CHAP. II. EXPLORATION OF THE SHIRE. 49 



the first symptom of approaching fever. At such times 

 a man feels very much like a fool, if he does not act like 

 one. Nothing is right, nothing pleases the fever-stricken 

 victim. He is peevish, prone to find fault and to con- 

 tradict, and think himself insulted, and is exactly what 

 an Irish naval surgeon before a court-martial defined a 

 drunken man to be : "a man unfit for society." 



Finding that it was impossible to take our steamer of 

 only ten -horse power through Kebrabasa, and convinced 

 that, in order to force a passage when the river was in 

 flood, much greater power was required, due information 

 was forwarded to Her Majesty's Government, and applica- 

 tion made for a more suitable vessel. Our attention was 

 in the mean time turned to the exploration of the river 

 Shire, a northern tributary of the Zambesi, which joins 

 it about a hundred miles from the sea. We could learn 

 nothing satisfactory from the Portuguese regarding this 

 affluent ; no one, they said, had ever been up it, nor 

 could they tell whence it came. Years ago a Portuguese 

 expedition is said, however, to have attempted the ascent, 

 but to have abandoned it on account of the impenetrable 

 duckweed (Pistia stratiotes.) We could not learn from 

 any record that the Shire had ever been ascended by 

 Europeans. As far, therefore, as we were concerned, the 

 exploration was absolutely new. All the Portuguese 

 believed the Manganja to be brave but bloodthirsty 

 savages ; and on our return we found that soon after our 

 departure a report was widely spread that our temerity 

 had been followed by fatal results, Dr. Livingstone having 

 been shot, and Dr. Kirk mortally wounded by poisoned 

 arrows. 



Our first trip to the Shire was in January, 1859. A 

 considerable quantity of weed floated down the river for 

 the first twenty-five miles, but not sufficient to interrupt 

 navigation with canoes or with any other craft. Nearly 



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