remains.  It is found in very minute scales, and, unless I had been assured to the contrary, I should have taken it to be mica, for, knowing the gold to be of greater specific gravity than the sand, I imagined that a stream of water would remove the latter and leave the former; but here the practice is to remove the whole of the sand by the hand.  This process was, no doubt, a profitable one to the Portuguese, and it is probable that, with the improved plan by means of mercury, the sands would be lucrative.  I had an opportunity of examining the gold-dust from different parts to the east and northeast of Tete.  There are six well-known washing-places.  These are called Mashinga, Shindundo, Missala, Kapata, Mano, and Jawa.  From the description of the rock I received, I suppose gold is found both in clay shale and quartz.  At the range Mushinga to the N.N.W. the rock is said to be so soft that the women pound it into powder in wooden mortars previous to washing.

Round toward the westward, the old Portuguese indicate a station which was near to Zumbo on the River Panyame, and called Dambarari, near which much gold was found.  Farther west lay the now unknown kingdom of Abutua, which was formerly famous for the metal; and then, coming round toward the east, we have the gold-washings of the Mashona, or Bazizulu, and, farther east, that of Manica, where gold is found much more abundantly than in any other part, and which has been supposed by some to be the Ophir of King Solomon.  I saw the gold from this quarter as large as grains of wheat, that found in the rivers which run into the coal-field being in very minute scales.  If we place one leg of the compasses at Tete, and extend the other three and a half degrees, bringing it round from the northeast of Tete by west, and then to the southeast, we nearly touch or include all the known gold-producing country.  As the gold on this circumference is found in coarser grains than in the streams running toward the centre, or Tete, I imagine that the real gold-field lies round about the coal-field; and, if I am right in the conjecture, then we have coal encircled by a gold-field, and abundance of wood, water, and provisions—­a combination not often met with in the world.  The inhabitants are not unfavorable to washings, conducted on the principle formerly mentioned.  At present they wash only when in want of a little calico.  They know the value of gold perfectly well, for they bring it for sale in goose-quills, and demand 24 yards of calico for one penful.  When the rivers in the district of Manica and other gold-washing places have been flooded, they leave a coating of mud on the banks.  The natives observe the spots which dry soonest, and commence digging there, in firm belief that gold lies beneath.  They are said not to dig deeper than their chins, believing that if they did so the ground would fall in and kill them.  When they find a ‘piece’ or flake of gold, they bury it again, from the superstitious idea that this is the