A POPULAR ACCOUNT OFDR. LIVINGSTONE'S EXPEDITION TO THE ZAMBESI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES:AND THE DISCOVERY OF LAKES SHIRWA AND NYASSA1858-1864

TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD PALMERSTON, K. G. , G. C. B. 

My Lord, I beg leave to dedicate this Volume to your Lordship, as a tribute justlydue to the great Statesman who has ever had at heart the amelioration ofthe African race; and as a token of admiration of the beneficial effectsof that policy which he has so long laboured to establish on the WestCoast of Africa; and which, in improving that region, has most forciblyshown the need of some similar system on the opposite side of theContinent. 

DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 

NOTICE TO THIS WORK. 

The name of the late Mr. Charles Livingstone takes a prominent placeamongst those who acted under the leadership of Dr. Livingstone duringthe adventurous sojourn of the "Zambesi Expedition" in East Africa. Inlaying the result of their discoveries before the public, it was arrangedthat Mr. Charles Livingstone should place his voluminous notes at thedisposal of his brother: they are incorporated in the present work, butin a necessarily abridged form. 

PREFACE. 

It has been my object in this work to give as clear an account as I wasable of tracts of country previously unexplored, with their riversystems, natural productions, and capabilities; and to bring before mycountrymen, and all others interested in the cause of humanity, themisery entailed by the slave-trade in its inland phases; a subject onwhich I and my companions are the first who have had any opportunities offorming a judgment. The eight years spent in Africa, since my last workwas published, have not, I fear, improved my power of writing English;but I hope that, whatever my descriptions want in clearness, or literaryskill, may in a measure be compensated by the novelty of the scenesdescribed, and the additional information afforded on that curse ofAfrica, and that shame, even now, in the 19th century, of an Europeannation, --the slave-trade. 

I took the "Lady Nyassa" to Bombay for the express purpose of sellingher, and might without any difficulty have done so; but with the thoughtof parting with her arose, more strongly than ever, the feeling ofdisinclination to abandon the East Coast of Africa to the Portuguese andslave-trading, and I determined to run home and consult my friends beforeI allowed the little vessel to pass from my hands. After, therefore, having put two Ajawa lads, Chuma and Wakatani, to school under theeminent missionary the Rev. Dr. Wilson, and having providedsatisfactorily for the native crew, I started homewards with the threewhite sailors, and reached London July 20th, 1864. Mr. And Mrs. Webb, mymuch-loved friends, wrote to Bombay inviting me, in the event of mycoming to England, to make Newstead Abbey my headquarters, and on myarrival renewed their invitation: and though, when I accepted it, I hadno intention of remaining so long with my kind-hearted generous friends, I stayed with them until April, 1865, and under their roof transcribedfrom my own and my brother's journal the whole of this present book. Itis with heartfelt gratitude I would record their unwearied kindness. Myacquaintance with Mr. Webb began in Africa, where he was a daring andsuccessful hunter, and his continued friendship is most valuable becausehe has seen missionary work, and he would not accord his respect andesteem to me had he not believed that I, and my brethren also, were to belooked on as honest men earnestly trying to do our duty. 

The Government have supported the proposal of the Royal GeographicalSociety made by my friend Sir Roderick Murchison, and have united withthat body to aid me in another attempt to open Africa to civilizinginfluences, and a valued private friend has given a thousand pounds forthe same object. I propose to go inland, north of the territory whichthe Portuguese in Europe claim, and endeavour to commence that system onthe East which has been so eminently successful on the West Coast; asystem combining the repressive efforts of H. M. Cruisers with lawfultrade and Christian Missions--the moral and material results of whichhave been so gratifying. I hope to ascend the Rovuma, or some otherriver North of Cape Delgado, and, in addition to my other work, shallstrive, by passing along the Northern end of Lake Nyassa and round theSouthern end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that partof Africa. In so doing, I have no wish to unsettle what with so muchtoil and danger was accomplished by Speke and Grant, but rather toconfirm their illustrious discoveries. 

I have to acknowledge the obliging readiness of Lord Russell in lendingme the drawings taken by the artist who was in the first instanceattached to the Expedition. These sketches, with photographs by CharlesLivingstone and Dr. Kirk, have materially assisted in the illustrations. I would also very sincerely thank my friends Professor Owen and Mr. Oswell for many valuable hints and other aid in the preparation of thisvolume. 

Newstead Abbey, April 16, 1865. 

THE ZAMBESI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Objects of the Expedition--Personal Interest shown by NavalAuthorities--Members of the Zambesi Expedition. 

When first I determined on publishing the narrative of my "MissionaryTravels, " I had a great misgiving as to whether the criticism myendeavours might provoke would be friendly or the reverse, moreparticularly as I felt that I had then been so long a sojourner in thewilderness, as to be quite a stranger to the British public. But I amnow in this, my second essay at authorship, cheered by the convictionthat very many readers, who are personally unknown to me, will receivethis narrative with the kindly consideration and allowances of friends;and that many more, under the genial influences of an innate love ofliberty, and of a desire to see the same social and religious blessingsthey themselves enjoy, disseminated throughout the world, will sympathizewith me in the efforts by which I have striven, however imperfectly, toelevate the position and character of our fellow-men in Africa. Thisknowledge makes me doubly anxious to render my narrative acceptable toall my readers; but, in the absence of any excellence in literarycomposition, the natural consequence of my pursuits, I have to offer onlya simple account of a mission which, with respect to the objects proposedto be thereby accomplished, formed a noble contrast to some of theearlier expeditions to Eastern Africa. I believe that the information itwill give, respecting the people visited and the countries traversed, will not be materially gainsaid by any future commonplace traveller likemyself, who may be blest with fair health and a gleam of sunshine in hisbreast. This account is written in the earnest hope that it maycontribute to that information which will yet cause the great and fertilecontinent of Africa to be no longer kept wantonly sealed, but madeavailable as the scene of European enterprise, and will enable its peopleto take a place among the nations of the earth, thus securing thehappiness and prosperity of tribes now sunk in barbarism or debased byslavery; and, above all, I cherish the hope that it may lead to theintroduction of the blessings of the Gospel. 

In order that the following narrative may be clearly understood, it isnecessary to call to mind some things which took place previous to theZambesi Expedition being sent out. Most geographers are aware that, before the discovery of Lake Ngami and the well-watered country in whichthe Makololo dwell, the idea prevailed that a large part of the interiorof Africa consisted of sandy deserts, into which rivers ran and werelost. During my journey in 1852-6, from sea to sea, across the southintertropical part of the continent, it was found to be a well-wateredcountry, with large tracts of fine fertile soil covered with forest, andbeautiful grassy valleys, occupied by a considerable population; and oneof the most wonderful waterfalls in the world was brought to light. Thepeculiar form of the continent was then ascertained to be an elevatedplateau, somewhat depressed in the centre, and with fissures in the sidesby which the rivers escaped to the sea; and this great fact in physicalgeography can never be referred to without calling to mind the remarkablehypothesis by which the distinguished President of the Royal GeographicalSociety (Sir Roderick I. Murchison) clearly indicated this peculiarity, before it was verified by actual observation of the altitudes of thecountry and by the courses of the rivers. New light was thrown on otherportions of the continent by the famous travels of Dr. Barth, by theresearches of the Church of England missionaries Krapf, Erkhardt, andRebman, by the persevering efforts of Dr. Baikie, the last martyr to theclimate and English enterprise, by the journey of Francis Galton, and bythe most interesting discoveries of Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanzaby Captain Burton, and by Captain Speke, whose untimely end we all sodeeply deplore. Then followed the researches of Van der Decken, Thornton, and others; and last of all the grand discovery of the mainsource of the Nile, which every Englishman must feel an honest pride inknowing was accomplished by our gallant countrymen, Speke and Grant. Thefabulous torrid zone, of parched and burning sand, was now proved to be awell-watered region resembling North America in its fresh-water lakes, and India in its hot humid lowlands, jungles, ghauts, and cool highlandplains. 

The main object of this Zambesi Expedition, as our instructions from HerMajesty's Government explicitly stated, was to extend the knowledgealready attained of the geography and mineral and agricultural resourcesof Eastern and Central Africa--to improve our acquaintance with theinhabitants, and to endeavour to engage them to apply themselves toindustrial pursuits and to the cultivation of their lands, with a view tothe production of raw material to be exported to England in return forBritish manufactures; and it was hoped that, by encouraging the nativesto occupy themselves in the development of the resources of the country, a considerable advance might be made towards the extinction of the slave-trade, as they would not be long in discovering that the former wouldeventually be a more certain source of profit than the latter. TheExpedition was sent in accordance with the settled policy of the EnglishGovernment; and the Earl of Clarendon, being then at the head of theForeign Office, the Mission was organized under his immediate care. Whena change of Government ensued, we experienced the same generouscountenance and sympathy from the Earl of Malmesbury, as we hadpreviously received from Lord Clarendon; and, on the accession of EarlRussell to the high office he has so long filled, we were always favouredwith equally ready attention and the same prompt assistance. Thus theconviction was produced that our work embodied the principles, not of anyone party, but of the hearts of the statesmen and of the people ofEngland generally. The Expedition owes great obligations to the Lords ofthe Admiralty for their unvarying readiness to render us every assistancein their power; and to the warm-hearted and ever-obliging hydrographer tothe Admiralty, the late Admiral Washington, as a subordinate, but mosteffective agent, our heartfelt gratitude is also due; and we must everthankfully acknowledge that our efficiency was mainly due to the kindservices of Admirals Sir Frederick Grey, Sir Baldwin Walker, and all thenaval officers serving under them on the East Coast. Nor must I omit torecord our obligations to Mr. Skead, R. N. The Luawe was carefullysounded and surveyed by this officer, whose skilful and zealous labours, both on that river, and afterwards on the Lower Zambesi, were deservingof all praise. 

In speaking of what has been done by the Expedition, it should always beunderstood that Dr. Kirk, Mr. Charles Livingstone, Mr. R. Thornton, andothers composed it. In using the plural number they are meant, and Iwish to bear testimony to the untiring zeal, energy, courage, andperseverance with which my companions laboured; undaunted bydifficulties, dangers, or hard fare. It is my firm belief that, weretheir services required in any other capacity, they might be implicitlyrelied on to perform their duty like men. The reason why Dr. Kirk's namedoes not appear on the title-page of this narrative is, because it ishoped that he may give an account of the botany and natural history ofthe Expedition in a separate work from his own pen. He collected abovefour thousand species of plants, specimens of most of the valuable woods, of the different native manufactures, of the articles of food, and of thedifferent kinds of cotton from every spot we visited, and a great varietyof birds and insects; besides making meteorological observations, andaffording, as our instructions required, medical assistance to thenatives in every case where he could be of any use. 

Charles Livingstone was also fully occupied in his duties in followingout the general objects of our mission, in encouraging the culture ofcotton, in making many magnetic and meteorological observations, inphotographing so long as the materials would serve, and in collecting alarge number of birds, insects, and other objects of interest. Thecollections, being Government property, have been forwarded to theBritish Museum, and to the Royal Botanic, Gardens at Kew; and should Dr. Kirk undertake their description, three or four years will be requiredfor the purpose. 

Though collections were made, it was always distinctly understood that, however desirable these and our explorations might be, "Her Majesty'sGovernment attached more importance to the moral influence that might beexerted on the minds of the natives by a well-regulated and orderlyhousehold of Europeans setting an example of consistent moral conduct toall who might witness it; treating the people with kindness, andrelieving their wants, teaching them to make experiments in agriculture, explaining to them the more simple arts, imparting to them religiousinstruction as far as they are capable of receiving it, and inculcatingpeace and good will to each other. "

It would be tiresome to enumerate in detail all the little acts whichwere performed by us while following out our instructions. As a rule, whenever the steamer stopped to take in wood, or for any other purpose, Dr. Kirk and Charles Livingstone went ashore to their duties: one of ourparty, who it was intended should navigate the vessel and lay down thegeographical positions, having failed to answer the expectations formedof him, these duties fell chiefly to my share. They involved aconsiderable amount of night work, in which I was always cheerfully aidedby my companions, and the results were regularly communicated to our warmand ever-ready friend, Sir Thomas Maclear of the Royal Observatory, Capeof Good Hope. While this work was going through the press, we werefavoured with the longitudes of several stations determined from observedoccultations of stars by the moon, and from eclipses and reappearances ofJupiter's satellites, by Mr. Mann, the able Assistant to the CapeAstronomer Royal; the lunars are still in the hands of Mr. G. W. H. Maclear of the same Observatory. In addition to these, the altitudes, variations of the compass, latitudes and longitudes, as calculated on thespot, appear in the map by Mr. Arrowsmith, and it is hoped may not differmuch from the results of the same data in abler bands. The office of"skipper, " which, rather than let the Expedition come to a stand, Iundertook, required no great ability in one "not too old to learn:" itsaved a salary, and, what was much more valuable than gold, saved theExpedition from the drawback of any one thinking that he wasindispensable to its further progress. The office required attention tothe vessel both at rest and in motion. It also involved considerableexposure to the sun; and to my regret kept me from much anticipatedintercourse with the natives, and the formation of full vocabularies oftheir dialects. 

I may add that all wearisome repetitions are as much as possible avoidedin the narrative; and, our movements and operations having previouslybeen given in a series of despatches, the attempt is now made to give asfairly as possible just what would most strike any person of ordinaryintelligence in passing through the country. For the sake of thefreshness which usually attaches to first impressions, the Journal ofCharles Livingstone has been incorporated in the narrative; and manyremarks made by the natives, which ho put down at the moment oftranslation, will convey to others the same ideas as they did toourselves. Some are no doubt trivial; but it is by the little acts andwords of every-day life that character is truly and best known. Anddoubtless many will prefer to draw their own conclusions from them ratherthan to be schooled by us. 

CHAPTER I. 

Arrival at the Zambesi--Rebel Warfare--Wild Animals--Shupanga--HippopotamusHunters--The Makololo--Crocodiles. 

The Expedition left England on the 10th of March, 1858, in Her Majesty'sColonial Steamer "Pearl, " commanded by Captain Duncan; and, afterenjoying the generous hospitality of our friends at Cape Town, with theobliging attentions of Sir George Grey, and receiving on board Mr. Francis Skead, R. N. , as surveyor, we reached the East Coast in thefollowing May. 

Our first object was to explore the Zambesi, its mouths and tributaries, with a view to their being used as highways for commerce and Christianityto pass into the vast interior of Africa. When we came within five orsix miles of the land, the yellowish-green tinge of the sea in soundingswas suddenly succeeded by muddy water with wrack, as of a river in flood. The two colours did not intermingle, but the line of contact was assharply defined as when the ocean meets the land. It was observed thatunder the wrack--consisting of reeds, sticks, and leaves, --and even underfloating cuttlefish bones and Portuguese "men-of-war" (Physalia), numbersof small fish screen themselves from the eyes of birds of prey, and fromthe rays of the torrid sun. 

We entered the river Luawe first, because its entrance is so smooth anddeep, that the "Pearl, " drawing 9 feet 7 inches, went in without a boatsounding ahead. A small steam launch having been brought out fromEngland in three sections on the deck of the "Pearl" was hoisted out andscrewed together at the anchorage, and with her aid the exploration wascommenced. She was called the "Ma Robert, " after Mrs. Livingstone, towhom the natives, according to their custom, gave the name Ma (mother) ofher eldest son. The harbour is deep, but shut in by mangrove swamps; andthough the water a few miles up is fresh, it is only a tidal river; for, after ascending some seventy miles, it was found to end in marshesblocked up with reeds and succulent aquatic plants. As the Luawe hadbeen called "West Luabo, " it was supposed to be a branch of the Zambesi, the main stream of which is called "Luabo, " or "East Luabo. " The "MaRobert" and "Pearl" then went to what proved to be a real mouth of theriver we sought. 

The Zambesi pours its waters into the ocean by four mouths, namely, theMilambe, which is the most westerly, the Kongone, the Luabo, and theTimbwe (or Muselo). When the river is in flood, a natural canal runningparallel with the coast, and winding very much among the swamps, forms asecret way for conveying slaves from Quillimane to the bays Massanganoand Nameara, or to the Zambesi itself. The Kwakwa, or river ofQuillimane, some sixty miles distant from the mouth of the Zambesi, haslong been represented as the principal entrance to the Zambesi, in order, as the Portuguese now maintain, that the English cruisers might beinduced to watch the false mouth, while slaves were quietly shipped fromthe true one; and, strange to say, this error has lately been propagatedby a map issued by the colonial minister of Portugal. 

After the examination of three branches by the able and energeticsurveyor, Francis Skead, R. N. , the Kongone was found to be the bestentrance. The immense amount of sand brought down by the Zambesi has inthe course of ages formed a sort of promontory, against which the longswell of the Indian Ocean, beating during the prevailing winds, hasformed bars, which, acting against the waters of the delta, may have ledto their exit sideways. The Kongone is one of those lateral branches, and the safest; inasmuch as the bar has nearly two fathoms on it at lowwater, and the rise at spring tides is from twelve to fourteen feet. Thebar is narrow, the passage nearly straight, and, were it buoyed and abeacon placed on Pearl Island, would always be safe to a steamer. Whenthe wind is from the east or north, the bar is smooth; if from the southand south-east, it has a heavy break on it, and is not to be attempted inboats. A strong current setting to the east when the tide is flowing, and to the west when ebbing, may drag a boat or ship into the breakers. If one is doubtful of his longitude and runs east, he will soon see theland at Timbwe disappear away to the north; and coming west again, he caneasily make out East Luabo from its great size; and Kongone followsseveral miles west. East Luabo has a good but long bar, and not to beattempted unless the wind be north-east or east. It has sometimes beencalled "Barra Catrina, " and was used in the embarkations of slaves. Thismay have been the "River of Good Signs, " of Vasco da Gama, as the mouthis more easily seen from the seaward than any other; but the absence ofthe pillar dedicated by that navigator to "St. Raphael, " leaves thematter in doubt. No Portuguese live within eighty miles of any mouth ofthe Zambesi. 

The Kongone is five miles east of the Milambe, or western branch, andseven miles west from East Luabo, which again is five miles from theTimbwe. We saw but few natives, and these, by escaping from their canoesinto the mangrove thickets the moment they caught sight of us, gaveunmistakeable indications that they had no very favourable opinion ofwhite men. They were probably fugitives from Portuguese slavery. In thegrassy glades buffaloes, wart-hogs, and three kinds of antelope wereabundant, and the latter easily obtained. A few hours' hunting usuallyprovided venison enough for a score of men for several days. 

On proceeding up the Kongone branch it was found that, by keeping well inthe bends, which the current had worn deep, shoals were easily avoided. The first twenty miles are straight and deep; then a small and rathertortuous natural canal leads off to the right, and, after about fivemiles, during which the paddles almost touch the floating grass of thesides, ends in the broad Zambesi. The rest of the Kongone branch comesout of the main stream considerably higher up as the outgoing branchcalled Doto. 

The first twenty miles of the Kongone are enclosed in mangrove jungle;some of the trees are ornamented with orchilla weed, which appears neverto have been gathered. Huge ferns, palm bushes, and occasionally wilddate-palms peer out in the forest, which consists of different species ofmangroves; the bunches of bright yellow, though scarcely edible fruit, contrasting prettily with the graceful green leaves. In some spots theMilola, an umbrageous hibiscus, with large yellowish flowers, grows inmasses along the bank. Its bark is made into cordage, and is especiallyvaluable for the manufacture of ropes attached to harpoons for killingthe hippopotamus. The Pandanus or screw-palm, from which sugar bags aremade in the Mauritius, also appears, and on coming out of the canal intothe Zambesi many are so tall as in the distance to remind us of thesteeples of our native land, and make us relish the remark of an oldsailor, "that but one thing was wanting to complete the picture, and thatwas a 'grog-shop near the church. '" We find also a few guava and lime-trees growing wild, but the natives claim the crops. The dark woodsresound with the lively and exultant song of the kinghunter (_Halcyonstriolata_), as he sits perched on high among the trees. As the steamermoves on through the winding channel, a pretty little heron or brightkingfisher darts out in alarm from the edge of the bank, flies on ahead ashort distance, and settles quietly down to be again frightened off in afew seconds as we approach. The magnificent fishhawk (_Halietusvocifer_) sits on the top of a mangrove-tree, digesting his morning mealof fresh fish, and is clearly unwilling to stir until the imminence ofthe danger compels him at last to spread his great wings for flight. Theglossy ibis, acute of ear to a remarkable degree, hears from afar theunwonted sound of the paddles, and, springing from the mud where hisfamily has been quietly feasting, is off, screaming out his loud, harsh, and defiant Ha! ha! ha! long before the danger is near. 

Several native huts now peep out from the bananas and cocoa-palms on theright bank; they stand on piles a few feet above the low damp ground, andtheir owners enter them by means of ladders. The soil is wonderfullyrich, and the gardens are really excellent. Rice is cultivated largely;sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, onions (shalots), peas, alittle cotton, and sugar-cane are also raised. It is said that Englishpotatoes, when planted at Quillimane on soil resembling this, in thecourse of two years become in taste like sweet potatoes (_Convolvulusbatatas_), and are like our potato frosted. The whole of the fertileregion extending from the Kongone canal to beyond Mazaro, some eightymiles in length, and fifty in breadth, is admirably adapted for thegrowth of sugar-cane; and were it in the hands of our friends at theCape, would supply all Europe with sugar. The remarkably few people seenappear to be tolerably well fed, but there was a dearth of clothing amongthem; all were blacks, and nearly all Portuguese "colonos" or serfs. Theymanifested no fear of white men, and stood in groups on the bank gazingin astonishment at the steamers, especially at the "Pearl, " whichaccompanied us thus far up the river. One old man who came on boardremarked that never before had he seen any vessel so large as the"Pearl, " it was like a village, "Was it made out of one tree?" All wereeager traders, and soon came off to the ship in light swift canoes withevery kind of fruit and food they possessed; a few brought honey andbeeswax, which are found in quantities in the mangrove forests. As theships steamed off, many anxious sellers ran along the bank, holding upfowls, baskets of rice and meal, and shouting "Malonda, Malonda, " "thingsfor sale, " while others followed in canoes, which they sent through thewater with great velocity by means of short broad-bladed paddles. 

Finding the "Pearl's" draught too great for that part of the river nearthe island of Simbo, where the branch called the Doto is given off to theKongone on the right bank, and another named Chinde departs to the secretcanal already mentioned on the left, the goods belonging to theexpedition were taken out of her, and placed on one of the grassy islandsabout forty miles from the bar. The "Pearl" then left us, and we had topart with our good friends Duncan and Skead; the former for Ceylon, thelatter to return to his duties as Government Surveyor at the Cape. 

Of those who eventually did the work of the expedition the majority tooka sober common-sense view of the enterprise in which we were engaged. Some remained on Expedition Island from the 18th June until the 13thAugust, while the launch and pinnace were carrying the goods up toShupanga and Senna. The country was in a state of war, our luggage wasin danger, and several of our party were exposed to disease frominactivity in the malaria of the delta. Here some had their firstintroduction to African life, and African fever. Those alone were safewho were actively employed with the vessels, and of course, rememberingthe perilous position of their fellows, they strained every nerve tofinish the work and take them away. 

Large columns of smoke rose daily from different points of the horizon, showing that the natives were burning off the immense crops of tallgrass, here a nuisance, however valuable elsewhere. A white cloud wasoften observed to rest on the head of the column, as if a current of hotdamp air was sent up by the heat of the flames and its moisture wascondensed at the top. Rain did not follow, though theorists haveimagined that in such cases it ought. 

Large game, buffaloes, and zebras, were abundant abreast the island, butno men could be seen. On the mainland, over on the right bank of theriver, we were amused by the eccentric gyrations and evolutions of flocksof small seed-eating birds, who in their flight wheeled into compactcolumns with such military precision as to give us the impression thatthey must be guided by a leader, and all directed by the same signal. Several other kinds of small birds now go in flocks, and among others thelarge Senegal swallow. The presence of this bird, being clearly in astate of migration from the north, while the common swallow of thecountry, and the brown kite are away beyond the equator, leads to theconjecture that there may be a double migration, namely, of birds fromtorrid climates to the more temperate, as this now is, as well as fromsevere winters to sunny regions; but this could not be verified by suchbirds of passage as ourselves. 

On reaching Mazaro, the mouth of a narrow creek which in floodscommunicates with the Quillimane river, we found that the Portuguese wereat war with a half-caste named Mariano _alias_ Matakenya, from whom theyhad generally fled, and who, having built a stockade near the mouth ofthe Shire, owned all the country between that river and Mazaro. Marianowas best known by his native name Matakenya, which in their tongue means"trembling, " or quivering as trees do in a storm. He was a keen slave-hunter, and kept a large number of men, well armed with muskets. It isan entire mistake to suppose that the slave trade is one of buying andselling alone; or that engagements can be made with labourers in Africaas they are in India; Mariano, like other Portuguese, had no labour tospare. He had been in the habit of sending out armed parties on slave-hunting forays among the helpless tribes to the north-east, and carryingdown the kidnapped victims in chains to Quillimane, where they were soldby his brother-in-law Cruz Coimbra, and shipped as "Free emigrants" tothe French island of Bourbon. So long as his robberies and murders wererestricted to the natives at a distance, the authorities did notinterfere; but his men, trained to deeds of violence and bloodshed intheir slave forays, naturally began to practise on the people nearer athand, though belonging to the Portuguese, and even in the village ofSenna, under the guns of the fort. A gentleman of the highest standingtold us that, while at dinner with his family, it was no uncommon eventfor a slave to rush into the room pursued by one of Mariano's men withspear in hand to murder him. 

The atrocities of this villain, aptly termed by the late governor ofQuillimane a "notorious robber and murderer, " became at lengthintolerable. All the Portuguese spoke of him as a rare monster ofinhumanity. It is unaccountable why half-castes, such as he, are so muchmore cruel than the Portuguese, but such is undoubtedly the case. 

It was asserted that one of his favourite modes of creating an impressionin the country, and making his name dreaded, was to spear his captiveswith his own hands. On one occasion he is reported to have thus killedforty poor wretches placed in a row before him. We did not at firstcredit these statements, and thought that they were merely exaggerationsof the incensed Portuguese, who naturally enough were exasperated withhim for stopping their trade, and harbouring their runaway slaves; but welearned afterwards from the natives, that the accounts given us by thePortuguese had not exceeded the truth; and that Mariano was quite asgreat a ruffian as they had described him. One expects slave-owners totreat their human chattels as well as men do other animals of value, butthe slave-trade seems always to engender an unreasoning ferocity, if notblood-thirstiness. 

War was declared against Mariano, and a force sent to take him; heresisted for a time; but seeing that he was likely to get the worst ofit, and knowing that the Portuguese governors have small salaries, andare therefore "disposed to be reasonable, " he went down to Quillimane to"arrange" with the Governor, as it is termed here; but Colonel da Silvaput him in prison, and then sent him for trial to Mozambique. When wecame into the country, his people were fighting under his brother Bonga. The war had lasted six months and stopped all trade on the river duringthat period. On the 15th June we first came into contact with the"rebels. " They appeared as a crowd of well-armed andfantastically-dressed people under the trees at Mazaro. On explainingthat we were English, some at once came on board and called to those onshore to lay aside their arms. On landing among them we saw that manyhad the branded marks of slaves on their chests, but they warmly approvedour objects, and knew well the distinctive character of our nation on theslave question. The shout at our departure contrasted strongly with thesuspicious questioning on our approach. Hence-forward we were recognizedas friends by both parties. 

At a later period we were taking in wood within a mile of the scene ofaction, but a dense fog prevented our hearing the noise of a battle atMazaro; and on arriving there, immediately after, many natives andPortuguese appeared on the bank. 

Dr. Livingstone, landing to salute some of his old friends among thelatter, found himself in the sickening smell, and among the mutilatedbodies of the slain; he was requested to take the Governor, who was veryill of fever, across to Shupanga, and just as he gave his assent, therebels renewed the fight, and the balls began to whistle about in alldirections. After trying in vain to get some one to assist the Governordown to the steamer, and unwilling to leave him in such danger, as theofficer sent to bring our Kroomen did not appear, he went into the hut, and dragged along his Excellency to the ship. He was a very tall man, and as he swayed hither and thither from weakness, weighing down Dr. Livingstone, it must have appeared like one drunken man helping another. Some of the Portuguese white soldiers stood fighting with great braveryagainst the enemy in front, while a few were coolly shooting at their ownslaves for fleeing into the river behind. The rebels soon retired, andthe Portuguese escaped to a sandbank in the Zambesi, and thence to anisland opposite Shupanga, where they lay for some weeks, looking at therebels on the mainland opposite. This state of inactivity on the part ofthe Portuguese could not well be helped, as they had expended all theirammunition and were waiting anxiously for supplies; hoping, no doubtsincerely, that the enemy might not hear that their powder had failed. Luckily their hopes were not disappointed; the rebels waited until asupply came, and were then repulsed after three-and-a-half hours' hardfighting. Two months afterwards Mariano's stockade was burned, thegarrison having fled in a panic; and as Bonga declared that he did notwish to fight with this Governor, with whom he had no quarrel, the warsoon came to an end. His Excellency meanwhile, being a disciple ofRaspail, had taken nothing for the fever but a little camphor, and afterhe was taken to Shupanga became comatose. More potent remedies wereadministered to him, to his intense disgust, and he soon recovered. TheColonel in attendance, whom he never afterwards forgave, encouraged thetreatment. "Give what is right; never mind him; he is very (_muito_)impertinent:" and all night long, with every draught of water the Colonelgave a quantity of quinine: the consequence was, next morning the patientwas cinchonized and better. 

For sixty or seventy miles before reaching Mazaro, the scenery is tameand uninteresting. On either hand is a dreary uninhabited expanse, ofthe same level grassy plains, with merely a few trees to relieve thepainful monotony. The round green top of the stately palm-tree looks ata distance, when its grey trunk cannot be seen, as though hung in mid-air. Many flocks of busy sand-martins, which here, and as far south asthe Orange River, do not migrate, have perforated the banks two or threefeet horizontally, in order to place their nests at the ends, and are nowchasing on restless wing the myriads of tropical insects. The broadriver has many low islands, on which are seen various kinds of waterfowl, such as geese, spoonbills, herons, and flamingoes. Repulsive crocodiles, as with open jaws they sleep and bask in the sun on the low banks, sooncatch the sound of the revolving paddles and glide quietly into thestream. The hippopotamus, having selected some still reach of the riverto spend the day, rises out of the bottom, where he has been enjoying hismorning bath after the labours of the night on shore, blows a puff ofspray from his nostrils, shakes the water out of his ears, puts hisenormous snout up straight and yawns, sounding a loud alarm to the restof the herd, with notes as of a monster bassoon. 

As we approach Mazaro the scenery improves. We see the well-woodedShupanga ridge stretching to the left, and in front blue hills rise dimlyfar in the distance. There is no trade whatever on the Zambesi belowMazaro. All the merchandise of Senna and Tette is brought to that pointin large canoes, and thence carried six miles across the country on men'sheads to be reshipped on a small stream that flows into the Kwakwa, orQuillimane river, which is entirely distinct from the Zambesi. Only onrare occasions and during the highest floods can canoes pass from theZambesi to the Quillimane river through the narrow natural canal _Mutu_. The natives of Maruru, or the country around Mazaro, the word Mazaromeaning the "mouth of the creek" Mutu, have a bad name among thePortuguese; they are said to be expert thieves, and the merchantssometimes suffer from their adroitness while the goods are in transitfrom one river to the other. In general they are trained canoe-men, andman many of the canoes that ply thence to Senna and Tette; their pay issmall, and, not trusting the traders, they must always have it beforethey start. Africans being prone to assign plausible reasons for theirconduct, like white men in more enlightened lands, it is possible theymay be good-humouredly giving their reason for insisting on beinginvariably paid in advance in the words of their favourite canoe-song, "Uachingere, Uachingere Kale, " "You cheated me of old;" or, "Thou artslippery slippery truly. "

The Landeens or Zulus are lords of the right bank of the Zambesi; and thePortuguese, by paying this fighting tribe a pretty heavy annual tribute, practically admit this. Regularly every year come the Zulus in force toSenna and Shupanga for the accustomed tribute. The few wealthy merchantsof Senna groan under the burden, for it falls chiefly on them. Theysubmit to pay annually 200 pieces of cloth, of sixteen yards each, besides beads and brass wire, knowing that refusal involves war, whichmight end in the loss of all they possess. The Zulus appear to keep assharp a look out on the Senna and Shupanga people as ever landlord did ontenant; the more they cultivate, the more tribute they have to pay. Onasking some of them why they did not endeavour to raise certain highlyprofitable products, we were answered, "What's the use of our cultivatingany more than we do? the Landeens would only come down on us for moretribute. "

In the forests of Shupanga the Mokundu-kundu tree abounds; its brightyellow wood makes good boat-masts, and yields a strong bitter medicinefor fever; the Gunda-tree attains to an immense size; its timber is hard, rather cross-grained, with masses of silica deposited in its substance;the large canoes, capable of carrying three or four tons, are made of itswood. For permission to cut these trees, a Portuguese gentleman ofQuillimane was paying the Zulus, in 1858, two hundred dollars a year, andhis successor now pays three hundred. 

At Shupanga, a one-storied stone house stands on the prettiest site onthe river. In front a sloping lawn, with a fine mango orchard at itssouthern end, leads down to the broad Zambesi, whose green islands reposeon the sunny bosom of the tranquil waters. Beyond, northwards, lie vastfields and forests of palm and tropical trees, with the massive mountainof Morambala towering amidst the white clouds; and further away moredistant hills appear in the blue horizon. This beautifully situatedhouse possesses a melancholy interest from having been associated in amost mournful manner with the history of two English expeditions. Here, in 1826, poor Kirkpatrick, of Captain Owen's Surveying Expedition, diedof fever; and here, in 1862, died, of the same fatal disease, the belovedwife of Dr. Livingstone. A hundred yards east of the house, under alarge Baobab-tree, far from their native land, both are buried. 

The Shupanga-house was the head-quarters of the Governor during theMariano war. He told us that the province of Mosambique costs the HomeGovernment between 5000_l_. And 6000_l_. Annually, and East Africa yieldsno reward in return to the mother country. We met there several otherinfluential Portuguese. All seemed friendly, and expressed theirwillingness to assist the expedition in every way in their power; andbetter still, Colonel Nunes and Major Sicard put their good-will intoaction, by cutting wood for the steamer and sending men to help inunloading. It was observable that not one of them knew anything aboutthe Kongone Mouth; all thought that we had come in by the "BarraCatrina, " or East Luabo. Dr. Kirk remained here a few weeks; and, besides exploring a small lake twenty miles to the south-west, had thesole medical care of the sick and wounded soldiers, for which valuableservices he received the thanks of the Portuguese Government. We woodedup at this place with African ebony or black wood, and lignum vitae; thelatter tree attains an immense size, sometimes as much as four feet indiameter; our engineer, knowing what ebony and lignum vitae cost at home, said it made his heart sore to burn wood so valuable. Though botanicallydifferent, they are extremely alike; the black wood as grown in somedistricts is superior, and the lignum vitae inferior in quality, to thesetimbers brought from other countries. Caoutchouc, or India-rubber, isfound in abundance inland from Shupanga-house, and calumba-root isplentiful in the district; indigo, in quantities, propagates itself closeto the banks of the Aver, and was probably at some time cultivated, formanufactured indigo was once exported. The India-rubber is made intoballs for a game resembling "fives, " and calumba-root is said to be usedas a mordant for certain colours, but not as a dye itself. 

We started for Tette on the 17th August, 1858; the navigation was ratherdifficult, the Zambesi from Shupanga to Senna being wide and full ofislands; our black pilot, John Scisssors, a serf, sometimes took thewrong channel and ran us aground. Nothing abashed, he would exclaim inan aggrieved tone, "This is not the path, it is back yonder. " "Then whydidn't you go yonder at first?" growled out our Kroomen, who had the workof getting the vessel off. When they spoke roughly to poor Scissors, theweak cringing slave-spirit came forth in, "Those men scold me so, I amready to run away. " This mode of finishing up an engagement is not atall uncommon on the Zambesi; several cases occurred, when we were on theriver, of hired crews decamping with most of the goods in their charge. If the trader cannot redress his own wrongs, he has to endure them. TheLandeens will not surrender a fugitive slave, even to his master. Onebelonging to Mr. Azevedo fled, and was, as a great favour only, returnedafter a present of much more than his value. 

We landed to wood at Shamoara, just below the confluence of the Shire. Its quartz hills are covered with trees and gigantic grasses; the buaze, a small forest-tree, grows abundantly; it is a species of polygala; itsbeautiful clusters of sweet-scented pinkish flowers perfume the air witha rich fragrance; its seeds produce a fine drying oil, and the bark ofthe smaller branches yields a fibre finer and stronger than flax; withwhich the natives make their nets for fishing. Bonga, the brother of therebel Mariano, and now at the head of the revolted natives, with some ofhis principal men came to see us, and were perfectly friendly, thoughtold of our having carried the sick Governor across to Shupanga, and ofour having cured him of fever. On our acquainting Bonga with the objectof the expedition, he remarked that we should suffer no hindrance fromhis people in our good work. He sent us a present of rice, two sheep, and a quantity of firewood. He never tried to make any use of us in thestrife; the other side showed less confidence, by carefullycross-questioning our pilot whether we had sold any powder to the enemy. We managed, however, to keep on good terms with both rebels andPortuguese. 

Senna is built on a low plain, on the right bank of the Zambesi, withsome pretty detached hills in the background; it is surrounded by astockade of living trees to protect its inhabitants from theirtroublesome and rebellious neighbours. It contains a few large houses, some ruins of others, and a weather-beaten cross, where once stood achurch; a mound shows the site of an ancient monastery, and a mud fort bythe river is so dilapidated, that cows were grazing peacefully over itsprostrate walls. 

The few Senna merchants, having little or no trade in the village, sendparties of trusted slaves into the interior to hunt for and purchaseivory. It is a dull place, and very conducive to sleep. One is sure totake fever in Senna on the second day, if by chance one escapes it on thefirst day of a sojourn there; but no place is entirely bad. Senna hasone redeeming feature: it is the native village of the large-hearted andhospitable Senhor H. A. Ferrao. The benevolence of this gentleman isunbounded. The poor black stranger passing through the town goes to himalmost as a matter of course for food, and is never sent away hungry. Intimes of famine the starving natives are fed by his generosity; hundredsof his own people he never sees except on these occasions; and the onlybenefit derived from being their master is, that they lean on him as apatriarchal chief, and he has the satisfaction of settling theirdifferences, and of saving their lives in seasons of drought andscarcity. 

Senhor Ferrao received us with his usual kindness, and gave us abountiful breakfast. During the day the principal men of the placecalled, and were unanimously of opinion that the free natives wouldwillingly cultivate large quantities of cotton, could they findpurchasers. They had in former times exported largely both cotton andcloth to Manica and even to Brazil. "On their own soil, " they declared, "the natives are willing to labour and trade, provided only they can doso to advantage: when it is for their interest, blacks work very hard. "We often remarked subsequently that this was the opinion of men ofenergy; and that all settlers of activity, enterprise, and sober habitshad become rich, while those who were much addicted to lying on theirbacks smoking, invariably complained of the laziness of the negroes, andwere poor, proud, and despicable. 

Beyond Pita lies the little island Nyamotobsi, where we met a smallfugitive tribe of hippopotamus hunters, who had been driven by war fromtheir own island in front. All were busy at work; some were makinggigantic baskets for grain, the men plaiting from the inside. With thecivility so common among them the chief ordered a mat to be spread for usunder a shed, and then showed us the weapon with which they kill thehippopotamus; it is a short iron harpoon inserted in the end of a longpole, but being intended to unship, it is made fast to a strong cord ofmilola, or hibiscus, bark, which is wound closely round the entire lengthof the shaft, and secured at its opposite end. Two men in a swift canoesteal quietly down on the sleeping animal. The bowman dashes the harpooninto the unconscious victim, while the quick steersman sweeps the lightcraft back with his broad paddle; the force of the blow separates theharpoon from its corded handle, which, appearing on the surface, sometimes with an inflated bladder attached, guides the hunters to wherethe wounded beast hides below until they despatch it. 

These hippopotamus hunters form a separate people, called Akombwi, orMapodzo, and rarely--the women it is said never--intermarry with anyother tribe. The reason for their keeping aloof from certain of thenatives on the Zambesi is obvious enough, some having as great anabhorrence of hippopotamus meat as Mahomedans have of swine's flesh. Ourpilot, Scissors, was one of this class; he would not even cook his foodin a pot which had contained hippopotamus meat, preferring to go hungrytill he could find another; and yet he traded eagerly in the animal'stusks, and ate with great relish the flesh of the foul-feeding marabout. These hunters go out frequently on long expeditions, taking in theircanoes their wives and children, cooking-pots, and sleeping-mats. Whenthey reach a good game district, they erect temporary huts on the bank, and there dry the meat they have killed. They are rather acomely-looking race, with very black smooth skins, and never disfigurethemselves with the frightful ornaments of some of the other tribes. Thechief declined to sell a harpoon, because they could not now get themilola bark from the coast on account of Mariano's war. He expressedsome doubts about our being children of the same Almighty Father, remarking that "they could not become white, let them wash ever so much. "We made him a present of a bit of cloth, and he very generously gave usin return some fine fresh fish and Indian corn. 

The heat of the weather steadily increases during this month (August), and foggy mornings are now rare. A strong breeze ending in a gale blowsup stream every night. It came in the afternoon a few weeks ago, thenlater, and at present its arrival is near midnight; it makes our frailcabin-doors fly open before it, but continues only for a short time, andis succeeded by a dead calm. Game becomes more abundant; near ourwooding-places we see herds of zebras, both Burchell's and the mountainvariety, pallahs (_Antelope melampus_), waterbuck, and wild hogs, withthe spoor of buffaloes and elephants. 

Shiramba Dembe, on the right bank, is deserted; a few old iron guns showwhere a rebel stockade once stood; near the river above this, stands amagnificent Baobab hollowed out into a good-sized hut, with bark insideas well as without. The old oaks in Sherwood Forest, when hollow, havethe inside dead or rotten; but the Baobab, though stripped of its barkoutside, and hollowed to a cavity inside, has the power of exuding newbark from its substance to both the outer and inner surfaces; so, a hutmade like that in the oak called the "Forest Queen, " in Sherwood, wouldsoon all be lined with bark. 

The portions of the river called Shigogo and Shipanga are bordered by alow level expanse of marshy country, with occasional clumps of palm-treesand a few thorny acacias. The river itself spreads out to a width offrom three to four miles, with many islands, among which it is difficultto navigate, except when the river is in flood. In front, a range ofhigh hills from the north-east crosses and compresses it into a deepnarrow channel, called the Lupata Gorge. The Portuguese thought thesteamer would not stem the current here; but as it was not more thanabout three knots, and as there was a strong breeze in our favour, steamand sails got her through with ease. Heavy-laden canoes take two days togo up this pass. A current sweeps round the little rocky promontoriesChifura and Kangomba, forming whirlpools and eddies dangerous for theclumsy craft, which are dragged past with long ropes. 

The paddlers place meal on these rocks as an offering to the turbulentdeities, which they believe preside over spots fatal to many a largecanoe. We were slily told that native Portuguese take off their hats tothese river gods, and pass in solemn silence; when safely beyond thepromontories, they fire muskets, and, as we ought to do, give the canoe-men grog. From the spoor of buffaloes and elephants it appears thatthese animals frequent Lupata in considerable numbers, and--we have oftenobserved the association--the tsetse fly is common. A horse for theGovernor of Tette was sent in a canoe from Quillimane; and, lest itshould be wrecked on the Chifura and Kangomba rocks, it was put on shoreand sent in the daytime through the pass. It was of course bitten by thetsetse, and died soon after; it was thought that the _air_ of Tette hadnot agreed with it. The currents above Lupata are stronger than thosebelow; the country becomes more picturesque and hilly, and there is alarger population. 

The ship anchored in the stream, off Tette, on the 8th September, 1858, and Dr. Livingstone went ashore in the boat. No sooner did the Makololorecognize him, than they rushed to the water's edge, and manifested greatjoy at seeing him again. Some were hastening to embrace him, but otherscried out, "Don't touch him, you will spoil his new clothes. " The fiveheadmen came on board and listened in quiet sadness to the story of poorSekwebu, who died at the Mauritius on his way to England. "Men die inany country, " they observed, and then told us that thirty of their ownnumber had died of smallpox, having been bewitched by the people ofTette, who envied them because, during the first year, none of theirparty had died. Six of their young men, becoming tired of cuttingfirewood for a meagre pittance, proposed to go and dance for gain beforesome of the neighbouring chiefs. "Don't go, " said the others, "we don'tknow the people of this country;" but the young men set out and visitedan independent half-caste chief, a few miles to the north, named Chisaka, who some years ago burned all the Portuguese villas on the north bank ofthe river; afterwards the young men went to Bonga, son of another half-caste chief, who bade defiance to the Tette authorities, and had astockade at the confluence of the Zambesi and Luenya, a few miles belowthat village. Asking the Makololo whence they came, Bonga rejoined, "Whydo you come from my enemy to me? You have brought witchcraft medicine tokill me. " In vain they protested that they did not belong to thecountry; they were strangers, and had come from afar with an Englishman. The superstitious savage put them all to death. "We do not grieve, " saidtheir companions, "for the thirty victims of the smallpox, who were takenaway by Morimo (God); but our hearts are sore for the six youths who weremurdered by Bonga. " Any hope of obtaining justice on the murderer wasout of the question. Bonga once caught a captain of the Portuguese army, and forced him to perform the menial labour of pounding maize in a woodenmortar. No punishment followed on this outrage. The Government ofLisbon has since given Bonga the honorary title of Captain, by way ofcoaxing him to own their authority; but he still holds his stockade. 

Tette stands on a succession of low sandstone ridges on the right bank ofthe Zambesi, which is here nearly a thousand yards wide (960 yards). Shallow ravines, running parallel with the river, form the streets, thehouses being built on the ridges. The whole surface of the streets, except narrow footpaths, were overrun with self-sown indigo, and tons ofit might have been collected. In fact indigo, senna, and stramonium, with a species of cassia, form the weeds of the place, which are annuallyhoed off and burned. A wall of stone and mud surrounds the village, andthe native population live in huts outside. The fort and the church, near the river, are the strongholds; the natives having a salutary dreadof the guns of the one, and a superstitious fear of the unknown power ofthe other. The number of white inhabitants is small, and rather select, many of them having been considerately sent out of Portugal "for theircountry's good. " The military element preponderates in society; theconvict and "incorrigible" class of soldiers, receiving very little pay, depend in great measure on the produce of the gardens of their blackwives; the moral condition of the resulting population may be imagined. 

Droughts are of frequent occurrence at Tette, and the crops sufferseverely. This may arise partly from the position of the town betweenthe ranges of hills north and south, which appear to have a strongattraction for the rain-clouds. It is often seen to rain on these hillswhen not a drop falls at Tette. Our first season was one of drought. Thrice had the women planted their gardens in vain, the seed, after justvegetating, was killed by the intense dry heat. A fourth planting sharedthe same hard fate, and then some of the knowing ones discovered thecause of the clouds being frightened away: our unlucky rain-gauge in thegarden. We got a bad name through that same rain-gauge, and wereregarded by many as a species of evil omen. The Makololo in turn blamedthe people of Tette for drought: "A number of witches live here, whowon't let it rain. " Africans in general are sufficiently superstitious, but those of Tette are in this particular pre-eminent above theirfellows. Coming from many different tribes, all the rays of the separatesuperstitions converge into a focus at Tette, and burn out common sensefrom the minds of the mixed breed. They believe that many evil spiritslive in the air, the earth, and the water. These invisible maliciousbeings are thought to inflict much suffering on the human race; but, asthey have a weakness for beer and a craving for food, they may bepropitiated from time to time by offerings of meat and drink. Theserpent is an object of worship, and hideous little images are hung inthe huts of the sick and dying. The uncontaminated Africans believe thatMorungo, the Great Spirit who formed all things, lives above the stars;but they never pray to him, and know nothing of their relation to him, orof his interest in them. The spirits of their departed ancestors are allgood, according to their ideas, and on special occasions aid them intheir enterprises. When a man has his hair cut, he is careful to burnit, or bury it secretly, lest, falling into the hands of one who has anevil eye, or is a witch, it should be used as a charm to afflict him withheadache. They believe, too, that they will live after the death of thebody, but do not know anything of the state of the Barimo (gods, ordeparted spirits). 

The mango-tree grows luxuriantly above Lupata, and furnishes a gratefulshade. Its delicious fruit is superior to that on the coast. For weeksthe natives who have charge of the mangoes live entirely on the fruit, and, as some trees bear in November and some in March, while the maincrop comes between, fruit in abundance may easily be obtained during fourmonths of the year; but no native can be induced to plant a mango. Awide-spread superstition has become riveted in the native mind, that ifany one plants this tree he will soon die. The Makololo, like othernatives, were very fond of the fruit; but when told to take up some mango-stones, on their return, and plant them in their own country--they toohaving become deeply imbued with the belief that it was a suicidal act todo so--replied "they did not wish to die too soon. " There is also asuperstition even among the native Portuguese of Tette, that if a manplants coffee he will never afterwards be happy: they drink it, however, and seem the happier for it. 

The Portuguese of Tette have many slaves, with all the usual vices oftheir class, as theft, lying, and impurity. As a general rule the realPortuguese are tolerably humane masters and rarely treat a slave cruelly;this may be due as much to natural kindness of heart as to a fear oflosing the slaves by their running away. When they purchase an adultslave they buy at the same time, if possible, all his relations alongwith him. They thus contrive to secure him to his new home by domesticties. Running away then would be to forsake all who hold a place in hisheart, for the mere chance of acquiring a freedom, which would probablybe forfeited on his entrance into the first native village, for the chiefmight, without compunction, again sell him into slavery. 

A rather singular case of voluntary slavery came to our knowledge: a freeblack, an intelligent active young fellow, called Chibanti, who had beenour pilot on the river, told us that he had sold himself into slavery. Onasking why he had done this, he replied that he was all alone in theworld, had neither father nor mother, nor any one else to give him waterwhen sick, or food when hungry; so he sold himself to Major Sicard, anotoriously kind master, whose slaves had little to do, and plenty toeat. "And how much did you get for yourself?" we asked. "Three thirty-yard pieces of cotton cloth, " he replied; "and I forthwith bought a man, a woman, and child, who cost me two of the pieces, and I had one pieceleft. " This, at all events, showed a cool and calculating spirit; heafterwards bought more slaves, and in two years owned a sufficient numberto man one of the large canoes. His master subsequently employed him incarrying ivory to Quillimane, and gave him cloth to hire mariners for thevoyage; he took his own slaves, of course, and thus drove a thrivingbusiness; and was fully convinced that he had made a good speculation bythe sale of himself, for had he been sick his master must have supportedhim. Occasionally some of the free blacks become slaves voluntarily bygoing through the simple but significant ceremony of breaking a spear inthe presence of their future master. A Portuguese officer, since dead, persuaded one of the Makololo to remain in Tette, instead of returning tohis own country, and tried also to induce him to break a spear beforehim, and thus acknowledge himself his slave, but the man was too shrewdfor this; he was a great elephant doctor, who accompanied the hunters, told them when to attack the huge beast, and gave them medicine to ensuresuccess. Unlike the real Portuguese, many of the half-castes aremerciless slave-holders; their brutal treatment of the wretched slaves isnotorious. What a humane native of Portugal once said of them isappropriate if not true: "God made white men, and God made black men, butthe devil made half-castes. "

The officers and merchants send parties of slaves under faithful headmento hunt elephants and to trade in ivory, providing them with a certainquantity of cloth, beads, etc. , and requiring so much ivory in return. These slaves think that they have made a good thing of it, when they killan elephant near a village, as the natives give them beer and meal inexchange for some of the elephant's meat, and over every tusk that isbrought there is expended a vast amount of time, talk, and beer. Most ofthe Africans are natural-born traders, they love trade more for the sakeof trading than for what they make by it. An intelligent gentleman ofTette told us that native traders often come to him with a tusk for sale, consider the price he offers, demand more, talk over it, retire toconsult about it, and at length go away without selling it; next day theytry another merchant, talk, consider, get puzzled and go off as on theprevious day, and continue this course daily until they have perhaps seenevery merchant in the village, and then at last end by selling theprecious tusk to some one for even less than the first merchant hadoffered. Their love of dawdling in the transaction arises from the self-importance conferred on them by their being the object of the wheedlingand coaxing of eager merchants, a feeling to which even the love of gainis subordinate. 

The native medical profession is reasonably well represented. Inaddition to the regular practitioners, who are a really useful class, andknow something of their profession, and the nature and power of certainmedicines, there are others who devote their talents to some speciality. The elephant doctor prepares a medicine which is considered indispensableto the hunters when attacking that noble and sagacious beast; no hunteris willing to venture out before investing in this precious nostrum. Thecrocodile doctor sells a charm which is believed to possess the singularvirtue of protecting its owner from crocodiles. Unwittingly we offendedthe crocodile school of medicine while at Tette, by shooting one of thesehuge reptiles as it lay basking in the sun on a sandbank; the doctorscame to the Makololo in wrath, clamouring to know why the white man hadshot their crocodile. 

A shark's hook was baited one evening with a dog, of which the crocodileis said to be particularly fond; but the doctors removed the bait, on theprinciple that the more crocodiles the more demand for medicine, orperhaps because they preferred to eat the dog themselves. Many of thenatives of this quarter are known, as in the South Seas, to eat the dogwithout paying any attention to its feeding. The dice doctor or divineris an important member of the community, being consulted by Portugueseand natives alike. Part of his business is that of a detective, it beinghis duty to discover thieves. When goods are stolen, he goes and looksat the place, casts his dice, and waits a few days, and then, for aconsideration, tells who is the thief: he is generally correct, for hetrusts not to his dice alone; he has confidential agents all over thevillage, by whose inquiries and information he is enabled to detect theculprit. Since the introduction of muskets, gun doctors have sprung up, and they sell the medicine which professes to make good marksmen; othersare rain doctors, etc. , etc. The various schools deal in little charms, which are hung round the purchaser's neck to avert evil: some of themcontain the medicine, others increase its power. 

Indigo, about three or four feet high, grows in great luxuriance in thestreets of Tette, and so does the senna plant. The leaves areundistinguishable from those imported in England. A small amount offirst-rate cotton is cultivated by the native population for themanufacture of a coarse cloth. A neighbouring tribe raises the sugar-cane, and makes a little sugar; but they use most primitive woodenrollers, and having no skill in mixing lime with the extracted juice, theproduct is of course of very inferior quality. Plenty of magnetic ironore is found near Tette, and coal also to any amount; a single cliff-seammeasuring twenty-five feet in thickness. It was found to burn well inthe steamer on the first trial. Gold is washed for in the beds ofrivers, within a couple of days of Tette. The natives are fully aware ofits value, but seldom search for it, and never dig deeper than four orfive feet. They dread lest the falling in of the sand of the river's bedshould bury them. In former times, when traders went with hundreds ofslaves to the washings, the produce was considerable. It is nowinsignificant. The gold-producing lands have always been in the hands ofindependent tribes. Deep cuttings near the sources of the gold-yieldingstreams seem never to have been tried here, as in California andAustralia, nor has any machinery been used save common wooden basins forwashing. 

CHAPTER II. 

Kebrabasa Rapids--Tette--African fever--Exploration of theShire--Discovery of Lake Shirwa. 

Our curiosity had been so much excited by the reports we had heard of theKebrabasa rapids, that we resolved to make a short examination of them, and seized the opportunity of the Zambesi being unusually low, toendeavour to ascertain their character while uncovered by the water. Wereached them on the 9th of November. The country between Tette and PandaMokua, where navigation ends, is well wooded and hilly on both banks. Panda Mokua is a hill two miles below the rapids, capped with dolomitecontaining copper ore. 

Conspicuous among the trees, for its gigantic size, and bark colouredexactly like Egyptian syenite, is the burly Baobab. It often makes theother trees of the forest look like mere bushes in comparison. A hollowone, already mentioned, is 74 feet in circumference, another was 84, andsome have been found on the West Coast which measure 100 feet. The loftyrange of Kebrabasa, consisting chiefly of conical hills, covered withscraggy trees, crosses the Zambesi, and confines it within a narrow, rough, and rocky dell of about a quarter of a mile in breadth; over this, which may be called the flood-bed of the river, large masses of rock arehuddled in indescribable confusion. The drawing, for the use of which, and of others, our thanks are due to Lord Russell, conveys but a faintidea of the scene, inasmuch as the hills which confine the river do notappear in the sketch. The chief rock is syenite, some portions of whichhave a beautiful blue tinge like _lapis lazuli_ diffused through them;others are grey. Blocks of granite also abound, of a pinkish tinge; andthese with metamorphic rocks, contorted, twisted, and thrown into everyconceivable position, afford a picture of dislocation or unconformabilitywhich would gladden a geological lecturer's heart; but at high flood thisrough channel is all smoothed over, and it then conforms well with theriver below it, which is half a mile wide. In the dry season the streamruns at the bottom of a narrow and deep groove, whose sides are polishedand fluted by the boiling action of the water in flood, like the rims ofancient Eastern wells by the draw-ropes. The breadth of the groove isoften not more than from forty to sixty yards, and it has some sharpturnings, double channels, and little cataracts in it. As we steamed up, the masts of the "Ma Robert, " though some thirty feet high, did not reachthe level of the flood-channel above, and the man in the chains sung out, "No bottom at ten fathoms. " Huge pot-holes, as large as draw-wells, hadbeen worn in the sides, and were so deep that in some instances, whenprotected from the sun by overhanging boulders, the water in them wasquite cool. Some of these holes had been worn right through, and onlythe side next the rock remained; while the sides of the groove of theflood-channel were polished as smooth as if they had gone through thegranite-mills of Aberdeen. The pressure of the water must be enormous toproduce this polish. It had wedged round pebbles into chinks andcrannies of the rocks so firmly that, though they looked quite loose, they could not be moved except with a hammer. The mighty power of thewater here seen gave us an idea of what is going on in thousands ofcataracts in the world. All the information we had been able to obtainfrom our Portuguese friends amounted to this, that some three or fourdetached rocks jutted out of the river in Kebrabasa, which, thoughdangerous to the cumbersome native canoes, could be easily passed by asteamer, and that if one or two of these obstructions were blasted awaywith gunpowder, no difficulty would hereafter be experienced. After wehad painfully explored seven or eight miles of the rapid, we returned tothe vessel satisfied that much greater labour was requisite for the mereexamination of the cataracts than our friends supposed necessary toremove them; we therefore went down the river for fresh supplies, andmade preparation for a more serious survey of this region. 

The steamer having returned from the bar, we set out on the 22nd ofNovember to examine the rapids of Kebrabasa. We reached the foot of thehills again, late in the afternoon of the 24th, and anchored in thestream. Canoe-men never sleep on the river, but always spend the nighton shore. The natives on the right bank, in the country called Shidima, who are Banyai, and even at this short distance from Tette, independent, and accustomed to lord it over Portuguese traders, wondered what could beour object in remaining afloat, and were naturally suspicious at ourdeparting from the universal custom. 

They hailed us from the bank in the evening with "Why don't you come andsleep onshore like other people?"

The answer they received from our Makololo, who now felt as independentas the Banyai, was, "We are held to the bottom with iron; you may see weare not like your Bazungu. "

This hint, a little amplified, saved us from the usual exactions. It ispleasant to give a present, but that pleasure the Banyai usually deny tostrangers by making it a fine, and demanding it in such a superciliousway, that only a sorely cowed trader could bear it. They often refuse totouch what is offered--throw it down and leave it--sneer at the trader'sslaves, and refuse a passage until the tribute is raised to the utmostextent of his means. 

Leaving the steamer next morning, we proceeded on foot, accompanied by anative Portuguese and his men and a dozen Makololo, who carried ourbaggage. The morning was pleasant, the hills on our right furnished fora time a delightful shade; but before long the path grew frightfullyrough, and the hills no longer shielded us from the blazing sun. Scarcelya vestige of a track was now visible; and, indeed, had not our guideassured us to the contrary, we should have been innocent of even thesuspicion of a way along the patches of soft yielding sand, and on thegreat rocks over which we so painfully clambered. These rocks have asingular appearance, from being dislocated and twisted in everydirection, and covered with a thin black glaze, as if highly polished andcoated with lamp-black varnish. This seems to have been deposited whilethe river was in flood, for it covers only those rocks which lie betweenthe highest water-mark and a line about four feet above the lowest. Travellers who have visited the rapids of the Orinoco and the Congo saythat the rocks there have a similar appearance, and it is attributed tosome deposit from the water, formed only when the current is strong. Thismay account for it in part here, as it prevails only where the narrowriver is confined between masses of rock, backed by high hills, and wherethe current in floods is known to be the strongest; and it does not existwhere the rocks are only on one side, with a sandy beach opposite, and abroad expanse of river between. The hot rocks burnt the thick soles ofour men's feet, and sorely fatigued ourselves. Our first day's march didnot exceed four miles in a straight line, and that we found more thanenough to be pleasant. 

The state of insecurity in which the Badema tribe live is indicated bythe habit of hiding their provisions in the hills, and keeping only asmall quantity in their huts; they strip a particular species of tree ofits bitter bark, to which both mice and monkeys are known to have anantipathy, and, turning the bark inside out, sew it into cylindricalvessels for their grain, and bury them in holes and in crags on thewooded hill-sides. By this means, should a marauding party plunder theirhuts, they save a supply of corn. They "could give us no information, and they had no food; Chisaka's men had robbed them a few weeks before. "

"Never mind, " said our native Portuguese, "they will sell you plenty whenyou return, they are afraid of you now, as yet they do not know who youare. " We slept under trees in the open air, and suffered noinconvenience from either mosquitoes or dew: and no prowling wild beasttroubled us; though one evening, while we were here, a native sittingwith some others on the opposite bank was killed by a leopard. 

One of the Tette slaves, who wished to be considered a great traveller, gave us, as we sat by our evening fire, an interesting account of astrange race of men whom he had seen in the interior; they were onlythree feet high, and had horns growing out of their heads; they lived ina large town and had plenty of food. The Makololo pooh-poohed thisstory, and roundly told the narrator that he was telling a downright lie. "_We_ come from the interior, " cried out a tall fellow, measuring somesix feet four, "are _we_ dwarfs? have _we_ horns on our heads?" and thusthey laughed the fellow to scorn. But he still stoutly maintained thathe had seen these little people, and had actually been in their town;thus making himself the hero of the traditional story, which before andsince the time of Herodotus has, with curious persistency, clung to thenative mind. The mere fact that such absurd notions are permanent, evenin the entire absence of literature, invests the religious ideas of thesepeople also with importance, as fragments of the wreck of the primitivefaith floating down the stream of time. 

We waded across the rapid Luia, which took us up to the waist, and wasabout forty yards wide. The water was discoloured at the time, and wewere not without apprehension that a crocodile might chance to fancy awhite man for dinner. Next day one of the men crawled over the blackrocks to within ten yards of a sleeping hippopotamus, and shot himthrough the brain. The weather being warm, the body floated in a fewhours, and some of us had our first trial of hippopotamus flesh. It is across-grained meat, something between pork and beef, --pretty good foodwhen one is hungry and can get nothing better. When we reached the footof the mountain named Chipereziwa, whose perpendicular rocky sides areclothed with many-coloured lichens, our Portuguese companion informed usthere were no more obstructions to navigation, the river being all smoothabove; he had hunted there and knew it well. Supposing that the objectof our trip was accomplished we turned back; but two natives, who came toour camp at night, assured us that a cataract, called Morumbwa, did stillexist in front. Drs. Livingstone and Kirk then decided to go forwardwith three Makololo and settle the question for themselves. It was astough a bit of travel as they ever had in Africa, and after some painfulmarching the Badema guides refused to go further; "the Banyai, " theysaid, "would be angry if they showed white men the country; and there wasbesides no practicable approach to the spot, neither elephant, norhippopotamus, nor even a crocodile could reach the cataract. " The slopesof the mountains on each side of the river, now not 300 yards wide, andwithout the flattish flood-channel and groove, were more than 3000 feetfrom the sky-line down, and were covered either with dense thornbush orhuge black boulders; this deep trough-like shape caused the sun's rays toconverge as into a focus, making the surface so hot that the soles of thefeet of the Makololo became blistered. Around, and up and down, theparty clambered among these heated blocks, at a pace not exceeding a milean hour; the strain upon the muscles in jumping from crag to boulder, andwriggling round projections, took an enormous deal out of them, and theywere often glad to cower in the shadow formed by one rock overhanging andresting on another; the shelter induced the peculiarly strong andoverpowering inclination to sleep, which too much sun sometimes causes. This sleep is curative of what may be incipient sunstroke: in its firstgentle touches, it caused the dream to flit over the boiling brain, thatthey had become lunatics and had been sworn in as members of the Alpineclub; and then it became so heavy that it made them feel as if a portionof existence had been cut out from their lives. The sun is excessivelyhot, and feels sharp in Africa; but, probably from the greater dryness ofthe atmosphere, we never heard of a single case of sunstroke, so commonin India. The Makololo told Dr. Livingstone they "always thought he hada heart, but now they believed he had none, " and tried to persuade Dr. Kirk to return, on the ground that it must be evident that, in attemptingto go where no living foot could tread, his leader had givenunmistakeable signs of having gone mad. All their efforts of persuasion, however, were lost upon Dr. Kirk, as he had not yet learned theirlanguage, and his leader, knowing his companion to be equally anxiouswith himself to solve the problem of the navigableness of Kebrabasa, wasnot at pains to enlighten him. At one part a bare mountain spur barredthe way, and had to be surmounted by a perilous and circuitous route, along which the crags were so hot that it was scarcely possible for thehand to hold on long enough to ensure safety in the passage; and had theforemost of the party lost his hold, he would have hurled all behind himinto the river at the foot of the promontory; yet in this wild hotregion, as they descended again to the river, they met a fishermancasting his hand-net into the boiling eddies, and he pointed out thecataract of Morumbwa; within an hour they were trying to measure it froman overhanging rock, at a height of about one hundred feet. When youstand facing the cataract, on the north bank, you see that it is situatedin a sudden bend of the river, which is flowing in a short curve; theriver above it is jammed between two mountains in a channel withperpendicular sides, and less than fifty yards wide; one or two masses ofrock jut out, and then there is a sloping fall of perhaps twenty feet ina distance of thirty yards. It would stop all navigation, except duringthe highest floods; the rocks showed that the water then rises upwards ofeighty feet perpendicularly. 

Still keeping the position facing the cataract, on its right side risesMount Morumbwa from 2000 to 3000 feet high, which gives the name to thespot. On the left of the cataract stands a noticeable mountain which maybe called onion-shaped, for it is partly conical and a large concaveflake has peeled off, as granite often does, and left a broad, smoothconvex face as if it were an enormous bulb. These two mountains extendtheir bases northwards about half a mile, and the river in that distance, still very narrow, is smooth, with a few detached rocks standing out fromits bed. They climbed as high up the base of Mount Morumbwa, whichtouches the cataract, as they required. The rocks were all water-wornand smooth, with huge potholes, even at 100 feet above low water. Whenat a later period they climbed up the north-western base of this samemountain, the familiar face of the onion-shaped one opposite was at oncerecognised; one point of view on the talus of Mount Morumbwa was not morethan 700 or 800 yards distant from the other, and they then completed thesurvey of Kebrabasa from end to end. 

They did not attempt to return by the way they came, but scaled the slopeof the mountain on the north. It took them three hours' hard labour incutting their way up through the dense thornbush which covered theascent. The face of the slope was often about an angle of 70 degrees, yet their guide Shokumbenla, whose hard, horny soles, resembling those ofelephants, showed that he was accustomed to this rough and hot work, carried a pot of water for them nearly all the way up. They slept thatnight at a well in a tufaceous rock on the N. W. Of Chipereziwa, and neverwas sleep more sweet. 

A band of native musicians came to our camp one evening, on our own waydown, and treated us with their wild and not unpleasant music on theMarimba, an instrument formed of bars of hard wood of varying breadth andthickness, laid on different-sized hollow calabashes, and tuned to givethe notes; a few pieces of cloth pleased them, and they passed on. 

The rainy season of Tette differs a little from that of some of the otherintertropical regions; the quantity of rain-fall being considerably less. It begins in November and ends in April. During our first season in thatplace, only a little over nineteen inches of rain fell. In an averageyear, and when the crops are good, the fall amounts to about thirty-fiveinches. On many days it does not rain at all, and rarely is it wet allday; some days have merely a passing shower, preceded and followed by hotsunshine; occasionally an interval of a week, or even a fortnight, passeswithout a drop of rain, and then the crops suffer from the sun. Thesepartial droughts happen in December and January. The heat appears toincrease to a certain point in the different latitudes so as tonecessitate a change, by some law similar to that which regulates theintense cold in other countries. After several days of progressive heathere, on the hottest of which the thermometer probably reaches 103degrees in the shade, a break occurs in the weather, and a thunderstormcools the air for a time. At Kuruman, when the thermometer stood above84 degrees, rain might be expected; at Kolobeng, the point at which welooked for a storm was 96 degrees. The Zambesi is in flood twice in thecourse of the year; the first flood, a partial one, attains its greatestheight about the end of December or beginning of January; the second, andgreatest, occurs after the river inundates the interior, in a mannersimilar to the overflow of the Nile, this rise not taking place at Tetteuntil March. The Portuguese say that the greatest height which the Marchfloods attain is thirty feet at Tette, and this happens only about everyfourth year; their observations, however, have never been very accurateon anything but ivory, and they have in this case trusted to memoryalone. The only fluviometer at Tette, or anywhere else on the river, wasset up at our suggestion; and the first flood was at its greatest heightof thirteen feet six inches on the 17th January, 1859, and then graduallyfell a few feet, until succeeded by the greater flood of March. Theriver rises suddenly, the water is highly discoloured and impure, andthere is a four-knot current in many places; but in a day or two afterthe first rush of waters is passed, the current becomes more equallyspread over the whole bed of the river, and resumes its usual rate in thechannel, although continuing in flood. The Zambesi water at other timesis almost chemically pure, and the photographer would find that it isnearly as good as distilled water for the nitrate of silver bath. 

A third visit to Kebrabasa was made for the purpose of ascertainingwhether it might be navigable when the Zambesi was in flood, the chiefpoint of interest being of course Morumbwa; it was found that the rapidsobserved in our first trip had disappeared, and that while they weresmoothed over, in a few places the current had increased in strength. Asthe river fell rapidly while we were on the journey, the cataract ofMorumbwa did not differ materially from what it was when discovered. Somefishermen assured us that it was not visible when the river was at itsfullest, and that the current was then not very strong. On this occasionwe travelled on the right bank, and found it, with the additionalinconvenience of rain, as rough and fatiguing as the left had been. Ourprogress was impeded by the tall wet grass and dripping boughs, andconsequent fever. During the earlier part of the journey we came upon afew deserted hamlets only; but at last in a pleasant valley we met someof the people of the country, who were miserably poor and hungry. Thewomen were gathering wild fruits in the woods. A young man havingconsented for two yards of cotton cloth to show us a short path to thecataract led us up a steep hill to a village perched on the edge of oneof its precipices; a thunderstorm coming on at the time, the headmaninvited us to take shelter in a hut until it had passed. Our guidehaving informed him of what he knew and conceived to be our object, wasfavoured in return with a long reply in well-sounding blank verse; at theend of every line the guide, who listened with deep attention, respondedwith a grunt, which soon became so ludicrous that our men burst into aloud laugh. Neither the poet nor the responsive guide took the slightestnotice of their rudeness, but kept on as energetically as ever to theend. The speech, or more probably our bad manners, made some impressionon our guide, for he declined, although offered double pay, to go anyfurther. 

A great deal of fever comes in with March and April; in March, ifconsiderable intervals take place between the rainy days, and in Aprilalways, for then large surfaces of mud and decaying vegetation areexposed to the hot sun. In general an attack does not continue long, butit pulls one down quickly; though when the fever is checked the strengthis as quickly restored. It had long been observed that those who werestationed for any length of time in one spot, and lived sedentary lives, suffered more from fever than others who moved about and had both mindand body occupied; but we could not all go in the small vessel when shemade her trips, during which the change of place and scenery proved soconducive to health; and some of us were obliged to remain in charge ofthe expedition's property, making occasional branch trips to examineobjects of interest in the vicinity. Whatever may be the cause of thefever, we observed that all were often affected at the same time, as iffrom malaria. This was particularly the case during a north wind: it wasat first commonly believed that a daily dose of quinine would prevent theattack. For a number of months all our men, except two, took quinineregularly every morning. The fever some times attacked the believers inquinine, while the unbelievers in its prophylactic powers escaped. Whether we took it daily, or omitted it altogether for months, made nodifference; the fever was impartial, and seized us on the days of quinineas regularly and as severely as when it remained undisturbed in themedicine chest, and we finally abandoned the use of it as a prophylacticaltogether. The best preventive against fever is plenty of interestingwork to do, and abundance of wholesome food to eat. To a man well housedand clothed, who enjoys these advantages, the fever at Tette will notprove a more formidable enemy than a common cold; but let one of these bewanting--let him be indolent, or guilty of excesses in eating ordrinking, or have poor, scanty fare, --and the fever will probably becomea more serious matter. It is of a milder type at Tette than atQuillimane or on the low sea-coast; and, as in this part of Africa one isas liable to fever as to colds in England, it would be advisable forstrangers always to hasten from the coast to the high lands, in orderthat when the seizure does take place, it may be of the mildest type. Although quinine was not found to be a preventive, except possibly in theway of acting as a tonic, and rendering the system more able to resistthe influence of malaria, it was found invaluable in the cure of thecomplaint, as soon as pains in the back, sore bones, headache, yawning, quick and sometimes intermittent pulse, noticeable pulsations of thejugulars, with suffused eyes, hot skin, and foul tongue, began. {1}

Very curious are the effects of African fever on certain minds. Cheerfulness vanishes, and the whole mental horizon is overcast withblack clouds of gloom and sadness. The liveliest joke cannot provokeeven the semblance of a smile. The countenance is grave, the eyessuffused, and the few utterances are made in the piping voice of awailing infant. An irritable temper is often the first symptom ofapproaching fever. At such times a man feels very much like a fool, ifhe does not act like one. Nothing is right, nothing pleases the fever-stricken victim. He is peevish, prone to find fault and to contradict, and think himself insulted, and is exactly what an Irish naval surgeonbefore a court-martial defined a drunken man to be: "a man unfit forsociety. "

Finding that it was impossible to take our steamer of only ten-horsepower through Kebrabasa, and convinced that, in order to force a passagewhen the river was in flood, much greater power was required, dueinformation was forwarded to Her Majesty's Government, and applicationmade for a more suitable vessel. Our attention was in the mean timeturned to the exploration of the river Shire, a northern tributary of theZambesi, which joins it about a hundred miles from the sea. We couldlearn nothing satisfactory from the Portuguese regarding this affluent;no one, they said, had ever been up it, nor could they tell whence itcame. Years ago a Portuguese expedition is said, however, to haveattempted the ascent, but to have abandoned it on account of theimpenetrable duckweed (_Pistia stratiotes_. ) We could not learn from anyrecord that the Shire had ever been ascended by Europeans. As far, therefore, as we were concerned, the exploration was absolutely new. Allthe Portuguese believed the Manganja to be brave but bloodthirstysavages; and on our return we found that soon after our departure areport was widely spread that our temerity had been followed by fatalresults, Dr. Livingstone having been shot, and Dr. Kirk mortally woundedby poisoned arrows. 

