Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

by David Livingstone

*
80 Lombard Street, 20th March, 1857.
Dear Sir,—We have the pleasure to return you the specimens of
fibrous plants from the Zambesi River, on which you were
desirous to see the effects of our treatment; we therefore
inclose to you,
No. 1. Buaze, in the state received from you.
1 A. Do. as prepared by us.
1 B. The tow which has come from it in hackling.
No. 2. Conge, as received from you.
2 A. Do. as prepared by us.
With regard to both these fibres, we must state that the VERY
MINUTE QUANTITY of each specimen has prevented our subjecting
them to any thing like the full treatment of our process, and
we can therefore only give you an APPROXIMATE idea of their
value.
The Buaze evidently possesses a very strong and fine fibre,
assimilating to flax in its character, but we believe, when
treated IN QUANTITY by our process, it would show both a
stronger and finer fibre than flax; but being unable to apply
the rolling or pressing processes with any efficiency to so
very small a quantity, the gums are not yet so perfectly
extracted as they would be, nor the fibre opened out to so
fine a quality as it would then exhibit.
This is even yet more the case with the Conge, which, being
naturally a harsh fibre, full of gums, wants exactly that
powerful treatment which our process is calculated to give it,
but which can not be applied to such miniature specimens. We
do not therefore consider this as more than half treated, its
fibre consequently remaining yet harsh, and coarse, and stiff,
as compared with what it would be if treated IN QUANTITY.
Judging that it would be satisfactory to you to be in
possession of the best practical opinion to be obtained on
such a subject, we took the liberty of forwarding your little
specimens to Messrs. Marshall, of Leeds, who have kindly
favored us with the following observations on them:
"We have examined the samples you sent us yesterday, and think
the Conge or aloe fibre would be of no use to us, but the
Buaze fibre appears to resemble flax, and as prepared by you
will be equal to flax worth 50 Pounds or 60 Pounds per ton,
but we could hardly speak positively to the value unless we
had 1 cwt. or 2 cwt. to try on our machinery. However, we
think the result is promising, and we hope further inquiry
will be made as to the probable supply of the material."
We are, dear sir, your very obedient servants, Pye, Brothers.
The Rev. Dr. Livingstone.

A representation of the plant is given in the annexed woodcut,* as a help to its identification. I was unable to procure either the flowers or fruit; but, as it is not recognized at sight by that accomplished botanist and eminent traveler, Dr. J. D. Hooker, it may safely be concluded that it is quite unknown to botanists. It is stated by the Portuguese to grow in large quantities in the Maravi country north of the Zambesi, but it is not cultivated, and the only known use it has been put to is in making threads on which the natives string their beads. Elsewhere the split tendons of animals are employed for this purpose. This seems to be of equal strength, for a firm thread of it feels like catgut in the hand, and would rather cut the fingers than break.

* Unfortunately, this woodcut can not be represented in this
ASCII text, but buaze, or bwazi, is 'Securidaca
longipedunculata'.—A. L., 1997.

Having waited a month for the commencement of the healthy season at Kilimane, I would have started at the beginning of April, but tarried a few days in order that the moon might make her appearance, and enable me to take lunar observations on my way down the river. A sudden change of temperature happening on the 4th, simultaneously with the appearance of the new moon, the commandant and myself, with nearly every person in the house, were laid up with a severe attack of fever. I soon recovered by the use of my wonted remedies, but Major Sicard and his little boy were confined much longer. There was a general fall of 4 Deg. of temperature from the middle of March, 84 Deg. at 9 A.M., and 87 Deg. at 9 P.M.; the greatest heat being 90 Deg. at midday, and the lowest 81 Deg. at sunrise. It afforded me pleasure to attend the invalids in their sickness, though I was unable to show a tithe of the gratitude I felt for the commandant's increasing kindness. My quinine and other remedies were nearly all expended, and no fresh supply was to be found here, there being no doctors at Tete, and only one apothecary with the troops, whose stock of medicine was also small. The Portuguese, however, informed me that they had the cinchona bark growing in their country—that there was a little of it to be found at Tete—whole forests of it at Senna and near the delta of Kilimane. It seems quite a providential arrangement that the remedy for fever should be found in the greatest abundance where it is most needed. On seeing the leaves, I stated that it was not the 'Cinchona longifolia' from which it is supposed the quinine of commerce is extracted, but the name and properties of this bark made me imagine that it was a cinchonaceous tree. I could not get the flower, but when I went to Senna I tried to bring away a few small living trees with earth in a box. They, however, all died when we came to Kilimane. Failing in this mode of testing the point, I submitted a few leaves and seed-vessels to my friend, Dr. Hooker, who kindly informs me that they belong "apparently to an apocyneous plant, very nearly allied to the Malouetia Heudlotii (of Decaisne), a native of Senegambia." Dr. H. adds, "Various plants of this natural order are reputed powerful febrifuges, and some of them are said to equal the cinchona in their effects." It is called in the native tongue Kumbanzo.

