Chap. XXXI. TETE PLUNDERED AND BURNT. 



a thatched apartment for the residence of the troops ; and 

 though there are but few guns, they are in a much better state 

 than those of any fort in the interior of Angola. The decay 

 of the Portuguese power in this region is entirely due to the 

 slave-trade. In former times considerable quantities of grain 

 — as wheat, millet, and maize — were exported, besides coffee, 

 sugar, oil, indigo, gold-dust, and ivory. The cultivation of 

 grain and the washing for gold-dust were carried on by means 

 of slaves, of whom the Portuguese possessed a large number, 

 and the natives of the interior, both chiefs and people, were 

 friendly to the system, because they supplied the food for the 

 sustenance of the slaves while engaged in gold- washings, and 

 thus procured in return a quantity of European goods. 



But when the slave-trade began, many of the merchants 

 commenced selling their slaves as a more speedy mode of 

 becoming rich, and they continued this until they had no 

 hands left either to labour or to fight for them. It was just 

 the story of the goose and the golden egg. The coffee and 

 sugar plantations and gold-washings were abandoned, because 

 the labour had been exported to the Brazils. Many of the 

 Portuguese then followed their slaves, and the Government 

 was obliged to pass a law to prevent further emigration, 

 which, had it gone on, would have depopulated the Portuguese 

 possessions altogether. 



Rebellion followed closely on the decrease of the Portuguese 

 establishments. A man of Asiatic and Portuguese extraction, 

 called Nyaude, built a stockade at the confluence of the Luenya 

 and Zambesi ; the Commandant of Tete armed the whole body 

 of slaves and marched against this stockade, but, when they 

 approached, Nyaude despatched a strong party under his son 

 up the left bank of the Zambesi, which attacked Tete, and 

 plundered and burned the whole town except the house of 

 the Commandant and a few others, with the church and fort. 

 Having rendered Tete a ruin, Bonga carried off all the cattle 

 and plunder to his father. Xews of this having been brought 

 to the army before the stockade, a sudden panic dispersed the 

 whole ; and as the fugitives took roundabout ways in their 

 flight, Katolosa, who had hitherto pretended to be friendly 

 with the Portuguese, sent out his men to capture as many of 

 them as they could. Another half-caste, called Kisaka, on the 



