therefore to take
to the water in order to reach Beira, where a German steamer was timed
to call two days later; and our friends in Mashonaland had prepared us
to expect some disagreeable experiences on the river, warning us not to
assume that twelve or fourteen hours would be enough, even in a steamer,
to accomplish the fifty miles of navigation that lie between Fontesvilla
and the sea. They had been specially insistent that we should remain in
Fontesvilla itself no longer than was absolutely necessary; for
Fontesvilla has the reputation of being the most unhealthy spot in all
this unhealthy country. We were told that the preceding year had been a
salubrious one, for only forty-two per cent. of the European residents
had died. There may have been in these figures, when closely
scrutinized, some element of exaggeration, but the truth they were
intended to convey is beyond dispute; and the bright young assistant
superintendent of the railroad was mentioned, with evident wonder, as
the only person who had been more than three months in the place without
a bad attack of fever. Fontesvilla has not the externals of a
charnel-house. It consists of seven or eight scattered frame houses,
with roofs of corrugated iron, set in a dull, featureless flat on the
banks of a muddy river. The air is sultry and depressing, but has not
that foul swamp smell with which Poti, on the Black Sea, reeks, the most
malarious spot I had ever before visited. Nor was there much stagnant
water visible; indeed, the ground seemed dry, though there are marshes
hidden among the woods on the other side of the river. As neither of the
steamers that ply on the Pungwe could come up at neap tides, and with
the stream low,--for the rains had not yet set in,--the young
superintendent (to whose friendly help we were much beholden) had
bespoken a rowboat to come up for us from the lower part of the river.
After waiting from eight till half-past ten o'clock for this boat, we
began to fear it had failed us, and, hastily engaging a small two-oared
one that lay by the bank, set off in it down the stream. Fortunately
after two and a half miles the other boat, a heavy old tub, was seen
slowly making her way upward, having on board the captain of the little
steam-launch, the launch herself being obliged to remain much lower down
the river. We transferred ourselves and our effects to this boat, and
floated gaily down, thinking our troubles over.

The Pungwe is here about