72 APPENDIX. [sect. 



some places it is obtained from what is called the specular 

 iron ore, and also from black oxide. The latter has been well 

 roasted in the operations of nature, and contains a large pro- 

 portion of the metal. It occurs generally in tears or rounded 

 lumps, and is but slightly magnetic. When found in the beds 

 of rivers, the natives know of its existence by the quantity of 

 oxide on the surface, and they find no difficulty in digging it 

 with pointed sticks. They consider English iron as 4 rotten ;' 

 and I have seen, when a javelin of their own iron lighted on 

 the cranium of a hippopotamus, it curled up like the proboscis 

 of a butterfly, and the owner would prepare it for future use 

 by straightening it cold with two stones. I brought home 

 some of the hoes which Sekeletu gave me to purchase a canoe, 

 also some others obtained in Kilimane, and they have been 

 found of such good quality that a friend of mine in Birming- 

 ham has made an Enfield rifle of them 1 ." 



This precious metal is found certainly on the 



GOLD. \ . J 



eastern side of the continent, and possibly on the 

 western side, but not in the centre. It is unknown to the 

 interior natives. The following quotation from the letter 

 last mentioned gives a complete account of the matter: 

 " If we consider Tete as occupying a somewhat central posi- 

 tion in the coal-field, and extend the leg of the compasses 

 about 3^°, the semicircle which may then be described from 

 north-east round by west to south-east nearly touches or in- 

 cludes all the district as yet known to yield the precious 

 metal. We have five well-known gold- washings from north- 

 east to north-west. There is Abutua, not now known, but it 

 must have been in the west or south- w r est, probably on the 

 flank of the eastern ridge. Then the country of the Bazizula, 

 or Mashona, on the south, and Manica on the south-east. The 

 rivers Mazoe, Luia and Luenya in the south, and several 

 rivulets in the north, bring gold into the coal-field with their 

 sands ; but from much trituration it is generally in such minute 

 scales as would render amalgamation with mercury necessary 

 1 Travels, pp. 650, 651. 



