of her until his return, a year or so hence, but I would 
 not consent to do so unless he made the child over to me, as 
 I could not think of giving her up again after a year. We 
 finally agreed on the matter, so the little girl Chinze is now 
 mine. Were I to give her up, she would just be sold at the 
 coast. I think I shall manage to cure the feet within a month 
 or two. At this rate, in this centre of the slave traffic, there is 
 no saying what the limits of my family will be. These last two 
 little things, Segunda and Chinze, have been, I may say, 
 forced upon me ; I cannot but acknowledge the hand of God 
 in the matter. It will hinder me from going round among the 
 villages as I might otherwise do. Still, the training of these 
 is of the utmost importance, and will tell directly on the work 
 in the years to come. 
 
 " The Bihe men who are still with me are anxious to be off 
 to their own country, and I shall be glad to see them away. 
 Keeping them all these months has been a great expense and 
 trial to me. When we arrived here in February I gave each of 
 them so many beads, besides cloth, promising that I would try 
 and procure for each one a small tooth of ivory before they left, 
 provided they did not spend the beads and cloth in buying 
 slaves, but kept them for food. You can imagine, then, how 
 disappointed I was, when I saw them, without exception, 
 selling all they had — even stripping themselves, and putting on 
 sackcloth — ^to find the wherewithal to buy slaves. Thus, the 
 number of mouths in my camp has been trebled, while the 
 means to provide for them has been reduced. The camp has 
 ever since been a regular slave pen. I have put my hut outside 
 of it, and given the people of the country to understand that 
 I have nothing to do with this slave buying and tying up 
 business. I have done what I can to keep my men supplied, 
 though it has cost me all that I had, even to my bedsheets and 
 spare clothing, and my owti food has been like theirs all the 
 while. 
 
 ''August 2nd, 1886. — Five of the loads I left at Nana Kan- 
 dundu were brought on to-day. Cinyama's men, who had 
 escaped at the time of the scare that took place six weeks 
 previously at the Lualaba River, had gone on to Nana Kan- 
 dundu, not thinking to return. But changing their minds they 
 proposed to the old lady that she should deliver up to them 
 some of my loads, and they would return to Garenganze in
 
 194 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 search of their relatives. She not only complied with their 
 request, but sent one or two of her own people with them. 
 
 " I heard of the robbery of a small bale of cloth which I 
 had left at Nana Kandundu. It appears that a half-caste 
 Portuguese had presented a letter to the chief tainess, purporting 
 to be from me, and upon this false representation he got her 
 to deliver up to him a valuable bale of cloth. Beads are, how- 
 ever, very valuable in this country, and a fair supply of them 
 has just been brought to me. These will enable me to push 
 forward with the building of my house. 
 
 '"''Aug. 22nd. — I have been able successfully to refuse a 
 present of ivory from Msidi. He was anxious to give me some 
 large teeth to go out with my man Cinyama, but I refused. 
 These African chiefs think so much of their ivory, and they 
 always expect more in return. Besides it is of the utmost 
 importance that I keep free of all obligations to anyone in this 
 country. 
 
 ^^Aug. 2Srd. — Sent off Cinyama and Kasoma with letters for 
 home, and careful instructions to look out for any white man 
 in Bihe or at the coast who might be enquiring for me. Msidi 
 sent by Cinyama a verbal message to bring in, with all speedy 
 any brother of mine that he might find. 
 
 " I arrived here with only one pair of boots, intending 
 to manufacture some kind of shoe, but I have found no suit- 
 able bark here. The dry season is now almost past. The 
 boots I have are through in the soles, out at the toes and sides, 
 and all the sewing of the uppers rotten. Yesterday morning 
 when going down to visit the chief, I said to Kasoma that I 
 thought of asking him if he had any spare boots about him, 
 but changed my mind and did not mention the matter to 
 anyone. This morning a young man came along with a pair 
 of boots to sell, the first time boots were ever brought to me for 
 sale in this country. They were almost quite new, of fine 
 leather, and on trying them on they fitted me perfectly, the 
 best-fitting boots I have ever had. ' How much for them ? ' 
 * Four yards.' I had just four yards on hand. I could not have 
 believed five minutes before that such a pair of boots were in 
 the country, for even in Benguella I could not get boots to fit 
 me. It seems that they were brought by a native trader some 
 time ago to Mohenge, the chief whose village I passed on my 
 way here. One of Moshide's sons had gone to visit him, when
 
 IN GARENGANZE 195 
 
 Mohenge gave him the boots as a present. He seems to have 
 worn them but for a few days, then sent them for sale to me 
 this morning. So I thank God for the boots. 
 
 " Sept. 27th, 1886. — You ask if the tribes around are willing 
 to let the Garenganze alone without raiding upon them ? 
 The tribes around, I am sorry to say, are very much weaker 
 than the Garenganze, and instead of attempting to raid on 
 the Garenganze they suffer immensely at their hands. Msidi 
 • — who on the one hand can take into his care some poor use- 
 less stranger with a body deformed with disease and sin, and 
 provide for him, giving him a wife and house with a small barn 
 full of corn, on the simple plea that the man was poor, as he 
 said to me on my asking a reason for his conduct — does not 
 hesitate on the other hand to form and send out, with the 
 greatest gusto and evident delight, his war parties, who go and 
 devastate whole districts, bringing in slaves (women and 
 children), ivory, etc., with the heads of the slain, the flesh of 
 which has been cut off by the women and children, relatives of 
 the slain. Such ghastliness delights this strangely inconsistent 
 man greatly. I can only account for it by repeating an old 
 remark of mine, that avarice eats up all other passions and 
 feelings in the African once that passion is roused. Poor 
 Msidi ! a man with a noble mind as his lofty benevolent-looking 
 head shows — he has a very grandly shaped head — and a high 
 appreciation of that which is good and noble. For instance, 
 when I spoke to him some time ago in Umbundu things that 
 might have highly irritated the Barotse chief, this man only 
 declared as to the excellence of my words. He knew also how 
 noble a people the English were, for it was their delight to 
 watch for slavers, and capture them, and liberate the slaves. 
 How strangely incongruous to hear such words coming from 
 so great a man-stealer. 
 
 " Msidi, professedly in sympathy with me, took a notion 
 into his head that I had better move nearer to him, so that he 
 could visit me when sick, and sent me word to that effect by 
 his brother. This is the third or fourth time he has urged me 
 to come near him, though now it only takes me 15 minutes 
 to walk to his chief capital. I, however, laid the matter before 
 the Lord, and thought perhaps that it might be His will that 
 I should so be actually in the midst of the people. As soon 
 as I was able, two days ago, I went to visit him. I was not
 
 196 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 prepared to contend the matter, but simply to hear Msidi's 
 proposals. He, however, had nothing to say further than if I 
 thought of it he would build me a house at his town, though it 
 would have to be a small one, as the rains were upon us. I 
 stated my objections : the heat, the drumming (which goes 
 on all night at times), the gun-firing, etc. The heat and close- 
 ness of the place, however, were my chief objection. I always 
 feel oppressed when down visiting him, but whenever one 
 rounds the point of my hill, ' it is like entering another country,' 
 as Honjos' men said yesterday when carrying me on my tepoia, 
 and when the short climb is made to my house, it is as cool and 
 fresh as possible. I also feel that I am nearest here to the best 
 water in the whole neighbourhood. So I feel that the Lord 
 has had to do with my choosing this site, and that it is His will 
 that I remain here. Msidi finally closed the conversation by 
 saying that it was of little consequence, the matter was entirely 
 at my own disposing. 
 
 " Oct. 1st, 1886. — No sooner had Cinyama left, than I had 
 a very severe attack of fever, which laid me quite low for nearly 
 a month. It was during the dry season, and the nearest water 
 was some three miles distant. Turning my book box into a bath, 
 I managed to keep down the temperature by taking hot baths. 
 
 " A young man named Susi, who had just come from Bihe, 
 was of great service in helping my lad Dick to carry water 
 for me. In one night these two lads went three times to the 
 watering place, giving me as many hot baths during the night. 
 Next morning my temperature was much lowered, and, though 
 very weak, I was evidently recovering. I proved at this time 
 the value of a simple food made of Indian corn meal, boiled 
 into a thick gruel, to which was added the juice from a root, 
 extracted by pounding. In a few hours the juice had the effect 
 of converting the gruel into a thick, sweet, milk-like fluid, the 
 hard part of the grain being deposited in the form of gritty, 
 unpalatable dregs. Msidi was very kind to me during this 
 time, and repeatedly sent messengers urging me to move my 
 habitation nearer to his, that he might be better able to visit 
 me when sick. 
 
 " A peculiar feature of this slow intermittent fever is sleep- 
 lessness. I spent long sleepless nights, when the mind, wander- 
 ing incessantly, was almost always at home. If I happened 
 to fall into a dreamy sleep, I was at once there, perhaps in a
 
 IN GARENGANZE 197 
 
 sunny, snow-white bed, with a big fire blazing in the room, 
 and my mother bringing in a tray full of most delightful jellies, 
 etc. All my sickness would disappear, and I would delight 
 in the miraculous return of health and strength. Opening my 
 eyes I found nothing but a dark, dreary, confined hut around 
 me, and the wind blowing through piteously, and moaning in 
 the branches of the tree above. My days, however, were not 
 spent unhappily, or my nights, for that matter. I had much 
 quiet peace of mind and pleasure in the study of the Word, 
 which indeed was my chief employment, as I was not able 
 to do much out of doors. 
 
 " My hope is, that the Lord mil give me grace and patience 
 to hold the ground until others come forward to help in the 
 work, and that I may be enabled to remain by them for their 
 help and encouragement. Time, indeed, seems to be nothing 
 so long as He gives the grace and patience to wait. Last night, 
 when in prayer, I was greatly refreshed by a realisation of the 
 exceeding abundance and sufficiency of His grace in every 
 possible emergency — in ' every time of need ' — and I was 
 enabled to ask for perfect and enduring contentment under 
 all circumstances. 
 
 " I and m^^ boys are entirely alone, all the Biheans having 
 gone off. The Garenganze are exceedingly slow in coming 
 to me ; still a few do come. We are longing intensely for rain ; 
 the sun is scorching, and the ground gets as hot as coals in a 
 fire. To add to my troubles, Dick has been taken ill, and is 
 quite laid aside. 
 
 ' ' To-day I have had two men employed in covering my 
 house mth grass ; it is much better now, and I hope to have 
 it finished within another month. 
 
 " Oct. 3rd. — This morning Dick came hobbling on a stick 
 to greet me with a smile on his face. This is the first day he 
 has been able to get out. 
 
 " Oct. 21st. — Have just returned from a week's trip to the 
 Lufira. I shot two zebras with which to pay the men who 
 had carried me in my hammock. Not having sufficient strength 
 to go out hunting, the men promised me that they would 
 carry me in my hammock to where the game was to be found — 
 a much more arduous task than carrying one along a beaten 
 track. Seeing they persisted, I was willing to give them a 
 chance of having some fresh meat. We started early in the
 
 198 IN GARENGANZE 
 
 morning, the men pushing their way through the colossal 
 grasses. The jagged roots punished the feet of my men severely, 
 because of the heavy weight of my hammock pole in their 
 shoulders. After travelling some miles in this manner, those 
 who had gone on ahead returned to say that we must go softly, 
 as we were near some game. Soon we came in sight of a large 
 herd of zebra. The men thought that I had better get out and 
 do the rest of the hunting on foot. But this I gravely declined 
 doing, saying they must carry me alongside of the herd. The 
 zebras had not been accustomed to be stalked in such a daring 
 manner, and gazed upon us with astonishment, allowing my 
 hammock to be carried to within fifty yards of them. I then 
 quietly got out, took my gun, sat down on a little ant-hill, and 
 shot the biggest and fattest of the troop. Whilst some of the 
 men skinned and cut it up, the others carried me safely back 
 to my sleeping quarters. The heat was excessive, and in 
 returning we were compelled to travel by night, as the men 
 could not endure the sun. At the Lufira I could not go out of 
 doors during midday hours. On my delightful little hill, how- 
 ever, there is always a breeze, and the shade is always cool. 
 ' Oh, for rain ! ' is the cry in everyone's mouth. All the trees 
 that but a short time ago looked green and fresh are beginning 
 to wither and droop. 
 
 " I was much struck during this trip, while traversing the 
 ' Mukurru,' by the number of villages, especially in the eastern 
 part. In the course of two hours I counted 43, within sight 
 from the road, all of fair size, and all the land between was 
 under cultivation. 
 
 " Nov. 4th. — Since recovering from my last fever, Dick has 
 sho^vn signs of true conversion. One evening when we were 
 talking together he seemed to receive a peculiar measure of 
 joy. Our theme was the Cross ; and though naturally he had 
 a dull, heavy countenance, his face lightened up marvellously 
 and both mouth and heart were filled with the spirit of praise. 
 That night I learned that my dictatorial ways had been that 
 which had previously hindered my boy, and had produced only 
 a Hfeless confession. That very night the thought occurred 
 to me that my boy would despise me, and serve me with less 
 respect, seeing I had humbled myself with him. But very 
 much the contrary has been the case, for never has he served 
 me more joyfully and thoroughly than since then.
 
 IN GARENGANZE 199 
 
 " After this Dick became very anxious to learn to read and 
 write, a study for which he was mentally unfitted. I did my 
 best to instruct him, but he was so anxious about it that 
 sometimes when he came before me to read he would so tremble 
 with excitement that I had to send him away to some outside 
 work. Latterly he began to complain very much of headaches ; 
 fever symptoms set in, then great wandering of the mind, 
 which increased so that for ten days he was quite insane, though 
 active and vigorous. I had to do all but bind him, watching 
 him night and day, and was the only one who had any power 
 whatever with him. On the 2nd of November he had so far 
 recovered as to be able to sleep quietly at night, but during 
 the day he went about in a stupid way, not a smile crossing 
 his face ; yet occasionally I could see a tear stealing do^vn his 
 cheek. There was nothing for it but to give him plenty of hard 
 out-door work. 
 
 " Dick comes from the Zambesi, and has been with me for 
 three years. As you will well understand, many fresh cares 
 and anxieties rise in my mind for him, which I can only cast 
 upon the Lord, who alone is able to make any to stand, to 
 restore, and to uphold those who fell."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE PEOPLE 
 
 " TV TOV. Qth, 1886.— We have had heavy rains lately, to 
 / Y the joy of everyone. It is in such a place, and at 
 such a time, that one realises the blessings of rain. 
 Six months of drought under a tropical sun had blackened and 
 scorched the very stones ; the earth, cracked and gaping all 
 over, was at any hour of the day at a higher temperature than 
 my bare foot could endure, and during the heat of the day I 
 could not even hop on it without running the risk of raising 
 blisters on my feet like half-crowns. Now all is cool, green and 
 refreshing, my hill is covered with a magnificent show of flowers, 
 and the grass is already from two to three inches high. How 
 such baked earth could ever again yield grass, and that at the 
 first sprinkling of rain, is marvellous. 
 
 " The rains have, however, put a check on my daily routine ; 
 my patients have to be visited now during whatever part of 
 the day is likely to be dry, instead of in the afternoon. Because 
 of rheumatism I am quite nervous about being caught in the 
 rain. To-day I was caught in a shower when out dressing the 
 foot of a wounded man, page to one of Msidi's head wives ; 
 I had to go back to my house, so the queen offered me her 
 blanket to put round me. I gladly accepted it, and marched 
 home in my glory, robed in her coloured blanket. I have sent 
 my hammock, however, to bring the suffering man to me ; his 
 friends come with him to-morrow to build a hut near me, and 
 two will remain with him here. His foot is in a fearful condition, 
 and will need much attention. This will be my first ' hospital 
 hut.' The Lord works His o\vn plans in His own way, and this 
 seems to be the sort of auxiliary work that He is leading me into. 
 I have had remarkable success with all sorts of diseases since 
 coming here, fully nine-tenths being cured within a very short 
 period. I have done little as yet in the way of school work. 
 " Kagoma, at the Lukuruwe River, sent word a few days ago 
 
 200
 
 THE PEOPLE 201 
 
 that he intended sending men to carry mc in my hammock to 
 pay him another visit, so you see I am busy, and, I can add, 
 happy ; indeed, most happy. 
 
 " Since the hot weather has set in, my health has improved 
 wonderfully. My appetite knows no bounds, and is satisfied 
 with the coarsest of foods. One could not imagine a more 
 repulsive dish — 'tis so to many, and was so to me until lately — 
 than Kaffir corn porridge mixed with red palm oil, of which 
 soap is made — yet I can enjoy it right heartily. My eyes give 
 me little trouble now. 
 
 " Nov. 15th. — Dick was out with me visiting a patient. On 
 the way we were caught in a heavy shower. The next day he 
 was complaining. A cough and a slight fever followed, lasting 
 for two or three days. Since then he has been quite insane. 
 I can't tell you how it cuts me to the very quick to put this word 
 on paper, but so it is. I am sitting up now watching him, and 
 am almost worn out. This is the third night of positive madness, 
 trying to run off into the bush from the great serpents he sees 
 hanging all round, and attempting to set fire to my huts. It is 
 only when he is directly under my eye that he is at all quiet. 
 Then indeed he crouches more hke an animal, and is ready to 
 cry if I say anything harsh to him, but no one else can control 
 him. There is no other symptom of disease that I can discover. 
 He eats well, and his head is quite cool, though in his quieter 
 turns, during the day, he complains of a pain somewhere in the 
 back of his head. At first I thought it would soon pass off, but 
 now I go about like a man bereaved. Long twangs of loneli- 
 ness come over me. I had just begun to find a joy in Dick's 
 companionship, when it seems, for the time at least, to be 
 snatched from me by his renewed illness and suffering in mind ; 
 yet I can say from my heart, that God's perfect way, though 
 hard to the flesh, is not hard to love ; for \\dth Him alone is 
 companionship, and all else is desolation and darkness. 
 
 " The chief sent for me early this morning, asking me to visit 
 his brother, some distance off, who is ill, and whose wife had 
 gone out of her mind. I trudged off with the king's page, sent 
 to conduct me, returning late in the afternoon, throbbing all 
 over with the excessive heat of the sun. This heat, however, I 
 must confess, suits me ; I have grown stronger during these 
 last six weeks. 
 
 " In going about from place to place, I better understand the
 
 202 THE PEOPLE 
 
 size of this Mukurru, or inhabited plain. It takes a good day's 
 journey to traverse it, being between eight to ten miles in 
 width. The ground is chiefly covered with fields, in the midst 
 of which the River Bunkeya runs, but the clusters of huts are 
 many, and scattered all over. Here and there are centres, in 
 which the king has his own houses, where, to the extent of half 
 a mile or so each way, the houses of the people are built 
 together. 
 
 " In the midst of all these people the amount of quietness 
 and peace that reigns is remarkable. The fear of Msidi is 
 great. He is sharp and severe in his government, though I see 
 or hear of nothing in the way of torture or cruelty inflicted by 
 his orders as a means of punishment ; yet executions are 
 common, but death is inflicted at once, and in the most expedi- 
 tious manner. All the cases of which I have heard particulars 
 have been those of actual crime, and not of witchcraft or any 
 other mere superstition. The king has a long iron chain, 
 which he uses for punishing minor offenders. To this they are 
 bound by the neck, perhaps ten or twelve at a time, and are 
 sent out to his fields to work — a very sensible arrangement, 
 I think, and much better than the cruel flogging so common 
 in Africa. 
 
 " October is the hoeing time, and it is a pleasure to see every- 
 one turning out to the fields. The men indeed, so far as I can 
 judge, do a large share of the work ; and the husbands tell me 
 that after all their hard day's work, it is dangerous to return 
 home in the evening without a heavy log of wood to keep up the 
 night fire. The part which Msidi takes in this is very commend- 
 able. Not only does he go to the fields with his people to 
 labour, but he encourages his own sons to work, and so makes 
 labour honourable. I have seen him go out every day, with a 
 large band of hoers, for weeks together, and often stand in the 
 middle of the field when rain was falling heavily, watching the 
 workers. At other times his people would have left their work 
 for shelter, but when Msidi was there they had to be ' wet- 
 weather soldiers.' 
 
 " One would suppose that there is abundance of food all the 
 year round, but it is not so. The prodigal waste of corn in the 
 dry season in brewing beer passes description. They make 
 beer of the strongest kind, filling large bark vessels, holding 
 as much as 20 or 30 gallons. It is free to all-comers, and
 
 THE PEOPLE 203 
 
 drinking is kept up night and day in the yard until the vessels 
 are emptied ; and then in two or three days the fruit of weeks 
 of toil in hoeing, and months of weeding and watching, has 
 vanished like smoke. A dull, sleepy state, rather than levity 
 and quarrelling, seems to be the effect of over-drinking this 
 heavy beer. I have only seen one man who had any appearance 
 of being a sotted drunkard, in spite of the amount of drink 
 consumed. I suppose this is because it is always taken fresh. 
 
 " The cruel raiding on other tribes which is kept up, in which 
 many of the men are killed and the women captured, has 
 brought into the Garenganze an immense number of women, 
 so that the proportion of women to men is very unequal ; 
 consequently polygamy is carried on to a shameful extent. 
 
 " Marriages are made, not by purchase exactly, as in Zulu- 
 land ; neither do the wife and her children continue to be the 
 property of her brothers, as among the Ovimbundu tribes, but 
 a present is made to the father of the bride, who forthwith 
 disposes of his daughter ; she, however, may leave her husband 
 at any time, if she cares to do so. The case may then be 
 brought to the chief, and if the wife be at fault the present 
 must be returned ; if the husband has ill-treated his wife, then 
 he has driven her from him, so there is no one to blame but 
 himself. In disputes among themselves, the people undoubtedly 
 receive fair justice at the hands of Msidi ; and he is ready to 
 listen to all who come. 
 
 " Dec. 18th, 1886. — Dick is now so far recovered but goes 
 about in a mournful way. I notice the tears roll down his 
 cheek at times, but I ask him no questions, only seek to cheer 
 him up, and keep him employed in a light way. The desire to 
 learn, coming after the decided spiritual awakening, has I 
 think been more than he could stand. I will need to be very 
 careful now lest I again lead him beyond his mental depth. 
 The crouching affection he showed toward me during those 
 days was most touching, more like that of an animal. He 
 would go to sleep a little at nights at the side of my cot bed, 
 with my hand upon him. You can well understand that this 
 has been and is a trial to me. 
 
 " Dec. 25th. — On Dec. 10th I started for the wood to look 
 for game as I am much in want of meat. In the evening I shot 
 a wart hog. I reached the Lukuruwe River on the 12th, where 
 I spent 10 days shooting and drying meat. I shot in all eight
 
 204 THE PEOPLE 
 
 antelopes, three zebras, and two hippopotami. I have returned 
 with abundance of dried meat enough to last me for several 
 months. 
 
 " While at the Lukuruwe I had a narrow escape. I had been 
 resting during the heat of the day, my bed being on the ground 
 When about to get up I reached out for my hat, intending to go 
 outside, when whiz came a spear into my hut, cutting through 
 the rim of my hat, which was in my hand, and sticking into the 
 ground not three inches from my side. 
 
 " At another time a man and I were out alone in the woods, 
 when the call of a honey-bird attracted us. On going but a 
 short way it halted on a tall tree. We were looking into the 
 tree trying to find the honey, when, from the grass which lay 
 between us, out sprang a leopard and bounded off. The wicked 
 bird had led us to his lair. 
 
 " The people I met were nearly all of the Basanga tribe, the 
 original occupants of the country, of whom there are now but 
 few. I scarce understand a word of their language as yet. 
 Going north-west, nearly to the Kalasa mountains, I had a 
 good view of the famous cavern mountain, which is inhabited. 
 The great cave has two entrances, a distance of five miles or 
 more apart, and within is a running stream. There are also 
 many smaller caves and dens in this mountainous country in 
 which the natives hide themselves. The entrances to these caves 
 look like rabbit holes. They form such perfect retreats that 
 Msidi could extort no tribute from these people. Near the 
 mouths of the caves they have millet gardens. They greatly 
 feared my inspecting the caves, and I had to promise that I 
 would not do so, or none would have come near me. In going 
 amongst their villages I seldom could get more than two or 
 three together at one time. When, however, I succeeded in 
 killing the two hippopotami in the river close by my camp, and 
 had sent round an invitation, I had no less than 100 of these 
 poor people, who gathered together and were willing to 
 remain with me as long as the feast lasted. It was really a 
 big Christmas dinner that we had in the heart of Africa, the two 
 hippopotami forming the centre dish, with zebra and antelope 
 as side dishes. 
 
 " On my return I found that the Arab traders with whom I 
 had intended sending letters had gone. This was a great dis- 
 appointment. I found also that my hut had been broken into.
 
 THE PEOPLE 205 
 
 A large blanket, a towel, an undershirt, a sack of corn, etc., are 
 gone. 
 
 " Dec. SOth. — To-day I moved into my new house. I am 
 very glad indeed that it is so far forward. With a portion of 
 the dried meat I brought with me I was enabled to employ 
 labour and finish the mudding of the inside. 
 
 "Jaw. 1st, 1887. — A New Year has come round again ; the 
 past one has been a blank to me, so far as home and the outer 
 world are concerned, the last letters I have received being 
 dated November, 1885. 
 
 " I find myself well housed, in good health, and seem to be 
 in a measure settled after five years of hut and camp life. Yet 
 my God alone knows. 
 
 " Jan. 2nd. — Before so many of the people gathered to my 
 camp we had a rather stirring adventure. Two of our men, 
 while out hunting, were benighted on the other side of the 
 river. Night set in very dark indeed, and after waiting a long 
 time for the absent ones the men in camp crossed, and made 
 signals to guide them to our whereabouts ; and above the 
 rushing of the river we heard their voices replying to us on the 
 other side. I ran down to the river bank in order to guide them, 
 but finding that my voice was not loud enough to make them 
 hear me, I called to my men in camp to come down that we 
 might all shout together, and so cause them to hear us. All 
 accordingly left the camp and joined me. We had only shouted 
 once or t"wdce when to my horror I heard a great noise in the 
 direction of the camp, w^hich seemed to be alive \Adth howling 
 demons. The truth was that the wild animals of the forest had 
 taken advantage of our absence, rushed in, and were devouring 
 the meat they found there. Some parts of a zebra were lying 
 in the middle of the enclosure, and a family of hyenas, accom- 
 panied by two dog-leopards, were fighting and quarrelling over 
 it. We had to act instantly, and having no fire or guns in our 
 hands, it was impossible to remain out of our shelter. So 
 taking the lead, and calling to my men to come on, I rushed 
 at full speed back to the camp. Taking care to avoid the 
 doorway, we sprang over the little brush barricade, so alarm- 
 ing the animals with our shouts and yells that they left the 
 meat and fled. 
 
 " Feb. 5th, 1887. — A company of Arab traders arrived here 
 a few days ago. Yesterday being the reception day for them.
 
 206 THE PEOPLE 
 
 the king sent for me to come and sit by him ; and many of 
 his people came together. Each of the three Arab master- 
 traders brought a handsome shawl with him with which to 
 deck Msidi. A military review was then held, after which 
 speeches were made by the Arabs and by the king and his 
 chiefs. Msidi then gave me an opportunity of speaking, which 
 I would most gladly have taken had I been at all equal to it. 
 I was glad, however, to find I was able to understand nearly all 
 that was spoken in Seyek ; but I fear my address would be no 
 more popular here than at Liwanika's court among the Barotse. 
 The sum and substance of their speeches on such an occasion 
 is flattery ; past events are rehearsed and discoursed upon, 
 and all things greatly exaggerated and contorted to suit the 
 occasion. 
 
 " Yesterday morning a woman was caught here by a leopard 
 while in her field. She was a ' small wife ' of the king's, and 
 through her cries assistance came, and the leopard was chased 
 away but the woman died shortly after. Msidi at once sent to 
 me for some poison to kill the leopard should it return, and I 
 gave him some strychnine. Instead, however, of killing a goat 
 or a dog to be used as bait, they preferred the dead woman's, 
 body. ' She is now dead,' said the chief. ' What can we do ? 
 Let her redeem her fellows ! ' i.e. from the leopard's paw. A 
 great deal of man-eating by wild animals goes on. The number 
 of people massed together — more given to cultivating than to 
 hunting — and the custom of throwing out the bodies of dead 
 slaves, has given these animals a taste for human flesh. 
 
 " In my small compound, yet unfenced, it is not safe for any- 
 one to be out of doors after dusk. Little Johnny was very nearly 
 caught by a hyena one evening. A little boy, left here sick by 
 one of my Bihe carriers, was in the habit of coming over and 
 eating with my boys of an evening, and sometimes sleeping 
 with them. I missed him for a few days, and on inquiring, 
 found that he had started for my house one evening, and had 
 not returned. He doubtless was carried off by one of these 
 beasts of prey. 
 
 " Old lions, which no longer have teeth strong enough to pull 
 down large game, come round and prey upon the people, and 
 they are very audacious. A woman close by us left her child 
 sitting in front of her hut for a few minutes. On returning she 
 found that the child had been carried off bv one of these retired
 
 THE PEOPLE 207 
 
 monarchs — his footprints, of course, telling the tale. Out in 
 the bush, where game is abundant, it is quite different, and 
 people sleep freely out in the open country. There they have 
 simple mat doors to their huts ; here they require doors of reed, 
 strongly barred. 
 
 " I got a pleasant message from Kalolo, the village which I 
 visited last year, and where many were so afraid of me as to 
 sleep in the field all night. They wanted to know when I would 
 return. The description they gave was, ' Ah ! that was the 
 good white man that visited us, that gave us fcastings of 
 meat.' It is a rough, hilly country that lies between, but I 
 must be off to them again, ' if by any means I may win 
 some.' 
 
 " Jan. \5ifi. — After the mournful report as to Dick given 
 before, I must needs refer to him again. He is decidedly better. 
 An unwonted nervousness is the only sign left of his former 
 derangement. His happiness as a Christian is fully restored 
 and he has set himself most bravely to learn to read. He was 
 always much opposed to this. In knowledge of the Scripture, 
 from what I have been teaching him, he is also progressing well. 
 I had repeatedly referred to baptism, explaining its full meaning 
 to him as carefully as possible, but I avoided urging it upon him, 
 preferring rather that it should be indeed with him ' an answer 
 of a good conscience toward God.' Last night, however, he told 
 me that he wished to be baptised. It seems he had been 
 hindered by something that I had said about its not being done 
 secretly, and he shrank at the thought of a large company of 
 people being present. But for a sore which he has on his foot I 
 would have him baptised at once. Wlien he gets over this we 
 shall not delay. 
 
 " Feh. ISth, 1887, Lord's Day. — This morning I baptised my 
 lad Dick in a pool here. I fully realise the responsibility of my 
 doing so alone, that is without the testimony of another as to 
 Dick's conversion. It has not been done hurriedly, but after 
 months of waiting, since his profession of conversion, during 
 which time I have been daily more persuaded of its reality. 
 Susi, my other lad, is applying for baptism. 
 
 " Before going do\Mi to the water we had a solemn time in 
 my house A\ith Dick, Susi, and another man who is deeply 
 interested, though I cannot as yet say under any especial 
 con\'iction.
 
 208 THE PEOPLE 
 
 " Well ! we had a solemn time by the pool out on the flat to 
 which we went. To get down to the water we had to break our 
 way through long rank grass, and close by I noticed the fresh 
 footprints of a leopard that had drunk water there in the 
 morning. After a short prayer in Umbundu, Dick was baptised 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 It was a solemnly glad time, and all seemed to feel it. We 
 then returned to ray house and spent a long time in earnest 
 conversation. 
 
 " When parting, six years ago, with dear Mr. Dyer, he 
 remarked, in his usual solemn way, that ' it would be a day 
 never to be forgotten by me when the first one was baptised 
 under the dark Zambesi waters.' To-day a dark Zambesi 
 sinner has been baptised in the Garenganze waters, and it is 
 but the beginning of God's kindness to us and to these people ; 
 there are more to follow. 
 
 " Until very recently the chief thought that presented itself 
 to me in connection with baptism was that of death and burial ; 
 but now it seems to me that the thought of resurrection and 
 new life is by no means to be omitted, but rather to take the 
 leading place. In 1 Peter iii, 21, it is directly connected with^ 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ ; and baptism, being called 
 ' the interrogation of a good conscience towards God,' implies 
 life. As the new-born babe cries, so new-born souls call upon 
 Him who is the source of their life. 
 
 " My relationship with the people, though very good from the 
 first, is if anything impro\'ing. I find that both the king and 
 his people make every effort to please me, and seem desirous to 
 give me every encouragement to remain among them, giving 
 their consent to everything I suggest, and shutting me up with 
 flattery. Augustine, referring to Proverbs xviii, 21, remarked 
 that ' our daily furnace was the tongue of men.' Paul and 
 Barnabas found grace to resist the flattery of those who cried 
 out that the gods had come down among them ; and afterwards 
 grace, to resist their slanders and stones, was not withheld from 
 them. Still we have much reason to rejoice and to give thanks 
 for a quiet and peaceable life in what is generally considered 
 to be the heart of savagedom, and the haunt of every cruelty. 
 
 " Though outwardly things are thus quiet and agreeable, yet 
 there lacks not opposition from certain quarters. The Arab 
 traders who come here have done what they could in spreading
 
 X S
 
 THE PEOPLE 209 
 
 evil reports and lying stories about the ' designing English,' 
 etc. The rains were exceedingly late this year, and when a 
 regular drought was threatening, some of the ' doctors ' of the 
 land would fain have laid the blame at my door ; but the story 
 did not take. The spear, also, that was thrown at me in the 
 bush close by the Lukuruwe River shows that the enemy, 
 though he lurks snake-like in the grass, is present, and will 
 doubtless watch his opportunity for raising more opposition. 
 
 " Difficulties have arisen becavise I have not followed the 
 custom of giving presents to bands of drummers in camp. I 
 have refused to do so, and have often had trouble in clearing my 
 camp of these boisterous musicians. In the first place, I cannot 
 give lawfully the Lord's money to the support of such folly, and 
 to do so might lead to the annoyance of all servants of the Lord 
 who come after me, by encouraging and perpetuating the 
 practice. The custom also of giving presents to headmen, 
 minor chiefs, etc., who have no lawful claim to tribute, I have 
 opposed, thus raising no little amount of dissatisfaction. At 
 the Barotse I gave, with little discrimination, all I had ; my 
 chief thought was to be acceptable to them, and to be liked. 
 I succeeded in this. I fear, however, that it was not a godly 
 success, or one to God's glory. I have but little with me, and 
 with that little I am bound to see to the needs of the men who 
 have patiently come this long way with me, and to speed 
 them well on their return to their homes. 
 
 " I am in my house at last. Plastering the walls has been a 
 slow and tedious process. Indeed, the house stood so long with 
 its heavy thatch covering, and with walls of poles, through which 
 the wind could play at its pleasure, that the roof got somewhat 
 twisted, and the thatch dishevelled. I have tried to make the 
 mud plaster as perfect as possible, and with a good plank door 
 I shall hope to be able to regulate the atmosphere inside, which 
 I think will help greatly towards a more even condition of 
 health. 
 
 " Feb. 20th. — Paid a visit to a camp of Arab traders, and was 
 quite astonished at the number of slaves they have already 
 bought, chiefly full-grown men and women, all secured by their 
 necks with heavy forked sticks. While there I saw the Arabs 
 buy a man for ten yards of caUco. They give, they told me, 
 twelve to sixteen yards for women and young lads. Full-grown 
 men were not so valuable, as they are untameable, and liable to 
 o
 
 210 THE PEOPLE 
 
 make their escape. After the bargain had been completed three 
 stout Zanzibaris came forward, seized the man they had bought, 
 threw him on his face on the ground, drew his hands behind his 
 back in the most cruel way, and bound them tightly ; then, 
 with a blow on the side of the head, they ordered the poor 
 fellow, who never uttered a word all this time, to get up and go 
 before them. He would have to lie bound with this cord until 
 a taming stick was manufactured to place on his neck. The 
 weight of these sticks is very great, but to my mind the dis- 
 comfort of their position during the day, when they are allowed 
 to sit up with the end of the stick resting on the ground in 
 front of them, is nothing compared to what they must suffer at 
 night. Then they are made to lie do^vn, the stick being kept 
 fixed, and pinning their neck between its fork to the ground, 
 its upper end fastened to the roof of a hut, shed, or branch of a 
 tree. 
 
 " March nth, 1887, — A young man, who lived a gunshot 
 from my house, was carried off to-day by a lion while resting 
 in the shade behind his hut. 
 
 " March 18th. — At eight o'clock this evening, just in the 
 twilight, a leopard, which seemed to have followed my boys, 
 seized and carried off my dog from the very centre of my yard. 
 
 " March 25th. — On going outside last night, about eleven 
 o'clock, I encountered a large animal just in front of my door. 
 He seemed to be waiting his opportunity to pounce upon some- 
 one, but I tumbled back indoors and disappointed him. A few 
 nights later, while sitting under the veranda of my house, I saw 
 another of these creatures coming straight for my cottage, 
 evidently attracted by the goats. Stepping indoors, and 
 picking up my gun, which stood loaded in a corner, I fired at 
 him, and the ball passed through his heart. I found it was a 
 full-grown hyena, of the man-eating sort. My boys and the 
 neighbours had a dance round it the next day. At this time of 
 the year the grass is so long that these animals are emboldened 
 to go round the villages and prey upon the people. 
 
