Zanzibar and the East Coast of Africa [pp. 70-87]

1887.] Zanzibar and the East Coast of Africa. 83
principally bows and arrows, and spears. he descended, his first leap being on the inThe bows were made from very tough wood, dined trunk, and the second to the ground.
generally of immense strength and difficult As he - made this, the sailor aimed a blow
for a novice to draw, and could send one of with his knife behind the left shoulderblade,
their light reed arrows to a distance of sev- but missed and struck the bone itself;
eral hundred yards, when shot into the air. whereupon the panther turned on him and
These were almost invariably barbed or then ensued a struggle that I should not like
jagged, with a view to the infliction of the to witness a second time-the beast and the
most dangerous possible wounds. Now and man rolling over and over each other, the
then I met with arrows, the tips of which one clawing and biting and the other stabbing.
were stated to be poisoned by dipping them Of course, it was impossible for me to
in the juice of certain plants; but the most fire without the risk of hitting the sailor,
dreadful venom is found in the entrails of a so the fight ended in what might have
small caterpillar, and its effects are nearly been seen from the first would be the inevitindescribable. It generally produces almost able result-the panther was stretched dead
instantaneous madness, the wounded man on the field of battle, and the sailor was so
flying from his fellows a raging maniac. dreadfully wounded that he died a few hours
Lions and other wild beasts are similarly afterwards.
affected when struck by one of these arrows Some degrees north of the Zambeze, we
so poisoned; they are heard moaning in dis- find Mozambique, the earliest of the Portutress, and become furious, biting the trees guese settlements, or rather conquests, on
and ground until they expire. The spear- the east coast. It is situated on an island,
heads are also generally barbed; in some very close to the mainland, in latitude fifteen
cases the barbs are three or four deep, and South; and here resides the Governor-genof a variety of patterns. The shafts of the eral. The unhealthiness of this place is so
heavy spears are of hard wood, or even of great that it is calculated that out of one
iron, and the light ones of reed. I saw no hundred persons who reach and remain on
shields of any kind in this part of Africa, the island, not more than ten are alive at
but to the south the Zulus and other kindred the expiration of five years; but then they
tribes carry them, as is well known, of hide. are mostly involuntary settlers,:. e., con At Quilimane I had an opportunity of victs, either criminal or politicial, as I have
seeing a gladiatorial exhibition as striking as said before. Its trade, since the suppresany of those witnessed in the Roman arena. sion of the traffic in slaves, has very much
One morning, almost immediately after my fallen off; but it is still frequented by merarrival, a man came on board hurriedly, chants from Goa, the Portuguese Colony in
with the intelligence that a tiger (as they are India, called Canareens, as well as by some
erroneously called; but really a large pan- Banyans or Hindoo traders, and Parsees
ther) had been tracked into a wide-spread- from Bombay.
ing mango tree near the center of the set- Skipping over for the present other points
tlement. I at once seized my rifle, landed, of minor interest, I will come to an expediand proceeded to the spot; but found that tion I unsuccessfully undertook to explore
I had been forestalled by a Portuguese the river Juba the mouth of which is sitsailor, who, relying on the skilfulness of his uated almost exactly on the equator. I
murderous knife, was just approaching the left my craft at the Dundas Islands, a short
tree as I appeared on the scene. Calling distance to the south of it, and, requesting
the panther all sorts of opprobrious names, the sailing master to come to the entrance of
he quickly enraged the beast so much that the river in a week's time, I started in a boat,