With reference to the navigation of this affluent of the Zambesi, Dr. Livingstone states, in a letter from Tete, dated Feb. 19, 1859, to Sir George Grey, the great Governor of the Cape Colony:—
“I may mention that we went up the Shire about the beginning of January, and found it a good navigable river for at least a hundred miles from its confluence. The mountain Merambala is four thousand feet high, and has a wonderfully well cultivated large top. Lemon trees grow quite wild in the woods, and so do oranges and pine-apples. There are several fine little fountains, with water slightly chalybeate; the people independent, and very hospitable. The view from the top of the Shire, winding across an extended plain, inhabited by real Solophagi, is magnificent; and, as you may judge from the height, we had quite a different climate from that of the plain. The vegetation is very like that of Loanda and Angola. We have also a fine hot sulphureous fountain at the base (174). Yet no advantage has been taken of this splendid sanatorium by the Portuguese. The valley of the Shire at one part abounds in elephants, and if you come to see us about January, I undertake to show five hundred of these animals grazing in one plain. We saw more than that; as there are branches of the river which form islands, we sometimes chased them with this vessel. They had magnificent tusks. I think that they were attracted down from the hills by the sweet fruit of wild palmyras, of which there are fine forests there.
“The people are very suspicious of us—never having been visited by Europeans before—but treated us civilly. Our wooding parties were never molested, yet a guard was set over us both day and night. They are well armed with bows and poisoned arrows. The women insert an ornament exactly the size and shape of the rings for table napkins, into the upper lip. The effect is frightful. It is a most unaccountable ornament. They cultivate largely on the upper third of the Shire valley, and we purchased abundance of provisions at a cheap rate, besides specimens of their cotton yarn. They have two kinds of cotton, and both very good in quality.
“Our first object was to gain their confidence, and seeing them so suspicious, though we had pretty certain information of the Shire becoming smooth again beyond the cataract which stopped our progress, and that Arabs from Zanzibar were in the habit of coming down in canoes from Lake Nyanja, we thought it imprudent to leave the vessel in their power, and go overland. We leave them, to allow our first visit to have its effect, and in the course of a month return to them again. The reason why the Portuguese have not gone farther up about Merambala is, probably, the steady rapidity of the current—two and a half knots. There are no still reaches, and with the heavy Zambesi canoes, it is difficult to get on in a current. The people, too, have had a bad name. They are said to have killed some native traders. In 1856, when I was coming down past the mouth of the Shire, I was told that an expedition had been sent up, but was unable to go far because the river was blocked up with duckweed. Quantities of that were then coming out of the river; but at twenty-five miles from the confluence the duckweed ceases, so that the expedition could not have gone far. Above that the river widens a little, but it is free from sandbanks, and deep. Indeed, it may be said to be superior to the Zambesi for steam navigation. We could get on at night even.”
Here we find the intrepid explorer, Dr. Livingstone, opening the Shire to navigation, and determined to reach its source in the Nyngesi, out of which, I was informed by Moors, that river flows to the harbour of Mozambique, and also to Angoxa. And yet we shall find that when he has accomplished this great feat, a Portuguese minister will spring up and claim the honour of prior discovery for some Canareen who never existed.
On ascending the Zambesi, before arriving at the mouth of the river Shire, one meets with many small islands which have no names, and which disappear during a very wet season; but close to the Boca do Shire, and just below it, are two considerable islands, the first of which is called Ilha Muinha; the second, which is larger, is called Ilha Mozambique, and has about three hundred natives living on it. Ilha Muinha (in Kaffir) means “Salt Island;” and on this island, at Caia, and at Sone (close to Seña), the salt used by those living on the banks of the river is made. Along both banks of the Zambesi the salt is made thus:—A portion of earth (taken up any where) is placed in an earthen vessel with a crack in the bottom of it; this is placed over another vessel, water is poured into the upper vessel, and the earth is moved about; the water that comes through the upper into the lower one is boiled, or allowed to evaporate in the sun; the residuum is very fine salt, proving that the valley of the Zambesi was formerly the bed of the ocean. The country in the interior, opposite the mouth of the Rio Shire, is called Chiringoma, from which to Sofala is eight days’ journey, and by land to Seña, twelve days’ journey.
After passing the Boca do Shire, and on the opposite side of the Zambesi, is Caia, where the best fish in the river abound; the fish are salted and dried in the sun; some are also smoked, but the former are preferred in the native markets. From Caia to Seña is two days’ walking (about ten leagues); by water about three and a half days’ (sixteen leagues). After passing Caia, you immediately come to Inhamudendundo, meaning, in the Maravi language, “large country.” It runs along the river about five leagues, when one arrives at Inhamatuze, which, in the Seña language, means “dirty island,” as in the rainy season it is entirely surrounded by water, at which season, before it was brought under cultivation, it was the resort of numerous animals, who made their lairs there;—it is one league from Seña.
Above the Boca do Shire, on the same side of the river, and nearly opposite to Inhamudendundo, is Santa Beze, in the rear of which, and all the way from the Boca do Shire, is a range of low, rocky mountains, dividing the streams of the Zambesi and Shire, the latter river running between this range and the Merambala Mountains.