We stuck repeatedly on sandbanks, and could not reach Mazaro this night. We slept on the opposite side of the river. On this bank our boatmen do not feel secure: they are not entirely out of the reach of a Zulu tribe which gives great trouble here, and levies blackmail on the Portuguese themselves. We thought of going over the bank and pretending to be Zulus, but when we observed that our natives had their flint locks lying in readiness we did not care to carry out the idea. There are hippopotami here, and one came very close, but they are few in number, as the natives harpoon them. On Wednesday morning we started a little after five, and reached Mazaro early. We had a few days to wait here before we could get ready for the Quilimane part of the journey. All my time since leaving Blantyre had been devoted to the revisal of my vocabularies, but after this point the Yao-speaking natives were left behind. Here we met Mwanasa, a girl who had lived for two years with Mrs. Macdonald. She would have willingly come to England to learn more, but we feared she would be lonely. When at Blantyre she had learned to read and write in her own language. When we were at Mazaro a letter was read from the Zanzibar consul, which had been addressed to one of the Livingstonia employés. Certain chiefs on Lake Nyassa had been making themselves notorious in connection with the slave trade, and the consul asked the man whether he could not clear out one of these slavers. We believe it must often be felt by those on the coast that they could cope with the evils of slavery much better if they had an agency in the interior. Saturday evening found us on the Kwagwa. Here our journey was, if possible, more uncomfortable than before. There was only one boat: and Mrs. Macdonald with the nurse and family had just room to stow themselves away under the little grass awning that had been thrown over it. My bed was placed in the steerage! Hitherto, throughout the whole journey on the Chiri and Zambeze, we had been obliged to sleep in the boats and under mosquito curtains. At Mazaro we had occupied a house; but this means that the plague of rats is added to the plague of heat and mosquitoes.