Zambezia : a General Description of the Valley of the Zambezi River

4- J m f(f*if>)7" R.C.F. MAUGHAM a^axmll Mttiocraitg ffiihtarg 3t^ata, Jfctt gnrh BOUGHT WrTH THE JNCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUEST OF WILLARD FISKE UIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868.;6B3 1905 Cornell University Library DT 465.Z2M44 Zambezia : 3 1924 028 621 641 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028621641 ZAMBEZIA HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR ALFREDO AUGUSTO FREIRE D*ANDRADE, E.E., Governor -General of Portuguese E;i.5t Africa. [Frontispiece ZAMBEZI A A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE VALLEY OF THE ZAMBEZI RIVER, FROM ITS DELTA TO THE RIVER AROANGWA, WITH ITS HISTORY, AGRI- CULTURE, FLORA, FAUNA, AND ETHNOGRAPHY BY R. C. F. MAUGHAM H.B.M. CONSUL FOR PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA AUTHOR OF " PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA," " A HANDBOOK OF CHI-MAKUA," AND OTHER WRITINGS WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1910 PRINTED BY HAZELL, WAIBOK AKD TINUT, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBUBT, XTo HIS MOST FAITHFUL MAJESTY DOM MANOEL II KING OF PORTUGAL IN PEOFOUND ADMIRATION OF THOSE PORTIONS OF THE SPLENDID DEPENDENCY OP PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA WHICH THE FOLLOWING PAGES BUT DIMLY DESCRIBE BY HIS majesty's MOST GRACIOUSLY EXPRESSED PERMISSION THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED PREFACE The task of writing some account of the Portuguese section of the River Zambezi is one which I first proposed to myself some years ago, and although the work has, for a variety of reasons, progressed but slowly, I have found it much more of a pleasure than a toil, and must confess to having completed the final chapter with a feeling akin to one of regret. My recollections of the region I have endeavoured to describe are as pleasant as those of my numerous Portuguese friends still labouring in it are cordial, and, consequently, I am not unconscious of a sense of vague misgiving lest I should have failed to convey adequately a reasonable impression of a district in the greatness of whose future I for one have the firmest confidence. Although I have spent considerable time in gathering together the material of which this book is composed, I fear that the result is only a founda- tion upon which, I trust, more competent and highly trained observers may one day build. What we know about these regions is, after all, but little as yet. There is still a wealth of interesting and important information waiting to yield itself up to scientific searchers after the secrets of Afi-ica. The vni PREFACE discovery of this information is not, however, to the preoccupied official, nor to the hard working and agriculturist ; these have their own duties responsibilities in other directions. If, therefore, a perusal of the following pages should leave a lurking sense of their incompleteness, of a want of smoothness arising from the difficulty I have ex- perienced in dove-taihng together the various com- ponent parts, I would ask my readers to be rather indulgent than censorious, for 1 have, at all events, succeeded in compressing into the limits of a single volume material which might well have proved sufficient for several. In any case I shall feel more than satisfied if I succeed in conveying to students of the great Dark Continent some idea, however dim and incomplete, of the immense value of the splendid district of which Zambezia after all forms but a part. In the writing of this book I have derived most valuable assistance from Dr. G. McCall Theal's admirable work entitled " The History and Ethno- graphy of Africa South of the Zambezi," as also from the works of Mr. H. L. DufF, Sir Charles Eliot, and Sir H. H. Johnston. The hst of birds appended to Chapter VIII has been arranged in accordance with the carefuUy compiled work of my friend Mr. W. L. Sclater, M.A., F.Z.S., Director of the South African Museum at Cape Town; those of mammals coincide with Sir H. H. Johnston's grouping of the beasts of the neigh- bourmg colony of Nyasaland, whilst my botanical appendices are drawn up largely as the result of my own observation based upon the scheme of my ; PREFACE ix old friend Mr. J. Abercromby Alexander. My historical chapter has been greatly enriched by the invaluable stores of quaint, old-world information contained in the fascinating work of the long dead Friar Joao dos Santos entitled " Ethiopia Oriental," and published in Lisbon in 1609. For photographs, I have pleasure in acknow- ledging my indebtedness to Mr. J. Wexelsen of Beira, who supplied me with the more important of my views of the River Zambezi, amongst others to Mr. C. A. Reid ; to Mr. J. Lazarus of Lisbon ; to Dr. R. Kuenzer, Imperial German Consul in this Province ; to Mr. A. T. Long, British Vice- Consul at Louren90 Marques, and to Monsieur Ren^ Wuilleumier. Last, but not least, to my secretary, Mr. Johnston B. Sazuze, who, in addition to many official cares, has most painstakingly assisted by typing out my manuscript, my grateful thanks are likewise due. R. C. F. MAUGHAM. British Consulate^ Lourenco Marques, 1909 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTORY .1 II. THE EARLY OCCUPATION OF THE ZAMBEZI, AND THE PROGRESS OF THE PORTUGUESE PENETRATION INTO THE ANCIENT EMPIRE OF MONOMOTAPA AND HIS FEUDATORIES . 