as we could be with our clothes on. But,
while ignorant of their own deficiency, they could not maintain their
gravity at the sight of the nudity of my men behind. Much to the
annoyance of my companions, the young girls laughed outright whenever
their backs were turned to them.

After crossing the Lonaje, we came to some pretty villages, embowered,
as the negro villages usually are, in bananas, shrubs, and manioc,
and near the banks of the Leeba we formed our encampment in a nest of
serpents, one of which bit one of our men, but the wound was harmless.
The people of the surrounding villages presented us with large
quantities of food, in obedience to the mandate of Shinte, without
expecting any equivalent. One village had lately been transferred hither
from the country of Matiamvo. They, of course, continue to acknowledge
him as paramount chief; but the frequent instances which occur of people
changing from one part of the country to another, show that the great
chiefs possess only a limited power. The only peculiarity we observed in
these people is the habit of plaiting the beard into a three-fold cord.

The town of the Balonda chief Cazembe was pointed out to us as lying to
the N.E. and by E. from the town of Shinte, and great numbers of people
in this quarter have gone thither for the purpose of purchasing copper
anklets, made at Cazembe's, and report the distance to be about five
days' journey. I made inquiries of some of the oldest inhabitants of the
villages at which we were staying respecting the visit of Pereira and
Lacerda to that town. An old gray-headed man replied that they had often
heard of white men before, but never had seen one, and added that one
had come to Cazembe when our informant was young, and returned again
without entering this part of the country. The people of Cazembe are
Balonda or Baloi, and his country has been termed Londa, Lunda, or Lui,
by the Portuguese.

It was always difficult to get our guides to move away from a place.
With the authority of the chief, they felt as comfortable as king's
messengers could, and were not disposed to forego the pleasure of living
at free quarters. My Makololo friends were but ill drilled as yet; and
since they had never left their own country before, except for purposes
of plunder, they did not take readily to the peaceful system we now
meant to follow. They either spoke too imperiously to strangers, or,
when reproved for that, were disposed to follow t