But None Of The Hills Are Of Any Great Altitude.
When I Heard This Mountain Described At Linyanti I Thought
The glistening substance might be snow, and my informants were so loud
in their assertions of its exceeding great altitude
That I was startled
with the idea; but I had quite forgotten that I was speaking with men
who had been accustomed to plains, and knew nothing of very high mountains.
When I inquired what the white substance was, they at once replied
it was a kind of rock. I expected to have come nearer to it,
and would have ascended it; but we were led to go to the northeast.
Yet I doubt not that the native testimony of its being stone is true.
The distant ranges of hills which line the banks of the Zambesi
on the southeast, and landscapes which permit the eye to range
over twenty or thirty miles at a time, with short grass under our feet,
were especially refreshing sights to those who had traveled
for months together over the confined views of the flat forest,
and among the tangled rank herbage of the great valley.
The Mozuma, or River of Dila, was the first water-course which indicated
that we were now on the slopes toward the eastern coast.
It contained no flowing water, but revealed in its banks
what gave me great pleasure at the time - pieces of lignite,
possibly indicating the existence of a mineral, namely, coal,
the want of which in the central country I had always deplored.
Again and again we came to the ruins of large towns,
containing the only hieroglyphics of this country, worn mill-stones,
with the round ball of quartz with which the grinding was effected.
Great numbers of these balls were lying about, showing that the depopulation
had been the result of war; for, had the people removed in peace,
they would have taken the balls with them.
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