THE FUTURE TO BE AGRICULTURAL 123 



into those of the British Indian merchant, by whom 

 it is paid for in cloth and beads and passed on to 

 the European business house in Quehmane or 

 Chinde which supports him by supplying barter 

 goods on generous credit terms. It will, therefore, 

 be seen that the larger and more important con- 

 cessionnaires in Zambezia have hitherto devoted 

 their attention almost exclusively to the cultivation 

 of the coconut palm, the coffee plant, and, experi- 

 mentally, to cotton, sugar, rubber, rice, and a few 

 other commodities of comparative unimportance. 

 Of course I must not be understood to include in 

 these remarks the three large sugar-planting com- 

 panies estabhshed upon the Zambezi, which have 

 obtained most encouraging results, and of whose 

 efforts some further description will hereafter be 

 given. 



I am convinced that the future of Zambezia 

 depends upon the development of its agriculture, 

 and that although doubtless valuable mineral re- 

 sources exist, they will only form a weak second 

 line in the movement which will sweep this district 

 forward on the road which leads to prosperity. 

 And in this form of development, though I fancy 

 the consciousness of the fact is but dimly realised 

 by those now working in these regions, there is a 

 double source of gain. Not only, as we have seen, 

 are there many exotic forms which can be and are 

 being planted with profit, but there are multitudes 

 of indigenous growths of which nothing like enough 

 has been made in the past. I refer principally to 

 native rubber, tobacco, and ground-nuts, with each 

 and all of which there is much to be done. There 



