. One man, who had gone to Cazembe with Major Monteiro, stated
that he had seen the Luapura or Loapula flowing past the town of that
chieftain into the Luameji or Leeambye, but imagined that it found its
way, somehow or other, into Angola. The fact that sometimes rivers were
seen to flow like this toward the centre of the country, led geographers
to the supposition that inner Africa was composed of elevated sandy
plains, into which rivers ran and were lost. One of the gentlemen
present, Senhor Candido, had visited a lake 45 days to the N.N.W. of
Tete, which is probably the Lake Maravi of geographers, as in going
thither they pass through the people of that name. The inhabitants of
its southern coast are named Shiva; those on the north, Mujao; and they
call the lake Nyanja or Nyanje, which simply means a large water, or
bed of a large river. A high mountain stands in the middle of it, called
Murombo or Murombola, which is inhabited by people who have much cattle.
He stated that he crossed the Nyanja at a narrow part, and was 36 hours
in the passage. The canoes were punted the whole way, and, if we take
the rate about two miles per hour, it may be sixty or seventy miles in
breadth. The country all round was composed of level plains covered with
grass, and, indeed, in going thither they traveled seven or eight days
without wood, and cooked their food with grass and stalks of native
corn alone. The people sold their cattle at a very cheap rate. From the
southern extremity of the lake two rivers issue forth: one, named after
itself, the Nyanja, which passes into the sea on the east coast under
another name; and the Shire, which flows into the Zambesi a little below
Senna. The Shire is named Shirwa at its point of departure from the
lake, and Senhor Candido was informed, when there, that the lake was
simply an expansion of the River Nyanja, which comes from the north
and encircles the mountain Murombo, the meaning of which is junction
or union, in reference to the water having parted at its northern
extremity, and united again at its southern. The Shire flows through
a low, flat, marshy country, but abounding in population, and they are
said to be brave. The Portuguese are unable to navigate the Shire up to
the Lake Nyanja, because of the great abundance of a water-plant which
requires no soil, and which they name "alfacinya" ('Pistia stratiotes'),
from its resemblance to a lettuce. This completely obstructs the
progress of can