The steamer reached Tette on the 23rd of June, and,
after undergoing repairs, proceeded to the Kongone to
receive provisions from one of H.M. cruisers. We had been
very abundantly supplied with first-rate stores, but were unfortunate
enough to lose a considerable portion of them, and
had now to bear the privation as best we could. On the way
down, we purchased a few gigantic cabbages and pumpkins at
a native village below Mazaro. Our dinners had usually
consisted of but a single course; but we were surprised the
next day by our black cook from Sierra Leone bearing
in a second course. “ What have you got there?” was asked
in wonder. “A tart, sir.” “ A tart! of what is it made?”
“ Of cabbage, sir.” As we had no sugar, and could not “ make,
believe,” as in the days of boyhood, we did not enjoy the
feast that Tom’s genius had prepared. Her Majesty’s brig
“ Persian,” Lieutenant-Saumarez commanding, called on her
way to the Cape; and, though somewhat short of provisions
herself, generously gave us all she could spare.- We now
parted with our Kroomen, as, from their inability to march, we
could not use them in our land journeys. A crew was picked
out from the Makololo, who, besides -being good travellers,
could cut wood, work the ship, and required only native food.
While at the Kongone it was found necessary to beach the
steamer for repairs. She was built of a newly-invented sort
of steel plates, only a sixteenth of an inch in thickness,
patented, but unfortunately never tried before. To build an
exploring ship of untried material Was a mistake. Some
chemical action o n , this preparation of steel caused a
minute hole; from -this point, branches like lichens, or
the- little ragged, stars we sometimes see in thawing ice,
radiated in all directions. Small holes went through wherever
a bend occurred in these branches. -The bottom very soon
became like a sieve, completely full of minute holes, which
leaked perpetually. The engineer stopped the larger ones,
but the vessel was no sooner afloat, than new ones broke out.
The first news of a morning was commonly the unpleasant
announcement of another leak in the forward compartment, or
in the middle, which was worse still.
Frequent showers fell on our way up the Zambesi, in the
beginning of August. On the 8th we had upwards of three
inches of rain, which large quantity, more than falls in any
single rainy day during the season at Tette, we owed to being
near the sea. Sometimes the cabin was nearly flooded; for,
in addition to the leakage from below, rain poured through
the roof, and an umbrella had to be used whenever we
wished to write: the mode of coupling the compartments,
too, was a new one, and the action of the hinder compartment
on the middle one pumped up the water of the
river, and sent it in streams over the floor and lockers,
where lay the cushions which did double duty as chairs
and beds. In trying to form an opinion of the climate, it must
be recollected that much of the fever, from which we suffered,
was caused by sleeping on these wet cushions. Many of the
botanical specimens, laboriously collected and carefully prepared
by Hr. Kirk, were destroyed, or double work imposed,
by their accidentally falling into wet places in the cabin.
When lying off an island a few miles below Mazaro, the
owner of it, Paul, a relative of the rebel Mariano, paid us a
visit. He had just returned from Mosambique, having,
to use the common phrase of the country, “ arranged” with
the authorities. He told us that Governor-General d’Almeida
knew nothing of the Kongone, and thought, with others, that
the Zambesi entered the sea at Quillimane. His Excellency
had been making inquiries of him, respecting the correctness