A Drum Of War
Began To Beat A Note Which Is Well Known To The Inhabitants.
Some Of The Soldiers Took The Alarm On Hearing This Note, But The Officer,
Disregarding Their Warning, Was, With His Whole Party, In A Few Minutes
Disarmed And Bound Hand And Foot.
The commandant of Tete then armed
the whole body of slaves and marched against the stockade of Nyaude,
but
When they came near to it there was the Luenya still to cross.
As they did not effect this speedily, Nyaude dispatched a strong party
under his son Bonga across the river below the stockade,
and up the left bank of the Zambesi until they came near to Tete.
They then attacked Tete, which was wholly undefended save by
a few soldiers in the fort, plundered and burned the whole town
except the house of the commandant and a few others, with the church and fort.
The women and children fled into the church; and it is a remarkable fact
that none of the natives of this region will ever attack a church.
Having rendered Tete a ruin, Bonga carried off all the cattle and plunder
to his father. News of this having been brought to the army
before the stockade, a sudden panic dispersed the whole;
and as the fugitives took roundabout ways in their flight,
Katolosa, who had hitherto pretended to be friendly with the Portuguese,
sent out his men to capture as many of them as they could.
They killed many for the sake of their arms. This is the account
which both natives and Portuguese give of the affair.
Another half-caste from Macao, called Kisaka or Choutama,
on the opposite bank of the river, likewise rebelled. His father having died,
he imagined that he had been bewitched by the Portuguese, and he therefore
plundered and burned all the plantations of the rich merchants of Tete
on the north bank. As I have before remarked, that bank is the most fertile,
and there the Portuguese had their villas and plantations to which
they daily retired from Tete. When these were destroyed the Tete people
were completely impoverished. An attempt was made to punish this rebel,
but it was also unsuccessful, and he has lately been pardoned
by the home government. One point in the narrative of this expedition
is interesting. They came to a field of sugar-cane so large
that 4000 men eating it during two days did not finish the whole.
The Portuguese were thus placed between two enemies,
Nyaude on the right bank and Kisaka on the left, and not only so,
but Nyaude, having placed his stockade on the point of land
on the right banks of both the Luenya and Zambesi, and washed
by both these rivers, could prevent intercourse with the sea.
The Luenya rushes into the Zambesi with great force when the latter is low,
and, in coming up the Zambesi, boats must cross it and the Luenya separately,
even going a little way up that river, so as not to be driven away
by its current in the bed of the Zambesi, and dashed on the rock which stands
on the opposite shore. In coming up to the Luenya for this purpose,
all boats and canoes came close to the stockade to be robbed.
Nyaude kept the Portuguese shut up in their fort at Tete during two years,
and they could only get goods sufficient to buy food by sending to Kilimane
by an overland route along the north bank of the Zambesi.
The mother country did not in these "Caffre wars" pay the bills,
so no one either became rich or blamed the missionaries.
The merchants were unable to engage in trade, and commerce,
which the slave-trade had rendered stagnant, was now completely obstructed.
The present commandant of Tete, Major Sicard, having great influence
among the natives, from his good character, put a stop to the war
more than once by his mere presence on the spot. We heard of him
among the Banyai as a man with whom they would never fight,
because "he had a good heart." Had I come down to this coast
instead of going to Loanda in 1853, I should have come among the belligerents
while the war was still raging, and should probably have been cut off.
My present approach was just at the conclusion of the peace;
and when the Portuguese authorities here were informed,
through the kind offices of Lord Clarendon and Count de Lavradio,
that I was expected to come this way, they all declared
that such was the existing state of affairs that no European
could possibly pass through the tribes. Some natives
at last came down the river to Tete and said, alluding to
the sextant and artificial horizon, that "the Son of God had come,"
and that he was "able to take the sun down from the heavens and place it
under his arm!" Major Sicard then felt sure that this was the man
mentioned in Lord Clarendon's dispatch.
On mentioning to the commandant that I had discovered a small seam of coal,
he stated that the Portuguese were already aware of nine such seams,
and that five of them were on the opposite bank of the river.
As soon as I had recovered from my fatigue I went to examine them.
We proceeded in a boat to the mouth of the Lofubu or Revubu,
which is about two miles below Tete, and on the opposite or northern bank.
Ascending this about four miles against a strong current
of beautifully clear water, we landed near a small cataract,
and walked about two miles through very fertile gardens to the seam,
which we found to be in one of the feeders of the Lofubu,
called Muatize or Motize. The seam is in the perpendicular bank,
and dips into the rivulet, or in a northerly direction.
There is, first of all, a seam 10 inches in diameter, then some shale,
below which there is another seam, 58 inches of which are seen,
and, as the bottom touches the water of the Muatize, it may be more.
This part of the seam is about 30 yards long.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 262 of 295
Words from 270692 to 271728
of 306638