Our first trip to the Shire was in January, 1859. A considerablequantity of weed floated down the river for the first twenty-five miles, but not sufficient to interrupt navigation with canoes or with any othercraft. Nearly the whole of this aquatic plant proceeds from a marsh onthe west, and comes into the river a little beyond a lofty hill calledMount Morambala. Above that there is hardly any. As we approached thevillages, the natives collected in large numbers, armed with bows andpoisoned arrows; and some, dodging behind trees, were observed taking aimas if on the point of shooting. All the women had been sent out of theway, and the men were evidently prepared to resist aggression. At thevillage of a chief named Tingane, at least five hundred natives collectedand ordered us to stop. Dr. Livingstone went ashore; and on hisexplaining that we were English and had come neither to take slaves norto fight, but only to open a path by which our countrymen might follow topurchase cotton, or whatever else they might have to sell, except slaves, Tingane became at once quite friendly. The presence of the steamer, which showed that they had an entirely new people to deal with, probablycontributed to this result; for Tingane was notorious for being thebarrier to all intercourse between the Portuguese black traders and thenatives further inland; none were allowed to pass him either way. He wasan elderly, well-made man, grey-headed, and over six feet high. Thoughsomewhat excited by our presence, he readily complied with the request tocall his people together, in order that all might know what our objectswere. 

In commencing intercourse with any people we almost always referred tothe English detestation of slavery. Most of them already possess someinformation respecting the efforts made by the English at sea to suppressthe slave-trade; and our work being to induce them to raise and sellcotton, instead of capturing and selling their fellow-men, our errandappears quite natural; and as they all have clear ideas of their own self-interest, and are keen traders, the reasonableness of the proposal is atonce admitted; and as a belief in a Supreme Being, the Maker and Ruler ofall things, and in the continued existence of departed spirits, isuniversal, it becomes quite appropriate to explain that we possess a Bookcontaining a Revelation of the will of Him to whom in their natural statethey recognise no relationship. The fact that His Son appeared amongmen, and left His words in His Book, always awakens attention; but thegreat difficulty is to make them feel that they have any relationship toHim, and that He feels any interest in them. The numbness of moralperception exhibited, is often discouraging; but the mode ofcommunication, either by interpreters, or by the imperfect knowledge ofthe language, which not even missionaries of talent can overcome save bythe labour of many years, may, in part, account for the phenomenon. However, the idea of the Father of all being displeased with Hischildren, for selling or killing each other, at once gains their readyassent: it harmonizes so exactly with their own ideas of right and wrong. But, as in our own case at home, nothing less than the instruction andexample of many years will secure their moral elevation. 

The dialect spoken here closely resembles that used at Senna and Tette. We understood it at first only enough to know whether our interpreter wassaying what we bade him, or was indulging in his own version. Afterstating pretty nearly what he was told, he had an inveterate tendency towind up with "The Book says you are to grow cotton, and the English areto come and buy it, " or with some joke of his own, which might have beenludicrous, had it not been seriously distressing. 

In the first ascent of the Shire our attention was chiefly directed tothe river itself. The delight of threading out the meanderings ofupwards of 200 miles of a hitherto unexplored river must be felt to beappreciated. All the lower part of the river was found to be at leasttwo fathoms in depth. It became shallower higher up, where manydeparting and re-entering branches diminished the volume of water, butthe absence of sandbanks made it easy of navigation. We had to exercisethe greatest care lest anything we did should be misconstrued by thecrowds who watched us. After having made, in a straight line, onehundred miles, although the windings of the river had fully doubled thedistance, we found further progress with the steamer arrested, in 15degrees 55 minutes south, by magnificent cataracts, which we called, "TheMurchison, " after one whose name has already a world-wide fame, and whosegenerous kindness we can never repay. The native name of that figured inthe woodcut is Mamvira. It is that at which the progress of the steamerwas first stopped. The angle of descent is much smaller than that of thefive cataracts above it; indeed, so small as compared with them, thatafter they were discovered this was not included in the number. 

A few days were spent here in the hope that there might be an opportunityof taking observations for longitude, but it rained most of the time, orthe sky was overcast. It was deemed imprudent to risk a land journeywhilst the natives were so very suspicious as to have a strong guard onthe banks of the river night and day; the weather also was unfavourable. After sending presents and messages to two of the chiefs, we returned toTette. In going down stream our progress was rapid, as we were aided bythe current. The hippopotami never made a mistake, but got out of ourway. The crocodiles, not so wise, sometimes rushed with great velocityat us, thinking that we were some huge animal swimming. They kept abouta foot from the surface, but made three well-defined ripples from thefeet and body, which marked their rapid progress; raising the head out ofthe water when only a few yards from the expected feast, down they wentto the bottom like a stone, without touching the boat. 

In the middle of March of the same year (1859), we started again for asecond trip on the Shire. The natives were now friendly, and readilysold us rice, fowls, and corn. We entered into amicable relations withthe chief, Chibisa, whose village was about ten miles below the cataract. He had sent two men on our first visit to invite us to drink beer; butthe steamer was such a terrible apparition to them, that, after shoutingthe invitation, they jumped ashore, and left their canoe to drift downthe stream. Chibisa was a remarkably shrewd man, the very image, savehis dark hue, of one of our most celebrated London actors, {2} and themost intelligent chief, by far, in this quarter. A great deal offighting had fallen to his lot, he said; but it was always others whobegan; he was invariably in the right, and they alone were to blame. Hewas moreover a firm believer in the divine right of kings. He was anordinary man, he said, when his father died, and left him thechieftainship; but directly he succeeded to the high office, he wasconscious of power passing into his head, and down his back; he felt itenter, and knew that he was a chief, clothed with authority, andpossessed of wisdom; and people then began to fear and reverence him. Hementioned this, as one would a fact of natural history, any doubt beingquite out of the question. His people, too, believed in him, for theybathed in the river without the slightest fear of crocodiles, the chiefhaving placed a powerful medicine there, which protected them from thebite of these terrible reptiles. 

Leaving the vessel opposite Chibisa's village, Drs. Livingstone and Kirkand a number of the Makololo started on foot for Lake Shirwa. Theytravelled in a northerly direction over a mountainous country. Thepeople were far from being well-disposed to them, and some of theirguides tried to mislead them, and could not be trusted. Masakasa, aMakololo headman, overheard some remarks which satisfied him that theguide was leading them into trouble. He was quiet till they reached alonely spot, when he came up to Dr. Livingstone, and said, "That fellowis bad, he is taking us into mischief; my spear is sharp, and there is noone here; shall I cast him into the long grass?" Had the Doctor giventhe slightest token of assent, or even kept silence, never more would anyone have been led by that guide, for in a twinkling he would have beenwhere "the wicked cease from troubling. " It was afterwards found that inthis case there was no treachery at all, but a want of knowledge on theirpart of the language and of the country. They asked to be led to "NyanjaMukulu, " or Great Lake, meaning, by this, Lake Shirwa; and the guide tookthem round a terribly rough piece of mountainous country, graduallyedging away towards a long marsh, which from the numbers of those animalswe had seen there we had called the Elephant Marsh, but which was reallythe place known to him by the name "Nyanja Mukulu, " or Great Lake. Nyanjaor Nyanza means, generally, a marsh, lake, river, or even a mere rivulet. 

The party pushed on at last without guides, or only with crazy ones; for, oddly enough, they were often under great obligations to the madmen ofthe different villages: one of these honoured them, as they slept in theopen air, by dancing and singing at their feet the whole night. Thesepoor fellows sympathized with the explorers, probably in the belief thatthey belonged to their own class; and, uninfluenced by the generalopinion of their countrymen, they really pitied, and took kindly to thestrangers, and often guided them faithfully from place to place, when nosane man could be hired for love or money. 

The bearing of the Manganja at this time was very independent; a strikingcontrast to the cringing attitude they afterwards assumed, when the cruelscourge of slave-hunting passed over their country. Signals were givenfrom the different villages by means of drums, and notes of defiance andintimidation were sounded in the travellers' ears by day; andoccasionally they were kept awake the whole night, in expectation of aninstant attack. Drs. Livingstone and Kirk were desirous that nothingshould occur to make the natives regard them as enemies; Masakasa, on theother hand, was anxious to show what he could do in the way of fightingthem. 

The perseverance of the party was finally crowned with success; for onthe 18th of April they discovered Lake Shirwa, a considerable body ofbitter water, containing leeches, fish, crocodiles, and hippopotami. Fromhaving probably no outlet, the water is slightly brackish, and it appearsto be deep, with islands like hills rising out of it. Their point ofview was at the base of Mount Pirimiti or Mopeu-peu, on its S. S. W. Side. Thence the prospect northwards ended in a sea horizon with two smallislands in the distance--a larger one, resembling a hill-top and coveredwith trees, rose more in the foreground. Ranges of hills appeared on theeast; and on the west stood Mount Chikala, which seems to be connectedwith the great mountain-mass called Zomba. 

The shore, near which they spent two nights, was covered with reeds andpapyrus. Wishing to obtain the latitude by the natural horizon, theywaded into the water some distance towards what was reported to be asandbank, but were so assaulted by leeches, they were fain to retreat;and a woman told them that in enticing them into the water the men onlywanted to kill them. The information gathered was that this lake wasnothing in size compared to another in the north, from which it isseparated by only a tongue of land. The northern end of Shirwa has notbeen seen, though it has been passed; the length of the lake may probablybe 60 or 80 miles, and about 20 broad. The height above the sea is 1800feet, and the taste of the water is like a weak solution of Epsom salts. The country around is very beautiful, and clothed with rich vegetation;and the waves, at the time they were there breaking and foaming over arock on the south-eastern side, added to the beauty of the picture. Exceedingly lofty mountains, perhaps 8000 feet above the sea-level, standnear the eastern shore. When their lofty steep-sided summits appear, some above, some below the clouds, the scene is grand. This range iscalled Milanje; on the west stands Mount Zomba, 7000 feet in height, andsome twenty miles long. 

Their object being rather to gain the confidence of the people by degreesthan to explore, they considered that they had advanced far enough intothe country for one trip; and believing that they could secure their endby a repetition of their visit, as they had done on the Shire, theydecided to return to the vessel at Dakanamoio island; but, instead ofreturning by the way they came, they passed down southwards close byMount Chiradzuru, among the relatives of Chibisa, and thence by the passZedi, down to the Shire. The Kroomen had, while we were away, cut a goodsupply of wood for steaming, and we soon proceeded down the river. 

The steamer reached Tette on the 23rd of June, and, after undergoingrepairs, proceeded to the Kongone to receive provisions from one of H. M. Cruisers. We had been very abundantly supplied with first-rate stores, but were unfortunate enough to lose a considerable portion of them, andhad now to bear the privation as best we could. On the way down, wepurchased a few gigantic cabbages and pumpkins at a native village belowMazaro. Our dinners had usually consisted of but a single course; but wewere surprised the next day by our black cook from Sierra Leone bearingin a second course. "What have you got there?" was asked in wonder. "Atart, sir. " "A tart! of what is it made?" "Of cabbage, sir. " As we hadno sugar, and could not "make believe, " as in the days of boyhood, we didnot enjoy the feast that Tom's genius had prepared. Her Majesty's brig"Persian, " Lieutenant Saumarez commanding, called on her way to the Cape;and, though somewhat short of provisions herself, generously gave us allshe could spare. We now parted with our Kroomen, as, from theirinability to march, we could not use them in our land journeys. A crewwas picked out from the Makololo, who, besides being good travellers, could cut wood, work the ship, and required only native food. 

While at the Kongone it was found necessary to beach the steamer forrepairs. She was built of a newly invented sort of steel plates, only asixteenth of an inch in thickness, patented, but unfortunately nevertried before. To build an exploring ship of untried material was amistake. Some chemical action on this preparation of steel caused aminute hole; from this point, branches like lichens, or the little raggedstars we sometimes see in thawing ice, radiated in all directions. Smallholes went through wherever a bend occurred in these branches. Thebottom very soon became like a sieve, completely full of minute holes, which leaked perpetually. The engineer stopped the larger ones, but thevessel was no sooner afloat, than new ones broke out. The first news ofa morning was commonly the unpleasant announcement of another leak in theforward compartment, or in the middle, which was worse still. 

Frequent showers fell on our way up the Zambesi, in the beginning ofAugust. On the 8th we had upwards of three inches of rain, which largequantity, more than falls in any single rainy day during the season atTette, we owed to being near the sea. Sometimes the cabin was nearlyflooded; for, in addition to the leakage from below, rain poured throughthe roof, and an umbrella had to be used whenever we wished to write: themode of coupling the compartments, too, was a new one, and the action ofthe hinder compartment on the middle one pumped up the water of theriver, and sent it in streams over the floor and lockers, where lay thecushions which did double duty as chairs and beds. In trying to form anopinion of the climate, it must be recollected that much of the fever, from which we suffered, was caused by sleeping on these wet cushions. Many of the botanical specimens, laboriously collected and carefullyprepared by Dr. Kirk, were destroyed, or double work imposed, by theiraccidentally falling into wet places in the cabin. 

About the middle of August, after cutting wood at Shamoara, we againsteamed up the Shire, with the intention of becoming better acquaintedwith the people, and making another and longer journey on foot to thenorth of Lake Shirwa, in search of Lake Nyassa, of which we had alreadyreceived some information, under the name Nyinyesi (the stars). TheShire is much narrower than the Zambesi, but deeper, and more easilynavigated. It drains a low and exceedingly fertile valley of fromfifteen to twenty miles in breadth. Ranges of wooded hills bound thisvalley on both sides. For the first twenty miles the hills on the leftbank are close to the river; then comes Morambala, a detached mountain500 yards from the river's brink, which rises, with steep sides on thewest, to 4000 feet in height, and is about seven miles in length. It iswooded up to the very top, and very beautiful. The southern end, seenfrom a distance, has a fine gradual slope, and looks as if it might be ofeasy ascent; but the side which faces the Shire is steep and rocky, especially in the upper half. A small village peeps out about halfway upthe mountain; it has a pure and bracing atmosphere; and is perched abovemosquito range. The people on the summit have a very different climateand vegetation from those of the plains; but they have to spend a greatportion of their existence amidst white fleecy clouds, which, in therainy season, rest daily on the top of their favourite mountain. We werekindly treated by these mountaineers on our first ascent; before oursecond they were nearly all swept away by Mariano. Dr. Kirk foundupwards of thirty species of ferns on this and other mountains, and evengood-sized tree-ferns; though scarcely a single kind is to be met with onthe plains. Lemon and orange trees grew wild, and pineapples had beenplanted by the people. Many large hornbills, hawks, monkeys, antelopes, and rhinoceroses found a home and food among the great trees round itsbase. A hot fountain boils up on the plain near the north end. Itbubbles out of the earth, clear as crystal, at two points, or eyes, a fewyards apart from each other, and sends off a fine flowing stream of hotwater. The temperature was found to be 174 degrees Fahr. , and it boiledan egg in about the usual time. Our guide threw in a small branch toshow us how speedily the Madse-awira (boiling water) could kill theleaves. Unlucky lizards and insects did not seem to understand thenature of a hot-spring, as many of their remains were lying at thebottom. A large beetle had alighted on the water, and been killed beforeit had time to fold its wings. An incrustation, smelling of sulphur, hasbeen deposited by the water on the stones. About a hundred feet from theeye of the fountain the mud is as hot as can be borne by the body. Intaking a bath there, it makes the skin perfectly clean, and none of themud adheres: it is strange that the Portuguese do not resort to it forthe numerous cutaneous diseases with which they are so often afflicted. 

A few clumps of the palm and acacia trees appear west of Morambala, onthe rich plain forming the tongue of land between the rivers Shire andZambesi. This is a good place for all sorts of game. The Zambesi canoe-men were afraid to sleep on it from the idea of lions being there; theypreferred to pass the night on an island. Some black men, whoaccompanied us as volunteer workmen from Shupanga, called out one eveningthat a lion stood on the bank. It was very dark, and we could only seetwo sparkling lights, said to be the lion's eyes looking at us; for here, as elsewhere, they have a theory that the lion's eyes always flash fireat night. Not being fireflies--as they did not move when a shot wasfired in their direction--they were probably glowworms. 

Beyond Morambala the Shire comes winding through an extensive marsh. Formany miles to the north a broad sea of fresh green grass extends, and isso level, that it might be used for taking the meridian altitude of thesun. Ten or fifteen miles north of Morambala, stands the dome-shapedmountain Makanga, or Chi-kanda; several others with granitic-lookingpeaks stretch away to the north, and form the eastern boundary of thevalley; another range, but of metamorphic rocks, commencing oppositeSenna, bounds the valley on the west. After streaming through a portionof this marsh, we came to a broad belt of palm and other trees, crossingthe fine plain on the right bank. Marks of large game were abundant. Elephants had been feeding on the palm nuts, which have a pleasant fruitytaste, and are used as food by man. Two pythons were observed coiledtogether among the branches of a large tree, and were both shot. Thelarger of the two, a female, was ten feet long. They are harmless, andsaid to be good eating. The Makololo having set fire to the grass wherethey were cutting wood, a solitary buffalo rushed out of theconflagration, and made a furious charge at an active young fellow namedMantlanyane. Never did his fleet limbs serve him better than during thefew seconds of his fearful flight before the maddened animal. When hereached the bank, and sprang into the river, the infuriated beast wasscarcely six feet behind him. Towards evening, after the day's labour inwood-cutting was over, some of the men went fishing. They followed thecommon African custom of agitating the water, by giving it a few sharpstrokes with the top of the fishing-rod, immediately after throwing inthe line, to attract the attention of the fish to the bait. Havingcaught nothing, the reason assigned was the same as would have been givenin England under like circumstances, namely, that "the wind made the fishcold, and they would not bite. " Many gardens of maize, pumpkins, andtobacco, fringed the marshy banks as we went on. They belong to nativesof the hills, who come down in the dry season, and raise a crop on partsat other times flooded. While the crops are growing, large quantities offish are caught, chiefly _Clarias capensis_, and _Mugil Africanus_; theyare dried for sale or future consumption. 

As we ascended, we passed a deep stream about thirty yards wide, flowingin from a body of open water several miles broad. Numbers of men werebusy at different parts of it, filling their canoes with the lotus root, called _Nyika_, which, when boiled or roasted, resembles our chestnuts, and is extensively used in Africa as food. Out of this lagoon, and bythis stream, the chief part of the duckweed of the Shire flows. Thelagoon itself is called Nyanja ea Motope (Lake of Mud). It is also namedNyanja Pangono (Little Lake), while the elephant marsh goes by the nameof Nyanja Mukulu (Great Lake). It is evident from the shore line stillto be observed on the adjacent hills, that in ancient times these werereally lakes, and the traditional names thus preserved are only anotherevidence of the general desiccation which Africa has undergone. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Steamer in difficulties--Elephant hunting--Arrival atChibisa's--Search for Lake Nyassa--The Manganja country--Weavers andsmelters--Lake Pamalombe. 

Late in the afternoon of the first day's steaming, after we left thewooding-place, we called at the village of Chikanda-Kadze, a femalechief, to purchase rice for our men; but we were now in the blissfulregion where time is absolutely of no account, and where men may sit downand rest themselves when tired; so they requested us to wait till nextday, and they would then sell us some food. As our forty black men, however, had nothing to cook for supper, we were obliged to steam on toreach a village a few miles above. When we meet those who care notwhether we purchase or let it alone, or who think men ought only to be ina hurry when fleeing from an enemy, our ideas about time being money, andthe power of the purse, receives a shock. The state of eagercompetition, which in England wears out both mind and body, and makeslife bitter, is here happily unknown. The cultivated spots are mere dotscompared to the broad fields of rich soil which is never either grazed ortilled. Pity that the plenty in store for all, from our Father'sbountiful hands, is not enjoyed by more. 

The wretched little steamer could not carry all the hands we needed; so, to lighten her, we put some into the boats and towed them astern. In thedark, one of the boats was capsized; but all in it, except one poorfellow who could not swim, were picked up. His loss threw a gloom overus all, and added to the chagrin we often felt at having been soill-served in our sorry craft. 

Next day we arrived at the village of Mboma (16 degrees 56 minutes 30seconds S. ), where the people raised large quantities of rice, and wereeager traders; the rice was sold at wonderfully low rates, and we couldnot purchase a tithe of the food brought for sale. 

A native minstrel serenaded us in the evening, playing several quainttunes on a species of one stringed fiddle, accompanied by wild, but notunmusical songs. He told the Makololo that he intended to play all nightto induce us to give him a present. The nights being cold, thethermometer falling to 47 degrees, with occasional fogs, he was asked ifhe was not afraid of perishing from cold; but, with the genuine spirit ofan Italian organ-grinder, he replied, "Oh, no; I shall spend the nightwith my white comrades in the big canoe; I have often heard of the whitemen, but have never seen them till now, and I must sing and play well tothem. " A small piece of cloth, however, bought him off, and he movedaway in good humour. The water of the river was 70 degrees at sunrise, which was 23 degrees warmer than the air at the same time, and thiscaused fogs, which rose like steam off the river. When this is the casecold bathing in the mornings at this time of the year is improper, for, instead of a glow on coming out, one is apt to get a chill; the air beingso much colder than the water. 

A range of hills, commencing opposite Senna, comes to within two or threemiles of Mboma village, and then runs in a north-westerly direction; theprincipal hill is named Malawe; a number of villages stand on its tree-covered sides, and coal is found cropping out in the rocks. The countryimproves as we ascend, the rich valley becoming less swampy, and adornedwith a number of trees. 

Both banks are dotted with hippopotamus traps, over every track whichthese animals have made in going up out of the water to graze. Thehippopotamus feeds on grass alone, and, where there is any danger, onlyat night. Its enormous lips act like a mowing-machine, and form a pathof short-cropped grass as it feeds. We never saw it eat aquatic plantsor reeds. The tusks seem weapons of both offence and defence. Thehippopotamus trap consists of a beam five or six feet long, armed with aspear-head or hard-wood spike, covered with poison, and suspended to aforked pole by a cord, which, coming down to the path, is held by acatch, to be set free when the beast treads on it. Being wary brutes, they are still very numerous. One got frightened by the ship, as she wassteaming close to the bank. In its eager hurry to escape it rushed onshore, and ran directly under a trap, when down came the heavy beam onits back, driving the poisoned spear-head a foot deep into its flesh. Inits agony it plunged back into the river, to die in a few hours, andafterwards furnished a feast for the natives. The poison on the spear-head does not affect the meat, except the part around the wound, and thatis thrown away. In some places the descending beam is weighted withheavy stones, but here the hard heavy wood is sufficient. 

"She is leaking worse than ever forward, sir, and there is a foot ofwater in the hold, " was our first salutation on the morning of the 20th. But we have become accustomed to these things now; the cabin-floor isalways wet, and one is obliged to mop up the water many times a day, giving some countenance to the native idea that Englishmen live in or onthe water, and have no houses but ships. The cabin is now a favouritebreeding-place for mosquitoes, and we have to support both the ship-bredand shore-bred bloodsuckers, of which several species show us theirirritating attentions. A large brown sort, called by the Portuguese_mansos_ (tame), flies straight to its victim, and goes to work at once, as though it were an invited guest. Some of the small kinds carryuncommonly sharp lancets, and very potent poison. "What would theseinsects eat, if we did not pass this way?" becomes a natural question. 

The juices of plants, and decaying vegetable matter in the mud, probablyform the natural food of mosquitoes, and blood is not necessary for theirexistence. They appear so commonly at malarious spots, that theirpresence may be taken as a hint to man to be off to more healthylocalities. None appear on the high lands. On the low lands they swarmin myriads. The females alone are furnished with the biting apparatus, and their number appears to be out of all proportion in excess of themales. At anchor, on a still evening, they were excessively annoying;and the sooner we took refuge under our mosquito curtains, the better. The miserable and sleepless night that only one mosquito inside thecurtain can cause, is so well known, and has been so often described, that it is needless to describe it here. One soon learns, fromexperience, that to beat out the curtains thoroughly before enteringthem, so that not one of these pests can possibly be harboured within, isthe only safeguard against such severe trials to one's tranquillity andtemper. 

A few miles above Mboma we came again to the village (16 degrees 44minutes 30 seconds S. ) of the chief Tingane, the beat of whose war-drumscan speedily muster some hundreds of armed men. The bows and poisonedarrows here are of superior workmanship to those below. Mariano's slave-hunting parties stood in great awe of these barbed arrows, and long keptaloof from Tingane's villages. His people were friendly enough with usnow, and covered the banks with a variety of articles for sale. Themajestic mountain, Chipirone, to which we have given the name of MountClarendon, now looms in sight, and further to the N. W. The southern endof the grand Milanje range rises in the form of an unfinished sphinxlooking down on Lake Shirwa. The Ruo (16 degrees 31 minutes 0 secondsS. ) is said to have its source in the Milanje mountains, and flows to theS. W. , to join the Shire some distance above Tingane's. A short waybeyond the Ruo lies the Elephant marsh, or Nyanja Mukulu, which isfrequented by vast herds of these animals. We believe that we countedeight hundred elephants in sight at once. In the choice of such a stronghold, they have shown their usual sagacity, for no hunter can get nearthem through the swamps. They now keep far from the steamer; but, whenshe first came up, we steamed into the midst of a herd, and some wereshot from the ship's deck. A single lesson was sufficient to teach themthat the steamer was a thing to be avoided; and at the first glimpse theyare now off two or three miles to the midst of the marsh, which isfurrowed in every direction by wandering branches of the Shire. A fineyoung elephant was here caught alive, as he was climbing up the bank tofollow his retreating dam. When laid hold of, he screamed with so muchenergy that, to escape a visit from the enraged mother, we steamed off, and dragged him through the water by the proboscis. As the men wereholding his trunk over the gunwale, Monga, a brave Makololoelephant-hunter, rushed aft, and drew his knife across it in a sort offrenzy peculiar to the chase. The wound was skilfully sewn up, and theyoung animal soon became quite tame, but, unfortunately the breathingprevented the cut from healing, and he died in a few days from loss ofblood. Had he lived, and had we been able to bring him home, he wouldhave been the first _African_ elephant ever seen in England. The Africanmale elephant is from ten to a little over eleven feet in height, anddiffers from the Asiatic species more particularly in the convex shape ofhis forehead, and the enormous size of his ears. In Asia many of themales, and all the females, are without tusks, but in Africa both sexesare provided with these weapons. The enamel in the molar teeth isarranged differently in the two species. By an admirable provision, newteeth constantly come up at the part where in man the wisdom teethappear, and these push the others along, and out at the front end of thejaws, thus keeping the molars sound by renewal, till the animal attains avery great age. The tusks of animals from dry rocky countries are verymunch more dense and heavier than those from wet and marshy districts, but the latter attain much the larger size. 

The Shire marshes support prodigious numbers of many kinds of water-fowl. An hour at the mast-head unfolds novel views of life in an African marsh. Near the edge, and on the branches of some favourite tree, rest scores ofplotuses and cormorants, which stretch their snake-like necks, and inmute amazement turn one eye and then another towards the approachingmonster. By and-by the timid ones begin to fly off, or take "headers"into the stream; but a few of the bolder, or more composed, remain, onlytaking the precaution to spread their wings ready for instant flight. Thepretty ardetta (_Herodias bubulcus_), of a light yellow colour when atrest, but seemingly of a pure white when flying, takes wing, and sweepsacross the green grass in large numbers, often showing us where buffaloesand elephants are, by perching on their backs. Flocks of ducks, of whichthe kind called "Soriri" (_Dendrocygna personata_) is most abundant, being night feeders, meditate quietly by the small lagoons, untilstartled by the noise of the steam machinery. Pelicans glide over thewater, catching fish, while the Scopus (_Scopus umbretta_) and largeherons peer intently into pools. The large black and white spur-wingedgoose (a constant marauder of native gardens) springs up, and circlesround to find out what the disturbance can be, and then settles downagain with a splash. Hundreds of Linongolos (_Anastomus lamelligerus_)rise on the wing from the clumps of reeds, or low trees (the_Eschinomena_, from which pith hats are made), on which they build incolonies, and are speedily high in mid-air. Charming little red andyellow weavers (_Ploceidae_) remind one of butterflies, as they fly inand out of the tall grass, or hang to the mouths of their pendent nests, chattering briskly to their mates within. These weavers seem to have"cock nests, " built with only a roof, and a perch beneath, with a doorwayon each side. The natives say they are made to protect the bird from therain. Though her husband is very attentive, we have seen the hen birdtearing her mate's nest to pieces, but why we cannot tell. Kites andvultures are busy overhead, beating the ground for their repast ofcarrion; and the solemn-looking, stately-stepping Marabout, with a tastefor dead fish, or men, stalks slowly along the almost stagnant channels. Groups of men and boys are searching diligently in various places forlotus and other roots. Some are standing in canoes, on the weed-coveredponds, spearing fish, while others are punting over the smallintersecting streams, to examine their sunken fish-baskets. 

Towards evening, hundreds of pretty little hawks (_Erythropusvespertinus_) are seen flying in a southerly direction, and feeding ondragon-flies and locusts. They come, apparently, from resting on thepalm-trees during the heat of the day. Flocks of scissor-bills(_Rhyncops_) are then also on the wing, and in search of food, ploughingthe water with their lower mandibles, which are nearly half an inchlonger than the upper ones. 

At the north-eastern end of the marsh, and about three miles from theriver, commences a great forest of palm-trees (_Borassus AEthiopium_). Itextends many miles, and at one point comes close to the river. The greytrunks and green tops of this immense mass of trees give a pleasing toneof colour to the view. The mountain-range, which rises close behind thepalms, is generally of a cheerful green, and has many trees, with patchesof a lighter tint among them, as if spots of land had once beencultivated. The sharp angular rocks and dells on its sides have theappearance of a huge crystal broken; and this is so often the case inAfrica, that one can guess pretty nearly at sight whether a range is ofthe old crystalline rocks or not. The Borassus, though not anoil-bearing palm, is a useful tree. The fibrous pulp round the largenuts is of a sweet fruity taste, and is eaten by men and elephants. Thenatives bury the nuts until the kernels begin to sprout; when dug up andbroken, the inside resembles coarse potatoes, and is prized in times ofscarcity as nutritious food. During several months of the year, palm-wine, or sura, is obtained in large quantities; when fresh, it is apleasant drink, somewhat like champagne, and not at all intoxicating;though, after standing a few hours, it becomes highly so. Sticks, a footlong, are driven into notches in the hard outside of the tree--the insidebeing soft or hollow--to serve as a ladder; the top of the fruit-shoot iscut off, and the sap, pouring out at the fresh wound, is caught in anearthen pot, which is hung at the point. A thin slice is taken off theend, to open the pores, and make the juice flow every time the ownerascends to empty the pot. Temporary huts are erected in the forest, andmen and boys remain by their respective trees day and night; the nuts, fish, and wine, being their sole food. The Portuguese use the palm-wineas yeast, and it makes bread so light, that it melts in the mouth likefroth. 

Beyond the marsh the country is higher, and has a much larger population. 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 bymixing the earth, which is here highly saline, with water, in a pot witha 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, weconcluded that vast quantities must be made at these works. It is worthobserving that on soils like this, containing salt, the cotton is oflarger and finer staple than elsewhere. We saw large tracts of this richbrackish soil both in the Shire and Zambesi valleys, and hence, probably, sea-island cotton would do well; a single plant of it, reared by MajorSicard, flourished and produced the long staple and peculiar tinge ofthis celebrated variety, though planted only in the street at Tette; andthere also a salt efflorescence appears, probably from decomposition ofthe rock, off which the people scrape it for use. 

The large village of the chief, Mankokwe, occupies a site on the rightbank; 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 suspiciousdisposition, 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 theperpendicular bluff on which Chibisa's village stands; he had gone, withmost 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 menwere busy cleaning, sorting, spinning, and weaving cotton. This is acommon sight in nearly every village, and each family appears to have itspatch of cotton, as our own ancestors in Scotland had each his patch offlax. Near sunset an immense flock of the large species of horn-bill(_Buceros cristatus_) came here to roost on the great trees which skirtthe edge of the cliff. They leave early in the morning, often beforesunrise, for their feeding-places, coming and going in pairs. They areevidently of a loving disposition, and strongly attached to each other, the male always nestling close beside his mate. A fine male fell to theground, from fear, at the report of Dr. Kirk's gun; it was caught andkept on board; the female did not go off in the mornings to feed with theothers, but flew round the ship, anxiously trying, by her plaintivecalls, to induce her beloved one to follow her: she came again in theevenings to repeat the invitations. The poor disconsolate captive soonrefused to eat, and in five days died of grief, because he could not haveher company. No internal injury could be detected after death. 

Chibisa and his wife, with a natural show of parental feeling, had toldthe Doctor, on his previous visit, that a few years before some ofChisaka's men had kidnapped and sold their little daughter, and that shewas now a slave to the padre at Tette. On his return to Tette, theDoctor tried hard to ransom and restore the girl to her parents, andoffered twice the value of a slave; the padre seemed willing, but shecould not be found. This padre was better than the average men of thecountry; and, being always civil and obliging, would probably haverestored her gratuitously, but she had been sold, it might be to thedistant tribe Bazizulu, or he could not tell where. Custom had renderedhis feelings callous, and Chibisa had to be told that his child wouldnever return. It is this callous state of mind which leads some of ourown blood to quote Scripture in support of slavery. If we could affordto take a backward step in civilization, we might find men amongourselves who would in like manner prove Mormonism or any other enormityto be divine. 

We left the ship on the 28th of August, 1859, for the discovery of LakeNyassa. Our party numbered forty-two in all--four whites, thirty-sixMakololo, and two guides. We did not actually need so many, either forcarriage or defence; but took them because we believed that, human naturebeing everywhere the same, blacks are as ready as whites to takeadvantage of the weak, and are as civil and respectful to the powerful. We armed our men with muskets, which gave us influence, although it didnot add much to our strength, as most of the men had never drawn atrigger, and in any conflict would in all probability have been moredangerous to us than the enemy. 

Our path crossed the valley, in a north-easterly direction, up the courseof a beautiful flowing stream. Many of the gardens had excellent cottongrowing in them. An hour's march brought us to the foot of the Manganjahills, up which lay the toilsome road. The vegetation soon changed; aswe rose bamboos appeared, and new trees and plants were met with, whichgave such incessant employment to Dr. Kirk, that he travelled thedistance three times over. Remarkably fine trees, one of which has oil-yielding seeds, and belongs to the mahogany family, grow well in thehollows along the rivulet courses. The ascent became very fatiguing, andwe were glad of a rest. Looking back from an elevation of a thousandfeet, we beheld a lovely prospect. The eye takes in at a glance thevalley beneath, and the many windings of its silver stream Makubula, orKubvula, from the shady hill-side, where it emerges in foaming haste, towhere it slowly glides into the tranquil Shire; then the Shire itself isseen for many a mile above and below Chibisa's, and the great levelcountry beyond, with its numerous green woods; until the prospect, westand north-west, is bounded far away by masses of peaked and dome-shapedblue mountains, that fringe the highlands of the Maravi country. 

After a weary march we halted at Makolongwi, the village of Chitimba. Itstands in a woody hollow on the first of the three terraces of theManganja hills, and, like all other Manganja villages, is surrounded byan impenetrable hedge of poisonous euphorbia. This tree casts a deepshade, which would render it difficult for bowmen to take aim at thevillagers inside. The grass does not grow beneath it, and this may bethe reason why it is so universally used, for when dry the grass wouldreadily convey fire to the huts inside; moreover, the hedge acts as afender to all flying sparks. As strangers are wont to do, we sat downunder some fine trees near the entrance of the village. A couple ofmats, made of split reeds, were spread for the white men to sit on; andthe headman brought a seguati, or present, of a small goat and a basketof meal. The full value in beads and cotton cloth was handed to him inreturn. He measured the cloth, doubled it, and then measured that again. The beads were scrutinized; he had never seen beads of that colourbefore, and should like to consult with his comrades before acceptingthem, and this, after repeated examinations and much anxious talk, heconcluded to do. Meal and peas were then brought for sale. A fathom ofblue cotton cloth, a full dress for man or woman, was produced. OurMakololo headman, Sininyane, thinking a part of it was enough for themeal, was proceeding to tear it, when Chitimba remarked that it was apity to cut such a nice dress for his wife, he would rather bring moremeal. "All right, " said Sininyane; "but look, the cloth is very wide, sosee that the basket which carries the meal be wide too, and add a cock tomake the meal taste nicely. " A brisk trade sprang up at once, each beingeager to obtain as fine things as his neighbour, --and all were in goodhumour. Women and girls began to pound and grind meal, and men and boyschased the screaming fowls over the village, until they ran them down. Ina few hours the market was completely glutted with every sort of nativefood; the prices, however, rarely fell, as they could easily eat what wasnot sold. 

We slept under the trees, the air being pheasant, and no mosquitoes onthe hills. According to our usual plan of marching, by early dawn ourcamp was in motion. After a cup of coffee and a bit of biscuit we wereon the way. The air was deliciously cool, and the path a little easierthan that of yesterday. We passed a number of villages, occupying verypicturesque spots among the hills, and in a few hours gained the upperterrace, 3000 feet above the level of the sea. The plateau lies west ofthe Milanje mountains, and its north-eastern border slopes down to LakeShirwa. We were all charmed with the splendid country, and looked withnever-failing delight on its fertile plains, its numerous hills, andmajestic mountains. In some of the passes we saw bramble-berriesgrowing; and the many other flowers, though of great beauty, did notremind us of youth and of home like the ungainly thorny bramble-bushes. We were a week in crossing the highlands in a northerly direction; thenwe descended into the Upper Shire Valley, which is nearly 1200 feet abovethe level of the sea. This valley is wonderfully fertile, and supports alarge population. After leaving the somewhat flat-topped southernportion, the most prominent mountain of the Zomba range is Njongone, which has a fine stream running past its northern base. We were detainedat the end of the chain some days by one of our companions being laid upwith fever. One night we were suddenly aroused by buffaloes rushingclose by the sick-bed. We were encamped by a wood on the border of amarsh, but our patient soon recovered, notwithstanding the unfavourablesituation, and the poor accommodation. 

The Manganja country is delightfully well watered. The clear, cool, gushing streams are very numerous. Once we passed seven fine brooks anda spring in a single hour, and this, too, near the close of the dryseason. Mount Zomba, which is twenty miles long, and from 7000 to 8000feet high, has a beautiful stream flowing through a verdant valley on itssummit, and running away down into Lake Shirwa. The highlands are wellwooded, and many trees, admirable for their height and timber, grow onthe various watercourses. "Is this country good for cattle?" we inquiredof a Makololo herdsman, whose occupation had given him skill inpasturage. "Truly, " he replied, "do you not see abundance of thosegrasses which the cattle love, and get fat upon?" Yet the people havebut few goats, and fewer sheep. With the exception of an occasionalleopard, there are no beasts of prey to disturb domestic animals. Wool-sheep would, without doubt, thrive on these highlands. Part of the UpperShire valley has a lady paramount, named Nyango; and in her dominionswomen rank higher and receive more respectful treatment than theirsisters on the hills. 

The hill chief, Mongazi, called his wife to take charge of a present wehad given him. She dropped down on her knees, clapping her hands inreverence, before and after receiving our presents from his lordly hands. It was painful to see the abject manner in which the women of the hilltribes knelt beside the path as we passed; but a great difference tookplace when we got into Nyango's country. 

On entering a village, we proceeded, as all strangers do, at once to theBoalo: mats of split reeds or bamboo were usually spread for us to siton. Our guides then told the men who might be there, who we were, whencewe had come, whither we wanted to go, and what were our objects. Thisinformation was duly carried to the chief, who, if a sensible man, cameat once; but, if he happened to be timid and suspicious, waited until hehad used divination, and his warriors had time to come in from outlyinghamlets. When he makes his appearance, all the people begin to claptheir hands in unison, and continue doing so till he sits down oppositeto us. His counsellors take their places beside him. He makes a remarkor two, and is then silent for a few seconds. Our guides then sit downin front of the chief and his counsellors, and both parties lean forward, looking earnestly at each other; the chief repeats a word, such as"Ambuiatu" (our Father, or master)--or "moio" (life), and all clap theirhands. Another word is followed by two claps, a third by still moreclapping, when each touches the ground with both hands placed together. Then all rise and lean forward with measured clap, and sit down againwith clap, clap, clap, fainter, and still fainter, till the last diesaway, or is brought to an end by a smart loud clap from the chief. Theykeep perfect time in this species of court etiquette. Our guides nowtell the chief, often in blank verse, all they have already told hispeople, with the addition perhaps of their own suspicions of thevisitors. He asks some questions, and then converses with us through theguides. Direct communication between the chief and the head of thestranger party is not customary. In approaching they often ask who isthe spokesman, and the spokesman of the chief addresses the personindicated exclusively. There is no lack of punctilious good manners. Theaccustomed presents are exchanged with civil ceremoniousness; until ourmen, wearied and hungry, call out, "English do not buy slaves, they buyfood, " and then the people bring meal, maize, fowls, batatas, yams, beans, beer, for sale. 

The Manganja are an industrious race; and in addition to working in iron, cotton, and basket-making, they cultivate the soil extensively. All thepeople of a village turn out to labour in the fields. It is no uncommonthing to see men, women, and children hard at work, with the baby lyingclose by beneath a shady bush. When a new piece of woodland is to becleared, they proceed exactly as farmers do in America. The trees arecut down with their little axes of soft native iron; trunks and branchesare piled up and burnt, and the ashes spread on the soil. The corn isplanted among the standing stumps which are left to rot. If grass landis to be brought under cultivation, as much tall grass as the labourercan conveniently lay hold of is collected together and tied into a knot. He then strikes his hoe round the tufts to sever the roots, and leavingall standing, proceeds until the whole ground assumes the appearance of afield covered with little shocks of corn in harvest. A short time beforethe rains begin, these grass shocks are collected in small heaps, coveredwith earth, and burnt, the ashes and burnt soil being used to fertilizethe ground. Large crops of the mapira, or Egyptian dura (_Holcussorghum_), are raised, with millet, beans, and ground-nuts; also patchesof yams, rice, pumpkins, cucumbers, cassava, sweet potatoes, tobacco, andhemp, or bang (_Cannabis setiva_). Maize is grown all the year round. Cotton is cultivated at almost every village. Three varieties of cottonhave been found in the country, namely, two foreign and one native. The"tonje manga, " or foreign cotton, the name showing that it has beenintroduced, is of excellent quality, and considered at Manchester to benearly equal to the best New Orleans. It is perennial, but requiresreplanting once in three years. A considerable amount of this variety isgrown in the Upper and Lower Shire valleys. Every family of anyimportance owns a cotton patch which, from the entire absence of weeds, seemed to be carefully cultivated. Most were small, none seen on thisjourney exceeding half an acre; but on the former trip some were observedof more than twice that size. 

The "tonje cadja, " or indigenous cotton, is of shorter staple, and feelsin the hand like wool. This kind has to be planted every season in thehighlands; yet, because it makes stronger cloth, many of the peopleprefer it to the foreign cotton; the third variety is not found here. Itwas remarked to a number of men near the Shire Lakelet, a little furtheron towards Nyassa, "You should plant plenty of cotton, and probably theEnglish will come and buy it. " "Truly, " replied a far-travelled Babisatrader to his fellows, "the country is full of cotton, and if thesepeople come to buy they will enrich us. " Our own observation on thecotton cultivated convinced us that this was no empty flourish, but afact. Everywhere we met with it, and scarcely ever entered a villagewithout finding a number of men cleaning, spinning, and weaving. It isfirst carefully separated from the seed by the fingers, or by an ironroller, on a little block of wood, and rove out into long soft bandswithout twist. Then it receives its first twist on the spindle, andbecomes about the thickness of coarse candlewick; after being taken offand wound into a large ball, it is given the final hard twist, and spuninto a firm cop on the spindle again: all the processes being painfullyslow. 

Iron ore is dug out of the hills, and its manufacture is the staple tradeof the southern highlands. Each village has its smelting-house, itscharcoal-burners, and blacksmiths. They make good axes, spears, needles, arrowheads, bracelets and anklets, which, considering the entire absenceof machinery, are sold at surprisingly low rates; a hoe over two poundsin weight is exchanged for calico of about the value of fourpence. Invillages near Lake Shirwa and elsewhere, the inhabitants enter prettylargely into the manufacture of crockery, or pottery, making by hand allsorts of cooking, water, and grain pots, which they ornament withplumbago found in the hills. Some find employment in weaving neatbaskets from split bamboos, and others collect the fibre of the buaze, which grows abundantly on the hills, and make it into fish-nets. Thesethey either use themselves, or exchange with the fishermen on the riveror lakes for dried fish and salt. A great deal of native trade iscarried on between the villages, by means of barter in tobacco, salt, dried fish, skins, and iron. Many of the men are intelligent-looking, with well-shaped heads, agreeable faces, and high foreheads. We soonlearned to forget colour, and we frequently saw countenances resemblingthose of white people we had known in England, which brought back thelooks of forgotten ones vividly before the mind. The men take a gooddeal of pride in the arrangement of their hair; the varieties of styleare endless. One trains his long locks till they take the admired formof the buffalo's horns; others prefer to let their hair hang in a thickcoil down their backs, like that animal's tail; while another wears it intwisted cords, which, stiffened by fillets of the inner bark of a treewound spirally round each curl, radiate from the head in all directions. Some have it hanging all round the shoulders in large masses; othersshave it off altogether. Many shave part of it into ornamental figures, in which the fancy of the barber crops out conspicuously. About as manydandies run to seed among the blacks as among the whites. The Man ganjaadorn their bodies extravagantly, wearing rings on their fingers andthumbs, besides throatlets, bracelets, and anklets of brass, copper, oriron. But the most wonderful of ornaments, if such it may be called, isthe pelele, or upper-lip ring of the women. The middle of the upper lipof the girls is pierced close to the septum of the nose, and a small pininserted to prevent the puncture closing up. After it has healed, thepin is taken out and a larger one is pressed into its place, and so onsuccessively for weeks, and months, and years. The process of increasingthe size of the lip goes on till its capacity becomes so great that aring of two inches diameter can be introduced with ease. All thehighland women wear the pelele, and it is common on the Upper and LowerShire. The poorer classes make them of hollow or of solid bamboo, butthe wealthier of ivory or tin. The tin pelele is often made in the formof a small dish. The ivory one is not unlike a napkin-ring. No womanever appears in public without the pelele, except in times of mourningfor the dead. It is frightfully ugly to see the upper lip projecting twoinches beyond the tip of the nose. When an old wearer of a hollow bambooring smiles, by the action of the muscles of the cheeks, the ring and lipoutside it are dragged back and thrown above the eyebrows. The nose isseen through the middle of the ring, amid the exposed teeth show howcarefully they have been chipped to look like those of a cat orcrocodile. The pelele of an old lady, Chikanda Kadze, a chieftainess, about twenty miles north of Morambala, hung down below her chin, with, ofcourse, a piece of the upper lip around its border. The labial letterscannot be properly pronounced, but the under lip has to do its best forthem, against the upper teeth and gum. Tell them it makes them ugly;they had better throw it away; they reply, "Kodi! Really! it is thefashion. " How this hideous fashion originated is an enigma. Can thicklips ever have been thought beautiful, and this mode of artificialenlargement resorted to in consequence? The constant twiddling of thepelele with the tongue by the younger women suggested the irreverent ideathat it might have been invented to give safe employment to that littlemember. "Why do the women wear these things?" we inquired of the oldchief, Chinsunse. Evidently surprised at such a stupid question, hereplied, "For beauty, to be sure! Men have beards and whiskers; womenhave none; and what kind of creature would a woman be without whiskers, and without the pelele? She would have a mouth like a man, and no beard;ha! ha! ha!" Afterwards on the Rovuma, we found men wearing the pelele, as well as women. An idea suggested itself on seeing the effects of theslight but constant pressure exerted on the upper gum and front teeth, ofwhich our medical brethren will judge the value. In many cases the upperfront teeth, instead of the natural curve outwards, which the rowpresents, had been pressed so as to appear as if the line of alveoli inwhich they were planted had an inward curve. As this was produced by theslight pressure of the pelele backwards, persons with too prominent teethmight by slight, but long-continued pressure, by some appliance only aselastic as the lip, have the upper gum and teeth depressed, especially inyouth, more easily than is usually imagined. The pressure should beapplied to the upper gum more than to the teeth. 

The Manganja are not a sober people: they brew large quantities of beer, and like it well. Having no hops, or other means of checkingfermentation, they are obliged to drink the whole brew in a few days, orit becomes unfit for use. Great merry-makings take place on theseoccasions, and drinking, drumming, and dancing continue day and night, till the beer is gone. In crossing the hills we sometimes found wholevillages enjoying this kind of mirth. The veteran traveller of the partyremarked, that he had not seen so much drunkenness during all the sixteenyears he had spent in Africa. As we entered a village one afternoon, nota man was to be seen; but some women were drinking beer under a tree. Ina few moments the native doctor, one of the innocents, "nobody's enemybut his own, " staggered out of a hut, with his cupping-horn dangling fromhis neck, and began to scold us for a breach of etiquette. "Is this theway to come into a man's village, without sending him word that you arecoming?" Our men soon pacified the fuddled but good-humoured medico, who, entering his beer-cellar, called on two of them to help him to carryout a huge pot of beer, which he generously presented to us. While the"medical practitioner" was thus hospitably employed, the chief awoke in afright, and shouted to the women to run away, or they would all bekilled. The ladies laughed at the idea of their being able to run away, and remained beside the beer-pots. We selected a spot for our camp, ourmen cooked the dinner as usual, and we were quietly eating it, whenscores of armed men, streaming with perspiration, came pouring into thevillage. They looked at us, then at each other, and turning to the chiefupbraided him for so needlessly sending for them. "These people arepeaceable; they do not hurt you; you are killed with beer:" so saying, they returned to their homes. 

Native beer has a pinkish colour, and the consistency of gruel. Thegrain is made to vegetate, dried in the sun, pounded into meal, andgently boiled. When only a day or two old, the beer is sweet, with aslight degree of acidity, which renders it a most grateful beverage in ahot climate, or when fever begets a sore craving for acid drinks. Asingle draught of it satisfies this craving at once. Only by deep andlong-continued potations can intoxication be produced: the grain being ina minutely divided state, it is a good way of consuming it, and thedecoction is very nutritious. At Tette a measure of beer is exchangedfor an equal-sized pot full of grain. A present of this beer, sorefreshing to our dark comrades, was brought to us in nearly everyvillage. Beer-drinking does not appear to produce any disease, or toshorten life on the hills. Never before did we see so many old, grey-headed men and women; leaning on their staves they came with the othersto see the white men. The aged chief, Muata Manga, could hardly havebeen less than ninety years of age; his venerable appearance struck theMakololo. "He is an old man, " said they, "a very old man; his skin hangsin wrinkles, just like that on elephants' hips. " "Did you never, " he wasasked, "have a fit of travelling come over you; a desire to see otherlands and people?" No, he had never felt that, and had never been farfrom home in his life. For long life they are not indebted to frequentablutions. An old man told us that he remembered to have washed once inhis life, but it was so long since that he had forgotten how it felt. "Why do you wash?" asked Chinsunse's women of the Makololo; "our mennever do. "

The superstitious ordeal, by drinking the poisonous muave, obtains credithere; and when a person is suspected of crime, this ordeal is resortedto. If the stomach rejects the poison, the accused is pronouncedinnocent; but if it is retained, guilt is believed to be demonstrated. Their faith is so firm in its discriminating power, that the supposedcriminal offers of his own accord to drink it, and even chiefs are notexempted. Chibisa, relying on its efficacy, drank it several times, inorder to vindicate his character. When asserting that all his wars hadbeen just, it was hinted that, as every chief had the same tale ofinnocence to tell, we ought to suspend our judgment. "If you doubt myword, " said he, "give me the muave to drink. " A chief at the foot ofMount Zomba successfully went through the ordeal the day we reached hisvillage; and his people manifested their joy at his deliverance bydrinking beer, dancing, and drumming for two days and nights. It ispossible that the native doctor, who mixes the ingredients of thepoisoned bowl, may be able to save those whom he considers innocent; butit is difficult to get the natives to speak about the matter, and no oneis willing to tell what the muave poison consists of. We have been showntrees said to be used, but had always reason to doubt the accuracy of ourinformants. We once found a tree in a village, with many pieces of thebark chipped off, closely allied to the Tangena or Tanghina, the ordealpoison tree of Madagascar; but we could not ascertain any particularsabout it. Death is inflicted on those found guilty of witchcraft, by themuave. 

The women wail for the dead two days. Seated on the ground they chant afew plaintive words, and end each verse with the prolonged sound of a--a, or o--o, or ea-ea-ea--a. Whatever beer is in the house of the deceased, is poured out on the ground with the meal, and all cooking and water potsare broken, as being of no further use. Both men and women wear signs ofmourning for their dead relatives. These consist of narrow strips of thepalm-leaf wound round the head, the arms, legs, neck, and breasts, andworn till they drop off from decay. They believe in the existence of asupreme being, called Mpambe, and also Morungo, and in a future state. "We live only a few days here, " said old Chinsunse, "but we live againafter death: we do not know where, or in what condition, or with whatcompanions, for the dead never return to tell us. Sometimes the dead docome back, and appear to us in dreams; but they never speak nor tell uswhere they have gone, nor how they fare. "

CHAPTER IV. 

The Upper Shire--Discovery of Lake Nyassa--Distressing exploration--Returnto Zambesi--Unpleasant visitors--Start for Sekeletu's Country in theinterior. 

Our path followed the Shire above the cataracts, which is now a broaddeep river, with but little current. It expands in one place into alakelet, called Pamalombe, full of fine fish, and ten or twelve mileslong by five or six in breadth. Its banks are low, and a dense wall ofpapyrus encircles it. On its western shore rises a range of hillsrunning north. On reaching the village of the chief Muana-Moesi, andabout a day's march distant from Nyassa, we were told that no lake hadever been heard of there; that the River Shire stretched on as we saw itnow to a distance of "two months, " and then came out from betweenperpendicular rocks, which towered almost to the skies. Our men lookedblank at this piece of news, and said, "Let us go back to the ship, it isof no use trying to find the lake. " "We shall go and see those wonderfulrocks at any rate, " said the Doctor. "And when you see them, " repliedMasakasa, "you will just want to see something else. But there _is_ alake, " rejoined Masakasa, "for all their denying it, for it is down in abook. " Masakasa, having unbounded faith in whatever was in a book, wentand scolded the natives for telling him an untruth. "There is a lake, "said he, "for how could the white men know about it in a book if it didnot exist?" They then admitted that there was a lake a few miles off. Subsequent inquiries make it probable that the story of the"perpendicular rocks" may have had reference to a fissure, known to bothnatives and Arabs, in the north-eastern portion of the lake. The wallsrise so high that the path along the bottom is said to be underground. Itis probably a crack similar to that which made the Victoria Falls, andformed the Shire Valley. 

The chief brought a small present of meal in the evening, and sat with usfor a few minutes. On leaving us he said that he wished we might sleepwell. Scarce had he gone, when a wild sad cry arose from the river, followed by the shrieking of women. A crocodile had carried off hisprincipal wife, as she was bathing. The Makololo snatched up their arms, and rushed to the bank, but it was too late, she was gone. The wailingof the women continued all night, and next morning we met others comingto the village to join in the general mourning. Their grief wasevidently heartfelt, as we saw the tears coursing down their cheeks. Inreporting this misfortune to his neighbours, Muana-Moesi said, "thatwhite men came to his village; washed themselves at the place where hiswife drew water and bathed; rubbed themselves with a white medicine(soap); and his wife, having gone to bathe afterwards, was taken by acrocodile; he did not know whether in consequence of the medicine used ornot. " This we could not find fault with. On our return we were viewedwith awe, and all the men fled at our approach; the women remained; andthis elicited the remark from our men, "The women have the advantage ofmen, in not needing to dread the spear. " The practice of bathing, whichour first contact with Chinsunse's people led us to believe was unknownto the natives, we afterwards found to be common in other parts of theManganja country. 

We discovered Lake Nyassa a little before noon of the 16th September, 1859. Its southern end is in 14 degrees 25 minutes S. Lat. , and 35degrees 30 minutes E. Long. At this point the valley is about twelvemiles wide. There are hills on both sides of the lake, but the haze fromburning grass prevented us at the time from seeing far. A long timeafter our return from Nyassa, we received a letter from Captain R. B. Oldfield, R. N. , then commanding H. M. S. "Lyra, " with the information thatDr. Roscher, an enterprising German who unfortunately lost his life inhis zeal for exploration, had also reached the Lake, but on the 19thNovember following our discovery; and on his arrival had been informed bythe natives that a party of white men were at the southern extremity. Oncomparing dates (16th September and 19th November) we were about twomonths before Dr. Roscher. 

It is not known where Dr. Roscher first saw its waters; as the exactposition of Nusseewa on the borders of the Lake, where he lived sometime, is unknown. He was three days north-east of Nusseewa, and on theArab road back to the usual crossing-place of the Rovuma, when he wasmurdered. The murderers were seized by one of the chiefs, sent toZanzibar, and executed. He is said to have kept his discoveries tohimself, with the intention of publishing in Europe the whole at once, ina splendid book of travels. 

The chief of the village near the confluence of the Lake and River Shire, an old man, called Mosauka, hearing that we were sitting under a tree, came and kindly invited us to his village. He took us to a magnificentbanyan-tree, of which he seemed proud. The roots had been trained downto the ground into the form of a gigantic arm-chair, without the seat. Four of us slept in the space betwixt its arms. Mosauka brought us apresent of a goat and basket of meal "to comfort our hearts. " He told usthat a large slave party, led by Arabs, were encamped close by. They hadbeen up to Cazembe's country the past year, and were on their way back, with plenty of slaves, ivory, and malachite. In a few minutes half adozen of the leaders came over to see us. They were armed with longmuskets, and, to our mind, were a villanous-looking lot. They evidentlythought the same of us, for they offered several young children for sale, but, when told that we were English, showed signs of fear, and decampedduring the night. On our return to the Kongone, we found that H. M. S. "Lynx" had caught some of these very slaves in a dhow; for a woman toldus she first saw us at Mosauka's, and that the Arabs had fled for fear ofan _uncanny_ sort of Basungu. 

This is one of the great slave-paths from the interior, others cross theShire a little below, and some on the lake itself. We might havereleased these slaves but did not know what to do with them afterwards. On meeting men, led in slave-sticks, the Doctor had to bear thereproaches of the Makololo, who never slave, "Ay, you call us bad, butare we yellow-hearted, like these fellows--why won't you let us chokethem?" To liberate and leave them, would have done but little good, asthe people of the surrounding villages would soon have seized them, andhave sold them again into slavery. The Manganja chiefs sell their ownpeople, for we met Ajawa and slave-dealers in several highland villages, who had certainly been encouraged to come among them for slaves. Thechiefs always seemed ashamed of the traffic, and tried to excusethemselves. "We do not sell many, and only those who have committedcrimes. " As a rule the regular trade is supplied by the low and criminalclasses, and hence the ugliness of slaves. Others are probably soldbesides criminals, as on the accusation of witchcraft. Friendlessorphans also sometimes disappear suddenly, and no one inquires what hasbecome of them. The temptation to sell their people is peculiarly great, as there is but little ivory on the hills, and often the chief hasnothing but human flesh with which to buy foreign goods. The Ajawa offercloth, brass rings, pottery, and sometimes handsome young women, andagree to take the trouble of carrying off by night all those whom thechief may point out to them. They give four yards of cotton cloth for aman, three for a woman, and two for a boy or girl, to be taken to thePortuguese at Mozambique, Iboe, and Quillimane. 

The Manganja were more suspicious and less hospitable than the tribes onthe Zambesi. They were slow to believe that our object in coming intotheir country was really what we professed it to be. They naturallyjudge us by the motives which govern themselves. A chief in the UpperShire Valley, whose scared looks led our men to christen him Kitlabolawa(I shall be killed), remarked that parties had come before, with asplausible a story as ours, and, after a few days, had jumped up andcarried off a number of his people as slaves. We were not allowed toenter some of the villages in the valley, nor would the inhabitants evensell us food; Zimika's men, for instance, stood at the entrance of theeuphorbia hedge, and declared we should not pass in. We sat down under atree close by. A young fellow made an angry oration, dancing from sideto side with his bow and poisoned arrows, and gesticulating fiercely inour faces. He was stopped in the middle of his harangue by an old man, who ordered him to sit down, and not talk to strangers in that way; heobeyed reluctantly, scowling defiance, and thrusting out his large lipsvery significantly. The women were observed leaving the village; and, suspecting that mischief might ensue, we proceeded on our journey, to thegreat disgust of our men. They were very angry with the natives fortheir want of hospitality to strangers, and with us, because we would notallow them to give "the things a thrashing. " "This is what comes ofgoing with white men, " they growled out; "had we been with our own chief, we should have eaten their goats to-night, and had some of themselves tocarry the bundles for us to-morrow. " On our return by a path which lefthis village on our right, Zimika sent to apologize, saying that "he wasill, and in another village at the time; it was not by his orders we weresent away; his men did not know that we were a party wishing the land todwell in peace. "

We were not able, when hastening back to the men left in the ship, toremain in the villages belonging to this chief; but the people came afterus with things for sale, and invited us to stop, and spend the night withthem, urging, "Are we to have it said that white people passed throughour country and we did not see them?" We rested by a rivulet to gratifythese sight-seers. We appear to them to be red rather than white; and, though light colour is admired among themselves, our clothing renders usuncouth in aspect. Blue eyes appear savage, and a red beard hideous. From the numbers of aged persons we saw on the highlands, and theincrease of mental and physical vigour we experienced on our ascent fromthe lowlands, we inferred that the climate was salubrious, and that ourcountrymen might there enjoy good health, and also be of signal benefit, by leading the multitude of industrious inhabitants to cultivate cotton, buaze, sugar, and other valuable produce, to exchange for goods ofEuropean manufacture; at the same time teaching them, by precept andexample, the great truths of our Holy Religion. 

Our stay at the Lake was necessarily short. We had found that the bestplan for allaying any suspicions, that might arise in the minds of apeople accustomed only to slave-traders, was to pay a hasty visit, andthen leave for a while, and allow the conviction to form among the peoplethat, though our course of action was so different from that of others, we were not dangerous, but rather disposed to be friendly. We had also aparty at the vessel, and any indiscretion on their part might have provedfatal to the character of the Expedition. 

The trade of Cazembe and Katanga's country, and of other parts of theinterior, crosses Nyassa and the Shire, on its way to the Arab port, Kilwa, and the Portuguese ports of Iboe and Mozambique. At present, slaves, ivory, malachite, and copper ornaments, are the only articles ofcommerce. According to information collected by Colonel Rigby atZanzibar, and from other sources, nearly all the slaves shipped from theabove-mentioned ports come from the Nyassa district. By means of a smallsteamer, purchasing the ivory of the Lake and River above the cataracts, which together have a shore-line of at least 600 miles, the slave-tradein this quarter would be rendered unprofitable, --for it is only by theivory being carried by the slaves, that the latter do not eat up all theprofits of a trip. An influence would be exerted over an enormous areaof country, for the Mazitu about the north end of the Lake will not allowslave-traders to pass round that way through their country. They wouldbe most efficient allies to the English, and might themselves bebenefited by more intercourse. As things are now, the native traders inivory and malachite have to submit to heavy exactions; and if we couldgive them the same prices which they at present get after carrying theirmerchandise 300 miles beyond this to the Coast, it might induce them toreturn without going further. It is only by cutting off the supplies inthe interior, that we can crush the slave-trade on the Coast. The planproposed would stop the slave-trade from the Zambesi on one side andKilwa on the other; and would leave, beyond this tract, only thePortuguese port of Inhambane on the south, and a portion of the Sultan ofZanzibar's dominion on the north, for our cruisers to look after. TheLake people grow abundance of cotton for their own consumption, and cansell it for a penny a pound or even less. Water-carriage exists by theShire and Zambesi all the way to England, with the single exception of aportage of about thirty-five miles past the Murchison Cataracts, alongwhich a road of less than forty miles could be made at a triflingexpense; and it seems feasible that a legitimate and thriving trademight, in a short time, take the place of the present unlawful traffic. 

Colonel Rigby, Captains Wilson, Oldfield, and Chapman, and all the mostintelligent officers on the Coast, were unanimous in the belief, that onesmall vessel on the Lake would have decidedly more influence, and do moregood in suppressing the slave-trade, than half a dozen men-of-war on theocean. By judicious operations, therefore, on a small scale inland, little expense would be incurred, and the English slave-trade policy onthe East would have the same fair chance of success, as on the WestCoast. 

After a land-journey of forty days, we returned to the ship on the 6th ofOctober, 1859, in a somewhat exhausted condition, arising more from asort of poisoning, than from the usual fatigue of travel. We had taken alittle mulligatawney paste, for making soup, in case of want of time tocook other food. Late one afternoon, at the end of an unusually longmarch, we reached Mikena, near the base of Mount Njongone to the north ofZomba, and the cook was directed to use a couple of spoonfuls of thepaste; but, instead of doing so, he put in the whole potful. The souptasted rather hot, but we added boiled rice to it, and, being veryhungry, partook freely of it; and, in consequence of the overdose, wewere delayed several days in severe suffering, and some of the party didnot recover till after our return to the ship. Our illness may partlyhave arisen from another cause. One kind of cassava (_Jatropha maligna_)is known to be, in its raw state, poisonous, but by boiling it carefullyin two waters, which must be thrown off, the poison is extracted and thecassava rendered fit for food. The poisonous sort is easily known byraising a bit of the bark of the root, and putting the tongue to it. Abitter taste shows poison, but it is probable that even the sweet kindcontains an injurious principle. The sap, which, like that of ourpotatoes, is injurious as an article of food, is used in the "Pepper-pot"of the West Indies, under the name of "Cassereep, " as a perfectpreservative of meat. This juice put into an earthen vessel with alittle water and Chili pepper is said to keep meat, that is immersed init, good for a great length of time; even for years. No iron or steelmust touch the mixture, or it will become sour. This "Pepper-pot, " ofwhich we first heard from the late Archbishop Whately, is a mosteconomical meat-safe in a hot climate; any beef, mutton, pork, or fowlthat may be left at dinner, if put into the mixture and a little freshcassereep added, keeps perfectly, though otherwise the heat of theclimate or flies would spoil it. Our cook, however, boiled the cassavaroot as he was in the habit of cooking meat, namely, by filling the potwith it, and then pouring in water, which he allowed to stand on the fireuntil it had become absorbed and boiled away. This method did not expelthe poisonous properties of the root, or render it wholesome; for, notwithstanding our systematic caution in purchasing only the harmlesssort, we suffered daily from its effects, and it was only just before theend of our trip that this pernicious mode of boiling it was discovered byus. 

In ascending 3000 feet from the lowlands to the highlands, or on reachingthe low valley of the Shire from the higher grounds, the change ofclimate was very marked. The heat was oppressive below, the thermometerstanding at from 84 degrees to 103 degrees in the shade; and our spiritswere as dull and languid as they had been exhilarated on the heights in atemperature cooler by some 20 degrees. The water of the river wassometimes 84 degrees or higher, whilst that we had been drinking in thehill streams was only 65 degrees. 

It was found necessary to send two of our number across from the Shire toTette; and Dr. Kirk, with guides from Chibisa, and accompanied by Mr. Rae, the engineer, accomplished the journey. We had found the country tothe north and east so very well watered, that no difficulty wasanticipated in this respect in a march of less than a hundred miles; buton this occasion our friends suffered severely. The little water to behad at this time of the year, by digging in the beds of dry watercourses, was so brackish as to increase thirst--some of the natives indeed weremaking salt from it; and when at long intervals a less brackish supplywas found, it was nauseous and muddy from the frequent visits of largegame. The tsetse abounded. The country was level, and large tracts ofit covered with mopane forest, the leaves of which afford but scantyshade to the baked earth, so that scarcely any grass grows upon it. Thesun was so hot, that the men frequently jumped from the path, in the vainhope of cooling, for a moment, their scorched feet under the almostshadeless bushes; and the native who carried the provision of salt porkgot lost, and came into Tette two days after the rest of the party, withnothing but the fibre of the meat left, the fat, melted by the blazingsun, having all run down his back. This path was soon made a highway forslaving parties by Captain Raposo, the Commandant. The journey nearlykilled our two active young friends; and what the slaves must have sincesuffered on it no one can conceive; but slaving probably can never beconducted without enormous suffering and loss of life. 

Mankokwe now sent a message to say that he wished us to stop at hisvillage on our way down. He came on board on our arrival there with ahandsome present, and said that his young people had dissuaded him fromvisiting us before; but now he was determined to see what every one elsewas seeing. A bald square-headed man, who had been his Prime Ministerwhen we came up, was now out of office, and another old man, who hadtaken his place accompanied the chief. In passing the Elephant Marsh, wesaw nine large herds of elephants; they sometimes formed a line two mileslong. 

On the 2nd of November we anchored off Shamoara, and sent the boat toSenna for biscuit and other provisions. Senhor Ferrao, with his wontedgenerosity, gave us a present of a bullock, which he sent to us in acanoe. Wishing to know if a second bullock would be acceptable to us, heconsulted his Portuguese and English dictionary, and asked the sailor incharge if he would take _another_; but Jack, mistaking the Portuguesepronunciation of the letter h, replied, "Oh no, sir, thank you, I don'twant an _otter_ in the boat, they are such terrible biters!"

We had to ground the vessel on a shallow sandbank every night; she leakedso fast, that in deep water she would have sunk, and the pump had to beworked all day to keep her afloat. Heavy rains fell daily, producing theusual injurious effects in the cabin; and, unable to wait any longer forour associates, who had gone overland from the Shire to Tette, we randown the Kongone and beached her for repairs. Her Majesty's ship "Lynx, "Lieut. Berkeley commanding, called shortly afterwards with supplies; thebar, which had been perfectly smooth for some time before, became ratherrough just before her arrival, so that it was two or three days beforeshe could communicate with us. Two of her boats tried to come in on thesecond day, and one of them, mistaking the passage, capsized in the heavybreakers abreast of the island. Mr. Hunt, gunner, the officer in chargeof the second boat, behaved nobly, and by his skilful and gallant conductsucceeded in rescuing every one of the first boat's crew. Of course thethings that they were bringing to us were lost, but we were thankful thatall the men were saved. The loss of the mail-bags, containing Governmentdespatches and our friends' letters for the past year, was felt severely, as we were on the point of starting on an expedition into the interior, which might require eight or nine months; and twenty months is a wearytime to be without news of friends and family. In the repairing of ourcrazy craft, we received kind and efficient aid from Lieutenant Berkeley, and we were enabled to leave for Tette on December 16th. 

We had now frequent rains, and the river rose considerably; our progressup the stream was distressingly slow, and it was not until the 2nd ofFebruary, 1860, that we reached Tette. Mr. Thornton returned on the sameday from a geological tour, by which some Portuguese expected that afabulous silver-mine would be rediscovered. The tradition in the countryis, that the Jesuits formerly knew and worked a precious lode at Chicova. Mr. Thornton had gone beyond Zumbo, in company with a trader of colour;he soon after this left the Zambesi and, joining the expedition of theBaron van der Decken, explored the snow mountain Kilimanjaro, north-westof Zanzibar. Mr. Thornton's companion, the trader, brought back muchivory, having found it both abundant and cheap. He was obliged, however, to pay heavy fines to the Banyai and other tribes, in the country whichis coolly claimed in Europe as Portuguese. During this trip of sixmouths 200 pieces of cotton cloth of sixteen yards each, besides beadsand brass wire, were paid to the different chiefs, for leave to passthrough their country. In addition to these sufficiently weightyexactions, the natives of _this dominion_ have got into the habit ofimposing fines for alleged milandos, or crimes, which the traders' menmay have unwittingly committed. The merchants, however, submit ratherthan run the risk of fighting. 

The general monotony of existence at Tette is sometimes relieved by anoccasional death or wedding. When the deceased is a person ofconsequence, the quantity of gunpowder his slaves are allowed to expendis enormous. The expense may, in proportion to their means, resemblethat incurred by foolishly gaudy funerals in England. When at Tette, wealways joined with sympathizing hearts in aiding, by our presence at thelast rites, to soothe the sorrows of the surviving relatives. We aresure that they would have done the same to us had we been the mourners. We never had to complain of want of hospitality. Indeed, the greatkindness shown by many of whom we have often spoken, will never beeffaced from our memory till our dying day. When we speak of theirfailings it is in sorrow, not in anger. Their trading in slaves is anenormous mistake. Their Government places them in a false position bycutting them off from the rest of the world; and of this they alwaysspeak with a bitterness which, were it heard, might alter the tone of thestatesmen of Lisbon. But here there is no press, no booksellers' shops, and scarcely a schoolmaster. Had we been born in similar untowardcircumstances--we tremble to think of it!

The weddings are celebrated with as much jollity as weddings areanywhere. We witnessed one in the house of our friend the Padre. Itbeing the marriage of his goddaughter, he kindly invited us to bepartakers in his joy; and we there became acquainted with old DonnaEngenia, who was a married wife and had children, when the slaves camefrom Cassange, before any of us were born. The whole merry-making wasmarked by good taste amid propriety. 

About the only interesting object in the vicinity of Tette is the coal afew miles to the north. There, in the feeders of the stream Revubue, itcrops out in cliff sections. The seams are from four to seven feet inthickness; one measured was found to be twenty-five feet thick. 

Learning that it would be difficult for our party to obtain food beyondKebrabasa before the new crop came in and knowing the difficulty ofhunting for so many men in the wet season, we decided on deferring ourdeparture for the interior until May, and in the mean time to run downonce more to the Kongone, in the hopes of receiving letters anddespatches from the man-of-war that was to call in March. We left Tetteon the 10th, and at Senna heard that our lost mail had been picked up onthe beach by natives, west of the Milambe; carried to Quillimane, sentthence to Senna, and, passing us somewhere on the river, on to Tette. AtShupanga the governor informed us that it was a very large mail; no greatcomfort, seeing it was away up the river. 

Mosquitoes were excessively troublesome at the harbour, and especiallywhen a light breeze blew from the north over the mangroves. We lived forseveral weeks in small huts, built by our men. Those who did the huntingfor the party always got wet, and were attacked by fever, but generallyrecovered in time to be out again before the meat was all consumed. Noship appearing, we started off on the 15th of March, and stopped to woodon the Luabo, near an encampment of hippopotamus hunters; our men heardagain, through them, of the canoe path from this place to Quillimane, butthey declined to point it out. 

We found our friend Major Sicard at Mazaro with picks, shovels, hurdles, and slaves, having come to build a fort and custom-house at the Kongone. As we had no good reason to hide the harbour, but many for its being madeknown, we supplied him with a chart of the tortuous branches, which, running among the mangroves, perplex the search; and with such directionsas would enable him to find his way down to the river. He had broughtthe relics of our fugitive mail, and it was a disappointment to find thatall had been lost, with the exception of a bundle of old newspapers, twophotographs, and three letters, which had been written before we leftEngland. 

The distance from Mazaro, on the Zambesi side, to the Kwakwa at Nterra, is about six miles, over a surprisingly rich dark soil. We passed thenight in the long shed, erected at Nterra, on the banks of this river, for the use of travellers, who have often to wait several days forcanoes; we tried to sleep, but the mosquitoes and rats were sotroublesome as to render sleep impossible. The rats, or rather largemice, closely resembling _Mus pumilio_ (Smith), of this region, are quitefacetious, and, having a great deal of fun in them, often laugh heartily. Again and again they woke us up by scampering over our faces, and thenbursting into a loud laugh of He! he! he! at having performed the feat. Their sense of the ludicrous appears to be exquisite; they screamed withlaughter at the attempts which disturbed and angry human nature made inthe dark to bring their ill-timed merriment to a close. Unlike theirprudent European cousins, which are said to leave a sinking ship, a partyof these took up their quarters in our leaky and sinking vessel. Quietand invisible by day, they emerged at night, and cut their funny pranks. No sooner were we all asleep, than they made a sudden dash over thelockers and across our faces for the cabin door, where all broke out intoa loud He! he! he! he! he! he! showing how keenly they enjoyed the joke. They next went forward with as much delight, and scampered over the men. Every night they went fore and aft, rousing with impartial feet everysleeper, and laughing to scorn the aimless blows, growls, and deadlyrushes of outraged humanity. We observed elsewhere a species of largemouse, nearly allied to _Euryotis unisulcatus_ (F. Cuvier), escaping up arough and not very upright wall, with six young ones firmly attached tothe perineum. They were old enough to be well covered with hair, andsome were not detached by a blow which disabled the dam. We could notdecide whether any involuntary muscles were brought into play in helpingthe young to adhere. Their weight seemed to require a sort of catalepticstate of the muscles of the jaw, to enable them to hold on. 

