DIFFICULTIES OF THE MISSIONARIES. 331 



The following postscript (dated 27th February) to a letter dated 10th 

 February, 1863, from the Rev. J. L. Procter, already mentioned, narrates the 

 state of matters up to date : — 



Having alluded to the departure of Mr. Rowley, one of the mission to 

 Tete for food (the expected supplies not having arrived), Mr. Procter says : — 

 " This is our last resource ; animal food is failing us, and even before 

 Rowley can return we shall be reduced to simply vegetable diet. Of course, 

 therefore, much depends upon this difficult and trying journey to Tete, 

 which will occupy at least a month. If food can be had, all will be well : if 

 not, our case is desperate, and but one resource will be left for us. I have 

 accordingly written thus to Mr. Woodcock, our hon. secretary : — ' Under the 

 circumstances I feel it my duty to state that, if animal food cannot be 

 insured, and if help in men and some additional provisions do not arrive from 

 home, we shall be compelled to quit our present abode for the sea-coast, 

 whence we shall try to make our way to either Johanna, Natal, or the Cape ; 

 and, not to leave any indefiniteness in this sad statement, I will add that, 

 if we receive no addition to our numbers, or see no better hopes for the 

 future before the 15th June next, we shall then proceed to make our way 

 down the river in the best way we can. Grievous as this resolve is, I fear we 

 cannot do otherwise. The whole country is in a state of utter ruin and 

 destitution, and the drought still continues. Our surgeon, Mr. Dickinson, 

 assures us that we have only this alternative unless we choose to stay and die 

 for want of proper sustenance.' " 



A few weeks afterwards, Captain Wilson, of H.M.S. Gorgon, together with 

 Dr. Kirk and a large party, including Mrs. Mackenzie and Mrs. Burrup, went 

 up the Shire, to join the mission as they hoped ; and, although they were close 

 by the grave of Bishop Mackenzie, they could hear nothing from the chief of 

 Malo of the mission. He was in all likelihood afraid that he might be blamed 

 for his death. At Chibisa's, the faithful Makololo told them the sad news they 

 had come so far to hear. This information awakened fresh anxiety as to the 

 fate of the others ; so, leaving the ladies with Dr. Ramsay and the Makololo, 

 Captain Wilson and Dr. Kirk pushed up into the hill country, where they met 

 the survivors of the mission party at a chief's called Soche. Captain Wilson 

 was suffering from a severe attack of fever, and the whole party were so 

 exhausted that there was nothing for it but to return to the boat, and sail sadly 

 down the river to the Pioneer. On the 4th of April, the Gorgon sailed for the 

 Cape, taking with her all the surviving members of the mission save one. 



On the 6th of August, 1861, Drs. Livingstone and Kirk, and Mr. Charles 

 Livingstone, started for Nyassa, with a light four-oared gig, attended by a 

 white sailor and a score of natives. They found no difficulty in hiring peo- 

 ple to carry the boat from village to village, and as they had the means of 

 crossing the streams they met with, were quite independent of the humours of 



