rs. The main drawbacks in
his opinion, however, were the slave-trade, and the power allowed the
effete Portuguese of shutting up the country from all except a few
convicts of their own nation. The time of his coming was inopportune;
the disasters which, from inexperience, had befallen the Mission of the
Universities, had a depressing effect on the minds of many at home, and
rendered a new attempt unadvisable; though, had the Scotch perseverance
and energy been introduced, it is highly probable that they would have
reacted, most beneficially, on the zeal of our English brethren, and
desertion would never have been heard of. After examining the country,
Mr. Stewart descended the Zambesi in the beginning of the following year,
and proceeded homewards with his report, by Mosambique and the Cape.

On the 7th of April we had only one man fit for duty; all the rest were
down with fever, or with the vile spirit secretly sold to them by the
Portuguese officer of customs, in spite of our earnest request to him to
refrain from the pernicious traffic.

We started on the 11th for Shupanga with another load of the "Lady
Nyassa." As we steamed up the delta, we observed many of the natives
wearing strips of palm-leaf, the signs of sickness and mourning; for they
too suffer from fever. This is the unhealthy season; the rains are over,
and the hot sun draws up malaria from the decayed vegetation; disease
seemed peculiarly severe this year. On our way up we met Mr. Waller, who
had come from Magomero for provisions; the missionaries were suffering
severely from want of food; the liberated people were starving, and dying
of diarrhoea, and loathsome sores. The Ajawa, stimulated in their slave
raids by supplies of ammunition and cloth from the Portuguese, had
destroyed the large crops of the past year; a drought had followed, and
little or no food could be bought. With his usual energy, Mr. Waller
hired canoes, loaded them with stores, and took them up the long weary
way to Chibisa's. Before he arrived he was informed that the Mission of
the Universities, now deprived of its brave leader, had retired from the
highlands down to the Low Shire Valley. This appeared to us, who knew
the danger of leading a sedentary life, the greatest mistake they could
have made, and was the result of no other counsel or responsibility than
their own. Waller would have reascended at once to the higher altitude,
but various objections stood in the way.