Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

D >> David Livingstone >> Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa


We got on better with Nyakoba than we expected. He has been so much
affected by the sesenda that he is quite decrepit, and requires to be
fed. I at once showed his messenger that we had nothing whatever
to give. Nyakoba was offended with him for not believing me, and he
immediately sent a basket of maize and another of corn, saying that he
believed my statement, and would send men with me to Tete who would not
lead me to any other village.

The birds here sing very sweetly, and I thought I heard the canary,
as in Londa. We had a heavy shower of rain, and I observed that the
thermometer sank 14 Deg. in one hour afterward. From the beginning of
February we experienced a sensible diminution of temperature. In January
the lowest was 75 Deg., and that at sunrise; the average at the same
hour (sunrise) being 79 Deg.; at 3 P.M., 90 Deg.; and at sunset, 82 Deg.
In February it fell as low as 70 Deg. in the course of the night, and
the average height was 88 Deg. Only once did it rise to 94 Deg., and a
thunder-storm followed this; yet the sensation of heat was greater now
than it had been at much higher temperatures on more elevated lands.

We passed several villages by going roundabout ways through the forest.
We saw the remains of a lion that had been killed by a buffalo, and the
horns of a putokwane (black antelope), the finest I had ever seen, which
had met its death by a lion. The drums, beating all night in one village
near which we slept, showed that some person in it had finished his
course. On the occasion of the death of a chief, a trader is liable to
be robbed, for the people consider themselves not amenable to law until
a new one is elected. We continued a very winding course, in order to
avoid the chief Katolosa, who is said to levy large sums upon those who
fall into his hands. One of our guides was a fine, tall young man, the
very image of Ben Habib the Arab. They were carrying dried buffalo's
meat to the market at Tete as a private speculation.

A great many of the Banyai are of a light coffee-and-milk color, and,
indeed, this color is considered handsome throughout the whole country,
a fair complexion being as much a test of beauty with them as with
us. As they draw out their hair into small cords a foot in length, and
entwine the inner bark of a certain tree round each separate cord, and
dye this substance of a reddish color, many of them put me in mind of
the ancient Egyptians. The great mass of dressed hair which they possess
reaches to the shoulders, but when they intend to travel they draw it up
to a bunch, and tie it on the top of the head. They are cleanly in their
habits.

As we did not come near human habitations, and could only take short
stages on account of the illness of one of my men, I had an opportunity
of observing the expedients my party resorted to in order to supply
their wants. Large white edible mushrooms are found on the ant-hills,
and are very good. The mokuri, a tuber which abounds in the Mopane
country, they discovered by percussing the ground with stones; and
another tuber, about the size of a turnip, called "bonga", is found
in the same situations. It does not determine to the joints like the
mokuri, and in winter has a sensible amount of salt in it. A fruit
called "ndongo" by the Makololo, "dongolo" by the Bambiri, resembles
in appearance a small plum, which becomes black when ripe, and is good
food, as the seeds are small. Many trees are known by tradition, and one
receives curious bits of information in asking about different fruits
that are met with. A tree named "shekabakadzi" is superior to all others
for making fire by friction. As its name implies, women may even readily
make fire by it when benighted.

The country here is covered over with well-rounded shingle and gravel of
granite, gneiss with much talc in it, mica schist, and other rocks which
we saw 'in situ' between the Kafue and Loangwa. There are great mounds
of soft red sand slightly coherent, which crumble in the hand with ease.
The gravel and the sand drain away the water so effectually that the
trees are exposed to the heat during a portion of the year without any
moisture; hence they are not large, like those on the Zambesi, and are
often scrubby. The rivers are all of the sandy kind, and we pass over
large patches between this and Tete in which, in the dry season, no
water is to be found. Close on our south, the hills of Lokole rise to
a considerable height, and beyond them flows the Mazoe with its golden
sands. The great numbers of pot-holes on the sides of sandstone ridges,
when viewed in connection with the large banks of rolled shingle and
washed sand which are met with on this side of the eastern ridge, may
indicate that the sea in former times rolled its waves along its flanks.
Many of the hills between the Kafue and Loangwa have their sides of
the form seen in mud banks left by the tide. The pot-holes appear
most abundant on low gray sandstone ridges here; and as the shingle is
composed of the same rocks as the hills west of Zumbo, it looks as if
a current had dashed along from the southeast in the line in which the
pot-holes now appear; and if the current was deflected by those hills
toward the Maravi country, north of Tete, it may have hollowed the
rounded, water-worn caverns in which these people store their corn, and
also hide themselves from their enemies. I could detect no terraces on
the land, but, if I am right in my supposition, the form of this part of
the continent must once have resembled the curves or indentations seen
on the southern extremity of the American continent. In the indentation
to the S.E., S., S.W., and W. of this, lie the principal gold-washings;
and the line of the current, supposing it to have struck against the
hills of Mburuma, shows the washings in the N. and N.E. of Tete.

