84 degrees to 103 degrees in the shade; and our spirits
were as dull and languid as they had been exhilarated on the heights in a
temperature cooler by some 20 degrees. The water of the river was
sometimes 84 degrees or higher, whilst that we had been drinking in the
hill streams was only 65 degrees.

It was found necessary to send two of our number across from the Shire to
Tette; and Dr. Kirk, with guides from Chibisa, and accompanied by Mr.
Rae, the engineer, accomplished the journey. We had found the country to
the north and east so very well watered, that no difficulty was
anticipated in this respect in a march of less than a hundred miles; but
on this occasion our friends suffered severely. The little water to be
had at this time of the year, by digging in the beds of dry watercourses,
was so brackish as to increase thirst--some of the natives indeed were
making salt from it; and when at long intervals a less brackish supply
was found, it was nauseous and muddy from the frequent visits of large
game. The tsetse abounded. The country was level, and large tracts of
it covered with mopane forest, the leaves of which afford but scanty
shade to the baked earth, so that scarcely any grass grows upon it. The
sun was so hot, that the men frequently jumped from the path, in the vain
hope of cooling, for a moment, their scorched feet under the almost
shadeless bushes; and the native who carried the provision of salt pork
got lost, and came into Tette two days after the rest of the party, with
nothing but the fibre of the meat left, the fat, melted by the blazing
sun, having all run down his back. This path was soon made a highway for
slaving parties by Captain Raposo, the Commandant. The journey nearly
killed our two active young friends; and what the slaves must have since
suffered on it no one can conceive; but slaving probably can never be
conducted without enormous suffering and loss of life.

Mankokwe now sent a message to say that he wished us to stop at his
village on our way down. He came on board on our arrival there with a
handsome present, and said that his young people had dissuaded him from
visiting us before; but now he was determined to see what every one else
was seeing. A bald square-headed man, who had been his Prime Minister
when we came up, was now out of office, and another old man, who had
taken his place accompanied the chief. In passing the Elephant Marsh, we
saw nine large herds of elephan