The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-20 00:00:00

products widely cultivated. It therefore appeared to me
that if I could open this region to lawful commerce, I should
supplement the efforts of our cruisers in the same way as
has been done by traders and missionaries on the west coast,
and perform a good service to Africa and to England. To
accomplish this was the main object of the Zambesi expedi-
tion, and in speaking of what was done, it is to be under-
steed that Dr Kirk, Mr Livingstone, and others, composed
it ; and when I speak in the plural number I mean them
and wish to bear testimony to the zeal and untiring energy
with which my companions worked. They were never
daunted by difficulties nor dangers nor hard fare, and, were
their services required in any other capacity, might be re-
lied on to perform their duty. The first discovery we made
was a navigable entrance to the Zambesi, about a degree
west of the Qailiimane river, which has always been repre-
sented as the mouth of the Zambesi, in order as some main-
tained, that the men of war might be induced to watch the
false mouth, while slaves were quietly shipped from the real
mouth. This mistake has lately been propagated in a map
by the Colonial Minister of Portugal. On ascending Zam-
besi, we found that the Portuguese authorities, to whcm
their Government had kindly commended us, had nearly all
fled down to the sea-coast, and the country was in the hands
of the natives, many of whom, by their brands, we saw had
been slaves. As they were all quite friendly with us, we
proceeded to our work, and ascended the river in a little
steamer, which, having been made of steel plates, a material
never before tried, and with an engine and boiler, the
sweepings of some shop, very soon failed us. Indeed, the
common canoes of the country passed us with ease, and the
people in them looked back, wondering what this puffing,
asthmatic thing could mean. The crocodiles thought it
was a land animal swimming, and rushed at it in hopes of
having a feast. The river, for the first 300 miles, is from
half a mile to three miles wide. During half the year
the water is abundant and deep ; during the other half,
or the dry season, it is very shallow ; but, with pro-
perly-constructed vessels, much might be made of it
during the whole of the ordinary years. We proceeded
as soon as we could to the rapids above Zette, our
intention having originally been to go up as far as
the Great Victoria Falls, and do what we could with the
Makololo, but our steamer could not steam a four-knot cur •
rent. We then turned off to an affluent of the Zambesi,
which flows into it about 100 miles from the sea; it is called
the Shire, and, as far as we know, was never explored by
any European before. It flows in a valley about 200 miles
lung and 20 broad. Ranges of hills shut in the landscape on
both sides, while the river itself winds excessively among
marshes ; in one of these we counted 800 elephants, all in
sight at one time. The population was very large, crowds
of natives, armed with bows and poisoned arrows, lined the
banks, and seemed disposed to resent any injury that
might be inflicted. Bat by care and civility we gave
them no occasion for commencing hostilities, though they
were once just on the point of discharging their arrows.
On a second visit they were more friendly, and the
women and children appeared. We had so far gained
their confidence that we left the steamer at Murchison's
Cataract, Dr Kirk and I proceeding on foot to the N.N.E.,
discovered Lake Shirwa. The lake is not large ; it is said
to have no outlet, and this is probably the case, for its water
is brackish ; it abounds in fish, hippopotami, and leeches.
The scenery around is very beautiful, the mountains on the
east rising to a height of 8,000 or 9,000 feet. We were now
among Manganja, a people who had not been visited by
Europeans, and as I am often asked what sort of folk these
savages are, 1 may answer they were as low as any we ever
met, except bushmen, yet they all cultivated tho soil for
their sustenance. They raise large quantities of maize or
Indian corn, and other grain, which grows in a stalk 10 or
12 feet high. with grain very much like the hempseed given
to canaries, and called by the Arabs dura (Ilcelcus gots-
hum); another kind of grain (tennisctunt); several kinds of
beans, pumpkins, and melons ; cucumbers, from the seeds
of which a fine oil is extracted ; cassava, from which our
tapioca is made; ground nuts, which yield an oil fit for
cooking; castor oil, with which they anoint their bodies;
and tobacco and Indian hemp for smoking. The labour in
the fields seemed to be performed by the whole family, men,
women, and children being seen in the fields together. Each
family had a patch of cotton, just as our forefathers had
each a patch of land, and this cotton was spun and woven
by the men, while the women malted and ground the corn
and made the beer. Near many of the village furnaces were
erected for smelting iron from the ore, and excellent hoes
were made very cheap. All were eager traders, and very
few were hunters, so they can scarcely be called savages,
though without a doubt they were degraded enough. Their
life hes always appeared to me to be one of fear. They may
be attacked by other tribes and sold into slavery; and the
idea this brings i", that they will be taken away, fattened,
and eaten by the whites. The slave trader calls them beasts
and savages, and they believe tha slave traders to be cani•
bale. They also live in fear of witchcraft, and suspected
persons are frequently compelled to drink the ordeal water,
which is just about as sensible a means of detecting witches
as our former mode of ducking in a pond. If the suspected
