But the motives that actuate many in
England, both in public and private life, are much more noble than
the world gives them credit for.
Seeing, then, that we were not yet arrived at "the good time coming,"
and that it was quite impossible to take the "Pioneer" down to the
sea till the floods of December, we made arrangements to screw the
"Lady Nyassa" together; and, in order to improve the time
intervening, we resolved to carry a boat past the Cataracts a second
time, sail along the eastern shore of the Lake, and round the
northern end, and also collect data by which to verify the
information collected by Colonel Rigby, that the 19,000 slaves, who
go through the Custom-house of Zanzibar annually, are chiefly drawn
from Lake Nyassa and the Valley of the Shire.
Our party consisted of twenty natives, some of whom were Johanna men,
and were supposed to be capable of managing the six oxen which drew
the small wagon with a boat on it. A team of twelve Cape oxen, with
a Hottentot driver and leader, would have taken the wagon over the
country we had to pass through with the greatest ease; but no sooner
did we get beyond the part of the road already made, than our drivers
encountered obstructions in the way of trees and gullies, which it
would have been a waste of time to have overcome by felling timber
and hauling out the wagon by block and tackle purchases.
