the idea so strongly that they
have a right to demand payment for leave to pass through the country is
probably this. They have seen no traders except those either engaged
in purchasing slaves, or who have slaves in their employment. These
slave-traders have always been very much at the mercy of the chiefs
through whose country they have passed; for if they afforded a ready
asylum for runaway slaves, the traders might be deserted at any moment,
and stripped of their property altogether. They are thus obliged to
curry favor with the chiefs, so as to get a safe conduct from them. The
same system is adopted to induce the chiefs to part with their people,
whom all feel to be the real source of their importance in the country.
On the return of the traders from the interior with chains of slaves,
it is so easy for a chief who may be so disposed to take away a chain of
eight or ten unresisting slaves, that the merchant is fain to give any
amount of presents in order to secure the good-will of the rulers. The
independent chiefs, not knowing why their favor is so eagerly sought,
become excessively proud and supercilious in their demands, and look
upon white men with the greatest contempt. To such lengths did the
Bangala, a tribe near to which we had now approached, proceed a few
years ago, that they compelled the Portuguese traders to pay for water,
wood, and even grass, and every possible pretext was invented for
levying fines; and these were patiently submitted to so long as the
slave-trade continued to flourish. We had unconsciously come in contact
with a system which was quite unknown in the country from which my men
had set out. An English trader may there hear a demand for payment of
guides, but never, so far as I am aware, is he asked to pay for leave
to traverse a country. The idea does not seem to have entered the native
mind, except through slave-traders, for the aborigines all acknowledge
that the untilled land, not needed for pasturage, belongs to God alone,
and that no harm is done by people passing through it. I rather believe
that, wherever the slave-trade has not penetrated, the visits of
strangers are esteemed a real privilege.

The village of old Ionga Panza (lat. 10d 25' S., long. 20d 15' E.) is
small, and embowered in lofty evergreen trees, which were hung around
with fine festoons of creepers. He sent us food immediately, and soon
afterward a goat, which was considered a handsome gift, there being but
few do