 " March 26th. — Last night my boy Johnny died. He had 
 been ill for a long time with diarrhoea, brought on by eating 
 maize corn. After a short prayer and a few words with the rest 
 of the boys, we buried him in the garden. Poor little lad, he 
 was of an exceedingly sweet and tender disposition. Among the 
 rest he was pre-eminently my boy. Nothing, however, that I
 
 THE PEOPLE 211 
 
 could possibl}'^ do or say could control his appetite for green 
 corn. I whipped him and even tied his hands with cords, but 
 as soon as he was released, or found the slightest opportunity, 
 he was off to the field eating the corn green and unroasted. My 
 first acquaintance with him was in the Lunda country. Kasoma 
 bought him there, unknown to me. During the long, tiring 
 march before we reached the Lualaba River, this little lad 
 completely broke down ; and as all the men were heavily 
 burdened, only two courses were open to us — either to leave 
 him by the roadside, or allow him to ride my ox. Accordingly 
 he was carried on ox-back for several days, until he recovered 
 somewhat. When Kasoma left for Bihe I was not willing to 
 part with Johnny, so he left him with me. Johnny was always 
 an example to the other children, and now all feel very much 
 the death of their little playmate, and I hope the event will be 
 blessed to them. 
 
 " To-day I had an opportunity of sending letters to the coast. 
 As can well be understood, it is easier to send letters from a 
 place like this than to receive them. All native traders go to 
 the coast, but few from the coast come here ; and those who do 
 are often uncertain as to their destination when leaving their 
 homes. My mind naturally follows Cinyama and the little 
 party, and sometimes I ponder the result of his journey with a 
 measure of anxiety. When I left Natal alone five years ago, I 
 never for a moment dreamed that it would be for so long a time 
 as this, yet in looking back it does seem very short indeed ; 
 and considering the wonderful goodness of the Lord to me, 1 
 have little reason to doubt as to the future. If Cinyama returns 
 alone it ^\^ll be well. If an English fellow-labourer should come 
 with him I shall be very thankful. Meanwhile the Lord wonder- 
 fully makes up to me for all I lose in being without the 
 immediate fellowship of brethren in Christ. My days are spent, 
 I may say, in unbroken quietness of mind and peace within. 
 Although I have joy, yet I do not say I am always rejoicing. 
 There is much to depress me in such a field as this. Heathendom 
 in all its nakedness, cruelty, and depravity is far from being 
 exhilarating in its effect ; but yet, in comparison, the con- 
 dition of these people is happy when placed alongside the state 
 of the unsaved in home lands. How dark and hideous is the 
 ignorance around one here ! but how guilty the ignorance of 
 British sinners who close and harden their hearts against the
 
 212 THE PEOPLE 
 
 light, and strengthen themselves with false hopes ! Here also 
 they are never at rest, seeking after vain hopes and refuges of 
 lies. 
 
 " On behalf of a caravan about to start for Bihe, Msidi and 
 his fetish priests have been at work a whole month, preparing 
 charms, etc. The process in such a case is first to divine as 
 to the dangers that await them ; then to propitiate with the 
 appointed sacrifices to forefathers (in this case two goats were 
 killed) ; afterwards to prepare the charms necessary, either as 
 antidotes against evil or to secure good. The noma, or fetish 
 spear to be carried in front of the caravan, with charms secured 
 to it, was thus prepared : the roots of a sweet herb were tied 
 round the blade ; then a few bent splinters of wood were tied 
 on, like the feathers of a shuttlecock. In the cage thus formed 
 were placed a piece of human skin, little bits of the claws of a 
 lion, leopard, etc., with food, beer and medical roots, thus 
 securing, respectively, power over their enemies, safety from 
 the paws of fierce animals, food and drink, and, finally, health. 
 A cloth was sewn over all, and finally the king spat on it and 
 blessed it. After all these performances they will set out \vith 
 light hearts, each man marked with sacred chalk. Such is the 
 ' fool ' in all lands ; he finds a refuge in his own imaginations. 
 
 '''April 1st, 1887. — Three Bihe caravans arrived here this 
 morning. They have brought no letters, but report American 
 missionaries in Bihe. My first impulse was to bemoan the 
 lack of pity on the part of my American brethren, in that they 
 did not seek this opportunity of sending in letters. The matter, 
 however, is surely in higher hands ; and when I looked at much 
 work that, months ago, I had laid out to be done, scarce com- 
 menced, I felt ashamed of my impatience. The Lord, I know, 
 does not forget me for one moment but chooses His own ways 
 and means, not in order to disappoint our desires, but to exceed 
 them. 
 
 " At present the languages are occupying most of my time. 
 My chief interruptions are caused by having to go off occasion- 
 ally to the bush to procure a supply of meat, which I dry and 
 use, not so much as food, but to flavour my maize or millet 
 corn porridge, which is my staple article of food ; but as this 
 dried meat docs not keep very long, I have to exchange large 
 quantities of it with the natives for corn. 
 
 " Formerly my shooting greatly distressed me, as I wounded
 
 THE PEOPLE 213 
 
 many animals without killing them. Now, however, I believe 
 in answer to prayer, I seldom fail to secure the animal I aim at. 
 This searching for game takes up four or five days every three 
 months. I might ere this have taught Dick, my lad, to shoot, 
 and have given him this occupation, but I fear his being carried 
 away with the excitement of hunting, and becoming a regular 
 hunter — an occupation most unsettling and unprofitable. 
 
 " The field of corn and beans which my boys have cultivated 
 has borne remarkably well, but I fear comparatively little of 
 the crop will be secured, thieves and wild pigs having the larger 
 share. There is no way of checking the thieves but by catching 
 and cruelly beating them. Of course, I will not hear of this 
 being done, but, on the contrary, I have been moved to give a 
 meal of food at my house to the poor hungry creatures caught 
 stealing. So insensible, however, are they to mere rebuke, or 
 even to kind treatment, that they will go off quietly, and again 
 begin filling their baskets with half-ripe corn so soon as they 
 think they are not observed. 
 
 " May 5th, 1887. — Returned to-day from a three weeks' 
 outing which I thought would brace me up a bit after the past 
 months of rain and consequent confinement. I took the precau- 
 tion to have a native hunter with me this time to save myself 
 from the extra toil of hunting for meat. The villages, by the 
 way, do not grudge giving meal and other food, in fact it is a 
 recognised institution here that strangers and travellers be 
 entertained free of charge, so I purposely avoid, on all such 
 trips, taking anything with me in the way of barterable goods. 
 
 " The first villages we reached were those of Mirambo, a 
 little way beyond Kagoma's on the Lukuruwe River. We 
 rested there one day, and then went down the river, making 
 for a company of Ba-na-lunda villages. The long grass tired 
 me out, so we went into camp about midday, sending a 
 hunter on. 
 
 " At this spot we had quite a remarkable adventure with a 
 lion, which but for the protecting care of God would have ended 
 more seriously. All night we were kept awake more or less by 
 three lions serenading us, and the lads had enough to do to keep 
 their bivouac fires burning. I, however, got a good night's 
 rest. Next morning when passing through a clump of long reedy 
 grass I heard distinctly in front the low angry growl of a lion. 
 The man who was before me stopped, saying it was a buffalo,
 
 214 THE PEOPLE 
 
 and asked for my gun that he might shoot it. I urged him to 
 push on, and tried to prevent the three boys from stopping, 
 but it was too late to avoid the brute's charge. He made 
 straight at the hindmost lad, who was carrying my mat and 
 blanket. I ran back and succeeded in intercepting him, so 
 that in his spring he fell short a few feet from his intended 
 victim, and before my very face, too near indeed to allow me 
 time to use my rifle. The man and the three lads dropped 
 their loads, and were off like deer, leaving me and my royal 
 friend alone in the reed thicket face to face. For a moment it 
 was a question what the next scene would be. He was raging 
 fiercely, and would fain have sprung on me, but seemed to lack 
 the nerve. Holding him hard with my eyes, and slowly 
 cocking my rifle, I lifted it to my shoulder for a steady aim, 
 when he suddenly gave in, his huge tail dropped, and drawing 
 his teeth under his lips he made off. I sprang after him, hoping 
 to get a shot at safer range, but the grass was so dense that I 
 could not sight him again ; so I started in search of my com- 
 panions. I overtook Dick several hundred yards on by the 
 river's brink, and then the others, but not one would return for 
 his load, so complete was their scare, although I assured them 
 that the lion had gone clean away. That, hoAvever, was no 
 assurance to them that his wife or some of his relatives might 
 not be hanging about the same lair. Shortly after we met some 
 men returning from their fishing grounds, who were willing for a 
 small consideration to return for the loads with my brave crew. 
 
 " The lad whose life I thus saved belongs to Bihe, and I 
 overheard a young Bihean say to his fellows, he would ' go any- 
 where with such a white man, who would throw his ovm body 
 between a lion and a black lad of no account.' The young man 
 who said this, is a nephew of the chief Kapoko, who told the 
 carriers I had engaged at his village two years ago, not to go 
 with this white man, as he was an Englishman, and would carry 
 them all off to the other side of the continent and enslave them, 
 the result of which advice was. that most of them left us. 
 
 " Two weary days' tramp across the flat brought me again to 
 my comfortable house. On reaching the capital I met Msidi. 
 He received me very warmly, and seeing I was very tired, sent 
 one of his wives to cook a dish of rice and honey for me. It was 
 dark ere I reached my house. I found that in my absence 
 Susi's father had died. He was a mulatto from Loanda and
 
 THE PEOPLE 215 
 
 came here seeking employment from Msidi as Secretary. He 
 took part in the robbery of my goods at Nana Kandundu. Two 
 months ago he took ill, and being in a wretched condition of 
 poverty, etc., I sent and brought him to my village, when he 
 recovered somewhat, but in my absence had a relapse and died. 
 Before I left I pressed upon him for several evenings ' repent- 
 ance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.' 
 
 " Msidi paid me a visit shortly after my return, and was 
 most agreeable ; indeed, he is a thorough gentleman. The 
 other day he told one of his courtiers that he had one true 
 friend, and that was Monare, for in his heart he did not find 
 one single suspicion of me ; and, strange to say, I feel very much 
 the same towards him. I have no suspicion of his friendship ; 
 he most carefully avoids asking anything of me, and all his 
 family do the same. 
 
 " Matters have been settled between Bihe and this country, 
 and the 'road ' is virtually open again. Msidi's two sons have 
 not returned yet, but they were awaiting the arrival of goods 
 from the coast, and will come shortly. Two large caravans 
 have arrived for trade, bringing no letters, nor any news for me, 
 except that the American missionaries are re-established in 
 Bihe. I suppose they did not know of the departure of these 
 two caravans. I am expecting a large budget when it does 
 come. My last home-letter dates are all in 1885."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS AND DELIVERANCES 
 
 MAY Sth, 1887.— Yesterday I had another child 
 brought to me. The poor thing belonged to a black- 
 smith here, who some time ago sold its mother for 
 com to the king's executioner. The com was not enough to 
 cover the price of the child, so he kept it out of the bargain. 
 The fact was, the ' hangman ' did not ^nsh a slave with a baby 
 on her back, so would not buy the child, though an extra 
 basket of corn would have sufficed. The blacksmith, who 
 has no wife, found he could do nothing with this baby, and 
 instead of knocking it on the head, as the custom here is — for 
 who would buy so young a thing ? — he sent to me, asking me 
 to give a goat for him. I could not help myself in the matter, 
 so sent a young goat in exchange. Poor little boy (we mil call 
 him WilUe), he had been deceived, for they said they were 
 taking him to his mother, and he cried long and bitterly, 
 ' N"twala ko mama ' (' Take me to mother '). In Luba the 
 word for mother is exactly like our ' mama,' the as being very 
 broad and emphatic. He is a plump, liealthy little chap, with 
 a fine-shaped head, awfully afraid of me as yet. I shan't give 
 him up to his mother where she now is, but I ■will do so if I can 
 redeem her. 
 
 " The question of these children harasses me a good deal, 
 and often I don't know what to do. Little children here have 
 really no market value, and a woman burdened ^^^th a child is 
 a less desirable article of purchase than one -with hands and 
 shoulders free. The raiding parties kill off all small children 
 found among their captives. The body of a fine little boy 
 was picked up only a few days ago beside the Arab camp. 
 The o-^Tier had doubtless taken him the round of all likely 
 purchasers, probably including me among the number, and 
 then thrust a spear through him as a useless burden on 
 his hands. Another little boy, whom I refused to take 
 
 216
 
 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 217 
 
 last year, was deliberately starved and thrown out to the 
 wolves. 
 
 " A young man named Cilombo had charge of a field close 
 
 by my cottage. Being interested in meetings held at my 
 place, he moved his hut from the far to the near side of the 
 field. His wife was a slave woman, and had a little child to 
 whom I had taken quite a fancy ; and in passing my hut on 
 the way to the -villages I used often to take the child in my 
 arms and spend a few minutes in playing with it. During my 
 absence on one occasion the mistress of Cilombo's wife carried 
 out a threat she had made long before, and sold her with her 
 child. The husband was powerless to intervene on behalf of 
 either. One of a company of traders bought the woman, and 
 started at once for Bihe. Another man, however, hearing that 
 this woman had been sold, wished to exchange for her a younger 
 slave, who was perhaps of more value, though less muscular, 
 as he wanted an able-bodied woman to cultivate his fields. 
 The Bihe trader was willing to make the exchange, but re- 
 minded the man that he had brought nothing for the child. 
 The latter at once said that he did not want the child ; but 
 as it was so young, he thought it ought to be included with 
 the mother in his bargain. The men were unable to come to 
 terms ; so, to prevent more ado, the child was taken from the 
 mother's arms, its head was dashed against a tree, and it was 
 thrown into the river. Thus the difficulty was got over, and 
 the women were exchanged ! The poor mother's grief at the 
 loss of her child may be imagined. Had I known the peril 
 that this little one was in I certainly should have secured it 
 in some way or other. 
 
 " But to know where and when I ought to draw the Une 
 baffles me. I cannot allow myself to be involved in slave 
 buying ; that is clear. WTiat are the points of difference 
 between buying and redeeming ? If it is lawful to buy, it 
 must be equally lawful to sell. One can redeem a grown-up 
 person and let him go, but this cannot be done with a child 
 whose parents are enslaved ; the owner of the mother might 
 take him at once and sell him again. Of course, alone, I cannot 
 look after more than a very few, and that settles the question 
 so far. The little girl Chinze, whom I took last year from a 
 Bihean, when unable to travel because of boils on her feet, is 
 again covered with a loathsome disease peculiar to tfiis country,
 
 218 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 
 
 called monona, and has to be kept entirely separate. Among 
 the natives this disease generally runs from two to five years. 
 With a free use of sulphur internally and caustic externally, 
 I hope to cure her soon. 
 
 " The foUoAving is the story of two little girls that were 
 added to my family: One year, when Msidi's warriors w^ere 
 ransacking the district around Katapena, Lubaland, they 
 surprised and carried off a number of children who were 
 playing and bathing in a pool near their village. Among them 
 were two girls, Mwcpo and Delunga, who had been fast friends 
 and constant playmates ; but the rough hands of INIsidi's 
 soldiers now separated them, and they were carried off in 
 different directions. Three years after, I happened to be 
 sitting in INIsidi's yard talking with him, when a company of 
 slaves were brought in. They were the belongings of someone 
 who had recently died, and were brought to Msidi to be dis- 
 tributed among the relatives of the deceased man. The 
 youngest of the slaves, a little girl of nine years of age, was 
 suffering from painful ulcers on the soles of her feet. After 
 giving away the healthy ones, Msidi turned and asked if I 
 could do anything with this suffering child ; so I took her up 
 to my cottage, dressed her sores, and after a little care and 
 nursing she recovered. 
 
 " A few months later I happened again to be sitting beside 
 Msidi, when a little girl entered the yard and threw herself 
 down at some distance from the chief's feet, rubbing dust on 
 her forehead and arms. Msidi told her to look up, and asked 
 where she came from and what did she want. She said that 
 she had run away from her mistress because she had been 
 severely beaten the day before. It seems that she had travelled 
 all night from the Lunsala, six or eight miles down tlic Bunkeya. 
 Some of Msidi's breakfast was in a dish ; this I handed in pity 
 to the poor thing, and in a short time I rose up and left. Upon 
 looking back, I saw the little girl folloAving me, in charge of 
 one of Msidi's young men who told me that Msidi had sent the 
 child after me, saying that if she was afraid of being beaten she 
 had better follow the white man. So on she came with me to 
 my cottage. I handed her over to the care of the other little 
 girl, Mwepo, when, to my astonishment, they flew into each 
 other's arms, embracing one another and weeping. The two 
 Luba free-born children had met again in mv cottage after
 
 AND DELIVERANCES 219 
 
 each had passed through her own three years of unmixed 
 sorrow and hardship. 
 
 " So much for family matters and perplexities. Dick is in 
 everything my good man ' Friday.' Susi, the other lad, is 
 useful in taking messages, medicines, etc., but is very handless 
 and of little use about the house. My other little one, Segunda, 
 is getting on well ; it took about six months to get him out of 
 the decline he had fallen into through neglect and bad food. 
 
 " My o\\Ti health keeps excellent ; ever since moving into 
 my ' house ' I have not had a single day's illness of any kind, 
 and nearly a year has passed since I touched quinine or any 
 other home medicines, although I have occasionally used the 
 herbs and medicinal berries of this country. In fact, I am 
 quite a naturalised African. The heat of the sun in no way 
 affects my head as it used to do. I prefer wearing a light grass 
 hat, of native manufacture, to my heavy pith-helmet, which is 
 shaken out of its dust only on state occasions. My joints, how- 
 ever, have been stiffened a good deal with rheumatism this 
 season, which has been an exceptionally wet one ; not that 
 my house is at all damp, but after weeks of rain the very 
 atmosphere becomes saturated. , 
 
 " Dick and Susi are great helps to me. They thoroughly 
 enter into sympathy with the work, and though neither 
 ventures to talk much to others, they are not slow in going 
 about and inviting the people to come to my house on the 
 Lord's-day morning. I speak chiefly in Umbundu, conse- 
 quently those who come are for the most part natives of Bihe ; 
 many besides understand Umbundu, but do not come so freely 
 to my house. The variety of excuses made, and obstacles that 
 come in the way, are marvellous. If a man is sick, it is sure 
 to be on the Sunday ; if a slave runs off, it is certain to be on 
 a Saturday or Sunday ; and the most I have gathered at one 
 time is about a dozen men. To-day I went off to a village 
 where Umbundu is the chief language spoken, the people 
 being mixed. I planned to be there by midday, so as to find 
 them resting during the heat of the day, but I was disappointed ; 
 they had pressing business of their own on, so I returned. You 
 see I have need of patience here, and of grace also, that ' I 
 be not weary, though in weariness oft.' 
 
 " I have been much cheered by a blacksmith who was at 
 one of my Sunday morning meetings, and who responded in
 
 220 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 
 
 a remarkable way to what was said. He declared before all 
 the rest that he had received new light that day. With an 
 honest expression, and in a sincere manner, he repeated after- 
 wards, ' Is it so ? Is it so ? Is that what God is ? Is that the 
 nature of God's love ? ' This was the Sunday before I left for 
 the three weeks' tour. On returning, my feet were so sore and 
 blistered that on nearing the capital I sent on for my hammock, 
 hoping someone about would volunteer to carry me. The 
 blacksmith heard of the opportunity, and did not lose it. He 
 met me with four other volunteers, and taking hold of the pole 
 behind, the heaviest end, he would let no one change with him, 
 and left, when my door was reached, with a hearty ' Good 
 night.' It was for no present or pay that he thus gave his 
 cheerful aid. This act was like a fresh, cool breeze to one. 
 
 " May 2^rd. — Yesterday was Sunday, when we had a most 
 profitable day. I had quite a houseful of grown men at the 
 morning service, which was continued until midday. Our 
 subject was, ' Repentance toward God, and faith toward our 
 Lord Jesus Christ.' I don't think I ever had a meeting at 
 which the people showed less difficulty in understanding, and 
 when in every way I had more liberty in using the Umbundu 
 language. 
 
 " This morning Dick got an unmistakable rebuke. Yester- 
 day, someone in the village happened to remark that there was 
 little chance of Cinyama being here next month ; that he had 
 just come from Bihe, and knew how matters stood. Thought- 
 fully considering our empty corn bin, and that we had no more 
 beads or cloth to buy with, Dick remarked, ' If Cinyama does 
 not come next month we shall die of hunger.' I checked him 
 at once, and reminded him that they had not a day's hunger 
 during all the months gone by, when many people of the 
 country had actually perished from starvation. (The past 
 season was a very hard one for the natives.) That day a drink- 
 ing cup had been stolen from my boy when on the way to draw 
 water, and the king had sent to kill the chief. I ran down to 
 prevent this, and obtained Msidi's consent to his being put in 
 chains for a few days instead. When I entered the king's 
 house and greeted him he drew out from behind him a roll of 
 eight yards of calico and gave it to me, saying, that perhaps I 
 was in need of it to buy corn, as the crops were ripe. Where 
 now were Dick's doubts ? I believe that this cahco was given
 
 AND DELIVERANCES 221 
 
 especially for Dick's sake. He had mentioned the matter of 
 food in prayer last night. I had not mentioned it ; indeed, it is 
 seldom in my thoughts, much less in my prayers. And here the 
 answer comes the very next day, at early morning — calico to 
 buy corn ! Msidi had never given me anything in that way 
 before, except perhaps a basket of corn or rice. 
 
 " Not only to the boys, but to mj^self, this time of waiting 
 upon God for our daily need has been greatly blessed ; indeed, 
 it is only then that one can realise how truly this desert country 
 might, in the experience of faith, become as a well-watered 
 plain, and what seems only a way of discomfort and poverty 
 prove a path dropping with fatness. 
 
 " May 27th. — I have heard to-day of the death of Mokobe 
 at Kalolo. I visited his town last year, and was very well 
 received. About two months ago or more he sent a message to 
 me, asking me to repeat my visit. I had intended doing so 
 very soon, and now hear of his death. Alas, for the stiffness 
 of my neck, and my unwilling feet ! It was the rain that pre- 
 vented me, or I might have gone when his message came. 
 Surely I have not yet learned to endure hardness for the Gospel's 
 sake. But there is scarcely a place I have been to that messages 
 have not followed to repeat my visit. May the Lord of the 
 harvest send help here soon, is my heart's prayer. 
 
 " About this time six years ago I was preparing to make fare- 
 well visits. It is not a long time, but it is long to be away from 
 all those whom the affections hold as near and beloved in this 
 life. It is a long time to be a stranger on the earth, without a 
 companion ; yet, strange to say, it is only when I sit down 
 and think of it that I feel it at all ; as a rule the days go by 
 without a shadow of loneliness. The good Lord has wonder- 
 fully made up to me for the lack of Christian fellowship by 
 giving me Dick and Susi ; and the other three little black faces 
 keep alive somewhat the dear old home memories of nursery 
 days and of love for love. 
 
 " June 2Qth, 1887. — Returned to-day from a trip to the 
 Lukuruwe, and found a fresh caravan had arrived from Bihe. 
 I hear that someone has come to Bihe en route for the Garen- 
 ganze, intending to join me. May the good Lord speed him. 
 It is no vain thing to wait upon God. 
 
 " July lUh, 1887. — To-day a son of the great Kazembe, of 
 Lake Mweru, an old friend of Dr. Livingstone's, was executed.
 
 222 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 
 
 This man, a tall, handsome fellow, came to Msidi's town as a 
 refugee after the break up of his father's power. Conspiracies 
 against him in his ovra country compelled him to seek a friend 
 in his father's old enemy. He, however, acted very unwisely 
 when staying with Msidi, who tested his fidelity by employing 
 him in subordinate positions. Young Kazembe would not 
 submit to such tests, seeing he himself was a king's son, and he 
 preferred to remain idle at the capital. But his head was 
 demanded by a daughter of Msidi as a marriage dowry on the 
 occasion of her marriage to the brother of a former husband 
 of hers who had been killed in a war against Kazembe. She had 
 done all in her power to bring him into trouble, and at last he 
 gave her an opportunity of speaking unguardedly, in a drunken 
 fit, in the presence of Msidi, and impUcating himself in the 
 death of one of Msidi's favourite generals. He was withal so 
 defiant to Msidi, that the king saw the wisdom of handing him 
 over to his daughter. The condemned man was allowed to 
 return to his hut and prepare himself, choosing his own time 
 to hand himself over to the executioners. I sat with him out- 
 side his hut door while his wives and young men shaved his 
 head and beard, trimmed his finger and toe nails, and washed- 
 his body and limbs, anointing him with scented palm oil. He 
 sat through it all without moving a muscle, or showing the 
 slightest concern. I spoke to him repeatedly, and my last 
 words were, ' Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord 
 shall be saved.' The four executioners were sitting meanwhile 
 in a row. When I rose and shook hands for the last time, 
 Kazembe rose from his seat, and as I left him he quietly 
 walked over to the executioners and gave himself up. They 
 threw him roughly on the ground, bound him like a pig to an 
 extra long pole — as Kazembe stood considerably over six feet 
 in height — and with groans and animal grunts they carried him 
 off to the bush where they struck his head off as he lay fastened 
 to the pole. I had hardly reached my house ere the doleful 
 procession of executioners passed by on their way to Kangofu, 
 %vith Kazembc's head on a pike, carrying it to the offended 
 queen. 
 
 ''August 9th, 1887. — I had long been planning to revisit the 
 town of Kalolo, where the people were so afraid of me as to 
 go off and sleep in their fields all night. This time I carried 
 nothing but my gun and blanket, intending to give the people
 
 AND DELIVERANCES 223 
 
 the benefit of entertaining me to their hearts' content. I went 
 a different road to the one previously taken, and called at the 
 town of Likoko, a brother of Msidi. In doing so I had to pass 
 the town of Kapapa, Msidi's chief wife. In going along a little 
 path leading up to her town, I was astonished to see close by 
 the gateway what I at first thought was a young man buried in 
 the ground up to his neck, a mode of punishment common in 
 these parts, as prisons and handcuffs are unknown, but to my 
 horror I found it to be the head of a young man, freshly decapi- 
 tated, placed thus on the path as a warning to all evildoers. 
 The headless trunk was lying a few yards away, by the side of 
 the road. At once I suspected that Msidi was at Kapapa's 
 to^vn. I found that he had arrived there very early in the 
 morning, and had caught the young man skulking. It seems 
 that Msidi had ordered him some days before to join a war 
 party that had already gone out, and as it was his third or 
 fourth offence Msidi ordered his immediate execution. 
 
 " After formally saluting the king, I went on to Likoko's 
 town, where I slept for the night, and we were entertained with 
 their best. We reached Kalolo in the afternoon of the next day. 
 The people there were hearty indeed in their greeting, and, 
 instead of bringing me food uncooked as before, they all took 
 to cooking, so delighted were they to observe that, on my last 
 visit, I ate their native food, and had no supernatural ways of 
 existing. About five in the afternoon a woman came with a 
 dish of thick porridge, and small pot of omhelela, or relish, 
 which is often made of cooked beans or other things calculated 
 to give the food a taste. In a short time another came laden 
 in the same way, and then another, until for about half an hour 
 there was a constant stream of women bringing to my hut 
 dishes of cooked food. The whole village had brought me their 
 own suppers, and all were assembled in the yard outside, 
 evidently intending to partake of my feast. I at once fell into 
 their little plan, called in my own boys, and told them to carry 
 the food out and lay it before the people, so that I became their 
 entertainer, and all were my guests for the evening. Remaining 
 with them the next day, I had a pleasant and profitable time. 
 There was a general holiday, and about a dozen young men 
 offered to accompany me for the rest of the journey. Remem- 
 bering the happy time I had at the Lukuruwe with the crowd 
 who gathered to my camp when I killed the two hippopotami,
 
 224 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 
 
 I thought I would adopt the same plan with these young men. 
 We started into the bush, built a camp in the neighbourhood 
 of the Lufira River, where there was plenty of game, and we 
 spent six days together. Others joined our company from the 
 neighbouring villages. Sufficient food was supplied to them, 
 and the young men attended to their own cooking, and every- 
 thing that was needful. I embraced every opportunity of 
 explaining to them the truths of Scripture, and all appeared 
 intensely interested in our morning and evening readings. 
 
 " One learns at such times that there are compensations in 
 lonely service in Central Africa. The pri\'ilege of being enabled 
 wholly to engross oneself from morning to night in the business 
 of reaching the hearts of these people is very great indeed. In 
 fact, I often feel that the present compensations quite outweigh 
 any sacrifice made. All that draws us nearer to God is rich and 
 fertile in reward ; yea, it is good at times even to be cast down, 
 for the Lord comforteth them that are so. 
 
 " On returning to my house I found that a company of 
 Bihe traders had arrived. They reported the death of Chipongi, 
 the chief of that place, and also told me that there was a white 
 man in Bihe, kno%vn as ' Monare's brother,' who was planning 
 to reach the Garenganze. Their not having letters of any kind, 
 however, made me rather suspicious of their statements, and 
 their extravagant accounts of the immense follo^^^ng that this 
 white man had, and the great amount of goods in his possession, 
 and other cock-and-bull stories with which they filled my ears, 
 made me still more doubt their truthfulness. 
 
 " When we go to any people, Jew or Gentile, as the Lord's 
 ambassadors, they have surely a right to ask for our credentials. 
 The early missionaries when preaching to the Jew appealed 
 to Scripture. When preaching to the Gentile their preaching 
 was accompanied with miraculous power. But are we to-day 
 so left to ourselves and our own resources that we have nothing 
 to say to the African challenge coming more or less directly, 
 ' WTiere are your credentials ? ' It was always with a peculiar 
 sense of triumph that I was able to quote John's words, and 
 assure my hearers that it was so. He Who had sent me was 
 with me. With me, making it impossible for any man to 
 injure me in any way without His consent, with me to make 
 them feel in their hearts that what I said was true, and with 
 me to answer my prayers and give me all that I asked for.
 
 AND DELIVERANCES 225 
 
 Well, I was able, or rather enabled, on a few occasions to ask 
 God for something publiclj'', and on each occasion was not 
 ' put to shame.' Recently I employed six men to go with me 
 on a Gospel tour, hoping to revisit several villages down the 
 Lufira, but heavy floods of rain had driven man and beast 
 away so that we splashed about for two days with a handful 
 of rice for my first day's rations, soup made from old buffalo 
 bones well gnawed by the hyenas for the second day's rations, 
 and on the third day we hoped to arrive at villages that we 
 knew were well above flood marks across the Chansamne 
 Plains, but the men were hardly equal to it. However, we 
 splashed along and I tried to cheer them up, but they had been 
 thinking, and were still thinking, since last night's talk round 
 the fire, how it was that the God they had come out to serve had 
 served them so badly. So I replied that no doubt I had made 
 a mistake in not seeking His guidance when we left home. But 
 even although we had made a mistake God would give us food 
 there and then in the midst of that great plain as easily as at 
 the villages. So we stopped, and I prayed God, for the sake 
 of those standing by, to give us food in this wilderness of 
 water. All then shouldered their loads with a lighter heart and 
 on we went. I then noticed that close by there stood a clump 
 of dwarf palms grown on an old ant heap and just as we 
 approached them an antelope sprang out, stood dazed for a 
 moment in the bright light, then started to run towards us, 
 but finding he was coming into the danger he had sniffed, he 
 stopped again, giving me the opportunity of killing him with 
 one shot. So that there on our path lay God's answer, and 
 within ten minutes of our asking. I ought to add that this 
 was the second antelope we had seen during the three days, and 
 the other was quite out of reach with the rifle. 
 
 " Sept. 16th, 1897. — To-day has seen the end of a little 
 episode in the history of my stay in Garenganze. Msidi tried 
 to force upon me one of his own wives that she might be in 
 my village to cultivate and grind for me. Seeing I would not 
 consent to marry any of his daughters he seemed to think this 
 the next best arrangement, and one he could carry through 
 without my consent. My efforts at first seemed useless, but 
 on sending a point blank refusal, when the matter seemed to 
 be coming to a head, he threatened to beat my messenger. This 
 made me think that he was possibly suspicious of me, and that
 
 226 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 
 
 when other whites might come, we together would dispute the 
 ground on which my village stood. But by placing his wife 
 in my village he would thus have a foot inside. This morning 
 I found the opportunity I had been waiting for of getting him 
 alone when everything was talked over. I tried to explain why 
 I had come here, the nature of my calling, his own need of the 
 Gospel, etc., and the ' vniie ' question was completely talked 
 out. As I left he gave me a little girl, about 10 years of age, 
 who had been brought in as tribute, saying I might take her 
 to my village. 
 
 " One of Msidi's hunters came to my house to say that there 
 was a troop of antelopes out in the plain to the north of the 
 capital, and urged me to go at once with him to the spot. As 
 myself and boys were in need of food of some sort I started for 
 the plain with this man as guide. We found, however, that the 
 herd had gone further away. Following on for some time, we 
 made up to them about ten miles from Msidi's town. I 
 succeeded in stalking the herd, getting within 150 yards of 
 them, and from behind a small tree I opened fire. Although I 
 had only five cartridges in my belt, three of these antelopes were 
 brought do\^Ti. They were about the size of oxen, and are 
 very good eating indeed. Two of them lay together, and the 
 third about a hundred yards off. 
 
 " By this time the sun was just disappearing, and con- 
 sidering the state of my larder at home, I could not think of 
 leaving all this meat in the plain. I therefore sent off my 
 companion to the village for fire, and to bring more cartridges, 
 and some men to cut up and carry the meat back. I remained 
 by the carcases, armed only \\dth a long hunting knife, having 
 no ammunition for my rifle. 
 
 " Night had scarcely set in when I heard in the distance the 
 whoop of a hyena, which was the signal for all night proAvlers 
 to gather round ; so I determined to march up and down, and 
 if possible hold my own against them. Unfortunately there 
 was no moon. It was a pitch-dark night, and I could only 
 hear the animals as they came walking round in the dry grass. 
 Having no fire with me, I was compelled to keep shouting at 
 them, making as much noise as possible, to keep them from 
 the carcases of the antelopes. They seemed to increase in 
 number, and feeling unable to defend all my spoil, I gave up 
 one animal to my hungry visitors, thinking that would satisfy
 
 AND DELIVERANCES 227 
 
 them, and they would leave me in peaceful possession of the 
 two. 
 
 " Feeling the cold intensely, I took out my hunting knife 
 and skinned one of the antelopes, rolled myself in the borrowed 
 hide, and lay down on the ground. But soon I heard the 
 stealthy tread of some animal coming towards me. Springing 
 instantly to my feet, I rushed to the place where I had left 
 the one carcase, and found that in the course of an hour these 
 hungry brutes had devoured it, and were now preparing to 
 pounce upon either me or the other two. By dint of rushing 
 up and down, and shouting for hours, I managed to keep them 
 off. About three in the morning some men came, bringing 
 fire with them, and I got a little sleep. The daylight revealed, 
 by the footprints, that my companions had been five large 
 hyenas and three cheta or dog-leopards ; and not only had 
 they cleared off every atom of the flesh and bones of their 
 antelope, but they had licked the very ground clean of the 
 blood. We carried off the meat of the other two triumphantly 
 to Msidi's town, giving him a quarter of one of the animals as 
 we passed. He was quite astonished when he heard of the 
 night's adventure. Indeed, he professed to be very angry at 
 what appeared to him foolhardiness, and when I explained that 
 necessity had compelled me, he wanted to know why I had not 
 applied to him for food. I told him that I certainly would not 
 do that, but he made me accept a large bin of corn, which 
 contained more than a six months' supply for me and my boys. 
 
 " Oct. 10th, 1887. — Kasule, an old native trader from the 
 Quando district, who has been living here with Msidi for many 
 years, fell into a fire and burned his right hand. He did not 
 come to me to have it dressed at once, and mortification set in. 
 When they brought him to-day I found the hand in such a 
 state that I was compelled to amputate it. Taking him out to 
 the bush close by, I set him down on the ground, and, with 
 the assistance of my boy, Dick, held his arm across a huge 
 stone, and with a razor and a little penknife I managed to 
 sever the hand at the wrist joint. The poor old man stood 
 the operation wonderfully well, and seemed very grateful for 
 my help ; but he was quite overcome when Dick dug a 
 hole in the ground and buried the hand. I kept the old man 
 under my care for some days, and the wound healed com- 
 pletely. He seemed very unwilling to leave my village again,
 
 228 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 
 
 so I told him he had better bring his wife, build his hut close 
 by, and I would take charge of his little boy and bring him 
 up. I thought he might look after the village in my absence, 
 and would be useful for going messages and other hght 
 work. 
 
 " Oct. 13th. — Msidi sent another little girl to my village. 
 She had run off from her o%vners who had beaten her. Msidi 
 sent her to me as I did not beat people. 
 
 " Dec. 14:th, 1887. — Dick had just prepared my usual after- 
 noon meal of corn porridge, and one roasted pigeon to flavour 
 it, when two men came hastily up in front of my house, and 
 without waiting to knock pushed their way in. Before I had 
 time to remonstrate with them for their seeming rudeness, the 
 foremost one thrust into my hand a packet of letters. I 
 handed to him and his companion my porridge and pigeon, 
 and, opening the packet, I found that, during these two long 
 years of silence as to the movements of the outer world, I had 
 not only been remembered by many friends at home, but that 
 two brethren were actually close to me in the heart of Africa. 
 Messrs. Swann and Faulknor, after many delays, difficulties 
 and perplexities, had arrived safely at the Lualaba River, from 
 which they had forwarded my letters, and in a few days they 
 would be with me. What was I to do ? Should I remain and 
 make the house as comfortable as possible for their reception, 
 or start at once to meet them ? I decided to adopt the first 
 course as being the most sensible. 
 
 " Home letters tell me of dear Nigel's death, the Nathaniel 
 of our family, an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile, 
 for guilelessness was his special characteristic. 
 
