624 NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI. 



contracts again. About three miles from the Tree Bluff 

 is an island ; the passage up the river is the right- 

 hand side of it, and deep. The plan will best explain it. 

 The rise and fall of the tide at the entrance of the river, 

 being at springs twenty feet, any vessel can get in at 

 that time, but, with all these conveniences for traffic, 

 there is none here at present. The water in the river is 

 fresh down to the bar with the ebb-tide, and in the rainy 

 season it is fresh at the surface quite outside. In the 

 rainy season, at the full and change of the moon, the 

 .Zambesi frequently overflows its banks, making the 

 country for an immense distance one great lake, with only 

 a few small eminences above the water. On the banks of 

 -the river the huts are built on piles, and at these times 

 the communication is only in cacioes ; but the waters 

 do not remain up more than three or four days at a 

 time. The first village is about eight miles up the river, 

 on the western bank, and is opposite to another branch 

 of the river called " Muselo," which discharges itself into 

 the sea about five miles to the eastward. 



<! The village is extensive, and about it there is a very 

 large quantity of land in cultivation ; calavances, or 

 beans, of different sorts, rice, and pumpkins, are the 

 principal things. I saw also about here some wild cotton, 

 apparently of very good quality, but none is cultivated. 

 The land is so fertile as to produce almost any (thing ?) 

 without much trouble. 



" At this village is a very large house, mud-built, with 

 a courtyard. I believe it to have been used as a barra- 

 coon for slaves, several large cargoes having been ex- 

 ported from this river. I proceeded up the river as far 

 as its junction with the Quilimane river, called ' Boca 

 do Rio/ by my computation between 70 and 80 miles 

 irom the entrance. The influence of the tides is felt 

 about 25 or 30 miles up the river. Above that, the 

 •stream, in the dry season, runs from i\ to 2 \ miles an 

 lour, but in the rains much stronger. The banks of the 

 river, for the first 30 miles, are generally thickly clothed 

 with trees, with occasional open glades. There are many 

 huts and villages on both sides, and a great deal of culti- 

 vation. At one village, about 17 miles up on the eastern 

 bank, and distinguished by being surrounded by an 

 immense number of bananas and plantain-trees, a great 

 quantity of excellent peas are cultivated, also cabbages, 



