658 SENNA : ITS EUINOUS STATE. Chap. XXXII. 



afternoon of the 27th we arrived at Senna. (Commandant Isi- 

 dore's house, 300 yards S.W. of the mud fort on the banks of the 

 river : lat. 17° 27' 1" S., long. 35° 10' E.) We found Senna to 

 be twenty-three and a half hours' sail from Tete. We had the 

 current entirely in our favour, but met various parties in large 

 canoes toiling laboriously against it. They use long ropes and 

 pull the boats from the shore. They usually take about twenty 

 days to ascend the distance we had descended in about four. 

 The wages paid to boatmen are considered high. Part of the 

 men who had accompanied me, gladly accepted employment 

 from Lieutenant Miranda, to take a load of goods in a canoe from 

 Senna to Tete. 



I thought the state of Tete quite lamentable, but that of 

 Senna was ten times worse. At Tete there is some life ; here 

 everything is in a state of stagnation and ruin. The fort, built 

 of sun-dried bricks, has the grass growing over the walls, which 

 have been patched in some places by paling. The Landeens 

 visit the village periodically, and levy fines upon the inhabitants, 

 as they consider the Portuguese a conquered tribe, and very 

 rarely does a native come to trade. Senhor Isidore, the Com- 

 mandant, a man of considerable energy, had proposed to surround 

 the whole village with palisades as a protection against the 

 Landeens, and the villagers were to begin tins work the day after 

 I left. It was sad to look at the ruin manifest in every building, 

 but the half-castes appear to be in league with the rebels and 

 Landeens ; for when any attempt is made by the Portuguese to 

 coerce the enemy or defend themselves, information is conveyed at 

 once to the Landeen camp, and, though the Commandant prohibits 

 the payment of tribute to the Landeens, on their approach the half- 

 castes eagerly ransom themselves. When I was there, a party of 

 Kisaka's people were ravaging the fine country on the opposite 

 shore. They came down with the prisoners they had captured, 

 and forthwith the half-castes of Senna went over to buy slaves. 

 Encouraged by this, Kisaka's people came over into Senna fully 

 armed and beating their drums, and were received into the house 

 of a native Portuguese, They had the village at their mercy, 

 yet could have been driven off by half a dozen policemen. The 

 Commandant could only look on with bitter sorrow. He had 

 soldiers, it is true, but it is notorious that the native militia of 



