We passed a long line of temporary huts, on a plain on the right bank,
with crowds of men and women hard at work making salt. They obtain it by
mixing the earth, which is here highly saline, with water, in a pot with
a small hole in it, and then evaporating the liquid, which runs through,
in the sun. From the number of women we saw carrying it off in bags, we
concluded that vast quantities must be made at these works. It is worth
observing that on soils like this, containing salt, the cotton is of
larger and finer staple than elsewhere. We saw large tracts of this rich
brackish soil both in the Shire and Zambesi valleys, and hence, probably,
sea-island cotton would do well; a single plant of it, reared by Major
Sicard, flourished and produced the long staple and peculiar tinge of
this celebrated variety, though planted only in the street at Tette; and
there also a salt efflorescence appears, probably from decomposition of
the rock, off which the people scrape it for use.

The large village of the chief, Mankokwe, occupies a site on the right
bank; he owns a number of fertile islands, and is said to be the Rundo,
or paramount chief, of a large district. Being of an unhappy suspicious
disposition, he would not see us; so we thought it best to move on,
rather than spend time in seeking his favour.

On the 25th August we reached Dakanamoio island, opposite the
perpendicular bluff on which Chibisa's village stands; he had gone, with
most of his people, to live near the Zambesi, but his headman was civil,
and promised us guides and whatever else we needed. A few of the men
were busy cleaning, sorting, spinning, and weaving cotton. This is a
common sight in nearly every village, and each family appears to have its
patch of cotton, as our own ancestors in Scotland had each his patch of
flax. Near sunset an immense flock of the large species of horn-bill
(_Buceros cristatus_) came here to roost on the great trees which skirt