TOBACCO 129 



We now turn to tobacco. This valuable product 

 has been cultivated time out of mind by the natives 

 of the Zambezi, and I have seen magnificent 

 plantations growing with the greatest luxuriance 

 not only in the immediate neighbourhood of that 

 river at many points, but in such remote localities 

 as the banks of the Luenya and Muira streams 

 in the Baru^ region. It is precisely the same 

 tobacco as that found in Nyasaland, and there 

 manufactured into a rapidly increasing and lucrative 

 export. In Zambezia I am unaware of any serious 

 attempt to cultivate the tobacco plant, and yet I 

 am fuUy convinced that properly undertaken it 

 would prove a much more remunerative industry 

 than some others which are now being half-heartedly 

 prosecuted, and from which but little in the shape 

 of result can ever probably be looked. I have 

 smoked manufactured tobacco from Nyasaland 

 plantations which seemed to me to exhibit but 

 little difference from the best Navy Cut. The 

 cigarettes exported from manufacturers in that 

 country are most popular with smokers of light 

 coloured tobacco ; and although I have never had 

 the courage to try a Nyasaland cigar, I am informed 

 that the habit of smoking them is extremely difficult 

 to throw off when once it has been acquired. 

 What the British sphere can do to popularise these 

 commodities, could, I feel sure, be achieved by the 

 prazo-holders of the Zambezi, with less cost under 

 the head of transport, and consequently more profit 

 to the producer. 



In the northern and north-western portions of 

 the district of Zambezia considerable mineral wealth 



