This tribe is very much more warlike than any of those south of them. They dig deep ditches around their villages and stockade them also. Their politeness is manifested in their retiring when food is presented to any one.
Nsama’s territory is called Itawa, and is generally cleared of trees for cultivation, lying about three thousand feet above the sea. The river Chiséra, a mile and a half broad, gives off its water to the Kalongosi, a feeder of Lake Moero. This is about twelve miles broad, having on the east and west sides lofty, tree-covered mountains. The western range is part of the country Rua Moero. What is of most interest about this lake is that it forms one of a chain of lakes linked by a river some five hundred miles in length. First, the Chambeze rises in the country of Mambwé, northeast of Molembé. Flowing southwest and west, till it reaches latitude 11° S. and longitude 29° E., it forms Lake Bemba or Bangueolo; emerging thence it takes the name Luapala and flows down to fall into Moero. Going out of this lake, it is known by the name of Lualaba, as it flows northwest to form another lake named Urengué or Ulengé. No positive information could be ascertained as to whether it enters Tanganyika or a lake beyond that.
Nsama had been a brave and successful warrior, and was regarded as invincible, but his power had waned and he was defeated by a party of twenty Arabs with guns. Some of them got within the stockade, and though Nsama’s men were very numerous they were overcome and soon fled carrying the bloated carcass of their chief.
The defeat of Nsama caused a great panic among the various tribes of the region. He had been the ablest and most successful warrior at the head of a brave and warlike people. That this “Napoleon,” before whom none could stand, should be conquered, created a surprise and a revolution in the minds of the people, and the superiority of guns over bows and arrows had to be acknowledged by those little inclined to admit the fact. But as the people have considerable intelligence they cannot resist the logic of events. It seems that Nsama had given great offence by some outrage upon the Arab traders, and was charged with “having broken public law by attacking people who brought merchandise into the country.” But though it was difficult to ascertain whether the Arabs were the aggressors or Nsama, the feud raged till the former had punished him by an ignominious defeat, routing a large number, besides killing some fifty, with the loss of about the same number by the Arab assailants. The consequences of the quarrel were most disastrous. His son was captured, and his country, which was but lately so densely peopled, seemed as if deserted, the inhabitants having scattered in various directions to escape the plunder of their goods and the stealing of their wives and children for the slave-market.
The peacemaking between these hostile parties absorbed three and a half months, thus delaying Livingstone, as it was not thought safe for him to enter Nsama’s territory till a reconciliation was effected. A custom of drinking each other’s blood is one of the formalities of making peace. But this did not altogether avail.
At length, as a final method of settling the difficulty, Nsama promised his daughter as wife to Hamees. So one afternoon, she who was to be a reconciler of the hostile parties came riding pick-a-back on a man’s shoulders. Livingstone describes her as “a nice, modest, good-looking young woman, her hair rubbed all over with nkola, a red pigment made from the cam-wood and much used as an ornament. She was accompanied by about a dozen young and old female attendants, each carrying a small basket with some provisions, as cassava, ground-nuts, etc. The Arabs were all dressed in their finery, and the slaves, in fantastic dresses, flourished swords, fired guns, and yelled. When she was brought to Hamees’ hut she descended and with her maids went into the hut. She and her attendants had all small, neat features. I had been sitting with Hamees, and now rose up and went away. As I passed him he spoke thus to himself, ‘Hamees Wadim Tagh! see to what you have brought yourself.’” But the condition he so much deprecated was not of long duration. The next day he set off with his new wife to make a visit upon his father-in-law, and was soon met by two messengers informing him that he must delay his visit. Yet when he went, Nsama would not admit him into the stockade unless he would lay aside gun and sword. But these conditions Hamees would not submit to. Soliciting guides from Nsama, yet he was annoyed by the chief’s delay and vacillation, although he had promised them. At length having secured them and making preparations for their journey, Hamees’ wife, supposing an attack upon her father was contemplated, decamped with the guides by night, forsaking her new Arab husband after a honeymoon of only a week, and without ceremony, relieving him of the humiliating attitude of marrying a negro wife for the sake of peace.
