"Above Maruru the country begins to become more hilly, and the high mountains of Boruru are in sight; the first view of these is obtained below Nyangue, and they must be of considerable height, as from this they are distant above 40 miles. They are reported to contain great mineral wealth; gold and copper being found in the range, as also COAL (?). The natives (Landeens) are a bold, independent race, who do not acknowledge the Portuguese authority, and even make them pay for leave to pass unmolested. Throughout the whole course of the river hippopotami were very abundant, and at one village a chase by the natives was witnessed. They harpoon the animal with a barbed lance, to which is attached, by a cord 3 or 4 fathoms long, an inflated bladder. The natives follow in their canoes, and look out to fix more harpoons as the animal rises to blow, and, when exhausted, dispatch him with their lances. It is, in fact, nearly similar to a whale-hunt. Elephants and lions are also abundant on the western side; the latter destroy many of the blacks annually, and are much feared by them. Alligators are said to be numerous, but I did not see any.
"The voyage up to Maruru occupied seven days, as I did not work the men at the oar, but it might be done in four; we returned to the bar in two and a half days.
"There is another mouth of the Zambesi seven miles to the westward of Luabo, which was visited by the 'Castor's pinnace'; and I was assured by Lieutenant Hoskins that the bar was better than the one I visited."
The conclusions of Captain Parker are strengthened by those of Lieut. A. H. H. Hoskins, who was on the coast at the same time, and also visited this spot. Having applied to my friend for his deliberate opinion on the subject, he promptly furnished the following note in January last:
"The Zambesi appears to have five principal mouths, of which the Luabo is the most southern and most navigable; Cumana, and two whose names I do not know, not having myself visited it, lying between it and the Quilimane, and the rise and fall at spring tides on the bar of the Luabo is 22 feet; and as, in the passage, there is NEVER less than four feet (I having crossed it at dead low-water—springs), this would give an average depth sufficient for any commercial purposes. The rise and fall is six feet greater, the passages narrow and more defined, consequently deeper and more easily found than that of the Quilimane River. The river above the bar is very tortuous, but deep; and it is observable that the influence of the tide is felt much higher in this branch than in the others; for whereas in the Catrina and Cumana I have obtained drinkable water a very short distance from the mouth, in the Luabo I have ascended seventy miles without finding the saltness perceptibly diminished. This would facilitate navigation, and I have no hesitation in saying that little difficulty would be experienced in conveying a steam-vessel of the size and capabilities of the gunboat I lately commanded as high as the branching off of the Quilimane River (Mazaro), which, in the dry season, is observed many yards above the Luabo (main stream); though I have been told by the Portuguese that the freshes which come down in December and March fill it temporarily. These freshes deepen the river considerably at that time of the year, and freshen the water many miles from the coast. The population of the delta, except in the immediate neighborhood of the Portuguese, appeared to be very sparse. Antelopes and hippopotami were plentiful; the former tame and easily shot. I inquired frequently of both natives and Portuguese if slavers were in the habit of entering there to ship their cargoes, but could not ascertain that they have ever done so in any except the Quilimane. With common precaution the rivers are not unhealthy; for, during the whole time I was employed in them (off and on during eighteen months), in open boats and at all times of the year, frequently absent from the ship for a month or six weeks at a time, I had not, in my boat's crew of fourteen men, more than two, and those mild, cases of fever. Too much importance can not be ascribed to the use of quinine, to which I attribute our comparative immunity, and with which our judicious commander, Commodore Wyvill, kept us amply supplied. I hope these few remarks may be of some little use in confirming your views of the utility of that magnificent river.
A. H. H. Hoskins."
It ought to be remembered that the testimony of these gentlemen is all the more valuable, because they visited the river when the water was at its lowest, and the surface of the Zambesi was not, as it was now, on a level with and flowing into the Mutu, but sixteen feet beneath its bed. The Mutu, at the point of departure, was only ten or twelve yards broad, shallow, and filled with aquatic plants. Trees and reeds along the banks overhang it so much, that, though we had brought canoes and a boat from Tete, we were unable to enter the Mutu with them, and left them at Mazaro. During most of the year this part of the Mutu is dry, and we were even now obliged to carry all our luggage by land for about fifteen miles. As Kilimane is called, in all the Portuguese documents, the capital of the rivers of Senna, it seemed strange to me that the capital should be built at a point where there was no direct water conveyance to the magnificent river whose name it bore; and, on inquiry, I was informed that the whole of the Mutu was large in days of yore, and admitted of the free passage of great launches from Kilimane all the year round, but that now this part of the Mutu had been filled up.
