The people were very suspicious of us, never having been visited by Europeans before, but treated us civilly. Our wooding parties were never molested—yet a guard was set over us both night and day. They are well armed with bows and poisoned arrows. The women insert an ornament exactly the size and shape of the rings for table napkins in the upper lip; the effect is frightful. It is a most unaccountable ornament. They cultivate largely on the upper third of the Shire Valley, and we purchased abundance of provisions at a cheap rate, besides specimens of their cotton yarn. They have two kinds of cotton, and both very good in quality.

Our first object was to gain their confidence, and seeing them so suspicious, though we had pretty certain information of the Shire becoming smooth again beyond the cataract which stopped our progress, and that Arabs from Zanzibar were in the habit of coming down in canoes from Lake Nyanja, we thought it imprudent to leave the vessel in their power, and go overland. We leave them to allow our first visit to have its effect, and in the course of a month return to them again. The reason why the Portuguese have not gone further up than about Marambala is probably the steady rapidity of the current (24 knots). There are no still reaches, and, with the heavy Zambesi canoes, it is difficult to get on in a current. The people, too, have a bad name. They are said to have killed some native traders. In 1856, when I was coming down past the mouth of the Shire, I was told that an expedition had been sent up, but was unable to go far because the river was blocked up with duckweed. Quantities of that were then coming out of the river; but at twenty-five miles from the confluence the duckweed ceases, so that the expedition could not have gone far. Above that the river widens a little; but it is free from sand banks and deep. Indeed, it may be said to be superior to the Zambesi for steam navigation. We could go on at night even.

Here

edge of the high

This is our most unhealthy season. Fever is fatal on the coast. we have some of it, but no one dies in consequence. Three of our party have had touches of it, but are better. This is the healthy land, where I have still every reason to believe Europeans might live in safety.

We are longing somewhat for news, having received none except the papers you were kind enough to send us by the Lyra.

I have little hopes of doing any good with the people under or in contact with the Portuguese. A year or more must elapse ere they recover from the effects of their late war. But I think more highly of the capabilities of the country, for the produce England stands most in need of, than ever. I could collect a wagon load or two of indigo from the streets of Tette

to-morrow. Dr Kirk made some with it, and cotton, though burnt down annually, springs up as brisk as ever. The people here make sugar; of this I was not aware before. We have put up our little engine, to show what machinery can do. Her first work was to saw up planks with which Major Sicard, our best friend, was about to build. We try sugar cane as soon as it is ready to cut. I am, &c.

You may have supposed that I had forgotten the young men of the Missionary Union altogether, but I have been employed so differently from what I expected, that I am not greatly to blame for my silence. I am become sailing-master myself; in this capacity I have guided the steamer more than 1,600 miles. To a Cambridge man this would be nothing Bishop Selwyn, I dare say, would feel it only a pastime; but I do it as a matter of duty, though as far as liking goes I would as soon drive a cab in London during cold November, as be fried alive on a paddle-box in an African sun. This new employment has interfered much with my correspondence.

You are of course aware of the great object in view in my coming here at all; my heart's desire has all along been to open Africa to the benign influences of our holy religion. She has the elements in herself of extinguishing the slave-trade, I am working towards that, and though forced to move more slowly than I like, I think we are proceeding surely. The first point we had to attend to was health; you may remember the sad fate of the Niger Expedition, and the outcry that followed thereupon; the recollection of it made me choose the best time of year for health, but not the best for showing off the great river to best advantage. As soon as we entered the Mangrove swamp, the hot-bed of fever, we began the daily use of quinine, and we maintained constant activity—the latter is of more importance than the former. Thanks to our Almighty Protector, no case of fever occurred either among us or the crews that accompanied us. The present is the most unhealthy season of the year; but we are now on the edge of the interior, healthy highlands, and though we have lately had three cases of mild fever, it is seldom or never fatal here as on that coast.

We have thus proved that Europeans can come up here at certain seasons in perfect safety.

We have proved also that the river is navigable during most of the year in flat-bottomed vessels. I came up from the sea to this in a vessel drawing two feet and a half water in November, when the river is at its lowest, and this year it was unusually low. Now the water stands from nine to twelve feet above what it was then, and it will continue so many months. We have found also that the Shire, a branch of the Zambesi, is navigable for a steamer at least one hundred miles from the confluence, and that it flows along a fertile valley of that length, and from twenty to thirty miles wide.

We went up lately, until stopped by a cataract, and we were informed by the people that the river comes out of Lake Nyanja. For five days beyond the cataract the river again becomes smooth, and Arabs come down in canoes from that lake. The people had never been visited before by Europeans, and were very suspicious, but we hope to overcome that by a second visit. At the lower part of the Shire there is a mountain 4,000 feet high; the top large, with hills and dales, and flowing fountains; it is well cultivated, the people growing cotton, sugar-cane, maize, and even pineapples, lemons and oranges. Being so high it possesses a different climate and vegetation from the plains below, but no attempt has been made by the Portuguese to reap the benefit of these advantages. Had it been English, we should have had a Sanatorium, and possibly a College, on Marambala. The people were hospitable, and are independent of the Portuguese. I despair of doing anything among the latter.

