Jan. 10, 1859.] BAINES ON THE ZAMBESI EXPEDITION. 105 



Soutliern Africa, but not without the employment of capital, enterprise, and 

 skill ; and where were these to come from ? England was the only nation, 

 except the United States, that could enter upon such a work, and it was not* 

 likely at all events that England would do so, seeing that sh& had enough 

 territory on her hands already, equally or better fitted. 



Mr. M'Queen, f.r.g.s., said that with reference to the existence of coal at 

 Tete, that was not a discovery now made for the first time ; for twenty-five years ■ 

 ago they were tried at Lisbon, and also at Goa and Mozambique, on board, he 

 believed, the Nemesis, and found perfectly good. Then with reference to 

 wheat growing at Tete, he could tell Mr. Crawfurd that it does grow there. 

 It was said that it could not grow there, because wheat did not grow so 

 near the equator: now the finest wheat in the world was produced on the 

 river Webbe, near Brava, close to the equator, and might be bought cheap, 

 and in any quantity. As to cotton in Africa, it had been known for three 

 thousand years, and very fine cotton too ; and it was well known that in the 

 interior the people had for ages manufactured their garments called Tangas • 

 of that cotton, which is very fine and very strong. Regarding the Zambesi 

 he was satisfied there were many serious obstructions in its channel ; but with^ 

 some blasting here and there, and the use of other means, which would doubt- 

 less prove laborious, but not impracticable, there would be no place that a- 

 vessel fitted for the commerce of the country could not pass. Mr. M'Queen 

 farther called attention to the efforts that are being made by Portugal tO: 

 strengthen its position in Eastern Africa, and along the valley of the Zambesi. 

 They were establishing custom-houses at the mouth of the river, at Senna, at 

 Tete, and Zumbo, and by a decree in January, 1855, they had defined the 

 meaning of the government of the rivers of Senna to be and to include the 

 whole of the Zambesi from the sea upwards, and specially to include all tho" 

 ancient province of Zumbo, with the districts of country to the northward, 

 situate on both banks of the river Arroango of the north. 



Mr. Crawfurd again rose and said he had never before heard of wheat 

 growing within the tropics, and at the level of the sea. They must come to 

 26° latitude before they could grow wheat. It would not grow either at; 

 Bombay or Madras. He knew that in Java, 6° or 7° south of the equator, it 

 would not grow until you reached the elevation of 4000 or 5000 feet, and he 

 could not believe with Mr. M'Queen in the growth of wheat at the equator, 

 and at the level of the sea^. 



Mr. M'Queen referred Mr. Crawfurd for information with regard tp wheat- 

 growing countries to what was said upon the subject in Krapf s Journals. He- 

 would also find that wheat gi'ows on the banks of the Coanzo, not one hundred 

 feet above the level of the sea. And as to cotton, he could testify, after ran- 

 sacking almost every part of Africa, that there are few places in which the- 

 finest cotton does not grow all over that continent. 



Colonel Sykes, m.p., f.r.g.s., could not suppose that his friend Mr. Craw- 

 furd was serious in the arguments he had used. For himself he entertained" 

 very decided hopes regarding the commerce of the Zambesi. Dr. Livingstone 

 had proposed the employment of engineering skill for the deepening of the 

 shallow parts of the river, and the removing of obstructions by artificial means. 

 It was well known that all large rivers formed deltas and branched into shallow 

 streams as they approached the sea ; the natural result of the deposits which 

 accumulate as the water comes from higher lands and runs slower. He did 

 not think there was any obstruction that might not be removed or avoided by 

 means of human ingenuity, such as confining the whole stream to one channel of 

 the delta. Mr. Crawfurd asked what can be the use of the timber without a 

 botanical name, of which Mr. M'Leod had produced specimens fit for ship- 

 building ; but was not that fact sufficient, whatever the name might be ? Whafe. 

 did it matter, although it might not be a Tectona grandiSj a Quercusj or a PimiSf, 



