474 
FREEING A PARTY OF SLAVES. 
was delayed in one instance a fortnight on a sand bank. 
On arriving at Ckibisa’s the expedition learned that there 
was war in the Manganja country, and that ttie slave-trade 
was going on briskly. On the 15th of July the party 
started for the highlands, to show the Bishop the best 
place for coolness and altitude, for the station. Reaching 
Mbame’s village, they were told that a gang of slaves were 
about to pass through. Soon after they came in sight, 
eighty-four of them, chiefly women and children, chained 
together in single file. The men were fastened with forked 
sticks, six or seven feet long, about their necks, the prongs 
of the fork riveted with iron. The slave-dealers came in 
triumphantly, but on sight of the English fled. The slaves 
were freed, and taken as a commencement of a mission set- 
tlement. Having thus commenced, in the course of a day 
or two, numerous other bands of slaves were freed. A tem- 
porary seat for the mission was selected on the Magomero, 
and there the exploring party left the Bishop and the rest, 
and returned to the ship to prepare for a journey to Lake 
Nyassa. 
On the 6th of August, 1861, the party started with a 
four-oared gig. The party followed the river for the most 
part, but a good road could be made over the country 
lying inland. Some of the five main cataracts are very 
grand. The river falls 1200 feet in 40 miles. After pass- 
ing the cataracts they reached the broad and deep water 
of the Upper Shire. The natives regard this river as a 
prolongation of Lake Nyassa, the current being very 
gentle, not more then a mile an hour, while that of the 
Lower Shire is from two to two and a half. The Makololo 
attendants accompanied the party on the right bank, and 
passed thousands of Manganja fugitives living in tempo- 
rary huts, having been driven from their villages on the 
opposite hills by the Ajawa. On the 2nd of September the 
party sailed into Lake Nyassa. 
Nowhere else in Africa had there been found so dense « 
population as tliat on the shores of Lake Nyassa. In the 
