660 
COUNTRY ROUND SENNA. 
Chap. XXXII. 
to tins region, by offering any mining company permission to 
search for the ores and work them. Such a company, however, 
would gain but little in the way of protection or aid from the 
government of Mozambique, as that can but barely manitain 
a hold on its own small possessions; the condition affixed of 
importing at the company’s own cost a certain number of 
Portuguese from the island of Madeira or the Azores, in order 
to increase the Portuguese population in Africa, is impolitic. 
Taxes would also be levied on the minerals exported. It is 
noticeable that all the companies which have been proposed 
in Portugal have this put prominently in the preamble, and 
for the abolition of the inhuman slave-trade.” This shows, 
either that the statesmen in Portugal are enlightened and phi¬ 
lanthropic, or it may be meant as a trap for English capitalists; 
I incline to believe the former. If the Portuguese really wish 
to develop the resources of the rich country beyond their pos¬ 
sessions, they ought to invite the co-operation of other nations 
on equal terms with themselves. Let the pathway into the 
interior be free to all; and, instead of wretched forts, witli 
scarcely an acre of land around them which can be called their 
own, let real colonies be made. If, instead of military establish¬ 
ments, we had civil ones, and saw emigrants going out with then’ 
wives, ploughs, and seeds, rather than military convicts with 
bugles and kettle-drums, we might hope for a return of prospe¬ 
rity to Eastern Africa. 
The village of Senna stands on the right bank of the Zambesi. 
There are many reedy islands in front of it, and there is much 
bush in the country adjacent. The soil is fertile; but the village, 
being in a state of ruin, and having several pools of stagnant 
water, is very unhealthy. The bottom rock is the akose of 
Brongniart, or granitic grit, and several conical hills of trap have 
bluest through it. One standing about half a mile west of the 
village is called Baramuana, which has another behind it; hence 
the name, which means ‘‘ carry a child on the back.” It is 300 
or 400 feet high, and on the top lie two dismounted cannon, 
which were used to frighten away the Landeens, who in one 
attack upon Senna killed 150 of the inhabitants. The prospect 
from Baramuana is very fine; below, on the eastward, lies the 
Zambesi, with the village of Senna; and some twenty or thffty 
