Livingstone And Kirk, And Charles Livingstone Started For Nyassa
With 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 of the Murchison Cataracts for a cubit of cotton
cloth a day.
This being deemed great wages, more than twice the men
required eagerly offered their services. The chief difficulty was in
limiting their numbers. Crowds followed us; and, had we not taken
down in the morning the names of the porters engaged, in the evening
claims would have been made by those who only helped during the last
ten minutes of the journey. The men of one village carried the boat
to the next, and all we had to do was to tell the headman that we
wanted fresh men in the morning. He saw us pay the first party, and
had his men ready at the time appointed, so there was no delay in
waiting for carriers. They often make a loud noise when carrying
heavy loads, but talking and bawling does not put them out of breath.
The country was rough and with little soil on it, but covered with
grass and open forest. A few small trees were cut down to clear a
path for our shouting assistants, who were good enough to consider
the boat as a certificate of peaceful intentions at least to them.
Several small streams were passed, the largest of which were the
Mukuru-Madse and Lesungwe.
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