* Another insect, resembling a maggot, burrows into the feet of the natives and sucks their blood.  Mr. Westwood says, “The tampan is a large species of mite, closely allied to the poisonous bug (as it is called) of Persia, ‘Argos reflexus’, respecting which such marvelous accounts have been recorded, and which the statement respecting the carapato or tampan would partially confirm.”  Mr. W. also thinks that the poison- yielding larva called N’gwa is a “species of chrysomelidae.  The larvae of the British species of that family exude a fetid yellow thickish fluid when alarmed, but he has not heard that any of them are at all poisonous.”

The village of Tete is built on a long slope down to the river, the fort being close to the water.  The rock beneath is gray sandstone, and has the appearance of being crushed away from the river:  the strata have thus a crumpled form.  The hollow between each crease is a street, the houses being built upon the projecting fold.  The rocks at the top of the slope are much higher than the fort, and of course completely command it.  There is then a large valley, and beyond that an oblong hill called Karueira.  The whole of the adjacent country is rocky and broken, but every available spot is under cultivation.  The stone houses in Tete are cemented with mud instead of lime, and thatched with reeds and grass.  The rains, having washed out the mud between the stones, give all the houses a rough, untidy appearance.  No lime was known to be found nearer than Mozambique; some used in making seats in the verandas had actually been brought all that distance.  The Portuguese evidently knew nothing of the pink and white marbles which I found at the Mbai, and another rivulet, named the Unguesi, near it, and of which I brought home specimens, nor yet of the dolomite which lies so near to Zumbo:  they might have burned the marble into lime without going so far as Mozambique.  There are about thirty European houses; the rest are native, and of wattle and daub.  A wall about ten feet high is intended to inclose the village, but most of the native inhabitants prefer to live on different spots outside.  There are about twelve hundred huts in all, which with European households would give a population of about four thousand five hundred souls.  Only a small proportion of these, however, live on the spot; the majority are engaged in agricultural operations in the adjacent country.  Generally there are not more than two thousand people resident, for, compared with what it was, Tete is now a ruin.  The number of Portuguese is very small; if we exclude the military, it is under twenty.  Lately, however, one hundred and five soldiers were sent from Portugal to Senna, where in one year twenty-five were cut off by fever.  They were then removed to Tete, and here they enjoy much better health, though, from the abundance of spirits distilled from various plants, wild fruits, and grain, in which pernicious beverage