102 DOWN AGAIN TO KONGONE. CHAP. IV. 



The weddings are celebrated with as much jollity as 

 weddings are anywhere. We witnessed one in the house 

 of our friend the Padre. It being the marriage of his god- 

 daughter, he kindly invited us to be partakers in his joy ; 

 and we there became acquainted with old Donna Eugenia, 

 who was a married wife and had children, when the 

 slaves came from Cassange, before any of us were born. 

 The whole merry-making was marked by good taste and 

 propriety. 



About the only interesting object in the vicinity of 

 Tette is the coal a few miles to the north. There, in the 

 feeders of the stream Eevubue, it crops out in cliff sections. 

 The seams are from four to seven feet in thickness; one 

 measured was found to be twenty-five feet thick. 



Learning that it would be difficult for our party to 

 obtain food beyond Kebrabasa before the new crop came in, 

 and knowing the difficulty of hunting for so many men in 

 the wet season, we decided on deferring our departure for 

 the interior until May, and in the mean time to run down 

 once more to the Kongone, in the hopes of receiving letters 

 and despatches from the man-of-war that was to call in 

 March. We left Tette on the 10th, and at Senna heard 

 that our lost mail had been picked up on the beach by 

 natives, west of the Milambe ; carried to Quillimane, sent 

 thence to Senna, and, passing us somewhere on the river, 

 on to Tette. At Shupanga the governor informed us that 

 it was a very large mail ; no great comfort, seeing it was 

 away up the river. 



Mosquitoes were excessively troublesome at the har- 

 bour, and especially when a light breeze blew from the 

 north over the mangroves. We lived for several weeks in 

 small huts, built by our men. Those who did the hunting 

 for the party always got wet, and were attacked by fever, 

 but generally recovered in time to be out again before the 

 meat was all consumed. No ship appearing, we started off 



