rtuguese value education highly,
and send their children to Goa and elsewhere for instruction in the
higher branches. There is not a single bookseller's shop, however, in
either eastern or western Africa. Even Loanda, with its 12,000 or 14,000
souls, can not boast of one store for the sale of food for the mind.

On the 2d the Zambesi suddenly rose several feet in height. Three such
floods are expected annually, but this year there were four. This last
was accompanied by discoloration, and must have been caused by another
great fall of rain east of the ridge. We had observed a flood of
discolored water when we reached the river at the Kafue; it then fell
two feet, and from subsequent rains again rose so high that we were
obliged to leave it when opposite the hill Pinkwe. About the 10th of
March the river rose several feet with comparatively clear water, and
it continued to rise until the 21st, with but very slight discoloration.
This gradual rise was the greatest, and was probably caused by the water
of inundation in the interior. The sudden rise which happened on the
2d, being deeply discolored, showed again the effect of rains at a
comparatively short distance. The fact of the river rising three or four
times annually, and the one flood of inundation being mixed with the
others, may account for the Portuguese not recognizing the phenomenon of
the periodical inundation, so well known in the central country.

The independent natives cultivate a little cotton, but it is not at all
equal, either in quantity or quality, to what we found in Angola. The
pile is short, and it clings to the seed so much that they use an iron
roller to detach it. The soil, however, is equal to the production of
any tropical plant or fruit. The natives have never been encouraged to
cultivate cotton for sale, nor has any new variety been introduced. We
saw no palm-oil-trees, the oil which is occasionally exported being from
the ground-nut. One of the merchants of Tete had a mill of the rudest
construction for grinding this nut, which was driven by donkeys. It
was the only specimen of a machine I could exhibit to my men. A very
superior kind of salad oil is obtained from the seeds of cucumbers, and
is much used in native cookery.

An offer, said to have been made by the "Times", having excited
attention even in this distant part, I asked the commandant if he knew
of any plant fit for the production of paper. He procured specimens of
the fibrous t