256 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xii. 



to Tette, but we ran up the Shire some forty miles to buy rice for our 

 company. Uncle Charles is there. He has had some fever, but is 

 better. We left him there about two months ago, and Dr. Kirk and I, 

 with some fifteen Makololo, ascended this river one hundred miles in 

 the ' Ma-Robert,' then left the vessel and proceeded beyond that on foot 

 till we had discovered a magnificent lake called Shirwa (pronounced 

 Shurwah). It was very grand, for we could not see the end of it, 

 though some way up a mountain ; and all around it are mountains 

 much higher than any you see in Scotland. One mountain stands in 

 the lake, and people live on it. Another called Zomba is more than 

 six thousand feet high, and people live on it too, for we could see their 

 gardens on its top, which is larger than from Glasgow to Hamilton, or 

 about from fifteen to eighteen miles. The country is quite a Highland 

 region, and many people live in it. Most of them were afraid of us. 

 The women ran into their huts and shut the doors. The children 

 screamed in terror, and even the hens would fly away and leave their 

 chickens. I suppose you would be frightened too if you saw strange 

 creatures, say a lot of Trundlemen, like those on the . Isle of Man 

 pennies, come whirling up the street. No one was impudent to us 

 except some slave-traders, but they became civil as soon as they 

 learned we were English and not Portuguese. We saw the sticks 

 they employ for training any one whom they have just bought. One 



is about eight feet long, the 

 head, or neck rather, is put 

 into the space between the 

 dotted lines and shaft, and 

 another slave carries the end. 

 When they are considered tame they are allowed to go in chains. 



" I am working in the hope that in the course of time this horrid 

 system may cease. All the country we travelled through is capable of 

 growing cotton and sugar, and the people now cultivate a good deal. 

 They would grow much more if they could only sell it. At present 

 we in England are the mainstay of slavery in America and elsewhere 

 by buying slave-grown produce. Here there are hundreds of miles of 

 land lying waste, and so rich that the grass towers far over one's head 

 in walking. You cannot see where the narrow paths end, the grass is 

 so tall and overhangs them so. If our countrymen were here they 

 would soon render slave-buying unprofitable. Perhaps God may 

 honour us to open up the way for this. My heart is sore when I 

 think of so many of our countrymen in poverty and misery, while 

 they might be doing so much good to themselves and others where our 

 Heavenly Father has so abundantly provided fruitful hills and fertile 

 valleys. If our people were out here they would not need to cultivate 

 little snatches by the side of railways as they do. But all is in the 

 hands of the all- wise Father. We must trust that He will bring all 

 out right at last. 



" My dear Agnes, you must take Him to be your Father and Guide. 



