556 GUNS VERSUS BOWS. Chap. XXVII. 



good time coming when " man and man the world o'er, shall 

 brothers be for all that." One small redeeming considera- 

 tion in all this misery could not but be felt ; these ills were 

 inflicted by heathen Mazitu, and not by, or for, those who 

 say to Him who is higher than the highest, "We believe 

 that thou shalt come to be our Judge." 



We crossed the Mokole, rested at Chitanda, and then left 

 the Lake, and struck away N.W. to Chinsamba's. Our com- 

 panions, who were so much oppressed by the rarefied air of 

 the plateau, still showed signs of exhaustion, though now 

 only 1300 feet above the sea, and did not recover flesh and 

 spirits till we again entered the Lower Shire Valley, which is 

 of so small an altitude, that, without simultaneous observa- 

 tions with the barometer there and on the sea-coast, the 

 difference would not be appreciable. 



On a large plain on which we spent one night, we had 

 the company of eighty tobacco traders on their way from 

 Kasungu to Chinsamba's. The Mazitu had attacked and 

 killed two of them, near the spot where the Zulus fled 

 from us without answering our questions. The traders were 

 now so frightened that, instead of making a straight course 

 with us, they set off by night to follow the shores of the Lake 

 to Tsenga, and then turn west. It is the sight of shields, or 

 guns that inspires terror. The bowmen feel perfectly help- 

 less when the enemy comes with even the small protection 

 the skin shield affords, or attacks them in the open field 

 with guns. They may shoot a few arrows, but they are such 

 poor shots that ten to one if they hit. The only thing that 

 makes the arrow formidable is the poison ; for if the poisoned 

 barb goes in nothing can save the wounded. A bow is in use 

 in the lower end of Lake Nyassa, but is more common in 

 the Maravi country, from six to eight inches broad, which 

 is intended to be used as a shield as well as a bow ; but we 



