As we pushed on westwards, we found that the river makes a little southing, and some reaches were deeper than any near the sea; but when we had ascended about 140 miles by the river's course from the sea, soft tufa rocks began to appear; ten miles beyond, the river became more narrow and rocky, and when, according to our measurement, we had ascended 156 miles, our further progress was arrested.We were rather less than two degrees in a straight line from the Coast.
The incidents worth noticing were but few:seven canoes with loads of salt and rice kept company with us for some days, and the further we went inland, the more civil the people became.
When we came to a stand, just below the island of Nyamatolo, Long. 38 degrees 36 minutes E., and Lat. 11 degrees 53 minutes, the river was narrow, and full of rocks.Near the island there is a rocky rapid with narrow passages fit only for native canoes; the fall is small, and the banks quite low; but these rocks were an effectual barrier to all further progress in boats.Previous reports represented the navigable part of this river as extending to the distance of a month's sail from its mouth; we found that, at the ordinary heights of the water, a boat might reach the obstructions which seem peculiar to all African rivers in six or eight days.The Rovuma is remarkable for the high lands that flank it for some eighty miles from the ocean.The cataracts of other rivers occur in mountains, those of the Rovuma are found in a level part, with hills only in the distance.Far away in the west and north we could see high blue heights, probably of igneous origin from their forms, rising out of a plain.
The distance from Ngomano, a spot thirty miles further up, to the Arab crossing-places of Lake Nyassa Tsenga or Kotakota was said to be twelve days.The way we had discovered to Lake Nyassa by Murchison's Cataracts had so much less land carriage, that we considered it best to take our steamer thither, by the route in which we were well known, instead of working where we were strangers; and accordingly we made up our minds to return.
The natives reported a worse place above our turning-point--the passage being still narrower than this.An Arab, they said, once built a boat above the rapids, and sent it down full of slaves; but it was broken to pieces in these upper narrows.Many still maintained that the Rovuma came from Nyassa, and that it is very narrow as it issues out of the lake.One man declared that he had seen it with his own eyes as it left the lake, and seemed displeased at being cross-questioned, as if we doubted his veracity.
More satisfactory information, as it appeared to us, was obtained from others.Two days, or thirty miles, beyond where we turned back, the Rovuma is joined by the Liende, which, coming from the south-west, rises in the mountains on the east side of Nyassa.The great slave route to Kilwa runs up the banks of this river, which is only ankle-deep at the dry season of the year.The Rovuma itself comes from the W.N.W., and after the traveller passes the confluence of the Liende at Ngomano or "meeting-place," the chief of which part is named Ndonde, he finds the river narrow, and the people Ajawa.
Crocodiles in the Rovuma have a sorry time of it.Never before were reptiles so persecuted and snubbed.They are hunted with spears, and spring traps are set for them.If one of them enters an inviting pool after fish, he soon finds a fence thrown round it, and a spring trap set in the only path out of the enclosure.Their flesh is eaten, and relished.The banks, on which the female lays her eggs by night, are carefully searched by day, and all the eggs dug out and devoured.The fish-hawk makes havoc among the few young ones that escape their other enemies.Our men were constantly on the look-out for crocodiles' nests.One was found containing thirty-five newly-laid eggs, and they declared that the crocodile would lay as many more the second night in another place.The eggs were a foot deep in the sand on the top of a bank ten feet high.The animal digs a hole with its foot, covers the eggs, and leaves them till the river rises over the nest in about three months afterwards, when she comes back, and assists the young ones out.We once saw opposite Tette young crocodiles in December, swimming beside an island in company with an old one.The yolk of the egg is nearly as white as the real white.
In taste they resemble hen's eggs with perhaps a smack of custard, and would be as highly relished by whites as by blacks, were it not for their unsavoury origin in men-eaters.
Hunting the Senze (Aulacodus Swindernianus), an animal the size of a large cat, but in shape more like a pig, was the chief business of men and boys as we passed the reedy banks and low islands.They set fire to a mass of reeds, and, armed with sticks, spears, bows and arrows, stand in groups guarding the outlets through which the seared Senze may run from the approaching flames.Dark dense volumes of impenetrable smoke now roll over on the lee side of the islet, and shroud the hunters.At times vast sheets of lurid flames bursting forth, roaring, crackling and exploding, leap wildly far above the tall reeds.Out rush the terrified animals, and amid the smoke are seen the excited hunters dancing about with frantic gesticulations, and hurling stick, spear, and arrow at their burned out victims.
Kites hover over the smoke, ready to pounce on the mantis and locusts as they spring from the fire.Small crows and hundreds of swallows are on eager wing, darting into the smoke and out again, seizing fugitive flies.Scores of insects, in their haste to escape from the fire, jump into the river, and the active fish enjoy a rare feast.
We returned to the "Pioneer" on the 9th of October, having been away one month.The ship's company had used distilled water, a condenser having been sent out from England; and there had not been a single case of sickness on board since we left, though there were so many cases of fever the few days she lay in the same spot last year.Our boat party drank the water of the river, and the three white sailors, who had never been in an African river before, had some slight attacks of fever.
