made a good march, and the following day, Christmas
Eve, arrived at Tete.
The town is very much larger than I had pictured it,
and contained a white population of some thirty. We
proceeded to Government House, where all the officers
and civilians were assembled to greet His Excellency.
The soldiers were in full uniform and the civilians in frock
coats, with patent leather boots—a most charming and
refreshing sight in the wilds of Africa. The Governor
kindly invited me to stay at his house. There was no
special rejoicing on Christmas Day, except a breakfast
party and a midnight mass. There was a kind of club,
with a billiard table and a library, in which I spent the
evening.
I stayed at Tete for over a month, receiving every sort
of kindness from everybody 1 met; and studied, so far as
I was able, the Portuguese administration of the colony.
A new Governor was expected to relieve my host, and I
hoped to be able to take the opportunity of his arrival to
get a gunboat to enable me to continue my journey, as
the natives being at war on the lower part of the river,
all traffic was stopped. I noticed that the northern side
of the Zambezi is much better watered than the southern,
on which Tete stands; it rains there twice as much.
The reason I conjectured to be that the other side is
very hilly and contains much iron, which attracts the
storms. Tete itself is desperately barren; there are
no trees—indeed no vegetation of. any kind; nothing
but stones. In former times Tete was an island, and
the stream used to run south and west of the town,
through what is now a most fertile valley, where the
river only penetrates when it is very high. There seems
no doubt that the Zambezi has very much decreased in
volume. For instance, old people at Inhamecuta told me
that in former times no sand was ever seen there, whereas
now there is a large beach of it. This testimony is
confirmed by Livingstone’s accounts and his description of
230^
the Victoria Falls. From what I saw there must be far
less water in them now than there was in his time.*
During my journey to and stay at Tete I did my best
to acquaint myself with the ways of the surrounding
natives. The principal native races of the Portuguese
Zambezi are the Senga, who
live north-west of Zumbo. The
women of this tribe insert
enormous pieces of metal in
the upper jj and lower lips,
which give them a most repulsive
appearance. The Chinyai
live between Tete and Inhamecuta
; the Tuwala round
Chikoa; and the Goa, a very
superior type, to the north of
these. Perhaps the most remarkable
feature of these tribes
is the large families they produce.
Among other African
natives it is rare to find a
mother of more than three or
four children, but here a woman
often has as many as ten. They
do not kill twins, as almost all
other natives do. Women suckle
their children until they are three
years old — sometimes several s e n g a w o m a n .
children at once. The country,
however, being low for the most part, and swampy, is
exceedingly unhealthy. Without the large families which
one finds here there can be little doubt that the natives
* Sir Harry Johnston has noted the same phenomenon in connection with
the river Shire. In August, 1889, he ascended that river to Katunga, in the
James Stevenson, which draws 3ft. 6in. Two years later gunboats drawing a
foot less found this task impossible in June, when the river is normally higher
than in August.
2'3i