over one’s face is rather unpleasant, however rapid the movement may be.  Myriads of two varieties of cockroaches infested the vessel; they not only ate round the roots of our nails, but even devoured and defiled our food, flannels, and boots.  Vain were all our efforts to extirpate these destructive pests; if you kill one, say the sailors, a hundred come down to his funeral!  In the work of Commodore Owen it is stated that cockroaches, pounded into a paste, form a powerful carminative; this has not been confirmed, but when monkeys are fed on them they are sure to become lean.

On coming to Senna, we found that the Zulus had arrived in force for their annual tribute.  These men are under good discipline, and never steal from the people.  The tax is claimed on the ground of conquest, the Zulus having formerly completely overcome the Senna people, and chased them on to the islands in the Zambesi.  Fifty-four of the Portuguese were slain on the occasion, and, notwithstanding the mud fort, the village has never recovered its former power.  Fever was now very prevalent, and most of the Portuguese were down with it.

For a good view of the adjacent scenery, the hill, Baramuana, behind the village, was ascended.  A caution was given about the probability of an attack of fever from a plant that grows near the summit.  Dr. Kirk discovered it to be the Paedevia foetida, which, when smelt, actually does give headache and fever.  It has a nasty fetor, as its name indicates.  This is one instance in which fever and a foul smell coincide.  In a number of instances offensive effluvia and fever seems to have no connection.  Owing to the abundant rains, the crops in the Senna district were plentiful; this was fortunate, after the partial failure of the past two years.  It was the 25th of April, 1860, before we reached Tette; here also the crops were luxuriant, and the people said that they had not had such abundance since 1856, the year when Dr. Livingstone came down the river.  It is astonishing to any one who has seen the works for irrigation in other countries, as at the Cape and in Egypt, that no attempt has ever been made to lead out the water either of the Zambesi or any of its tributaries; no machinery has ever been used to raise it even from the stream, but droughts and starvations are endured, as if they were inevitable dispensations of Providence, incapable of being mitigated.

Feeling in honour bound to return with those who had been the faithful companions of Dr. Livingstone, in 1856, and to whose guardianship and services was due the accomplishment of a journey which all the Portuguese at Tette had previously pronounced impossible, the requisite steps were taken to convey them to their homes.