vessel was no sooner afloat, than new ones broke out. The first news of
a morning was commonly the unpleasant announcement of another leak in the
forward compartment, or in the middle, which was worse still.

Frequent showers fell on our way up the Zambesi, in the beginning of
August. On the 8th we had upwards of three inches of rain, which large
quantity, more than falls in any single rainy day during the season at
Tette, we owed to being near the sea. Sometimes the cabin was nearly
flooded; for, in addition to the leakage from below, rain poured through
the roof, and an umbrella had to be used whenever we wished to write: the
mode of coupling the compartments, too, was a new one, and the action of
the hinder compartment on the middle one pumped up the water of the
river, and sent it in streams over the floor and lockers, where lay the
cushions which did double duty as chairs and beds. In trying to form an
opinion of the climate, it must be recollected that much of the fever,
from which we suffered, was caused by sleeping on these wet cushions.
Many of the botanical specimens, laboriously collected and carefully
prepared by Dr. Kirk, were destroyed, or double work imposed, by their
accidentally falling into wet places in the cabin.

About the middle of August, after cutting wood at Shamoara, we again
steamed up the Shire, with the intention of becoming better acquainted
with the people, and making another and longer journey on foot to the
north of Lake Shirwa, in search of Lake Nyassa, of which we had already
received some information, under the name Nyinyesi (the stars). The
Shire is much narrower than the Zambesi, but deeper, and more easily
navigated. It drains a low and exceedingly fertile valley of from
fifteen to twenty miles in breadth. Ranges of wooded hills bound this
valley on both sides. For the first twenty miles the hills on the left
bank are close to the river; then comes Morambala, a detached mountain