the mountains we have just left. Numberless rivulets
spring from these mountain slopes. During the rainy
season they swell and rush impetuously on their downward
course, carrying the gold-charged silt from the water-
worn fissures above, to be deposited in the sandy beds of
the big rivers flowing through the forest-clad valley. The
channels of these rivers, being almost level, act as settlers,
and extract all the treasure from the waters long before the
Zambesi is reached.
The gold, of which I have many specimens, I found
generally free from base metals, and it would likely be
easily amalgamated. I have observed, however, in some
cases iron-rust on the flakes of the gold.
The natives of this district belong to the Mtande, or
Mtavanda tribe. They seem to possess large numbers of
slaves, purchased at Msenga, a town on the northern banks
of the Zambesi.
The slaves are chiefly women, and they are most industrious,
hard-working creatures. From sunrise till sunset
they may be seen carrying the heaviest loads of wood, water,
and other requisites, including great bundles of grass for
thatching purposes. This is the only mode of conveying
produce, or transporting goods, that can be seen in the
country.
Women, too, do most of the work in the cultivation of
the soil. Using an iron hoe, they till small pieces of open
ground in the heart of the forest'; also plots of land which
absorb the water of annual floods. Upon these patches
they raise millet, maize, yams, and tomatoes; the latter
growing in abundance.
Eice is very scarce. Cotton is indigenous, and is cultivated
in small quantities, and spun by hand in a most,
primitive manner. Weaving is equally primitive, the yarn
c 2