ter enough for but ten or twelve days
on short allowance. "May the Almighty be gracious to us all
and help us!"

His Journal is a curious combination of nautical observations
and reflections on Africa and his work. We seem to hear him
pacing his little deck, and thinking aloud:

"The idea of a colony in Africa, as the term colony is
usually understood cannot be entertained. English races
cannot compete in manual labor of any kind with the natives,
but they can take a leading part in managing the land,
improving the quality, in creating the quantity and extending
the varieties of the productions of the soil; and by taking a
lead, too, in trade, and in all public matters, the
Englishman would be an unmixed advantage to every one below
and around him, for he would fill a place which is now
practically vacant.

"It is difficult to convey an idea of the country; it is so
different from all preconceived notions. The country in many
parts rises up to plateaus, slopes up to which are
diversified by valleys lined with trees; or here and there
rocky bluffs jut out; the plateaus themselves are open
prairies covered with grass dotted over with trees, and
watered by numerous streams. Nor are they absolutely flat,
their surface is varied by picturesque undulations. Deep
gorges and ravines leading down to the lower levels offer
special beauties, and landscapes from the edges of the higher
plateaus are in their way unequaled. Thence the winding of
the Shire may be followed like a silver thread or broad lake
with its dark mountain mass behind.

"I think that the Oxford and Cambridge missionaries have
treated me badly in trying to make me the scapegoat of their
own blunders and inefficiency.... But I shall try equitably
and gently to make allowances for human weakness, though that
weakness has caused me much suffering."

On 28th May they had something like a foretaste of the breaking of the
monsoon, though happily that event did not yet take place. "At noon a
dense cloud came down on us from E. and N.E., and blew a furious gale;
tore sails; the ship, as is her wont, rolled broadside into it, and
nearly rolled quite over. Everything was hurled hither and thither. It
lasted half an hour, then passed with a little rain. It was terrible
while it lasted. We had calm after