What I feared for the north
took place in the south when the Johanna men heard of the
Mazitu, though we were 150 miles from the marauders, and I
offered to go due west till past their beat. They were
terrified, and ran away as soon as they saw my face turned
west. I got carriers from village to village, and got on
nicely with people who had never engaged in the slave-trade;
but it was slow work. I came very near to the Mazitu three
times, but obtained information in time to avoid them. Once
we were taken for Mazitu ourselves, and surrounded by a
crowd of excited savages. They produced a state of confusion
and terror, and men fled hither and thither with the fear of
death on them. Casembe would not let me go into his southern
district till he had sent men to see that the Mazitu, or, as
they are called in Lunda, the Watuta, had left. Where they
had been all the food was swept off, and we suffered cruel
hunger. We had goods to buy with, but the people had nothing
to sell, and were living on herbs and mushrooms.
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