ts; they sometimes formed a line two miles
long.

On the 2nd of November we anchored off Shamoara, and sent the boat to
Senna for biscuit and other provisions. Senhor Ferrao, with his wonted
generosity, gave us a present of a bullock, which he sent to us in a
canoe. Wishing to know if a second bullock would be acceptable to us, he
consulted his Portuguese and English dictionary, and asked the sailor in
charge if he would take _another_; but Jack, mistaking the Portuguese
pronunciation of the letter h, replied, "Oh no, sir, thank you, I don't
want an _otter_ in the boat, they are such terrible biters!"

We had to ground the vessel on a shallow sandbank every night; she leaked
so fast, that in deep water she would have sunk, and the pump had to be
worked all day to keep her afloat. Heavy rains fell daily, producing the
usual injurious effects in the cabin; and, unable to wait any longer for
our associates, who had gone overland from the Shire to Tette, we ran
down the Kongone and beached her for repairs. Her Majesty's ship "Lynx,"
Lieut. Berkeley commanding, called shortly afterwards with supplies; the
bar, which had been perfectly smooth for some time before, became rather
rough just before her arrival, so that it was two or three days before
she could communicate with us. Two of her boats tried to come in on the
second day, and one of them, mistaking the passage, capsized in the heavy
breakers abreast of the island. Mr. Hunt, gunner, the officer in charge
of the second boat, behaved nobly, and by his skilful and gallant conduct
succeeded in rescuing every one of the first boat's crew. Of course the
things that they were bringing to us were lost, but we were thankful that
all the men were saved. The loss of the mail-bags, containing Government
despatches and our friends' letters for the past year, was felt severely,
as we were on the point of starting on an expedition into the interior,
which might require eight or nine months; and twenty months is a weary
time to be without news of friends and family. In the repairing of our
crazy craft, we received kind and efficient aid from Lieutenant Berkeley,
and we were enabled to leave for Tette on December 16th.

We had now frequent rains, and the river rose considerably; our progress
up the stream was distressingly slow, and it was not until the 2nd of
February, 1860, that we reached Tette. Mr. Thornton returned on the same
day from a geological tour, by which some P