A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa (1858-1864)

Part 1 out of 7







A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF DR. LIVINGSTONE'S EXPEDITION TO THE
ZAMBESI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES AND THE DISCOVERY OF LAKES
SHIRWA AND NYASSA 1858-1864




TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD PALMERSTON,
K.G., G.C.B.

My Lord,

I beg leave to dedicate this Volume to your Lordship, as a tribute
justly due to the great Statesman who has ever had at heart the
amelioration of the African race; and as a token of admiration of the
beneficial effects of that policy which he has so long laboured to
establish on the West Coast of Africa; and which, in improving that
region, has most forcibly shown the need of some similar system on
the opposite side of the Continent.

DAVID LIVINGSTONE.



NOTICE TO THIS WORK.



The name of the late Mr. Charles Livingstone takes a prominent place
amongst those who acted under the leadership of Dr. Livingstone
during the adventurous sojourn of the "Zambesi Expedition" in East
Africa. In laying the result of their discoveries before the public,
it was arranged that Mr. Charles Livingstone should place his
voluminous notes at the disposal of his brother: they are
incorporated in the present work, but in a necessarily abridged form.



PREFACE.



It has been my object in this work to give as clear an account as I
was able of tracts of country previously unexplored, with their river
systems, natural productions, and capabilities; and to bring before
my countrymen, and all others interested in the cause of humanity,
the misery entailed by the slave-trade in its inland phases; a
subject on which I and my companions are the first who have had any
opportunities of forming a judgment. The eight years spent in
Africa, since my last work was published, have not, I fear, improved
my power of writing English; but I hope that, whatever my
descriptions want in clearness, or literary skill, may in a measure
be compensated by the novelty of the scenes described, and the
additional information afforded on that curse of Africa, and that
shame, even now, in the 19th century, of an European nation,--the
slave-trade.

I took the "Lady Nyassa" to Bombay for the express purpose of selling
her, and might without any difficulty have done so; but with the
thought of parting with her arose, more strongly than ever, the
feeling of disinclination to abandon the East Coast of Africa to the
Portuguese and slave-trading, and I determined to run home and
consult my friends before I allowed the little vessel to pass from my
hands. After, therefore, having put two Ajawa lads, Chuma and
Wakatani, to school under the eminent missionary the Rev. Dr. Wilson,
and having provided satisfactorily for the native crew, I started
homewards with the three white sailors, and reached London July 20th,
1864. Mr. and Mrs. Webb, my much-loved friends, wrote to Bombay
inviting me, in the event of my coming to England, to make Newstead
Abbey my headquarters, and on my arrival renewed their invitation:
and though, when I accepted it, I had no intention of remaining so
long with my kind-hearted generous friends, I stayed with them until
April, 1865, and under their roof transcribed from my own and my
brother's journal the whole of this present book. It is with
heartfelt gratitude I would record their unwearied kindness. My
acquaintance with Mr. Webb began in Africa, where he was a daring and
successful hunter, and his continued friendship is most valuable
because he has seen missionary work, and he would not accord his
respect and esteem to me had he not believed that I, and my brethren
also, were to be looked on as honest men earnestly trying to do our
duty.

The Government have supported the proposal of the Royal Geographical
Society made by my friend Sir Roderick Murchison, and have united
with that body to aid me in another attempt to open Africa to
civilizing influences, and a valued private friend has given a
thousand pounds for the same object. I propose to go inland, north
of the territory which the Portuguese in Europe claim, and endeavour
to commence that system on the East which has been so eminently
successful on the West Coast; a system combining the repressive
efforts of H.M. cruisers with lawful trade and Christian Missions--
the moral and material results of which have been so gratifying. I
hope to ascend the Rovuma, or some other river North of Cape Delgado,
and, in addition to my other work, shall strive, by passing along the
Northern end of Lake Nyassa and round the Southern end of Lake
Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that part of Africa. In so
doing, I have no wish to unsettle what with so much toil and danger
was accomplished by Speke and Grant, but rather to confirm their
illustrious discoveries.

I have to acknowledge the obliging readiness of Lord Russell in
lending me the drawings taken by the artist who was in the first
instance attached to the Expedition. These sketches, with
photographs by Charles Livingstone and Dr. Kirk, have materially
assisted in the illustrations. I would also very sincerely thank my
friends Professor Owen and Mr. Oswell for many valuable hints and
other aid in the preparation of this volume.

Newstead Abbey,
April 16, 1865.




THE ZAMBESI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.




INTRODUCTION.



Objects of the Expedition--Personal Interest shown by Naval
Authorities--Members of the Zambesi Expedition.

When first I determined on publishing the narrative of my "Missionary
Travels," I had a great misgiving as to whether the criticism my
endeavours might provoke would be friendly or the reverse, more
particularly as I felt that I had then been so long a sojourner in
the wilderness, as to be quite a stranger to the British public. But
I am now in this, my second essay at authorship, cheered by the
conviction that very many readers, who are personally unknown to me,
will receive this narrative with the kindly consideration and
allowances of friends; and that many more, under the genial
influences of an innate love of liberty, and of a desire to see the
same social and religious blessings they themselves enjoy,
disseminated throughout the world, will sympathize with me in the
efforts by which I have striven, however imperfectly, to elevate the
position and character of our fellow-men in Africa. This knowledge
makes me doubly anxious to render my narrative acceptable to all my
readers; but, in the absence of any excellence in literary
composition, the natural consequence of my pursuits, I have to offer
only a simple account of a mission which, with respect to the objects
proposed to be thereby accomplished, formed a noble contrast to some
of the earlier expeditions to Eastern Africa. I believe that the
information it will give, respecting the people visited and the
countries traversed, will not be materially gainsaid by any future
commonplace traveller like myself, who may be blest with fair health
and a gleam of sunshine in his breast. This account is written in
the earnest hope that it may contribute to that information which
will yet cause the great and fertile continent of Africa to be no
longer kept wantonly sealed, but made available as the scene of
European enterprise, and will enable its people to take a place among
the nations of the earth, thus securing the happiness and prosperity
of tribes now sunk in barbarism or debased by slavery; and, above
all, I cherish the hope that it may lead to the introduction of the
blessings of the Gospel.

In order that the following narrative may be clearly understood, it
is necessary to call to mind some things which took place previous to
the Zambesi Expedition being sent out. Most geographers are aware
that, before the discovery of Lake Ngami and the well-watered country
in which the Makololo dwell, the idea prevailed that a large part of
the interior of Africa consisted of sandy deserts, into which rivers
ran and were lost. During my journey in 1852-6, from sea to sea,
across the south intertropical part of the continent, it was found to
be a well-watered country, with large tracts of fine fertile soil
covered with forest, and beautiful grassy valleys, occupied by a
considerable population; and one of the most wonderful waterfalls in
the world was brought to light. The peculiar form of the continent
was then ascertained to be an elevated plateau, somewhat depressed in
the centre, and with fissures in the sides by which the rivers
escaped to the sea; and this great fact in physical geography can
never be referred to without calling to mind the remarkable
hypothesis by which the distinguished President of the Royal
Geographical Society (Sir Roderick I. Murchison) clearly indicated
this peculiarity, before it was verified by actual observation of the
altitudes of the country and by the courses of the rivers. New light
was thrown on other portions of the continent by the famous travels
of Dr. Barth, by the researches of the Church of England missionaries
Krapf, Erkhardt, and Rebman, by the persevering efforts of Dr.
Baikie, the last martyr to the climate and English enterprise, by the
journey of Francis Galton, and by the most interesting discoveries of
Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza by Captain Burton, and by
Captain Speke, whose untimely end we all so deeply deplore. Then
followed the researches of Van der Decken, Thornton, and others; and
last of all the grand discovery of the main source of the Nile, which
every Englishman must feel an honest pride in knowing was
accomplished by our gallant countrymen, Speke and Grant. The
fabulous torrid zone, of parched and burning sand, was now proved to
be a well-watered region resembling North America in its fresh-water
lakes, and India in its hot humid lowlands, jungles, ghauts, and cool
highland plains.

The main object of this Zambesi Expedition, as our instructions from
Her Majesty's Government explicitly stated, was to extend the
knowledge already attained of the geography and mineral and
agricultural resources of Eastern and Central Africa--to improve our
acquaintance with the inhabitants, and to endeavour to engage them to
apply themselves to industrial pursuits and to the cultivation of
their lands, with a view to the production of raw material to be
exported to England in return for British manufactures; and it was
hoped that, by encouraging the natives to occupy themselves in the
development of the resources of the country, a considerable advance
might be made towards the extinction of the slave-trade, as they
would not be long in discovering that the former would eventually be
a more certain source of profit than the latter. The Expedition was
sent in accordance with the settled policy of the English Government;
and the Earl of Clarendon, being then at the head of the Foreign
Office, the Mission was organized under his immediate care. When a
change of Government ensued, we experienced the same generous
countenance and sympathy from the Earl of Malmesbury, as we had
previously received from Lord Clarendon; and, on the accession of
Earl Russell to the high office he has so long filled, we were always
favoured with equally ready attention and the same prompt assistance.
Thus the conviction was produced that our work embodied the
principles, not of any one party, but of the hearts of the statesmen
and of the people of England generally. The Expedition owes great
obligations to the Lords of the Admiralty for their unvarying
readiness to render us every assistance in their power; and to the
warm-hearted and ever-obliging hydrographer to the Admiralty, the
late Admiral Washington, as a subordinate, but most effective agent,
our heartfelt gratitude is also due; and we must ever thankfully
acknowledge that our efficiency was mainly due to the kind services
of Admirals Sir Frederick Grey, Sir Baldwin Walker, and all the naval
officers serving under them on the East Coast. Nor must I omit to
record our obligations to Mr. Skead, R.N. The Luawe was carefully
sounded and surveyed by this officer, whose skilful and zealous
labours, both on that river, and afterwards on the Lower Zambesi,
were deserving of all praise.

In speaking of what has been done by the Expedition, it should always
be understood that Dr. Kirk, Mr. Charles Livingstone, Mr. R.
Thornton, and others composed it. In using the plural number they
are meant, and I wish to bear testimony to the untiring zeal, energy,
courage, and perseverance with which my companions laboured;
undaunted by difficulties, dangers, or hard fare. It is my firm
belief that, were their services required in any other capacity, they
might be implicitly relied on to perform their duty like men. The
reason why Dr. Kirk's name does not appear on the title-page of this
narrative is, because it is hoped that he may give an account of the
botany and natural history of the Expedition in a separate work from
his own pen. He collected above four thousand species of plants,
specimens of most of the valuable woods, of the different native
manufactures, of the articles of food, and of the different kinds of
cotton from every spot we visited, and a great variety of birds and
insects; besides making meteorological observations, and affording,
as our instructions required, medical assistance to the natives in
every case where he could be of any use.

Charles Livingstone was also fully occupied in his duties in
following out the general objects of our mission, in encouraging the
culture of cotton, in making many magnetic and meteorological
observations, in photographing so long as the materials would serve,
and in collecting a large number of birds, insects, and other objects
of interest. The collections, being Government property, have been
forwarded to the British Museum, and to the Royal Botanic, Gardens at
Kew; and should Dr. Kirk undertake their description, three or four
years will be required for the purpose.

Though collections were made, it was always distinctly understood
that, however desirable these and our explorations might be, "Her
Majesty's Government attached more importance to the moral influence
that might be exerted on the minds of the natives by a well-regulated
and orderly household of Europeans setting an example of consistent
moral conduct to all who might witness it; treating the people with
kindness, and relieving their wants, teaching them to make
experiments in agriculture, explaining to them the more simple arts,
imparting to them religious instruction as far as they are capable of
receiving it, and inculcating peace and good will to each other."

