of conduct for one so unversed in Missionary operations as his successor, to inaugurate.  It would have been no more than fair that Bishop Tozer, before winding up the affairs of the Mission, should actually have examined the highlands of the Upper Shire; he would thus have gratified the associates of his predecessor, who believed that the highlands had never had a fair trial, and he would have gained from personal observation a more accurate knowledge of the country and the people than he could possibly have become possessed of by information gathered chiefly on the coast.  With this examination, rather than with a stay of a few months on the humid, dripping top of misty Morambala, we should have felt much more satisfied.

In January, 1864, the natives all confidently asserted that at next full moon the river would have its great and permanent flood.  It had several times risen as much as a foot, but fell again as suddenly.  It was curious that their observation coincided exactly with ours, that the flood of inundation happens when the sun comes overhead on his way back to the Equator.  We mention this more minutely because, from the observation of several years, we believe that in this way the inundation of the Nile is to be explained.  On the 19th the Shire suddenly rose several feet, and we started at once; and stopping only for a short time at Chibisa’s to bid adieu to the Ajawa and Makololo, who had been extremely useful to us of late in supplying maize and fresh provisions, we hastened on our way to the ocean.  In order to keep a steerage way on the “Pioneer,” we had to go quicker than the stream, and unfortunately carried away her rudder in passing suddenly round a bank.  The delay required for the repairs prevented our reaching Morambala till the 2nd of February.

The flood-water ran into a marsh some miles above the mountain, and became as black as ink; and when it returned again to the river emitted so strong an effluvium of sulphuretted hydrogen, that one could not forget for an instant that the air was most offensive.  The natives said this stench did not produce disease.  We spent one night in it, and suffered no ill effects, though we fully expected an attack of fever.  Next morning every particle of white paint on both ships was so deeply blackened, that it could not be cleaned by scrubbing with soap and water.  The brass was all turned to a bronze colour, and even the iron and ropes had taken a new tint.  This is an additional proof that malaria and offensive effluvia are not always companions.  We did not suffer more from fever in the mangrove swamps, where we inhaled so much of the heavy mousey smell that it was distinguishable in the odour of our shirts and flannels, than we did elsewhere.