having passed through a district abounding with tsetse, an
insect whose bite is fatal to domestic animals, soon showed
the emaciation peculiar to the poison; and Senna being
notoriously unhealthy, the sickness of both men and horses
aroused Barreto’s suspicion that poison had been administered
by the inhabitants, most of whom, consequently, he
put to the sword or blew away from his guns. Marp.hing
beyond Senna with a party five hundred and sixty strong, he
and his men suffered terribly from hunger and thirst, and,
after being repeatedly assaulted by a large body of natives,
the expedition was compelled to return without ever reaching
the gold-mines which Barreto so eagerly sought.
Previous to this, however, devoted Homan Catholic missionaries
had penetrated where an army could not g o ; for
Senhor Bordalo, in his excellent Historical Essays, mentions
that the Jesuit father Goncalo da Silveira had already
suffered martyrdom by command of the Chief of Monomotapa.
Indeed, missionaries of that body of Christians established
themselves in a vast number of places in Eastern Africa, as
the rums of mission stations still testify; but, not having succeeded
in meeting with any reliable history of the labours of
these good men, it is painful for me to be unable to contradict
the calumnies which Portuguese writers still heap on their
memory. So far as the impression left on the native mind
goes, it is decidedly favourable to their zeal and piety; while
the writers referred to roundly assert that the missionaries
engaged in the slave-trade; which is probably as false as the
more modern scandals occasionally retailed against their
Protestant brethren. Philanthropists sometimes err in accepting
the mere gossip of coast villages as facts, when
asserting the atrocities of our countrymen abroad ; while
others, pretending to regard all philanthropy as weakness,
yet practising that silliest of all hypocrisies, the endeavour
to appear worse than they are, accept and publish the mere
brandy-and-water twaddle of immoral traders, against a body
of men who, as a whole, are an honour to human kind. In
modem missionary literature, now widely spread, we have a
record which will probably outlive all misrepresentation;
and it is much to be regretted that there is no available
Catholic literature of the same nature, and that none of the
translations which may have been made into the native
tongues can now be Consulted. We cannot believe, that
these good men would risk their lives for the unholy gains
which, even were they lawful, by the rules of their order
they could not enjoy; but it would be extremely interesting
to all their successors to know exactly what were the real
causes of their failure in perpetuating the faith.
In order that the following narrative may be clearly understood,
it is necessary to call to mind some things which took
place previous to the Zambesi Expedition being sent out.
Most geographers are aware that, before the discovery of Lake
Ngami and the well watered country in which the Makololo
dwell, the idea prevailed that a large part of the interior of
Africa consisted of sandy deserts, into which rivers ran and
were lost. During my journey in 1852-6, from sea to sea,
across the south intertropical part of the continent, it was
found to be a well watered country, with large tracts of
fine fertile soil covered with forest, and beautiful grassy
valleys, occupied by a considerable population; and one of
the most wonderful waterfalls in the world was brought
to light. The peculiar form of the continent was then
ascertained to be an elevated plateau, somewhat depressed
in the centre, and with fissures in the sides by which the
rivers escaped to the sea; and this great fact in physical