to the greediest; but this is
to be understood as the prime cost of the articles, and a trader would
sometimes have estimated similar generosity as equal to from 30 to 50
pounds. In some cases the presents we gave exceeded the value of what
was received in return; in others the excess of generosity was on the
native side.

We never asked for leave to pass through the country; we simply told
where we were going, and asked for guides; if they were refused, or if
they demanded payment beforehand, we requested to be put into the
beginning of the path, and said that we were sorry we could not agree
about the guides, and usually they and we started together. Greater care
would be required on entering the Mazitu or Zulu country, for there the
Government extends over very large districts, while among the Manganja
each little district is independent of every other. The people here have
not adopted the exacting system of the Banyai, or of the people whose
country was traversed by Speke and Grant.

In our way back from Chinsamba's to Chembi's and from his village to
Nkwinda's, and thence to Katosa's, we only saw the people working in
their gardens, near to the stockades. These strongholds were
strengthened with branches of acacias, covered with strong hooked thorns;
and were all crowded with people. The air was now clearer than when we
went north, and we could see the hills of Kirk's Range five or six miles
to the west of our path. The sun struck very hot, and the men felt it
most in their feet. Every one who could get a bit of goatskin made it
into a pair of sandals.

While sitting at Nkwinda's, a man behind the court hedge-wall said, with
great apparent glee, that an Arab slaving party on the other side of the
confluence of the Shire and Lake were "giving readily two fathoms of
calico for a boy, and two and a half for a girl; never saw trade so
brisk, no haggling at all." This party was purchasing for the supply of
the ocean slave-trade. One of the evils of this traffic is that it
profits by every calamity that happens in a country. The slave-trader
naturally reaps advantage from every disorder, and though in the present
case some lives may have been saved that otherwise would have perished,
as a rule he intensifies hatreds, and aggravates wars between the tribes,
because the more they fight and vanquish each other the richer his
harvest becomes. Where slaving and cattle are unknown the people live in
peace. As w