GENEROSITY OF THE COMMANDANT. 673 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



Kind Reception from the Commandant. — His Generosity to my Men. — The Vil- 

 lage of Tete. — The Population. — Distilled Spirits. — The Fort. — Cause of the De- 

 cadence of Portuguese Power. — Former Trade. — Slaves employed in Gold-wash- 

 ing. — Slave-trade drained the Country of Laborers. — The Rebel Nyaude's Stock- 

 ade. — He burns Tete. — Kisaka's Revolt and Ravages. — Extensive Field of Sugar- 

 cane. — The Commandant's good Reputation among the Natives. — Providential 

 Guidance. — Seams of Coal. — A hot Spring. — Picturesque Country. — Water-car- 

 riage to the Coal-fields. — Workmen's Wages. — Exports. — Price of Provisions. — 

 Visit Gold-washings. — The Process of obtaining the precious Metal. — Coal within 

 a Gold-field. — Present from Major Sicard. — Natives raise Wheat, etc. — Liberal- 

 ity of the Commandant. — Geographical Information from Senhor Candido. — 

 Earthquakes. — Native Ideas of a Supreme Being. — Also of the Immortality and 

 Transmigration of Souls. — Fondness for Display at Funerals. — Trade Restric- 

 tions. — Former Jesuit Establishment. — State of Religion and Education at Tete. 

 — Inundation of the Zambesi. — Cotton cultivated. — The fibrous Plants Conge 

 and Buaze. — Detained by Fever. — The Kumbanzo Bark. — Native Medicines. — 

 Iron, its Quality. — Hear of Famine at Kilimane. — Death of a Portuguese Lady. 

 — The Funeral. — Disinterested Kindness of the Portuguese. 



I was most kindly received by the commandant Tito Augusto 

 d'Araujo Sicard, who did every thing in his power to restore me 

 from my emaciated condition ; and, as this was still the unhealthy 

 period at Kilimane, he advised me to remain with him until the 

 following month. He also generously presented my men with 

 abundant provisions of millet ; and, by giving them lodgings in a 

 house of his own until they could erect their own huts, he pre- 

 served them from the bite of the tampans, here named Carapatos.* 

 We had heard frightful accounts of this insect while among the 



* Another insect, resembling a maggot, burrows into the feet of the natives 

 and sucks their blood. Mr. Westwood says, "The tamp i% a large species of 

 mite, closely allied to the poisonous bug (as it is called) of Persia, Argos refiexus, 

 respecting which such marvelous accounts have been recorded, and which the 

 statement respecting the carapato or tampan would partially confirm." Mr. W. 

 also thin'is that the poison-yielding larva called N'gwa is a "species of chryso- 

 melidae. The larva? of the British species of that family exude a fetid yellow 

 thickish fluid when alarmed, but he has not heard that any of them are at all 

 poisonous." 



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