It would be tiresome to enumerate in detail all the little acts which
were performed by us while following out our instructions. As a
rule, whenever the steamer stopped to take in wood, or for any other
purpose, Dr. Kirk and Charles Livingstone went ashore to their
duties: one of our party, who it was intended should navigate the
vessel and lay down the geographical positions, having failed to
answer the expectations formed of him, these duties fell chiefly to
my share. They involved a considerable amount of night work, in
which I was always cheerfully aided by my companions, and the results
were regularly communicated to our warm and ever-ready friend, Sir
Thomas Maclear of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. While
this work was going through the press, we were favoured with the
longitudes of several stations determined from observed occultations
of stars by the moon, and from eclipses and reappearances of
Jupiter's satellites, by Mr. Mann, the able Assistant to the Cape
Astronomer Royal; the lunars are still in the hands of Mr. G. W. H.
Maclear of the same Observatory. In addition to these, the
altitudes, variations of the compass, latitudes and longitudes, as
calculated on the spot, appear in the map by Mr. Arrowsmith, and it
is hoped may not differ much from the results of the same data in
abler bands. The office of "skipper," which, rather than let the
Expedition come to a stand, I undertook, required no great ability in
one "not too old to learn:" it saved a salary, and, what was much
more valuable than gold, saved the Expedition from the drawback of
any one thinking that he was indispensable to its further progress.
The office required attention to the vessel both at rest and in
motion. It also involved considerable exposure to the sun; and to my
regret kept me from much anticipated intercourse with the natives,
and the formation of full vocabularies of their dialects.

I may add that all wearisome repetitions are as much as possible
avoided in the narrative; and, our movements and operations having
previously been given in a series of despatches, the attempt is now
made to give as fairly as possible just what would most strike any
person of ordinary intelligence in passing through the country. For
the sake of the freshness which usually attaches to first
impressions, the Journal of Charles Livingstone has been incorporated
in the narrative; and many remarks made by the natives, which ho put
down at the moment of translation, will convey to others the same
ideas as they did to ourselves. Some are no doubt trivial; but it is
by the little acts and words of every-day life that character is
truly and best known. And doubtless many will prefer to draw their
own conclusions from them rather than to be schooled by us.



CHAPTER I.



Arrival at the Zambesi--Rebel Warfare--Wild Animals--Shupanga--
Hippopotamus Hunters--The Makololo--Crocodiles.

The Expedition left England on the 10th of March, 1858, in Her
Majesty's Colonial Steamer "Pearl," commanded by Captain Duncan; and,
after enjoying the generous hospitality of our friends at Cape Town,
with the obliging attentions of Sir George Grey, and receiving on
board Mr. Francis Skead, R.N., as surveyor, we reached the East Coast
in the following May.

Our first object was to explore the Zambesi, its mouths and
tributaries, with a view to their being used as highways for commerce
and Christianity to pass into the vast interior of Africa. When we
came within five or six miles of the land, the yellowish-green tinge
of the sea in soundings was suddenly succeeded by muddy water with
wrack, as of a river in flood. The two colours did not intermingle,
but the line of contact was as sharply defined as when the ocean
meets the land. It was observed that under the wrack--consisting of
reeds, sticks, and leaves.--and even under floating cuttlefish bones
and Portuguese "men-of-war" (Physalia), numbers of small fish screen
themselves from the eyes of birds of prey, and from the rays of the
torrid sun.

We entered the river Luawe first, because its entrance is so smooth
and deep, that the "Pearl," drawing 9 feet 7 inches, went in without
a boat sounding ahead. A small steam launch having been brought out
from England in three sections on the deck of the "Pearl" was hoisted
out and screwed together at the anchorage, and with her aid the
exploration was commenced. She was called the "Ma Robert," after
Mrs. Livingstone, to whom the natives, according to their custom,
gave the name Ma (mother) of her eldest son. The harbour is deep,
but shut in by mangrove swamps; and though the water a few miles up
is fresh, it is only a tidal river; for, after ascending some seventy
miles, it was found to end in marshes blocked up with reeds and
succulent aquatic plants. As the Luawe had been called "West Luabo,"
it was supposed to be a branch of the Zambesi, the main stream of
which is called "Luabo," or "East Luabo." The "Ma Robert" and
"Pearl" then went to what proved to be a real mouth of the river we
sought.

The Zambesi pours its waters into the ocean by four mouths, namely,
the Milambe, which is the most westerly, the Kongone, the Luabo, and
the Timbwe (or Muselo). When the river is in flood, a natural canal
running parallel with the coast, and winding very much among the
swamps, forms a secret way for conveying slaves from Quillimane to
the bays Massangano and Nameara, or to the Zambesi itself. The
Kwakwa, or river of Quillimane, some sixty miles distant from the
mouth of the Zambesi, has long been represented as the principal
entrance to the Zambesi, in order, as the Portuguese now maintain,
that the English cruisers might be induced to watch the false mouth,
while slaves were quietly shipped from the true one; and, strange to
say, this error has lately been propagated by a map issued by the
colonial minister of Portugal.

After the examination of three branches by the able and energetic
surveyor, Francis Skead, R.N., the Kongone was found to be the best
entrance. The immense amount of sand brought down by the Zambesi has
in the course of ages formed a sort of promontory, against which the
long swell of the Indian Ocean, beating during the prevailing winds,
has formed bars, which, acting against the waters of the delta, may
have led to their exit sideways. The Kongone is one of those lateral
branches, and the safest; inasmuch as the bar has nearly two fathoms
on it at low water, and the rise at spring tides is from twelve to
fourteen feet. The bar is narrow, the passage nearly straight, and,
were it buoyed and a beacon placed on Pearl Island, would always be
safe to a steamer. When the wind is from the east or north, the bar
is smooth; if from the south and south-east, it has a heavy break on
it, and is not to be attempted in boats. A strong current setting to
the east when the tide is flowing, and to the west when ebbing, may
drag a boat or ship into the breakers. If one is doubtful of his
longitude and runs east, he will soon see the land at Timbwe
disappear away to the north; and coming west again, he can easily
make out East Luabo from its great size; and Kongone follows several
miles west. East Luabo has a good but long bar, and not to be
attempted unless the wind be north-east or east. It has sometimes
been called "Barra Catrina," and was used in the embarkations of
slaves. This may have been the "River of Good Signs," of Vasco da
Gama, as the mouth is more easily seen from the seaward than any
other; but the absence of the pillar dedicated by that navigator to
"St. Raphael," leaves the matter in doubt. No Portuguese live within
eighty miles of any mouth of the Zambesi.

The Kongone is five miles east of the Milambe, or western branch, and
seven miles west from East Luabo, which again is five miles from the
Timbwe. We saw but few natives, and these, by escaping from their
canoes into the mangrove thickets the moment they caught sight of us,
gave unmistakeable indications that they had no very favourable
opinion of white men. They were probably fugitives from Portuguese
slavery. In the grassy glades buffaloes, wart-hogs, and three kinds
of antelope were abundant, and the latter easily obtained. A few
hours' hunting usually provided venison enough for a score of men for
several days.

On proceeding up the Kongone branch it was found that, by keeping
well in the bends, which the current had worn deep, shoals were
easily avoided. The first twenty miles are straight and deep; then a
small and rather tortuous natural canal leads off to the right, and,
after about five miles, during which the paddles almost touch the
floating grass of the sides, ends in the broad Zambesi. The rest of
the Kongone branch comes out of the main stream considerably higher
up as the outgoing branch called Doto.

The first twenty miles of the Kongone are enclosed in mangrove
jungle; some of the trees are ornamented with orchilla weed, which
appears never to have been gathered. Huge ferns, palm bushes, and
occasionally wild date-palms peer out in the forest, which consists
of different species of mangroves; the bunches of bright yellow,
though scarcely edible fruit, contrasting prettily with the graceful
green leaves. In some spots the Milola, an umbrageous hibiscus, with
large yellowish flowers, grows in masses along the bank. Its bark is
made into cordage, and is especially valuable for the manufacture of
ropes attached to harpoons for killing the hippopotamus. The
Pandanus or screw-palm, from which sugar bags are made in the
Mauritius, also appears, and on coming out of the canal into the
Zambesi many are so tall as in the distance to remind us of the
steeples of our native land, and make us relish the remark of an old
sailor, "that but one thing was wanting to complete the picture, and
that was a 'grog-shop near the church.'" We find also a few guava
and lime-trees growing wild, but the natives claim the crops. The
dark woods resound with the lively and exultant song of the
kinghunter (Halcyon striolata), as he sits perched on high among the
trees. As the steamer moves on through the winding channel, a pretty
little heron or bright kingfisher darts out in alarm from the edge of
the bank, flies on ahead a short distance, and settles quietly down
to be again frightened off in a few seconds as we approach. The
magnificent fishhawk (Halietus vocifer) sits on the top of a
mangrove-tree, digesting his morning meal of fresh fish, and is
clearly unwilling to stir until the imminence of the danger compels
him at last to spread his great wings for flight. The glossy ibis,
acute of ear to a remarkable degree, hears from afar the unwonted
sound of the paddles, and, springing from the mud where his family
has been quietly feasting, is off, screaming out his loud, harsh, and
defiant Ha! ha! ha! long before the danger is near.

Several native huts now peep out from the bananas and cocoa-palms on
the right bank; they stand on piles a few feet above the low damp
ground, and their owners enter them by means of ladders. The soil is
wonderfully rich, and the gardens are really excellent. Rice is
cultivated largely; sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages,
onions (shalots), peas, a little cotton, and sugar-cane are also
raised. It is said that English potatoes, when planted at Quillimane
on soil resembling this, in the course of two years become in taste
like sweet potatoes (Convolvulus batatas), and are like our potato
frosted. The whole of the fertile region extending from the Kongone
canal to beyond Mazaro, some eighty miles in length, and fifty in
breadth, is admirably adapted for the growth of sugar-cane; and were
it in the hands of our friends at the Cape, would supply all Europe
with sugar. The remarkably few people seen appear to be tolerably
well fed, but there was a dearth of clothing among them; all were
blacks, and nearly all Portuguese "colonos" or serfs. They
manifested no fear of white men, and stood in groups on the bank
gazing in astonishment at the steamers, especially at the "Pearl,"
which accompanied us thus far up the river. One old man who came on
board remarked that never before had he seen any vessel so large as
the "Pearl," it was like a village, "Was it made out of one tree?"
All were eager traders, and soon came off to the ship in light swift
canoes with every kind of fruit and food they possessed; a few
brought honey and beeswax, which are found in quantities in the
mangrove forests. As the ships steamed off, many anxious sellers ran
along the bank, holding up fowls, baskets of rice and meal, and
shouting "Malonda, Malonda," "things for sale," while others followed
in canoes, which they sent through the water with great velocity by
means of short broad-bladed paddles.

Finding the "Pearl's" draught too great for that part of the river
near the island of Simbo, where the branch called the Doto is given
off to the Kongone on the right bank, and another named Chinde
departs to the secret canal already mentioned on the left, the goods
belonging to the expedition were taken out of her, and placed on one
of the grassy islands about forty miles from the bar. The "Pearl"
then left us, and we had to part with our good friends Duncan and
Skead; the former for Ceylon, the latter to return to his duties as
Government Surveyor at the Cape.

Of those who eventually did the work of the expedition the majority
took a sober common-sense view of the enterprise in which we were
engaged. Some remained on Expedition Island from the 18th June until
the 13th August, while the launch and pinnace were carrying the goods
up to Shupanga and Senna. The country was in a state of war, our
luggage was in danger, and several of our party were exposed to
disease from inactivity in the malaria of the delta. Here some had
their first introduction to African life, and African fever. Those
alone were safe who were actively employed with the vessels, and of
course, remembering the perilous position of their fellows, they
strained every nerve to finish the work and take them away.

Large columns of smoke rose daily from different points of the
horizon, showing that the natives were burning off the immense crops
of tall grass, here a nuisance, however valuable elsewhere. A white
cloud was often observed to rest on the head of the column, as if a
current of hot damp air was sent up by the heat of the flames and its
moisture was condensed at the top. Rain did not follow, though
theorists have imagined that in such cases it ought.

Large game, buffaloes, and zebras, were abundant abreast the island,
but no men could be seen. On the mainland, over on the right bank of
the river, we were amused by the eccentric gyrations and evolutions
of flocks of small seed-eating birds, who in their flight wheeled
into compact columns with such military precision as to give us the
impression that they must be guided by a leader, and all directed by
the same signal. Several other kinds of small birds now go in
flocks, and among others the large Senegal swallow. The presence of
this bird, being clearly in a state of migration from the north,
while the common swallow of the country, and the brown kite are away
beyond the equator, leads to the conjecture that there may be a
double migration, namely, of birds from torrid climates to the more
temperate, as this now is, as well as from severe winters to sunny
regions; but this could not be verified by such birds of passage as
ourselves.

