CHAP. I. SCENERY ON THE KONGONE. 21 white men. They were probably fugitives from Portuguese slavery. In the grassy glades, buffaloes, warthogs, and three kinds of antelope were abundant, and the latter easily obtained. A few hours' hunting usually provided venison enough for a score of men for several days. On proceeding up the Kongone branch it was found that, by keeping well in the bends, which the current had worn deep, shoals were easily avoided. The first twenty miles are straight and deep; then a small and rather tortuous natural canal leads off to the right, and, after about five miles, during which the paddles almost touched the floating grass of the sides, ends in the broad Zambesi. The rest of the Kongone branch comes out of the main stream considerably higher up as the outgoing branch called Doto. The first twenty miles of the Kongone are inclosed in mangrove jungle; some of the trees are ornamented with orchilla weed, which appears never to have been gathered. Huge ferns, palm bushes, and occasionally wild date-palms, peer out in the forest, which consists of different species of mangroves; the bunches of bright yellow, though scarcely edible fruit, contrasting prettily with the graceful green leaves. In some spots the Milola, an umbrageous hibiscus, with large yellowish flowers, grows in masses along the bank. Its bark is made into cordage, and is especially valua ble for the manufacture of ropes attached to harpoons for killing the hippopotamus. The Pandanus or screw-palm, from which sugar-bags are made in the Mauritius, also appears, and, on coming out of the canal into the Zambesi, many are so tall as in the distance to remind us of the steeples of our native land, and make us relish the remark of an old sailor, "that but one thing was wanting to complete the picture, and that was 'a grog-shop near the church."" We find also 22 FERTILITY OF SOIL. CHAP. I. a few guava and lime-trees growing wild, but the natives claim the crops. The dark woods resound with the lively and exultant song of the kinghunter (Halcyon striolata) as he sits perched on high among the trees. As the steamer moves on through the winding channel, a pretty little heron or bright kingfisher darts out in alarm from the edge of the bank, flies on ahead a short distance, and settles quietly down, to be again frightened off in a few seconds as we approach. The magnificent fishhawk (Halietus vocifer) sits on the top of a mangrove-tree, digesting his morning meal of fresh fish, and is clearly unwilling to stir until the imminence of the danger compels him at last to spread his great wings for flight. The glossy ibis, acute of ear to a remarkable degree, hears from afar the unwonted sound of the paddles, and, springing from the mud where his family has been quietly feasting, is off, screaming out his loud, harsh, and defiant Ha! ha ha! long before the danger is near. The mangroves are now left behind, and are succeeded by vast level plains of rich dark soil, covered with gigantic grasses, so tall that they tower over one's head, and render hunting impossible. Beginning in July, the grass is burned off every year after it has become dry. These fires prevent the growth of any great amount of timber, as only a few trees from among the more hardy kinds, such as the Borassus palm and lignum-vitæ, can live through the sea of fire which annually roars across the plains. Several native huts now peep out from the bananas and cocoa-palms on the right bank; they stand on piles a few feet above the low, damp ground, and their owners enter them by means of ladders. The soil is wonderfully rich, and the gardens are really excellent. Rice is cultivated largely; sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, onions (sha CHAP. I. "COLONOS," OR SERFS. 23 lots), peas, a little cotton, and sugar-cane are also raised. It is said that English potatoes, when planted at Quillimane on soil resembling this, in the course of two years become in taste like sweet potatoes (Convolvulus batatas), and are like our potato frosted. The whole of the fertile region extending from the Kongone Canal to beyond Mazaro, some eighty miles in length and fifty in breadth, is admirably adapted for the growth of sugar-cane; and, were it in the hands of our friends at the Cape, would supply all Europe with sugar. The remarkably few people seen appeared to be tolerably well fed, but there was a shivering dearth of clothing among them; all were blacks, and nearly all Portuguese "colonos" or serfs. They manifested no fear of white men, and stood in groups on the bank gazing in astonishment at the steamers, especially at the "Pearl," which accompanied us thus far up the river. One old man who came on board remarked that never before had he seen any vessel so large as the "Pearl;" it was like a village; "was it made out of one tree?" All were eager traders, and soon came off to the ship in light, swift canoes, with every kind of fruit and food they possessed; a few brought honey and beeswax, which are found in quantities in the mangrove forests. As the ships steamed off, many anxious sellers ran along the bank, holding up fowls, baskets of rice and meal, and shouting "Malonda, Malonda," "things for sale," while others followed in canoes, which they sent through the water with great velocity by means of short, broad-bladed paddles. The deep channel, or Qwete as the canoe-men call it, of the Zambesi is winding, and narrow when contrasted with the great breadth of the river itself. The river bottom appears to be a succession of immense submerged sand 24 DEEP CHANNEL OF RIVER. СНАР. І. banks, having, when the stream is low, from one to four feet of water on them. The main channel runs for some distance between the sand-bank and the river's bank, with a depth in the dry season varying from five to fifteen feet, and a current of nearly two knots an hour. It then turns and flows along the lower edge of the sand-bank in a diagonal direction across the river, and continues this process, winding from bank to bank repeatedly during the day's sail, making expert navigators on the ocean feel helplessly at sea on the river. On these crossings the channel is shallowest. It is, in general, pretty clearly defined. In calm weather there is a peculiar boiling up of its water from some action below. With a light breeze the Qwete assumes a characteristic ripple, and when the wind freshens and blows up the river, as it usually does from May to November, the waves on it are larger than those of other parts of the river, and a line of small breakers marks the edge of the shoalbank above. Finding the "Pearl's" draught too great for that part of the river near the island of Simbo, where the branch called the Doto is given off to the Kongone on the right bank, and another named Chinde departs to the secret canal already mentioned on the left, the goods belonging to the expedition were taken out of her, and placed on one of the grassy islands about forty miles from the bar. The "Pearl" then left us, and we had to part with our good friends Duncan and Skead; the former to Ceylon, the latter to return to his duties as government surveyor at the Cape. Of those who eventually did the work of the expedition the majority took a sober common-sense view of the enterprise in which we were engaged. Some remained on Ex |