The flowers are reported to be white. The pods are in pairs, a foot or fifteen inches in length, and contain a groove on their inner sides. The thick soft bark of the root is the part used by the natives; the Portuguese use that of the tree itself. I immediately began to use a decoction of the bark of the root, and my men found it so efficacious that they collected small quantities of it for themselves, and kept it in little bags for future use. Some of them said that they knew it in their own country, but I never happened to observe it. The decoction is given after the first paroxysm of the complaint is over. The Portuguese believe it to have the same effects as the quinine, and it may prove a substitute for that invaluable medicine.

There are numbers of other medicines in use among the natives, but I have always been obliged to regret want of time to ascertain which were useful and which of no value. We find a medicine in use by a tribe in one part of the country, and the same plant employed by a tribe a thousand miles distant. This surely must arise from some inherent virtue in the plant. The Boers under Potgeiter visited Delgoa Bay for the first time about ten years ago, in order to secure a port on the east coast for their republic. They had come from a part of the interior where the disease called croup occasionally prevails. There was no appearance of the disease among them at the period of their visit, but the Portuguese inhabitants of that bay found that they had left it among them, and several adults were cut off by a form of the complaint called 'Laryngismus stridulus', the disease of which the great Washington died. Similar cases have occurred in the South Sea Islands. Ships have left diseases from which no one on board was suffering at the time of their visit. Many of the inhabitants here were cut down, usually in three days from their first attack, until a native doctor adopted the plan of scratching the root of the tongue freely with a certain root, and giving a piece of it to be chewed. The cure may have been effected by the scarification only, but the Portuguese have the strongest faith in the virtues of the root, and always keep some of it within reach.

There are also other plants which the natives use in the treatment of fever, and some of them produce 'diaphoresis' in a short space of time. It is certain that we have got the knowledge of the most potent febrifuge in our pharmacopoeia from the natives of another country. We have no cure for cholera and some other diseases. It might be worth the investigation of those who visit Africa to try and find other remedies in a somewhat similar way to that in which we found the quinine.*

