Chap. I. SHUPANGA. 31 



abounds ; its bright yellow wood makes good boat-masts, 

 and yields a strong bitter medicine for fever ; the Gunda-tree 

 attains to an immense size ; its timber is hard, rather cross- 

 grained, with masses of silica deposited in its substance ; 

 the large canoes, capable of carrying three or four tons, are 

 made of its wood. For permission to cut these trees, a Por- 

 tuguese gentleman of Quillimane was paying the Zulus, in 

 1858, two hundred dollars a year, and his successor now pays 

 three hundred. 



At Shupanga, a one-storied stone house stands on the 

 prettiest site on the river. In front a sloping lawn, with a 

 fine mango orchard at its southern end, leads down to the 

 broad Zambesi, whose green islands repose on the sunny 

 bosom of the tranquil waters. Beyond, northwards, lie vast 

 fields and forests of palms and tropical trees, with the 

 massive mountain of Morambala towering amidst the white 

 clouds ; and further away more distant hills appear in the 

 blue horizon. This beautifully situated house possesses a 

 melancholy interest from having been associated in a most 

 mournful manner with the history of two English expedi- 

 tions. Here, in 1826, poor Kirkpatrick, of Captain Owen's 

 Surveying Expedition, died of fever; and here, in 1862, died, 

 of the same fatal disease, the beloved wife of Dr. Livingstone. 

 A hundred yards east of the house, under a large Baobab- 

 tree, far from their native land, both are buried. 



The Shupanga-house was the head-quarters of the Governor 

 during the Mariano war. He told us that the province of 

 Mosambique costs the Home Government between 5000?. and 

 6000?. annually, and East Africa yields no reward in return 

 to the mother country. We met there several other influen- 

 tial Portuguese. All seemed friendly, and expressed their 

 willingness to assist the expedition in every way in their power ; 



