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

iron ore exists in great abundance, but I did not find any limestone in its immediate vicinity. So far as I could learn, there is neither copper nor silver. Malachite is worked by the people of Cazembe, but, as I did not see it, nor any other metal, I can say nothing about it.

A few precious stones are met with, and some parts are quite covered with agates. The mineralogy of the district, however, has not been explored by any one competent to the task.

When my friend the commandant was fairly recovered, and I myself felt strong again, I prepared to descend the Zambesi. A number of my men were out elephant-hunting, and others had established a brisk trade in firewood, as their countrymen did at Loanda. I chose sixteen of those who could manage canoes to convey me down the river. Many more would have come, but we were informed that there had been a failure of the crops at Kilimane from the rains not coming at the proper time, and thousands had died of hunger.

I did not hear of a single effort having been made to relieve the famishing by sending them food down the river. Those who perished were mostly slaves, and others seemed to think that their masters ought to pay for their relief.

The sufferers were chiefly among those natives who inhabit the delta, and who are subject to the Portuguese. They are in a state of slavery, but are kept on farms and mildly treated. Many yield a certain rental of grain only to their owners, and are otherwise free.

Eight thousand are said to have perished. Major Sicard lent me a boat which had been built on the river, and sent also Lieutenant Miranda to conduct me to the coast.

A Portuguese lady who had come with her brother from Lisbon, having been suffering for some days from a severe attack of fever, died about three o'clock in the morning of the 20th of April.

The heat of the body having continued unabated till six o'clock, I was called in, and found her bosom quite as warm as I ever did in a living case of fever. This continued for three hours more.

As I had never seen a case in which fever-heat continued so long after death, I delayed the funeral until unmistakable symptoms of dissolution occurred.

She was a widow, only twenty-two years of age, and had been ten years in Africa. I attended the funeral in the evening, and was struck by the custom of the country. A number of slaves preceded us, and fired off many rounds of gunpowder in front of the body.

When a person of much popularity is buried, all the surrounding chiefs send deputations to fire over the grave. On one occasion at Tete, more than thirty barrels of gunpowder were expended. Early in the morning of the 21st the slaves of the deceased lady's brother went round the village making a lamentation, and drums were beaten all day, as they are at such times among the heathen.

The commandant provided for the journey most abundantly, and gave orders to Lieutenant Miranda that I should not be allowed to pay for any thing all the way to the coast, and sent messages to his friends Senhors Ferrao, Isidore, Asevedo, and Nunes, to treat me as they would himself. From every one of these gentlemen I am happy to acknowledge that I received most disinterested kindness, and I ought to speak well forever of Portuguese hospitality.

I have noted each little act of civility received, because somehow or other we have come to hold the Portuguese character in rather a low estimation.

This may have arisen partly from the pertinacity with which some of them have pursued the slave-trade, and partly from the contrast which they now offer to their illustrious ancestors -- the foremost navigators of the world.

If my specification of their kindnesses will tend to engender a more respectful feeling to the nation, I shall consider myself well rewarded. We had three large canoes in the company which had lately come up with goods from Senna. They are made very large and strong, much larger than any we ever saw in the interior, and might strike with great force against a rock and not be broken.

The men sit at the stern when paddling, and there is usually a little shed made over a part of the canoe to shade the passengers from the sun.

The boat in which I went was furnished with such a covering, so I sat quite comfortably.

Chapter 32.

Leave Tete and proceed down the River -- Pass the Stockade of Bonga --

Gorge of Lupata -- "Spine of the World" -- Width of River --

Islands -- War Drum at Shiramba -- Canoe Navigation -- Reach Senna --

Its ruinous State -- Landeens levy Fines upon the Inhabitants --

Cowardice of native Militia -- State of the Revenue -- No direct Trade with Portugal -- Attempts to revive the Trade of Eastern Africa --

Country round Senna -- Gorongozo, a Jesuit Station --

Manica, the best Gold Region in Eastern Africa -- Boat-building at Senna --

Our Departure -- Capture of a Rebel Stockade -- Plants Alfacinya and Njefu at the Confluence of the Shire -- Landeen Opinion of the Whites --

Mazaro, the point reached by Captain Parker -- His Opinion respecting the Navigation of the River from this to the Ocean --

Lieutenant Hoskins' Remarks on the same subject -- Fever, its Effects --

Kindly received into the House of Colonel Nunes at Kilimane --

Forethought of Captain Nolloth and Dr. Walsh -- Joy imbittered --

Deep Obligations to the Earl of Clarendon, etc. -- On developing Resources of the Interior -- Desirableness of Missionary Societies selecting healthy Stations -- Arrangements on leaving my Men --

