RUIXS OF ZUMBO. 249 



anzwe to command a pleasant view of the broad Zambesi. 

 These establishments had all been built on one plan — a house 

 on one side of a large court, surrounded by a wall ; both houses 

 and walls had been built of soft gray sandstone cemented to- 

 gether with mud. The work had been performed by slaves 

 ignorant of building, for the stones were not often placed so as 

 to cover the seams below. Hence you frequently find the join- 

 ings forming one seam from the top to the bottom. Much mortar 

 or clay had been used to cover defects, and now trees of the fig 

 family grow upon the walls and clasp them with their roots. 

 When the clay is moistened, masses of the walls come down by 

 wholesale. Some of the rafters and beams had fallen in, but were 

 entire, and there were some trees in the middle of the houses as 

 large as a man's body. On the opposite or south bank of the 

 Zambesi we saw the remains of a wall on a height which was 

 probably a fort, and the church stood at a central point, formed 

 by the right bank of the Loangwa and the left of the Zambesi. 



" The situation of Zumbo was admirably well chosen as a site 

 for commerce. Looking backward we see a mass of high, dark 

 mountains, covered with trees ; behind us rises the fine high hill 

 Mazanzwe, which stretches away northward along the left bank 

 of the Loangwa; to the southeast lies an open country, with a 

 small round hill in the distance called Tofulo. The merchants, 

 as they sat beneath the verandahs in front of their houses, had 

 a magnificent view of the two rivers at their confluence ; of their 

 church at the angle ; and of all the gardens which they had on 

 both sides of the rivers." 



But here, as in Angola, the churches have exerted but trifling 

 influence ; the people have not been turned from their supersti- 

 tions; and the poorly-paid officials having become merchants 

 from necessity, and allowed their necessity to become avarice, 

 trade nearly altogether in slaves and ivory. Livingstone soon 

 found that he had encountered the annoyance and danger of 

 passing through the midst of people who had been for two years 

 in war with the white settlers. Being on the north side of the 

 river and without means of crossing, he was forced to expose 

 himself on the savage side, while on the south side he would 

 have been under the authority of the Portuguese. He had, 

 however, no disposition to take sides in such a quarrel, and 



