A Hill Some Ten
Or Twelve Miles Distant, Called Pau, Has Been Visited During The
Present Generation Only By One Portuguese And One English Officer,
And This Visit Was Accomplished Only By The Influence Of The Private
Friendship Of A Chief For This Portuguese Gentleman.
Our allies have
occupied the Fort of Mosambique for three hundred years, but in this,
as in all other cases, have no power further than they can see from a
gun-carriage.
The Makoa chief, Matingula, was hospitable and communicative, telling
us all he knew of the river and country beyond. He had been once to
Iboe and once at Mosambique with slaves. Our men understood his
language easily. A useless musket he had bought at one of the above
places was offered us for a little cloth. Having received a present
of food from him, a railway rug was handed to him: he looked at it -
had never seen cloth like that before - did not approve of it, and
would rather have cotton cloth. "But this will keep you warm at
night." - "Oh, I do not wish to be kept warm at night." - We gave him a
bit of cotton cloth, not one-third the value of the rug, but it was
more highly prized. His people refused to sell their fowls for our
splendid prints and drab cloths. They had probably been taken in
with gaudy-patterned sham prints before. They preferred a very
cheap, plain, blue stuff of which they had experience. A great
quantity of excellent honey is collected all along the river, by bark
hives being placed for the bees on the high trees on both banks.
Large pots of it, very good and clear, were offered in exchange for a
very little cloth. No wax was brought for sale; there being no
market for this commodity, it is probably thrown away as useless.
At Michi we lose the tableland which, up to this point, bounds the
view on both sides of the river, as it were, with ranges of flat-
topped hills, 600 or 800 feet high; and to this plateau a level
fertile plain succeeds, on which stand detached granite hills. That
portion of the tableland on the right bank seems to bend away to the
south, still preserving the appearance of a hill range. The height
opposite extends a few miles further west, and then branches off in a
northerly direction. A few small pieces of coal were picked up on
the sandbanks, showing that this useful mineral exists on the Rovuma,
or on some of its tributaries: the natives know that it will burn.
At the lakelet Chidia, we noticed the same sandstone rock, with
fossil wood on it, which we have on the Zambesi, and knew to be a
sure evidence of coal beneath. We mentioned this at the time to
Captain Gardner, and our finding coal now seemed a verification of
what we then said; the coal-field probably extends from the Zambesi
to the Rovuma, if not beyond it. Some of the rocks lower down have
the permanent water-line three feet above the present height of the
water.
A few miles west of the Makoa of Matingula, we came again among the
Makonde, but now of good repute. War and slavery have driven them to
seek refuge on the sand-banks. A venerable-looking old man hailed us
as we passed, and asked us if we were going by without speaking. We
landed, and he laid down his gun and came to us; he was accompanied
by his brother, who shook hands with every one in the boat, as he had
seen people do at Kilwa. "Then you have seen white men before?" we
said. "Yes," replied the polite African, "but never people of your
quality." These men were very black, and wore but little clothing.
A young woman, dressed in the highest style of Makonde fashion,
punting as dexterously as a man could, brought a canoe full of girls
to see us. She wore an ornamental head-dress of red beads tied to
her hair on one side of her head, a necklace of fine beads of various
colours, two bright figured brass bracelets on her left arm, and
scarcely a farthing's worth of cloth, though it was at its cheapest.
As we pushed on westwards, we found that the river makes a little
southing, and some reaches were deeper than any near the sea; but
when we had ascended about 140 miles by the river's course from the
sea, soft tufa rocks began to appear; ten miles beyond, the river
became more narrow and rocky, and when, according to our measurement,
we had ascended 156 miles, our further progress was arrested. We
were rather less than two degrees in a straight line from the Coast.
The incidents worth noticing were but few: seven canoes with loads
of salt and rice kept company with us for some days, and the further
we went inland, the more civil the people became.
When we came to a stand, just below the island of Nyamatolo, Long. 38
degrees 36 minutes E., and Lat. 11 degrees 53 minutes, the river was
narrow, and full of rocks. Near the island there is a rocky rapid
with narrow passages fit only for native canoes; the fall is small,
and the banks quite low; but these rocks were an effectual barrier to
all further progress in boats. Previous reports represented the
navigable part of this river as extending to the distance of a
month's sail from its mouth; we found that, at the ordinary heights
of the water, a boat might reach the obstructions which seem peculiar
to all African rivers in six or eight days. The Rovuma is remarkable
for the high lands that flank it for some eighty miles from the
ocean. The cataracts of other rivers occur in mountains, those of
the Rovuma are found in a level part, with hills only in the
distance.
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