There had been a drought of unusual severity during the past season in the country between Lupata and Kebrabasa, and it had extended north-east to the Manganja highlands.All the Tette slaves, except a very few household ones, had been driven away by hunger, and were now far off in the woods, and wherever wild fruit, or the prospect of obtaining anything whatever to keep the breath of life in them, was to be found.Their masters were said never to expect to see them again.There have been two years of great hunger at Tette since we have been in the country, and a famine like the present prevailed in 1854, when thousands died of starvation.If men like the Cape farmers owned this country, their energy and enterprise would soon render the crops independent of rain.There being plenty of slope or fall, the land could be easily irrigated from the Zambesi and its tributary streams.A Portuguese colony can never prosper:it is used as a penal settlement, and everything must be done military fashion."What do I care for this country?" said the most enterprising of the Tette merchants, "all I want is to make money as soon possible, and then go to Bombay and enjoy it."All business at Tette was now suspended.Carriers could not be found to take the goods into the interior, and the merchants could barely obtain food for their own families.At Mazaro more rain had fallen, and a tolerable crop followed.The people of Shupanga were collecting and drying different wild fruits, nearly all of which are far from palatable to a European taste.The root of a small creeper called "bise" is dug up and eaten.In appearance it is not unlike the small white sweet potato, and has a little of the flavour of our potato.
It would be very good, if it were only a little larger.From another tuber, called "ulanga," very good starch can be made.A few miles from Shupanga there is an abundance of large game, but the people here, though fond enough of meat, are not a hunting race, and seldom kill any.
The Shire having risen, we steamed off on the 10th of January, 1863, with the "Lady Nyassa" in tow.It was not long before we came upon the ravages of the notorious Mariano.The survivors of a small hamlet, at the foot of Morambala, were in a state of starvation, having lost their food by one of his marauding parties.The women were in the fields collecting insects, roots, wild fruits, and whatever could be eaten, in order to drag on their lives, if possible, till the next crop should be ripe.Two canoes passed us, that had been robbed by Mariano's band of everything they had in them; the owners were gathering palm-nuts for their subsistence.
They wore palm-leaf aprons, as the robbers had stripped them of their clothing and ornaments.Dead bodies floated past us daily, and in the mornings the paddles had to be cleared of corpses, caught by the floats during the night.For scores of miles the entire population of the valley was swept away by this scourge Mariano, who is again, as he was before, the great Portuguese slave-agent.It made the heart ache to see the widespread desolation; the river-banks, once so populous, all silent; the villages burned down, and an oppressive stillness reigning where formerly crowds of eager sellers appeared with the various products of their industry.Here and there might be seen on the bank a small dreary deserted shed, where had sat, day after day, a starving fisherman, until the rising waters drove the fish from their wonted haunts, and left him to die.Tingane had been defeated; his people had been killed, kidnapped, and forced to flee from their villages.There were a few wretched survivors in a village above the Ruo; but the majority of the population was dead.
The sight and smell of dead bodies was everywhere.Many skeletons lay beside the path, where in their weakness they had fallen and expired.Ghastly living forms of boys and girls, with dull dead eyes, were crouching beside some of the huts.A few more miserable days of their terrible hunger, and they would be with the dead.
Oppressed with the shocking scenes around, we visited the Bishop's grave; and though it matters little where a good Christian's ashes rest, yet it was with sadness that we thought over the hopes which had clustered around him, as he left the classic grounds of Cambridge, all now buried in this wild place.How it would have torn his kindly heart to witness the sights we now were forced to see!
In giving vent to the natural feelings of regret, that a man so eminently endowed and learned, as was Bishop Mackenzie, should have been so soon cut off, some have expressed an opinion that it was wrong to use an instrument so valuable MERELY to convert the heathen.
If the attempt is to be made at all, it is "penny wise and pound foolish" to employ any but the very best men, and those who are specially educated for the work.An ordinary clergyman, however well suited for a parish, will not, without special training, make a Missionary; and as to their comparative usefulness, it is like that of the man who builds an hospital, as compared with that of the surgeon who in after years only administers for a time the remedies which the founder had provided in perpetuity.Had the Bishop succeeded in introducing Christianity, his converts might have been few, but they would have formed a continuous roll for all time to come.
The Shire fell two feet, before we reached the shallow crossing where we had formerly such difficulty, and we had now two ships to take up.
