In fact indigo, senna, and stramonium, with a species of cassia, form the weeds of the place, which are annually hoed off and burned.

A wall of stone and mud surrounds the village, and the native population live in huts outside.

The fort and the church, near the river, are the strongholds; the natives having a salutary dread of the guns of the one, and a superstitious fear of the unknown power of the other.

The number of white inhabitants is small, and rather select, many of them having been considerately sent out of Portugal "for their country's good." The military element preponderates in society; the convict and "incorrigible" class of soldiers, receiving very little pay, depend in great measure on the produce of the gardens of their black wives; the moral condition of the resulting population may be imagined.
Droughts are of frequent occurrence at Tette, and the crops suffer severely.

This may arise partly from the position of the town between the ranges of hills north and south, which appear to have a strong attraction for the rain-clouds.