GOLD DIGGINGS. 229 



ness. I have seen spears made of it strike the crania of hippopotami and 

 curl up instead of breaking, the owner afterwards preparing it for further use 

 by straightening it, while cold, with two stones. 



" Gold. — If we consider Tete as occupying a somewhat central position 

 in the coal-field, and extend the leg of the compasses about 3^°, the line which 

 may then be described from north-east round by west to south-east nearly 

 touches or includes 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-west, 

 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 gener- 

 ally in such minute scales as would render amalgamation with mercury 

 necessary to give it weight in the sand, and render the washing profitable. 

 The metal in some parts in the north is found in red clay-shale which is soft 

 enough to allow the women to pound it in wooden mortars previous to washing. 

 At Mashinga it occurs in white quartz. Some of the specimens of gold which 

 I have seen from Manica and the country of Bazizula (Mosusurus) were as 

 large as grains of wheat, and those from rivers nearer Tete were extremely 

 minute dust only. I was thus led to conclude that the latter was affected by trans- 

 port, and the former showed the true gold-field as indicated by the semicircle. 

 "Was the eastern ridge the source of the gold, seeing it is now found not far 

 from its eastern flank ? 



" We have then at present a coal-field surrounded by gold, with abund- 

 ance of wood, water, and provisions — a combination of advantages met with 

 neither in Australia nor California. In former times the Portuguese traders 

 went to the washings accompanied by great numbers of slaves, and continued 

 there until their goods were expended in purchasing food for the washers. 

 The chief in whose lands they laboured expected a small present — one pound's 

 worth of cloth perhaps — for the privilege. But the goods spent in purchasing 

 food from the tribe was also considered advantageous for the general good, 

 and all were eager for these visits. It is so now in some quarters, but the 

 witchery of slave-trading led to the withdrawal of industry from gold- washing 

 and every other source of wealth ; and from 130 to 140 lbs. annually, the 

 produce has dwindled down to 8 or 10 lbs. only. This comes from independent 

 natives, who wash at their own convenience, and for their own profit. 



"A curious superstition tends to diminish the quantity which might be 

 realised. No native will dig deeper than his chin, from a dread of the earth 

 falling in and killing him ; and on finding a piece of gold it is buried again, 

 from an idea that without this ' seed ' the washing would ever afterwards prove 

 unproductive. I could not for some time credit this in people who know right 



