28 UNINTERESTING SCENERY. Chap. I. 



the garrison having fled in a panic ; and as Bonga declared 

 that he did not wish to fight with this Governor, with whom 

 he had no quarrel, the war soon came to an end. His 

 Excellency meanwhile, being a disciple of llaspail, had 

 taken nothing for the fever but a little camphor, and 

 after he was taken to Shupanga became comatose. More 

 potent remedies were administered to him, to his intense 

 disgust, and he soon recovered. The Colonel in attendance, 

 whom he never afterwards forgave, encouraged the treat- 

 ment. " Give what is right ; never mind him ; he is very 

 (inuito) impertinent : " and all night long, with every draught 

 of water the Colonel gave a quantity of quinine : the con- 

 sequence was, next morning the patient was cinchonized and 

 better. The sketch opposite represents the scene of action, 

 and is interesting in an historical point of view, because the 

 opening in which a large old canoe, with a hole in its bottom, 

 is seen lying on its side, is the mouth of the creek Mutu, 

 which in 1861 appeared in a map published by the Portu- 

 guese " Minister of Marine and the Colonies " as that through 

 which the chief portion of the Zambesi, here about a mile 

 wide, flowed to Quillimane. In reality this creek, eight or 

 ten yards wide, is filled with grass, and its bed is six feet or 

 more above the level of the Zambesi. The side of the creek 

 opposite to the canoe is seen in the right of the picture, and 

 sloping down from the bed to one of the dead bodies, may be 

 marked the successive heights at which the water of the 

 main stream stood from flood time in March to its medium 

 height in June. 



For sixty or seventy miles before reaching Mazaro, the 

 scenery is tame and uninteresting. On either hand is a 

 dreary uninhabited expanse, of the same level grassy plains, 

 with merely a few trees to relieve the painful monotony. 



