Chap. XXXI. PRODUCTIONS— CULTIVATION. 413 



The indigo (Indigqfera argentea, the common wild indigo of 

 Africa) is found growing everywhere, and large quantities of 

 the senna-plant (Cassia acutifolia, the true senna of commerce) 

 grow in the village of Tete and other parts ; but neither indigo 

 nor senna is collected. Calumba-root, which is found in 

 abundance in parts further down the river, is bought by the 

 Americans, it is said, to use as a dye-stuff. A kind of 

 sarsaparilla, or a plant which is believed by the Portuguese 

 to be such, is found from Londa to Senna, but has never been 

 exported. All the cultivation is carried on with hoes in the 

 native manner, and considerable quantities of Holcus sorghum, or 

 maize, Pennisetum typhoideum, or lotsa, millet, rice, and wheat, 

 are raised, as also several kinds of beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, 

 and melons. The wheat is sown in low-lying places, which 

 are annually flooded by the Zambesi. When the waters re- 

 tire, the women drop a few grains in a hole made with a hoe, 

 and push back the soil with the foot. One weeding alone is 

 required before the grain comes to maturity. This simple 

 process has all the effect of our subsoil-ploughing, liming, 

 manuring, and harrowing, for in four months a good crop is 

 ready for the sickle, and has been known to yield a hundred- 

 fold. No irrigation is required, because gentle rains, almost 

 like mist, known by the name of " wheat-showers," fall in 

 winter. The rains at Tete come from the east, though the 

 prevailing winds are from the S.S.E. The " seconds " make 

 the whitest bread, and the boyaloa, or native beer, is used 

 instead of yeast, just as the todd}'- called "sura" is used at 

 Kilimane, where the cocoa-nut palm abounds. 



The independent natives cultivate a little cotton, but it is 

 not at all equal, either in quantity or quality, to what we 

 found in Angola. The pile is short, and clings to the seed so 

 much that they use an iron roller to detach it. The natives 

 have never been encouraged to cultivate it for sale, nor has 

 any new variety been introduced. We saw no palm-oil trees, 

 the oil which is occasionally exported being from the ground- 

 nut. One of the merchants of Tete had a mill of the rudest 

 construction, worked by donkeys, for grinding this nut. It 

 was the only specimen of a machine I could exhibit to my 

 men. A very superior kind of salad-oil is obtained from the 

 seeds of cucumbers, and is much used in native cookery. 