11 III. THE RIVER ZAMBEZI AND ITS SCENERY— CHINDE — MARROMEO — MORAMBALA — PINDA — INYANGOMA — SENA — LUPATA — TETE 46 IV. THE GREAT COMPANIES—THE ZAMBEZI COM- PANY—THE MOZAMBIQUE COMPANY—THE LUABO COMPANY 88 V. THE PRAZOES 114 VI. THE REGION OF THE BARUE PAST AND PRESENT .... 138 VII. ZAMBEZIAN FLORA .... 163 VIII. BIRDS-INSECTS- REPTILES .... 196 IX. ZAMBEZIAN ZOOLOGY ... 241 X. EXISTING SETTLERS 272 — xii CONTENTS OHiPTER PAGE XI. THE NATIVES-WA-SENA—A-NYANJA . 296 XII. THE NATIVES (corattntted)—ETHNOLOGY . 326 XIII. THE NATIVES (con^nued) — SUPERSTITIONS FOLK-LORE . ... 353 XIV. THE CLIMATE—HEALTH 383 XV. CONCLUSION . 398 INDEX .... 401 ILLUSTRATIONS His Excellency Major Alfredo Augusto Freire d'Andrade, R.E., Governor-General of Portuguese East Africa Frontispiece FACING PAGE Map op Zambezia Company's Territory . 1 An Early Portuguese Navigator 12 The First Vessels to round the Cape 18 The Fortress of San Sebastian, Mozambique . 20 The Original Gateway at Sena 28 C'achomba or Coroabasa .... 48 A Village Scene ... 62 The Franciscan Mission, Shupanga . 66 The River Shire, showing Overgrowth . Captain A. de Portugal Durao, R.N. 70 A Cascade in the Massowa Hills . 76 The Zambezi near Sena ... 78 The Lupata Gorge, with Zambezi Houseboat . 80 Cliffs in Lupata Gorge ..... 82 Tbte : View of Tetb from the North Bank . 84 Captain E. J. Bettencourt, Governor of Tete 86 Church of Boboma 88 One op Zambezia Company's Coconut Plantations 92 One op Soci^te du Madal's Copra Di^pots 108 A Street in Quelimane 114 In the Gold-mining Districts : A Rough Assay 130 xiii xiv ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAOE The Luenya River of the Barue . 148 Some Typical Granite Formations 154 A Baobab with View op Zambezi 158 Hyphoene Palms. 170 A Rice Field 186 Some Insect Pests 220 Black Rhinoceros 244 Hippopotamus 248 The African Bcffalo .... 250 An Eland ...... 264 Young Male Sable 258 A Good Right and Left : The African Leopard 266 A Typical "Banyan" 272 Zambezian Goldsmiths—Illustrating Huts built on Piles 314 Building the Roof of a Hut . 316 An A-Nyanja Hut . 316 An A-Nyanja Village : Mat-making 330 Wa-Sena Women beating out Corn 338 A Yao Chieftain's Grave 342 Basket-making, A-Nyanja 362 ZAMBEZIA CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY I HAVE endeavoured in the following pages to give some account of that portion of the Zambezi, and of the lands washed by its all too shallow waters, which have fallen, in the partition of Africa, beneath the sovereignty of the Portuguese Crown. It is, of course, but a part of Africa's fourth greatest waterway ; but, since the lower Zambezi is at present the doorway through which we reach the slowly awakening colonies of Nyasaland and North- Eastern Rhodesia—and even the far-away basin of the mighty Congo— it is with that portion of the river we are at present most concerned, and it will no doubt continue to claim our attention until slowly developing railway enterprise shall one day bring the remoter stretches of the great river within the daily widening scope of the modern traveller. The name "Zambezia," properly speaking, is used among geographers to designate a vast district most of which has been granted, as a concession for mineral and agricultural exploitation, to an 1 2 INTRODUCTORY influential group of Portuguese and other financiers formed some years ago under the style of the Zambezia Company (Companhia da Zambezia), with the object of working these valuable resources. The district of which this great concession largely consists forms also one of the administrative sub- divisions of the Province of Mozambique, and has as its capital the town of Quelimane, where reside^ the Governor of Zambezia, and the chief officials of the administration over which he presides. Quelimane is, therefore, the headquarters of the Zambezia Company, in whose hands, as I have just stated, the economic destinies of the district and its peoples have to a great extent been placed. The importance of the concession mentioned will perhaps be the better understood when it is explained that it contains about 70,000 square miles of territory, and some 1,100 miles of more or less navigable waterways. It is, therefore, on this basis of calcu- lation, rather larger than twice the size of the kingdom of Portugal.

Load more