PREFATORY LETTER. lxxi 



In four days they descended to Senna — a Portuguese town 

 in a grievous state of depression, chiefly from the effects of the 

 Caffre war. To ascend from this place to Tete takes twenty 

 days; and the trading boats are sometimes to be pulled 

 against the stream by ropes from the shore. On the left 

 bank of the river, opposite Senna, are mountains of a fine 

 form. One of them has a hot sulphurous spring on its 

 north side; and, from its form, appears to be volcanic. It 

 is conjectured to be three or four thousand feet high: but 

 our Author was not permitted to visit it. After leaving 

 Senna they were soon floated down to Mazaro, which is at 

 the head of the Delta. The river immediately above this 

 place is more than half a mile wide, is without islands, and its 

 banks are covered with forests of fine timber. But the Delta 

 below is only an immense flat; covered with high coarse grass 

 and reeds, and with here and there a few mango and cocoa-nut 

 trees. Through this Delta the river works its way sea- ward 

 in many channels. 



At Mazaro our Author had his last severe attack of 

 fever. After being tormented some days by fever, and horribly 

 stung by musquitoes, he sailed through the northern branch of 

 the Zambesi with his African companions, and they reached 

 Kilimane on the 20th of May, 1856. There he found a supply 

 of quinine and wine, which he stood much in need of: but his 

 joy was embittered by hearing that a boat's crew, commanded 

 by Captain MacLune and Lieutenant Woodruffe — who had 

 come in the " Dart" expressly to convey him from the coast 

 — had been lost on the bar of the river. After returning 

 unfeigned thanks to God, " who mercifully watched over 

 him in every position, and influenced the hearts of both black 

 and white men to regard him with favour," he adds, " I view 

 the end of the geographical feat as the beginning of the mis- 

 sionary enterprise. I take the latter term in its most extended 

 significance, and include in it every effort made for the amelio- 

 ration of our race." 