Retrospect -- Probable Influence of the Discoveries on Slavery --

Supply of Cotton, Sugar, etc., by Free Labor -- Commercial Stations --

Development of the Resources of Africa a Work of Time -- Site of Kilimane --

Unhealthiness -- Death of a shipwrecked Crew from Fever --

The Captain saved by Quinine -- Arrival of H. M. Brig "Frolic" --

Anxiety of one of my Men to go to England -- Rough Passage in the Boats to the Ship -- Sekwebu's Alarm -- Sail for Mauritius -- Sekwebu on board; he becomes insane; drowns himself -- Kindness of Major-General C. M. Hay --

Escape Shipwreck -- Reach Home.

We left Tete at noon on the 22d, and in the afternoon arrived at the garden of Senhor A. Manoel de Gomez, son-in-law and nephew of Bonga.

The Commandant of Tete had sent a letter to the rebel Bonga, stating that he ought to treat me kindly, and he had deputed his son-in-law to be my host. Bonga is not at all equal to his father Nyaude, who was a man of great ability. He is also in bad odor with the Portuguese, because he receives all runaway slaves and criminals. He does not trust the Portuguese, and is reported to be excessively superstitious.

I found his son-in-law, Manoel, extremely friendly, and able to converse in a very intelligent manner. He was in his garden when we arrived, but soon dressed himself respectably, and gave us a good tea and dinner.

After a breakfast of tea, roasted eggs, and biscuits next morning, he presented six fowls and three goats as provisions for the journey.

When we parted from him we passed the stockade of Bonga at the confluence of the Luenya, but did not go near it, as he is said to be very suspicious. The Portuguese advised me not to take any observation, as the instruments might awaken fears in Bonga's mind, but Manoel said I might do so if I wished; his garden, however, being above the confluence, could not avail as a geographical point. There are some good houses in the stockade.

The trees of which it is composed seemed to me to be living, and could not be burned. It was strange to see a stockade menacing the whole commerce of the river in a situation where the guns of a vessel would have full play on it, but it is a formidable affair for those who have only muskets.

On one occasion, when Nyaude was attacked by Kisaka, they fought for weeks; and though Nyaude was reduced to cutting up his copper anklets for balls, his enemies were not able to enter the stockade.

On the 24th we sailed only about three hours, as we had done the day before; but having come to a small island at the western entrance of the gorge of Lupata, where Dr. Lacerda is said to have taken an astronomical observation, and called it the island of Mozambique, because it was believed to be in the same latitude, or 15d 1', I wished to verify his position, and remained over night: my informants must have been mistaken, for I found the island of Mozambique here to be lat. 16d 34' 46" S.

Respecting this range, to which the gorge has given a name, some Portuguese writers have stated it to be so high that snow lies on it during the whole year, and that it is composed of marble.

It is not so high in appearance as the Campsie Hills when seen from the Vale of Clyde. The western side is the most abrupt, and gives the idea of the greatest height, as it rises up perpendicularly from the water six or seven hundred feet. As seen from this island, it is certainly no higher than Arthur's Seat appears from Prince's Street, Edinburgh. The rock is compact silicious schist of a slightly reddish color, and in thin strata; the island on which we slept looks as if torn off from the opposite side of the gorge, for the strata are twisted and torn in every direction. The eastern side of the range is much more sloping than the western, covered with trees, and does not give the idea of altitude so much as the western. It extends a considerable way into the Maganja country in the north, and then bends round toward the river again, and ends in the lofty mountain Morumbala, opposite Senna. On the other or southern side it is straighter, but is said to end in Gorongozo, a mountain west of the same point.

The person who called this Lupata "the spine of the world"

evidently did not mean to say that it was a translation of the word, for it means a defile or gorge having perpendicular walls.

This range does not deserve the name of either Cordillera or Spine, unless we are willing to believe that the world has a very small and very crooked "back-bone".

We passed through the gorge in two hours, and found it rather tortuous, and between 200 and 300 yards wide. The river is said to be here always excessively deep; it seemed to me that a steamer could pass through it at full speed. At the eastern entrance of Lupata stand two conical hills; they are composed of porphyry, having large square crystals therein. These hills are called Moenda en Goma, which means a footprint of a wild beast. Another conical hill on the opposite bank is named Kasisi (priest), from having a bald top.

We sailed on quickly with the current of the river, and found that it spread out to more than two miles in breadth; it is, however, full of islands, which are generally covered with reeds, and which, previous to the war,