We were tolerably successful in avoiding the villages, and slept one
night on the flanks of the hill Zimika, where a great number of deep
pot-holes afforded an abundant supply of good rain-water. Here, for the
first time, we saw hills with bare, smooth, rocky tops, and we crossed
over broad dikes of gneiss and syenitic porphyry: the directions in
which they lay were N. and S. As we were now near to Tete, we were
congratulating ourselves on having avoided those who would only have
plagued us; but next morning some men saw us, and ran off to inform the
neighboring villages of our passing. A party immediately pursued us,
and, as they knew we were within call of Katolosa (Monomotapa), they
threatened to send information to that chief of our offense, in passing
through the country without leave. We were obliged to give them two
small tusks; for, had they told Katolosa of our supposed offense, we
should, in all probability, have lost the whole. We then went through a
very rough, stony country without any path. Being pretty well tired
out in the evening of the 2d of March, I remained at about eight miles
distance from Tete, Tette, or Nyungwe. My men asked me to go on; I felt
too fatigued to proceed, but sent forward to the commandant the letters
of recommendation with which I had been favored in Angola by the bishop
and others, and lay down to rest. Our food having been exhausted, my men
had been subsisting for some time on roots and honey. About two o'clock
in the morning of the 3d we were aroused by two officers and a company
of soldiers, who had been sent with the materials for a civilized
breakfast and a "masheela" to bring me to Tete. (Commandant's house:
lat. 16d 9' 3" S., long. 33d 28' E.) My companions thought that we were
captured by the armed men, and called me in alarm. When I understood
the errand on which they had come, and had partaken of a good breakfast,
though I had just before been too tired to sleep, all my fatigue
vanished. It was the most refreshing breakfast I ever partook of, and
I walked the last eight miles without the least feeling of weariness,
although the path was so rough that one of the officers remarked to
me, "This is enough to tear a man's life out of him." The pleasure
experienced in partaking of that breakfast was only equaled by the
enjoyment of Mr. Gabriel's bed on my arrival at Loanda. It was also
enhanced by the news that Sebastopol had fallen and the war was
finished.

Note.--Having neglected, in referring to the footprints of the
rhinoceros,
to mention what may be interesting to naturalists, I add it here
in a note;
that wherever the footprints are seen, there are also marks of the
animal
having plowed up the ground and bushes with his horn. This has
been supposed
to indicate that he is subject to "fits of ungovernable rage";
but, when seen, he appears rather to be rejoicing in his strength.
He acts as a bull sometimes does when he gores the earth with his
horns.
The rhinoceros, in addition to this, stands on a clump of bushes,
bends his back down, and scrapes the ground with his feet,
throwing it out backward, as if to stretch and clean his toes,
in the same way that a dog may be seen to do on a little grass:
this is certainly not rage.




Chapter 31.

Kind Reception from the Commandant--His Generosity to my Men--The
Village of Tete--The Population--Distilled Spirits--The Fort--Cause
of the Decadence of Portuguese Power--Former Trade--Slaves employed
in Gold-washing--Slave-trade drained the Country of Laborers--The
Rebel Nyaude's Stockade--He burns Tete--Kisaka's Revolt and
Ravages--Extensive Field of Sugar-cane--The Commandant's good
Reputation among the Natives--Providential Guidance--Seams of Coal--A
hot Spring--Picturesque Country--Water-carriage to the Coal-fields--
Workmen's Wages--Exports--Price of Provisions--Visit Gold-washings--
The Process of obtaining the precious Metal--Coal within a Gold-field--
Present from Major Sicard--Natives raise Wheat, etc.--Liberality of
the Commandant--Geographical Information from Senhor
Candido--Earthquakes--Native Ideas of a Supreme Being--Also of the
Immortality and Transmigration of Souls--Fondness for Display at
Funerals--Trade Restrictions--Former Jesuit Establishment--State of
Religion and Education at Tete--Inundation of the Zambesi--Cotton
cultivated--The fibrous Plants Conge and Buaze--Detained by Fever--The
Kumbanzo Bark--Native Medicines--Iron, its Quality--Hear of Famine
at Kilimane--Death of a Portuguese Lady--The Funeral--Disinterested
Kindness of the Portuguese.