 " Pedro, the bearer of these letters, had also brought for 
 Msidi a piece of handkerchief and a message from the two 
 brethren. To deliver these he at once started for the king's 
 court. At that time Msidi's wife, Mataya, one of the queens 
 of the country, and her eldest son, were being tried for having 
 bewitched her younger son. This younger son was more liked 
 by the chief than the elder, and had gone to Sombwe in a war 
 party (under the command of the chief's nephew, Molenga), 
 where he was shot. The diviners declared that he had been 
 bewitched by someone, that his body had been stripped of its 
 charms, and he had thus become exposed to the enemy's 
 bullets. Suspicion fell on the lad's mother and elder brother,
 
 AND DELIVERANCES 229 
 
 who were consequently brought to trial. The evidence against 
 them was, that on the day of the departure of the war party, 
 the elder son hid the gun of his younger brother, and, when 
 the latter demanded his gun, he refused to give it up, saying, 
 ' Neither of us is beloved of the chief, why then should we go 
 and fight his battles ? ' The mother interfered, and said, 
 ' Give the lad his gun ; if he be killed, what matter ? Certainly 
 the chief won't weep for him.' The elder brother was con- 
 demned to be shot, but Mataya's sentence was deferred for 
 a final day of deliberation, when all in authority were to be 
 gathered. This court was sitting when the news reached 
 Msidi that Messrs. Swann and Faulknor were at the borders 
 of his country. Mataya was at once pardoned, and the sentence 
 of death passed upon her elder son was commuted to one of 
 banishment for life, the chief joyfully declaring that no human 
 blood should be shed upon the arrival of these his white guests, 
 and the piece of coloured handkerchief that the brethren 
 had sent was handed to Mataya by Msidi as a proof of her 
 pardon. 
 
 " Msidi sent one of his oAvn sons to meet the caravan, bearing 
 with him IVIsidi's welcome, as well as letters of greeting and 
 hearty welcome from me ; and I at once turned my attention 
 to making things as comfortable as possible for their arrival. 
 Some mats that had been made for me out of plaited strips 
 of palm leaves were sewn together to form a ceiling, and racks 
 and shelves were made to receive what goods these friends 
 might bring, in order to place them above the reach of the 
 white ants. To obtain the wood we had to make excursions to 
 the forest. The legs of a round table I had been making were 
 already in the rough, and these I had to dress down and fit 
 together. 
 
 " While busy with my preparations, tidings came of the near 
 approach of the white men, so leaving everything in the hands 
 of my boys I started off to meet them, going along the usual 
 caravan road. After proceeding for some distance without 
 hearing from the natives any report of their advance, I became 
 concerned, but thought that possibly they might have taken 
 the by-way over the hills, and I therefore returned to my 
 cottage to await their arrival. At such a time it was impossible 
 to do nothing, so I began to rig up a flagstaff. With a long 
 bamboo rod bound to my hammock pole, I made an awkward-
 
 230 ANXIETIES, PRAYERS 
 
 looking flagstaff, which I fastened to my pigeon house, and a 
 tattered Union Jack was got ready for hoisting. 
 
 " Dec. 16th. — The first signal I had of the arrival of the 
 strangers was the firing of three pistol shots in the distance. 
 Running out of the door, I tried to hoist my Union Jack, but 
 the line had got thick and t-wasted with the heavy rains, so I 
 only succeeded in getting the flag half-way up. Starting down 
 the hill as quickly as possible, I met ]\Ir. Swann some little 
 distance from my house. From letters forwarded from the 
 Lualaba, I knew his name, and his object in coming, so we 
 rejoiced to meet as brethren. His companion, Mr. Faulknor, 
 remained with the caravan, expecting to follow in a couple of 
 days, and Dick and Susi at once started ■wdth a hammock to 
 help him on. On his arrival with the caravan, we were able 
 to rejoice and thank God for His mercy to us. "What a day we 
 had of real Gospel triumph ! There in the heart of the con- 
 tinent, standing holding each other by the hand, we sang, 
 * Jesus shall reign.' "
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 HOME AND FAME 
 
 HAVING introduced the new arrivals to Msidi, Arnot 
 stayed a further two and a half months, until they 
 were somewhat familiar with the work, and then, on 
 February 27th, 1888, started for the coast and home. We 
 confine ourselves to three extracts from his diary dealing with 
 the journey to Benguella. 
 
 " Nana Kandundu, April 12th, 1888. — Have had a good 
 journey thus far. I took a different route, coming more south, 
 where food was plentiful. For several days we travelled along 
 the Zambesi — quite a large stream, though near its source. 
 Here I found that this female chief had gone off to fight with 
 Kangombe, a Lovale chief, who has been raiding down the 
 Zambesi with quite a large army. Her ladyship of this place 
 objects, and goes to defend her subjects. 
 
 *^ April ISth. — The contending forces, we hear, have met 
 twelve miles or so from here. All are much alarmed by many 
 conflicting reports, and the sound of distant firing ; armed men 
 are pouring in and going on to the fray from all directions. Her 
 ladyship's litter has come to her town ; so she means to fight 
 like the ancient heroes who burned their bridges behind them. 
 
 "'April IMh, midnight. — A messenger from Nana Kandundu 
 is calling me and my men to her aid. Five camps of Ovimbundu 
 have gathered round me, mustering in all four or five hundred. 
 I declare neutrality ; at the same time promise to protect her 
 ladyship's person, should she be worsted and come to my camp. 
 She has done well in going out to protect the down-trodden 
 Lunda tribes along the Upper Zambesi that Kangombe has 
 long been preying upon. She effectually demonstrates the 
 superior humanity of female government, and I hope to 
 welcome her victorious return." 
 
 Benguella was reached in August, and England on September 
 18th, 1888. 
 
 231
 
 232 HOME AND FAME 
 
 Quite a new kind of work now awaited the traveller. Mission- 
 ary addresses were delivered in various parts of England and 
 Scotland, a great correspondence was carried on, recruits for 
 the field were obtained and provision made for the enlargement 
 of the work. 
 
 Though, as his diary shows, Arnot was not thirsting for fame, 
 it had come to him and he was quite one of the lions of the 
 season. 
 
 Under the heading of " A New African Explorer," The Times 
 gave a brief account of Arnot's travels soon after his return. 
 Amongst other things, this article said : " His outfit was of the 
 most slender character. He travelled practically unarmed. He 
 was almost everywhere received with friendly welcome by chiefs 
 and people, who clearly appreciated his confidence. If he had 
 any grievances, he never took the law into his own hands ; he 
 invariably appealed to native tribunals, such as they are, and 
 never without receiving practical justice. . . . Mr. Arnot 
 struck north-west (of the Barotse) through that wonderful 
 country of rivers, to Bihe. The hydrography of this strange 
 region he has helped to unravel. One can stand almost on the 
 very spot where rivers rise that flow north, south, east and 
 west. . . . One thing he seems clearly to have proved, that 
 Livingstone's Leeba, coming from the north-east, is the 
 real Zambesi, and not the river which comes out of Lake 
 Dilolo." 
 
 At the request of the Royal Geographical Society, Arnot 
 read a paper before its members on January 7th, 1889. This 
 summarises his journey from Natal in September, 1881, to 
 Bihe and Benguella and thence across the Central Plateau of 
 Africa to the sources of the Zambesi and the Congo and was 
 printed in the Proceedings of the Society published in the 
 folloTsing month, together with a map which the Society 
 specially prepared to accompany it. This map not only 
 showed Arnot's routes but the discoveries of other well-known 
 African travellers, such as Commander Cameron, Herr 
 Rcichard, and the Portuguese officers, Serpa Pinto, Capello, 
 and Ivens. Livingstone's journey from the Zambesi to Loanda, 
 which attracted Arnot's attention to this part of Africa, is 
 also marked. From this map one can see that the journey 
 from Peho to the Garenganze capital was over fresh ground ; 
 the names of many new places and rivers appear for the first
 
 HOME AND FAME 238 
 
 time ; the true course of the first part of the Zambesi River 
 is traced as rumiing from east to west. To Arnot belongs the 
 honour of being tlie first to locate the sources of this great 
 water highway. 
 
 An interesting discussion took place after the reading of 
 Arnot's paper, from the report of which we make the following 
 extracts : 
 
 " Mr. R. N. Cust said that Mr. Arnot was a stranger to the 
 Society, but some of those present had watched his progress 
 for the last seven years. About five years ago he (Mr. Cust) 
 sent the first notice of Mr. Arnot's existence to the Proceedings 
 of the Society, in which he said there was a young fellow named 
 Arnot walking across Africa on his own resources. Mr. Arnot 
 had the two great characteristics of a thorough African traveller 
 — pluck, and kindness to the natives. He must have had many 
 a disagreeable quarter of an hour during those seven years, 
 prostrated with fever, suffering in his eyes, wanting food, often 
 mthin a few inches of losing his life, but his British pluck 
 carried him through. In his kindness to the natives he was 
 only equalled by the Society's gold medallist, Mr. Joseph 
 Thomson. The natives found him to be their friend, and they 
 still possessed that nobility of character which recognised a man 
 who was good to them. In March next he was going back to 
 Africa in the strength of an evangehst, and would take with him 
 the best wishes of the Society. 
 
 " Sir Francis de Winton said that even from a merely travel- 
 ling point of view Mr. Arnot had accomplished a most remark- 
 able journey, considering the limited means at his disposal ; 
 but he had also added to geographical science. With reference 
 to the slave trade, which it was desired to stop," Sir Francis 
 said, " blockading the coast and bombarding peaceful villages 
 was only like scratching the surface. The true secret was to 
 attack the trade in the centre of the country, and by making 
 friends with the great chief Msidi, I\Ir. Arnot was doing 
 something towards putting a stop to the inhuman traffic. It 
 was an important fact that he had made the name of English- 
 man respected wherever he went." 
 
 The President, General Richard Strachey, said : " He trusted 
 that the valuable ethnographical information Mr. Arnot had 
 collected as to the distribution of the races, and the distribution 
 of the power of the various chiefs, would be placed on record
 
 234 HOME AND FAME 
 
 in a manner which would make it available for future travellers 
 in the same country." 
 
 In the course of his reply, Mr. Arnot said : " With regard to 
 the secret of his own success, he wished to use the words of one 
 of England's worthies, George Herbert, who in his 'Thanks- 
 giving ' said,' If they give me honour, I shall let them see that 
 all the honour doth belong to Thee.' The one reason for his 
 success in Africa was the reality of the presence and power of 
 God with him night and day." 
 
 The above simple and courageous testimony is embodied in 
 The Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. 
 
 The Society honoured their guest by making him a Fellow. 
 It also presented him with a medal for his discoveries in con- 
 nection with the Zambesi, and awarded him the Cuthbert Peak 
 grant in recognition of his seven years' travel. The Murchison 
 grant was also entrusted by the Society to him for the purpose 
 of conveying a suitable present to Chitambo for the latter's 
 care of Livingstone's body. In connection vnth. this latter 
 event, Mrs. Bruce of Edinburgh (daughter of Dr. Livingstone) 
 had a medal prepared which was committed to the care of 
 Arnot, together with other gifts from Scotland, for this great. 
 African chief. 
 
 Amongst other functions arranged for Arnot was a reception 
 given by the late Lord Radstock at the Eccleston Hall, London, 
 At this gathering the traveller was introduced to the Duchess 
 of Teck. After the reception, the Duchess, together with her 
 daughter, then Princess Mary — now Queen Mary — took him 
 for a drive round Hyde Park, pointing out the places of interest 
 and at the same time hearing his stories of travel. On bidding 
 farewell, Arnot left his map in the carriage, and the Princess, 
 jumping down, ran after him and returned it to him. 
 
 In a very homely letter to his mother, Arnot thus refers to 
 this experience : " I had no less than three meetings yesterday : 
 Noon, Aldersgate St. (R. C. Morgan in the chair) ; afternoon, 
 Eccleston Hall (Lord Radstock). What an ado ! Swell 
 carriages kept driving up in quick succession ; the ante-hall 
 was being prepared for a reception ; grand ladies were arriving, 
 and poor me, Avith my trussy head, etc., did not exactly know 
 what calamity was about to befall me, when Lord Radstock 
 called mc off and told me that H.R.H. the Princess Mary was 
 coming, and that I must be prepared to be presented to her,
 
 HOME AND FAME 285 
 
 and sure enough in came the cortege. Sudden swells ! a long 
 alley was formed of curtseying ladies, when Lord Radstock 
 came forward with, ' Allow me to present to you '. . . . Angles 
 ensued. The Princess asked most interesting questions, and 
 sat through the lecture. Then we all had tea in ante-hall 
 (Princess, nobility and poor me only). Then the Princess 
 would have me drive off in her carriage with herself and another 
 Princess, and asked about you and Dad and was so glad to see 
 me, and would never forget me, and was so helped. She dropped 
 me at Lady Beauchamp's, where I had tea." 
 
 A good deal of Arnot's time in England was taken up in 
 preparing Garenganze, his first book, for the press. This was 
 published early in 1889, and had a good reception. Three 
 editions were soon called for. The book certainly did much 
 towards stirring up missionary enthusiasm. 
 
 We quote from two of the reviews which appeared. The 
 Times said : " In a modest volume of 270 pages Mr. Arnot tells 
 the story of his seven years' work in Africa. He makes no 
 pretensions to literary grace. . . . One feature of the work 
 accomplished by Mr. Arnot is the small expenditure of money 
 which it has involved. The total outlay for his seven years' 
 work has not exceeded £500, a marked contrast to the thousands 
 which have been expended on other expeditions, covering much 
 less ground and extending only over a few months. Mr. Arnot, 
 of course, had to pay his way ; but his following was at all 
 times small. ... It is needless to say Mr. Arnot travelled 
 practically unarmed ; he certainly had no hesitation in shooting 
 game when necessary, but among the natives he, like Gordon, 
 never showed any weapon more formidable than a cane. . . . 
 In his journey eastwards Mr. Arnot passed through a region of 
 great geographical interest, the greatest river region, indeed, 
 of Africa, what Livingstone very appropriately designated the 
 ' Great Sponge.' In the Lovale and Lunda country, the region 
 around Lake Dilolo, one finds within an hour's march of each 
 other streams flowing in nearly all directions of the compass — 
 north-eastward and northward to the Congo and its tributaries, 
 south-eastward to the Zambesi, westward and north-westward 
 to the Atlantic. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Arnot has been able to lay down with greater precision 
 than has hitherto been the case the courses of many of these 
 streams, and has pretty clearly shown that the Leeba is the
 
 236 HOME AND FAME 
 
 real Zambesi, which comes from the plateau on the west of the 
 Garenganze country." 
 
 The Glasgow Herald said : " Mr. Arnot's book appears to- 
 day. It is a modest volume of 270 pages, issued at the moderate 
 figure of 2s. 6d., Mr. Arnot being determined to obtain as wide 
 a circulation as possible for his narrative. The first edition 
 of 5000 copies is, I believe, all taken up already, and it may be 
 three weeks before a second is ready. Mr. Arnot confines himself 
 to what came under his own observation. He is now, and has 
 been for some time, taking lessons with the scientific instructor 
 of the Royal Geographical Society, so that when he returns to 
 Africa in a few days he will be in a better position than before 
 for collecting important geographical data. He will also take 
 with him a photographic apparatus. ... As a book one 
 misses here the stirring encounters and restless movement of 
 Stanley's narratives, or the tactical manoeuvring of Joseph 
 Thomson's, or the eloquent description of fuana, flora, and 
 scenery of H. H. Johnston's. Mr. Arnot has neither scientific 
 training, nor military instincts, nor great literary gifts. His 
 book is compiled from letters and diaries, and it is bald, 
 insufficient, fragmentary, and by no means a fitting memorial 
 of a memorable achievement. Nevertheless, every page of it 
 is filled with living interest, for in every page of it we see the 
 heart of the writer. Simple and unassuming in outfit as in 
 character, strong in faith as in physique, this young man 
 quietly sets down the memoranda of his travels as if he M'ere 
 doing nothing out of the ordinary." 
 
 Arnot's six months' stay in England were marked by his 
 engagement in October, 1888, to Miss Harriet Jane Fisher, 
 of Greenwich. Neither had known the other till they met 
 shortly after the missionary's return from the Dark Continent. 
 It was an ideal match, and the marriage, which took place in 
 March, 1889, added much to Arnot's comfort, efficiency and 
 usefulness. 
 
 Many friends were interested in hearing of the open door 
 given for missionary work along the comparatively healthy 
 watershed lying between the Zambesi and the Congo River 
 systems. From amongst the many, twelve were willing, in 
 answer to what they believed to be the Lord's call, to rise up 
 and leave all. 
 
 A large meeting was held in the Exeter Hall, London, on
 
 HOME AND FAME 287 
 
 March 19th, 1889, to bid these (fourteen in all with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Arnot) farewell. Each of these missionaries went forth 
 on his own responsibility to his Master, though not inde- 
 pendently of fellow-Christians with whom he had been asso- 
 ciated at home, and who gave their fellowship and counsel. 
 The party were all closely associated with " The Brethren." 
 They went out in two sections, the first of which consisted of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Arnot, Mr. Dan Crawford, Mr. Geo. Fisher, Mr. 
 F. Lane and Mr. A. Munnock. 
 
 A report of this meeting was pubhshed in one of the current 
 newspapers as follows : 
 
 " On Tuesday two meetings were held in Exeter Hall, to take 
 farewell of Mr. F. S. Arnot, and his companions, who are now 
 €71 route for Africa, as well as various friends destined for other 
 spheres of missionary work. The interest in the proceedings 
 was wide and deep, as shown in a remarkable attendance. In 
 the afternoon the body of the large hall was filled, though it 
 had been intended to meet in the lower and smaller hall. . . . 
 Mr. Arnot . . . spoke of the narrow paths which have to be 
 trodden, through thick jungles, and along mountain ridges. 
 No beasts of burden, and no ordinary vehicles can be employed. 
 Some novel trucks, designed by Mr. Edward K. Groves, of 
 Bristol, will, however, be taken out, and it is hoped the native 
 porters will use them. The big Exeter Hall was not big enough 
 comfortably to contain the eager crowd that desired to have a 
 share in this memorable farewell. Galleries and gangways were 
 packed with people glad to get even standing room, and an 
 overflow meeting had to be held in the hall below. Leading 
 members of the community of Brethren were prominent all 
 along the platform, but there was a goodly sprinkling of other 
 Christians. The great audience ' could scarce forbear to cheer ' 
 when Mr. F. S. Arnot rose to speak, but the platform effectually 
 imposed a wet blanket, and hushed the people to silence. Why 
 the speakers should have unfettered freedom to liberate their 
 souls in glowing speech, and the thousands in front of them 
 should have rigidly to repress their emotions we fail to under- 
 stand. Can there be anything dishonouring to God in a hearty 
 cheer ? "
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 WE now come to a new era in Arnot's life. Hitlierto 
 his African experiences have been unique. His 
 first period of travel, covering seven years, was 
 one of pioneering, and during the greater part of this time he 
 was alone amongst the natives. Probably no other African 
 traveller came nearer to the experiences of Livingstone than 
 did Arnot when spying out the land. But now his story is 
 merged with that of others. In fact, it belongs to the establish- 
 ment of one of the greatest of the missionary bodies operating 
 in Central Africa. It is somewhat difficult to disentangle the 
 thread of Arnot's life from the skein with which it is associated. 
 And this difficulty is enchanced by one of the outstanding 
 features of Arnot's character, viz. his great humility. His 
 letters and records from this time onward have more to say 
 about the labours of fellow- workers than about his own. But 
 as the purpose of this book is to tell the story of his life, rather 
 than the story of the missions he did so much to found, we 
 shall now only seek to trace his footsteps, and in doing this 
 we shall be satisfied with much less detail than when following 
 him alone, and in paths that were then altogether new. 
 
 Arriving at Benguella on May 9th, 1889, the six missionaries 
 were faced with great difficulties in the matter of transport, 
 and it was necessary that those followng should be acquainted 
 with the situation. Fortunately, the Eastern Telegraph 
 Company had just finished laying a cable along the West 
 Coast of Africa, and the first paid message from Benguella 
 was one from Mr. Arnot informing the second party of the 
 state of matters. As things seemed to grow worse instead of 
 better two other telegraphic messages were sent in order to 
 make sure that the new-comers should not set forth blindly on 
 a path beset with so many difficulties. 
 
 At last, with the help of six men, a horse, a donkey, and a 
 
 238
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 239 
 
 mule, Mr. and Mrs. Arnot, Messrs. Lane and Munnoch, and 
 Dick, Arnot's old boy, who had come to meet him, a start was 
 made for the interior, Messrs. Crawford and Fisher being left 
 at the coast to await the arrival of the second party. 
 
 On the second day out Mr. Lane was down with an attack of 
 fever and dysentery, and after a delay of another day he and 
 Mr. Munnock returned to Benguella, Mr. and Mrs. Arnot 
 pushing on to Bailundu to procure carriers. Travelling through 
 the passes leading to Chisanje these latter had to walk most of 
 the way. In clambering over huge boulders the horse fell once 
 or twice and got badly cut, and the donkey was very obstinate. 
 At last late one afternoon they struggled into camp, Mrs. Arnot 
 having fainted twice from the heat and the exertion. 
 
 The few men they had were engaged to go only as far as the 
 Chivulu country, which was safely reached on July 6th, after 
 eleven days' journey from the coast. Here they remained for 
 a few days whilst Dick went on to King Ekwikwi's war camp 
 to ask him for carriers to take them to Bailundu. He sent 
 nineteen, so Mrs. Arnot was able to enjoy the luxury of riding 
 in a hammock, carried on the shoulders of two men. Three 
 days' travelhng brought them to Ekwikwi's camp. " This 
 great man," Arnot says, " was able, it seemed, to block the 
 caravan road for a year or two at a time, and only by paying a 
 heavy blackmail was it possible for the Portuguese to take 
 their ivory and rubber to the coast. After travelling for four- 
 teen days we arrived at the war camp, where all was drunken- 
 ness and great swelling words of brag and boast as to the prowess 
 of Ekwikwi, and of how the white man was tributary to him. 
 At my first interview I did not make much progress, but he 
 gave us a hut and we settled down to the difficult task of trying 
 to soften his hard heart. It so happened that a friend in 
 Demerara had sent me a very fine hammock, made entirely by 
 Indians. When the chief saw me hang it up he coveted it 
 greedily. So next day I repeated my request and gave him the 
 hammock. Nothing could have been more effective. He 
 granted all I wanted." 
 
 Mrs. Arnot had fever for a few days in this camp and it was 
 thought the wiser plan to take her on to the American Mission 
 Station in Bailundu, after which Arnot returned to the Chivanda 
 country, where, during August, 1889, he was alone, as of old. 
 " For several weeks," he says, " I toiled about from village to
 
 240 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 village on my poor horse, sometimes covering sixtj'- miles a day 
 collecting or trying to collect carriers. One night would find 
 me lying curled up by a fire in a corner of a native hut, with 
 seven or eight long black fellows stretched out all around me, 
 and the next night perhaps making the most of some deserted 
 camp in the bush. At last, little by little, hope began to rise ; 
 but even when promises were given, second and third visits 
 had to be made. Then came the final assurance, ' Yes ! let 
 me see, to-day mj^^ wife has gone to the field barn for corn ; to- 
 morrow she \dll soak and hull it ; on the third day she will 
 pound it into meal ; on the fourth day she will dry it and put 
 it into a skin bag — why on the fifth day I Avill be ready.' ' And 
 what about your two brothers you promised to bring with you ?' 
 ' Oh ! they have gone to a spirit dance at our mother's village.' 
 This one definite promise, however, gives me something to 
 work upon. I start off several paid agents to scour the country 
 and call at all the villages visited by me with the final announce- 
 ment : ' After four days Monare will form a camp at the meeting 
 of the three paths by the two rivers in the Ohumbe district of 
 Chivanda.' I post off for a good-bye visit to my wife in 
 Bailundu, and am ready waiting at the appointed place on 
 the fifth day. The delay of a few more days was still required ' 
 with a little humouring of the first batch or two of men who 
 had joined me. One day I bought them a goat, another day 
 we went off and fired a stretch of reeds by the river, and shot 
 some water-buck as they escaped ; and so I kept the men 
 happy until all who were coming with us had joined the camp. 
 Then came a talk over the recognised rules and bj^-laws of 
 the road. A crier was appointed to call out each evening 
 instructions as to the next day's march, and a start was made 
 in regular order for the coast." 
 
 Arnot reached Benguella on September 1st, with one 
 hundred and eighty men. At first sight this seems to be a 
 large supply of carriers, but when one considers that there 
 were thirteen Europeans for whom everything needful for 
 a stay in the interior had to be taken, it will be seen 
 that the caravan was far too limited, especially as hammock 
 bearers had to be deducted. On the men's shoulders all 
 supplies had to be borne, including bulky cloth currency, 
 tents and bedding for cold nights on the hills, cooking 
 utensils, supplies of food to take them over long stretches of
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 241 
 
 barren country where no provisions could be bought, changes 
 of clothing, tools for building houses or rather huts, medicine, 
 etc., etc. In addition supplies had to be taken for Messrs. 
 Swann and Faulknor, who were alone in the Garenganze. 
 
 The second party had arrived at Benguella on August 7th. 
 Amongst the members of this was Dr. Fisher, brother of Mrs. 
 Arnot. The landing had been a sad one, for Mr. Johnston, 
 one of its members, had caught a chill at Loanda and had died 
 shortly after the ship had east anchor at Benguella. 
 
 The journey inland was full of sorrow. On reaching the 
 Utalama camp two of the lady missionaries had slight attacks 
 of fever, and the carriers, finding that they could not continue 
 the journey on the day appointed, became demoralised. Many 
 of them refused to go to Bihe, and fresh men had to be obtained 
 to take their places. At last, after three weeks' waiting, they 
 were just on the point of completing arrangements for a start 
 when Mr. Morris, who had come with his wife, leaving four 
 children behind in London, was suddenly taken ill. He had 
 been along the banks of the Keve River the day before with 
 another member, hoping to get a goose or wild duck for supper, 
 and, after wading through several lagoons, returned much 
 exhausted from the heat of the sun, which had been intense. 
 Upon the first symptoms of fever Dr. Fisher gave him the 
 usual medicinal treatment, which seemed to check the disease, 
 and he got up from his bed, and was preparing for the journey 
 to Bihe. Just then the shed used as his kitchen took fire, and 
 in a short time his tent was riddled with holes by the shower 
 of sparks from the flames, and but for the efforts of all present 
 the whole camp would have been destroyed. The excitement 
 and exertion proved too much for Mr. Morris in his weak state, 
 and he had a relapse, and gradually grew weaker. On the day 
 after the fire, Mr. Gall, another member of the second party, 
 who had strained himself to the utmost to save the camp, 
 complained of headache, and Dr. Fisher had him carried into 
 his own tent. For several days he was delirious, and then sank 
 rapidly. After barely a fortnight's illness, Mr. Morris passed 
 away, and Mr. Gall, after a still shorter illness, died a few hours 
 later. 
 
 Mrs. Morris, the broken-hearted widow, decided to return to 
 her four fatherless hildren in England, taking one of the ladies 
 with her, and Mr. G. Fisher also decided to accompany them
 
 242 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 home. So the original party of fourteen was reduced to eight 
 within two hundred miles of the coast, a fifth of the way to 
 the interior. 
 
 With staggering, bewildered steps the diminished missionaries 
 turned to the duties of the day and resumed the journey. 
 
 The necessity for the establishment of a depot for the various 
 articles required by those already labouring in the centre of 
 Africa, and by others who might follow, led to a decision to 
 establish a Mission Station at Kuanjulula, in the Bihe country. 
 A few days' journey from Bailundu brought the missionaries 
 to the new site in safety. Supplies were sent forward to the 
 Garenganze for Messrs. Swann and Faulknor, and hut building 
 was proceeded with at Kuanjulula. After a couple of months 
 Arnot writes, in December, 1889 : " A dark cloud now arose 
 on the poHtical horizon of Bihe. The king, Chindunduma, 
 declared himself suspicious of so many white people coming to 
 his country, and blamed Senhor Porto (who had put in a special 
 plea for us) for inviting the ' Englese ' to Bihe. He also sent 
 a letter to Kuanjulula commanding us to withdraw forthwith. 
 This it was imposible for us to do without throwing away all 
 we had with us, and, what was more serious still, leaving Swann 
 and Faulknor unprovided for in Garenganze, for the king 
 would not allow us to go toward the interior in our flight. We 
 spread the letter before the Lord, and committed ourselves to 
 His protection and disposal. Next morning Senhor Porto 
 arrived at our camp in a very excited state, saying that an 
 army was coming to plunder us and drive us out of Bihe, and 
 with undoubted kindness he had come over to do what he 
 could to prevent bloodshed. In a short time the army came, 
 consisting of a company of the king's young men in charge of 
 three captains, two of whom I knew well, Chikuya and Ukuesala. 
 The former, when in charge of a trading caravan from the 
 interior, was attacked and plundered by a section of the Lovale 
 tribe, and I found him, on my first journey, detained as a 
 prisoner in the village of the chief, who had robbed him of 
 everything. I was able at that time to help him with a small 
 gift of cloth, so that he obtained his release and returned to 
 Bihe, professing himself under lifelong obligation to me. I 
 told Senhor Porto that we had nothing to fear, and going for- 
 ward I greeted Chikuya, who replied ^^^th a downcast look, 
 and, after consulting his companions, said, with all the authority
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 243 
 
 he was able to command, ' We have been sent by the king to 
 enforce his letter ordering you all to leave Bihe at once.' I 
 replied, ' The king has sent the wrong men. Had he intended 
 doing us any harm he would have sent strangers, and not 
 friends. The king has only sent you to talk over the matter 
 with us. Chikuya,' I added, ' you are responsible for the 
 conduct of the warriors you have brought with you. You had 
 better order them to sit down together there (pointing to a 
 corner in our yard), and I will have some food brought for them 
 while we talk matters over.' Chikuya did what he was told, 
 and three goats were handed over to the young men, while I 
 prepared some food hastily for the three captains in a hut close 
 by, and, with the Gospel of John in my hand, replied to the 
 king's letter. Those African braves — like a wild beast missing 
 the prey in his first spring — had no longer any heart for 
 plundering our camp, as their first intention clearly had been. 
 Chikuya pleaded with his fellows against doing so, saying that 
 he was sure the king had had his ears filled with lies against us. 
 A compromise was at last come to. I gave them a handsome 
 present of trade calico for the king, and presented each of the 
 warrior bands with four yards of check shirting. Then, with 
 tents and such-like improvised accommodation, we made them 
 all comfortable for the night, and next morning they departed 
 in good order without having robbed us of even the value of 
 a pin. 
 
 " As soon as the king's young men had taken their leave a 
 number of smaller chiefs in our immediate neighbourhood took 
 the opportunity of making a demonstration in our favour. No 
 less than five appeared with their followers, armed to the teeth, 
 dancing and shouting, and declaring that the king of Bihe had 
 openly insulted them all by sending his warriors into their 
 province, etc. Finally a big palaver was held, and two chiefs 
 were appointed by the others to go to the capital to contradict 
 the lies spoken against their white men. 
 
 " The day after Chikuya had returned to the king a messenger 
 came to our camp calling me to the capital. I, with my wife and 
 Dr. Fisher, called on Senhor Porto, who kindly accompanied 
 us to the king's town, where we were received with ' white 
 chalk,' meaning acquittal, and not with ' red chalk,' which 
 would have meant guilt. After quite a formal palaver the 
 king presented us ■\\ith an ox for food as a token of good feeling,
 
 244 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 giving Messrs. Thompson, Lane, Cra\\'ford, and myself an open 
 road to the Garenganze, and permission to collect carriers for 
 the journey. This trouble seemed to be thus well got over, and 
 we went on with our preparations for the journey to the 
 interior when rumours of fresh political disturbance reached 
 us. 
 
 " About this time a Portuguese expedition, under Captain 
 Couceiro, arrived in Bihe, bound for the Okavangu River. The 
 king of Bihe refused to give Captain Couceiro, and the 150 
 soldiers who accompanied him, permission to pass through 
 his country, declaring that an understanding existed between 
 him and the Portuguese Government to the effect that no black 
 soldiers were ever to be quartered in Bihe, and that he only 
 welcomed white strangers to his country. Senhor Porto did 
 his best to allay his fears, but without avail ; and seeing nothing 
 but trouble before himself and his countrymen he settled up 
 bis affairs, spread thirteen kegs of gunpowder on the floor of 
 his house, and, opening one keg and lying at full length on the 
 other twelve, he struck a match and deliberately ignited the 
 powder. The explosion threw him a great height into the air, 
 through the roof of his house. Dr. Fisher was at once sent for, 
 but the poor old man died after twenty-four hours. By this 
 time Chindunduma was collecting his forces and threatening 
 the Portuguese encampment. Captain Couceiro withdrew, his 
 camp was ransacked by Chindunduma, and the Portuguese 
 settlements of Belmonte and Boavista were plundered and 
 destroyed. 
 
 " It can be easily mider stood that the Portuguese became 
 suspicious of us, seeing we were ' English missionaries,' and had 
 been allowed to remain safely in Bihe while their own subjects 
 had been driven from the country. \Vlien we remember that 
 at this particular time they were in open conflict with the 
 British South Africa Company touching their East African 
 territory, we must be thankful for the thoroughness with which 
 they ultimately enquired into the matter, and for the justice 
 showTi to us. I received an official letter from the Captain- 
 General of Bihe and Bailundu, advising us to ^vithdraw from 
 Bihe, and after a little while a second letter came, more strongly 
 worded, saying that if we remained in Bihe we did so at our 
 own peril. Later still a third official letter was sent, in which 
 this Captain-General clearly stated that the Portuguese
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 245 
 
 officials at the coast were in possession of evidence sufficient to 
 convict me of being in league with Chindunduma, the rebel 
 chief of Bihe. 
 
 " By this time Messrs. Thompson, Lane and Crawford had 
 gone into camp at Kalusia, and several headmen were out 
 collecting carriers to accompany them to Garcnganze. We 
 felt the parting with our three brethren much, )''et longed to 
 see them finally off to the relief of Messrs. Swann and Faulknor, 
 and were thankful that they had learned sufficient of the 
 Umbundu language to enable them to collect and manage the 
 carriers en route. 
 
 " Dr. Fisher remained in charge of our mud and wattle 
 compound at Kuanjululu, while I returned in company with 
 Mr. Munnock to Benguella. At Bailundu I was told by the 
 American missionaries that a warrant was out for my arrest. 
 It was so ordered that the very day I reached Benguella the 
 Governor-General of Angola arrived there from Loanda to 
 talk over Bihe matters with the Governor of Benguella, and 
 both gladly listened to my story, and acquitted me af all the 
 charges brought against me. I was asked to protect the children 
 of Senhor Porto and other Portuguese subjects still in Bihe, and 
 was informed that a well-armed force had left Mossamedes to 
 chastise the king of Bihe, and that the officer in charge, Captain 
 Paiva, was commissioned to make full enquiries into the cause 
 of the revolt. 
 
 " I got back to Bihe as quickly as possible, leaving Mr. 
 Munnock in Bailundu, and found all well, though anxious for 
 my return, as they had been disturbed during my absence 
 with rumours of war, and of the coming of the force under 
 Captain Paiva. 
 
 " Captain Paiva with his army, composed chiefly of Trans- 
 vaal Boers, from the colony established near Mossamedes, 
 arrived at Bihe on November 4th. He attacked the town of 
 Chindunduma, who made a very feeble resistance, and soon 
 took to flight. Many of the natives were shot do"\vn by 
 the mounted Boers, and so long as the chief was at large 
 Captain Paiva scattered fire and sword throughout the 
 country. 
 
 " On November 6th, Mr. Sanders, oi Kamondongo, succeeded 
 in procuring a few days' truce by forwarding to the Portuguese 
 camp a promise from several chiefs that Chindunduma would
 
 246 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 be delivered up to the Portuguese. They failed, however, in 
 persuading the fugitive king to deliver himself up. The days 
 of truce expired, and the burning of villages and shooting of 
 the flying people began again. I made an imploring appeal to 
 the chiefs over the northern district of Bihe to combine in some 
 way to save their country, for every moment was of value. In 
 twelve hours' time over twenty chiefs had collected in our yard 
 at Kuanjulula to discuss the matter. I wTote to Captain Paiva 
 their request for an eight days' truce, accompanied with their 
 promise to do their utmost to capture and deliver up Chindun- 
 duma. The Captain in his reply thanked me for anything we 
 were able to do to prevent further bloodshed, and promised the 
 assembled chiefs nine daj^^s' truce. In six days the native force, 
 twelve hundred strong, returned with the runaway king. Peace 
 was at once declared, and arrangements made for the permanent 
 occupation of Bihe by a Portuguese military force. 
 
 " \Vhen the king's town was taken Captain Paiva seized his 
 papers. These Ovimbundu chiefs, being unable to wTite, 
 employ as a rule some Portuguese mulatto as secretary. In 
 his official report to the Portuguese Government, a copy of 
 which I saw at Loanda, Captain Paiva had copied verbatim 
 several letters that he found written by me to Chindunduma, 
 in order to show how harmless they were. One referred to a 
 present of cloth that he had asked of me, and another was a 
 refusal to send him a present of gunpowder. At the same time, 
 sufficient e-vidence was found to incriminate a Portuguese 
 trader and rum distiller, who, it seems, had been sending 
 presents of rum to the king of Bihe ; and it was thus evident 
 that it was not me but he who had sought to stop the Portuguese 
 advance toward the interior, evidently fearing lest his own 
 business at the coast should suffer if fresh centres and channels 
 of trade were opened up." 
 
 Whilst Messrs. Thompson, Lane and Crawford were pressing 
 on to the relief of Messrs, SwannandFaulknor in the Garenganze, 
 the party of five Europeans (including Mr. and Mrs. Arnot) at 
 Kuanjulula were solving the problems connected with the 
 transport of goods from the coast to the far interior. They also 
 felt the need of making kno^^^l the Gospel to those natives in 
 their part of the large district of Bihe who were out of the reach 
 of the American missionaries. Buildings and enclosures for 
 the^Station were erected, and an effort made to provide food
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 247 
 
 for the workers by farming. The study of Umbundu avis 
 prosecuted and sick ones were cared for. 
 
