Chap. I. "COLONOS," OR SERFS. 21 



sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, onions (sha- 

 lots), peas, a little cotton, and sugar-cane are also raised. 

 It is said that English potatoes, when planted at Quillimane 

 on soil resembling this, in the course of two years become 

 in taste like sweet potatoes (convolvulus batatas), and are like 

 our potato frosted. The whole of the fertile region extending 

 from the Kongone canal to beyond Mazaro, some eighty 

 miles in length, and fifty in breadth, is admirably adapted for 

 the growth of sugar-cane; and were it in the hands of our 

 friends at the Cape, would supply all Europe with sugar. 

 The remarkably few people seen appeared to be tolerably 

 well fed, but there was a shivering dearth of clothing 

 among them ; all were blacks, and nearly all Portu- 

 guese " colonos " or serfs. They manifested no fear of 

 white men, and stood in groups on the bank gazing 

 in astonishment at the steamers, especially at the " Pearl," 

 which accompanied us thus far up the river. One old 

 man who came on board remarked that never before had 

 he seen any vessel so large as the "Pearl," it was like a 

 village, " AVas it made out of one tree ? " All were eager 

 traders, and soon came off to the ship in light swift canoes 

 with every kind of fruit and food they possessed ; a few 

 brought honey and beeswax, which are found in quantities in 

 the mangrove forests. As the ships steamed off, many 

 anxious sellers ran along the bank, holding up fowls, baskets 

 of rice and meal, and shouting " Malonda, Malonda," " things 

 for sale," while others followed in canoes, which they sent 

 through the water with great velocity by means of short 

 broad-bladed paddles. 



The deep channel, or Qwete as the canoe-men call it, 

 of the Zambesi is winding, and narrow when con- 

 trasted with the great breadth of the river itself. The 



