Zambesi Expedition | Page 9

people seen appear to be tolerably well fed, but there was a 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.
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 for
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 Expedition Island from the 18th June until
the 13th August, while the launch and pinnace were carrying the goods
up to Shupanga and Senna. The country was in a state of war, our
luggage was in danger, and several of our party were exposed to
disease from inactivity in the malaria of the delta. Here some had their
first introduction to African life, and African fever. Those alone were

safe who were actively employed with the vessels, and of course,
remembering the perilous position of their fellows, they strained every
nerve to finish the work and take them away.
Large columns of smoke rose daily from different points of the horizon,
showing that the natives were burning off the immense crops of tall
grass, here a nuisance, however valuable elsewhere. A white cloud was
often observed to rest on the head of the column, as if a current of hot
damp air was sent up by the heat of the flames and its moisture was
condensed at the top. Rain did not follow, though theorists have
imagined that in such cases it ought.
Large game, buffaloes, and zebras, were abundant abreast the island,
but no men could be seen. On the mainland, over on the right bank of
the river, we were amused by the eccentric gyrations and evolutions of
flocks of small seed-eating birds, who in their flight wheeled into
compact columns with such military precision as to give us the
impression that they must be guided by a leader, and all directed by the
same signal. Several other kinds of small birds now go in flocks, and
among others the large Senegal swallow. The presence of this bird,
being clearly in a state of migration from the north, while the common
swallow of the country, and the brown kite are away beyond the
equator, leads to the conjecture that there may be a double migration,
namely, of birds from torrid climates to the more temperate, as this now
is, as well as from severe winters to sunny regions; but this could not
be verified by such birds of passage as ourselves.
On reaching Mazaro, the mouth of a narrow creek which in floods
communicates with the Quillimane river, we found that the Portuguese
were at war with a half-caste named Mariano alias Matakenya, from
whom they had generally fled, and who, having built a stockade near
the mouth of the Shire, owned all the country between that river and
Mazaro. Mariano was best known by his native name Matakenya,
which in their tongue means "trembling," or quivering as trees do in a
storm. He was a keen slave-hunter, and kept a large number of men,
well armed with muskets. It is an entire mistake to suppose that the
slave trade is one of buying and selling alone; or that engagements can

be made with labourers in Africa as they are in India; Mariano, like
other Portuguese, had no