TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 191 



The sugar-cane grows to an enormous size and yields much saccharine matter. 



Indigo, roots, and nuts supply colouring matter of various hues, and are in common 

 use among the natives. 



Around Sena, whei^e the Zambesi spreads itself over great tracts of country, 

 creating swamps and causing the malignant fever and ague of that country, the 

 antidote is to be found in abundance in the bark of a tree, which yields one of the 

 most valuable articles of commerce, namely cinchona bark. 



The delta at the mouth of this river affords a subject of deep interest ; its growth 

 being so rapid, that one is led to the belief that it is, comparatively speaking, of 

 recent formation. I am inclined to think that it has, in some places, increased as 

 much as five miles since 1821. This appears enormous even when compared with the 

 delta of the Danube, but it must be borne in mind that nature has provided it with the 

 mangrove tree, which from its formation appears to have been specially provided for 

 the purpose of piling up the deltas of rivers. 



The mangrove tree grows only in brackish water ; that is to say, half salt and half 

 fresh water; and has this peculiarity, that it will not grow in either fresh or 

 salt water. It bears a nut, which, when ripe, from the heat of the sun, bursts with a 

 report like a musket. Some years ago, when employed on boat service in the rivers 

 on the west coast of Africa, in chase of slave vessels, being detached from the other 

 boats of the ship to which I belonged, the bursting of these nuts on a calm sultry 

 afternoon has often led me to the belief that the other boats were engaged in an action 

 with some slaver in another part of the river. 



After the nut has burst three young shoots are thrown out; these make imme- 

 diately for the water, on reaching which they form a small pile, stopping leaves, grass, 

 and mud, floating down, in which they take root and then throw out branches up- 

 wards, similar to the banyan tree. It may be easily imagined how soon a delta will 

 increase its demensions when assisted by the mangrove tree. It is certain that 

 Killimane is further inland than when first traded with by the Arabs in the twelfth 

 century ; and a knowledge of the time required for the formation of that delta might 

 lead us to estimate the date when the Zambesi burst through the Lupata mountains, 

 and those changes took place by volcanic agency which have given to Central Africa 

 that physical formation so wisely foretold by Sir Roderick Murchison, and subse- 

 quently confirmed by the persevering discoverer Livingstone. 



Passing on from the mouths of the Zambesi, with all its untold treasures, we come 

 to a country, which, having abandoned the slave-trade, and entered into legitimate 

 commerce, finds its reward in growing richer and more powerful every year; while 

 the neighbouring Portuguese settlements, abandoned to the nefarious traffic in human 

 beings, become annually more impoverished. 



The kingdom of Angoxa, latitude 1G°39'S. and longitude 39° 46' E., having a 

 seaboard of ninety miles and reaching into the interior for upwards of 180 miles, has 

 in a few years, by abandoning the slave-trade, shaking off the pretensions of Portu- 

 guese dominion, and developing the resources of its natural productions, risen to the 

 position of a fiee and independent kingdom, whose trade is open, on its express 

 invitation, to the civilized world. 



Already it supplies immense quantities of simsim, or sesame, or gergulin seed 

 (which appears here particularly to thrive), the oil expressed from which is a valu- 

 able article of commerce, being used as a substitute for olive oil, and much prized for 

 the finer portions of machinery. 



Ivory in abundance, ebony, orchella-weed, gum-copal, cocoanut oil, coir, ground- 

 nuts, form the principal portions of the cargoes of fleets of dhows trading in the season 

 between this country and the dominions of the Imam of Muskat. The Sultan of 

 Angoxa asks for a British Consular Agent, and is anxious to place himself under the 

 protection of Great Britain: meanwhile, the Mozambique Government threatens the 

 seizure of English vessels trading with Angoxa. 



When Great Britain recognized the territorial rights of Portugal on the east and 

 west coast of Africa, she reserved to British subjects the right of trading with the 

 natives : and whenever these rights are interfered with, prompt measures should be 

 adopted for enforcing full and immediate satisfaction to the injured parties. 



The city of Mozambique is situated on an island of the same name, in latitude 

 15° 2' S. and longitude 40° 48' E., which, with two other islands, St. George, and St. 



