324 DEATH OF MR. THORNTON. CHAP. XII. 



this step, to which, the generosity of his nature prompted 

 him, till two days after he had started. In addition to 

 securing supplies for the Universities' Mission, he brought 

 some for the Expedition, and took bearings, by which he 

 hoped to connect his former work at Tette with the moun- 

 tains in the Shire district. The toil of this journey was 

 too much for his strength, as with the addition of great 

 scarcity of water, it had been for that of Dr. Kirk and 

 Eae, and he returned in a sadly haggard and exhausted 

 condition ; diarrhoea supervened, and that ended in dysen- 

 tery and fever, which terminated fatally on the 21st of 

 April, 1863. He received the unremitting attentions of 

 Dr. Kirk, and Dr. Meller, surgeon of the " Pioneer," during 

 the fortnight of his illness ; and as he had suffered very 

 little from fever, or any other disease, in Africa, we had 

 entertained strong hopes that his youth and unimpaired 

 constitution would have carried him through. During 

 the night of the 20th his mind wandered so much, that 

 we could not ascertain his last wishes ; and on the morn- 

 ing of the 21st, to our great sorrow, he died. He was 

 buried on the 22nd, near a large tree on the right bank of 

 the Shire, about five hundred yards from the lowest of the 

 Murchison Cataracts — and close to a rivulet, at which the 

 "Lady Nyassa" and "Pioneer" lay. 



No words can convey an adequate idea of the scene of 

 widespread desolation which the once pleasant Shire 

 Yalley now presented. Instead of smiling villages and 

 crowds of people coming with things for sale, scarcely a 

 soul was to be seen ; and, when by chance one lighted on 

 a native, his frame bore the impress of hunger, and his 

 countenance the look of a cringing broken-spiritedness. 

 A drought had visited the land after the slave-hunting 

 panic swept over it. Had it been possible to conceive the 

 thorough depopulation which had ensued, we should have 

 avoided coming up the river. Large masses of the people 