On reaching Mazaro, the mouth of a narrow creek which in floods
communicates with the Quillimane river, we found that the Portuguese
were at war with a half-caste named Mariano alias Matakenya, from
whom they had generally fled, and who, having built a stockade near
the mouth of the Shire, owned all the country between that river and
Mazaro. Mariano was best known by his native name Matakenya, which
in their tongue means "trembling," or quivering as trees do in a
storm. He was a keen slave-hunter, and kept a large number of men,
well armed with muskets. It is an entire mistake to suppose that the
slave trade is one of buying and selling alone; or that engagements
can be made with labourers in Africa as they are in India; Mariano,
like other Portuguese, had no labour to spare. He had been in the
habit of sending out armed parties on slave-hunting forays among the
helpless tribes to the north-east, and carrying down the kidnapped
victims in chains to Quillimane, where they were sold by his brother-
in-law Cruz Coimbra, and shipped as "Free emigrants" to the French
island of Bourbon. So long as his robberies and murders were
restricted to the natives at a distance, the authorities did not
interfere; but his men, trained to deeds of violence and bloodshed in
their slave forays, naturally began to practise on the people nearer
at hand, though belonging to the Portuguese, and even in the village
of Senna, under the guns of the fort. A gentleman of the highest
standing told us that, while at dinner with his family, it was no
uncommon event for a slave to rush into the room pursued by one of
Mariano's men with spear in hand to murder him.

The atrocities of this villain, aptly termed by the late governor of
Quillimane a "notorious robber and murderer," became at length
intolerable. All the Portuguese spoke of him as a rare monster of
inhumanity. It is unaccountable why half-castes, such as he, are so
much more cruel than the Portuguese, but such is undoubtedly the
case.

It was asserted that one of his favourite modes of creating an
impression in the country, and making his name dreaded, was to spear
his captives with his own hands. On one occasion he is reported to
have thus killed forty poor wretches placed in a row before him. We
did not at first credit these statements, and thought that they were
merely exaggerations of the incensed Portuguese, who naturally enough
were exasperated with him for stopping their trade, and harbouring
their runaway slaves; but we learned afterwards from the natives,
that the accounts given us by the Portuguese had not exceeded the
truth; and that Mariano was quite as great a ruffian as they had
described him. One expects slave-owners to treat their human
chattels as well as men do other animals of value, but the slave-
trade seems always to engender an unreasoning ferocity, if not blood-
thirstiness.

War was declared against Mariano, and a force sent to take him; he
resisted for a time; but seeing that he was likely to get the worst
of it, and knowing that the Portuguese governors have small salaries,
and are therefore "disposed to be reasonable," he went down to
Quillimane to "arrange" with the Governor, as it is termed here; but
Colonel da Silva put him in prison, and then sent him for trial to
Mozambique. When we came into the country, his people were fighting
under his brother Bonga. The war had lasted six months and stopped
all trade on the river during that period. On the 15th June we first
came into contact with the "rebels." They appeared as a crowd of
well-armed and fantastically-dressed people under the trees at
Mazaro. On explaining that we were English, some at once came on
board and called to those on shore to lay aside their arms. On
landing among them we saw that many had the branded marks of slaves
on their chests, but they warmly approved our objects, and knew well
the distinctive character of our nation on the slave question. The
shout at our departure contrasted strongly with the suspicious
questioning on our approach. Hence-forward we were recognized as
friends by both parties.

At a later period we were taking in wood within a mile of the scene
of action, but a dense fog prevented our hearing the noise of a
battle at Mazaro; and on arriving there, immediately after, many
natives and Portuguese appeared on the bank.

Dr. Livingstone, landing to salute some of his old friends among the
latter, found himself in the sickening smell, and among the mutilated
bodies of the slain; he was requested to take the Governor, who was
very ill of fever, across to Shupanga, and just as he gave his
assent, the rebels renewed the fight, and the balls began to whistle
about in all directions. After trying in vain to get some one to
assist the Governor down to the steamer, and unwilling to leave him
in such danger, as the officer sent to bring our Kroomen did not
appear, he went into the hut, and dragged along his Excellency to the
ship. He was a very tall man, and as he swayed hither and thither
from weakness, weighing down Dr. Livingstone, it must have appeared
like one drunken man helping another. Some of the Portuguese white
soldiers stood fighting with great bravery against the enemy in
front, while a few were coolly shooting at their own slaves for
fleeing into the river behind. The rebels soon retired, and the
Portuguese escaped to a sandbank in the Zambesi, and thence to an
island opposite Shupanga, where they lay for some weeks, looking at
the rebels on the mainland opposite. This state of inactivity on the
part of the Portuguese could not well be helped, as they had expended
all their ammunition and were waiting anxiously for supplies; hoping,
no doubt sincerely, that the enemy might not hear that their powder
had failed. Luckily their hopes were not disappointed; the rebels
waited until a supply came, and were then repulsed after three-and-a-
half hours' hard fighting. Two months afterwards Mariano's stockade
was burned, the garrison having fled in a panic; and as Bonga
declared that he did not wish to fight with this Governor, with whom
he had no quarrel, the war soon came to an end. His Excellency
meanwhile, being a disciple of Raspail, had taken nothing for the
fever but a little camphor, and after he was taken to Shupanga became
comatose. More potent remedies were administered to him, to his
intense disgust, and he soon recovered. The Colonel in attendance,
whom he never afterwards forgave, encouraged the treatment. "Give
what is right; never mind him; he is very (muito) impertinent:" and
all night long, with every draught of water the Colonel gave a
quantity of quinine: the consequence was, next morning the patient
was cinchonized and better.

For sixty or seventy miles before reaching Mazaro, the scenery is
tame and uninteresting. On either hand is a dreary uninhabited
expanse, of the same level grassy plains, with merely a few trees to
relieve the painful monotony. The round green top of the stately
palm-tree looks at a distance, when its grey trunk cannot be seen, as
though hung in mid-air. Many flocks of busy sand-martins, which
here, and as far south as the Orange River, do not migrate, have
perforated the banks two or three feet horizontally, in order to
place their nests at the ends, and are now chasing on restless wing
the myriads of tropical insects. The broad river has many low
islands, on which are seen various kinds of waterfowl, such as geese,
spoonbills, herons, and flamingoes. Repulsive crocodiles, as with
open jaws they sleep and bask in the sun on the low banks, soon catch
the sound of the revolving paddles and glide quietly into the stream.
The hippopotamus, having selected some still reach of the river to
spend the day, rises out of the bottom, where he has been enjoying
his morning bath after the labours of the night on shore, blows a
puff of spray from his nostrils, shakes the water out of his ears,
puts his enormous snout up straight and yawns, sounding a loud alarm
to the rest of the herd, with notes as of a monster bassoon.

As we approach Mazaro the scenery improves. We see the well-wooded
Shupanga ridge stretching to the left, and in front blue hills rise
dimly far in the distance. There is no trade whatever on the Zambesi
below Mazaro. All the merchandise of Senna and Tette is brought to
that point in large canoes, and thence carried six miles across the
country on men's heads to be reshipped on a small stream that flows
into the Kwakwa, or Quillimane river, which is entirely distinct from
the Zambesi. Only on rare occasions and during the highest floods
can canoes pass from the Zambesi to the Quillimane river through the
narrow natural canal Mutu. The natives of Maruru, or the country
around Mazaro, the word Mazaro meaning the "mouth of the creek" Mutu,
have a bad name among the Portuguese; they are said to be expert
thieves, and the merchants sometimes suffer from their adroitness
while the goods are in transit from one river to the other. In
general they are trained canoe-men, and man many of the canoes that
ply thence to Senna and Tette; their pay is small, and, not trusting
the traders, they must always have it before they start. Africans
being prone to assign plausible reasons for their conduct, like white
men in more enlightened lands, it is possible they may be good-
humouredly giving their reason for insisting on being invariably paid
in advance in the words of their favourite canoe-song, "Uachingere,
Uachingere Kale," "You cheated me of old;" or, "Thou art slippery
slippery truly."

The Landeens or Zulus are lords of the right bank of the Zambesi; and
the Portuguese, by paying this fighting tribe a pretty heavy annual
tribute, practically admit this. Regularly every year come the Zulus
in force to Senna and Shupanga for the accustomed tribute. The few
wealthy merchants of Senna groan under the burden, for it falls
chiefly on them. They submit to pay annually 200 pieces of cloth, of
sixteen yards each, besides beads and brass wire, knowing that
refusal involves war, which might end in the loss of all they
possess. The Zulus appear to keep as sharp a look out on the Senna
and Shupanga people as ever landlord did on tenant; the more they
cultivate, the more tribute they have to pay. On asking some of them
why they did not endeavour to raise certain highly profitable
products, we were answered, "What's the use of our cultivating any
more than we do? the Landeens would only come down on us for more
tribute."

In the forests of Shupanga the Mokundu-kundu tree abounds; its bright
yellow wood makes good boat-masts, and yields a strong bitter
medicine for fever; the Gunda-tree attains to an immense size; its
timber is hard, rather cross-grained, with masses of silica deposited
in its substance; the large canoes, capable of carrying three or four
tons, are made of its wood. For permission to cut these trees, a
Portuguese gentleman of Quillimane was paying the Zulus, in 1858, two
hundred dollars a year, and his successor now pays three hundred.

At Shupanga, a one-storied stone house stands on the prettiest site
on the river. In front a sloping lawn, with a fine mango orchard at
its southern end, leads down to the broad Zambesi, whose green
islands repose on the sunny bosom of the tranquil waters. Beyond,
northwards, lie vast fields and forests of palm and tropical trees,
with the massive mountain of Morambala towering amidst the white
clouds; and further away more distant hills appear in the blue
horizon. This beautifully situated house possesses a melancholy
interest from having been associated in a most mournful manner with
the history of two English expeditions. Here, in 1826, poor
Kirkpatrick, of Captain Owen's Surveying Expedition, died of fever;
and here, in 1862, died, of the same fatal disease, the beloved wife
of Dr. Livingstone. A hundred yards east of the house, under a large
Baobab-tree, far from their native land, both are buried.

The Shupanga-house was the head-quarters of the Governor during the
Mariano war. He told us that the province of Mosambique costs the
Home Government between 5000l. and 6000l. annually, and East Africa
yields no reward in return to the mother country. We met there
several other influential Portuguese. All seemed friendly, and
expressed their willingness to assist the expedition in every way in
their power; and better still, Colonel Nunes and Major Sicard put
their good-will into action, by cutting wood for the steamer and
sending men to help in unloading. It was observable that not one of
them knew anything about the Kongone Mouth; all thought that we had
come in by the "Barra Catrina," or East Luabo. Dr. Kirk remained
here a few weeks; and, besides exploring a small lake twenty miles to
the south-west, had the sole medical care of the sick and wounded
soldiers, for which valuable services he received the thanks of the
Portuguese Government. We wooded up at this place with African ebony
or black wood, and lignum vitae; the latter tree attains an immense
size, sometimes as much as four feet in diameter; our engineer,
knowing what ebony and lignum vitae cost at home, said it made his
heart sore to burn wood so valuable. Though botanically different,
they are extremely alike; the black wood as grown in some districts
is superior, and the lignum vitae inferior in quality, to these
timbers brought from other countries. Caoutchouc, or India-rubber,
is found in abundance inland from Shupanga-house, and calumba-root is
plentiful in the district; indigo, in quantities, propagates itself
close to the banks of the Aver, and was probably at some time
cultivated, for manufactured indigo was once exported. The India-
rubber is made into balls for a game resembling "fives," and calumba-
root is said to be used as a mordant for certain colours, but not as
a dye itself.

We started for Tette on the 17th August, 1858; the navigation was
rather difficult, the Zambesi from Shupanga to Senna being wide and
full of islands; our black pilot, John Scisssors, a serf, sometimes
took the wrong channel and ran us aground. Nothing abashed, he would
exclaim in an aggrieved tone, "This is not the path, it is back
yonder." "Then why didn't you go yonder at first?" growled out our
Kroomen, who had the work of getting the vessel off. When they spoke
roughly to poor Scissors, the weak cringing slave-spirit came forth
in, "Those men scold me so, I am ready to run away." This mode of
finishing up an engagement is not at all uncommon on the Zambesi;
several cases occurred, when we were on the river, of hired crews
decamping with most of the goods in their charge. If the trader
cannot redress his own wrongs, he has to endure them. The Landeens
will not surrender a fugitive slave, even to his master. One
belonging to Mr. Azevedo fled, and was, as a great favour only,
returned after a present of much more than his value.