 In November, 1890, news came from Mr. Dan Crawford of 
 the safe arrival of Messrs. H. Thompson, Lane and himself in 
 Garenganze, and their joyful welcome by Messrs. Swann and 
 Faulknor, with whom they were housed in the little Mission 
 Station at Bunkeya under the sway of the great chief of that 
 country. The trials of the long journey were now over, but 
 they were confronted with fresh difficulties, which might be 
 summed up in one word — Msidi. 
 
 " African despots," says Arnot, " such as Msidi of the 
 Garenganze, Lobengula of the Matabelc, Liwanika of the 
 Barotse, have no ancient hereditary claims to their extensive 
 empires ; but their power has to be retained by the same brute 
 force by which they or their immediate predecessors obtained 
 it. And, so far as I can find out, these empires had their 
 beginnings about the time of the introduction of guns and 
 powder into Africa. Any chiefs, who were able in those days 
 to get a monopoly of the trade in arms could carve out for them- 
 selves enormous kingdoms. Lobengula is perhaps an exception 
 to this rule, his father, Mosilikatse, having conquered the 
 Makalaka and Mashona tribes with the spear. But in 
 Central Africa, so long as the spear and the bow were the 
 only weapons, the balance of power seems to have been fairly 
 well maintained between the small tribal chiefs. Now that 
 the power of these African despots is being curtailed by 
 European rule, it is well to remember that they have 
 indirectly played an important part in the opening up of the 
 interior of Africa. 
 
 " Dr. Livingstone was led to undertake his journey to the 
 Zambesi through hearing that Sebituane, with his Makololo 
 followers, had marched northwards from the Baltaping country 
 and had established himself in the Barotse valley. Sebituane 
 soon brought the tribes all around under his sway, and by the 
 aid of this great chief Dr. Livingstone was able to obtain boats 
 to ascend the Zambesi. He also provided carriers, and ivory 
 for the purpose of goods ; and Livingstone was encouraged to 
 make his first great journey from the Zambesi River to St. 
 Paul de Loanda in 1854. 
 
 " The great African chiefs have generally invited and 
 welcomed missionaries into their countries, perhaps wth the
 
 248 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 idea of making friends with the white man, from whom powder 
 and guns might be obtained, but they have jealously watched 
 against any possibility of their own influence being weakened 
 by that of the missionary. For forty years missionaries laboured 
 in the Matabele country \Wthout apparent fruit, simply because 
 Lobengula quickly called to his capital Gubulowayo (i.e. 
 ' the kilhng place '), and disposed of any of his people 
 who seemed to come under the influence of the missionaries' 
 teaching. 
 
 " In the Garenganze, I^Isidi from the beginning protected 
 and befriended us, so that while we laboured at the language 
 of the people, and then went about from village to village telhng 
 our story for the first time, our lives were ' quiet and peaceable.' 
 Mr. Swann and I were, however, repeatedly apprised of this, 
 that though Msidi allowed us a measure of liberty, he had no 
 intention of giving his people one inch of it. And he seemed to 
 take pleasure in pro\'ing to us that our presence in his country 
 put him under no restraint. In order to rule over so many 
 tribes he had to make his name a terror, and perhaps only by 
 comparing him -with other African despots are we able to 
 discover his virtues. I would give my testimony as to his 
 having an uncommonly kind side to his cruel heart, and that 
 ^vith all his rapacity and greed he was at times lavishly 
 generous." 
 
 In 1891 seven new workers from Great Britain, Canada and 
 Demerara were added to the force often stationed at Kuanjulula 
 and the Garenganze. It was therefore decided that an attempt 
 should be made to establish a third centre, and in August of 
 that year Arnot accompanied some of the new workers to Nana 
 Kandundu. He thus describes the events : 
 
 " Making a start from Bihe is always tedious work. The 
 villages, where the men whom we hire as porters reside, are 
 widely scattered, and their friends expect them to give a visit 
 all round, and to drink beer with them before leaving home. 
 No shipmaster in the olden days could have had greater trouble 
 or required more patience in getting his own crew together on 
 the eve of a voyage than we have in collecting our men for a 
 fuial start. We crossed the Kwanza in canoes, August 31st, 
 1891. Since the military occupation of Bihe by the Portuguese 
 the natives everywhere were found more easy to deal with, 
 and although we exchanged presents with the chiefs, they no
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 249 
 
 longer plagued us with peremptory demands for tribute at 
 every camp. 
 
 " On the way we sought to bring the Gospel before the many 
 carriers from different parts of the Bihe district, who composed 
 our caravan. 
 
 " We reached Nana's on October 15th — only six months 
 after Mr. and Mrs. Bird (two of the new missionaries) had left 
 London. The absence of delays at the coast and at Bihe 
 allowed of this exceptionally quick journey ; but it had its 
 disadvantages, for they found themselves in the centre of 
 Africa, comparative strangers to the language, the people, and 
 their customs, 
 
 " Nana seemed very doubtful as to our real intentions, and 
 was fearful of losing her position as chieftain. After several 
 visits to our camp, however, she became more assured, and came 
 down one evening Avith an ox and a number of her most 
 important people. She said that if I would kill this ox there 
 and then, with her hand resting on one of my shoulders, and 
 her husband's hand on the other, all her fears would be dispelled 
 and she and the whites would be friends for ever. We gladly 
 agreed to her proposal, and I took my gun and went out to the 
 bush with Mr. Bird, and the ceremony of shooting the ox was 
 gone through, greatly to the satisfaction of Nana and her 
 people. Next day we sent her a handsome present of calico 
 (96 yards) and arrangements were at once made by Mr. Bird 
 for getting a house built, for which we went in search of rafter 
 poles. Three more happy days of fellowship closed my stay 
 at Nana's. The altitude of Nana Kandundu above the sea 
 we found, by boiling point thermometer, to be 3690 feet. 
 
 " The story of the rescue, on this journey, of a little boy 
 named Ngoi is full of interest, giving, as it does, a glimpse into 
 the horrors of Central African slavery. Socitota, a well-known 
 Bihe trader, had gone to the Luba country to obtain slaves, 
 and while engaged in his nefarious traffic was killed by a 
 company of Congo Free State soldiers. The remnant of 
 Socitota's large caravan arrived at Nana Kandundu in charge 
 of his brother, having managed to escape with a number of 
 slaves. One man had carried a little boy on his shoulder for 
 over a week — not from kindness to the boy, but hoping to 
 exchange him at Nana Kandundu for a goat or a pig. He had 
 cut the throat of the rest of his slaves, he said, but this child
 
 250 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 escaped a similar fate because he was light and easily carried. 
 This man iiad hawked the child round the Lovale villages for 
 some time before I heard of him, but no purchaser was found, 
 and I gladly gave the man the price of a goat for him. Little 
 more than skin and bone, Ngoi was unable to stand upright 
 from sheer weakness, and because of a twist in his back from 
 being carried so long over the man's shoulder, but I did not 
 despair of pulling him through. He rode behind me on the 
 mule all the way to Bihe, chnging wth his sinewy little arms 
 to my back, much as he had done to his mother's only a few 
 months before. 
 
 " As the child gained strength and confidence he told his 
 touching story with great pathos. He was given by his friends 
 as security until a certain debt they had incurred was paid. 
 Meanwhile the native traders from Bihe came along with their 
 guns and m.any-coloured calico, and the temptation was too 
 great to the man who held Ngoi as security, so he sold him to 
 these ' Ishmaelites ' of West Central Africa. After long 
 months of waiting in camp, where Ngoi was tied with a lot of 
 other slave children, a start was made for Bihe, but they had 
 not gone far when they met the Free State soldiers. Ngoi's 
 master at once fastened a wooden shackle on his feet to keep 
 him from running away, and he was put into a grass hut with 
 other slaves, of whom, he said, there were hundreds. Then the 
 fighting began. The bullets whizzed through the camp, and 
 Ngoi was very much afraid. StruggUng to free himself of his 
 shackle, he succeeded in knocking out the pin that held his feet 
 in, and off he rushed to the bush. In a hollow tree near by he 
 found refuge, but several bullets struck the tree. At last 
 Socitota's camp took fire, and little Ngoi, from his hollow tree 
 saw the flames and heard the shrieks of the poor slaves, all 
 fastened together, as they were burned to death. Then night 
 came, and all was still ; the hyenas came romid, and poor Ngoi 
 thought he would never escape their jaws. Towards morning 
 one of Socitota's men stole back to the burned camp in search 
 of his master's body, which he found and buried, and also 
 released Ngoi from the tree and carried him off after the 
 retreating caravan. All this must have been a terrible ex- 
 perience for the poor little boy. They had to travel very 
 quickly, and from morning till night. All the other children 
 in Ngoi's company were killed one after the other. His master
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 251 
 
 lifted his axe time after time to give him the fatal blow, and 
 followed him \nth it over his little head, saying, ' Now, if you 
 stop I will kill you.' He was, however, brought on to Nana 
 Kandundu, and we trust that he will also be freed from the 
 bondage of sin and Satan. 
 
 " Leaving Nana Kandundu with Ngoi, my journey to 
 Kuanjulula was quickly and safely accomplished by November 
 27th, and I was very thankful to find all well and the work 
 progressing. 
 
 " It was a pleasure to find the new workers applying them- 
 selves successfully to the study of the Umbundu language. I 
 have often observed that, unless new-comers apply themselves 
 closely to learn an African language during their first few 
 months in the country, they rarely so master it as to accurately 
 understand what the natives say, or to express themselves Avith 
 ease or fluency, even though they may have years of residence 
 and of desultory and interrupted study. 
 
 " ' I have set before thee an open door ' was brought forcibly 
 to my mind as I saw, on returning to Kuanjulula, the access 
 that Dr. Fisher had to the surrounding villages and people. 
 It became my joyful privilege to unite with him in this work, 
 which came as a restful and refreshing change after the bustle 
 and arduousness of travel. When on the march with carriers 
 there are, it is true, opportunities afforded us of preaching to 
 the men night after night, which we always embrace ; but 
 gospel work among the villages is in every way pleasanter and 
 more satisfactory, inasmuch as we are free from the distractions 
 peculiar to ' the road ' — paying off and engaging men, disputings 
 as to pay, rations, etc. At Kuanjulula we arranged to hold 
 special meetings during the moonhght nights, at which we 
 could get together from 20 to 150 hearers every evening. 
 During these village preachings we had our full share of exercise 
 of heart, both of joy and grief, among those who heard, and 
 some of whom we are thankful to add have believed in Christ. 
 
 One young woman, D , has been a typical case of the 
 
 ' good ground,' for not only has she received salvation herself, 
 but by her prayers and zeal she has gained her cousin for Christ. 
 
 Another, C , has proved the power of the Word of God in 
 
 the heart to stimulate the mind to study the art of reading and 
 writing, and thus he has been able to read the Scriptures for 
 himself. Another, S , for whom much intercession had been
 
 252 THE SECOND JOURNEY 
 
 made, after the preaching of the Gk»spel in his uncle's village, 
 confessed himself a sinner in the sight of Gk)d. Since then the 
 poor man has lost nearly all his children, five of them dying 
 within a few months. Of course his friends ascribe these deaths 
 in his family to the displeasure of the spirits of his forefathers, 
 who, they say, are enraged at him for associating himself with 
 
 the white man and his religion. To some extent poor S 
 
 has been brought to a standstill by this overwhelming trial, 
 yet he not only continues to come to the meetings, but also 
 his friends with him. We had our own suspicions regarding 
 the death of all these children. 
 
 " On the other hand there are those who did run well, but 
 who now walk no longer with us. One who was baptised 
 publicly as a Christian, has not only been put away from the 
 Lord's Table, but also prohibited the premises of Kuanjulula 
 because of his wicked and depraved example. 
 
 " Some have sought instruction, and professed themselves 
 enquirers after God, merely ^\ith a view to improve their 
 temporal condition. The tendency of the African to be inflated 
 and uplifted presents a great difficulty to the Christian teacher. 
 How to instruct the mind, and yet humble the heart ; how to 
 clothe the body, and yet strip the soul, are problems that 
 continually confront us. The effort to awaken any conscience 
 toward God ever reminds us of our dependence upon His Holy 
 Spirit. Suppose, for instance, that you visit a sick man ; he 
 may possibly tell you that he has a bad conscience ; his heart 
 smites him ; he has done wrong ; and that is why he is sick. 
 At first sight it would seem that the man was, from a Christian's 
 standpoint, in a hopeful condition, but upon further enquiry 
 you will probably discover that his omission of some act of 
 gross wickedness is really what is troubling his mind. He 
 thinks, perhaps, that he has offended the spirit of his grand- 
 father, because he has not avenged his death at the hands of 
 some witch long since dead, but whose children are still alive, 
 and to this neglect of revenge against them he attributes his 
 present sickness." 
 
 After Arnot's return from escorting the small party to Nana 
 Kandundu, the state of his health caused much concern. The 
 first visit hom.e in 1888 had failed to remove the effects of fever 
 contracted in the Barotse Valley. Acting on the advice of his 
 brother-in-law, Dr. Walter Fisher, Arnot accordingly left Bihe
 
 THE SECOND JOURNEY 258 
 
 with his wife and Httle girl, reaching England in June, 1892. 
 In the following March, 1893, he was able to write : 
 
 " In looking back to the time when I took my solitary 
 journey to the centre of the continent in 1886, I can only thank 
 God that He has stirred up the hearts of not a few to care for 
 this part of Africa. The steps of 27 persons have been directed 
 thither, and though three of these were only permitted to lay 
 down their lives in the Dark Continent, the rest are yet alive, 
 and nineteen are now at work. My wfe and I hope to return 
 as soon as possible, and more labourers, we trust, will follow."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 
 
 IT was two years before Arnot was able to return to Africa 
 He quite hoped to return to Bihe and merely visited his 
 doctor to get his approval. The doctor, however, was 
 very firm in refusing permission, so although it cost him much 
 he at once made up his mind to make his home in England 
 until more definite consent could be given. With his ^\'ife and 
 child he settled at Waterloo, near Liverpool, that being the port 
 for the line of steamers which was used at that time to take the 
 missionaries of the " Brethren " to Benguella. All goods for 
 these workers in Central Africa were also despatched from this 
 port, and Arnot was able to supervise the shipping arrangements. 
 Whilst engaged in this work he was able to initiate, in con- 
 junction with the late Mr. Brooke Broadbent, what afterwards 
 proved to be a series of missionary conferences which were held 
 yearly at different centres in the North of England. Many 
 were stirred by means of these gatherings to go to the 
 foreign field, and others were stimulated to give the necessary 
 help. 
 
 In the early part of this interval at home Arnot paid a short 
 visit to the United States. He met Mr. Moody in Chicago, and 
 this enterprising leader wanted to secure him for the Northfield 
 Convention. A severe attack of influenza, however, prevented 
 this arrangement from being carried out, and Arnot returned 
 to England sooner than was originally intended. 
 
 During 1893 and the early months of 1894, letters from the 
 field told of new trials and difficulties besetting the workers. 
 The hope had been long entertained that the workers in the 
 Garenganze would be able to receive all their supplies from the 
 West Coast, and that the opening of the station at Nana 
 Kandundu, and probably another in the Chokwe country, 
 would greatly facilitate their doing so. A porterage, however, 
 of twelve hundred miles through native territory, with the 
 
 254
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 255 
 
 constant risk of tribal warfare blocking the route, was from 
 the beginning a precarious undertaking. But now in addition 
 to this the station in the Garenganze was in danger of complete 
 isolation, owing to the occupation of that country by Captain 
 Stairs on behalf of the Congo Free State. A letter from 
 Captain Stairs to Arnot told of a new order of things there, and 
 of the possibility of the West Coast trade route being stopped. 
 Msidi had been killed during the proceedings connected with 
 the occupation. The Zanzibaris, attached to Captain Stairs' 
 expedition, would not rest until the head of the once great 
 enemy of the Arab trader had been cut off. Mwenda, the son 
 of Msidi, was recognised as chief in his father's stead, and a 
 Belgian officer was installed as magistrate. The Congo Free 
 State Government at first forced the natives to scatter. In 
 addition to this dispersion a suspicion was aroused in the minds 
 of many of the Va-Garenganze against the missionaries. A 
 section of the people looked upon the conquest of their country 
 as a very clever piece of deception and generalship from the 
 time of the arrival of the first missionary in the country to the 
 cutting off of Msidi's head. Messrs. Thompson and Crawford 
 decided therefore to remove to Lake Mweru, taking ^vith them 
 a host of adherents, men, women and children. The isolated 
 missionaries hoped that from the new site it might be possible 
 to open up communications with the East Coast. In the mean- 
 time they were greatly in need of supplies and were feeling the 
 pinch keenly. Arnot decided that these circumstances con- 
 stituted a new call to proceed to Africa, first to take supplies 
 to the stranded workers, and secondly to ascertain the possi- 
 bilities of the East Coast route and its possible advantages 
 over the West Coast. 
 
 Leaving his wife and two children (a second child, Nigel, 
 having been born in England) in Liverpool, Arnot left England 
 in August, 1894, with Mr. Benjamin Cobbe, a man whom Arnot 
 described as possessed " of much quiet, constant zeal, and 
 habitually prayerful and studious." 
 
 Proceeding to Durban, Arnot called at Capetown and Port 
 Elizabeth, and was welcomed by the assemblies of the 
 " Brethren " in these centres and established a fellowship with 
 South African gatherings that bore rich fruit in mutual spiritual 
 help and in practical support of the work in the mission field. 
 Waiting to his v^ife from the home of Mr. Trill, Arnot said :
 
 256 THE THIRD JOURNEY 
 
 " The first night ashore was very enjoyable. I lay awake 
 nearly all night listening to the ring-doves, the tree crickets, 
 the frogs and other night insects. Then just before daybreak 
 the night-jay set up his shrill call, that used to wake one up 
 so often to the scramble and hurry-scurry of an early morning 
 march. Then the clear, still air ! There is nothing or no place 
 equal to it. You must come along, love. . . . Mrs. Trill is 
 asking me to promise that you will stay here on your way to 
 join me next spring. . . . All are delighted with the babies' 
 pictures, indeed I have only to produce them, and they act 
 like the proverbial ' touch of nature.' " 
 
 Whilst waiting at Capetown for a steamer for Durban, the late 
 Cecil Rhodes sent Arnot an invitation to meet him. Concerning 
 this meeting, Arnot wrote : " Mr. Rhodes had many questions 
 to ask about the Garenganze country, and hoped that the 
 brethren there would be willing to train young men as telegraph 
 clerks, etc., so that they might earn good wages and be useful 
 to the large commercial companies and European governments. 
 It was not very easy for me to explain to him that we were rather 
 hoping to find ways and means of teaching the native boys 
 trades that would keep them at home. The African native 
 cannot be employed on trading stations and Government posts 
 without developing a strong inclination to pick up the white 
 man's vices ; and even when congregated in mining compounds, 
 or on plantations under the best control, they are still exposed 
 to what might be called ' barrack life ' temptations. The 
 natives can weave and work in metals, as well as farm, all of 
 course in a rough way. Our ambitions, therefore, I explained 
 to Mr. Rhodes, lay rather in the line of stimulating these 
 industries, and in preserving African village life." 
 
 Writing from " off East London," Arnot said : " We went 
 ashore at Port Elizabeth for two days and met with several 
 very nice people. We had two prolonged conferences. An 
 ' Exclusive ' evangelist has come along teaching household 
 baptism, with the result that the leading brother in the open 
 meeting had all his family baptised. The ' Exclusive ' 
 evangelist was present and tried to defend his theories. I do 
 not knoAV what the result will be, but I think our arrival there 
 was opportune. ... I am getting on nicely with Swahili. 
 There is a native of Zanzibar on board who speaks English. 
 It was very soon evident that my way of learning languages
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 257 
 
 is by conversation, and through contact with the people, for 
 in a short time I was talking with the man. The bookwork is 
 very slow Avork to me." 
 
 In September, 1894, Arnot and Cobbe embarked at Durban 
 in a flat-bottomed coasting steamer able to cross the bar of 
 the Chinde mouth of the Zanzibar. At Chiude they went on 
 board the African Lakes Corporation's steamer George 
 Stevenson. They went as passengers of the African Lakes 
 Corporation from Chinde to Tanganyika, " entirely at our own 
 risk," Arnot said, " as the Arabs were giving the British 
 Administration a good deal of trouble, or vice versa. This 
 Company (A.L.C.) was promoted with a view to assisting 
 missionaries with their transports, and of promoting industry 
 and legitimate commerce among the natives. The A.L.C. 
 bears the brunt of the conflict with the Arabs of Lake Nyassa 
 over their slave dealing propensities. . . . River travelling in 
 Africa is always restful and interesting. We often ran aground 
 on sandbanks and remained fast for an hour or two. At such 
 times the crew would have to jump into the water and help to 
 push off, the Captain leaving the bridge and urging the men to 
 ' pusha ' with a long stick." 
 
 From Katungas, on October 9th, 1894, Arnot writes to his 
 wife concerning the possible changing of all that they had 
 planned for the future on account of a return of his old troubles : 
 " We have got to the end of the river journey, 14 days. I am 
 greatly pleased with it. It is a much better channel than I 
 expected to find, and it is surprising what an amount of traffic 
 goes on. From this port to Blantyre goods are carried by 
 porters, and about 500 men come down on an average per day 
 for work. . . . My owti stupid spleen has been getting bigger, 
 which suggests very gently that I may not be able to remain 
 in the country for over a year or so at a time. I have not had 
 a single touch of fever. So it is probable that I \\dll arrange 
 with the A.L.C. Manager for any coming out next year for the 
 Garenganze, probably better be brethren only, then go on with 
 Cobbe to Mweru, see Dan Crawford and then work my way by 
 tepoia to Nana Kandundu and Bihe, where I may be helpful 
 to all. In this case you will stay on at Waterloo with our sweet 
 pets until Pe-pe comes back. There would be no use my coming 
 back this way unless it were to meet you, and I could not hope 
 to make you comfortable and help others in a semi-disabled
 
 258 THE THIRD JOURNEY 
 
 condition, as this spleen trouble seems to amount to. . . . This 
 will be a great disappointment to you, but were you to come out 
 and I not able to remain more than a year or two in the country 
 it would be very sad indeed." 
 
 The following extracts from letters to Mrs Arnot tell of the 
 progress of the journey, and of incidents en route : 
 
 " Upper Shire River, 16th Oct, 1894. — I was asked to preach 
 in the church at Blantyre on Sunday evening, when nearly all 
 the white people turned out. The church is a wonderful 
 building, and the service decidedly ritualistic. I took substitu- 
 tion for my subject. . . . My only objection to this route is 
 that there are so many missionaries along it that one is not so 
 much needed. . . . The only advantage of this route is the 
 transport. The changing from river to land journeying, the 
 bustle and traffic at the stations, the tin fare and the pro- 
 tracted exposure to the heat of these river-ways is a long way 
 inferior to our pleasant journey with our owti Ovimbundu up 
 to Bihe, and were carriers only sufficiently plentiful nothing 
 could equal the West Coast route in comfort. 
 
 " Karonga, 31st Oct., 1894. — Your owti hub is wonderfully 
 well again. Since getting out of the Lower Zambesi I have felt 
 very well in spite of the heat. I am very glad, however, I 
 wrote you not to come this way. Honestly I don't think you 
 would stand it. The heat has been in excess even of Benguella 
 heat, and day and night ; then fever seems to be as common and 
 deadly as on the Congo. Certainly none of our bairnies could 
 stand it. Then there are so many missionary societies contend- 
 ing for every inch of ground, I was going to say, right on to 
 Lake Mweru. The East Coast route is not to be compared to our 
 West Coast route provided carriers were only more plentiful at 
 Bihe, so that I think I am right in planning meanwhile to 
 go out to Bihe and test the matter afresh by spending a month 
 or two there and getting a caravan together. This might 
 lead in all probability to our taking up our quarters again 
 in Bihe. 
 
 " Tell Ray that coming up in the steamer we had six Sikh 
 soldiers on board and they were all seasick, so that there were 
 six seasick Sikhs. 
 
 " The little river steamer we travelled in was not able to 
 take us very far up the Shire River, so we were compelled to 
 complete the journey to Lake Nyassa by boat. As we neared
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 259 
 
 the lake we had to run the gauntlet of one or two hostile 
 villages. At one point we had to land, as the channel was 
 completely blocked by hippos. I shot one, hoping that the 
 others would move off. But the old bull of the herd landed in 
 a rage, and came running along the sandy shore of the river 
 to destroy our boat. I ran to meet him with my rifle, Cobbe 
 following me with cartridges. My first few shots seemed of no 
 avail ; they glanced off his great skull ; so, as a last effort, I 
 knelt on one knee, and was able thus to sight his chest and to 
 plant a bullet in it that must have pierced the heart, for he rolled 
 over sideways, to our great relief, and fell into the river. ^Vhen 
 our men began to cut up the hippo, throwing the offal into the 
 river, ■udth parts of the meat they did not want, we witnessed a 
 most extraordinary sight. About twenty large crocodiles came 
 racing through the water from all directions and fought over 
 the meat. 
 
 " Fife Station, ISth Nov., 1894. — I am not going to say 
 anything more about our future plans, whether our home 
 should continue in England, Garenganze or Bihe or anywhere 
 else. I am just going to leave it. At any rate I feel sure it will 
 be my dutj'^ to come home for you. . . . My spleen is still in 
 evidence and I had one sick spell after riding Cobbe's donkey 
 for a forenoon. ... I have been travelling mostly in a tepoia, 
 although on this side one needs to employ ten men, and then 
 keep very wide awake. They rush you along and bring j'^ou 
 against all the tree stumps in the country and bob you up and 
 do^vn like a pea on a pan. They hardly know how to carry an 
 ordinary load, and boxes weighing about 60 lb. require two 
 men." 
 
 Writing at a later date concerning conversations during this 
 period, Arnot said : 
 
 " The missionaries are not united in their work. Some quite 
 laugh at the idea of doing anything by means of preaching and 
 think education and industrial work to be the most helpful. I 
 point out to them that our fellow-countrymen, with education 
 and religious training, and some even with Christian profession, 
 living immoral lives, having no more strength to resist sin than 
 the Portuguese or Arab, prove beyond all question that all are 
 in the same natural condition and that all must be born again, 
 recreated, and that this spiritual change can be as truly 
 accomplished in the most ignorant as well as the learned.
 
 260 THE THIRD JOURNEY 
 
 " When we reached Lake Nyassa we went on board the s.s. 
 Domira. Mr. Chalmers, the Captain, an ' 1859 revival ' convert, 
 was a delightful man ; he gave us a hearty welcome. In his 
 younger days he had OAvned a fishing smack that sailed from 
 Rothesay, but a storm swept all his nets away one day, and he 
 had to compromise ^vith his creditors, to his great regret. With 
 the one desire to pay them back in full, he faced all the trials 
 and privations of Central Africa. The happy day at last came 
 when he paid them their 20s. to the £, with interest. And he 
 showed mc the watch his creditors had subscribed to him, with 
 a suitable inscription upon it. No matter who came on board 
 Capt. Chalmers' steamer, all had to join in the evening 
 worship. 
 
 " Lake Nyassa was still in the hands of the slave dealers, and 
 Arab dhows were to be seen cutting across the lake. One 
 morning we saw from the deck of the steamer a large impi of 
 Bangoni — a far-wandered, Zulu-speaking tribe — with their long 
 shields and short, stabbing spears, raiding a village of Atonga. 
 We landed at Bandawe and spent a few hours with Dr. and Mrs. 
 Laws, but, a storm coming up, we had to return to the steamer 
 and run before it to a sheltering bay. 
 
 " Disembarking at Karonga, we were greeted by swarms of 
 Kakonde women, wading into the water, offering to carry our 
 bag and baggage over the long shallow stretch of water, lying 
 between the steamer and the shore. Karonga is the beginning 
 of the Stevenson road, made in order to unite Lake Nyassa and 
 Lake Tanganyika, another example of disinterested interest 
 in the opening up of Central Africa, the late Mr. Stevenson 
 deriving no benefit from the outlay this engineering project 
 involved. 
 
 " An Arab trader, Malose, had built his fortified village at 
 the very back door of Karonga. Mr. Cobbe and I had not much 
 difficulty in slipping past Malose's stronghold, and we were 
 soon passing by the head waters of the Chambesi River on our 
 way across the plateau. 
 
 " Lake Tanganyika was a grand sight. The south end of it 
 appeared to be a vast, deep sheet of water, surrounded by 
 mountain ranges, furrowed with deep ravines down which 
 fierce storms rush, whipping the lake into white squalls. After 
 some delay we were able to employ sufficient carriers to take us 
 over the hundred miles that lie between Lakes Tanganyika and
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 261 
 
 Mweru. Being entire strangers, the Ba-mwanga did not trust 
 us. But by turning my attention to the women, and giving 
 them fair prices for the meal they brought, and small presents 
 to their children, I proved again that ' the hand that rocks the 
 cradle rules the world.' The women returned to their kraals 
 singing our praises, and their men-folk soon turned out. 
 
 " Crossing Lake Tanganyika in a boat belonging to the L.M.S. 
 we landed at the head of Cameron Bay on the west shore. . . . 
 
 " The political condition of the country to the west of 
 Tanganyika is peculiar. We have to go back perhaps thirty or 
 forty years ago, before the Arab began to cross the Lake. Then 
 it would seem to have been a well-peopled country. The Arab 
 does not attack a country, as a rule, in such a way as to compel 
 the people to band together in self-defence, but appears first as 
 a trader, then chooses some fertile spot near to the village of 
 some chief with whom he has ' made friendship ' and whose 
 daughter he marries, and asks permission to build a camp there, 
 while his people go to the coast to bring more cloth. The 
 temporary camp is gradually made stronger, a good store of 
 gunpowder is secured, and the Arab gradually becomes more 
 insolent and exacting to his friend. One case in point was 
 brought before Mr. Knight, who is in charge of the Adminis- 
 tration Station at Sumba, the other day when an old man 
 besought him to release his daughter who was in the clutches 
 of an Arab of the name of Meso. Meso years ago had been his 
 sworn friend. One day he had asked the old man to pay him a 
 visit and bring all his wives and children with him, as he 
 wished to give them all presents of beads and calico. ' Get 
 meal ground and let us carry a present to Meso,' said the old 
 man to his wives, and so off they set. Meso made all the women 
 and children prisoners, gave the old man a severe thrashing and 
 sent him away. All had been sold, too, at the coast with the 
 exception of their one daughter, whom Mr. Knight was able to 
 restore to her father. Thus little by little the country has been 
 depopulated. Mr. Cobbe and I visited one of these Arab camps 
 the other day. A large square was found with huts of slaves, 
 roofed with earth so as to be proof against fire. The huts in 
 the centre of the enclosure were all built in the same Avay, also 
 the chief's house in the centre. Mats and rugs were spread for 
 us on his verandah. Since the British occupation these Arabs 
 have lost their power, as well as many of their slaves, and in
 
 262 THE THIRD JOURNEY 
 
 the Belgian territory their camps have been broken up and 
 many of the Arabs killed. The man we visited deplored in a 
 lamentable way the cruelty of the white man, and the barbarous, 
 unjust warfare he was waging against the innocent, unoffend- 
 ing Arab, who always treated him kindly, gave him rice, helped 
 him on his expeditions, etc. 
 
 " From Cameron Bay we had to bore our way through a 
 perfect tangle of rubber vine, the men creeping on their hands 
 and knees and pulling their loads after them. Grassy plains 
 then opened up before us as we travelled westward. The bones 
 of thousands of buffalo and other animals lay in patches here 
 and there, victims of the terrible rinderpest plague that swept 
 the country of cattle and game, from Uganda southward. 
 Further on we came to a pool of water in a dried-up river bed, 
 with about 50 hippos in it, all trying to keep themselves wet 
 until the rains should fall again. An Arab invited us to spend 
 the night in his boma rather than expose ourselves to the lions, 
 which, owing to the death of the game, had turned to man- 
 eating. Indeed, lions, zebras and elephants seemed to have the 
 veldt to themselves. One day our men came on a troop of lions 
 that had pulled down a young cow elephant. They drove them 
 off, and brought the meat and tusks of the elephant along with 
 them. 
 
 " The Vinanwanga, who inhabit this country, seem to be 
 pure Bantu ; they extract the lower front teeth like the Baluba, 
 and the women cut and draw out the lobe of the ear to such an 
 extent that they are able to insert a circular ornament as large 
 as a billiard ball in circumference, and about half an inch in 
 thickness. Curiously enough this tribe is not used to the hoe for 
 cultivating their fields ; although they are, or used to be, large 
 manufacturers of iron, judging from the number of upright 
 smelting furnaces found throughout the country. Thej^ live 
 chiefly on a small red millet. The fields in which this millet 
 is grown are prepared by heaping together a great mass of 
 timber and branches of trees, till the ground is covered to the 
 depth of two or three feet ; when thoroughly dried, the wood 
 is burned. At the beginning of the rainy season the seed is 
 scattered over the wood ash. The same field, I am told, is 
 seldom sown a second year ; so it is easy to understand how 
 a very small community can destroy immense forests. The 
 fact is that there is very little of the better class of woods
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 263 
 
 found in this country, showing that this destructive process 
 has gone on for long. The better roots of wood, which are 
 always slow growing, have not a chance to renew themselves, 
 while the softer trees, practically useless for building purposes, 
 have sprung up. 
 
 " Nov. ISth, 1894. — Arrived at French R.C. Mission Station, 
 and had lunch and dinner \vith the seven ' White Friars ' we 
 found there. They all seemed to be living together in a peaceful 
 sort of a way, reminding us very much of those I met on the 
 Upper Zambesi about twelve years ago. One hears continually, 
 from Colonial traders and others, of quarrels among the 
 Protestant missionaries, that have become public scandals ; 
 but one hears nothing of quarrels among the Roman Catholic 
 missionaries, the perfect order and discipline undoubtedly the 
 reason ; each ' Father ' or ' Brother ' has his allotted place and 
 work ; there is no room left for striving as to who should be 
 the greatest, for all their relative positions of importance are 
 already allotted to them ; but might not our Lord have done 
 the same and for ever settled the question as to who should be 
 the greatest and chief disciple. His only answer was, however, 
 and in what startling contrast to all human wisdom, ' He that 
 is least, shall be greatest.' What scope we have for continually 
 exercising ourselves in becoming less. The Divine path and 
 plan after all are only possible to crucified and slain men. 
 
 " Nov. I9th. — Great trouble in getting our men along. They 
 are so hungry that every fruit tree we come to makes them halt 
 in spite of all my urgings. I managed to shoot three antelopes, 
 however, just as we arrived in camp, so the men got a good 
 supper. 
 
 " Nov. 20th. — Arrived at the large village of Kera. It was 
 refreshing to see so many people together, even though I was 
 not able to speak to them. They belong to the Mambwe tribe, 
 formerly wholly subject to the Va-wemba, but since the British 
 occupation they are free. We passed the ruins of a large village 
 that had been burned to the ground. It had become infested 
 with the jigger, or penetrating flea, and as this insect, so well 
 known on the West Coast, has just recently found its way across 
 to these parts, the people do not know how to deal Avith it, and 
 in this case, I suppose, in despair, they set fire to their houses 
 and built their village on a fresh site. 
 ^_" Nov. 26th. — What Kipling sang of the Imperialists is true
 
 264 THE THIRD JOURNEY 
 
 of the army of pioneers who are now bleaching in Africa on 
 account of the callousness and forgetfulness of home friends : 
 
 " ' In the faith of little children they went on their way, 
 
 Then the wood failed, then the food failed, then the last water dried. 
 In the faith of little children they lay down and died 
 On the sandbelt, on the veld side, in the fern scrub they lay 
 That their sons might follow after by the bones upon the way.' 
 
 " As we approached Lake Mweru the forest became more 
 dense. One morning, to our great delight, we met Mr. 
 Thompson a few hours from the lake shore. He had kindly 
 come to meet us, leaving Mr. Cra"\vford in his camp at Chipungu. 
 
 " Mweru has nothing of the grandeur of the two great lakes 
 we had just left behind us. But it is a beautiful sheet of water, 
 and the hills around are covered with forests. We walked 
 round the sandy beach to the north end of the lake, crossed 
 the Lualaba, and climbed up to Chipungu. To our surprise we 
 found that, during Mr. Thompson's short absence, Mr. Crawford 
 had been joined by Mr. D. Campbell from the West Coast, so we 
 had much to talk about. An excursion was made to the south 
 to look out for a better site than Chipungu, as Mr. Crawford 
 was anxious for more room for his people to build and cultivate. 
 Finally, Luanza was decided upon, and there, sitting on the 
 stump of a tree, the local chiefs gave their consent to the laying 
 out of the station. 
 
 " I recognised quite a number of old faces among the natives 
 that had built at Mweru. One young man, who had been a 
 faithful friend to Crawford, was one of Msidi's junior execu- 
 tioners. He had often heard the Gospel, and had grown very 
 hard and indifferent to it, but the gentle words of a woman 
 dying under his cruel hands, as she pleaded with him to ' deal 
 kindly wdth her child,' impressed him in this way, ' What the 
 missionaries say about me is true, I am indeed a very wicked 
 man.' At one of the meetings, he stood up and publicly 
 confessed that ' now he knew the blood of Jesus was sufficient 
 for the washing away of a black man's sins as well as those 
 of a white man.' He told us that for months he had been 
 wrestling with the devil, who kept telling him that ' a black 
 sinner like him, a shedder of innocent blood, could not hope to 
 be forgiven as easily as a good white man.' Poor people, I 
 am afraid their early notions about ' the good white men ' 
 have been sadly upset in those remote parts since those days ;
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 265 
 
 so that the devil has been robbed of at least one argument. Far 
 from making it our business — as some of our enemies say we do 
 — to persuade the black man that he is as good as the white 
 man, we often have enough to do to prove that he is as bad as 
 the white man, and in need of the same Saviour. 
 
