On The 7th Of April We Had Only One Man Fit For Duty; All The Rest
Were Down With Fever, Or With The Vile Spirit Secretly Sold To Them
By The Portuguese Officer Of Customs, In Spite Of Our Earnest Request
To Him To Refrain From The Pernicious Traffic.
We started on the 11th for Shupanga with another load of the "Lady
Nyassa." As we steamed up the delta, we observed many of the natives
wearing strips of palm-leaf, the signs of sickness and mourning; for
they too suffer from fever.
This is the unhealthy season; the rains
are over, and the hot sun draws up malaria from the decayed
vegetation; disease seemed peculiarly severe this year. On our way
up we met Mr. Waller, who had come from Magomero for provisions; the
missionaries were suffering severely from want of food; the liberated
people were starving, and dying of diarrhoea, and loathsome sores.
The Ajawa, stimulated in their slave raids by supplies of ammunition
and cloth from the Portuguese, had destroyed the large crops of the
past year; a drought had followed, and little or no food could be
bought. With his usual energy, Mr. Waller hired canoes, loaded them
with stores, and took them up the long weary way to Chibisa's.
Before he arrived he was informed that the Mission of the
Universities, now deprived of its brave leader, had retired from the
highlands down to the Low Shire Valley. This appeared to us, who
knew the danger of leading a sedentary life, the greatest mistake
they could have made, and was the result of no other counsel or
responsibility than their own.
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