We landed to wood at Shamoara, just below the confluence of the
Shire. Its quartz hills are covered with trees and gigantic grasses;
the buaze, a small forest-tree, grows abundantly; it is a species of
polygala; its beautiful clusters of sweet-scented pinkish flowers
perfume the air with a rich fragrance; its seeds produce a fine
drying oil, and the bark of the smaller branches yields a fibre finer
and stronger than flax; with which the natives make their nets for
fishing. Bonga, the brother of the rebel Mariano, and now at the
head of the revolted natives, with some of his principal men came to
see us, and were perfectly friendly, though told of our having
carried the sick Governor across to Shupanga, and of our having cured
him of fever. On our acquainting Bonga with the object of the
expedition, he remarked that we should suffer no hindrance from his
people in our good work. He sent us a present of rice, two sheep,
and a quantity of firewood. He never tried to make any use of us in
the strife; the other side showed less confidence, by carefully
cross-questioning our pilot whether we had sold any powder to the
enemy. We managed, however, to keep on good terms with both rebels
and Portuguese.

Senna is built on a low plain, on the right bank of the Zambesi, with
some pretty detached hills in the background; it is surrounded by a
stockade of living trees to protect its inhabitants from their
troublesome and rebellious neighbours. It contains a few large
houses, some ruins of others, and a weather-beaten cross, where once
stood a church; a mound shows the site of an ancient monastery, and a
mud fort by the river is so dilapidated, that cows were grazing
peacefully over its prostrate walls.

The few Senna merchants, having little or no trade in the village,
send parties of trusted slaves into the interior to hunt for and
purchase ivory. It is a dull place, and very conducive to sleep.
One is sure to take fever in Senna on the second day, if by chance
one escapes it on the first day of a sojourn there; but no place is
entirely bad. Senna has one redeeming feature: it is the native
village of the large-hearted and hospitable Senhor H. A. Ferrao. The
benevolence of this gentleman is unbounded. The poor black stranger
passing through the town goes to him almost as a matter of course for
food, and is never sent away hungry. In times of famine the starving
natives are fed by his generosity; hundreds of his own people he
never sees except on these occasions; and the only benefit derived
from being their master is, that they lean on him as a patriarchal
chief, and he has the satisfaction of settling their differences, and
of saving their lives in seasons of drought and scarcity.

Senhor Ferrao received us with his usual kindness, and gave us a
bountiful breakfast. During the day the principal men of the place
called, and were unanimously of opinion that the free natives would
willingly cultivate large quantities of cotton, could they find
purchasers. They had in former times exported largely both cotton
and cloth to Manica and even to Brazil. "On their own soil," they
declared, "the natives are willing to labour and trade, provided only
they can do so to advantage: when it is for their interest, blacks
work very hard." We often remarked subsequently that this was the
opinion of men of energy; and that all settlers of activity,
enterprise, and sober habits had become rich, while those who were
much addicted to lying on their backs smoking, invariably complained
of the laziness of the negroes, and were poor, proud, and despicable.

Beyond Pita lies the little island Nyamotobsi, where we met a small
fugitive tribe of hippopotamus hunters, who had been driven by war
from their own island in front. All were busy at work; some were
making gigantic baskets for grain, the men plaiting from the inside.
With the civility so common among them the chief ordered a mat to be
spread for us under a shed, and then showed us the weapon with which
they kill the hippopotamus; it is a short iron harpoon inserted in
the end of a long pole, but being intended to unship, it is made fast
to a strong cord of milola, or hibiscus, bark, which is wound closely
round the entire length of the shaft, and secured at its opposite
end. Two men in a swift canoe steal quietly down on the sleeping
animal. The bowman dashes the harpoon into the unconscious victim,
while the quick steersman sweeps the light craft back with his broad
paddle; the force of the blow separates the harpoon from its corded
handle, which, appearing on the surface, sometimes with an inflated
bladder attached, guides the hunters to where the wounded beast hides
below until they despatch it.

These hippopotamus hunters form a separate people, called Akombwi, or
Mapodzo, and rarely--the women it is said never--intermarry with any
other tribe. The reason for their keeping aloof from certain of the
natives on the Zambesi is obvious enough, some having as great an
abhorrence of hippopotamus meat as Mahomedans have of swine's flesh.
Our pilot, Scissors, was one of this class; he would not even cook
his food in a pot which had contained hippopotamus meat, preferring
to go hungry till he could find another; and yet he traded eagerly in
the animal's tusks, and ate with great relish the flesh of the foul-
feeding marabout. These hunters go out frequently on long
expeditions, taking in their canoes their wives and children,
cooking-pots, and sleeping-mats. When they reach a good game
district, they erect temporary huts on the bank, and there dry the
meat they have killed. They are rather a comely-looking race, with
very black smooth skins, and never disfigure themselves with the
frightful ornaments of some of the other tribes. The chief declined
to sell a harpoon, because they could not now get the milola bark
from the coast on account of Mariano's war. He expressed some doubts
about our being children of the same Almighty Father, remarking that
"they could not become white, let them wash ever so much." We made
him a present of a bit of cloth, and he very generously gave us in
return some fine fresh fish and Indian corn.

The heat of the weather steadily increases during this month
(August), and foggy mornings are now rare. A strong breeze ending in
a gale blows up stream every night. It came in the afternoon a few
weeks ago, then later, and at present its arrival is near midnight;
it makes our frail cabin-doors fly open before it, but continues only
for a short time, and is succeeded by a dead calm. Game becomes more
abundant; near our wooding-places we see herds of zebras, both
Burchell's and the mountain variety, pallahs (Antelope melampus),
waterbuck, and wild hogs, with the spoor of buffaloes and elephants.

Shiramba Dembe, on the right bank, is deserted; a few old iron guns
show where a rebel stockade once stood; near the river above this,
stands a magnificent Baobab hollowed out into a good-sized hut, with
bark inside as well as without. The old oaks in Sherwood Forest,
when hollow, have the inside dead or rotten; but the Baobab, though
stripped of its bark outside, and hollowed to a cavity inside, has
the power of exuding new bark from its substance to both the outer
and inner surfaces; so, a hut made like that in the oak called the
"Forest Queen," in Sherwood, would soon all be lined with bark.

The portions of the river called Shigogo and Shipanga are bordered by
a low level expanse of marshy country, with occasional clumps of
palm-trees and a few thorny acacias. The river itself spreads out to
a width of from three to four miles, with many islands, among which
it is difficult to navigate, except when the river is in flood. In
front, a range of high hills from the north-east crosses and
compresses it into a deep narrow channel, called the Lupata Gorge.
The Portuguese thought the steamer would not stem the current here;
but as it was not more than about three knots, and as there was a
strong breeze in our favour, steam and sails got her through with
ease. Heavy-laden canoes take two days to go up this pass. A
current sweeps round the little rocky promontories Chifura and
Kangomba, forming whirlpools and eddies dangerous for the clumsy
craft, which are dragged past with long ropes.

The paddlers place meal on these rocks as an offering to the
turbulent deities, which they believe preside over spots fatal to
many a large canoe. We were slily told that native Portuguese take
off their hats to these river gods, and pass in solemn silence; when
safely beyond the promontories, they fire muskets, and, as we ought
to do, give the canoe-men grog. From the spoor of buffaloes and
elephants it appears that these animals frequent Lupata in
considerable numbers, and--we have often observed the association--
the tsetse fly is common. A horse for the Governor of Tette was sent
in a canoe from Quillimane; and, lest it should be wrecked on the
Chifura and Kangomba rocks, it was put on shore and sent in the
daytime through the pass. It was of course bitten by the tsetse, and
died soon after; it was thought that the AIR of Tette had not agreed
with it. The currents above Lupata are stronger than those below;
the country becomes more picturesque and hilly, and there is a larger
population.

The ship anchored in the stream, off Tette, on the 8th September,
1858, and Dr. Livingstone went ashore in the boat. No sooner did the
Makololo recognize him, than they rushed to the water's edge, and
manifested great joy at seeing him again. Some were hastening to
embrace him, but others cried out, "Don't touch him, you will spoil
his new clothes." The five headmen came on board and listened in
quiet sadness to the story of poor Sekwebu, who died at the Mauritius
on his way to England. "Men die in any country," they observed, and
then told us that thirty of their own number had died of smallpox,
having been bewitched by the people of Tette, who envied them
because, during the first year, none of their party had died. Six of
their young men, becoming tired of cutting firewood for a meagre
pittance, proposed to go and dance for gain before some of the
neighbouring chiefs. "Don't go," said the others, "we don't know the
people of this country;" but the young men set out and visited an
independent half-caste chief, a few miles to the north, named
Chisaka, who some years ago burned all the Portuguese villas on the
north bank of the river; afterwards the young men went to Bonga, son
of another half-caste chief, who bade defiance to the Tette
authorities, and had a stockade at the confluence of the Zambesi and
Luenya, a few miles below that village. Asking the Makololo whence
they came, Bonga rejoined, "Why do you come from my enemy to me? You
have brought witchcraft medicine to kill me." In vain they protested
that they did not belong to the country; they were strangers, and had
come from afar with an Englishman. The superstitious savage put them
all to death. "We do not grieve," said their companions, "for the
thirty victims of the smallpox, who were taken away by Morimo (God);
but our hearts are sore for the six youths who were murdered by
Bonga." Any hope of obtaining justice on the murderer was out of the
question. Bonga once caught a captain of the Portuguese army, and
forced him to perform the menial labour of pounding maize in a wooden
mortar. No punishment followed on this outrage. The Government of
Lisbon has since given Bonga the honorary title of Captain, by way of
coaxing him to own their authority; but he still holds his stockade.

Tette stands on a succession of low sandstone ridges on the right
bank of the Zambesi, which is here nearly a thousand yards wide (960
yards). Shallow ravines, running parallel with the river, form the
streets, the houses being built on the ridges. The whole surface of
the streets, except narrow footpaths, were overrun with self-sown
indigo, and tons of it might have been collected. In fact indigo,
senna, and stramonium, with a species of cassia, form the weeds of
the place, which are annually hoed off and burned. A wall of stone
and mud surrounds the village, and the native population live in huts
outside. The fort and the church, near the river, are the
strongholds; the natives having a salutary dread of the guns of the
one, and a superstitious fear of the unknown power of the other. The
number of white inhabitants is small, and rather select, many of them
having been considerately sent out of Portugal "for their country's
good." The military element preponderates in society; the convict
and "incorrigible" class of soldiers, receiving very little pay,
depend in great measure on the produce of the gardens of their black
wives; the moral condition of the resulting population may be
imagined.

Droughts are of frequent occurrence at Tette, and the crops suffer
severely. This may arise partly from the position of the town
between the ranges of hills north and south, which appear to have a
strong attraction for the rain-clouds. It is often seen to rain on
these hills when not a drop falls at Tette. Our first season was one
of drought. Thrice had the women planted their gardens in vain, the
seed, after just vegetating, was killed by the intense dry heat. A
fourth planting shared the same hard fate, and then some of the
knowing ones discovered the cause of the clouds being frightened
away: our unlucky rain-gauge in the garden. We got a bad name
through that same rain-gauge, and were regarded by many as a species
of evil omen. The Makololo in turn blamed the people of Tette for
drought: "A number of witches live here, who won't let it rain."
Africans in general are sufficiently superstitious, but those of
Tette are in this particular pre-eminent above their fellows. Coming
from many different tribes, all the rays of the separate
superstitions converge into a focus at Tette, and burn out common
sense from the minds of the mixed breed. They believe that many evil
spirits live in the air, the earth, and the water. These invisible
malicious beings are thought to inflict much suffering on the human
race; but, as they have a weakness for beer and a craving for food,
they may be propitiated from time to time by offerings of meat and
drink. The serpent is an object of worship, and hideous little
images are hung in the huts of the sick and dying. The
uncontaminated Africans believe that Morungo, the Great Spirit who
formed all things, lives above the stars; but they never pray to him,
and know nothing of their relation to him, or of his interest in
them. The spirits of their departed ancestors are all good,
according to their ideas, and on special occasions aid them in their
enterprises. When a man has his hair cut, he is careful to burn it,
or bury it secretly, lest, falling into the hands of one who has an
evil eye, or is a witch, it should be used as a charm to afflict him
with headache. They believe, too, that they will live after the
death of the body, but do not know anything of the state of the
Barimo (gods, or departed spirits).

