We Were Tolerably Successful In Avoiding The Villages, And Slept One Night
On The Flanks Of The Hill Zimika, Where A Great Number Of Deep Pot-Holes
Afforded An Abundant Supply Of Good Rain-Water.
Here, for the first time,
we saw hills with bare, smooth, rocky tops, and we crossed over
broad dikes of gneiss and syenitic porphyry:
The directions
in which they lay were N. and S. As we were now near to Tete,
we were congratulating ourselves on having avoided those who would only
have plagued us; but next morning some men saw us, and ran off to inform
the neighboring villages of our passing. A party immediately pursued us,
and, as they knew we were within call of Katolosa (Monomotapa),
they threatened to send information to that chief of our offense,
in passing through the country without leave. We were obliged to give them
two small tusks; for, had they told Katolosa of our supposed offense,
we should, in all probability, have lost the whole. We then went through
a very rough, stony country without any path. Being pretty well tired out
in the evening of the 2d of March, I remained at about eight miles distance
from Tete, Tette, or Nyungwe. My men asked me to go on;
I felt too fatigued to proceed, but sent forward to the commandant
the letters of recommendation with which I had been favored in Angola by
the bishop and others, and lay down to rest. Our food having been exhausted,
my men had been subsisting for some time on roots and honey.
About two o'clock in the morning of the 3d we were aroused
by two officers and a company of soldiers, who had been sent with
the materials for a civilized breakfast and a "masheela" to bring me to Tete.
(Commandant's house: lat. 16d 9' 3" S., long. 33d 28' E.)
My companions thought that we were captured by the armed men,
and called me in alarm. When I understood the errand on which they had come,
and had partaken of a good breakfast, though I had just before been too tired
to sleep, all my fatigue vanished. It was the most refreshing breakfast
I ever partook of, and I walked the last eight miles without the least
feeling of weariness, although the path was so rough that one of the officers
remarked to me, "This is enough to tear a man's life out of him."
The pleasure experienced in partaking of that breakfast was only equaled
by the enjoyment of Mr. Gabriel's bed on my arrival at Loanda.
It was also enhanced by the news that Sebastopol had fallen
and the war was finished.
-
Note. - Having neglected, in referring to the footprints of the rhinoceros,
to mention what may be interesting to naturalists, I add it here in a note;
that wherever the footprints are seen, there are also marks of the animal
having plowed up the ground and bushes with his horn. This has been supposed
to indicate that he is subject to "fits of ungovernable rage";
but, when seen, he appears rather to be rejoicing in his strength.
He acts as a bull sometimes does when he gores the earth with his horns.
The rhinoceros, in addition to this, stands on a clump of bushes,
bends his back down, and scrapes the ground with his feet,
throwing it out backward, as if to stretch and clean his toes,
in the same way that a dog may be seen to do on a little grass:
this is certainly not rage.
-
Chapter 31.
Kind Reception from the Commandant - His Generosity to my Men -
The Village of Tete - The Population - Distilled Spirits -
The Fort - Cause of the Decadence of Portuguese Power -
Former Trade - Slaves employed in Gold-washing - Slave-trade drained
the Country of Laborers - The Rebel Nyaude's Stockade - He burns Tete -
Kisaka's Revolt and Ravages - Extensive Field of Sugar-cane -
The Commandant's good Reputation among the Natives -
Providential Guidance - Seams of Coal - A hot Spring -
Picturesque Country - Water-carriage to the Coal-fields -
Workmen's Wages - Exports - Price of Provisions - Visit Gold-washings -
The Process of obtaining the precious Metal - Coal within a Gold-field -
Present from Major Sicard - Natives raise Wheat, etc. -
Liberality of the Commandant - Geographical Information
from Senhor Candido - Earthquakes - Native Ideas of a Supreme Being -
Also of the Immortality and Transmigration of Souls - Fondness for Display
at Funerals - Trade Restrictions - Former Jesuit Establishment -
State of Religion and Education at Tete - Inundation of the Zambesi -
Cotton cultivated - The fibrous Plants Conge and Buaze -
Detained by Fever - The Kumbanzo Bark - Native Medicines - Iron,
its Quality - Hear of Famine at Kilimane - Death of a Portuguese Lady -
The Funeral - Disinterested Kindness of the Portuguese.
I was most kindly received by the commandant Tito Augusto d'Araujo Sicard,
who did every thing in his power to restore me from my emaciated condition;
and, as this was still the unhealthy period at Kilimane,
he advised me to remain with him until the following month.
He also generously presented my men with abundant provisions of millet;
and, by giving them lodgings in a house of his own until they could erect
their own huts, he preserved them from the bite of the tampans,
here named Carapatos.* We had heard frightful accounts of this insect
while among the Banyai, and Major Sicard assured me that to strangers
its bite is more especially dangerous, as it sometimes causes fatal fever.
It may please our homoeopathic friends to hear that, in curing
the bite of the tampan, the natives administer one of the insects bruised
in the medicine employed.
-
* Another insect, resembling a maggot, burrows into the feet of the natives
and sucks their blood. Mr. Westwood says, "The tampan is
a large species of mite, closely allied to the poisonous bug
(as it is called) of Persia, `Argos reflexus', respecting which
such marvelous accounts have been recorded, and which the statement
respecting the carapato or tampan would partially confirm."
Mr. W. also thinks that the poison-yielding larva called N'gwa
is a "species of chrysomelidae.
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