276 LIFE OF DA YID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



yawns, sounding a loud alarm to the rest of the herd, with notes as of a mon- 

 strous bassoon." 



The Zulus or Landeens are the lords of the soil on the right bank of the 

 Zambesi, and take tribute from the Portuguese at Senna and Shupanga. 

 Each merchant pays annually 200 pieces of cloth of sixteen yards each, be- 

 side beads, and brass wire ; and while they groan under this heavy levy of 

 black mail, they are powerless, as a refusal to pay it would involve them in a 

 war in which they would lose all they possess. In the forests near Shupanga, 

 a tree, called by the natives mokundu-kundu abounds; it attains to a great size, 

 and being hard and cross-grained, is used for the manufacture of large canoes. 

 At the time of Livingstone's visit, a Portuguese merchant at Kilimane paid 

 the Zulus 300 dollars per annum for permission to cut it. 



Livingstone's old friends, Colonel Nunes and Major Sicard, received the 

 traveller and his party with much goodwill, causing wood to be cut for fuel 

 for the steamer. The wood used for this purpose was lignum vitse and African 

 ebony ; Rae, the engineer, knowing the value of these at home, ' ' said it made 

 his heart sore to burn woods so valuable." _ The india rubber tree and calumba 

 root were found to be abundant in the interior ; and along the banks of the 

 river, indigo was growing in a wild state. The Ma-Robert turned out a 

 failure, the builder, having deceived Livingstone as to her power, &c. It 

 took hours to get up steam, and she went so slowly that the heavily-laden 

 native canoes passed more rapidly up the river than she did. One can hardly 

 think with temper on a misadventure like this, and can readily sympathise 

 with his feeling of annoyance when he found that for all practical purposes 

 she was worse than useless. Near the mouth of the Shire, Bonga, with some 

 of his principal men visited the party ; and in addition to assuring them that 

 none of his people would molest them, presented them with some rice, two 

 sheep, and a quantity of fire-wood. Within six miles of Senna, the party 

 had to leave the steamer, the shoal channel not being deep enough for her 

 draught. " The narrow winding path, along which they had to march in 

 Indian file, lay through gardens and patches of wood, the loftiest trees being 

 thorny acacias. The sky was cloudy, the air cool and pleasant, and the little 

 birds in the gladness of their hearts, poured forth sweet strange songs, which, 

 though equal to those of the singing birds at home on a spring morning, yet 

 seemed somehow as if in a foreign tongue. We met many natives in the 

 wood, most of the men were armed with spears, bows and arrows, and old 

 Tower muskets ; the women had short-handled iron hoes, and were going to 

 work in the gardens: they stepped aside to let us pass, and saluted us politely, 

 the men bowing and scraping, and the women, even with heavy loads on 

 their heads, curtseying — a curtsey from bare legs is startling ! " 



On an island near Senna they visited a small fugitive tribe of hippopotami 

 hunters, who had been driven from their own island in front. They are an 



