As We Were Now Not Far From
The Latitude Of Mozambique, I Was Somewhat Tempted To Strike Away
From The
River to that port, instead of going to the S.E.,
in the direction the river flows; but, the great
Object of my journey being
to secure water-carriage, I resolved to continue along the Zambesi,
though it did lead me among the enemies of the Portuguese.
The region to the north of the ranges of hills on our left is called Senga,
from being the country of the Basenga, who are said to be
great workers in iron, and to possess abundance of fine iron ore,
which, when broken, shows veins of the pure metal in its substance.
It has been well roasted in the operations of nature.
Beyond Senga lies a range of mountains called Mashinga,
to which the Portuguese in former times went to wash for gold,
and beyond that are great numbers of tribes which pass under
the general term Maravi. To the northeast there are extensive plains
destitute of trees, but covered with grass, and in some places it is marshy.
The whole of the country to the north of the Zambesi
is asserted to be very much more fertile than that to the south.
The Maravi, for instance, raise sweet potatoes of immense size,
but when these are planted on the southern bank they soon degenerate.
The root of this plant (`Convolvulus batata') does not keep more than
two or three days, unless it is cut into thin slices and dried in the sun,
but the Maravi manage to preserve them for months by digging a pit
and burying them therein inclosed in wood-ashes. Unfortunately,
the Maravi, and all the tribes on that side of the country,
are at enmity with the Portuguese, and, as they practice night attacks
in their warfare, it is dangerous to travel among them.
29TH. I was most sincerely thankful to find myself
on the south bank of the Zambesi, and, having nothing else,
I sent back one of my two spoons and a shirt as a thank-offering to Mpende.
The different head men along this river act very much in concert,
and if one refuses passage they all do, uttering the sage remark,
"If so-and-so did not lend his canoes, he must have had some good reason."
The next island we came to was that of a man named Mozinkwa.
Here we were detained some days by continuous rains, and thought
we observed the confirmation of the Bakwain theory of rains.
A double tier of clouds floated quickly away to the west, and as soon
as they began to come in an opposite direction the rains poured down.
The inhabitants who live in a dry region like that of Kolobeng
are nearly all as weather-wise as the rain-makers, and any one
living among them for any length of time becomes as much interested
in the motions of the clouds as they are themselves. Mr. Moffat,
who was as sorely tried by droughts as we were, and had his attention
directed in the same way, has noted the curious phenomenon of thunder
without clouds. Mrs. L. heard it once, but I never had that good fortune.
It is worth the attention of the observant. Humboldt has seen rain
without clouds, a phenomenon quite as singular. I have been in the vicinity
of the fall of three aerolites, none of which I could afterward discover.
One fell into the lake Kumadau with a report somewhat like
a sharp peal of thunder. The women of the Bakurutse villages there
all uttered a scream on hearing it. This happened at midday,
and so did another at what is called the Great Chuai, which was visible
in its descent, and was also accompanied with a thundering noise.
The third fell near Kuruman, and at night, and was seen as a falling star
by people at Motito and at Daniel's Kuil, places distant forty miles on
opposite sides of the spot. It sounded to me like the report of a great gun,
and a few seconds after, a lesser sound, as if striking the earth
after a rebound. Does the passage of a few such aerolites
through the atmosphere to the earth by day cause thunder without clouds?
We were detained here so long that my tent became again quite rotten.
One of my men, after long sickness, which I did not understand, died here.
He was one of the Batoka, and when unable to walk I had some difficulty
in making his companions carry him. They wished to leave him to die
when his case became hopeless. Another of them deserted to Mozinkwa.
He said that his motive for doing so was that the Makololo had killed
both his father and mother, and, as he had neither wife nor child,
there was no reason why he should continue longer with them.
I did not object to his statements, but said if he should change his mind
he would be welcome to rejoin us, and intimated to Mozinkwa
that he must not be sold as a slave. We are now among people
inured to slave-dealing. We were visited by men who had been as far
as Tete or Nyungwe, and were told that we were but ten days from that fort.
One of them, a Mashona man, who had come from a great distance
to the southwest, was anxious to accompany us to the country of the white men;
he had traveled far, and I found that he had also knowledge
of the English tribe, and of their hatred to the trade in slaves.
He told Sekwebu that the "English were men", an emphasis being put
upon the term MEN, which leaves the impression that others are,
as they express it in speaking scornfully, "only THINGS".
Several spoke in the same manner, and I found that from Mpende's downward
I rose higher every day in the estimation of my own people.
Even the slaves gave a very high character to the English,
and I found out afterward that, when I was first reported at Tete,
the servants of my friend the commandant said to him in joke,
"Ah!
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