The Only Religious Teachers
Now In This Part Of The Country Are Two Gentlemen Of Color, Natives Of Goa.
The
One who officiates at Tete, named Pedro Antonio d'Araujo,
is a graduate in Dogmatic Theology and Moral Philosophy.
There is
But a single school in Tete, and it is attended
only by the native Portuguese children, who are taught to read and write.
The black population is totally uncared for. The soldiers are marched
every Sunday to hear mass, and but few others attend church.
During the period of my stay, a kind of theatrical representation
of our Savior's passion and resurrection was performed.
The images and other paraphernalia used were of great value,
but the present riches of the Church are nothing to what it once possessed.
The commandant is obliged to lock up all the gold and silver in the fort
for safety, though not from any apprehension of its being stolen
by the people, for they have a dread of sacrilege.
The state of religion and education is, I am sorry to say, as low as
that of commerce; but the European Portuguese value education highly,
and send their children to Goa and elsewhere for instruction
in the higher branches. There is not a single bookseller's shop,
however, in either eastern or western Africa. Even Loanda,
with its 12,000 or 14,000 souls, can not boast of one store
for the sale of food for the mind.
On the 2d the Zambesi suddenly rose several feet in height.
Three such floods are expected annually, but this year there were four.
This last was accompanied by discoloration, and must have been caused
by another great fall of rain east of the ridge. We had observed
a flood of discolored water when we reached the river at the Kafue;
it then fell two feet, and from subsequent rains again rose so high
that we were obliged to leave it when opposite the hill Pinkwe.
About the 10th of March the river rose several feet with
comparatively clear water, and it continued to rise until the 21st,
with but very slight discoloration. This gradual rise was the greatest,
and was probably caused by the water of inundation in the interior.
The sudden rise which happened on the 2d, being deeply discolored,
showed again the effect of rains at a comparatively short distance.
The fact of the river rising three or four times annually,
and the one flood of inundation being mixed with the others, may account for
the Portuguese not recognizing the phenomenon of the periodical inundation,
so well known in the central country.
The independent natives cultivate a little cotton, but it is not at all equal,
either in quantity or quality, to what we found in Angola. The pile is short,
and it clings to the seed so much that they use an iron roller to detach it.
The soil, however, is equal to the production of any tropical plant or fruit.
The natives have never been encouraged to cultivate cotton for sale,
nor has any new variety been introduced.
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