A Thousand Miles in a Machilla. 



PART I. 

 NYASALAND. 



CHAPTER I. 



CHINDE TO BLANTYRE MY FIRST MACHILLA ON 



THE ZAMBESI SETTLING THE LINE OF ROUTE. 



We landed at Chinde, the Portuguese port at the 

 mouth of the Zambesi river, on Sunday, the i6th 

 August 1908, our destination being Nyasaland, and 

 the object the shooting of kudu and other large 

 antelope obtainable in that part of Africa. 



We had the choice of two routes to Chinde — 

 the one by the east coast of Africa, via Aden and 

 Mombasa, the other by the west coast, via the 

 Cape. As the heat in the Red Sea is very great 

 in July, and after leaving Aden we were certain to 

 steam into the teeth of the monsoon ; it was a bad 

 time of year for the eastern route, and would have 

 meant a rough and disagreeable passage as far as 

 Zanzibar. We therefore chose the west, where 

 Atlantic breezes keep the ship fairly cool even 

 on the Equator; the east coast route is, however, 