We have a rapid in front of this, and until we get a more powerful steamer we work on the river Zambesi. The Makololo are still here, though anxious to return to their own country-thirty-six are dead. Thirty from small pox, and the rest murdered by a neighbouring chief. I agreed to their going home with my brother, but most of them refused to leave; lest doing so should be construed into disobedience when they got home.

Kind Christian salutations to all the young men; to Drs Whewell and Sedgwick. I shall write to them both soon, if I have anything worth telling. Yours, &c.

DAVID LIVINGSTONE.

[The Union here referred to is the Cambridge Church Missionary Union. This letter was received in September, 1859.-ED.]

No. 9.

Addressed to Mr J. ASPINALL TURNER, Manchester.

MY DEAR MR TURNER,

Tette, 9th March, 1859.

I hope to have an opportunity of sending you a package about the end of May, for I have written to the Admiral requesting one of his cruisers to call on the Queen's birthday at the mouth of the Kongone, and furnish us with some salt provisions. It will not reach you, I should think, for three or four months after May. We may not meet a cruiser then, but will bury a bottle, and appoint a time, perhaps a month later. The box will go to the Admiralty, and I think Captain Washington, the hydrographer, will be good enough to forward it. If you wish to suggest anything, the Captain will at any time communicate with me.

I believe we have proved that, during a large portion of the year, Europeans may come up this river with safety. We have had some fever, but on the edge of the highlands here people are known to be safe. We have also shown that the Zambesi may be navigated, during most of the year, in flat-bottomed boats. I came up here in our vessel, which draws 2 ft. 6 in. when the river was at its lowest, and it was unusually low this last year. Now it stands from 9 feet to 13 feet higher than it did then— this from accurate marks-and it will continue so till the end of May.

66

We have found that it is not necessary to give the people cotton seed, as their own seed yields cotton which we think quite as good as the upland American; and some is quite as long as the Egyptian. This is all imported cotton, or Tonje Manga" (foreign). The "Tonje-Kadja," or native, is remarkably strong, curly, or rather wooly to the feel, like their own hair. Both plants, though burned down annually, spring up again as fresh and vigorous as ever. The country to the north of this is all cotton land together. I have drawn attention to Angola as part of the north country, and I hear that the Government has got a report from a German naturalist, Dr Welweitch, which fully confirms all I advanced about it. Sugar cane grows equally well. I could collect some cartloads of indigo from the streets and immediate vicinity of Tette. I can speak with confidence now. It is of excellent quality. When asked about oils, in Manchester, I mentioned that from cucumber seeds; and one of the newspapers facetiously compared it to the idea of "extracting sunbeams from cucumbers." I now find that the oil referred to is the best of all for the table, and it is made, not only from the yellow oval cucumber I saw before, but from melon seeds too. They are just ripening now, but I shall try and enclose a bottle of cucumber oil for Mrs Turner.

Can your sons not make a model of a vessel of really light draught? This, after all the newspaper talk of drawing only 13 inches, never drew less than 2 ft. 1 in. or 2 ft. 2 in.; and is so weak with her 10-horse single engine, that a breeze holds the paddles, and stops her. Three and a half knots, in a current, brings her to a standstill in another way, though working more steam than her maker allowed. The steel plates are excellent material for a hot climate; they seem to rust none at all, except where kept wet and dry alternately, as on deck.

We have a rapid above this, but when the river is full the cataracts in it disappear. We are unable to ascend in this vessel; she is only onesixteenth of an inch in thickness, and can carry no cargo whatever. So, in addition to the risk of doubling her up in hauling her through, we would soon be without supplies after we had succeeded. We expect another vessel out, with sufficient power, to stem the rapid.

In the meantime we have gone 100 miles up the Shire, and find it admirably adapted for steam navigation all the way—the people had plenty of cotton for their own use, and sold us cotton and yarn in small quantity. I enclose (box) specimens. Provisions are abundant, but the people had never been visited by Europeans before, and of course never sold cotton before. This river is said to come out of Lake Nyanja; we were stopped by a cataract.

Now that my attention has been specially directed to the subject, I feel more than ever convinced, that Africa north of about 15° south latitude, is incomparably the best adapted for the produce of cotton of any locality in the world. The parallel of Tette suffers from droughts, but there are none in the country beyond. I expect very little to be done by the Portuguese.

It seems our cruisers cannot touch a French vessel engaged in the emigration scheme. This has set the slave-trade a-going, though it eats out both their power and commerce. The free emigrants are sent down the river in chains! It is vexatious to see the infatuation by which this emigration is dictated. They cannot raise sugar in Bourbon without guano; here the cane grows well without manure, and it is called indigenous. The natives north of this (not 20 miles off) make sugar, and I buy it for our own and the Kroomen's stores, at the rate of two yards of your white calico, for a pot weighing 25 lbs. ; yet the labourers are exported to a worse soil.

I have set up the skeletons of the sugar mill, and little engine, to show what can be done with machinery. The Commandant, an enlightened man, and a very warm friend of ours, thought, as well as we, that it would do good; but I have come to the conclusion on seeing the slave trade revive again, which, owing to the vigilance of the cruisers had been repressed,