LAKE SHIRWA. CONTACT WITH SLAVE-HUNTERS.

DR. LIVINGSTONE and his party had come all the way from England to explore the district, and were not to be lightly turned aside from their object; so early in January, 1859, they boldly entered the Shire. They found, for the first twenty-five miles, that a considerable quantity of duckweed was floating down the river, but not in sufficient quantity to interrupt its navigation, even in canoes. As they approached the native villages, the men assembled on the banks, armed with bows and arrows; but it was not until they reached the village of a chief called Tingane, who had gained considerable notoriety by his successful prevention of the Portuguese slave-traders from passing farther to the north, that they met with any thing like serious opposition. Here five hundred armed men were collected, who commanded them to stop. Livingstone boldly went on shore, and, at an interview with the chief and his head men, explained the objects of the party, and their friendly disposition. Tingane, who was an elderly, well-made man, gray-headed, and over six feet high, withdrew his opposition to their further progress, and called all his people together, so that the objects of the exploring-party might be explained to them.

Following the winding course of the river for about two hundred miles, their farther progress was arrested by a

FRIENDLY NATIVES.

167

series of cataracts, to which the party gave the name of "The Murchison," in honor of the great friend of the expedition, Sir Roderick Murchison. In going down stream, the progress of the "Ma-Robert" was very rapid; the hippopotami keeping carefully out of the way, while the crocodiles would make a rush at the vessel as if to attack it, coming within a few feet of her, when they sank like a stone, to re-appear, and watch the progress of the unknown invader of their haunts, when she had passed.

sea.

Although narrower than the Zambesi, the Shire is much deeper, and more easily navigated. The lower valley of the Shire is about twenty miles wide, and very fertile. The hills which enclose it on either side are covered with wood, in many cases, to their summits, some of which are at an altitude of four thousand feet above the level of the They visited one of the loftiest of the hills, called by the natives Morambala. On the wooded sides of this mountain, Dr. Kirk found thirty species of ferns. In the forests near its base, monkeys, antelopes, rhinoceroses, and several varieties of the larger birds, were abundant. "A hot fountain boils up on the plain, near the north end. It bubbles out of the earth, clear as crystal, at two points, or eyes, a few yards apart from each other, and sends off a fine flowing stream of hot water. The temperature was found to be 174° Fahr. ; and it boiled an egg in about the usual time." Two pythons coiled together among the branches of a tree were shot. The largest was ten feet long. Their flesh is greatly relished by the natives. The people who dwelt on the mountain slopes, here and elsewhere on the lower Shire, were found to be a hardy and kindly race. They cultivate maize, pumpkins, and tobacco, in their gardens on the plains, and catch fish in the river, which they dry for future sale or consump

tion. On the occasion of a future ascent of the river, the party found that many of these hardy mountaineers had been swept away in a slave-raid by Mariano.

In the middle of March, they started for a second trip up the Shire, when they found the natives altogether friendly, and anxious to sell them rice, fowls, and corn. Within ten miles of the Murchison Cataracts, they entered into amicable relations with a chief named Chibisa, whose career had been of a very warlike character; which he excused and explained by stating that the parties with whom he had fought had all been in the wrong, while he was invariably in the right. He was a true believer in the divine right of kings. "He was an ordinary man, he said, when his father died, and left him the chieftainship; but, directly he succeeded to the high office, he was conscious of power passing into his head, and down his back. He felt it enter, and knew that he was a chief, clothed with authority, and possessed of wisdom; and people then began to fear and reverence him."

Fortunately his people were of the same mind; for they bathed in the river without dread of the crocodiles, after he had placed a medicine in it to prevent their biting them.

Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, and several of the Makololo men, left the steamer, and the other members of the party, at Chibisa's village, and proceeded overland to Lake Shirwa; the inhabitants of the district through which they passed presenting a hostile appearance. Through a misunderstanding, their guide took them first to an extensive marsh, which they christened Elephant Marsh, from the large number of those animals they saw there. Afterwards they pushed on without guides, save when some idiot from a native village joined them, and accompanied them a considerable way on their march, when no sane

LAKE SHIRWA DISCOVERED.

169

member of the tribe would consent to guide them for love or money. The people who occupy the district beyond the Shire were called Manganja, and were distinguished for their bold and independent bearing. Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, while keeping themselves prepared for any attack, were careful to give no cause of offence, and so managed to avoid getting into any serious difficulty with this warlike people, to the disgust of the Makololo men, who were anxious to give them a taste of their quality.

On the 18th of April, they discovered Lake Shirwa. The water was brackish; and in it were enormous numbers of leeches, the attacks of which prevented them obtaining the latitude by the natural horizon, which they hoped to do on a sandbank at some distance from the shore. Several varieties of fish, hippopotami, and crocodiles, were abundant in the waters of the lake. The lake was found to be one thousand eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. It was reported to be from sixty to eighty miles long, and of an average breadth of twenty miles. Lofty mountains, whose height was supposed to be about eight thousand feet, stand near its eastern shore; and on the west is a long ridge, called Mount Zomba, with a height of about seven thousand feet, and a length of about twenty miles. In returning to the steamer, they changed their route, and passed through a country peopled by friends of Chibisa, who did not interfere with their progress. They found their quartermaster, John Walker, ill of fever; and, having cured him, they sailed down into the Zambesi, reaching Tete on the 23d of June.

As their provisions were almost exhausted, the chief members of the party proceeded down the river to meet some of her Majesty's cruisers of the Kongone; and here

they were compelled to beach the "Ma-Robert" for repairs. Besides being a bad sailer, she leaked so that the cabin was constantly flooded, the water coming not only from below, but through the deck whenever it rained. The damp caused by this state of affairs was very prejudicial to their health, and also caused the destruction of many botanical specimens, occasioning much worry, and loss of time, in replacing them with others. After receiving & supply of provisions from her Majesty's brig “Persian,” the party returned to Tete, and started on their third ascent of the Shire. On this occasion they examined a lagoon, called "the Lake of Mud" in the language of the natives, in which grows a lotus-root called nyika, which the natives collect: when boiled or roasted, it resembles our chestnuts; and, as it is common throughout South Africa, it is extensively used as food. These lagoons and marshes, which are common in the course of the great rivers of South Africa, mark the spot where extensive lakes existed when the waters passed off to the sea at a higher level than they do at the present day.

As the miserable little steamer could not carry all the men they required in this more extended expedition, they were compelled to place some of them in boats, which were towed astern. Unfortunately, one of these capsized, and one of the Makololo men was drowned. At Mboma, where the people were eager to sell any quantity of food, the party were entertained by a native musician, who drew excruciating notes from a kind of one-stringed violin. As he threatened to serenade them all night, he was asked if he would not perish from cold. "Oh, no!" he replied; "I shall spend the night with my white comrades in the big canoe. I have often heard of the white men, but have never seen them till now; and I must sing