The mango-tree grows luxuriantly above Lupata, and furnishes a
grateful shade. Its delicious fruit is superior to that on the
coast. For weeks the natives who have charge of the mangoes live
entirely on the fruit, and, as some trees bear in November and some
in March, while the main crop comes between, fruit in abundance may
easily be obtained during four months of the year; but no native can
be induced to plant a mango. A wide-spread superstition has become
riveted in the native mind, that if any one plants this tree he will
soon die. The Makololo, like other natives, were very fond of the
fruit; but when told to take up some mango-stones, on their return,
and plant them in their own country--they too having become deeply
imbued with the belief that it was a suicidal act to do so--replied
"they did not wish to die too soon." There is also a superstition
even among the native Portuguese of Tette, that if a man plants
coffee he will never afterwards be happy: they drink it, however,
and seem the happier for it.

The Portuguese of Tette have many slaves, with all the usual vices of
their class, as theft, lying, and impurity. As a general rule the
real Portuguese are tolerably humane masters and rarely treat a slave
cruelly; this may be due as much to natural kindness of heart as to a
fear of losing the slaves by their running away. When they purchase
an adult slave they buy at the same time, if possible, all his
relations along with him. They thus contrive to secure him to his
new home by domestic ties. Running away then would be to forsake all
who hold a place in his heart, for the mere chance of acquiring a
freedom, which would probably be forfeited on his entrance into the
first native village, for the chief might, without compunction, again
sell him into slavery.

A rather singular case of voluntary slavery came to our knowledge: a
free black, an intelligent active young fellow, called Chibanti, who
had been our pilot on the river, told us that he had sold himself
into slavery. On asking why he had done this, he replied that he was
all alone in the world, had neither father nor mother, nor any one
else to give him water when sick, or food when hungry; so he sold
himself to Major Sicard, a notoriously kind master, whose slaves had
little to do, and plenty to eat. "And how much did you get for
yourself?" we asked. "Three thirty-yard pieces of cotton cloth," he
replied; "and I forthwith bought a man, a woman, and child, who cost
me two of the pieces, and I had one piece left." This, at all
events, showed a cool and calculating spirit; he afterwards bought
more slaves, and in two years owned a sufficient number to man one of
the large canoes. His master subsequently employed him in carrying
ivory to Quillimane, and gave him cloth to hire mariners for the
voyage; he took his own slaves, of course, and thus drove a thriving
business; and was fully convinced that he had made a good speculation
by the sale of himself, for had he been sick his master must have
supported him. Occasionally some of the free blacks become slaves
voluntarily by going through the simple but significant ceremony of
breaking a spear in the presence of their future master. A
Portuguese officer, since dead, persuaded one of the Makololo to
remain in Tette, instead of returning to his own country, and tried
also to induce him to break a spear before him, and thus acknowledge
himself his slave, but the man was too shrewd for this; he was a
great elephant doctor, who accompanied the hunters, told them when to
attack the huge beast, and gave them medicine to ensure success.
Unlike the real Portuguese, many of the half-castes are merciless
slave-holders; their brutal treatment of the wretched slaves is
notorious. What a humane native of Portugal once said of them is
appropriate if not true: "God made white men, and God made black
men, but the devil made half-castes."

The officers and merchants send parties of slaves under faithful
headmen to hunt elephants and to trade in ivory, providing them with
a certain quantity of cloth, beads, etc., and requiring so much ivory
in return. These slaves think that they have made a good thing of
it, when they kill an elephant near a village, as the natives give
them beer and meal in exchange for some of the elephant's meat, and
over every tusk that is brought there is expended a vast amount of
time, talk, and beer. Most of the Africans are natural-born traders,
they love trade more for the sake of trading than for what they make
by it. An intelligent gentleman of Tette told us that native traders
often come to him with a tusk for sale, consider the price he offers,
demand more, talk over it, retire to consult about it, and at length
go away without selling it; next day they try another merchant, talk,
consider, get puzzled and go off as on the previous day, and continue
this course daily until they have perhaps seen every merchant in the
village, and then at last end by selling the precious tusk to some
one for even less than the first merchant had offered. Their love of
dawdling in the transaction arises from the self-importance conferred
on them by their being the object of the wheedling and coaxing of
eager merchants, a feeling to which even the love of gain is
subordinate.

The native medical profession is reasonably well represented. In
addition to the regular practitioners, who are a really useful class,
and know something of their profession, and the nature and power of
certain medicines, there are others who devote their talents to some
speciality. The elephant doctor prepares a medicine which is
considered indispensable to the hunters when attacking that noble and
sagacious beast; no hunter is willing to venture out before investing
in this precious nostrum. The crocodile doctor sells a charm which
is believed to possess the singular virtue of protecting its owner
from crocodiles. Unwittingly we offended the crocodile school of
medicine while at Tette, by shooting one of these huge reptiles as it
lay basking in the sun on a sandbank; the doctors came to the
Makololo in wrath, clamouring to know why the white man had shot
their crocodile.

A shark's hook was baited one evening with a dog, of which the
crocodile is said to be particularly fond; but the doctors removed
the bait, on the principle that the more crocodiles the more demand
for medicine, or perhaps because they preferred to eat the dog
themselves. Many of the natives of this quarter are known, as in the
South Seas, to eat the dog without paying any attention to its
feeding. The dice doctor or diviner is an important member of the
community, being consulted by Portuguese and natives alike. Part of
his business is that of a detective, it being his duty to discover
thieves. When goods are stolen, he goes and looks at the place,
casts his dice, and waits a few days, and then, for a consideration,
tells who is the thief: he is generally correct, for he trusts not
to his dice alone; he has confidential agents all over the village,
by whose inquiries and information he is enabled to detect the
culprit. Since the introduction of muskets, gun doctors have sprung
up, and they sell the medicine which professes to make good marksmen;
others are rain doctors, etc., etc. The various schools deal in
little charms, which are hung round the purchaser's neck to avert
evil: some of them contain the medicine, others increase its power.

Indigo, about three or four feet high, grows in great luxuriance in
the streets of Tette, and so does the senna plant. The leaves are
undistinguishable from those imported in England. A small amount of
first-rate cotton is cultivated by the native population for the
manufacture of a coarse cloth. A neighbouring tribe raises the
sugar-cane, and makes a little sugar; but they use most primitive
wooden rollers, and having no skill in mixing lime with the extracted
juice, the product is of course of very inferior quality. Plenty of
magnetic iron ore is found near Tette, and coal also to any amount; a
single cliff-seam measuring twenty-five feet in thickness. It was
found to burn well in the steamer on the first trial. Gold is washed
for in the beds of rivers, within a couple of days of Tette. The
natives are fully aware of its value, but seldom search for it, and
never dig deeper than four or five feet. They dread lest the falling
in of the sand of the river's bed should bury them. In former times,
when traders went with hundreds of slaves to the washings, the
produce was considerable. It is now insignificant. The gold-
producing lands have always been in the hands of independent tribes.
Deep cuttings near the sources of the gold-yielding streams seem
never to have been tried here, as in California and Australia, nor
has any machinery been used save common wooden basins for washing.



CHAPTER II.



Kebrabasa Rapids--Tette--African fever--Exploration of the Shire--
Discovery of Lake Shirwa.

Our curiosity had been so much excited by the reports we had heard of
the Kebrabasa rapids, that we resolved to make a short examination of
them, and seized the opportunity of the Zambesi being unusually low,
to endeavour to ascertain their character while uncovered by the
water. We reached them on the 9th of November. The country between
Tette and Panda Mokua, where navigation ends, is well wooded and
hilly on both banks. Panda Mokua is a hill two miles below the
rapids, capped with dolomite containing copper ore.

Conspicuous among the trees, for its gigantic size, and bark coloured
exactly like Egyptian syenite, is the burly Baobab. It often makes
the other trees of the forest look like mere bushes in comparison. A
hollow one, already mentioned, is 74 feet in circumference, another
was 84, and some have been found on the West Coast which measure 100
feet. The lofty range of Kebrabasa, consisting chiefly of conical
hills, covered with scraggy trees, crosses the Zambesi, and confines
it within a narrow, rough, and rocky dell of about a quarter of a
mile in breadth; over this, which may be called the flood-bed of the
river, large masses of rock are huddled in indescribable confusion.
The drawing, for the use of which, and of others, our thanks are due
to Lord Russell, conveys but a faint idea of the scene, inasmuch as
the hills which confine the river do not appear in the sketch. The
chief rock is syenite, some portions of which have a beautiful blue
tinge like lapis lazuli diffused through them; others are grey.
Blocks of granite also abound, of a pinkish tinge; and these with
metamorphic rocks, contorted, twisted, and thrown into every
conceivable position, afford a picture of dislocation or
unconformability which would gladden a geological lecturer's heart;
but at high flood this rough channel is all smoothed over, and it
then conforms well with the river below it, which is half a mile
wide. In the dry season the stream runs at the bottom of a narrow
and deep groove, whose sides are polished and fluted by the boiling
action of the water in flood, like the rims of ancient Eastern wells
by the draw-ropes. The breadth of the groove is often not more than
from forty to sixty yards, and it has some sharp turnings, double
channels, and little cataracts in it. As we steamed up, the masts of
the "Ma Robert," though some thirty feet high, did not reach the
level of the flood-channel above, and the man in the chains sung out,
"No bottom at ten fathoms." Huge pot-holes, as large as draw-wells,
had been worn in the sides, and were so deep that in some instances,
when protected from the sun by overhanging boulders, the water in
them was quite cool. Some of these holes had been worn right
through, and only the side next the rock remained; while the sides of
the groove of the flood-channel were polished as smooth as if they
had gone through the granite-mills of Aberdeen. The pressure of the
water must be enormous to produce this polish. It had wedged round
pebbles into chinks and crannies of the rocks so firmly that, though
they looked quite loose, they could not be moved except with a
hammer. The mighty power of the water here seen gave us an idea of
what is going on in thousands of cataracts in the world. All the
information we had been able to obtain from our Portuguese friends
amounted to this, that some three or four detached rocks jutted out
of the river in Kebrabasa, which, though dangerous to the cumbersome
native canoes, could be easily passed by a steamer, and that if one
or two of these obstructions were blasted away with gunpowder, no
difficulty would hereafter be experienced. After we had painfully
explored seven or eight miles of the rapid, we returned to the vessel
satisfied that much greater labour was requisite for the mere
examination of the cataracts than our friends supposed necessary to
remove them; we therefore went down the river for fresh supplies, and
made preparation for a more serious survey of this region.

The steamer having returned from the bar, we set out on the 22nd of
November to examine the rapids of Kebrabasa. We reached the foot of
the hills again, late in the afternoon of the 24th, and anchored in
the stream. Canoe-men never sleep on the river, but always spend the
night on shore. The natives on the right bank, in the country called
Shidima, who are Banyai, and even at this short distance from Tette,
independent, and accustomed to lord it over Portuguese traders,
wondered what could be our object in remaining afloat, and were
naturally suspicious at our departing from the universal custom.

They hailed us from the bank in the evening with "Why don't you come
and sleep onshore like other people?"

The answer they received from our Makololo, who now felt as
independent as the Banyai, was, "We are held to the bottom with iron;
you may see we are not like your Bazungu."

This hint, a little amplified, saved us from the usual exactions. It
is pleasant to give a present, but that pleasure the Banyai usually
deny to strangers by making it a fine, and demanding it in such a
supercilious way, that only a sorely cowed trader could bear it.
They often refuse to touch what is offered--throw it down and leave
it--sneer at the trader's slaves, and refuse a passage until the
tribute is raised to the utmost extent of his means.

