THE RANGE OF IvUPATA. 613 



his garden, however, being above the confluence, could 

 not avail as a geographical point. There are some good 

 houses in the stockade. The trees of which it is com- 

 posed seemed to me to be living and could not be burned. 

 It was strange to see a stockade menacing the whole 

 commerce of the river in a situation where the guns of a 

 vessel would have full play on it, but it is a formidable 

 affair for those who have only muskets. On one occasion, 

 when Nyaude was attacked" by Kisaka, they fought for 

 weeks ; and though Nyaude was reduced to cutting up 

 his copper anklets for balls, his enemies were not able to 

 enter the stockade. 



On the 24th we sailed only about three hours, as we had 

 done the day before ; but having come to a small island 

 at the western entrance of the gorge of Lupata, where 

 Dr. Lacerda is said to have taken an astronomical observa- 

 tion, and called it the island of Mozambique, because it 

 was believed to be in the same latitude, or 15 1', I wished 

 to verify his position and remained over night ; my 

 informants must have been mistaken, for I found the 

 island of Mozambique here to be, lat. 16 34' 46" S., long. 



33° 5i' E-. 



Respecting this range, to which the gorge has given 



a name, some Portuguese writers have stated it to be 

 so high that snow lies on it during the whole year, and that 

 it is composed of marble. It is not so high in appearance 

 as the Campsie Hills when seen from the Vale of Clyde. 

 The western side is the most abrupt, and gives the idea 

 of the greatest height, as it rises up perpendicularly from 

 the water six or seven hundred feet. As seen from this 

 little island, it is certainly no higher than Arthur's Seat 

 appears from Prince's-street, Edinburgh. The rock is 

 compact siliceous schist of a slightly reddish colour, and 

 in thin strata ; the island on which we slept looks as if 

 torn off from the opposite side of the gorge, for the strata 

 are twisted and torn in every direction. The eastern 

 side of the range is much more sloping than the western, 

 covered with trees, and does not give the idea of altitude 

 so much as the western. It extends a considerable way 

 into the Maganja country in the north, and then bends 

 round towards the river again, and ends in the lofty 

 mountain Morumbala, opposite Senna. On the other 

 or southern side it is straighter, but is said to end in 

 Gorongozo, a mountain west of the same point. The 



