A SCOTS BURIAL 57 



burial of some passing stranger of North British 

 origin, which was largely attended by his brother 

 Scots. The last sad scene was enacted, the Benedic- 

 tion pronounced, and as I sadly turned away to gain 

 my machila, I became faintly conscious that the 

 bystanders were regarding me with an ill-concealed 

 expression of indignant surprise. Much pained by 

 so unexpected a manifestation, I took one of these 

 aside shortly afterwards and asked him the reason 

 for it, when he sternly replied : " Aweel, Sir, Ah'U 

 no' be sayin' we were a'thegither contented wi' ye. 

 Yer readin' o' the Buke micht hae been gude, or 

 it micht hae been bad, but we did think ye'd hae 

 said a few wurrds ! " 



An immense improvement has taken place in 

 river transport from Chinde since my first voyage 

 up the Zambezi and Shir^ in 1893. My recollec- 

 tions of this are painful ones. It should be borne 

 in mind that at the period I have mentioned it 

 was difficult to ascertain in England, prior to start- 

 ing on an African journey, exactly what to supply 

 one's self with — that is to say, what to take out, 

 and what to leave for purchase on arrival ; the 

 consequence was that, like most travellers of the 

 period, I found at the mouth of the Zambezi that 

 I could scarcely purchase anything, and that many 

 of the articles with which I had provided myself 

 I could well have dispensed with altogether. I 

 started away from Chinde one afternoon on board 

 of a side- wheel paddle steamer of archaic pattern 

 called the John Bowie. I did not at that time 

 know anything regarding the individual whose 

 name she bore, with the exception that he was 