Leaving the steamer next morning, we proceeded on foot, accompanied
by a native Portuguese and his men and a dozen Makololo, who carried
our baggage. The morning was pleasant, the hills on our right
furnished for a time a delightful shade; but before long the path
grew frightfully rough, and the hills no longer shielded us from the
blazing sun. Scarcely a vestige of a track was now visible; and,
indeed, had not our guide assured us to the contrary, we should have
been innocent of even the suspicion of a way along the patches of
soft yielding sand, and on the great rocks over which we so painfully
clambered. These rocks have a singular appearance, from being
dislocated and twisted in every direction, and covered with a thin
black glaze, as if highly polished and coated with lamp-black
varnish. This seems to have been deposited while the river was in
flood, for it covers only those rocks which lie between the highest
water-mark and a line about four feet above the lowest. Travellers
who have visited the rapids of the Orinoco and the Congo say that the
rocks there have a similar appearance, and it is attributed to some
deposit from the water, formed only when the current is strong. This
may account for it in part here, as it prevails only where the narrow
river is confined between masses of rock, backed by high hills, and
where the current in floods is known to be the strongest; and it does
not exist where the rocks are only on one side, with a sandy beach
opposite, and a broad expanse of river between. The hot rocks burnt
the thick soles of our men's feet, and sorely fatigued ourselves.
Our first day's march did not exceed four miles in a straight line,
and that we found more than enough to be pleasant.

The state of insecurity in which the Badema tribe live is indicated
by the habit of hiding their provisions in the hills, and keeping
only a small quantity in their huts; they strip a particular species
of tree of its bitter bark, to which both mice and monkeys are known
to have an antipathy, and, turning the bark inside out, sew it into
cylindrical vessels for their grain, and bury them in holes and in
crags on the wooded hill-sides. By this means, should a marauding
party plunder their huts, they save a supply of corn. They "could
give us no information, and they had no food; Chisaka's men had
robbed them a few weeks before."

"Never mind," said our native Portuguese, "they will sell you plenty
when you return, they are afraid of you now, as yet they do not know
who you are." We slept under trees in the open air, and suffered no
inconvenience from either mosquitoes or dew: and no prowling wild
beast troubled us; though one evening, while we were here, a native
sitting with some others on the opposite bank was killed by a
leopard.

One of the Tette slaves, who wished to be considered a great
traveller, gave us, as we sat by our evening fire, an interesting
account of a strange race of men whom he had seen in the interior;
they were only three feet high, and had horns growing out of their
heads; they lived in a large town and had plenty of food. The
Makololo pooh-poohed this story, and roundly told the narrator that
he was telling a downright lie. "WE come from the interior," cried
out a tall fellow, measuring some six feet four, "are WE dwarfs? have
WE horns on our heads?" and thus they laughed the fellow to scorn.
But he still stoutly maintained that he had seen these little people,
and had actually been in their town; thus making himself the hero of
the traditional story, which before and since the time of Herodotus
has, with curious persistency, clung to the native mind. The mere
fact that such absurd notions are permanent, even in the entire
absence of literature, invests the religious ideas of these people
also with importance, as fragments of the wreck of the primitive
faith floating down the stream of time.

We waded across the rapid Luia, which took us up to the waist, and
was about forty yards wide. The water was discoloured at the time,
and we were not without apprehension that a crocodile might chance to
fancy a white man for dinner. Next day one of the men crawled over
the black rocks to within ten yards of a sleeping hippopotamus, and
shot him through the brain. The weather being warm, the body floated
in a few hours, and some of us had our first trial of hippopotamus
flesh. It is a cross-grained meat, something between pork and beef,-
-pretty good food when one is hungry and can get nothing better.
When we reached the foot of the mountain named Chipereziwa, whose
perpendicular rocky sides are clothed with many-coloured lichens, our
Portuguese companion informed us there were no more obstructions to
navigation, the river being all smooth above; he had hunted there and
knew it well. Supposing that the object of our trip was accomplished
we turned back; but two natives, who came to our camp at night,
assured us that a cataract, called Morumbwa, did still exist in
front. Drs. Livingstone and Kirk then decided to go forward with
three Makololo and settle the question for themselves. It was as
tough a bit of travel as they ever had in Africa, and after some
painful marching the Badema guides refused to go further; "the
Banyai," they said, "would be angry if they showed white men the
country; and there was besides no practicable approach to the spot,
neither elephant, nor hippopotamus, nor even a crocodile could reach
the cataract." The slopes of the mountains on each side of the
river, now not 300 yards wide, and without the flattish flood-channel
and groove, were more than 3000 feet from the sky-line down, and were
covered either with dense thornbush or huge black boulders; this deep
trough-like shape caused the sun's rays to converge as into a focus,
making the surface so hot that the soles of the feet of the Makololo
became blistered. Around, and up and down, the party clambered among
these heated blocks, at a pace not exceeding a mile an hour; the
strain upon the muscles in jumping from crag to boulder, and
wriggling round projections, took an enormous deal out of them, and
they were often glad to cower in the shadow formed by one rock
overhanging and resting on another; the shelter induced the
peculiarly strong and overpowering inclination to sleep, which too
much sun sometimes causes. This sleep is curative of what may be
incipient sunstroke: in its first gentle touches, it caused the
dream to flit over the boiling brain, that they had become lunatics
and had been sworn in as members of the Alpine club; and then it
became so heavy that it made them feel as if a portion of existence
had been cut out from their lives. The sun is excessively hot, and
feels sharp in Africa; but, probably from the greater dryness of the
atmosphere, we never heard of a single case of sunstroke, so common
in India. The Makololo told Dr. Livingstone they "always thought he
had a heart, but now they believed he had none," and tried to
persuade Dr. Kirk to return, on the ground that it must be evident
that, in attempting to go where no living foot could tread, his
leader had given unmistakeable signs of having gone mad. All their
efforts of persuasion, however, were lost upon Dr. Kirk, as he had
not yet learned their language, and his leader, knowing his companion
to be equally anxious with himself to solve the problem of the
navigableness of Kebrabasa, was not at pains to enlighten him. At
one part a bare mountain spur barred the way, and had to be
surmounted by a perilous and circuitous route, along which the crags
were so hot that it was scarcely possible for the hand to hold on
long enough to ensure safety in the passage; and had the foremost of
the party lost his hold, he would have hurled all behind him into the
river at the foot of the promontory; yet in this wild hot region, as
they descended again to the river, they met a fisherman casting his
hand-net into the boiling eddies, and he pointed out the cataract of
Morumbwa; within an hour they were trying to measure it from an
overhanging rock, at a height of about one hundred feet. When you
stand facing the cataract, on the north bank, you see that it is
situated in a sudden bend of the river, which is flowing in a short
curve; the river above it is jammed between two mountains in a
channel with perpendicular sides, and less than fifty yards wide; one
or two masses of rock jut out, and then there is a sloping fall of
perhaps twenty feet in a distance of thirty yards. It would stop all
navigation, except during the highest floods; the rocks showed that
the water then rises upwards of eighty feet perpendicularly.

Still keeping the position facing the cataract, on its right side
rises Mount Morumbwa from 2000 to 3000 feet high, which gives the
name to the spot. On the left of the cataract stands a noticeable
mountain which may be called onion-shaped, for it is partly conical
and a large concave flake has peeled off, as granite often does, and
left a broad, smooth convex face as if it were an enormous bulb.
These two mountains extend their bases northwards about half a mile,
and the river in that distance, still very narrow, is smooth, with a
few detached rocks standing out from its bed. They climbed as high
up the base of Mount Morumbwa, which touches the cataract, as they
required. The rocks were all water-worn and smooth, with huge
potholes, even at 100 feet above low water. When at a later period
they climbed up the north-western base of this same mountain, the
familiar face of the onion-shaped one opposite was at once
recognised; one point of view on the talus of Mount Morumbwa was not
more than 700 or 800 yards distant from the other, and they then
completed the survey of Kebrabasa from end to end.

They did not attempt to return by the way they came, but scaled the
slope of the mountain on the north. It took them three hours' hard
labour in cutting their way up through the dense thornbush which
covered the ascent. The face of the slope was often about an angle
of 70 degrees, yet their guide Shokumbenla, whose hard, horny soles,
resembling those of elephants, showed that he was accustomed to this
rough and hot work, carried a pot of water for them nearly all the
way up. They slept that night at a well in a tufaceous rock on the
N.W. of Chipereziwa, and never was sleep more sweet.

A band of native musicians came to our camp one evening, on our own
way down, and treated us with their wild and not unpleasant music on
the Marimba, an instrument formed of bars of hard wood of varying
breadth and thickness, laid on different-sized hollow calabashes, and
tuned to give the notes; a few pieces of cloth pleased them, and they
passed on.

The rainy season of Tette differs a little from that of some of the
other intertropical regions; the quantity of rain-fall being
considerably less. It begins in November and ends in April. During
our first season in that place, only a little over nineteen inches of
rain fell. In an average year, and when the crops are good, the fall
amounts to about thirty-five inches. On many days it does not rain
at all, and rarely is it wet all day; some days have merely a passing
shower, preceded and followed by hot sunshine; occasionally an
interval of a week, or even a fortnight, passes without a drop of
rain, and then the crops suffer from the sun. These partial droughts
happen in December and January. The heat appears to increase to a
certain point in the different latitudes so as to necessitate a
change, by some law similar to that which regulates the intense cold
in other countries. After several days of progressive heat here, on
the hottest of which the thermometer probably reaches 103 degrees in
the shade, a break occurs in the weather, and a thunderstorm cools
the air for a time. At Kuruman, when the thermometer stood above 84
degrees, rain might be expected; at Kolobeng, the point at which we
looked for a storm was 96 degrees. The Zambesi is in flood twice in
the course of the year; the first flood, a partial one, attains its
greatest height about the end of December or beginning of January;
the second, and greatest, occurs after the river inundates the
interior, in a manner similar to the overflow of the Nile, this rise
not taking place at Tette until March. The Portuguese say that the
greatest height which the March floods attain is thirty feet at
Tette, and this happens only about every fourth year; their
observations, however, have never been very accurate on anything but
ivory, and they have in this case trusted to memory alone. The only
fluviometer at Tette, or anywhere else on the river, was set up at
our suggestion; and the first flood was at its greatest height of
thirteen feet six inches on the 17th January, 1859, and then
gradually fell a few feet, until succeeded by the greater flood of
March. The river rises suddenly, the water is highly discoloured and
impure, and there is a four-knot current in many places; but in a day
or two after the first rush of waters is passed, the current becomes
more equally spread over the whole bed of the river, and resumes its
usual rate in the channel, although continuing in flood. The Zambesi
water at other times is almost chemically pure, and the photographer
would find that it is nearly as good as distilled water for the
nitrate of silver bath.

A third visit to Kebrabasa was made for the purpose of ascertaining
whether it might be navigable when the Zambesi was in flood, the
chief point of interest being of course Morumbwa; it was found that
the rapids observed in our first trip had disappeared, and that while
they were smoothed over, in a few places the current had increased in
strength. As the river fell rapidly while we were on the journey,
the cataract of Morumbwa did not differ materially from what it was
when discovered. Some fishermen assured us that it was not visible
when the river was at its fullest, and that the current was then not
very strong. On this occasion we travelled on the right bank, and
found it, with the additional inconvenience of rain, as rough and
fatiguing as the left had been. Our progress was impeded by the tall
wet grass and dripping boughs, and consequent fever. During the
earlier part of the journey we came upon a few deserted hamlets only;
but at last in a pleasant valley we met some of the people of the
country, who were miserably poor and hungry. The women were
gathering wild fruits in the woods. A young man having consented for
two yards of cotton cloth to show us a short path to the cataract led
us up a steep hill to a village perched on the edge of one of its
precipices; a thunderstorm coming on at the time, the headman invited
us to take shelter in a hut until it had passed. Our guide having
informed him of what he knew and conceived to be our object, was
favoured in return with a long reply in well-sounding blank verse; at
the end of every line the guide, who listened with deep attention,
responded with a grunt, which soon became so ludicrous that our men
burst into a loud laugh. Neither the poet nor the responsive guide
took the slightest notice of their rudeness, but kept on as
energetically as ever to the end. The speech, or more probably our
bad manners, made some impression on our guide, for he declined,
although offered double pay, to go any further.

