Chap. III. RAINFALL UP THE ZAMBESI. 85 



became like a sieve, completely full of minute holes, which 

 leaked perpetually. The engineer stopped the larger ones, 

 but the vessel was no sooner afloat, than new ones broke out. 

 The first news of a morning was commonly the unpleasant 

 announcement of another leak in the forward compartment, or 

 in the middle, which was worse still. 



Frequent showers fell on our way up the Zambesi, in the 

 beginning of August. On the 8th we had upwards of three 

 inches of rain, which large quantity, more than falls in any 

 single rainy day during the season at Tette, we owed to being 

 near the sea. Sometimes the cabin was nearly flooded ; for, 

 in addition to the leakage from below, rain poured through 

 the roof, and an umbrella had to be used whenever we 

 wished to write : the mode of coupling the compartments, 

 too, was a new one, and the action of the hinder com- 

 partment on the middle one pumped up the water of the 

 river, and sent it in streams over the floor and lockers, 

 where lay the cushions which did double duty as chairs 

 and beds. In trying to form an opinion of the climate, it must 

 be recollected that much of the fever, from which we suffered, 

 was caused by sleeping on these wet cushions. Many of the 

 botanical specimens, laboriously collected and carefully pre- 

 pared by Dr. Kirk, were destroyed, or double work imposed, 

 by their accidentally falling into wet places in the cabjn. 



When lying off an island a few miles below Mazaro, the 

 owner of it, Paul, a relative of the rebel Mariano, paid us a 

 visit. He had just returned from Mosambique, having, 

 to use the common phrase of the country, "arranged" with 

 the authorities. He told us that Governor-General d' Almeida 

 knew nothing of the Kongone, and thought, with others, that 

 the Zambesi entered the sea at Quillimane. His Excellency 

 had been making inquiries of him, respecting the correctness 



