MARKETABLE COMMODITIES. 253 



by the aborigines of the country from time immemorial, and both the 

 Portuguese and my companions and myself found it very efficacious. It 

 is remarkable that where the fever most prevails, there the tree, which I 

 believe to be a cinchona, abounds. It seems the remedy is provided for the 

 disease, where it prevails moet. Now, in connection with the opening up of 

 this river and the fever, I have seen on the banks of the Zambesi whole forests 

 of this Cinchonaceous tree, particularly near Senna. A decoction of the bark 

 of the root has been found to act exactly as quinine : it is excessively bitter, 

 and may prove a good substitute. There is also Calumba root, which the 

 Americans purchase, to be used as a dye, and it is found in large quantities. 

 A species of sarsaparilla is to be found throughout the whole country. The 

 sugar-cane grows abundantly, but the natives have no idea of sugar, although 

 they have cultivated the cane from time immemorial. The chief of the 

 Makololo sent about thirty elephant tusks down to the coast, and gave me a 

 long list of articles, which I was to buy for him in the white man's country. 

 As I had been entirely supported by him for several months, I thought it my 

 duty to accept his commission, and I intend to obtain these articles for him. 

 Among other things he ordered a sugar-mill. When he found that we could 

 produce sugar from the cane, he said, " If you bring the thing that makes 

 sugar, then I will plant plenty of cane, and be glad." 



Then, again, indigo grows all over the country in abundance. The town 

 of Tete has acres of it ; in fact, it is quite a weed, and seems to be like that 

 which grows in India, for before the slave trade became so brisk indigo was ex- 

 ported from Tete. The country also produces the leaves of senna, and, as far 

 as I could ascertain, exactly like that which we import from Egypt. There is 

 plenty of beeswax through the whole country ; and we were everywhere invited 

 by the honey-bird to come to the hives. Any one who has travelled in Africa 

 knows the call of the honey-bird. It invites travellers to come and enjoy the 

 honey, and if you follow it, you are sure to be led to the honey. Some natives have 

 given it a bad character. Sometimes, when a man follows the bird, he comes 

 in contact with a lion or a serpent, and he says, "It is a false bird, it has 

 brought me to the lion." But if he had gone beyond the lion, he would have 

 come to the honey. The natives eat the honey and throw the wax away. 

 In Angola it is different. There, a large trade in wax is carried on, and the 

 bees are not so numerous as in the eastern parts of the country ; but here they 

 have no market. It was the same with ivory when Lake- Ngami was dis- 

 covered. They will not throw away an ounce of it now. Then, again, there 

 are different metals found. There is a very fine kind of iron ore ; and at 

 Cazembe there is much malachite, from which the natives extract copper. 

 Then there is gold round about the coal-field, and gold has been procured by 

 washing 1 from time immemorial. In former times the Portuguese went to 

 different places for gold with large numbers of slaves. It was before the time 



