Mr. Hunt, Gunner, The Officer In Charge Of The Second Boat,
Behaved Nobly, And By His Skilful And Gallant Conduct Succeeded In
Rescuing Every One Of The First Boat's Crew.
Of course the things
that they were bringing to us were lost, but we were thankful that
all the men were saved.
The loss of the mail-bags, containing
Government despatches 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 weary time to be without news of friends and
family. In the repairing of our crazy 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
progress up the stream was distressingly slow, and it was not until
the 2nd of February, 1860, that we reached Tette. Mr. Thornton
returned on the same day from a geological tour, by which some
Portuguese expected that a fabulous silver-mine would be
rediscovered. The tradition in the country is, 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 the Baron
van der Decken, explored the snow mountain Kilimanjaro, north-west of
Zanzibar. Mr. Thornton's companion, the trader, brought back much
ivory, having found it both abundant and cheap.
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