The heat of the weather steadily increases during this month (August), and foggy mornings are now rare.A strong breeze ending in a gale blows up stream every night.It came in the afternoon a few weeks ago, then later, and at present its arrival is near midnight;
It makes our frail cabin-doors fly open before it, but continues only for a short time, and is succeeded by a dead calm.Game becomes more abundant; near our wooding-places we see herds of zebras, both Burchell's and the mountain variety, pallahs (Antelope melampus), waterbuck, and wild hogs, with the spoor of buffaloes and elephants.
Shiramba Dembe, on the right bank, is deserted; a few old iron guns show where a rebel stockade once stood; near the river above this, stands a magnificent Baobab hollowed out into a good-sized hut, with bark inside as well as without.The old oaks in Sherwood Forest, when hollow, have the inside dead or rotten; but the Baobab, though stripped of its bark outside, and hollowed to a cavity inside, has the power of exuding new bark from its substance to both the outer and inner surfaces; so, a hut made like that in the oak called the "Forest Queen," in Sherwood, would soon all be lined with bark.
The portions of the river called Shigogo and Shipanga are bordered by a low level expanse of marshy country, with occasional clumps of palm-trees and a few thorny acacias.The river itself spreads out to a width of from three to four miles, with many islands, among which it is difficult to navigate, except when the river is in flood.In front, a range of high hills from the north-east crosses and compresses it into a deep narrow channel, called the Lupata Gorge.
The Portuguese thought the steamer would not stem the current here;
But as it was not more than about three knots, and as there was a strong breeze in our favour, steam and sails got her through with ease.Heavy-laden canoes take two days to go up this pass.A
current sweeps round the little rocky promontories Chifura and Kangomba, forming whirlpools and eddies dangerous for the clumsy craft, which are dragged past with long ropes.
The paddlers place meal on these rocks as an offering to the turbulent deities, which they believe preside over spots fatal to many a large canoe.We were slily told that native Portuguese take off their hats to these river gods, and pass in solemn silence; when safely beyond the promontories, they fire muskets, and, as we ought to do, give the canoe-men grog.From the spoor of buffaloes and elephants it appears that these animals frequent Lupata in considerable numbers, and--we have often observed the association--the tsetse fly is common.A horse for the Governor of Tette was sent in a canoe from Quillimane; and, lest it should be wrecked on the Chifura and Kangomba rocks, it was put on shore and sent in the daytime through the pass.It was of course bitten by the tsetse, and died soon after; it was thought that the AIR of Tette had not agreed with it.The currents above Lupata are stronger than those below;
the country becomes more picturesque and hilly, and there is a larger population.
The ship anchored in the stream, off Tette, on the 8th September, 1858, and Dr. Livingstone went ashore in the boat.No sooner did the Makololo recognize him, than they rushed to the water's edge, and manifested great joy at seeing him again.Some were hastening to embrace him, but others cried out, "Don't touch him, you will spoil his new clothes."The five headmen came on board and listened in quiet sadness to the story of poor Sekwebu, who died at the Mauritius on his way to England."Men die in any country," they observed, and then told us that thirty of their own number had died of smallpox, having been bewitched by the people of Tette, who envied them because, during the first year, none of their party had died.Six of their young men, becoming tired of cutting firewood for a meagre pittance, proposed to go and dance for gain before some of the neighbouring chiefs."Don't go," said the others, "we don't know the people of this country;" but the young men set out and visited an independent half-caste chief, a few miles to the north, named Chisaka, who some years ago burned all the Portuguese villas on the north bank of the river; afterwards the young men went to Bonga, son of another half-caste chief, who bade defiance to the Tette authorities, and had a stockade at the confluence of the Zambesi and Luenya, a few miles below that village.Asking the Makololo whence they came, Bonga rejoined, "Why do you come from my enemy to me?You have brought witchcraft medicine to kill me."In vain they protested that they did not belong to the country; they were strangers, and had come from afar with an Englishman.The superstitious savage put them all to death."We do not grieve," said their companions, "for the thirty victims of the smallpox, who were taken away by Morimo (God);
But our hearts are sore for the six youths who were murdered by Bonga."Any hope of obtaining justice on the murderer was out of the question.Bonga once caught a captain of the Portuguese army, and forced him to perform the menial labour of pounding maize in a wooden mortar.No punishment followed on this outrage.The Government of Lisbon has since given Bonga the honorary title of Captain, by way of coaxing him to own their authority; but he still holds his stockade.