I was most kindly received by the commandant Tito Augusto d'Araujo
Sicard, who did every thing in his power to restore me from my emaciated
condition; and, as this was still the unhealthy period at Kilimane,
he advised me to remain with him until the following month. He also
generously presented my men with abundant provisions of millet; and, by
giving them lodgings in a house of his own until they could erect their
own huts, he preserved them from the bite of the tampans, here named
Carapatos.* We had heard frightful accounts of this insect while among
the Banyai, and Major Sicard assured me that to strangers its bite is
more especially dangerous, as it sometimes causes fatal fever. It may
please our homoeopathic friends to hear that, in curing the bite of
the tampan, the natives administer one of the insects bruised in the
medicine employed.

* Another insect, resembling a maggot, burrows into the feet
of the natives and sucks their blood. Mr. Westwood says, "The
tampan is a large species of mite, closely allied to the
poisonous bug (as it is called) of Persia, 'Argos reflexus',
respecting which such marvelous accounts have been recorded,
and which the statement respecting the carapato or tampan
would partially confirm." Mr. W. also thinks that the poison-
yielding larva called N'gwa is a "species of chrysomelidae.
The larvae of the British species of that family exude a fetid
yellow thickish fluid when alarmed, but he has not heard that
any of them are at all poisonous."

The village of Tete is built on a long slope down to the river, the fort
being close to the water. The rock beneath is gray sandstone, and has
the appearance of being crushed away from the river: the strata have
thus a crumpled form. The hollow between each crease is a street, the
houses being built upon the projecting fold. The rocks at the top of the
slope are much higher than the fort, and of course completely command
it. There is then a large valley, and beyond that an oblong hill called
Karueira. The whole of the adjacent country is rocky and broken, but
every available spot is under cultivation. The stone houses in Tete are
cemented with mud instead of lime, and thatched with reeds and grass.
The rains, having washed out the mud between the stones, give all the
houses a rough, untidy appearance. No lime was known to be found nearer
than Mozambique; some used in making seats in the verandas had actually
been brought all that distance. The Portuguese evidently knew nothing
of the pink and white marbles which I found at the Mbai, and another
rivulet, named the Unguesi, near it, and of which I brought home
specimens, nor yet of the dolomite which lies so near to Zumbo:
they might have burned the marble into lime without going so far as
Mozambique. There are about thirty European houses; the rest are native,
and of wattle and daub. A wall about ten feet high is intended to
inclose the village, but most of the native inhabitants prefer to live
on different spots outside. There are about twelve hundred huts in all,
which with European households would give a population of about four
thousand five hundred souls. Only a small proportion of these, however,
live on the spot; the majority are engaged in agricultural operations
in the adjacent country. Generally there are not more than two thousand
people resident, for, compared with what it was, Tete is now a ruin. The
number of Portuguese is very small; if we exclude the military, it is
under twenty. Lately, however, one hundred and five soldiers were sent
from Portugal to Senna, where in one year twenty-five were cut off by
fever. They were then removed to Tete, and here they enjoy much better
health, though, from the abundance of spirits distilled from various
plants, wild fruits, and grain, in which pernicious beverage they
largely indulge, besides partaking chiefly of unwholesome native food,
better health could scarcely have been expected. The natives here
understand the method of distillation by means of gun-barrels, and a
succession of earthen pots filled with water to keep them cool. The
general report of the fever here is that, while at Kilimane the fever
is continuous, at Tete a man recovers in about three days. The mildest
remedies only are used at first, and, if that period be passed, then the
more severe.

