He followed the boat, came up under it, and twice tried
to tear the bottom out of it; but
Fortunately it was too flat for his
jaws to get a good grip, so he merely damaged one of the planks with
his tusks, though he lifted the boat right up, with ten men and a ton
of ebony in it.
We slept, one of the two nights Captain Gardner was with us, opposite
the lakelet Chidia, which is connected with the river in flood time,
and is nearly surrounded by hills some 500 or 600 feet high, dotted
over with trees. A few small groups of huts stood on the hill-sides,
with gardens off which the usual native produce had been reaped. The
people did not seem much alarmed by the presence of the large party
which had drawn up on the sandbanks below their dwellings. There is
abundance of large ebony in the neighbourhood. The pretty little
antelope (Cephalophus caeruleus), about the size of a hare, seemed to
abound, as many of their skins were offered for sale. Neat figured
date-leaf mats of various colours are woven here, the different dyes
being obtained from the barks of trees. Cattle could not live on the
banks of the Rovuma on account of the tsetse, which are found from
near the mouth, up as far as we could take the boats. The navigation
did not improve as we ascended; snags, brought down by the floods,
were common, and left in the channel on the sudden subsidence of the
water.
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