A strong party, however, in the tribe placed Katalosa in the
chieftainship, and the son became, as they say, a child of this man. The
Portuguese have repeatedly received offers of territory if they would
only attend the interment of the departed chief with troops, fire off
many rounds of cartridges over the grave, and then give eclat to the
installment of the new chief. Their presence would probably influence
the election, for many would vote on the side of power, and a candidate
might feel it worth while to grant a good piece of land, if thereby he
could secure the chieftainship to himself. When the Portuguese traders
wish to pass into the country beyond Katalosa, they present him with
about thirty-two yards of calico and some other goods, and he then gives
them leave to pass in whatever direction they choose to go. They must,
however, give certain quantities of cloth to a number of inferior chiefs
beside, and they are subject to the game-laws. They have thus a body of
exclusive tribes around them, preventing direct intercourse between them
and the population beyond. It is strange that, when they had the power,
they did not insist on the free navigation of the Zambesi. I can only
account for this in the same way in which I accounted for a similar
state of things in the west. All the traders have been in the hands of
slaves, and have wanted that moral courage which a free man, with free
servants on whom he can depend, usually possesses. If the English had
been here, they would have insisted on the free navigation of this
pathway as an indispensable condition of friendship. The present system
is a serious difficulty in the way of developing the resources of
the country, and might prove fatal to an unarmed expedition. If this
desirable and most fertile field of enterprise is ever to be opened up,
men must proceed on a different plan from that which has been followed,
and I do not apprehend there would be much difficulty in commencing a
new system, if those who undertook it insisted that it is not our
custom to pay for a highway which has not been made by man. The natives
themselves would not deny that the river is free to those who do not
trade in slaves. If, in addition to an open, frank explanation, a small
subsidy were given to the paramount chief, the willing consent of all
the subordinates would soon be secured.

On the 1st of April I went to see the site of a former establishment
of the Jesuits, called Micombo, about