whence they came, Bonga rejoined, "Why
do you come from my enemy to me? You have brought witchcraft medicine to
kill me." In vain they protested that they did not belong to the
country; they were strangers, and had come from afar with an Englishman.
The superstitious savage put them all to death. "We do not grieve," said
their companions, "for the thirty victims of the smallpox, who were taken
away by Morimo (God); but our hearts are sore for the six youths who were
murdered by Bonga." Any hope of obtaining justice on the murderer was
out of the question. Bonga once caught a captain of the Portuguese army,
and forced him to perform the menial labour of pounding maize in a wooden
mortar. No punishment followed on this outrage. The Government of
Lisbon has since given Bonga the honorary title of Captain, by way of
coaxing him to own their authority; but he still holds his stockade.

Tette stands on a succession of low sandstone ridges on the right bank of
the Zambesi, which is here nearly a thousand yards wide (960 yards).
Shallow ravines, running parallel with the river, form the streets, the
houses being built on the ridges. The whole surface of the streets,
except narrow footpaths, were overrun with self-sown indigo, and tons of
it might have been collected. In fact indigo, senna, and stramonium,
with a species of cassia, form the weeds of the place, which are annually
hoed off and burned. A wall of stone and mud surrounds the village, and
the native population live in huts outside. The fort and the church,
near the river, are the strongholds; the natives having a salutary dread
of the guns of the one, and a superstitious fear of the unknown power of
the other. The number of white inhabitants is small, and rather select,
many of them having been considerately sent out of Portugal "for their
country's good." The military element preponderates in society; the
convict and "incorrigible" class of soldiers, receiving very little pay,
depend in great measure on the produce of the gardens of their black
wives; the moral condition of the resulting population may be imagined.

Droughts are of frequent occurrence at Tette, and the crops suffer
severely. This may arise partly from the position of the town between
the ranges of hills north and south, which appear to have a strong
attraction for the rain-clouds. It is often seen to rain on these hills
when not a drop falls at Tette. Our first season was one of drough