CHAPTER 12.
Procure Canoes and ascend the Leeambye--Beautiful Islands--Winter Landscape--Industry and Skill of the Banyeti--Rapids--Falls of Gonye--Tradition--Annual Inundations--Fertility of the great Barotse Valley--Execution of two Conspirators--The Slave-dealer's Stockade--Naliele, the Capital, built on an artificial Mound--Santuru, a great Hunter--The Barotse Method of commemorating any remarkable Event--Better Treatment of Women--More religious Feeling--Belief in a future State, and in the Existence of spiritual Beings--Gardens--Fish, Fruit, and Game--Proceed to the Limits of the Barotse Country-- Sekeletu provides Rowers and a Herald--The River and Vicinity-- Hippopotamus-hunters--No healthy Location--Determine to go to Loanda-- Buffaloes, Elands, and Lions above Libonta--Interview with the Mambari-- Two Arabs from Zanzibar--Their Opinion of the Portuguese and the English -- Reach the Town of Ma-Sekeletu--Joy of the People at the first Visit of their Chief--Return to Sesheke--Heathenism.
Having at last procured a sufficient number of canoes, we began to ascend the river.

I had the choice of the whole fleet, and selected the best, though not the largest; it was thirty-four feet long by twenty inches wide.

I had six paddlers, and the larger canoe of Sekeletu had ten.

They stand upright, and keep the stroke with great precision, though they change from side to side as the course demands.

The men at the head and stern are selected from the strongest and most expert of the whole.