CHAPTER XV. 



Arrival of a New Steamer. — Arrival of Bishop Mackenzie and Party. — Libe- 

 ration of a Band of Slaves on the Shire. — Disastrous ending to the Mission. — 

 Arrival and Death of Mrs. Livingstone. — Dr. Livingstone returns to England. 



ON the 31st of January, their new ship the Pioneer anchored outside the bar, 

 but owing to the state of the weather she did not venture in until the 4th 

 of February. Shortly after two of H.M.S. cruisers arrived, bringing with 

 them Bishop Mackenzie, and the Oxford and Cambridge Missions, to the tribes 

 of the Shire and Lake Nyassa. The mission consisted of six Englishmen and 

 five coloured men from the Cape ; and as Dr. Livingstone and his party were 

 under orders to explore the Rovuma, about 700 miles to the north of the 

 Zambesi, and beyond Portuguese territory, they were somewhat at a loss what 

 to do with them. If they acceded to Bishop Mackenzie's wishes and con- 

 veyed them at once to Chibisa's village on the Shire, and left them there, they 

 dreaded that, as they had no medical attendant, they might meet the fate of 

 Mr. Helmore and his party at Linyanti. It was at last arranged that the 

 bishop should, after accompanying his companions to Johanna, where they 

 would await his return with H.M. Consul, Mr. Lumley, go with the expedition 

 on board the Pioneer to the Rovuma, in the hope that by this route access 

 might be found to Lake Nyassa and the valley of the Shire. 



The Pioneer anchored in the mouth of the Rovuma on the 25th of 

 February, which they found to have a magnificent natural harbour and bay. 

 They sailed up the river for thirty miles, through a hilly and magnificently 

 wooded country, but were compelled to return as the river was rapidly falling 

 in volume, and they were afraid that the ship might ground altogether, and have 

 to He there until the next rainy season. 



In a letter to Sir Roderick Murchison, Dr. Livingstone gives a graphic 

 account of the Rovuma River and the difficulties attending the navigation : — ■ 

 " The bed of the river is about three-quarters of a mile wide. It is 

 flanked by a well-wooded table-land, which looks like ranges of hills, 500 feet 

 high. Sometimes the spurs of the high land come close to the water, but 

 generally there is a mile of level alluvial soil between them and the bank. So 

 few people appeared at first, it looked like a ' land to let ;' but, having walked 

 up to the edge of the plateau, considerable cultivation was met with, though to 

 make a garden a great mass of brushwood must be cleared away. The women 

 b 1 



