NATURE OF THE COUNTRY 3 



with those of South-Eastern Rhodesia. Its most 

 distant westerly extent follows the eastern shore of 

 the River Aroangwa. 



Contained within the territory of Zambezia, 

 situated on the southern bank of the River 

 Zambezi, and still regarded, after the flight of 

 several centuries, as a military settlement of some 

 importance, we find the ancient city of Tete, 

 dating from considerably over four hundred years 

 ago, and still possessing in its massive fortresses 

 and strongly-built houses, interesting relics of a 

 period when every man's house was his castle in a 

 sense which we of to-day would find it difficult to 

 realise. Thence, following the great river up its 

 course to the westward, the only remaining centre 

 of importance in the Portuguese sphere is that of 

 Zumbo on the frontier, at the point of the con- 

 fluence of the Aroangwa, which possesses neither 

 the importance nor the traditions which to this day 

 invest Tete with such a veritable halo of old-world 

 interest. 



The history of this portion of Africa has been in 

 a high degree eventful. So far as the dim echoes 

 of its strenuous past have come down to us, its 

 early occupation reads like a long romance, and 

 there can be little doubt that the hitherto insignifi- 

 cant measure of development accorded to it has been 

 accomphshed in the face of difficulties, privations, 

 and dangers which might well have given pause 

 to nations with the greatest passion for colonising, 

 even aided by those indispensable scientific triumphs 

 of latter-day discovery which have done so much 

 of late to assist in combating Africa's countless 



