Money, as a medium of exchange, is but little known
even at the present time; mercantile transactions being
usually carried out through the barter of cloth, beads, an
aqm arHente, the latter forming a highly-important article
“' i X ' T a r e few. The people manufacture rings of
gold, and out of hard wood-%»»» «<*>. <* »hich there i
abundance, and ebony-they fashion various forms of cup^
bowls, ahd ornaments. They make pipes of clay, which
have not changed their form or improved from tome -
memorial. The rough clothes they wear were. t o jm e
extent made from indigenous cotton; but the tnfl g
industry in this department is on the wane through the
introduction of Manchester goods.
They toll the soil with the hoe. These implements are
made by tribes away up in the mountains, who bnng then
blacksmithing products to the dwellers of the great valley
“ C h a n g e L cloth and fossU stones. The tsetse iy being
so close to the town makes it impossible to employ cattle
for the purposes of agriculture; and for Aria reason * * *
" an u n s e l article throughout the length and breadth of
the Zambesi valley. , fl
In the heart of the town I never saw the tsetse fly
Therefore a few poor-looking cows were kept, but were no
allowed to wander far. With reference to the tsetse,
should mention that when game, such as the buffalo, de.
phant become scarce, as was the case recen y i
S L r l o o d of Delagoa Bay, the fly in a great —
disappears, it being said, with good authority that the
little pest breeds npon the buffalo dung. Doubtless when
the game, at present plentiful, disappears from the Zambesi
vallev, a like result will follow.
s i r Tette the soil yields very good crops, although they
are somewhat uncertain, on account of the frequent droughts.
Greater certainty exists with regard to produce of the lands
farther down the stream than in the immediate vicinity of
the town, because the frequent inundations of the river
between the months of November and June ensure the
requisite irrigation of the land in which the people sow and
secure good crops.
The governor informed me that in the previous year two
strangers—white men—had come from Quillimane with
a view to prospect the gold resources of the Amazoe river
(numerous affluents of which we crossed on our journey),
which flows into the Luenha, and thence to the Zambesi,
about twenty miles below Tette. Unhappily, disaster followed
them. One died of the fever, and the other was
forced to return to the coast in a lamentably sickly
condition.
Intensely hot weather followed our arrival in Tette, the
thermometer registering 89° to 90° in the shade, that is to
say, in my chronometer-box, lying in a well-sheltered and
apparently cool place. Little or no idea can be formed of
the terrible strength of the heat. Out in the sun it was
unbearable.
The rainy season was approaching, although as yet we
had only had a few slight showers. There are seldom any
severe rains until the end of November. In April they
cease, but slight showers are known to have fallen as late as
June. From what I could learn, the biggest floods occur
during January and March. Vast tracts of land are then
submerged. Some districts depend upon these floods for
the essential fertilisation of the soil, similar to what occurs
in the great Nile valley.
Tette is subject to intense droughts, which, indeed, often
prevail throughout the whole of the lower valley of the
vol. ii. E