Heavy-Laden Canoes Take Two Days To Go Up This Pass.
A
current sweeps round the little rocky promontories Chifura and
Kangomba, forming whirlpools and eddies dangerous for the clumsy
craft, which are dragged past with long ropes.
The paddlers place meal on these rocks as an offering to the
turbulent deities, which they believe preside over spots fatal to
many a large canoe. We were slily told that native Portuguese take
off their hats to these river gods, and pass in solemn silence; when
safely beyond the promontories, they fire muskets, and, as we ought
to do, give the canoe-men grog. From the spoor of buffaloes and
elephants it appears that these animals frequent Lupata in
considerable numbers, and - we have often observed the association -
the tsetse fly is common. A horse for the Governor of Tette was sent
in a canoe from Quillimane; and, lest it should be wrecked on the
Chifura and Kangomba rocks, it was put on shore and sent in the
daytime through the pass. It was of course bitten by the tsetse, and
died soon after; it was thought that the AIR of Tette had not agreed
with it. The currents above Lupata are stronger than those below;
the country becomes more picturesque and hilly, and there is a larger
population.
The ship anchored in the stream, off Tette, on the 8th September,
1858, and Dr. Livingstone went ashore in the boat. No sooner did the
Makololo recognize him, than they rushed to the water's edge, and
manifested great joy at seeing him again. Some were hastening to
embrace him, but others cried out, "Don't touch him, you will spoil
his new clothes." The five headmen came on board and listened in
quiet sadness to the story of poor Sekwebu, who died at the Mauritius
on his way to England. "Men die in any country," they observed, and
then told us that thirty of their own number had died of smallpox,
having been bewitched by the people of Tette, who envied them
because, during the first year, none of their party had died. Six of
their young men, becoming tired of cutting firewood for a meagre
pittance, proposed to go and dance for gain before some of the
neighbouring chiefs. "Don't go," said the others, "we don't know the
people of this country;" but the young men set out and visited an
independent half-caste chief, a few miles to the north, named
Chisaka, who some years ago burned all the Portuguese villas on the
north bank of the river; afterwards the young men went to Bonga, son
of another half-caste chief, who bade defiance to the Tette
authorities, and had a stockade at the confluence of the Zambesi and
Luenya, a few miles below that village. Asking the Makololo whence
they came, Bonga rejoined, "Why do you come from my enemy to me? You
have brought witchcraft medicine to kill me." In vain they protested
that they did not belong to the country; they were strangers, and had
come from afar with an Englishman. The superstitious savage put them
all to death. "We do not grieve," said their companions, "for the
thirty victims of the smallpox, who were taken away by Morimo (God);
but our hearts are sore for the six youths who were murdered by
Bonga." Any hope of obtaining justice on the murderer was out of the
question. Bonga once caught a captain of the Portuguese army, and
forced him to perform the menial labour of pounding maize in a wooden
mortar. No punishment followed on this outrage. The Government of
Lisbon has since given Bonga the honorary title of Captain, by way of
coaxing him to own their authority; but he still holds his stockade.
Tette stands on a succession of low sandstone ridges on the right
bank of the Zambesi, which is here nearly a thousand yards wide (960
yards). Shallow ravines, running parallel with the river, form the
streets, the houses being built on the ridges. The whole surface of
the streets, except narrow footpaths, were overrun with self-sown
indigo, and tons of it might have been collected. In fact indigo,
senna, and stramonium, with a species of cassia, form the weeds of
the place, which are annually hoed off and burned. A wall of stone
and mud surrounds the village, and the native population live in huts
outside. The fort and the church, near the river, are the
strongholds; the natives having a salutary dread of the guns of the
one, and a superstitious fear of the unknown power of the other. The
number of white inhabitants is small, and rather select, many of them
having been considerately sent out of Portugal "for their country's
good." The military element preponderates in society; the convict
and "incorrigible" class of soldiers, receiving very little pay,
depend in great measure on the produce of the gardens of their black
wives; the moral condition of the resulting population may be
imagined.
Droughts are of frequent occurrence at Tette, and the crops suffer
severely. This may arise partly from the position of the town
between the ranges of hills north and south, which appear to have a
strong attraction for the rain-clouds. It is often seen to rain on
these hills when not a drop falls at Tette. Our first season was one
of drought. Thrice had the women planted their gardens in vain, the
seed, after just vegetating, was killed by the intense dry heat. A
fourth planting shared the same hard fate, and then some of the
knowing ones discovered the cause of the clouds being frightened
away: our unlucky rain-gauge in the garden. We got a bad name
through that same rain-gauge, and were regarded by many as a species
of evil omen. The Makololo in turn blamed the people of Tette for
drought: "A number of witches live here, who won't let it rain."
Africans in general are sufficiently superstitious, but those of
Tette are in this particular pre-eminent above their fellows.
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