Three Miles From Maruru Is Mesan,
A Very Pretty Village Among Palm And Mango Trees.
There is here a good house
belonging to a Senor Ferrao; close by is the canal (Mutu) of communication
between the Quilimane and Zambesi rivers, which in the rainy season
is navigable (?).
I visited it in the month of October,
which is about the dryest time of the year; it was then a dry canal,
about 30 or 40 yards wide, overgrown with trees and grass,
and, at the bottom, at least 16 or 17 feet above the level of the Zambesi,
which was running beneath. In the rains, by the marks I saw,
the entrance rise of the river must be very nearly 30 feet,
and the volume of water discharged by it (the Zambesi) enormous.
"Above Maruru the country begins to become more hilly,
and the high mountains of Boruru are in sight; the first view of these
is obtained below Nyangue, and they must be of considerable height,
as from this they are distant above 40 miles. They are reported
to contain great mineral wealth; gold and copper being found in the range,
as also COAL (?). The natives (Landeens) are a bold, independent race,
who do not acknowledge the Portuguese authority, and even make them pay
for leave to pass unmolested. Throughout the whole course of the river
hippopotami were very abundant, and at one village a chase by the natives
was witnessed. They harpoon the animal with a barbed lance,
to which is attached, by a cord 3 or 4 fathoms long, an inflated bladder.
The natives follow in their canoes, and look out to fix more harpoons
as the animal rises to blow, and, when exhausted, dispatch him
with their lances. It is, in fact, nearly similar to a whale-hunt.
Elephants and lions are also abundant on the western side;
the latter destroy many of the blacks annually, and are much feared by them.
Alligators are said to be numerous, but I did not see any.
"The voyage up to Maruru occupied seven days, as I did not work the men
at the oar, but it might be done in four; we returned to the bar
in two and a half days.
"There is another mouth of the Zambesi seven miles to the westward of Luabo,
which was visited by the `Castor's pinnace'; and I was assured
by Lieutenant Hoskins that the bar was better than the one I visited."
The conclusions of Captain Parker are strengthened by those
of Lieut. A. H. H. Hoskins, who was on the coast at the same time,
and also visited this spot. Having applied to my friend
for his deliberate opinion on the subject, he promptly furnished
the following note in January last:
"The Zambesi appears to have five principal mouths, of which the Luabo
is the most southern and most navigable; Cumana, and two whose names
I do not know, not having myself visited it, lying between
it and the Quilimane, and the rise and fall at spring tides
on the bar of the Luabo is 22 feet; and as, in the passage, there is NEVER
less than four feet (I having crossed it at dead low-water - springs),
this would give an average depth sufficient for any commercial purposes.
The rise and fall is six feet greater, the passages narrow and more defined,
consequently deeper and more easily found than that of the Quilimane River.
The river above the bar is very tortuous, but deep; and it is observable
that the influence of the tide is felt much higher in this branch
than in the others; for whereas in the Catrina and Cumana I have obtained
drinkable water a very short distance from the mouth, in the Luabo I have
ascended seventy miles without finding the saltness perceptibly diminished.
This would facilitate navigation, and I have no hesitation in saying
that little difficulty would be experienced in conveying
a steam-vessel of the size and capabilities of the gunboat I lately commanded
as high as the branching off of the Quilimane River (Mazaro), which,
in the dry season, is observed many yards above the Luabo (main stream);
though I have been told by the Portuguese that the freshes
which come down in December and March fill it temporarily.
These freshes deepen the river considerably at that time of the year,
and freshen the water many miles from the coast. The population of the delta,
except in the immediate neighborhood of the Portuguese,
appeared to be very sparse. Antelopes and hippopotami were plentiful;
the former tame and easily shot. I inquired frequently
of both natives and Portuguese if slavers were in the habit of entering there
to ship their cargoes, but could not ascertain that they have ever done so
in any except the Quilimane. With common precaution the rivers
are not unhealthy; for, during the whole time I was employed in them
(off and on during eighteen months), in open boats and at all times
of the year, frequently absent from the ship for a month or six weeks
at a time, I had not, in my boat's crew of fourteen men, more than two,
and those mild, cases of fever. Too much importance can not be ascribed
to the use of quinine, to which I attribute our comparative immunity,
and with which our judicious commander, Commodore Wyvill,
kept us amply supplied. I hope these few remarks may be of some little use
in confirming your views of the utility of that magnificent river.
A. H. H. Hoskins."
It ought to be remembered that the testimony of these gentlemen
is all the more valuable, because they visited the river when the water
was at its lowest, and the surface of the Zambesi was not, as it was now,
on a level with and flowing into the Mutu, but sixteen feet beneath its bed.
The Mutu, at the point of departure, was only ten or twelve yards broad,
shallow, and filled with aquatic plants.
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