230 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



Mr. Wissels's large, open sailing-boat by four o'clock 

 on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 22. The 

 same evening, after a good dinner at a small hotel 

 on the opposite side of the bay, we ran out to sea 

 with the tide, by the light of a most glorious full 

 moon, and after passing a reef of rocks which 

 projects into the sea from the southern shore of 

 the bay immediately opposite Reuben Point, on 

 which there is a lighthouse, we anchored about 

 midnight in quite shallow water to wait for the 

 morning breeze, by the help of which Mr. Wissels 

 expected we would be able to run right into the 

 mouth of the Maputa river, in time to catch the 

 inflowing tide. 



After a not too comfortable night, passed on 

 mealie bags which had not been arranged to serve 

 as a bed, we awoke just as the day was breaking, but 

 before the moon had quite set, and found that a 

 strong breeze had sprung up, before which we ran 

 right into the mouth of the Maputa river in a very 

 short space of time. The Maputa is the name 

 given to the united streams of the Pongolo and 

 Usutu, below their confluence, and carries to the 

 sea the muddy water of the former commingled with 

 the clear stream of the latter, which takes its rise 

 amongst the far-off hills of Swaziland. As the 

 height of the country above sea-level at the junction 

 of these rivers is, I believe, under 400 feet, it follows 

 that the Maputa runs through a very level tract of 

 country. Like all rivers flowing into the Indian 

 Ocean, on the east coast of Africa, it is a tidal 

 stream fringed on both banks along its lower course 

 by monotonous, dismal -looking mangrove swamps. 



The country between the Maputa and the Tembe 

 — which latter is the river flowing into the southern 

 portion of Delagoa Bay — is reputed to be very 

 fruitful, and to carry a large native population, who, 

 however, have suffered terribly of late years owing 