The fort of Tete has been the salvation of the Portuguese power in this
quarter. It is a small square building, with a thatched apartment for
the residence of the troops; and, though there are but few guns, they
are in a much better state than those of any fort in the interior of
Angola. The cause of the decadence of the Portuguese power in this
region is simply this: In former times, considerable quantities of
grain, as wheat, millet, and maize, were exported; also coffee, sugar,
oil, and indigo, besides gold-dust and ivory. The cultivation of grain
was carried on by means of slaves, of whom the Portuguese possessed a
large number. The gold-dust was procured by washing at various points on
the north, south, and west of Tete. A merchant took all his slaves with
him to the washings, carrying as much calico and other goods as he could
muster. On arriving at the washing-place, he made a present to the chief
of the value of about a pound sterling. The slaves were then divided
into parties, each headed by a confidential servant, who not only had
the supervision of his squad while the washing went on, but bought
dust from the inhabitants, and made a weekly return to his master. When
several masters united at one spot, it was called a "Bara", and they
then erected a temporary church, in which a priest from one of the
missions performed mass. Both chiefs and people were favorable to these
visits, because the traders purchased grain for the sustenance of the
slaves with the goods they had brought. They continued at this labor
until the whole of the goods were expended, and by this means about
130 lbs. of gold were annually produced. Probably more than this was
actually obtained, but, as it was an article easily secreted, this alone
was submitted to the authorities for taxation. At present the whole
amount of gold obtained annually by the Portuguese is from 8 to 10 lbs.
only. When the slave-trade began, it seemed to many of the merchants a
more speedy mode of becoming rich to sell off the slaves than to pursue
the slow mode of gold-washing and agriculture, and they continued to
export them until they had neither hands to labor nor to fight for them.
It was just the story of the goose and the golden egg. The coffee and
sugar plantations and gold-washings were abandoned, because the labor
had been exported to the Brazils. Many of the Portuguese then followed
their slaves, and the government was obliged to pass a law to prevent
further emigration, which, had it gone on, would have depopulated the
Portuguese possessions altogether. A clever man of Asiatic (Goa) and
Portuguese extraction, called Nyaude, now built a stockade at the
confluence of the Luenya and Zambesi; and when the commandant of Tete
sent an officer with his company to summon him to his presence, Nyaude
asked permission of the officer to dress himself, which being granted,
he went into an inner apartment, and the officer ordered his men to pile
their arms. A drum of war began to beat a note which is well known to
the inhabitants. Some of the soldiers took the alarm on hearing this
note, but the officer, disregarding their warning, was, with his whole
party, in a few minutes disarmed and bound hand and foot. The commandant
of Tete then armed the whole body of slaves and marched against the
stockade of Nyaude, but when they came near to it there was the Luenya
still to cross. As they did not effect this speedily, Nyaude dispatched
a strong party under his son Bonga across the river below the stockade,
and up the left bank of the Zambesi until they came near to Tete. They
then attacked Tete, which was wholly undefended save by a few soldiers
in the fort, plundered and burned the whole town except the house of
the commandant and a few others, with the church and fort. The women and
children fled into the church; and it is a remarkable fact that none of
the natives of this region will ever attack a church. Having rendered
Tete a ruin, Bonga carried off all the cattle and plunder to his father.
News of this having been brought to the army before the stockade, a
sudden panic dispersed the whole; and as the fugitives took roundabout
ways in their flight, Katolosa, who had hitherto pretended to be
friendly with the Portuguese, sent out his men to capture as many of
them as they could. They killed many for the sake of their arms. This is
the account which both natives and Portuguese give of the affair.

Another half-caste from Macao, called Kisaka or Choutama, on the
opposite bank of the river, likewise rebelled. His father having
died, he imagined that he had been bewitched by the Portuguese, and he
therefore plundered and burned all the plantations of the rich merchants
of Tete on the north bank. As I have before remarked, that bank is the
most fertile, and there the Portuguese had their villas and plantations
to which they daily retired from Tete. When these were destroyed the
Tete people were completely impoverished. An attempt was made to
punish this rebel, but it was also unsuccessful, and he has lately been
pardoned by the home government. One point in the narrative of this
expedition is interesting. They came to a field of sugar-cane so large
that 4000 men eating it during two days did not finish the whole. The
Portuguese were thus placed between two enemies, Nyaude on the right
bank and Kisaka on the left, and not only so, but Nyaude, having placed
his stockade on the point of land on the right banks of both the Luenya
and Zambesi, and washed by both these rivers, could prevent intercourse
with the sea. The Luenya rushes into the Zambesi with great force when
the latter is low, and, in coming up the Zambesi, boats must cross it
and the Luenya separately, even going a little way up that river, so
as not to be driven away by its current in the bed of the Zambesi, and
dashed on the rock which stands on the opposite shore. In coming up
to the Luenya for this purpose, all boats and canoes came close to the
stockade to be robbed. Nyaude kept the Portuguese shut up in their fort
at Tete during two years, and they could only get goods sufficient to
buy food by sending to Kilimane by an overland route along the north
bank of the Zambesi. The mother country did not in these "Caffre wars"
pay the bills, so no one either became rich or blamed the missionaries.

