EFFECTS OF A SLA VE RAID. 341 



bloodthirsty cowards into the forest, and secured the party from any further 

 attack. 



The people in the neighbourhood of the cataracts were found to be peace- 

 ful and industrious, and friendly in their disposition. They are called Makoa, 

 and are known by a cicatrice on the brow, in the form of a crescent, with the 

 horns pointing downwards. The hills on either side of the river were lofty, 

 and seemed to be the outlying spurs of a still wider range on either side. 

 Coal was found in such circumstances as warranted the party in believing that 

 it existed in abundance in the valleys. 



In January 1863, the Pioneer steamed up the Shire, with the Lady Nyassa 

 in tow ; and she had not breasted its waters for many hours before the party 

 came upon traces of the wholesale ravages of the notorious and bloodthirsty 

 Mariano. A little more than twelve months before, the valley of the Shire 

 was populous with peaceful and contented tribes ; now the country was all but 

 a desert, the very air polluted by the putrid carcases of the slain, which lay 

 rotting on the plains, and floated in the waters of the river in such numbers as 

 to clog the paddles of the steamer. Once they saw a crocodile making a rush 

 at the carcase of a boy, and shake it as a terrier dog shakes a rat, while others 

 rushed to share in the meal, and quickly devoured it. The miserable inhabit- 

 ants who had managed to avoid being slain or carried off into captivity, were 

 collecting insects, roots, and wild fruits — anything in short that would stave 

 off starvation, in the neighbourhood of the villages where they had formerly 

 enjoyed peace and plenty. They were entirely naked, save for the palm-leaf 

 aprons they wore, as everything of any value had been carried off by the slave 

 stealers. The sight of hundreds of putrid dead bodies and bleached skeletons 

 was not half so painful as the groups of children and women who were seen 

 sitting amidst the ruins of their former dwellings, with their ghastly famine- 

 stricken faces and dull dead eyes. These made up such a tale of woe and 

 misery that those who were dead might be deemed fortunate in comparison 

 with the survivors, who instinctively clung to the devastated spot they had 

 once called home, and those who had been led into life-long captivity. Every- 

 where dead bodies were met with. In the huts when opened the mouldering 

 corpse was found " with the poor rags round the loins, the skull fallen off the 

 pillow ; the little skeleton of the child, that had perished first, rolled up in a 

 mat between two large skeletons." 



Mr. Thornton rejoined the party on the Shire, bringing with him supplies 

 for the mission and the expedition party, after successfully assisting Baron 

 Vanderdecken in a survey of the Kilimanjaro mountains, and the ascent of 

 the highest member of the range to a height of 14,000 feet, discovering at the 

 same time that the height above the level of the sea of the highest peak was 

 20,000 feet. These mountains above 8,000 feet are covered with perpetual 

 snow. His present mission was to examine the geology of the district in the 



