We slept, one of the two nights Captain Gardner was with us, opposite the lakelet Chidia, which is connected with the river in flood time, and is nearly surrounded by hills some 500 or 600 feet high, dotted over with trees.  A few small groups of huts stood on the hill-sides, with gardens off which the usual native produce had been reaped.  The people did not seem much alarmed by the presence of the large party which had drawn up on the sandbanks below their dwellings.  There is abundance of large ebony in the neighbourhood.  The pretty little antelope (Cephalophus caeruleus), about the size of a hare, seemed to abound, as many of their skins were offered for sale.  Neat figured date-leaf mats of various colours are woven here, the different dyes being obtained from the barks of trees.  Cattle could not live on the banks of the Rovuma on account of the tsetse, which are found from near the mouth, up as far as we could take the boats.  The navigation did not improve as we ascended; snags, brought down by the floods, were common, and left in the channel on the sudden subsidence of the water.  In many places, where the river divided into two or three channels, there was not water enough in any of them for a boat drawing three feet, so we had to drag ours over the shoals; but we saw the river at its very lowest, and it may be years before it is so dried up again.

The valley of the Rovuma, bounded on each side by a range of highlands, is from two to four miles in width, and comes in a pretty straight course from the W.S.W.; but the channel of the river is winding, and now at its lowest zigzagged so perversely, that frequently the boats had to pass over three miles to make one in a straight line.  With a full stream it must of course be much easier work.  Few natives were seen during the first week.  Their villages are concealed in the thick jungle on the hill-sides, for protection from marauding slave-parties.  Not much of interest was observed on this part of the silent and shallow river.  Though feeling convinced that it was unfit for navigation, except for eight months of the year, we pushed on, resolved to see if, further inland, the accounts we had received from different naval officers of its great capabilities would prove correct; or if, by communication with Lake Nyassa, even the upper part could be turned to account.  Our exploration showed us that the greatest precaution is required in those who visit new countries.

The reports we received from gentlemen, who had entered the river and were well qualified to judge, were that the Rovuma was infinitely superior to the Zambesi, in the absence of any bar at its mouth, in its greater volume of water, and in the beauty of the adjacent lands.  We probably came at a different season from that in which they visited it, and our account ought to be taken with theirs to arrive at the truth.  It might be available as a highway for commerce during three quarters of each year; but casual visitors, like ourselves and others, are all ill able to decide.  The absence of animal life was remarkable.  Occasionally we saw pairs of the stately jabirus, or adjutant-looking marabouts, wading among the shoals, and spur-winged geese, and other water-fowl, but there was scarcely a crocodile or a hippopotamus to be seen.