 " The after life of Mishe-mishe proved that this confession 
 by the lake was real. The story, too, of how he got over the 
 difficulty of having five wives, as told by Mr. Crawford, is most 
 interesting. Finding that Mr. Crawford was not prepared to 
 advise him as to what he should do, and only persisted in 
 assuring him that God knew, and by His Holy Spirit would 
 enlighten him, he went home and did not come again for 
 advice. Calhng his wives together, he said that if one were 
 willing to remain with him he would divide all his property 
 between the four. One chose to abide as a poor man's wife, 
 and the others gladly carried off their portions to their paternal 
 villages. Mrs. Crawford taught Mishe-mishe the elements of 
 ambulance work, and of cleansing and doctoring ulcers, so with 
 a linen bag over his shoulder, he visited the many villages 
 around, reminding the people of what he was at one time, but 
 now that he was a Christian he was willing to wash out and 
 bind up their sores. 
 
 " Chipungu, Lake Mweru, 7th Jan., 1895. — (To Mrs. Arnot.) 
 If you only saw the long, long screeds of letters that I had 
 written to you, and now I am tearing them all up. Well ! the 
 story is soon told. I was completely carried away with things 
 here : site, prospect of work, etc., that I decided to remain, 
 wrote out a telegram for you to meet me at Natal, and spent 
 two days writing you instructions, orders, commands, entreaties, 
 advices, etc. Well ! we waited. That night I was laid aside 
 with severe pain in spleen ; next day prolonged agony. Crawford 
 and the others began praying me home. Now I am over it. But 
 my spleen is as large nearly as ever it was, so that I have 
 lost in a few months what took eighteen months to repair. I 
 may start back in a month or otherwise. . . . All seem happy 
 about it. In fact Crawford and the others seem to think that 
 my place is at home, health or no health. So we will be more 
 settled now. I am exceedingly thankful that I have come and 
 got fairly in touch with this route. ... It has been a hard 
 decision to come to, that my African days were gone by, but 
 now that it is so let us live for the work at home.
 
 266 THE THIRD JOURNEY 
 
 " Spending those happy weeks at Mweru, and hearing the 
 story of the cross told out so fully, in the very heart of Africa, 
 as the only point of meeting between sinful man and a sinless 
 God, was to me an abundant reward for all the toils of pioneer 
 and transport work that had fallen to my share. 
 
 " Mr. Campbell accompanied me as far as Lake Tanganyika ; 
 I was thankful for his company, as a serious illness overtook 
 me. At Cameron Bay I rested and recovered sufficiently to 
 allow of our crossing the lake, in the middle of which we were 
 caught in a twirling storm of vnnd and rain, and sent flying 
 back towards the west shore. How we kept afloat that night 
 is a mystery to me, as the waves were literally covering our 
 little ship. By one o'clock in the morning we found we were 
 nearing a rocky island ; we managed to control the boat 
 sufficiently to bring her up under the shelter of this island and 
 drop anchor. When morning broke we completed our voyage. 
 
 " Lake Nyassa, on hoard ' Ilala,' 2nd March, 1895. — I have 
 crossed the plateau safely and quickly in spite of the continuous 
 rain. ... I came on board the Ilala on the 28th February. 
 We had to row in a boat for hour and a half to Kambe Bay, 
 where she was lying. . . . We had supper and a big crocodile, 
 came up close by and I shot it. Night fell. We were preparing 
 to turn in ; the native crew getting steam up and ready to 
 start about three or four in the morning when ' boate,' ' boate ' 
 comes from the shore. It was now pitch dark, but the boat 
 which the Ilala tows behind her went off in the direc- 
 tion. Shortly it returned. A black hand thrust in to me 
 through the window a letter rolled up in calico. I opened 
 it and there was your telegram. Well ! Imagine my delight. 
 The O.C. Co. agent at Kituta, Lake Tanganyika, had sent it 
 back after me. What a relief ! What a mercy ! Next morning 
 I was awake at four and lying thinking of the Lord's goodness 
 and mercy that had indeed followed me. I asked in prayer for 
 some promise for this dear little boy that I had not seen. . . . 
 I began to wonder how the answer would come, I thought and 
 thought, and at last getting up I turned up the lamp, opened 
 my Bible ; my eyes fell on Isaiah xliv, and there in the third 
 verse read : ' I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and 
 floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy 
 seed and my blessing upon thine offspring.' In the little steam 
 cabin, by that flickering lamp, in the dark early morning. I
 
 THE THIRD JOURNEY 267 
 
 heard God, as it were, speak this word of promise to me. It 
 came a direct answer to my request. 
 
 " Inhambane, 23rd March. — I met a young man at Chinde 
 who had just come up from Natal. I heard him whisper to 
 another, ' That's Fred Arnot.' Then he came round and asked 
 me if I was Mr. A. Whereupon lie began consoling me upon 
 the death of my father. I could hardly believe it at first. 
 However, I have since seen a Natal paper dated March 8th, 
 with notice of father's death. How I did wish to be able to 
 wire home to mother. I wonder how the dear old mother has 
 stood it. It was quite a shock to me." 
 
 On the voyage home from Capetown to England Arnot met 
 the late Rev. Dr. Andrew Murray for the first time. Mr. 
 Murray was then for the fourth period Moderator of the Dutch 
 Reformed Church of South Africa. The Rev. George Robson, 
 Wesleyan minister, of Capeto^vn, is fond of telling of the enjoy- 
 able and helpful fellowship he had on that occasion with these 
 two men of God. The first Sunday out the service in the 
 saloon was taken by a dignitary of the Anglican Church and 
 was followed by a Communion Service. Mr. Arnot, Mr. Murray 
 and Mr. Robson discussed together whether they should join 
 in the latter. As Mr. Murray had presented himself for com- 
 munion on a previous occasion on board ship and been 
 refused participation, it was decided not to run the risk 
 of a similar experience now but to break bread together 
 in Mr. Murray's cabin. But the regular service itself they all 
 attended. At this they listened to a sermon that for dreariness 
 and childishness would be hard to beat. Mr. Arnot and Mr. 
 Robson were anxious to get an expression of opinion from Mr. 
 Murray about the discourse, so they asked him what he thought 
 of it. After a pause, stroking his chin, and with a twinkle in 
 his eye, the great saint said : " Well ! It is a poor hen that 
 can't get a few grains out of a muck heap."
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN, BRITISH GUIANA AND EUROPE 
 
 YIELDING to medical adv-ice, Arnot remained in England 
 for several years. For five years, from 1895 to 1900, he 
 lived with his family in Liverpool. The time was spent 
 in pastoral work, in giving missionary lectures up and down 
 the country, and in helping missionaries by training them in 
 dispensary work amongst the poor, and guiding them in their 
 studies and in the selection of their outfits. 
 
 With the help of his friend, Mr. Nightingale of Shrewsbury, 
 village work was started in the north of England. Many 
 young men gave up the whole of their summer holidays to this 
 enterprise, and many were the testimonies received of the good 
 done in this way. 
 
 In 1897, Arnot \'isited British Guiana in South America, 
 where there were a number of assemblies of Brethren, and 
 where considerable interest in the work in Africa had been 
 stirred up among the descendants of Africans, and from 
 amongst whom not a few volunteered to carry the Gospel 
 back to their oAvn people. 
 
 To his fellow-workers in Central Africa, Arnot wrote from 
 Liverpool, under date December 20th, 1897, " Notes on a 
 visit to British Guiana," from which we extract the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 " Knowing that there is much in common between the work 
 in Africa among the Africans, and in British Guiana among 
 descendants of the same race I thought the following remarks 
 would interest you. 
 
 " Although the work in British Guiana is now in its third 
 generation it is full of life and vigour. The foundations were 
 carefully laid, not so much by men who were pre-eminently -wise 
 but pre-eminently godly and devoted. The work began, not 
 among half-civilised blacks, or blacks who had the advantage 
 of learning the English language, for the slaves as they were 
 
 268
 
 GREAT BRITAIN, BRITISH GUIANA 269 
 
 brought over were put entirely under Dutch or English over- 
 seers who delighted in teaching them the little they learned 
 wrongly. What between the two languages, Dutch and English, 
 a strange dialect came to be used by them that must have 
 brought them much lower down in the scale of intelligence than 
 when they used their African dialects. When the older Chris- 
 tians stood up in the meetings, Mr. Bergin and I were quite 
 unable to understand them — they might have been speaking 
 Italian or Chinese. Then, what little morality that existed 
 in African custom was nearly entirely driven out of the slaves ; 
 there was no marriage of slaves ; mothers were not allowed to 
 bring up their children, but at once had to give them up to the 
 plantation nurses and turn to their work again. Fetish worship 
 survived, for the Africans brought it as a common inheritance 
 from ail parts of the continent ; and the ' obea men,' or 
 witch doctors, are found to-day along the rivers of the colony. 
 The only thing that helped the Gospel in any way was their 
 wretchedness and misery. 
 
 " I was interested in coming across the record of a contract 
 made by the Dutch Co. vnth a Portuguese Co. at the Cape Verde 
 Islands, which lie nearly on the same latitude as British Guiana, 
 for the supply of so many ' Angola slaves,' so that this verified 
 my own impressions on landing in the colony that the black 
 people came chiefly from the Bantu tribes. 
 
 " Besides the descendants of the early African slaves, there 
 are many Africans and their children now in British Guiana 
 who were taken from Spanish and Portuguese vessels and 
 liberated on the high seas by British men-of-war. Probably 
 the bulk of these were brought from countries south of the 
 Congo. Four I met with in two assemblies were able to under- 
 stand me when I spoke to them in Umbundu ; and in answer 
 to my questions I learned that one came originally from the 
 Barotse country, that she was brought out to Bihe by Sen. 
 Jao, Silva Porto's slave, and then when she was a young woman 
 was taken to the coast and sold and put on board a Spanish 
 vessel which was captured by a British man-of-war. Another 
 was a native of the Valuimbe tribe. Two came from the Lunda 
 country and the fourth from Ambacca. Two of the women 
 spoke Umbundu perfectly, and are now giving lessons to those 
 who are exercised about going to Africa." 
 
 (Then follow descriptions of how the bitter cassava or manioc
 
 270 GREAT BRITAIN, BRITISH GUIANA 
 
 and the paupau are used as articles of food, which method 
 Arnot urges for Africa, also remarks upon the different persons 
 proposing to come out.) 
 
 " The interest in Africa stirred up by the going forth of 
 Murrain and O'Jon has, they say, been a great blessing to all 
 the assemblies. The colony is suffering just now from the low 
 price of sugar, and still, with the greatest courage, they pray 
 the Lord to raise up and send labourers to Africa. They collect 
 what they can, and in some of the poorest of houses I saw boxes 
 made up for Africa. On the other hand those who are coming 
 forward to go are giving up something in doing so, and are not 
 going merely for the sake of a livelihood." 
 
 Returning from South America to Liverpool, Arnot suffered, 
 as he had also done in his previous residence at that centre, from 
 repeated malarial attacks. Advised by a malarial expert to try 
 a drier climate the home was removed to Clifton, near Bristol. 
 Messrs. Wright and Bergin of the Miiller Orphan Homes were 
 especially warm in the welcome extended to Arnot in this new 
 centre. Four very happy years of fellowship with the friends 
 there passed all too quickly. Help was given to the large 
 assemblies meeting at Alma, Bethesda, and Stokescroft, and 
 also to the smaller gatherings in the outlying districts. 
 
 The change south so improved Arnot's health that when in 
 1904< a party of workers from the United States and from 
 British Guiana set out to pay their debt to the heathen he 
 decided to join them at Lisbon, and to lead them to the vacant 
 field in the Chokwe country, stretching far to the east of Bihe. 
 Prior, however, to joining these workers, Arnot with his wife, 
 made a trip to the continent of Europe, and contributed again 
 an increase of interest in the cause of missions. His experiences 
 are described in his diary as follows : 
 
 " March l^ith, 1904. — The last kiss and hug all round ^vith 
 our bairns was the real farewell. A number of the many friends 
 were at the station to see us off from Bristol at 2.7 p.m. 
 
 " Miss Jordan's farewell meeting was well attended, also the 
 farewell meetings in the Devonshire House next day, afternoon 
 and evening. Wednesday was spent in town shopping and 
 making a few farewell visits. At 4 p.m. I visited, by invitation, 
 Sir H. M. Stanley. Lady Stanley was very chatty, but poor 
 Sir Henry, paralysed on the one side, was only able to speak 
 feebly, but he seemed anxious to talk about Africa and was loud
 
 AND EUROPE 271 
 
 in praise of King Leopold, and of the purity of his motive in 
 beginning the Congo Free State, but he could not be held 
 responsible for all his officers. Lady Stanley was strong, 
 however, in her denunciation of the rubber trading companies 
 who had brought the Congo Free State, and her own husband's 
 work and good name, into bad repute. Sir Henry asked for 
 the members of Dr. Livingstone's family, and was surprised 
 to hear that Mrs. F. Wilson had gone to Sierra Leone. 
 
 " March 17th. — Last night's crossing was very pleasant. 
 Antwerp lies on the banks of the Scheldt. A tower is pointed 
 out where the Spanish Inquisition executed its victims. The 
 city itself is strongly fortified. We went to a good hotel and 
 visited all the sights. Rubens' original masterpieces are to 
 be seen in the Museum and in the Cathedral, and although I 
 am not an art critic, there was something unique about these 
 great masterpieces that must make them stand out in one's 
 memory from all the pictures that one has seen or is ever likely 
 to see. Going on to Brussels we passed near to where Tyndale 
 was strangled by the orders of Henry VIH, who promised at 
 the same time to see that a better translation of the Scriptures 
 was translated. According to Green's History, Tyndale was 
 known as belonging to the sect of the ' Brethren.' Belgium 
 has been the scene of two great battles. The heroes of both 
 were British — Tyndale and Wellington. Liberty to read the 
 Bible in our own tongue was the fruit of the one, political 
 liberty, to some extent, the fruit of the other. The one was 
 fought in the shade, in closet, and by the printing presses of 
 Antwerp. Tyndale appeared to lose the day. His light went 
 out in the dark. He was strangled miserably, yet how great 
 and lasting his victory compared with Wellington's. 
 
 " The Congo Free State officials received me very well, and 
 could not have promised me more, and say they will send a 
 personalite civile to me to Lisbon. Trottie's (Mrs. Arnot) 
 French helped me in getting about. We had meetings nearly 
 every night, either in the town or the country districts around 
 Waterloo, there being a bright assembly at Braine I'Alleud, 
 WelUngton's right, and another at Bransbeek, his extreme left. 
 Now we have come on to Charleroi, and are going out with Mr. 
 Gaudebert to see a glass tumbler factory. 
 
 " March 27th, Sunday. — The meeting is at Dampremy, one 
 mile from Charleroi. There are over 100 in fellowship, and
 
 272 GREAT BRITAIN, BRITISH GUIANA 
 
 attendance about 250, and that in a grossly Roman Catholic 
 neighbourhood. Only a few hundred yards distant from the 
 hall, built in the garden of a Christian, there is the shrine of a 
 saint that works miracles, and we looked in and saw a great 
 many garments, underclothing, hanging up on the wall, not 
 to be disinfected, but to be infected with \artue and stored with 
 health — salted, as the Africans would say, with good. The 
 Christians seemed to be all fairly well off, and some were 
 intelligent men. They collect about £6 per week. 
 
 " March 2Sth. — We took farewell with M. and Madame 
 Gaudebert and left for Homburg, Frankfort, at two in the 
 morning, via Cologne. We were turned out at five o'clock to 
 have our luggage overhauled at the German frontier. Later 
 on we arrived at Cologne, and had two hours to spare. The 
 Cathedral and the Rhine are the two great sights. It was Holy 
 week, and many were bowing down to the images of saints and 
 crosses all round. In Belgium we saw processions of ' sons of 
 Voltaire ' escorting bands of children to the temples of science 
 to be initiated as infidels, and it is difficult to say which was 
 the sadder sight. 
 
 " The train journey up the Rhine was very beautiful, ruined 
 castles on every hill-top, and modern fortresses abounded, and 
 the river was grand, just like the Lualaba as it passes through 
 the Garenganze, Vineyards covered the slopes. 
 
 " At Frankfort we changed for Homburg. ... I had two 
 meetings here, a very good attendance and signs of awakening 
 exist, they say, over all that part of Germany. 
 
 " March 29th. — W^e came on to Krishona, an institution for 
 the training of missionaries that has been carried on for forty 
 years on faith lines. Herr Rapard is quite a G. Miiller, very 
 warm and helpful. We met with some interesting people. Mr. 
 Wartz, the Secretary of the famous Basle Mission, met us at 
 the railway station and took us to dinner. When at Krishona 
 we had our first view of the Alps, and slept with our window 
 open to the snow-capped peaks. Our next night was spent at 
 Biemie. The train passed through lovely mountain scenery, 
 and over dizzy chasms, and one grand waterfall. The meetings 
 at Bicnne were very hearty. On Saturday we visited Grindel- 
 wald, close to the Vaterhorn. It was the first warm spring day 
 after a good deal of snow and long winter, so we were favoured 
 above many in seeing a grand display of avalanches, a rare
 
 AND EUROPE 273 
 
 sight, over forty torrents of snow and ice rolled doAvn the 
 mountains and over precipices, sounding like thunder in the 
 chasms below. 
 
 " Sunday, April 3rd. — Large meetings at Bienne. On 
 Monday we came on to Vevey, and Tuesday to Montreux, 
 where we met with a regular colony of English people. Dr. and 
 Mrs. Neatby among others. The rest of our time will be taken 
 up with visits around the Lake of Geneva. Sunday I spend at 
 Geneva, and Monday Trottie will start for home. On Tuesday 
 night I go on to Barcelona, Madrid, Oporto and Lisbon."
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 
 
 ON arriving at Bihe, in August, 1904, Arnot, and the party 
 with him, had a great welcome from the natives. Many 
 still remembered him. 
 Writing to Mrs. Arnot from Chindunda, July 23rd, he said : 
 " We are now six days across the Kwanza. This is a wonderful 
 country we are passing through for variety in flowers and 
 butterflies. As yet it is quite unexplored. I have crossed large 
 rivers that have no mention in the latest Portuguese maps. 
 The ground orchids are much in evidence and all different 
 from those on the Benguella road. Some of the butterflies 
 too are so pretty that I will keep them by me, I think, safely 
 packed in tins, and bring them home to the boys. As the 
 district is new some may be valuable. ... I am not the 
 hardened African I had hoped to be after my long stay at home. 
 I have had two turns of fever and ague since crossing the 
 Kwanza, the last with rather a sharp temperature, rose to 
 104.5, but it responded so quickly and well to treatment that 
 I am not a bit cast down over it. I must have been inoculated 
 at Lucalla ; there are no mosquitoes this side of the Kwanza, 
 and regular dosing with quinine will work the microbes out. 
 Still I was a little disappointed when I found the temperature 
 persistently going up, and I will not likely push on to the 
 Chibokwe as I had half hoped to do. 
 
 " We have had meetings with the men around the fire, and 
 afterwards Kashinda has come into my tent for a reading 
 lesson. So I am trying to be both you and me this time. Before, 
 you did the teaching and I the talking. Now all seems so 
 different. I have no care with the men. The road is perfectly 
 safe and peaceful, and I can give my whole time and thought 
 to the work, sending the two Christians to visit the villages and 
 to repeat what they have been taught. It is very delightful. 
 The other day a number of the natives of the district attended 
 
 274
 
 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 275 
 
 the meeting in camp, and came in the morning and thanked me 
 for ' preaching forgiveness. We slept soundly,' they added, 
 ' after hearing your words.' This whole district has never been 
 touched or visited by anyone. There are three tribes between 
 the Vandulu and the Kwanza, and no missionary has so much 
 as visited their villages at any time. Surely the ' judgment 
 that must begin at the house of God ' will have something to do 
 with these un visited — unevangelised ? 
 
 '''' Sikado {within tzoo days of Ochilonda), July Slst, 1904. — 
 Sanders persistently visits around all these villages every 
 three months or so. We came on yesterday passing six or 
 eight villages, and it is remarkable to see how the people have 
 advanced in cleanliness and clothing. You would hardly 
 believe it. To-day we have had quite a large meeting with 
 our men and villagers. Sanders says, in one word, the great 
 encouragement lies in the fact that Africans are now being used 
 to the conversion of Africans. 
 
 " The whole district within a radius of twelve miles is linked 
 up by well-made roads and bridges, allowing of bicycle and 
 donkey travelling by night or day. These roads lead to 25 
 schoolrooms and preaching stations, all built and supported 
 by the native church. And now the Christians are building 
 two-roomed rest houses for the use of the European missionaries 
 as they come along. The central meeting room holds over 800 
 people, and on special occasionsit is generally full 'inside and out.' 
 
 " Well, August 3rd, we arrived in Owhalondo and Ochilonda, 
 and what a welcome ! Strings of boys and men and women ; 
 then the volleys ; then a hymn in the bush ; then a long 
 procession formed up, and on we marched ; I on Mr. Lane's 
 donkey. The Murrains do look well. . . . The family sang 
 us some hymns of welcome, quite touching. The hymns had 
 been specially learned for the occasion and the schoolroom 
 done up with mottoes and welcomes. The villagers at Owha- 
 londo gathered round the spot where we, that is you and I, 
 pitched our tent when on our way to the Ondulu country, and 
 one said, ' I was standing just here ' ; another, ' And I was 
 standing across the river,' and so on and so on. Then several 
 of the leading boys are our old Kuanjulula and kitchen boys, 
 Sai Wimbo among them. Best of all the work goes on. Three 
 have been converted the last few days. ... I am in Hill's 
 old house. He has a large garden enclosure.
 
 276 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 
 
 " You speak of my being in the midst of great African 
 problems, etc. But all seems very easy and simple now. Men 
 come forward freely for carrying, both to the coast and inland. 
 Lane is quite capable and quite at home in all transport matters. 
 Then the Portuguese could not be pleasanter, and taking it all 
 round, the old difficult times seem to be passed. Or perhaps 
 I have learned to take things easier. At any rate, I quite enjoy 
 the insects and beetles and butterflies, and wish I could pack 
 all home to the children. To-night the air is alive with flying 
 ants coming up in mj^raids out of the ground. Won't the hens 
 have a feed to-morrow ! 
 
 " Ochilonda, Bihe, I4:th Aug., 1904. — Well ! one matter had 
 to be decided before going to the fort, and that was, Who was 
 to go on to the Chibokwe with our brethren. Of course, I was 
 willing to go, and was planning to go ; but Lane had been 
 hinting that he thought he ought to go. At last he came out 
 with it definitely that he would like to go and escort the party, 
 and then go and visit Kavungu and Kazombo and return again, 
 so I gave way to him, and now I am settled here for the rainy 
 season. I know this will be a great relief to you, and I am so 
 glad to think that I am able to relieve Lane, and allow him to 
 go on with the party, and it will be a cause of thanksgiving if a 
 beginning is made among the Chibokwe. 
 
 " Sept. Uh, 1904. — We have had a busy day again, and the 
 problem is to know what to do with the people. Our buildings 
 are all too small. I am improving daily in my speaking. 
 
 " Sept. 6th. — The kindergarten for the little blacks is great 
 fun. They do enjoy it and laugh at one another's mistakes. 
 The rule is that all must wash hands and face, and a basin was 
 provided, if you please, but after washing their dirty hands, 
 all in the same water, Miss Gammon found the little wretches 
 drinking the water. 
 
 " Some of the young men who were converted when we were 
 at Kuan are now useful Christians. Then you had only three 
 or four girls under a tree to teach — now there are hundreds of 
 women and children coming to the schools and meetings. 
 
 " Oct. 15th, 1904. — Last Sunday we were cheered with three 
 new converts, one man and two women. It was a very happy 
 day. The morning meetings are most spiritual and helpful. 
 The Christian natives take part freely and never make mistakes. 
 . . . My days are very regular when I am at home. In the
 
 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 277 
 
 forenoon I look after the garden. Then school in the afternoon, 
 and if I am not taking the evening meeting I spend my evenings 
 alone, reading, and often finish up with a quiet game of chess, 
 copying some of the games given in The Times. . . . All I long 
 for, all I claim for our children is God's blessing. It makcth 
 rich and addeth no sorrow. And if I can only leave to them an 
 example of subjection to God's will, what a fortune ! I don't 
 mean subjection in the stoical sense, but after Christ's example, 
 ' I do delight to do Thy will, O God. Yes ! Thy law is within 
 my heart.' ... I am getting on with my afternoon class, and 
 have started an evening class in one of my rooms, two large 
 tables, two lamps and chairs all round. Some writing with pen 
 and ink, others at sums, and I am getting them to ask questions 
 on portions of Scripture that are difficult to them, and so the 
 evenings pass on until 9.30. I thoroughly enjoy settling down 
 to this regular station work, and must conclude now that my 
 place is quietly to stay on here and not go inland. . . . 
 
 Sunday evening, Oct. SOth. — A happy day. The morning 
 meeting most spiritual and helpful. Then my old men's class. 
 About twenty of the chiefs and headmen around gathered in 
 my room. The forenoon gospel service, packed out before I 
 got there with grown up men and women in equal numbers, 
 all looking so clean and well clothed compared with the old 
 days. Mr. Lane and I spoke. A number were standing out- 
 side, and they had come as usual from groups of villages all 
 around. It is most impressive to see them break up and 
 leave for home in little groups in all directions. Then we 
 divided up and took meetings in the afternoon in four differ- 
 ent villages all round. . . . Wc had such a helpful meeting this 
 morning. These young men do take hold of the Scriptures. 
 More intelligent words one seldom hears at home. 
 
 " How to teach the native Christian honest trades is a great 
 problem. One effort in this direction greatly interested me, 
 because of its far-reaching consequences. The art of sawing 
 planks out of trees is of course the foundation of all carpentry 
 in a new country, and many of the young men have been taught 
 the use of the pit saw. And several have set up as rough door, 
 window and furniture makers. But making coffins gradually 
 grew to be the most profitable branch of these little businesses. 
 The Ovimbundu are accustomed to make much of funerals. 
 The body is usually kept for weeks enclosed in a faggot of
 
 278 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 
 
 sticks until quantities of beer have been brewed and friends 
 have had time to assemble from a distance. Then with feasting 
 and drinking and firing of guns the body is carried down to the 
 plain or valley, carried on the shoulders of two men. The chief 
 fetish doctor then asks questions of the corpse, ' How did he 
 come by his death ? ' And if by witchcraft, ' On which side of 
 the family was the ^^dtch to be found,' ' man,' ' woman,' or 
 ' young,' etc., until by jerks and violent swingings from side 
 to side, when the two men who carry the body pore "with perspi- 
 ration from fatigue and excitement, the dead man answers the 
 questions, so that usually the witch or wizard is smelt out 
 before the drunken feast is over. Now all this means expense, 
 and often ruin to the relatives, and the happy idea had taken 
 hold of the heathen mind that it would be more economical, and 
 certainly not less respectable, to be buried in a white man's 
 coffin. The Christian young men who found employment in 
 this way were also expected to bring the box along and 
 finish the matter by holding a religious service at the grave. 
 In this way the Gospel has been carried into strongholds of 
 heathenism." 
 
 Having left a family of six children, with the mother, in 
 England, Arnot's correspondence now included letters to these : 
 Rachel, Nigel, Winnie, Cyril, Aleck and Arthur. As these 
 present us with another side, both of his character and exper- 
 iences, we give the following extracts, spread over the period 
 covered by the above record : 
 
 " June \st, 1904. — Wake at 5, rub my eyes, think for a 
 little before I get up and say, ' Yes ! This is the day we sail 
 away to Africa.' I wish everybody was going with me, every- 
 body at home I mean. How happy Noah must have been when 
 God told him that his wife and all his children were to be mth 
 him in the ark. But I had to get up, for the man was coming 
 for my boxes, and such a nice man too. He was afraid that 
 some of my boxes were not tight enough so he brought some 
 strange string that he said the King uses to tie his boxes with. 
 You see Portugal is a little country and everyone knows what 
 the King does, where he gets his boots made, and the shop he 
 goes to for pencils and indiarubber. 
 
 " There is a Society in Lisbon for the prevention of cruelty 
 to animals ; and I read in the papers of a Portuguese who 
 jumped out of the car to save the life of a cat that was run over,
 
 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 279 
 
 and how the cat did not know that he was coming to save his 
 hfe, and the cat bit him, and the kind Portuguese died." 
 
 After leaving Loanda on June 25th, 1904. " It is great 
 fun watching the natives from the interior when they see the 
 train. They look very frightened and come nearer so long as 
 the engine does not move, but whenever the engine whistles and 
 begins to move they rush off pell-mell, tumbling one over 
 another in their flight. Others, I am sorry to say, dance round 
 it as if it were a god, but that is only when it is standing still. 
 If it gives just a little screech, off they dash for their lives. 
 
 " July 8th. — This morning I thought I would take some 
 ointment out of my medicine box to rub on my rusty throat. 
 The ointment was in a tube covered with blue paper. ' Oh ! 
 Yes ! here it is,' but I had not put on my specs and I took up 
 instead a tube of ' stickatine ' and was just about to rub my 
 throat all over with the dreadful sticky stuff ; then I would 
 have been in a fine state, and my shirt and collar would have 
 stuck on so beautifully, just like Winnie's bought dolls, and I 
 laughed so much at my mistake that I coughed up all the 
 hoarseness. 
 
 " At Pungo Andongo we were shown the footprint of the 
 ancient Linga tribe. By the side of the Queen's footprint we 
 were shown the footprint of her dog, and another of her child, 
 but of course all this is superstition. There are many human 
 footprints in the hard path that could not have been carved and 
 were evidently made when the rock was soft like mud, although 
 it is hard rock now. I took a piece of paper and rubbed over 
 it with a pencil, and here you can see an exact copy of the 
 mysterious footprint. 
 
 " We stayed at an American Mission Station. This Station 
 was opened by Bishop Taylor when he was an old man of 80. 
 One day a chief came to visit from the interior and the only bed 
 that Bishop Taylor had to offer him was one in his own room, 
 which was a large room, and the Bishop's bed was next the door. 
 The chief was very nervous and could not sleep, but lay and 
 watched the old Bishop. When he knelt down to pray, his long 
 white beard nearly touched the ground. The chief trembled 
 and thought, ' Now has come the day of my death. This is not 
 a man but a spirit.' When Bishop Taylor had finished praying 
 he got up and took his false teeth out and put them in a glass. 
 At this the chief trembled still more. But when the Bishop
 
 280 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 
 
 took off his wig and put it on a chair, the chief was nearly 
 beside himself with terror, and as soon as the way to the door 
 was clear he rushed out saying he was going home to return 
 again with a present. But he never came back, and told every- 
 one he met that he had seen a spirit. He had seen him ' take 
 his bones out of his mouth, and then take off his head and put 
 it on a chair.' 
 
 " Although I have a hammock, and men to carry me, I walk 
 a good deal. I carry a butterfly net and catch butterflies. . . . 
 The man who carries in front of my hammock is like the look- 
 out man on board ship. He warns the man who carries behind. 
 If there is a stump in front about as high as his knee he sings 
 out, ' k'ongolo,' meaning ' knee high.' If the stump is higher 
 then he shouts out ' k'ovimo yongombe,' which means ' to the 
 chest of an ox.' If the stump should be quite small he will say 
 ' ombeo,' meaning ' a tortoise,' and the man behind answers 
 back to the man in front in his own way, as for instance, 
 ' Tortoise is nice. It makes good sauce.' The carriers seldom 
 get cross with one another. 
 
 " We had some nice meetings at Bihe with the natives. One 
 native preacher said that if a man built a fine house he did not- 
 allow a pig to live in it. And so heaven was God's fine house, 
 and God would not allow pigs to live in it. Then I thought 
 of the hymn : 
 
 ' There is a city bright, 
 Closed are its gates to sin.* 
 
 " Oct. Qth, 1904. — I am sending home a box of butterflies, 
 about 100. Many are alike, but these you could sell or exchange. 
 Do not open them yourself. You will break their legs and things 
 and that takes all their value away. Some are Avorth pounds. 
 . . . There are some very large butterflies here with four tails. 
 They are as big as plates and fly so high that I can't reach them. 
 
 " I am writing in the early morning, big frogs are croaking 
 in the brook at the foot of the garden, canaries are singing in 
 the peach trees, humming birds are dancing round the banana 
 flowers close to the door. I think I can hear you saying, ' Oh ! 
 how nice. Wouldn't I like to go to Africa.' But wait a bit. 
 I have killed four snakes in my garden since I came here. That 
 is the other side, isn't it ? Still they always run away from 
 people, and we never hear of the natives being bitten, although
 
 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 281 
 
 they always run about with bare feet. The people are very nice 
 and quiet too, and always so pleased to see me when I call on 
 them, and they ask for all my children, and who followed at the 
 back of Ray's neck, and who followed again at the back of 
 Nigel's neck, and so on down to baby Arthur. He, poor boy, 
 won't know me when I come again. He will run away, thinking 
 I am a monster. Never mind, I will soon talk him over. Oh ! 
 two such lovely young parrots were brought here for sale, and 
 so tame. Then I had an owl, and old owl died, and there was 
 no person mth a shovel to dig old owl's grave." 
 
 Writing to Winnie on her tenth birthday Arnot referred to 
 the letter received during his third journey, when on the Ilala, 
 on Lake Nyassa, and said : " The letter contained the telegram 
 that told me you were born, but I thought you were a boy ! 
 And it was some months after that I found out rwy mistake, 
 and learned that you were a girl after all. 
 
 " Dec. 1st. — I have just heard that my old boy Dick is on 
 his way to Bihe. He followed me of his own accord from the 
 Barotse country and was my faithful servant when wandering 
 about all alone. When I left the Garcnganze country in 1888 
 I left him there with Mr. Swann, but the first person mother 
 and I saw when sailing up to the pier at Benguella, in the little 
 boat that took us from the steamer, was Dick. He had travelled 
 out 1200 miles to meet us. We left him in Bihe when we came 
 home, to his great distress. But when he heard that I had gone 
 out to Lake Mweru he travelled all the way from Bihe with his 
 wife and two children, hoping to find me, but I had returned 
 home. So he remained there with Mr. Crawford until now. 
 And here he is on his way to Bihe to meet me with his wife and 
 two children. How glad I ^^^ll be to see him. His life Avould 
 make a story of how faithful an African can be. When Rachel 
 was born Dick got so excited that he started to dance a war 
 dance. At another time when mother was ill Dick ran seventy 
 miles in a day and a night to tell Uncle Walter. 
 
 " Bihe, March 7th, 1905. — When out walking about looking 
 for the mail men one evening I came across a bundle of grass, 
 and when I kicked it, it looked like a bird's nest. Then I took 
 it up and examined it, and could find no hole opening inside, 
 only a little hollow on the top for a bird to sit on. So I pulled 
 the bundle of grass to pieces, and there was the nest inside and 
 a young bird gaping away. A little closer study showed how
 
 282 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 
 
 cleverly the passage was covered by a little trap-door arrange- 
 ment that sprang to with the force of some stiff bits of grass 
 which acted like springs, so that neither mouse nor snake could 
 get in. I was sorry then that we had spoiled it. But this nest 
 had really two stories, one for the hen bird to sit on her nest 
 and one for the cock bird to sit and sing songs and talk bits of 
 chat to while away the time when the eggs were hatching. 
 
 " A black boy, a great friend of mine, said quite earnestly 
 that he wanted to trust Jesus now, and I said, ' Why ? ' He 
 said, because Jesus was standing at the door of his heart 
 knocking. I asked him how he knew that, and he said because 
 he had a pain there — pointing to his inside — and he knew that 
 it was Jesus wanting to save him. 
 
 " I must tell you of an adventure I had with a flying serpent. 
 Hearing a great noise among the hens I knew that a serpent 
 was trying to catch one of them for the hens make a different 
 noise when a hawk appears, or a dog, or a serpent. I suppose 
 it's their own language that they speak. So I left my writing, 
 took my gun and ran out to shoot the snake, but by this time 
 a crowd of little birds had come to help the hens, and they all 
 together were giving Mr. Serpent such a scolding that I am sure 
 he must have felt very wicked indeed. I thought these hens 
 and birds had more sense than Eve had, even although she was 
 our first mother. The birds grew more excited when they saw 
 me, and flew around the bush where the serpent was hiding, 
 pointing him out. At last I saw his wdcked eye glancing through 
 the leaves. Then his body, which was of a fiery, copper colour. 
 ' Don't go near him,' shouted my one-eyed boy. ' He is very 
 angry and very poisonous.' Indeed, from his copper, fiery 
 colour I felt sure that this serpent belonged to the same family 
 of serpents that bit the children of Israel in the wilderness, and 
 the brazen or copper serpent that Moses made and placed on 
 a pole was intended to be like them. But my one-eyed boy 
 was getting quite excited by this time. ' Shoot it ! Shoot it ! ' 
 he cried, ' or it will fly at you.' ' What nonsense ! ' I said. 
 ' Don't be frightened. It has no wings.' ' Oh, yes it has ! ' he 
 said. ' It has wings. Kill it, and you will see.' So I pulled 
 the trigger. Bang went the gun. A small bullet had gone 
 right through his head, and it was soon quite dead. Then with 
 long sticks we poked him out of the tree, and sure enough the 
 serpent had wings, for all along the sides of his body the skin
 
 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 283 
 
 projected like a long fin. This long skin wing is only used when 
 the flying snake is up a tree, but he could not make any use 
 of it when lying on the ground. There is a flying squirrel that 
 has skin-wings stretched between his hind and fore legs on 
 either side. But both the snake and the squirrel have to climb 
 the tree first, like other snakes and squirrels, and then fly down. 
 