I was seized by a severe tertian fever at Mazaro, but went along the right bank of the Mutu to the N.N.E. and E. for about fifteen miles. We then found that it was made navigable by a river called the Pangazi, which comes into it from the north. Another river, flowing from the same direction, called the Luare, swells it still more; and, last of all, the Likuare, with the tide, make up the river of Kilimane. The Mutu at Mazaro is simply a connecting link, such as is so often seen in Africa, and neither its flow nor stoppage affects the river of Kilimane. The waters of the Pangazi were quite clear compared with those of the Zambesi.*
* I owe the following information, of a much later date, also
to the politeness of Captain Washington. H. M. sloop
"Grecian" visited the coast in 1852-3, and the master remarks
that "the entrance to the Luabo is in lat. 18d 51' S., long.
36d 12' E., and may be known by a range of hummocks on its
eastern side, and very low land to the S.W. The entrance is
narrow, and, as with all the rivers on this coast, is fronted
by a bar, which renders the navigation, particularly for
boats, very dangerous with the wind to the south of east or
west. Our boats proceeded twenty miles up this river, 2
fathoms on the bar, then 2-1/2—5—6—7 fathoms. It was
navigable farther up, but they did not proceed. It is quite
possible for a moderate-sized vessel to cross the bar at
spring tides, and be perfectly landlocked and hidden among the
trees.
"The Maiudo, in 18d 52' S., 36d 12' E., IS NOT MENTIONED IN
HORSBURGH, NOR LAID DOWN IN THE ADMIRALTY CHART, but is,
nevertheless, one of some importance, and appears to be one of
the principal stations for shipping slaves, as the boats found
two barracoons, about 20 miles up, bearing every indication of
having been very recently occupied, and which had good
presumptive evidence that the 'Cauraigo', a brig under
American colors, had embarked a cargo from thence but a short
time before. The river is fronted by a portion of the
Elephant Shoals, at the distance of three or four miles
outside. The eastern bank is formed by level sea-cliffs (as
seen from the ship it has that appearance), high for this part
of the coast, and conspicuous. The western side is composed of
thick trees, and terminates in dead wood, from which we called
it 'Dead-wood Point'. After crossing the bar it branches off
in a W. and N.W. direction, the latter being the principal
arm, up which the boats went some 30 miles, or about 10 beyond
the barracoon. Fresh water can be obtained almost immediately
inside the entrance, as the stream runs down very rapidly with
the ebb tide. The least water crossing the bar (low-water—
springs) was 1-1/2 fathom, one cast only therefrom from 2 to 5
fathoms, another 7 fathoms nearly the whole way up.
"The Catrina, latitude 18d 50' south, longitude 36d 24' east.
The external appearance of this river is precisely similar to
that of the Maiudo, so much so that it is difficult to
distinguish them by any feature of the land. The longitude is
the best guide, or, in the absence of observation, perhaps the
angles contained by the extremes of land will be serviceable.
Thus, at nine miles off the Maiudo the angle contained by the
above was seven points, the bearing being N.E. W. of N.W. (?);
while off the Catrina, at the same distance from shore (about
nine miles), the angle was only 3-1/2 to 4 points, being N. to
N.W. As we did not send the boats up this river, no
information was obtained."
My fever became excessively severe in consequence of traveling in the hot sun, and the long grass blocking up the narrow path so as to exclude the air. The pulse beat with amazing force, and felt as if thumping against the crown of the head. The stomach and spleen swelled enormously, giving me, for the first time, an appearance which I had been disposed to laugh at among the Portuguese. At Interra we met Senhor Asevedo, a man who is well known by all who ever visited Kilimane, and who was presented with a gold chronometer watch by the Admiralty for his attentions to English officers. He immediately tendered his large sailing launch, which had a house in the stern. This was greatly in my favor, for it anchored in the middle of the stream, and gave me some rest from the mosquitoes, which in the whole of the delta are something frightful. Sailing comfortably in this commodious launch along the river of Kilimane, we reached that village (latitude 17d 53' 8" S., longitude 36d 40' E.) on the 20th of May, 1856, which wanted only a few days of being four years since I started from Cape Town. Here I was received into the house of Colonel Galdino Jose Nunes, one of the best men in the country. I had been three years without hearing from my family; letters having frequently been sent, but somehow or other, with but a single exception, they never reached me. I received, however, a letter from Admiral Trotter, conveying information of their welfare, and some newspapers, which were a treat indeed. Her majesty's brig the "Frolic" had called to inquire for me in the November previous, and Captain Nolluth, of that ship, had most considerately left a case of wine; and his surgeon, Dr. James Walsh, divining what I should need most, left an ounce of quinine. These gifts made my heart overflow. I had not tasted any liquor whatever during the time I had been in Africa; but when reduced in Angola to extreme weakness, I found much benefit from a little wine, and took from Loanda one bottle of brandy in my medicine chest, intending to use it if it were again required; but the boy who carried it whirled the box upside down, and smashed the bottle, so I can not give my testimony either in favor of or against the brandy.