554 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Chibitano, and that existed under the Macololo empire, 
I found a mongrel crew, composed of Calabares, Luinas, 
Ganguellas, and Macalacas, each of which had infused 
its own blood, while every separate crossing bore 
the evidence of fresh decadence. The immoderate use 
of bangue or cangonha (Cannabis indica), drunken¬ 
ness and syphilis, have reduced the people to the most 
abject moral brutishness and physical weakness. The 
first of those three great enemies of the negro race 
reached them from the south and east, by the Zambesi; 
the two others were imported thither by the Bihenos, 
who also introduced a fourth enemy, not less terrible, 
viz. the traffic in slaves. Again, few countries in 
Africa have carried further than the Luinas the practice 
of polygamy : Gambella, at the period of my stay in the 
Baroze, had more than seventy wives ! 
The Lui or Baroze, properly so called, that is to say, 
the country lying to the north of the first region of the 
cataracts, is composed of the enormous plain through 
which courses the river Zambesi, stretching from 180 
to 200 miles from north to south, with a varying width 
of from 30 to 35 miles; a plain raised to some 3300 
feet above the sea-level, and rising still higher in the 
eastward, where numerous villages are seated whose 
plantations flourish in the open. It likewise consists 
of the enormous valley of the Nhengo, through which 
runs the river Ninda. The Alien go district is separated 
from the bed of the Zambesi by a ridge of land upwards 
of 60 feet in height, running parallel to the river, and 
in which many villages are situated that are out of 
reach of the greatest floods. During the rainy season 
the plain of the Zambesi becomes inundated, and I 
found, by the measurement of several trees, whereon 
had been recorded the highest level of the waters, that 
the floods had attained the height of 9 feet 6 inches. 
At the 15th parallel, the plain is 30 miles in width, 
and therefore, during the period of repletion, calcu¬ 
lating a minimum current of 60 yards per minute, 
something like 240 millions of cubic yards of water 
must rush along per hour. This will give an idea of 
