The Lake People Grow Abundance Of Cotton For Their Own
Consumption, And Can Sell It For A Penny A Pound
Or even less.
Water-carriage exists by the Shire and Zambesi all the way to
England, with the single exception
Of a portage of about thirty-five
miles past the Murchison Cataracts, along which a road of less than
forty miles could be made at a trifling expense; and it seems
feasible that a legitimate and thriving trade might, in a short time,
take the place of the present unlawful traffic.
Colonel Rigby, Captains Wilson, Oldfield, and Chapman, and all the
most intelligent officers on the Coast, were unanimous in the belief,
that one small vessel on the Lake would have decidedly more
influence, and do more good in suppressing the slave-trade, than half
a dozen men-of-war on the ocean. By judicious operations, therefore,
on a small scale inland, little expense would be incurred, and the
English slave-trade policy on the East would have the same fair
chance of success, as on the West Coast.
After a land-journey of forty days, we returned to the ship on the
6th of October, 1859, in a somewhat exhausted condition, arising more
from a sort of poisoning, than from the usual fatigue of travel. We
had taken a little mulligatawney paste, for making soup, in case of
want of time to cook other food. Late one afternoon, at the end of
an unusually long march, we reached Mikena, near the base of Mount
Njongone to the north of Zomba, and the cook was directed to use a
couple of spoonfuls of the paste; but, instead of doing so, he put in
the whole potful.
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