Chap. XXYIII. EFFLUVIUM FROM THE MAESH. 575 



our way to the ocean. In order to keep steerage way on 

 the Pioneer, we had to go quicker than the stream, and 

 unfortunately carried away her rudder in passing suddenly 

 round a bank. The delay required for the repairs prevented 

 our reaching Morambala till the 2nd of February. 



The flood-water ran into a marsh some miles above the 

 mountain, and became as black as ink ; and when it returned 

 again to the river emitted so strong an effluvium of sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen, that one could not forget for an instant that 

 the air was most offensive. The natives said this stench 

 did not produce disease. We spent one night in it, and 

 suffered no ill effects, though we fully expected an attack of 

 fever. Next morning every particle of white paint on both 

 ships was so deeply blackened, that it could not be cleaned by 

 scrubbing w T ith soap and water. The brass was all turned 

 to a bronze colour, and even the iron and ropes had taken a 

 new tint. This is an additional proof that malaria and offensive 

 effluvia are not always companions. We did not suffer more 

 from fever in the mangrove swamps, where we inhaled so 

 much of the heavy mousey smell that it was distinguishable 

 in the odour of our shirts and flannels, than we did elsewhere. 



We tarried in the foul and blackening emanations from 

 the marsh because we had agreed to receive on board 

 about thirty poor orphan boys and girls, and a few help- 

 less widows whom Bishop Mackenzie had attached to his 

 Mission. All Avho were able to support themselves had 

 been encouraged by the Missionaries to do so by cultivating 

 the ground, and they now formed a little free community. 

 But the boys and girls who were only from seven to twelve 

 years of age, and orphans without any one to help them, 

 could not be abandoned without bringing odium on the 

 English name. The effect of an outcry by some persons 

 in England, who knew nothing of the circumstances in which 



