Chap. II. DESCRIPTION OF TETTE. 45 



little food. They received no aid from the Mosambique 

 G-overnment ; but Major Sicarcl did assist them most gene- 

 rously at his own cost, and also gave them land and hoes 

 to raise some food for themselves. 



Tette stands on a succession of low sandstone ridges on the 

 right bank of the Zambesi, which is here nearly a thousand 

 yards wide (960 yards). Shallow ravines, running parallel 

 with the river, form the streets, the houses being built on the 

 ridges. The whole surface of the streets, except narrow foot- 

 paths, were overrun with self-sown indigo, and tons of it might 

 have been collected. In fact indigo, senna, and stramonium, 

 with a species of cassia, form the weeds of the place, which are 

 annually hoed off and burned. A wall of stone and mud sur- 

 rounds the village, and the native population live in huts out- 

 side. The fort and the church, near the river, are the 

 strongholds ; the natives having a salutary dread of the guns 

 of the one, and a superstitious fear of the unknown power of 

 the other. The number of white inhabitants is small, and 

 rather select, many of them having been considerately 

 sent out of Portugal " for their country's good." The 

 military element preponderates in society; the convict and 

 " incorrigible " class of soldiers, receiving very little pay, 

 depend in great measure on the produce of the gardens of 

 their black wives ; the moral condition of the resulting 

 population may be imagined. Even the officers seldom 

 receive their pay from Government ; but, being of an enter- 

 prising spirit, they contrive to support themselves by mar- 

 rying the daughters or widows of wealthy merchants ; and 

 trade in ivory by means of the slaves, of whom they thus 

 become the masters. 



Droughts are of frequent occurrence at Tette, and the crops 

 suffer severely. This may arise partly from the position of the 



