Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone (interesting books to read for teens TXT) 📖

a hot spring called Nyamboronda, situated in the bed of a small rivulet named Nyaondo, which shows that igneous action is not yet extinct. We landed at a small rivulet called Mokorozi, then went a mile or two to the eastward, where we found a hot fountain at the bottom of a high hill.

A little spring bubbles up on one side of the rivulet Nyaondo, and a great quantity of acrid steam rises up from the ground adjacent, about 12 feet square of which is so hot that my companions could not stand on it with their bare feet. There are several little holes from which the water trickles, but the principal spring is in a hole a foot in diameter, and about the same in depth. Numbers of bubbles are constantly rising.

The steam feels acrid in the throat, but is not inflammable, as it did not burn when I held a bunch of lighted grass over the bubbles.

The mercury rises to 158 Deg. when the thermometer is put into the water in the hole, but after a few seconds it stands steadily at 160 Deg.

Even when flowing over the stones the water is too hot for the hand.

Little fish frequently leap out of the stream in the bed of which the fountain rises, into the hot water, and get scalded to death.

We saw a frog which had performed the experiment, and was now cooked.

The stones over which the water flows are incrusted with a white salt, and the water has a saline taste. The ground has been dug out near the fountain by the natives, in order to extract the salt it contains.

It is situated among rocks of syenitic porphyry in broad dikes, and gneiss tilted on edge, and having a strike to the N.E.

There are many specimens of half-formed pumice, with greenstone and lava.

Some of the sandstone strata are dislocated by a hornblende rock and by basalt, the sandstone nearest to the basalt being converted into quartz.

The country around, as indeed all the district lying N. and N.W. of Tete, is hilly, and, the hills being covered with trees, the scenery is very picturesque. The soil of the valleys is very fruitful and well cultivated. There would not be much difficulty in working the coal.

The Lofubu is about 60 yards broad; it flows perennially, and at its very lowest period, which is after September, there is water about 18 inches deep, which could be navigated in flat-bottomed boats. At the time of my visit it was full, and the current was very strong. If the small cataract referred to were to be avoided, the land-carriage beyond would only be about two miles.

The other seams farther up the river may, after passing the cataract, be approached more easily than that in the Muatize; as the seam, however, dips down into the stream, no drainage of the mine would be required, for if water were come to it would run into the stream.

I did not visit the others, but I was informed that there are seams in the independent native territory as well as in that of the Portuguese.

That in the Nake is in the Banyai country, and, indeed, I have no doubt but that the whole country between Zumbo and Lupata is a coal-field of at least 2-1/2 Deg. of latitude in breadth, having many faults, made during the time of the igneous action.

The gray sandstone rock having silicified trees lying on it is of these dimensions. The plantation in which the seam of coal exists would be valued among the Portuguese at about 60 dollars or 12 Pounds, but much more would probably be asked if a wealthy purchaser appeared.

They could not, however, raise the price very much higher, because estates containing coal might be had from the native owners at a much cheaper rate. The wages of free laborers, when employed in such work as gold-washing, agriculture, or digging coal, is 2 yards of unbleached calico per day. They might be got to work cheaper if engaged by the moon, or for about 16 yards per month.

For masons and carpenters even, the ordinary rate is 2 yards per day.

This is called 1 braca. Tradesmen from Kilimane demand 4 bracas, or 8 yards, per day. English or American unbleached calico is the only currency used. The carriage of goods up the river to Tete adds about 10 per cent. to their cost. The usual conveyance is by means of very large canoes and launches built at Senna.

The amount of merchandise brought up during the five months of peace previous to my visit was of the value of 30,000 dollars, or about 6000 Pounds.

The annual supply of goods for trade is about 15,000 Pounds, being calico, thick brass wire, beads, gunpowder, and guns.

The quantity of the latter is, however, small, as the government of Mozambique made that article contraband after the commencement of the war.

Goods, when traded with in the tribes around the Portuguese, produce a profit of only about 10 per cent., the articles traded in being ivory and gold-dust. A little oil and wheat are exported, but nothing else.

Trade with the tribes beyond the exclusive ones is much better.

Thirty brass rings cost 10s. at Senna, 1 Pound at Tete, and 2 Pounds beyond the tribes in the vicinity of Tete; these are a good price for a penful of gold-dust of the value of 2 Pounds. The plantations of coffee, which, previous to the commencement of the slave-trade, yielded one material for exportation, are now deserted, and it is difficult to find a single tree.

