complete the picture, and that was ‘ a grog-shop near the
church.’ ” We find also a few guava and lime-trees growing
wild, but the natives claim the crops. The dark woods resound
with the lively and exultant song of the kinghunter (Halcyon
striolata), as he sits perched on high among the trees. As
the steamer moves on through the winding channel, a pretty
little heron or bright kingfisher darts out in alarm from the
edge of the bank, flies on ahead a short distance, and settles
quietly down to be again frightened off in a few seconds
as we approach. The magnificent fishhawk (Halietus vocifer)
sits on the top of a mangrove-tree, digesting his morning
meal of fresh fish, and is clearly unwilling to stir until the
imminence of the danger compels him at last to spread his
great wings for flight. The glossy ibis, acute of ear to a remarkable
degree, hears from afar the unwonted sound of the
paddles, and, springing from the mud where his family has
been quietly feasting, is off, screaming out his loud, harsh,
and defiant H a ! h a ! h a ! long before the danger is near.
The mangroves are now left behind and are succeeded by
vast level plains of rich dark soil, covered with gigantic
grasses, so tall that they tower over one’s head, and render
hunting, impossible. Beginning in July the grass is burned
off every year after it has become dry. These fires prevent
the growth of any great amount of timber, as only a few trees
from among the more hardy kinds, such as the Borassus-palm
and lignum-vitse, can live through the sea of fire, which
annually roars across the plains.
Several native huts now peep out from the bananas and
cocoa-palms on the right bank; they stand on piles a few
feet above the low damp ground, and their owners enter them
by means of ladders. The soil is wonderfully rich, and the
gardens are really excellent. Rice is cultivated largely;
sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, onions (sha-
lots), I peas, a little cotton, and sugar-cane are also raised.
It is said that English potatoes, when planted at Quillimane
on soil resembling this, in the course of two years become
in taste like sweet potatoes (convolvuli batatas), and are like
our potato frosted. The whole of the fertile region extending
from the Kongone canal to beyond Mazaro, some eighty
miles in length, and fifty in breadth, is admirably adapted for
the growth of sugar-cane; and were it in the hands of our
friends at the Cape, would supply all Europe with sugar.
The remarkably few people seen appeared to be tolerably
well fed, but there was . a shivering dearth of clothing
among th em ; all were blacks, and nearly all Portuguese
“ colonos ” or serfs. ' They manifested no fear of
white men, and stood in groups on the bank^ gazing
in astonishment at the steamers, especially at the «Pearl,”
which accompanied us thus far up the river. One old
man who came on board remarked that never before had
he seen any vessel so large as the “ Pearl,” it was like a
village, “Was it made out of one tree?” All were eager
traders, and soon came off to the ship in light swift canoes
with every kind of fruit and food they possessed; a few
brought honey and beeswax, which are found in quantities in
the mangrove forests. As the ships steamed off, many
anxious sellers ran along the bank, holding up fowls, baskets
of rice and meal, and shouting “ Malonda, Malonda,” “ things
for sale,” while others followed in canoes, which they sent
through the water with great velocity by means of short
broad-bladed paddles.
The deep channel, or Qwete as the canoe-men call it,
of the Zambesi is winding, and narrow when contrasted
with the great breadth of the river itself. The