Designed To Draw Three
Feet Only, The Weight Necessary To Impart Extra Strength, And Fit Her
For The Ocean, Brought Her Down Two Feet More, And Caused Us A Great
Deal Of Hard And Vexatious Work, In Laying Out Anchors, And Toiling
At The Capstan To Get Her Off Sandbanks.
We should not have minded
this much, but for the heavy loss of time which might have been more
profitably, and infinitely more pleasantly, spent in intercourse with
the people, exploring new regions, and otherwise carrying out the
objects of the Expedition.
Once we were a fortnight on a bank of
soft yielding sand, having only two or three inches less water than
the ship drew; this delay was occasioned by the anchors coming home,
and the current swinging the ship broadside on the bank, which,
immediately on our touching, always formed behind us. We did not
like to leave the ship short of Chibisa's, lest the crew should
suffer from the malaria of the lowland around; and it would have been
difficult to have got the Mission goods carried up. We were daily
visited by crowds of natives, who brought us abundance of provisions
far beyond our ability to consume. In hauling the "Pioneer" over the
shallow places, the Bishop, with Horace Waller and Mr. Scudamore,
were ever ready and anxious to lend a hand, and worked as hard as any
on board. Had our fine little ship drawn but three feet, she could
have run up and down the river at any time of the year with the
greatest ease, but as it was, having once passed up over a few
shallow banks, it was impossible to take her down again until the
river rose in December. She could go up over a bank, but not come
down over it, as a heap of sand always formed instantly astern, while
the current washed it away from under her bows.
On at last reaching Chibisa's, we heard that there was war in the
Manganja country, and the slave-trade was going on briskly. A
deputation from a chief near Mount Zomba had just passed on its way
to Chibisa, who was in a distant village, to implore him to come
himself, or send medicine, to drive off the Waiao, Waiau, or Ajawa,
whose marauding parties were desolating the land. A large gang of
recently enslaved Manganja crossed the river, on their way to Tette,
a few days before we got the ship up. Chibisa's deputy was civil,
and readily gave us permission to hire as many men to carry the
Bishop's goods up to the hills as were willing to go. With a
sufficient number, therefore, we started for the highlands on the
15th of July, to show the Bishop the country, which, from its
altitude and coolness, was most suitable for a station. Our first
day's march was a long and fatiguing one. The few hamlets we passed
were poor, and had no food for our men, and we were obliged to go on
till 4 p.m., when we entered the small village of Chipindu. The
inhabitants complained of hunger, and said they had no food to sell,
and no hut for us to sleep in; but, if we would only go on a little
further, we should come to a village where they had plenty to eat;
but we had travelled far enough, and determined to remain where we
were. Before sunset as much food was brought as we cared to
purchase, and, as it threatened to rain, huts were provided for the
whole party.
Next forenoon we halted at the village of our old friend Mbame, to
obtain new carriers, because Chibisa's men, never before having been
hired, and not having yet learned to trust us, did not choose to go
further. After resting a little, Mbame told us that a slave party on
its way to Tette would presently pass through his village. "Shall we
interfere?" we inquired of each other. We remembered that all our
valuable private baggage was in Tette, which, if we freed the slaves,
might, together with some Government property, be destroyed in
retaliation; but this system of slave-hunters dogging us where
previously they durst not venture, and, on pretence of being "our
children," setting one tribe against another, to furnish themselves
with slaves, would so inevitably thwart all the efforts, for which we
had the sanction of the Portuguese Government, that we resolved to
run all risks, and put a stop, if possible, to the slave-trade, which
had now followed on the footsteps of our discoveries. A few minutes
after Mbame had spoken to us, the slave party, a long line of
manacled men, women, and children, came wending their way round the
hill and into the valley, on the side of which the village stood.
The black drivers, armed with muskets, and bedecked with various
articles of finery, marched jauntily in the front, middle, and rear
of the line; some of them blowing exultant notes out of long tin
horns. They seemed to feel that they were doing a very noble thing,
and might proudly march with an air of triumph. But the instant the
fellows caught a glimpse of the English, they darted off like mad
into the forest; so fast, indeed, that we caught but a glimpse of
their red caps and the soles of their feet. The chief of the party
alone remained; and he, from being in front, had his hand tightly
grasped by a Makololo! He proved to be a well-known slave of the
late Commandant at Tette, and for some time our own attendant while
there. On asking him how he obtained these captives, he replied he
had bought them; but on our inquiring of the people themselves, all,
save four, said they had been captured in war. While this inquiry
was going on, he bolted too. The captives knelt down, and, in their
way of expressing thanks, clapped their hands with great energy.
They were thus left entirely on our hands, and knives were soon busy
at work cutting the women and children loose.
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