Scorpions, centipedes, and poisonous spiders also were not unfrequentlybrought into the ship with the wood, and occasionally found their wayinto our beds; but in every instance we were fortunate enough to discoverand destroy them before they did any harm. Naval officers on this coastreport that, when scorpions and centipedes remain a few weeks after beingtaken on board in a similar manner, their poison loses nearly all itsvirulence; but this we did not verify. Snakes sometimes came in with thewood, but oftener floated down the river to us, climbing on board withease by the chain-cable, and some poisonous ones were caught in thecabin. A green snake lived with us several weeks, concealing himselfbehind the casing of the deckhouse in the daytime. To be aroused in thedark by five feet of cold green snake gliding over one's face is ratherunpleasant, however rapid the movement may be. Myriads of two varietiesof cockroaches infested the vessel; they not only ate round the roots ofour nails, but even devoured and defiled our food, flannels, and boots. Vain were all our efforts to extirpate these destructive pests; if youkill one, say the sailors, a hundred come down to his funeral! In thework of Commodore Owen it is stated that cockroaches, pounded into apaste, form a powerful carminative; this has not been confirmed, but whenmonkeys are fed on them they are sure to become lean. 

On coming to Senna, we found that the Zulus had arrived in force fortheir annual tribute. These men are under good discipline, and neversteal from the people. The tax is claimed on the ground of conquest, theZulus having formerly completely overcome the Senna people, and chasedthem on to the islands in the Zambesi. Fifty-four of the Portuguese wereslain on the occasion, and, notwithstanding the mud fort, the village hasnever recovered its former power. Fever was now very prevalent, and mostof the Portuguese were down with it. 

For a good view of the adjacent scenery, the hill, Baramuana, behind thevillage, was ascended. A caution was given about the probability of anattack of fever from a plant that grows near the summit. Dr. Kirkdiscovered it to be the _Paedevia foetida_, which, when smelt, actuallydoes give headache and fever. It has a nasty fetor, as its nameindicates. This is one instance in which fever and a foul smellcoincide. In a number of instances offensive effluvia and fever seems tohave no connection. Owing to the abundant rains, the crops in the Sennadistrict were plentiful; this was fortunate, after the partial failure ofthe past two years. It was the 25th of April, 1860, before we reachedTette; here also the crops were luxuriant, and the people said that theyhad not had such abundance since 1856, the year when Dr. Livingstone camedown the river. It is astonishing to any one who has seen the works forirrigation in other countries, as at the Cape and in Egypt, that noattempt has ever been made to lead out the water either of the Zambesi orany of its tributaries; no machinery has ever been used to raise it evenfrom the stream, but droughts and starvations are endured, as if theywere inevitable dispensations of Providence, incapable of beingmitigated. 

Feeling in honour bound to return with those who had been the faithfulcompanions of Dr. Livingstone, in 1856, and to whose guardianship andservices was due the accomplishment of a journey which all the Portugueseat Tette had previously pronounced impossible, the requisite steps weretaken to convey them to their homes. 

We laid the ship alongside of the island Kanyimbe, opposite Tette; and, before starting for the country of the Makololo, obtained a small plot ofland, to form a garden for the two English sailors who were to remain incharge during our absence. We furnished them with a supply of seeds, andthey set to work with such zeal, that they certainly merited success. Their first attempt at African horticulture met with failure from a mostunexpected source; every seed was dug up and the inside of it eaten bymice. "Yes, " said an old native, next morning, on seeing the husks, "that is what happens this month; for it is the mouse month, and the seedshould have been sown last mouth, when I sowed mine. " The sailors, however, sowed more next day; and, being determined to outwit the mice, they this time covered the beds over with grass. The onions, with otherseeds of plants cultivated by the Portuguese, are usually planted in thebeginning of April, in order to have the advantage of the cold season;the wheat a little later, for the same reason. If sown at the beginningof the rainy season in November, it runs, as before remarked, entirely tostraw; but as the rains are nearly over in May, advantage is taken of low-lying patches, which have been flooded by the river. A hole is made inthe mud with a hoe, a few seeds dropped in, and the earth shoved backwith the foot. If not favoured with certain misty showers, which, lowerdown the river, are simply fogs, water is borne from the river to theroots of the wheat in earthern pots; and in about four months the crop isready for the sickle. The wheat of Tette is exported, as the best grownin the country; but a hollow spot at Maruru, close by Mazaro, yieldedvery good crops, though just at the level of the sea, as a few inchesrise of tide shows. 

A number of days were spent in busy preparation for our journey; thecloth, beads, and brass wire, for the trip were sewn up in old canvas, and each package had the bearer's name printed on it. The Makololo, whohad worked for the Expedition, were paid for their services, and everyone who had come down with the Doctor from the interior received apresent of cloth and ornaments, in order to protect them from the greatercold of their own country, and to show that they had not come in vain. Though called Makololo by courtesy, as they were proud of the name, Kanyata, the principal headman, was the only real Makololo of the party;and he, in virtue of his birth, had succeeded to the chief place on thedeath of Sekwebu. The others belonged to the conquered tribes of theBatoka, Bashubia, Ba-Selea, and Barotse. Some of these men had onlyadded to their own vices those of the Tette slaves; others, by toilingduring the first two years in navigating canoes, and hunting elephants, had often managed to save a little, to take back to their own country, but had to part with it all for food to support the rest in times ofhunger, and, latterly, had fallen into the improvident habits of slaves, and spent their surplus earnings in beer and agua ardiente. 

Everything being ready on the 15th of May, we started at 2 p. M. From thevillage where the Makololo had dwelt. A number of the men did not leavewith the goodwill which their talk for months before had led us toanticipate; but some proceeded upon being told that they were notcompelled to go unless they liked, though others altogether declinedmoving. Many had taken up with slave-women, whom they assisted inhoeing, and in consuming the produce of their gardens. Some fourteenchildren had been born to them; and in consequence of now having no chiefto order them, or to claim their services, they thought that they wereabout as well off as they had been in their own country. They knew andregretted that they could call neither wives nor children their own; theslave-owners claimed the whole; but their natural affections had been soenchained, that they clave to the domestic ties. By a law of Portugalthe baptized children of slave women are all free; by the custom of theZambesi that law is void. When it is referred to, the officers laugh andsay, "These Lisbon-born laws are very stringent, but somehow, possiblyfrom the heat of the climate, here they lose all their force. " Only onewoman joined our party--the wife of a Batoka man: she had been given tohim, in consideration of his skilful dancing, by the chief, Chisaka. Amerchant sent three of his men along with us, with a present forSekeletu, and Major Sicard also lent us three more to assist us on ourreturn, and two Portuguese gentleman kindly gave us the loan of a coupleof donkeys. We slept four miles above Tette, and hearing that theBanyai, who levy heavy fines on the Portuguese traders, lived chiefly onthe right bank, we crossed over to the left, as we could not fully trustour men. If the Banyai had come in a threatening manner, our followersmight, perhaps, from having homes behind them, have even put down theirbundles and run. Indeed, two of them at this point made up their mindsto go no further, and turned back to Tette. Another, Monga, a Batoka, was much perplexed, and could not make out what course to pursue, as hehad, three years previously, wounded Kanyata, the headman, with a spear. This is a capital offence among the Makololo, and he was afraid of beingput to death for it on his return. He tried, in vain, to console himselfwith the facts that he had neither father, mother, sisters, nor brothersto mourn for him, and that he could die but once. He was good, and wouldgo up to the stars to Yesu, and therefore did not care for death. Inspite, however, of these reflections, he was much cast down, untilKanyata assured him that he would never mention his misdeed to the chief;indeed, he had never even mentioned it to the Doctor, which he wouldassuredly have done had it lain heavy on his heart. We were right gladof Monga's company, for he was a merry good-tempered fellow, and hislithe manly figure had always been in the front in danger; and, frombeing left-handed, had been easily recognized in the fight withelephants. 

We commenced, for a certain number of days, with short marches, walkinggently until broken in to travel. This is of so much importance, that itoccurs to us that more might be made out of soldiers if the first fewdays' marches were easy, and gradually increased in length and quickness. The nights were cold, with heavy dews and occasional showers, and we hadseveral cases of fever. Some of the men deserted every night, and wefully expected that all who had children would prefer to return to Tette, for little ones are well known to prove the strongest ties, even toslaves. It was useless informing them, that if they wanted to returnthey had only to come and tell us so; we should not be angry with themfor preferring Tette to their own country. Contact with slaves haddestroyed their sense of honour; they would not go in daylight, butdecamped in the night, only in one instance, however, taking our goods, though, in two more, they carried off their comrades' property. By thetime we had got well into the Kebrabasa hills thirty men, nearly a thirdof the party, had turned back, and it became evident that, if many moreleft us, Sekeletu's goods could not be carried up. At last, when therefuse had fallen away, no more desertions took place. 

Stopping one afternoon at a Kebrabasa village, a man, who pretended to beable to change himself into a lion, came to salute us. Smelling thegunpowder from a gun which had been discharged, he went on one side toget out of the wind of the piece, trembling in a most artistic manner, but quite overacting his part. The Makololo explained to us that he wasa Pondoro, or a man who can change his form at will, and added that hetrembles when he smells gunpowder. "Do you not see how he is tremblingnow?" We told them to ask him to change himself at once into a lion, andwe would give him a cloth for the performance. "Oh no, " replied they;"if we tell him so, he may change himself and come when we are asleep andkill us. " Having similar superstitions at home, they readily became asfirm believers in the Pondoro as the natives of the village. We weretold that he assumes the form of a lion and remains in the woods fordays, and is sometimes absent for a whole month. His considerate wifehad built him a hut or den, in which she places food and beer for hertransformed lord, whose metamorphosis does not impair his human appetite. No one ever enters this hut except the Pondoro and his wife, and nostranger is allowed even to rest his gun against the baobab-tree besideit: the Mfumo, or petty chief, of another small village wished to fineour men for placing their muskets against an old tumble-down hut, itbeing that of the Pondoro. At times the Pondoro employs his acquiredpowers in hunting for the benefit of the village; and after an absence ofa day or two, his wife smells the lion, takes a certain medicine, placesit in the forest, and there quickly leaves it, lest the lion should killeven her. This medicine enables the Pondoro to change himself back intoa man, return to the village, and say, "Go and get the game that I havekilled for you. " Advantage is of course taken of what a lion has done, and they go and bring home the buffalo or antelope killed when he was alion, or rather found when he was patiently pursuing his course ofdeception in the forest. We saw the Pondoro of another village dressedin a fantastic style, with numerous charms hung round him, and followedby a troop of boys who were honouring him with rounds of shrill cheering. 

It is believed also that the souls of departed chiefs enter into lions, and render them sacred. On one occasion, when we had shot a buffalo inthe path beyond the Kafue, a hungry lion, attracted probably by the smellof the meat, came close to our camp, and roused up all hands by hisroaring. Tuba Mokoro, imbued with the popular belief that the beast wasa chief in disguise, scolded him roundly during his brief intervals ofsilence. "You a chief, eh? You call yourself a chief, do you? Whatkind of chief are you to come sneaking about in the dark, trying to stealour buffalo meat! Are you not ashamed of yourself? A pretty chieftruly; you are like the scavenger beetle, and think of yourself only. Youhave not the heart of a chief; why don't you kill your own beef? Youmust have a stone in your chest, and no heart at all, indeed!" TubaMokoro producing no impression on the transformed chief, one of the men, the most sedate of the party, who seldom spoke, took up the matter, andtried the lion in another strain. In his slow quiet way he expostulatedwith him on the impropriety of such conduct to strangers, who had neverinjured him. "We were travelling peaceably through the country back toour own chief. We never killed people, nor stole anything. The buffalomeat was ours, not his, and it did not become a great chief like him tobe prowling round in the dark, trying, like a hyena, to steal the meat ofstrangers. He might go and hunt for himself, as there was plenty of gamein the forest. " The Pondoro, being deaf to reason, and only roaring thelouder, the men became angry, and threatened to send a ball through himif he did not go away. They snatched up their guns to shoot him, but heprudently kept in the dark, outside the luminous circle made by our campfires, and there they did not like to venture. A little strychnine wasput into a piece of meat, and thrown to him, when he soon departed, andwe heard no more of the majestic sneaker. 

The Kebrabasa people were now plumper and in better condition than on ourformer visits; the harvest had been abundant; they had plenty to eat anddrink, and they were enjoying life as much as ever they could. AtDefwe's village, near where the ship lay on her first ascent, we foundtwo Mfumos or headmen, the son and son-in-law of the former chief. Asister's son has much more chance of succeeding to a chieftainship thanthe chief's own offspring, it being unquestionable that the sister'schild has the family blood. The men are all marked across the nose andup the middle of the forehead with short horizontal bars or cicatrices;and a single brass earring of two or three inches diameter, like theancient Egyptian, is worn by the men. Some wear the hair long like theancient Assyrians and Egyptians, and a few have eyes with the downwardand inward slant of the Chinese. 

After fording the rapid Luia, we left our former path on the banks of theZambesi, and struck off in a N. W. Direction behind one of the hillranges, the eastern end of which is called Mongwa, the name of an acacia, having a peculiarly strong fetor, found on it. Our route wound up avalley along a small mountain-stream which was nearly dry, and thencrossed the rocky spurs of some of the lofty hills. The country was allvery dry at the time, and no water was found except in an occasionalspring and a few wells dug in the beds of watercourses. The people werepoor, and always anxious to convince travellers of the fact. The men, unlike those on the plains, spend a good deal of their time in hunting;this may be because they have but little ground on the hill-sidessuitable for gardens, and but little certainty of reaping what may besown in the valleys. No women came forward in the hamlet, east ofChiperiziwa, where we halted for the night. Two shots had been fired atguinea-fowl a little way off in the valley; the women fled into thewoods, and the men came to know if war was meant, and a few of the oldfolks only returned after hearing that we were for peace. The headman, Kambira, apologized for not having a present ready, and afterwardsbrought us some meal, a roasted coney (_Hyrax capensis_), and a pot ofbeer; he wished to be thought poor. The beer had come to him from adistance; he had none of his own. Like the Manganja, these people saluteby clapping their hands. When a man comes to a place where others areseated, before sitting down he claps his hands to each in succession, andthey do the same to him. If he has anything to tell, both speaker andhearer clap their hands at the close of every paragraph, and then againvigorously at the end of the speech. The guide, whom the headman gaveus, thus saluted each of his comrades before he started off with us. There is so little difference in the language, that all the tribes ofthis region are virtually of one family. 

We proceeded still in the same direction, and passed only two smallhamlets during the day. Except the noise our men made on the march, everything was still around us: few birds were seen. The appearance of awhydahbird showed that he had not yet parted with his fine long plumes. We passed immense quantities of ebony and lignum-vitae, and the tree fromwhose smooth and bitter bark granaries are made for corn. The countrygenerally is clothed with a forest of ordinary-sized trees. We slept inthe little village near Sindabwe, where our men contrived to purchaseplenty of beer, and were uncommonly boisterous all the evening. Webreakfasted next morning under green wild date-palms, beside the fineflowery stream, which runs through the charming valley of Zibah. We nowhad Mount Chiperiziwa between us, and part of the river near Morumbwa, having in fact come north about in order to avoid the difficulties of ourformer path. The last of the deserters, a reputed thief, took Frenchleave of us here. He left the bundle of cloth he was carrying in thepath a hundred yards in front of where we halted, but made off with themusket and most of the brass rings and beads of his comrade Shirimba, whohad unsuspectingly intrusted them to his care. 

Proceeding S. W. Up this lovely valley, in about an hour's time we reachedSandia's village. The chief was said to be absent hunting, and they didnot know when he would return. This is such a common answer to theinquiry after a headman, that one is inclined to think that it only meansthat they wish to know the stranger's object before exposing theirsuperior to danger. As some of our men were ill, a halt was made here. 

As we were unable to march next morning, six of our young men, anxious totry their muskets, went off to hunt elephants. For several hours theysaw nothing, and some of them, getting tired, proposed to go to a villageand buy food. "No!" said Mantlanyane, "we came to hunt, so let us goon. " In a short time they fell in with a herd of cow elephants andcalves. As soon as the first cow caught sight of the hunters on therocks above her, she, with true motherly instinct, placed her young onebetween her fore-legs for protection. The men were for scattering, andfiring into the herd indiscriminately. "That won't do, " criedMantlanyane, "let us all fire at this one. " The poor beast received avolley, and ran down into the plain, where another shot killed her; theyoung one escaped with the herd. The men were wild with excitement, anddanced round the fallen queen of the forest, with loud shouts andexultant songs. They returned, bearing as trophies the tail and part ofthe trunk, and marched into camp as erect as soldiers, and evidentlyfeeling that their stature had increased considerably since the morning. 

Sandia's wife was duly informed of their success, as here a law decreesthat half the elephant belongs to the chief on whose ground it has beenkilled. The Portuguese traders always submit to this tax, and, were itof native origin, it could hardly be considered unjust. A chief musthave some source of revenue; and, as many chiefs can raise none exceptfrom ivory or slaves, this tax is more free from objections than anyother that a black Chancellor of the Exchequer could devise. It seems, however, to have originated with the Portuguese themselves, and then tohave spread among the adjacent tribes. The Governors look sharply afterany elephant that may be slain on the Crown lands, and demand one of thetusks from their vassals. We did not find the law in operation in anytribe beyond the range of Portuguese traders, or further than the sphereof travel of those Arabs who imitated Portuguese customs in trade. Atthe Kafue in 1855 the chiefs bought the meat we killed, and demandednothing as their due; and so it was up the Shire during our visits. Theslaves of the Portuguese, who are sent by their masters to shootelephants, probably connive at the extension of this law, for they striveto get the good will of the chiefs to whose country they come, byadvising them to make a demand of half of each elephant killed, and forthis advice they are well paid in beer. When we found that thePortuguese argued in favour of this law, we told the natives that theymight exact tusks from _them_, but that the English, being different, preferred the pure native custom. It was this which made Sandia, asafterwards mentioned, hesitate; but we did not care to insist onexemption in our favour, where the prevalence of the custom might havebeen held to justify the exaction. 

The cutting up of an elephant is quite a unique spectacle. The men standremind the animal in dead silence, while the chief of the travellingparty declares that, according to ancient law, the head and right hind-leg belong to him who killed the beast, that is, to him who inflicted thefirst wound; the left leg to bins who delivered the second, or firsttouched the animal after it fell. The meat around the eye to theEnglish, or chief of the travellers, and different parts to the headmenof the different fires, or groups, of which the camp is composed; notforgetting to enjoin the preservation of the fat and bowels for a seconddistribution. This oration finished, the natives soon become excited, and scream wildly as they cut away at the carcass with a score of spears, whose long handles quiver in the air above their heads. Their excitementbecomes momentarily more and more intense, and reaches the culminatingpoint when, as denoted by a roar of gas, the huge mass is laid fairlyopen. Some jump inside, and roll about there in their eagerness to seizethe precious fat, while others run off, screaming, with pieces of thebloody meat, throw it on the grass, and run back for more: all keeptalking and shouting at the utmost pitch of their voices. Sometimes twoor three, regardless of all laws, seize the same piece of meat, and havea brief fight of words over it. Occasionally an agonized yell burstsforth, and a native emerges out of the moving mass of dead elephant andwriggling humanity, with his hand badly cut by the spear of his excitedfriend and neighbour: this requires a rag and some soothing words toprevent bad blood. In an incredibly short time tons of meat are cut up, and placed in separate heaps around. 

Sandia arrived soon after the beast was divided: he is an elderly man, and wears a wig made of "ife" fibre (_sanseviera_) dyed black, and of afine glossy appearance. This plant is allied to the aloes, and its thickfleshy leaves, in shape somewhat like our sedges, when bruised yield muchfine strong fibre, which is made into ropes, nets, and wigs. It takesdyes readily, and the fibre might form a good article of commerce. "Ife"wigs, as we afterwards saw, are not uncommon in this country, thoughperhaps not so common as hair wigs at home. Sandia's mosamela, or smallcarved wooden pillow, exactly resembling the ancient Egyptian one, washung from the back of his neck; this pillow and a sleeping mat areusually carried by natives when on hunting excursions. 

We had the elephant's fore-foot cooked for ourselves, in native fashion. A large hole was dug in the ground, in which a fire was made; and, whenthe inside was thoroughly heated, the entire foot was placed in it, andcovered over with the hot ashes and soil; another fire was made above thewhole, and kept burning all night. We had the foot thus cooked forbreakfast next morning, and found it delicious. It is a whitish mass, slightly gelatinous, and sweet, like marrow. A long march, to preventbiliousness, is a wise precaution after a meal of elephant's foot. Elephant's trunk and tongue are also good, and, after long simmering, much resemble the hump of a buffalo and the tongue of an ox; but all theother meat is tough, and, from its peculiar flavour, only to be eaten bya hungry man. The quantities of meat our men devour is quite astounding. They boil as much as their pots will hold, and eat till it becomesphysically impossible for them to stow away any more. An uproariousdance follows, accompanied with stentorian song; and as soon as they haveshaken their first course down, and washed off the sweat and dust of theafter performance, they go to work to roast more: a short snatch of sleepsucceeds, and they are up and at it again; all night long it is boil andeat, roast and devour, with a few brief interludes of sleep. Like othercarnivora, these men can endure hunger for a much longer period than themere porridge-eating tribes. Our men can cook meat as well as anyreasonable traveller could desire; and, boiled in earthen pots, likeIndian chatties, it tastes much better than when cooked in iron ones. 

CHAPTER V. 

Magnificent scenery--Method of marching--Hippopotamus killed--Lions andbuffalo--Sequasha the ivory-trader. 

Sandia gave us two guides; and on the 4th of June we left the Elephantvalley, taking a westerly course; and, after crossing a few ridges, entered the Chingerere or Paguruguru valley, through which, in the rainyseason, runs the streamlet Pajodze. The mountains on our left, betweenus and the Zambesi, our guides told us have the same name as the valley, but that at the confluence of the Pajodze is called Morumbwa. We struckthe river at less than half a mile to the north of the cataract Morumbwa. On climbing up the base of this mountain at Pajodze, we found that wewere distant only the diameter of the mountain from the cataract. Inmeasuring the cataract we formerly stood on its southern flank; now wewere perched on its northern flank, and at once recognized theonion-shaped mountain, here called Zakavuma, whose smooth convex surfaceoverlooks the broken water. Its bearing by compass was l80 degrees fromthe spot to which we had climbed, and 700 or 800 yards distant. We now, from this standing-point, therefore, completed our inspection of allKebrabasa, and saw what, as a whole, was never before seen by Europeansso far as any records show. 

The remainder of the Kebrabasa path, on to Chicova, was close to thecompressed and rocky river. Ranges of lofty tree-covered mountains, withdeep narrow valleys, in which are dry watercourses, or flowing rivulets, stretch from the north-west, and are prolonged on the opposite side ofthe river in a south-easterly direction. Looking back, the mountainscenery in Kebrabasa was magnificent; conspicuous from their form andsteep sides, are the two gigantic portals of the cataract; the vastforests still wore their many brilliant autumnal-coloured tints of green, yellow, red, purple, and brown, thrown into relief by the grey bark ofthe trunks in the background. Among these variegated trees were someconspicuous for their new livery of fresh light-green leaves, as thoughthe winter of others was their spring. The bright sunshine in thesemountain forests, and the ever-changing forms of the cloud shadows, gliding over portions of the surface, added fresh charms to scenesalready surpassingly beautiful. 

From what we have seen of the Kebrabasa rocks and rapids, it appears tooevident that they must always form a barrier to navigation at theordinary low water of the river; but the rise of the water in this gorgebeing as much as eighty feet perpendicularly, it is probable that asteamer might be taken up at high flood, when all the rapids are smoothedover, to run on the Upper Zambesi. The most formidable cataract in it, Morumbwa, has only about twenty feet of fall, in a distance of thirtyyards, and it must entirely disappear when the water stands eighty feethigher. Those of the Makololo who worked on board the ship were notsorry at the steamer being left below, as they had become heartily tiredof cutting the wood that the insatiable furnace of the "Asthmatic"required. Mbia, who was a bit of a wag, laughingly exclaimed in brokenEnglish, "Oh, Kebrabasa good, very good; no let shippee up to Sekeletu, too muchee work, cuttee woodyee, cuttee woodyee: Kebrabasa good. " It iscurrently reported, and commonly believed, that once upon a time aPortuguese named Jose Pedra, --by the natives called Nyamatimbira, --chief, or capitao mor, of Zumbo, a man of large enterprise and smallhumanity, --being anxious to ascertain if Kebrabasa could be navigated, made two slaves fast to a canoe, and launched it from Chicova intoKebrabasa, in order to see if it would come out at the other end. Asneither slaves nor canoe ever appeared again, his Excellency concludedthat Kebrabasa was unnavigable. A trader had a large canoe swept away bya sudden rise of the river, and it was found without damage below; butthe most satisfactory information was that of old Sandia, who assertedthat in flood all Kebrabasa became quite smooth, and he had often seen itso. 

We emerged from the thirty-five or forty miles of Kebrabasa hills intothe Chicova plains on the 7th of June, 1860, having made short marchesall the way. The cold nights caused some of our men to cough badly, andcolds in this country almost invariably become fever. The Zambesisuddenly expands at Chicova, and assumes the size and appearance it hasat Tette. Near this point we found a large seam of coal exposed in theleft bank. 

We met with native travellers occasionally. Those on a long journeycarry with them a sleeping-mat and wooden pillow, cooking-pot and bag ofmeal, pipe and tobacco-pouch, a knife, bow, and arrows, and two smallsticks, of from two to three feet in length, for making fire, whenobliged to sleep away from human habitations. Dry wood is alwaysabundant, and they get fire by the following method. A notch is cut inone of the sticks, which, with a close-grained outside, has a small coreof pith, and this notched stick is laid horizontally on a knife-blade onthe ground; the operator squatting, places his great toes on each end tokeep all steady, and taking the other wand which is of very hard wood cutto a blunt point, fits it into the notch at right angles; the uprightwand is made to spin rapidly backwards and forwards between the palms ofthe hands, drill fashion, and at the same time is pressed downwards; thefriction, in the course of a minute or so, ignites portions of the pithof the notched stick, which, rolling over like live charcoal on to theknife-blade, are lifted into a handful of fine dry grass, and carefullyblown, by waving backwards and forwards in the air. It is hard work forthe hands to procure fire by this process, as the vigorous drilling anddownward pressure requisite soon blister soft palms. 

Having now entered a country where lions were numerous, our men began topay greater attention to the arrangements of the camp at night. As theyare accustomed to do with their chiefs, they place the white men in thecentre; Kanyata, his men, and the two donkeys, camp on our right; TubaMokoro's party of Bashubia are in front; Masakasa, and Sininyane's bodyof Batoka, on the left; and in the rear six Tette men have their fires. In placing their fires they are careful to put them where the smoke willnot blow in our faces. Soon after we halt, the spot for the English isselected, and all regulate their places accordingly, and deposit theirburdens. The men take it by turns to cut some of the tall dry grass, andspread it for our beds on a spot, either naturally level, or smoothed bythe hoe; some, appointed to carry our bedding, then bring our rugs andkarosses, and place the three rugs in a row on the grass; Dr. Livingstone's being in the middle, Dr. Kirk's on the right, and CharlesLivingstone's on the left. Our bags, rifles, and revolvers are carefullyplaced at our heads, and a fire made near our feet. We have no tent norcovering of any kind except the branches of the tree under which we mayhappen to lie; and it is a pretty sight to look up and see every branch, leaf, and twig of the tree stand out, reflected against the clear star-spangled and moonlit sky. The stars of the first magnitude have nameswhich convey the same meaning over very wide tracts of country. Herewhen Venus comes out in the evenings, she is called Ntanda, the eldest orfirst-born, and Manjika, the first-born of morning, at other times: shehas so much radiance when shining alone, that she casts a shadow. Siriusis named Kuewa usiko, "drawer of night, " because supposed to draw thewhole night after it. The moon has no evil influence in this country, sofar as we know. We have lain and looked up at her, till sweet sleepclosed our eyes, unharmed. Four or five of our men were affected withmoon-blindness at Tette; though they had not slept out of doors there, they became so blind that their comrades had to guide their hands to thegeneral dish of food; the affection is unknown in their own country. Whenour posterity shall have discovered what it is which, distinct from foulsmells, causes fever, and what, apart from the moon, causes men to bemoon-struck, they will pity our dulness of perception. 

The men cut a very small quantity of grass for themselves, and sleep infumbas or sleeping-bags, which are double mats of palm-leaf, six feetlong by four wide, and sewn together round three parts of the square, andleft open only on one side. They are used as a protection from the cold, wet, and mosquitoes, and are entered as we should get into our beds, werethe blankets nailed to the top, bottom, and one side of the bedstead. 

A dozen fires are nightly kindled in the camp; and these, beingreplenished from time to time by the men who are awakened by the cold, are kept burning until daylight. Abundance of dry hard wood is obtainedwith little trouble; and burns beautifully. After the great business ofcooking and eating is over, all sit round the camp-fires, and engage intalking or singing. Every evening one of the Batoka plays his "sansa, "and continues at it until far into the night; he accompanies it with anextempore song, in which he rehearses their deeds ever since they lefttheir own country. At times animated political discussions spring up, and the amount of eloquence expended on these occasions is amazing. Thewhole camp is aroused, and the men shout to one another from thedifferent fires; whilst some, whose tongues are never heard on any othersubject, burst forth into impassioned speech. 

As a specimen of our mode of marching, we rise about five, or as soon asdawn appears, take a cup of tea and a bit of biscuit; the servants foldup the blankets and stow them away in the bags they carry; the others tietheir fumbas and cooking-pots to each end of their carrying-sticks, whichare borne on the shoulder; the cook secures the dishes, and all are onthe path by sunrise. If a convenient spot can be found we halt forbreakfast about nine a. M. To save time, this meal is generally cookedthe night before, and has only to be warmed. We continue the march afterbreakfast, rest a little in the middle of the day, and break off early inthe afternoon. We average from two to two-and-a-half miles an hour in astraight line, or as the crow flies, and seldom have more than five orsix hours a day of actual travel. This in a hot climate is as much as aman can accomplish without being oppressed; and we always tried to makeour progress more a pleasure than a toil. To hurry over the ground, abuse, and look ferocious at one's native companions, merely for thefoolish vanity of boasting how quickly a distance was accomplished, is acombination of silliness with absurdity quite odious; while kindlyconsideration for the feelings of even blacks, the pleasure of observingscenery and everything new as one moves on at an ordinary pace, and theparticipation in the most delicious rest with our fellows, rendertravelling delightful. Though not given to over haste, we were a littlesurprised to find that we could tire our men out; and even the headman, who carried but little more than we did, and never, as we often had todo, hunted in the afternoon, was no better than his comrades. Ourexperience tends to prove that the European constitution has a power ofendurance, even in the tropics, greater than that of the hardiest of themeat-eating Africans. 

After pitching our camp, one or two of us usually go off to hunt, more asa matter of necessity than of pleasure, for the men, as well asourselves, must have meat. We prefer to take a man with us to carry homethe game, or lead the others to where it lies; but as they frequentlygrumble and complain of being tired, we do not particularly object togoing alone, except that it involves the extra labour of our making asecond trip to show the men where the animal that has been shot is to befound. When it is a couple of miles off it is rather fatiguing to haveto go twice; more especially on the days when it is solely to supplytheir wants that, instead of resting ourselves, we go at all. Like thosewho perform benevolent deeds at home, the tired hunter, though tryinghard to live in charity with all men, is strongly tempted to give it upby bringing only sufficient meat for the three whites and leaving therest; thus sending the "idle ungrateful poor" supperless to bed. And yetit is only by continuance in well-doing, even to the length of what theworldly-wise call weakness, that the conviction is produced anywhere, that our motives are high enough to secure sincere respect. 

A jungle of mimosa, ebony, and "wait-a-bit" thorn lies between theChicova flats and the cultivated plain, on which stand the villages ofthe chief, Chitora. He brought us a present of food and drink, because, as he, with the innate politeness of an African, said, he "did not wishus to sleep hungry: he had heard of the Doctor when he passed down, andhad a great desire to see and converse with him; but he was a child then, and could not speak in the presence of great men. He was glad that hehad seen the English now, and was sorry that his people were away, or heshould have made them cook for us. " All his subsequent conduct showedhim to be sincere. 

Many of the African women are particular about the water they use fordrinking and cooking, and prefer that which is filtered through sand. Tosecure this, they scrape holes in the sandbanks beside the stream, andscoop up the water, which slowly filters through, rather than take itfrom the equally clear and limpid river. This practice is common in theZambesi, the Rovuma, and Lake Nyassa; and some of the Portuguese at Tettehave adopted the native custom, and send canoes to a low island in themiddle of the river for water. Chitora's people also obtained theirsupply from shallow wells in the sandy bed of a small rivulet close tothe village. The habit may have arisen from observing the unhealthinessof the main stream at certain seasons. During nearly nine months in theyear, ordure is deposited around countless villages along the thousandsof miles drained by the Zambesi. When the heavy rains come down, andsweep the vast fetid accumulation into the torrents, the water ispolluted with filth; and, but for the precaution mentioned, the nativeswould prove themselves as little fastidious as those in London who drinkthe abomination poured into the Thames by Reading and Oxford. It is nowonder that sailors suffered so much from fever after drinking Africanriver water, before the present admirable system of condensing it wasadopted in our navy. 

The scent of man is excessively terrible to game of all kinds, much moreso, probably, than the sight of him. A herd of antelopes, a hundredyards off, gazed at us as we moved along the winding path, and timidlystood their ground until half our line had passed, but darted off theinstant they "got the wind, " or caught the flavour of those who had goneby. The sport is all up with the hunter who gets to the windward of theAfrican beast, as it cannot stand even the distant aroma of the humanrace, so much dreaded by all wild animals. Is this the fear and thedread of man, which the Almighty said to Noah was to be upon every beastof the field? A lion may, while lying in wait for his prey, leap on ahuman being as he would on any other animal, save a rhinoceros or anelephant, that happened to pass; or a lioness, when she has cubs, mightattack a man, who, passing "up the wind of her, " had unconsciously, byhis scent, alarmed her for the safety of her whelps; or buffaloes, amidother animals, might rush at a line of travellers, in apprehension ofbeing surrounded by them; but neither beast nor snake will, as a generalrule, turn on man except when wounded, or by mistake. If gorillas, unwounded, advance to do battle with him, and beat their breasts indefiance, they are an exception to all wild beasts known to us. From theway an elephant runs at the first glance of man, it is inferred that thishuge brute, though really king of beasts, would run even from a child. 

Our two donkeys caused as much admiration as the three white men. Greatwas the astonishment when one of the donkeys began to bray. The timidjumped more than if a lion had roared beside them. All were startled, and stared in mute amazement at the harsh-voiced one, till the lastbroken note was uttered; then, on being assured that nothing inparticular was meant, they looked at each other, and burst into a loudlaugh at their common surprise. When one donkey stimulated the other totry his vocal powers, the interest felt by the startled visitors, musthave equalled that of the Londoners, when they first crowded to see thefamous hippopotamus. 

We were now, when we crossed the boundary rivulet Nyamatarara, out ofChicova and amongst sandstone rocks, similar to those which prevailbetween Lupata and Kebrabasa. In the latter gorge, as already mentioned, igneous and syenitic masses have been acted on by some great fieryconvulsion of nature; the strata are thrown into a huddled heap ofconfusion. The coal has of course disappeared in Kebrabasa, but is foundagain in Chicova. Tette grey sandstone is common about Sinjere, andwherever it is seen with fossil wood upon it, coal lies beneath; andhere, as at Chicova, some seams crop out on the banks of the Zambesi. Looking southwards, the country is open plain and woodland, with detachedhills and mountains in the distance; but the latter are too far off, thenatives say, for them to know their names. The principal hills on ourright, as we look up stream, are from six to twelve miles away, andoccasionally they send down spurs to the river, with brooks flowingthrough their narrow valleys. The banks of the Zambesi show two well-defined terraces; the first, or lowest, being usually narrow, and ofgreat fertility, while the upper one is a dry grassy plain, a thornyjungle, or a mopane (_Bauhinia_) forest. One of these plains, near theKafue, is covered with the large stumps and trunks of a petrified forest. We halted a couple of days by the fine stream Sinjere, which comes fromthe Chiroby-roby hills, about eight miles to the north. Many lumps ofcoal, brought down by the rapid current, lie in its channel. The nativesnever seem to have discovered that coal would burn, and, when informed ofthe fact, shook their heads, smiled incredulously, and said "_Kodi_"(really), evidently regarding it as a mere traveller's tale. They wereastounded to see it burning freely on our fire of wood. They told usthat plenty of it was seen among the hills; but, being long ago awarethat we were now in an immense coalfield, we did not care to examine itfurther. 

A dyke of black basaltic rock, called Kakolole, crosses the river nearthe mouth of the Sinjere; but it has two open gateways in it of fromsixty to eighty yards in breadth, and the channel is very deep. 

On a shallow sandbank, under the dyke, lay a herd of hippopotami infancied security. The young ones were playing with each other like youngpuppies, climbing on the backs of their dams, trying to take hold of oneanother by the jaws and tumbling over into the water. Mbia, one of theMakololo, waded across to within a dozen yards of the drowsy beasts, andshot the father of the herd; who, being very fat, soon floated, and wassecured at the village below. The headman of the village visited uswhile we were at breakfast. He wore a black "ife" wig and a printedshirt. After a short silence he said to Masakasa, "You are with thewhite people, so why do you not tell them to give me a cloth?" "We arestrangers, " answered Masakasa, "why do you not bring us some food?" Hetook the plain hint, and brought us two fowls, in order that we shouldnot report that in passing him we got nothing to eat; and, as usual, wegave a cloth in return. In reference to the hippopotamus he would makeno demand, but said he would take what we chose to give him. The mengorged themselves with meat for two days, and cut large quantities intolong narrow strips, which they half-dried and half-roasted on woodenframes over the fire. Much game is taken in this neighbourhood inpitfalls. Sharp-pointed stakes are set in the bottom, on which the gametumbles and gets impaled. The natives are careful to warn strangers ofthese traps, and also of the poisoned beams suspended on the tall treesfor the purpose of killing elephants and hippopotami. It is notdifficult to detect the pitfalls after one's attention has been called tothem; but in places where they are careful to carry the earth off to adistance, and a person is not thinking of such things, a sudden descentof nine feet is an experience not easily forgotten by the traveller. Thesensations of one thus instantaneously swallowed up by the earth arepeculiar. A momentary suspension of consciousness is followed by therustling sound of a shower of sand and dry grass, and the half-bewilderedthought of where he is, and how he came into darkness. Reason awakes toassure him that he must have come down through that small opening ofdaylight overhead, and that he is now where a hippopotamus ought to havebeen. The descent of a hippopotamus pitfall is easy, but to get outagain into the upper air is a work of labour. The sides are smooth andtreacherous, and the cross reeds, which support the covering, break inthe attempt to get out by clutching them. A cry from the depths isunheard by those around, and it is only by repeated and most desperateefforts that the buried alive can regain the upper world. At Tette weare told of a white hunter, of unusually small stature, who plumped intoa pit while stalking a guinea-fowl on a tree. It was the labour of anentire forenoon to get out; and he was congratulating himself on hisescape, and brushing off the clay from his clothes, when down he wentinto a second pit, which happened, as is often the case, to be closebeside the first, and it was evening before he could work himself out of_that_. 

Elephants and buffaloes seldom return to the river by the same path ontwo successive nights, they become so apprehensive of danger from thishuman art. An old elephant will walk in advance of the herd, and uncoverthe pits with his trunk, that the others may see the openings and treadon firm ground. Female elephants are generally the victims: more timidby nature than the males, and very motherly in their anxiety for theircalves, they carry their trunks up, trying every breeze for fancieddanger, which often in reality lies at their feet. The tusker, fearingless, keeps his trunk down, and, warned in time by that exquisitelysensitive organ, takes heed to his ways. 

Our camp on the Sinjere stood under a wide-spreading wild fig-tree. Fromthe numbers of this family, of large size, dotted over the country, thefig or banyan species would seem to have been held sacred in Africa fromthe remotest times. The soil teemed with white ants, whose clay tunnels, formed to screen them from the eyes of birds, thread over the ground, upthe trunks of trees, and along the branches, from which the littlearchitects clear away all rotten or dead wood. Very often the exactshape of branches is left in tunnels on the ground and not a bit of thewood inside. The first night we passed here these destructive insectsate through our grass-beds, and attacked our blankets, and certain largered-headed ones even bit our flesh. 

On some days not a single white ant is to be seen abroad; and on others, and during certain hours, they appear out of doors in myriads, and workwith extraordinary zeal and energy in carrying bits of dried grass downinto their nests. During these busy reaping-fits the lizards and birdshave a good time of it, and enjoy a rich feast at the expense ofthousands of hapless workmen; and when they swarm they are caught incountless numbers by the natives, and their roasted bodies are spoken ofin an unctuous manner as resembling grains of soft rice fried indelicious fresh oil. 

A strong marauding party of large black ants attacked a nest of whiteones near the camp: as the contest took place beneath the surface, wecould not see the order of the battle; but it soon became apparent thatthe blacks had gained the day, and sacked the white town, for theyreturned in triumph, bearing off the eggs, and choice bits of the bodiesof the vanquished. A gift, analogous to that of language, has not beenwithheld from ants: if part of their building is destroyed, an officialis seen coming out to examine the damage; and, after a careful survey ofthe ruins, he chirrups a few clear and distinct notes, and a crowd ofworkers begin at once to repair the breach. When the work is completed, another order is given, and the workmen retire, as will appear onremoving the soft freshly-built portion. We tried to sleep one rainymight in a native hut, but could not because of attacks by the fightingbattalions of a very small species of formica, not more thanone-sixteenth of an inch in length. It soon became obvious that theywere under regular discipline, and even attempting to carry out theskilful plans and stratagems of some eminent leader. Our hands and neckswere the first objects of attack. Large bodies of these little pestswere massed in silence round the point to be assaulted. We could hearthe sharp shrill word of command two or three times repeated, thoughuntil then we had not believed in the vocal power of an ant; the instantafter we felt the storming hosts range over head and neck, biting thetender skin, clinging with a death-grip to the hair, and parting withtheir jaws rather than quit their hold. On our lying down again in thehope of their having been driven off, no sooner was the light out, andall still, than the manoeuvre was repeated. Clear and audible orderswere issued, and the assault renewed. It was as hard to sleep in thathut as in the trenches before Sebastopol. The white ant, being avegetable feeder, devours articles of vegetable origin only, and leather, which, by tanning, is imbued with a vegetable flavour. "A man may berich to-day and poor to-morrow, from the ravages of white ants, " said aPortuguese merchant. "If he gets sick, and unable to look after hisgoods, his slaves neglect them, and they are soon destroyed by theseinsects. " The reddish ant, in the west called drivers, crossed our pathdaily, in solid columns an inch wide, and never did the pugnacity ofeither man or beast exceed theirs. It is a sufficient cause of war ifyou only approach them, even by accident. Some turn out of the ranks andstand with open mandibles, or, charging with extended jaws, bite withsavage ferocity. When hunting, we lighted among them too often; while wewere intent on the game, and without a thought of ants, they quietlycovered us from head to foot, then all began to bite at the same instant;seizing a piece of the skin with their powerful pincers, they twistedthemselves round with it, as if determined to tear it out. Their bitesare so terribly sharp that the bravest must run, and then strip to pickoff those that still cling with their hooked jaws, as with steel forceps. This kind abounds in damp places, and is usually met with on the banks ofstreams. We have not heard of their actually killing any animal exceptthe Python, and that only when gorged and quite lethargic, but they soonclear away any dead animal matter; this appears to be their principalfood, and their use in the economy of nature is clearly in the scavengerline. 

We started from the Sinjere on the 12th of June, our men carrying withthem bundles of hippopotamus meat for sale, and for future use. Werested for breakfast opposite the Kakolole dyke, which confines thechannel, west of the Manyerere mountain. A rogue monkey, the largest byfar that we ever saw, and very fat and tame, walked off leisurely from agarden as we approached. The monkey is a sacred animal in this region, and is never molested or killed, because the people believe devoutly thatthe souls of their ancestors now occupy these degraded forms, andanticipate that they themselves must, sooner or later, be transformed inlike manner; a future as cheerless for the black as the spirit-rapper'sheaven is for the whites. The gardens are separated from each other by asingle row of small stones, a few handfuls of grass, or a slight furrowmade by the hoe. Some are enclosed by a reed fence of the flimsiestconstruction, yet sufficient to keep out the ever wary hippopotamus, whodreads a trap. His extreme caution is taken advantage of by the women, who hang, as a miniature trap-beam, a kigelia fruit with a bit of stickin the end. This protects the maize, of which he is excessively fond. 

The quantity of hippopotamus meat eaten by our men made some of them ill, and our marches were necessarily short. After three hours' travel on the13th, we spent the remainder of the day at the village of Chasiribera, ona rivulet flowing through a beautiful valley to the north, which isbounded by magnificent mountain-ranges. Pinkwe, or Mbingwe, otherwiseMoeu, forms the south-eastern angle of the range. On the 16th June wewere at the flourishing village of Senga, under the headman Manyame, which lies at the foot of the mount Motemwa. Nearly all the mountains inthis country are covered with open forest and grass, in colour, accordingto the season, green or yellow. Many are between 2000 and 3000 feethigh, with the sky line fringed with trees; the rocks show justsufficiently for one to observe their stratification, or their graniticform, and though not covered with dense masses of climbing plants, likethose in moister eastern climates, there is still the idea conveyed thatmost of the steep sides are fertile, and none give the impression of thatbarrenness which, in northern mountains, suggests the idea that the bonesof the world are sticking through its skin. 

The villagers reported that we were on the footsteps of a Portuguese half-caste, who, at Senga, lately tried to purchase ivory, but, in consequenceof his having murdered a chief near Zumbo and twenty of his men, thepeople declined to trade with him. He threatened to take the ivory byforce, if they would not sell it; but that same night the ivory and thewomen were spirited out of the village, and only a large body of armedmen remained. The trader, fearing that he might come off second best ifit came to blows, immediately departed. Chikwanitsela, or Sekuanangila, is the paramount chief of some fifty miles of the northern bank of theZambesi in this locality. He lives on the opposite, or southern side, and there his territory is still more extensive. We sent him a presentfrom Senga, and were informed by a messenger next morning that he had acough and could not come over to see us. "And has his present a coughtoo, " remarked one of our party, "that it does not come to us? Is thisthe way your chief treats strangers, receives their present, and sendsthem no food in return?" Our men thought Chikwanitsela an uncommonlystingy fellow; but, as it was possible that some of them might yet wishto return this way, they did not like to scold him more than this, whichwas sufficiently to the point. 

Men and women were busily engaged in preparing the ground for theNovember planting. Large game was abundant; herds of elephants andbuffaloes came down to the river in the night, but were a long way off bydaylight. They soon adopt this habit in places where they are hunted. 

The plains we travel over are constantly varying in breadth, according asthe furrowed and wooded hills approach or recede from the river. On thesouthern side we see the hill Bungwe, and the long, level, wooded ridgeNyangombe, the first of a series bending from the S. E. To the N. W. Pastthe Zambesi. We shot an old pallah on the 16th, and found that the pooranimal had been visited with more than the usual share of animalafflictions. He was stone-blind in both eyes, had several tumours, and abroken leg, which showed no symptoms of ever having begun to heal. Wildanimals sometimes suffer a great deal from disease, and wearily drag on amiserable existence before relieved of it by some ravenous beast. Oncewe drove off a maneless lion and lioness from a dead buffalo, which hadbeen in the last stage of a decline. They had watched him staggering tothe river to quench his thirst, and sprang on him as he was crawling upthe bank. One had caught him by the throat, and the other by his highprojecting backbone, which was broken by the lion's powerful fangs. Thestruggle, if any, must have been short. They had only eaten theintestines when we frightened them off. It is curious that this is thepart that wild animals always begin with, and that it is also the firstchoice of our men. Were it not a wise arrangement that only thestrongest males should continue the breed, one could hardly help pityingthe solitary buffalo expelled from the herd for some physical blemish, oron account of the weakness of approaching old age. Banished from femalesociety, he naturally becomes morose and savage; the necessarywatchfulness against enemies is now never shared by others; disgusted, hepasses into a state of chronic war with all who enjoy life, and thesooner after his expulsion that he fills the lion's or the wild-dog'smaw, the better for himself and for the peace of the country. 

We encamped on the 20th of June at a spot where Dr. Livingstone, on hisjourney from the West to the East Coast, was formerly menaced by a chiefnamed Mpende. No offence had been committed against him, but he hadfirearms, and, with the express object of showing his power, hethreatened to attack the strangers. Mpende's counsellors having, however, found out that Dr. Livingstone belonged to a tribe of whom theyhad heard that "they loved the black man and did not make slaves, " hisconduct at once changed from enmity to kindness, and, as the place wasone well selected for defence, it was perhaps quite as well for Mpendethat he decided as he did. Three of his counsellors now visited us, andwe gave them a handsome present for their chief, who came himself nextmorning and made us a present of a goat, a basket of boiled maize, andanother of vetches. A few miles above this the headman, Chilondo ofNyamasusa, apologized for not formerly lending us canoes. "He wasabsent, and his children were to blame for not telling him when theDoctor passed; he did not refuse the canoes. " The sight of our men, nowarmed with muskets, had a great effect. Without any bullying, firearmscommand respect, and lead men to be reasonable who might otherwise feeldisposed to be troublesome. Nothing, however, our fracas with Mpendeexcepted, could be more peaceful than our passage through this tract ofcountry in 1856. We then had nothing to excite the cupidity of thepeople, and the men maintained themselves, either by selling elephant'smeat, or by exhibiting feats of foreign dancing. Most of the people werevery generous and friendly; but the Banyai, nearer to Tette than this, stopped our march with a threatening war-dance. One of our party, terrified at this, ran away, as we thought, insane, and could not, aftera painful search of three days, be found. The Banyai, evidently touchedby our distress, allowed us to proceed. Through a man we left on anisland a little below Mpende's, we subsequently learned that poorMonaheng had fled thither, and had been murdered by the headman for noreason except that he was defenceless. This headman had since becomeodious to his countrymen, and had been put to death by them. 

On the 23rd of June we entered Pangola's principal village, which isupwards of a mile from the river. The ruins of a mud wall showed that arude attempt had been made to imitate the Portuguese style of building. We established ourselves under a stately wild fig-tree, round whose trunkwitchcraft medicine had been tied, to protect from thieves the honey ofthe wild bees, which had their hive in one of the limbs. This is acommon device. The charm, or the medicine, is purchased of the dicedoctors, and consists of a strip of palm-leaf smeared with something, andadorned with a few bits of grass, wood, or roots. It is tied round thetree, and is believed to have the power of inflicting disease and deathon the thief who climbs over it. Superstition is thus not without itsuses in certain states of society; it prevents many crimes andmisdemeanours, which would occur but for the salutary fear that itproduces. 

Pangola arrived, tipsy and talkative. --"We are friends, we are greatfriends; I have brought you a basket of green maize--here it is!" Wethanked him, and handed him two fathoms of cotton cloth, four times themarket-value of his present. No, he would not take so small a present;he wanted a double-barrelled rifle--one of Dixon's best. "We arefriends, you know; we are all friends together. " But although we werewilling to admit that, we could not give him our best rifle, so he wentoff in high dudgeon. Early next morning, as we were commencing Divineservice, Pangola returned, sober. We explained to him that we wished toworship God, and invited him to remain; he seemed frightened, andretired: but after service he again importuned us for the rifle. It wasof no use telling him that we had a long journey before us, and needed itto kill game for ourselves. --"He too must obtain meat for himself andpeople, for they sometimes suffered from hunger. " He then got sulky, andhis people refused to sell food except at extravagant prices. Knowingthat we had nothing to eat, they felt sure of starving us intocompliance. But two of our young men, having gone off at sunrise, shot afine waterbuck, and down came the provision market to the lower figure;they even became eager to sell, but our men were angry with them fortrying compulsion, and would not buy. Black greed had outwitted itself, as happens often with white cupidity; and not only here did the traits ofAfricans remind us of Anglo-Saxons elsewhere: the notoriously ready world-wide disposition to take an unfair advantage of a man's necessities showsthat the same mean motives are pretty widely diffused among all races. Itmay not be granted that the same blood flows in all veins, or that allhave descended from the same stock; but the traveller has no doubt that, practically, the white rogue and black are men and brothers. 

Pangola is the child or vassal of Mpende. Sandia and Mpende are the onlyindependent chiefs from Kebrabasa to Zumbo, and belong to the tribeManganja. The country north of the mountains here in sight from theZambesi is called Senga, and its inhabitants Asenga, or Basenga, but allappear to be of the same family as the rest of the Manganja and Maravi. Formerly all the Manganja were united under the government of their greatchief, Undi, whose empire extended from Lake Shirwa to the River Loangwa;but after Undi's death it fell to pieces, and a large portion of it onthe Zambesi was absorbed by their powerful southern neighbours theBanyai. This has been the inevitable fate of every African empire fromtime immemorial. A chief of more than ordinary ability arises and, subduing all his less powerful neighbours, founds a kingdom, which hegoverns more or less wisely till he dies. His successor not having thetalents of the conqueror cannot retain the dominion, and some of theabler under-chiefs set up for themselves, and, in a few years, theremembrance only of the empire remains. This, which may be considered asthe normal state of African society, gives rise to frequent anddesolating wars, and the people long in vain for a power able to make alldwell in peace. In this light, a European colony would be considered bythe natives as an inestimable boon to intertropical Africa. Thousands ofindustrious natives would gladly settle round it, and engage in thatpeaceful pursuit of agriculture and trade of which they are so fond, and, undistracted by wars or rumours of wars, might listen to the purifyingand ennobling truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Manganja on theZambesi, like their countrymen on the Shire, are fond of agriculture;and, in addition to the usual varieties of food, cultivate tobacco andcotton in quantities more than equal to their wants. To the question, "Would they work for Europeans?" an affirmative answer may be given, ifthe Europeans belong to the class which can pay a reasonable price forlabour, and not to that of adventurers who want employment forthemselves. All were particularly well clothed from Sandia's toPangola's; and it was noticed that all the cloth was of nativemanufacture, the product of their own looms. In Senga a great deal ofiron is obtained from the ore and manufactured very cleverly. 

As is customary when a party of armed strangers visits the village, Pangola took the precaution of sleeping in one of the outlying hamlets. No one ever knows, or at any rate will tell, where the chief sleeps. Hecame not next morning, so we went our way; but in a few moments we sawthe rifle-loving chief approaching with some armed men. Before meetingus, he left the path and drew up his "following" under a tree, expectingus to halt, and give him a chance of bothering us again; but, havingalready had enough of that, we held right on: he seemed dumbfoundered, and could hardly believe his own eyes. For a few seconds he wasspeechless, but at last recovered so far as to be able to say, "You arepassing Pangola. Do you not see Pangola?" Mbia was just going by at thetime with the donkey, and, proud of every opportunity of airing his smallstock of English, shouted in reply, "All right! then get on. " "Click, click, click. "

On the 26th June we breakfasted at Zumbo, on the left bank of theLoangwa, near the ruins of some ancient Portuguese houses. The Loangwawas too deep to be forded, and there were no canoes on our side. Seeingtwo small ones on the opposite shore, near a few recently erected huts oftwo half-castes from Tette, we halted for the ferry-men to come over. From their movements it was evident that they were in a state ofrollicking drunkenness. Having a waterproof cloak, which could beinflated into a tiny boat, we sent Mantlanyane across in it. Three half-intoxicated slaves then brought us the shaky canoes, which we lashedtogether and manned with our own canoe-men. Five men were all that wecould carry over at a time; and after four trips had been made the slavesbegan to clamour for drink; not receiving any, as we had none to give, they grew more insolent, and declared that not another man should crossthat day. Sininyane was remonstrating with them, when a loaded musketwas presented at him by one of the trio. In an instant the gun was outof the rascal's hands, a rattling shower of blows fell on his back, andhe took an involuntary header into the river. He crawled up the bank asad and sober man, and all three at once tumbled from the height of saucyswagger to a low depth of slavish abjectness. The musket was found tohave an enormous charge, and might have blown our man to pieces, but forthe promptitude with which his companions administered justice in alawless land. We were all ferried safely across by 8 o'clock in theevening. 

In illustration of what takes place where no government, or law exists, the two half-castes, to whom these men belonged, left Tette, with fourhundred slaves, armed with the old Sepoy Brown Bess, to hunt elephantsand trade in ivory. On our way up, we heard from natives of theirlawless deeds, and again, on our way down, from several, who had beeneyewitnesses of the principal crime, and all reports substantiallyagreed. The story is a sad one. After the traders reached Zumbo, one ofthem, called by the natives Sequasha, entered into a plot with thedisaffected headman, Namakusuru, to kill his chief, Mpangwe, in orderthat Namakusuru might seize upon the chieftainship; and for the murder ofMpangwe the trader agreed to receive ten large tusks of ivory. Sequasha, with a picked party of armed slaves, went to visit Mpangwe who receivedhim kindly, and treated him with all the honour and hospitality usuallyshown to distinguished strangers, and the women busied themselves incooking the best of their provisions for the repast to be set before him. Of this, and also of the beer, the half-caste partook heartily. Mpangwewas then asked by Sequasha to allow his men to fire their guns inamusement. Innocent of any suspicion of treachery, and anxious to hearthe report of firearms, Mpangwe at once gave his consent; and the slavesrose and poured a murderous volley into the merry group of unsuspectingspectators, instantly killing the chief and twenty of his people. Thesurvivors fled in horror. The children and young women were seized asslaves, and the village sacked. Sequasha sent the message to Namakusuru:"I have killed the lion that troubled you; come and let us talk over thematter. " He came and brought the ivory. "No, " said the half-caste, "letus divide the land:" and he took the larger share for himself, andcompelled the would-be usurper to deliver up his bracelets, in token ofsubjection on becoming the child or vassal of Sequasha. These were sentin triumph to the authorities at Tette. The governor of Quillimane hadtold us that he had received orders from Lisbon to take advantage of ourpassing to re-establish Zumbo; and accordingly these traders had built asmall stockade on the rich plain of the right bank of Loangwa, a mileabove the site of the ancient mission church of Zumbo, as part of theroyal policy. The bloodshed was quite unnecessary, because, the land atZumbo having of old been purchased, the natives would have always oftheir own accord acknowledged the right thus acquired; they pointed itout to Dr. Livingstone in 1856 that, though they were cultivating it, iswas not theirs, but white man's land. Sequasha and his mate had lefttheir ivory in charge of some of their slaves, who, in the absence oftheir masters, were now having a gay time of it, and getting drunk everyday with the produce of the sacked villages. The head slave came andbegged for the musket of the delinquent ferryman, which was returned. Hethought his master did perfectly right to kill Mpangwe, when asked to doit for the fee of ten tusks, and he even justified it thus: "If a maninvites you to eat, will you not partake?"

We continued our journey on the 28th of June. Game was extremelyabundant, and there were many lions. Mbia drove one off from his feaston a wild pig, and appropriated what remained of the pork to his own use. Lions are particularly fond of the flesh of wild pigs and zebras, andcontrive to kill a large number of these animals. In the afternoon wearrived at the village of the female chief, Ma-mburuma, but she herselfwas now living on the opposite side of the river. Some of her peoplecalled, and said she had been frightened by seeing her son and otherchildren killed by Sequasha, and had fled to the other bank; but when herheart was healed, she would return and live in her own village, and amongher own people. She constantly inquired of the black traders, who cameup the river, if they had any news of the white man who passed with theoxen. "He has gone down into the sea, " was their reply, "but we belongto the same people. " "Oh no; you need not tell me that; he takes noslaves, but wishes peace: you are not of his tribe. " This antislaverycharacter excites such universal attention, that any missionary whowinked at the gigantic evils involved in the slave-trade would certainlyfail to produce any good impression on the native mind. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Illness--The Honey-guide--Abundance of game--The Baenda pezi--The Batoka. 

We left the river here, and proceeded up the valley which leads to theMburuma or Mohango pass. The nights were cold, and on the 30th of Junethe thermometer was as low as 39 degrees at sunrise. We passed through avillage of twenty large huts, which Sequasha had attacked on his returnfrom the murder of the chief, Mpangwe. He caught the women and childrenfor slaves, and carried off all the food, except a huge basket of bran, which the natives are wont to save against a time of famine. His slaveshad broken all the water-pots and the millstones for grinding meal. 

The buaze-trees and bamboos are now seen on the hills; but the jujube orzisyphus, which has evidently been introduced from India, extends nofurther up the river. We had been eating this fruit, which, havingsomewhat the taste of apples, the Portuguese call Macaas, all the wayfrom Tette; and here they were larger than usual, though immediatelybeyond they ceased to be found. No mango-tree either is to be met withbeyond this point, because the Portuguese traders never establishedthemselves anywhere beyond Zumbo. Tsetse flies are more numerous andtroublesome than we have ever before found them. They accompany us onthe march, often buzzing round our heads like a swarm of bees. They arevery cunning, and when intending to bite, alight so gently that theirpresence is not perceived till they thrust in their lance-like proboscis. The bite is acute, but the pain is over in a moment; it is followed by alittle of the disagreeable itching of the mosquito's bite. This flyinvariably kills all domestic animals except goats and donkeys; man andthe wild animals escape. We ourselves were severely bitten on this pass, and so were our donkeys, but neither suffered from any after effects. 

Water is scarce in the Mburuma pass, except during the rainy season. Wehowever halted beside some fine springs in the bed of the now dryrivulet, Podebode, which is continued down to the end of the pass, andyields water at intervals in pools. Here we remained a couple of days inconsequence of the severe illness of Dr. Kirk. He had several times beenattacked by fever; and observed that when we were on the cool heights hewas comfortable, but when we happened to descend from a high to a loweraltitude, he felt chilly, though the temperature in the latter case was25 degrees higher than it was above; he had been trying differentmedicines of reputed efficacy with a view to ascertain whether othercombinations might not be superior to the preparation we generally used;in halting by this water he suddenly became blind, and unable to standfrom faintness. The men, with great alacrity, prepared a grassy bed, onwhich we laid our companion, with the sad forebodings which only thosewho have tended the sick in a wild country can realize. We feared thatin experimenting he had over-drugged himself; but we gave him a dose ofour fever pills; on the third day he rode the one of the two donkeys thatwould allow itself to be mounted, and on the sixth he marched as well asany of us. This case is mentioned in order to illustrate what we haveoften observed, that moving the patient from place to place is mostconducive to the cure; and the more pluck a man has--the less he gives into the disease--the less likely he is to die. 

Supplied with water by the pools in the Podebode, we again joined theZambesi at the confluence of the rivulet. When passing through a drydistrict the native hunter knows where to expect water by the animals hesees. The presence of the gemsbuck, duiker or diver, springbucks, orelephants, is no proof that water is near; for these animals roam overvast tracts of country, and may be met scores of miles from it. Not so, however, the zebra, pallah, buffalo, and rhinoceros; their spoor givesassurance that water is not far off, as they never stray any distancefrom its neighbourhood. But when amidst the solemn stillness of thewoods, the singing of joyous birds falls upon the ear, it is certain thatwater is close at hand. 

Our men in hunting came on an immense herd of buffaloes, quietly restingin the long dry grass, and began to blaze away furiously at theastonished animals. In the wild excitement of the hunt, which heretoforehad been conducted with spears, some forgot to load with ball, and, firing away vigorously with powder only, wondered for the moment that thebuffaloes did not fall. The slayer of the young elephant, having buriedhis four bullets in as many buffaloes, fired three charges of No. 1 shothe had for killing guinea-fowl. The quaint remarks and merriment afterthese little adventures seemed to the listener like the pleasant prattleof children. Mbia and Mantlanyane, however, killed one buffalo each;both the beasts were in prime condition; the meat was like reallyexcellent beef, with a smack of venison. A troop of hungry, howlinghyenas also thought the savour tempting, as they hung round the camp atnight, anxious to partake of the feast. They are, fortunately, arrantcowards, and never attack either men or beasts except they can catch themasleep, sick, or at some other disadvantage. With a bright fire at ourfeet their presence excites no uneasiness. A piece of meat hung on atree, high enough to make him jump to reach it, and a short spear, withits handle firmly planted in the ground beneath, are used as a device toinduce the hyena to commit suicide by impalement. 

The honey-guide is an extraordinary bird; how is it that every member ofits family has learned that all men, white or black, are fond of honey?The instant the little fellow gets a glimpse of a man, he hastens togreet him with the hearty invitation to come, as Mbia translated it, to abees' hive, and take some honey. He flies on in the proper direction, perches on a tree, and looks back to see if you are following; then on toanother and another, until he guides you to the spot. If you do notaccept his first invitation he follows you with pressing importunities, quite as anxious to lure the stranger to the bees' hive as other birdsare to draw him away from their own nest. Except while on the march, ourmen were sure to accept the invitation, and manifested the same by apeculiar responsive whistle, meaning, as they said, "All right, go ahead;we are coming. " The bird never deceived them, but always guided them toa hive of bees, though some had but little honey in store. Has thispeculiar habit of the honey-guide its origin, as the attachment of dogs, in friendship for man, or in love for the sweet pickings of the plunderleft on the ground? Self-interest aiding in preservation from dangerseems to be the rule in most cases, as, for instance, in the bird thatguards the buffalo and rhinoceros. The grass is often so tall and densethat one could go close up to these animals quite unperceived; but theguardian bird, sitting on the beast, sees the approach of danger, flapsits wings and screams, which causes its bulky charge to rush off from afoe he has neither seen nor heard; for his reward the vigilant littlewatcher has the pick of the parasites on his fat friend. In other casesa chance of escape must be given even by the animal itself to its prey;as in the rattle-snake, which, when excited to strike, cannot avoid usinghis rattle, any more than the cat can resist curling its tail whenexcited in the chase of a mouse, or the cobra can refrain from inflatingthe loose skin of the neck and extending it laterally, before strikingits poison fangs into its victim. There are many snakes in parts of thispass; they basked in the warm sunshine, but rustled off through theleaves as we approached. We observed one morning a small one of a deadlypoisonous species, named Kakone, on a bush by the wayside, quietlyresting in a horizontal position, digesting a lizard for breakfast. Though openly in view, its colours and curves so closely resembled asmall branch that some failed to see it, even after being asked if theyperceived anything on the bush. Here also one of our number had a glanceat another species, rarely seen, and whose swift lightning-like motionhas given rise to the native proverb, that when a man sees this snake hewill forthwith become a rich man. 

We slept near the ruined village of the murdered chief, Mpangwe, a lovelyspot, with the Zambesi in front, and extensive gardens behind, backed bya semicircle of hills receding up to lofty mountains. Our path keptthese mountains on our right, and crossed several streamlets, whichseemed to be perennial, and among others the Selole, which apparentlyflows past the prominent peak Chiarapela. These rivulets have oftenhuman dwellings on their banks; but the land can scarcely be said to beoccupied. The number of all sorts of game increases wonderfully everyday. As a specimen of what may be met with where there are no humanhabitations, and where no firearms have been introduced, we may mentionwhat at times has actually been seen by us. On the morning of July 3rd aherd of elephants passed within fifty yards of our sleeping-place, goingdown to the river along the dry bed of a rivulet. Starting a few minutesbefore the main body, we come upon large flocks of guinea-fowl, shootwhat may be wanted for dinner, or next morning's breakfast, and leavethem in the path to be picked up by the cook and his mates behind. As weproceed, francolins of three varieties run across the path, and hundredsof turtle-doves rise, with great blatter of wing, and fly off to thetrees. Guinea-fowls, francolins, turtle-doves, ducks, and geese are thegame birds of this region. At sunrise a herd of pallahs, standing like aflock of sheep, allow the first man of our long Indian file to approachwithin about fifty yards; but having meat, we let them trot off leisurelyand unmolested. Soon afterwards we come upon a herd of waterbucks, whichhere are very much darker in colour, and drier in flesh, than the samespecies near the sea. They look at us and we at them; and we pass on tosee a herd of doe koodoos, with a magnificently horned buck or two, hurrying off to the dry hill-sides. We have ceased shooting antelopes, as our men have been so often gorged with meat that they have become fatand dainty. They say that they do not want more venison, it is so dryand tasteless, and ask why we do not give them shot to shoot the moresavoury guinea-fowl. 

About eight o'clock the tsetse commence to buzz about us, and bite ourhands and necks sharply. Just as we are thinking of breakfast, we meetsome buffaloes grazing by the path; but they make off in a heavy gallopat the sight of man. We fire, and the foremost, badly wounded, separatesfrom the herd, and is seen to stop amongst the trees; but, as it is amatter of great danger to follow a wounded buffalo, we hold on our way. It is this losing of wounded animals which makes firearms so annihilatingto these beasts of the field, and will in time sweep them all away. Thesmall Enfield bullet is worse than the old round one for this. It oftengoes through an animal without killing him, and he afterwards perishes, when he is of no value to man. After breakfast we draw near a pond ofwater; a couple of elephants stand on its bank, and, at a respectfuldistance behind these monarchs of the wilderness, is seen a herd ofzebras, and another of waterbucks. On getting our wind the royal beastsmake off at once; but the zebras remain till the foremost man is withineighty yards of them, when old and young canter gracefully away. Thezebra has a great deal of curiosity; and this is often fatal to him, forhe has the habit of stopping to look at the hunter. In this particularhe is the exact opposite of the diver antelope, which rushes off like thewind, and never for a moment stops to look behind, after having once seenor smelt danger. The finest zebra of the herd is sometimes shot, our menhaving taken a sudden fancy to the flesh, which all declare to be the"king of good meat. " On the plains of short grass between us and theriver many antelopes of different species are calmly grazing, orreposing. Wild pigs are common, and walk abroad during the day; but areso shy as seldom to allow a close approach. On taking alarm they erecttheir slender tails in the air, and trot off swiftly in a straight line, keeping their bodies as steady as a locomotive on a railroad. A milebeyond the pool three cow buffaloes with their calves come from thewoods, and move out into the plain. A troop of monkeys, on the edge ofthe forest, scamper back to its depths on hearing the loud song ofSingeleka, and old surly fellows, catching sight of the human party, insult it with a loud and angry bark. Early in the afternoon we may seebuffaloes again, or other animals. We camp on the dry higher ground, after, as has happened, driving off a solitary elephant. The nights arewarmer now, and possess nearly as much of interest and novelty as thedays. A new world awakes and comes forth, more numerous, if we may judgeby the noise it makes, than that which is abroad by sunlight. Lions andhyenas roar around us, and sometimes come disagreeably near, though theyhave never ventured into our midst. Strange birds sing their agreeablesongs, while others scream and call harshly as if in fear or anger. Marvellous insect-sounds fall upon the ear; one, said by natives toproceed from a large beetle, resembles a succession of measured musicalblows upon an anvil, while many others are perfectly indescribable. Alittle lemur was once seen to leap about from branch to branch with theagility of a frog; it chirruped like a bird, and is not larger than arobin red-breast. Reptiles, though numerous, seldom troubled us; onlytwo men suffered from stings, and that very slightly, during the entirejourney, the one supposed that he was bitten by a snake, and the otherwas stung by a scorpion. 

Grass-burning has begun, and is producing the blue hazy atmosphere of theAmerican Indian summer, which in Western Africa is called the "smokes. "Miles of fire burn on the mountain-sides in the evenings, but go outduring the night. From their height they resemble a broad zigzag line offire in the heavens. 

We slept on the night of the 6th of July on the left bank of the Chongwe, which comes through a gap in the hills on our right, and is twenty yardswide. A small tribe of the Bazizulu, from the south, under Dadanga, haverecently settled here and built a village. Some of their houses aresquare, and they seem to be on friendly terms with the Bakoa, who own thecountry. They, like the other natives, cultivate cotton, but of adifferent species from any we have yet seen in Africa, the staple beingvery long, and the boll larger than what is usually met with; the seedscohere as in the Pernambuco kind. They brought the seed with them fromtheir own country, the distant mountains of which in the south, stillinhabited by their fellow-countrymen, who possess much cattle and useshields, can be seen from this high ground. These people profess to bechildren of the great paramount chief, Kwanyakarombe, who is said to belord of all the Bazizulu. The name of this tribe is known togeographers, who derive their information from the Portuguese, as the_Morusurus_, and the hills mentioned above are said to have been thecountry of Changamira, the warrior-chief of history, whom no Portugueseever dared to approach. The Bazizulu seem, by report, to be bravemountaineers; nearer the river, the Sidima inhabit the plains; just as onthe north side, the Babimpe live on the heights, about two days off, andthe Makoa on or near the river. The chief of the Bazizulu we were nowwith was hospitable and friendly. A herd of buffaloes came tramplingthrough the gardens and roused up our men; a feat that roaring lionsseldom achieved. 

Our course next day passed over the upper terrace and through a densethorn jungle. Travelling is always difficult where there is no path, butit is even more perplexing where the forest is cut up by manygame-tracks. Here we got separated from one another, and a rhinoceroswith angry snort dashed at Dr. Livingstone as he stooped to pick up aspecimen of the wild fruit morula; but she strangely stopped stock-stillwhen less than her own length distant, and gave him time to escape; abranch pulled out his watch as he ran, and turning half round to graspit, he got a distant glance of her and her calf still standing on theselfsame spot, as if arrested in the middle of her charge by an unseenhand. When about fifty yards off, thinking his companions close behind, he shouted "Look out there!" when off she rushed, snorting loudly, inanother direction. The Doctor usually went unarmed before this, butnever afterwards. 

A fine eland was shot by Dr. Kirk this afternoon, the first we havekilled. It was in first-rate condition, and remarkably fat; but themeat, though so tempting in appearance, severely deranged all who partookof it heartily, especially those who ate of the fat. Natives who live ingame countries, and are acquainted with the different kinds of wildanimals, have a prejudice against the fat of the eland, the pallah, thezebra, hippopotamus, and pig; they never reject it, however, the climatemaking the desire for all animal food very strong; but they consider thatit causes ulcers and leprosy, while the fat of sheep and of oxen neverproduces any bad effects, unless the animal is diseased. 

On the morning of the 9th, after passing four villages, we breakfasted atan old friend's, Tombanyama, who lives now on the mainland, havingresigned the reedy island, where he was first seen, to the buffaloes, which used to take his crops and show fight to his men. He keeps a largeflock of tame pigeons, and some fine fat capons, one of which he gave us, with a basket of meal. They have plenty of salt in this part of thecountry, obtaining it from the plains in the usual way. 

The half-caste partner of Sequasha and a number of his men were stayingnear. The fellow was very munch frightened when he saw us, and trembledso much when he spoke, that the Makololo and other natives noticed andremarked on it. His fears arose from a sense of guilt, as we saidnothing to frighten him, and did not allude to the murder till a fewminutes before starting; when it was remarked that Dr. Livingstone havingbeen accredited to the murdered chief, it would be his duty to report onit; and that not even the Portuguese Government would approve of thedeed. He defended it by saying that they had put in the right man, theother was a usurper. He was evidently greatly relieved when we departed. In the afternoon we came to an outlying hamlet of Kambadzo, whose ownvillage is on an island, Nyampungo, or Nyangalule, at the confluence ofthe Kafue. The chief was on a visit here, and they had been enjoying aregular jollification. There had been much mirth, music, drinking, anddancing. The men, and women too, had taken "a wee drap too much, " buthad not passed the complimentary stage. The wife of the headman, afterlooking at us a few moments, called out to the others, "Black tradershave come before, calling themselves Bazungu, or white men, but now, forthe first time, have we seen the real Bazungu. " Kambadzo also soonappeared; he was sorry that we had not come before the beer was all done, but he was going back to see if it was all really and entirely finished, and not one little potful left somewhere. 

