Far Away In The West And North We Could See High Blue
Heights, Probably Of Igneous Origin From Their Forms, Rising Out Of A
Plain.
The distance from Ngomano, a spot thirty miles further up, to the
Arab crossing-places of Lake Nyassa Tsenga or Kotakota was said to be
twelve days.
The way we had discovered to Lake Nyassa by Murchison's
Cataracts had so much less land carriage, that we considered it best
to take our steamer thither, by the route in which we were well
known, instead of working where we were strangers; and accordingly we
made up our minds to return.
The natives reported a worse place above our turning-point - the
passage being still narrower than this. An Arab, they said, once
built a boat above the rapids, and sent it down full of slaves; but
it was broken to pieces in these upper narrows. Many still
maintained that the Rovuma came from Nyassa, and that it is very
narrow as it issues out of the lake. One man declared that he had
seen it with his own eyes as it left the lake, and seemed displeased
at being cross-questioned, as if we doubted his veracity.
More satisfactory information, as it appeared to us, was obtained
from others. Two days, or thirty miles, beyond where we turned back,
the Rovuma is joined by the Liende, which, coming from the south-
west, rises in the mountains on the east side of Nyassa. The great
slave route to Kilwa runs up the banks of this river, which is only
ankle-deep at the dry season of the year. The Rovuma itself comes
from the W.N.W., and after the traveller passes the confluence of the
Liende at Ngomano or "meeting-place," the chief of which part is
named Ndonde, he finds the river narrow, and the people Ajawa.
Crocodiles in the Rovuma have a sorry time of it. Never before were
reptiles so persecuted and snubbed. They are hunted with spears, and
spring traps are set for them. If one of them enters an inviting
pool after fish, he soon finds a fence thrown round it, and a spring
trap set in the only path out of the enclosure. Their flesh is
eaten, and relished. The banks, on which the female lays her eggs by
night, are carefully searched by day, and all the eggs dug out and
devoured. The fish-hawk makes havoc among the few young ones that
escape their other enemies. Our men were constantly on the look-out
for crocodiles' nests. One was found containing thirty-five newly-
laid eggs, and they declared that the crocodile would lay as many
more the second night in another place. The eggs were a foot deep in
the sand on the top of a bank ten feet high. The animal digs a hole
with its foot, covers the eggs, and leaves them till the river rises
over the nest in about three months afterwards, when she comes back,
and assists the young ones out. We once saw opposite Tette young
crocodiles in December, swimming beside an island in company with an
old one. The yolk of the egg is nearly as white as the real white.
In taste they resemble hen's eggs with perhaps a smack of custard,
and would be as highly relished by whites as by blacks, were it not
for their unsavoury origin in men-eaters.
Hunting the Senze (Aulacodus Swindernianus), an animal the size of a
large cat, but in shape more like a pig, was the chief business of
men and boys as we passed the reedy banks and low islands. They set
fire to a mass of reeds, and, armed with sticks, spears, bows and
arrows, stand in groups guarding the outlets through which the seared
Senze may run from the approaching flames. Dark dense volumes of
impenetrable smoke now roll over on the lee side of the islet, and
shroud the hunters. At times vast sheets of lurid flames bursting
forth, roaring, crackling and exploding, leap wildly far above the
tall reeds. Out rush the terrified animals, and amid the smoke are
seen the excited hunters dancing about with frantic gesticulations,
and hurling stick, spear, and arrow at their burned out victims.
Kites hover over the smoke, ready to pounce on the mantis and locusts
as they spring from the fire. Small crows and hundreds of swallows
are on eager wing, darting into the smoke and out again, seizing
fugitive flies. Scores of insects, in their haste to escape from the
fire, jump into the river, and the active fish enjoy a rare feast.
We returned to the "Pioneer" on the 9th of October, having been away
one month. The ship's company had used distilled water, a condenser
having been sent out from England; and there had not been a single
case of sickness on board since we left, though there were so many
cases of fever the few days she lay in the same spot last year. Our
boat party drank the water of the river, and the three white sailors,
who had never been in an African river before, had some slight
attacks of fever.
CHAPTER XII.
Return to the Zambesi - Bishop Mackenzie's grave - Frightful scenes
with crocodiles - Death of Mr. Thornton - African poisons - Recall of
the Expedition.
We put to sea on the 18th of October, and, again touching at Johanna,
obtained a crew of Johanna men and some oxen, and sailed for the
Zambesi; but our fuel failing before we reached it, and the wind
being contrary, we ran into Quillimane for wood.
Quillimane must have been built solely for the sake of carrying on
the slave-trade, for no man in his senses would ever have dreamed of
placing a village on such a low, muddy, fever-haunted, and mosquito-
swarming site, had it not been for the facilities it afforded for
slaving. The bar may at springs and floods be easily crossed by
sailing-vessels, but, being far from the land, it is always dangerous
for boats.
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