422 
SENNA : ITS RUINOUS STATE 
quainted with tho customs of tho country, immediately 
started to his feet and got all tho soldiers of our party 
under arms : ho then demanded of tho natives why the 
drum was boaton while wo wore thoro. They gavo an 
evasivo roply; and, as they omploy this moans of collect- 
ing their neighbors when they intend to rob canoes, oui 
watchfulness may have prevented their proceeding further. 
Wo spent tho night of tho 2Gth on tho island called 
Nkuesi, opposite a remarkablo saddle-shaped mountain, 
and found that wo were just on tho seventeenth. parnllol 
of latitude. Tho sail down tho river was very fine ; the 
tomporaturo becoming low, it was pleasant to tho feolings; 
but, tho shores being flat and far from us, tho scenery was 
uninteresting. We breakfasted on the 27th at Pita, and 
found some half-caste Portuguese had established them- 
selves thoro, after fleeing from tho opposito bank to escape 
Kisaka’s peoplo, who wore now ravaging all tho Maganja 
country. On tho afternoon of tho 27th we arrived at 
Senna. (Commandant Isidore’s house, three hundred 
yards S.W. of tho mud-fort on tho banks of tho river: 
lat. 17° 27' 1 ' &., long. 3.j° 10' 33.) Wo found Sonna to bo 
twonty-throo and a half hours’ sail from Tote. 
I thought the state of Toto quite lamentable; but that of 
Sonna was ten times worso. At Tote thero is somo lifo : 
hero every thing is in a stato of stagnation and ruin. The 
fort, built of sun-dried bricks, has tho grass growing ovor 
tho walls, which have boon patched in somo placos by 
paling. Tho Landeons visit tho village periodically and 
levy fines upon tho inhabitants, as they consider tho Por- 
cuguoso a conquered tribe, and vory rarely does a native 
oomo to trado. Sonhor Isidore, tho commandant, a man 
of considerable energy, had proposed to surround tho whole 
village with palisades as a protection against tho Landeons, 
and tho villagers wore to begin this work tho day after I 
left. It was sad to look at the ruin manifest in every 
building; but tho half-castos appear to be in loaguo with 
the rebels and Landeons ; for whon any attempt is made 
