Luenya and Zambesi, and washed by both these rivers, could prevent intercourse with the sea.  The Luenya rushes into the Zambesi with great force when the latter is low, and, in coming up the Zambesi, boats must cross it and the Luenya separately, even going a little way up that river, so as not to be driven away by its current in the bed of the Zambesi, and dashed on the rock which stands on the opposite shore.  In coming up to the Luenya for this purpose, all boats and canoes came close to the stockade to be robbed.  Nyaude kept the Portuguese shut up in their fort at Tete during two years, and they could only get goods sufficient to buy food by sending to Kilimane by an overland route along the north bank of the Zambesi.  The mother country did not in these “Caffre wars” pay the bills, so no one either became rich or blamed the missionaries.

The merchants were unable to engage in trade, and commerce, which the slave-trade had rendered stagnant, was now completely obstructed.  The present commandant of Tete, Major Sicard, having great influence among the natives, from his good character, put a stop to the war more than once by his mere presence on the spot.  We heard of him among the Banyai as a man with whom they would never fight, because “he had a good heart.”  Had I come down to this coast instead of going to Loanda in 1853, I should have come among the belligerents while the war was still raging, and should probably have been cut off.  My present approach was just at the conclusion of the peace; and when the Portuguese authorities here were informed, through the kind offices of Lord Clarendon and Count de Lavradio, that I was expected to come this way, they all declared that such was the existing state of affairs that no European could possibly pass through the tribes.  Some natives at last came down the river to Tete and said, alluding to the sextant and artificial horizon, that “the Son of God had come,” and that he was “able to take the sun down from the heavens and place it under his arm!” Major Sicard then felt sure that this was the man mentioned in Lord Clarendon’s dispatch.

On mentioning to the commandant that I had discovered a small seam of coal, he stated that the Portuguese were already aware of nine such seams, and that five of them were on the opposite bank of the river.  As soon as I had recovered from my fatigue I went to examine them.  We proceeded in a boat to the mouth of the Lofubu or Revubu, which is about two miles below Tete, and on the opposite or northern bank.  Ascending this about four miles against a strong current of beautifully clear water, we landed near a small cataract, and walked about two miles through very fertile gardens to the seam, which we found to be in one of the feeders of the Lofubu, called Muatize or Motize.  The seam is in the perpendicular bank, and dips into the rivulet, or in a northerly direction.  There is, first of all, a seam 10 inches in diameter, then some shale, below which there is another seam,