They Continued At This Labor
Until The Whole Of The Goods Were Expended, And By This Means
About 130 Lbs.
Of gold were annually produced.
Probably more than this
was actually obtained, but, as it was an article easily secreted,
this alone was submitted to the authorities for taxation.
At present the whole amount of gold obtained annually by the Portuguese
is from 8 to 10 lbs. only. When the slave-trade began, it seemed to many
of the merchants a more speedy mode of becoming rich to sell off the slaves
than to pursue the slow mode of gold-washing and agriculture,
and they continued to export them until they had neither hands to labor
nor to fight for them. It was just the story of the goose and the golden egg.
The coffee and sugar plantations and gold-washings were abandoned,
because the labor had been exported to the Brazils. Many of the Portuguese
then followed their slaves, and the government was obliged
to pass a law to prevent further emigration, which, had it gone on,
would have depopulated the Portuguese possessions altogether.
A clever man of Asiatic (Goa) and Portuguese extraction, called Nyaude,
now built a stockade at the confluence of the Luenya and Zambesi;
and when the commandant of Tete sent an officer with his company
to summon him to his presence, Nyaude asked permission of the officer
to dress himself, which being granted, he went into an inner apartment,
and the officer ordered his men to pile their arms. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 506 of 572
Words from 270438 to 270948
of 306638
