98 DESCENDANTS OF THE PORTUGUESE. СНАР. ІІІ. the Zambesi entered the sea at Quillimane. His excellenay had been making inquiries of him respecting the correctness of Dr. Livingstone's map in this particular. This is mentioned because lately the Portuguese have seriously attempted to show that the Kongone was previously well known to their slaves. Paul is of mixed breed, but seems to thrive, being the only really fat man of the descendants of the Portuguese in East Africa. It is a pity that a certain class of diseases, self-induced and inherited, have become so universal among half castes that no conclusion can here be drawn as to their permanence as a race. CHAP. IV. RETURN TO THE SHIRE. 99 CHAPTER IV. Up the Shire again, August, 1859.-Mount Morambala.-Hot Fountain.Chase by a Buffalo.-Nyanja Pangono, or Little Lake.-Nyanja Mukulu, or Great Lake.-Ancient Portuguese geographical Knowledge unavailable. -Chikanda-kadze.-Accident from unsuitability of Steamer.-Hippopotamus Traps.-Musquitoes.-Elephants.-View of the Shire Marshes.Birds.-Palm Wine, or Sura.-Salt-making.—Brackish Soil and superior Cotton.-Dakanamoio Island.-A loving Hornbill.-Chibisa. -Child sold into Slavery. ABOUT the middle of August, after cutting wood at Shamoara, we again steamed up the Shire, with the intention of becoming better acquainted with the people, and making another and longer journey on foot to the north of Lake Shirwa, in search of Lake Nyassa, of which we had already received some information, under the name Nyinyesi (the stars). The Shire is much narrower than the Zambesi, but deeper and more easily navigated. It drains a low and exceedingly fertile valley of from fifteen to twenty miles in breadth. Ranges of wooded hills bound this valley on both sides. For the first twenty miles the hills on the left bank are close to the river; then comes Morambala, whose name means "the lofty watch-tower," a detached mountain 500 yards from the river's brink, which rises, with steep sides on the west, to 4000 feet in height, and is about seven miles in length. It is wooded up to the very top, and very beautiful. The southern end, seen from a distance, has a fine gradual slope, and looks as if it might be of easy ascent; but the side which faces the Shire is steep and rocky, especially in the upper half. A small village peeps out 100 HOT FOUNTAIN. CHAP. IV. about half way up the mountain; it has a pure and bracing atmosphere, and is perched above musquito range. The people on the summit have a very different climate, and vegetation from those of the plains, but they have to spend a great portion of their existence amid white fleecy clouds, which, in the rainy season, rest daily on the top of their favorite mountain. We were kindly treated by these mountaineers on our first ascent: before our second they were nearly all swept away by Mariano. Dr. Kirk found upward of thirty species of ferns on this and other mountains, and even good-sized tree-ferns, though scarcely a single kind is to be met with on the plains. Lemon and orange trees grew wild, and pineapples had been planted by the people. Many large hornbills, hawks, monkeys, antelopes, and rhinoceroses found a home and food among the great trees round its base. A hot fountain boils up on the plain near the north end. It bubbles out of the earth, clear as crystal, at two points, or eyes, a few yards apart from each other, and sends off a fine flowing stream of hot water. The temperature was found to be 174° Fahr., and it boiled an egg in about the usual time. Our guide threw in a small branch to show us how speedily the Madse-awíra (boiling water) could kill the leaves. Unluckily lizards and insects did not seem to understand the nature of a hot spring, as many of their remains were lying at the bottom. A large beetle had alighted on the water, and been killed before it had time to fold its wings. An incrustation, smelling of sulphur, has been deposited by the water on the stones. About a hundred feet from the eye of the fountain the mud is as hot as can be borne by the body. In taking a bath there it makes the skin perfectly clean, and none of the mud adheres: it is strange that the Portuguese do not resort to it for the nu HOOVERSBRARY merous cutaneous diseases with which they are so often af flicted. A few clumps of the palm and acacia trees appear west of Morambala, on the rich plain forming the tongue of land between the rivers Shire and Zambesi. This is a good place for all sorts of game. The Zambesi canoe-men were afraid to sleep on it from the idea of lions being there; they preferred to pass the night on an island. Some black men, who accompanied us as volunteer workmen from Shupanga, called out one evening that a lion stood on the bank. It was very dark, and we could only see two sparkling lights, said to be the lion's eyes looking at us; for here, as elsewhere, they have a theory that the lion's eyes always flash fire at night. Not being fireflies-as they did not move when a shot was fired in their direction-they were probably glowworms. Beyond Morambala the Shire comes winding through an extensive marsh. For many miles to the north a broad sea of fresh green grass extends, and is so level that it might be used for taking the meridian altitude of the sun. Ten or fifteen miles north of Morambala stands the dome-shaped mountain Makanga, or Chi-kanda; several others, with granitic-looking peaks, stretch away to the north, and form the eastern boundary of the valley; another range, but of metamorphic rocks, commencing opposite Senna, bounds the valley on the west. After steaming through a portion of this marsh, we came to a broad belt of palm and other trees, crossing the fine plain on the right bank. Marks of large game were abundant. Elephants had been feeding on the palm nuts, which have a pleasant fruity taste, and are used as food by man. Two pythons were observed coiled together among the branches of a large tree, and were both 102 CHASE BY A BUFFALO. CHAP. IV. shot. The larger of the two, a female, was ten feet long. They are harmless, and said to be good eating. The Makololo having set fire to the grass where they were cutting wood, a solitary buffalo rushed out of the conflagration, and made a furious charge at an active young fellow named Mantlanyane. Never did his fleet limbs serve him better than during the few seconds of his fearful flight before the maddened animal. When he reached the bank and sprang into the river, the infuriated beast was scarcely six feet behind him. Toward evening, after the day's labor in woodcutting was over, some of the men went fishing. They followed the common African custom of agitating the water by giving it a few sharp strokes with the top of the fishing-rod, immediately after throwing in the line, to attract the attention of the fish to the bait. Having caught nothing, the reason assigned was the same as would have been given in England under like circumstances, namely, that "the wind made the fish cold, and they would not bite." Many gardens of maize, pumpkins, and tobacco fringed the marshy banks as we went on. They belong to natives of the hills, who come down in the dry season, and raise a crop on parts at other times flooded. While the crops are growing, large quantities of fish are caught, chiefly Clarias capensis and Mugil Africanus; they are dried for sale or for future consumption. As we ascended, we passed a deep stream about thirty yards wide, flowing in from a body of open water several miles broad. Numbers of men were busy at different parts of it, filling their canoes with the lotus root, called Nyika, which, when boiled or roasted, resembles our chestnuts, and is extensively used in Africa as food. Out of this lagoon, and by this stream, the chief part of the duckweed of the |