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attention is drawn to the subject, I see cotton growing everywhere. It springs up afresh, too, after being burned to the ground. I was in error in saying no native understood how to make sugar. I bought, a short time ago, three pots of sugar, each weighing twenty-five pounds, for two yards of calico apiece; say twenty pounds of sugar for one shilling. I have but small hopes of the natives in contact with the Portuguese; slavery and war have demoralized them quite. They are ten times worse than the interior people.

No. 5.

Addressed to Miss BURDETT COUTTS.'

Tette, 20th December, 1858.

WE have been up to examine the rapids above this, when the water in the Zambesi was at its lowest, and we find them to be totally different from anything we ever heard about them. The Portuguese knew nothing except the very commencement, and we steamed up four miles beyond that. The river is confined by mountains to a narrow bed, and in that bed there is a deep rut, or groove, in hard porphyritic rocks, in which, as we steamed along, the man at the lead called out, "No bottom at ten fathoms" (sixty feet). The walls of the groove rose many feet above our mastheads. There are rapids in this caused by rocks; and the first one we came to, this little asthmatic steamer gave in. As she is only one-sixteenth of an inch thick, we were afraid to haul her, so we went forward on foot to examine the rest of it. After going twelve miles through the roughest bit of river-bed I ever saw, and finding the groove only, but no people to ask anything or to buy provisions, we returned to the steamer, and organized a regular exploring party. We examined thirty miles carefully, and with no slight difficulty succeeded in ascertaining that the worst cataract will not prevent a steamer, capable of going twelve or fourteen knots an hour, from ascending when the river is full. The only people who knew of it, the Badema, declared that it was totally unapproachable: "Not even an elephant could go near it, nor a hippopotamus, nor even an alligator. A man might perish with thirst within sight of it, but unable to go down to drink." On asking how they happened to get near it, they replied that it was more accessible from the other side. Trying to go thither, we were led away backwards, our party having now been reduced to Dr Kirk and four Makololo; the latter showed me their soles blistered by the hot rocks: and such a rocky tract I never saw. Our good new English boots were worn

quite through in a fortnight, and it took three hours to travel one mile. The rays of the vertical sun drawn together by the converging hills, or rather mountains, made the rocks feel as if they were in a furnace; we could not hold on more than a second, though in danger of being dashed in pieces by letting go. On urging the Makololo to make another effort, they said that "they always supposed I had a heart till then; I had surely become insane; they only regretted that Kirk could not understand them, as he would certainly return, though I would not." It was the worst bit of travel I ever went through; and after a single fortnight of thirty miles, we all returned, lean and haggard, as if we had been recovering from illness. But we saw the cataract at last; then climbed over the mountains homeward, cutting every step of our path up between 2,000 and 3000 feet. When the river is full, it stands eighty feet higher than it did when we were there. No cataract will then appear. · It has perpendicular side walls, rising from 300 to 400 feet high. No tow-line could be taken past. The water now came down at an angle of 30o. Another cataract, which had a fall of five feet, became level when the river rose three feet. We go back to see it when the river is in flood. In the meantime, I have asked the Government to give us the Ban, or another steamer of sufficient power to stem a strong current, which must exist when the groove is filled and likewise the upper bed. If Government refuses, I have written to a friend of mine in charge of my money to buy one for us in Glasgow.... This is the way into Africa. Fancy us sleeping in the open air for a fortnight, and not putting on a blanket till morning, without fever! We take no quinine We are at the beginning of the healthy highlands.

now.

You once asked me if clergymen might be sent out to this new country beyond. When I see the way clear, and, please our heavenly Father, it shall be open, you may be sure of hearing from me. I keep that question in my heart. You did an immense deed for the Cape. None rejoiced at it more than I did; for I have long got over the feeling of belonging to one section of the Church. I love and rejoice in the prosperity of all.... We are examining the coals and iron.

No. 6.

Addressed to

Tette, 15th Feb. 1859.

WITH Dr Kirk in company, I went up the Shire fully 100 miles, and found it a splendid stream for steam navigation, and such a valley for fertility! A cataract, which we wish to name after Sir Roderick, pre

vented us going up to Nyanja, from which it seems the Shire comes. The people had never been visited by Europeans, except near its confluence; and they were very suspicious of us, guarding us constantly with their bows and poisoned arrows, ready for an attack. We purchased cottonyarn from them, and plenty of provisions; and though we had not their confidence, we left no bad impression. They have been so accustomed to native forays, that we must have appeared to be kidnappers. They sometimes asked why we slept in the middle of the river, instead of in their huts; and others called after us, "Paddle, paddle, paddle; stop here." Some brave fellows came off in a canoe once, when we were under weigh: we turned round, and their courage evaporated, for they jumped into the water and left the canoe to float down the stream. Yet when we went ashore they spoke civilly, and our wooding parties were never molested. It was a beginning of intercourse; and we did nothing to make us ashamed to go back again.

