Chap. IX. village contrasts. 255 



independently of the canoes, helped to develop their good 

 manners, which were not apparent on our previous visit. 



There is often a surprising contrast between neigh- 

 bouring villages. One is well off and thriving, having 

 good huts, plenty of food, and native cloth; and its 

 people are frank, trusty, generous, and eager to sell 

 provisions ; while in the next the inhabitants may be 

 ill-housed, disobliging, suspicious, ill-fed, and scantily 

 clad, and with nothing for sale, though the land around 

 is as fertile as that of their wealthier neighbours. We 

 followed the river for the most part to avail ourselves of 

 the still reaches for sailing; but a comparatively smooth 

 country lies further inland, over which a good road could 

 be made. Some of the five main cataracts are very grand, 

 the river falling 1200 feet in the 40 miles. After passing 

 the last of the cataracts, we launched our boat for good on 

 the broad and deep waters of the Upper Shire, and were 

 virtually on the lake, for the gentle current shows but 

 little difference of level. The bed is broad and deep, but 

 the course is rather tortuous at first, and makes a long 

 bend to the east till it comes within five or six miles of 

 the base of Mount Zomba. The natives regarded the 

 Upper Shire as a prolongation of Lake Nyassa ; for where 

 what we called the river approaches Lake Shirwa, a little 

 north of the mountains, they said that the hippopotami, 

 "which are great night travellers," pass from one lake into 

 the other. There the land is flat, and only a short land 

 journey would be necessary. Seldom does the current 

 here exceed a knot an hour, while that of the Lower Shire 

 is from two to two-and-a-half knots. Our land party of 

 Makololo accompanied us along the right bank, and passed 

 thousands of Manganja fugitives living in temporary huts 

 on that side, who had recently been driven from their 

 villages on the opposite hills by the Ajawa. 



The soil was dry and hard, and covered with mopane- 



