did not know that we were a party wishing the land to
dwell in peace."

We were not able, when hastening back to the men left in the ship, to
remain in the villages belonging to this chief; but the people came after
us with things for sale, and invited us to stop, and spend the night with
them, urging, "Are we to have it said that white people passed through
our country and we did not see them?" We rested by a rivulet to gratify
these sight-seers. We appear to them to be red rather than white; and,
though light colour is admired among themselves, our clothing renders us
uncouth in aspect. Blue eyes appear savage, and a red beard hideous.
From the numbers of aged persons we saw on the highlands, and the
increase of mental and physical vigour we experienced on our ascent from
the lowlands, we inferred that the climate was salubrious, and that our
countrymen might there enjoy good health, and also be of signal benefit,
by leading the multitude of industrious inhabitants to cultivate cotton,
buaze, sugar, and other valuable produce, to exchange for goods of
European manufacture; at the same time teaching them, by precept and
example, the great truths of our Holy Religion.

Our stay at the Lake was necessarily short. We had found that the best
plan for allaying any suspicions, that might arise in the minds of a
people accustomed only to slave-traders, was to pay a hasty visit, and
then leave for a while, and allow the conviction to form among the people
that, though our course of action was so different from that of others,
we were not dangerous, but rather disposed to be friendly. We had also a
party at the vessel, and any indiscretion on their part might have proved
fatal to the character of the Expedition.

The trade of Cazembe and Katanga's country, and of other parts of the
interior, crosses Nyassa and the Shire, on its way to the Arab port,
Kilwa, and the Portuguese ports of Iboe and Mozambique. At present,
slaves, ivory, malachite, and copper ornaments, are the only articles of
commerce. According to information collected by Colonel Rigby at
Zanzibar, and from other sources, nearly all the slaves shipped from the
above-mentioned ports come from the Nyassa district. By means of a small
steamer, purchasing the ivory of the Lake and River above the cataracts,
which together have a shore-line of at least 600 miles, the slave-trade
in this quarter would be rendered unprofitable,--for it is only by the
ivory bein