We Should Not Have Minded
This Much, But For The Heavy Loss Of Time Which Might Have Been More
Profitably, And Infinitely More Pleasantly, Spent In Intercourse With
The People, Exploring New Regions, And Otherwise Carrying Out The
Objects Of The Expedition.
Once we were a fortnight on a bank of
soft yielding sand, having only two or three inches less
Water than
the ship drew; this delay was occasioned by the anchors coming home,
and the current swinging the ship broadside on the bank, which,
immediately on our touching, always formed behind us. We did not
like to leave the ship short of Chibisa's, lest the crew should
suffer from the malaria of the lowland around; and it would have been
difficult to have got the Mission goods carried up. We were daily
visited by crowds of natives, who brought us abundance of provisions
far beyond our ability to consume. In hauling the "Pioneer" over the
shallow places, the Bishop, with Horace Waller and Mr. Scudamore,
were ever ready and anxious to lend a hand, and worked as hard as any
on board. Had our fine little ship drawn but three feet, she could
have run up and down the river at any time of the year with the
greatest ease, but as it was, having once passed up over a few
shallow banks, it was impossible to take her down again until the
river rose in December. She could go up over a bank, but not come
down over it, as a heap of sand always formed instantly astern, while
the current washed it away from under her bows.
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