Chap. I. JOURNEY TO TETTE. 33 



We started for Tette on the 17th August, 1858; the 

 navigation was rather difficult, the Zambesi from Shupanga 

 to Senna being wide and full of islands; our black pilot, 

 John Scissors, a serf, sometimes took the wrong channel and 

 ran us aground. Nothing abashed, he would exclaim in an 

 aggrieved tone, " This is not the path, it is back yonder." 

 " Then why didn't you go yonder at first ?" growled out our 

 Kroomen, who had the work of getting the vessel off. When 

 they spoke roughly to poor Scissors, the weak cringing slave- 

 spirit came forth in, " Those men scold me so, I am ready 

 to run away." This mode of finishing up an engagement is 

 not at all uncommon on the Zambesi ; several cases occurred, 

 when we were on the river, of hired crews decamping with 

 most of the goods in their charge. If the trader cannot 

 redress his own wrongs, he has to endure them. The Landeens 

 will not surrender a fugitive slave, even to his master. One 

 belonging to Mr. Azevedo fled, and was, as a great favour 

 only, returned after a present of much more than his value. 



Our steamer's badly-constructed furnaces consumed a 

 frightful amount of wood. Fires were lighted at two in 

 the morning, but steam was seldom up before six. A 

 great deal of time was lost in wood-cutting. The large 

 heavy-laden country canoes could nearly keep up with us, 

 and the small ones shot ahead, and the paddlers looked 

 back in wonder and pity at the slow puffing " Asthmatic." 

 For us, steam was no labour-saving power ; boats, or canoes 

 even, would have done for the expedition all that it did, 

 with half the toil and expense. 



We landed to wood at Shamoara, just below the confluence 

 of the Shire. Its quartz hills are covered with trees and 

 gigantic grasses ; the buaze, a small forest-tree, grows abun- 

 dantly; it is a species of polygala; its beautiful clusters 



