The poison is said to be deleterious to man if the water is drunk; but not when the fish is cooked.  The Busungu is repulsive to some insects, and is smeared round the shoots of the palm-trees to prevent the ants from getting into the palm wine while it is dropping from the tops of the palm-trees into the little pots suspended to collect it.

We were in the habit of walking from our beds into the salt water at sunrise, for a bath, till a large crocodile appeared at the bathing-place, and from that time forth we took our dip in the sea, away from the harbour, about midday.  This is said to be unwholesome, but we did not find it so.  It is certainly better not to bathe in the mornings, when the air is colder than the water—­for then, on returning to the cooler air, one is apt to get a chill and fever.  In the mouth of the river, many saw-fish are found.  Rowe saw one while bathing—­caught it by the tail, and shoved it, “snout on,” ashore.  The saw is from a foot to eighteen inches long.  We never heard of any one being wounded by this fish; nor, though it goes hundreds of miles up the river in fresh water, could we learn that it was eaten by the people.  The hippopotami delighted to spend the day among the breakers, and seemed to enjoy the fun as much as we did.

Severe gales occurred during our stay on the Coast, and many small sea-birds (Prion Banksii, Smith) perished:  the beach was strewn with their dead bodies, and some were found hundreds of yards inland; many were so emaciated as to dry up without putrefying.  We were plagued with myriads of mosquitoes, and had some touches of fever; the men we brought from malarious regions of the interior suffered almost as much from it here as we did ourselves.  This gives strength to the idea that the civilized withstand the evil influences of strange climates better than the uncivilized.  When negroes return to their own country from healthy lands, they suffer as severely as foreigners ever do.

On the 31st of January, 1861, our new ship, the “Pioneer,” arrived from England, and anchored outside the bar; but the weather was stormy, and she did not venture in till the 4th of February.

Two of H.M. cruisers came at the same time, bringing Bishop Mackenzie, and the Oxford and Cambridge Mission to the tribes of the Shire and Lake Nyassa.  The Mission consisted of six Englishmen, and five coloured men from the Cape.  It was a puzzle to know what to do with so many men.  The estimable Bishop, anxious to commence his work without delay, wished the “Pioneer” to carry the Mission up the Shire, as far as Chibisa’s, and there leave them.  But there were grave objections to this.  The “Pioneer” was under orders to explore the Rovuma, as the Portuguese Government had refused to open the Zambesi to the ships of other nations, and their officials were very effectually pursuing a system, which, by abstracting the labour, was rendering the country of no value either to foreigners or to