The rains became pretty general towards the close of December, and the Shire was in flood in the beginning of January, 1862.At our wooding-place, a mile above the Ruo, the water was three feet higher than it was when we were here in June; and on the night of the 6th it rose eighteen inches more, and swept down an immense amount of brushwood and logs which swarmed with beetles and the two kinds of shells which are common all over the African continent.Natives in canoes were busy spearing fish in the meadows and creeks, and appeared to be taking them in great numbers.Spur-winged geese, and others of the knob-nosed species, took advantage of the low gardens being flooded, and came to pilfer the beans.As we passed the Ruo, on the 7th, and saw nothing of the Bishop, we concluded that he had heard from his surgeon of our detention, and had deferred his journey.He arrived there five days after, on the 12th.
After paying our Senna men, as they wished to go home, we landed them here.All were keen traders, and had invested largely in native iron-hoes, axes, and ornaments.Many of the hoes and spears had been taken from the slaving parties whose captives we liberated; for on these occasions our Senna friends were always uncommonly zealous and active.The remainder had been purchased with the old clothes we had given them and their store of hippopotamus meat:they had no fear of losing them, or of being punished for aiding us.The system, in which they had been trained, had eradicated the idea of personal responsibility from their minds.The Portuguese slaveholders would blame the English alone, they said; they were our servants at the time.No white man on board could purchase so cheaply as these men could.Many a time had their eloquence persuaded a native trader to sell for a bit of dirty worn cloth things for which he had, but a little before, refused twice the amount of clean new calico.
"Scissors" being troubled with a cough at night, received a present of a quilted coverlet, which had seen a good deal of service.A few days afterwards, a good chance of investing in hoes offering itself, he ripped off both sides, tore them into a dozen pieces, and purchased about a dozen hoes with them.
We entered the Zambesi on the 11th of January, and steamed down towards the coast, taking the side on which we had come up; but the channel had changed to the other side during the summer, as it sometimes does, and we soon grounded.A Portuguese gentleman, formerly a lieutenant in the army, and now living on Sangwisa, one of the islands of the Zambesi, came over with his slaves, to aid us in getting the ship off.He said frankly, that his people were all great thieves, and we must be on our guard not to leave anything about.He next made a short speech to his men, told them he knew what thieves they were, but implored them not to steal from us, as we would give them a present of cloth when the work was done."The natives of this country," he remarked to us, "think only of three things, what they shall eat and drink, how many wives they can have, and what they may steal from their master, if not how they may murder him."He always slept with a loaded musket by his side.This opinion may apply to slaves, but decidedly does not in our experience apply to freemen.We paid his men for helping us, and believe that even they, being paid, stole nothing from us.Our friend farms pretty extensively the large island called Sangwisa,--lent him for nothing by Senhor Ferrao,--and raises large quantities of mapira and beans, and also beautiful white rice, grown from seed brought a few years ago from South Carolina.He furnished us with some, which was very acceptable; for though not in absolute want, we were living on beans, salt pork, and fowls, all the biscuit and flour on board having been expended.
We fully expected that the owners of the captives we had liberated would show their displeasure, at least by their tongues; but they seemed ashamed; only one ventured a remark, and he, in the course of common conversation, said, with a smile, "You took the Governor's slaves, didn't you?""Yes, we did free several gangs that we met in the Manganja country."The Portuguese of Tette, from the Governor downwards, were extensively engaged in slaving.The trade is partly internal and partly external:they send some of the captives, and those bought, into the interior, up the Zambesi:some of these we actually met on their way up the river.The young women were sold there for ivory:an ordinary-looking one brought two arrobas, sixty-four pounds weight, and an extra beauty brought twice that amount.
The men and boys were kept as carriers, to take the ivory down from the interior to Tette, or were retained on farms on the Zambesi, ready for export if a slaver should call:of this last mode of slaving we were witnesses also.The slaves were sent down the river chained, and in large canoes.This went on openly at Tette, and more especially so while the French "Free Emigration" system was in full operation.This double mode of disposing of the captives pays better than the single system of sending them down to the coast for exportation.One merchant at Tette, with whom we were well acquainted, sent into the interior three hundred Manganja women to be sold for ivory, and another sent a hundred and fifty.
