540 DESPATCH FROM GOVERNMENT. Chap. XXVI. 



were positively " in any case to cease by the 31st of De- 

 cember." The despatch from the Foreign Office haying been 

 sent open to the Governor of the Cape, it seems to have been 

 forwarded in the same free and easy way to its destination ; 

 for the new Bishop's chaplain had commented freely before 

 a number of Portuguese, Dr. Kirk, and Mr. Charles Living- 

 stone, at Quillimane, on its different paragraphs, and more 

 especially on the omission of all notice of the Lady Nyassa. 

 When his servant brought it up to the Pioneer, he hailed 

 the crew in strong Surrey dialect with, " I say, no more pay 

 for you chaps after December. I brings the letter as says it." 

 Though we never for a single moment entertained the idea 

 that this grossly disrespectful way of treating a despatch 

 from H. M. Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 

 was anything more than the result of want of knowledge of 

 the world on the part of those who had probably never in 

 their lives seen a Government despatch before, yet the con- 

 viction that all the Pioneer's men knew that their wages 

 might not be forthcoming, if we were in the river after 

 December, had some influence on a mind borne down by 

 that most depressing of diseases, dysentery. We were said 

 to be only ten days' distant from Lake Bemba. We might 

 speculate on a late rise of the river. A month or six weeks 

 would secure a geographical feat, but the rains were near. 

 We had been warned by different people that the rains were 

 close at hand, and that we should then be bogged and unable 

 to travel. The flood in the river might be an early one, or 

 so small in volume as to give but one chance of the Pioneer 

 descending to the ocean. The Makololo too were becoming 

 dispirited by sickness and want of food, and were naturally 

 anxious to be back to their fields in time for sowing. 

 But in addition to all this and more, it was felt that it would 

 not be dealing honestly with the Government, were we, for 



