hobe and Zambesi
against their southern enemies the Matebele. The Makololo generally have
an aversion to the Barotse valley, on account of the fevers which are
annually engendered in it as the waters dry up. They prefer it only as
a cattle station; for, though the herds are frequently thinned by an
epidemic disease (peripneumonia), they breed so fast that the losses
are soon made good. Wherever else the Makololo go, they always leave
a portion of their stock in the charge of herdsmen in that prolific
valley. Some of the younger men objected to removal, because the
rankness of the grass at the Barotse did not allow of their running
fast, and because there "it never becomes cool."

Sekeletu at last stood up, and, addressing me, said, "I am perfectly
satisfied as to the great advantages for trade of the path which you
have opened, and think that we ought to go to the Barotse, in order
to make the way from us to Loanda shorter; but with whom am I to live
there? If you were coming with us, I would remove to-morrow; but now you
are going to the white man's country to bring Ma Robert, and when you
return you will find me near to the spot on which you wish to dwell."
I had then no idea that any healthy spot existed in the country, and
thought only of a convenient central situation, adapted for intercourse
with the adjacent tribes and with the coast, such as that near to the
confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye.

The fever is certainly a drawback to this otherwise important missionary
field. The great humidity produced by heavy rains and inundations, the
exuberant vegetation caused by fervid heat in rich moist soil, and the
prodigious amount of decaying vegetable matter annually exposed after
the inundations to the rays of a torrid sun, with a flat surface often
covered by forest through which the winds can not pass, all combine
to render the climate far from salubrious for any portion of the human
family. But the fever, thus caused and rendered virulent, is almost the
only disease prevalent in it. There is no consumption or scrofula,
and but little insanity. Smallpox and measles visited the country some
thirty years ago and cut off many, but they have since made no return,
although the former has been almost constantly in one part or another
of the coast. Singularly enough, the people used inoculation for this
disease; and in one village, where they seem to have chosen a malignant
case from which to inoculate the rest, nearly