324 THE KONGONE. 



the delta, may have led to their exit sideways. The Kongone 

 is one of the lateral branches, and the safest, inasmuch as the 

 bar has nearly two fathoms on it at low water, and the rise at 

 spring tides is from twelve to fourteen feet. The bar is narrow 

 and the passage nearly straight. Were it buoyed, and a beacon 

 placed on Pearl island, it would always be safe for a steamer. 

 When the wind is from the east or north the bar is smooth ; if 

 from the south and southeast, it has a heavy break on it, and 

 is not to be attempted in boats. A strong current, setting to 

 the east when the tide is flowing, and to the west when ebbing, 

 may drag a boat or ship into the breakers. If one is doubtful 

 of his longitude, and runs east, he will soon see the land at 

 Timbwe disappear away to the north ; and coming west again, 

 he can easily make out East Luabo from its great size, and 

 Kongone follows seven miles west. The Kongone is five miles 

 east of the Milambe ; about seven miles east of the Kongone is 

 the East Luabo, and five miles east still is the Timbwe." 



It is remarkable that no Portuguese residences were found 

 within " eighty miles of any mouth of the Zambesi." Whether 

 they were ignorant of them, or, as they now claim, had their 

 settlements so far away as a piece of strategy in the interest of the 

 slave trade, is a question which we need <not pause to discuss. 

 We have the testimony of the Livingstone expedition, that the 

 only human beings that were seen, as the " Pearl " was steered 

 into the Kongone, were the dusky natives leaping from their 

 canoes and dashing away through the mangrove thickets, in 

 evident terror of the white man, who, if known to them at all, 

 was only associated with memories of brothers or sisters or 

 children dragged away in chains to harder bondage in unknown 

 lands. 



Some of the party on board the "Pearl" were unused to 

 wilderness scenes and the wonderful exuberancy of nature in 

 tropical lands. They seemed to have entered a new world. 

 Everything they saw, every sound that fell upon their ears, had 

 all the freshness of novelty. The trees and the plants were new ; 

 the flowers and the fruits, the beasts, the birds, the insects, all 

 were strange and wonderful. The very sky itself seemed new, 

 glowing with colors or sparkling with constellations never seen 

 in northern climes. The arts and industries of other nations 