A great deal of fever comes in with March and April; in March, if
considerable intervals take place between the rainy days, and in
April always, for then large surfaces of mud and decaying vegetation
are exposed to the hot sun. In general an attack does not continue
long, but it pulls one down quickly; though when the fever is checked
the strength is as quickly restored. It had long been observed that
those who were stationed for any length of time in one spot, and
lived sedentary lives, suffered more from fever than others who moved
about and had both mind and body occupied; but we could not all go in
the small vessel when she made her trips, during which the change of
place and scenery proved so conducive to health; and some of us were
obliged to remain in charge of the expedition's property, making
occasional branch trips to examine objects of interest in the
vicinity. Whatever may be the cause of the fever, we observed that
all were often affected at the same time, as if from malaria. This
was particularly the case during a north wind: it was at first
commonly believed that a daily dose of quinine would prevent the
attack. For a number of months all our men, except two, took quinine
regularly every morning. The fever some times attacked the believers
in quinine, while the unbelievers in its prophylactic powers escaped.
Whether we took it daily, or omitted it altogether for months, made
no difference; the fever was impartial, and seized us on the days of
quinine as regularly and as severely as when it remained undisturbed
in the medicine chest, and we finally abandoned the use of it as a
prophylactic altogether. The best preventive against fever is plenty
of interesting work to do, and abundance of wholesome food to eat.
To a man well housed and clothed, who enjoys these advantages, the
fever at Tette will not prove a more formidable enemy than a common
cold; but let one of these be wanting--let him be indolent, or guilty
of excesses in eating or drinking, or have poor, scanty fare,--and
the fever will probably become a more serious matter. It is of a
milder type at Tette than at Quillimane or on the low sea-coast; and,
as in this part of Africa one is as liable to fever as to colds in
England, it would be advisable for strangers always to hasten from
the coast to the high lands, in order that when the seizure does take
place, it may be of the mildest type. Although quinine was not found
to be a preventive, except possibly in the way of acting as a tonic,
and rendering the system more able to resist the influence of
malaria, it was found invaluable in the cure of the complaint, as
soon as pains in the back, sore bones, headache, yawning, quick and
sometimes intermittent pulse, noticeable pulsations of the jugulars,
with suffused eyes, hot skin, and foul tongue, began. {1}

Very curious are the effects of African fever on certain minds.
Cheerfulness vanishes, and the whole mental horizon is overcast with
black clouds of gloom and sadness. The liveliest joke cannot provoke
even the semblance of a smile. The countenance is grave, the eyes
suffused, and the few utterances are made in the piping voice of a
wailing infant. An irritable temper is often the first symptom of
approaching fever. At such times a man feels very much like a fool,
if he does not act like one. Nothing is right, nothing pleases the
fever-stricken victim. He is peevish, prone to find fault and to
contradict, and think himself insulted, and is exactly what an Irish
naval surgeon before a court-martial defined a drunken man to be: "a
man unfit for society."

Finding that it was impossible to take our steamer of only ten-horse
power through Kebrabasa, and convinced that, in order to force a
passage when the river was in flood, much greater power was required,
due information was forwarded to Her Majesty's Government, and
application made for a more suitable vessel. Our attention was in
the mean time turned to the exploration of the river Shire, a
northern tributary of the Zambesi, which joins it about a hundred
miles from the sea. We could learn nothing satisfactory from the
Portuguese regarding this affluent; no one, they said, had ever been
up it, nor could they tell whence it came. Years ago a Portuguese
expedition is said, however, to have attempted the ascent, but to
have abandoned it on account of the impenetrable duckweed (Pistia
stratiotes.) We could not learn from any record that the Shire had
ever been ascended by Europeans. As far, therefore, as we were
concerned, the exploration was absolutely new. All the Portuguese
believed the Manganja to be brave but bloodthirsty savages; and on
our return we found that soon after our departure a report was widely
spread that our temerity had been followed by fatal results, Dr.
Livingstone having been shot, and Dr. Kirk mortally wounded by
poisoned arrows.

Our first trip to the Shire was in January, 1859. A considerable
quantity of weed floated down the river for the first twenty-five
miles, but not sufficient to interrupt navigation with canoes or with
any other craft. Nearly the whole of this aquatic plant proceeds
from a marsh on the west, and comes into the river a little beyond a
lofty hill called Mount Morambala. Above that there is hardly any.
As we approached the villages, the natives collected in large
numbers, armed with bows and poisoned arrows; and some, dodging
behind trees, were observed taking aim as if on the point of
shooting. All the women had been sent out of the way, and the men
were evidently prepared to resist aggression. At the village of a
chief named Tingane, at least five hundred natives collected and
ordered us to stop. Dr. Livingstone went ashore; and on his
explaining that we were English and had come neither to take slaves
nor to fight, but only to open a path by which our countrymen might
follow to purchase cotton, or whatever else they might have to sell,
except slaves, Tingane became at once quite friendly. The presence
of the steamer, which showed that they had an entirely new people to
deal with, probably contributed to this result; for Tingane was
notorious for being the barrier to all intercourse between the
Portuguese black traders and the natives further inland; none were
allowed to pass him either way. He was an elderly, well-made man,
grey-headed, and over six feet high. Though somewhat excited by our
presence, he readily complied with the request to call his people
together, in order that all might know what our objects were.

In commencing intercourse with any people we almost always referred
to the English detestation of slavery. Most of them already possess
some information respecting the efforts made by the English at sea to
suppress the slave-trade; and our work being to induce them to raise
and sell cotton, instead of capturing and selling their fellow-men,
our errand appears quite natural; and as they all have clear ideas of
their own self-interest, and are keen traders, the reasonableness of
the proposal is at once admitted; and as a belief in a Supreme Being,
the Maker and Ruler of all things, and in the continued existence of
departed spirits, is universal, it becomes quite appropriate to
explain that we possess a Book containing a Revelation of the will of
Him to whom in their natural state they recognise no relationship.
The fact that His Son appeared among men, and left His words in His
Book, always awakens attention; but the great difficulty is to make
them feel that they have any relationship to Him, and that He feels
any interest in them. The numbness of moral perception exhibited, is
often discouraging; but the mode of communication, either by
interpreters, or by the imperfect knowledge of the language, which
not even missionaries of talent can overcome save by the labour of
many years, may, in part, account for the phenomenon. However, the
idea of the Father of all being displeased with His children, for
selling or killing each other, at once gains their ready assent: it
harmonizes so exactly with their own ideas of right and wrong. But,
as in our own case at home, nothing less than the instruction and
example of many years will secure their moral elevation.

The dialect spoken here closely resembles that used at Senna and
Tette. We understood it at first only enough to know whether our
interpreter was saying what we bade him, or was indulging in his own
version. After stating pretty nearly what he was told, he had an
inveterate tendency to wind up with "The Book says you are to grow
cotton, and the English are to come and buy it," or with some joke of
his own, which might have been ludicrous, had it not been seriously
distressing.

In the first ascent of the Shire our attention was chiefly directed
to the river itself. The delight of threading out the meanderings of
upwards of 200 miles of a hitherto unexplored river must be felt to
be appreciated. All the lower part of the river was found to be at
least two fathoms in depth. It became shallower higher up, where
many departing and re-entering branches diminished the volume of
water, but the absence of sandbanks made it easy of navigation. We
had to exercise the greatest care lest anything we did should be
misconstrued by the crowds who watched us. After having made, in a
straight line, one hundred miles, although the windings of the river
had fully doubled the distance, we found further progress with the
steamer arrested, in 15 degrees 55 minutes south, by magnificent
cataracts, which we called, "The Murchison," after one whose name has
already a world-wide fame, and whose generous kindness we can never
repay. The native name of that figured in the woodcut is Mamvira.
It is that at which the progress of the steamer was first stopped.
The angle of descent is much smaller than that of the five cataracts
above it; indeed, so small as compared with them, that after they
were discovered this was not included in the number.

A few days were spent here in the hope that there might be an
opportunity of taking observations for longitude, but it rained most
of the time, or the sky was overcast. It was deemed imprudent to
risk a land journey whilst the natives were so very suspicious as to
have a strong guard on the banks of the river night and day; the
weather also was unfavourable. After sending presents and messages
to two of the chiefs, we returned to Tette. In going down stream our
progress was rapid, as we were aided by the current. The hippopotami
never made a mistake, but got out of our way. The crocodiles, not so
wise, sometimes rushed with great velocity at us, thinking that we
were some huge animal swimming. They kept about a foot from the
surface, but made three well-defined ripples from the feet and body,
which marked their rapid progress; raising the head out of the water
when only a few yards from the expected feast, down they went to the
bottom like a stone, without touching the boat.

In the middle of March of the same year (1859), we started again for
a second trip on the Shire. The natives were now friendly, and
readily sold us rice, fowls, and corn. We entered into amicable
relations with the chief, Chibisa, whose village was about ten miles
below the cataract. He had sent two men on our first visit to invite
us to drink beer; but the steamer was such a terrible apparition to
them, that, after shouting the invitation, they jumped ashore, and
left their canoe to drift down the stream. Chibisa was a remarkably
shrewd man, the very image, save his dark hue, of one of our most
celebrated London actors, {2} and the most intelligent chief, by far,
in this quarter. A great deal of fighting had fallen to his lot, he
said; but it was always others who began; he was invariably in the
right, and they alone were to blame. He was moreover a firm believer
in the divine right of kings. He was an ordinary man, he said, when
his father died, and left him the chieftainship; but directly he
succeeded to the high office, he was conscious of power passing into
his head, and down his back; he felt it enter, and knew that he was a
chief, clothed with authority, and possessed of wisdom; and people
then began to fear and reverence him. He mentioned this, as one
would a fact of natural history, any doubt being quite out of the
question. His people, too, believed in him, for they bathed in the
river without the slightest fear of crocodiles, the chief having
placed a powerful medicine there, which protected them from the bite
of these terrible reptiles.

Leaving the vessel opposite Chibisa's village, Drs. Livingstone and
Kirk and a number of the Makololo started on foot for Lake Shirwa.
They travelled in a northerly direction over a mountainous country.
The people were far from being well-disposed to them, and some of
their guides tried to mislead them, and could not be trusted.
Masakasa, a Makololo headman, overheard some remarks which satisfied
him that the guide was leading them into trouble. He was quiet till
they reached a lonely spot, when he came up to Dr. Livingstone, and
said, "That fellow is bad, he is taking us into mischief; my spear is
sharp, and there is no one here; shall I cast him into the long
grass?" Had the Doctor given the slightest token of assent, or even
kept silence, never more would any one have been led by that guide,
for in a twinkling he would have been where "the wicked cease from
troubling." It was afterwards found that in this case there was no
treachery at all, but a want of knowledge on their part of the
language and of the country. They asked to be led to "Nyanja
Mukulu," or Great Lake, meaning, by this, Lake Shirwa; and the guide
took them round a terribly rough piece of mountainous country,
gradually edging away towards a long marsh, which from the numbers of
those animals we had seen there we had called the Elephant Marsh, but
which was really the place known to him by the name "Nyanja Mukulu,"
or Great Lake. Nyanja or Nyanza means, generally, a marsh, lake,
river, or even a mere rivulet.

The party pushed on at last without guides, or only with crazy ones;
for, oddly enough, they were often under great obligations to the
madmen of the different villages: one of these honoured them, as
they slept in the open air, by dancing and singing at their feet the
whole night. These poor fellows sympathized with the explorers,
probably in the belief that they belonged to their own class; and,
uninfluenced by the general opinion of their countrymen, they really
pitied, and took kindly to the strangers, and often guided them
faithfully from place to place, when no sane man could be hired for
love or money.

The bearing of the Manganja at this time was very independent; a
striking contrast to the cringing attitude they afterwards assumed,
when the cruel scourge of slave-hunting passed over their country.
Signals were given from the different villages by means of drums, and
notes of defiance and intimidation were sounded in the travellers'
ears by day; and occasionally they were kept awake the whole night,
in expectation of an instant attack. Drs. Livingstone and Kirk were
desirous that nothing should occur to make the natives regard them as
enemies; Masakasa, on the other hand, was anxious to show what he
could do in the way of fighting them.

The perseverance of the party was finally crowned with success; for
on the 18th of April they discovered Lake Shirwa, a considerable body
of bitter water, containing leeches, fish, crocodiles, and
hippopotami. From having probably no outlet, the water is slightly
brackish, and it appears to be deep, with islands like hills rising
out of it. Their point of view was at the base of Mount Pirimiti or
Mopeu-peu, on its S.S.W. side. Thence the prospect northwards ended
in a sea horizon with two small islands in the distance--a larger
one, resembling a hill-top and covered with trees, rose more in the
foreground. Ranges of hills appeared on the east; and on the west
stood Mount Chikala, which seems to be connected with the great
mountain-mass called Zomba.