person vomits, she is innocent; it not, guilty; end yet we
laugh heartily at our forefathers believing that the woman
who sank in the pond was innocent, and guilty If she swam
—just as monomaniacs do with their illusions. Cultivating
large tracts of land for grain, a favourite way of using the
produce is to convert it into beer. It is not very intoxi-
cating, but when they consume large quantities they do
become a little elevated. When a family brews a largo
quantity, the friends and neighbours are invited to drink,
and bring their hoes with them. They let off the excite-
ment in merrily hoeing their friend's field. At other times
they consume large quantities for the same object as our
regular topers at home. We entered one village and found
the people all tipsy together. On seeing us, the men tried to
induce the women to run away, but the ladies, too, were, as
we mildly put it, " a little overcome," and laughed at the idea
of their running. The village doctor arranged matters by
bringing a large pot of the liquid, with the intention of
reducing us to the general level. Well,the people generally,
f we except the coast tribes, are very much like these,
with-
outi
the drunkenness. Wherever the tzetzeexists the
people
possesses no cattle, as this insect proves fatal to all domestic
animals except the goat, man, and donkey. Its bite does no
harm to man nor to the donkey, though one we took through
a tzetze distriet did die, probably from over-fatigue. We
made no discovery as to the nature of the curious
poison in-
jected by the insect, nor could we find out where it laid its
eggs. Where the slave trade is unknown, the cattle are the
only cause of war. The Makololo will travel a month for
the sake of lifting cattle. This is not considered stealing,
and when the question is put, why should you lift what does
not belong to you,,they return the Scotch answer, " Why
should these Makalaka, or black fellows, possess cattle, if
they can't defend them?" Having secured the goodwill of
the people below and adjacent to Murchison's cataracts, we
next proceeded further north, and discovered the Shire flow-
ing in a broad gentle stream out to Lake Nyassa, about 60
miles above the cataracts. The country on each side of the
river and lake rises up in what, from below, seem ranges of
mountains, but when they have been ascended they turn out
to be elevated plateaux, cool and well watered with streams.
To show the difference of temperature, we were drinking the
water of the Shire at 84 degrees, and by ono day's march up
the ascent, of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, we had it at 65
degrees, or 19 degrees lower. It felt as if iced. We had no
trouble with the people. No dues were levied, nor fines do -
mended,
i
mended, though the Manganja were quite independent n
their bearing towards us and strikingly different from what
they afterwards became. Our operations were confined
ehiefly to gaining the friendships of the different tribes, and
induce
them what information we could, with a view to
them to cultivate cotton for exportation. It has already
been mentioned that each family had its own cotton patch ;
some of these were of considerable extent ; one field, close
to Zedzane Cataract, I lately found to be 630 paces on one
side, and the cotton was of excellent quality, not requiring
replanting oftener than once in three years, and no fear of
injury by frost. After careful examination, I have no hesi-
tation in te-asserting that we have there one of the finest
cotton fields in the world. In remonstrating with the chiefs
against selling their people into slavery, they justified
themselves on the plea that none were sold except crimi-
nals. The crimes may not always be very great, but I
conjecture, from the extreme ugliness of many slaves, that
they are the degraded criminal classes; and it is not fair
to take the typical negro from among them, any more than
it would be to place " Bill Sykes" or some of Punch's
garotters as the typical John Bull. For years I had been
looking out for the typical negro, and never felt satisfied
that I, had got him, for many of them aro the pictures of
the old Assyrians ; others, barring colour, which we soon
forget, closely resemble acquaintances at home. Bat Mr.
Winwood Read, in his work "Savage Africa," seems
to have lighted right on the head of the idea,
in saving that no typical negro is seen in the portraits and
monuments of the ancient Egyptians. When we had suc-
ceeded in gaining the goodwill of the people which crowded
the whole Shire valley, the mission under the. late Bishop
Mackenzie came into the country. Dr. Kirk hod performed
a journey from the Murchison Cataracts across to Zette, a
Portuguese village upon the Zambesi. Slave hunters then
were sent along Dr. Kirk's route by the sanction el the pre-
sent Government, and calling themselves " My children."
The scamps They joined themselves to another tribe called
Ajawa, then in the act of migrating from the south-east,
and who had been accustomed to take slaves annually down
to Quillirnane and other settlements on the coast. Furnish-
ing the Ajawa with arms and ammunition they found it easy
to drive those who were armed only with bows and arrows
before them. When Dr Kirk, and Mr Charles Livingstone
and I went up to show Bishop Mackenzie on to the high-
lands, we met a party of these Portuguese slaves coming
with 81 captives bound and led towards Zette. The head of
the party we knew perfectly, having had him in our em-
ployment in 'Gate. No force was employed, for even the
slaves of the Governor knew they were doing wrong, and
fled, leaving the whole of the captives in our hands. Bishop
, Mackenzie received them gladly, and in a fertile country,