This was, of course, mere characteristic politeness, as he was perfectlyaware that every drop had been swallowed; so we proceeded on to theKafue, or Kafuje, accompanied by the most intelligent of his headmen. Ahigh ridge, just before we reached the confluence, commands a splendidview of the two great rivers, and the rich country beyond. Behind, onthe north and east, is the high mountain-range, along whose base we havebeen travelling; the whole range is covered with trees, which appear evenon the prominent peaks, Chiarapela, Morindi, and Chiava; at this last thechain bends away to the N. W. , and we could see the distant mountainswhere the chief, Semalembue, gained all our hearts in 1856. 

On the 9th of July we tried to send Semalembue a present, but the peoplehere refused to incur the responsibility of carrying it. We, who havethe art of writing, cannot realize the danger one incurs of being accusedof purloining a portion of goods sent from one person to another, whenthe carrier cannot prove that he delivered all committed to his charge. Rumours of a foray having been made, either by Makololo or Batoka, as faras the fork of the Kafue, were received here by our men with greatindignation, as it looked as if the marauders were shutting up thecountry, which they had been trying so much to open. Below the junctionof the rivers, on a shallow sandbank, lay a large herd of hippopotami, their bodies out of the water, like masses of black rock. Kambadzo'sisland, called Nyangalule, a name which occurs again at the mouth of theZambesi, has many choice Motsikiri (_Trachelia_) trees on it; and fourvery conspicuous stately palms growing out of a single stem. The Kafuereminds us a little of the Shire, flowing between steep banks, withfertile land on both sides. It is a smaller river, and has less current. Here it seems to come from the west. The headman of the village, nearwhich we encamped, brought a present of meal, fowls, and sweet potatoes. They have both the red and white varieties of this potato. We have, onseveral occasions during this journey, felt the want of vegetables, in adisagreeable craving which our diet of meat and native meal could notsatisfy. It became worse and worse till we got a meal of potatoes, whichallayed it at once. A great scarcity of vegetables prevails in theseparts of Africa. The natives collect several kinds of wild plants in thewoods, which they use no doubt for the purpose of driving off cravingssimilar to those we experienced. 

Owing to the strength of the wind, and the cranky state of the canoes, itwas late in the afternoon of the 11th before our party was ferried overthe Kafue. After crossing, we were in the Bawe country. Fishhooks here, of native workmanship, were observed to have barbs like the Europeanhooks: elsewhere the point of the hook is merely bent in towards theshank, to have the same effect in keeping on the fish as the barb. Weslept near a village a short distance above the ford. The people hereare of Batoka origin, the same as many of our men, and call themselvesBatonga (independents), or Balengi, and their language only differsslightly from that of the Bakoa, who live between the two rivers Kafueand Loangwa. The paramount chief of the district lives to the west ofthis place, and is called Nchomokela--an hereditary title: the familyburying-place is on a small hill near this village. The women salute usby clapping their hands and lullilooing as we enter and leave a village, and the men, as they think, respectfully clap their hands on their hips. Immense crops of mapira (_holcus sorghum_) are raised; one species of itforms a natural bend on the seed-stalk, so that the massive ear hangsdown. The grain was heaped up on wooden stages, and so was a variety ofother products. The men are skilful hunters, and kill elephants andbuffaloes with long heavy spears. We halted a few minutes on the morningof the 12th July, opposite the narrow island of Sikakoa, which has avillage on its lower end. We were here told that Moselekatse's chieftown is a month's distance from this place. They had heard, moreover, that the English had come to Moselekatse, and told him it was wrong tokill men; and he had replied that he was born to kill people, but woulddrop the habit; and, since the English came, he had sent out his men, notto kill as of yore, but to collect tribute of cloth and ivory. Thisreport referred to the arrival of the Rev. R. Moffat, of Kuruman, who, weafterwards found, had established a mission. The statement isinteresting as showing that, though imperfectly expressed, the purport ofthe missionaries' teaching had travelled, in a short time, over 300miles, and we know not how far the knowledge of the English operations onthe coast spread inland. 

When abreast of the high wooded island Kalabi we came in contact with oneof the game-laws of the country, which has come down from the mostancient times. An old buffalo crossed the path a few yards in front ofus; our guide threw his small spear at its hip, and it was going offscarcely hurt, when three rifle balls knocked it over. "It is mine, "said the guide. He had wounded it first, and the established native game-law is that the animal belongs to the man who first draws blood; the twolegs on one side, by the same law, belonged to us for killing it. Thisbeast was very old, blind of one eye, and scabby; the horns, mere stumps, not a foot long, must have atrophied, when by age he lost the strengthdistinctive of his sex; some eighteen or twenty inches of horn could notwell be worn down by mere rubbing against the trees. We saw manybuffaloes next day, standing quietly amidst a thick thorn-jungle, throughwhich we were passing. They often stood until we were within fifty or ahundred yards of them. 

On the 14th July we left the river at the mountain-range, which, lyingnorth-east and south-west across the river, forms the Kariba gorge. Nearthe upper end of the Kariba rapids, the stream Sanyati enters from thesouth, and is reported to have Moselekatse's principal cattle-posts atits sources; our route went round the end of the mountains, and weencamped beside the village of the generous chief Moloi, who brought usthree immense baskets of fine mapira meal, ten fowls, and two pots ofbeer. On receiving a present in return, he rose, and, with a few dancinggestures, said or sang, "Motota, Motota, Motota, " which our mentranslated into "thanks. " He had visited Moselekatse a few months beforeour arrival, and saw the English missionaries, living in their wagons. "They told Moselekatse, " said he, "they were of his family, or friends, and would plough the land and live at their own expense;" and he hadreplied, "The land is before you, and I shall come and see you plough. "This again was substantially what took place, when Mr. Moffat introducedthe missionaries to his old friend, and shows still further that thenotion of losing their country by admitting foreigners does not come asthe first idea to the native mind. One might imagine that, as mechanicalpowers are unknown to the heathen, the almost magic operations ofmachinery, the discoveries of modern science and art, or the presence ofthe prodigious force which, for instance, is associated with the sight ofa man-of-war, would have the effect which miracles once had of arrestingthe attention and inspiring awe. But, though we have heard the nativesexclaim in admiration at the sight of even small illustrations of whatscience enables us to do--"Ye are gods, and not men"--the heart isunaffected. In attempting their moral elevation, it is always moreconducive to the end desired, that the teacher should come unaccompaniedby any power to cause either jealousy or fear. The heathen, who have notbecome aware of the greed and hate which too often characterize theadvancing tide of emigration, listen with most attention to the messageof Divine love when delivered by men who evidently possess the same humansympathies with themselves. A chief is rather envied his good fortune infirst securing foreigners in his town. Jealousy of strangers belongsmore to the Arab than to the African character; and if the women are letalone by the traveller, no danger need be apprehended from any save theslave-trading tribes, and not often even from them. 

We passed through a fertile country, covered with open forest, accompanied by the friendly Bawe. They are very hospitable; many of themwere named, among themselves, "the Baenda pezi, " or "Go-nakeds, " theironly clothing being a coat of red ochre. Occasionally stopping at theirvillages we were duly lullilooed, and regaled with sweet new-made beer, which, being yet unfermented, was not intoxicating. It is in this statecalled Liting or Makonde. Some of the men carry large shields of buffalo-hide, and all are well supplied with heavy spears. The vicinity of thevillages is usually cleared and cultivated in large patches; but nowherecan the country be said to be stocked with people. At every villagestands were erected, and piles of the native corn, still unthrashed, placed upon them; some had been beaten out, put into oblong parcels madeof grass, and stacked in wooden frames. 

We crossed several rivulets in our course, as the Mandora, the Lofia, theManzaia (with brackish water), the Rimbe, the Chibue, the Chezia, theChilola (containing fragments of coal), which did little more than markour progress. The island and rapid of Nakansalo, of which we hadformerly heard, were of no importance, the rapid being but half a milelong, and only on one side of the island. The island Kaluzi marks one ofthe numerous places where astronomical observations were made; Mozia, astation where a volunteer poet left us; the island Mochenya, and Mpandeisland, at the mouth of the Zungwe rivulet, where we left the Zambesi. 

When favoured with the hospitality and company of the "Go-nakeds, " wetried to discover if nudity were the badge of a particular order amongthe Bawe, but they could only refer to custom. Some among them hadalways liked it for no reason in particular: shame seemed to lie dormant, and the sense could not be aroused by our laughing and joking them ontheir appearance. They evidently felt no less decent than we did withour clothes on; but, whatever may be said in favour of nude statues, itstruck us that man, in a state of nature, is a most ungainly animal. Could we see a number of the degraded of our own lower classes in likeguise, it is probable that, without the black colour which acts somehowas a dress, they would look worse still. 

In domestic contentions the Bawe are careful not to kill each other; but, when one village goes to war with another, they are not so particular. The victorious party are said to quarter one of the bodies of the enemiesthey may have killed, and to perform certain ceremonies over thefragments. The vanquished call upon their conquerors to give them aportion also; and, when this request is complied with, they too performthe same ceremonies, and lament over their dead comrade, after which thelate combatants may visit each other in peace. Sometimes the head of theslain is taken and buried in an ant-hill, till all the flesh is gone; andthe lower jaw is then worn as a trophy by the slayer; but this we neversaw, and the foregoing information was obtained only through aninterpreter. 

We left the Zambesi at the mouth of the Zungwe or Mozama or Dela rivulet, up which we proceeded, first in a westerly and then in a north-westerlydirection. The Zungwe at this time had no water in its sandy channel forthe first eight or ten miles. Willows, however, grow on the banks, andwater soon began to appear in the hollows; and a few miles further up itwas a fine flowing stream deliciously cold. As in many other streamsfrom Chicova to near Sinamane shale and coal crop out in the bank; andhere the large roots of stigmaria or its allied plants were found. Wefollowed the course of the Zungwe to the foot of the Batoka highlands, upwhose steep and rugged sides of red and white quartz we climbed till weattained an altitude of upwards of 3000 feet. Here, on the cool andbracing heights, the exhilaration of mind and body was delightful, as welooked back at the hollow beneath covered with a hot sultry glare, notunpleasant now that we were in the mild radiance above. We had a nobleview of the great valley in which the Zambesi flows. The cultivatedportions are so small in comparison to the rest of the landscape that thevalley appears nearly all forest, with a few grassy glades. We spent thenight of the 28th July high above the level of the sea, by the rivuletTyotyo, near Tabacheu or Chirebuechina, names both signifying whitemountain; in the morning hoar frost covered the ground, and thin ice wason the pools. Skirting the southern flank of Tabacheu, we soon passedfrom the hills on to the portion of the vast table-land called Mataba, and looking back saw all the way across the Zambesi valley to the loftyridge some thirty miles off, which, coming from the Mashona, a country inthe S. E. , runs to the N. W. To join the ridge at the angle of which arethe Victoria Falls, and then bends far to the N. E. From the same point. Only a few years since these extensive highlands were peopled by theBatoka; numerous herds of cattle furnished abundance of milk, and therich soil amply repaid the labour of the husbandman; now large herds ofbuffaloes, zebras, and antelopes fatten on the excellent pasture; and onthat land, which formerly supported multitudes, not a man is to beenseen. In travelling from Monday morning till late on Saturday afternoon, all the way from Tabacheu to Moachemba, which is only twenty-one miles oflatitude from the Victoria Falls, and constantly passing the ruined sitesof utterly deserted Botoka villages, we did not fall in with a singleperson. The Batoka were driven out of their noble country by theinvasions of Moselekatse and Sebetuane. Several tribes of Bechuana andBasutu, fleeing from the Zulu or Matebele chief Moselekatse reached theZambesi above the Falls. Coming from a land without rivers, none of themknew how to swim; and one tribe, called the Bamangwato, wishing to crossthe Zambesi, was ferried over, men and women separately, to differentislands, by one of the Batoka chiefs; the men were then left to starveand the women appropriated by the ferryman and his people. Sekomi, thepresent chief of the Bamangwato, then an infant in his mother's arms, wasenabled, through the kindness of a private Batoka, to escape. This actseems to have made an indelible impression on Sekomi's heart, for thoughotherwise callous, he still never fails to inquire after the welfare ofhis benefactor. 

Sebetuane, with his wonted ability, outwitted the treacherous Batoka, byinsisting in the politest manner on their chief remaining at his own sideuntil the people and cattle were all carried safe across; the chief wasthen handsomely rewarded, both with cattle and brass rings offSebetuane's own wives. No sooner were the Makololo, then called Basuto, safely over, than they were confronted by the whole Batoka nation; and tothis day the Makololo point with pride to the spot on the Lekone, near towhich they were encamped, where Sebetuane, with a mere handful ofwarriors in comparison to the vast horde that surrounded him, stoodwaiting the onslaught, the warriors in one small body, the women andchildren guarding the cattle behind them. The Batoka, of course, meltedaway before those who had been made veterans by years of continualfighting, and Sebetuane always justified his subsequent conquests in thatcountry by alleging that the Batoka had come out to fight with a manfleeing for his life, who had never done them any wrong. They seem neverto have been a warlike race; passing through their country, we onceobserved a large stone cairn, and our guide favoured us with thefollowing account of it:--"Once upon a time, our forefathers were goingto fight another tribe, and here they halted and sat down. After a longconsultation, they came to the unanimous conclusion that, instead ofproceeding to fight and kill their neighbours, and perhaps be killedthemselves, it would be more like men to raise this heap of stones, astheir protest against the wrong the other tribe had done them, which, having accomplished, they returned quietly home. " Such men of peacecould not stand before the Makololo, nor, of course, the more warlikeMatebele, who coming afterwards, drove even their conquerors, theMakololo, out of the country. Sebetuane, however, profiting by thetactics which he had learned of the Batoka, inveigled a large body ofthis new enemy on to another island, and after due starvation thereovercame the whole. A much greater army of "Moselekatse's own" followedwith canoes, but were now baffled by Sebetuane's placing all his peopleand cattle on an island and so guarding it that none could approach. Dispirited, famished, borne down by fever, they returned to the Falls, and all except five were cut off. 

But though the Batoka appear never to have had much inclination to fightwith men, they are decidedly brave hunters of buffaloes and elephants. They go fearlessly close up to these formidable animals, and kill themwith large spears. The Banyai, who have long bullied all Portuguesetraders, were amazed at the daring and bravery of the Batoka in coming atonce to close quarters with the elephant; and Chisaka, a Portugueserebel, having formerly induced a body of this tribe to settle with him, ravaged all the Portuguese villas around Tette. They bear the name ofBasimilongwe, and some of our men found relations among them. Sininyaneand Matenga also, two of our party, were once inveigled into a Portugueseexpedition against Mariano, by the assertion that the Doctor had arrivedand had sent for them to come down to Senna. On finding that they wereentrapped to fight, they left, after seeing an officer with a largenumber of Tette slaves killed. 

The Batoka had attained somewhat civilized ideas, in planting andprotecting various fruit and oil-seed yielding trees of the country. Noother tribe either plants or abstains from cutting down fruit trees, buthere we saw some which had been planted in regular rows, and the trunksof which were quite two feet in diameter. The grand old Mosibe, a treeyielding a bean with a thin red pellicle, said to be very fattening, hadprobably seen two hundred summers. Dr. Kirk found that the Mosibe ispeculiar, in being allied to a species met with only in the West Indies. The Motsikiri, sometimes called Mafuta, yields a hard fat, and an oilwhich is exported from Inhambane. It is said that two ancient Batokatravellers went down as far as the Loangwa, and finding the Macaa tree(_jujube_ or _zisyphus_) in fruit, carried the seed all the way back tothe great Falls, in order to plant them. Two of these trees are still tobe seen there, the only specimens of the kind in that region. 

The Batoka had made a near approach to the custom of more refined nationsand had permanent graveyards, either on the sides of hills, thus renderedsacred, or under large old shady trees; they reverence the tombs of theirancestors, and plant the largest elephants' tusks, as monuments at thehead of the grave, or entirely enclose it with the choicest ivory. Someof the other tribes throw the dead body into the river to be devoured bycrocodiles, or, sewing it up in a mat, place it on the branch of abaobab, or cast it in some lonely gloomy spot, surrounded by densetropical vegetation, where it affords a meal to the foul hyenas; but theBatoka reverently bury their dead, and regard the spot henceforth assacred. The ordeal by the poison of the muave is resorted to by theBatoka, as well as by the other tribes; but a cock is often made to standproxy for the supposed witch. Near the confluence of the Kafue theMambo, or chief, with some of his headmen, came to our sleeping-placewith a present; their foreheads were smeared with white flour, and anunusual seriousness marked their demeanour. Shortly before our arrivalthey had been accused of witchcraft; conscious of innocence, theyaccepted the ordeal, and undertook to drink the poisoned muave. For thispurpose they made a journey to the sacred hill of Nchomokela, on whichrepose the bodies of their ancestors; and, after a solemn appeal to theunseen spirits to attest the innocence of their children, they swallowedthe muave, vomited, and were therefore declared not guilty. It isevident that they believe that the soul has a continued existence; andthat the spirits of the departed know what those they have left behindthem are doing, and are pleased or not according as their deeds are goodor evil; this belief is universal. The owner of a large canoe refused tosell it, because it belonged to the spirit of his father, who helped himwhen he killed the hippopotamus. Another, when the bargain for his canoewas nearly completed, seeing a large serpent on a branch of the treeoverhead, refused to complete the sale, alleging that this was the spiritof his father come to protest against it. 

Some of the Batoka chiefs must have been men of considerable enterprise;the land of one, in the western part of this country, was protected bythe Zambesi on the S. , and on the N. And E. Lay an impassable reedymarsh, filled with water all the year round, leaving only his westernborder open to invasion: he conceived the idea of digging a broad anddeep canal nearly a mile in length, from the reedy marsh to the Zambesi, and, having actually carried the scheme into execution, he formed a largeisland, on which his cattle grazed in safety, and his corn ripened fromyear to year secure from all marauders. 

Another chief, who died a number of years ago, believed that he haddiscovered a remedy for tsetse-bitten cattle; his son Moyara showed us aplant, which was new to our botanist, and likewise told us how themedicine was prepared; the bark of the root, and, what might please ourhomoeopathic friends, a dozen of the tsetse are dried, and groundtogether into a fine powder. This mixture is administered internally;and the cattle are fumigated by burning under them the rest of the plantcollected. The treatment must be continued for weeks, whenever thesymptoms of poison appear. This medicine, he frankly admitted, would notcure all the bitten cattle. "For, " said he, "cattle, and men too, die inspite of medicine; but should a herd by accident stray into a tsetsedistrict and be bitten, by this medicine of my father, Kampa-kampa, someof them could be saved, while, without it, all would inevitably die. " Hestipulated that we were not to show the medicine to other people, and ifever we needed it in this region we must employ him; but if we were faroff we might make it ourselves; and when we saw it cure the cattle thinkof him, and send him a present. 

Our men made it known everywhere that we wished the tribes to live inpeace, and would use our influence to induce Sekeletu to prevent theBatoka of Moshobotwane and the Makololo under-chiefs making forays intotheir country: they had already suffered severely, and theirremonstrances with their countryman, Moshobotwane, evoked only theanswer, "The Makololo have given me a spear; why should I not use it?"He, indeed, it was who, being remarkably swift of foot, first guided theMakololo in their conquest of the country. In the character ofpeacemakers, therefore, we experienced abundant hospitality; and, fromthe Kafue to the Falls, none of our party was allowed to suffer hunger. The natives sent to our sleeping-places generous presents of the finestwhite meal, and fat capons to give it a relish, great pots of beer tocomfort our hearts, together with pumpkins, beans, and tobacco, so thatwe "should sleep neither hungry nor thirsty. "

In travelling from the Kafue to the Zungwe we frequently passed severalvillages in the course of a day's march. In the evening came deputiesfrom the villages, at which we could not stay to sleep, with liberalpresents of food. It would have pained them to have allowed strangers topass without partaking of their hospitality; repeatedly were we hailedfrom huts, and asked to wait a moment and drink a little of the beer, which was brought with alacrity. Our march resembled a triumphantprocession. We entered and left every village amidst the cheers of itsinhabitants; the men clapping their hands, and the women lullilooing, with the shrill call, "Let us sleep, " or "Peace. " Passing through ahamlet one day, our guide called to the people, "Why do you not clap yourhands and salute when you see men who are wishing to bring peace to theland?" When we halted for the night it was no uncommon thing for thepeople to prepare our camp entirely of their own accord; some with hoesquickly smoothed the ground for our beds, others brought dried grass andspread it carefully over the spot; some with their small axes speedilymade a bush fence to shield us from the wind; and if, as occasionallyhappened, the water was a little distance off, others hastened andbrought it with firewood to cook our food with. They are an industriouspeople, and very fond of agriculture. For hours together we marchedthrough unbroken fields of mapira, or native corn, of a great width; butone can give no idea of the extent of land under the hoe as compared withany European country. The extent of surface is so great that the largestfields under culture, when viewed on a wide landscape, dwindle to merespots. When taken in connection with the wants of the people, thecultivation on the whole is most creditable to their industry. Theyerect numerous granaries which give their villages the appearance ofbeing large; and, when the water of the Zambesi has subsided, they placelarge quantities of grain, tied up in bundles of grass, and wellplastered over with clay, on low sand islands for protection from theattacks of marauding mice and men. Owing to the ravages of the weevil, the native corn can hardly be preserved until the following crop comesin. However largely they may cultivate, and however abundant theharvest, it must all be consumed in a year. This may account for theirmaking so much of it into beer. The beer these Batoka or Bawe brew isnot the sour and intoxicating boala or pombe found among some othertribes, but sweet, and highly nutritive, with only a slight degree ofacidity, sufficient to render it a pleasant drink. The people were allplump, and in good condition; and we never saw a single case ofintoxication among them, though all drank abundance of this liting, orsweet beer. Both men and boys were eager to work for very small pay. Ourmen could hire any number of them to carry their burdens for a few beadsa day. Our miserly and dirty ex-cook had an old pair of trousers thatsome one had given to him; after he had long worn them himself, with oneof the sorely decayed legs he hired a man to carry his heavy load a wholeday; a second man carried it the next day for the other leg, and whatremained of the old garment, without the buttons, procured the labour ofanother man for the third day. 

Men of remarkable ability have risen up among the Africans from time totime, as amongst other portions of the human family. Some have attractedthe attention, and excited the admiration of large districts by theirwisdom. Others, apparently by the powers of ventriloquism, or bypeculiar dexterity in throwing the spear, or shooting with the bow, havebeen the wonder of their generation; but the total absence of literatureleads to the loss of all former experience, and the wisdom of the wisehas not been handed down. They have had their minstrels too, but meretradition preserves not their effusions. One of these, and apparently agenuine poet, attached himself to our party for several days, andwhenever we halted, sang our praises to the villagers, in smooth andharmonious numbers. It was a sort of blank verse, and each lineconsisted of five syllables. The song was short when it first began, buteach day he picked up more information about us, and added to the poemuntil our praises became an ode of respectable length. When distancefrom home compelled his return he expressed his regret at leaving us, andwas, of course, paid for his useful and pleasant flatteries. Another, though a less gifted son of song, belonged to the Batoka of our ownparty. Every evening, while the others were cooking, talking, orsleeping, he rehearsed his songs, containing a history of everything hehad seen in the land of the white men, and on the way back. Incomposing, extempore, any new piece, he was never at a loss; for if theright word did not come he halted not, but eked out the measure with apeculiar musical sound meaning nothing at all. He accompanied hisrecitations on the _sansa_, an instrument figured in the woodcut, thenine iron keys of which are played with the thumbs, while the fingerspass behind to hold it. The hollow end and ornaments face the breast ofthe player. Persons of a musical turn, if too poor to buy a sansa, maybe seen playing vigorously on an instrument made with a number of thickcorn-stalks sewn together, as a sansa frame, and keys of split bamboo, which, though making but little sound, seems to soothe the playerhimself. When the instrument is played with a calabash as a soundingboard, it emits a greater volume of sound. Pieces of shells and tin areadded to make a jingling accompaniment, and the calabash is alsoornamented. 

After we had passed up, a party of slaves, belonging to the two nativePortuguese who assassinated the chief, Mpangwe, and took possession ofhis lands at Zumbo, followed on our footsteps, and representingthemselves to be our "children, " bought great quantities of ivory fromthe Bawe, for a few coarse beads a tusk. They also purchased ten largenew canoes to carry it, at the rate of six strings of red or white beads, or two fathoms of grey calico, for each canoe, and, at the same cheaprate, a number of good-looking girls. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Victoria Falls of the Zambesi--Marvellous grandeur of theCataracts--The Makololo's town--The Chief Sekeletu. 

During the time we remained at Motunta a splendid meteor was observed tolighten the whole heavens. The observer's back was turned to it, but onlooking round the streak of light was seen to remain on its path someseconds. This streak is usually explained to be only the continuance ofthe impression made by the shining body on the retina. This cannot be, as in this case the meteor was not actually seen and yet the streak wasclearly perceived. The rays of planets and stars also require anotherexplanation than that usually given. 

Fruit-trees and gigantic wild fig-trees, and circles of stones on whichcorn safes were placed, with worn grindstones, point out where thevillages once stood. The only reason now assigned for this fine countryremaining desolate is the fear of fresh visitations by the Matebele. Thecountry now slopes gradually to the west into the Makololo Valley. Twodays' march from the Batoka village nearest the highlands, we met withsome hunters who were burning the dry grass, in order to attract the gameby the fresh vegetation which speedily springs up afterwards. The grass, as already remarked, is excellent for cattle. One species, with leaveshaving finely serrated edges, and of a reddish-brown colour, we noticedour men eating: it tastes exactly like liquorice-root, and is named kezu-kezu. The tsetse, known to the Batoka by the name "ndoka, " does notexist here, though buffaloes and elephants abound. 

A small trap in the path, baited with a mouse, to catch spotted cats (_F. Genetta_), is usually the first indication that we are drawing near to avillage; but when we get within the sounds of pounding corn, cockcrowing, or the merry shouts of children at play, we know that the huts are but afew yards off, though the trees conceal them from view. We reached, onthe 4th of August, Moachemba, the first of the Batoka villages which nowowe allegiance to Sekeletu, and could see distinctly with the naked eye, in the great valley spread out before us, the columns of vapour risingfrom the Victoria Falls, though upwards of 20 miles distant. We wereinformed that, the rains having failed this year, the corn crops had beenlost, and great scarcity and much hunger prevailed from Sesheke toLinyanti. Some of the reports which the men had heard from the Batoka ofthe hills concerning their families, were here confirmed. Takelang'swife had been killed by Mashotlane, the headman at the Falls, on acharge, as usual, of witchcraft. Inchikola's two wives, believing him tobe dead, had married again; and Masakasa was intensely disgusted to hearthat two years ago his friends, upon a report of his death, threw hisshield over the Falls, slaughtered all his oxen, and held a species ofwild Irish wake, in honour of his memory: he said he meant to disownthem, and to say, when they come to salute him, "I am dead. I am nothere. I belong to another world, and should stink if I came among you. "

All the sad news we had previously heard, of the disastrous results whichfollowed the attempt of a party of missionaries, under the Rev. H. Helmore, to plant the gospel at Linyanti, were here fully confirmed. Several of the missionaries and their native attendants, from Kuruman, had succumbed to the fever, and the survivors had retired some weeksbefore our arrival. We remained the whole of the 7th beside the villageof the old Batoka chief, Moshobotwane, the stoutest man we have seen inAfrica. The cause of our delay here was a severe attack of fever inCharles Livingstone. He took a dose of our fever pills; was better onthe 8th, and marched three hours; then on the 9th marched eight miles tothe Great Falls, and spent the rest of the day in the fatiguing exerciseof sight-seeing. We were in the very same valley as Linyanti, and thiswas the same fever which treated, or rather maltreated, with only alittle Dover's powder, proved so fatal to poor Helmore; the symptoms, too, were identical with those afterwards described by non-medicalpersons as those of poison. 

We gave Moshobotwane a present, and a pretty plain exposition of what wethought of his bloody forays among his Batoka brethren. A scolding doesmost good to the recipient, when put alongside some obliging act. Hecertainly did not take it ill, as was evident from what he gave us inreturn; which consisted of a liberal supply of meal, milk, and an ox. Hehas a large herd of cattle, and a tract of fine pasture-land on thebeautiful stream Lekone. A home-feeling comes over one, even in theinterior of Africa, at seeing once more cattle grazing peacefully in themeadows. The tsetse inhabits the trees which bound the pasture-land onthe west; so, should the herdsman forget his duty, the cattle strayingmight be entirely lost. The women of this village were more numerousthan the men, the result of the chief's marauding. The Batoko wife ofSima came up from the Falls, to welcome her husband back, bringing apresent of the best fruits of the country. Her husband was the only oneof the party who had brought a wife from Tette, namely, the girl whom heobtained from Chisaka for his feats of dancing. According to our ideas, his first wife could hardly have been pleased at seeing the second andyounger one; but she took her away home with her, while the husbandremained with us. In going down to the Fall village we met several ofthe real Makololo. They are lighter in colour than the other tribes, being of a rich warm brown; and they speak in a slow deliberate manner, distinctly pronouncing every word. On reaching the village oppositeKalai, we had an interview with the Makololo headman, Mashotlane: he cameto the shed in which we were seated, a little boy carrying his low three-legged stool before him: on this he sat down with becoming dignity, looked round him for a few seconds, then at us, and, saluting us with"Rumela" (good morning, or hail), he gave us some boiled hippopotamusmeat, took a piece himself, and then handed the rest to his attendants, who soon ate it up. He defended his forays on the ground that, when hewent to collect tribute, the Batoka attacked him, and killed some of hisattendants. The excuses made for their little wars are often the verysame as those made by Caesar in his "Commentaries. " Few admit, like oldMoshobotwane, that they fought because they had the power, and a fairprospect of conquering. We found here Pitsane, who had accompanied theDoctor to St. Paul de Loanda. He had been sent by Sekeletu to purchasethree horses from a trading party of Griquas from Kuruman, who chargednine large tusks apiece for very wretched animals. 

In the evening, when all was still, one of our men, Takelang, fired hismusket, and cried out, "I am weeping for my wife: my court is desolate: Ihave no home;" and then uttered a loud wail of anguish. 

We proceeded next morning, 9th August, 1860, to see the Victoria Falls. Mosi-oa-tunya is the Makololo name and means smoke sounding; Seongo orChongwe, meaning the Rainbow, or the place of the Rainbow, was the moreancient term they bore. We embarked in canoes, belonging to Tuba Mokoro, "smasher of canoes, " an ominous name; but he alone, it seems, knew themedicine which insures one against shipwreck in the rapids above theFalls. For some miles the river was smooth and tranquil, and we glidedpleasantly over water clear as crystal, and past lovely islands denselycovered with a tropical vegetation. Noticeable among the many trees werethe lofty Hyphaene and Borassus palms; the graceful wild date-palm, withits fruit in golden clusters, and the umbrageous mokononga, of cypressform, with its dark-green leaves and scarlet fruit. Many flowers peepedout near the water's edge, some entirely new to us, and others, as theconvolvulus, old acquaintances. 

But our attention was quickly called from the charming islands to thedangerous rapids, down which Tuba might unintentionally shoot us. Toconfess the truth, the very ugly aspect of these roaring rapids couldscarcely fail to cause some uneasiness in the minds of new-comers. It isonly when the river is very low, as it was now, that any one durstventure to the island to which we were bound. If one went during theperiod of flood, and fortunately hit the island, he would be obliged toremain there till the water subsided again, if he lived so long. Bothhippopotami and elephants have been known to be swept over the Falls, andof course smashed to pulp. 

Before entering the race of waters, we were requested not to speak, asour talking might diminish the virtue of the medicine; and no one withsuch boiling eddying rapids before his eyes, would think of disobeyingthe orders of a "canoe-smasher. " It soon became evident that there wassound sense in this request of Tuba's, although the reason assigned wasnot unlike that of the canoe-man from Sesheke, who begged one of ourparty not to whistle, because whistling made the wind come. It was theduty of the man at the bow to look out ahead for the proper course, andwhen he saw a rock or snag, to call out to the steersman. Tuba doubtlessthought that talking on board might divert the attention of hissteersman, at a time when the neglect of an order, or a slight mistake, would be sure to spill us all into the chafing river. There were placeswhere the utmost exertions of both men had to be put forth in order toforce the canoe to the only safe part of the rapid, and to prevent itfrom sweeping down broadside on, where in a twinkling we should havefound ourselves floundering among the plotuses and cormorants, which wereengaged in diving for their breakfast of small fish. At times it seemedas if nothing could save us from dashing in our headlong race against therocks which, now that the river was low, jutted out of the water; butjust at the very nick of time, Tuba passed the word to the steersman, andthen with ready pole turned the canoe a little aside, and we glidedswiftly past the threatened danger. Never was canoe more admirablymanaged: once only did the medicine seem to have lost something of itsefficacy. We were driving swiftly down, a black rock over which thewhite foam flew, lay directly in our path, the pole was planted againstit as readily as ever, but it slipped, just as Tuba put forth hisstrength to turn the bow off. We struck hard, and were half-full ofwater in a moment; Tuba recovered himself as speedily, shoved off thebow, and shot the canoe into a still shallow place, to bale out thewater. Here we were given to understand that it was not the medicinewhich was at fault; that had lost none of its virtue; the accident wasowing entirely to Tuba having started without his breakfast. Need it besaid we never let Tuba go without that meal again?

We landed at the head of Garden Island, which is situated near the middleof the river and on the lip of the Falls. On reaching that lip, andpeering over the giddy height, the wondrous and unique character of themagnificent cascade at once burst upon us. 

It is rather a hopeless task to endeavour to convey an idea of it inwords, since, as was remarked on the spot, an accomplished painter, evenby a number of views, could but impart a faint impression of the gloriousscene. The probable mode of its formation may perhaps help to theconception of its peculiar shape. Niagara has been formed by a wearingback of the rock over which the river falls; and during a long course ofages, it has gradually receded, and left a broad, deep, and prettystraight trough in front. It goes on wearing back daily, and may yetdischarge the lakes from which its river--the St. Lawrence--flows. Butthe Victoria Falls have been formed by a crack right across the river, inthe hard, black, basaltic rock which there formed the bed of the Zambesi. The lips of the crack are still quite sharp, save about three feet of theedge over which the river rolls. The walls go sheer down from the lipswithout any projecting crag, or symptoms of stratification ordislocation. When the mighty rift occurred, no change of level tookplace in the two parts of the bed of the river thus rent asunder, consequently, in coming down the river to Garden Island, the watersuddenly disappears, and we see the opposite side of the cleft, withgrass and trees growing where once the river ran, on the same level asthat part of its bed on which we sail. The first crack is, in length, afew yards more than the breadth of the Zambesi, which by measurement wefound to be a little over 1860 yards, but this number we resolved toretain as indicating the year in which the Fall was for the first timecarefully examined. The main stream here runs nearly north and south, and the cleft across it is nearly east and west. The depth of the riftwas measured by lowering a line, to the end of which a few bullets and afoot of white cotton cloth were tied. One of us lay with his head over aprojecting crag, and watched the descending calico, till, after hiscompanions had paid out 310 feet, the weight rested on a slopingprojection, probably 50 feet from the water below, the actual bottombeing still further down. The white cloth now appeared the size of acrown-piece. On measuring the width of this deep cleft by sextant, itwas found at Garden Island, its narrowest part, to be eighty yards, andat its broadest somewhat more. Into this chasm, of twice the depth ofNiagara-fall, the river, a full mile wide, rolls with a deafening roar;and this is Mosi-oa-tunya, or the Victoria Falls. 

Looking from Garden Island, down to the bottom of the abyss, nearly halfa mile of water, which has fallen over that portion of the Falls to ourright, or west of our point of view, is seen collected in a narrowchannel twenty or thirty yards wide, and flowing at exactly right anglesto its previous course, to our left; while the other half, or that whichfell over the eastern portion of the Falls, is seen in the left of thenarrow channel below, coming towards our right. Both waters unitemidway, in a fearful boiling whirlpool, and find an outlet by a cracksituated at right angles to the fissure of the Falls. This outlet isabout 1170 yards from the western end of the chasm, and some 600 from itseastern end; the whirlpool is at its commencement. The Zambesi, nowapparently not more than twenty or thirty yards wide, rushes and surgessouth, through the narrow escape-channel for 130 yards; then enters asecond chasm somewhat deeper, and nearly parallel with the first. Abandoning the bottom of the eastern half of this second chasm to thegrowth of large trees, it turns sharply off to the west, and forms apromontory, with the escape-channel at its point, of 1170 yards long, and416 yards broad at the base. After reaching this base, the river runsabruptly round the head of another promontory, and flows away to theeast, in a third chasm; then glides round a third promontory, muchnarrower than the rest, and away back to the west, in a fourth chasm; andwe could see in the distance that it appeared to round still anotherpromontory, and bend once more in another chasm towards the east. Inthis gigantic, zigzag, yet narrow trough, the rocks are all so sharplycut and angular, that the idea at once arises that the hard basaltic trapmust have been riven into its present shape by a force acting frombeneath, and that this probably took place when the ancient inland seaswere let off by similar fissures nearer the ocean. 

The land beyond, or on the south of the Falls, retains, as alreadyremarked, the same level as before the rent was made. It is as if thetrough below Niagara were bent right and left, several times before itreached the railway bridge. The land in the supposed bends being of thesame height as that above the Fall, would give standing-places, or pointsof view, of the same nature as that from the railway-bridge, but thenearest would be only eighty yards, instead of two miles (the distance tothe bridge) from the face of the cascade. The tops of the promontoriesare in general flat, smooth, and studded with trees. The first, with itsbase on the east, is at one place so narrow, that it would be dangerousto walk to its extremity. On the second, however, we found a broadrhinoceros path and a hut; but, unless the builder were a hermit, with apet rhinoceros, we cannot conceive what beast or man ever went there for. On reaching the apex of this second eastern promontory we saw the greatriver, of a deep sea-green colour, now sorely compressed, gliding away, at least 400 feet below us. 

Garden Island, when the river is low, commands the best view of the GreatFall chasm, as also of the promontory opposite, with its grove of largeevergreen trees, and brilliant rainbows of three-quarters of a circle, two, three, and sometimes even four in number, resting on the face of thevast perpendicular rock, down which tiny streams are always running to beswept again back by the upward rushing vapour. But as, at Niagara, onehas to go over to the Canadian shore to see the chief wonder--the GreatHorse-shoe Fall--so here we have to cross over to Moselekatse's side tothe promontory of evergreens, for the best view of the principal Falls ofMosi-oa-tunya. Beginning, therefore, at the base of this promontory, andfacing the Cataract, at the west end of the chasm, there is, first, afall of thirty-six yards in breadth, and of course, as they all are, upwards of 310 feet in depth. Then Boaruka, a small island, intervenes, and next comes a great fall, with a breadth of 573 yards; a projectingrock separates this from a second grand fall of 325 yards broad; in all, upwards of 900 yards of perennial Falls. Further east stands GardenIsland; then, as the river was at its lowest, came a good deal of thebare rock of its bed, with a score of narrow falls, which, at the time offlood, constitute one enormous cascade of nearly another half-mile. Nearthe east end of the chasm are two larger falls, but they are nothing atlow water compared to those between the islands. 

The whole body of water rolls clear over, quite unbroken; but, after adescent of ten or more feet, the entire mass suddenly becomes like a hugesheet of driven snow. Pieces of water leap off it in the form of cometswith tails streaming behind, till the whole snowy sheet becomes myriadsof rushing, leaping, aqueous comets. This peculiarity was not observedby Charles Livingstone at Niagara, and here it happens, possibly from thedryness of the atmosphere, or whatever the cause may be which makes everydrop of Zambesi water appear to possess a sort of individuality. It runsoff the ends of the paddles, and glides in beads along the smoothsurface, like drops of quicksilver on a table. Here we see them in aconglomeration, each with a train of pure white vapour, racing down tilllost in clouds of spray. A stone dropped in became less and less to theeye, and at last disappeared in the dense mist below. 

Charles Livingstone had seen Niagara, and gave Mosi-oa-tunya the palm, though now at the end of a drought, and the river at its very lowest. Many feel a disappointment on first seeing the great American Falls, butMosi-oa-tunya is so strange, it must ever cause wonder. In the amount ofwater, Niagara probably excels, though not during the months when theZambesi is in flood. The vast body of water, separating in the comet-like forms described, necessarily encloses in its descent a large volumeof air, which, forced into the cleft, to an unknown depth, rebounds, andrushes up loaded with vapour to form the three or even six columns, as ifof steam, visible at the Batoka village Moachemba, twenty-one milesdistant. On attaining a height of 200, or at most 300 feet from thelevel of the river above the cascade, this vapour becomes condensed intoa perpetual shower of fine rain. Much of the spray, rising to the westof Garden Island, falls on the grove of evergreen trees opposite; andfrom their leaves, heavy drops are for ever falling, to form sundrylittle rills, which, in running down the steep face of rock, are blownoff and turned back, or licked off their perpendicular bed, up into thecolumn from which they have just descended. 

The morning sun gilds these columns of watery smoke with all the glowingcolours of double or treble rainbows. The evening sun, from a hot yellowsky, imparts a sulphureous hue, and gives one the impression that theyawning gulf might resemble the mouth of the bottomless pit. No birdsits and sings on the branches of the grove of perpetual showers, or everbuilds its nest there. We saw hornbills and flocks of little blackweavers flying across from the mainland to the islands, and from theislands to the points of the promontories and back again, but theyuniformly shunned the region of perpetual rain, occupied by the evergreengrove. The sunshine, elsewhere in this land so overpowering, neverpenetrates the deep gloom of that shade. In the presence of the strangeMosi-oa-tunya, we can sympathize with those who, when the world wasyoung, peopled earth, air, and river, with beings not of mortal form. Sacred to what deity would be this awful chasm and that dark grove, overwhich hovers an ever-abiding "pillar of cloud"?

The ancient Batoka chieftains used Kazeruka, now Garden Island, andBoaruka, the island further west, also on the lip of the Falls, as sacredspots for worshipping the Deity. It is no wonder that under the cloudycolumns, and near the brilliant rainbows, with the ceaseless roar of thecataract, with the perpetual flow, as if pouring forth from the hand ofthe Almighty, their souls should be filled with reverential awe. Itinspired wonder in the native mind throughout the interior. Among thefirst questions asked by Sebituane of Mr. Oswell and Dr. Livingstone, in1851, was, "Have you any smoke soundings in your country, " and "whatcauses the smoke to rise for ever so high out of water?" In that yearits fame was heard 200 miles off, and it was approached within two days;but it was seen by no European till 1855, when Dr. Livingstone visited iton his way to the East Coast. Being then accompanied as far as this Fallby Sekeletu and 200 followers, his stay was necessarily short; and thetwo days there were employed in observations for fixing the geographicalposition of the place, and turning the showers, that at times sweep fromthe columns of vapour across the island, to account, in teaching theMakololo arboriculture, and making that garden from which the nativesnamed the island; so that he did not visit the opposite sides of thecleft, nor see the wonderful course of the river beyond the Falls. Thehippopotami had destroyed the trees which were then planted; and, thougha strong stockaded hedge was made again, and living orange-trees, cashew-nuts, and coffee seeds put in afresh, we fear that the perseverance ofthe hippopotami will overcome the obstacle of the hedge. It wouldrequire a resident missionary to rear European fruit-trees. The periodat which the peach and apricot come into blossom is about the end of thedry season, and artificial irrigation is necessary. The Batoka, the onlyarboriculturists in the country, rear native fruit-trees alone--themosibe, the motsikiri, the boma, and others. When a tribe takes aninterest in trees, it becomes more attached to the spot on which they areplanted, and they prove one of the civilizing influences. 

Where one Englishman goes, others are sure to follow. Mr. Baldwin, agentleman from Natal, succeeded in reaching the Falls guided by hispocket-compass alone. On meeting the second subject of Her Majesty, whohad ever beheld the greatest of African wonders, we found him a sort ofprisoner at large. He had called on Mashotlane to ferry him over to thenorth side of the river, and, when nearly over, he took a bath, byjumping in and swimming ashore. "If, " said Mashotlane, "he had beendevoured by one of the crocodiles which abound there, the English wouldhave blamed us for his death. He nearly inflicted a great injury uponus, therefore, we said, he must pay a fine. " As Mr. Baldwin had nothingwith him wherewith to pay, they were taking care of him till he shouldreceive beads from his wagon, two days distant. 

Mashotlane's education had been received in the camp of Sebituane, wherebut little regard was paid to human life. He was not yet in his prime, and his fine open countenance presented to us no indication of the evilinfluences which unhappily, from infancy, had been at work on his mind. The native eye was more penetrating than ours; for the expression of ourmen was, "He has drunk the blood of men--you may see it in his eyes. " Hemade no further difficulty about Mr. Baldwin; but the week after we lefthe inflicted a severe wound on the head of one of his wives with hisrhinoceros-horn club. She, being of a good family, left him, and wesubsequently met her and another of his wives proceeding up the country. 

The ground is strewn with agates for a number of miles above the Falls;but the fires, which burn off the grass yearly, have injured most ofthose on the surface. Our men were delighted to hear that they do aswell as flints for muskets; and this with the new ideas of the value ofgold (_dalama_) and malachite, that they had acquired at Tette, made themconceive that we were not altogether silly in picking up and looking atstones. 

Marching up the river, we crossed the Lekone at its confluence, abouteight miles above the island Kalai, and went on to a village opposite theIsland Chundu. Nambowe, the headman, is one of the Matebele or Zulus, who have had to flee from the anger of Moselekatse, to take refuge withthe Makololo. 

We spent Sunday, the 12th, at the village of Molele, a tall old Batoka, who was proud of having formerly been a great favourite with Sebituane. In coming hither we passed through patches of forest abounding in allsorts of game. The elephants' tusks, placed over graves, are now allowedto decay, and the skulls, which the former Batoka stuck on poles toornament their villages, not being renewed, now crumble into dust. Herethe famine, of which we had heard, became apparent, Molele's people beingemployed in digging up the _tsitla_ root out of the marshes, and cuttingout the soft core of the young palm-trees, for food. 

The village, situated on the side of a wooded ridge, commands anextensive view of a great expanse of meadow and marsh lying along thebank of the river. On these holmes herds of buffaloes and waterbucksdaily graze in security, as they have in the reedy marshes a refuge intowhich they can run on the approach of danger. The pretty little tianyaneor ourebi is abundant further on, and herds of blue weldebeests orbrindled gnus (_Katoblepas Gorgon_) amused us by their fantastic capers. They present a much more ferocious aspect than the lion himself, but arequite timid. We never could, by waving a red handkerchief, according tothe prescription, induce them to venture near to us. It may therefore bethat the red colour excites their fury only when wounded or hotlypursued. Herds of lechee or lechwe now enliven the meadows; and they andtheir younger brother, the graceful poku, smaller, and of a roundercontour, race together towards the grassy fens. We venture to call thepoku after the late Major Vardon, a noble-hearted African traveller; butfully anticipate that some aspiring Nimrod will prefer that his own nameshould go down to posterity on the back of this buck. 

Midway between Tabacheu and the Great Falls the streams begin to flowwestward. On the other side they begin to flow east. Large round massesof granite, somewhat like old castles, tower aloft about the Kalomo. Thecountry is an elevated plateau, and our men knew and named the differentplains as we passed them by. 

On the 13th we met a party from Sekeletu, who was now at Sesheke. Ourapproach had been reported, and they had been sent to ask the Doctor whatthe price of a horse ought to be; and what he said, that they were togive and no more. In reply they were told that by their having givennine large tusks for one horse before the Doctor came, the Griquas wouldnaturally imagine that the price was already settled. It was exceedinglyamusing to witness the exact imitation they gave of the swagger of acertain white with whom they had been dealing, and who had, as they hadperceived, evidently wished to assume an air of indifference. Holding upthe head and scratching the beard it was hinted might indicate notindifference, but vermin. It is well that we do not always know whatthey say about us. The remarks are often not quite complimentary, andresemble closely what certain white travellers say about the blacks. 

We made our camp in the afternoon abreast of the large island calledMparira, opposite the mouth of the Chobe. Francolins, quails, and guinea-fowls, as well as larger game, were abundant. The Makololo headman, Mokompa, brought us a liberal present; and in the usual way, which isconsidered politeness, regretted he had no milk, as his cows were alldry. We got some honey here from the very small stingless bee, called, by the Batoka, moandi, and by others, the kokomatsane. This honey isslightly acid, and has an aromatic flavour. The bees are easily knownfrom their habit of buzzing about the eyes, and tickling the skin bysucking it as common flies do. The hive has a tube of wax like a quill, for its entrance, and is usually in the hollows of trees. 

Mokompa feared that the tribe was breaking up, and lamented the conditioninto which they had fallen in consequence of Sekeletu's leprosy; he didnot know what was to become of them. He sent two canoes to take us up toSesheke; his best canoe had taken ivory up to the chief, to purchasegoods of some native traders from Benguela. Above the Falls the paddlersalways stand in the canoes, using long paddles, ten feet in length, andchanging from side to side without losing the stroke. 

Mochokotsa, a messenger from Sekeletu, met us on the 17th, with anotherrequest for the Doctor to take ivory and purchase a horse. He againdeclined to interfere. None were to come up to Sekeletu but the Doctor;and all the men who had had smallpox at Tette, three years ago, were togo back to Moshobotwane, and he would sprinkle medicine over them, todrive away the infection, and prevent it spreading in the tribe. Mochokotsa was told to say to Sekeletu that the disease was known of oldto white men, and we even knew the medicine to prevent it; and, werethere any danger now, we should be the first to warn him of it. Why didnot he go himself to have Moshobotwane sprinkle medicine to drive awayhis leprosy. We were not afraid of his disease, nor of the fever thathad killed the teachers and many Makololo at Linyanti. As this attemptat quarantine was evidently the suggestion of native doctors to increasetheir own importance, we added that we had no food, and would hunt nextday for game, and the day after; and, should we be still orderedpurification by their medicine, we should then return to our own country. 

The message was not all of our dictation, our companions interlarded itwith their own indignant protests, and said some strong things in theTette dialect about these "doctor things" keeping them back from seeingtheir father; when to their surprise Mochokotsa told them he knew everyword they were saying, as he was of the tribe Bazizulu, and defied themto deceive him by any dialect, either of the Mashona on the east, or ofthe Mambari on the west. Mochokotsa then repeated our message twice, tobe sure that he had it every word, and went back again. These chiefs'messengers have most retentive memories; they carry messages ofconsiderable length great distances, and deliver them almost word forword. Two or three usually go together, and when on the way the messageis rehearsed every night, in order that the exact words may be kept to. One of the native objections to learning to write is, that these menanswer the purpose of transmitting intelligence to a distance as well asa letter would; and, if a person wishes to communicate with any one inthe town, the best way to do so is either to go to or send for him. Andas for corresponding with friends very far off, that is all very well forwhite people, but the blacks have no friends to whom to write. The onlyeffective argument for the learning to read is, that it is their duty toknow the revelation from their Father in Heaven, as it stands in theBook. 

Our messenger returned on the evening of the following day with "Youspeak truly, " says Sekeletu, "the disease is old, come on at once, do notsleep in the path; for I am greatly desirous (_tlologelecoe_) to see theDoctor. "

After Mochokotsa left us, we met some of Mokompa's men bringing back theivory, as horses were preferred to the West-Coast goods. They were thebearers of instructions to Mokompa, and as these instructions illustratethe government of people who have learned scarcely anything fromEuropeans, they are inserted, though otherwise of no importance. Mashotlane had not behaved so civilly to Mr. Baldwin as Sekeletu hadordered him to do to all Englishmen. He had been very uncivil to themessengers sent by Moselekatse with letters from Mr. Moffat, treated themas spies, and would not land to take the bag until they moved off. Onour speaking to him about this, he justified his conduct on the plea thathe was set at the Falls for the very purpose of watching these, theirnatural enemies; and how was he to know that they had been sent by Mr. Moffat? Our men thereupon reported at head-quarters that Mashotlane hadcursed the Doctor. The instructions to Mokompa, from Sekeletu, were to"go and tell Mashotlane that he had offended greatly. He had not cursedMonare (Dr. Livingstone) but Sebituane, as Monare was now in the place ofSebituane, and he reverenced him as he had done his father. Any finetaken from Mr. Baldwin was to be returned at once, as he was not a Boerbut an Englishman. Sekeletu was very angry, and Mokompa must not concealthe message. "

On finding afterwards that Mashotlane's conduct had been most outrageousto the Batoka, Sekeletu sent for him to come to Sesheke, in order that hemight have him more under his own eye; but Mashotlane, fearing that thismeant the punishment of death, sent a polite answer, alleging that he wasill and unable to travel. Sekeletu tried again to remove Mashotlane fromthe Falls, but without success. In theory the chief is absolute andquite despotic; in practice his authority is limited, and he cannot, without occasionally putting refractory headmen to death, force hissubordinates to do his will. 

Except the small rapids by Mparira island, near the mouth of the Chobe, the rest of the way to Sesheke by water is smooth. Herds of cattle oftwo or three varieties graze on the islands in the river: the Batokapossessed a very small breed of beautiful shape, and remarkably tame, andmany may still be seen; a larger kind, many of which have horns pendent, and loose at the roots; and a still larger sort, with horns ofextraordinary dimensions, --apparently a burden for the beast to carry. This breed was found in abundance at Lake Ngami. We stopped at noon atone of the cattle-posts of Mokompa, and had a refreshing drink of milk. Men of his standing have usually several herds placed at different spots, and the owner visits each in turn, while his head-quarters are at hisvillage. His son, a boy of ten, had charge of the establishment duringhis father's absence. According to Makololo ideas, the cattle-post isthe proper school in which sons should be brought up. Here they receivethe right sort of education--the knowledge of pasture and how to managecattle. 

Strong easterly winds blow daily from noon till midnight, and continuetill the October or November rains set in. Whirlwinds, raising hugepillars of smoke from burning grass and weeds, are common in theforenoon. We were nearly caught in an immense one. It crossed abouttwenty yards in front of us, the wind apparently rushing into it from allpoints of the compass. Whirling round and round in great eddies, itswept up hundreds of feet into the air a continuous dense dark cloud ofthe black pulverized soil, mixed with dried grass, off the plain. Herdsof the new antelopes, lechwe, and poku, with the kokong, or gnus, andzebras stood gazing at us as we passed. The mirage lifted them at timeshalfway to the clouds, and twisted them and the clumps of palms intostrange unearthly forms. The extensive and rich level plains by thebanks, along the sides of which we paddled, would support a vastpopulation, and might be easily irrigated from the Zambesi. If watered, they would yield crops all the year round, and never suffer loss bydrought. The hippopotamus is killed here with long lance-like spears. Wesaw two men, in a light canoe, stealing noiselessly down on one of theseanimals thought to be asleep; but it was on the alert, and they hadquickly to retreat. Comparatively few of these animals now remainbetween Sesheke and the Falls, and they are uncommonly wary, as it iscertain death for one to be caught napping in the daytime. 

On the 18th we entered Sesheke. The old town, now in ruins, stands onthe left bank of the river. The people have built another on the sameside, a quarter of a mile higher up, since their headman Moriantsiane wasput to death for bewitching the chief with leprosy. Sekeletu was on theright bank, near a number of temporary huts. A man hailed us from thechiefs quarters, and requested us to rest under the old Kotla, or publicmeeting-place tree. A young Makololo, with the large thighs which Zulusand most of this tribe have, crossed over to receive orders from thechief, who had not shown himself to the people since he was affected withleprosy. On returning he ran for Mokele, the headman of the new town, who, after going over to Sekeletu, came back and conducted us to a smallbut good hut, and afterwards brought us a fine fat ox, as a present fromthe chief. "This is a time of hunger, " he said, "and we have no meat, but we expect some soon from the Barotse Valley. " We were entirely outof food when we reached Sesheke. Never was better meat than that of theox Sekeletu sent, and infinitely above the flesh of all kinds of game isbeef!

A constant stream of visitors rolled in on us the day after our arrival. Several of them, who had suffered affliction during the Doctor's absence, seemed to be much affected on seeing him again. All were in low spirits. A severe drought had cut off the crops, and destroyed the pasture ofLinyanti, and the people were scattered over the country in search ofwild fruits, and the hospitality of those whose ground-nuts (_Arachishypogoea_) had not failed. Sekeletu's leprosy brought troops of evils inits train. Believing himself bewitched, he had suspected a number of hischief men, and had put some, with their families, to death; others hadfled to distant tribes, and were living in exile. The chief had shuthimself up, and allowed no one to come into his presence but his uncleMamire. Ponwane, who had been as "head and eyes" to him, had just died;evidence, he thought, of the potent spells of those who hated all wholoved the chief. The country was suffering grievously, and Sebituane'sgrand empire was crumbling to pieces. A large body of young Barotse hadrevolted and fled to the north; killing a man by the way, in order to puta blood-feud between Masiko, the chief to whom they were going, andSekeletu. The Batoka under Sinamane, and Muemba, were independent, andMashotlane at the Falls was setting Sekeletu's authority virtually atdefiance. Sebituane's wise policy in treating the conquered tribes onequal terms with his own Makololo, as all children of the chief, andequally eligible to the highest honours, had been abandoned by his son, who married none but Makololo women, and appointed to office none butMakololo men. He had become unpopular among the black tribes, conqueredby the spear but more effectually won by the subsequent wise and justgovernment of his father. 

Strange rumours were afloat respecting the unseen Sekeletu; his fingerswere said to have grown like eagle's claws, and his face so frightfullydistorted that no one could recognize him. Some had begun to hint thathe might not really be the son of the great Sebituane, the founder of thenation, strong in battle, and wise in the affairs of state. "In the daysof the Great Lion" (Sebituane), said his only sister, Moriantsiane'swidow, whose husband Sekeletu had killed, "we had chiefs and littlechiefs and elders to carry on the government, and the great chief, Sebituane, knew them all, and everything they did, and the whole countrywas wisely ruled; but now Sekeletu knows nothing of what his underlingsdo, and they care not for him, and the Makololo power is fast passingaway. " {3}

The native doctors had given the case of Sekeletu up. They could notcure him, and pronounced the disease incurable. An old doctress from theManyeti tribe had come to see what she could do for him, and on her skillhe now hung his last hopes. She allowed no one to see him, except hismother and uncle, making entire seclusion from society an essentialcondition of the much longed-for cure. He sent, notwithstanding, for theDoctor; and on the following day we all three were permitted to see him. He was sitting in a covered wagon, which was enclosed by a high wall ofclose-set reeds; his face was only slightly disfigured by the thickeningof the skin in parts, where the leprosy had passed over it; and the onlypeculiarity about his hands was the extreme length of his finger-nails, which, however, was nothing very much out of the way, as all the Makolologentlemen wear them uncommonly long. He has the quiet, unassumingmanners of his father, Sebituane, speaks distinctly, in a low pleasantvoice, and appears to be a sensible man, except perhaps on the subject ofhis having been bewitched; and in this, when alluded to, he exhibits asfirm a belief as if it were his monomania. "Moriantsiane, my aunt'shusband, tried the bewitching medicine first on his wife, and she isleprous, and so is her head-servant; then, seeing that it succeeded, hegave me a stronger dose in the cooked flesh of a goat, and I have had thedisease ever since. They have lately killed Ponwane, and, as you see, are now killing me. " Ponwane had died of fever a short time previously. Sekeletu asked us for medicine and medical attendance, but we did notlike to take the case out of the hands of the female physician alreadyemployed, it being bad policy to appear to undervalue any of theprofession; and she, being anxious to go on with her remedies, said "shehad not given him up yet, but would try for another month; if he was notcured by that time, then she would hand him over to the white doctors. "But we intended to leave the country before a month was up; so Mamire, with others, induced the old lady to suspend her treatment for a little. She remained, as the doctors stipulated, in the chief's establishment, and on full pay. 

Sekeletu was told plainly that the disease was unknown in our country, and was thought exceedingly obstinate of cure; that we did not believe inhis being bewitched, and we were willing to do all we could to help him. This was a case for disinterested benevolence; no pay was expected, butconsiderable risk incurred; yet we could not decline it, as we had thetrading in horses. Having, however, none of the medicines usuallyemployed in skin diseases with us, we tried the local application oflunar caustic, and hydriodate of potash internally; and with suchgratifying results, that Mamire wished the patient to be smeared all overwith a solution of lunar caustic, which he believed to be of the samenature as the blistering fluid formerly applied to his own knee by Mr. Oswell. _Its_ power he considered irresistible, and he would fain havehad anything like it tried on Sekeletu. 

It was a time of great scarcity and hunger, but Sekeletu treated ushospitably, preparing tea for us at every visit we paid him. With thetea we had excellent American biscuit and preserved fruits, which hadbeen brought to him all the way from Benguela. The fruits he mostrelished were those preserved in their own juices; plums, apples, pears, strawberries, and peaches, which we have seen only among Portuguese andSpaniards. It made us anxious to plant the fruit-tree seeds we hadbrought, and all were pleased with the idea of having these same fruitsin their own country. 

Mokele, the headman of Sesheke, and Sebituane's sister, Manchunyane, wereordered to provide us with food, as Sekeletu's wives, to whom this dutyproperly belonged, were at Linyanti. We found a black trader from theWest Coast, and some Griqua traders from the South, both in search ofivory. Ivory is dear at Sesheke; but cheaper in the Batoka country, fromSinamane's to the Kafue, than anywhere else. The trader from Benguelatook orders for goods for his next year's trip, and offered to bring tea, coffee, and sugar at cent. Per cent. Prices. As, in consequence of ahint formerly given, the Makololo had secured all the ivory in the Batogacountry to the east, by purchasing it with hoes, the Benguela tradersfound it unprofitable to go thither for slaves. They assured us thatwithout ivory the trade in slaves did not pay. In this way, and by theorders of Sekeletu, an extensive slave-mart was closed. These orderswere never infringed except secretly. We discovered only two or threecases of their infraction. 

Sekeletu was well pleased with the various articles we brought for him, and inquired if a ship could not bring his sugar-mill and the other goodswe had been obliged to leave behind at Tette. On hearing that there wasa possibility of a powerful steamer ascending as far as Sinamane's, butnever above the Grand Victoria Falls, he asked, with charming simplicity, if a cannon could not blow away the Falls, so as to allow the vessel tocome up to Sesheke. 

To save the tribe from breaking up, by the continual loss of realMakololo, it ought at once to remove to the healthy Batoka highlands, near the Kafue. Fully aware of this, Sekeletu remarked that all hispeople, save two, were convinced that, if they remained in the lowlands, a few years would suffice to cut off all the real Makololo; they cameoriginally from the healthy South, near the confluence of the Likwa andNamagari, where fever is almost unknown, and its ravages had been asfrightful among them here, as amongst Europeans on the Coast. Sebituane'ssister described its first appearance among the tribe, after theirsettling in the Barotse Valley on the Zambesi. Many of them were seizedwith a shivering sickness, as if from excessive cold; they had never seenthe like before. They made great fires, and laid the shivering wretchesdown before them; but, pile on wood as they might, they could not raiseheat enough to drive the cold out of the bodies of the sufferers, andthey shivered on till they died. But, though all preferred thehighlands, they were afraid to go there, lest the Matebele should comeand rob them of their much-loved cattle. Sebituane, with all hisveterans, could not withstand that enemy; and how could they be resisted, now that most of the brave warriors were dead? The young men wouldbreak, and run away the moment they saw the terrible Matebele, being asmuch afraid of them as the black conquered tribes are of the Makololo. "But if the Doctor and his wife, " said the chiefs and counsellors, "wouldcome and live with us, we would remove to the highlands at once, asMoselekatse would not attack a place where the daughter of his friend, Moffat, was living. "

The Makololo are by far the most intelligent and enterprising of thetribes we have met. None but brave and daring men remained long withSebituane, his stern discipline soon eradicated cowardice from his army. Death was the inevitable doom of the coward. If the chief saw a manrunning away from the fight, he rushed after him with amazing speed, andcut him down; or waited till he returned to the town, and then summonedthe deserter into his presence. "You did not wish to die on the field, you wished to die at home, did you? you shall have your wish!" and he wasinstantly led off and executed. The present race of young men areinferior in most respects to their fathers. The old Makololo had manymanly virtues; they were truthful, and never stole, excepting in whatthey considered the honourable way of lifting cattle in fair fight. Butthis can hardly be said of their sons; who, having been brought up amongthe subjected tribes, have acquired some of the vices peculiar to amenial and degraded race. A few of the old Makololo cautioned us not toleave any of our property exposed, as the blacks were great thieves; andsome of our own men advised us to be on our guard, as the Makololo alsowould steal. A very few trifling articles were stolen by a youngMakololo; and he, on being spoken to on the subject, showed greatingenuity in excusing himself, by a plausible and untruthful story. TheMakololo of old were hard workers, and did not consider labour as beneaththem; but their sons never work, regarding it as fit only for the Mashonaand Makalaka servants. Sebituane, seeing that the rival tribes had theadvantage over his, in knowing how to manage canoes, had his warriorstaught to navigate; and his own son, with his companions, paddled thechief's canoe. All the dishes, baskets, stools, and canoes are made bythe black tribes called Manyeti and Matlotlora. The houses are built bythe women and servants. The Makololo women are vastly superior to any wehave yet seen. They are of a light warm brown complexion, have pleasantcountenances, and are remarkably quick of apprehension. They dressneatly, wearing a kilt and mantle, and have many ornaments. Sebituane'ssister, the head lady of Sesheke, wore eighteen solid brass rings, asthick as one's finger, on each leg, and three of copper under each knee;nineteen brass rings on her left arm, and eight of brass and copper onher right, also a large ivory ring above each elbow. She had a prettybead necklace, and a bead sash encircled her waist. The weight of thebright brass rings round her legs impeded her walking, and chafed herankles; but, as it was the fashion, she did not mind the inconvenience, and guarded against the pain by putting soft rag round the lower rings. 

Justice appears upon the whole to be pretty fairly administered among theMakololo. A headman took some beads and a blanket from one of his menwho had been with us; the matter was brought before the chief, and heimmediately ordered the goods to be restored, and decreed, moreover, thatno headman should take the property of the men who had returned. Intheory, all the goods brought back belonged to the chief; the men laidthem at his feet, and made a formal offer of them all; he looked at thearticles, and told the men to keep them. This is almost invariably thecase. Tuba Mokoro, however, fearing lest Sekeletu might take a fancy tosome of his best goods, exhibited only a few of his old and leastvaluable acquisitions. Masakasa had little to show; he had committedsome breach of native law in one of the villages on the way, and paid aheavy fine rather than have the matter brought to the Doctor's ears. Eachcarrier is entitled to a portion of the goods in his bundle, thoughpurchased by the chief's ivory, and they never hesitate to claim theirrights; but no wages can be demanded from the chief, if he fails torespond to the first application. 

Our men, accustomed to our ways, thought that the English system ofpaying a man for his labour was the only correct one, and some even saidit would be better to live under a government where life and labour weremore secure and valuable than here. While with us, they always conductedthemselves with propriety during Divine service, and not only maintaineddecorum themselves, but insisted on other natives who might be presentdoing the same. When Moshobotwane, the Batoka chief, came on oneoccasion with a number of his men, they listened in silence to thereading of the Bible in the Makololo tongue; but, as soon as we all kneltdown to pray, they commenced a vigorous clapping of hands, their mode ofasking a favour. Our indignant Makololo soon silenced their noisyaccompaniment, and looked with great contempt on this display ofignorance. Nearly all our men had learned to repeat the Lord's Prayerand the Apostles' Creed in their own language, and felt rather proud ofbeing able to do so; and when they reached home, they liked to recitethem to groups of admiring friends. Their ideas of right and wrongdiffer in no respect from our own, except in their professed inability tosee how it can be improper for a man to have more than one wife. A yearor two ago several of the wives of those who had been absent with uspetitioned the chief for leave to marry again. They thought that it wasof no use waiting any longer, their husbands must be dead; but Sekeleturefused permission; he himself had bet a number of oxen that the Doctorwould return with their husbands, and he had promised the absent men thattheir wives should be kept for them. The impatient spouses had thereforeto wait a little longer. Some of them, however, eloped with other men;the wife of Mantlanyane, for instance, ran off and left his little boyamong strangers. Mantlanyane was very angry when he heard of it, notthat he cared much about her deserting him, for he had two other wives atTette, but he was indignant at her abandoning his boy. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Life amongst the Makololo--Return journey--Native hospitality--A canoevoyage on the Zambesi. 

While we were at Sesheke, an ox was killed by a crocodile; a man foundthe carcass floating in the river, and appropriated the meat. When theowner heard of this, he requested him to come before the chief, as hemeant to complain of him; rather than go, the delinquent settled thematter by giving one of his own oxen in lieu of the lost one. A headmanfrom near Linyanti came with a complaint that all his people had run off, owing to the "hunger. " Sekeletu said, "You must not be left to grow leanalone, some of them must come back to you. " He had thus an order tocompel their return, if he chose to put it in force. Families frequentlyleave their own headman and flee to another village, and sometimes awhole village decamps by night, leaving the headman by himself. Sekeleturarely interfered with the liberty of the subject to choose his ownheadman, and, as it is often the fault of the latter which causes thepeople to depart, it is punishment enough for him to be left alone. Flagrant disobedience to the chief's orders is punished with death. AMoshubia man was ordered to cut some reeds for Sekeletu: he went off, andhid himself for two days instead. For this he was doomed to die, and wascarried in a canoe to the middle of the river, choked, and tossed intothe stream. The spectators hooted the executioners, calling out to themthat they too would soon be carried out and strangled. Occasionally whena man is sent to beat an offender, he tells him his object, returns, andassures the chief he has nearly killed him. The transgressor then keepsfor a while out of sight, and the matter is forgotten. The river hereteems with monstrous crocodiles, and women are frequently, while drawingwater, carried off by these reptiles. 

We met a venerable warrior, sole survivor, probably, of the Mantatee hostwhich threatened to invade the colony in 1824. He retained a vividrecollection of their encounter with the Griquas: "As we looked at themen and horses, puffs of smoke arose, and some of us dropped down dead!""Never saw anything like it in my life, a man's brains lying in one placeand his body in another!" They could not understand what was killingthem; a ball struck a man's shield at an angle; knocked his arm out ofjoint at the shoulder; and leaving a mark, or burn, as he said, on theshield, killed another man close by. We saw the man with his shoulderstill dislocated. Sebetuane was present at the fight, and had an exaltedopinion of the power of white people ever afterwards. 

The ancient costume of the Makololo consisted of the skin of a lamb, kid, jackal, ocelot, or other small animal, worn round and below the loins:and in cold weather a kaross, or skin mantle, was thrown over theshoulders. The kaross is now laid aside, and the young men of fashionwear a monkey-jacket and a skin round the hips; but no trousers, waistcoat, or shirt. The river and lake tribes are in general verycleanly, bathing several times a day. The Makololo women use waterrather sparingly, rubbing themselves with melted butter instead: thiskeeps off parasites, but gives their clothes a rancid odour. One stageof civilization often leads of necessity to another--the possession ofclothes creates a demand for soap; give a man a needle, and he is soonback to you for thread. 

This being a time of mourning, on account of the illness of the chief, the men were negligent of their persons, they did not cut their hair, orhave merry dances, or carry spear and shield when they walked abroad. Thewife of Pitsane was busy making a large hut, while we were in the town:she informed us that the men left house-building entirely to the womenand servants. A round tower of stakes and reeds, nine or ten feet high, is raised and plastered; a floor is next made of soft tufa, or ant-hillmaterial and cowdung. This plaster prevents the poisonous insects, called tumpans, whose bite causes fever in some, and painful sores inall, from harbouring in the cracks or soil. The roof, which is muchlarger in diameter than the tower, is made on the ground, and then, manypersons assisting, lifted up and placed on the tower, and thatched. Aplastered reed fence is next built up to meet the outer part of the roof, which still projects a little over this fence, and a space of three feetremains between it and the tower. We slept in this space, instead of inthe tower, as the inner door of the hut we occupied was uncomfortablysmall, being only nineteen inches high, and twenty-two inches wide at thefloor. A foot from the bottom it measured seventeen inches in breadth, and close to the top only twelve inches, so it was a difficult matter toget through it. The tower has no light or ventilation, except throughthis small door. The reason a lady assigned for having the doors so verysmall was to keep out the mice!

The children have merry times, especially in the cool of the evening. Oneof their games consists of a little girl being carried on the shouldersof two others. She sits with outstretched arms, as they walk about withher, and all the rest clap their hands, and stopping before each hut singpretty airs, some beating time on their little kilts of cowskin, othersmaking a curious humming sound between the songs. Excepting this and theskipping-rope, the play of the girls consists in imitation of the seriouswork of their mothers, building little huts, making small pots, andcooking, pounding corn in miniature mortars, or hoeing tiny gardens. Theboys play with spears of reeds pointed with wood, and small shields, orbows and arrows; or amuse themselves in making little cattle-pens, or inmoulding cattle in clay; they show great ingenuity in the imitation ofvarious-shaped horns. Some too are said to use slings, but as soon asthey can watch the goats, or calves, they are sent to the field. We sawmany boys riding on the calves they had in charge, but this is aninnovation since the arrival of the English with their horses. Tselane, one of the ladies, on observing Dr. Livingstone noting observations onthe wet and dry bulb thermometers, thought that he too was engaged inplay; for on receiving no reply to her question, which was ratherdifficult to answer, as the native tongue has no scientific terms, shesaid with roguish glee, "Poor thing, playing like a little child!"

Like other Africans, the Makololo have great faith in the power ofmedicine; they believe that there is an especial medicine for every illthat flesh is heir to. Mamire is anxious to have children; he has sixwives, and only one boy, and he begs earnestly for "child medicine. " Themother of Sekeletu came from the Barotse Valley to see her son. Thinksshe has lost flesh since Dr. Livingstone was here before, and asks for"the medicine of fatness. " The Makololo consider plumpness an essentialpart of beauty in women, but the extreme stoutness, mentioned by CaptainSpeke, in the north, would be considered hideous here, for the men havebeen overheard speaking of a lady whom we call "inclined to_embonpoint_, " as "fat unto ugliness. "

Two packages from the Kuruman, containing letters and newspapers, reachedLinyanti previous to our arrival, and Sekeletu, not knowing when we werecoming, left them there; but now at once sent a messenger for them. Thisman returned on the seventh day, having travelled 240 geographical miles. One of the packages was too heavy for him, and he left it behind. As theDoctor wished to get some more medicine and papers out of the wagon leftat Linyanti in 1853, he decided upon going thither himself. The chiefgave him his own horse, now about twelve years old, and some men. Hefound everything in his wagon as safe as when he left it seven yearsbefore. The headmen, Mosale and Pekonyane, received him cordially, andlamented that they had so little to offer him. Oh! had he only arrivedthe year previous, when there was abundance of milk and corn and beer. 

Very early the next morning the old town-crier, Ma-Pulenyane, of his ownaccord made a public proclamation, which, in the perfect stillness of thetown long before dawn, was striking: "I have dreamed! I have dreamed! Ihave dreamed! Thou Mosale and thou Pekonyane, my lords, be not faint-hearted, nor let your hearts be sore, but believe all the words of Monare(the Doctor) for his heart is white as milk towards the Makololo. Idreamed that he was coming, and that the tribe would live, if you prayedto God and give heed to the word of Monare. " Ma-Pulenyane showed Dr. Livingstone the burying-place where poor Helmore and seven others werelaid, distinguishing those whom he had put to rest, and those for whomMafale had performed that last office. Nothing whatever marked the spot, and with the native idea of _hiding_ the dead, it was said, "it will soonbe all overgrown with bushes, for no one will cultivate there. " None butMa-Pulenyane approached the place, the others stood at a respectfuldistance; they invariably avoid everything connected with the dead, andno such thing as taking portions of human bodies to make charms of, as isthe custom further north, has ever been known among the Makololo. 

