trewn with their
dead bodies, and some were found hundreds of yards inland; many were so
emaciated as to dry up without putrefying. We were plagued with myriads
of mosquitoes, and had some touches of fever; the men we brought from
malarious regions of the interior suffered almost as much from it here as
we did ourselves. This gives strength to the idea that the civilized
withstand the evil influences of strange climates better than the
uncivilized. When negroes return to their own country from healthy
lands, they suffer as severely as foreigners ever do.

On the 31st of January, 1861, our new ship, the "Pioneer," arrived from
England, and anchored outside the bar; but the weather was stormy, and
she did not venture in till the 4th of February.

Two of H.M. cruisers came at the same time, bringing Bishop Mackenzie,
and the Oxford and Cambridge Mission to the tribes of the Shire and Lake
Nyassa. The Mission consisted of six Englishmen, and five coloured men
from the Cape. It was a puzzle to know what to do with so many men. The
estimable Bishop, anxious to commence his work without delay, wished the
"Pioneer" to carry the Mission up the Shire, as far as Chibisa's, and
there leave them. But there were grave objections to this. The
"Pioneer" was under orders to explore the Rovuma, as the Portuguese
Government had refused to open the Zambesi to the ships of other nations,
and their officials were very effectually pursuing a system, which, by
abstracting the labour, was rendering the country of no value either to
foreigners or to themselves. She was already two months behind her time,
and the rainy season was half over. Then, if the party were taken to
Chibisa's, the Mission would he left without a medical attendant, in an
unhealthy region, at the beginning of the most sickly season of the year,
and without means of reaching the healthy highlands, or of returning to
the sea. We dreaded that, in the absence of medical aid and all
knowledge of the treatment of fever, there might be a repetition of the
sorrowful fate which befell the similar non-medical Mission at Linyanti.

On the 25th of February the "Pioneer" anchored in the mouth of the
Rovuma, which, unlike most African rivers, has a magnificent bay and no
bar. We wooded, and then waited for the Bishop till the 9th of March,
when he came in the "Lyra." On the 11th we proceeded up the river, and
saw that it had fallen four or five feet during our detention. Th