 " This month I have a story about a little boy, Kasinda, and 
 his sisters. They had no father, and their mother was sold by 
 the people of the village because they said she was a witch. 
 Well, Kasinda was only a little boy and didn't know anything, 
 but he grcAv to be a man, and when he heard of God and of 
 Jesus Christ he was converted. His hard, heathen heart was 
 broken, and a new heart began to grow little by little into the 
 places where the broken pieces were, and he began to think of 
 his mother and that she was a slave. So he said to his sister 
 that it would be nice to redeem their mother, and she said that 
 it would be nice, and they began to work hard and save their 
 money. When Kasinda had forty yards of calico saved up, 
 which would be as much as ten bed sheets, and a pig that 
 Kasinda's sister had been feeding, he started away to redeem 
 his mother from the man that had bought her. But Kasinda 
 found that he had hardened his heart, like Pharaoh, and would 
 not let her go, and looked with scorn on the forty yards and 
 the pig. Kasinda then came back to his village, and his neigh- 
 bours said that he should go to the judge, who would put the 
 cruel slave owner into prison. But Kasinda said, ' No ! I will 
 not go to the judge. I will pray to God to soften his heart.' 
 When one said to Kasinda that that would be very difficult 
 for God to do, Kasinda said, ' Has God not softened my 
 heart, making me to love my mother more than forty yards 
 of calico and a pig ? God can soften this man's heart too.' 
 So Kasinda gave himself several days' rest, when he prayed 
 every day. Then he started on the long three days' journey, 
 without adding any more to what he had taken before. This 
 time to his great joy the man said,' The price is enough. Take 
 your mother and go.' And so Kasinda returned to his village 
 with his mother, in triumph, and now he is building a home for 
 her. 
 
 " Dec. 5ih. — I have your letter telling of your having been 
 to Over, and ha\ang left your overcont and of your having to 
 cycle over to Over to get your overcoat.
 
 284 THE FOURTH JOURNEY 
 
 " Uh Feb., 1905. — Do you do any fret - work, or perhaps 
 you are content with fretting mother, and Rachel, and Winnie, 
 and all the rest of the people ? The last thing I killed was a 
 puff-adder, a very deadly snake, but very lazy and sleepy. 
 But this has been such a month for extraordinary animals. 
 First, a flying serpent ; second, an ant-eater ; third, a tree- 
 climbing otter with hands like men ; fourth, a skin brought 
 to me of an animal with a head and tail like a fox, forepaws 
 like a small ant bear, and hind feet like an antelope ; fifth, a 
 skin of a boa constrictor, twelve feet long ; sixth, the puff- 
 adder, which I have skinned. So you will have to start a 
 museum, for I mean to send all these things home. . . . All 
 the village dogs are barking furiously. Of course I know an 
 old hyena is walking around. I wish the trap was here. I 
 would soon snap his paw. But I have caught such a number 
 of rats with a small spring trap ; I find that if I wash the trap 
 after each rat, the others walk in." 
 
 Arnot returned from the above journey via Broken Hill and 
 the Cape, reaching England in August, 1905. 
 
 During the year and four months he was away from home, 
 Mr. Wright, of the Bristol Orphan Homes, had passed away, 
 and Arnot was asked, on his return, to assist Mr. Bergin with 
 the directorate. This he did for a period of eight months. Then 
 Dr. Bergin, who had been seriously ill for a long period after 
 his return from China, sufficiently recovered so as to be able 
 to help his father in the conduct of the homes. This set Arnot 
 free to do what he had often planned to do, viz. to visit all the 
 stations in Central Africa which had been started since 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 ARNOT started again for Africa in November, 1906, 
 leaving his wife and family at Bristol. Arriving at 
 Loanda, in December, he had several interviews with 
 the Governor-General of Portuguese West Africa, and with 
 the help of the British Consul was able to do some useful 
 work with regard to the registering of the Mission Stations, 
 and Government recognition of the position of the natives. 
 Letters awaited him at Loanda, telling of an unusual amount 
 of sickness amongst the missionaries in Bih6, and of the more 
 serious illness of Dr. Sparks who had preceded him on this visit 
 by several months. 
 
 Proceeding from Loanda by the Portuguese railway to 
 Lucalla, his sole companion in the train for a time was an old 
 leprous woman. Arnot wrote : " The Portuguese are not tied 
 down with too many regulations ; natives suffering from all 
 sorts of diseases travel freely, and a trader is allowed to fill 
 up a compartment with slaves roped together. Looking at 
 this poor woman, and feeling the discomfort of her presence, 
 made me thankful for all, who, for Christ's sake, take up the 
 work of ministering to lepers ; thankful, I say, not for the leper's 
 sake only, but for one's own sake. To sit down and think of 
 the unselfish and the humble, in this world of selfishness and 
 pride, is both comforting and stimulating. 
 
 " Lucalla is the name of a large river that flows into the 
 Kwanza. Dr. Livingstone crossed it on his first great journey 
 from the Cape to St. Paul dc Loanda, and the to^vn of Lucalla 
 lies east and west of the ferry used by the famous traveller ; 
 indeed, I had been able to identify from my comfortable seat in 
 the train several of the rivers and stopping places he wrote of 
 in his first Journals. Here, at Ngulungo-Olto, he was delighted 
 with the mountain scenery, and reminded of his home in 
 Scotland ; there, along that oozy, muddy river Bengo, he had 
 
 285
 
 286 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 fever on fever ; there, his men, finding that they were within 
 a few days of Loanda — ^the great slave port of those days — 
 were all minded to leave him and return without pay to their 
 homes in Barotseland. 
 
 Writing from Lucalla, December 28th, 1906, Arnot said: "Tell 
 
 Mrs. how when we were all sitting at dinner a big poisonous 
 
 spider came into the room, and a Portuguese rushed from the 
 table in terror, saying, ' If it bites me I ■wall be dead in six 
 months.' I wondered why he didn't say in six days or in six 
 minutes, he looked so frightened, but the hotel keeper came 
 boldly to the rescue and put his foot on the hairy monster, and 
 then burned it. ... I am having my Christmas holidays 
 waiting in a Portuguese trader's house. Oh ! dear me ! He 
 has only a little room for us both, and he does like to be so hot 
 and dirty, and no window open. But I get a corner open. 
 The house hasn't been cleaned for a year, I think, and he doesn't 
 think it worth while cleaning it for he is going to leave it in 
 another year. . . . How my host hocks and coughs, and what 
 sores he has to dress, and what groans and moans and violent 
 tempers ! But he tries to make one comfortable in his own way 
 with fish and oil." 
 
 At Malolo, a sort of half-way camp between Lucalla and Bihe, 
 Arnot was met, on January 12th, 1907, with the sad news that 
 Dr. Sparks' state was very critical. Letters urged him to press 
 on if possible. In five days Arnot covered, ■v^dth his carriers, 
 one hundred and fifty miles, arriving at Okapango, Bihe, the 
 same day as Dr. Wellman from the West. " There was," says 
 Arnot, " no hope. I went in at once to the sick room ; Dr. 
 Sparks, of course, looked greatly changed, but brighter and 
 happier than perhaps I had ever seen him. While I held 
 his hand, he asked what had delayed me, and added that 
 my coming was to him a special answer to prayer. The 
 end came in a few days without much pain or suffering. 
 The missionaries gathered from Ochilonda and Ohwalondo, 
 as did also many native Christians, to attend the funeral. 
 During Dr. Sparks' short service in Africa, he had succoured 
 many, and saved the lives of not a few." 
 
 On January 29th he writes : " Mrs. Lane nursed me through 
 my little fever, more the result of the hard walking and distress 
 too at finding Sparks so low. Still I am quite myself again, 
 and thankful to be here."
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 287 
 
 The opportunity afforded by the gathering of missionaries 
 to the funeral of Dr. Sparks was seized to hold a Conference to 
 discuss some important — and a few burning — questions of 
 Church order and discipline among the African converts. " It 
 was good," writes Arnot, " to be reminded that time was too 
 short for mourning ; better brush the tear aside and press on. 
 We had no ' Peter ' or ' James ' at our ' Jerusalem Council,' 
 but the Lord was with us, and peace and harmony the outcome. 
 
 " Polygamy, Avith its many concomitant evils, lies at the root 
 of most of our African church troubles. We were all of one mind 
 in concluding from Scripture that no professing Christian living 
 with more than one wife should be received at the Lord's table. 
 At the same time such were not to be treated as under discipline, 
 but helped on and cheered with the hope that God would soon 
 open a right way of deliverance. My prayer is that all advisers 
 and friends of the work at home will join with and support us 
 in this earnest desire to preserve within the circle of the Church 
 visible the authority and purity of our Lord's words in Matt. 
 xix, verses 4 and 5, ' Have ye not read, that He that made them 
 at the beginning, made them male and female, and said. For 
 this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave 
 to his wife ; and they twain shall be one flesh.' 
 
 " The Old Testament saints and their many wives, of course, 
 perplexed the African, and he has many questions to ask, but 
 the words ''at the beginning^ in verse 4, and 'from the beginning* 
 in verse 8, justify our passing over the heads of all these men 
 as examples in this particular. Lideed, I have had no hesitation 
 in telling the African that Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, 
 etc., were clearly living in a ' time of ignorance ' as to the true 
 meaning of the marriage bond ; the mystical and typical 
 teaching of Adam and Eve remained hidden from the Old 
 Testament saints, being bound up with the mystery of the 
 Church, the Bride of Christ, revealed to us in the gospels and 
 epistles. 
 
 " Then, the great question of the African convert's conduct 
 towards his wives was considered under several heads. And 
 here, as all can well understand, we felt ourselves face to face 
 with our utter ignorance and helplessness, and apart from the 
 Holy Spirit's personal help and interference in each individual 
 case we had no hope. But surely His presence is hope and 
 comfort.
 
 288 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 " The importance of preserving ' a good report of them that 
 are without ' was mentioned as a guiding principle, so that no 
 wife could be sent away : (a) Without the wife's consent ; (b) 
 Without the approval of her relatives and the elders of her 
 tribe." 
 
 Under date February 5th, 1907, Arnot wrote to one of his 
 sons : "A snake was in the boat I got into to cross a river, 
 and it came for me, and I had my camera in my hand and snap- 
 shotted it. The man who owned the boat yelled for fright for he 
 thought my camera was a gun, and that I was going to shoot 
 a hole in the bottom of the boat." 
 
 Writing at this time to the Echoes of Service, Arnot said : 
 " When Portugal, over 400 years ago, threw off the yoke of the 
 Moors, and pursued them into Africa, she began a line of 
 conquest and exploration that led to her occupation of the 
 West Coast of Africa, south of the mouth of the great Congo 
 River. From their enemies, the Moors, the Portuguese also 
 learned to value negro slaves, whom they found more docile 
 and industrious than slaves captured on other coasts. There- 
 fore Loanda, Benguella and other ports known to many of my 
 readers were orginally slave markets, where the natives 
 brought captives taken in war, to be sold to the white man 
 in exchange for cotton goods, silks, rums, guns, salt, etc. One 
 day a slave was brought to Loanda for sale, who afterwards 
 persuaded his white master that he was the son of a great chief, 
 captured and sold by a rival. This boy was taken to the Portu- 
 guese Governor, who gave him a military training, and when 
 old enough, Kangombe — for that was the name he was after- 
 wards known by — was sent vnth a force of soldiers to reconquer 
 his father's kraal and country, which country has since been 
 known by the name of Bihe. Kangombe's descendants reigned 
 over an intelligent and active people until about fifteen years 
 ago, when the Portuguese took the country over, with other 
 large tracks of West Central Africa. Now the name Bihe 
 covers a large part of the great West Central plateau. 
 
 " The brethren and sisters known to readers of Echoes of 
 Service occupy three stations in this region. The Portuguese 
 have never encouraged their own missionaries ; indeed, two 
 centuries ago they drove the Jesuits out of all their African 
 possessions, so it was not to be expected that they would 
 welcome Protestants. Little by little, however, without either
 
 A Striking Headdress 
 
 A Mashukalumpe man. Near the Kafukwe 
 River, upper N.W. Rhodesia. 
 
 A Fetish Man 
 
 In a dress intended to represent a departed 
 spirit.
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 289 
 
 the invitation or the good- will of Portuguese or native, the 
 Gospel has been preached and schools have been established, 
 so that to-day Bihe might almost be a Protestant country, for 
 certainly the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God 
 has made it difficult for missionaries to find an entrance with 
 any other text-book than the Bible." 
 
 From Okapango Arnot went to Ohwalondo and on to Ochi- 
 londa. His description of the work in the latter centre gives 
 some idea of the progress of the work which he had done so 
 much to found. We quote this simply as a specimen of what 
 he found in all the centres : " Messrs. Sanders and Figg gave 
 up much of their regular work to johi me in visiting outlying 
 villages where there are groups of professing Christians. Regular 
 day-schools are carried on in six of these, as well as at Ochi- 
 londa, and in and around the other two Bihe stations. It is 
 encouraging to see the amount of free labour given by Christian 
 young men to this semi-secular, but most important branch 
 of the work. Three fairly qualified men are each paid £5 a 
 year by our brethren to teach in the more important schools. 
 The village schoolrooms are also the meeting rooms for prayer 
 and Bible reading during the week, and Gospel preaching on 
 the Sundays. The native Christians in those districts seem to 
 draw together into one village built close to the other villages 
 of the group ; they have snug little houses with gardens and 
 fruit trees. One morning I surprised one of these village homes, 
 and thought I had never beheld a more beautiful sight. The 
 father was reading a chapter from the New Testament, with 
 his wife and five children sitting around, clean and decently 
 clothed. These village Christians, especially the girls and 
 women, have at times to endure a good deal of rough handling 
 from their relatives when first professing Christ. 
 
 " Although the population around Ochilonda has decreased 
 during the last few years, the Christians have increased, and 
 the meetings are better attended than ever ; some came over 
 ten miles to that held on Sunday morning. One young man, 
 Buta, who was converted at the American mission station, some 
 thirty miles off, has built a school and meeting room in his own 
 district, where he teaches and toils at his own charges. He is 
 indeed an example to all of happy Christian activity and con- 
 tentment. The question now before our brethren in charge 
 of the work here is how to encourage the older native Christians
 
 290 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 to scatter themselves over a still wider area. For we have only 
 to go three or four hours' journey from Ochilonda to five large 
 \'illages and districts wholly without the Gospel. And Bihe, 
 after all, is but one province on the great Umbunda-speaking 
 plateau of West Central Africa, a district as large as Spain 
 and Portugal, so that when the Ovimbundu tribe is spoken 
 of it must be as a people almost wholly without the Gospel. 
 
 " To come down to the details of things is, after all, one great 
 comfort when occupied with so large a field of service. The 
 ordinary traveller would see nothing to encourage him in the 
 great heaps of earth thro\\Ti up all around Kimberley, but a 
 sight of the diamonds safely guarded by the manager — the result, 
 perhaps, of one day's washing — would dispel all doubt as to the 
 success of the mine. A tall native living at Buta's village had 
 served as a soldier. When he professed conversion a few weeks 
 ago, he said, ' When a soldier I obeyed my captain ; shall I not 
 now obey my Master Jesus ? ' Since then he has destroyed 
 a great store of fetishes and magic-working charms, and desired 
 to be baptised. Recently a Conference was held at Ochilonda, 
 when over 200 Christians assembled, and one present said it 
 did his heart good to see such a number gathered to the Lord's 
 name, and that they all seemed so happily to realise our unity 
 in Christ. It may well do our hearts good to hear of it." 
 
 Journeying towards the Chokwe Arnot says : " I passed 
 many Portuguese rum distilleries, and shops where also a little 
 cloth and gunpowder are sold ; for although a European can 
 with difficulty get 100 cartridges into the country, hundreds 
 of guns and tons of gunpowder are sold to the natives. . . . 
 
 " My carriers know, of course, that they have set out on a 
 long journey ; they may be a year from their homes. Some of 
 them are Christians ; we have profitable meetings with the 
 villagers living near our camp, and in their own simple way my 
 men add a few words. One, indeed, is quite an orator, and 
 drew lessons from the thunder that warned the women in the 
 field and the woodman in the forest to gather their things 
 together and start for home. 
 
 " The day before I crossed the Kwanza River, a Portuguese 
 asked me to eleven o'clock breakfast ^\dth him. Aiter sitting 
 rather wearily through the many courses composed of the same 
 African goat, boiled, roasted, fried, fricassee, etc., I was about 
 to leave for camp, when he invited me to wait and listen to his
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 291 
 
 gramophone. The first disc he took from the drawer was not 
 the one he wished me to hsten to ; so he put it back, with the 
 remark that it was ' a discourse in a strange language,' but I 
 urged him to let me hear it, and said the one disc would be as 
 good as the other to me. Imagine, then, my surprise and 
 delight when the machine began to give off Psalm xxiii in a 
 fine English voice. So the Lord has His own ways of comforting 
 and cheering one on. 
 
 '''April 17th, 1907. — We are now among the Chokwe villages ; 
 and to-day I was visited by Sama Kalenge, the chief who 
 attempted to rob me at Peho 22 years ago. These Chokwe 
 people seem to be by themselves in their pride and sense of 
 superiority, even above the whites. That they are a superior 
 sort of people there can be no question, and this also accounts 
 for the fact that of all the West Central African tribes they have 
 proved to be the most troublesome. The ' we are the people ' 
 doctrine is not confined to white and ' Christian ' races. In 
 the eyes of many Africans the ' white man ' is like the ' green 
 plum ' blown too soon from the tree, while they held fast until 
 they were ripe and vigorous. 
 
 " I left Boma on the 15th, and four days' good travelling, 
 through a fairly populous country, brought me to the edge of 
 the Chifumashi plains. Heavy rains were now falling — 
 unusually so for this time of the year — and I and my men 
 faced the flats with many misgivings ; however, we got through 
 in five days with much damage from water, but it was an 
 experience. Ant heaps were our only sleeping places at night 
 and we had water knee-deep, and sometimes even thigh- and 
 waist-deep, all the days with cold rain storms sweeping over 
 us. At one river I had gone on in a cogly canoe to try to find 
 another and larger dug-out, leaving my carriers standing in 
 water up to their thighs, with no way of escape except by canoe. 
 One of the men suggested that I was making off and would 
 not return again, and when some marshwood trees hid me 
 from them they gave way to panic. I sent the canoe back on 
 reaching the other side of the swollen river, and my loads 
 were literally thrown into it, until it sank mth three boxes. 
 Some called on their mothers and fathers ; the younger boys 
 wept and wailed ; and but for one elder man's presence of 
 mind and wise words all my loads would have been thrown 
 into the water.
 
 292 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 " On Hearing Nana Kandundu, I met the old Queen Nakatolo, 
 or Nana Kandundu, and when I complimented her on her youth- 
 ful appearance, she returned the compliment by saying that 
 she looked well because she saw me, her old friend, that day. 
 
 " Humanly speaking, there is much to suggest that the 
 Balovale and Baluena would prove a fruitful field. They are 
 not a beer-brewing, drink-sodden people, nor aggressive and 
 warlike, and some of their legendary stories have a touch of 
 goodness about them. As, for instance, in a story they tell of 
 two men who came to their god to beg for seed to sow as the 
 drought had left them vathout food or seed. The god asked 
 the first man his name, and he said his name was ' Mr. Help- 
 Myself,' so he gave him boiled seed. The second man said that 
 his name was ' Mr. Help-my-Neighbour,' so the god gave him 
 good seed to sow. 
 
 " Then another tale, translated by Mr. Schindler (of Nana 
 Kandundu), tells of two blind men coming to a river and hailing 
 the ferryman to come and paddle them over. When in mid- 
 stream the ferryman asked the first blind man why he was 
 blind, and he confessed and said it was just what he deserved, 
 so the ferryman gave him back his sight. Returning for the 
 second blind man he brought him to mid-stream and asked him 
 the same question, and the blind man declared that his jealous 
 relations had bewtched him, and that God had dealt hardly 
 with him, etc. He was allowed to cross over, but to go on for 
 the rest of his life blind and groping. 
 
 " This is unusual, and suggests that away back in the history 
 of the tribe some African Confucius must have lived and taught. 
 
 " I shall never forget one morning's walk Mr. Schindler took 
 me through the forest. At last we came to a clearing and a few 
 huts appeared. Then some sweet potato patches and more huts. 
 Then a shed-like erection, and a tall, sober-looking young man 
 of about 30 years, the leader of a little group of five believers, 
 who had built this room of the best wood they could find as 
 their prayer room. In different directions similar groups are 
 forming and becoming more \dsible, and begin to spread like 
 the grafts of living skins on the bare raw flesh of Africa's, and 
 the world's, open sore." 
 
 Writing from Kavungu, May 15th, 1907, Arnot said : "I 
 have just returned from Kazombo, and I have enjoyed the 
 beautiful Zambesi again and the scenery around.
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 293 
 
 " On Monday \vc went for a picnic to a hill three miles or 
 so away. We passed a dead hyena. Miss Lindley said it was 
 a dead ox. It was hidden in the grass, and her hammock men 
 said, ' Oh, yes ! it is a dead ox.' The other men shouted out 
 to them, ' You fool ! It is not an ox, it is a dead hyena.' 
 ' Hush ! Hush ! ' was the reply, ' hasn't the lady said it was a 
 <^ead ox ? Then if she said so it must be so. It's an ox, 
 an ox.' So you see what good manners the Africans have; 
 they don't like to contradict ladies. 
 
 " Kavungu, July 23rd, 1907. — I am keeping up my duties 
 here, carpentering with converts in forenoon, and sitting with 
 Schindler each afternoon helping him with translation of Luke. 
 I help him with the English idioms. We look up the Greek too 
 Avith helps, and compare Umbundu and Luba. I am able to 
 help him out from these two translations very often. Then we 
 have an excellent native sitting with us, so we look quite 
 imposing. To me it is a great honour to have even this little 
 share in the translation of the New Testament. 
 
 " Mr. Louttit is also making progress with the Chokwe 
 language, in the hope of soon being able to begin to translate 
 the Scriptures, while Dr. Stover (A.B.C.F.M.) has practically 
 finished the New Testament in Umbundu, and Dr. Laws and 
 his friends in Chisanje, out east, so Lunda will be the last of 
 the great languages to be enriched with the words of truth and 
 life along this belt of Africa from West to East. Shall we not 
 therefore continue more earnestly in prayer that this work 
 may be completed. Already we can say that at least parts of 
 Holy Scripture have been translated into every African dialect 
 found between the West Coast at Benguella and the East Coast. 
 
 " Dr. and Mrs. Fisher are very hopeful of the work around 
 Kalene among the Va-Lunda, as well as of the Sanatorium. 
 This, of course, as an institution, must be content with small 
 beginnings, and probably it will be of no great service to 
 missionaries over a hundred miles away until a railway is made. 
 But it is, and will be, a very great boon. By eighteen years' 
 constant service. Dr. Fisher has done much to improve the 
 health conditions in Central Africa, and will make it possible 
 for those needing change to obtain it, and also for any to have 
 teeth attended to and renewed, or to have small operations 
 performed, without being obUged to take the long journey to 
 England.
 
 294 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 " The more one sees of the Va-Lovale and the Va-Lunda 
 tribes, the more one's mterest in them increases. When at 
 Kalene I visited some of the Lunda villages with Dr. Fisher. 
 At one we found all busy worshipping the spirit of some 
 ancestral hunter, who, it was said, had enabled one of the 
 villagers to kill two large antelopes. By the time we arrived 
 an offering had been prepared, consisting of native bread and 
 cooked antelope meat. The lump of soft bread was held on 
 the end of a stick, and looked like wool on a distaff. The 
 chief of the village held the bread and all danced in front of 
 a fetish horn stuck in the ground, behind which a hatstand- 
 like tree stood, hung all over with horns, skulls and jaw-bones 
 of animals killed in the chase. The chief then allowed each 
 dancer to pick off a piece of bread, and with a little bit of 
 antelope meat make an offering to the ancestral spirit ; after 
 which all knelt down and, with clappings and bowings, gave 
 to the spirit the honours due to a great chief. The hunter 
 then took his stand on the head of one of the slain antelopes, 
 and all danced before him. The stick of bread was handed to 
 him ; he ate a little and handed the loaf back to the chief, so the 
 dance continued. Now a little boy was allowed to join in, 
 and all went merrily on for a few minutes ; then the boy — 
 playing his part well — seized the bread and rushed off with it, 
 while the men followed in a mock chase until they reached 
 the village bounds. The ' thief ' was soon joined by his 
 companions, and all sat around in a ring, and ' partook ' of 
 the sacred loaf. In this way these rude but clever savages 
 got over their difficult question of disposing of what in their 
 eyes was something ' consecrated.' 
 
 " The dance being now over, chief and people sat down to 
 listen to and converse vnth us. ' How many ancestral spirits 
 do you Va-Lunda worship in this way ? ' ' We don't know ; 
 we have so many.' ' How many gods have the Va-Lunda ? ' 
 ' There is only one God.' ' Which is the greatest — God or the 
 ancestral spirits ? ' 'Of course, God is the greatest,' the chief 
 replied. ' Then, if God is the greatest, why do you not worship 
 Him ? Why worship only these ancestral spirits who were 
 made by Him ? ' At this the chief turned to the group of men, 
 saying, ' Listen to this,' as much as to say, Dr. Fisher and his 
 friend have got me into a nice fix ; what answer can I give ? 
 Then, turning round he said,, ' We would worship God if we
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 295 
 
 only knew how,' Of course we told him that the reason for 
 our coming to live among them was to tell them how to worship 
 God. 
 
 " On my six days' journey back to Kavungu I witnessed a 
 very touching sight. On reaching a Lunda village we found 
 that a woman had died the night before, and they had set her 
 body up on a mat outside her hut. A spirit-doctor was present 
 in full professional costume, and her husband was holding her 
 hands, and imploring her to treat him kindly, to remember 
 how he had clothed her in life, and was now heaping all his 
 wealth upon her body. Then he wound long strings of beads 
 about her arms and neck." 
 
 Arnot wrote to his children from Kalene, August 11th, 
 1907 : 
 
 " I have had a very pleasant trip along the Zambesi Valley. 
 My Lovale carriers do not keep together so well as the Ovim- 
 bundu. We had a good time, however, and I hurried my men 
 up by giving a present of a bit of meat to each man who arrived 
 in the camping place during the first half hour or so, I have 
 four men carrying my hammock, so I walk two hours, two men 
 carry me two hours, the other two carry me for other two 
 hours, so we reach camp. 
 
 " Although these Lovale men seem to live in the midst of 
 noises, drumming and dancing all night long until one's head 
 is sore and weary, I was surprised to find how they dislike 
 some noises. For instance, the cover of my hammock was a 
 little loose and went knock, knock against the pole. Because 
 of the thick trees I decided to remove the cover. After a 
 while I was putting it on again when one of the men gave a 
 shudder, ' Ugh,' he said, ' Put on that wretched cover ? ' 
 ' Why not ? ' I asked, ' it is not heavy.' ' Oh, no ! ' he 
 replied, ' but oh, that dreadful knock, knock.' So I tied on 
 my jacket to the pole to pad it where the top knocked. To 
 carry a box too with something rattling inside is most annoying, 
 and the poor man will bring the box and put it down with 
 such an imploring look. I suppose they feel like the hippo 
 who had to get into the water to get out of the wet, or the 
 elephant with a hide so tough that he can push through the 
 thickest thorn bushes, and yet seems to be so annoyed when 
 a fly lights on him, for he pulls a branch of a tree to dust the 
 fly away,
 
 296 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 " Kalunda and Kalene are the first stations to be opened 
 among the great Balunda tribe. The Balunda are very shy, 
 and so ready to move off at the sUghtest alarm that the work 
 proved to be very slow at first. Their \allages, however, are 
 full of children. Although often hidden away in some dark 
 thick forest wc had to be most careful when visiting the 
 villages not to take them by surprise, for ^vith wonderful 
 presence of mind every man, woman and child would suddenly 
 disappear like a brood of young partridges. Then as one's 
 eyes became accustomed to the shade of the trees I could see 
 a child at my feet hiding in a turf of grass, a feeble old woman 
 under a cassava bush, a man or woman standing stiff and still 
 behind each tree that had been left standing for such a useful 
 purpose, and behind a hut or corn bin a mother, with three or 
 four bairns, would all be huddled together, the anxious mother 
 putting her finger into the baby's mouth to keep him quiet. 
 
 " Entering one of these Lunda villages to the east of Kalene 
 I found we had made too much noise, and all fled, like a breeze 
 of wand, into the forest. Only one old woman and her family 
 were unable to escape, and sat huddled in the dark recess of 
 their hut. When I knelt down at the door to beckon them, 
 the poor woman shrieked with terror. I quietly kept my 
 ground, however, and held out to the little boy of five or six 
 a bright piece of calico. The child looked at the calico, then 
 at his mother, then at the calico again, until at last the tempta- 
 tion became too strong, and with a rush and a grab he seized 
 the prize. Then I tempted the rest of the children with salt, 
 more delightful to them than sugar. At last all came out to 
 the sunlight and scampered off to show their treasure to their 
 friends in the forest, and soon I had, not only all the children, 
 but all the fathers and mothers too. From among these wild, 
 naked people some wonderful trophies have already been won. 
 The difficulty, both at Kalunda and Kalene, was how to build 
 meeting rooms large enough to take all in." 
 
 Crossing the Lualaba Arnot travelled to Koni Hill along 
 a road cut as straight as a die. "All so strange," he says, 
 " from the old days of thick forest and bog and marsh. To the 
 west of the Lualaba the very path that I had cut through a 
 bamboo forest, at the rate of four miles a day, vnth torn boots 
 and bleeding feet, owing to the sharp bamboo stumps, was now 
 a veritable highway."
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 297 
 
 Arnot arrived at Koni Hill in August, 1907, after twenty 
 years' absence. " There," he Avrote, " close by, stood the 
 villages where the inhabitants had fled at my first appearance, 
 saying that my feet were like zebra's hoofs, and where 
 I had publicly eaten a potato to show that I was human. 
 Now the Gospel is preached to them every week. Mrs. Anton's 
 school was a model one ; the houses of the missionaries and 
 schoolrooms were of burnt brick and solid woodwork, and 
 everything around spoke of skilled labour. 
 
 " The name of Va-Garenganzc, given by Msidi to his people, 
 has now fallen quite out of use ; the Congo Free State and 
 mining companies use only the name Katanga for Msidi's old 
 kingdom. 
 
 " How interesting every hill and river and village was to 
 me 22 years ago, and how dreary this time. My spleen threatens 
 to fill up all my abdomen, and I am reduced to a slop diet." 
 
 After a good rest here Arnot recovered and wrote : "I 
 have been able to see a little of the native Christians, and also 
 some who were on a visit from the Lufoi Hills, where quite a 
 ' revival ' has been in progress, and about thirty professed 
 Christians are struggling along in their own simple way, and 
 amidst some little opposition, the local chief declaring it to 
 be extreme forwardness on their part to profess conversion 
 to the white man's faith while their big chief Mwenda still 
 remains outside the Christian fold. 
 
 " Kapapa, the dowager queen of the country, was the first 
 to \nsit me. She has since been baptised, and her good example 
 has strengthened the cause of Christ among the women. I 
 think we can safely say that unless the work of conversion 
 begins among the women no beginning has been made. The 
 men alone seem unable to shake themselves clear of the 
 entanglements of polygamy and other evils." 
 
 From Koni Hill Arnot started " in company with Mr. Anton 
 and Mr. Last for Mwenda's town. The hammock ride along 
 the east bank of the Lufira was very interesting, being all new 
 country to me. We passed a series of beautiful waterfalls, 
 and further on a hot spring hea\'ily charged with salt, which 
 is a source of wealth to the little chief in charge. My com- 
 panions cycled, as the road is well made, and in the dry season 
 forms an ideal bicycle track. By this means the thirty miles 
 between Koni Hill and Mwenda's occupy only three hours,
 
 298 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 or even less. But ' the lame duck gives the pace,' so on 
 account of my slower rate of travelling we camped midway. 
 
 " Oct. 6th, 1907 (Sunday). — A great day ! Such a splendid 
 turn-out and welcome at Mwenda's ! Every seat was occupied 
 in the schoolroom, and there was a good hearing from chief, 
 queens, and people. This was not because of the presence of 
 three white missionaries, for Kapekele, the converted raider 
 and murderer, was the preacher the Sunday before, and had 
 quite as many present to hear him. The Katanga Co, estimate 
 the population of Mwenda's town at 5000, and taking a 
 radius of about five miles, there must be ten times that 
 number. 
 
 " On every hand I met with old Bunkeya friends, for here 
 we have Msidi's old town divided pretty much as it was twenty 
 years ago, and composed of the same people or their children. 
 Many were the enquiries made for Messrs. Swann and Faulknor, 
 and one man was proud of a whole limb that the latter had 
 ' mended ' when badly smashed by a bullet." 
 
 From Msidi's old town Arnot proceeded to Luanza on Lake 
 Mweru, where the now famous Dan Crawford was stationed. 
 " The whole school," Arnot says, " came down to meet us, anil 
 this was but the beginning of the boisterous welcome awaiting 
 us all the way up the hill from hundreds of young and old. 
 The Crawfords have a delightful wattle and daub house, 
 thoroughly African, and yet most comfortable and home- 
 like. To describe Luanza and to give any idea of the changes 
 that have been brought about since my last visit, thirteen 
 years ago, would be a long task. Then Arab slave raiders 
 were scattering the people, compelling Mr. Cra\vford to turn 
 from being a wandering cave, forest and swamp missionary, 
 to reside more or less in one place and to gather around him 
 the hunted and homeless tribes of Lake Mweru. Now, first, 
 we have here the inner circle of baptised behevers, numbering 
 45, including several chiefs ; second, a large company of pro- 
 fessing Christians and ' listeners,' varying from 500 to 1000, 
 meeting in the circular schoolroom ; third, the day-school of 
 over 200 scholars, as well as several village schools — all too 
 many at present for the teachers available ; and, finally, 
 streets of comfortable, two-roomed cottage homes, spreading 
 over the plateau. 
 
 " Messrs Crawford and Sims are anxious to push on mth
 
 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 299 
 
 the school work. Having now the New Testament and other 
 reading books in Chi-Luba, the time seems to have come for 
 extending the system of village schools broadcast, for only in 
 this way ■svill the work of the evangelist be supported by the 
 written Word in the hands of the people. Old fetish super- 
 stitions are crumbling away ; Arab invasion and Mahom- 
 medanism have been checked ; and the European powers are 
 not opposed ; why is it, then, that we seem so backward, so 
 unwilling as a Church to advance and occupy these wholly 
 unoccupied fields ? After all, Bihe, Chokwe, Kavungu, 
 Kazombo, Kalunda, Kalene, Koni, Luanza, Johnston Falls, 
 are only thresholds to vast regions, where the success of the 
 few ought to encourage the many to follow on, and surpass. 
 
 " During my stay at Luanza I paid a visit to the graveyard 
 where the precious remains of Benjamin Cobbe, William 
 Gammon, John Wilson, Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Campbell, Miss 
 Jordan, Mr. and Mrs. Crawford's first-born baby, Lindsay, 
 and the first native convert, Mishi-mishi, tell the tale of the 
 cost of pioneer work in Central Africa." 
 
 Before proceeding home there was one more centre to visit, 
 viz. the one at Johnston Falls on the Luapula River. " Here," 
 Arnot says, " the meeting in the evening surprised me ; I did 
 not expect to find so many professing Christians. . . . The 
 Sunday before I left was a very happy one. Li the morning 
 eleven converts were baptised in the stream close by, and in 
 the evening we all dined together in true African fashion, 
 sitting in groups round piles of native bread, or mush, and 
 pots of cooked venison. I spoke of how, after our Lord's 
 first coming and death and resurrection, the Gospel was 
 preached all over the ancient world, and then came long 
 years of silence as far as Africa was concerned ; but now East 
 West, North and South, missionaries were coming, people 
 Vv'ere hearing what their fathers and grandfathers had never 
 heard, and converts were to be found in nearly every country 
 — what did it all mean ? Surely it must mean nothing more 
 nor less than that the time for our Lord to come back again 
 was very near. Then one of the young native converts took 
 up the subject by reading the scripture, ' Blessed are the eyes 
 that see the things that ye see, and the ears that hear the 
 things that ye hear,' and in a very able, enlightened way, 
 followed in the same strain, lifting all present into a fine spirit
 
 300 THE FIFTH JOURNEY 
 
 of thanksgiving, in that through God's mercy the Gospel had 
 been brought to them, poor Va-Vemba sinners. 
 
 " Here also, as at all the stations, our brethren have great 
 plans and projects for the extension of the work ; and so it 
 ought to be, and ever will be, if we are serving in communion 
 with the Master Servant. As the ship can never overtake the 
 ocean horizon, so the missionary's hands and feet can never 
 reach as far as his eyes and heart. 
 
 " My journey now lay south for 200 miles to Broken Hill, 
 North- Western Rhodesia, and from there by rail and steamer 
 home. On the way I saw how that the ' Cape to Cairo ' rail- 
 way was penetrating the almost wholly unevangelised North- 
 western Rhodesia, and I felt strongly impressed with the 
 thought that the time had come to come back to my old South 
 African base of operations. Writing these thoughts and plans 
 home to my wife I was surprised to find awaiting me at Cape- 
 town a letter from her that must have passed my letter in 
 mid-ocean, expressing the same idea. So all other things being 
 equal we gathered that we had both been guided by the ' one 
 Spirit ' in the matter. And the few months I spent in England 
 were occupied chiefly in breaking up the home at Bristol and 
 in arranging for the removal of my wife and seven children 
 to South Africa where I could visit them as often as it was 
 possible to do."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 
 
 IN the latter part of 1908 Arnot took up his residence, 
 with his family, in Johannesburg. Meeting with and 
 speaking in the assemblies of the " Brethren " in that 
 centre he w^as a means of spiritual help to many. The reverence 
 and affection with which he is spoken of to-day are a tribute 
 both to his character and work from that time onward unto 
 his death. Other churches felt the stimulus of his missionary 
 zeal and w^re helped to stretch out a hand to the " regions 
 beyond." 
 
