If This Desirable
And Most Fertile Field Of Enterprise Is Ever To Be Opened Up,
Men Must Proceed On A
Different plan from that which has been followed,
and I do not apprehend there would be much difficulty in commencing
A new system, if those who undertook it insisted that it is not our custom
to pay for a highway which has not been made by man. The natives themselves
would not deny that the river is free to those who do not trade in slaves.
If, in addition to an open, frank explanation, a small subsidy were given
to the paramount chief, the willing consent of all the subordinates
would soon be secured.
On the 1st of April I went to see the site of a former establishment
of the Jesuits, called Micombo, about ten miles S.E. of Tete.
Like all their settlements I have seen, both judgment and taste had been
employed in the selection of the site. A little stream of mineral water
had been collected in a tank and conducted to their house,
before which was a little garden for raising vegetables at times of the year
when no rain falls. It is now buried in a deep shady grove of mango-trees.
I was accompanied by Captain Nunes, whose great-grandfather,
also a captain in the time of the Marquis of Pombal, received sealed orders,
to be opened only on a certain day. When that day arrived,
he found the command to go with his company, seize all the Jesuits
of this establishment, and march them as prisoners to the coast.
The riches of the fraternity, which were immense, were taken possession of
by the state. Large quantities of gold had often been sent
to their superiors at Goa, inclosed in images. The Jesuits here
do not seem to have possessed the sympathies of the people as their brethren
in Angola did. They were keen traders in ivory and gold-dust.
All praise their industry. Whatever they did, they did it
with all their might, and probably their successful labors in securing
the chief part of the trade to themselves had excited the envy of the laity.
None of the natives here can read; and though the Jesuits are said
to have translated some of the prayers into the language of the country,
I was unable to obtain a copy. The only religious teachers
now in this part of the country are two gentlemen of color, natives of Goa.
The one who officiates at Tete, named Pedro Antonio d'Araujo,
is a graduate in Dogmatic Theology and Moral Philosophy.
There is but a single school in Tete, and it is attended
only by the native Portuguese children, who are taught to read and write.
The black population is totally uncared for. The soldiers are marched
every Sunday to hear mass, and but few others attend church.
During the period of my stay, a kind of theatrical representation
of our Savior's passion and resurrection was performed.
The images and other paraphernalia used were of great value,
but the present riches of the Church are nothing to what it once possessed.
The commandant is obliged to lock up all the gold and silver in the fort
for safety, though not from any apprehension of its being stolen
by the people, for they have a dread of sacrilege.
The state of religion and education is, I am sorry to say, as low as
that of commerce; but the European Portuguese value education highly,
and send their children to Goa and elsewhere for instruction
in the higher branches. There is not a single bookseller's shop,
however, in either eastern or western Africa. Even Loanda,
with its 12,000 or 14,000 souls, can not boast of one store
for the sale of food for the mind.
On the 2d the Zambesi suddenly rose several feet in height.
Three such floods are expected annually, but this year there were four.
This last was accompanied by discoloration, and must have been caused
by another great fall of rain east of the ridge. We had observed
a flood of discolored water when we reached the river at the Kafue;
it then fell two feet, and from subsequent rains again rose so high
that we were obliged to leave it when opposite the hill Pinkwe.
About the 10th of March the river rose several feet with
comparatively clear water, and it continued to rise until the 21st,
with but very slight discoloration. This gradual rise was the greatest,
and was probably caused by the water of inundation in the interior.
The sudden rise which happened on the 2d, being deeply discolored,
showed again the effect of rains at a comparatively short distance.
The fact of the river rising three or four times annually,
and the one flood of inundation being mixed with the others, may account for
the Portuguese not recognizing the phenomenon of the periodical inundation,
so well known in the central country.
The independent natives cultivate a little cotton, but it is not at all equal,
either in quantity or quality, to what we found in Angola. The pile is short,
and it clings to the seed so much that they use an iron roller to detach it.
The soil, however, is equal to the production of any tropical plant or fruit.
The natives have never been encouraged to cultivate cotton for sale,
nor has any new variety been introduced. We saw no palm-oil-trees,
the oil which is occasionally exported being from the ground-nut.
One of the merchants of Tete had a mill of the rudest construction
for grinding this nut, which was driven by donkeys. It was
the only specimen of a machine I could exhibit to my men.
A very superior kind of salad oil is obtained from the seeds of cucumbers,
and is much used in native cookery.
An offer, said to have been made by the "Times", having excited attention
even in this distant part, I asked the commandant if he knew of any plant
fit for the production of paper.
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