The merchants were unable to engage in trade, and commerce, which the
slave-trade had rendered stagnant, was now completely obstructed. The
present commandant of Tete, Major Sicard, having great influence among
the natives, from his good character, put a stop to the war more than
once by his mere presence on the spot. We heard of him among the Banyai
as a man with whom they would never fight, because "he had a good
heart." Had I come down to this coast instead of going to Loanda in
1853, I should have come among the belligerents while the war was still
raging, and should probably have been cut off. My present approach was
just at the conclusion of the peace; and when the Portuguese authorities
here were informed, through the kind offices of Lord Clarendon and Count
de Lavradio, that I was expected to come this way, they all declared
that such was the existing state of affairs that no European could
possibly pass through the tribes. Some natives at last came down the
river to Tete and said, alluding to the sextant and artificial horizon,
that "the Son of God had come," and that he was "able to take the sun
down from the heavens and place it under his arm!" Major Sicard then
felt sure that this was the man mentioned in Lord Clarendon's dispatch.

On mentioning to the commandant that I had discovered a small seam of
coal, he stated that the Portuguese were already aware of nine such
seams, and that five of them were on the opposite bank of the river.
As soon as I had recovered from my fatigue I went to examine them. We
proceeded in a boat to the mouth of the Lofubu or Revubu, which is about
two miles below Tete, and on the opposite or northern bank. Ascending
this about four miles against a strong current of beautifully clear
water, we landed near a small cataract, and walked about two miles
through very fertile gardens to the seam, which we found to be in one of
the feeders of the Lofubu, called Muatize or Motize. The seam is in
the perpendicular bank, and dips into the rivulet, or in a northerly
direction. There is, first of all, a seam 10 inches in diameter, then
some shale, below which there is another seam, 58 inches of which are
seen, and, as the bottom touches the water of the Muatize, it may be
more. This part of the seam is about 30 yards long. There is then a
fault. About 100 yards higher up the stream black vesicular trap
is seen, penetrating in thin veins the clay shale of the country,
converting it into porcellanite, and partially crystallizing the coal
with which it came into contact. On the right bank of the Lofubu there
is another feeder entering that river near its confluence with the
Muatize, which is called the Morongozi, in which there is another and
still larger bed of coal exposed. Farther up the Lofubu there are other
seams in the rivulets Inyavu and Makare; also several spots in the
Maravi country have the coal cropping out. This has evidently been
brought to the surface by volcanic action at a later period than the
coal formation.

I also went up the Zambesi, and visited a hot spring called Nyamboronda,
situated in the bed of a small rivulet named Nyaondo, which shows that
igneous action is not yet extinct. We landed at a small rivulet called
Mokorozi, then went a mile or two to the eastward, where we found a hot
fountain at the bottom of a high hill. A little spring bubbles up on one
side of the rivulet Nyaondo, and a great quantity of acrid steam rises
up from the ground adjacent, about 12 feet square of which is so hot
that my companions could not stand on it with their bare feet. There are
several little holes from which the water trickles, but the principal
spring is in a hole a foot in diameter, and about the same in depth.
Numbers of bubbles are constantly rising. The steam feels acrid in the
throat, but is not inflammable, as it did not burn when I held a bunch
of lighted grass over the bubbles. The mercury rises to 158 Deg. when
the thermometer is put into the water in the hole, but after a few
seconds it stands steadily at 160 Deg. Even when flowing over the stones
the water is too hot for the hand. Little fish frequently leap out of
the stream in the bed of which the fountain rises, into the hot
water, and get scalded to death. We saw a frog which had performed the
experiment, and was now cooked. The stones over which the water flows
are incrusted with a white salt, and the water has a saline taste. The
ground has been dug out near the fountain by the natives, in order to
extract the salt it contains. It is situated among rocks of syenitic
porphyry in broad dikes, and gneiss tilted on edge, and having a
strike to the N.E. There are many specimens of half-formed pumice, with
greenstone and lava. Some of the sandstone strata are dislocated by a
hornblende rock and by basalt, the sandstone nearest to the basalt being
converted into quartz.