326 THE ZAMBESI CHANNEL. 



ran excitedly along the banks holding up fowls and fruits and 

 baskets of rice, meal or potatoes, shouting " Malonda! malonda ! " 

 " Things for sale ! things for sale! " and those in the canoes fol- 

 lowed bravely along, exhibiting marvellous skill in the use of 

 their short, broad-bladed paddles ; when they pleased forcing 

 their narrow vessels along the smooth surface almost with the 

 velocity of arrows. 



The deep channel of the Zambesi is quite narrow when com- 

 pared with the width of the river ; and not only narrow, but 

 singularly tortuous, winding along among the countless sand- 

 banks, from side to side of the stream, marked only by the 

 slight characteristic ripple when there is a fresh wind, and when 

 all is calm, by a peculiar boiling up of its water from some 

 action below. The fact that man is an expert navigator at the 

 sea does not save him from the shame of confessing himself 

 miserably at sea on such a river. Near the island of Simbo the 

 " Pearl's " draught was found to be too great, and the Living- 

 stone party were under the necessity of parting with their escort. 

 The goods designed for the expedition were placed on one of the 

 beautiful grassy islands about forty miles from the bar, and the 

 few men who had been chosen to share the toils and honors of 

 the devoted missionary explorer, in his new enterprise, took 

 leave of the generous captain of the " Pearl," and also of their 

 friend Skead, and sat down looking after the noble ship as she 

 steamed away toward the sea again. It may be a gloomy pic- 

 ture, that a great ship should enter an unknown harbor, sail 

 along an unknown river forty miles, between forests and jun- 

 gles, where there were strange birds and beasts and flowers and 

 trees, and people stranger and wilder than all, and anchoring in 

 the middle of the river, place on a tiny, fairy-looking island a 

 few men and stores, and leave them there. But it is just what 

 was done. The enterprise which God had laid upon him was 

 one in which he was of necessity to be peculiarly independent. 

 About all that his friends in England could do, after furnishing 

 his "outfit," was just this: they could put him down on the 

 borders of the unknown land. There can hardly be imagined a 

 more heroic scene than the landing of those few men on that 

 little island, and their quiet, manly leave-taking* of the good 

 ship. They may as well be thought of as being left alone in 



