s all
our subsoil plowing, liming, manuring, and harrowing, for in four months
after planting a good crop is ready for the sickle, and has been
known to yield a hundred-fold. It flourished still more at Zumbo. No
irrigation is required, because here there are gentle rains, almost
like mist, in winter, which go by the name of "wheat-showers", and are
unknown in the interior, where no winter rain ever falls. The rains
at Tete come from the east, though the prevailing winds come from the
S.S.E. The finest portion of the flour does not make bread nearly so
white as the seconds, and here the boyaloa (pombe), or native beer,
is employed to mix with the flour instead of yeast. It makes excellent
bread. At Kilimane, where the cocoanut palm abounds, the toddy from it,
called "sura", is used for the same purpose, and makes the bread still
lighter.

As it was necessary to leave most of my men at this place, Major Sicard
gave them a portion of land on which to cultivate their own food,
generously supplying them with corn in the mean time. He also said that
my young men might go and hunt elephants in company with his servants,
and purchase goods with both the ivory and dried meat, in order that
they might have something to take with them on their return to Sekeletu.
The men were delighted with his liberality, and soon sixty or seventy of
them set off to engage in this enterprise. There was no calico to be
had at this time in Tete, but the commandant handsomely furnished my men
with clothing. I was in a state of want myself, and, though I pressed
him to take payment in ivory for both myself and men, he refused all
recompense. I shall ever remember his kindness with deep gratitude. He
has written me, since my arrival in England, that my men had killed four
elephants in the course of two months after my departure.

On the day of my arrival I was visited by all the gentlemen of the
village, both white and colored, including the padre. Not one of them
had any idea as to where the source of the Zambesi lay. They sent for
the best traveled natives, but none of them knew the river even as
far as Kansala. The father of one of the rebels who had been fighting
against them had been a great traveler to the southwest, and had even
heard of our visit to Lake Ngami; but he was equally ignorant with all
the others that the Zambesi flowed in the centre of the country. They
had, however, more knowledge of the country to the north of Tete than I
had