CHAP. I. DESCRIPTION OF TETTE. 29 



strangers, and had come from afar with an Englishman. 

 The superstitious savage put them all to death. " We do 

 not grieve," said their companions, " for the thirty- 

 victims of the smallpox, who were taken away by Morimo 

 (God); but our hearts are sore for the six youths who 

 were murdered by Bonga." Any hope of obtaining 

 justice on the murderer was out of the question. Bonga 

 once caught a captain of the Portuguese army, and forced 

 him to perform the menial labour of pounding maize in a 

 wooden mortar. No punishment followed on this outrage. 

 The Government of Lisbon has since given Bonga the 

 honorary title of Captain, by way of coaxing him to own 

 their authority ; but he still holds his stockade. 



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 footpaths, 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 surrounds 

 the village, and the native population live in huts outside. 

 The fort and the church, near the river, are the strong- 

 holds ; 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. 