Sekeletu's health improved greatly during our visit, the melancholyforeboding left his spirits, and he became cheerful, but resolutelyrefused to leave his den, and appear in public till he was perfectlycured, and had regained what he considered his good looks. He alsofeared lest some of those who had bewitched him originally might still beamong the people, and neutralize our remedies. {4}

As we expected another steamer to be at Kongone in November, it wasimpossible for us to remain in Sesheke more than one month. Before ourdeparture, the chief and his principal men expressed in a formal mannertheir great desire to have English people settled on the Batokahighlands. At one time he proposed to go as far as Phori, in order toselect a place of residence; but as he afterwards saw reasons forremaining where he was, till his cure was completed, he gave orders tothose sent with us, in the event of our getting, on our return, past therapids near Tette, not to bring us to Sesheke, but to send forward amessenger, and he with the whole tribe would come to us. Dr. Kirk beingof the same age, Sekeletu was particularly anxious that he should comeand live with him. He said that he would cut off a section of thecountry for the special use of the English; and on being told that in allprobability their descendants would cause disturbance in his country, hereplied, "These would be only domestic feuds, and of no importance. " Thegreat extent of uncultivated land on the cool and now unpeopled highlandshas but to be seen to convince the spectator how much room there is, andto spare, for a vastly greater population than ever, in our day, can becongregated there. 

On the last occasion of our holding Divine service at Sesheke, the menwere invited to converse on the subject on which they had been addressed. So many of them had died since we were here before, that not muchprobability existed of our all meeting again, and this had naturally ledto the subject of a future state. They replied that they did not wish tooffend the speaker, but they could not believe that all the dead wouldrise again: "Can those who have been killed in the field and devoured bythe vultures; or those who have been eaten by the hyenas or lions; orthose who have been tossed into the river, and eaten by more than onecrocodile, --can they all be raised again to life?" They were told thatmen could take a leaden bullet, change it into a salt (acetate of lead), which could be dissolved as completely in water as our bodies in thestomachs of animals, and then reconvert it into lead; or that the bulletcould be transformed into the red and white paint of our wagons, andagain be reconverted into the original lead; and that if men exactly likethemselves could do so much, how much more could He do who has made theeye to see, and the ear to hear! We added, however, that we believed ina resurrection, not because we understood how it would be brought about, but because our Heavenly Father assured us of it in His Book. Thereference to the truth of the Book and its Author seems always to havemore influence on the native mind than the cleverness of theillustration. The knowledge of the people is scanty, but their reasoningis generally clear as far as their information goes. 

We left Sesheke on the 17th September, 1860, convoyed by Pitsane andLeshore with their men. Pitsane was ordered by Sekeletu to make a hedgeround the garden at the Falls, to protect the seeds we had brought; andalso to collect some of the tobacco tribute below the Falls. Leshore, besides acting as a sort of guard of honour to us, was sent on adiplomatic mission to Sinamane. No tribute was exacted by Sekeletu fromSinamane; but, as he had sent in his adhesion, he was expected to act asa guard in case of the Matebele wishing to cross and attack the Makololo. As we intended to purchase canoes of Sinamane in which to descend theriver, Leshore was to commend us to whatever help this Batoka chief couldrender. It must be confessed that Leshore's men, who were all of theblack subject tribes, really needed to be viewed by us in the mostcharitable light; for Leshore, on entering any village, called out to theinhabitants, "Look out for your property, and see that my thieves don'tsteal it. "

Two young Makololo with their Batoka servants accompanied us to see ifKebrabasa could be surmounted, and to bring a supply of medicine forSekeletu's leprosy; and half a dozen able canoe-men, under Mobito, whohad previously gone with Dr. Livingstone to Loanda, were sent to help usin our river navigation. Some men on foot drove six oxen which Sekeletuhad given us as provisions for the journey. It was, as before remarked, a time of scarcity; and, considering the dearth of food, our treatmenthad been liberal. 

By day the canoe-men are accustomed to keep close under the river's bankfrom fear of the hippopotami; by night, however, they keep in the middleof the stream, as then those animals are usually close to the bank ontheir way to their grazing grounds. Our progress was considerablyimpeded by the high winds, which at this season of the year begin abouteight in the morning, and blow strongly up the river all day. The canoeswere poor leaky affairs, and so low in parts of the gunwale, that thepaddlers were afraid to follow the channel when it crossed the river, lest the waves might swamp us. A rough sea is dreaded by all theseinland canoe-men; but though timid, they are by no means unskilful attheir work. The ocean rather astonished them afterwards; and also theadmirable way that the Nyassa men managed their canoes on a rough lake, and even amongst the breakers, where no small boat could possibly live. 

On the night of the 17th we slept on the left bank of the Majeele, afterhaving had all the men ferried across. An ox was slaughtered, and not anounce of it was left next morning. Our two young Makololo companions, Maloka and Ramakukane, having never travelled before, naturally clung tosome of the luxuries they had been accustomed to at home. When they laydown to sleep, their servants were called to spread their blankets overtheir august persons, not forgetting their feet. This seems to be theduty of the Makololo wife to her husband, and strangers sometimes receivethe honour. One of our party, having wandered, slept at the village ofNambowe. When he laid down, to his surprise two of Nambowe's wives cameat once, and carefully and kindly spread his kaross over him. 

A beautiful silvery fish with reddish fins, called Ngwesi, is veryabundant in the river; large ones weigh fifteen or twenty pounds each. Its teeth are exposed, and so arranged that, when they meet, the edgescut a hook like nippers. The Ngwesi seems to be a very ravenous fish. Itoften gulps down the Konokono, a fish armed with serrated bones more thanan inch in length in the pectoral and dorsal fins, which, fitting into anotch at the roots, can be put by the fish on full cock or straightout, --they cannot be folded down, without its will, and even break inresisting. The name "Konokono, " elbow-elbow, is given it from aresemblance its extended fins are supposed to bear to a man's elbowsstuck out from his body. It often performs the little trick of cockingits fins in the stomach of the Ngwesi, and, the elbows piercing itsenemy's sides, he is frequently found floating dead. The fin bones seemto have an acrid secretion on them, for the wound they make isexcessively painful. The Konokono barks distinctly when landed with thehook. Our canoe-men invariably picked up every dead fish they saw on thesurface of the water, however far gone. An unfragrant odour was noobjection; the fish was boiled and eaten, and the water drunk as soup. Itis a curious fact that many of the Africans keep fish as we do woodcocks, until they are extremely offensive, before they consider them fit to eat. Our paddlers informed us on our way down that iguanas lay their eggs inJuly and August, and crocodiles in September. The eggs remain a month ortwo under the sand where they are laid, and the young come out when therains have fairly commenced. The canoe-men were quite positive thatcrocodiles frequently stun men by striking them with their tails, andthen squat on them till they are drowned. We once caught a youngcrocodile, which certainly did use its tail to inflict sharp blows, andled us to conclude that the native opinion is correct. They believedalso that, if a person shuts the beast's eyes, it lets go its hold. Crocodiles have been known to unite and kill a large one of their ownspecies and eat it. Some fishermen throw the bones of the fish into theriver but in most of the fishing villages there are heaps of them invarious places. The villagers can walk over them without getting theminto their feet; but the Makololo, from having softer soles, are unableto do so. The explanation offered was, that the fishermen have amedicine against fish-bones, but that they will not reveal it to theMakololo. 

We spent a night on Mparira island, which is four miles long and aboutone mile broad. Mokompa, the headman, was away hunting elephants. Hiswife sent for him on our arrival, and he returned next morning before weleft. Taking advantage of the long-continued drought, he had set fire tothe reeds between the Chobe and Zambesi, in such a manner as to drive thegame out at one corner, where his men laid in wait with their spears. Hehad killed five elephants and three buffaloes, wounding several otherswhich escaped. 

On our land party coming up, we were told that the oxen were bitten bythe tsetse: they could see a great difference in their looks. One wasalready eaten, and they now wished to slaughter another. A third fellinto a buffalo-pit next day, so our stock was soon reduced. 

The Batoka chief, Moshobotwane, again treated us with his usualhospitality, giving us an ox, some meal, and milk. We took another viewof the grand Mosi-oa-tunya, and planted a quantity of seeds in the gardenon the island; but, as no one will renew the hedge, the hippopotami will, doubtless, soon destroy what we planted. Mashotlane assisted us. Somuch power was allowed to this under-chief, that he appeared as if he hadcast off the authority of Sekeletu altogether. He did not show muchcourtesy to his messengers; instead of giving them food, as is customary, he took the meat out of a pot in their presence, and handed it to his ownfollowers. This may have been because Sekeletu's men bore an order tohim to remove to Linyanti. He had not only insulted Baldwin, but hadalso driven away the Griqua traders; but this may all end in nothing. Some of the natives here, and at Sesheke, know a few of the low tricks ofmore civilized traders. A pot of milk was brought to us one evening, which was more indebted to the Zambesi than to any cow. Baskets of fine-looking white meal, elsewhere, had occasionally the lower half filledwith bran. Eggs are always a perilous investment. The native idea of agood egg differs as widely from our own as is possible on such a triflingsubject. An egg is eaten here with apparent relish, though an embryochick be inside. 

We left Mosi-oa-tunya on the 27th, and slept close to the village ofBakwini. It is built on a ridge of loose red soil, which produces greatcrops of mapira and ground-nuts; many magnificent mosibe-trees stand nearthe village. Machimisi, the headman of the village, possesses a herd ofcattle and a large heart; he kept us company for a couple of days toguide us on our way. 

We had heard a good deal of a stronghold some miles below the Falls, called Kalunda. Our return path was much nearer the Zambesi than that ofour ascent, --in fact, as near as the rough country would allow, --but weleft it twice before we reached Sinamane's, in order to see Kalunda and aFall called Moomba, or Moamba. The Makololo had once dispossessed theBatoka of Kalunda, but we could not see the fissure, or whatever it is, that rendered it a place of security, as it was on the southern bank. Thecrack of the Great Falls was here continued: the rocks are the same asfurther up, but perhaps less weather-worn--and now partially stratifiedin great thick masses. The country through which we were travelling wascovered with a cindery-looking volcanic tufa, and might be called"Katakaumena. "

The description we received of the Moamba Falls seemed to promisesomething grand. They were said to send up "smoke" in the wet season, like Mosi-oa-tunya; but when we looked down into the cleft, in which thedark-green narrow river still rolls, we saw, about 800 or 1000 feet belowus, what, after Mosi-oa-tunya, seemed two insignificant cataracts. Itwas evident that Pitsane, observing our delight at the Victoria Falls, wished to increase our pleasure by a second wonder. One Mosi-oa-tunya, however, is quite enough for a continent. 

We had now an opportunity of seeing more of the Batoka, than we had onthe highland route to our north. They did not wait till the eveningbefore offering food to the strangers. The aged wife of the headman of ahamlet, where we rested at midday, at once kindled a fire, and put on thecooking-pot to make porridge. Both men and women are to be distinguishedby greater roundness of feature than the other natives, and the custom ofknocking out the upper front teeth gives at once a distinctive characterto the face. Their colour attests the greater altitude of the country inwhich many of them formerly lived. Some, however, are as dark as theBashubia and Barotse of the great valley to their west, in which standsSesheke, formerly the capital of the Balui, or Bashubia. 

The assertion may seem strange, yet it is none the less true, that in allthe tribes we have visited we never saw a really black person. Differentshades of brown prevail, and often with a bright bronze tint, which nopainter, except Mr. Angus, seems able to catch. Those who inhabitelevated, dry situations, and who are not obliged to work much in thesun, are frequently of a light warm brown, "dark but comely. " Darknessof colour is probably partly caused by the sun, and partly by somethingin the climate or soil which we do not yet know. We see something of thesame sort in trout and other fish which take their colour from the pondsor streams in which they live. The members of our party were much lessembrowned by free exposure to the sun for years than Dr. Livingstone andhis family were by passing once from Kuruman to Cape Town, a journeywhich occupied only a couple of months. 

We encamped on the Kalomo, on the 1st of October, and found the weathervery much warmer than when we crossed this stream in August. At 3 p. M. The thermometer, four feet from the ground, was 101 degrees in the shade;the wet bulb only 61 degrees: a difference of 40 degrees. Yet, notwithstanding this extreme dryness of the atmosphere, without a drop ofrain having fallen for months, and scarcely any dew, many of the shrubsand trees were putting forth fresh leaves of various hues, while othersmade a profuse display of lovely blossoms. 

Two old and very savage buffaloes were shot for our companions on the 3rdOctober. Our Volunteers may feel an interest in knowing that ballssometimes have but little effect: one buffalo fell, on receiving aJacob's shell; it was hit again twice, and lost a large amount of blood;and yet it sprang up, and charged a native, who, by great agility, hadjust time to climb a tree, before the maddened beast struck it, battering-ram fashion, hard enough almost to have split both head and tree. Itpaused a few seconds--drew back several paces--glared up at the man--andthen dashed at the tree again and again, as if determined to shake himout of it. It took two more Jacob's shells, and five other large solidrifle-balls to finish the beast at last. These old surly buffaloes hadbeen wandering about in a sort of miserable fellowship; their skins werediseased and scabby, as if leprous, and their horns atrophied or worndown to stumps--the first was killed outright, by one Jacob's shell, thesecond died hard. There is so much difference in the tenacity of life inwounded animals of the same species, that the inquiry is suggested wherethe seat of life can be?--We have seen a buffalo live long enough, aftera large bullet had passed right through the heart, to allow firm adherentclots to be formed in the two holes. 

One day's journey above Sinamane's, a mass of mountain called Gorongue, or Golongwe, is said to cross the river, and the rent through which theriver passes is, by native report, quite fearful to behold. The countryround it is so rocky, that our companions dreaded the fatigue, and werenot much to blame, if, as is probably the case, the way be worse thanthat over which we travelled. As we trudged along over the black slag-like rocks, the almost leafless trees affording no shade, the heat wasquite as great as Europeans could bear. It was 102 degrees in the shade, and a thermometer placed under the tongue or armpit showed that our bloodwas 99. 5 degrees, or 1. 5 degrees hotter than that of the natives, whichstood at 98 degrees. Our shoes, however, enable us to pass over the hotburning soil better than they can. Many of those who wear sandals havecorns on the sides of the feet, and on the heels, where the straps pass. We have seen instances, too, where neither sandals nor shoes were worn, of corns on the soles of the feet. It is, moreover, not at all uncommonto see toes cocked up, as if pressed out of their proper places; at home, we should have unhesitatingly ascribed this to the vicious fashionsperversely followed by our shoemakers. 

On the 5th, after crossing some hills, we rested at the village ofSimariango. The bellows of the blacksmith here were somewhat differentfrom the common goatskin bags, and more like those seen in Madagascar. They consisted of two wooden vessels, like a lady's bandbox of smalldimensions, the upper ends of which were covered with leather, and lookedsomething like the heads of drums, except that the leather bagged in thecentre. They were fitted with long nozzles, through which the air wasdriven by working the loose covering of the tops up and down by means ofa small piece of wood attached to their centres. The blacksmith saidthat tin was obtained from a people in the north, called Marendi, andthat he had made it into bracelets; we had never heard before of tinbeing found in the country. 

Our course then lay down the bed of a rivulet, called Mapatizia, in whichthere was much calc spar, with calcareous schist, and then the Tette greysandstone, which usually overlies coal. On the 6th we arrived at theislet Chilombe, belonging to Sinamane, where the Zambesi runs broad andsmooth again, and were well received by Sinamane himself. Never wasSunday more welcome to the weary than this, the last we were to spendwith our convoy. 

We now saw many good-looking young men and women. The dresses of theladies are identical with those of Nubian women in Upper Egypt. To abelt on the waist a great number of strings are attached to hang allround the person. These fringes are about six or eight inches long. Thematrons wear in addition a skin cut like the tails of the coatee formerlyworn by our dragoons. The younger girls wear the waist-belt exhibited inthe woodcut, ornamented with shells, and have the fringes only in front. Marauding parties of Batoka, calling themselves Makololo, have for sometime had a wholesome dread of Sinamane's "long spears. " Before going toTette our Batoka friend, Masakasa, was one of a party that came to stealsome of the young women; but Sinamane, to their utter astonishment, attacked them so furiously that the survivors barely escaped with theirlives. Masakasa had to flee so fast that he threw away his shield, hisspear, and his clothes, and returned home a wiser and a sadder man. 

Sinamane's people cultivate large quantities of tobacco, which theymanufacture into balls for the Makololo market. Twenty balls, weighingabout three-quarters of a pound each, are sold for a hoe. The tobacco isplanted on low moist spots on the banks of the Zambesi; and was in flowerat the time we were there, in October. Sinamane's people appear to haveabundance of food, and are all in good condition. He could sell us onlytwo of his canoes; but lent us three more to carry us as far as Moemba's, where he thought others might be purchased. They were manned by his owncanoe-men, who were to bring them back. The river is about 250 yardswide, and flows serenely between high banks towards the North-east. BelowSinamane's the banks are often worn down fifty feet, and composed ofshingle and gravel of igneous rocks, sometimes set in a ferruginousmatrix. The bottom is all gravel and shingle, how formed we cannotimagine, unless in pot-holes in the deep fissure above. The bottom abovethe Falls, save a few rocks close by them, is generally sandy or of softtufa. Every damp spot is covered with maize, pumpkins, water-melons, tobacco, and hemp. There is a pretty numerous Batoka population on bothsides of the river. As we sailed slowly down, the people saluted us fromthe banks, by clapping their hands. A headman even hailed us, andbrought a generous present of corn and pumpkins. 

Moemba owns a rich island, called Mosanga, a mile in length, on which hisvillage stands. He has the reputation of being a brave warrior, and iscertainly a great talker; but he gave us strangers something better thana stream of words. We received a handsome present of corn, and thefattest goat we had ever seen; it resembled mutton. His people were asliberal as their chief. They brought two large baskets of corn, and alot of tobacco, as a sort of general contribution to the travellers. Oneof Sinamane's canoe-men, after trying to get his pay, deserted here, andwent back before the stipulated time, with the story, that the Englishmanhad stolen the canoes. Shortly after sunrise next morning, Sinamane cameinto the village with fifty of his "long spears, " evidently determined toretake his property by force; he saw at a glance that his man haddeceived him. Moemba rallied him for coming on a wildgoose chase. "Hereare your canoes left with me, your men have all been paid, and theEnglishmen are now asking me to sell my canoes. " Sinamane said little tous; only observing that he had been deceived by his follower. A singleremark of his chief's caused the foolish fellow to leave suddenly, evidently much frightened and crestfallen. Sinamane had been very kindto us, and, as he was looking on when we gave our present to Moemba, wemade him also an additional offering of some beads, and parted goodfriends. Moemba, having heard that we had called the people of Sinamanetogether to tell them about our Saviour's mission to man, and to praywith them, associated the idea of Sunday with the meeting, and, beforeanything of the sort was proposed, came and asked that he and his peoplemight be "sundayed" as well as his neighbours; and be given a little seedwheat, and fruit-tree seeds; with which request of course we verywillingly complied. The idea of praying direct to the Supreme Being, though not quite new to all, seems to strike their minds so forcibly thatit will not be forgotten. Sinamane said that he prayed to God, Morungo, and made drink-offerings to him. Though he had heard of us, he had neverseen white men before. 

Beautiful crowned cranes, named from their note "ma-wang, " were seendaily, and were beginning to pair. Large flocks of spur-winged geese, ormachikwe, were common. This goose is said to lay her eggs in March. Wesaw also pairs of Egyptian geese, as well as a few of the knob-nosed, or, as they are called in India, combed geese. When the Egyptian geese, asat the present time, have young, the goslings keep so steadily in thewake of their mother, that they look as if they were a part of her tail;and both parents, when on land, simulate lameness quite as well as ourplovers, to draw off pursuers. The ostrich also adopts the lapwingfashion, but no quadrupeds do: they show fight to defend their younginstead. In some places the steep banks were dotted with the holes whichlead into the nests of bee-eaters. These birds came out in hundreds aswe passed. When the red-breasted species settle on the trees, they givethem the appearance of being covered with red foliage. 

On the morning of the 12th October we passed through a wild, hillycountry, with fine wooded scenery on both sides, but thinly inhabited. The largest trees were usually thorny acacias, of great size andbeautiful forms. As we sailed by several villages without touching, thepeople became alarmed, and ran along the banks, spears in hand. Weemployed one to go forward and tell Mpande of our coming. This allayedtheir fears, and we went ashore, and took breakfast near the large islandwith two villages on it, opposite the mouth of the Zungwe, where we hadleft the Zambesi on our way up. Mpande was sorry that he had no canoesof his own to sell, but he would lend us two. He gave us cooked pumpkinsand a water-melon. His servant had lateral curvature of the spine. Wehave often seen cases of humpback, but this was the only case of thiskind of curvature we had met with. Mpande accompanied us himself in hisown vessel, till we had an opportunity of purchasing a fine large canoeelsewhere. We paid what was considered a large price for it: twelvestrings of blue cut glass neck beads, an equal number of large blue onesof the size of marbles, and two yards of grey calico. Had the beads beencoarser, they would have been more valued, because such were in fashion. Before concluding the bargain the owner said "his bowels yearned for hiscanoe, and we must give a little more to stop their yearning. " This wasirresistible. The trading party of Sequasha, which we now met, hadpurchased ten large new canoes for six strings of cheap coarse whitebeads each, or their equivalent, four yards of calico, and had bought forthe merest trifle ivory enough to load them all. They were driving atrade in slaves also, which was something new in this part of Africa, andlikely soon to change the character of the inhabitants. These men hadbeen living in clover, and were uncommonly fat and plump. When sent totrade, slaves wisely never stint themselves of beer or anything else, which their master's goods can buy. 

The temperature of the Zambesi had increased 10 degrees since August, being now 80 degrees. The air was as high as 96 degrees after sunset;and, the vicinity of the water being the coolest part, we usually madeour beds close by the river's brink, though there in danger ofcrocodiles. Africa differs from India in the air always becoming cooland refreshing long before the sun returns, and there can be no doubtthat we can in this country bear exposure to the sun, which would befatal in India. It is probably owing to the greater dryness of theAfrican atmosphere that sunstroke is so rarely met with. In twenty-twoyears Dr. Livingstone never met or heard of a single case, though theprotective head-dresses of India are rarely seen. 

When the water is nearly at its lowest, we occasionally meet with smallrapids which are probably not in existence during the rest of the year. Having slept opposite the rivulet Bume, which comes from the south, wepassed the island of Nakansalo, and went down the rapids of the same nameon the 17th, and came on the morning of the 19th to the more serious onesof Nakabele, at the entrance to Kariba. The Makololo guided the canoesadmirably through the opening in the dyke. When we entered the gorge wecame on upwards of thirty hippopotami: a bank near the entrance stretchestwo-thirds across the narrowed river, and in the still place behind itthey were swimming about. Several were in the channel, and our canoe-menwere afraid to venture down among them, because, as they affirm, there iscommonly an ill-natured one in a herd, which takes a malignant pleasurein upsetting canoes. Two or three boys on the rocks opposite amusedthemselves by throwing stones at the frightened animals, and hit severalon the head. It would have been no difficult matter to have shot thewhole herd. We fired a few shots to drive them off; the balls oftenglance off the skull, and no more harm is done than when a schoolboy getsa bloody nose; we killed one, which floated away down the rapid current, followed by a number of men on the bank. A native called to us from theleft bank, and said that a man on his side knew how to pray to the Karibagods, and advised us to hire him to pray for our safety, while we weregoing down the rapids, or we should certainly all be drowned. No oneever risked his life in Kariba without first paying the river-doctor, orpriest, for his prayers. Our men asked if there was a cataract in front, but he declined giving any information; they were not on his side of theriver; if they would come over, then he might be able to tell them. Wecrossed, but he went off to the village. We then landed and walked overthe hills to have a look at Karaba before trusting our canoes in it. Thecurrent was strong, and there was broken water in some places, but thechannel was nearly straight, and had no cataract, so we determined torisk it. Our men visited the village while we were gone, and weretreated to beer and tobacco. The priest who knows how to pray to the godthat rules the rapids followed us with several of his friends, and theywere rather surprised to see us pass down in safety, without the aid ofhis intercession. The natives who followed the dead hippopotamus caughtit a couple of miles below, and, having made it fast to a rock, weresitting waiting for us on the bank beside the dead animal. As there wasa considerable current there, and the rocky banks were unfit for ourbeds, we took the hippopotamus in tow, telling the villagers to follow, and we would give them most of the meat. The crocodiles tugged so hardat the carcass, that we were soon obliged to cast it adrift, to floatdown in the current, to avoid upsetting the canoe. We had to go on sofar before finding a suitable spot to spend the night in, that thenatives concluded we did not intend to share the meat with them, andreturned to the village. We slept two nights at the place where thehippopotamus was cut up. The crocodiles had a busy time of it in thedark, tearing away at what was left in the river, and thrashing the waterfuriously with their powerful tails. The hills on both sides of Karibaare much like those of Kebrabasa, the strata tilted and twisted in everydirection, with no level ground. 

Although the hills confine the Zambesi within a narrow channel for anumber of miles, there are no rapids beyond those near the entrance. Theriver is smooth and apparently very deep. Only one single human beingwas seen in the gorge, the country being too rough for culture. Somerocks in the water, near the outlet of Kariba, at a distance look like afort; and such large masses dislocated, bent, and even twisted to aremarkable degree, at once attest some tremendous upheaving andconvulsive action of nature, which probably caused Kebrabasa, Kariba, andthe Victoria Falls to assume their present forms; it took place after theformation of the coal, that mineral having then been tilted up. We haveprobably nothing equal to it in the present quiet operations of nature. 

On emerging we pitched our camp by a small stream, the Pendele, a fewmiles below the gorge. The Palabi mountain stands on the western side ofthe lower end of the Kariba strait; the range to which it belongs crossesthe river, and runs to the south-east. Chikumbula, a hospitable oldheadman, under Nchomokela, the paramount chief of a large district, whomwe did not see, brought us next morning a great basket of meal, and fourfowls, with some beer, and a cake of salt, "to make it taste good. "Chikumbula said that the elephants plagued them, by eating up the cotton-plants; but his people seem to be well off. 

A few days before we came, they caught three buffaloes in pitfalls in onenight, and, unable to eat them all, left one to rot. During the nightthe wind changed and blew from the dead buffalo to our sleeping-place;and a hungry lion, not at all dainty in his food, stirred up the putridmass, and growled and gloated over his feast, to the disturbance of ourslumbers. Game of all kinds is in most extraordinary abundance, especially from this point to below the Kafue, and so it is onMoselekatso's side, where there are no inhabitants. The drought drivesall the game to the river to drink. An hour's walk on the right bank, morning or evening, reveals a country swarming with wild animals: vastherds of pallahs, many waterbucks, koodoos, buffaloes, wild pigs, elands, zebras, and monkeys appear; francolins, guinea-fowls, and myriads ofturtledoves attract the eye in the covers, with the fresh spoor ofelephants and rhinoceroses, which had been at the river during the night. Every few miles we came upon a school of hippopotami, asleep on someshallow sandbank; their bodies, nearly all out of the water, appearedlike masses of black rock in the river. When these animals are huntedmuch, they become proportionably wary, but here no hunter ever troublesthem, and they repose in security, always however taking the precautionof sleeping just above the deep channel, into which they can plunge whenalarmed. When a shot is fired into a sleeping herd, all start up ontheir feet, and stare with peculiar stolid looks of hippopotamicsurprise, and wait for another shot before dashing into deep water. Afew miles below Chikumbula's we saw a white hippopotamus in a herd. Ourmen had never seen one like it before. It was of a pinkish white, exactly like the colour of the Albino. It seemed to be the father of anumber of others, for there were many marked with large light patches. The so-called _white_ elephant is just such a pinkish Albino as thishippopotamus. A few miles above Kariba we observed that, in two smallhamlets, many of the inhabitants had a similar affection of the skin. Thesame influence appeared to have affected man and beast. A dark colouredhippopotamus stood alone, as if expelled from the herd, and bit thewater, shaking his head from side to side in a most frantic manner. Whenthe female has twins, she is said to kill one of them. 

We touched at the beautiful tree-covered island of Kalabi, opposite whereTuba-mokoro lectured the lion in our way up. The ancestors of the peoplewho now inhabit this island possessed cattle. The tsetse has takenpossession of the country since "the beeves were lifted. " No one knowswhere these insects breed; at a certain season all disappear, and assuddenly come back, no one knows whence. The natives are such closeobservers of nature, that their ignorance in this case surprised us. Asolitary hippopotamus had selected the little bay in which we landed, andwhere the women drew water, for his dwelling-place. Pretty littlelizards, with light blue and red tails, run among the rocks, catchingflies and other insects. These harmless--though to new-comersrepulsive--creatures sometimes perform good service to man, by eatinggreat numbers of the destructive white ants. 

At noon on the 24th October, we found Sequasha in a village below theKafue, with the main body of his people. He said that 210 elephants hadbeen killed during his trip; many of his men being excellent hunters. Thenumbers of animals we saw renders this possible. He reported that, afterreaching the Kafue, he went northwards into the country of the Zulus, whose ancestors formerly migrated from the south and set up a sort ofRepublican form of government. Sequasha is the greatest Portuguesetraveller we ever became acquainted with, and he boasts that he is ableto speak a dozen different dialects; yet, unfortunately, he can give buta very meagre account of the countries and people he has seen, and hisstatements are not very much to be relied on. But considering theinfluence among which he has been reared, and the want of the means ofeducation at Tette, it is a wonder that he possesses the good traits thathe sometimes exhibits. Among his wares were several cheap Americanclocks; a useless investment rather, for a part of Africa where no onecares for the artificial measurement of time. These clocks got him intotrouble among the Banyai: he set them all agoing in the presence of achief, who became frightened at the strange sounds they made, and lookedupon them as so many witchcraft agencies at work to bring all manner ofevils upon himself and his people. Sequasha, it was decided, had beenguilty of a milando, or crime, and he had to pay a heavy fine of clothand beads for his exhibition. He alluded to our having heard that he hadkilled Mpangwe, and he denied having actually done so; but in his absencehis name had got mixed up in the affair, in consequence of his slaves, while drinking beer one night with Namakusuru, the man who succeededMpangwe, saying that they would kill the chief for him. His partner hadnot thought of this when we saw him on the way up, for he tried to excusethe murder, by saying that now they had put the right man into thechieftainship. 

After three hours' sail, on the morning of the 29th, the river wasnarrowed again by the mountains of Mburuma, called Karivua, into onechannel, and another rapid dimly appeared. It was formed by two currentsguided by rocks to the centre. In going down it, the men sent bySekeletu behaved very nobly. The canoes entered without previous survey, and the huge jobbling waves of mid-current began at once to fill them. With great presence of mind, and without a moment's hesitation, two menlightened each by jumping overboard; they then ordered a Botoka man to dothe same, as "the white men must be saved. " "I cannot swim, " said theBatoka. "Jump out, then, and hold on to the canoe;" which he instantlydid. Swimming alongside, they guided the swamping canoes down the swiftcurrent to the foot of the rapid, and then ran them ashore to bale themout. A boat could have passed down safely, but our canoes were not afoot above the water at the gunwales. 

Thanks to the bravery of these poor fellows, nothing was lost, althougheverything was well soaked. This rapid is nearly opposite the west endof the Mburuma mountains or Karivua. Another soon begins below it. Theyare said to be all smoothed over when the river rises. The canoes had tobe unloaded at this the worst rapid, and the goods carried about ahundred yards. By taking the time in which a piece of stick floated past100 feet, we found the current to be running six knots, by far thegreatest velocity noted in the river. As the men were bringing the lastcanoe down close to the shore, the stern swung round into the current, and all except one man let go, rather than be dragged off. He clung tothe bow, and was swept out into the middle of the stream. Having held onwhen he ought to have let go, he next put his life in jeopardy by lettinggo when he ought to have held on; and was in a few seconds swallowed upby a fearful whirlpool. His comrades launched out a canoe below, andcaught him as he rose the third time to the surface, and saved him, though much exhausted and very cold. 

The scenery of this pass reminded us of Kebrabasa, although it is muchinferior. A band of the same black shining glaze runs along the rocksabout two feet from the water's edge. There was not a blade of grass onsome of the hills, it being the end of the usual dry season succeeding aprevious severe drought; yet the hill-sides were dotted over withbeautiful green trees. A few antelopes were seen on the rugged slopes, where some people too appeared lying down, taking a cup of beer. TheKarivua narrows are about thirty miles in length. They end at themountain Roganora. Two rocks, twelve or fifteen feet above the water atthe time we were there, may in flood be covered and dangerous. Our chiefdanger was the wind, a very slight ripple being sufficient to swampcanoes. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The waterbuck--Disaster in Kebrabasa rapids--The "Ma Robert"founders--Arrival of the "Pioneer" and Bishop Mackenzie'sparty--Portuguese slave-trade--Interference and liberation. 

We arrived at Zumbo, at the mouth of the Loangwa, on the 1st of November. The water being scarcely up to the knee, our land party waded this riverwith ease. A buffalo was shot on an island opposite Pangola's, the balllodging in the spleen. It was found to have been wounded in the sameorgan previously, for an iron bullet was imbedded in it, and the woundentirely healed. A great deal of the plant _Pistia stratiotes_ was seenfloating in the river. Many people inhabit the right bank about thispart, yet the game is very abundant. 

As we were taking our breakfast on the morning of the 2nd, the MamboKazai, of whom we knew nothing, and his men came with their muskets andlarge powder-horns to levy a fine, and obtain payment for the wood weused in cooking. But on our replying to his demand that we were English, "Oh! are you?" he said; "I thought you were Bazungu (Portuguese). Theyare the people I take payments from:" and he apologized for his mistake. Bazungu, or Azungu, is a term applied to all foreigners of a lightcolour, and to Arabs; even to trading slaves if clothed; it probablymeans foreigners, or visitors, --from _zunga_, to visit or wander, --andthe Portuguese were the only foreigners these men had ever seen. As wehad no desire to pass for people of that nation--quite the contrary--weusually made a broad line of demarcation by saying that we were English, and the English neither bought, sold, nor held black people as slaves, but wished to put a stop to the slave-trade altogether. 

We called upon our friend, Mpende, in passing. He provided a hut for us, with new mats spread on the floor. Having told him that we were hurryingon because the rains were near, "Are they near?" eagerly inquired an oldcounsellor, "and are we to have plenty of rain this year?" We could onlysay that it was about the usual time for the rains to commence; and thatthere were the usual indications in great abundance of clouds floatingwestwards, but that we knew nothing more than they did themselves. 

The hippopotami are more wary here than higher up, as the natives huntthem with guns. Having shot one on a shallow sandbank, our men undertookto bring it over to the left bank, in order to cut it up with greaterease. It was a fine fat one, and all rejoiced in the hope of eating thefat for butter, with our hard dry cakes of native meal. Our cook wassent over to cut a choice piece for dinner, but returned with theastonishing intelligence that the carcass was gone. They had beenhoodwinked, and were very much ashamed of themselves. A number of Banyaicame to assist in rolling it ashore, and asserted that it was all shallowwater. They rolled it over and over towards the land, and, finding therope we had made fast to it, as they said, an encumbrance, it wasunloosed. All were shouting and talking as loud as they could bawl, whensuddenly our expected feast plumped into a deep hole, as the Banyaiintended it should do. When sinking, all the Makololo jumped in afterit. One caught frantically at the tail; another grasped a foot; a thirdseized the hip; "but, by Sebituane, it would go down in spite of all thatwe could do. " Instead of a fat hippopotamus we had only a lean fowl fordinner, and were glad enough to get even that. The hippopotamus, however, floated during the night, and was found about a mile below. TheBanyai then assembled on the bank, and disputed our right to the beast:"It might have been shot by somebody else. " Our men took a little of itand then left it, rather than come into collision with them. 

A fine waterbuck was shot in the Kakolole narrows, at Mount Manyerere; itdropped beside the creek where it was feeding; an enormous crocodile, that had been watching it at the moment, seized and dragged it into thewater, which was not very deep. The mortally wounded animal made adesperate plunge, and hauling the crocodile several yards tore itself outof the hideous jaws. To escape the hunter, the waterbuck jumped into theriver, and was swimming across, when another crocodile gave chase, but aball soon sent it to the bottom. The waterbuck swam a little longer, thefine head dropped, the body turned over, and one of the canoes dragged itashore. Below Kakolole, and still at the base of Manyerere mountain, several coal-seams, not noticed on our ascent, were now seen to crop outon the right bank of the Zambesi. 

Chitora, of Chicova, treated us with his former hospitality. Our menwere all much pleased with his kindness, and certainly did not look uponit as a proof of weakness. They meant to return his friendliness whenthey came this way on a marauding expedition to eat the sheep of theBanyai, for insulting them in the affair of the hippopotamus; they wouldthen send word to Chitora not to run away, for they, being his friends, would do such a good-hearted man no harm. 

We entered Kebrabasa rapids, at the east end of Chicova, in the canoes, and went down a number of miles, until the river narrowed into a grooveof fifty or sixty yards wide, of which we have already spoken indescribing the flood-bed and channel of low water. The navigation thenbecame difficult and dangerous. A fifteen feet fall of the water in ourabsence had developed many cataracts. Two of our canoes passed safelydown a narrow channel, which, bifurcating, had an ugly whirlpool at therocky partition between the two branches, the deep hole in the whirls attimes opening and then shutting. The Doctor's canoe came next, andseemed to be drifting broadside into the open vortex, in spite of theutmost exertions of the paddlers. The rest were expecting to have topull to the rescue; the men saying, "Look where these people aregoing!--look, look!"--when a loud crash burst on our ears. Dr. Kirk'scanoe was dashed on a projection of the perpendicular rocks, by a suddenand mysterious boiling up of the river, which occurs at irregularintervals. Dr. Kirk was seen resisting the sucking-down action of thewater, which must have been fifteen fathoms deep, and raising himself byhis arms on to the ledge, while his steersman, holding on to the samerocks, saved the canoe; but nearly all its contents were swept away downthe stream. Dr. Livingstone's canoe, meanwhile, which had distracted themen's attention, was saved by the cavity in the whirlpool filling up asthe frightful eddy was reached. A few of the things in Dr. Kirk's canoewere left; but all that was valuable, including a chronometer, abarometer, and, to our great sorrow, his notes of the journey andbotanical drawings of the fruit-trees of the interior, perished. 

We now left the river, and proceeded on foot, sorry that we had not doneso the day before. The men were thoroughly frightened, they had neverseen such perilous navigation. They would carry all the loads, ratherthan risk Kebrabasa any longer; but the fatigue of a day's march over thehot rocks and burning sand changed their tune before night; and then theyregretted having left the canoes; they thought they should have draggedthem past the dangerous places, and then launched them again. One of thetwo donkeys died from exhaustion near the Luia. Though the men eatzebras and quaggas, blood relations of the donkey, they were shocked atthe idea of eating the ass; "it would be like eating man himself, becausethe donkey lives with man, and is his bosom companion. " We met two largetrading parties of Tette slaves on their way to Zumbo, leading, to besold for ivory, a number of Manganja women, with ropes round their necks, and all made fast to one long rope. 

Panzo, the headman of the village east of Kebrabasa, received us withgreat kindness. After the usual salutation he went up the hill, and, ina loud voice, called across the valley to the women of several hamlets tocook supper for us. About eight in the evening he returned, followed bya procession of women, bringing the food. There were eight dishes ofnsima, or porridge, six of different sorts of very good wild vegetables, with dishes of beans and fowls; all deliciously well cooked, andscrupulously clean. The wooden dishes were nearly as white as the mealitself: food also was brought for our men. Ripe mangoes, which usuallyindicate the vicinity of the Portuguese, were found on the 21st November;and we reached Tette early on the 23rd, having been absent a little oversix months. 

The two English sailors, left in charge of the steamer, were well, hadbehaved well, and had enjoyed excellent health all the time we were away. Their farm had been a failure. We left a few sheep, to be slaughteredwhen they wished for fresh meat, and two dozen fowls. Purchasing more, they soon had double the number of the latter, and anticipated a goodsupply of eggs; but they also bought two monkeys, and _they_ ate all theeggs. A hippopotamus came up one night, and laid waste their vegetablegarden; the sheep broke into their cotton patch, when it was in flower, and ate it all, except the stems; then the crocodiles carried off thesheep, and the natives stole the fowls. Nor were they more successful asgun-smiths: a Portuguese trader, having an exalted opinion of theingenuity of English sailors, showed them a double-barrelled rifle, andinquired if they could put on the _browning_, which had rusted off. "Ithink I knows how, " said one, whose father was a blacksmith, "it's veryeasy; you have only to put the barrels in the fire. " A great fire ofwood was made on shore, and the unlucky barrels put over it, to securethe handsome rifle colour. To Jack's utter amazement the barrels cameasunder. To get out of the scrape, his companion and he stuck the piecestogether with resin, and sent it to the owner, with the message, "It wasall they could do for it, and they would not charge him anything for thejob!" They had also invented an original mode of settling a bargain;having ascertained the market price of provisions, they paid that, but nomore. If the traders refused to leave the ship till the price wasincreased, a chameleon, of which the natives have a mortal dread, wasbrought out of the cabin; and the moment the natives saw the creature, they at once sprang overboard. The chameleon settled every dispute in atwinkling. 

But besides their good-humoured intercourse, they showed humanity worthyof English sailors. A terrible scream roused them up one night, and theypushed off in a boat to the rescue. A crocodile had caught a woman, andwas dragging her across a shallow sandbank. Just as they came up to her, she gave a fearful shriek: the horrid reptile had snapped off her leg atthe knee. They took her on board, bandaged the limb as well as theycould, and, not thinking of any better way of showing their sympathy, gave her a glass of rum, and carried her to a hut in the village. Nextmorning they found the bandages torn off, and the unfortunate creatureleft to die. "I believe, " remarked Rowe, one of the sailors, "her masterwas angry with us for saving her life, seeing as how she had lost herleg. "

The Zambesi being unusually low, we remained at Tette till it rose alittle, and then left on the 3rd of December for the Kongone. It washard work to keep the vessel afloat; indeed, we never expected her toremain above water. New leaks broke out every day; the engine pump gaveway; the bridge broke down; three compartments filled at night; exceptthe cabin and front compartment all was flooded; and in a few days wewere assured by Rowe that "she can't be worse than she is, sir. " He andHutchins had spent much of their time, while we were away, in patchingher bottom, puddling it with clay, and shoring it, and it was chiefly toplease them that we again attempted to make use of her. We had long beenfully convinced that the steel plates were thoroughly unsuitable. On themorning of the 21st the uncomfortable "Asthmatic" grounded on a sandbankand filled. She could neither be emptied nor got off. The river roseduring the night, and all that was visible of the worn-out craft next daywas about six feet of her two masts. Most of the property we had onboard was saved; and we spent the Christmas of 1860 encamped on theisland of Chimba. Canoes were sent for from Senna; and we reached it onthe 27th, to be again hospitably entertained by our friend, SenhorFerrao. 

We reached the Kongone on the 4th of January, 1861. A flagstaff and aCustom-house had been erected during our absence; a hut, also, for ablack lance-corporal and three privates. By the kind permission of thelance-corporal, who came to see us as soon as he had got into histrousers and shirt, we took up our quarters in the Custom-house, which, like the other buildings, is a small square floorless hut of mangrovestakes overlaid with reeds. The soldiers complained of hunger, they hadnothing to eat but a little mapira, and were making palm wine to deadentheir cravings. While waiting for a ship, we had leisure to read thenewspapers and periodicals we found in the mail which was waiting ourarrival at Tette. Several were a year and a half old. 

Our provisions began to run short; and towards the end of the month therewas nothing left but a little bad biscuit and a few ounces of sugar. Coffee and tea were expended, but scarcely missed, as our sailorsdiscovered a pretty good substitute in roasted mapira. Fresh meat wasobtained in abundance from our antelope preserves on the large islandmade by a creek between the Kongone and East Luabo. 

In this focus of decaying vegetation, nothing is so much to be dreaded asinactivity. We had, therefore, to find what exercise and amusement wecould, when hunting was not required, in peering about in the fetidswamps; to have gone mooning about, in listless idleness, would haveensured fever in its worst form, and probably with fatal results. 

A curious little blenny-fish swarms in the numerous creeks whichintersect the mangrove topes. When alarmed, it hurries across thesurface of the water in a series of leaps. It may be consideredamphibious, as it lives as much out of the water as in it, and its mostbusy time is during low water. Then it appears on the sand or mud, nearthe little pools left by the retiring tide; it raises itself on itspectoral fins into something of a standing attitude, and with its largeprojecting eyes keeps a sharp look-out for the light-coloured fly, onwhich it feeds. Should the fly alight at too great a distance for even asecond leap, the blenny moves slowly towards it like a cat to its prey, or like a jumping spider; and, as soon as it gets within two or threeinches of the insect, by a sudden spring contrives to pop its undersetmouth directly over the unlucky victim. He is, moreover, a pugnaciouslittle fellow; and rather prolonged fights may be observed between himand his brethren. One, in fleeing from an apparent danger, jumped into apool a foot square, which the other evidently regarded as his by right ofprior discovery; in a twinkling the owner, with eyes flashing fury, andwith dorsal fin bristling up in rage, dashed at the intruding foe. Thefight waxed furious, no tempest in a teapot ever equalled the storm ofthat miniature sea. The warriors were now in the water, and anon out ofit, for the battle raged on sea and shore. They struck hard, they biteach other; until, becoming exhausted, they seized each other by the jawslike two bull-dogs, then paused for breath, and at it again as fiercelyas before, until the combat ended by the precipitate retreat of theinvader. 

The muddy ground under the mangrove-trees is covered with soldier-crabs, which quickly slink into their holes on any symptom of danger. When theebbing tide retires, myriads of minute crabs emerge from theirunderground quarters, and begin to work like so many busy bees. Soonmany miles of the smooth sand become rough with the results of theirlabour. They are toiling for their daily bread: a round bit of moistsand appears at the little labourer's mouth, and is quickly brushed offby one of the claws; a second bit follows the first; and another, andstill another come as fast as they can be laid aside. As these pelletsaccumulate, the crab moves sideways, and the work continues. The firstimpression one receives is, that the little creature has swallowed agreat deal of sand, and is getting rid of it as speedily as possible: ahabit he indulges in of darting into his hole at intervals, as if forfresh supplies, tends to strengthen this idea; but the size of the heapsformed in a few seconds shows that this cannot be the case, and leads tothe impression that, although not readily seen, at the distance at whichhe chooses to keep the observer, yet that possibly he raises the sand tohis mouth, where whatever animalcule it may contain is sifted out of it, and the remainder rejected in the manner described. At times the largerspecies of crabs perform a sort of concert; and from each subterraneanabode strange sounds arise, as if, in imitation of the songsters of thegroves, for very joy they sang!

We found some natives pounding the woody stems of a poisonous climbing-plant (_Dirca palustris_) called Busungu, or poison, which growsabundantly in the swamps. When a good quantity was bruised, it was tiedup in bundles. The stream above and below was obstructed with bushes, and with a sort of rinsing motion the poison was diffused through thewater. Many fish were soon affected, swain in shore, and died, otherswere only stupefied. The plant has pink, pea-shaped blossoms, andsmooth, pointed, glossy leaves, and the brown bark is covered with minutewhite points. The knowledge of it might prove of use to a shipwreckedparty by enabling them to catch the fish. 

The poison is said to be deleterious to man if the water is drunk; butnot when the fish is cooked. The Busungu is repulsive to some insects, and is smeared round the shoots of the palm-trees to prevent the antsfrom getting into the palm wine while it is dropping from the tops of thepalm-trees into the little pots suspended to collect it. 

We were in the habit of walking from our beds into the salt water atsunrise, for a bath, till a large crocodile appeared at thebathing-place, and from that time forth we took our dip in the sea, awayfrom the harbour, about midday. This is said to be unwholesome, but wedid not find it so. It is certainly better not to bathe in the mornings, when the air is colder than the water--for then, on returning to thecooler air, one is apt to get a chill and fever. In the mouth of theriver, many saw-fish are found. Rowe saw one while bathing--caught it bythe tail, and shoved it, "snout on, " ashore. The saw is from a foot toeighteen inches long. We never heard of any one being wounded by thisfish; nor, though it goes hundreds of miles up the river in fresh water, could we learn that it was eaten by the people. The hippopotamidelighted to spend the day among the breakers, and seemed to enjoy thefun as much as we did. 

Severe gales occurred during our stay on the Coast, and many small sea-birds (_Prion Banksii_, Smith) perished: the beach was strewn with theirdead bodies, and some were found hundreds of yards inland; many were soemaciated as to dry up without putrefying. We were plagued with myriadsof mosquitoes, and had some touches of fever; the men we brought frommalarious regions of the interior suffered almost as much from it here aswe did ourselves. This gives strength to the idea that the civilizedwithstand the evil influences of strange climates better than theuncivilized. When negroes return to their own country from healthylands, they suffer as severely as foreigners ever do. 

On the 31st of January, 1861, our new ship, the "Pioneer, " arrived fromEngland, and anchored outside the bar; but the weather was stormy, andshe did not venture in till the 4th of February. 

Two of H. M. Cruisers came at the same time, bringing Bishop Mackenzie, and the Oxford and Cambridge Mission to the tribes of the Shire and LakeNyassa. The Mission consisted of six Englishmen, and five coloured menfrom the Cape. It was a puzzle to know what to do with so many men. Theestimable Bishop, anxious to commence his work without delay, wished the"Pioneer" to carry the Mission up the Shire, as far as Chibisa's, andthere leave them. But there were grave objections to this. The"Pioneer" was under orders to explore the Rovuma, as the PortugueseGovernment had refused to open the Zambesi to the ships of other nations, and their officials were very effectually pursuing a system, which, byabstracting the labour, was rendering the country of no value either toforeigners or to themselves. She was already two months behind her time, and the rainy season was half over. Then, if the party were taken toChibisa's, the Mission would he left without a medical attendant, in anunhealthy region, at the beginning of the most sickly season of the year, and without means of reaching the healthy highlands, or of returning tothe sea. We dreaded that, in the absence of medical aid and allknowledge of the treatment of fever, there might be a repetition of thesorrowful fate which befell the similar non-medical Mission at Linyanti. 

On the 25th of February the "Pioneer" anchored in the mouth of theRovuma, which, unlike most African rivers, has a magnificent bay and nobar. We wooded, and then waited for the Bishop till the 9th of March, when he came in the "Lyra. " On the 11th we proceeded up the river, andsaw that it had fallen four or five feet during our detention. Thescenery on the lower part of the Rovuma is superior to that on theZambesi, for we can see the highlands from the sea. Eight miles from themouth the mangroves are left behind, and a beautiful range of well-woodedhills on each bank begins. On these ridges the tree resembling Africanblackwood, of finer grain than ebony, grows abundantly, and attains alarge size. Few people were seen, and those were of Arab breed, and didnot appear to be very well off. The current of the Rovuma was now asstrong as that of the Zambesi, but the volume of water is very much less. Several of the crossings had barely water enough for our ship, drawingfive feet, to pass. When we were thirty miles up the river, the waterfell suddenly seven inches in twenty-four hours. As the March flood isthe last of the season, and it appeared to be expended, it was thoughtprudent to avoid the chance of a year's detention, by getting the shipback to the sea without delay. Had the Expedition been alone, we wouldhave pushed up in boats, or afoot, and done what we could towards theexploration of the river and upper end of the lake; but, though theMission was a private one, and entirely distinct from our own, a publicone, the objects of both being similar, we felt anxious to aid ourcountrymen in their noble enterprise; and, rather than follow our owninclination, decided to return to the Shire, see the Mission partysettled safely, and afterwards explore Lake Nyassa and the Rovuma, fromthe Lake downwards. Fever broke out on board the "Pioneer, " at the mouthof the Rovuma, as we thought from our having anchored close to a creekcoming out of the mangroves; and it remained in her until we completelyisolated the engine-room from the rest of the ship. The coal-dustrotting sent out strong effluvia, and kept up the disease for more than atwelvemonth. 

Soon after we started the fever put the "Pioneer" almost entirely intothe hands of the original Zambesi Expedition, and not long afterwards theleader had to navigate the ocean as well as the river. The habit offinding the geographical positions on land renders it an easy task tosteer a steamer with only three or four sails at sea; where, if one doesnot run ashore, no one follows to find out an error, and where a currentaffords a ready excuse for every blunder. 

Touching at Mohilla, one of the Comoro Islands, on our return, we found amixed race of Arabs, Africans, and their conquerors, the natives ofMadagascar. Being Mahometans, they have mosques and schools, in which wewere pleased to see girls as well as boys taught to read the Koran. Theteacher said he was paid by the job, and received ten dollars forteaching each child to read. The clever ones learn in six months; butthe dull ones take a couple of years. We next went over to Johanna forour friends; and, after a sojourn of a few days at the beautiful ComoroIslands, we sailed for the Kongone mouth of the Zambesi with BishopMackenzie and his party. We reached the coast in seven days, and passedup the Zambesi to the Shire. 

The "Pioneer, " constructed under the skilful supervision of Admiral SirBaldwin Walker and the late Admiral Washington, warm-hearted and highlyesteemed friends of the Expedition, was a very superior vessel, and wellsuited for our work in every respect, except in her draught of water. Five feet were found to be too much for the navigation of the upper partof the Shire. Designed to draw three feet only, the weight necessary toimpart extra strength, and fit her for the ocean, brought her down twofeet more, and caused us a great deal of hard and vexatious work, inlaying out anchors, and toiling at the capstan to get her off sandbanks. We should not have minded this much, but for the heavy loss of time whichmight have been more profitably, and infinitely more pleasantly, spent inintercourse with the people, exploring new regions, and otherwisecarrying out the objects of the Expedition. Once we were a fortnight ona bank of soft yielding sand, having only two or three inches less waterthan the ship drew; this delay was occasioned by the anchors coming home, and the current swinging the ship broadside on the bank, which, immediately on our touching, always formed behind us. We did not like toleave the ship short of Chibisa's, lest the crew should suffer from themalaria of the lowland around; and it would have been difficult to havegot the Mission goods carried up. We were daily visited by crowds ofnatives, who brought us abundance of provisions far beyond our ability toconsume. In hauling the "Pioneer" over the shallow places, the Bishop, with Horace Waller and Mr. Scudamore, were ever ready and anxious to lenda hand, and worked as hard as any on board. Had our fine little shipdrawn but three feet, she could have run up and down the river at anytime of the year with the greatest ease, but as it was, having oncepassed up over a few shallow banks, it was impossible to take her downagain until the river rose in December. She could go up over a bank, butnot come down over it, as a heap of sand always formed instantly astern, while the current washed it away from under her bows. 

On at last reaching Chibisa's, we heard that there was war in theManganja country, and the slave-trade was going on briskly. A deputationfrom a chief near Mount Zomba had just passed on its way to Chibisa, whowas in a distant village, to implore him to come himself, or sendmedicine, to drive off the Waiao, Waiau, or Ajawa, whose maraudingparties were desolating the land. A large gang of recently enslavedManganja crossed the river, on their way to Tette, a few days before wegot the ship up. Chibisa's deputy was civil, and readily gave uspermission to hire as many men to carry the Bishop's goods up to thehills as were willing to go. With a sufficient number, therefore, westarted for the highlands on the 15th of July, to show the Bishop thecountry, which, from its altitude and coolness, was most suitable for astation. Our first day's march was a long and fatiguing one. The fewhamlets we passed were poor, and had no food for our men, and we wereobliged to go on till 4 p. M. , when we entered the small village ofChipindu. The inhabitants complained of hunger, and said they had nofood to sell, and no hut for us to sleep in; but, if we would only go ona little further, we should come to a village where they had plenty toeat; but we had travelled far enough, and determined to remain where wewere. Before sunset as much food was brought as we cared to purchase, and, as it threatened to rain, huts were provided for the whole party. 

Next forenoon we halted at the village of our old friend Mbame, to obtainnew carriers, because Chibisa's men, never before having been hired, andnot having yet learned to trust us, did not choose to go further. Afterresting a little, Mbame told us that a slave party on its way to Tettewould presently pass through his village. "Shall we interfere?" weinquired of each other. We remembered that all our valuable privatebaggage was in Tette, which, if we freed the slaves, might, together withsome Government property, be destroyed in retaliation; but this system ofslave-hunters dogging us where previously they durst not venture, and, onpretence of being "our children, " setting one tribe against another, tofurnish themselves with slaves, would so inevitably thwart all theefforts, for which we had the sanction of the Portuguese Government, thatwe resolved to run all risks, and put a stop, if possible, to the slave-trade, which had now followed on the footsteps of our discoveries. A fewminutes after Mbame had spoken to us, the slave party, a long line ofmanacled men, women, and children, came wending their way round the hilland into the valley, on the side of which the village stood. The blackdrivers, armed with muskets, and bedecked with various articles offinery, marched jauntily in the front, middle, and rear of the line; someof them blowing exultant notes out of long tin horns. They seemed tofeel that they were doing a very noble thing, and might proudly marchwith an air of triumph. But the instant the fellows caught a glimpse ofthe English, they darted off like mad into the forest; so fast, indeed, that we caught but a glimpse of their red caps and the soles of theirfeet. The chief of the party alone remained; and he, from being infront, had his hand tightly grasped by a Makololo! He proved to be awell-known slave of the late Commandant at Tette, and for some time ourown attendant while there. On asking him how he obtained these captives, he replied he had bought them; but on our inquiring of the peoplethemselves, all, save four, said they had been captured in war. Whilethis inquiry was going on, he bolted too. The captives knelt down, and, in their way of expressing thanks, clapped their hands with great energy. They were thus left entirely on our hands, and knives were soon busy atwork cutting the women and children loose. It was more difficult to cutthe men adrift, as each had his neck in the fork of a stout stick, six orseven feet long, and was kept in by an iron rod which was riveted at bothends across the throat. With a saw, luckily in the Bishop's baggage, oneby one the men were sawn out into freedom. The women, on being told totake the meal they were carrying and cook breakfast for themselves andthe children, seemed to consider the news too good to be true; but aftera little coaxing went at it with alacrity, and made a capital fire bywhich to boil their pots with the slave sticks and bonds, their oldacquaintances through many a sad night and weary day. Many were merechildren about five years of age and under. One little boy, with thesimplicity of childhood, said to our men, "The others tied and starvedus, you cut the ropes and tell us to eat; what sort of people areyou?--Where did you come from?" Two of the women had been shot the daybefore for attempting to untie the thongs. This, the rest were told, wasto prevent them from attempting to escape. One woman had her infant'sbrains knocked out, because she could not carry her load and it. And aman was dispatched with an axe, because he had broken down with fatigue. Self-interest would have set a watch over the whole rather than commitmurder; but in this traffic we invariably find self-interest overcome bycontempt of human life and by bloodthirstiness. 

The Bishop was not present at this scene, having gone to bathe in alittle stream below the village; but on his return he warmly approved ofwhat had been done; he at first had doubts, but now felt that, had hebeen present, he would have joined us in the good work. Logic is out ofplace when the question with a true-hearted man is, whether his brotherman is to be saved or not. Eighty-four, chiefly women and children, wereliberated; and on being told that they were now free, and might go wherethey pleased, or remain with us, they all chose to stay; and the Bishopwisely attached them to his Mission, to be educated as members of aChristian family. In this way a great difficulty in the commencement ofa Mission was overcome. Years are usually required before confidence isso far instilled into the natives' mind as to induce them, young or old, to submit to the guidance of strangers professing to be actuated bymotives the reverse of worldly wisdom, and inculcating customs strangeand unknown to them and their fathers. 

We proceeded next morning to Soche's with our liberated party, the mencheerfully carrying the Bishop's goods. As we had begun, it was of nouse to do things by halves, so eight others were freed in a hamlet on ourpath; but a party of traders, with nearly a hundred slaves, fled fromSoche's on hearing of our proceedings. Dr. Kirk and four Makololofollowed them with great energy, but they made clear off to Tette. Sixmore captives were liberated at Mongazi's, and two slave-traders detainedfor the night, to prevent them from carrying information to a large partystill in front. Of their own accord they volunteered the informationthat the Governor's servants had charge of the next party; but we did notchoose to be led by them, though they offered to guide us to hisExcellency's own agents. Two of the Bishop's black men from the Cape, having once been slaves, were now zealous emancipators, and volunteeredto guard the prisoners during the night. So anxious were our heroes tokeep them safe, that instead of relieving each other, by keeping watchand watch, both kept watch together, till towards four o'clock in themorning, when sleep stole gently over them both; and the wakefulprisoners, seizing the opportunity, escaped: one of the guards, perceiving the loss, rushed out of the hut, shouting, "They are gone, theprisoners are off, and they have taken my rifle with them, and the womentoo! Fire! everybody fire!" The rifle and the women, however, were allsafe enough, the slave-traders being only too glad to escape alone. Fiftymore slaves were freed next day in another village; and, the whole partybeing stark-naked, cloth enough was left to clothe them, better probablythan they had ever been clothed before. The head of this gang, whom weknew as the agent of one of the principal merchants of Tette, said thatthey had the license of the Governor for all they did. This we werefully aware of without his stating it. It is quite impossible for anyenterprise to be undertaken there without the Governor's knowledge andconnivance. 

The portion of the highlands which the Bishop wished to look at beforedeciding on a settlement belonged to Chiwawa, or Chibaba, the most manlyand generous Manganja chief we had met with on our previous journey. Onreaching Nsambo's, near Mount Chiradzuru, we heard that Chibaba was dead, and that Chigunda was chief instead. Chigunda, apparently of his ownaccord, though possibly he may have learnt that the Bishop intended tosettle somewhere in the country, asked him to come and live with him atMagomero, adding that there was room enough for both. This hearty andspontaneous invitation had considerable influence on the Bishop's mind, and seemed to decide the question. A place nearer the Shire would havebeen chosen had he expected his supplies to come up that river; but thePortuguese, claiming the river Shire, though never occupying even itsmouth, had closed it, as well as the Zambesi. 

Our hopes were turned to the Rovuma, as a free highway into Lake Nyassaand the vast interior. A steamer was already ordered for the Lake, andthe Bishop, seeing the advantageous nature of the highlands which stretchan immense way to the north, was more anxious to be near the Lake and theRovuma, than the Shire. When he decided to settle at Magomero, it wasthought desirable, to prevent the country from being depopulated, tovisit the Ajawa chief, and to try and persuade him to give up his slavingand kidnapping courses, and turn the energies of his people to peacefulpursuits. 

On the morning of the 22nd we were informed that the Ajawa were near, andwere burning a village a few miles off. Leaving the rescued slaves, wemoved off to seek an interview with these scourges of the country. Onour way we met crowds of Manganja fleeing from the war in front. Thesepoor fugitives from the slave hunt had, as usual, to leave all the foodthey possessed, except the little they could carry on their heads. Wepassed field after field of Indian corn or beans, standing ripe forharvesting, but the owners were away. The villages were all deserted:one where we breakfasted two years before, and saw a number of menpeacefully weaving cloth, and, among ourselves, called it the "Paisley ofthe hills, " was burnt; the stores of corn were poured out in cartloads, and scattered all over the plain, and all along the paths, neitherconquerors nor conquered having been able to convey it away. About twoo'clock we saw the smoke of burning villages, and heard triumphantshouts, mingled with the wail of the Manganja women, lamenting over theirslain. The Bishop then engaged us in fervent prayer; and, on rising fromour knees, we saw a long line of Ajawa warriors, with their captives, coming round the hill-side. The first of the returning conquerors wereentering their own village below, and we heard women welcoming them backwith "lillilooings. " The Ajawa headman left the path on seeing us, andstood on an anthill to obtain a complete view of our party. We calledout that we had come to have an interview with them, but some of theManganja who followed us shouted "Our Chibisa is come:" Chibisa beingwell known as a great conjurer and general. The Ajawa ran off yellingand screaming, "Nkondo! Nkondo!" (War! War!) We heard the words of theManganja, but they did not strike us at the moment as neutralizing allour assertions of peace. The captives threw down their loads on thepath, and fled to the hills: and a large body of armed men came runningup from the village, and in a few seconds they were all around us, thoughmostly concealed by the projecting rocks and long grass. In vain weprotested that we had not come to fight, but to talk with them. Theywould not listen, having, as we remembered afterwards, good reason, inthe cry of "Our Chibisa. " Flushed with recent victory over threevillages, and confident of an easy triumph over a mere handful of men, they began to shoot their poisoned arrows, sending them with great forceupwards of a hundred yards, and wounding one of our followers through thearm. Our retiring slowly up the ascent from the village only made themmore eager to prevent our escape; and, in the belief that this retreatwas evidence of fear, they closed upon us in bloodthirsty fury. Somecame within fifty yards, dancing hideously; others having quitesurrounded us, and availing themselves of the rocks and long grass hardby, were intent on cutting us off, while others made off with their womenand a large body of slaves. Four were armed with muskets, and we wereobliged in self-defence to return their fire and drive them off. Whenthey saw the range of rifles, they very soon desisted, and ran away; butsome shouted to us from the hills the consoling intimation, that theywould follow, and kill us where we slept. Only two of the captivesescaped to us, but probably most of those made prisoners that day fledelsewhere in the confusion. We returned to the village which we had leftin the morning, after a hungry, fatiguing, and most unpleasant day. 

Though we could not blame ourselves for the course we had followed, wefelt sorry for what had happened. It was the first time we had ever beenattacked by the natives or come into collision with them; though we hadalways taken it for granted that we might be called upon to act in self-defence, we were on this occasion less prepared than usual, no gamehaving been expected here. The men had only a single round of cartridgeeach; their leader had no revolver, and the rifle he usually fired withwas left at the ship to save it from the damp of the season. Had weknown better the effect of slavery and murder on the temper of thesebloodthirsty marauders, we should have tried messages and presents beforegoing near them. 

The old chief, Chinsunse, came on a visit to us next day, and pressed theBishop to come and live with him. "Chigunda, " he said, "is but a child, and the Bishop ought to live with the father rather than with the child. "But the old man's object was so evidently to have the Mission as a shieldagainst the Ajawa, that his invitation was declined. While begging us todrive away the marauders, that he might live in peace, he adopted thestratagem of causing a number of his men to rush into the village, inbreathless haste, with the news that the Ajawa were close upon us. Andhaving been reminded that we never fought, unless attacked, as we werethe day before, and that we had come among them for the purpose ofpromoting peace, and of teaching them to worship the Supreme, to give upselling His children, and to cultivate other objects for barter than eachother, he replied, in a huff, "Then I am dead already. "

The Bishop, feeling, as most Englishmen would, at the prospect of thepeople now in his charge being swept off into slavery by hordes of men-stealers, proposed to go at once to the rescue of the captive Manganja, and drive the marauding Ajawa out of the country. All were warmly infavour of this, save Dr. Livingstone, who opposed it on the ground thatit would be better for the Bishop to wait, and see the effect of thecheck the slave-hunters had just experienced. The Ajawa were evidentlygoaded on by Portuguese agents from Tette, and there was no bond of unionamong the Manganja on which to work. It was possible that the Ajawamight be persuaded to something better, though, from having long been inthe habit of slaving for the Quillimane market, it was not very probable. But the Manganja could easily be overcome piecemeal by any enemy; oldfeuds made them glad to see calamities befall their next neighbours. Wecounselled them to unite against the common enemies of their country, andadded distinctly that we English would on no account enter into theirquarrels. On the Bishop inquiring whether, in the event of the Manganjaagain asking aid against the Ajawa, it would be his duty to accede totheir request, --"No, " replied Dr. Livingstone, "you will be oppressed bytheir importunities, but do not interfere in native quarrels. " Thisadvice the good man honourably mentions in his journal. We have beenrather minute in relating what occurred during the few days of ourconnection with the Mission of the English Universities, on the hills, because, the recorded advice having been discarded, blame was thrown onDr. Livingstone's shoulders, as if the missionaries had no individualresponsibility for their subsequent conduct. This, unquestionably, goodBishop Mackenzie had too much manliness to have allowed. The connectionof the members of the Zambesi Expedition, with the acts of the Bishop'sMission, now ceased, for we returned to the ship and prepared for ourjourney to Lake Nyassa. We cheerfully, if necessary, will bear allresponsibility up to this point; and if the Bishop afterwards mademistakes in certain collisions with the slavers, he had the votes of allhis party with him, and those who best knew the peculiar circumstances, and the loving disposition of this good-hearted man, will blame himleast. In this position, and in these circumstances, we left our friendsat the Mission Station. 

As a temporary measure the Bishop decided to place his Mission Station ona small promontory formed by the windings of the little, clear stream ofMagomero, which was so cold that the limbs were quite benumbed by washingin it in the July mornings. The site chosen was a pleasant spot to theeye, and completely surrounded by stately, shady trees. It was expectedto serve for a residence, till the Bishop had acquired an accurateknowledge of the adjacent country, and of the political relations of thepeople, and could select a healthy and commanding situation, as apermanent centre of Christian civilization. Everything promised fairly. The weather was delightful, resembling the pleasantest part of an Englishsummer; provisions poured in very cheap and in great abundance. TheBishop, with characteristic ardour, commenced learning the language, Mr. Waller began building, and Mr. Scudamore improvised a sort of infantschool for the children, than which there is no better means foracquiring an unwritten tongue. 

On the 6th of August, 1861, a few days after returning from Magomero, Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, and Charles Livingstone started for Nyassawith a light four-oared gig, a white sailor, and a score of attendants. We hired people along the path to carry the boat past the forty miles ofthe Murchison Cataracts for a cubit of cotton cloth a day. This beingdeemed great wages, more than twice the men required eagerly offeredtheir services. The chief difficulty was in limiting their numbers. Crowds followed us; and, had we not taken down in the morning the namesof the porters engaged, in the evening claims would have been made bythose who only helped during the last ten minutes of the journey. Themen of one village carried the boat to the next, and all we had to do wasto tell the headman that we wanted fresh men in the morning. He saw uspay the first party, and had his men ready at the time appointed, sothere was no delay in waiting for carriers. They often make a loud noisewhen carrying heavy loads, but talking and bawling does not put them outof breath. The country was rough and with little soil on it, but coveredwith grass and open forest. A few small trees were cut down to clear apath for our shouting assistants, who were good enough to consider theboat as a certificate of peaceful intentions at least to them. Severalsmall streams were passed, the largest of which were the Mukuru-Madse andLesungwe. The inhabitants on both banks were now civil and obliging. Ourpossession of a boat, and consequent power of crossing independently ofthe canoes, helped to develop their good manners, which were not apparenton our previous visit. 

There is often a surprising contrast between neighbouring villages. Oneis well off and thriving, having good huts, plenty of food, and nativecloth; and its people are frank, trusty, generous, and eager to sellprovisions; while in the next the inhabitants may be ill-housed, disobliging, suspicious, ill-fed, and scantily clad, and with nothing forsale, though the land around is as fertile as that of their wealthierneighbours. We followed the river for the most part to avail ourselvesof the still reaches for sailing; but a comparatively smooth country liesfurther inland, over which a good road could be made. Some of the fivemain cataracts are very grand, the river falling 1200 feet in the 40miles. After passing the last of the cataracts, we launched our boat forgood on the broad and deep waters of the Upper Shire, and were virtuallyon the lake, for the gentle current shows but little difference of level. The bed is broad and deep, but the course is rather tortuous at first, and makes a long bend to the east till it comes within five or six milesof the base of Mount Zomba. The natives regarded the Upper Shire as aprolongation of Lake Nyassa; for where what we called the riverapproaches Lake Shirwa, a little north of the mountains, they said thatthe hippopotami, "which are great night travellers, " pass from _one lakeinto the other_. There the land is flat, and only a short land journeywould be necessary. Seldom does the current here exceed a knot an hour, while that of the Lower Shire is from two to two-and-a-half knots. Ourland party of Makololo accompanied us along the right bank, and passedthousands of Manganja fugitives living in temporary huts on that side, who had recently been driven from their villages on the opposite hills bythe Ajawa. 

The soil was dry and hard, and covered with mopane-trees; but some of theManganja were busy hoeing the ground and planting the little corn theyhad brought with them. The effects of hunger were already visible onthose whose food had been seized or burned by the Ajawa and Portugueseslave-traders. The spokesman or prime minister of one of the chiefs, named Kalonjere, was a humpbacked dwarf, a fluent speaker, who tried hardto make us go over and drive off the Ajawa; but he could not deny that byselling people Kalonjere had invited these slave-hunters to the country. This is the second humpbacked dwarf we have found occupying the likeimportant post, the other was the prime minister of a Batonga chief onthe Zambesi. 

As we sailed along, we disturbed many white-breasted cormorants; we hadseen the same species fishing between the cataracts. Here, with manyother wild-fowls, they find subsistence on the smooth water by night, andsit sleepily on trees and in the reeds by day. Many hippopotami wereseen in the river, and one of them stretched its wide jaws, as if toswallow the whole stern of the boat, close to Dr. Kirk's back; the animalwas so near that, in opening its mouth, it lashed a quantity of water onto the stern-sheets, but did no damage. To avoid large marauding partiesof Ajawa, on the left bank of the Shire, we continued on the right, orwestern side, with our land party, along the shore of the small lakePamalombe. This lakelet is ten or twelve miles in length, and five orsix broad. It is nearly surrounded by a broad belt of papyrus, so densethat we could scarcely find an opening to the shore. The plants, ten ortwelve feet high, grew so closely together that air was excluded, and somuch sulphuretted hydrogen gas evolved that by one night's exposure thebottom of the boat was blackened. Myriads of mosquitoes showed, asprobably they always do, the presence of malaria. 

We hastened from this sickly spot, trying to take the attentions of themosquitoes as hints to seek more pleasant quarters on the healthy shoresof Lake Nyassa; and when we sailed into it, on the 2nd September, we feltrefreshed by the greater coolness of the air off this large body ofwater. The depth was the first point of interest. This is indicated bythe colour of the water, which, on a belt along the shore, varying from aquarter to half a mile in breadth, is light green, and this is met by thedeep blue or indigo tint of the Indian Ocean, which is the colour of thegreat body of Nyassa. We found the Upper Shire from nine to fifteen feetin depth; but skirting the western side of the lake about a mile from theshore the water deepened from nine to fifteen fathoms; then, as werounded the grand mountainous promontory, which we named Cape Maclear, after our excellent friend the Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good Hope, we could get no bottom with our lead-line of thirty-five fathoms. Wepulled along the western shore, which was a succession of bays, and foundthat where the bottom was sandy near the beach, and to a mile out, thedepth varied from six to fourteen fathoms. In a rocky bay about latitude11 degrees 40 minutes we had soundings at 100 fathoms, though outside thesame bay we found none with a fishing-line of 116 fathoms; but this castwas unsatisfactory, as the line broke in coming up. According to ourpresent knowledge, a ship could anchor only near the shore. 

Looking back to the southern end of Lake Nyassa, the arm from which theShire flows was found to be about thirty miles long and from ten totwelve broad. Rounding Cape Maclear, and looking to the south-west, wehave another arm, which stretches some eighteen miles southward, and isfrom six to twelve miles in breadth. These arms give the southern end aforked appearance, and with the help of a little imagination it may belikened to the "boot-shape" of Italy. The narrowest part is about theankle, eighteen or twenty miles. From this it widens to the north, andin the upper third or fourth it is fifty or sixty miles broad. Thelength is over 200 miles. The direction in which it lies is as near aspossible due north and south. Nothing of the great bend to the west, shown in all the previous maps, could be detected by either compass orchronometer, and the watch we used was an excellent one. The season ofthe year was very unfavourable. The "smokes" filled the air with animpenetrable haze, and the equinoctial gales made it impossible for us tocross to the eastern side. When we caught a glimpse of the sun risingfrom behind the mountains to the east, we made sketches and bearings ofthem at different latitudes, which enabled us to secure approximatemeasurements of the width. These agreed with the times taken by thenatives at the different crossing-places--as Tsenga and Molamba. Aboutthe beginning of the upper third the lake is crossed by taking advantageof the island Chizumara, which name in the native tongue means the"ending;" further north they go round the end instead, though that takesseveral days. 

