me in the
evening.

_20th September, 1866._--The chief begged so hard that I would stay
another day and give medicine to a sick child, that I consented. He
promised plenty of food, and, as an earnest of his sincerity, sent an
immense pot of beer in the evening. The child had been benefited by
the medicine given yesterday. He offered more food than we chose to
take.

The agricultural class does not seem to be a servile one: all
cultivate, and the work is esteemed. The chief was out at his garden
when we arrived, and no disgrace is attached to the field labourer.
The slaves very likely do the chief part of the work, but all engage
in it, and are proud of their skill. Here a great deal of grain is
raised, though nearly all the people are Waiyau or Machinga. This is
remarkable, as they have till lately been marauding and moving from
place to place. The Manganja possessed the large breed of humped
cattle which fell into the hands of the Waiyau, and knew how to milk
them. Their present owners never milk them, and they have dwindled
into a few instead of the thousands of former times.[23]

A lion killed a woman early yesterday morning, and ate most of her
undisturbed.

It is getting very hot; the ground to the feet of the men "burns like
fire" after noon, so we are now obliged to make short marches, and
early in the morning chiefly.

Wikatani--Bishop Mackenzie's favourite boy--met a brother here, and he
finds that he has an elder brother and a sister at Kabinga's. The
father who sold him into slavery is dead. He wishes to stop with his
relatives, and it will be well if he does. Though he has not much to
say, what he does advance against the slave-trade will have its
weight, and it will all be in the way of preparation for better times
and more light.

The elder brother was sent for, but had not arrived when it was
necessary for us to leave Mponda's on the Rivulet Ntemangokwe. I
therefore gave Wikatani some cloth, a flint gun instead of the
percussion one he carried, some flints, paper to write upon, and
commended him to Mponda's care till his relatives arrived. He has
lately shown a good deal of levity, and perhaps it is best that he
should have a touch of what the world is in reality.

[In a letter written about this time Dr. Livingstone, in speaking of
Wikatani, says, "He met with a brother, and found that he had two
brothers and one or two sisters living down at the western shore of
Lake Pamelombe under Kabinga.