There are many huts and villages on both sides, and a great deal of cultivation.  At one village, about 17 miles up on the eastern bank, and distinguished by being surrounded by an immense number of bananas and plantain-trees, a great quantity of excellent peas are cultivated; also cabbages, tomatoes, onions, etc.  Above this there are not many inhabitants on the left or west bank, although it is much the finest country, being higher, and abounding in cocoanut palms, the eastern bank being sandy and barren.  The reason is, that some years back the Landeens, or Caffres, ravaged all this country, killing the men and taking the women as slaves, but they have never crossed the river; hence the natives are afraid to settle on the west bank, and the Portuguese owners of the different ‘prasos’ have virtually lost them.  The banks of the river continue mostly sandy, with few trees, except some cocoanut palms, until the southern end of the large plantation of Nyangue, formed by the river about 20 miles from Maruru.  Here the country is more populous and better cultivated, the natives a finer race, and the huts larger and better constructed.  Maruru belongs to Senor Asevedo, of Quilimane, well known to all English officers on the east coast for his hospitality.

“The climate here is much cooler than nearer the sea, and Asevedo has successfully cultivated most European as well as tropical vegetables.  The sugar-cane thrives, as also coffee and cotton, and indigo is a weed.  Cattle here are beautiful, and some of them might show with credit in England.  The natives are intelligent, and under a good government this fine country might become very valuable.  Three miles from Maruru is Mesan, a very pretty village among palm and mango trees.  There is here a good house belonging to a Senor Ferrao; close by is the canal (Mutu) of communication between the Quilimane and Zambesi rivers, which in the rainy season is navigable (?).  I visited it in the month of October, which is about the dryest time of the year; it was then a dry canal, about 30 or 40 yards wide, overgrown with trees and grass, and, at the bottom, at least 16 or 17 feet above the level of the Zambesi, which was running beneath.  In the rains, by the marks I saw, the entrance rise of the river must be very nearly 30 feet, and the volume of water discharged by it (the Zambesi) enormous.

“Above Maruru the country begins to become more hilly, and the high mountains of Boruru are in sight; the first view of these is obtained below Nyangue, and they must be of considerable height, as from this they are distant above 40 miles.  They are reported to contain great mineral wealth; gold and copper being found in the range, as also coal (?).  The natives (Landeens) are a bold, independent race, who do not acknowledge the Portuguese authority, and even make them pay for leave to pass unmolested.  Throughout the whole course of the river hippopotami were very abundant, and at one village a chase by the natives