Several Of The
Crossings Had Barely Water Enough For Our Ship, Drawing Five Feet, To
Pass.
When we were thirty miles up the river, the water fell
suddenly seven inches in twenty-four hours.
As the March flood is
the last of the season, and it appeared to be expended, it was
thought prudent to avoid the chance of a year's detention, by getting
the ship back to the sea without delay. Had the Expedition been
alone, we would have pushed up in boats, or afoot, and done what we
could towards the exploration of the river and upper end of the lake;
but, though the Mission was a private one, and entirely distinct from
our own, a public one, the objects of both being similar, we felt
anxious to aid our countrymen in their noble enterprise; and, rather
than follow our own inclination, decided to return to the Shire, see
the Mission party settled safely, and afterwards explore Lake Nyassa
and the Rovuma, from the Lake downwards. Fever broke out on board
the "Pioneer," at the mouth of the Rovuma, as we thought from our
having anchored close to a creek coming out of the mangroves; and it
remained in her until we completely isolated the engine-room from the
rest of the ship. The coal-dust rotting sent out strong effluvia,
and kept up the disease for more than a twelvemonth.
Soon after we started the fever put the "Pioneer" almost entirely
into the hands of the original Zambesi Expedition, and not long
afterwards the leader had to navigate the ocean as well as the river.
The habit of finding the geographical positions on land renders it an
easy task to steer a steamer with only three or four sails at sea;
where, if one does not run ashore, no one follows to find out an
error, and where a current affords a ready excuse for every blunder.
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