of the private friendship of a chief for this Portuguese
gentleman. Our allies have occupied the Fort of Mosambique for three
hundred years, but in this, as in all other cases, have no power further
than they can see from a gun-carriage.

The Makoa chief, Matingula, was hospitable and communicative, telling us
all he knew of the river and country beyond. He had been once to Iboe
and once at Mosambique with slaves. Our men understood his language
easily. A useless musket he had bought at one of the above places was
offered us for a little cloth. Having received a present of food from
him, a railway rug was handed to him: he looked at it--had never seen
cloth like that before--did not approve of it, and would rather have
cotton cloth. "But this will keep you warm at night."--"Oh, I do not
wish to be kept warm at night."--We gave him a bit of cotton cloth, not
one-third the value of the rug, but it was more highly prized. His
people refused to sell their fowls for our splendid prints and drab
cloths. They had probably been taken in with gaudy-patterned sham prints
before. They preferred a very cheap, plain, blue stuff of which they had
experience. A great quantity of excellent honey is collected all along
the river, by bark hives being placed for the bees on the high trees on
both banks. Large pots of it, very good and clear, were offered in
exchange for a very little cloth. No wax was brought for sale; there
being no market for this commodity, it is probably thrown away as
useless.

At Michi we lose the tableland which, up to this point, bounds the view
on both sides of the river, as it were, with ranges of flat-topped hills,
600 or 800 feet high; and to this plateau a level fertile plain succeeds,
on which stand detached granite hills. That portion of the tableland on
the right bank seems to bend away to the south, still preserving the
appearance of a hill range. The height opposite extends a few miles
further west, and then branches off in a northerly direction. A few
small pieces of coal were picked up on the sandbanks, showing that this
useful mineral exists on the Rovuma, or on some of its tributaries: the
natives know that it will burn. At the lakelet Chidia, we noticed the
same sandstone rock, with fossil wood on it, which we have on the
Zambesi, and knew to be a sure evidence of coal beneath. We mentioned
this at the time to Captain Gardner, and our finding coal now seemed a
verification of what