were positively “ in any case to cease by the 31st of December.”
The despatch from the Foreign Office having been
sent open to the Governor of the Cape, it seems to have been
forwarded in the same free and easy way to its destination;
for the new Bishop’s chaplain had commented freely before
a number of Portuguese, Dr. Kirk, and Mr. Charles Livingstone,
at Quillimane, on its different paragraphs, and more
especially on the omission of all notice of the Lady Nyassa.
When his servant brought it up to the Pioneer, he hailed
the crew in strong Surrey dialect with, “ I say, no more pay
for you chaps after December. I brings the letter as says it.”
Though we never for a single moment entertained the idea
that this grossly disrespectful way of treating a despatch
from H. M. Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
was anything more than the result of want of knowledge of
the world on the part of those who had probably never in
their lives seen a Government despatch before, yet the conviction
that all the Pioneer’s men knew that their wages
might not be forthcoming, if we were in the river after
December, had some influence on a mind borne down by
that most depressing of diseases, dysentery. We were said
to be only ten days’ distant from Lake Bemba. We might
speculate on a late rise of the river. A month or six weeks
would secure a geographical feat, .but the rains were near.
We had been warned by different people that the rains were
close at hand, and that we should then be bogged and unable
to travel. The flood in the river might be an early one, or
so small in volume as to give but one chance of the Pioneer
descending to the ocean. The Makololo too were becoming
dispirited by sickness and want of food, and were naturally
anxious to be back to their fields in time for sowing.
But in addition to all this and more, it was felt that it would
not be dealing honestly with the Government, were we, for
the sake of a little eclat, to risk the detention of the
Pioneer up the river during another year; so we decided
to return; and though we had afterwards the mortification to
find that we were detained two full months at the ship waiting
for the flood which we expected immediately after our
arrival there, the chagrin was lessened by a consciousness of
having acted in a fair, honest, above-board manner throughout.
On the night of the 29th of September a thief came to the
sleeping-place of our men and stole a leg of a goat. On
complaining to the deputy headman, he said that the thief
had fled, but would be caught. He suggested a fine, and
offered a fowl and her eggs; but wishing that the thief
alone should be punished, it was advised that he should be
found and fined. The Makololo thought it best to take the
fowl as a means of making the punishment certain. After
settling this matter on the last day of September, we commenced
our return journey. We had just the same time to go
back to the ship, that we had spent in coming to this point,
and there is not much to interest one in marching over the
same ground a second time.
While on our journey north-west, a cheery old woman, who
had once been beautiful, but whose white hair now contrasted
strongly with her dark complexion, was working briskly in her
garden as we passed. She seemed to enjoy a hale, hearty old
age. She saluted us with what elsewhere would be called a
good address; and, evidently conscious that she deserved the
epithet, “ dark but comely,” answered each of us with a
frank “ Yes, my child.” Another motherly-looking woman,
sitting by a well, began the conversation by ■ “ You are
going to visit Muazi, and you have come from afar, have you
not?” But in general women never speak to strangers
unless spoken to, so anything said by them attracts attention.
Muazi once presented us with a basket of corn. On