Chap. XI. PORTUGUESE OPPOSITION. 241 



tentionally, of double dealing. Public instructions, as already- 

 stated, had been sent from Portugal to all the officials to 

 render us every assistance in their power, but these were 

 to be understood with considerable reservation. From what 

 we observed it was clear that, with the public orders to the 

 officials to aid us, private instructions had come to thwart 

 us. It is possible that these private instructions meant 

 only that we were to be watched ; but where nearly every 

 one, from Governor to convict soldier, is an eager slave- 

 dealer, such orders could only mean, "keep a sharp look 

 out that your slave-trade follows as near their heels as 

 possible." We were now so fully convinced that, in open- 

 ing the country through which no Portuguese durst pre- 

 viously pass, we were made the unwilling instruments of 

 extending the slave-trade, that, had we not been under obli- 

 gations to return with the Makololo to their own country, 

 we should have left the Zambesi and gone to the Eovuma, 

 or to some other inlet to the interior. It was with bitter 

 sorrow that we saw the good w r e would have done turned to 

 evil. 



We afterwards learned that no sooner was it proposed that 

 we should go to the Rovuma, than the Governor-General 

 d' Almeida hastened up to Zanzibar, and tried to, induce the 

 Sultan to agree to that river being made the boundary be- 

 tween him and the Portuguese. This movement, the effect 

 of instructions drawn up after information had been obtained 

 from our letters being read at the meetings of the Geo- 

 graphical Society, London, was happily frustrated by Colonel 

 Eigby ; and the Governor-General had to be content with 

 Cape Delgado as the extreme limit of Portuguese claims 

 northward. 



On the Batoka highlands, the invigorating breezes disposed 



R 