The lake appeared to be surrounded by mountains, but it was afterwardsfound that these beautiful tree-covered heights were, on the west, onlythe edges of high table-lands. Like all narrow seas encircled byhighlands, it is visited by sudden and tremendous storms. We were on itin September and October, perhaps the stormiest season of the year, andwere repeatedly detained by gales. At times, while sailing pleasantlyover the blue water with a gentle breeze, suddenly and without anywarning was heard the sound of a coming storm, roaring on with crowds ofangry waves in its wake. We were caught one morning with the seabreaking all around us, and, unable either to advance or recede, anchoreda mile from shore, in seven fathoms. The furious surf on the beach wouldhave shivered our boat to atoms, had we tried to land. The waves mostdreaded came rolling on in threes, with their crests, driven into spray, streaming behind them. A short lull followed each triple charge. Hadone of these seas struck our boat, nothing could have saved us; for theycame on with resistless force; seaward, in shore, and on either side ofus, they broke in foam, but we escaped. For six weary hours we facedthose terrible trios. A low, dark, detached, oddly shaped cloud cameslowly from the mountains, and hung for hours directly over our heads. Aflock of night-jars (_Cometornis vexillarius_), which on no otheroccasion come out by day, soared above us in the gale, like birds of evilomen. Our black crew became sea-sick and unable to sit up or keep theboat's head to the sea. The natives and our land party stood on the highcliffs looking at us and exclaiming, as the waves seemed to swallow upthe boat, "They are lost! they are all dead!" When at last the galemoderated and we got safely ashore, they saluted us warmly, as after along absence. From this time we trusted implicitly to the opinions ofour seaman, John Neil, who, having been a fisherman on the coast ofIreland, understood boating on a stormy coast, and by his advice we oftensat cowering on the land for days together waiting for the surf to godown. He had never seen such waves before. We had to beach the boatevery night to save her from being swamped at anchor; and, did we notbelieve the gales to be peculiar to one season of the year, would callNyassa the "Lake of Storms. "

Distinct white marks on the rocks showed that, for some time during therainy season, the water of the lake is three feet above the point towhich it falls towards the close of the dry period of the year. Therains begin here in November, and the permanent rise of the Shire doesnot take place till January. The western side of Lake Nyassa, with theexception of the great harbour to the west of Cape Maclear, is, as hasbeen said before, a succession of small bays of nearly similar form, eachhaving an open sandy beach and pebbly shore, and being separated from itsneighbour by a rocky headland, with detached rocks extending somedistance out to sea. The great south-western bay referred to would forma magnificent harbour, the only really good one we saw to the west. 

The land immediately adjacent to the lake is low and fertile, though insome places marshy and tenanted by large flocks of ducks, geese, herons, crowned cranes, and other birds. In the southern parts we have sometimesten or a dozen miles of rich plains, bordered by what seem high ranges ofwell-wooded hills, running nearly parallel with the lake. Northwards themountains become loftier and present some magnificent views, rangetowering beyond range, until the dim, lofty outlines projected againstthe sky bound the prospect. Still further north the plain becomes morenarrow, until, near where we turned, it disappears altogether, and themountains rise abruptly out of the lake, forming the north-east boundaryof what was described to us as an extensive table-land; well suited forpasturage and agriculture, and now only partially occupied by a tribe ofZulus, who came from the south some years ago. These people own largeherds of cattle, and are constantly increasing in numbers by annexingother tribes. 

CHAPTER X. 

The Lake tribes--The Mazitu--Quantities of elephants--Distressingjourney--Detention on the Shire. 

Never before in Africa have we seen anything like the dense population onthe shores of Lake Nyassa. In the southern part there was an almostunbroken chain of villages. On the beach of wellnigh of every littlesandy bay, dark crowds were standing, gazing at the novel sight of a boatunder sail; and wherever we landed we were surrounded in a few seconds byhundreds of men, women, and children, who hastened to have a stare at the"chirombo" (wild animals). 

During a portion of the year, the northern dwellers on the lake have aharvest which furnishes a singular sort of food. As we approached ourlimit in that direction, clouds, as of smoke rising from miles of burninggrass, were observed bending in a south-easterly direction, and wethought that the unseen land on the opposite side was closing in, andthat we were near the end of the lake. But next morning we sailedthrough one of the clouds on our own side, and discovered that it wasneither smoke nor haze, but countless millions of minute midges called"kungo" (a cloud or fog). They filled the air to an immense height, andswarmed upon the water, too light to sink in it. Eyes and mouth had tobe kept closed while passing through this living cloud: they struck uponthe face like fine drifting snow. Thousands lay in the boat when sheemerged from the cloud of midges. The people gather these minute insectsby night, and boil them into thick cakes, to be used as a relish--millionsof midges in a cake. A kungo cake, an inch thick, and as large as theblue bonnet of a Scotch ploughman, was offered to us; it was very dark incolour, and tasted not unlike caviare, or salted locusts. 

Abundance of excellent fish is found in the lake, and nearly all were newto us. The mpasa, or sanjika, found by Dr. Kirk to be a kind of carp, was running up the rivers to spawn, like our salmon at home: the largestwe saw was over two feet in length; it is a splendid fish, and the bestwe have ever eaten in Africa. They were ascending the rivers in Augustand September, and furnished active and profitable employment to manyfishermen, who did not mind their being out of season. Weirs wereconstructed full of sluices, in each of which was set a largebasket-trap, through whose single tortuous opening the fish once in hasbut small chance of escape. A short distance below the weir, nets arestretched across from bank to bank, so that it seemed a marvel how themost sagacious sanjika could get up at all without being taken. Possiblya passage up the river is found at night; but this is not the country ofSundays or "close times" for either men or fish. The lake fish arecaught chiefly in nets, although men, and even women with babies on theirbacks, are occasionally seen fishing from the rocks with hooks. 

A net with small meshes is used for catching the young fry of a silverykind like pickerel, when they are about two inches long; thousands areoften taken in a single haul. We had a present of a large bucketful oneday for dinner: they tasted as if they had been cooked with a littlequinine, probably from their gall-bladders being left in. In deep water, some sorts are taken by lowering fish-baskets attached by a long cord toa float, around which is often tied a mass of grass or weeds, as analluring shade for the deep-sea fish. Fleets of fine canoes are engagedin the fisheries. The men have long paddles, and stand erect while usingthem. They sometimes venture out when a considerable sea is running. OurMakololo acknowledge that, in handling canoes, the Lake men beat them;they were unwilling to cross the Zambesi even, when the wind blew fresh. 

Though there are many crocodiles in the lake, and some of anextraordinary size, the fishermen say that it is a rare thing for any oneto be carried off by these reptiles. When crocodiles can easily obtainabundance of fish--their natural food--they seldom attack men; but whenunable to see to catch their prey, from the muddiness of the water infloods, they are very dangerous. 

Many men and boys are employed in gathering the buaze, in preparing thefibre, and in making it into long nets. The knot of the net is differentfrom ours, for they invariably use what sailors call the reef knot, butthey net with a needle like that we use. From the amount of nativecotton cloth worn in many of the southern villages, it is evident that agreat number of hands and heads must be employed in the cultivation ofcotton, and in the various slow processes through which it has to pass, before the web is finished in the native loom. In addition to thisbranch of industry, an extensive manufacture of cloth, from the innerbark of an undescribed tree, of the botanical group, _Caesalpineae_, isever going on, from one end of the lake to the other; and both toil andtime are required to procure the bark, and to prepare it by pounding andsteeping it to render it soft and pliable. The prodigious amount of thebark clothing worn indicates the destruction of an immense number oftrees every year; yet the adjacent heights seem still well covered withtimber. 

The Lake people are by no means handsome: the women are _very_ plain; andreally make themselves hideous by the means they adopt to renderthemselves attractive. The _pelele_, or ornament for the upper lip, isuniversally worn by the ladies; the most valuable is of pure tin, hammered into the shape of a small dish; some are made of white quartz, and give the wearer the appearance of having an inch or more of one ofPrice's patent candles thrust through the lip, and projecting beyond thetip of the nose. 

In character, the Lake tribes are very much like other people; there aredecent men among them, while a good many are no better than they shouldbe. They are open-handed enough: if one of us, as was often the case, went to see a net drawn, a fish was always offered. Sailing one day pasta number of men, who had just dragged their nets ashore, at one of thefine fisheries at Pamalombe, we were hailed and asked to stop, andreceived a liberal donation of beautiful fish. Arriving late oneafternoon at a small village on the lake, a number of the inhabitantsmanned two canoes, took out their seine, dragged it, and made us apresent of the entire haul. The northern chief, Marenga, a tall handsomeman, with a fine aquiline nose, whom we found living in his stockade in aforest about twenty miles north of the mountain Kowirwe, behaved like agentleman to us. His land extended from Dambo to the north of Makuzahill. He was specially generous, and gave us bountiful presents of foodand beer. "Do they wear such things in your country?" he asked, pointingto his iron bracelet, which was studded with copper, and highly prized. The Doctor said he had never seen such in his country, whereupon Marengainstantly took it off, and presented it to him, and his wife also did thesame with hers. On our return south from the mountains near the northend of the lake, we reached Marenga's on the 7th October. When he couldnot prevail upon us to forego the advantage of a fair wind for hisinvitation to "spend the whole day drinking his beer, which was, " hesaid, "quite ready, " he loaded us with provisions, all of which he sentfor before we gave him any present. In allusion to the boat's sail, hispeople said that they had no Bazimo, or none worth having, seeing theyhad never invented the like for them. The chief, Mankambira, likewisetreated us with kindness; but wherever the slave-trade is carried on, thepeople are dishonest and uncivil; that invariably leaves a blight and acurse in its path. The first question put to us at the lake crossing-places, was, "Have you come to buy slaves?" On hearing that we wereEnglish, and never purchased slaves, the questioners put on asupercilious air, and sometimes refused to sell us food. This want ofrespect to us may have been owing to the impressions conveyed to them bythe Arabs, whose dhows have sometimes been taken by English cruisers whenengaged in lawful trade. Much foreign cloth, beads, and brass-wire wereworn by these ferrymen--and some had muskets. 

By Chitanda, near one of the slave crossing-places, we were robbed forthe first time in Africa, and learned by experience that these people, like more civilized nations, have expert thieves among them. It might beonly a coincidence; but we never suffered from impudence, loss ofproperty, or were endangered, unless among people familiar with slaving. We had such a general sense of security, that never, save when wesuspected treachery, did we set a watch at night. Our native companionshad, on this occasion, been carousing on beer, and had removed to adistance of some thirty yards, that we might not overhear their free andeasy after-dinner remarks, and two of us had a slight touch of fever;between three and four o'clock in the morning some thieves came, while weslept ingloriously--rifles and revolvers all ready, --and relieved us ofmost of our goods. The boat's sail, under which we slept, was open allaround, so the feat was easy. 

Awaking as honest men do, at the usual hour, the loss of one wasannounced by "My bag is gone--with all my clothes; and my boots too!""And mine!" responded a second. "And mine also!" chimed in the third, "with the bag of beads, and the rice!" "Is the cloth taken?" was theeager inquiry, as that would have been equivalent to all our money. Ithad been used for a pillow that night, and thus saved. The rogues lefton the beach, close to our beds, the Aneroid Barometer and a pair ofboots, thinking possibly that they might be of use to us, or, at least, that they could be of none to them. They shoved back some dried plantsand fishes into one bag, but carried off many other specimens we hadcollected; some of our notes also, and nearly all our clothing. 

We could not suspect the people of the village near which we lay. We hadprobably been followed for days by the thieves watching for anopportunity. And our suspicions fell on some persons who had come fromthe East Coast; but having no evidence, and expecting to hear if ourgoods were exposed for sale in the vicinity, we made no fuss about it, and began to make new clothing. That our rifles and revolvers were leftuntouched was greatly to our advantage: yet we felt it was mosthumiliating for armed men to have been so thoroughly fleeced by a fewblack rascals. 

Some of the best fisheries appear to be private property. We foundshelter from a storm one morning in a spacious lagoon, which communicatedwith the lake by a narrow passage. Across this strait stakes were drivenin, leaving only spaces for the basket fish-traps. A score of men werebusily engaged in taking out the fish. We tried to purchase some, butthey refused to sell. The fish did not belong to them, they would sendfor the proprietor of the place. The proprietor arrived in a short time, and readily sold what we wanted. 

Some of the burying-grounds are very well arranged, and well cared for;this was noticed at Chitanda, and more particularly at a village on thesouthern shore of the fine harbour at Cape Maclear. Wide and neat pathswere made in the burying-ground on its eastern and southern sides. Agrand old fig-tree stood at the north-east corner, and its wide-spreadingbranches threw their kindly shade over the last resting-place of thedead. Several other magnificent trees grew around the hallowed spot. Mounds were raised as they are at home, but all lay north and south, theheads apparently north. The graves of the sexes were distinguished bythe various implements which the buried dead had used in their differentemployments during life; but they were all broken, as if to be employedno more. A piece of fishing-net and a broken paddle told where afisherman lay. The graves of the women had the wooden mortar, and theheavy pestle used in pounding the corn, and the basket in which the mealis sifted, while all had numerous broken calabashes and pots arrangedaround them. The idea that the future life is like the present does notappear to prevail; yet a banana-tree had been carefully planted at thehead of several of the graves; the fruit might be considered an offeringto those who still possess human tastes. The people of the neighbouringvillages were friendly and obliging, and willingly brought us food forsale. 

Pursuing our exploration, we found that the northern part of the lake wasthe abode of lawlessness and bloodshed. The Mazite, or Mazitu, live onthe highlands, and make sudden swoops on the villages of the plains. Theyare Zulus who came originally from the south, inland of Sofalla andInhambane; and are of the same family as those who levy annual tributefrom the Portuguese on the Zambesi. All the villages north ofMankambira's (lat. 11 degrees 44 minutes south) had been recentlydestroyed by these terrible marauders, but they were foiled in theirattacks upon that chief and Marenga. The thickets and stockades roundtheir villages enabled the bowmen to pick off the Mazitu in security, while they were afraid to venture near any place where they could not usetheir shields. Beyond Mankambira's we saw burned villages, and theputrid bodies of many who had fallen by Mazitu spears only a few daysbefore. Our land party were afraid to go further. This reluctance toproceed without the presence of a white man was very natural, becausebands of the enemy who had ravaged the country were supposed to be stillroaming about; and if these marauders saw none but men of their owncolour, our party might forthwith be attacked. Compliance with theirrequest led to an event which might have been attended by very seriousconsequences. Dr. Livingstone got separated from the party in the boatfor four days. Having taken the first morning's journey along with them, and directing the boat to call for him in a bay in sight, both partiesproceeded north. In an hour Dr. Livingstone and his party struck inland, on approaching the foot of the mountains which rise abruptly from thelake. Supposing that they had heard of a path behind the high rangewhich there forms the shore, those in the boat held on their course; butit soon began to blow so fresh that they had to run ashore for safety. While delayed a couple of hours, two men were sent up the hills to lookfor the land party, but they could see nothing of them, and the boatparty sailed as soon as it was safe to put to sea, with the convictionthat the missing ones would regain the lake in front. 

In a short time a small island or mass of rocks was passed, on which werea number of armed Mazitu with some young women, apparently their wives. The headman said that he had been wounded in the foot by Mankambira, andthat they were staying there till he could walk to his chief, who livedover the hills. They had several large canoes, and it was evident thatthis was a nest of lake pirates, who sallied out by night to kill andplunder. They reported a path behind the hills, and, the crew beingreassured, the boat sailed on. A few miles further, another and stilllarger band of pirates were fallen in with, and hundreds of crows andkites hovered over and round the rocks on which they lived. Dr. Kirk andCharles Livingstone, though ordered in a voice of authority to comeashore, kept on their course. A number of canoes then shot out from therocks and chased them. One with nine strong paddlers persevered for sometime after all the others gave up the chase. A good breeze, however, enabled the gig to get away from them with ease. After sailing twelve orfifteen miles, north of the point where Dr. Livingstone had left them, itwas decided that he must be behind; but no sooner had the boat's headbeen turned south, than another gale compelled her to seek shelter in abay. Here a number of wretched fugitives from the slave-trade on theopposite shore of the lake were found; the original inhabitants of theplace had all been swept off the year before by the Mazitu. In thedeserted gardens beautiful cotton was seen growing, much of it had thestaple an inch and a half long, and of very fine quality. Some of theplants were uncommonly large, deserving to be ranked with trees. 

On their trying to purchase food, the natives had nothing to sell excepta little dried cassava-root, and a few fish: and they demanded two yardsof calico for the head only of a large fish. When the gale admitted oftheir return, their former pursuers tried to draw them ashore byasserting that they had quantities of ivory for sale. Owing to asuccession of gales, it was the fourth day from parting that the boat wasfound by Dr. Livingstone, who was coming on in search of it with only twoof his companions. 

After proceeding a short distance up the path in which they had been lostsight of, they learned that it would take several days to go round themountains, and rejoin the lake; and they therefore turned down to thebay, expecting to find the boat, but only saw it disappearing away to thenorth. They pushed on as briskly as possible after it, but the mountainflank which forms the coast proved excessively tedious and fatiguing;travelling all day, the distance made, in a straight line, was under fivemiles. As soon as day dawned, the march was resumed; and, after hearingat the first inhabited rock that their companions had passed it the daybefore, a goat was slaughtered out of the four which they had with them, when suddenly, to the evident consternation of the men, seven Mazituappeared armed with spears and shields, with their heads dressedfantastically with feathers. To hold a parley, Dr. Livingstone andMoloka, a Makololo man who spoke Zulu, went unarmed to meet them. On Dr. Livingstone approaching them, they ordered him to stop, and sit down inthe sun, while they sat in the shade. "No, no!" was the reply, "if yousit in the shade, so will we. " They then rattled their shields withtheir clubs, a proceeding which usually inspires terror; but Molokaremarked, "It is not the first time we have heard shields rattled. " Andall sat down together. They asked for a present, to show their chiefthat they had actually met strangers--something as evidence of havingseen men who were not Arabs. And they were requested in turn to takethese strangers to the boat, or to their chief. All the goods were inthe boat, and to show that no present such as they wanted was in hispockets, Dr. Livingstone emptied them, turning out, among other things, anote-book: thinking it was a pistol they started up, and said, "Put thatin again. " The younger men then became boisterous, and demanded a goat. That could not be spared, as they were the sole provisions. When theyinsisted, they were asked how many of the party they had killed, thatthey thus began to divide the spoil; this evidently made them ashamed. The elders were more reasonable; they dreaded treachery, and were as muchafraid of Dr. Livingstone and his party as his men were of them; for onleaving they sped away up the hills like frightened deer. One of them, and probably the leader, was married, as seen by portions of his hairsewn into a ring; all were observed by their teeth to be people of thecountry, who had been incorporated into the Zulu tribe. 

The way still led over a succession of steep ridges with ravines of from500 to 1000 feet in depth; some of the sides had to be scaled on handsand knees, and no sooner was the top reached than the descent beganagain. Each ravine had a running stream; and the whole country, thoughso very rugged, had all been cultivated, and densely peopled. Manybanana-trees, uncared for patches of corn, and Congo-bean bushes attestedformer cultivation. The population had all been swept away; ruinedvillages, broken utensils, and human skeletons, met with at every turn, told a sad tale. So numerous were the slain, that it was thought theinhabitants had been slaughtered in consequence of having made raids onthe Zulus for cattle. 

Continuing the journey that night as long as light served, they sleptunconsciously on the edge of a deep precipice, without fire, lest theMazitu should see it. Next morning most of the men were tired out, thedread of the apparition of the day before tending probably to increasethe lameness of which they complained. When told, however, that allmight return to Mankambira's save two, Moloka and Charlie, they wouldnot, till assured that the act would not be considered one of cowardice. Giving them one of the goats as provision, another was slaughtered forthe remainder of the party who, having found on the rocks a canoe whichhad belonged to one of the deserted villages, determined to put to seaagain; but the craft was very small, and the remaining goat, spite ofmany a threat of having its throat cut, jumped and rolled about so, asnearly to capsize it; so Dr. Livingstone took to the shore again, andafter another night spent without fire, except just for cooking, wasdelighted to see the boat coming back. 

We pulled that day to Mankambira's, a distance that on shore, with themost heartbreaking toil, had taken three days to travel. This was thelast latitude taken, 11 degrees 44 minutes S. The boat had gone about 24minutes further to the north, the land party probably half that distance, but fever prevented the instruments being used. Dr. Kirk and CharlesLivingstone were therefore furthest up the lake, and they saw about 20minutes beyond their turning-point, say into the tenth degree of southlatitude. From the heights of at least a thousand feet, over which theland party toiled, the dark mountain masses on both sides of the lakewere seen closing in. At this elevation the view extended at least asfar as that from the boats, and it is believed the end of the lake lieson the southern borders of 10 degrees, or the northern limits of 11degrees south latitude. 

Elephants are numerous on the borders of the lake, and surprisingly tame, being often found close to the villages. Hippopotami swarm very much attheir ease in the creeks and lagoons, and herds are sometimes seen in thelake itself. Their tameness arises from the fact that poisoned arrowshave no effect on either elephant or hippopotamus. Five of each wereshot for food during our journey. Two of the elephants were females, andhad only a single tusk apiece, and were each killed by the first shot. Itis always a case of famine or satiety when depending on the rifle forfood--a glut of meat or none at all. Most frequently it is scanty fare, except when game is abundant, as it is far up the Zambesi. We had onemorning two hippopotami and an elephant, perhaps in all some eight tonsof meat, and two days after the last of a few sardines only for dinner. 

One morning when sailing past a pretty thickly-inhabited part, we weresurprised at seeing nine large bull-elephants standing near the beachquietly flapping their gigantic ears. Glad of an opportunity of gettingsome fresh meat, we landed and fired into one. They all retreated into amarshy piece of ground between two villages. Our men gave chase, andfired into the herd. Standing on a sand hummock, we could see thebleeding animals throwing showers of water with their trunks over theirbacks. The herd was soon driven back upon us, and a wounded one turnedto bay. Yet neither this one, nor any of the others, ever attempted tocharge. Having broken his legs with a rifle-ball, we fired into him atforty yards as rapidly as we could load and discharge the rifles. Hesimply shook his head at each shot, and received at least sixty Enfieldballs before he fell. Our excellent sailor from the north of Irelandhappened to fire the last, and, as soon as he saw the animal fall, heturned with an air of triumph to the Doctor and exclaimed, "It was _my_shot that done it, sir!"

In a few minutes upwards of a thousand natives were round the prostrateking of beasts; and, after our men had taken all they wanted, aninvitation was given to the villagers to take the remainder. They rushedat it like hungry hyenas, and in an incredibly short time every inch ofit was carried off. It was only by knowing that the meat would all beused that we felt justified in the slaughter of this noble creature. Thetusks weighed 62 lbs. Each. A large amount of ivory might be obtainedfrom the people of Nyassa, and we were frequently told of their having itin their huts. 

While detained by a storm on the 17th October at the mouth of the Kaombe, we were visited by several men belonging to an Arab who had been forfourteen years in the interior at Katanga's, south of Cazembe's. Theyhad just brought down ivory, malachite, copper rings, and slaves toexchange for cloth at the lake. The malachite was said to be dug out ofa large vein on the side of a hill near Katanga's. They knew LakeTanganyika well, but had not heard of the Zambesi. They spoke quitepositively, saying that the water of Lake Tanganyika flowed out by theopposite end to that of Nyassa. As they had seen neither of theoverflows, we took it simply as a piece of Arab geography. We passedtheir establishment of long sheds next day, and were satisfied that theArabs must be driving a good trade. 

The Lake slave-trade was going on at a terrible rate. Two enterprisingArabs had built a dhow, and were running her, crowded with slaves, regularly across the Lake. We were told she sailed the day before wereached their head-quarters. This establishment is in the latitude ofthe Portuguese slave-exporting town of Iboe, and partly supplies thatvile market; but the greater number of the slaves go to Kilwa. We didnot see much evidence of a wish to barter. Some ivory was offered forsale; but the chief traffic was in human chattels. Would that we couldgive a comprehensive account of the horrors of the slave-trade, with anapproximation to the number of lives it yearly destroys! for we feel surethat were even half the truth told and recognized, the feelings of menwould be so thoroughly roused, that this devilish traffic in human fleshwould be put down at all risks; but neither we, nor any one else, havethe statistics necessary for a work of this kind. Let us state what wedo know of one portion of Africa, and then every reader who believes ourtale can apply the ratio of the known misery to find out the unknown. Wewere informed by Colonel Rigby, late H. M. Political Agent, and Consul atZanzibar, that 19, 000 slaves from this Nyassa country alone pass annuallythrough the Custom-house of that island. This is exclusive of course ofthose sent to Portuguese slave-ports. Let it not be supposed for aninstant that this number, 19, 000, represents all the victims. Thosetaken out of the country are but a very small section of the sufferers. We never realized the atrocious nature of the traffic, until we saw it atthe fountain-head. There truly "Satan has his seat. " Besides thoseactually captured, thousands are killed and die of their wounds andfamine, driven from their villages by the slave raid proper. Thousandsperish in internecine war waged for slaves with their own clansmen andneighbours, slain by the lust of gain, which is stimulated, be itremembered always, by the slave purchasers of Cuba and elsewhere. Themany skeletons we have seen, amongst rocks and woods, by the littlepools, and along the paths of the wilderness, attest the awful sacrificeof human life, which must be attributed, directly or indirectly, to thistrade of hell. We would ask our countrymen to believe us when we say, aswe conscientiously can, that it is our deliberate opinion, from what weknow and have seen, that not one-fifth of the victims of the slave-tradeever become slaves. Taking the Shire Valley as an average, we should saynot even one-tenth arrive at their destination. As the system, therefore, involves such an awful waste of human life, --or shall we sayof human labour?--and moreover tends directly to perpetuate the barbarismof those who remain in the country, the argument for the continuance ofthis wasteful course because, forsooth, a fraction of the enslaved mayfind good masters, seems of no great value. This reasoning, if not theresult of ignorance, may be of maudlin philanthropy. A small armedsteamer on Lake Nyassa could easily, by exercising a control, andfurnishing goods in exchange for ivory and other products, break the neckof this infamous traffic in that quarter; for nearly all must cross theLake or the Upper Shire. 

Our exploration of the Lake extended from the 2nd September to the 27thOctober, 1861; and, having expended or lost most of the goods we hadbrought, it was necessary to go back to the ship. When near the southernend, on our return, we were told that a very large slave-party had justcrossed to the eastern side. We heard the fire of three guns in theevening, and judged by the report that they must be at leastsix-pounders. They were said to belong to an Ajawa chief named Mukata. 

In descending the Shire, we found concealed in the broad belt of papyrusround the lakelet Pamalombe, into which the river expands, a number ofManganja families who had been driven from their homes by the Ajawaraids. So thickly did the papyrus grow, that when beat down it supportedtheir small temporary huts, though when they walked from one hut toanother, it heaved and bent beneath their feet as thin ice does at home. 

A dense and impenetrable forest of the papyrus was left standing betweenthem and the land, and no one passing by on the same side would ever havesuspected that human beings lived there. They came to this spot from thesouth by means of their canoes, which enabled them to obtain a livingfrom the fine fish which abound in the lakelet. They had a largequantity of excellent salt sewed up in bark, some of which we bought, ourown having run out. We anchored for the night off their floating camp, and were visited by myriads of mosquitoes. Some of the natives show alove of country quite surprising. We saw fugitives on the mountains, inthe north of the lake, who were persisting in clinging to the haunts oftheir boyhood and youth, in spite of starvation and the continual dangerof being put to death by the Mazitu. 

A few miles below the lakelet is the last of the great slave-crossings. Since the Ajawa invasion the villages on the left bank had beenabandoned, and the people, as we saw in our ascent, were living on theright or western bank. 

As we were resting for a few minutes opposite the valuable fishery atMovunguti, a young effeminate-looking man from some sea-coast tribe camein great state to have a look at us. He walked under a large umbrella, and was followed by five handsome damsels gaily dressed and adorned witha view to attract purchasers. One was carrying his pipe for smokingbang, here called "chamba;" another his bow and arrows; a third hisbattle-axe; a fourth one of his robes; while the last was ready to takehis umbrella when he felt tired. This show of his merchandise was toexcite the cupidity of any chief who had ivory, and may be called thelawful way of carrying on the slave-trade. What proportion it bears tothe other ways in which we have seen this traffic pursued, we never foundmeans of forming a judgment. He sat and looked at us for a few minutes, the young ladies kneeling behind him; and having satisfied himself thatwe were not likely to be customers, he departed. 

On our first trip we met, at the landing opposite this place, a middle-aged woman of considerable intelligence, and possessing more knowledge ofthe country than any of the men. Our first definite information aboutLake Nyassa was obtained from her. Seeing us taking notes, she remarkedthat she had been to the sea, and had there seen white men writing. Shehad seen camels also, probably among the Arabs. She was the onlyManganja woman we ever met who was ashamed of wearing the "pelele, " orlip-ring. She retired to her hut, took it out, and kept her hand beforeher mouth to hide the hideous hole in the lip while conversing with us. All the villagers respected her, and even the headmen took a secondaryplace in her presence. On inquiring for her now, we found that she wasdead. We never obtained sufficient materials to estimate the relativemortality of the highlands and lowlands; but, from many very old white-headed blacks having been seen on the highlands, we think it probablethat even native races are longer lived the higher their dwelling-placesare. 

We landed below at Mikena's and took observations for longitude, toverify those taken two years before. The village was deserted, Mikenaand his people having fled to the other side of the river. A few hadcome across this morning to work in their old gardens. After completingthe observations we had breakfast; and, as the last of the things werebeing carried into the boat, a Manganja man came running down to hiscanoe, crying out, "The Ajawa have just killed my comrade!" We shovedoff, and in two minutes the advanced guard of a large marauding partywere standing with their muskets on the spot where we had takenbreakfast. They were evidently surprised at seeing us there, and halted;as did also the main body of perhaps a thousand men. "Kill them, " criedthe Manganja; "they are going up to the hills to kill the English, "meaning the missionaries we had left at Magomero. But having no prospectof friendly communication with them, nor confidence in Manganja'stestimony, we proceeded down the river; leaving the Ajawa sitting under alarge baobab, and the Manganja cursing them most energetically across theriver. 

On our way up, we had seen that the people of Zimika had taken refuge ona long island in the Shire, where they had placed stores of grain toprevent it falling into the hands of the Ajawa; supposing afterwards thatthe invasion and war were past, they had removed back again to themainland on the east, and were living in fancied security. Onapproaching the chief's village, which was built in the midst of abeautiful grove of lofty wild-fig and palm trees, sounds of revelry fellupon our ears. The people were having a merry time--drumming, dancing, and drinking beer--while a powerful enemy was close at hand, bringingdeath or slavery to every one in the village. One of our men called outto several who came to the bank to look at us, that the Ajawa were comingand were even now at Mikena's village; but they were dazed with drinking, and took no notice of the warning. 

Crowds of carriers offered their services after we left the river. Several sets of them placed so much confidence in us, as to declinereceiving payment at the end of the first day; they wished to workanother day, and so receive both days' wages in one piece. The youngheadman of a new village himself came on with his men. The march was apretty long one, and one of the men proposed to lay the burdens downbeside a hut a mile or more from the next village. The headman scoldedthe fellow for his meanness in wishing to get rid of our goods where wecould not procure carriers, and made him carry them on. The village, atthe foot of the cataracts, had increased very much in size and wealthsince we passed it on our way up. A number of large new huts had beenbuilt; and the people had a good stock of cloth and beads. We could notaccount for this sudden prosperity, until we saw some fine large canoes, instead of the two old, leaky things which lay there before. This hadbecome a crossing-place for the slaves that the Portuguese agents werecarrying to Tette, because they were afraid to take them across nearer towhere the ship lay, about seven miles off. Nothing was moredisheartening than this conduct of the Manganja, in profiting by theentire breaking up of their nation. 

We reached the ship on the 8th of November, 1861, in a very weakcondition, having suffered more from hunger than on any previous trip. Heavy rains commenced on the 9th, and continued several days; the riverrose rapidly, and became highly discoloured. Bishop Mackenzie came downto the ship on the 14th, with some of the "Pioneer's" men, who had beenat Magomero for the benefit of their health, and also for the purpose ofassisting the Mission. The Bishop appeared to be in excellent spirits, and thought that the future promised fair for peace and usefulness. TheAjawa having been defeated and driven off while we were on the Lake, hadsent word that they desired to live at peace with the English. Many ofthe Manganja had settled round Magomero, in order to be under theprotection of the Bishop; and it was hoped that the slave-trade wouldsoon cease in the highlands, and the people be left in the secureenjoyment of their industry. The Mission, it was also anticipated, mightsoon become, to a considerable degree, self-supporting, and raise certainkinds of food, like the Portuguese of Senna and Quillimane. Mr. Burrup, an energetic young man, had arrived at Chibisa's the day before theBishop, having come up the Shire in a canoe. A surgeon and a lay brotherfollowed behind in another canoe. The "Pioneer's" draught being too muchfor the upper part of the Shire, it was not deemed advisable to bring herup, on the next trip, further than the Ruo; the Bishop, therefore, resolved to explore the country from Magomero to the mouth of that river, and to meet the ship with his sisters and Mrs. Burrup, in January. Thiswas arranged before parting, and then the good Bishop and Burrup, whom wewere never to meet again, left us; they gave and received three heartyEnglish cheers as they went to the shore, and we steamed off. 

The rains ceased on the 14th, and the waters of the Shire fell, even morerapidly than they had risen. A shoal, twenty miles below Chibisa's, checked our further progress, and we lay there five weary weeks, till thepermanent rise of the river took place. During this detention, with alarge marsh on each side, the first death occurred in the Expeditionwhich had now been three-and-a-half years in the country. Thecarpenter's mate, a fine healthy young man, was seized with fever. Theusual remedies had no effect; he died suddenly while we were at eveningprayers, and was buried on shore. He came out in the "Pioneer, " and, with the exception of a slight touch of fever at the mouth of the Rovuma, had enjoyed perfect health all the time he had been with us. ThePortuguese are of opinion that the European who has immunity from thisdisease for any length of time after he enters the country is more likelyto be cut off by it when it does come, than the man who has it frequentlyat first. 

The rains became pretty general towards the close of December, and theShire was in flood in the beginning of January, 1862. At our wooding-place, a mile above the Ruo, the water was three feet higher than it waswhen we were here in June; and on the night of the 6th it rose eighteeninches more, and swept down an immense amount of brushwood and logs whichswarmed with beetles and the two kinds of shells which are common allover the African continent. Natives in canoes were busy spearing fish inthe meadows and creeks, and appeared to be taking them in great numbers. Spur-winged geese, and others of the knob-nosed species, took advantageof the low gardens being flooded, and came to pilfer the beans. As wepassed the Ruo, on the 7th, and saw nothing of the Bishop, we concludedthat he had heard from his surgeon of our detention, and had deferred hisjourney. He arrived there five days after, on the 12th. 

After paying our Senna men, as they wished to go home, we landed themhere. All were keen traders, and had invested largely in native iron-hoes, axes, and ornaments. Many of the hoes and spears had been takenfrom the slaving parties whose captives we liberated; for on theseoccasions our Senna friends were always uncommonly zealous and active. The remainder had been purchased with the old clothes we had given themand their store of hippopotamus meat: they had no fear of losing them, orof being punished for aiding us. The system, in which they had beentrained, had eradicated the idea of personal responsibility from theirminds. The Portuguese slaveholders would blame the English alone, theysaid; they were our servants at the time. No white man on board couldpurchase so cheaply as these men could. Many a time had their eloquencepersuaded a native trader to sell for a bit of dirty worn cloth thingsfor which he had, but a little before, refused twice the amount of cleannew calico. "Scissors" being troubled with a cough at night, received apresent of a quilted coverlet, which had seen a good deal of service. Afew days afterwards, a good chance of investing in hoes offering itself, he ripped off both sides, tore them into a dozen pieces, and purchasedabout a dozen hoes with them. 

We entered the Zambesi on the 11th of January, and steamed down towardsthe coast, taking the side on which we had come up; but the channel hadchanged to the other side during the summer, as it sometimes does, and wesoon grounded. A Portuguese gentleman, formerly a lieutenant in thearmy, and now living on Sangwisa, one of the islands of the Zambesi, cameover with his slaves, to aid us in getting the ship off. He saidfrankly, that his people were all great thieves, and we must be on ourguard not to leave anything about. He next made a short speech to hismen, told them he knew what thieves they were, but implored them not tosteal from us, as we would give them a present of cloth when the work wasdone. "The natives of this country, " he remarked to us, "think only ofthree things, what they shall eat and drink, how many wives they canhave, and what they may steal from their master, if not how they maymurder him. " He always slept with a loaded musket by his side. Thisopinion may apply to slaves, but decidedly does not in our experienceapply to freemen. We paid his men for helping us, and believe that eventhey, being paid, stole nothing from us. Our friend farms prettyextensively the large island called Sangwisa, --lent him for nothing bySenhor Ferrao, --and raises large quantities of mapira and beans, and alsobeautiful white rice, grown from seed brought a few years ago from SouthCarolina. He furnished us with some, which was very acceptable; forthough not in absolute want, we were living on beans, salt pork, andfowls, all the biscuit and flour on board having been expended. 

We fully expected that the owners of the captives we had liberated wouldshow their displeasure, at least by their tongues; but they seemedashamed; only one ventured a remark, and he, in the course of commonconversation, said, with a smile, "You took the Governor's slaves, didn'tyou?" "Yes, we did free several gangs that we met in the Manganjacountry. " The Portuguese of Tette, from the Governor downwards, wereextensively engaged in slaving. The trade is partly internal and partlyexternal: they send some of the captives, and those bought, into theinterior, up the Zambesi: some of these we actually met on their way upthe river. The young women were sold there for ivory: anordinary-looking one brought two arrobas, sixty-four pounds weight, andan extra beauty brought twice that amount. The men and boys were kept ascarriers, to take the ivory down from the interior to Tette, or wereretained on farms on the Zambesi, ready for export if a slaver shouldcall: of this last mode of slaving we were witnesses also. The slaveswere sent down the river chained, and in large canoes. This went onopenly at Tette, and more especially so while the French "FreeEmigration" system was in full operation. This double mode of disposingof the captives pays better than the single system of sending them downto the coast for exportation. One merchant at Tette, with whom we werewell acquainted, sent into the interior three hundred Manganja women tobe sold for ivory, and another sent a hundred and fifty. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Arrival of H. M. S. "Gorgon"--Dr. Livingstone's new steamer and Mrs. Livingstone--Death of Mrs. Livingstone--Voyage to Johanna and theRovuma--An attack upon the "Pioneer's" boats. 

We anchored on the Great Luabo mouth of the Zambesi, because wood wasmuch more easily obtained there than at the Kongone. 

On the 30th, H. M. S. "Gorgon" arrived, towing the brig which brought Mrs. Livingstone, some ladies about to join their relatives in theUniversities' Mission, and the twenty-four sections of a new iron steamerintended for the navigation of Lake Nyassa. The "Pioneer" steamed out, and towed the brig into the Kongone harbour. The new steamer was calledthe "Lady of the Lake, " or the "Lady Nyassa, " and as much as could becarried of her in one trip was placed, by the help of the officers andmen of the "Gorgon, " on board the "Pioneer, " and the two large paddle-boxboats of H. M. 's ship. We steamed off for Ruo on the 10th of February, having on board Captain Wilson, with a number of his officers and men tohelp us to discharge the cargo. Our progress up was distressingly slow. The river was in flood, and we had a three-knot current against us inmany places. These delays kept us six months in the delta, instead of, as we anticipated, only six days; for, finding it impossible to carry thesections up to the Ruo without great loss of time, it was thought best toland them at Shupanga, and, putting the hull of the "Lady Nyassa"together there, to tow her up to the foot of the Murchison Cataracts. 

A few days before the "Pioneer" reached Shupanga, Captain Wilson, seeingthe hopeless state of affairs, generously resolved to hasten with theMission ladies up to those who, we thought, were anxiously awaiting theirarrival, and therefore started in his gig for the Ruo, taking MissMackenzie, Mrs. Burrup, and his surgeon, Dr. Ramsay. They wereaccompanied by Dr. Kirk and Mr. Sewell, paymaster of the "Gorgon, " in thewhale-boat of the "Lady Nyassa. " As our slow-paced-launch, "Ma Robert, "had formerly gone up to the foot of the cataracts in nine days' steaming, it was supposed that the boats might easily reach the expected meeting-place at the Ruo in a week; but the Shire was now in flood, and in itsmost rapid state; and they were longer in getting up about half thedistance, than it was hoped they would be in the whole navigable part ofthe river. They could hear nothing of the Bishop from the chief of theisland, Malo, at the mouth of the Ruo. "No white man had ever come tohis village, " he said. They proceeded on to Chibisa's, sufferingterribly from mosquitoes at night. Their toil in stemming the rapidcurrent made them estimate the distance, by the windings, as nearer 300than 200 miles. The Makololo who had remained at Chibisa's told them thesad news of the death of the good Bishop and of Mr. Burrup. Otherinformation received there awakened fresh anxiety on behalf of thesurvivors; so, leaving the ladies with Dr. Ramsay and the Makololo, Captain Wilson and Dr. Kirk went up the hills, in hopes of being able torender assistance, and on the way they met some of the Mission party atSoche's. The excessive fatigue that our friends had undergone in thevoyage up to Chibisa's in no wise deterred them from this further attemptfor the benefit of their countrymen, but the fresh labour, withdiminished rations, was too much for their strength. They were reducedto a diet of native beans and an occasional fowl. Both became very illof fever, Captain Wilson so dangerously that his fellow-sufferer lost allhopes of his recovery. His strong able-bodied cockswain did good servicein cheerfully carrying his much-loved Commander, and they managed toreturn to the boat, and brought the two bereaved and sorrow-strickenladies back to the "Pioneer. "

We learnt that the Bishop, wishing to find a shorter route down to theShire, had sent two men to explore the country between Magomero and thejunction of the Ruo; and in December Messrs. Proctor and Scudamore, witha number of Manganja carriers, left Magomero for the same purpose. Theywere to go close to Mount Choro, and then skirt the Elephant Marsh, withMount Clarendon on their left. Their guides seem to have led them awayto the east, instead of south; to the upper waters of the Ruo in theShirwa valley, instead of to its mouth. Entering an Anguru slave-tradingvillage, they soon began to suspect that the people meant mischief, andjust before sunset a woman told some of their men that if they sleptthere they would all be killed. On their preparing to leave, the Angurufollowed them and shot their arrows at the retreating party. Two of thecarriers were captured, and all the goods were taken by these robbers. Anarrow-head struck deep into the stock of Proctor's gun; and the twomissionaries, barely escaping with their lives, swam a deep river atnight, and returned to Magomero famished and exhausted. 

The wives of the captive carriers came to the Bishop day after dayweeping and imploring him to rescue their husbands from slavery. The menhad been caught while in his service, no one else could be entreated;there was no public law nor any power superior to his own, to which anappeal could be made; for in him Church and State were, in thedisorganized state of the country, virtually united. It seemed to him tobe clearly his duty to try and rescue these kidnapped members of theMission family. He accordingly invited the veteran Makololo to go withhim on this somewhat hazardous errand. Nothing could have been proposedto them which they would have liked better, and they went with alacrityto eat the sheep of the Anguru, only regretting that the enemy did notkeep cattle as well. Had the matter been left entirely in their hands, they would have made a clean sweep of that part of the country; but theBishop restrained them, and went in an open manner, thus commending themeasure to all the natives, as one of justice. This deliberation, however, gave the delinquents a chance of escape. 

The missionaries were successful; the offending village was burned, and afew sheep and goats were secured which could not be considered other thana very mild punishment for the offence committed; the headman, Muana-somba, afraid to retain the prisoners any longer, forthwithliberated them, and they returned to their homes. This incident tookplace at the time we were at the Ruo and during the rains, and provedvery trying to the health of the missionaries; they were frequentlywetted, and had hardly any food but roasted maize. Mr. Scudamore wasnever well afterwards. Directly on their return to Magomero, the Bishopand Mr. Burrup, both suffering from diarrhoea in consequence of wet, hunger, and exposure, started for Chibisa's to go down to the Ruo by theShire. So fully did the Bishop expect a renewal of the soaking wet fromwhich he had just returned, that on leaving Magomero he walked throughthe stream. The rivulets were so swollen that it took five days to do ajourney that would otherwise have occupied only two days and a half. 

None of the Manganja being willing to take them down the river during theflood, three Makololo canoe-men agreed to go with them. After paddlingtill near sunset, they decided to stop and sleep on shore; but themosquitoes were so numerous that they insisted on going on again; theBishop, being a week behind the time he had engaged to be at the Ruo, reluctantly consented, and in the darkness the canoe was upset in one ofthe strong eddies or whirlpools, which suddenly boil up in flood timenear the outgoing branches of the river; clothing, medicines, tea, coffee, and sugar were all lost. Wet and weary, and tormented bymosquitoes, they lay in the canoe till morning dawned, and then proceededto Malo, an island at the mouth of the Ruo, where the Bishop was at onceseized with fever. 

Had they been in their usual health, they would doubtless have pushed onto Shupanga, or to the ship; but fever rapidly prostrates the energies, and induces a drowsy stupor, from which, if not roused by medicine, thepatient gradually sinks into the sleep of death. Still mindful, however, of his office, the Bishop consoled himself by thinking that he might gainthe friendship of the chief, which would be of essential service to himin his future labours. That heartless man, however, probably suspiciousof all foreigners from the knowledge he had acquired of whiteslave-traders, wanted to turn the dying Bishop out of the hut, as herequired it for his corn, but yielded to the expostulations of theMakololo. Day after day for three weeks did these faithful fellowsremain beside his mat on the floor; till, without medicine or even properfood, he died. They dug his grave on the edge of the deep dark forestwhere the natives buried their dead. Mr. Burrup, himself far gone withdysentery, staggered from the hut, and, as in the dusk of evening theycommitted the Bishop's body to the grave, repeated from memory portionsof our beautiful service for the Burial of the Dead--"earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of theresurrection of the dead through our Lord Jesus Christ. " And in this sadway ended the earthly career of one, of whom it can safely be said thatfor unselfish goodness of heart, and earnest devotion to the noble workhe had undertaken, none of the commendations of his friends can exceedthe reality. The grave in which his body rests is about a hundred yardsfrom the confluence of the Ruo, on the left bank of the Shire, andopposite the island of Malo. The Makololo then took Mr. Burrup up in thecanoe as far as they could, and, making a litter of branches, carried himthemselves, or got others to carry him, all the way back to hiscountrymen at Magomero. They hurried him on lest he should die in theirhands, and blame be attached to them. Soon after his return he expired, from the disease which was on him when he started to meet his wife. 

Captain Wilson arrived at Shupanga on the 11th of March, having beenthree weeks on the Shire. On the 15th the "Pioneer" steamed down to theKongone. The "Gorgon" had been driven out to sea in a gale, and had goneto Johanna for provisions, and it was the 2nd of April before shereturned. It was fortunate for us that she had obtained a supply, as ourprovisions were exhausted, and we had to buy some from the master of thebrig. The "Gorgon" left for the Cape on the 4th, taking all, except one, of the Mission party who had come in January. We take this opportunityof expressing our heartfelt gratitude to the gallant Captain I. C. Wilsonand his officers for innumerable acts of kindness and heartyco-operation. Our warmest thanks are also due to Captain R. B. Oldfieldand the other officers from the Admiral downwards, and we beg to assurethem that nothing could be more encouraging to us in our difficulties andtrials, than the knowledge that we possessed their friendship andsympathy in our labours. 

The Rev. James Stewart, of the Free Church of Scotland, arrived in the"Gorgon. " He had wisely come out to inspect the country, before decidingon the formation of a Mission in the interior. To this object he devotedmany months of earnest labour. This Mission was intended to embrace boththe industrial and the religious element; and as the route by the Zambesiand Shire forms the only one at present known, with but a couple of days'land journey to the highlands, which stretch to an unknown distance intothe continent, and as no jealousy was likely to be excited in the mind ofa man of Bishop Mackenzie's enlarged views--there being moreover room forhundreds of Missions--we gladly extended the little aid in our power toan envoy from the energetic body above mentioned, but recommended him toexamine the field with his own eyes. 

During our subsequent detention at Shupanga, he proceeded as far up theShire as the Upper Cataracts, and saw the mere remnants of that densepopulation, which we at first had found living in peace and plenty, butwhich was now scattered and destroyed by famine and slave-hunting. Theland, which both before and after we found so fair and fruitful, wasburned up by a severe drought; in fact, it was at its very worst. Withmost praiseworthy energy, and in spite of occasional attacks of fever, hethen ascended the Zambesi as far as Kebrabasa; and, what may be ofinterest to some, compared it, in parts, to the Danube. His estimate ofthe highlands would naturally be lower than ours. The main drawbacks inhis opinion, however, were the slave-trade, and the power allowed theeffete Portuguese of shutting up the country from all except a fewconvicts of their own nation. The time of his coming was inopportune;the disasters which, from inexperience, had befallen the Mission of theUniversities, had a depressing effect on the minds of many at home, andrendered a new attempt unadvisable; though, had the Scotch perseveranceand energy been introduced, it is highly probable that they would havereacted, most beneficially, on the zeal of our English brethren, anddesertion would never have been heard of. After examining the country, Mr. Stewart descended the Zambesi in the beginning of the following year, and proceeded homewards with his report, by Mosambique and the Cape. 

On the 7th of April we had only one man fit for duty; all the rest weredown with fever, or with the vile spirit secretly sold to them by thePortuguese officer of customs, in spite of our earnest request to him torefrain from the pernicious traffic. 

We started on the 11th for Shupanga with another load of the "LadyNyassa. " As we steamed up the delta, we observed many of the nativeswearing strips of palm-leaf, the signs of sickness and mourning; for theytoo suffer from fever. This is the unhealthy season; the rains are over, and the hot sun draws up malaria from the decayed vegetation; diseaseseemed peculiarly severe this year. On our way up we met Mr. Waller, whohad come from Magomero for provisions; the missionaries were sufferingseverely from want of food; the liberated people were starving, and dyingof diarrhoea, and loathsome sores. The Ajawa, stimulated in their slaveraids by supplies of ammunition and cloth from the Portuguese, haddestroyed the large crops of the past year; a drought had followed, andlittle or no food could be bought. With his usual energy, Mr. Wallerhired canoes, loaded them with stores, and took them up the long wearyway to Chibisa's. Before he arrived he was informed that the Mission ofthe Universities, now deprived of its brave leader, had retired from thehighlands down to the Low Shire Valley. This appeared to us, who knewthe danger of leading a sedentary life, the greatest mistake they couldhave made, and was the result of no other counsel or responsibility thantheir own. Waller would have reascended at once to the higher altitude, but various objections stood in the way. The loss of poor Scudamore andDickinson, in this low-lying situation, but added to the regret that thehighlands had not received a fair trial. 

When the news of the Bishop's unfortunate collisions with the natives, and of his untimely end, reached England, much blame was imputed to him. The policy, which with the formal sanction of all his companions he hadadopted, being directly contrary to the advice which Dr. Livingstonetendered, and to the assurances of the peaceable nature of the Missionwhich the Doctor had given to the natives, a friendly disapproval of abishop's engaging in war was ventured on, when we met him at Chibisa's inNovember. But when we found his conduct regarded with so much bitternessin England, whether from a disposition to "stand by the down man, " orfrom having an intimate knowledge of the peculiar circumstances of thecountry in which he was placed, or from the thorough confidence whichintimacy caused us to repose in his genuine piety, and devout service ofGod, we came to think much more leniently of his proceedings, than hisassailants did. He never seemed to doubt but that he had done his duty;and throughout he had always been supported by his associates. 

The question whether a Bishop, in the event of his flock being torn fromhis bosom, may make war to rescue them, requires serious consideration. It seems to narrow itself into whether a Christian man may lawfully usethe civil power or the sword at all in defensive war, as police orotherwise. We would do almost anything to avoid a collision withdegraded natives; but in case of an invasion--our blood boils at the verythought of our wives, daughters, or sisters being touched--we, as menwith human feelings, would unhesitatingly fight to the death, with allthe fury in our power. 

The good Bishop was as intensely averse to using arms, before he met theslave-hunters, as any man in England. In the course he pursued he mayhave made a mistake, but it is a mistake which very few Englishmen onmeeting bands of helpless captives, or members of his family in bonds, would have failed to commit likewise. 

During unhealthy April, the fever was more severe in Shupanga and Mazarothan usual. We had several cases on board--they were quickly cured, but, from our being in the delta, as quickly returned. About the middle ofthe month Mrs. Livingstone was prostrated by this disease; and it wasaccompanied by obstinate vomiting. Nothing is yet known that can allaythis distressing symptom, which of course renders medicine of no avail, as it is instantly rejected. She received whatever medical aid could berendered from Dr. Kirk, but became unconscious, and her eyes were closedin the sleep of death as the sunset on the evening of the ChristianSabbath, the 27th April, 1862. A coffin was made during the night, agrave was dug next day under the branches of the great baobab-tree, andwith sympathizing hearts the little band of his countrymen assisted thebereaved husband in burying his dead. At his request, the Rev. JamesStewart read the burial-service; and the seamen kindly volunteered tomount guard for some nights at the spot where her body rests in hope. Those who are not aware how this brave, good, English wife made adelightful home at Kolobeng, a thousand miles inland from the Cape, andas the daughter of Moffat and a Christian lady exercised most beneficialinfluence over the rude tribes of the interior, may wonder that sheshould have braved the dangers and toils of this down-trodden land. Sheknew them all, and, in the disinterested and dutiful attempt to renew herlabours, was called to her rest instead. "_Fiat, Domine, voluntas tua_!"

On the 5th of May Dr. Kirk and Charles Livingstone started in the boatfor Tette, in order to see the property of the Expedition brought down incanoes. They took four Mazaro canoe-men to manage the boat, and a whitesailor to cook for them; but, unfortunately, he caught fever the very dayafter leaving the ship, and was ill most of the trip; so they had to cookfor themselves, and to take care of him besides. 

We now proceeded with preparations for the launch of the "Lady Nyassa. "Ground was levelled on the bank at Shupanga, for the purpose of arrangingthe compartments in order: she was placed on palm-trees which werebrought from a place lower down the river for ways, and the engineer andhis assistants were soon busily engaged; about a fortnight after theywere all brought from Kongone, the sections were screwed together. Theblacks are more addicted to stealing where slavery exists than elsewhere. We were annoyed by thieves who carried off the iron screw-bolts, but weregratified to find that strychnine saved us from the man-thief as well asthe hyena-thief. A hyena was killed by it, and after the natives saw thedead animal and knew how we had destroyed it, they concluded that it wasnot safe to steal from men who possessed a medicine so powerful. Thehalf-caste, who kept Shupanga-house, said he wished to have some to giveto the Zulus, of whom he was mortally afraid, and to whom he had to payan unwilling tribute. 

The "Pioneer" made several trips to the Kongone, and returned with thelast load on the 12th of June. On the 23rd the "Lady Nyassa" was safelylaunched, the work of putting her together having been interrupted byfever and dysentery, and many other causes which it would only weary thereader to narrate in detail. Natives from all parts of the country cameto see the launch, most of them quite certain that, being made of iron, she must go to the bottom as soon as she entered the water. Earnestdiscussions had taken place among them with regard to the propriety ofusing iron for ship-building. The majority affirmed that it would neveranswer. They said, "If we put a hoe into the water, or the smallest bitof iron, it sinks immediately. How then can such a mass of iron float?it must go to the bottom. " The minority answered that this might be truewith them, but white men had medicine for everything. "They could evenmake a woman, all except the speaking; look at that one on the figure-head of the vessel. " The unbelievers were astonished, and could hardlybelieve their eyes, when they saw the ship float lightly and gracefullyon the river, instead of going to the bottom, as they so confidentlypredicted. "Truly, " they said, "these men have powerful medicine. "

Birds are numerous on the Shupanga estate. Some kinds remain all theyear round, while many others are there only for a few months. Flocks ofgreen pigeons come in April to feed on the young fruit of the wild fig-trees, which is also eaten by a large species of bat in the evenings. Thepretty little black weaver, with yellow shoulders, appears to enjoy lifeintensely after assuming his wooing dress. A hearty breakfast is eatenin the mornings and then come the hours for making merry. A select partyof three or four perch on the bushes which skirt a small grassy plain, and cheer themselves with the music of their own quiet andself-complacent song. A playful performance on the wind succeeds. Expanding his soft velvet-like plumage, one glides with quivering pinionsto the centre of the open space, singing as he flies, then turns with arapid whirring sound from his wings--somewhat like a child's rattle--andreturns to his place again. One by one the others perform the same feat, and continue the sport for hours, striving which can produce the loudestbrattle while turning. These games are only played during the season ofcourting and of the gay feathers; the merriment seems never to be thoughtof while the bird wears his winter suit of sober brown. 

We received two mules from the Cape to aid us in transporting the piecesof the "Lady Nyassa" past the cataracts and landed them at Shupanga, butthey soon perished. A Portuguese gentleman kindly informed us, _after_both the mules were dead, that he knew they would die; for the land therehad been often tried, and nothing would live on it--not even a pig. Hesaid he had not told us so before, because he did not like to appearofficious!

By the time everything had been placed on board the "Lady Nyassa, " thewaters of the Zambesi and the Shire had fallen so low that it was uselessto attempt taking her up to the cataracts before the rains in December. Draught oxen and provisions also were required, and could not be obtainednearer than the Island of Johanna. The Portuguese, without refusingpositively to let trade enter the Zambesi, threw impediments in the way;they only wanted a small duty! They were about to establish a riverpolice, and rearrange the Crown lands, which have long since become Zululands; meanwhile they were making the Zambesi, by slaving, of no value toany one. 

The Rovuma, which was reported to come from Lake Nyassa, being out oftheir claims and a free river, we determined to explore it in our boatsimmediately on our return from Johanna, for which place, after some delayat the Kongone, in repairing engines, paddle-wheel, and rudder, we sailedon the 6th of August. A store of naval provisions had been formed on ahulk in Pomone Bay of that island for the supply of the cruisers, and wasin charge of Mr. Sunley, the Consul, from whom we always received thekindest attentions and assistance. He now obliged us by parting with sixoxen, trained for his own use in sugar-making. Though sadly hampered inhis undertaking by being obliged to employ slave labour, he has byindomitable energy overcome obstacles under which most persons would havesunk. He has done all that under the circumstances could be done toinfuse a desire for freedom, by paying regular wages; and has establisheda large factory, and brought 300 acres of rich soil under cultivationwith sugar-cane. We trust he will realize the fortune which he so welldeserves to earn. Had Mr. Sunley performed the same experiment on themainland, where people would have flocked to him for the wages he nowgives, he would certainly have inaugurated a new era on the East Coast ofAfrica. On a small island where the slaveholders have complete powerover the slaves, and where there is no free soil such as is everywheremet with in Africa, the experiment ought not to be repeated. Were Mr. Sunley commencing again, it should neither be in Zanzibar nor Johanna, but on African soil, where, if even a slave is ill-treated, he can easilyby flight become free. On an island under native rule a jointmanufacture by Arabs and Englishmen might only mean that the latter wereto escape the odium of flogging the slaves. 

On leaving Johanna and our oxen for a time, H. M. S. "Orestes" towed usthence to the mouth of the Rovuma at the beginning of September. CaptainGardner, her commander, and several of his officers, accompanied us upthe river for two days in the gig and cutter. The water was unusuallylow, and it was rather dull work for a few hours in the morning; but thescene became livelier and more animated when the breeze began to blow. Our four boats they swept on under full sail, the men on the look out inthe gig and cutter calling, "Port, sir!" "Starboard, sir!" "As you go, sir!" while the black men in the bows of the others shouted the practicalequivalents, "Pagombe! Pagombe!" "Enda quete!" "Berane! Berane!"Presently the leading-boat touches on a sandbank; down comes thefluttering sail; the men jump out to shove her off, and the other boats, shunning the obstruction, shoot on ahead to be brought up each in itsturn by mistaking a sandbank for the channel, which had often but a verylittle depth of water. 

A drowsy herd of hippopotami were suddenly startled by a score of rifle-shots, and stared in amazement at the strange objects which had invadedtheir peaceful domains, until a few more bullets compelled them to seekrefuge at the bottom of the deep pool, near which they had been quietlyreposing. On our return, one of the herd retaliated. He followed theboat, came up under it, and twice tried to tear the bottom out of it; butfortunately it was too flat for his jaws to get a good grip, so he merelydamaged one of the planks with his tusks, though he lifted the boat rightup, with ten men and a ton of ebony in it. 

We slept, one of the two nights Captain Gardner was with us, opposite thelakelet Chidia, which is connected with the river in flood time, and isnearly surrounded by hills some 500 or 600 feet high, dotted over withtrees. A few small groups of huts stood on the hill-sides, with gardensoff which the usual native produce had been reaped. The people did notseem much alarmed by the presence of the large party which had drawn upon the sandbanks below their dwellings. There is abundance of largeebony in the neighbourhood. The pretty little antelope (_Cephalophuscaeruleus_), about the size of a hare, seemed to abound, as many of theirskins were offered for sale. Neat figured date-leaf mats of variouscolours are woven here, the different dyes being obtained from the barksof trees. Cattle could not live on the banks of the Rovuma on account ofthe tsetse, which are found from near the mouth, up as far as we couldtake the boats. The navigation did not improve as we ascended; snags, brought down by the floods, were common, and left in the channel on thesudden subsidence of the water. In many places, where the river dividedinto two or three channels, there was not water enough in any of them fora boat drawing three feet, so we had to drag ours over the shoals; but wesaw the river at its very lowest, and it may be years before it is sodried 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 coursefrom the W. S. W. ; but the channel of the river is winding, and now at itslowest zigzagged so perversely, that frequently the boats had to passover three miles to make one in a straight line. With a full stream itmust of course be much easier work. Few natives were seen during thefirst week. Their villages are concealed in the thick jungle on the hill-sides, for protection from marauding slave-parties. Not much of interestwas observed on this part of the silent and shallow river. Thoughfeeling convinced that it was unfit for navigation, except for eightmonths of the year, we pushed on, resolved to see if, further inland, theaccounts we had received from different naval officers of its greatcapabilities would prove correct; or if, by communication with LakeNyassa, even the upper part could be turned to account. Our explorationshowed us that the greatest precaution is required in those who visit newcountries. 

The reports we received from gentlemen, who had entered the river andwere well qualified to judge, were that the Rovuma was infinitelysuperior to the Zambesi, in the absence of any bar at its mouth, in itsgreater volume of water, and in the beauty of the adjacent lands. Weprobably 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. Itmight be available as a highway for commerce during three quarters ofeach year; but casual visitors, like ourselves and others, are all illable to decide. The absence of animal life was remarkable. Occasionallywe saw pairs of the stately jabirus, or adjutant-looking marabouts, wading among the shoals, and spur-winged geese, and other water-fowl, butthere was scarcely a crocodile or a hippopotamus to be seen. 

At the end of the first week, an old man called at our camp, and said hewould send a present from his village, which was up among the hills. Heappeared next morning with a number of his people, bringing meal, cassava-root, and yams. The language differs considerably from that on theZambesi, but it is of the same family. The people are Makonde, and areon friendly terms with the Mabiha, and the Makoa, who live south of theRovuma. When taking a walk up the slopes of the north bank, we found agreat variety of trees we had seen nowhere else. Those usually met withfar inland seem here to approach the coast. African ebony, generallynamed _mpingu_, is abundant within eight miles of the sea; it attains alarger size, and has more of the interior black wood than usual. A goodtimber tree called _mosoko_ is also found; and we saw half-caste Arabsnear the coast cutting up a large log of it into planks. Before reachingthe top of the rise we were in a forest of bamboos. On the plateauabove, large patches were cleared and cultivated. A man invited us totake a cup of beer; on our complying with his request, the fearpreviously shown by the bystanders vanished. Our Mazaro men could hardlyunderstand what they said. Some of them waded in the river and caught acurious fish in holes in the claybank. Its ventral fin is peculiar, being unusually large, and of a circular shape, like boys' playthingscalled "suckers. " We were told that this fish is found also in theZambesi, and is called Chirire. Though all its fins are large, it isasserted that it rarely ventures out into the stream, but remains nearits hole, where it is readily caught by the hand. 

The Zambesi men thoroughly understood the characteristic marks of deep orshallow water, and showed great skill in finding out the proper channel. The Molimo is the steersman at the helm, the Mokadamo is the head canoe-man, and he stands erect on the bows with a long pole in his hands, anddirects the steersman where to go, aiding the rudder, if necessary, withhis pole. The others preferred to stand and punt our boat, rather thanrow with our long oars, being able to shove her ahead faster than theycould pull her. They are accustomed to short paddles. Our Mokadamo wasaffected with moon-blindness, and could not see at all at night. Hiscomrades then led him about, and handed him his food. They thought thatit was only because his eyes rested all night, that he could see thechannel so well by day. At difficult places the Mokadamo sometimes, however, made mistakes, and ran us aground; and the others, evidentlyimbued with the spirit of resistance to constituted authority, and led byJoao an aspirant for the office, jeered him for his stupidity. "Was heasleep? Why did he allow the boat to come there? Could he not see thechannel was somewhere else?" At last the Mokadamo threw down the pole indisgust, and told Joao he might be a Mokadamo himself. The office wasaccepted with alacrity; but in a few minutes he too ran us into a worsedifficulty than his predecessor ever did, and was at once disrated amidstthe derision of his comrades. 

On the 16th September, we arrived at the inhabited island of Kichokomane. The usual way of approaching an unknown people is to call out in acheerful tone "Malonda!" Things for sale, or do you want to sellanything? If we can obtain a man from the last village, he is employed, though only useful in explaining to the next that we come in a friendlyway. The people here were shy of us at first, and could not be inducedto sell any food; until a woman, more adventurous than the rest, sold usa fowl. This opened the market, and crowds came with fowls and meal, farbeyond our wants. The women are as ugly as those on Lake Nyassa, for whocan be handsome wearing the pelele, or upper-lip ring, of largedimensions? We were once surprised to see young men wearing the pelele, and were told that in the tribe of the Mabiha, on the south bank, men aswell as women wore them. 

Along the left bank, above Kichokomane, is an exceedingly fertile plain, nearly two miles broad, and studded with a number of deserted villages. The inhabitants were living in temporary huts on low naked sandbanks; andwe found this to be the case as far as we went. They leave most of theirproperty and food behind, because they are not afraid of these beingstolen, but only fear being stolen themselves. The great slave-routefrom Nyassa to Kilwa passes to N. E. From S. W. , just beyond them; and itis dangerous to remain in their villages at this time of year, when thekidnappers are abroad. In one of the temporary villages, we saw, inpassing, two human heads lying on the ground. We slept a couple of milesabove this village. 

Before sunrise next morning, a large party armed with bows and arrows andmuskets came to the camp, two or three of them having a fowl each, whichwe refused to purchase, having bought enough the day before. Theyfollowed us all the morning, and after breakfast those on the left bankswam across and joined the main party on the other side. It wasevidently their intention to attack us at a chosen spot, where we had topass close to a high bank, but their plan was frustrated by a stiffbreeze sweeping the boat past, before the majority could get to theplace. They disappeared then, but came out again ahead of us, on a highwooded bank, walking rapidly to the bend, near which we were obliged tosail. An arrow was shot at the foremost boat; and seeing the force atthe bend, we pushed out from the side, as far as the shoal water wouldpermit, and tried to bring them to a parley, by declaring that we had notcome to fight, but to see the river. "Why did you fire a gun, a littlewhile ago?" they asked. "We shot a large puff-adder, to prevent it fromkilling men; you may see it lying dead on the beach. " With greatcourage, our Mokadamo waded to within thirty yards of the bank, and spokewith much earnestness, assuring them that we were a peaceable party, andhad not come for war, but to see the river. We were friends, and ourcountrymen bought cotton and ivory, and wished to come and trade withthem. All we wanted was to go up quietly to look at the river, and thenreturn to the sea. While he was talking with those on the shore, the oldrogue, who appeared to be the ringleader, stole up the bank, and with adozen others, waded across to the island, near which the boats lay, andcame down behind us. Wild with excitement, they rushed into the water, and danced in our rear, with drawn bows, taking aim, and making varioussavage gesticulations. Their leader urged them to get behind some snags, and then shoot at us. The party on the bank in front had manymuskets--and those of them, who had bows, held them with arrows ready setin the bowstrings. They had a mass of thick bush and trees behind them, into which they could in a moment dart, after discharging their musketsand arrows, and be completely hidden from our sight; a circumstance thatalways gives people who use bows and arrows the greatest confidence. Notwithstanding these demonstrations, we were exceedingly loath to cometo blows. We spent a full half-hour exposed at any moment to be struckby a bullet or poisoned arrow. We explained that we were better armedthan they were, and had plenty of ammunition, the suspected want of whichoften inspires them with courage, but that we did not wish to shed theblood of the children of the same Great Father with ourselves; that if wemust fight, the guilt would be all theirs. 

This being a common mode of expostulation among themselves, we so farsucceeded, that with great persuasion the leader and others laid downtheir arms, and waded over from the bank to the boats to talk the matterover. "This was their river; they did not allow white men to use it. Wemust pay toll for leave to pass. " It was somewhat humiliating to do so, but it was pay or fight; and, rather than fight, we submitted to thehumiliation of paying for their friendship, and gave them thirty yards ofcloth. They pledged themselves to be our friends ever afterwards, andsaid they would have food cooked for us on our return. We then hoistedsail, and proceeded, glad that the affair had been amicably settled. Those on shore walked up to the bend above to look at the boat, as wesupposed; but the moment she was abreast of them, they gave us a volleyof musket-balls and poisoned arrows, without a word of warning. Fortunately we were so near, that all the arrows passed clear over us, but four musket-balls went through the sail just above our heads. Allour assailants bolted into the bushes and long grass the instant afterfiring, save two, one of whom was about to discharge a musket and theother an arrow, when arrested by the fire of the second boat. Not one ofthem showed their faces again, till we were a thousand yards away. A fewshots were then fired over their heads, to give them an idea of the rangeof our rifles, and they all fled into the woods. Those on the sandbankrushed off too, with the utmost speed; but as they had not shot at us, wedid not molest them, and they went off safely with their cloth. Theyprobably expected to kill one of our number, and in the confusion rob theboats. It is only where the people are slavers that the natives of thispart of Africa are bloodthirsty. 

These people have a bad name in the country in front, even among theirown tribe. A slave-trading Arab we met above, thinking we were then onour way down the river, advised us not to land at the villages, but tostay in the boats, as the inhabitants were treacherous, and attacked atonce, without any warning or provocation. Our experience of theirconduct fully confirmed the truth of what he said. There was no trade onthe river where they lived, but beyond that part there was a brisk canoe-trade in rice and salt; those further in the interior cultivating rice, and sending it down the river to be exchanged for salt, which isextracted from the earth in certain places on the banks. Our assailantshardly anticipated resistance, and told a neighbouring chief that, ifthey had known who we were, they would not have attacked English, who can"bite hard. " They offered no molestations on our way down, though wewere an hour in passing their village. Our canoe-men plucked up courageon finding that we had come off unhurt. One of them, named Chiku, acknowledging that he had been terribly frightened, said. "His fear wasnot the kind which makes a man jump overboard and run away; but thatwhich brings the heart up to the mouth, and renders the man powerless, and no more able to fight than a woman. "

In the country of Chonga Michi, about 80 or 90 miles up the river, wefound decent people, though of the same tribe, who treated strangers withcivility. A body of Makoa had come from their own country in the south, and settled here. The Makoa are known by a cicatrice in the foreheadshaped like the new moon with the horns turned downwards. The tribepossesses all the country west of Mosambique; and they will not allow anyof the Portuguese to pass into their country more than two hours'distance from the fort. A hill some ten or twelve miles distant, calledPau, has been visited during the present generation only by onePortuguese and one English officer, and this visit was accomplished onlyby the influence of the private friendship of a chief for this Portuguesegentleman. Our allies have occupied the Fort of Mosambique for threehundred years, but in this, as in all other cases, have no power furtherthan they can see from a gun-carriage. 

The Makoa chief, Matingula, was hospitable and communicative, telling usall he knew of the river and country beyond. He had been once to Iboeand once at Mosambique with slaves. Our men understood his languageeasily. A useless musket he had bought at one of the above places wasoffered us for a little cloth. Having received a present of food fromhim, a railway rug was handed to him: he looked at it--had never seencloth like that before--did not approve of it, and would rather havecotton cloth. "But this will keep you warm at night. "--"Oh, I do notwish to be kept warm at night. "--We gave him a bit of cotton cloth, notone-third the value of the rug, but it was more highly prized. Hispeople refused to sell their fowls for our splendid prints and drabcloths. They had probably been taken in with gaudy-patterned sham printsbefore. They preferred a very cheap, plain, blue stuff of which they hadexperience. A great quantity of excellent honey is collected all alongthe river, by bark hives being placed for the bees on the high trees onboth banks. Large pots of it, very good and clear, were offered inexchange for a very little cloth. No wax was brought for sale; therebeing no market for this commodity, it is probably thrown away asuseless. 

At Michi we lose the tableland which, up to this point, bounds the viewon both sides of the river, as it were, with ranges of flat-topped hills, 600 or 800 feet high; and to this plateau a level fertile plain succeeds, on which stand detached granite hills. That portion of the tableland onthe right bank seems to bend away to the south, still preserving theappearance of a hill range. The height opposite extends a few milesfurther west, and then branches off in a northerly direction. A fewsmall pieces of coal were picked up on the sandbanks, showing that thisuseful mineral exists on the Rovuma, or on some of its tributaries: thenatives know that it will burn. At the lakelet Chidia, we noticed thesame sandstone rock, with fossil wood on it, which we have on theZambesi, and knew to be a sure evidence of coal beneath. We mentionedthis at the time to Captain Gardner, and our finding coal now seemed averification of what we then said; the coal-field probably extends fromthe Zambesi to the Rovuma, if not beyond it. Some of the rocks lowerdown have the permanent water-line three feet above the present height ofthe water. 

A few miles west of the Makoa of Matingula, we came again among theMakonde, but now of good repute. War and slavery have driven them toseek refuge on the sand-banks. A venerable-looking old man hailed us aswe passed, and asked us if we were going by without speaking. We landed, and he laid down his gun and came to us; he was accompanied by hisbrother, who shook hands with every one in the boat, as he had seenpeople do at Kilwa. "Then you have seen white men before?" we said. "Yes, " replied the polite African, "but never people of your quality. "These men were very black, and wore but little clothing. A young woman, dressed in the highest style of Makonde fashion, punting as dexterouslyas a man could, brought a canoe full of girls to see us. She wore anornamental head-dress of red beads tied to her hair on one side of herhead, a necklace of fine beads of various colours, two bright figuredbrass bracelets on her left arm, and scarcely a farthing's worth ofcloth, though it was at its cheapest. 

As we pushed on westwards, we found that the river makes a littlesouthing, and some reaches were deeper than any near the sea; but when wehad ascended about 140 miles by the river's course from the sea, softtufa rocks began to appear; ten miles beyond, the river became morenarrow and rocky, and when, according to our measurement, we had ascended156 miles, our further progress was arrested. We were rather less thantwo degrees in a straight line from the Coast. The incidents worthnoticing were but few: seven canoes with loads of salt and rice keptcompany with us for some days, and the further we went inland, the morecivil the people became. 

When we came to a stand, just below the island of Nyamatolo, Long. 38degrees 36 minutes E. , and Lat. 11 degrees 53 minutes, the river wasnarrow, and full of rocks. Near the island there is a rocky rapid withnarrow passages fit only for native canoes; the fall is small, and thebanks quite low; but these rocks were an effectual barrier to all furtherprogress in boats. Previous reports represented the navigable part ofthis river as extending to the distance of a month's sail from its mouth;we found that, at the ordinary heights of the water, a boat might reachthe obstructions which seem peculiar to all African rivers in six oreight days. The Rovuma is remarkable for the high lands that flank itfor some eighty miles from the ocean. The cataracts of other riversoccur in mountains, those of the Rovuma are found in a level part, withhills only in the distance. Far away in the west and north we could seehigh blue heights, probably of igneous origin from their forms, risingout of a plain. 