 As soon as the family was settled the call of Central Africa 
 again took Arnot to the old scenes. The train took him as far 
 as Broken Hill, at that time the terminus of the Cape to Cairo 
 railway. Writing to Mrs. Arnot, in March, 1909, when on his 
 way north, he said : 
 
 " I changed into the B.H. train and we were soon off. But 
 some rough customers on board. In my compartment two 
 hunters began drinking hard, then threatening to shoot each 
 other. Then the big one held the little one down by the throat. 
 But the little one watched his chance and jumped from the 
 into the next compartment but the big Texas man kept hand- 
 train, leaving his gun and kit and ticket behind him. I shifted 
 ling his guns and trying the locks and preparing to fire on the 
 enemy all night. I went in to try and calm him and unloaded 
 two cartridges, but he soon put them back again. However, 
 he was better in the morning. I hid his whisky away and he 
 is no longer dangerous. 
 
 '''April ISth, 1908. — This morning I awoke after a good 
 night's rest to lie and listen to the doves and green parrots. 
 My camp is in a lovely glade, with a village close by where an 
 old rascal lives who tried to sell me three eggs as fresh, with 
 feathered fowls inside. They had no hens either to sell, so 
 just about supper time two doves came on the tree close by. 
 
 301
 
 302 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 
 
 They looked very lovingly at each other and I looked lovingly 
 at them, and soon had them nicely stewed on my plate. . . . 
 My bike behaves fairly well, only thro"vm me twice, but I am 
 breaking him in. ... I had a four hours' wade in a marsh 
 up to the waist and none the worse. 
 
 " May 1st, Kalaso. — I am very well, wearing nothing but 
 my trousers and my singlet. You can imagine how sun-burnt I 
 am. Still I am enjoying it, enjoying meeting these Bakaonde, 
 all Lulu speaking, so I am quite at home. Oh ! the plans my 
 poor brain works up. What a field for an entirely new start ! 
 The Bakaonde are right up to the Congo frontier, where at 
 Kansanshi the watershed rises to 5400 ft. We could have the 
 benefit of Crawford's translation. Would be in touch with the 
 railway at Kansanshi, if not actually on it, etc. A work .might 
 be begun that our own children could carry on. However, my 
 work clearly is to help Walter (Dr. Fisher) this year, and 
 Cunningham is evidently waiting for me. The sight of these 
 utterly unevangelised cannot but affect one deeply. And the 
 Coillards' heroic effort when older than we are is always a 
 stimulant." Arnot was then nearing his fiftieth birthday. 
 
 Joining Dr. Fisher at Kalene Hill Arnot travelled on with 
 him to a Conference arranged at Kalunda, Mr. Cunningham's 
 station. Missionaries from Kavungu and Kazombo were also 
 present. Difficulties were faced and overcome and much 
 profitable work done. 
 
 The unevangelised condition of the country appealed to 
 him all the time. To his daughter Rachel he wrote from 
 Kalunda : " Uncle W^alter came here with me. It took us 
 five days, travelling all day, to reach this, the nearest Mission 
 Station to Kalene, so that there are great fields to be filled in. 
 We passed large districts full of people who never really hear 
 the Gospel." 
 
 From Kalene Hill, he writes a month later to Mrs. Arnot : 
 " We are not treading on other people's toes in all these great 
 wastes of country. I should like to take a hohday with you 
 on a Mission Station in Natal, and study Zulu, for right up to 
 the Zambesi I can see Zulu is ousting Sechuana, and is to be 
 the dialect of the natives of S. Africa." 
 
 His sense of humour crops out in the midst of all the pressing 
 need he faces, and he passes on to his children the stories 
 picked up around the camp fires. Here is one : " Tell the boys
 
 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 303 
 
 that I heard of an asylum that had a ward in it for motor car 
 madmen. A visitor was being shown round the asylum, and 
 when he was brought to the ward for motor men he saw no 
 one in it and was much surprised. But the attendant said, 
 ' Oh ! they are all here. There ! Under each bed ! Don't you 
 see them ? Each one is mending his motor car.' " 
 
 In his general report of this trip Arnot wrote : " Leaving 
 Kalene I travelled with a few men along the Anglo-Belgian 
 frontier to Kansanshi. The only trace of European occupation, 
 however, during the 250 miles' tramp was not the boma of an 
 Arab slave dealer, but the den of a trader of German birth. 
 (On the way I met with Balunda, Basamba and Bakaonde, 
 and plenty of game. Indeed, in one district they seemed more 
 interested in me than I in them. Craning their necks and 
 snuffing the air, these big animals approached me to within 
 fifty yards.) Tall and muscular. His frontier store was well 
 supplied with gunpowder from Portuguese territory, with 
 young women slaves from the Congo Free State (composing 
 his harem) and with cases of whisky from British territory. 
 Miss Wilson Carmichael caused a sensation by writing things 
 as they are in India. I could write an equally sensational 
 report if I were to write things as I found them in the 
 den of this loathsome man. He is since dead. How can 
 one account for the fact that in framing laws for governments 
 and chartered companies, supposed to exist first of all for the 
 protection of the native, not a single clause has been introduced 
 empowering His Majesty's Commissioners in the field to protect 
 the native from the scum of Europe ? 
 
 " Night after night as we journeyed eastward I was enabled 
 to spend hours in prayer for deserted and forsaken N.W. 
 Rhodesia. But for the few missionaries in the Barotse territory 
 and at Kalene and a small beginning near Ndola, N.W. Rhodesia 
 is without the Gospel. Hitherto one had looked to young 
 evangelists from the assemblies of the ' Brethren ' in Britain 
 to come forward to fill these open doors. But surely we are 
 unequal to this gigantic task. Men from ' other ships ' must 
 be called upon to come to the help of the Lord." Since then 
 Mr. Bailey, on behalf of the S.A. General Mission, has opened 
 two stations here about ; and on behalf of the Baptists of South 
 Africa, Mr. Doke of Johannesburg, with his son, determined 
 to go north and see for himself whether these things were true,
 
 804 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 
 
 and although the journey to the valley of the Kafue cost Mr, 
 Doke his life, the work he had it on his heart to do will be taken 
 up by others. 
 
 Returning to Johannesburg, Arnot started on his seventh 
 journey to the interior in 1910. A portion of this trip was 
 occupied with assisting Mr. Bailey of the S.A. General Mission 
 in settling at Kansanshi in North-Western Rhodesia. 
 
 On March 8th, he writes: "Mr. Bailey and I have been 
 talking over Kansanshi. He is keen, I can see, on my staying 
 with him. At present he is finding it difficult to make a start 
 at the language, and alone on a site without even trusty boys 
 by him, would be an almost impossible position. He wants 
 me to try and put the language in some shape. Certainly I do 
 not see how he is going to make much headway alone with such 
 a tangle of dialects. . . . Nothing would be more to my mind 
 than helping in gathering an elementary knowledge of 
 Chikaonda. 
 
 " March 12ih. — I am working at the Chikaonda now every 
 day, and it is very like Luba, so I will be of some help. I 
 could not have a task more congenial. 
 
 " To-day we crossed the Lenge and the Lufmiyama in boats 
 and waded waist deep for a mile or so. The people here insist 
 that their name is ' the people of God,' and disclaim all con- 
 nection with the tribes north and south of them. Walking 
 through a clump of very long grass I found myself in the midst 
 of a herd of wild animals sleeping. The snorting and stamping 
 on every hand was most alarming, but I saw nothing, although 
 some heavy animals like buffalo must have passed quite close 
 to me. The groArth of grass makes one feel very small, and 
 only suitable for elephants. Indeed in places the country is 
 quite trodden down by these monsters, and the footpath we 
 have to follow seems to be their favourite highway." 
 
 On March 20th, he writes to the boys at home : " Here we 
 are in the wilds and wets, but beautifully cool. Rain has 
 fallen daily and now that we are past the swamps we don't 
 mind so much. Fancy trudging along at the rate of twelve 
 miles a day, for that is really about our average. ... I have 
 left Mr. Bailey to do the shooting and have only killed a bush 
 buck. They have very nicely shaped horns, so I am bringing 
 these home with me. I have also a fine pair of boar's tusks to 
 bring home. Mr. Bailey succeeded in kilUng a large antelope
 
 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 305 
 
 so the men have plenty of meat. Mr. Bailey has lots of funny 
 stories. He has just told mc of a boy who was asked to make 
 a sentence with ' toward ' in it. The boy wrote ' I tored my 
 pants.' Another was asked to write a sentence Avith ' boys,' 
 ' bees ' and ' bear ' in it, thinking he would write about a bear 
 stealing a boy's honey. But lo ! the sentence ran in the 
 exercise book : ' Boys bees bare when they are swimming.' 
 Another of his stories is about a little girl. The teacher asked 
 her to write a sentence containing the expression ' bitter end.' 
 She wrote, ' Our neighbour's dog chased my kitten, and just 
 as she ran under the porch he bit her end.' . . . Yesterday 
 a monkey came looking at us. My boy asked the loan of my 
 gun and shot her, for it was a little girl monkey, so to-day we 
 are teasing the men about eating their little sister." 
 
 On the way to Kansanshi the travellers stopped at Miamba, 
 on March 25th. The chief of the district, Miamba, came round 
 in the afternoon with another old man. " After looking a long 
 time with a long enquiring look," Arnot says, " he asked me if 
 I was Monare who had built between the chief Msidi's town and 
 Msidi's brother, Salushia, many years ago. I said I was, and 
 involuntarily we both stretched out our hands and half rubbed 
 and half slapped their palms together. ' Yes ! ' he said, ' and 
 I was there at the time. With all my people we lived by the 
 Bunkeya until the Belgians came, then we left and came here.' 
 So quite unwittingly we have come and built by a group of 
 Msidi's scattered people. 
 
 " March 2Qth. — Our camp is partly surrounded by a thicket 
 of tall trees, where baboons and monkeys find a retreat when 
 they come near the fields of ripening corn belonging to the 
 neighbouring village. Last night these trees were simply alive 
 with baboons, the branches swaying and bending as before a 
 strong wind. We could almost hear the monkeys speak in 
 their endless chatter. At last night grew on and all seemed 
 to settle to sleep, for monkeys only raid in the daytime. My 
 men kept up a flow of jibing remarks at their hairy brothers 
 as one was heard jostling the other, or when a young monkey 
 was evidently being punished for his impudence, or when a 
 baby monkey would start up from a bad dream and scream, 
 when the mother's low soothing grunt would be distinctly 
 heard. Altogether it was one of the strangest nights I have 
 passed for a long time." 
 u
 
 306 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 
 
 Arriving at the spot selected for the station, Arnot immedi- 
 ately took in hand the building of a house for Mr. Bailey. 
 Having to see to walls, doors, wndows, thatch, etc., he was 
 unable to leave for some time. The house was built out of 
 the material to hand in the forest. 
 
 He wrote to Mrs. Arnot on April 24th : " My last was 
 written before going off for a day in the veldt, but I did not 
 go far. Three or four miles does me up completely now, and 
 I turned back before reaching the game. My heart seems to 
 give out. I must try and sell Walter's bike, and stick to carriers. 
 . . , We are still having rain here — so late in the season — 
 and my bricks are not improving. The door frames are all 
 made and we are at window frames and if we only had a few 
 dry days I would start the building. We have twenty men 
 working, and I have only to direct them, but the house when 
 finished will be really good. Two men are good at the pit saw, 
 and all the door and window frames have been sawn out. I 
 am making all the window casements. We had a good meeting 
 at village to-day, over sixty attending and entreating us to 
 go on. I think one of our boys has received something. He 
 is very bright and quite a help already. . . . Do you know I 
 have never been into Kansanshi yet, that gay city of thirty 
 whites. I have kept to my work here steadily, and already 
 with our boys, young and old, and day school, and midday 
 service, and building going up, and piles of material, the forest 
 has been transformed into a Mission Station." 
 
 To his daughter W^innie he writes : "I have found some 
 perfect orchids growing here. One kind is not so large, but 
 the flower has every shade of colour between light pink and 
 purple blue. The other is in full flower just now, a lovely pure 
 white, and about the size of a garden daisy. Although quite 
 curious in shape, these white flowers hang in sprays about six 
 to eight inches long, and they have a very sweet smell." 
 
 On the 14th of May he went to stay overnight at Kansanshi 
 so that he could preach to the Europeans on Sunday, the 15th. 
 Concerning this he WTote : " I had quite a good hearing. There 
 is a fine open door here for Mr. Bailey. I stayed with the 
 manager of the mine, and he put me up royally, only his dog 
 chewed up my hat, so he sent down to the store for ' the best 
 they had.' I have a very good new hat, so next time I go 
 in I am going to look out a few other articles that may take the
 
 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 307 
 
 manager's dog's fancy and get a new fit out. ... I am sending 
 a python skin by this mail, and some pretty birds' wings. . , . 
 I am sending too a parcel of really handsome orchids. I have 
 seen nothing like these, and they ought to be valuable. 
 
 " May 20ih, 1210. — We have just heard of King Edward's 
 death and I have been asked to go in and hold a memorial 
 service at Kansanshi, but Mr. Bailey is going instead, the 
 distance is too far for me. . . . The King's death may change 
 my plans and instead of going to Kalene, etc., I will go to 
 Liwanika. A Mr. Hazell has come here from the Barotse. He 
 was chief magistrate there. He seems to think I ought to go 
 as Liwanika has no one that he relies on to give him advice. 
 Liwanika was going to meet the Prince of Wales at Livingstone ; 
 now he is not likely to leave his capital. This would take me 
 through a lot of new country. 
 
 " Mr. Bailey understands that I will not be able to remain 
 with him after July 1st. By that time I hope to have his house 
 finished. At Kansanshi the preaching services are improving ; 
 beginning with fifteen, we have advanced to forty, some farmers 
 and their families coming in on foot four miles, all Dutch. 
 There are three small attempts at farming being made by three 
 Dutchmen. 
 
 " The Koni friends are anxious to see me, but I must not 
 overdo it. I have decided that I will go only where I am 
 needed. Somehow I have so little reserve strength that I am 
 going to pay no more friendly visits. I have finished seven 
 door frames, so am taking a day off to-morrow. My poor hands 
 will be glad of a rest from cuts and knocks and bruises — ' when 
 father carved the duck ' business — but a house had to be 
 built. 
 
 " Mr. Bishop, the acting magistrate at Kansanshi, has been 
 telling us of a revolting case of witchcraft, or a feast connected 
 with the crime of witchcraft that he had to look into and punish 
 the chiefs involved. For some reason or other the body of a 
 woman and child, who had recently died, were disinterred, and 
 the heart of the woman when tasted was discarded as bitter ; 
 but the heart of the child was sweet, so its corpse was danced 
 round and eaten, and all who partook of this revolting feast, 
 and had danced around with one of the child's bones in his or 
 her mouth was made immune from all evil influences, and 
 would have power to bewitch all their enemies. The ordeal of
 
 308 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 
 
 the boiling water test for witchcraft is still in vogue among the 
 Vakonde. 
 
 " May 26tk. — Here I am again preparing for a move. All 
 seems in train for my going to Liwanika. I can have as many 
 men as I need for that route. ... I have been three months 
 and more with Bailey and have seen the house walls up and the 
 roof fairly completed. I have also kept at the language study, 
 and to-day have helped to plant a patch of potatoes. Tell the 
 boys that the natives have brought me a mouse monkey about 
 the size of my thumb, full grown. It has fingers and thumbs 
 and looks so pretty. I am bringing it home in a tin like a milk 
 tin. 
 
 " On Thursday, June 2nd, I left for Kasempa. We passed 
 villages for the first and second day in fair numbers. Then 
 came a long, desolate forest tramp for twenty miles, but the 
 great trees were very fine to look on, and I shot a very large 
 yellow pigeon, and another handsome bird of the parrot kind, 
 both good eating — but together they represented almost every 
 shade of colour. We crossed two large rivers full of water from 
 the Congo watershed and camped at Kazembo's, the centre, 
 I should say, of quite a district, and here I rested for Sunday. 
 Not feeling over well either ; my old road trouble agrees 
 neither with cycle riding nor hammock riding. 
 
 " Kasempa, June 8th. — Arrived at this delightful station 
 late in the evening, and after paying off my men, moved into 
 a room in the District Commissioner's house as Mr. Hazell's 
 guest, so that I seem to be getting everything my own way 
 again, and much too comfortable. INIr. Hazell has been H.IM. 
 Commissioner in the Barotse and friend of Liwanika's, and 
 I think will help me all he can. 
 
 " June 11th. — Here I am awaiting carriers to turn up. I am 
 right, I think, in doing a little exploring if I can in new districts, 
 rather than in running home as my one bent is, pell-mell. 
 The Lord must have our best, and the country west of here 
 is almost unexplored, and plenty of people, they say. My 
 plan is to take a detour west to the Zambesi, then south to 
 Liwanika's. I am walling to help open fresh centres. Some 
 may be stirred up to occupy the field. 
 
 " June 19th. — My ten days' wait at Kasempa has been made 
 very pleasant by the constant kindness of Mr. Hazell. He has 
 nearly all N.W. Khodesia under his jurisdiction. Yesterday
 
 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 309 
 
 he surprised me by asking if twelve carriers would suit me as 
 that number had come in that morning for work. When the 
 carriers heard that the distant Barotse Valley was my destina- 
 tion they hesitated, and a few drew back. At last, after some 
 talk among themselves, and a long look at me, they all came 
 back saying they were willing to go with me, so I hastily 
 packed up and left to-day, doing a good sixteen miles. I am 
 quite excited at the thought of being back at my old field. 
 
 " June 23rd. — After five days fair travelling (about sixteen 
 miles a day) I have arrived at the first place, Lutoba, that 
 has seemed to attract me and might prove to be a suitable 
 site for a Mission Station, not so much from the crowds of 
 people found here, as from their homely welcome, from the 
 headsman down to the children. All along villages have been 
 close to one another, and the valley of the Dongwe, so far, is 
 all that it is reported to be, a fairly populous district. It is 
 difficult to name villages and headmen, however, and after 
 having found the correct name of the headman, etc., it is 
 still more difficult to find him at home, chiefly owing to the 
 strange Kaonde custom that demands that when a man 
 marries a woman he goes to live at the woman's village, and 
 the children belong to her relatives, so in the case of chiefs 
 and headmen they have so many villages to live in in different 
 parts of the country as they have wives — a scattered household. 
 At first it seemed impossible to believe that this custom was 
 really in practice, but after hearing Mr. Hazell lecturing a 
 company of chiefs in his district on the evils of the custom, 
 and on the difficulties produced by it, I had no longer any 
 doubt. The women, in fact, rule the Bakaonde, and this may 
 account for the fact that the men are evidently home dwellers 
 and do their full share of cultivation, although they have 
 never been a strong tribe and have been preyed upon by their 
 neighbours. 
 
 " June 25th. — To-day we have left the Kaonde villages 
 behind, and are now in the country of theBambunda, Liwanika's 
 territory. The soil seems to have changed from a hard grey 
 clay to Barotse sand, and an old man going along with a hoe 
 and axe to sell, knelt down and gave me the regular Serotse 
 greeting with his head bending down to the ground. 
 
 " June 26th. — Quite refreshing to-day to arrive at a very 
 well-peopled district. The chief, Kashinda, comes from the
 
 310 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 
 
 Barotse, and he recognised me. His people are all Bambunda, 
 and carry on the clever basket-making industry that has made 
 the Barotse baskets famous. The men seemed to understand 
 and speak Sekololo, but the women spoke the language of the 
 Bambunda, which is a mixture of Umbunda and Luba, so that 
 I understood all they said. One of my own Kaonde men gave 
 them quite an address in their Bambunda language, not 
 knowing that I was able to follow him. This, he said, pointing 
 to me, is the great Monare who lived in the Barotse when you 
 were all children. He has been away teaching the Lunda 
 tribes, and Congo State people, and now they all can read and 
 write and count shillings, and when these people come to the 
 white men's stores they tell the white men that they can read 
 and count shillings, and the white man does not cheat them, etc. 
 
 " It is interesting to notice change of custom, clothing and 
 general appearance, as well as language, and the customs 
 mixed up •with other distant tribes as well as the language. 
 They appear to have more in common with tribes living 
 800 or 400 miles aAvay than with their immediate neighbours. 
 But this is often the case. Here I met a woman carrying a 
 basket on her back with a strap round her forehead. The 
 Bachokwe women in West Central Africa are the only others 
 I have seen doing the same, except our New Haven fish wives. 
 The boys set rat-traps as the boys do in Bihe. I have not seen 
 the same trap anywhere else, neither have I heard the word 
 ' landa,' used for ' buy ' in any other tribe except among the 
 Ovimbundu of Bihe districts, and here ; and the name for 
 God amongst the Bambunda is Suka. 
 
 ''Long. 24° 40", E. Lat. 11° 35", S. Luena River, Monkoya 
 country, June 27th, 1910. — I have safely crossed the unexplored 
 part of my journey from Kasempa and have struck Major 
 Quick's route, my mapping being very close and has fitted 
 in with his. Still I am six days off the capital. The bush has 
 been very thick and trackless, but when almost at my wits' 
 end for a guide a man came along with two children to say 
 he was awaiting an opportunity of going to the Barotse and 
 would I let him go with me as guide ; he had been there before, 
 I am sticking to my hammock now as the country is more 
 open. Indeed it is almost continuous plain now to Liwanika's, 
 In my letter to him I say I am not going to remain long but 
 will want a boat to take me to Livingstone. I am anxious to
 
 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 311 
 
 be home. In spite of having a good cook my inside seems to 
 be hopelessly wrong. I am simply living on quinine, bismuth, 
 and tinned milk. Now I can buy cow's milk. When staying 
 at Kansanshi I was all right, and the week at Kasempa gave 
 me a respite. I must keep to the railway next trip and stay 
 in one place as much as possible. But oh ! for 100 missionaries 
 for the country I have just passed through. And what crowds 
 of children in their hidden forest homes. Our missionary 
 machinery seems all too heavy and cumbersome. We need 
 a new order of forest missionaries living in tents and taking 
 in wide circuits. . . . Tell the boys that I killed two geese 
 to-day with one rifle shot at 150 yards using the new Bisley 
 peep sight. But the country is so overgrown with grass and 
 forest that although there was plenty of game about I did 
 not hunt, and shot nothing. One night we seemed to sleep 
 in a regular zoological garden. We heard such a variety of 
 roars and howls and laughing howls, and antelopes calling 
 each other, and ducks and geese quacking as morning broke. 
 Yesterday an old man recognised me and was full of talk of 
 the old days, just on thirty years ago. 
 
 " On the 4th July I arrived at M. Coisson's and M. Voulet's 
 station. They gave me a hearty welcome, and said that they 
 were all going over to Sefula in two days' time to attend the 
 Annual Conference in connection with their Mission, when all 
 the missionaries would assemble for a week, as well as a fresh 
 party from home, and that I would be welcome. Well ! I saw 
 Liwanika that afternoon, and talked over all his plans and 
 private matters. He was exceedingly friendly, almost took 
 me in his arms. 
 
 " On the 6th I was able to come on to Sefula to the Con- 
 ference, and called at the Chief Magistrate's post en route. 
 He gave me quite a welcome and talked over the history of the 
 Barotse country for several hours. His wife was a missionary 
 in the Livingstonia Mission. 
 
 " Sefula is the principal station of the Mission. Here M. 
 and Madame Coillard lie buried. The Sefula is the name of 
 a river flowing into the Zambesi, and provides water for the 
 Mission gardens and drives a water ram supplying the Station 
 with abundance of water. M. Bouehet's house too is quite a 
 fine affair and all enclosed with netting. There seem to be 
 plenty of people about too. Here I can have one of the
 
 312 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 
 
 Mission boats to take me to within forty miles of Livingstone, 
 so I was able to pay off my men, and here I am free again 
 from carriers and for the next step. I cannot but feel, however, 
 as if I had been guided in coming here just in time for the 
 Conference. 
 
 " Sefula, Barotse, July 6th, 1910. — Here I am at last heading 
 for home. My diary tells you how I got along. And I am 
 really very well, although tired. But sorry I wrote you from 
 the Luena of my road troubles. It is my spleen, wabble 
 wabbling, that seems to upset me. I am better already and 
 the boat journey \\dll be most enjoyable. . . . The French 
 missionaries are very warm. They have welcomed us with 
 plenty of compliments, and the natives are coming to see me 
 as a sort of curio. The king's private business is he wants me 
 to take messages direct to the High Commissioner in S. Africa 
 and to take charge of two of his sons and have them educated 
 in S. Africa. I was not able to encourage him with either 
 proposal. However, I am glad I saw him again. He urged 
 me again to begin mission work in his country and open up 
 stations among the tribes to the N.E. We talked of the old 
 days when he looked upon all the tribes to the north of the- 
 Barotse as ' his dogs.' Then he would not allow me to visit 
 them. Now he is willing to do all in his power. M. A. Jalla, 
 and the missionaries who have carried on M. Coillard's work, 
 assured me of every assistance if I decided to make use of the 
 Zambesi River again. 
 
 " July 11th. — I took leave of the friends at Sefula, M. and 
 Md. Bouchet and their visitors ; and riding for two hours 
 across the plain I came to the river, where I found my boxes 
 already in the boat kindly provided to take me to Nalolo, 
 where I arrived about sunset and was met by M. and Madame 
 Lageard, the kindest of people. 
 
 " July 12th. — Visited my old friend Mokwx, the queen, in 
 her very fine house. The central reception room would equal 
 in elegance and good taste much that passes for artistic style 
 in the houses of the rich. M. Lageard and I were each shown 
 to comfortable seats, and Her Majesty, who had on a straw hat 
 with pink ribbon and aigrette plumes stuck all round, took her 
 own chair, a very wide one, but even that was not wide enough. 
 and when she wanted to rise I saw her husband had to half 
 pull her out from between the arms of the chair. We were
 
 SIXTH AND SEVENTH JOURNEYS 313 
 
 then invited to sit down to lunch, and this time Her Majesty's 
 chair consisted of a settee sufficient for two people, which she 
 filled admirably. She spread herself out with a contented 
 smile between its wooden arms, like her own Zambesi River 
 flowing comfortably between her banks. Wild duck, fish, 
 brown bread, coffee and milk, were brought in by waiters, who 
 knelt as they placed the dishes on the full-sized dining-room 
 table with its white and pink damask cloth. All went well 
 until the unfortunate husband spilled the jug of hot milk. 
 The queen's smile instantly vanished, and a deep Kaffir a u — u 
 brought in the waiters with a run, and woke up the courtyard 
 outside, and several of the counsellors and cabinet ministers 
 looked in at the door. But nothing very serious came of it. 
 The husband saved his head by declaring that it wasn't he, 
 but the sleeve of his coat that upset the milk. The waiters 
 sopped it up, and the queen accepted the explanation, and the 
 smile came back again. We then called on Mokwac's daughter, 
 who is a queen over a district and is visiting her inother. She 
 looks quite a character, too, and in a fit of madness, the mis- 
 sionary Lageard told me, she ordered all the husbands and 
 wives in her domain to change around, her chief idea being 
 to try and make every person as unhappy as she herself was.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 
 
 IN January, 1911, Arnot, accompanied by his wife, started 
 for the Zambesi to proceed through the Barotse Valley, 
 to the Kabompo Valley, where he built a little three- 
 roomed house at the junction of the Zambesi, the Kabompo 
 and the Lungebungu rivers, which meet at one point like- 
 the three toes of a hen's foot and represent, at least, one 
 thousand miles of water navigable by canoes. This district 
 is called by the Chartered Company the Balovale. For a few 
 happy months Arnot and his wife were the only white inhabi- 
 tants in it, with the exception of Mr. Palmer, the Native 
 Commissioner. Arnot wrote of this journey as follows : 
 
 " Usually the dry season is the most suitable for travelling 
 in South Central Africa, but the Zambesi is a river by itself. 
 After the rainy season the marshes and lagoons remain wet, 
 and the long grass and reeds damp and rotting until July. 
 Then the river is low. August, September and October are 
 very hot months, so that it is better to wait until the rains 
 fall, when the weather is cooler and the river begins to rise. 
 January is perhaps a little late. Unusually heavy rains were 
 falling, compelling us to wait for two days in our gipsy tent. 
 At last the clouds broke and our shivering canoe man scrambled 
 up the dripping bank, landing our goods into the canoes and 
 off for Shesheke, where we were warmly welcomed by Dr. 
 Renter. I was surprised to find Litia, the oldest son of Liwanika 
 looking so old. Thirty-three years ago he was a boy of ten or 
 twelve years of age, bringing me a supply of milk from his 
 father's cows every morning, and now he is nearly bald. His 
 life has not been an even one. He fled with his father towards 
 Ngami when Mataha's revolution broke out. Afterwards 
 under M. Coillard's teaching he professed conversion and 
 bore a bright testimony ; but a Mosutu ' evangelist,' who 
 had been trusted by the French missionaries, taught him how 
 
 314
 
 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 315 
 
 easy it was for a king's son to live a double life, and secretly 
 have more than one wife. Since those days Litia has tried 
 again and again to pick himself out of the mud of polygamy, 
 but only to sink deeper into the wretchedness of it. For from 
 every point of view polygamy is an unhappy affair. In the 
 old brutal days when a man could beat or even kill his wives, 
 he was able to put down intrigue. But under milder, semi- 
 civilised laws, his case is hopeless. Jealous women kill each 
 other's children, or kill their own in embryo, as a protest 
 against being isolated for two years or so during which time 
 some miserable inferior reigns as queen of the compound. Litia 
 had come to the decision, at the time of our visit, to dismiss 
 all his wives, making thus a clean sweep of all his difficulties. 
 And, ' if he did so,' he enquired of the missionaries, ' would 
 they allow him to become a member of the Church again ? ' 
 Against their advice he divorced all his wives, and, with his 
 father's consent, married another, who was to be his ' one 
 wife ' this time. But neither has this last move brought peace 
 to his heart or hearth. Nine-tenths of the missionary's and 
 the young convert's difficulties in Central Africa circle around 
 the marriage question, and it cannot be settled by majority 
 vote at a missionary conference. 
 
 " Shesheke has been affected a good deal by the town 
 Livingstone coming so near, and the railway, so that it is 
 not the centre of population that it used to be. When we 
 embarked again a crowd of school children saw us off, singing 
 sweet old Waldensian and Huguenot airs. A spell of fine 
 weather now set in. The Zambesi had risen just sufficiently 
 to allow us to climb the rapids comfortably. And words 
 cannot describe the pleasure of a canoe journey up the Zambesi 
 under such circumstances. The river flows so clean and 
 clear all the year round. White sand-banks covered with 
 water-fowl, hundreds of islands studded with palm trees and 
 clothed with verdure to the water's edge, and but for an 
 occasional angry hippo, and man-eating crocodile, the scene 
 might be laid in Paradise. As we approached the Gonye 
 Falls the river became deep and rapid so that it was no easy 
 matter steering our long, heavily laden canoes. The dimensions 
 of the larger ones are 40 ft. long by 3 ft. wide and 14 inches deep, 
 most outrageous measurements, and but for the skill of the 
 canoe men there would be many more accidents. The men
 
 316 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 
 
 stand and pole their way along, only occasionally do they 
 use the flattened end of their poles as paddles. When they 
 fail to make headway in the rapids they either jump into the 
 water and push the canoe up, or carry the end of a strong rope, 
 made from palm fronds, to the bank and tow. The bow of the 
 canoe is shaped like the head of an arrow, and the tow rope 
 fastened above the barbs of the ' arrow-head ' cannot slip, 
 and a combined force of twenty men often had to pull one 
 canoe at a time through a torrent of raging water. When 
 close up to the Gonye Falls we found a span of twelve 
 oxen awaiting us, by the king's orders, to draw our canoes 
 overland, a distance of three miles, to the quieter water above. 
 
 " When walking across the hauling trail, imagine our surprise 
 and delight at meeting our boy Dick, now looking quite old 
 and grey. He followed me on my first journey, and remained 
 so true and faithful. Pay or no pay was a matter of no moment 
 to him. Night and day he served me. Once when tossing in 
 a burning fever I longed for a hot bath, but there was no water 
 in the camp, and the nearest water hole was fully three miles 
 away, but when I called for Dick and told him how I thought 
 a hot bath would relieve me, he at once shouldered the water 
 keg and with his spear in hand strode off into the darkness of 
 the forest in a lion-infested country. Leaving him with Mr. 
 Swann in the Garenganze I found him, after my first six 
 months' visit home, standing on the end of the Benguella 
 jetty. He had travelled 1200 miles to meet us, not to figure 
 as the ' white man's ' pet servant, but to carry the heaviest 
 load he could find in the camp, of pots and cooking utensils 
 for a party of eight missionaries. When the Barotse declared 
 the liberation of all their slaves Dick thought he would like to 
 return and spend the rest of his days among his own people. 
 And King Liwanika, recognising his value as a faithful man, 
 put him in charge of much valuable property. He was still 
 willing to come with us again, but as he was earning five times 
 more money than I could think of paying him I advised him 
 to remain where he was. 
 
 " As we paddled on, the wooded hills on each bank of the 
 river began to widen out, and grassy plains appeared, until at 
 last we had fairly entered the famous Barotse Valley, teeming 
 with cattle and people. The river began to twist about now, 
 making the journey long, and we were glad to reach Nalolo
 
 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 317 
 
 the town of Mokwoc, Liwanika's sister, and the titular queen 
 of the country. She and her husband were old and tried 
 friends. Tlicy were delighted to see me, and invited us to 
 dine with them in the queen's wonderful palace. The large, 
 lofty reception room might ornament any country mansion. 
 Two rows of red iron-wood pillars supported the roof. A deep 
 fresco of ornamental mat work hung around, and down to the 
 level of the tops of the doorways that led into other apartments. 
 These doorways were curtained off by soft hanging lace work. 
 The whole design and construction was native work. In the 
 centre of the room stood a large table covered with a snow- 
 white cloth ; the dishes and other appointments were all of the 
 best. Only, seeing native etiquette would not allow the queen's 
 waiters to stand when serving her, these menials had to drop 
 on their knees with dishes of roast duck and other delicacies 
 in their hands, and approach the table literally walking on 
 their knees. The queen is very fat as all African queens should 
 be, and she used a settee as a chair for comfort. However, my 
 wife was to be the honoured guest. According to old native 
 ideas she would have been invited to sit on the queen's mat ; 
 and now, there was no help for it, she had to sit by Queen 
 Mokwte on her settee. 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs. Lageard and Miss Smith were occupying the 
 Nalolo Mission Houses. They gave us a very warm welcome, 
 and every possible assistance. The Sunday services were well 
 attended, the queen coming to church in a large roomy canoe 
 drawn over the sand by four oxen. Nalolo is certainly one of 
 the most trying of the Barotse stations. The white and the 
 black ants seem to be always at war, the one driving the poor 
 people out of their houses, sometimes at dead of night, and the 
 other doing their utmost to pull the houses down. Snakes 
 and mosquitoes and dangerous crocodiles in the river complete 
 the catalogue. 
 
 " Two days' paddling brought us to Lealui. Here one 
 realises that the Barotse cannot be grouped with the usual 
 run of Bantu tribes. True they learned much from their 
 conquerors, the Basuto, but their skill at canal digging, at 
 heaping up artificial mounds, upon which to build their towns, 
 their sacred burial groves with priests in charge, where regular 
 forms of prayer with offerings are gone through, also their 
 ideas of pomp and pageantry, are quite their own. The royal
 
 318 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 
 
 barge, or Nalinquanda, which was in use years ago, lay a wreck 
 at the landing place, but still an interesting old hulk. One 
 could see how up to the last every effort had been made to keep 
 the raft-like barge together. The Royal Chartered Company 
 took the occasion of the Duke of Connaught's visit to present 
 Liwanika with a barge built at Putney on the Thames. Unfor- 
 tunately the soft yellow pine planking could not stand the 
 rough hauling by hundreds of natives over the rocks and rapids 
 of the lower river, and already it was in sad need of repair. 
 Liwanika gave us a hearty welcome, and proved as good as 
 his word, for he supplied us with fresh canoes and canoe men, 
 enabling us to proceed at once to the Kabompo. M. A. Jalla 
 is in charge of M, Coillard's old station of Lcalui. It was inter- 
 esting to see the little house M. Coillard lived in before the 
 present comfortable Mission House was built. The Station 
 stands on the mound associated in my mind with executions 
 and witch burnings. The site of my old hut, where I opened 
 the first school north of the Zambesi, and where I suffered 
 constantly from fever, rats and vermin of all sorts, is now 
 occupied by a house built to entertain visiting princes. 
 Liwanika's houses and enclosures stood exactly in the same 
 positions as they were thirty years before, and the relative 
 positions of the compounds of his nobles and headmen remain 
 exactly the same. Only the town had grown considerably. 
 Hardly anyone knew me but the king himself and Sopi, his 
 Prime Minister, who was my cook boy for a time and my first 
 African scholar. He is now the right hand man both of the 
 king and the missionaries. 
 
