The Banks Seen In The Distance
Are Covered With Trees.
We slept on a large inhabited island,
and then came to the entrance of the River Mutu (latitude 18d 3' 37" S.,
longitude 35d 46' E.):
The point of departure is called Mazaro,
or "mouth of the Mutu". The people who live on the north are called Baroro,
and their country Bororo. The whole of the right bank is in subjection
to the Landeens, who, it was imagined, would levy a tribute upon us,
for this they are accustomed to do to passengers. I regret
that we did not meet them, for, though they are named Caffres,
I am not sure whether they are of the Zulu family or of the Mashona.
I should have liked to form their acquaintance, and to learn
what they really think of white men. I understood from Sekwebu,
and from one of Changamera's people who lives at Linyanti,
and was present at the attack on Senna, that they consider the whites
as a conquered tribe.
The Zambesi at Mazaro is a magnificent river, more than half a mile wide,
and without islands. The opposite bank is covered with
forests of fine timber; but the delta which begins here
is only an immense flat, covered with high, coarse grass and reeds,
with here and there a few mango and cocoanut trees. This was the point
which was reached by the late lamented Captain Parker,
who fell at the Sulina mouth of the Danube. I had a strong desire
to follow the Zambesi farther, and ascertain where this enormous body of water
found its way into the sea; but on hearing from the Portuguese
that he had ascended to this point, and had been highly pleased
with the capabilities of the river, I felt sure that his valuable opinion
must be in possession of the Admiralty. On my arrival in England
I applied to Captain Washington, Hydrographer to the Admiralty,
and he promptly furnished the document for publication
by the Royal Geographical Society.
The river between Mazaro and the sea must therefore be judged of
from the testimony of one more competent to decide on its merits
than a mere landsman like myself.
`On the Quilimane and Zambesi Rivers'. From the Journal
of the late Capt. HYDE PARKER, R.N., H. M. Brig "Pantaloon".
"The Luabo is the main outlet of the Great Zambesi. In the rainy season
- January and February principally - the whole country is overflowed,
and the water escapes by the different rivers as far up as Quilimane;
but in the dry season neither Quilimane nor Olinda communicates with it.
The position of the river is rather incorrect in the Admiralty chart,
being six miles too much to the southward, and also considerably
to the westward. Indeed, the coast from here up to Tongamiara
seems too far to the westward. The entrance to the Luabo River
is about two miles broad, and is easily distinguishable, when abreast of it,
by a bluff (if I may so term it) of high, straight trees, very close together,
on the western side of the entrance.
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