254 EAGER OFFER OF SERVICES. Chap. IX. 



resembling the pleasantest part of an English summer ; pro- 

 visions poured in very cheap and in great abundance. The 

 Bishop, with characteristic ardour, commenced learning 

 the language, Mr. Waller began building, and Mr. Scuda- 

 more improvised a sort of infant school for the children, 

 than which there is no better means for acquiring an 

 unwritten tongue. 



On the 6th of August, 1861, a few days after returning 

 from Magomero, Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, and Charles 

 Livingstone started for Nyassa with a light four-oared 

 gig, a white sailor, and a score of attendants. We hired 

 people along the path to carry the boat past the forty 

 miles of the Murchison Cataracts for a cubit of cotton 

 cloth a day. This being deemed great wages, more than 

 twice the men required eagerly offered their services. The 

 chief difficulty was in limiting their numbers. Crowds 

 followed us ; and, had we not taken down in the morning 

 the names of the porters engaged, in the evening claims 

 would have been made by those who only helped during 

 the last ten minutes of the journey. The men of one 

 village carried the boat to the next, and all we had 

 to do was to tell the headman that we wanted fresh men 

 in the morning. He saw us pay the first party, and had 

 his men ready at the time appointed, so there was no 

 delay in waiting for carriers. They often make a loud 

 noise when carrying heavy loads, but talking and bawling 

 does not put them out of breath. The country was rough 

 and with little soil on it, but covered with grass and open 

 forest. A few small trees were cut down to clear a path 

 for our shouting assistants, who were good enough to con- 

 sider the boat as a certificate of peaceful intentions at least 

 to them. Several small streams were passed, the largest 

 of which were the Mukuru-Madse and Lesungwe. The 

 inhabitants on both banks were now civil and obliging. 

 Our possession of a boat, and consequent power of crossing 



