18 LECTURE L 



producing every kind of tropical plant in rank luxuriance. 

 Passing on to the valley of Quango, the stalk of the 

 grass was as thick as a quill, and towered above my 

 head, although I was mounted on my ox; cotton is 

 produced in great abundance, though merely woven 

 into common cloth ; bananas and pine-apples grow in 

 great luxuriance ; but the people having no maritime 

 communication, these advantages are almost lost. The 

 country on the other side is not quite so fertile, but in 

 addition to indigo, cotton, and sugar-cane, produces a 

 fibrous substance, which I am assured is stronger than 

 flax 1 . 



The Zambesi has not been thought much of as a 

 river by Europeans, not appearing very large at its 

 mouth ; but on going up it for about seventy miles, it is 

 enormous. The first three hundred miles might be 

 navigated without obstacle: then there is a rapid, and 

 near it a coal-field of large extent. The elevated sides 

 of the basin, which form the most important feature of 

 the country, are far different in climate to the country 

 nearer the sea, or even the centre. Here the grass is 

 short, and the Angola goat, which could not live in the 

 centre, had been seen on the east highland by Mr Moffat. 



My desire is to open a path to this district, that civi- 

 lization, commerce, and Christianity might find their way 

 there. I consider that we made a great mistake, when 

 we carried commerce into India, in being ashamed of our 

 Christianity ; as a matter of common sense and good 



1 See Appendix, p. 79. 