The distance from Ngomano, a spot thirty miles further up, to the Arabcrossing-places of Lake Nyassa Tsenga or Kotakota was said to be twelvedays. The way we had discovered to Lake Nyassa by Murchison's Cataractshad so much less land carriage, that we considered it best to take oursteamer thither, by the route in which we were well known, instead ofworking where we were strangers; and accordingly we made up our minds toreturn. 

The natives reported a worse place above our turning-point--the passagebeing still narrower than this. An Arab, they said, once built a boatabove the rapids, and sent it down full of slaves; but it was broken topieces in these upper narrows. Many still maintained that the Rovumacame from Nyassa, and that it is very narrow as it issues out of thelake. One man declared that he had seen it with his own eyes as it leftthe lake, and seemed displeased at being cross-questioned, as if wedoubted his veracity. 

More satisfactory information, as it appeared to us, was obtained fromothers. Two days, or thirty miles, beyond where we turned back, theRovuma is joined by the Liende, which, coming from the south-west, risesin the mountains on the east side of Nyassa. The great slave route toKilwa runs up the banks of this river, which is only ankle-deep at thedry season of the year. The Rovuma itself comes from the W. N. W. , andafter the traveller passes the confluence of the Liende at Ngomano or"meeting-place, " the chief of which part is named Ndonde, he finds theriver narrow, and the people Ajawa. 

Crocodiles in the Rovuma have a sorry time of it. Never before werereptiles so persecuted and snubbed. They are hunted with spears, andspring traps are set for them. If one of them enters an inviting poolafter fish, he soon finds a fence thrown round it, and a spring trap setin the only path out of the enclosure. Their flesh is eaten, andrelished. The banks, on which the female lays her eggs by night, arecarefully searched by day, and all the eggs dug out and devoured. Thefish-hawk makes havoc among the few young ones that escape their otherenemies. Our men were constantly on the look-out for crocodiles' nests. One was found containing thirty-five newly-laid eggs, and they declaredthat the crocodile would lay as many more the second night in anotherplace. The eggs were a foot deep in the sand on the top of a bank tenfeet high. The animal digs a hole with its foot, covers the eggs, andleaves them till the river rises over the nest in about three monthsafterwards, when she comes back, and assists the young ones out. We oncesaw opposite Tette young crocodiles in December, swimming beside anisland in company with an old one. The yolk of the egg is nearly aswhite as the real white. In taste they resemble hen's eggs with perhapsa smack of custard, and would be as highly relished by whites as byblacks, were it not for their unsavoury origin in men-eaters. 

Hunting the Senze (_Aulacodus Swindernianus_), an animal the size of alarge cat, but in shape more like a pig, was the chief business of menand boys as we passed the reedy banks and low islands. They set fire toa mass of reeds, and, armed with sticks, spears, bows and arrows, standin groups guarding the outlets through which the seared Senze may runfrom the approaching flames. Dark dense volumes of impenetrable smokenow roll over on the lee side of the islet, and shroud the hunters. Attimes vast sheets of lurid flames bursting forth, roaring, crackling andexploding, leap wildly far above the tall reeds. Out rush the terrifiedanimals, and amid the smoke are seen the excited hunters dancing aboutwith frantic gesticulations, and hurling stick, spear, and arrow at theirburned out victims. Kites hover over the smoke, ready to pounce on themantis and locusts as they spring from the fire. Small crows andhundreds of swallows are on eager wing, darting into the smoke and outagain, seizing fugitive flies. Scores of insects, in their haste toescape from the fire, jump into the river, and the active fish enjoy arare feast. 

We returned to the "Pioneer" on the 9th of October, having been away onemonth. The ship's company had used distilled water, a condenser havingbeen sent out from England; and there had not been a single case ofsickness on board since we left, though there were so many cases of feverthe few days she lay in the same spot last year. Our boat party drankthe water of the river, and the three white sailors, who had never beenin an African river before, had some slight attacks of fever. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Return to the Zambesi--Bishop Mackenzie's grave--Frightful scenes withcrocodiles--Death of Mr. Thornton--African poisons--Recall of theExpedition. 

We put to sea on the 18th of October, and, again touching at Johanna, obtained a crew of Johanna men and some oxen, and sailed for the Zambesi;but our fuel failing before we reached it, and the wind being contrary, we ran into Quillimane for wood. 

Quillimane must have been built solely for the sake of carrying on theslave-trade, for no man in his senses would ever have dreamed of placinga village on such a low, muddy, fever-haunted, and mosquito-swarmingsite, had it not been for the facilities it afforded for slaving. Thebar may at springs and floods be easily crossed by sailing-vessels, but, being far from the land, it is always dangerous for boats. Slaves, underthe name of "free emigrants, " have gone by thousands from Quillimane, during the last six years, to the ports a little to the south, particularly to Massangano. Some excellent brick-houses still stand inthe place, and the owners are generous and hospitable: among them ourgood friend, Colonel Nunez. His disinterested kindness to us and to allour countrymen can never be forgotten. He is a noble example of whatenergy and uprightness may accomplish even here. He came out as a cabin-boy, and, without a single friend to help him, he has persevered in anhonourable course until he is the richest man on the East Coast. WhenDr. Livingstone came down the Zambesi in 1856, Colonel Nunez was thechief of the only four honourable, trustworthy men in the country. Butwhile he has risen a whole herd has sunk, making loud lamentations, through puffs of cigar-smoke, over negro laziness; they might add, theirown. 

All agricultural enterprise is virtually discouraged by QuillimaneGovernment. A man must purchase a permit from the Governor, when hewishes to visit his country farm; and this tax, in a country where labouris unpopular, causes the farms to be almost entirely left in the hands ofa head slave, who makes returns to his master as interest or honestyprompts him. A passport must also be bought whenever a man wishes to goup the river to Mazaro, Senna, or Tette, or even to reside for a month atQuillimane. With a soil and a climate well suited for the growth of thecane, abundance of slave labour, and water communication to any market inthe world, they have never made their own sugar. All they use isimported from Bombay. "The people of Quillimane have no enterprise, "said a young European Portuguese, "they do nothing, and are alwayswasting their time in suffering, or in recovering from fever. "

We entered the Zambesi about the end of November and found it unusuallylow, so we did not get up to Shupanga till the 19th of December. Thefriends of our Mazaro men, who had now become good sailors and veryattentive servants, turned out and gave them a hearty welcome back fromthe perils of the sea: they had begun to fear that they would neverreturn. We hired them at a sixteen-yard piece of cloth a month--aboutten shillings' worth, the Portuguese market-price of the cloth being thensevenpence halfpenny a yard, --and paid them five pieces each, for four-and-a-half months' work. A merchant at the same time paid other Mazaromen three pieces for seven months, and they were with him in theinterior. If the merchants do not prosper, it is not because labour isdear, but because it is scarce, and because they are so eager on everyoccasion to sell the workmen out of the country. Our men had alsoreceived quantities of good clothes from the sailors of the "Pioneer" andof the "Orestes, " and were now regarded by their neighbours and bythemselves as men of importance. Never before had they possessed so muchwealth: they believed that they might settle in life, being now ofsufficient standing to warrant their entering the married state; and awife and a hut were among their first investments. Sixteen yards werepaid to the wife's parents, and a hut cost four yards. We should haveliked to have kept them in the ship, for they were well-behaved and hadlearned a great deal of the work required. Though they would notthemselves go again, they engaged others for us; and brought twice asmany as we could take, of their brothers and cousins, who were eager tojoin the ship and go with us up the Shire, or anywhere else. They allagreed to take half-pay until they too had learned to work; and we foundno scarcity of labour, though all that could be exported is now out ofthe country. 

There had been a drought of unusual severity during the past season inthe country between Lupata and Kebrabasa, and it had extended north-eastto the Manganja highlands. All the Tette slaves, except a very fewhousehold ones, had been driven away by hunger, and were now far off inthe woods, and wherever wild fruit, or the prospect of obtaining anythingwhatever to keep the breath of life in them, was to be found. Theirmasters were said never to expect to see them again. There have been twoyears of great hunger at Tette since we have been in the country, and afamine like the present prevailed in 1854, when thousands died ofstarvation. If men like the Cape farmers owned this country, theirenergy and enterprise would soon render the crops independent of rain. There being plenty of slope or fall, the land could be easily irrigatedfrom the Zambesi and its tributary streams. A Portuguese colony cannever prosper: it is used as a penal settlement, and everything must bedone military fashion. "What do I care for this country?" said the mostenterprising of the Tette merchants, "all I want is to make money as soonpossible, and then go to Bombay and enjoy it. " All business at Tette wasnow suspended. Carriers could not be found to take the goods into theinterior, and the merchants could barely obtain food for their ownfamilies. At Mazaro more rain had fallen, and a tolerable crop followed. The people of Shupanga were collecting and drying different wild fruits, nearly all of which are far from palatable to a European taste. The rootof a small creeper called "bise" is dug up and eaten. In appearance itis not unlike the small white sweet potato, and has a little of theflavour of our potato. It would be very good, if it were only a littlelarger. From another tuber, called "ulanga, " very good starch can bemade. A few miles from Shupanga there is an abundance of large game, butthe people here, though fond enough of meat, are not a hunting race, andseldom kill any. 

The Shire having risen, we steamed off on the 10th of January, 1863, withthe "Lady Nyassa" in tow. It was not long before we came upon theravages of the notorious Mariano. The survivors of a small hamlet, atthe foot of Morambala, were in a state of starvation, having lost theirfood by one of his marauding parties. The women were in the fieldscollecting insects, roots, wild fruits, and whatever could be eaten, inorder to drag on their lives, if possible, till the next crop should beripe. Two canoes passed us, that had been robbed by Mariano's band ofeverything they had in them; the owners were gathering palm-nuts fortheir subsistence. They wore palm-leaf aprons, as the robbers hadstripped them of their clothing and ornaments. Dead bodies floated pastus daily, and in the mornings the paddles had to be cleared of corpses, caught by the floats during the night. For scores of miles the entirepopulation of the valley was swept away by this scourge Mariano, who isagain, as he was before, the great Portuguese slave-agent. It made theheart ache to see the widespread desolation; the river-banks, once sopopulous, all silent; the villages burned down, and an oppressivestillness reigning where formerly crowds of eager sellers appeared withthe various products of their industry. Here and there might be seen onthe bank a small dreary deserted shed, where had sat, day after day, astarving fisherman, until the rising waters drove the fish from theirwonted haunts, and left him to die. Tingane had been defeated; hispeople had been killed, kidnapped, and forced to flee from theirvillages. There were a few wretched survivors in a village above theRuo; but the majority of the population was dead. The sight and smell ofdead bodies was everywhere. Many skeletons lay beside the path, where intheir weakness they had fallen and expired. Ghastly living forms of boysand girls, with dull dead eyes, were crouching beside some of the huts. Afew more miserable days of their terrible hunger, and they would be withthe dead. 

Oppressed with the shocking scenes around, we visited the Bishop's grave;and though it matters little where a good Christian's ashes rest, yet itwas with sadness that we thought over the hopes which had clusteredaround him, as he left the classic grounds of Cambridge, all now buriedin this wild place. How it would have torn his kindly heart to witnessthe sights we now were forced to see!

In giving vent to the natural feelings of regret, that a man so eminentlyendowed and learned, as was Bishop Mackenzie, should have been so sooncut off, some have expressed an opinion that it was wrong to use aninstrument so valuable _merely_ to convert the heathen. If the attemptis to be made at all, it is "penny wise and pound foolish" to employ anybut the very best men, and those who are specially educated for the work. An ordinary clergyman, however well suited for a parish, will not, without special training, make a Missionary; and as to their comparativeusefulness, it is like that of the man who builds an hospital, ascompared with that of the surgeon who in after years only administers fora time the remedies which the founder had provided in perpetuity. Hadthe Bishop succeeded in introducing Christianity, his converts might havebeen few, but they would have formed a continuous roll for all time tocome. 

The Shire fell two feet, before we reached the shallow crossing where wehad formerly such difficulty, and we had now two ships to take up. Ahippopotamus was shot two miles above a bank on which the ship lay afortnight: it floated in three hours. As the boat was towing it down, the crocodiles were attracted by the dead beast, and several shots had tobe fired to keep them off. The bullet had not entered the brain of theanimal, but driven a splinter of bone into it. A little moisture withsome gas issued from the wound, and this was all that could tell thecrocodiles down the stream of a dead hippopotamus; and yet they came upfrom miles below. Their sense of smell must be as acute as theirhearing; both are quite extraordinary. Dozens fed on the meat we left. Our Krooman, Jumbo, used to assert that the crocodile never eats freshmeat, but always keeps it till it is high and tender--and the stronger itsmells the better he likes it. There seems to be some truth in this. They can swallow but small pieces at a time, and find it difficult totear fresh meat. In the act of swallowing, which is like that of a dog, the head is raised out of the water. We tried to catch some, and one wassoon hooked; it required half-a-dozen hands to haul him up the river, andthe shark-hook straightened, and he got away. A large iron hook was nextmade, but, as the creatures could not swallow it, their jaws soon pressedit straight--and our crocodile-fishing was a failure. As one mightexpect, --from the power even of a salmon--the tug of a crocodile wasterribly strong. 

The corpse of a boy floated past the ship; a monstrous crocodile rushedat it with the speed of a greyhound, caught it and shook it, as a terrierdog does a rat. Others dashed at the prey, each with his powerful tailcausing the water to churn and froth, as he furiously tore off a piece. In a few seconds it was all gone. The sight was frightful to behold. TheShire swarmed with crocodiles; we counted sixty-seven of these repulsivereptiles on a single bank, but they are not as fierce as they are in somerivers. "Crocodiles, " says Captain Tuckey, "are so plentiful in theCongo, near the rapids, and so frequently carry off the women, who atdaylight go down to the river for water, that, while they are fillingtheir calabashes, one of the party is usually employed in throwing largestones into the water outside. " Here, either a calabash on a long poleis used in drawing water, or a fence is planted. The natives eat thecrocodile, but to us the idea of tasting the musky-scented, fishy-lookingflesh carried the idea of cannibalism. Humboldt remarks, that in SouthAmerica the alligators of some rivers are more dangerous than in others. Alligators differ from crocodiles in the fourth or canine tooth goinginto a hole or socket in the upper jaw, while in the crocodile it fitsinto a notch. The forefoot of the crocodile has five toes not webbed, the hindfoot has four toes which are webbed; in the alligator the web isaltogether wanting. They are so much alike that they would no doubtbreed together. 

One of the crocodiles which was shot had a piece snapped off the end ofhis tail, another had lost a forefoot in fighting; we saw actual leechesbetween the teeth, such as are mentioned by Herodotus, but we neverwitnessed the plover picking them out. Their greater fierceness in onepart of the country than another is doubtless owing to a scarcity offish; in fact, Captain Tuckey says, of that part of the Congo, mentionedabove, "There are no fish here but catfish, " and we found that the lakecrocodiles, living in clear water, and with plenty of fish, scarcely everattacked man. The Shire teems with fish of many different kinds. Theonly time, as already remarked, when its crocodiles are particularly tobe dreaded, is when the river is in flood. Then the fish are driven fromtheir usual haunts, and no game comes down to the river to drink, waterbeing abundant in pools inland. Hunger now impels the crocodile to liein wait for the women who come to draw water, and on the Zambesi numbersare carried off every year. The danger is not so great at other seasons;though it is never safe to bathe, or to stoop to drink, where one cannotsee the bottom, especially in the evening. One of the Makololo ran downin the dusk of the river; and, as he was busy tossing the water to hismouth with his hand, in the manner peculiar to the natives, a crocodilerose suddenly from the bottom, and caught him by the hand. The limb of atree was fortunately within reach, and he had presence of mind to layhold of it. Both tugged and pulled; the crocodile for his dinner, andthe man for dear life. For a time it appeared doubtful whether a dinneror a life was to be sacrificed; but the man held on, and the monster letthe hand go, leaving the deep marks of his ugly teeth in it. 

During our detention, in expectation of the permanent rise of the riverin March, Dr. Kirk and Mr. C. Livingstone collected numbers of the wading-birds of the marshes--and made pleasant additions to our saltedprovisions, in geese, ducks, and hippopotamus flesh. One of the comb orknob-nosed geese, on being strangled in order to have its skin preservedwithout injury, continued to breathe audibly by the broken humerus, orwing-bone, and other means had to be adopted to put it out of pain. Thiswas as if a man on the gallows were to continue to breathe by a brokenarmbone, and afforded us an illustration of the fact, that in birds, thevital air penetrates every part of the interior of their bodies. Thebreath passes through and round about the lungs--bathes the surfaces ofthe viscera, and enters the cavities of the bones; it even penetratesinto some spaces between the muscles of the neck--and thus not only isthe most perfect oxygenation of the blood secured, but, the temperatureof the blood being very high, the air in every part is rarefied, and thegreat lightness and vigour provided for, that the habits of birdsrequire. Several birds were found by Dr. Kirk to have marrow in thetibiae, though these bones are generally described as hollow. 

During the period of our detention on the shallow part of the river inMarch, Mr. Thornton came up to us from Shupanga: he had, as beforenarrated, left the Expedition in 1859, and joined Baron van der Decken, in the journey to Kilimanjaro, when, by an ascent of the mountain to theheight of 8000 feet, it was first proved to be covered with perpetualsnow, and the previous information respecting it, given by the Church ofEngland Missionaries, Krapf and Rebman, confirmed. It is now well knownthat the Baron subsequently ascended the Kilimanjaro to 14, 000 feet, andascertained its highest peak to be at least 20, 000 feet above the sea. Mr. Thornton made the map of the first journey, at Shupanga, frommaterials collected when with the Baron; and when that work wasaccomplished, followed us. He was then directed to examine geologicallythe Cataract district, but not to expose himself to contact with theAjawa until the feelings of that tribe should be ascertained. 

The members of Bishop Mackenzie's party, on the loss of their head, fellback from Magomero on the highlands, to Chibisa's, in the low-lying ShireValley; and Thornton, finding them suffering from want of animal food, kindly volunteered to go across thence to Tette, and bring a supply ofgoats and sheep. We were not aware of this step, to which the generosityof his nature prompted him, till two days after he had started. Inaddition to securing supplies for the Universities' Mission, he broughtsome for the Expedition, and took bearings, by which he hoped to connecthis former work at Tette with the mountains in the Shire district. Thetoil of this journey was too much for his strength, as with the additionof great scarcity of water, it had been for that of Dr. Kirk and Rae, andhe returned in a sadly haggard and exhausted condition; diarrhoeasupervened, and that ended in dysentery and fever, which terminatedfatally on the 21st of April, 1863. He received the unremittingattentions of Dr. Kirk, and Dr. Meller, surgeon of the "Pioneer, " duringthe fortnight of his illness; and as he had suffered very little fromfever, or any other disease, in Africa, we had entertained strong hopesthat his youth and unimpaired constitution would have carried himthrough. During the night of the 20th his mind wandered so much, that wecould not ascertain his last wishes; and on the morning of the 21st, toour great sorrow, he died. He was buried on the 22nd, near a large treeon the right bank of the Shire, about five hundred yards from the lowestof the Murchison Cataracts--and close to a rivulet, at which the "LadyNyassa" and "Pioneer" lay. 

No words can convey an adequate idea of the scene of widespreaddesolation which the once pleasant Shire Valley now presented. Insteadof smiling villages and crowds of people coming with things for sale, scarcely a soul was to be seen; and, when by chance one lighted on anative, his frame bore the impress of hunger, and his countenance thelook of a cringing broken-spiritedness. A drought had visited the landafter the slave-hunting panic swept over it. Had it been possible toconceive the thorough depopulation which had ensued, we should haveavoided coming up the river. Large masses of the people had fled down tothe Shire, only anxious to get the river between them and their enemies. Most of the food had been left behind; and famine and starvation had cutoff so many, that the remainder were too few to bury the dead. Thecorpses we saw floating down the river were only a remnant of those thathad perished, whom their friends, from weakness, could not bury, nor over-gorged crocodiles devour. It is true that famine caused a great portionof this waste of human life: but the slave-trade must be deemed the chiefagent in the ruin, because, as we were informed, in former droughts allthe people flocked from the hills down to the marshes, which are capableof yielding crops of maize in less than three months, at any time of theyear, and now they were afraid to do so. A few, encouraged by theMission in the attempt to cultivate, had their little patches robbed assuccessive swarms of fugitives came from the hills. Who can blame theseoutcasts from house and home for stealing to save their wretched lives, or wonder that the owners protected the little all, on which their ownlives depended, with club and spear? We were informed by Mr. Waller ofthe dreadful blight which had befallen the once smiling Shire Valley. Hiswords, though strong, failed to impress us with the reality. In fact, they were received, as some may accept our own, as tinged withexaggeration; but when our eyes beheld the last mere driblets of this cupof woe, we for the first time felt that the enormous wrongs inflicted onour fellow-men by slaving are beyond exaggeration. 

Wherever we took a walk, human skeletons were seen in every direction, and it was painfully interesting to observe the different postures inwhich the poor wretches had breathed their last. A whole heap had beenthrown down a slope behind a village, where the fugitives often crossedthe river from the east; and in one hut of the same village no fewer thantwenty drums had been collected, probably the ferryman's fees. Many hadended their misery under shady trees--others under projecting crags inthe hills--while others lay in their huts, with closed doors, which whenopened disclosed the mouldering corpse with the poor rags round theloins--the skull fallen off the pillow--the little skeleton of the child, that had perished first, rolled up in a mat between two large skeletons. The sight of this desert, but eighteen months ago a well peopled valley, now literally strewn with human bones, forced the conviction upon us, that the destruction of human life in the middle passage, however great, constitutes but a small portion of the waste, and made us feel thatunless the slave-trade--that monster iniquity, which has so long broodedover Africa--is put down, lawful commerce cannot be established. 

We believed that, if it were possible to get a steamer upon the Lake, wecould by her means put a check on the slavers from the East Coast; andaid more effectually still in the suppression of the slave-trade, byintroducing, by way of the Rovuma, a lawful traffic in ivory. Wetherefore unscrewed the "Lady Nyassa" at a rivulet about five hundredyards below the first cataract, and began to make a road over the thirty-five or forty miles of land portage, by which to carry her up piecemeal. After mature consideration, we could not imagine a more noble work ofbenevolence, than thus to introduce light and liberty into a quarter ofthis fair earth, which human lust has converted into the nearest possibleresemblance of what we conceive the infernal regions to be--and wesacrificed much of our private resources as an offering for the promotionof so good a cause. 

The chief part of the labour of road-making consisted in cutting downtrees and removing stones. The country being covered with open forest, asmall tree had to be cut about every fifty or sixty yards. The land nearthe river was so very much intersected by ravines, that search had to bemade, a mile from its banks, for more level ground. ExperiencedHottentot drivers would have taken Cape wagons without any other troublethan that of occasionally cutting down a tree. No tsetse infested thisdistrict, and the cattle brought from Johanna flourished on the abundantpasture. The first half-mile of road led up, by a gradual slope, to analtitude of two hundred feet above the ship, and a sensible difference ofclimate was felt even there. For the remainder of the distance theheight increased, --till, at the uppermost cataract, we were more than1200 feet above the sea. The country here, having recovered from theeffects of the drought, was bright with young green woodland, andmountains of the same refreshing hue. But the absence of the crowds, which had attended us as we carried up the boat, when the women followedus for miles with fine meal, vegetables, and fat fowls for sale, and theboys were ever ready for a little job--and the oppressive stillness boreheavily on our spirits. The Portuguese of Tette had very effectuallyremoved our labourers. Not an ounce of fresh provisions could beobtained, except what could be shot, and even the food for our nativecrew had to be brought one hundred and fifty miles from the Zambesi. 

The diet of salt provisions and preserved meats without vegetables, withthe depression of spirits caused by seeing how effectually a few wretchedconvicts, aided by the connivance of officials, of whom better might havebeen hoped, could counteract our best efforts, and turn intended good tocertain evil, brought on attacks of dysentery, which went the round ofthe Expedition--and, Dr. Kirk and Charles Livingstone having sufferedmost severely, it was deemed advisable that they should go home. Thismeasure was necessary, though much to the regret of all--for having doneso much, they were naturally anxious to be present, when, by theestablishing ourselves on the Lake, all our efforts should be crownedwith success. After it had been decided that these two officers, and allthe whites who could be spared, should be sent down to the sea for apassage to England, Dr. Livingstone was seized in May with a severeattack of dysentery, which continued for a month, and reduced him to ashadow. Dr. Kirk kindly remained in attendance till the worst waspassed. The parting took place on the 19th of May. 

After a few miles of road were completed, and the oxen broken in, weresolved to try and render ourselves independent of the south for freshprovisions, by going in a boat up the Shire, above the Cataracts, to thetribes at the foot of Lake Nyassa, who were still untouched by the Ajawainvasion. In furtherance of this plan Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Raedetermined to walk up to examine, and, if need be, mend the boat whichhad been left two seasons previously hung up to the limb of a large shadytree, before attempting to carry another past the Cataracts. The"Pioneer, " which was to be left in charge of our active and mosttrustworthy gunner, Mr. Edward D. Young, R. N. , was thoroughly roofed overwith euphorbia branches and grass, so as completely to protect her decksfrom the sun: she also received daily a due amount of man-of-warscrubbing and washing; and, besides having everything put in shipshapefashion, was every evening swung out into the middle of the river, forthe sake of the greater amount of air which circulated there. Inaddition to their daily routine work of the ship, the three stokers, onesailor, and one carpenter--now our complement--were encouraged to huntfor guinea-fowl, which in June, when the water inland is dried up, comein large flocks to the river's banks, and roost on the trees at night. Everything that can be done to keep mind and body employed tends toprevent fever. 

While we were employed in these operations, some of the poor starvedpeople about had been in the habit of crossing the river, and reaping theself-sown mapira, in the old gardens of their countrymen. In theafternoon of the 9th, a canoe came floating down empty, and shortly aftera woman was seen swimming near the other side, which was about twohundred yards distant from us. Our native crew manned the boat, andrescued her; when brought on board, she was found to have an arrow-head, eight or ten inches long, in her back, below the ribs, and slanting upthrough the diaphragm and left lung, towards the heart--she had been shotfrom behind when stooping. Air was coming out of the wound, and, therebeing but an inch of the barbed arrow-head visible, it was thought betternot to run the risk of her dying under the operation necessary for itsremoval; so we carried her up to her own hut. One of her relatives wasless scrupulous, for he cut out the arrow and part of the lung. Mr. Young sent her occasionally portions of native corn, and strange to sayfound that she not only became well, but stout. The constitution ofthese people seems to have a wonderful power of self-repair--and it couldbe no slight privation which had cut off the many thousands that we sawdead around us. 

We regretted that, in consequence of Dr. Meller having now sole medicalcharge, we could not have his company in our projected trip; but he foundemployment in botany and natural history, after the annual sickly seasonof March, April, and May was over; and his constant presence was not somuch required at the ship. Later in the year, when he could be wellspared, he went down the river to take up an appointment he had beenoffered in Madagascar; but unfortunately was so severely tried by illnesswhile detained at the coast, that for nearly two years he was not able toturn his abilities as a naturalist to account by proceeding to thatisland. We have no doubt but he will yet distinguish himself in thatuntrodden field. 

On the 16th of June we started for the Upper Cataracts, with a mule-cart, our road lying a distance of a mile west from the river. We saw many ofthe deserted dwellings of the people who formerly came to us; and werevery much struck by the extent of land under cultivation, though that, compared with the whole country, is very small. Large patches of mapiracontinued to grow, --as it is said it does from the roots for three years. The mapira was mixed with tall bushes of the Congo-bean, castor-oilplants, and cotton. The largest patch of this kind we paced, and foundit to be six hundred and thirty paces on one side--the rest were from oneacre to three, and many not more than one-third of an acre. Thecotton--of very superior quality--was now dropping off the bushes, to beleft to rot--there was no one to gather what would have been of so muchvalue in Lancashire. The huts, in the different villages we entered, were standing quite perfect. The mortars for pounding corn--the stonesfor grinding it--the water and beer pots--the empty corn-safes andkitchen utensils, were all untouched; and most of the doors were shut, asif the starving owners had gone out to wander in search of roots orfruits in the forest, and had never returned. When opened, several hutsrevealed a ghastly sight of human skeletons. Some were seen in suchunnatural positions, as to give the idea that they had expired in afaint, when trying to reach something to allay the gnawings of hunger. 

We took several of the men as far as the Mukuru-Madse for the sake of thechange of air and for occupation, and also to secure for the ships asupply of buffalo meat--as those animals were reported to be in abundanceon that stream. But though it was evident from the tracks that thereport was true, it was impossible to get a glimpse of them. The grassbeing taller than we were, and pretty thickly planted, they always knewof our approach before we saw them. And the first intimation we had oftheir being near was the sound they made in rushing over the stones, breaking the branches, and knocking their horns against each other. Once, when seeking a ford for the cart, at sunrise, we saw a herd slowlywending up the hill-side from the water. Sending for a rifle, andstalking with intense eagerness for a fat beefsteak, instead of our usualfare of salted provisions, we got so near that we could hear the bullsuttering their hoarse deep low, but could see nothing except the mass ofyellow grass in front; suddenly the buffalo-birds sounded their alarm-whistle, and away dashed the troop, and we got sight of neither birds norbeasts. This would be no country for a sportsman except when the grassis short. The animals are wary, from the dread they have of the poisonedarrows. Those of the natives who do hunt are deeply imbued with thehunting spirit, and follow the game with a stealthy perseverance andcunning, quite extraordinary. The arrow making no noise, the herd isfollowed up until the poison takes effect, and the wounded animal fallsout. It is then patiently watched till it drops--a portion of meat roundthe wound is cut away, and all the rest eaten. 

Poisoned arrows are made in two pieces. An iron barb is firmly fastenedto one end of a small wand of wood, ten inches or a foot long, the otherend of which, fined down to a long point, is nicely fitted, though nototherwise secured, in the hollow of the reed, which forms the arrowshaft. The wood immediately below the iron head is smeared with thepoison. When the arrow is shot into an animal, the reed either falls tothe ground at once, or is very soon brushed off by the bushes; but theiron barb and poisoned upper part of the wood remain in the wound. Ifmade in one piece, the arrow would often be torn out, head and all, bythe long shaft catching in the underwood, or striking against trees. Thepoison used here, and called _kombi_, is obtained from a species of_strophanthus_, and is very virulent. Dr. Kirk found by an accidentalexperiment on himself that it acts by lowering the pulse. In using histooth-brush, which had been in a pocket containing a little of thepoison, he noticed a bitter taste, but attributed it to his havingsometimes used, the handle in taking quinine. Though the quantity wassmall, it immediately showed its power by lowering his pulse which at thetime had been raised by a cold, and next day he was perfectly restored. Not much can be inferred from a single case of this kind, but it ispossible that the kombi may turn out a valuable remedy; and as ProfessorSharpey has conducted a series of experiments with this substance, welook with interest for the results. An alkaloid has been obtained fromit similar to strychnine. There is no doubt that all kinds of wildanimals die from the effects of poisoned arrows, except the elephant andhippopotamus. The amount of poison that this little weapon can conveyinto their systems being too small to kill those huge beasts, the huntersresort to the beam trap instead. 

Another kind of poison was met with on Lake Nyassa, which was said to beused exclusively for killing men. It was put on small woodenarrow-heads, and carefully protected by a piece of maize-leaf tied roundit. It caused numbness of the tongue when the smallest particle wastasted. The Bushmen of the northern part of the Kalahari were seenapplying the entrails of a small caterpillar which they termed 'Nga totheir arrows. This venom was declared to be so powerful in producingdelirium, that a man in dying returned in imagination to a state ofinfancy, and would call for his mother's breast. Lions when shot with itare said to perish in agonies. The poisonous ingredient in this case maybe derived from the plant on which the caterpillar feeds. It isdifficult to conceive by what sort of experiments the properties of thesepoisons, known for generations, were proved. Probably the animalinstincts, which have become so obtuse by civilization, that children inEngland eat the berries of the deadly nightshade (_Atropa belladonna_)without suspicion, were in the early uncivilized state much more keen. Insome points instinct is still retained among savages. It is related thatin the celebrated voyage of the French navigator, Bougainville, a younglady, who had assumed the male attire, performed all the hard dutiesincident to the calling of a common sailor; and, even as servant to thegeologist, carried a bag of stones and specimens over hills and daleswithout a complaint, and without having her sex suspected by herassociates; but on landing among the savages of one of the South SeaIslands, she was instantly recognized as a female. They began to showtheir impressions in a way that compelled her to confess her sex, andthrow herself on the protection of the commander, which of course wasgranted. In like manner, the earlier portions of the human family mayhave had their instincts as to plants more highly developed than any oftheir descendants--if indeed much more knowledge than we usually supposebe not the effect of direct revelation from above. 

The Mukuru-Madse has a deep rocky bed. The water is generally about fourfeet deep, and fifteen or twenty yards broad. Before reaching it, wepassed five or six gullies; but beyond it the country, for two or threemiles from the river, was comparatively smooth. The long grass wasoverrunning all the native paths, and one species (_sanu_), which has asharp barbed seed a quarter of an inch in length, enters every pore ofwoollen clothing and highly irritates the skin. From its hard, sharppoint a series of minute barbs are laid back, and give the seed a holdwherever it enters: the slightest touch gives it an entering motion, andthe little hooks prevent its working out. These seeds are so abundant insome spots, that the inside of the stocking becomes worse than theroughest hair shirt. It is, however, an excellent self-sower, and finefodder; it rises to the height of common meadow-grass in England, andwould be a capital plant for spreading over a new country not soabundantly supplied with grasses as this is. 

We have sometimes noticed two or three leaves together pierced through bythese seeds, and thus made, as it were, into wings to carry them to anysoil suited to their growth. 

We always follow the native paths, though they are generally not morethan fifteen inches broad, and so often have deep little holes in them, made for the purpose of setting traps for small animals, and are so muchobscured by the long grass, that one has to keep one's eyes on the groundmore than is pleasant. In spite, however, of all drawbacks, it is vastlymore easy to travel on these tracks than to go straight over uncultivatedground, or virgin forest. A path usually leads to some village, thoughsometimes it turns out to be a mere game track leading nowhere. 

In going north, we came into a part called Mpemba where Chibisa was ownedas chief, but the people did not know that he had been assassinated bythe Portuguese Terera. A great deal of grain was lying round the hut, where we spent the night. Very large numbers of turtledoves feastedundisturbed on the tall stalked mapira ears, and we easily secured plentyof fine fat guinea-fowls--now allowed to feed leisurely in the desertedgardens. The reason assigned for all this listless improvidence was"There are no women to grind the corn--all are dead. "

The cotton patches in all cases seemed to have been so well cared for, and kept so free of weeds formerly, that, though now untended, but fewweeds had sprung up; and the bushes were thus preserved in the annualgrass burnings. Many baobab-trees grow in different spots, and the fewpeople seen were using the white pulp found between the seeds to make apleasant subacid drink. 

On passing Malango, near the uppermost cataract, not a soul was to beseen; but, as we rested opposite a beautiful tree-covered island, themerry voices of children at play fell on our ears--the parents had fledthither for protection from the slave-hunting Ajawa, still urged on bythe occasional visits of the Portuguese agents from Tette. The Ajawa, instead of passing below the Cataracts, now avoided us, and crossed overto the east side near to the tree on which we had hung the boat. Thoseof the Manganja, to whom we could make ourselves known, readily came tous; but the majority had lost all confidence in themselves, in eachother, and in every one else. The boat had been burned about threemonths previously, and the Manganja were very anxious that we shouldbelieve that this had been the act of the Ajawa; but on scanning the spotwe saw that it was more likely to have caught fire in the grass-burningof the country. Had we intended to be so long in returning to it, weshould have hoisted it bottom upwards; for, as it was, it is probablethat a quantity of dried leaves lay inside, and a spark ignited thewhole. All the trees within fifty yards were scorched and killed, andthe nails, iron, and copper sheathing, all lay undisturbed beneath. Hadthe Ajawa done the deed, they would have taken away the copper and iron. 

Our hopes of rendering ourselves independent of the south for provisions, by means of this boat, being thus disappointed, we turned back with theintention of carrying another up to the same spot; and, in order to findlevel ground for this, we passed across from the Shire at Malango to theupper part of the stream Lesungwe. A fine, active, intelligent fellow, called Pekila, guided us, and was remarkable as almost the only one ofthe population left with any spirit in him. The depressing effect whichthe slave-hunting scourge has upon the native mind, though little to bewondered at, is sad, very sad to witness. Musical instruments, mats, pillows, mortars for pounding meal, were lying about unused, and becomingthe prey of the white ants. With all their little comforts destroyed, the survivors were thrown still further back into barbarism. 

It is of little importance perhaps to any but travellers to notice thatin occupying one night a well-built hut, which had been shut up for sometime, the air inside at once gave us a chill, and an attack of fever;both of which vanished when the place was well-ventilated by means of afire. We have frequently observed that lighting a fire early in themornings, even in the hottest time of the year, gives freshness to thewhole house, and removes that feeling of closeness and langour, which ahot climate induces. 

On the night of the 1st July, 1863, several loud peals of thunder awokeus; the moon was shining brightly, and not a cloud to be seen. All thenatives remarked on the clearness of the sky at the time, and nextmorning said, "We thought it was God" (Morungo). 

On arriving at the ship on the 2nd July, we found a despatch from EarlRussell, containing instructions for the withdrawal of the Expedition. The devastation caused by slave-hunting and famine lay all around. Thelabour had been as completely swept away from the Great Shire Valley, asit had been from the Zambesi, wherever Portuguese intrigue or powerextended. The continual forays of Mariano had spread ruin and desolationon our south-east as far as Mount Clarendon. 

While this was going on in our rear, the Tette slave-hunters from theWest had stimulated the Ajawa to sweep all the Manganja off the hills onour East; and slaving parties for this purpose were still passing theShire above the Cataracts. In addition to the confession of the Governorof Tette, of an intention to go on with this slaving in accordance withthe counsel of his elder brother at Mosambique, we had reason to believethat slavery went on under the eye of his Excellency, theGovernor-General himself; and this was subsequently corroborated by ourrecognizing two women at Mosambique who had lived within a hundred yardsof the Mission-station at Magomero. They were well known to ourattendants, and had formed a part of a gang of several hundreds taken toMosambique by the Ajawa at the very time when his Excellency wasentertaining English officers with anti-slavery palavers. To any one whounderstands how minute the information is, which Portuguese governorspossess by means of their own slaves, and through gossiping traders whoseek to curry their favour, it is idle to assert that all this slavinggoes on without their approval and connivance. 

If more had been wanted to prove the hopelessness of producing any changein the system which has prevailed ever since our allies, the Portuguese, entered the country, we had it in the impunity with which the freebooter, Terera, who had murdered Chibisa, was allowed to carry on his forays. Belchoir, another marauder, had been checked, but was still allowed tomake war, as they term slave-hunting. 

Mr. Horace Waller was living for some five months on Mount Morambala, aposition from which the whole process of the slave-trade, anddepopulation of the country around could be well noted. The mountainoverlooks the Shire, the beautiful meanderings of which are distinctlyseen, on clear days, for thirty miles. This river was for some timesupposed to be closed against Mariano, who, as a mere matter of form, wasdeclared a rebel against the Portuguese flag. When, however, it becameno longer possible to keep up the sham, the river was thrown open to him;and Mr. Waller has seen in a single day from fifteen to twenty canoes ofdifferent sizes going down, laden with slaves, to the Portuguesesettlements from the so-called rebel camp. These cargoes were composedentirely of women and children. For three months this traffic wasincessant, and at last, so completely was the mask thrown off, that oneof the officials came to pay a visit to Bishop Tozer on another part ofthe same mountain, and, combining business with pleasure, collectedpayment for some canoe work done for the Missionary party, and with thispurchased slaves from the rebels, who had only to be hailed from the bankof the river. When he had concluded the bargain he trotted the slavesout for inspection in Mr. Waller's presence. This official, SenhorMesquita, was the only officer who could be forced to live at theKongone. From certain circumstances in his life, he had fallen under thepower of the local Government; all the other Custom-house officersrefused to go to Kongone, so here poor Mesquita must live on a miserablepittance--must live, and perhaps slave, sorely against his will. Hisname is not brought forward with a view of throwing any odium on hischaracter. The disinterested kindness which he showed to Dr. Meller, andothers, forbids that he should be mentioned by us with anything likeunkindness. 

Under all these considerations, with the fact that we had not found theRovuma so favourable for navigation at the time of our visit as weexpected, it was impossible not to coincide in the wisdom of ourwithdrawal; but we deeply regretted that we had ever given credit to thePortuguese Government for any desire to ameliorate the condition of theAfrican race; for, with half the labour and expense anywhere else, weshould have made an indelible mark of improvement on a section of theContinent. Viewing Portuguese statesmen in the light of the laws theyhave passed for the suppression of slavery and the slave-trade, and bythe standard of the high character of our own public men, it cannot beconsidered weakness to have believed in the sincerity of the anxiety toaid our enterprise, professed by the Lisbon Ministry. We hoped tobenefit both Portuguese and Africans by introducing free-trade andChristianity. Our allies, unfortunately, cannot see the slightestbenefit in any measure that does not imply raising themselves up bythrusting others down. The official paper of the Lisbon Government hassince let us know "that their policy was directed to frustrating thegrasping designs of the British Government to the dominion of EasternAfrica. " We, who were on the spot, and behind the scenes, knew thatfeelings of private benevolence had the chief share in the operationsundertaken for introducing the reign of peace and good will on the Lakesand central regions, which for ages have been the abodes of violence andbloodshed. But that great change was not to be accomplished. The narrow-minded would ascribe all that was attempted to the grasping propensity ofthe English. But the motives that actuate many in England, both inpublic and private life, are much more noble than the world gives themcredit for. 

Seeing, then, that we were not yet arrived at "the good time coming, " andthat it was quite impossible to take the "Pioneer" down to the sea tillthe floods of December, we made arrangements to screw the "Lady Nyassa"together; and, in order to improve the time intervening, we resolved tocarry a boat past the Cataracts a second time, sail along the easternshore of the Lake, and round the northern end, and also collect data bywhich to verify the information collected by Colonel Rigby, that the19, 000 slaves, who go through the Custom-house of Zanzibar annually, arechiefly drawn from Lake Nyassa and the Valley of the Shire. 

Our party consisted of twenty natives, some of whom were Johanna men, andwere supposed to be capable of managing the six oxen which drew the smallwagon with a boat on it. A team of twelve Cape oxen, with a Hottentotdriver and leader, would have taken the wagon over the country we had topass through with the greatest ease; but no sooner did we get beyond thepart of the road already made, than our drivers encountered obstructionsin the way of trees and gullies, which it would have been a waste of timeto have overcome by felling timber and hauling out the wagon by block andtackle purchases. The Ajawa and Manganja settled at Chibisa's weretherefore sent for, and they took the boat on their shoulders and carriedit briskly, in a few days, past all the Cataracts except one; then comingto a comparatively still reach of the river, they took advantage of it tohaul her up a couple of miles. The Makololo had her then entirely incharge; for, being accustomed to rapids in their own country, no betterboatmen could be desired. The river here is very narrow, and even inwhat are called still places, the current is very strong, and oftenobliged them to haul the boat along by the reeds on the banks, or to handa tow-rope ashore. The reeds are full of cowitch (_Dolichos pruriens_), the pods of which are covered with what looks a fine velvety down, but isin reality a multitude of fine prickles, which go in by the million, andcaused an itching and stinging in the naked bodies of those who werepulling the tow-rope, that made them wriggle as if stung by a whole bedof nettles. Those on board required to be men of ready resource withoars and punting-poles, and such they were. But, nevertheless, theyfound, after attempting to pass by a rock, round which the water rushedin whirls, that the wiser plan would be to take the boat ashore, andcarry her past the last Cataract. When this was reported, the carrierswere called from the various shady trees under which they had takenrefuge from the sun. This was midwinter, but the sun is always hot byday here, though the nights are cold. Five Zambesi men, who had been alltheir lives accustomed to great heavy canoes, --the chief recommendationof which is said to be, that they can be run against a rock with the fullforce of the current without injury--were very desirous to show how muchbetter they could manage our boat than the Makololo; three jumped intoher when our backs were turned, and two hauled her up a little way; thetide caught her bow, we heard a shout of distress, the rope was out oftheir hands in a moment, and there she was, bottom upwards; a turn or twoin an eddy, and away she went, like an arrow, down the Cataracts. One ofthe men in swimming ashore saved a rifle. The whole party ran with alltheir might along the bank, but never more did we see our boat. 

The five performers in this catastrophe approached with penitentiallooks. They had nothing to say, nor had we. They bent down slowly, andtouched our feet with both hands. "Ku kuata moendo"--"to catch thefoot"--is their way of asking forgiveness. It was so like what we haveseen a little child do--try to bring a dish unbidden to its papa, andletting it fall, burst into a cry of distress--that they were onlysentenced to go back to the ship, get provisions, and, in the ensuingjourney on foot, carry as much as they could, and thus make up for theloss of the boat. 

It was excessively annoying to lose all this property, and be deprived ofthe means of doing the work proposed, on the east and north of the Lake;but it would have been like crying over spilt milk to do otherwise nowthan make the best use we could of our legs. The men were sent back tothe ship for provisions, cloth, and beads; and while they are gone, wemay say a little of the Cataracts which proved so fatal to our boatingplan. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Dr. Livingstone's further explorations--Effects of slave-trade--Kirk'srange--Ajawa migration--Native fishermen--Arab slave-crossing--Splendidhighlands. 

The Murchison Cataracts of the Shire river begin in 15 degrees 20 minutesS. , and end in lat. 15 degrees 55 minutes S. , the difference of latitudeis therefore 35 minutes. The river runs in this space nearly north andsouth, till we pass Malango; so the entire distance is under 40 miles. The principal Cataracts are five in number, and are called Pamofunda orPamozima, Morewa, Panoreba or Tedzane, Pampatamanga, and Papekira. Besides these, three or four smaller ones might be mentioned; as, forinstance, Mamvira, where in our ascent we first met the broken water, andheard that gushing sound which, from the interminable windings of some200 miles of river below, we had come to believe the tranquil Shire couldnever make. While these lesser cataracts descend at an angle of scarcely20 degrees, the greater fall 100 feet in 100 yards, at an angle of about45 degrees, and one at an angle of 70 degrees. One part of Pamozima isperpendicular, and, when the river is in flood, causes a cloud of vapourto ascend, which, in our journey to Lake Shirwa, we saw at a distance ofat least eight miles. The entire descent from the Upper to the LowerShire is 1200 feet. Only on one spot in all that distance is the currentmoderate--namely, above Tedzane. The rest is all rapid, and much of itbeing only fifty or eighty yards wide, and rushing like a mill-race, itgives the impression of water-power, sufficient to drive all the mills inManchester, running to waste. Pamofunda, or Pamozima, has a deep shadygrove on its right bank. When we were walking alone through its darkshade, we were startled by a shocking smell like that of a dissecting-room; and on looking up saw dead bodies in mats suspended from thebranches of the trees, a mode of burial somewhat similar to that which wesubsequently saw practised by the Parsees in their "towers of silence" atPoonah, near Bombay. The name Pamozima means, "the departed spirits orgods"--a fit name for a place over which, according to the popularbelief, the disembodied souls continually hover. 

The rock lowest down in the series is dark reddish-grey syenite. Thisseems to have been an upheaving agent, for the mica schists above it aremuch disturbed. Dark trappean rocks full of hornblende have in manyplaces burst through these schists, and appear in nodules on the surface. The highest rock seen is a fine sandstone of closer grain than that atTette, and quite metamorphosed where it comes into contact with theigneous rocks below it. It sometimes gives place to quartz and reddishclay schists, much baked by heat. This is the usual geological conditionon the right bank of the Cataracts. On the other side we pass overmasses of porphyritic trap, in contact with the same mica schists, andthese probably give to the soil the great fertility we observed. Thegreat body of the mountains is syenite. So much mica is washed into theriver, that on looking attentively on the stream one sees myriads ofparticles floating and glancing in the sun; and this, too, even at lowwater. 

It was the 15th of August before the men returned from the ship, accompanied by Mr. Rae and the steward of the "Pioneer. " They broughttwo oxen, one of which was instantly slaughtered to put courage into allhearts, and some bottles of wine, a present from Waller and Alington. Wenever carried wine before, but this was precious as an expression ofkindheartedness on the part of the donors. If one attempted to carryeither wine or spirits, as a beverage, he would require a whole troop offollowers for nothing else. Our greatest luxury in travelling was tea orcoffee. We never once carried sugar enough to last a journey, but coffeeis always good, while the sugarless tea is only bearable, because of theunbearable gnawing feeling of want and sinking which ensues if we beginto travel in the mornings without something warm in the stomach. Ourdrink generally was water, and if cool, nothing can equal it in a hotclimate. We usually carried a bottle of brandy rolled up in ourblankets, but that was used only as a medicine; a spoonful in hot waterbefore going to bed, to fend off a chill and fever. Spirits always doharm, if the fever has fairly begun; and it is probable that brandy-and-water has to answer for a good many of the deaths in Africa. 

Mr. Rae had made gratifying progress in screwing together the "LadyNyassa. " He had the zealous co-operation of three as fine steady workmenas ever handled tools; and, as they were noble specimens of Englishsailors, we would fain mention the names of men who are an honour to theBritish navy--John Reid, John Pennell, and Richard Wilson. The readerwill excuse our doing so, but we desire to record how much they wereesteemed, and how thankful we felt for their good behaviour. The weatherwas delightfully cool; and, with full confidence in those left behind, itwas with light hearts we turned our faces north. Mr. Rae accompanied usa day in front; and, as all our party had earnestly advised that at leasttwo Europeans should be associated together on the journey, the stewardwas at the last moment taken. Mr. Rae returned to get the "Lady Nyassa"ready for sea; and, as she drew less water than the "Pioneer, " take herdown to the ocean in October. One reason for taking the steward is worthrecording. Both he and a man named King, {5} who, though only a leadingstoker in the Navy, had been a promising student in the University ofAberdeen, had got into that weak bloodless-looking state which residencein the lowlands without much to do or think about often induces. Thebest thing for this is change and an active life. A couple of days'march only as far as the Mukuru-Madse, infused so much vigour into Kingthat he was able to walk briskly back. Consideration for the steward'shealth led to his being selected for this northern journey, and themeasure was so completely successful that it was often, in the hardmarch, a subject of regret that King had not been taken too. A removalof only a hundred yards is sometimes so beneficial that it ought insevere cases never to be omitted. 

Our object now was to get away to the N. N. W. , proceed parallel with LakeNyassa, but at a considerable distance west of it, and thus pass by theMazitu or Zulus near its northern end without contact--ascertain whetherany large river flowed into the Lake from the west--visit Lake Moelo, iftime permitted, and collect information about the trade on the greatslave route, which crosses the Lake at its southern end, and at Tsengaand Kota-kota. The Makololo were eager to travel fast, because theywanted to be back in time to hoe their fields before the rains, and alsobecause their wives needed looking after. 

In going in the first instance N. E. From the uppermost Cataract, wefollowed in a measure the great bend of the river towards the foot ofMount Zomba. Here we had a view of its most imposing side, the west, with the plateau some 3000 feet high, stretching away to its south, andMounts Chiradzuru and Mochiru towering aloft to the sky. From thatgoodly highland station, it was once hoped by the noble Mackenzie, who, for largeness of heart and loving disposition, really deserved to becalled the "Bishop of Central Africa, " that light and liberty wouldspread to all the interior. We still think it may be a centre forcivilizing influences; for any one descending from these cool heights, and stepping into a boat on the Upper Shire, can sail three hundred mileswithout a check into the heart of Africa. 

We passed through a tract of country covered with mopane trees, where thehard baked soil refused to let the usual thick crops of grass grow; andhere we came upon very many tracks of buffaloes, elephants, antelopes, and the spoor of one lion. An ox we drove along with us, as provisionfor the way, was sorely bitten by the tsetse. The effect of the bitewas, as usual, quite apparent two days afterwards, in the generalflaccidity of the muscles, the drooping ears, and looks of illness. Italways excited our wonder that we, who were frequently much bitten too bythe same insects, felt no harm from their attacks. Man shares theimmunity of the wild animals. 

Finding a few people on the evening of the 20th of August, who weresupporting a wretched existence on tamarinds and mice, we ascertainedthat there was no hope of our being able to buy food anywhere nearer thanthe Lakelet Pamalombe, where the Ajawa chief, Kainka, was now living; butthat plenty could be found with the Maravi female chief, Nyango. Weturned away north-westwards, and struck the stream Ribve-ribve, or Rivi-rivi, which rises in the Maravi range, and flows into the Shire. 

As the Rivi-rivi came from the N. W. We continued to travel along itsbanks, until we came to people who had successfully defended themselvesagainst the hordes of the Ajawa. By employing the men of one village togo forward and explain who we were to the next, we managed to prevent thefrightened inhabitants from considering us a fresh party of Ajawa, or ofPortuguese slaving agents. Here they had cultivated maize, and werewilling to sell, but no persuasion could induce them to give us guides tothe chieftainess, Nyango. They evidently felt that we were not to betrusted; though, as we had to certify to our own character, ourcompanions did not fail "to blow our own trumpet, " with blasts in whichmodesty was quite out of the question. To allay suspicion, we had atlast to refrain from mentioning the lady's name. 

It would be wearisome to repeat the names of the villages we passed onour way to the north-west. One was the largest we ever saw in Africa, and quite deserted, with the usual sad sight of many skeletons lyingabout. Another was called Tette. We know three places of this name, which fact shows it to be a native word; it seems to mean a place wherethe water rushes over rocks. A third village was called Chipanga (agreat work), a name identical with the Shupanga of the Portuguese. Thisrepetition of names may indicate that the same people first took theseepithets in their traditional passage from north to south. 

At this season of the year the nights are still cold, and the people, having no crops to occupy their attention, do not stir out till longafter the sun is up. At other times they are off to their fields beforethe day dawns, and the first sound one hears is the loud talking of menand women, in which they usually indulge in the dark to scare off beastsby the sound of the human voice. When no work is to be done, the firstwarning of approaching day is the hemp-smoker's loud ringing cough. 

Having been delayed one morning by some negotiation about guides, whowere used chiefly to introduce us to other villages, we two whites walkeda little way ahead, taking the direction of the stream. The men havingbeen always able to find out our route by the prints of our shoes, wewent on for a number of miles. This time, however, they lost our track, and failed to follow us. The path was well marked by elephants, hyenas, pallahs, and zebras, but for many a day no human foot had trod it. Whenthe sun went down a deserted hamlet was reached, where we madecomfortable beds for ourselves of grass. Firing muskets to attract theattention of those who have strayed is the usual resource in these cases. On this occasion the sound of firearms tended to mislead us; for, hearingshots next morning, a long weary march led us only to some nativehunters, who had been shooting buffaloes. Returning to a small village, we met with some people who remembered our passing up to the Lake in theboat; they were as kind as they could be. The only food they possessedwas tamarinds, prepared with ashes, and a little cowitch meal. Thecowitch, as mentioned before, has a velvety brown covering of minuteprickles, which, if touched, enter the pores of the skin and cause apainful tingling. The women in times of scarcity collect the pods, kindle a fire of grass over them to destroy the prickles, then steep thebeans till they begin to sprout, wash them in pure water, and either boilthem or pound them into meal, which resembles our bean-meal. This plantclimbs up the long grass, and abounds in all reedy parts, and, though aplague to the traveller who touches its pods, it performs good service intimes of famine by saving many a life from starvation. Its name here isKitedzi. 

Having travelled at least twenty miles in search of our party that day, our rest on a mat in the best hut of the village was very sweet. We haddined the evening before on a pigeon each, and had eaten only a handfulof kitedzi porridge this afternoon. The good wife of the village took alittle corn which she had kept for seed, ground it after dark, and madeit into porridge. This, and a cup of wild vegetables of a sweetish tastefor a relish, a little boy brought in and put down, with several vigorousclaps of his hands, in the manner which is esteemed polite, and which isstrictly enjoined on all children. 

On the third day of separation, Akosanjere, the headman of this village, conducted us forward to our party who had gone on to Nseze, a district tothe westward. This incident is mentioned, not for any interest itpossesses, apart from the idea of the people it conveys. We werecompletely separated from our men for nearly three days, and had nothingwherewith to purchase food. The people were sorely pressed by famine andwar, and their hospitality, poor as it was, did them great credit, andwas most grateful to us. Our own men had become confused and wandered, but had done their utmost to find us; on our rejoining them, the ox wasslain, and all, having been on short commons, rejoiced in this "day ofslaughter. " Akosanjere was, of course, rewarded to his heart's content. 

As we pursued our way, we came close up to a range of mountains, the mostprominent peak of which is called Mvai. This is a great, bare, roundedblock of granite shooting up from the rest of the chain. It and severalother masses of rock are of a light grey colour, with white patches, asif of lichens; the sides and summits are generally thinly covered withrather scraggy trees. There are several other prominent peaks--one, forinstance, still further north, called Chirobve. Each has a name, but wecould never ascertain that there was an appellation which applied to thewhole. This fact, and our wish to commemorate the name of Dr. Kirk, induced us afterwards, when we could not discover a particular peakmentioned to us formerly as Molomo-ao-koku, or Cock's-bill, to call thewhole chain from the west of the Cataracts up to the north end of theLake, "Kirk's Range. " The part we slept at opposite Mvai was namedPaudio, and was evidently a continuation of the district of one of ourstations on the Shire, at which observations for latitude were formerlytaken. 

Leaving Paudio, we had Kirk's Range close on our left and at least 3000feet above us, and probably not less than 5000 feet above the sea. Farto our right extended a long green wooded country rising gradually up toa ridge, ornamented with several detached mountains, which bounded theShire Valley. In front, northwards, lay a valley as rich and lovely aswe ever saw anywhere, terminating at the mountains, which, stretched awaysome thirty miles beyond our range of vision and ended at Cape Maclear. The groups of trees had never been subjected to the landscape gardener'sart; but had been cut down mercilessly, just as suited the convenience ofthe cultivator; yet the various combinations of open forest, slopingwoodland, grassy lawns, and massive clumps of dark green foliage alongthe running streams, formed as beautiful a landscape as could be seen onthe Thames. This valley is named Goa or Gova, and as we moved through itwe found that what was smooth to the eye was very much furrowed byrunning streams winding round innumerable knolls. These little brookletscame down from the range on our left, and the water was deliciously cool. 

When we came abreast of the peak Chirobve, the people would no longergive us guides. They were afraid of their enemies, whose dwellings wenow had on our east; and, proceeding without any one to lead us, or tointroduce us to the inhabitants, we were perplexed by all the pathsrunning zigzag across instead of along the valley. They had been made bythe villagers going from the hamlets on the slopes to their gardens inthe meadows below. To add to our difficulties, the rivulets and mountain-torrents had worn gullies some thirty or forty feet deep, with steepsides that could not be climbed except at certain points. The remaininginhabitants on the flank of the range when they saw strangers windingfrom side to side, and often attempting to cross these torrent beds atimpossible places, screamed out their shrill war-alarm, and made thevalley ring with their wild outcries. It was war, and war alone, and wewere too deep down in the valley to make our voices heard in explanation. Fortunately, they had burned off the long grass to a great extent. Itonly here and there hid them from us. Selecting an open spot, we spent anight regarded by all around us as slave-hunters, but were undisturbed, though the usual way of treating an enemy in this part of the country isby night attack. 

The nights at the altitude of the valley were cool, the lowesttemperature shown being 37 degrees; at 9 a. M. And 9 p. M. It was 58degrees, about the average temperature of the day; at mid-day 82 degrees, and sunset 70 degrees. Our march was very much hindered by theimperfectly burned corn and grass stalks having fallen across the paths. To a reader in England this will seem a very small obstacle. But he mustfancy the grass stems as thick as his little finger, and the corn-stalkslike so many walkingsticks lying in one direction, and so supporting eachother that one has to lift his feet up as when wading through deep highheather. The stems of grass showed the causes of certain explosions asloud as pistols, which are heard when the annual fires come roaring overthe land. The heated air inside expanding bursts the stalk with a loudreport, and strews the fragments on the ground. 

A very great deal of native corn had been cultivated here, and we sawbuffaloes feeding in the deserted gardens, and some women, who ran awayvery much faster than the beasts did. 

On the 29th, seeing some people standing under a tree by a village, wesat down, and sent Masego, one of our party, to communicate. Theheadman, Matunda, came back with him, bearing a calabash with water forus. He said that all the people had fled from the Ajawa, who had onlyjust desisted from their career of pillage on being paid five persons asa fine for some offence for which they had commenced the invasion. Matunda had plenty of grain to sell, and all the women were soon at workgrinding it into meal. We secured an abundant supply, and four milkgoats. The Manganja goat is of a very superior breed to the generalAfrican animal, being short in the legs and having a finely-shaped broadbody. By promising the Makololo that, when we no longer needed the milk, they should have the goats to improve the breed of their own at home, they were induced to take the greatest possible care of both goats andkids in driving and pasturing. 

After leaving Matunda, we came to the end of the highland valley; and, before descending a steep declivity of a thousand feet towards the partwhich may be called the heel of the Lake, we had the bold mountains ofCape Maclear on our right, with the blue water at their base, the hillsof Tsenga in the distance in front, and Kirk's Range on our left, stretching away northwards, and apparently becoming lower. As we camedown into a fine rich undulating valley, many perennial streams runningto the east from the hills on our left were crossed, while all thosebehind us on the higher ground seemed to unite in one named Lekue, whichflowed into the Lake. 

After a long day's march in the valley of the Lake, where the temperaturewas very much higher than in that we had just left, we entered thevillage of Katosa, which is situated on the bank of a stream amonggigantic timber trees, and found there a large party of Ajawa--Waiau, they called themselves--all armed with muskets. We sat down among them, and were soon called to the chiefs court, and presented with an amplemess of porridge, buffalo meat, and beer. Katosa was more frank than anyManganja chief we had met, and complimented us by saying that "we must behis 'Bazimo' (good spirits of his ancestors); for when he lived atPamalombe, we lighted upon him from above--men the like of whom he hadnever seen before, and coming he knew not whence. " He gave us one of hisown large and clean huts to sleep in; and we may take this opportunity ofsaying that the impression we received, from our first journey on thehills among the villages of Chisunse, of the excessive dirtiness of theManganja, was erroneous. This trait was confined to the cool highlands. Here crowds of men and women were observed to perform their ablutionsdaily in the stream that ran past their villages; and this we haveobserved elsewhere to be a common custom with both Manganja and Ajawa. 

Before we started on the morning of the 1st September, Katosa sent anenormous calabash of beer, containing at least three gallons, and thencame and wished us to "stop a day and eat with him. " On explaining tohim the reasons for our haste, he said that he was in the way by whichtravellers usually passed, he never stopped them in their journeys, butwould like to look at us for a day. On our promising to rest a littlewith him on our return, he gave us about two pecks of rice, and threeguides to conduct us to a subordinate female chief, Nkwinda, living onthe borders of the Lake in front. 

The Ajawa, from having taken slaves down to Quillimane and Mosambique, knew more of us than Katosa did. Their muskets were carefully polished, and never out of these slaver's hands for a moment, though in the chiefspresence. We naturally felt apprehensive that we should never see Katosaagain. A migratory afflatus seems to have come over the Ajawa tribes. Wars among themselves, for the supply of the Coast slave-trade, are saidto have first set them in motion. The usual way in which they haveadvanced among the Manganja has been by slave-trading in a friendly way. Then, professing to wish to live as subjects, they have been welcomed asguests, and the Manganja, being great agriculturists, have been able tosupport considerable bodies of these visitors for a time. When theprovisions became scarce, the guests began to steal from the fields;quarrels arose in consequence, and, the Ajawa having firearms, theirhosts got the worst of it, and were expelled from village after village, and out of their own country. The Manganja were quite as bad in regardto slave-trading as the Ajawa, but had less enterprise, and were muchmore fond of the home pursuits of spinning, weaving, smelting iron, andcultivating the soil, than of foreign travel. The Ajawa had little of amechanical turn, and not much love for agriculture, but were very keentraders and travellers. This party seemed to us to be in the first orfriendly stage of intercourse with Katosa; and, as we afterwards found, he was fully alive to the danger. 

Our course was shaped towards the N. W. , and we traversed a large fertiletract of rich soil extensively cultivated, but dotted with many giganticthorny acacias which had proved too large for the little axes of thecultivators. After leaving Nkwinda, the first village we spent a nightat in the district Ngabi was that of Chembi, and it had a stockade aroundit. The Azitu or Mazitu were said to be ravaging the country to the westof us, and no one was safe except in a stockade. We have so often, intravelling, heard of war in front, that we paid little attention to theassertion of Chembi, that the whole country to the N. W. Was in flightbefore these Mazitu, under a chief with the rather formidable name ofMowhiriwhiri; we therefore resolved to go on to Chinsamba's, stillfurther in the same direction, and hear what he said about it. 

The only instrument of husbandry here is the short-handled hoe; and aboutTette the labour of tilling the soil, as represented in the woodcut, isperformed entirely by female slaves. On the West Coast a double-handledhoe is employed. Here the small hoe is seen in the hands of both men andwomen. In other parts of Africa a hoe with a handle four feet long isused, but the plough is quite unknown. 

In illustration of the manner in which the native knowledge ofagriculture strikes an honest intelligent observer, it may be mentionedthat the first time good Bishop Mackenzie beheld how well the fields ofthe Manganja were cultivated on the hills, he remarked to Dr. Livingstone, then his fellow-traveller--"When telling the people inEngland what were my objects in going out to Africa, I stated that, amongother things, I meant to teach these people agriculture; but I now seethat they know far more about it than I do. " This, we take it, was anhonest straightforward testimony, and we believe that every unprejudicedwitness, who has an opportunity of forming an opinion of Africans whohave never been debased by slavery, will rank them very much higher inthe scale of intelligence, industry, and manhood, than others who knowthem only in a state of degradation. 

On coming near Chinsamba's two stockades, on the banks of the Lintipe, wewere told that the Mazitu had been repulsed there the day before, and wehad evidence of the truth of the report of the attack in the sad sight ofthe bodies of the slain. The Zulus had taken off large numbers of womenladen with corn; and, when driven back, had cut off the ears of a maleprisoner, as a sort of credential that he had been with the Mazitu, andwith grim humour sent him to tell Chinsamba "to take good care of thecorn in the stockades, for they meant to return for it in a month ortwo. "

Chinsamba's people were drumming with might and main on our arrival, toexpress their joy at their deliverance from the Mazitu. The drum is thechief instrument of music among the Manganja, and with it they expressboth their joy and grief. They excel in beating time. Chinsamba calledus into a very large hut, and presented us with a huge basket of beer. The glare of sunlight from which we had come enabled him, in diplomaticfashion, to have a good view of us before our eyes became enoughaccustomed to the dark inside to see him. He has a Jewish cast ofcountenance, or rather the ancient Assyrian face, as seen in themonuments brought to the British Museum by Mr. Layard. This form of faceis very common in this country, and leads to the belief that the truetype of the negro is not that met on the West Coast, from which mostpeople have derived their ideas of the African. 

Chinsamba had many Abisa or Babisa in his stockade, and it was chiefly bythe help of their muskets that he had repulsed the Mazitu: these Babisaare great travellers and traders. 

We liked Chinsamba very well, and found that he was decidedly opposed toour risking our lives by going further to the N. W. The Mazitu werebelieved to occupy all the hills in that direction, so we spent the 4thof September with him. 

It is rather a minute thing to mention, and it will only be understood bythose who have children of their own, but the cries of the little ones, in their infant sorrows, are the same in tone, at different ages, here asall over the world. We have been perpetually reminded of home and familyby the wailings which were once familiar to parental ears and heart, andfelt thankful that to the sorrows of childhood our children would neverhave superadded the heartrending woes of the slave-trade. 

Taking Chinsamba's advice to avoid the Mazitu in their marauding, westarted on the 5th September away to the N. E. , and passed mile after mileof native cornfields, with an occasional cotton-patch. 

After a long march, we passed over a waterless plain about N. N. W. Of thehills of Tsenga to a village on the Lake, and thence up its shores toChitanda. The banks of the Lake were now crowded with fugitives, who hadcollected there for the poor protection which the reeds afforded. Formiles along the water's edge was one continuous village of temporaryhuts. The people had brought a little corn with them; but they said, "What shall we eat when that is done? When we plant corn, the wildbeasts (Zinyama, as they call the Mazitu) come and take it. When weplant cassava, they do the same. How are we to live?" A poor blindwoman, thinking we were Mazitu, rushed off in front of us with outspreadarms, lifting the feet high, in the manner peculiar to those who havelost their sight, and jumped into the reeds of a stream for safety. 

In our way along the shores we crossed several running rivulets of clearcold water, which, from having reeds at their confluences, had not beennoticed in our previous exploration in the boat. One of these was calledMokola, and another had a strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen. Wereached Molamba on the 8th September, and found our old acquaintance, Nkomo, there still. One of the advantages of travelling along the shoresof the Lake was, that we could bathe anywhere in its clear fresh water. To us, who had been obliged so often to restrain our inclination in theZambesi and Shire for fear of crocodiles, this was pleasant beyondmeasure. The water now was of the same temperature as it was on ourformer visit, or 72 degrees Fahr. The immense depth of the Lake preventsthe rays of the sun from raising the temperature as high as that of theShire and Zambesi; and the crocodiles, having always clear water in theLake, and abundance of fish, rarely attack man; many of these reptilescould be seen basking on the rocks. 

A day's march beyond Molamba brought us to the lakelet Chia, which liesparallel with the Lake. It is three or four miles long, by from one toone and a half broad, and communicates with the Lake by an arm of gooddepth, but with some rocks in it. As we passed up between the Lake andthe eastern shore of this lakelet, we did not see any streams flowinginto it. It is quite remarkable for the abundance of fish; and we sawupwards of fifty large canoes engaged in the fishery, which is carried onby means of hand-nets with side-frame poles about seven feet long. Thesenets are nearly identical with those now in use in Normandy--thedifference being that the African net has a piece of stick lashed acrossthe handle-ends of the side poles to keep them steady, which is a greatimprovement. The fish must be very abundant to be scooped out of thewater in such quantities as we saw, and by so many canoes. There isquite a trade here in dried fish. 

The country around is elevated, undulating, and very extensively plantedwith cassava. The hoe in use has a handle of four feet in length, andthe iron part is exactly of the same form as that in the country of theBechuanas. The baskets here, which are so closely woven together as tohold beer, are the same with those employed to hold milk in Kaffirland--athousand miles distant. 

Marching on foot is peculiarly conducive to meditation--one is glad ofany subject to occupy the mind, and relieve the monotony of the wearytreadmill-like trudge-trudging. This Chia net brought to our mind thatthe smith's bellows made here of a goatskin bag, with sticks along theopen ends, are the same as those in use in the Bechuana country far tothe south-west. These, with the long-handled hoe, may only show thateach successive horde from north to south took inventions with it fromthe same original source. Where that source may have been is probablyindicated by another pair of bellows, which we observed below theVictoria Falls, being found in Central India and among the Gipsies ofEurope. 

Men in remote times may have had more highly-developed instincts, whichenabled them to avoid or use poisons; but the late Archbishop Whately hasproved, that wholly untaught savages never could invent anything, or evensubsist at all. Abundant corroboration of his arguments is met with inthis country, where the natives require but little in the way ofclothing, and have remarkably hardy stomachs. Although possessing aknowledge of all the edible roots and fruits in the country, having hoesto dig with, and spears, bows, and arrows to kill the game, --we have seenthat, notwithstanding all these appliances and means to boot, they haveperished of absolute starvation. 

The art of making fire is the same in India as in Africa. The smeltingfurnaces, for reducing iron and copper from the ores, are also similar. Yellow haematite, which bears not the smallest resemblance either incolour or weight to the metal, is employed near Kolobeng for theproduction of iron. Malachite, the precious green stone used incivilized life for vases, would never be suspected by the uninstructed tobe a rich ore of copper, and yet it is extensively smelted for rings andother ornaments in the heart of Africa. A copper bar of nativemanufacture four feet long was offered to us for sale at Chinsamba's. These arts are monuments attesting the fact, that some instruction fromabove must at some time or other have been supplied to mankind; and, asArchbishop Whately says, "the most probable conclusion is, that man whenfirst created, or very shortly afterwards, was advanced, by the CreatorHimself, to a state above that of a mere savage. "

The argument for an original revelation to man, though quite independentof the Bible history, tends to confirm that history. It is of the samenature with this, that man could not have _made_ himself, and thereforemust have had a Divine _Creator_. Mankind could not, in the firstinstance, have _civilized_ themselves, and therefore must have had asuperhuman _Instructor_. 

In connection with this subject, it is remarkable that throughoutsuccessive generations no change has taken place in the form of thevarious inventions. Hammers, tongs, hoes, axes, adzes, handles to them;needles, bows and arrows, with the mode of feathering the latter; spears, for killing game, with spear-heads having what is termed "dish" on bothsides to give them, when thrown, the rotatory motion of rifle-balls; thearts of spinning and weaving, with that of pounding and steeping theinner bark of a tree till it serves as clothing; millstones for grindingcorn into meal; the manufacture of the same kind of pots or _chatties_ asin India; the art of cooking, of brewing beer and straining it as wasdone in ancient Egypt; fish-hooks, fishing and hunting nets, fish-baskets, and weirs, the same as in the Highlands of Scotland; trapsfor catching animals, etc. , etc. , --have all been so very permanent fromage to age, and some of them of identical patterns are so widely spreadover the globe, as to render it probable that they were all, at least insome degree, derived from one Source. The African traditions, which seempossessed of the same unchangeability as the arts to which they relate, like those of all other nations refer their origin to a superior Being. And it is much more reasonable to receive the hints given in Genesis, concerning direct instruction from God to our first parents or theirchildren in religious or moral duty, and probably in the knowledge of thearts of life, {6} than to give credence to the theory that untaughtsavage man subsisted in a state which would prove fatal to all hisdescendants, and that in such helpless state he made many inventionswhich most of his progeny retained, but never improved upon during somethirty centuries. 

We crossed in canoes the arm of the Lake, which joins Chia to Nyassa, andspent the night on its northern bank. The whole country adjacent to theLake, from this point up to Kota-kota Bay, is densely peopled bythousands who have fled from the forays of the Mazitu in hopes ofprotection from the Arabs who live there. In three running rivulets wesaw the _Shuare_ palm, and an oil palm which is much inferior to that onthe West Coast. Though somewhat similar in appearance, the fruit is notmuch larger than hazel-nuts, and the people do not use them, on accountof the small quantity of oil which they afford. 

The idea of using oil for light never seems to have entered the Africanmind. Here a bundle of split and dried bamboo, tied together withcreeping plants, as thick as a man's body, and about twenty feet inlength, is employed in the canoes as a torch to attract the fish atnight. It would be considered a piece of the most wasteful extravaganceto burn the oil they obtain from the castor-oil bean and other seeds, andalso from certain fish, or in fact to do anything with it but anointtheir heads and bodies. 

We arrived at Kota-kota Bay in the afternoon of the 10th September, 1863;and sat down under a magnificent wild fig-tree with leaves ten incheslong, by five broad, about a quarter of a mile from the village of Jumaben Saidi, and Yakobe ben Arame, whom we had met on the River Kaombe, alittle north of this, in our first exploration of the Lake. We hadrested but a short time when Juma, who is evidently the chief personhere, followed by about fifty people, came to salute us and to invite usto take up our quarters in his village. The hut which, by mistake, wasoffered, was so small and dirty, that we preferred sleeping in an openspace a few hundred yards off. 

