CHAPTER IV 



PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA: TO THE CITY OF 

 SIESTAS AND BEYOND 



As though to let us know that we had at last 

 passed through Chartered territory, the whole 

 country seemed to take on a different aspect. 

 The vegetation became more luxuriant, buck 

 and birds were more plentiful, and instead of 

 the arid bush and dried-up streams of extreme 

 Eastern Mashonaland we got glimpses of rivulets 

 rushing through a wealth of verdure. Even the 

 natives seemed to have changed. They were 

 more hospitable, more interested and more 

 interesting. Instead of a stubborn diffidence, 

 they put on faces of welcome and saluted with 

 prettily pronounced "senhors." It was indeed 

 as though, when we crossed that line of bush 

 clearing denoting the frontier, we had stepped 

 into a new world peopled with pleasantly differ- 

 ent tribes, and with Mother Earth robed in a 

 new and far more beautiful garment. 



The first Portuguese East African kraal we 

 camped at was Chipanes, and here close to the 

 village we discovered some magnificent mahogany 

 bean trees. They are pretty little things, these 

 red and black vegetable curios, and we gathered 

 some handfuls of them. At the next village we 

 purchased a few curiously shaped battle-axes and 

 knives from the natives after a great deal of 

 bartering. We were also pressed to buy a 



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