658 
SENNA : ITS EUINOUS STATE. 
Chap. XXXII. 
afternoon of the 27th we arrived at Senna. (Commandant Isi¬ 
dore’s house, 300 yards S.W. of the mnd fort on the banks of the 
river: lat. 17° 27' 1" S., long. 35° 10' E.) We found Senna to 
be twenty-tlrree and a half hours’ sail from Tete. We had the 
current enthely in our favour, but met various parties in large 
canoes toiling laboriously against it. They use long ropes and 
pull the boats from the shore. They usually take about twenty 
days to ascend the distance we had descended in about four. 
Tlie wages paid to boatmen are considered liigh. Part of the 
men who had accompanied me, gladly accepted employment 
from Lieutenant Mhanda, to take a load of goods in a canoe from 
Senna to Tete. 
I thought the state of Tete quite lamentable, but that of 
Senna was ten times worse. At Tete there is some life; here 
ever 3 rtliLng is in a state of stagnation and ruin. The fort, built 
of sun-dried bricks, has the grass growing over the walls, wliich 
have been patched in some places by paling. The Landeens 
visit the village periodically, and levy fines upon the iohabitants, 
as they consider the Portuguese a conquered tribe, and very 
rarely does a native come to trade. Senlior Isidore, the Com¬ 
mandant, a man of considerable energy, had proposed to surround 
the whole village with palisades as a protection against the 
Ijandeens, and the villagers were to begm tliis work the day after 
I left. It was sad to look at the ruin manifest m every building, 
but the half-castes appear to be in league with the rebels and 
Landeens; for when any attempt is made by the Portuguese to 
coerce the enemy or defend themselves, information is conveyed at 
once to the Landeen camp, and, though the Commandant prolnbits 
the payment of tribute to the Landeens, on their ajDproach the half- 
castes eagerly ransom themselves. When I was there, a party of 
Kisaka’s people were ravagmg the fine country on the opposite 
shore. They came dow with the prisoners they had captoed, 
and forthwith the half-castes of Senna went over to buy slaves. 
Encoiu’aged by this, Kisaka’s people came over into Senna fuUy 
armed and beating their dimms, and were received into the house 
of a native Portuguese. They had the village at their mercy, 
yet could have been driven off by half a dozen pohcemen. The 
Commandant could only look on with bitter sorrow. He had 
soldiers, it is true, but it is -notorious that the native mihtia of 
