men in the morning. He saw us
pay the first party, and had his men ready at the time appointed, so
there was no delay in waiting for carriers. They often make a loud noise
when carrying heavy loads, but talking and bawling does not put them out
of breath. The country was rough and with little soil on it, but covered
with grass and open forest. A few small trees were cut down to clear a
path for our shouting assistants, who were good enough to consider the
boat as a certificate of peaceful intentions at least to them. Several
small streams were passed, the largest of which were the Mukuru-Madse and
Lesungwe. The inhabitants on both banks were now civil and obliging. Our
possession of a boat, and consequent power of crossing independently of
the canoes, helped to develop their good manners, which were not apparent
on our previous visit.

There is often a surprising contrast between neighbouring villages. One
is well off and thriving, having good huts, plenty of food, and native
cloth; and its people are frank, trusty, generous, and eager to sell
provisions; while in the next the inhabitants may be ill-housed,
disobliging, suspicious, ill-fed, and scantily clad, and with nothing for
sale, though the land around is as fertile as that of their wealthier
neighbours. We followed the river for the most part to avail ourselves
of the still reaches for sailing; but a comparatively smooth country lies
further inland, over which a good road could be made. Some of the five
main cataracts are very grand, the river falling 1200 feet in the 40
miles. After passing the last of the cataracts, we launched our boat for
good on the broad and deep waters of the Upper Shire, and were virtually
on the lake, for the gentle current shows but little difference of level.
The bed is broad and deep, but the course is rather tortuous at first,
and makes a long bend to the east till it comes within five or six miles
of the base of Mount Zomba. The natives regarded the Upper Shire as a
prolongation of Lake Nyassa; for where what we called the river
approaches Lake Shirwa, a little north of the mountains, they said that
the hippopotami, "which are great night travellers," pass from _one lake
into the other_. There the land is flat, and only a short land journey
would be necessary. Seldom does the current here exceed a knot an hour,
while that of the Lower Shire is from two to two-and-a-half knots. Our
land party of Makololo accompanied us