nd without contact--ascertain whether
any large river flowed into the Lake from the west--visit Lake Moelo, if
time permitted, and collect information about the trade on the great
slave route, which crosses the Lake at its southern end, and at Tsenga
and Kota-kota. The Makololo were eager to travel fast, because they
wanted to be back in time to hoe their fields before the rains, and also
because their wives needed looking after.

In going in the first instance N.E. from the uppermost Cataract, we
followed in a measure the great bend of the river towards the foot of
Mount Zomba. Here we had a view of its most imposing side, the west,
with the plateau some 3000 feet high, stretching away to its south, and
Mounts Chiradzuru and Mochiru towering aloft to the sky. From that
goodly highland station, it was once hoped by the noble Mackenzie, who,
for largeness of heart and loving disposition, really deserved to be
called the "Bishop of Central Africa," that light and liberty would
spread to all the interior. We still think it may be a centre for
civilizing influences; for any one descending from these cool heights,
and stepping into a boat on the Upper Shire, can sail three hundred miles
without a check into the heart of Africa.

We passed through a tract of country covered with mopane trees, where the
hard baked soil refused to let the usual thick crops of grass grow; and
here we came upon very many tracks of buffaloes, elephants, antelopes,
and the spoor of one lion. An ox we drove along with us, as provision
for the way, was sorely bitten by the tsetse. The effect of the bite
was, as usual, quite apparent two days afterwards, in the general
flaccidity of the muscles, the drooping ears, and looks of illness. It
always excited our wonder that we, who were frequently much bitten too by
the same insects, felt no harm from their attacks. Man shares the
immunity of the wild animals.

Finding a few people on the evening of the 20th of August, who were
supporting a wretched existence on tamarinds and mice, we ascertained
that there was no hope of our being able to buy food anywhere nearer than
the Lakelet Pamalombe, where the Ajawa chief, Kainka, was now living; but
that plenty could be found with the Maravi female chief, Nyango. We
turned away north-westwards, and struck the stream Ribve-ribve, or Rivi-
rivi, which rises in the Maravi range, and flows into the Shire.

As the Rivi-rivi came from the N.W. we continued t