352 CULTUKE OF COTTON. Chap. XVIIL 



daily visited by crowds of natives, who brought us abundance of 

 provisions far beyond our ability to consume. In hauling- the 

 Pioneer over the shallow places, the Bishop, with Horace 

 Waller and Mr. Scudamore, were ever ready and anxious to 

 lend a hand, and worked as hard as any on board. Had our fine 

 little ship drawn but three feet, she could have run up and down 

 the river at any time of the year, with the greatest ease, but, 

 as it was, having once passed up over a few shallow banks, it 

 was impossible to take her down agaiu until the river rose in 

 December. She could go up over a bank, but not come down 

 over it, as a heap of sand always formed instantly asteru, 

 while the current washed it away from under her bows. 



From the period of our second entrance among the tribes 

 on the Shire, Charles Livingstone had very zealously 

 turned his energies to inducing the people to cultivate cotton 

 for exportation. The Ma-Robert was so leaky that nothing 

 more could be done, while we had her, than purchase small 

 quantities of cleaned cotton and yarn of native manufacture, 

 to be submitted to our friends at Manchester, and to incul- 

 cate the probability of our countrymen coming to buy as 

 much as could be raised. Much of what w r e bought in this 

 way was inevitably spoiled by the wet state of the vessel ; but 

 the specimens sent home were pronounced to be "the very 

 kind of cotton most needed in Lancashire," and the yarn, or 

 rather rove, which we bought at about a penny per pound, 

 excited the admiration of practical manufacturers there. 



Now that we had more accommodation, Charles Living- 

 stone pursued the same system of attempting to turn the 

 industrial energies of the natives to good account, and with 

 very gratifying success. Cotton was bought, and cleaned 

 with cotton-gins, and, though we were restricted by the great 

 draught of the Pioneer to an area of less than seven miles, in 

 three months he had collected 300 lbs. of clean cotton-wool, 



