was witnessed.  They harpoon the animal with a barbed lance, to which is attached, by a cord 3 or 4 fathoms long, an inflated bladder.  The natives follow in their canoes, and look out to fix more harpoons as the animal rises to blow, and, when exhausted, dispatch him with their lances.  It is, in fact, nearly similar to a whale-hunt.  Elephants and lions are also abundant on the western side; the latter destroy many of the blacks annually, and are much feared by them.  Alligators are said to be numerous, but I did not see any.

“The voyage up to Maruru occupied seven days, as I did not work the men at the oar, but it might be done in four; we returned to the bar in two and a half days.

“There is another mouth of the Zambesi seven miles to the westward of Luabo, which was visited by the ‘Castor’s pinnace’; and I was assured by Lieutenant Hoskins that the bar was better than the one I visited.”

The conclusions of Captain Parker are strengthened by those of Lieut.  A. H. H. Hoskins, who was on the coast at the same time, and also visited this spot.  Having applied to my friend for his deliberate opinion on the subject, he promptly furnished the following note in January last: 

“The Zambesi appears to have five principal mouths, of which the Luabo is the most southern and most navigable; Cumana, and two whose names I do not know, not having myself visited it, lying between it and the Quilimane, and the rise and fall at spring tides on the bar of the Luabo is 22 feet; and as, in the passage, there is never less than four feet (I having crossed it at dead low-water—­springs), this would give an average depth sufficient for any commercial purposes.  The rise and fall is six feet greater, the passages narrow and more defined, consequently deeper and more easily found than that of the Quilimane River.  The river above the bar is very tortuous, but deep; and it is observable that the influence of the tide is felt much higher in this branch than in the others; for whereas in the Catrina and Cumana I have obtained drinkable water a very short distance from the mouth, in the Luabo I have ascended seventy miles without finding the saltness perceptibly diminished.  This would facilitate navigation, and I have no hesitation in saying that little difficulty would be experienced in conveying a steam-vessel of the size and capabilities of the gunboat I lately commanded as high as the branching off of the Quilimane River (Mazaro), which, in the dry season, is observed many yards above the Luabo (main stream); though I have been told by the Portuguese that the freshes which come down in December and March fill it temporarily.  These freshes deepen the river considerably at that time of the year, and freshen the water many miles from the coast.  The population of the delta, except in the immediate neighborhood of the Portuguese, appeared to be very sparse.  Antelopes and hippopotami were plentiful; the former tame and easily shot.  I inquired frequently of