dent chief, is eight days farther in the same direction, or lat.
S. 4d 50'. Judging from the appearance of the people who had come for
the purposes of trade from Mai, those in the north are in quite as
uncivilized a condition as the Balonda. They are clad in a kind of cloth
made of the inner bark of a tree. Neither guns nor native traders are
admitted into the country, the chief of Luba entertaining a dread of
innovation. If a native trader goes thither, he must dress like the
common people in Angola, in a loose robe resembling a kilt. The chief
trades in shells and beads only. His people kill the elephants by means
of spears, poisoned arrows, and traps. All assert that elephants' tusks
from that country are heavier and of greater length than any others.

It is evident, from all the information I could collect both here and
elsewhere, that the drainage of Londa falls to the north and then runs
westward. The countries of Luba and Mai are evidently lower than this,
and yet this is of no great altitude--probably not much more than 3500
feet above the level of the sea. Having here received pretty certain
information on a point in which I felt much interest, namely, that the
Kasai is not navigable from the coast, owing to the large waterfall near
the town of Mai, and that no great kingdom exists in the region beyond,
between this and the equator, I would fain have visited Matiamvo. This
seemed a very desirable step, as it is good policy as well as right
to acknowledge the sovereign of a country; and I was assured, both by
Balonda and native traders, that a considerable branch of the Zambesi
rises in the country east of his town, and flows away to the south. The
whole of this branch, extending down even to where it turns westward to
Masiko, is probably placed too far eastward on the map. It was put down
when I believed Matiamvo and Cazembe to be farther east than I have
since seen reason to believe them. All, being derived from native
testimony, is offered to the reader with diffidence, as needing
verification by actual explorers. The people of that part, named Kanyika
and Kanyoka, living on its banks, are represented as both numerous and
friendly, but Matiamvo will on no account permit any white person to
visit them, as his principal supplies of ivory are drawn from them.
Thinking that we might descend this branch of the Zambesi to Masiko, and
thence to the Barotse, I felt a strong inclination to make the attempt.
The goods,