ey, and in a few seconds
it disappeared. Sixty-seven of the repulsive reptiles were seen on one
bank. The natives eat the animal, but few who had witnessed the
horrible food on which they banquet would willingly feed on their flesh.

Their former companion, Mr Thornton, here rejoined them. Hearing that
the remaining members of the bishop's party were in want at Chibisa, he
volunteered to carry over a supply of goats and sheep to them. Overcome
by the fatigues of the journey, he was attacked by fever, which
terminated fatally on the 21st of April, 1863.

The whole of the once pleasant Shire valley was now a scene of
wide-spread desolation. Fearful famine had followed the slave raids,
and the sights which met their eye in every direction were
heart-rending. The ground was literally covered with human bones.
"Many had ended their career under the shade of trees, others under
projecting crags of the hills, while others lay in their huts with
closed doors, which, when opened, disclosed the mouldering corpse with a
few rags round the loins, the skull fallen off the pillow; the little
skeleton of a child that had perished first, rolled up in a mat between
two large skeletons."

Hoping that the "Lady Nyassa" might be the means of putting a check on
the slavers across the lake, they hurried on with their work. She was
unscrewed at a spot about five hundred yards below the first cataract,
and they began to make a road over the portage of forty miles, by which
she was to be carried piecemeal.

Trees had to be cut down and stones removed. The first half-mile of
road was formed up a gradual slope till two hundred feet above the river
was reached, where a sensible difference in the climate was felt.
Before much progress was made, Dr Kirk and Charles Livingstone were
seized with fever, and it was deemed absolutely necessary that they
should be sent home. Soon afterwards Dr Livingstone was himself
attacked.

The "Pioneer" meantime was roofed over and left in charge of the
trustworthy gunner, Mr Young.

One day, an empty canoe was seen floating down with a woman swimming
near it. The boat put off and brought her on board, when she was found
to have an arrow-head in the middle of her back. A native cut it out,
and, notwithstanding the fearful character of the wound, being fed
liberally by Mr Young, she recovered.

On the 16th of June the remaining members of the expedition started for
the upper cataracts.

Cotton of