Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/397

 or else their only commerce consists in that of the captives obtained during these marauding incursions; for the seaports comprised between the Rovuma and Rufiji estuaries still serve for the export trade in human flesh, notwithstanding the vigilance of the British cruisers.

Mikindani, one of the first of these ports occurring to the north of the Rovuma, presents an excellent anchorage, where shipping might find good shelter. But it is little frequented, and the movement of exchanges is entirely in the hands of Hindu traders, who take gum copal, ivory, and rice in exchange for textile fabrics, glass beads, and arms. Lindi, lying more to the north-west, on a bay where the

Ukeredi River reaches the coast, is a thriving little seaport of about two thousand inhabitants. Here the staple export is caoutchouc, the trade in which is shared between the Banyans and Arabs. The forest where the caoutchouc-yielding lianas twine like coiling snakes round the stems and branches, occupies a strip of the seaboard with a mean breadth of from 18 to 20 miles. A rock near the extremity of the estuary is crowned with the ruins of an old Portuguese stronghold.

The valley of the Ukeredi leads inland to the Masasi district, where the English missionaries have founded an important station, which has become a centre of acclimatisation for European plants in the Makua and Makonde territories. The