They Could
Hear Nothing Of The Bishop From The Chief Of The Island, Malo, At The
Mouth Of The Ruo.
"No white man had ever come to his village," he
said.
They proceeded on to Chibisa's, suffering terribly from
mosquitoes at night. Their toil in stemming the rapid current made
them estimate the distance, by the windings, as nearer 300 than 200
miles. The Makololo who had remained at Chibisa's told them the sad
news of the death of the good Bishop and of Mr. Burrup. Other
information received there awakened fresh anxiety on behalf of the
survivors; so, leaving the ladies with Dr. Ramsay and the Makololo,
Captain Wilson and Dr. Kirk went up the hills, in hopes of being able
to render assistance, and on the way they met some of the Mission
party at Soche's. The excessive fatigue that our friends had
undergone in the voyage up to Chibisa's in no wise deterred them from
this further attempt for the benefit of their countrymen, but the
fresh labour, with diminished rations, was too much for their
strength. They were reduced to a diet of native beans and an
occasional fowl. Both became very ill of fever, Captain Wilson so
dangerously that his fellow-sufferer lost all hopes of his recovery.
His strong able-bodied cockswain did good service in cheerfully
carrying his much-loved Commander, and they managed to return to the
boat, and brought the two bereaved and sorrow-stricken ladies back to
the "Pioneer."
We learnt that the Bishop, wishing to find a shorter route down to
the Shire, had sent two men to explore the country between Magomero
and the junction of the Ruo; and in December Messrs. Proctor and
Scudamore, with a number of Manganja carriers, left Magomero for the
same purpose. They were to go close to Mount Choro, and then skirt
the Elephant Marsh, with Mount Clarendon on their left. Their guides
seem to have led them away to the east, instead of south; to the
upper waters of the Ruo in the Shirwa valley, instead of to its
mouth. Entering an Anguru slave-trading village, they soon began to
suspect that the people meant mischief, and just before sunset a
woman told some of their men that if they slept there they would all
be killed. On their preparing to leave, the Anguru followed them and
shot their arrows at the retreating party. Two of the carriers were
captured, and all the goods were taken by these robbers. An arrow-
head struck deep into the stock of Proctor's gun; and the two
missionaries, barely escaping with their lives, swam a deep river at
night, and returned to Magomero famished and exhausted.
The wives of the captive carriers came to the Bishop day after day
weeping and imploring him to rescue their husbands from slavery. The
men had been caught while in his service, no one else could be
entreated; there was no public law nor any power superior to his own,
to which an appeal could be made; for in him Church and State were,
in the disorganized state of the country, virtually united. It
seemed to him to be clearly his duty to try and rescue these
kidnapped members of the Mission family. He accordingly invited the
veteran Makololo to go with him on this somewhat hazardous errand.
Nothing could have been proposed to them which they would have liked
better, and they went with alacrity to eat the sheep of the Anguru,
only regretting that the enemy did not keep cattle as well. Had the
matter been left entirely in their hands, they would have made a
clean sweep of that part of the country; but the Bishop restrained
them, and went in an open manner, thus commending the measure to all
the natives, as one of justice. This deliberation, however, gave the
delinquents a chance of escape.
The missionaries were successful; the offending village was burned,
and a few sheep and goats were secured which could not be considered
other than a very mild punishment for the offence committed; the
headman, Muana-somba, afraid to retain the prisoners any longer,
forthwith liberated them, and they returned to their homes. This
incident took place at the time we were at the Ruo and during the
rains, and proved very trying to the health of the missionaries; they
were frequently wetted, and had hardly any food but roasted maize.
Mr. Scudamore was never well afterwards. Directly on their return to
Magomero, the Bishop and Mr. Burrup, both suffering from diarrhoea in
consequence of wet, hunger, and exposure, started for Chibisa's to go
down to the Ruo by the Shire. So fully did the Bishop expect a
renewal of the soaking wet from which he had just returned, that on
leaving Magomero he walked through the stream. The rivulets were so
swollen that it took five days to do a journey that would otherwise
have occupied only two days and a half.
None of the Manganja being willing to take them down the river during
the flood, three Makololo canoe-men agreed to go with them. After
paddling till near sunset, they decided to stop and sleep on shore;
but the mosquitoes were so numerous that they insisted on going on
again; the Bishop, being a week behind the time he had engaged to be
at the Ruo, reluctantly consented, and in the darkness the canoe was
upset in one of the strong eddies or whirlpools, which suddenly boil
up in flood time near the outgoing branches of the river; clothing,
medicines, tea, coffee, and sugar were all lost. Wet and weary, and
tormented by mosquitoes, they lay in the canoe till morning dawned,
and then proceeded to Malo, an island at the mouth of the Ruo, where
the Bishop was at once seized with fever.
Had they been in their usual health, they would doubtless have pushed
on to Shupanga, or to the ship; but fever rapidly prostrates the
energies, and induces a drowsy stupor, from which, if not roused by
medicine, the patient gradually sinks into the sleep of death.
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