1862-63.] LAST TWO YEARS OF THE EXPEDITION. 313 



surprise. On the 24th April he had written to Mr. 

 Waller, " I should not wonder in the least to be recalled, 

 for should the Portuguese persist in keeping the rivers 

 shut, there would be no use in trying to develop trade." 

 He states his views on the recall calmly in a letter to 

 Mr. James Young : — 



" Murchison Cataracts, 3d July 1863. — . . . Got instructions for 

 our recall yesterday, at which I do not wonder. The Government has 

 behaved well to us throughout, and I feel abundantly thankful to 

 H.M.'s ministers for enabling me so far to carry on the experiment 

 of turning the industrial and trading propensities of the natives to 

 good account, with a view of thereby eradicating the trade in slaves. 

 But the Portuguese dogged our footsteps, and, as is generally under- 

 stood, with the approbation of their Home Government, neutralised 

 our labours. Not that the Portuguese statesmen approved of slaving, 

 but being enormously jealous lest their pretended dominion from sea 

 to sea and elsewhere should in the least degree, now or at any future 

 time, become aught else than a slave ' preserve,' the Governors have been 

 instructed, and have carried out their instructions further than their 

 employers intended. Major Sicard was removed from Tette as too 

 friendly, and his successor had emissaries in the Ajawa camp. Well, 

 we saw their policy, and regretted that they should be allowed to follow 

 us into perfectly new regions. The regret was the more poignant, 

 inasmuch as but for our entering in by gentleness, they durst not have 

 gone. No Portuguese dared, for instance, to come up this Shire 

 valley ; but after our dispelling the fear of the natives by fair treat- 

 ment, they came in calling themselves our ' children.' The whole 

 thing culminated when this quarter was inundated with Tette slavers, 

 whose operations, in connection with a marauding tribe of Ajawas, and 

 a drought, completely depopulated the country. The sight of this 

 made me conclude that unless something could be done to prevent 

 these raids, and take off their foolish obstructions on the rivers, which 

 they never use, our work in this region was at an end. . . . Please 

 the Supreme, I shall work some other point yet. In leaving, it is 

 bitter to see some 900 miles of coast abandoned to those who were the 

 first to begin the slave-trade, and seem determined to be the last to 

 abandon it." 



Writing to Mr. Waller at this time he said : " I 

 don't know whether I am to go on the shelf or not. If I 

 do, I make Africa the shelf. If the ' Lady Nyassa ' is well 

 sold, I shall manage. There is a Ruler above, and His 

 providence guides all things. He is our Friend, and has 