Not far from the lower part of Moero, and near the north end of the lakelet Mofwé is Casembé’s town. This covers about a mile square of cassava plantations. Some of the huts have square enclosures of reeds, but the whole resembles a rural village more than a town. The population, judged from the huts scattered irregularly over the space, was about a thousand. The court or palace of Casembé was an enclosure about two hundred yards by three hundred long; within this hedge of high reeds was the large hut of the chief and smaller huts for his domestics. The queen’s hut, with other small huts, was behind that of Casembé. In the reception that he gave Livingstone he sat before his hut on a square seat placed on lion and leopard skins. “He was dressed in a coarse blue and white Manchester print edged with red baize, and arranged in large folds so as to look like crinoline put on wrong side foremost. His arms, legs, and head were covered with sleeves, leggings, and cap made of various colored beads in neat patterns; a crown of yellow feathers surmounted his cap. Each of his head men came forward shaded by a huge, ill-made umbrella and followed by his dependents, made obeisance to Casembé and sat down on his right and left. Various bands of musicians did the same. When called upon, I rose and bowed, and an old councillor with his ears cropped, gave the chief as full an account as he had been able to gather of the English in general and my antecedents in particular. My having passed through Lunda and visited chiefs of whom he scarcely knew anything excited most attention. He assured me I was welcome to his country to go where I liked and do what I chose. We then went (two boys carrying his train behind him) to an inner apartment, where the articles of my present were exhibited in detail. They consisted of eight yards of orange-colored serge, a large striped table-cloth, another large cloth made at Manchester in imitation of west-coast manufacture, which never fails to excite the admiration of Arabs and natives, and a large, richly gilded comb for the back hair, such as ladies wore fifty years ago. As Casembé’s and Nsama’s people cultivate the hair into large knots behind, I was sure that this article would tickle the fancy. Casembé expressed himself pleased and again bade me welcome. Casembé has an ungainly look and an outward squint in each eye. A number of human skulls adorned the entrance to his court-yard, and great numbers of his principal men having their ears cropped and some with their hands lopped off showed his barbarous way of making his ministers attentive and honest.”
The Portuguese visited Casembé many years before Livingstone’s visit. Each Casembé builds a new town. The last seven Casembés had their towns within seven miles of the present. These Casembés have differed very widely in character. Pereira, an early traveller, states that the Casembé of his time had twenty thousand trained soldiers, watered his streets daily, and sacrificed twenty human victims every day. Livingstone, however, saw no evidence of human sacrifices. The present Casembé had but a small following, and was very poor. When he usurped power some five years before, the region was thickly populated. But his barbarity in punishment of offences—cropping the ears, cutting off the hands, and other mutilations, selling children for small misdemeanors—gradually drove many of his people into neighboring countries to escape his brutal tyranny. As there is no rendition of fugitives, this is the method of the oppressed who can no longer endure the tyrant. Casembé is so selfish that he has reduced himself to poverty. If any of his people killed elephants he would not share with them the profits from the sale of the ivory. Accordingly the successful hunters, aggrieved by this selfish robbery, have gone elsewhere or abandoned the chase, and the chief now has no tusks to sell to the Arab traders from Tanganyika. The predecessor of the present Casembé treated Major Monteiro, the traveller, so badly that the Portuguese have not ventured so far into Central Africa since.
West of Casembé’s country is Katanga. The people smelt copper ore into large bars, shaped like the letter I. These bars are found in great abundance, weighing from fifty to a hundred pounds. The natives draw the copper into wire for armlets and leglets. There are also traces of gold in this region.
One of the most remarkable of the vegetable products of this region is a potato that belongs to the pea family. Its flowers emit a very grateful fragrance. The tuber is oblong, like our common potato, and it is easily propagated from cuttings of the root or stalk. It tastes, when cooked, like our potato, but has some bitterness when unripe. It is a good remedy for nausea when raw. It is found only on the uplands and cannot endure a hot climate.