 " The rains had begun to pour down again and the river rose 
 daily so that we wished we had been one month earlier in our 
 undertaking. However, the men were cheerful and we full of 
 hope and joy in the prospect of at last being privileged to 
 approach the Kabompo field. Our canoe men were daily, 
 however, entertaining us with stories of the fierce hippos that 
 made the navigation of that river impossible. We entered 
 the Kabompo, however, and proceeded for some distance. 
 But on seeing how the great forest trees bent over the deep 
 water, forcing the canoes to keep to the centre of the stream 
 and allowing the hippos to hide under the branches of the 
 trees, one realised that until some of these ' rogue ' hippos 
 were killed off, the river certainly would not be safe. So we
 
 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 319 
 
 landed and began building on what appeared to be a very 
 suitable site between villages. However, one very heavy night 
 of rain turned our camping ground into something like a mound 
 of sinking mud. Down our cot-beds sank and the tent poles 
 and the boxes, and had we not with a great struggle, and in 
 pitch darkness, made a great effort to free ourselves, something 
 would have disappeared. Dark and wet as it was, my wife 
 and I had to turn out and escape to an adjoining ant-heap. 
 The natives gathered round in the morning professing to be 
 greatly distressed. When I asked them why they had not 
 told us the day before that the ground would sink whenever 
 the heavy rain came, they naively replied that ' they thought 
 we knew ' 
 
 " At last, close by another village, I managed to build a 
 fairly comfortable camp, bushing it around with thorns, and 
 soon we were engaging fresh men to take us up the Kabompo 
 as far as Sekufelu's capital. Again the rains seemed to threaten 
 our progress, but we did not turn back. As we proceeded 
 the number of Lunda villages on the north bank quite surprised 
 us. Indeed, we estimated that we passed through a group of 
 villages every twenty minutes, representing in each group a 
 population of 500 people. How the natives can manage to 
 endure the mosquitoes is a problem. The air was simply alive 
 with them night and day. As we travelled eastward the 
 country became more hilly and the timber heavier. These 
 are the forests that have supplied the Barotse with canoes, 
 probably for centuries. We saw a group of canoe carpenters 
 camped around a mahogany log that they had just felled. The 
 first season's work is to trim the outside roughly and hollow 
 it out while soft and green, leaving the sides of the canoe 
 about six inches thick, covering it over with leaves, branches 
 and grass. They have to season it for a year, then returning 
 with supplies of meal and snuff they camp out for weeks together. 
 The canoe gradually begins to take shape, and so soon as it is 
 light enough the owner's wife brews as much beer as she can 
 find pots for; invitations are sent to all the neighbouring villages, 
 and with the help of beer, songs, talk and laughter the canoe 
 is dragged over the mile or more that lies between its stump 
 in the forest and the river. But it is far from being of use yet ; 
 but canoes are generally sold by the Lunda forest men in this 
 state to Bambowe experts. We allow it another year soaking
 
 320 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 
 
 in the river before it is pulled up under the shade of a great 
 tree and finished off, the sides varying in thickness from half 
 an inch to an inch lower down. They tell me the big trees 
 have been all cut down within hauling distance of the rivers. 
 Some of the largest canoes now afloat were made during the 
 reign of the chief Sepopo. And seeing that he died forty years 
 ago these canoes must have been in use for a very long time. 
 When Mission Stations are planted in these parts we will have 
 to build long canoe-iike barges for the transport of supplies. 
 And I took care to cut down a few fine specimens of mazuri 
 so that the wood might season for a j^ear or two. The natives 
 will never touch these fallen trees. Passing through a large 
 Lunda village I saw a tall pole planted in the centre ; a pot of 
 medicine was tied to the top of it and bark cords hung in 
 graceful curves between the top of the pole and the tops of the 
 huts around, like the ribbons of a May-pole. This pole I was 
 told was a lightning conductor, and the cords secured the safety 
 of each hut to which they were attached. 
 
 " Leaving the Lunda villages, and their naked inhabitants, 
 we visited many Bankoio and Bambundu villages. The 
 inhabitants had a slightly superior air, they drank more beer 
 and were better clothed. The garment of one woman, I must 
 confess, rather puzzled us. It turned out to be the stomach 
 of an elephant softened by rubbing. I had met many of the 
 Bankoio in Barotseland and had passed through their country 
 the year before. They are one of the 23 large tribes I was able 
 to count up living around these parts who have no word of 
 Scripture translated into their tongues. 
 
 " After travelling for fifty miles along the Kabompo, we 
 arrived at the junction of the Ndongwe, and here we found 
 ourselves on a high bluff looking over a vast expanse of country 
 with the town and villages of people lying around and large 
 fields of ripening millet corn extended on all sides. Sekufelu 
 is the chief of this country. He is a thorn in the side of Liwanika. 
 He belongs, he insists, to the original Barotse stock who at 
 one time of the Makololo (Basuto) invasion refused to be 
 conquered and fled north. In fact, while we were visiting his 
 town he had succeeded so well in raising a scare of threatened 
 trouble that the Chartered Company sent, at Liwanika's request, 
 a force of Rhodcsian police and a Maxim gun, to protect him. 
 Our carriers became quite excited with all the talk of Sekufelu's
 
 THE EIGHTH JOURNEY 321 
 
 people that they too began to be troublesome. They wanted 
 their pay, beer for rations, and when the day came to return 
 they refused to strike camp. However, better counsels pre- 
 vailed. We put in a good day's march and were soon out of 
 touch with Sekufelu's boastful young rebels. Seldom, however, 
 have I seen such a tempting field for mission work. Sekufelu's 
 people were so interesting and industrious. They brought us 
 abundant supplies of every article of food - stuff grown in 
 Central Africa, along with a basket or two of Irish potatoes, 
 and a good sample of wheat. The chief had brought the seed 
 of potatoes and wheat back with him from one of his journeys 
 south. Then pottery, baskets, mats, canoes, fish traps were all 
 being manufactured in the town the day we paid our formal 
 visit, when all the petty chiefs assembled to hear our message. 
 
 " Returning to our depot camp by the Zambesi was a real 
 home-coming. Now our way seemed more clear. We would 
 build a three-roomed house on a spot of land that divides the 
 Kabompo from the Zambesi, spend the remainder of our time 
 evangelising among the Bambowe, and make a short explora- 
 tory trip by canoes up the Lungebungu. 
 
 " When I called for men to cut poles and make bricks about 
 500 responded, out of which we employed thirteen at 5s. per 
 month. We soon had four men sawing out planks with a pit 
 saw, others making bricks and fetching hard wood poles and 
 rafters, and the cottage was a great success. Also a kitchen 
 garden dug over and fenced, and a fruit tree garden cleared 
 and fenced around in the bush by us, gave our surroundings 
 an air of respectability, not to speak of the street of native 
 huts and shelters springing up at a safe distance behind our 
 house. The Bambowe responded delightfully to our visits, 
 and several young men gave much promise. All these activi- 
 ties, however, were brought to a close by a sudden illness 
 overtaking me. My wife had now to take charge, and within a 
 week she had me gliding down the Zambesi in one of the canoes 
 we had brought up for the Lungebungu expedition. Fortunately 
 we met Dr. Renter in the Barotse Valley. He ordered me 
 south at once."
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE LAST JOURNEY AND THE HOME CALL 
 
 AFTER resting for some months in Johannesburg Arnot 
 made a second attempt in 1912 to take up the work 
 in the Kabompo Valley, but was turned back again 
 by another breakdo^\-n in health. He had already forwarded 
 his baggage to Li\dngstone, and arranged ■v\ith his paddlers 
 from the Kabompo to meet him there at a certain date. 
 Then he went to Kimberley for a week-end, intending to join 
 the Zambesi express at that place. The day before he should 
 have left he was taken seriously ill. After a fortnight in 
 hospital he sadly retraced his steps to Johannesburg. 
 
 Loath to relinquish the work to which he had devoted his 
 life Arnot decided to visit the homeland to consult ^vith 
 specialists, although the local doctors were against the proposal. 
 He left for England in January, 1913, and returned at the end 
 of the year, ha\4ng undergone a three months' course of open- 
 air treatment. Three doctors were consulted and neither saw 
 any reason why he should not return to his field of labour 
 provided he lived carefully. 
 
 Returning to Johannesburg he met there Mr. Suckling from 
 Kalene Hill and Mr. T. L. Rogers from home. These brethren 
 expressed their willingness to accompany him to the Kabompo. 
 As he was then feeling strong and well it seemed to Arnot that 
 the call to proceed north was clear. 
 
 Leaving the Golden City on November 21st, the three mission- 
 aries journeyed to Shesheke on the Zambesi, where six canoes, 
 in charge of twenty-five paddlers, were waiting for them. 
 
 To his son Robert, Arnot \\Tote from the Zambesi on 
 December 2nd : " When we left Livangstone to go to the river, 
 where we met the canoes, I shot a partridge. But there are 
 plenty of them. Then the waggon was too heavy, and stuck 
 in the mud again and again, so we had enough to do. Then 
 we came on here, and I am sitting looking at the Zambesi. 
 
 322
 
 THE LAST JOURNEY 323 
 
 Yesterday a big crocodile came and lay out on a rock, greatly 
 to Mr. Rogers' amusement. Then he opened his mouth as wide 
 as he could and kept it open while a bird walked in and picked 
 his teeth. Rogers wanted to shoot the croc, but there was a 
 village on the other side, and we were afraid of killing someone. 
 The man told me that this croc, had already eaten his ox and 
 his dog." 
 
 To his son Arthur, Arnot wrote on December 8rd : " I am 
 surprised at the number of new villages up here and the number 
 of children. Africa certainly wants not so much more mission- 
 aries as more active missionaries. The people never see or 
 hear a missionary except when he passes them on journeys. 
 Then I met an old friend from the Mobabe who tells me that 
 the Bushmen are very numerous, and the Basubia on the 
 Mobabe. I wish I was a boy like you again. I would roll up 
 my sleeves and begin again, and learn my lessons better than 
 ever I did, and work for a bursary, and then set out like John 
 the Baptist into the wilderness and eat locusts and wild honey 
 and preach to the Bushmen. How happy one would be in 
 heaven with a thousand Bushmen round you. Just such 
 another sight could not be seen anywhere in heaven for no 
 missionary has really been the Bushman's missionary. 
 
 " On December 14th we left Shesheke and slept by some 
 cattle kraals. In the evening a sweeping storm came up, 
 driving us into our tents, but my dome tent stood well. The 
 next day we camped early at Katonga, to await two men I had 
 left behind to bring on the mail. Having a few hours to spare, 
 Rogers and I took our seine net to a sand-bank. We duly cast 
 it, apparently catching nothing, but when one of the men 
 stepped into the water to throw the bag of the net on the shore, 
 he sprang back in terror, for a crocodile was lying quietly in 
 the sack, and immediately showed its teeth and dashed about. 
 Rogers shot it mth his rifle. Then there was a roar of laughter 
 and hand-clapping among the natives. The crocodile was 
 quite young, only measuring nine feet. The net was none the 
 worse, and we afterwards had a good catch of fish. The next 
 day brought us to the foot of the first rapids. Here, on the 
 German bank, we found two men in partnership, building 
 boats and barges, and selling them to the British traders for 
 fifty or sixty pounds each. They seem to be just what we want. 
 We camped in the forest near, where I shot a little antelope
 
 324 THE LAST JOURNEY 
 
 behind the camp. Suckling shot one, too, and Rogers shot a 
 guinea-fowl ; so we were quite set up with game meat. That 
 night we slept at Ngambe, where we had to pull the canoes 
 overland a short way. Next day we passed dozens of our old 
 friends the hippos. 
 
 " The 20th of December we shall long remember. Landing on 
 an island we put up our tents and seemed to be very comfort- 
 able when a peculiar colour began to appear in the sky, volumes 
 of white clouds forming. Behind these in a half-circle was a 
 very dark, leaden cloud ; then banks of light ash-coloured 
 clouds formed up, and behind them all was pitch black, while 
 a red copper glow filled the air. In spite of the dead calm we 
 all rushed to the tent ropes, and piled up stones around the 
 pegs. I shouted to a trader pitched 200 yards below us, but 
 all too late ; his strong, heavy tent suddenly filled out like a 
 balloon and rose skyward, an extraordinary sight ! Then 
 Rogers' tent tipped over end-ways, snapping the iron pegs of 
 the tops of the poles. Fortunately my tent held, with the help 
 of six men. We put all our goods into it pell-mell, and so for 
 about an hour we were in one of the biggest storms I ever 
 experienced. The lightning flashed every second and seemed 
 to run like liquid fire round the iron-stone rock which composed 
 the island. 
 
 " The next day being Sunday, we had intended remain- 
 ing, but with one consent we moved on. How we longed 
 for the shelter of trees ! But when after an hour or two 
 we camped by the Kalle Rapids, we saw that the forests 
 had their dangers, for huge branches lay strewn over the 
 ground. I had a nice afternoon with my boys, giving them a 
 lesson to repeat. We had great Bible and book talks, and made 
 great plans for the future." 
 
 At Lealui Arnot had a bad attack of fever for two days and 
 was very low in spirits as he thought his old trouble was on 
 him again, but this passed and he felt quite himself again. 
 
 The narrative proceeds : 
 
 '''Jan. Qth, 1914. — After being again held up by the rain, 
 and spending an hour at a trader's little store, we were rather 
 late in overtaking Suckling's boat. To-day, just at dusk, our 
 men called out that a flock of ducks were on a sandbank close 
 by. Rogers lifted his shot gun and fired among them, dropping 
 the weapon, muzzle down on to his left foot, whiled he craned
 
 AND THE HOME CALL 325 
 
 his neck to see the results of his shot. I was standing close to 
 him. Eight men stood all around the bow of barge when the 
 second barrel of his gun went off. It was loaded with buck 
 shot. A thrill passed up my leg. A big hole was made on the 
 top of Rogers' boot, and again an exit hole to the left. The 
 shot had refused to penetrate the thick sole of his boot. In 
 the shortest possible time we had the boot and sock off and a 
 bucket of disinfectant prepared and the wound washed, but 
 it was too dark to see anything. Suckling was canoed across 
 the river. As soon as possible we had Rogers up to my tent, 
 all dressing and instruments available laid out. Rogers had 
 all these handily by him in a bag, and with the best camp light 
 I dressed the foot, finding, strange to say, that most of the 
 charge had passed between the two small toes of the foot. The 
 top of the little toe was hanging by a thread. The bone of the 
 next toe was splintered. But there seemed to be a break 
 across the toe. After an injection of morphia, I removed the 
 splintered bone, cleaned and put back the hanging little toe. 
 We all went to bed. Rogers was very plucky. 
 
 " Jan 7th. — This morning, with better light, we undid the 
 toe, managed to get the wound cleaner, and set the little toe 
 more correctly. Began our journey at 10.15. Camped by 
 Mamboure Village. 
 
 " Ja7i. 8th. — Rogers had fair night ; temperature normal. 
 The little toe has stuck on ; wounds quite sweet. 
 
 " On January 11th we reached Njonjolo's, on the Kabompo 
 River, our very trying journey over, and our goods all being 
 there. The Httle house that I built two years and a half ago 
 seemed to be exactly as we left it ; nothing had given way, 
 and only a few drops came through the roof after a heavy rain 
 the first night, but the bush had all grown thick again. The 
 people were very glad to see us. 
 
 " On the 12th Mr. Suckling left to seek a suitable site for a 
 station among the Balunda. I began the day by clearing the 
 yard, then took Officy, one of the boys, to the lake and taught 
 him how to wash the clothes. This was followed by two hours' 
 gardening, and I then came back to lunch, which consisted 
 of fresh fish from our traps and thick milk. I had Kaffir corn 
 ground, and made a loaf of bread, half of flour and half of 
 sifted mealie meal ; the result was excellent. 
 
 *' The same day I began school with seven little boys,
 
 326 THE LAST JOURNEY 
 
 and by the 17th it had increased by leaps and bounds. The 
 people did listen. I was tied up with little duties from morning 
 till night — baking, cooking, buying, talking, gardening, farm- 
 ing, house repairing, storekeeping and butter making — yet 
 I felt the place a perfect haven of rest, the house being cool 
 and pleasant, Math no white ants or rats about. 
 
 " However, ' Man proposes but God disposes.' On the 25th 
 I was smitten down as by a sword thrust. My spleen, which 
 had given me much trouble in years gone by, and was sur- 
 charged with the refuse of many fevers, suddenly ruptured 
 and filled my abdominal cavity with blood, although this was 
 not discovered until I had arrived in Johannesburg six weeks 
 later. How I recovered from the first shock and endured the 
 long journey cannot be explained or told here. It was to me 
 a thousand miles of miracle in miniature. 
 
 " Messrs. Suckling and Rogers had no hesitation in deciding 
 to remain on. May the Lord's richest blessing rest upon them 
 and on all the heroic band of missionaries throughout Central 
 Africa who have put their hands to the plough and have not 
 dra\ATi back." 
 
 Miss Ray Arnot, Arnot's eldest daughter, wrote the 
 following account of her father's return from his last journey : 
 
 " Father was taken ill on January 24th. The Commissioner, 
 Mr. Thwaites, w^ho had come up to the station in his barge ^^4th 
 the mail, had only been in the house five minutes before father 
 complained of great pain. They put him to bed and the next 
 day hurried him off to the doctor at Mongu. All the Commis- 
 sioner's things were bmidled out of the barge, and Messrs. 
 Thwaites and Rogers took father a five days' journey in two 
 days, through terrible storms of thunder and rain, travelling 
 night and day. When Mr. Suckling, who had camped twenty 
 miles further on, heard of father's illness, he walked that 
 distance in one night through a country infested mth wild 
 animals. He arrived just in time to see them off and to fling 
 into the barge his good eiderdown quilt, which proved a great 
 comfort. The doctor was kindness itself to father, and nursed 
 him night and day. After a fortnight at Mongu, father picked 
 up wonderfully, and was well enough to travel south. Dr. 
 Dickson came with him part of the way and then gave him his 
 own boy (trained as a cook as well as a nurse) to go with him 
 the rest of the journey. The EUenbergers, French missionaries
 
 AND THE HOME CALL 327 
 
 from the Barotse Valley, happened to be going on furlough, 
 so this fitted in very nicely, and they joined parties at Lealui. 
 The three weeks' journey from Lealui to Kazungula down the 
 Zambesi was one ' series of miracles,' to quote father's words. 
 It would rain all night and clear up just in time for their start 
 off in the morning ; of course, they could not travel when it 
 was raining. At night, when the pain was very bad, God 
 drew near to His suffering servant and filled his soul with 
 peace and with perfect resignation to His will. At times His 
 presence so filled the tent that the whole place seemed lit with 
 His glory. They stopped at Sheshcke for a day or two, and 
 messengers were sent from there overland to Livingstone to 
 ask for a waggon to be sent to meet the party. Unhappily 
 none of these messengers could get through, as the roads were 
 made impassable by heavy floods. Before reaching Shesheke 
 one interesting little incident took place. They were in need 
 of meat one time, so the canoes were stopped while M. EUen- 
 berger took aim at two or three guinea-fowl that were on the 
 bank and shot one. Before they could land, however, to their 
 astonishment they saw a lion suddenly seize the shot guinea- 
 fowl and make off with it. The lion had been lying, unperceived 
 by the party, behind a bush near, eating a baboon. The other 
 guinea-fowl had seen the Hon, and did not move when the gun 
 went off, but waited to see what the lion would do. The lion 
 evidently preferred the flesh of the guinea-fowl to that of the 
 baboon. 
 
 " They did not know how long they would have to wait at 
 Kazungula for the waggon — perhaps a week, perhaps a fortnight 
 — as no message had got through. What was their surprise, 
 therefore, to hear the crack of a whip in the distance half an 
 hour after they disembarked ! M. Jalla had heard a rumour 
 of a party coming down the river, so sent the waggon on spec. 
 Father was carried overland in a hammock, while the other 
 missionaries and the goods went in the waggon. One day the 
 waggon driver said he wanted to push on for two hours longer 
 that evening before camping for the night, as he was afraid 
 a river, now low, would fill in a few hours. They looked towards 
 its source and saw heavy black clouds in that direction. They 
 pushed on, hoping for the best ; what was their relief to find 
 the river quite low ! They had hardly crossed when they heard 
 a roar behind them, and down came the water, carrying all
 
 328 THE LAST JOURNEY 
 
 before it and flooding both banks of the river. If they had 
 been on the wrong side of the flood, it would have kept them a 
 week or ten daj'^s at the least. When they arrived at Living- 
 stone, father looked up the first train for Johannesburg. Some 
 wanted him to wait for the quick train, which left a day later 
 but arrived before the slow one. But father would take the 
 slow, stopping train, which in the end proved the quickest, 
 as the other was delayed seventeen hours by a wash-away. 
 Dr. Berry ordered him off to the Nursing Home the day after 
 he arrived, astonished that he was still alive, and that the blood 
 from the ruptured spleen had not turned septic." 
 
 Several weeks of suffering faced the tired missionary on his 
 return to Johannesburg. But time and energy were found for 
 the revision of the proofs of one more book. Arnot had been 
 repeatedly urged to republish Garenganze, but as he felt that 
 much of its contents were out of date he decided to rewrite the 
 story of his pioneering journeys. This he did during 1913. 
 In the preface to this his last work, Missionary Travels in 
 Central Africa, Arnot said he would not attempt " to give a 
 history of the missionary work that had been carried on so 
 successfully by the brethren and sisters whose names appear in 
 our Appendix." This list contained the names of sixty-one 
 missionaries, labouring on sixteen stations scattered over five 
 mission fields. These fields are described by Arnot as follows : 
 
 " 1. The Bihe plateaus are homes now of native churches 
 that go a long way to support their own out-stations, schools 
 and evangelists. 
 
 "2. The Chokwe is still a field full of peril and privation. 
 
 " 3. Again, further east, in the Lovale-Lunda countries 
 with their fine stations, ' light has sprung up ' to many, and of 
 Kavungu the missionaries write of a ' continued stream of 
 blessing.' 
 
 " 4. The old Garenganze field, now called Katanga, has 
 passed through most unusual vicissitudes, the history of which 
 would require a book to itself, but much that appeared to have 
 been lost has been gathered up within the last ten years. Msidi's 
 old capital at Bankeya has been rebuilt ; Muenda, the chief, 
 is a most generous helper, and the Belgian Government has 
 loyally kept the field open for our brethren, only reinforce- 
 ments at the four stations now occupied are sadly wanted. 
 
 "5. The Vemba mission field is in British territory, and
 
 AND THE HOME CALL 329 
 
 is traversed in all directions by the paths that Livingstone 
 trod during the years of his ' Last Journey.' " 
 
 The sixty-one missionaries referred to above were all living 
 when the list was compiled, and did not include those who had 
 also dedicated their lives to the same fields, but had " fallen 
 on sleep " at their posts. What a cheering %'ision this number 
 of workers must have been for the missionary to contemplate 
 in his last days. Thirty-two years earlier the whole of the 
 vast fields, now occupied at strategic points by these, was a 
 blank, and heathen darkness reigned supreme from end to end. 
 But Arnot never boasted. A few days before he passed away 
 he said to a friend that the words of the Apostle Paul : " I 
 have fought a good fight, I have finished my course," were 
 words he could not use. But just as a drummer boy could say 
 he had fought in a great battle so he felt he could take these 
 words of Paul's and adapt them to himself and say, " I have 
 fought in the good fight." 
 
 As Arnot became worse it was decided that nothing but a 
 serious operation could relieve him. This was performed, 
 and all appeared to be going well till May 14th, when, his mfe 
 wrote : " He had a sudden attack of the heart and terrible 
 pain. Though he became easier he steadily sank. When I told 
 him the doctor said he was sinking, he seemed quite peaceful 
 and happy, and told me to cable home, ' Fred at rest.' Then 
 he said, ' Have the funeral as simple as possible,' and named 
 those whom he wished to be invited. As his breath became 
 slower, I quoted to him, ' When thou passest through the 
 waters, I will be ^vith thee.' He tried to say something, and 
 nodded his head brightly. After that he went away so quietly ; 
 it was like a little child falling asleep." 
 
 On May 15th, 1914, Arnot entered into rest, at the age of 
 fifty-five. His body was buried in the Brixton Cemetery, 
 Johannesburg. A large number of people were present. Mr. 
 Laurie Hamilton, one of the leaders of " The Brethren," con- 
 ducted the service. The Rev. Canon Berry, of the Church 
 of England, read the committal sentences, and addresses were 
 given by the author of this book and by Mr. Hamilton. 
 
 A memorial service, largely attended, was held a few days 
 later in the Johannesburg Baptist Church, when representa- 
 tives of various evangelical churches paid tributes to Arnot's 
 memory.
 
 330 THE LAST JOURNEY 
 
 Arnot left a wife and seven children to mourn their loss, 
 but also to rejoice in a fragrant and precious memory. Of these 
 Ray, the eldest daughter, heard the call to the Mission Field, 
 and proceeded to Bunkeya, her father's old station, in 1916, 
 but malarial fever forced her back again. Nigel, Cyril and 
 Alec, the three eldest sons, volunteered for service in the Great 
 War. Nigel fought under General Botha in the campaign in 
 German South-West Africa, and came through unscathed. 
 A serious motor cycle accident, which befell him in Johannes- 
 burg afterwards, hindered his acceptance for Flanders, but at 
 the time of writing, he was engaged in " munition work " in 
 Britain. Cyril enlisted in the 3rd South African Brigade, and 
 fell in the fight for the Menin Road on September 24th, 1917. 
 Alec was in one of the flying corps.
 
 ^'n^;?,^rTy 
 
 ofQ 
 
 ^i^NM 
 
 Seeley, Service & Co., Ltd.
 
 
 
 Seela]r,S«rfice&Co.,
 
 INDEX 
 
 African Lakes Corporation, 257 
 African, The, mistaken methods 
 
 with, 91 
 Antwerp, Visit to, 271 
 Arab traders, 18-4, 209, 261 
 Army ants, 172 
 Arnot, W., father, 17 
 Arnot, W., grandfather, 17 
 Arnot, Mrs., 239 
 Arnot, Rev. W., 17 
 Assassination, Attempted, 204 
 
 B 
 
 Baboons and monkeys, 305 
 
 Bachokwe mother. A, 112 
 
 " Back of the Barns," 18 
 
 Bagster, Mr. W. W., 120 
 
 Bailundu, Bad news from, 114 
 
 Bakuti, The, 107 
 
 Balovale, The, 166 
 
 Baluchaze, Trouble with the, 109 
 
 Balunda chiefs. Three, 171 
 
 Bambimdu, The, 106 
 
 Bankoio and Bambimdu villages, 
 
 320 
 Baptism, Arnot's, 18 
 Baptism of Dick, 207 
 Barotse, men, women and children, 
 
 84-86, 90, 94, 317 
 Barotse Valley, The, 316 
 Beer, Native, 202 
 Begging chiefs, Annoyance of, 144 
 Benguella, 130 
 
 Benguella, The Governor of, 120 
 Bihe, 104, 114, 187, 248 
 Blacksmith, A king's, 98 
 Blantyre, 258 
 Boots, Heaven-sent, 194 
 Bottle, A mysterious, 156 
 Bouchet, M., 311 
 British Guiana, Visit to, 268 
 Bryden, H., 82 
 Buffalo, Treed by a, 80 
 Bull hippopotamus, 259 
 
 " Bimch of Needles," The, 98 
 Bushmen, 27 
 
 Caconda, Outbreak at, 135 
 
 Cameron in the interior, 113 
 
 Cannibalism, 307 
 
 Canoe building, 319 
 
 Canoes, 315 
 
 Cape, Arrival at the, 20 
 
 Carriers, Troubles with, 49, 145, 
 
 153, 157, 169, 174, 240 
 Caves of refuge, 204 
 Chalmers, Capt., 260 
 Charms, 127, 212 
 Chief, An importunate, 161 
 Chiefs, Status of, 96 
 Chief tainess, A warlike, 231 
 Chikulu, 115, 124 
 Chikuya, 242 
 Children, Barotse, 85 
 Chindunduma, King, 242 
 Chinze, 192 
 
 Chipongi, Chief of Bihe, 137 
 City of Refuge, A, 95 
 Cobbe, Benj., 255 
 Coillard, M., 88 
 Coimbra, 120 
 Continent of Europe, Visit to the, 
 
 271 
 Conceiro, Capt., 244 
 Cronje, 25 
 
 Cruel punishments, 95 
 Cust, R. N., 233 
 
 D 
 
 De Winton, Sir F., 233 
 
 Death, Customs at, 126 
 
 Death, Sentence of, 83 
 
 Delagoa Bay, 21 
 
 Dick, 198, 281, 315 
 
 Divining, 123 
 
 Disaster, Traces of a great, 39 
 
 Doctors, Warning against native, 
 
 190 
 Donkeys, Lost, 47 
 
 331
 
 332 
 
 INDEX 
 
 E 
 
 Early carrier troubles, 45 
 
 Early life, 18 
 
 Ekwikwi, 239 
 
 Etiquette, Breaches of, 125 
 
 " Exclusive " evangelist. An, 256 
 
 Exeter Hall, 236 
 
 Falling bank. Escape from a, 80 
 False charge, A, and its punish- 
 ment, 116 
 Faulknor, Mr., 228 
 Fetish worship, 269 
 Fish dam. A, 166 
 Fisher, Dr., 241 
 Fisher, Miss H. J., 236 
 Flying serpent, A, 282 
 Food scarcity, 62 
 Forward, H.M.S., 132 
 Free State, The, 24 
 Furlonger, Lieut., 132 
 Future life, Native ideas of, 92 
 
 G 
 
 Gall, Mr., 241 
 
 Game on the Lufira R., 186 
 Game himting in a hammock, 198 
 Garenganze, Arnot's first book, 235 
 Garenganze, An invitation to, 119, 
 
 131, 159 
 Gonye Falls, 315 
 Grandparents, Arnot's, 17 
 Gratitude, 160 
 Grateful blacksmith. A, 220 
 Greyhound, The lost, 78 
 Groves, E. K., 237 
 Gruesome warning. A, 223 
 Gumbela, 81 
 Gim accidents, 105, 169, 325 
 
 H 
 
 Heat, intense, 87 
 
 Hepbm-n, 28 
 
 Hippopotamus, Attacked by a, 77 
 
 Hoeing, 181 
 
 Horace Scow, The, 129 
 
 House, Building a, 187, 321 
 
 Human sacrifices, 93 
 
 Hyenas, A raid by, 205 
 
 Ilala, 119 
 
 Illness, 190 
 
 Infants, The fate of, 216 
 
 Infanticide, 29 
 
 Innate cruelty of the native, 95 
 
 Jesuits, The, 57, 77, 83 
 Johnny, 192, 210 
 Johnston Falls, The, 299 
 Judy, The dog, 48 
 
 K 
 
 Kagoma, 188 
 
 Kakonda, 98 
 
 Kalahari, The, 33 
 
 Kalasa, 183 
 
 Kangombe, 166 
 
 Kangote, 105 
 
 Kapoko, 150, 157 
 
 Kasinda, 283 
 
 Kasoma, 153 
 
 Kasoma's wife. Death of, 179 
 
 Kassai, The, 86 
 
 Katanga or Garenganze, 184, 297 
 
 Katema, 171 
 
 Kazembe, Execution of young, 222 
 
 Khama, 28, 97 
 
 Kifumadshe Flat, The, 168 
 
 King's barge, The, 69 
 
 Klerksdorp, 25 
 
 Kuanjulula, 242 
 
 Kumbule, R., 106 
 
 Kwando, R., Ill 
 
 Kwanza, R., 154 
 
 Kwawewe, 108 
 
 L 
 
 Languages, 118 
 
 Larder, Guarding the, 227 
 
 Lealui, 66 
 
 Leopards, 178 
 
 " Lequalo," 122 
 
 Leshuma, 49 
 
 Letot, R., Camp trouble on the, 113 
 
 Lichtenburg, 26 
 
 Likoko's, Hospitality at, 223 
 
 Limpopo, The, 27 
 
 Linyanti, 81 
 
 Lions, 41, 176, 206, 214 
 
 Litia, 314 
 
 Liverpool, Stay in, 254 
 
 Livingstone, 18, 100, 247 
 
 Liwanika, 52, 67, 97 
 
 L.M.S., The, 90 
 
 Lobengula, 97 
 
 Lovale country. The, 167 
 
 Lovale women, 168 
 
 Lualaba, R., 179
 
 INDEX 
 
 333 
 
 Lucalla, R., and town, 285 
 
 Luena, R., 163 
 
 Lufii-a, R., 186 
 
 Lunda, Villages, 294 
 
 Lutoba, Marriage customs at, 309 
 
 M 
 
 Makoffee, 82 
 
 Mala, of Secumba, 97 
 
 Malonda, 97 
 
 Mamwia, 81 
 
 Mangetti tribe, 83 
 
 Maritzbiirg, 22 
 
 Marriage, Conipulsorj', 84 
 
 Mary, Princess, 234 
 
 Masaroa Bushmen, 41 
 
 Mbova, 54 
 
 Men, Barotse, work of, 85 
 
 Mentality of the native, 96 
 
 Mesanga, 83 
 
 Millet, Destructive method of grow- 
 ing, 262 
 
 Mishe-Mishe, 265 
 
 Missionaries, Married and un- 
 married, 135 
 
 Mistaken methods with the African, 
 91 
 
 Moffat, Dr., 81 
 
 Mokwse, Queen, 312 
 
 Molenga, 180 
 
 Moleni, 83 
 
 " Monare," 100 
 
 Monkobe, 189 
 
 Monona, 218 
 
 Monsoia, 26 
 
 Morris, Mr. 
 
 Mosibe, 159 
 
 Msidi, 119, 181, 183, 191, 202 
 
 Mukurru, 182, 202 
 
 Miiller's Orphanages, 284 
 
 Murrav, Dr. A., 207 
 
 Mweru, L., 264 
 
 N 
 Nalolo, 317 
 
 Nambi, The spirit, 122 
 Nana Kandundu, 174, 249 
 Native etiquette, 317 
 Nest, A curious, 282 
 Ngoi, Rescue of, 249 
 Nyassa, L., 260 
 
 O 
 
 Obea men, 269 
 
 Olohosi, 176 
 
 Operation in the bush. An, 227 
 
 Orchids, 306 
 
 Ordeal, Boiling water, 87 
 
 Ordeals, 89 
 
 Osore, L., 105 
 
 Ovimbundu carriers, 152 
 
 Ox-riding, Difficulties of, 105 
 
 Panda-ma-tenka, 51 
 
 Parrot, An entertaining, 152 
 
 Peho, 161 
 
 Poisonous spider. A, 286 
 
 Polygamy, 203, 287 
 
 Porto, Senhor, 116, 244 
 
 Portuguese, Trouble with the, 244 
 
 Portuguese in Africa, The, 288 
 
 Post, A welcome, 228 
 
 Potchefstroom, 24 
 
 Poverty, 191 
 
 Preparing for the great work, 19 
 
 Present, An embarrassing, 171 
 
 Price, Dr., 81 
 
 Printing press. A, 139 
 
 Proteges at Msidi's, 193 
 
 Q 
 
 Quarantine, In, 182 
 
 R 
 
 Radstock, Lord, 234 
 Raided coiuitry, A, 156 
 Raids by Garenganze, 195 
 Rains, 200 
 Ramosi, 36 
 
 Rebuke for temper. A, 170 
 Religions and beliefs, 122 
 Reviews, 235 
 Rhine, The, 272 
 Rhodes, Cecil, 256 
 Rivers, Difficulties of crossing, 137 
 Rogue hippos, 318 
 Rough fellow travellers, 301 
 Royal barge, A, 318 
 Royal Geographical Society, The, 
 232 
 
 S 
 Saddle, A, 146 
 Sanders, Mr. and Mrs., 118 
 Scenery on the Kwando R., Ill 
 Scripture, Translating, 293 
 Sefula, 311 
 Segunda, 192 
 Sekufelu, 320 
 Sekulu, 144 
 Selous, F. C, 25
 
 334 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sepopo, 83, 96 
 Serenades, 164 
 Serpents, A plague of, 88 
 Shesheke, 55 
 Shooting an ox, 249 
 Shoshong, 27 
 Simboula, 82 
 Slave buying, 174, 210 
 Slave caravan. A, 154 
 Slaves in S. America, 269 
 Snake as bedfellow, 177 
 Sparks, Dr., 286 
 Stairs, Capt., 255 
 Stanley, 173 
 Station work, 277 
 Stevenson Road, The, 260 
 Storm, A big, 324 
 Strachey, Genl. R., 233 
 Strikes, Carrier, 172 
 Suku, The God, 127 
 Sumbula, 165 
 Swann, Mr., 228 
 
 Taming stick. The, 210 
 
 Tanganyika, L., 260 
 
 Taylor, Bishop, 279 
 
 Teck, Duchess of, 234 
 
 Telegraph message, The first from 
 
 Benguella, 238 
 Tests of genuineness, 182 
 Thieves, Incorrigible, 213 
 Thievishness of the Barotse, 90 
 " Three mothers," 162 
 Times, The, and Arnot, 232 
 Tinka, 32 
 
 Touching re-union, A, 218 
 Travelling, Difficult, 43 
 
 Travelling up country, 23 
 Tribute, 174 
 Tsetse fly, The, 32 
 
 U 
 
 United States, Visit to, 254 
 
 Valuimbe, The, 159 
 Victoria Falls, 74 
 Vinanwanga, The, 262 
 
 W 
 
 Walter, Mr. and Mrs., 129 
 
 Wanawana, 84 
 
 Wardrobe, A depleted, 119 
 
 Wart hogs, 177 
 
 Water, Marching through, 171 
 
 Water, Want of, 34 
 
 Webb, Mr., 25 
 
 Westbeech, G., 61 
 
 White visitors, 230 
 
 Wife, Transferring a, 225 
 
 Wild beasts. Attacks by, 206, 210 
 
 Willie, 216 
 
 Witch-doctors and wizardry, 66, 
 
 93, 125, 229 
 Witchcraft, A trial for, 229 
 Wizini accused of witchcraft, 94 
 Women, Barotse, 84 
 
 Yota, 183 
 
 Zambesi, The, 63, 314 
 
 Printed in Great Britain at 
 
 Zbc /nbagflowcr press, iplcnioutb 
 
 William Brendon & Son Ltd. 
 1920
 
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