lanket, thankful
to God for his goodness in bringing us so far without losing one of the
party.

4TH APRIL. We were now on the banks of the Quango, a river one hundred
and fifty yards wide, and very deep. The water was discolored--a
circumstance which we had observed in no river in Londa or in the
Makololo country. This fine river flows among extensive meadows clothed
with gigantic grass and reeds, and in a direction nearly north.

The Quango is said by the natives to contain many venomous water-snakes,
which congregate near the carcass of any hippopotamus that may be killed
in it. If this is true, it may account for all the villages we saw being
situated far from its banks. We were advised not to sleep near it; but,
as we were anxious to cross to the western side, we tried to induce some
of the Bashinje to lend us canoes for the purpose. This brought out the
chief of these parts, who informed us that all the canoe-men were his
children, and nothing could be done without his authority. He then made
the usual demand for a man, an ox, or a gun, adding that otherwise we
must return to the country from which we had come. As I did not believe
that this man had any power over the canoes of the other side, and
suspected that if I gave him my blanket--the only thing I now had in
reserve--he might leave us in the lurch after all, I tried to persuade
my men to go at once to the bank, about two miles off, and obtain
possession of the canoes before we gave up the blanket; but they thought
that this chief might attack us in the act of crossing, should we do so.
The chief came himself to our encampment and made his demand again. My
men stripped off the last of their copper rings and gave them; but he
was still intent on a man. He thought, as others did, that my men were
slaves. He was a young man, with his woolly hair elaborately dressed:
that behind was made up into a cone, about eight inches in diameter
at the base, carefully swathed round with red and black thread. As I
resisted the proposal to deliver up my blanket until they had placed us
on the western bank, this chief continued to worry us with his demands
till I was tired. My little tent was now in tatters, and having a wider
hole behind than the door in front, I tried in vain to lie down out of
sight of our persecutors. We were on a reedy flat, and could not follow
our usual plan of a small stockade, in which we had time to think over
and concoct our plans. As I was trying