Gardner, and our finding coal now seemed a verification
of what we then said; the coalfield probably extends from
the Zambesi to the Rovuma, if not beyond it. Some of the
rocks lower down have the permanent water-line three feet
above the present height of the water.
A few miles west of the Makoa of Matingula, we came
again among the Makonde, but now of good repute. War
and slavery have driven them to seek refuge on the sandbanks.
A venerable-looking old man hailed us as we
passed, and asked us if we were going by without speaking.
We landed, and he laid down his gun and came to u s; he
was accompanied by his brother, who shook hands with every
one in the boat, as he had seen people do at Kilwa. “ Then
you have seen white men before ?” we said. “ Yes,” replied
the polite African, “ but never people of your quality.” These
men were very black, and wore but little clothing. A young
woman, dressed in the highest style of Makonde fashion,
punting as dexterously as a man could, brought a canoe full
of girls to see us. She wore an ornamental head-dress of red
beads tied to her hair on one side of her head, a necklace of
fine beads of various colours, two bright figured brass bracelets
on her left arm, and scarcely a farthing’s worth of cloth,
though it was at its cheapest.
As we pushed on westwards, we found that the river makes
a little southing, and some reaches were deeper than any
near the sea; but when we had ascended about 140 miles by
the river’s course from the sea, soft-tufa rocks began to
appear; ten miles beyond, the river became more narrow
and rocky, and when, according to our measurement, we had
ascended 156 miles, our further progress was arrested. We
were rather less than two degrees in a straight line from
the Coast. The incidents worth noticing were but few:
Beven canoes with loads of salt and rice kept company with
us for some days, and the further we went inland, the more
civil the people became.
When we came to a stand, just below the island of Nyama-
tolo, Long. 38° 36' E., and Lat. 11° 53', the river was narrow,
and full of rocks. Near the island there is a rocky rapid with
narrow passages fit only for native canoes; the fall is small,
and the banks quite low; but these rocks were an effectual
barrier to all further progress in boats. Previous reports
represented the navigable part of this river as extending to
the distance of a month’s sail from its mouth; we found
that, at the ordinary heights of the water, a boat might reach
the obstructions which seem peculiar to_ all African rivers in
six or eight days. The Rovuma is remarkable for the high
lands that flank it for some eighty miles from the ocean.
The cataracts of other rivers occur in mountains, those of
the Rovuma are found in a level part, with hills only in the
distance. Far away in the west and north we could see high
blue heights, probably of igneous origin from their forms,
rising out of a plain.
The distance from Ngomano, a spot thirty miles further
up, to the Arab crossing-places of Lake Nyassa Tsenga or
Kotakota was said to be twelve days. The way we had discovered
to Lake Nyassa by Murchison’s Cataracts had so
much less land carriage, that we considered it best to take our
steamer thither, by the route in which we were well known,
instead of working where we were strangers; and accordingly
we made up our minds to return.
The natives reported a worse place above our turning-point
—the passage being still narrower than this. An Arab, they
said, once built a boat above the rapids, and sent it down
full of slaves; but it was broken to pieces in these upper
narrows. Many still maintained that the Rovuma came
from Nyassa, and that it is very narrow as it issues out of