are not of his tribe.” This anti-slavery character excites such
universal attention, that any .Missionary, who winked at the
gigantic evils involved in the slave-trade, would certainly fail
to produce any good impression on the native mind.
We left the river here, and proceeded up the valley which
leads to the Mburuma or Mohango pass. The nights were
cold, and on the 30th of June the thermometer was as low
as 39° at sunrise. We passed through a village of twenty
large huts, which Sequasha had attacked on his return
from the murder of the Chief, Mpangwe. He caught the
women and children for slaves, and carried off all the food,
except a huge basket of bran, which the natives are wont to
save against a time of famine. His slaves had broken all the
water-pots and the millstones for grinding meal.
The buaze-trees and bamboos are now seen on the hills;
but the jujube or zisyphus, which has evidently been introduced
from India, extends no further up the river. We
had been eating this fruit, which, having somewhat the
taste of apples, the Portuguese call Ma§aas, all the way from
Tette; and here they were larger than usual, though immediately
beyond they ceased to be found. Ho mango-tree either
is to be met with beyond this point, because the Portuguese
traders never established themselves anywhere beyond
Zumbo. Tsetse flies are more numerous and troublesome than
we have ever before found them. They accompany us on the
march, often buzzing round our heads like a swarm of bees.
They are very cunning, and when intending to bite, alight
so gently that their presence is not perceived till they thrust
in their lance-like proboscis. The bite is acute, but the pain
is over in a moment; it is followed by a little of the disagreeable
itching of the musquito’s bite. This fly invariably
kills all domestic animals except goats and donkeys; man and
the wild animals escape. We ourselves were severely bitten
on this pass, and so were our donkeys, but neither suffered from
any after effects.
Water is scarce in the Mburuma pass, except during the
rainy season. We however halted beside some fine springs in
the bed of the now dry rivulet, Podebode, which is .continued
down to the end of the pass, and yields water at intervals in
pools. Here we remained a" couple of days in consequence
of the severe illness of Hr. Kirk. He had several times been
attacked by fever; and observed that when we were on the
cool heights he was comfortable, but when we happened to
descend from a high to a lower altitude, he felt chilly, though
the temperature in the latter case was 25° higher than it was
above; he had been trying different medicines of reputed
efficacy with a view to ascertain whether other combinations
might not be superior to the preparation we generally used;
in halting by this water, he suddenly became blind, and unable
to stand from faintness. The men, with great alacrity,
prepared a grassy bed, on which we laid our companion,
with the sad forebodings which only those who have tended
the sick in a wild country can realize. We feared that
in experimenting he had overdrugged himself; but we gave
him a dose of our fever pills; on the third day he rode the one
of the two donkeys that would allow itself to be mounted,
and on the sixth he marched as well as any of us. This case
is mentioned in order to illustrate what we have often
observed, that moving the patient from place to place is most
conducive to the cure; and the more pluck a man has—the
less he gives in to the disease—the less likely he is to die.
Supplied with water by the pools in the Podebode, we again
joined the Zambesi at the confluence of the rivulet. When
passing through a dry district the native hunter knows where to