We see the well-wooded
Shupanga ridge stretching to the left, and in front blue hills rise
dimly far in the distance.
There is no trade whatever on the Zambesi
below Mazaro. All the merchandise of Senna and Tette is brought to
that point in large canoes, and thence carried six miles across the
country on men's heads to be reshipped on a small stream that flows
into the Kwakwa, or Quillimane river, which is entirely distinct from
the Zambesi. Only on rare occasions and during the highest floods
can canoes pass from the Zambesi to the Quillimane river through the
narrow natural canal Mutu. The natives of Maruru, or the country
around Mazaro, the word Mazaro meaning the "mouth of the creek" Mutu,
have a bad name among the Portuguese; they are said to be expert
thieves, and the merchants sometimes suffer from their adroitness
while the goods are in transit from one river to the other. In
general they are trained canoe-men, and man many of the canoes that
ply thence to Senna and Tette; their pay is small, and, not trusting
the traders, they must always have it before they start. Africans
being prone to assign plausible reasons for their conduct, like white
men in more enlightened lands, it is possible they may be good-
humouredly giving their reason for insisting on being invariably paid
in advance in the words of their favourite canoe-song, "Uachingere,
Uachingere Kale," "You cheated me of old;" or, "Thou art slippery
slippery truly."
The Landeens or Zulus are lords of the right bank of the Zambesi; and
the Portuguese, by paying this fighting tribe a pretty heavy annual
tribute, practically admit this.
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