A Bald Square-Headed Man, Who Had Been His
Prime Minister When We Came Up, Was Now Out Of Office, And Another
Old Man, Who Had Taken His Place Accompanied The Chief.
In passing
the Elephant Marsh, we saw nine large herds of elephants; they
sometimes formed a line two miles long.
On the 2nd of November we anchored off Shamoara, and sent the boat to
Senna for biscuit and other provisions. Senhor Ferrao, with his
wonted generosity, gave us a present of a bullock, which he sent to
us in a canoe. Wishing to know if a second bullock would be
acceptable to us, he consulted his Portuguese and English dictionary,
and asked the sailor in charge if he would take ANOTHER; but Jack,
mistaking the Portuguese pronunciation of the letter h, replied, "Oh
no, sir, thank you, I don't want an OTTER in the boat, they are such
terrible biters!"
We had to ground the vessel on a shallow sandbank every night; she
leaked so fast, that in deep water she would have sunk, and the pump
had to be worked all day to keep her afloat. Heavy rains fell daily,
producing the usual injurious effects in the cabin; and, unable to
wait any longer for our associates, who had gone overland from the
Shire to Tette, we ran down the Kongone and beached her for repairs.
Her Majesty's ship "Lynx," Lieut. Berkeley commanding, called shortly
afterwards with supplies; the bar, which had been perfectly smooth
for some time before, became rather rough just before her arrival, so
that it was two or three days before she could communicate with us.
Two of her boats tried to come in on the second day, and one of them,
mistaking the passage, capsized in the heavy breakers abreast of the
island.
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