The indigo (`Indigofera argentea', the common wild indigo of Africa) is found growing every where, and large quantities of the senna-plant*

grow in the village of Tete and other parts, but neither indigo nor senna is collected. Calumba-root, which is found in abundance in some parts farther down the river, is bought by the Americans, it is said, to use as a dye-stuff. A kind of sarsaparilla, or a plant which is believed by the Portuguese to be such, is found from Londa to Senna, but has never been exported.

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These appear to belong to `Cassia acutifolia', or true senna of commerce, found in various parts of Africa and India. -- Dr. Hooker.

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The price of provisions is low, but very much higher than previous to the commencement of the war. Two yards of calico are demanded for six fowls; this is considered very dear, because, before the war, the same quantity of calico was worth 24 fowls. Grain is sold in little bags made from the leaves of the palmyra, like those in which we receive sugar.

They are called panjas, and each panja weighs between 30 and 40 lbs.

The panja of wheat at Tete is worth a dollar, or 5s.; but the native grain may be obtained among the islands below Lupata at the rate of three panjas for two yards of calico. The highest articles of consumption are tea and coffee, the tea being often as high as 15s. a pound.

Food is cheaper down the river below Lupata, and, previous to the war, the islands which stud the Zambesi were all inhabited, and, the soil being exceedingly fertile, grain and fowls could be got to any amount.

The inhabitants disappeared before their enemies the Landeens, but are beginning to return since the peace. They have no cattle, the only place where we found no tsetse being the district of Tete itself; and the cattle in the possession of the Portuguese are a mere remnant of what they formerly owned.

When visiting the hot fountain, I examined what were formerly the gold-washings in the rivulet Mokoroze, which is nearly on the 16th parallel of latitude. The banks are covered with large groves of fine mango-trees, among which the Portuguese lived while superintending the washing for the precious metal.

The process of washing is very laborious and tedious. A quantity of sand is put into a wooden bowl with water; a half rotatory motion is given to the dish, which causes the coarser particles of sand to collect on one side of the bottom. These are carefully removed with the hand, and the process of rotation renewed until the whole of the sand is taken away, and the gold alone remains. It is found in very minute scales, and, unless I had been assured to the contrary, I should have taken it to be mica, for, knowing the gold to be of greater specific gravity than the sand, I imagined that a stream of water would remove the latter and leave the former; but here the practice is to remove the whole of the sand by the hand. This process was, no doubt, a profitable one to the Portuguese, and it is probable that, with the improved plan by means of mercury, the sands would be lucrative. I had an opportunity of examining the gold-dust from different parts to the east and northeast of Tete.

There are six well-known washing-places. These are called Mashinga, Shindundo, Missala, Kapata, Mano, and Jawa.

From the description of the rock I received, I suppose gold is found both in clay shale and quartz. At the range Mushinga to the N.N.W.

the rock is said to be so soft that the women pound it into powder in wooden mortars previous to washing.

Round toward the westward, the old Portuguese indicate a station which was near to Zumbo on the River Panyame, and called Dambarari, near which much gold was found. Farther west lay the now unknown kingdom of Abutua, which was formerly famous for the metal; and then, coming round toward the east, we have the gold-washings of the Mashona, or Bazizulu, and, farther east, that of Manica, where gold is found much more abundantly than in any other part, and which has been supposed by some to be the Ophir of King Solomon. I saw the gold from this quarter as large as grains of wheat, that found in the rivers which run into the coal-field being in very minute scales.

If we place one leg of the compasses at Tete, and extend the other three and a half degrees, bringing it round from the northeast of Tete by west, and then to the southeast, we nearly touch or include all the known gold-producing country. As the gold on this circumference is found in coarser grains than in the streams running toward the centre, or Tete, I imagine that the real gold-field lies round about the coal-field; and, if I am right in the conjecture, then we have coal encircled by a gold-field, and abundance of wood, water, and provisions --

a combination not often met with in the world. The inhabitants are not unfavorable to washings, conducted on the principle formerly mentioned.

At present they wash only when in want of a little calico.

They know the value of gold perfectly well, for they bring it for sale in goose-quills, and demand 24 yards of calico for one penful.

When the rivers in the district of Manica and other gold-washing places have been flooded, they leave a coating of mud on the banks.

The natives observe the spots which dry soonest, and commence digging there, in firm belief that gold lies beneath. They are said not to dig deeper than their chins, believing that if they did so the ground would fall in and kill them. When they find a `piece' or flake of gold, they bury it again, from the superstitious idea that this is the seed of the gold, and, though they