We ascended Marambala, and found it about 4,000 feet above the level of the Shire. Its top is large and well-cultivated; orange and lemon-trees grow wild, and pine-apples nearly so. The people treated us very hospitably. There are fine chalybeate springs on the top, and a hot sulphureous fountain at the base (temp. 170o), but it has never been made into a sanatorium by the Portuguese. The climate above is quite delightful. The valley of the Shire, a hundred miles long and about twenty broad, stretches a grand sight-at our feet. It would grow rice or cotton for the world. You could grow anything in these parts except Iceland moss; but very little use is made of the land. In one part we saw several hundred elephants, and chased them in the Ma Robert from island to island.

In looking at this goodly land the condition of our own poor at home weighs heavily on my mind. A Ragged School came once down to Hadley Green, where we sojourned for a season, and the poor things had actually never seen green fields. One of them walked into a pond covered with green confer væ, thinking it was solid. Just think of that—the children of the "honest poor," too-aye, the children of our common Father, who said, "Be ye fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth;" and knew that He had made ample room for all. I was dumbfounded at Birmingham by a man reading a paper against marriage-against increase of the poor. He had been looking at the leaf on which he was born with a compound microscope, and reasoned very cleverly therefrom; but could he have seen the immense tracts of fertile country I have travelled over, he would have been ready to propose a premium on marriage.

It must come to national colonization if we ever are to escape participation in the guilt of slave-holding America, or effectually relieve our own suffering poor-colonization, with all our Christian institutions, will spread our Christianity. It has too much been looked upon as transportation, and Christians have remained at home, content to growl over the bad treatment of aborigines by those who were bad at home. Why not go out themselves as Missionaries? It does not need connexion with a Society to be a Missionary. The permanency which Societies always fail to effect, would be secured by the families of the godly going forth with their ministers, their elders, their Christianity. No one is more alive to the good effected by Societies than I am; and I think that the indirect results those which will become apparent in the future, and greatly accelerate the final consummation-are even of more value than the visible fruits of to-day. Yet I have always a sore longing for a permanency and continuance. I know what it is to stand alone among the heathen, and see the early blossoms go up as dust. But I have run off at a tangent, instead of giving you information.

I had left orders with Mr C. Livingstone and Mr Baines to examine Kebrabasa when the river had risen twelve feet. They could scarcely recognise it again; the cataracts were smooth, and, but for the hills which Baines had sketched, they would not have known where they were. But a steamer capable of stemming the current in the middle, and that will not be drawn aside by eddies, is necessary to enable us to ascend without luggage and with our Makololo. Since I have become skipper, we have gone about 1,600 miles, and cut upwards of 100 tons of lignum vitæ.

The cucumbers are coming on now; the oil made from their seeds (the Examiner sunbeams) is the purest and most wholesome of all oils, so say the Portuguese. I shall send you some. The indigo in the streets here grows about three feet high. I have met it in the fields higher than seven, and Dr Kirk has extracted the substance from it. Senna in abundance in the same locality. The cotton, now that my attention is attracted to these things, is without doubt a native of this country. It is burned down annually, but up it comes again as vigorous as ever. There are two kinds : the native, very strong and short in the staple; the foreign, and that of fine quality, and long in the staple. It is scarcely necessary for us to give seeds any where down here; all the people grow some for themselves from seeds brought into the country before we did; but the best cotton country is undoubtedly to the north of this. Here they sometimes, as now, suffer from a failure of the rains.

No. 7.

Addressed to Sir GEORGE GREY.

Tette, 19th Feb. 1859.

MY DEAR SIR GEORGE GREY,

In my last I told you of our visit to the Kebrabasa, and I am happy now to be able to inform you that it has been visited again since the water began to rise, and the reports of Mr C. Livingstone and Mr Baines fully confirm what I advanced as to the effect of a flood. Several of the cataracts which at low water seemed very serious obstacles, are rendered so smooth that, but for the adjacent mountains having been sketched, they would not have been recognised; but a steamer capable of stemming the main current is necessary for the ascent. The river is now fifteen feet above low water mark in November, and as it is expected to rise considerably more, I felt inclined to take advantage of it and haul the vessel through—but, besides the risk of doubling her up, she can carry so little cargo that we would soon be without supplies after we had succeeded. We shall therefore work for a while on this side the rapid; and, as a beginning I may mention, that we went up the Shire about the beginning of January,and found it a good navigable river for at least one hundred miles from its confluence. The mountain Marambala is 4,000 feet high, and has a wonderfully well cultivated large top. Lemon trees grow

quite wild in the woods, and so do oranges and pine-apples. There are several fine little fountains with water slightly chalybeate. The people independent and very hospitable. The view from the top of the Shire winding across an extended plain inhabited by real Solophagi is magnificent, and, as you may judge from the height, we have quite a different climate from that of the plains. The vegetation is very like that of Londa and Angola. We have also a fine hot sulphureous fountain at the base (174 deg.). Yet no advantage has been taken of this splendid sanatorium by the Portuguese. The valley of the Shire at one part abounds in elephants; and, if you come to see us about January, I undertake toshow you five hundred of these noble animals grazing on one plain-we saw more than that—and as there are branches of the river which form islands, we sometimes chased them with this vessel. They had magnificent tusks. I think that they are attracted down from the hills by the sweet fruit of palmyras, of which there are fine forests there.

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