nuisance that I felt
that I must take the upper hand with them, so I called them up this
morning, and asked if they knew the punishment they had incurred by
disobeying orders, and attempting to tamper with the Nassick boys to
turn them back. I told them they not only remained in the way when
ordered to march, but offered eight rupees to Ali to lead them to the
coast, and that the excuse of sickness was nought, for they had eaten
heartily three meals a day while pretending illness. They had no
excuse to offer, so I disrated the naik or corporal, and sentenced the
others to carry loads; if they behave well, then they will get fatigue
pay for doing fatigue duty, if ill, nothing but their pay. Their limbs
are becoming contracted from sheer idleness; while all the other men
are well and getting stronger they alone are disreputably slovenly and
useless-looking. Their filthy habits are to be reformed, and if found
at their habit of sitting down and sleeping for hours on the march, or
without their muskets and pouches, they are to be flogged. I sent two
of them back to bring up two comrades, left behind yesterday. All who
have done work are comparatively strong.

[We may venture a word in passing on the subject of native recruits,
enlisted for service in Africa, and who return thither after a long
absence. All the Nassick boys were native-born Africans, and yet we
see one of them succumb immediately. The truth is that natives; under
these circumstances, are just as liable to the effects of malaria on
landing as Europeans, although it is not often that fever assumes a
dangerous form in such cases. The natives of the interior have the
greatest dread of the illnesses which they say are sure to be in store
for them if they visit the coast.]

_19th June, 1866._--I gave the sepoys light loads in order to inure
them to exercise and strengthen them, and they carried willingly so
long as the fright was on them, but when the fear of immediate
punishment wore off they began their skulking again. One, Perim,
reduced his load of about 20 lbs. of tea by throwing away the lead in
which it was rolled, and afterwards about 15 lbs. of the tea, thereby
diminishing our stock to 5 lbs.

[Dr. Livingstone's short stay in England in 1864-5 was mainly taken up
with compiling an account of his travels on the Zambesi and Shire:
during this time his mother expired in Scotland at a good old age.
When he went back to Africa he took with him, as part of h