* I add the native names of a few of their remedies in order
to assist the inquirer: Mupanda panda: this is used in fever
for producing perspiration; the leaves are named Chirussa; the
roots dye red, and are very astringent. Goho or Go-o: this is
the ordeal medicine; it is both purgative and emetic. Mutuva
or Mutumbue: this plant contains so much oil that it serves
as lights in Londa; it is an emollient drink for the cure of
coughs, and the pounded leaves answer as soap to wash the
head. Nyamucu ucu has a curious softening effect on old dry
grain. Mussakasi is believed to remove the effects of the Go-
o. Mudama is a stringent vermifuge. Mapubuza dyes a red
color. Musikizi yields an oil. Shinkondo: a virulent poison;
the Maravi use it in their ordeal, and it is very fatal.
Kanunka utare is said to expel serpents and rats by its
pungent smell, which is not at all disagreeable to man; this
is probably a kind of 'Zanthoxylon', perhaps the Z.
melancantha of Western Africa, as it is used to expel rats and
serpents there. Mussonzoa dyes cloth black. Mussio: the
beans of this also dye black. Kangome, with flowers and fruit
like Mocha coffee; the leaves are much like those of the sloe,
and the seeds are used as coffee or eaten as beans. Kanembe-
embe: the pounded leaves used as an extemporaneous glue for
mending broken vessels. Katunguru is used for killing fish.
Mutavea Nyerere: an active caustic. Mudiacoro: also an
external caustic, and used internally. Kapande: another
ordeal plant, but used to produce 'diaphoresis'. Karumgasura:
also diaphoretic. Munyazi yields an oil, and is one of the
ingredients for curing the wounds of poisoned arrows. Uombue:
a large root employed in killing fish. Kakumate: used in
intermittents. Musheteko: applied to ulcers, and the infusion
also internally in amenorrhoea. Inyakanyanya: this is seen in
small, dark-colored, crooked roots of pleasant aromatic smell
and slightly bitter taste, and is highly extolled in the
treatment of fever; it is found in Manica. Eskinencia: used
in croup and sore-throat. Itaca or Itaka: for diaphoresis in
fever; this root is brought as an article of barter by the
Arabs to Kilimane; the natives purchase it eagerly.
Mukundukundu: a decoction used as a febrifuge in the same way
as quinine; it grows plentifully at Shupanga, and the wood is
used as masts for launches. I may here add the recipe of
Brother Pedro of Zumbo for the cure of poisoned wounds, in
order to show the similarity of practice among the natives of
the Zambesi, from whom, in all probability, he acquired his
knowledge, and the Bushmen of the Kalahari. It consists of
equal parts of the roots of the Calumba, Musheteko, Abutua,
Batatinya, Paregekanto, Itaka, or Kapande, put into a bottle
and covered with common castor-oil. As I have before
observed, I believe the oily ingredient is the effectual one,
and ought to be tried by any one who has the misfortune to get
wounded by a Bushman's or Banyai arrow.

The only other metal, besides gold, we have in abundance in this region, is iron, and that is of excellent quality. In some places it is obtained from what is called the specular iron ore, and also from black oxide. The latter has been well roasted in the operations of nature, and contains a large proportion of the metal. It occurs generally in tears or rounded lumps, and is but slightly magnetic. When found in the beds of rivers, the natives know of its existence by the quantity of oxide on the surface, and they find no difficulty in digging it with pointed sticks. They consider English iron as "rotten"; and I have seen, when a javelin of their own iron lighted on the cranium of a hippopotamus, it curled up like the proboscis of a butterfly, and the owner would prepare it for future use by straightening it COLD with two stones. I brought home some of the hoes which Sekeletu gave me to purchase a canoe, also some others obtained in Kilimane, and they have been found of such good quality that a friend of mine in Birmingham has made an Enfield rifle of them.*

* The following remarks are by a practical blacksmith, one of
the most experienced men in the gun-trade. In this trade
various qualities of iron are used, and close attention is
required to secure for each purpose the quality of iron
peculiarly adapted to it:
The iron in the two spades strongly resembles Swedish or
Russian; it is highly carbonized.
The same qualities are found in both spades.
When chilled in water it has all the properties of steel: see
the piece marked I, chilled at one end, and left soft at the
other.
When worked hot, it is very malleable: but cold, it breaks
quite short and brittle.
The great irregularity found in the working of the iron
affords evidence that it has been prepared by inexperienced
hands.
This is shown in the bending of the small spade; the thick
portion retains its crystallized nature, while the thin part
has been changed by the hammering it has undergone.
The large spade shows a very brittle fracture.
The iron is too brittle for gun-work; it would be liable to
break.
This iron, if REPEATEDLY heated and hammered, would become
decarbonized, and would then possess the qualities found in
the spear-head, which, after being curled up by being struck
against a hard substance, was restored, by hammering, to its
original form without injury.
The piece of iron marked II is a piece of gun-iron of fibrous
quality, such as will bend without breaking.
The piece marked III is of crystalline quality; it has been
submitted to a process which has changed it to IIII; III and
IIII are cut from the same bar. The spade-iron has been
submitted to the same process, but no corresponding effect can
be produced.