Juma afterwards apologized for the mistake, and presented us with rice, meal, sugar-cane, and a piece of malachite. We returned his visit on thefollowing day, and found him engaged in building a dhow or Arab vessel, to replace one which he said had been wrecked. This new one was fiftyfeet long, twelve feet broad, and five feet deep. The planks were of awood like teak, here called Timbati, and the timbers of a closer grainedwood called Msoro. The sight of this dhow gave us a hint which, had wepreviously received it, would have prevented our attempting to carry avessel of iron past the Cataracts. The trees around Katosa's villagewere Timbati, and they would have yielded planks fifty feet long andthirty inches broad. With a few native carpenters a good vessel could bebuilt on the Lake nearly as quickly as one could be carried past theCataracts, and at a vastly less cost. Juma said that no money wouldinduce him to part with this dhow. He was very busy in transportingslaves across the Lake by means of two boats, which we saw returning froma trip in the afternoon. As he did not know of our intention to visithim, we came upon several gangs of stout young men slaves, each securedby the neck to one common chain, waiting for exportation, and severalmore in slave-sticks. These were all civilly removed before ourinterview was over, because Juma knew that we did not relish the sight. 

When we met the same Arabs in 1861, they had but few attendants:according to their own account, they had now, in the village and adjacentcountry, 1500 souls. It is certain that tens of thousands had flocked tothem for protection, and all their power and influence must be attributedto the possession of guns and gunpowder. This crowding of refugees toany point where there is a hope for security for life and property isvery common in this region, and the knowledge of it made our hopes beathigh for the success of a peaceful Mission on the shores of the Lake. Therate, however, in which the people here will perish by the next famine, or be exported by Juma and others, will, we fear, depopulate those partswhich we have just described as crowded with people. Hunger will erelong compel them to sell each other. An intelligent man complained to usof the Arabs often seizing slaves, to whom they took a fancy, without theformality of purchase; but the price is so low--from two to four yards ofcalico--that one can scarcely think this seizure and exportation withoutpayment worth their while. The boats were in constant employment, and, curiously enough, Ben Habib, whom we met at Linyanti in 1855, had beentaken across the Lake, the day before our arrival at this Bay, on his wayfrom Sesheke to Kilwa, and we became acquainted with a native servant ofthe Arabs, called Selele Saidallah, who could speak the Makololo languagepretty fairly from having once spent some months in the Barotse Valley. 

From boyhood upwards we have been accustomed, from time to time, to readin books of travels about the great advances annually made byMohammedanism in Africa. The rate at which this religion spreads wassaid to be so rapid, that in after days, in our own pretty extensivetravels, we have constantly been on the look out for the advancing wavefrom North to South, which, it was prophesied, would soon reduce theentire continent to the faith of the false prophet. The only foundationthat we can discover for the assertions referred to, and for others ofmore recent date, is the fact that in a remote corner of North-WesternAfrica the Fulahs, and Mandingoes, and some others in Northern Africa, asmentioned by Dr. Barth, have made conquests of territory; but even theycare so very little for the extension of their faith, that after theconquest no pains whatever are taken to indoctrinate the adults of thetribe. This is in exact accordance with the impression we have receivedfrom our intercourse with Mohammedans and Christians. The followers ofChrist alone are anxious to propagate their faith. A _quasi_philanthropist would certainly never need to recommend the followers ofIslam, whom we have met, to restrain their benevolence by preaching that"Charity should begin at home. "

Though Selele and his companions were bound to their masters by domesticties, the only new idea they had imbibed from Mohammedanism was, that itwould be wrong to eat meat killed by other people. They thought it wouldbe "unlucky. " Just as the inhabitants of Kolobeng, before being taughtthe requirements of Christianity, refrained from hoeing their gardens onSundays, lest they should reap an unlucky crop. So far as we couldlearn, no efforts had been made to convert the natives, though these twoArabs, and about a dozen half-castes, had been in the country for manyyears; and judging from our experience with a dozen Mohammedans in ouremploy at high wages for sixteen months, the Africans would be the bettermen in proportion as they retained their native faith. This may appearonly a harsh judgment from a mind imbued with Christian prejudices; butwithout any pretention to that impartiality, which leaves it doubtful towhich side the affections lean, the truth may be fairly stated by one whoviewed all Mohammedans and Africans with the sincerest good will. 

Our twelve Mohammedans from Johanna were the least open of any of ourparty to impression from kindness. A marked difference in generalconduct was apparent. The Makololo, and other natives of the country, whom we had with us, invariably shared with each other the food they hadcooked, but the Johanna men partook of their meals at a distance. This, at first, we attributed to their Moslem prejudices; but when they saw thecooking process of the others nearly complete, they came, sat besidethem, and ate the portion offered without ever remembering to return thecompliment when their own turn came to be generous. The Makololo and theothers grumbled at their greediness, yet always followed the commoncustom of Africans of sharing their food with all who sit around them. What vexed us most in the Johanna men was their indifference to thewelfare of each other. Once, when they were all coming to the ship aftersleeping ashore, one of them walked into the water with the intention ofswimming off to the boat, and while yet hardly up to his knees was seizedby a horrid crocodile and dragged under; the poor fellow gave a shriek, and held up his hand for aid, but none of his countrymen stirred to hisassistance, and he was never seen again. On asking his brother-in-lawwhy he did not help him, he replied, "Well, no one told him to go intothe water. It was his own fault that he was killed. " The Makololo onthe other hand rescued a woman at Senna by entering the water, and takingher out of the crocodile's mouth. 

It is not assumed that their religion had much to do in the matter. ManyMohammedans might contrast favourably with indifferent Christians; but, so far as our experience in East Africa goes, the moral tone of thefollower of Mahomed is pitched at a lower key than that of the untutoredAfrican. The ancient zeal for propagating the tenets of the Koran hasevaporated, and been replaced by the most intense selfishness andgrossest sensuality. The only known efforts made by Mohammedans, namely, those in the North-West and North of the continent, are so linked withthe acquisition of power and plunder, as not to deserve the name ofreligious propagandism; and the only religion that now makes proselytesis that of Jesus Christ. To those who are capable of taking acomprehensive view of this subject, nothing can be adduced of moretelling significance than the well-attested fact, that while theMohammedans, Fulahs, and others towards Central Africa, make a fewproselytes by a process which gratifies their own covetousness, threesmall sections of the Christian converts, the Africans in the South, inthe West Indies, and on the West Coast of Africa actually contribute forthe support and spread of their religion upwards of 15, 000 poundsannually. {7} That religion which so far overcomes the selfishness ofthe human heart must be Divine. 

Leaving Kota-kota Bay, we turned away due West on the great slave routeto Katanga's and Cazembe's country in Londa. Juma lent us his servant, Selele, to lead us the first day's march. He said that the traders fromKilwa and Iboe cross the Lake either at this bay, or at Tsenga, or at thesouthern end of the Lake; and that wherever they may cross they all go bythis path to the interior. They have slaves with them to carry theirgoods, and when they reach a spot where they can easily buy others, theysettle down and begin the traffic, and at once cultivate grain. So muchof the land lies waste, that no objection is ever made to any one takingpossession of as much as he needs; they can purchase a field of cassavafor their present wants for very little, and they continue trading in thecountry for two or three years, and giving what weight their musketspossess to the chief who is most liberal to them. 

The first day's march led us over a rich, well-cultivated plain. Thiswas succeeded by highlands, undulating, stony, and covered with scraggytrees. Many banks of well rounded shingle appear. The disintegration ofthe rocks, now going on, does not round off the angles; they are split upby the heat and cold into angular fragments. On these high downs wecrossed the River Kaombe. Beyond it we came among the uplandvegetation--rhododendrons, proteas, the masuko, and molompi. At the footof the hill, Kasuko-suko, we found the River Bua running north to jointhe Kaombe. We had to go a mile out of our way for a ford; the stream isdeep enough in parts for hippopotami. The various streams not previouslynoticed, crossed in this journey, had before this led us to theconclusion, independently of the testimony of the natives, that no largeriver ran into the north end of the Lake. No such affluent was needed toaccount for the Shire's perennial flow. 

On September 15th we reached the top of the ascent which, from its manyups and downs, had often made us puff and blow as if broken-winded. Thewater of the streams we crossed was deliciously cold, and now that we hadgained the summit at Ndonda, where the boiling-point of water showed analtitude of 3440 feet above the sea, the air was delightful. Lookingback we had a magnificent view of the Lake, but the haze prevented ourseeing beyond the sea horizon. The scene was beautiful, but it wasimpossible to dissociate the lovely landscape whose hills and dales hadso sorely tried our legs and lungs, from the sad fact that this was partof the great slave route now actually in use. By this road many "Tenthousands" have here seen "the Sea, " "the Sea, " but with sinking hearts;for the universal idea among the captive gangs is, that they are going tobe fattened and eaten by the whites. They cannot of course be so muchshocked as we should be--their sensibilities are far from fine, theirfeelings are more obtuse than ours--in fact, "the live eels are used tobeing skinned, " perhaps they rather like it. We who are not philosophic, blessed the Providence which at Thermopylae in ancient days rolled backthe tide of Eastern conquest from the West, and so guided the course ofevents that light and liberty and gospel truth spread to our distantisle, and emancipating our race freed them from the fear of ever againhaving to climb fatiguing heights and descend wearisome hollows in aslave-gang, as we suppose they did when the fair English youths wereexposed for sale at Rome. 

Looking westwards we perceived that, what from below had the appearanceof mountains, was only the edge of a table-land which, though at firstundulating, soon became smooth, and sloped towards the centre of thecountry. To the south a prominent mountain called Chipata, and to thesouth-west another named Ngalla, by which the Bua is said to rise, gavecharacter to the landscape. In the north, masses of hills prevented ourseeing more than eight or ten miles. 

The air which was so exhilarating to Europeans had an opposite effect onfive men who had been born and reared in the malaria of the Delta of theZambesi. No sooner did they reach the edge of the plateau at Ndonda, than they lay down prostrate, and complained of pains all over them. Thetemperature was not much lower than that on the shores of the Lake below, 76 degrees being the mean temperature of the day, 52 degrees the lowest, and 82 degrees the highest during the twenty-four hours; at the Lake itwas about l0 degrees higher. Of the symptoms they complained of--painseverywhere--nothing could be made. And yet it was evident that they hadgood reason for saying that they were ill. They scarified almost everypart of their bodies as a remedial measure; medicines, administered onthe supposition that their malady was the effect of a sudden chill, hadno effect, and in two days one of them actually died in consequence of, as far as we could judge, a change from a malarious to a purer and morerarefied atmosphere. 

As we were on the slave route, we found the people more churlish thanusual. On being expostulated with about it, they replied, "We have beenmade wary by those who come to buy slaves. " The calamity of death havingbefallen our party, seemed, however, to awaken their sympathies. Theypointed out their usual burying-place, lent us hoes, and helped to makethe grave. When we offered to pay all expenses, they showed that theyhad not done these friendly offices without fully appreciating theirvalue; for they enumerated the use of the hut, the mat on which thedeceased had lain, the hoes, the labour, and the medicine which they hadscattered over the place to make him rest in peace. 

The primitive African faith seems to be that there is one Almighty Makerof heaven and earth; that he has given the various plants of earth to manto be employed as mediators between him and the spirit world, where allwho have ever been born and died continue to live; that sin consists inoffences against their fellow-men, either here or among the departed, andthat death is often a punishment of guilt, such as witchcraft. Theiridea of moral evil differs in no respect from ours, but they considerthemselves amenable only to inferior beings, not to the Supreme. Evil-speaking--lying--hatred--disobedience to parents--neglect of them--aresaid by the intelligent to have been all known to be sin, as well astheft, murder, or adultery, before they knew aught of Europeans or theirteaching. The only new addition to their moral code is, that it is wrongto have more wives than one. This, until the arrival of Europeans, neverentered into their minds even as a doubt. 

Everything not to be accounted for by common causes, whether of good orevil, is ascribed to the Deity. Men are inseparably connected with thespirits of the departed, and when one dies he is believed to have joinedthe hosts of his ancestors. All the Africans we have met with are asfirmly persuaded of their future existence as of their present life. Andwe have found none in whom the belief in the Supreme Being was notrooted. He is so invariably referred to as the Author of everythingsupernatural, that, unless one is ignorant of their language, he cannotfail to notice this prominent feature of their faith. When they passinto the unseen world, they do not seem to be possessed with the fear ofpunishment. The utensils placed upon the grave are all broken as if toindicate that they will never be used by the departed again. The body isput into the grave in a sitting posture, and the hands are folded infront. In some parts of the country there are tales which we couldtranslate into faint glimmerings of a resurrection; but whether thesefables, handed down from age to age, convey that meaning to the nativesthemselves we cannot tell. The true tradition of faith is asserted to be"though a man die he will live again;" the false that when he dies he isdead for ever. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Important geographical discoveries in the Wabisa countries--Cruelty ofthe slave-trade--The Mazitu--Serious illness of Dr. Livingstone--Returnto the ship. 

In our course westwards, we at first passed over a gently undulatingcountry, with a reddish clayey soil, which, from the heavy crops, appeared to be very fertile. Many rivulets were crossed, some runningsouthwards into the Bua, and others northwards into the Loangwa, a riverwhich we formerly saw flowing into the Lake. Further on, the water waschiefly found in pools and wells. Then still further, in the samedirection, some watercourses were said to flow into that same "Loangwa ofthe Lake, " and others into the Loangwa, which flows to the south-west, and enters the Zambesi at Zumbo, and is here called the "Loangwa of theMaravi. " The trees were in general scraggy, and covered, exactly as theyare in the damp climate of the Coast, with lichens, resembling orchilla-weed. The maize, which loves rather a damp soil, had been planted onridges to allow the superfluous moisture to run off. Everythingindicated a very humid climate, and the people warned us that, as therains were near, we were likely to be prevented from returning by thecountry becoming flooded and impassable. 

Villages, as usual encircled by euphorbia hedges, were numerous, and agreat deal of grain had been cultivated around them. Domestic fowls, inplenty, and pigeons with dovecots like those in Egypt were seen. Thepeople call themselves Matumboka, but the only difference between themand the rest of the Manganja is in the mode of tattooing the face. Theirlanguage is the same. Their distinctive mark consists of four tattooedlines diverging from the point between the eyebrows, which, in frowning, the muscles form into a furrow. The other lines of tattooing, as in allManganja, run in long seams, which crossing each other at certain anglesform a great number of triangular spaces on the breast, back, arms, andthighs. The cuticle is divided by a knife, and the edges of the incisionare drawn apart till the true skin appears. By a repetition of thisprocess, lines of raised cicatrices are formed, which are thought to givebeauty, no matter how much pain the fashion gives. 

It would not be worth while to advert for a moment to the routine oftravelling, or the little difficulties that beset every one who attemptsto penetrate into a new country, were it not to show the great source ofthe power here possessed by slave-traders. We needed help in carryingour goods, while our men were ill, though still able to march. When wehad settled with others for hire, we were often told, that the dealers inmen had taken possession of some, and had taken them away altogether. Other things led us to believe that the slave-traders carry matters witha high hand; and no wonder, for the possession of gunpowder gives themalmost absolute power. The mode by which tribes armed with bows andarrows carry on warfare, or defend themselves, is by ambuscade. Theynever come out in open fight, but wait for the enemy ensconced behindtrees, or in the long grass of the country, and shoot at him unawares. Consequently, if men come against them with firearms, when, as is usuallythe case, the long grass is all burned off, the tribe attacked are ashelpless as a wooden ship, possessing only signal guns, would be beforean iron-clad steamer. The time of year selected for this kind of warfareis nearly always that in which the grass is actually burnt off, or is sodry as readily to take fire. The dry grass in Africa looks more likeripe English wheat late in the autumn, than anything else we can compareit to. Let us imagine an English village standing in a field of thissort, bounded only by the horizon, and enemies setting fire to a line ofa mile or two, by running along with bunches of burning straw in theirhands, touching here and there the inflammable material, --the windblowing towards the doomed village--the inhabitants with only one or twoold muskets, but ten to one no powder, --the long line of flames, leapingthirty feet into the air with dense masses of black smoke--and pieces ofcharred grass falling down in showers. Would not the stoutest Englishvillager, armed only with the bow and arrow against the enemy's musket, quail at the idea of breaking through that wall of fire? When at adistance, we once saw a scene like this, and had the charred grass, literally as thick as flakes of black snow, falling around us, there wasno difficulty in understanding the secret of the slave-trader's power. 

On the 21st of September, we arrived at the village of the chief Muasi, or Muazi; it is surrounded by a stockade, and embowered in very talleuphorbia-trees; their height, thirty or forty feet, shows that it hasbeen inhabited for at least one generation. A visitation of disease ordeath causes the headmen to change the site of their villages, and plantnew hedges; but, though Muazi has suffered from the attacks of theMazitu, he has evidently clung to his birthplace. The village issituated about two miles south-west of a high hill called Kasungu, whichgives the name to a district extending to the Loangwa of the Maravi. Several other detached granite hills have been shot up on the plain, andmany stockaded villages, all owing allegiance to Muazi, are scatteredover it. 

On our arrival, the chief was sitting in the smooth shady place, calledBoalo, where all public business is transacted, with about two hundredmen and boys around him. We paid our guides with due ostentation. Masiko, the tallest of our party, measured off the fathom of cloth agreedupon, and made it appear as long as possible, by facing round to thecrowd, and cutting a few inches beyond what his outstretched arms couldreach, to show that there was no deception. This was by way ofadvertisement. The people are mightily gratified at having a tall fellowto measure the cloth for them. It pleases them even better than cuttingit by a tape-line--though very few men of six feet high can measure offtheir own length with their outstretched arms. Here, where Arab tradershave been, the cubit called _mokono_, or elbow, begins to take the placeof the fathom in use further south. The measure is taken from the pointof the bent elbow to the end of the middle finger. 

We found, on visiting Muazi on the following day, that he was as frankand straightforward as could reasonably be expected. He did not wish usto go to the N. N. W. , because he carries on a considerable trade in ivorythere. We were anxious to get off the slave route, to people not visitedbefore by traders; but Muazi naturally feared, that if we went to what issaid to be a well-watered country, abounding in elephants, we mightrelieve him of the ivory which he now obtains at a cheap rate, and sellsto the slave-traders as they pass Kasungu to the east; but at last heconsented, warning us that "great difficulty would be experienced inobtaining food--a district had been depopulated by slave wars--and anight or two must be spent in it; but he would give us good guides, whowould go three days with us, before turning, and then further progressmust depend on ourselves. " Some of our men having been ill ever since wemounted this highland plain, we remained two days with Muazi. 

A herd of fine cattle showed that no tsetse existed in the district. Theyhad the Indian hump, and were very fat, and very tame. The boys rode onboth cows and bulls without fear, and the animals were so fat and lazy, that the old ones only made a feeble attempt to kick their youngtormentors. Muazi never milks the cows; he complained that, but for theMazitu having formerly captured some, he should now have had very many. They wander over the country at large, and certainly thrive. 

After leaving Muazi's, we passed over a flat country sparsely coveredwith the scraggy upland trees, but brightened with many fine flowers. Thegrass was short, reaching no higher than the knee, and growing in tuftswith bare spaces between, though the trees were draped with many variouslichens, and showed a moist climate. A high and very sharp wind blewover the flats; its piercing keenness was not caused by low temperature, for the thermometer stood at 80 degrees. 

We were now on the sources of the Loangwa of the Maravi, which enters theZambesi at Zumbo, and were struck by the great resemblance which theboggy and sedgy streams here presented to the sources of the Leeba, anaffluent of the Zambesi formerly observed in Londa, and of the Kasai, which some believe to be the principal branch of the Congo or Zaire. 

We had taken pains to ascertain from the travelled Babisa and Arabs asmuch as possible about the country in front, which, from the lesseningtime we had at our disposal, we feared we could scarcely reach, and hadheard a good deal of a small lake called Bemba. As we proceeded west, wepassed over the sources not only of the Loangwa, but of another stream, called Moitawa or Moitala, which was represented to be the main feeder ofLake Bemba. This would be of little importance, but for the fact thatthe considerable river Luapula, or Loapula is said to flow out of Bembato the westward, and then to spread out into another and much largerlake, named Moero, or Moelo. Flowing still further in the samedirection, the Loapula forms Lake Mofue, or Mofu, and after this it issaid to pass the town of Cazembe, bend to the north, and enter LakeTanganyika. Whither the water went after it entered the last lake, noone would venture an assertion. But that the course indicated is thetrue watershed of that part of the country, we believe from the unvaryingopinion of native travellers. There could be no doubt that ourinformants had been in the country beyond Cazembe's, for they knew anddescribed chiefs whom we afterwards met about thirty-five or forty mileswest of his town. The Lualaba is said to flow into the Loapula--andwhen, for the sake of testing the accuracy of the travelled, it wasasserted that all the water of the region round the town of Cazembeflowed into the Luambadzi, or Luambezi (Zambesi), they remarked with asmile, "He says, that the Loapula flows into the Zambesi--did you everhear such nonsense?" or words to that effect. We were forced to admit, that according to native accounts, our previous impression of theZambesi's draining the country about Cazembe's had been a mistake. Theirgeographical opinions are now only stated, without any further commentthan that the itinerary given by the Arabs and others shows that theLoapula is twice crossed on the way to Cazembe's; and we may add that wehave never found any difficulty from the alleged incapacity of the negroto tell which way a river flows. 

The boiling-point of water showed a descent, from the edge of the plateauto our furthest point west, of 170 feet; but this can only be consideredas an approximation, and no dependence could have been placed on it, hadwe not had the courses of the streams to confirm this rather rough modeof ascertaining altitudes. The slope, as shown by the watershed, was tothe "Loangwa of the Maravi, " and towards the Moitala, or south-west, west, and north-west. After we leave the feeders of Lake Nyassa, thewater drains towards the centre of the continent. The course of theKasai, a river seen during Dr. Livingstone's journey to the West Coast, and its feeders was to the north-east, or somewhat in the same direction. Whether the water thus drained off finds its way out by the Congo, or bythe Nile, has not yet been ascertained. Some parts of the continent havebeen said to resemble an inverted dinner-plate. This portion seems moreof the shape, if shape it has, of a wide-awake hat, with the crown alittle depressed. The altitude of the brim in some parts isconsiderable; in others, as at Tette and the bottom of Murchison'sCataracts, it is so small that it could be ascertained only byeliminating the daily variations of the barometer, by simultaneousobservations on the Coast, and at points some two or three hundred milesinland. So long as African rivers remain in what we may call the brim, they present no obstructions; but no sooner do they emerge from thehigher lands than their utility is impaired by cataracts. The low lyingbelt is very irregular. At times sloping up in the manner of the rim ofan inverted dinner-plate--while in other cases, a high ridge rises nearthe sea, to be succeeded by a lower district inland before we reach thecentral plateau. The breadth of the low lands is sometimes as much asthree hundred miles, and that breadth determines the limits of navigationfrom the seaward. 

We made three long marches beyond Muazi's in a north-westerly direction;the people were civil enough, but refused to sell us any food. We weretravelling too fast, they said; in fact, they were startled, and beforethey recovered their surprise, we were obliged to depart. We suspectedthat Muazi had sent them orders to refuse us food, that we might thus beprevented from going into the depopulated district; but this may havebeen mere suspicion, the result of our own uncharitable feelings. 

We spent one night at Machambwe's village, and another at Chimbuzi's. Itis seldom that we can find the headman on first entering a village. Hegets out of the way till he has heard all about the strangers, or he isactually out in the fields looking after his farms. We once thought thatwhen the headman came in from a visit of inspection, with his spear, bowand arrows, they had been all taken up for the occasion, and that he hadall the while been hidden in some hut slily watching till he heard thatthe strangers might be trusted; but on listening to the details given bythese men of the appearances of the crops at different parts, and theastonishing minuteness of the speakers' topography, we were persuadedthat in some cases we were wrong, and felt rather humiliated. Everyknoll, hill, mountain, and every peak on a range has a name; and so hasevery watercourse, dell, and plain. In fact, every feature and portionof the country is so minutely distinguished by appropriate names, that itwould take a lifetime to decipher their meaning. It is not the want, butthe superabundance of names that misleads travellers, and the terms usedare so multifarious that good scholars will at times scarcely know morethan the subject of conversation. Though it is a little apart from thetopic of the attention which the headmen pay to agriculture, yet it maybe here mentioned, while speaking of the fulness of the language, that wehave heard about a score of words to indicate different varieties ofgait--one walks leaning forward, or backward, swaying from side to side, loungingly, or smartly, swaggeringly, swinging the arms, or only one arm, head down or up, or otherwise; each of these modes of walking wasexpressed by a particular verb; and more words were used to designate thedifferent varieties of fools than we ever tried to count. 

Mr. Moffat has translated the whole Bible into the language of theBechuana, and has diligently studied this tongue for the last forty-four-years; and, though knowing far more of the language than any of thenatives who have been reared on the Mission-station of Kuruman, he doesnot pretend to have mastered it fully even yet. However copious it maybe in terms of which we do not feel the necessity, it is poor in others, as in abstract terms, and words used to describe mental operations. 

Our third day's march ended in the afternoon of the 27th September, 1863, at the village of Chinanga on the banks of a branch of the Loangwa. Alarge, rounded mass of granite, a thousand feet high, called _Nomberume_, stand on the plain a few miles off. It is quite remarkable, because it has so little vegetation on it. Several other granitic hillsstand near it, ornamented with trees, like most heights of this country, and a heap of blue mountains appears away in the north. 

The effect of the piercing winds upon the men had never been got rid of. Several had been unable to carry a load ever since we ascended to thehighlands; we had lost one, and another poor lad was so ill as to causeus great anxiety. By waiting in this village, which was so old that itwas full of vermin, all became worse. Our European food was entirelyexpended, and native meal, though finely ground, has so many sharpangular particles in it, that it brought back dysentery, from which wehad suffered so much in May. We could scarcely obtain food for the men. The headman of this village of Chinanga was off in a foray against somepeople further north to supply slaves to the traders expected along theslave route we had just left; and was said, after having expelled theinhabitants, to be living in their stockade, and devouring their corn. The conquered tribe had purchased what was called a peace by presentingthe conqueror with three women. 

This state of matters afforded us but a poor prospect of finding moreprovisions in that direction than we could with great difficulty and atenormous prices obtain here. But neither want of food, dysentery, norslave wars would have prevented our working our way round the Lake insome other direction, had we had time; but we had received orders fromthe Foreign Office to take the "Pioneer" down to the sea in the previousApril. The salaries of all the men in her were positively "in any caseto cease by the 31st of December. "

We were said to be only ten days' distant from Lake Bemba. We mightspeculate on a late rise of the river. A month or six weeks would securea geographical feat, but the rains were near. We had been warned bydifferent people that the rains were close at hand, and that we shouldthen be bogged and unable to travel. The flood in the river might be anearly one, or so small in volume as to give but one chance of the"Pioneer" descending to the ocean. The Makololo too were becomingdispirited by sickness and want of food, and were naturally anxious to beback to their fields in time for sowing. But in addition to all this andmore, it was felt that it would not be dealing honestly with theGovernment, were we, for the sake of a little eclat, to risk thedetention of the "Pioneer" up the river during another year; so wedecided to return; and though we had afterwards the mortification to findthat we were detained two full months at the ship waiting for the floodwhich we expected immediately after our arrival there, the chagrin waslessened by a consciousness of having acted in a fair, honest, above-board manner throughout. 

On the night of the 29th of September a thief came to the sleeping-placeof our men and stole a leg of a goat. On complaining to the deputyheadman, he said that the thief had fled, but would be caught. Hesuggested a fine, and offered a fowl and her eggs; but wishing that thethief alone should be punished, it was advised that _he_ should be foundand fined. The Makololo thought it best to take the fowl as a means ofmaking the punishment certain. After settling this matter on the lastday of September, we commenced our return journey. We had just the sametime to go back to the ship, that we had spent in coming to this point, and there is not much to interest one in marching over the same ground asecond time. 

While on our journey north-west, a cheery old woman, who had once beenbeautiful, but whose white hair now contrasted strongly with her darkcomplexion, was working briskly in her garden as we passed. She seemedto enjoy a hale, hearty old age. She saluted us with what elsewherewould be called a good address; and, evidently conscious that shedeserved the epithet, "dark but comely, " answered each of us with a frank"Yes, my child. " Another motherly-looking woman, sitting by a well, began the conversation by "You are going to visit Muazi, and you havecome from afar, have you not?" But in general women never speak tostrangers unless spoken to, so anything said by them attracts attention. Muazi once presented us with a basket of corn. On hinting that we had nowife to grind our corn, his buxom spouse struck in with roguish glee, andsaid, "I will grind it for you; and leave Muazi, to accompany and cookfor you in the land of the setting sun. " As a rule the women are modestand retiring in their demeanour, and, without being oppressed with toil, show a great deal of industry. The crops need about eight months'attention. Then when the harvest is home, much labour is required toconvert it into food as porridge, or beer. The corn is pounded in alarge wooden mortar, like the ancient Egyptian one, with a pestle sixfeet long and about four inches thick. The pounding is performed by twoor even three women at one mortar. Each, before delivering a blow withher pestle, gives an upward jerk of the body, so as to put strength intothe stroke, and they keep exact time, so that two pestles are never inthe mortar at the same moment. The measured thud, thud, thud, and thewomen standing at their vigorous work, are associations inseparable froma prosperous African village. By the operation of pounding, with the aidof a little water, the hard outside scale or husk of the grain isremoved, and the corn is made fit for the millstone. The meal irritatesthe stomach unless cleared from the husk; without considerable energy inthe operator, the husk sticks fast to the corn. Solomon thought thatstill more vigour than is required to separate the hard husk or bran fromwheat would fail to separate "a fool from his folly. " "Though thoushouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, _yet_ willnot his foolishness depart from him. " The rainbow, in some parts, iscalled the "pestle of the Barimo, " or gods. Boys and girls, by constantpractice with the pestle, are able to plant stakes in the ground by asomewhat similar action, in erecting a hut, so deftly that they nevermiss the first hole made. 

Let any one try by repeatedly jobbing a pole with all his force to make adeep hole in the ground, and he will understand how difficult it isalways to strike it into the same spot. 

As we were sleeping one night outside a hut, but near enough to hear whatwas going on within, an anxious mother began to grind her corn about twoo'clock in the morning. "Ma, " inquired a little girl, "why grind in thedark?" Mamma advised sleep, and administered material for a sweet dreamto her darling, by saying, "I grind meal to buy a cloth from thestrangers, which will make you look a little lady. " An observer of theseprimitive races is struck continually with such little trivial touches ofgenuine human nature. 

The mill consists of a block of granite, syenite, or even mica schist, fifteen or eighteen inches square and five or six thick, with a piece ofquartz or other hard rock about the size of a half brick, one side ofwhich has a convex surface, and fits into a concave hollow in the largerand stationary stone. The workwoman kneeling, grasps this uppermillstone with both hands, and works it backwards and forwards in thehollow of the lower millstone, in the same way that a baker works hisdough, when pressing it and pushing from him. The weight of the personis brought to bear on the movable stone, and while it is pressed andpushed forwards and backwards, one hand supplies every now and then alittle grain to be thus at first bruised and then ground on the lowerstone, which is placed on the slope so that the meal when ground falls onto a skin or mat spread for the purpose. This is perhaps the mostprimitive form of mill, and anterior to that in oriental countries, wheretwo women grind at one mill, and may have been that used by Sarah of oldwhen she entertained the Angels. 

On 2nd October we applied to Muazi for guides to take us straight down toChinsamba's at Mosapo, and thus cut off an angle, which we shouldotherwise make, by going back to Kota-kota Bay. He replied that hispeople knew the short way to Chinsamba's that we desired to go, but thatthey all were afraid to venture there, on account of the Zulus, orMazitu. We therefore started back on our old route, and, after threehours' march, found some Babisa in a village who promised to lead us toChinsamba. 

We meet with these keen traders everywhere. They are easily known by aline of horizontal cicatrices, each half an inch long, down the middle ofthe forehead and chin. They often wear the hair collected in a mass onthe upper and back part of the head, while it is all shaven off theforehead and temples. The Babisa and Waiau or Ajawa heads have more ofthe round bullet-shape than those of the Manganja, indicating a markeddifference in character; the former people being great traders andtravellers, the latter being attached to home and agriculture. TheManganja usually intrust their ivory to the Babisa to be sold at theCoast, and complain that the returns made never come up to the highprices which they hear so much about before it is sent. In fact, by thetime the Babisa return, the expenses of the journey, in which they oftenspend a month or two at a place where food abounds, usually eat up allthe profits. 

Our new companions were trading in tobacco, and had collected quantitiesof the round balls, about the size of nine pounder shot, into which it isformed. One of them owned a woman, whose child had been sold thatmorning for tobacco. The mother followed him, weeping silently, forhours along the way we went; she seemed to be well known, for at severalhamlets, the women spoke to her with evident sympathy; we could donothing to alleviate her sorrow--the child would be kept until some slave-trader passed, and then sold for calico. The different cases of slave-trading observed by us are mentioned, in order to give a fair idea of itsdetails. 

We spent the first night, after leaving the slave route, at the villageof Nkoma, among a section of Manganja, called Machewa, or Macheba, whosedistrict extends to the Bua. 

The next village at which we slept was also that of a Manganja smith. Itwas a beautiful spot, shaded with tall euphorbia-trees. The people atfirst fled, but after a short time returned, and ordered us off to astockade of Babisa, about a mile distant. We preferred to remain in thesmooth shady spot outside the hamlet, to being pent up in a treelessstockade. Twenty or thirty men came dropping in, all fully armed withbows and arrows, some of them were at least six feet four in height, yetthese giants were not ashamed to say, "We thought that you were Mazitu, and, being afraid, ran away. " Their orders to us were evidently inspiredby terror, and so must the refusal of the headman to receive a cloth, orlend us a hut have been; but as we never had the opportunity of realizingwhat feelings a successful invasion would produce, we did not knowwhether to blame them or not. The headman, a tall old smith, with anenormous, well-made knife of his own workmanship, came quietly round, and, inspecting the shelter, which, from there being abundance of longgrass and bushes near, our men put up for us in half an hour, graduallychanged his tactics, and, in the evening, presented us with a huge pot ofporridge and a deliciously well-cooked fowl, and made an apology forhaving been so rude to strangers, and a lamentation that he had been sofoolish as to refuse the fine cloth we had offered. Another cloth was ofcourse presented, and we had the pleasure of parting good friends nextday. 

Our guide, who belonged to the stockade near to which we had slept, declined to risk himself further than his home. While waiting to hireanother, Masiko attempted to purchase a goat, and had nearly concludedthe bargain, when the wife of the would-be seller came forward, and saidto her husband, "You appear as if you were unmarried; selling a goatwithout consulting your wife; what an insult to a woman! What sort ofman are you?" Masiko urged the man, saying, "Let us conclude thebargain, and never mind her;" but he being better instructed, replied, "No, I have raised a host against myself already, " and refused. 

We now pushed on to the east, so as to get down to the shores of theLake, and into the parts where we were known. The country was beautiful, well wooded, and undulating, but the villages were all deserted; and theflight of the people seemed to have been quite recent, for the grain wasstanding in the corn-safes untouched. The tobacco, though ripe, remaineduncut in the gardens, and the whole country was painfully quiet: theoppressive stillness quite unbroken by the singing of birds, or theshrill calls of women watching their corn. 

On passing a beautiful village, called Bangwe, surrounded by shady trees, and placed in a valley among mountains, we were admiring the beauty ofthe situation, when some of the much dreaded Mazitu, with their shields, ran out of the hamlet, from which we were a mile distant. They began toscream to their companions to give us chase. Without quickening our pacewe walked on, and soon were in a wood, through which the footpath we werefollowing led. The first intimation we had of the approaching Mazitu wasgiven by the Johanna man, Zachariah, who always lagged behind, runningup, screaming as if for his life. The bundles were all put in one placeto be defended; and Masiko and Dr. Livingstone walked a few paces back tomeet the coming foe. Masiko knelt down anxious to fire, but was orderednot to do so. For a second or two dusky forms appeared among the trees, and the Mazitu were asked, in their own tongue, "What do you want?"Masiko adding, "What do you say?" No answer was given, but the darkshade in the forest vanished. They had evidently taken us for natives, and the sight of a white man was sufficient to put them to flight. Hadwe been nearer the Coast, where the people are accustomed to the slave-trade, we should have found this affair a more difficult one to dealwith; but, as a rule, the people of the interior are much more mild incharacter than those on the confines of civilization. 

The above very small adventure was all the danger we were aware of inthis journey; but a report was spread from the Portuguese villages on theZambesi, similar to several rumours that had been raised before, that Dr. Livingstone had been murdered by the Makololo; and very unfortunately thereport reached England before it could be contradicted. 

One benefit arose from the Mazitu adventure. Zachariah, and others whohad too often to be reproved for lagging behind, now took their places inthe front rank; and we had no difficulty in making very long marches forseveral days, for all believed that the Mazitu would follow ourfootsteps, and attack us while we slept. 

A party of Babisa tobacco-traders came from the N. W. To Molamba, while wewere there; and one of them asserted several times that the Loapula, after emerging from Moelo, received the Lulua, and then flowed into LakeMofu, and thence into Tanganyika; and from the last-named Lake into thesea. This is the native idea of the geography of the interior; and, totest the general knowledge of our informant, we asked him about ouracquaintances in Londa; as Moene, Katema, Shinde or Shinte, who livesouth-west of the rivers mentioned, and found that our friends there wereperfectly well-known to him and to others of these travelled natives. Inthe evening two of the Babisa came in, and reported that the Mazitu hadfollowed us to the village called Chigaragara, at which we slept at thebottom of the descent. The whole party of traders set off at once, though the sun had set. We ourselves had given rise to the report, forthe women of Chigaragara, supposing us in the distance to be Mazitu, fled, with all their household utensils on their heads, and had noopportunity afterwards of finding out their mistake. We spent the nightwhere we were, and next morning, declining Nkomo's entreaty to go andkill elephants, took our course along the shores of the Lake southwards. 

We have only been at the Lake at one season of the year: then the windblows strongly from the east, and indeed this is its prevailing directionhence to the Orange River; a north or a south wind is rare, and seldomlasts more than three days. As the breeze now blew over a large body ofwater, towards us, it was delightful; but when facing it on the table-land it was so strong as materially to impede our progress, and addedconsiderably to the labour of travelling. Here it brought largequantities of the plant (_Vallisneriae_), from which the natives extractsalt by burning, and which, if chewed, at once shows its salineproperties by the taste. Clouds of the kungo, or edible midges, floatedon the Lake, and many rested on the bushes on land. 

The reeds along the shores of the Lake were still crowded with fugitives, and a great loss of life must since have taken place; for, after the cornthey had brought with them was expended, famine would ensue. Even now wepassed many women and children digging up the roots, about the size ofpeas, of an aromatic grass; and their wasted forms showed that this poorhard fare was to allay, if possible, the pangs of hunger. The babies atthe breast crowed to us as we passed, their mothers kneeling and grubbingfor the roots; the poor little things still drawing nourishment from thenatural fountain were unconscious of that sinking of heart which theirparents must have felt in knowing that the supply for the little onesmust soon fail. No one would sell a bit of food to us: fishermen, even, would not part with the produce of their nets, except in exchange forsome other kind of food. Numbers of newly-made graves showed that manyhad already perished, and hundreds were so emaciated that they had theappearance of human skeletons swathed in brown and wrinkled leather. Inpassing mile after mile, marked with these sad proofs that "man'sinhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn, " one experiences anoverpowering sense of helplessness to alleviate human woe, and breathes asilent prayer to the Almighty to hasten the good time coming when "manand man the world o'er, shall brothers be for all that. " One smallredeeming consideration in all this misery could not but be felt; theseills were inflicted by heathen Mazitu, and not by, or for, those who sayto Him who is higher than the highest, "We believe that thou shalt cometo be our Judge. "

We crossed the Mokole, rested at Chitanda, and then left the Lake, andstruck away N. W. To Chinsamba's. Our companions, who were so muchoppressed by the rarefied air of the plateau, still showed signs ofexhaustion, though now only 1300 feet above the sea, and did not recoverflesh and spirits till we again entered the Lower Shire Valley, which isof so small an altitude, that, without simultaneous observations with thebarometer there and on the sea-coast, the difference would not beappreciable. 

On a large plain on which we spent one night, we had the company ofeighty tobacco traders on their way from Kasungu to Chinsamba's. TheMazitu had attacked and killed two of them, near the spot where the Zulusfled from us without answering our questions. The traders were now sofrightened that, instead of making a straight course with us, they setoff by night to follow the shores of the Lake to Tsenga, and then turnwest. It is the sight of shields, or guns that inspires terror. Thebowmen feel perfectly helpless when the enemy comes with even the smallprotection the skin shield affords, or attacks them in the open fieldwith guns. They may shoot a few arrows, but they are such poor shotsthat ten to one if they hit. The only thing that makes the arrowformidable is the poison; for if the poisoned barb goes in nothing cansave the wounded. A bow is in use in the lower end of Lake Nyassa, butis more common in the Maravi country, from six to eight inches broad, which is intended to be used as a shield as well as a bow; but we neversaw one with the mark on it of an enemy's arrow. It certainly is nomatch for the Zulu shield, which is between four and five feet long, ofan oval shape, and about two feet broad. So great is the terror thisshield inspires that we sometimes doubted whether the Mazitu here wereZulus at all, and suspected that the people of the country took advantageof that fear, and, assuming shields, pretended to belong to that nation. 

On the 11th October we arrived at the stockade of Chinsamba in Mosapo, and had reason to be very well satisfied with his kindness. A paraffincandle was in his eyes the height of luxury, and the ability to make alight instantaneously by a lucifer match, a marvel that struck him withwonder. He brought all his relatives in different groups to see thestrange sights, --instantaneous fire-making, and a light, without theannoyance of having fire and smoke in the middle of the floor. When theywish to look for anything in the dark, a wisp of dried grass is lighted. 

Chinsamba gave us a great deal of his company during our visits. As wehave often remarked in other cases, a chief has a great deal to attend toin guiding the affairs of his people. He is consulted on all occasions, and gives his advice in a stream of words, which show a very intimateacquaintance with the topography of his district; he knows every roodcultivated, every weir put in the river, every hunting-net, loom, gorge, and every child of his tribe. Any addition made to the number of theselatter is notified to him; and he sends thanks and compliments to theparents. 

The presents which, following the custom of the country, we gave to everyheadman, where we either spent a night or a longer period, varied fromfour to eight yards of calico. We had some Manchester cloths made inimitation of the native manufactured robes of the West Coast, each worthfive or six shillings. To the more important of the chiefs, for calicowe substituted one of these strong gaudy dresses, iron spoons, a knife, needles, a tin dish, or pannikin, and found these presents to be valuedmore than three times their value in cloth would have been. Eight or tenshillings' worth gave abundant satisfaction to the greediest; but this isto be understood as the prime cost of the articles, and a trader wouldsometimes have estimated similar generosity as equal to from 30 to 50pounds. In some cases the presents we gave exceeded the value of whatwas received in return; in others the excess of generosity was on thenative side. 

We never asked for leave to pass through the country; we simply toldwhere we were going, and asked for guides; if they were refused, or ifthey demanded payment beforehand, we requested to be put into thebeginning of the path, and said that we were sorry we could not agreeabout the guides, and usually they and we started together. Greater carewould be required on entering the Mazitu or Zulu country, for there theGovernment extends over very large districts, while among the Manganjaeach little district is independent of every other. The people here havenot adopted the exacting system of the Banyai, or of the people whosecountry was traversed by Speke and Grant. 

In our way back from Chinsamba's to Chembi's and from his village toNkwinda's, and thence to Katosa's, we only saw the people working intheir gardens, near to the stockades. These strongholds werestrengthened with branches of acacias, covered with strong hooked thorns;and were all crowded with people. The air was now clearer than when wewent north, and we could see the hills of Kirk's Range five or six milesto the west of our path. The sun struck very hot, and the men felt itmost in their feet. Every one who could get a bit of goatskin made itinto a pair of sandals. 

While sitting at Nkwinda's, a man behind the court hedge-wall said, withgreat apparent glee, that an Arab slaving party on the other side of theconfluence of the Shire and Lake were "giving readily two fathoms ofcalico for a boy, and two and a half for a girl; never saw trade sobrisk, no haggling at all. " This party was purchasing for the supply ofthe ocean slave-trade. One of the evils of this traffic is that itprofits by every calamity that happens in a country. The slave-tradernaturally reaps advantage from every disorder, and though in the presentcase some lives may have been saved that otherwise would have perished, as a rule he intensifies hatreds, and aggravates wars between the tribes, because the more they fight and vanquish each other the richer hisharvest becomes. Where slaving and cattle are unknown the people live inpeace. As we sat leaning against that hedge, and listened to theharangue of the slave-trader's agent, it glanced across our mind thatthis was a terrible world; the best in it unable, from consciousimperfections, to say to the worst "Stand by! for I am holier than thou. "The slave-trader, imbued no doubt with certain kindly feelings, yetpursuing a calling which makes him a fair specimen of a human fiend, stands grouped with those by whom the slave-traders are employed, andwith all the workers of sin and misery in more highly-favoured lands, anawful picture to the All-seing Eye. 

We arrived at Katosa's village on the 15th October, and found aboutthirty young men and boys in slave-sticks. They had been bought by otheragents of the Arab slavers, still on the east side of the Shire. Theywere resting in the village, and their owners soon removed them. Theweight of the goree seemed very annoying when they tried to sleep. Thistaming instrument is kept on, until the party has crossed several riversand all hope of escape has vanished from the captive's mind. 

On explaining to Katosa the injury he was doing in selling his people asslaves, he assured us that those whom we had seen belonged to the Arabs, and added that he had far too few people already. He said he had beenliving in peace at the lakelet Pamalombe; that the Ajawa, or Machinga, under Kainka and Karamba, and a body of Babisa, under Maonga, had inducedhim to ferry them over the Shire; that they had lived for a considerabletime at his expense, and at last stole his sheep, which induced him tomake his escape to the place where he now dwelt, and in this flight hehad lost many of his people. His account of the usual conduct of theAjawa quite agrees with what these people have narrated themselves, andgives but a low idea of their moral tone. They have repeatedly brokenall the laws of hospitality by living for months on the bounty of theManganja, and then, by a sudden uprising, overcoming their hosts, andkilling or chasing them out of their inheritances. The secret of theirsuccess is the possession of firearms. There were several of these Ajawahere again, and on our arrival they proposed to Katosa that they shouldleave; but he replied that they need not be afraid of us. They had redbeads strung so thickly on their hair that at a little distance theyappeared to have on red caps. It is curious that the taste for red hairshould be so general among the Africans here and further north; in thesouth black mica, called _Sebilo_, and even soot are used to deepen thecolour of the hair; here many smear the head with red-ochre, others plaitthe inner bark of a tree stained red into it; and a red powder called_Mukuru_ is employed, which some say is obtained from the ground, andothers from the roots of a tree. 

It having been doubted whether sugar-cane is indigenous to this countryor not, we employed Katosa to procure the two varieties commonlycultivated, with the intention of conveying them to Johanna. One isyellow, and the other, like what we observed in the Barotse Valley, isvariegated with dark red and yellow patches, or all red. We have seen it"arrow, " or blossom. Bamboos also run to seed, and the people are saidto use the seed as food. The sugar-cane has native names, which wouldlead us to believe it to be indigenous. Here it is called _Zimbi_, further south _Mesari_, and in the centre of the country _Meshuati_. Anything introduced in recent times, as maize, superior cotton, orcassava, has a name implying its foreign origin. 

Katosa's village was embowered among gigantic trees of fine timber:several caffiaceous bushes, with berries closely resembling those of thecommon coffee, grew near, but no use had ever been made of them. Thereare several cinchonaceous trees also in the country; and some of the wildfruits are so good as to cause a feeling of regret that they have notbeen improved by cultivation, or whatever else brought ours to theirpresent perfection. Katosa lamented that this locality was so inferiorto his former place at Pamalombe; there he had maize at the differentstages of growth throughout the year. To us, however, he seemed, bydigging holes, and taking advantage of the moisture beneath, to havesucceeded pretty well in raising crops at this the driest time. TheMakololo remarked that "here the maize had no season, "--meaning that thewhole year was proper for its growth and ripening. By irrigation asuccession of crops of grain might be raised anywhere within the southintertropical region of Africa. 

When we were with Motunda, on the 20th October, he told us frankly thatall the native provisions were hidden in Kirk's Range, and his villagebeing the last place where a supply of grain could be purchased before wereached the ship, we waited till he had sent to his hidden stores. Theupland country, beyond the mountains now on our right, is called Deza, and is inhabited by Maravi, who are only another tribe of Manganja. Theparamount chief is called Kabambe, and he, having never been visited bywar, lives in peace and plenty. Goats and sheep thrive; and Nyango, thechieftainess further to the south, has herds of horned cattle. Thecountry being elevated is said to be cold, and there are large grassyplains on it which are destitute of trees. The Maravi are reported to bebrave, and good marksmen with the bow; but, throughout all the country wehave traversed, guns are enabling the trading tribes to overcome theagricultural and manufacturing classes. 

On the ascent at the end of the valley just opposite Mount Mvai, welooked back for a moment to impress the beauties of the grand vale on ourmemory. The heat of the sun was now excessive, and Masiko, thinking thatit was overpowering, proposed to send forward to the ship and get ahammock, in which to carry any one who might knock up. He was truly kindand considerate. Dr. Livingstone having fallen asleep after a fatiguingmarch, a hole in the roof of the hut he was in allowed the sun to beat onhis head, and caused a splitting headache and deafness: while he wasnearly insensible, he felt Masiko repeatedly lift him back to the bed offwhich he had rolled, and cover him up. 

On the 24th we were again in Banda, at the village of Chasundu, and couldnow see clearly the hot valley in which the Shire flows, and themountains of the Manganja beyond to our south-east. Instead of followingthe road by which we had come, we resolved to go south along theLesungwe, which rises at Zunje, a peak on the same ridge as Mvai, and apart of Kirk's Range, which bounds the country of the Maravi on our west. This is about the limit of the beat of the Portuguese native traders, andit is but recently that, following our footsteps, they have come so far. It is not likely that their enterprise will lead them further north, forChasundu informed us that the Babisa under-sell the agents from Tette. Hehad tried to deal with the latter when they first came; but they offeredonly ten fathoms of calico for a tusk, for which the Babisa gave himtwenty fathoms and a little powder. Ivory was brought to us for saleagain and again, and, as far as we could judge, the price expected wouldbe about one yard of calico per pound, or possibly more, for there is noscale of prices known. The rule seems to be that buyer and seller shallspend a good deal of time in trying to cheat each other before coming toany conclusion over a bargain. 

We found the Lesungwe a fine stream near its source, and about forty feetwide and knee-deep, when joined by the Lekudzi, which comes down from theMaravi country. 

Guinea-fowl abounded, but no grain could be purchased, for the people hadcultivated only the holmes along the banks with maize and pumpkins. Timeenough had not elapsed since the slave-trader's invasion, and destructionof their stores, for them to raise crops of grain on the adjacent lands. To deal with them for a few heads of maize was the hungry bargaining withthe famished, so we hastened on southwards as fast as the excessive heatwould allow us. It was impossible to march in the middle of the day, theheat was so intolerable; and we could not go on at night, because, if wehad chanced to meet any of the inhabitants, we should have been taken formarauders. 

We had now thunder every afternoon; but while occasional showers seemedto fall at different parts, none fell on us. The air was deliciouslyclear, and revealed all the landscape covered everywhere with forest, andbounded by beautiful mountains. On the 31st October we reached theMukuru-Madse, after having travelled 660 geographical miles, or 760English miles in a straight line. This was accomplished in fifty-fivetravelling days, twelve miles per diem on an average. If the numerousbendings and windings, and ups and downs of the paths could have beenmeasured too, the distance would have been found at least fifteen miles aday. 

The night we slept at the Mukuru-Madse it thundered heavily, but, as thishad been the case every afternoon, and no rain had followed, we erectedno shelter, but during this night a pouring rain came on. When verytired a man feels determined to sleep in spite of everything, and thesound of dropping water is said to be conducive to slumber, but that doesnot refer to an African storm. If, when half asleep in spite of a heavyshower on the back of the head, he unconsciously turns on his side, thedrops from the branches make such capital shots into his ear, that thebrain rings again. 

We were off next morning, the 1st of November, as soon as the day dawned. In walking about seven miles to the ship, our clothes were thoroughlydried by the hot sun, and an attack of fever followed. We relate thislittle incident to point out the almost certain consequence of gettingwet in this climate, and allowing the clothes to dry on the person. Evenif we walk in the mornings when the dew is on the grass, and only get ourfeet and legs wet, a very uneasy feeling and partial fever with pains inthe limbs ensue, and continue till the march onwards bathes them inperspiration. Had Bishop Mackenzie been aware of this, which, beforeexperience alone had taught us, entailed many a severe lesson, we know noearthly reason why his valuable life might not have been spared. Thedifference between getting the clothes soaked in England and in Africa isthis: in the cold climate the patient is compelled, or, at any rate, warned, by discomfort to resort at once to a change of raiment; while inAfrica it is cooling and rather pleasant to allow the clothes to dry onthe person. A Missionary in proportion as he possesses an athleticframe, hardened by manly exercises, in addition to his otherqualifications, will excel him who is not favoured with such bodilyendowments; but in a hot climate efficiency mainly depends on husbandingthe resources. He must never forget that, in the tropics, he is anexotic plant. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Confidence of natives--Bishop Tozer--Withdrawal of the Mission party--TheEnglish leave--Hazardous voyage to Mosambique--Dr. Livingstone's voyageto Bombay--Return to England. 

We were delighted and thankful to find all those left at the ship in goodhealth, and that from the employments in which they had been occupiedthey had suffered less from fever than usual during our absence. Mycompanion, Thomas Ward, the steward, after having performed his part inthe march right bravely, rejoined his comrades stronger than he had everbeen before. 

An Ajawa chief, named Kapeni, had so much confidence in the English namethat he, with most of his people, visited the ship; and asserted thatnothing would give his countrymen greater pleasure than to receive theassociates of Bishop Mackenzie as their teachers. This declaration, coupled with the subsequent conduct of the Ajawa, was very gratifying, inasmuch as it was clear that no umbrage had been taken at the checkwhich the Bishop had given to their slaving; their consciences had toldthem that the course he had pursued was right. 

When we returned, the contrast between the vegetation about Muazi's andthat near the ship was very striking. We had come so quickly down, thatwhile on the plateau in latitude 12 degrees S. , the young leaves had inmany cases passed from the pink or other colour they have on first comingout to the light fresh green which succeeds it, here, on the borders of16 degrees S. , or from 150 to 180 miles distant, the trees were stillbare, the grey colour of the bark predominating over every other hue. Thetrees in the tropics here have a very well-marked annual rest. On theRovuma even, which is only about ten degrees from the equator, inSeptember the slopes up from the river some sixty miles inland were of alight ashy-grey colour; and on ascending them, we found that the majorityof the trees were without leaves; those of the bamboo even lay crisp andcrumpled on the ground. As the sun is usually hot by day, even in thewinter, this withering process may be owing to the cool nights; Africadiffering so much from Central India in the fact that, in Africa, howeverhot the day may be, the air generally cools down sufficiently by theearly morning watches to render a covering or even a blanket agreeable. 

The first fortnight after our return to the ship was employed in thedelightful process of resting, to appreciate which a man must have gonethrough great exertions. In our case the muscles of the limbs were ashard as boards, and not an ounce of fat existed on any part of the body. We now had frequent showers; but, these being only the earlier rains, theresult on the rise of the river was but a few inches. The effect ofthese rains on the surrounding scenery was beautiful in the extreme. Alltrace of the dry season was soon obliterated, and hills and mountainsfrom base to summit were covered with a mantle of living green. The sunpassed us on his way south without causing a flood, so all our hopes of arelease were centred on his return towards the Equator, when, as a rule, the waters of inundation are made to flow. Up to this time the rainsdescended simply to water the earth, fill the pools, and make ready forthe grand overflow for which we had still to wait six weeks. It is of nouse to conceal that we waited with much chagrin; for had we not beenforced to return from the highlands west of Nyassa we might have visitedLake Bemba; but unavailing regrets are poor employment for the mind; sowe banished them to the best of our power. 

About the middle of December, 1863, we were informed that BishopMackenzie's successor, after spending a few months on the top of amountain about as high as Ben Nevis in Scotland, at the mouth of theShire, where there were few or no people to be taught, had determined toleave the country. This unfortunate decision was communicated to us atthe same time that six of the boys reared by Bishop Mackenzie were sentback into heathenism. The boys were taken to a place about seven milesfrom the ship, but immediately found their way up to us. We told themthat if they wished to remain in the country they had better so arrangeat once, for we were soon to leave. The sequel will show their choice. 

As soon as the death of Bishop Mackenzie was known at the Cape, Dr. Gray, the excellent Bishop there, proceeded at once to England, with a view ofsecuring an early appointment of another head to the Mission, which inits origin owed so much to his zeal for the spread of the gospel amongthe heathen, and whose interests he had continually at heart. About themiddle of 1862 we heard that Dr. Gray's efforts had been successful, andthat another clergyman would soon take the place of our departed friend. This pleasing intelligence was exceedingly cheering to the Missionaries, and gratifying also to the members of the Expedition. About thebeginning of 1863 the new Bishop arrived at the mouth of the river in aman-of-war, and after some delay proceeded inland. The Bishop of theCape had taken a voyage home at considerable inconvenience to himself, for the sole object of promoting this Mission to the heathen; and it wassomehow expected that the man he would secure would be an image ofhimself; and we must say, that whatever others, from the representationsthat have gone abroad, may think of his character, we invariably foundDr. Gray to be a true, warm-hearted promoter of the welfare of his fellow-men; a man whose courage and zeal have provoked very many to good works. 

It was hoped that the presence of a new head to the Mission would infusenew energy and life into the small band of Missionaries, whose ranks hadbeen thinned by death; and who, though discouraged by the disasters whichthe slave war and famine had induced, and also dispirited by thedepressing influences of a low and unhealthy position in the swampy ShireValley, were yet bravely holding out till the much-needed moral andmaterial aid should arrive. 

We believe that we are uttering the sentiments of many devout members ofdifferent sections of Christians, when we say, it was a pity that theMission of the Universities was abandoned. The ground had beenconsecrated in the truest sense by the lives of those brave men who firstoccupied it. In bare justice to Bishop Mackenzie, who was the first tofall, it must be said, that the repudiation of all he had done, and thesudden abandonment of all that had cost so much life and money to secure, was a serious line of conduct for one so unversed in Missionaryoperations as his successor, to inaugurate. It would have been no morethan fair that Bishop Tozer, before winding up the affairs of theMission, should actually have examined the highlands of the Upper Shire;he would thus have gratified the associates of his predecessor, whobelieved that the highlands had never had a fair trial, and he would havegained from personal observation a more accurate knowledge of the countryand the people than he could possibly have become possessed of byinformation gathered chiefly on the coast. With this examination, ratherthan with a stay of a few months on the humid, dripping top of mistyMorambala, we should have felt much more satisfied. 

In January, 1864, the natives all confidently asserted that at next fullmoon the river would have its great and permanent flood. It had severaltimes risen as much as a foot, but fell again as suddenly. It wascurious that their observation coincided exactly with ours, that theflood of inundation happens when the sun comes overhead on his way backto the Equator. We mention this more minutely because, from theobservation of several years, we believe that in this way the inundationof the Nile is to be explained. On the 19th the Shire suddenly roseseveral feet, and we started at once; and stopping only for a short timeat Chibisa's to bid adieu to the Ajawa and Makololo, who had beenextremely useful to us of late in supplying maize and fresh provisions, we hastened on our way to the ocean. In order to keep a steerage way onthe "Pioneer, " we had to go quicker than the stream, and unfortunatelycarried away her rudder in passing suddenly round a bank. The delayrequired for the repairs prevented our reaching Morambala till the 2nd ofFebruary. 

The flood-water ran into a marsh some miles above the mountain, andbecame as black as ink; and when it returned again to the river emittedso strong an effluvium of sulphuretted hydrogen, that one could notforget for an instant that the air was most offensive. The natives saidthis stench did not produce disease. We spent one night in it, andsuffered no ill effects, though we fully expected an attack of fever. Next morning every particle of white paint on both ships was so deeplyblackened, that it could not be cleaned by scrubbing with soap and water. The brass was all turned to a bronze colour, and even the iron and ropeshad taken a new tint. This is an additional proof that malaria andoffensive effluvia are not always companions. We did not suffer morefrom fever in the mangrove swamps, where we inhaled so much of the heavymousey smell that it was distinguishable in the odour of our shirts andflannels, than we did elsewhere. 

We tarried in the foul and blackening emanations from the marsh becausewe had agreed to receive on board about thirty poor orphan boys andgirls, and a few helpless widows whom Bishop Mackenzie had attached tohis Mission. All who were able to support themselves had been encouragedby the Missionaries to do so by cultivating the ground, and they nowformed a little free community. But the boys and girls who were onlyfrom seven to twelve years of age, and orphans without any one to helpthem, could not be abandoned without bringing odium on the English name. The effect of an outcry by some persons in England, who knew nothing ofthe circumstances in which Bishop Mackenzie was placed, and who certainlyhad not given up their own right of appeal to the sword of themagistrate, was, that the new head of the Mission had gone to extremes inthe opposite direction from his predecessor; not even protesting againstthe one monstrous evil of the country, the slave-trade. We believed thatwe ought to leave the English name in the same good repute among thenatives that we had found it; and in removing the poor creatures, who hadlived with Mackenzie as children with a father, to a land where theeducation he began would be completed, we had the aid and sympathy of thebest of the Portuguese, and of the whole population. The differencebetween shipping slaves and receiving these free orphans struck us asthey came on board. As soon as permission to embark was given, the rushinto the boat nearly swamped her--their eagerness to be safe on the"Pioneer's" deck had to be repressed. 

Bishop Tozer had already left for Quillimane when we took these peopleand the last of the Universities' Missionaries on board and proceeded tothe Zambesi. It was in high flood. We have always spoken of this riveras if at its lowest, for fear lest we should convey an exaggeratedimpression of its capabilities for navigation. Instead of from five tofifteen feet, it was now from fifteen to thirty feet, or more, deep. Allthe sandbanks and many of the islands had disappeared, and before usrolled a river capable, as one of our naval friends thought, of carryinga gunboat. Some of the sandy islands are annually swept away, and thequantities of sand carried down are prodigious. 

The process by which a delta, extending eighty or one hundred miles fromthe sea, has been formed may be seen going on at the present day--thecoarser particles of sand are driven out into the ocean, just in the sameway as we see they are over banks in the beds of torrents. The finerportions are caught by the returning tide, and, accumulating bysuccessive ebbs and flows, become, with the decaying vegetation, arrestedby the mangrove roots. The influence of the tide in bringing back thefiner particles gives the sea near the mouth of the Zambesi a clean andsandy bottom. This process has been going on for ages, and as the deltahas enlarged eastwards, the river has always kept a channel for itselfbehind. Wherever we see an island all sand, or with only one layer ofmud in it, we know it is one of recent formation, and that it may beswept away at any time by a flood; while those islands which are all ofmud are the more ancient, having in fact existed ever since the time whenthe ebbing and flowing tides originally formed them as parts of thedelta. This mud resists the action of the river wonderfully. It is akind of clay on which the eroding power of water has little effect. Weremaps made, showing which banks and which islands are liable to erosion, it would go far to settle where the annual change of the channel wouldtake place; and, were a few stakes driven in year by year to guide thewater in its course, the river might be made of considerable commercialvalue in the hands of any energetic European nation. No canal or railwaywould ever be thought of for this part of Africa. A few improvementswould make the Zambesi a ready means of transit for all the trade that, with a population thinned by Portuguese slaving, will ever be developedin our day. Here there is no instance on record of the natives flockingin thousands to the colony, as they did at Natal, and even to the Arabson Lake Nyassa. This keeping aloof renders it unlikely that inPortuguese hands the Zambesi will ever be of any more value to the worldthan it has been. 

After a hurried visit to Senna, in order to settle with Major Sicard andSenhor Ferrao for supplies we had drawn thence after the depopulation ofthe Shire, we proceeded down to the Zambesi's mouth, and were fortunatein meeting, on the 13th February, with H. M. S. "Orestes. " She was joinednext day by H. M. S. "Ariel. " The "Orestes" took the "Pioneer, " and the"Ariel" the "Lady Nyassa" in tow, for Mosambique. On the 16th a circularstorm proved the sea-going qualities of the "Lady of the Lake;" for onthis day a hurricane struck the "Ariel, " and drove her nearly backwardsat a rate of six knots. The towing hawser wound round her screw andstopped her engines. No sooner had she recovered from this shock thanshe was again taken aback on the other tack, and driven stem on towardsthe "Lady Nyassa's" broadside. We who were on board the little vesselsaw no chance of escape unless the crew of the "Ariel" should think ofheaving ropes when the big ship went over us; but she glided past ourbow, and we breathed freely again. We had now an opportunity ofwitnessing man-of-war seamanship. Captain Chapman, though his engineswere disabled, did not think of abandoning us in the heavy gale, butcrossed the bows of the "Lady Nyassa" again and again, dropping a caskwith a line by which to give us another hawser. We might never havepicked it up, had not a Krooman jumped overboard and fastened a secondline to the cask; and then we drew the hawser on board, and were again intow. During the whole time of the hurricane the little vessel behavedadmirably, and never shipped a single green sea. When the "Ariel"pitched forwards we could see a large part of her bottom, and when herstern went down we could see all her deck. A boat, hung at her sterndavits, was stove in by the waves. The officers on board the "Ariel"thought that it was all over with us: we imagined that they weresuffering more than we were. Nautical men may suppose that this was aserious storm only to landsmen; but the "Orestes, " which was once insight, and at another time forty miles off during the same gale, spliteighteen sails; and the "Pioneer" had to be lightened of parts of a sugar-mill she was carrying; her round-house was washed away, and the cabin wasfrequently knee-deep in water. When the "Orestes" came into Mosambiqueharbour nine days after our arrival there, our vessel, not being anchoredclose to the "Ariel, " for we had run in under the lee of the fort, led tothe surmise on board the "Orestes" that we had gone to the bottom. Captain Chapman and his officers pronounced the "Lady Nyassa" to be thefinest little sea-boat they had ever seen. She certainly was a contrastto the "Ma-Robert, " and did great credit to her builders, Ted andMacgregor of Glasgow. We can but regret that she was not employed on theLake after which she was named, and for which she was intended and was sowell adapted. 

What struck us most, during the trip from the Zambesi to Mosambique, wasthe admirable way in which Captain Chapman handled the "Ariel" in theheavy sea of the hurricane; the promptitude and skill with which, when wehad broken three hawsers, others were passed to us by the rapidevolutions of a big ship round a little one; and the ready appliance ofmeans shown in cutting the hawser off the screw nine feet under waterwith long chisels made for the occasion; a task which it took three daysto accomplish. Captain Chapman very kindly invited us on board the"Ariel, " and we accepted his hospitality after the weather had moderated. 

The little vessel was hauled through and against the huge seas with suchforce that two hawsers measuring eleven inches each in circumferenceparted. Many of the blows we received from the billows made every platequiver from stem to stern, and the motion was so quick that we had tohold on continually to avoid being tossed from one side to the other orinto the sea. Ten of the late Bishop's flock whom we had on board becameso sick and helpless that do what we could to aid them they were so verymuch in the way that the idea broke in upon us, that the close packingresorted to by slavers is one of the necessities of the traffic. If thisis so, it would account for the fact that even when the trade was legalthe same injurious custom was common, if not universal. If, instead often such passengers, we had been carrying two hundred, with the winddriving the rain and spray, as by night it did, nearly as hard as hailagainst our faces, and nothing whatever to be seen to windward but theoccasional gleam of the crest of a wave, and no sound heard save thewhistling of the storm through the rigging, it would have been absolutelynecessary for the working of the ship and safety of the whole that thelive cargo should all have been stowed down below, whatever might havebeen the consequences. 

Having delivered the "Pioneer" over to the Navy, she was towed down tothe Cape by Captain Forsyth of the "Valorous, " and after examination itwas declared that with repairs to the amount of 300 pounds she would beas serviceable as ever. Those of the Bishop's flock whom we had on boardwere kindly allowed a passage to the Cape. The boys went in the"Orestes, " and we are glad of the opportunity to record our heartfeltthanks to Captains Forsyth, Gardner, and Chapman for rendering us, atvarious times, every aid in their power. Mr. Waller went in the"Pioneer, " and continued his generous services to all connected with theMission, whether white or black, till they were no longer needed; and wemust say that his conduct to them throughout was truly noble, and worthyof the highest praise. 

After beaching the "Lady Nyassa" at Caboceira, opposite the house of aPortuguese gentleman well known to all Englishmen, Joao da Costa Soares, we put in brine cocks, and cleaned and painted her bottom. Mr. Soaresappeared to us to have been very much vilified in a publication inEngland a few years ago; our experience proved him to be extremely kindand obliging. All the members of the Expedition who passed Mosambiquewere unanimous in extolling his generosity and, from the generaltestimony of English visitors in his favour, we very much regret that hischaracter was so grievously misrepresented. To the authorities atMosambique our thanks are also due for obliging accommodation; and thoughwe differ entirely from the Portuguese officials as to the light in whichwe regard the slave-trade, we trust our exposure of the system, in whichunfortunately they are engaged, will not be understood as indicating anywant of kindly feeling and good will to them personally. Senhor Canto eCastro, who arrived at Mosambique two days after our departure to takethe office of Governor-General, was well known to us in Angola. We livedtwo months in his house when he was Commandant of Golungo Alto; and, knowing him thoroughly, believe that no better man could have beenselected for the office. We trust that his good principles may enablehim to withstand the temptations of his position; but we should be sorryto have ours tried in a den of slave-traders with the miserable pittancehe receives for his support. 

While at Mosambique, a species of Pedalia called by Mr. Soares Dadeleira, and by the natives--from its resemblance to Gerzilin, or sesamum--"wildsesamum, " was shown to us, and is said to be well known among nativenurses as a very gentle and tasteless aperient for children. A fewleaves of it are stirred in a cup of cold water for eight or nineseconds, and a couple of teaspoonfuls of the liquid given as a dose. Theleaves form a sort of mucilage in the water by longer stirring, which issaid to have diuretic properties besides. 

On the 16th April we steamed out from Mosambique; and, the currents beingin our favour, in a week reached Zanzibar. Here we experienced muchhospitality from our countrymen, and especially from Dr. Seward, thenacting consul and political agent for Colonel Playfair. 

Dr. Seward was very doubtful if we could reach Bombay before what iscalled the break of the monsoon took place. This break occurs usuallybetween the end of May and the 12th of June. The wind still blows fromAfrica to India, but with so much violence, and with such a murkyatmosphere, that few or no observations for position can be taken. Wewere, however, at the time very anxious to dispose of the "Lady Nyassa, "and, the only market we could reach being Bombay, we resolved to run therisk of getting there before the stormy period commenced; and, aftertaking fourteen tons of coal on board, we started on the 30th April fromZanzibar. 

Our complement consisted of seven native Zambesians, two boys, and fourEuropeans; namely, one stoker, one sailor, one carpenter, whose nameshave been already mentioned, and Dr. Livingstone, as navigator. The"Lady Nyassa" had shown herself to be a good sea-boat. The natives hadproved themselves capital sailors, though before volunteering not one ofthem had ever seen the sea. They were not picked men, but, on paying adozen whom we had in our employment for fifteen months, they were takenat random from several hundreds who offered to accompany us. Their wageswere ten shillings per mensem, and it was curious to observe, that soeager were they to do their duty, that only one of them lay down from sea-sickness during the whole voyage. They took in and set sail verycleverly in a short time, and would climb out along a boom, reeve a ropethrough the block, and come back with the rope in their teeth, though ateach lurch the performer was dipped in the sea. The sailor andcarpenter, though anxious to do their utmost, had a week's severe illnesseach, and were unfit for duty. 

It is pleasant enough to take the wheel for an hour or two, or even for awatch, but when it comes to be for every alternate four hours, it isutterly wearisome. We set our black men to steer, showing them which armof the compass needle was to be kept towards the vessel's head, and soonthree of them could manage very well, and they only needed watching. Ingoing up the East Coast to take advantage of the current of one hundredmiles a day, we would fain have gone into the Juba or Webbe River, themouth of which is only 15 minutes south of the line, but we were tooshorthanded. We passed up to about ten degrees north of the Equator, andthen steamed out from the coast. Here Maury's wind chart showed that thecalm-belt had long been passed, but we were in it still; and, instead ofa current carrying us north, we had a contrary current which bore usevery day four miles to the south. We steamed as long as we dared, knowing as we did that we must use the engines on the coast of India. 

After losing many days tossing on the silent sea, with innumerabledolphins, flying-fish, and sharks around us, we had six days of strongbreezes, then calms again tried our patience; and the near approach ofthat period, "the break of the monsoon, " in which it was believed no boatcould live, made us sometimes think our epitaph would be "Left Zanzibaron 30th April, 1864, and never more heard of. " At last, in the beginningof June, the chronometers showed that we were near the Indian coast. Theblack men believed it was true because we told them it was so, but onlybegan to dance with joy when they saw sea-weed and serpents floatingpast. These serpents are peculiar to these parts, and are mentioned aspoisonous in the sailing directions. We ventured to predict that weshould see land next morning, and at midday the high coast hove in sight, wonderfully like Africa before the rains begin. Then a haze covered allthe land, and a heavy swell beat towards it. A rock was seen, and alatitude showed it to be the Choule rock. Making that a fresh starting-point, we soon found the light-ship, and then the forest of masts loomedthrough the haze in Bombay harbour. We had sailed over 2500 miles. 

FOOTNOTES

{1} A remedy composed of from six to eight grains of resin of jalap, thesame of rhubarb, and three each of calomel and quinine, made up into fourpills, with tincture of cardamoms, usually relieved all the symptoms infive or six hours. Four pills are a full dose for a man--one willsuffice for a woman. They received from our men the name of "rousers, "from their efficacy in rousing up even those most prostrated. When theiroperation is delayed, a dessert-spoonful of Epsom salts should be given. Quinine after or during the operation of the pills, in large doses everytwo or three hours, until deafness or cinchonism ensued, completed thecure. The only cases in which, we found ourselves completely helpless, were those in which obstinate vomiting ensued. 

{2} The late Mr. Robson. 

{3} In 1865, four years after these forebodings were penned, we receivedintelligence that they had all come to pass. Sekeletu died in thebeginning of 1864--a civil war broke out about the succession to thechieftainship; a large body of those opposed to the late chief's uncle, Impololo, being regent, departed with their cattle to Lake Ngami; aninsurrection by the black tribes followed; Impololo was slain, and thekingdom, of which, under an able sagacious mission, a vast deal mighthave been made, has suffered the usual fate of African conquests. Thatfate we deeply deplore; for, whatever other faults the Makololo mightjustly be charged with, they did not belong to the class who buy and selleach other, and the tribes who have succeeded them do. 

{4} It was with sorrow that we learned by a letter from Mr. Moffat, in1864, that poor Sekeletu was dead. As will be mentioned further on, menwere sent with us to bring up more medicine. They preferred to remain onthe Shire, and, as they were free men, we could do no more than try andpersuade them to hasten back to their chief with iodine and otherremedies. They took the parcel, but there being only two real Makololoamong them, these could neither return themselves alone or force theirattendants to leave a part of the country where they were independent, and could support themselves with ease. Sekeletu, however, lived longenough to receive and acknowledge goods to the value of 50 pounds, sent, in lieu of those which remained in Tette, by Robert Moffat, jun. , sincedead. 

{5} A brother, we believe, of one who accompanied Burke and Willis in thefamous but unfortunate Australian Expedition. 

{6} Genesis, chap. Iii. , verses 21 and 23, "make coats of skins, andclothed them"--"sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till theground" imply teaching. Vide Archbishop Whately's "History of ReligiousWorship. " John W. Parker, West Strand, London, 1849. 

{7} "In 1854 the native church at Sierra-Leone undertook to pay fortheir primary schools, and thereby effected a saving to the ChurchMissionary Society of 800 pounds per annum. In 1861 the contributions ofthis one section of native Christians had amounted to upwards of 10, 000pounds. "--"Manual of Church Missionary Society's African Missions. "