REPORT ON THE ZAMBESI. 299 



purposes,' and the Steam Launch ' Asthmatic' ' ought to have been intended 

 to draw something more than merely ' grist to the mill.' 



"From October, 1858, to June, 1859, 5782 elephants' tusks have gone 

 down the Zambesi from Tete alone; of these two-thirds were large, or 

 upwards of 501bs. each. The weight of the whole was in round numbers 

 100,0001bs. All merchandise is carried in large unwieldy canoes, which cost 

 between £60 and £70 each. When loaded they draw about two feet and carry 

 two tons, at an expense of £10 sterling from Kilimane to Tete, when the 

 river is full. When the small channel between the Zambesi and the Kilimane 

 river is dry, which is the case at least nine months in the year, the expense is 

 much increased by the land-carriage to Mazaro. English manufactured goods 

 come in a roundabout way by Banian or Grentoo traders from Bombay, and 

 they are obliged to give larger prices for ivory than the Americans or Germans, 

 who are absorbing all the trade of Eastern Africa. Several Tete merchants 

 have been waiting at Kilirnane for months in expectation of American ships 

 with cottons. For the information of mercantile men it may be added that 

 the American calicoes are coarse, unbleached, yard-wide cottons, costing at 

 Kilimane between 5d. and 6d. per yard ; and muskets, inferior to English 

 trade arms, from 26s. to 36s. each. With calicoes, guns, and gunpowder, they 

 easily secure all the trade on the east coast below Zanzibar. No attempt is 

 made to encourage the native taste for better articles, which exists quite as 

 strongly here as on the west coast. Red and blue colours are often unravelled, 

 respun, and rewoven into country cloths, and towards Lake Shirwa the only 

 scraps of these colours that come in to the country are exclusively claimed by 

 the chiefs." 



" If we divide the Zambesi into three reaches, namely, from the sea to 

 Kebra-basa — from Kebra-basa to Kansolo — and thence to Victoria Falls — we 

 find that each reach is abundantly supplied with coal. Your Lordship's 

 attention has already been directed to the coal-field at Tete. In addition to a 

 former discovery of coal on the south bank above Chicova, we now discovered 

 the mineral in two rivulets on the north bank. Blocks of it, a foot or more 

 square, lay in a stream, called Sinjere, and, curiously enough, the natives did 

 not know that it would burn. The same coal-field extends, with occasional 

 faults from the bursting through of igneous rocks, nearly to the Victoria Falls, 

 and the quality is better even than that of Tete. It resembles closely English 

 domestic coal, for it froths like toasting-cheese in an open fire. This vast 

 coal-field will possibly modify the calculations of philosophers as to the amount 

 of mineral in the world, and it may constitute an important element in the 

 future greatness of the Cape colony. 



" Dr. Kirk and I, with four Makololo, went up to tne worst or 

 unapproachable rapid, called ' Morumbua.' Our companions were most 

 willing fellows ; but at last gave in, showing their horny soles blistered, and 