The shore, near which they spent two nights, was covered with reeds
and papyrus. Wishing to obtain the latitude by the natural horizon,
they waded into the water some distance towards what was reported to
be a sand-bank, but were so assaulted by leeches, they were fain to
retreat; and a woman told them that in enticing them into the water
the men only wanted to kill them. The information gathered was that
this lake was nothing in size compared to another in the north, from
which it is separated by only a tongue of land. The northern end of
Shirwa has not been seen, though it has been passed; the length of
the lake may probably be 60 or 80 miles, and about 20 broad. The
height above the sea is 1800 feet, and the taste of the water is like
a weak solution of Epsom salts. The country around is very
beautiful, and clothed with rich vegetation; and the waves, at the
time they were there breaking and foaming over a rock on the south-
eastern side, added to the beauty of the picture. Exceedingly lofty
mountains, perhaps 8000 feet above the sea-level, stand near the
eastern shore. When their lofty steep-sided summits appear, some
above, some below the clouds, the scene is grand. This range is
called Milanje; on the west stands Mount Zomba, 7000 feet in height,
and some twenty miles long.

Their object being rather to gain the confidence of the people by
degrees than to explore, they considered that they had advanced far
enough into the country for one trip; and believing that they could
secure their end by a repetition of their visit, as they had done on
the Shire, they decided to return to the vessel at Dakanamoio island;
but, instead of returning by the way they came, they passed down
southwards close by Mount Chiradzuru, among the relatives of Chibisa,
and thence by the pass Zedi, down to the Shire. The Kroomen had,
while we were away, cut a good supply of wood for steaming, and we
soon proceeded down the river.

The steamer reached Tette on the 23rd of June, and, after undergoing
repairs, proceeded to the Kongone to receive provisions from one of
H.M. cruisers. We had been very abundantly supplied with first-rate
stores, but were unfortunate enough to lose a considerable portion of
them, and had now to bear the privation as best we could. On the way
down, we purchased a few gigantic cabbages and pumpkins at a native
village below Mazaro. Our dinners had usually consisted of but a
single course; but we were surprised the next day by our black cook
from Sierra Leone bearing in a second course. "What have you got
there?" was asked in wonder. "A tart, sir." "A tart! of what is it
made?" "Of cabbage, sir." As we had no sugar, and could not "make
believe," as in the days of boyhood, we did not enjoy the feast that
Tom's genius had prepared. Her Majesty's brig "Persian," Lieutenant
Saumarez commanding, called on her way to the Cape; and, though
somewhat short of provisions herself, generously gave us all she
could spare. We now parted with our Kroomen, as, from their
inability to march, we could not use them in our land journeys. A
crew was picked out from the Makololo, who, besides being good
travellers, could cut wood, work the ship, and required only native
food.

While at the Kongone it was found necessary to beach the steamer for
repairs. She was built of a newly invented sort of steel plates,
only a sixteenth of an inch in thickness, patented, but unfortunately
never tried before. To build an exploring ship of untried material
was a mistake. Some chemical action on this preparation of steel
caused a minute hole; from this point, branches like lichens, or the
little ragged stars we sometimes see in thawing ice, radiated in all
directions. Small holes went through wherever a bend occurred in
these branches. The bottom very soon became like a sieve, completely
full of minute holes, which leaked perpetually. The engineer stopped
the larger ones, but the vessel was no sooner afloat, than new ones
broke out. The first news of a morning was commonly the unpleasant
announcement of another leak in the forward compartment, or in the
middle, which was worse still.

Frequent showers fell on our way up the Zambesi, in the beginning of
August. On the 8th we had upwards of three inches of rain, which
large quantity, more than falls in any single rainy day during the
season at Tette, we owed to being near the sea. Sometimes the cabin
was nearly flooded; for, in addition to the leakage from below, rain
poured through the roof, and an umbrella had to be used whenever we
wished to write: the mode of coupling the compartments, too, was a
new one, and the action of the hinder compartment on the middle one
pumped up the water of the river, and sent it in streams over the
floor and lockers, where lay the cushions which did double duty as
chairs and beds. In trying to form an opinion of the climate, it
must be recollected that much of the fever, from which we suffered,
was caused by sleeping on these wet cushions. Many of the botanical
specimens, laboriously collected and carefully prepared by Dr. Kirk,
were destroyed, or double work imposed, by their accidentally falling
into wet places in the cabin.

About the middle of August, after cutting wood at Shamoara, we again
steamed up the Shire, with the intention of becoming better
acquainted with the people, and making another and longer journey on
foot to the north of Lake Shirwa, in search of Lake Nyassa, of which
we had already received some information, under the name Nyinyesi
(the stars). The Shire is much narrower than the Zambesi, but
deeper, and more easily navigated. It drains a low and exceedingly
fertile valley of from fifteen to twenty miles in breadth. Ranges of
wooded hills bound this valley on both sides. For the first twenty
miles the hills on the left bank are close to the river; then comes
Morambala, a detached mountain 500 yards from the river's brink,
which rises, with steep sides on the west, to 4000 feet in height,
and is about seven miles in length. It is wooded up to the very top,
and very beautiful. The southern end, seen from a distance, has a
fine gradual slope, and looks as if it might be of easy ascent; but
the side which faces the Shire is steep and rocky, especially in the
upper half. A small village peeps out about halfway up the mountain;
it has a pure and bracing atmosphere; and is perched above mosquito
range. The people on the summit have a very different climate and
vegetation from those of the plains; but they have to spend a great
portion of their existence amidst white fleecy clouds, which, in the
rainy season, rest daily on the top of their favourite mountain. We
were kindly treated by these mountaineers on our first ascent; before
our second they were nearly all swept away by Mariano. Dr. Kirk
found upwards of thirty species of ferns on this and other mountains,
and even good-sized tree-ferns; though scarcely a single kind is to
be met with on the plains. Lemon and orange trees grew wild, and
pineapples had been planted by the people. Many large hornbills,
hawks, monkeys, antelopes, and rhinoceroses found a home and food
among the great trees round its base. A hot fountain boils up on the
plain near the north end. It bubbles out of the earth, clear as
crystal, at two points, or eyes, a few yards apart from each other,
and sends off a fine flowing stream of hot water. The temperature
was found to be 174 degrees Fahr., and it boiled an egg in about the
usual time. Our guide threw in a small branch to show us how
speedily the Madse-awira (boiling water) could kill the leaves.
Unlucky lizards and insects did not seem to understand the nature of
a hot-spring, as many of their remains were lying at the bottom. A
large beetle had alighted on the water, and been killed before it had
time to fold its wings. An incrustation, smelling of sulphur, has
been deposited by the water on the stones. About a hundred feet from
the eye of the fountain the mud is as hot as can be borne by the
body. In taking a bath there, it makes the skin perfectly clean, and
none of the mud adheres: it is strange that the Portuguese do not
resort to it for the numerous cutaneous diseases with which they are
so often afflicted.

A few clumps of the palm and acacia trees appear west of Morambala,
on the rich plain forming the tongue of land between the rivers Shire
and Zambesi. This is a good place for all sorts of game. The
Zambesi canoe-men were afraid to sleep on it from the idea of lions
being there; they preferred to pass the night on an island. Some
black men, who accompanied us as volunteer workmen from Shupanga,
called out one evening that a lion stood on the bank. It was very
dark, and we could only see two sparkling lights, said to be the
lion's eyes looking at us; for here, as elsewhere, they have a theory
that the lion's eyes always flash fire at night. Not being
fireflies--as they did not move when a shot was fired in their
direction--they were probably glowworms.

Beyond Morambala the Shire comes winding through an extensive marsh.
For many miles to the north a broad sea of fresh green grass extends,
and is so level, that it might be used for taking the meridian
altitude of the sun. Ten or fifteen miles north of Morambala, stands
the dome-shaped mountain Makanga, or Chi-kanda; several others with
granitic-looking peaks stretch away to the north, and form the
eastern boundary of the valley; another range, but of metamorphic
rocks, commencing opposite Senna, bounds the valley on the west.
After streaming through a portion of this marsh, we came to a broad
belt of palm and other trees, crossing the fine plain on the right
bank. Marks of large game were abundant. Elephants had been feeding
on the palm nuts, which have a pleasant fruity taste, and are used as
food by man. Two pythons were observed coiled together among the
branches of a large tree, and were both shot. The larger of the two,
a female, was ten feet long. They are harmless, and said to be good
eating. The Makololo having set fire to the grass where they were
cutting wood, a solitary buffalo rushed out of the conflagration, and
made a furious charge at an active young fellow named Mantlanyane.
Never did his fleet limbs serve him better than during the few
seconds of his fearful flight before the maddened animal. When he
reached the bank, and sprang into the river, the infuriated beast was
scarcely six feet behind him. Towards evening, after the day's
labour in wood-cutting was over, some of the men went fishing. They
followed the common African custom of agitating the water, by giving
it a few sharp strokes with the top of the fishing-rod, immediately
after throwing in the line, to attract the attention of the fish to
the bait. Having caught nothing, the reason assigned was the same as
would have been given in England under like circumstances, namely,
that "the wind made the fish cold, and they would not bite." Many
gardens of maize, pumpkins, and tobacco, fringed the marshy banks as
we went on. They belong to natives of the hills, who come down in
the dry season, and raise a crop on parts at other times flooded.
While the crops are growing, large quantities of fish are caught,
chiefly Clarias capensis, and Mugil Africanus; they are dried for
sale or future consumption.

As we ascended, we passed a deep stream about thirty yards wide,
flowing in from a body of open water several miles broad. Numbers of
men were busy at different parts of it, filling their canoes with the
lotus root, called Nyika, which, when boiled or roasted, resembles
our chestnuts, and is extensively used in Africa as food. Out of
this lagoon, and by this stream, the chief part of the duckweed of
the Shire flows. The lagoon itself is called Nyanja ea Motope (Lake
of Mud). It is also named Nyanja Pangono (Little Lake), while the
elephant marsh goes by the name of Nyanja Mukulu (Great Lake). It is
evident from the shore line still to be observed on the adjacent
hills, that in ancient times these were really lakes, and the
traditional names thus preserved are only another evidence of the
general desiccation which Africa has undergone.



CHAPTER III.



The Steamer in difficulties--Elephant hunting--Arrival at Chibisa's--
Search for Lake Nyassa--The Manganja country--Weavers and smelters--
Lake Pamalombe.

Late in the afternoon of the first day's steaming, after we left the
wooding-place, we called at the village of Chikanda-Kadze, a female
chief, to purchase rice for our men; but we were now in the blissful
region where time is absolutely of no account, and where men may sit
down and rest themselves when tired; so they requested us to wait
till next day, and they would then sell us some food. As our forty
black men, however, had nothing to cook for supper, we were obliged
to steam on to reach a village a few miles above. When we meet those
who care not whether we purchase or let it alone, or who think men
ought only to be in a hurry when fleeing from an enemy, our ideas
about time being money, and the power of the purse, receives a shock.
The state of eager competition, which in England wears out both mind
and body, and makes life bitter, is here happily unknown. The
cultivated spots are mere dots compared to the broad fields of rich
soil which is never either grazed or tilled. Pity that the plenty in
store for all, from our Father's bountiful hands, is not enjoyed by
more.

The wretched little steamer could not carry all the hands we needed;
so, to lighten her, we put some into the boats and towed them astern.
In the dark, one of the boats was capsized; but all in it, except one
poor fellow who could not swim, were picked up. His loss threw a
gloom over us all, and added to the chagrin we often felt at having
been so ill-served in our sorry craft.

Next day we arrived at the village of Mboma (16 degrees 56 minutes 30
seconds S.), where the people raised large quantities of rice, and
were eager traders; the rice was sold at wonderfully low rates, and
we could not purchase a tithe of the food brought for sale.

A native minstrel serenaded us in the evening, playing several quaint
tunes on a species of one stringed fiddle, accompanied by wild, but
not unmusical songs. He told the Makololo that he intended to play
all night to induce us to give him a present. The nights being cold,
the thermometer falling to 47 degrees, with occasional fogs, he was


 


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