598

BISHOP MACKENZIE'S SUCCESSOR. CHAP. XXVIII.

on his way south without causing a flood, so all our hopes of a release were centred on his return toward the equator, when, as a rule, the waters of inundation are made to flow. Up to this time the rains descended simply to water the earth, fill the pools, and make ready for the grand overflow, for which we had still to wait six weeks. It is of no use to conceal that we waited with much chagrin; for, had we not been forced to return from the highlands west of Nyassa, we might have visited Lake Bemba; but unavailing regrets are poor employment for the mind, so we banished them to the best of our power.

About the middle of December, 1863, we were informed that Bishop Mackenzie's successor, after spending a few months on the top of a mountain about as high as Ben Nevis in Scotland, at the mouth of the Shire, where there were few or no people to be taught, had determined to leave the country. This unfortunate decision was communicated to us at the same time that six of the boys reared by Bishop Mackenzie were sent back into heathenism. The boys were taken to a place about seven miles from the ship, but immediately found their way up to us, lamenting that they had no longer that bishop who had a heart, and who was more than a father to them. We told them that if they wished to remain in the country they had better so arrange at once, for we were soon to leave. The sequel will show their choice.

As soon as the death of Bishop Mackenzie was known at the Cape, Dr. Gray, the excellent bishop there, proceeded at once to England, with a view of securing an early appointment of another head to the Mission, which in its origin owed so much to his zeal for the spread of the Gospel among the heathen, and whose interests he had continually at heart. About the middle of 1862 we heard that Dr. Gray's efforts

CHAP. XXVIII. WHAT A MISSIONARY SHOULD BE.

599

had been successful, and that another clergyman would soon take the place of our departed friend. This pleasing intelligence was exceedingly cheering to the missionaries, and gratifying also to the members of the Expedition. About the beginning of 1863 the new bishop arrived at the mouth of the river in a man-of-war, and, after some delay, proceeded inland. The Bishop of the Cape had taken a voyage home, at considerable inconvenience to himself, for the sole object of promoting this Mission to the heathen, and it was somehow expected that the man he would secure would be an image of himself; and we must say, that whatever others, from the representations that have gone abroad, may think of his character, we invariably found Dr. Gray to be a true, warm-hearted promoter of the welfare of his fellow-men-a man whose courage and zeal have provoked very many to good works.

It was hoped that the presence of a new head to the Mission would infuse new energy and life into the small band. of missionaries, whose ranks had been thinned by death, and who, though discouraged by the disasters which the slave war and famine had induced, and also dispirited by the depressing influences of a low and unhealthy position in the swampy Shire Valley, were yet bravely holding out till the muchneeded moral and material aid should arrive.

These expectations, we regret to say, were not fulfilled. We would here be understood as expressing only a general opinion. The qualities required in a missionary leader are not of the common kind. He ought to have physical and moral courage of the highest order, and a considerable amount of cultivation and energy, balanced by patient determination; and above all these are necessary a calm Christian zeal, and anxiety for the main spiritual results of the work. We repeat, that we are expressing no opinion about the qualifica

600

MISSIONS ON THE WEST COAST. CHAP. XXVIII.

tion of any individual, but we assert that not every one has this rare combination of power; and that a man who may be quite in his natural sphere in a quiet round of common duties as the minister of a town or rural parish in England, may be very much out of it as a missionary in Central Africa.

We believe that we are uttering the sentiments of many devout members of different sections of Christians when we say it was a pity that the Mission of the Universities was abandoned. The ground had been consecrated in the truest sense by the lives of those brave men who first occupied it. In bare justice to Bishop Mackenzie, who was the first to fall, it must be said, that the repudiation of all he had done, and the sudden abandonment of all that had cost so much life and money to secure, was a serious line 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.

To those who have not paid much attention to the labors of different bodies of Christians, it may be mentioned that, before success appeared at the Mission-stations on the West Coast, upward of forty missionaries had succumbed to the climate. Let it be said, if you will, that the societies and the men were alike unwise to sacrifice so much valuable life.

CHAP. XXVIII.

RISING OF THE SHIRE.

601

These may be proofs of folly to some, but to others they are telling evidence that our religion has lost none of its pristine power. Nothing, in our opinion, is wanting to complete the title of many of these men to take rank with the saints and martyrs of primitive times. More experience of the climate has since greatly diminished the mortality, and in 1861 there were, on the West Coast, one hundred and ten principal Mission-stations, thirteen thousand scholars in the schools, and nineteen thousand members in the churches.

Bishop Mackenzie had in a short time gained the first step he had secured the confidence of the people. This step it often takes several years to attain; and we can not but regret that subsequently the Mission of the Universities, when contrasted with others, should appear to so much disadvantage. In fact, though representing all that is brave, and good, and manly in the chief seats of English learning, the Mission, in fleeing from Marambala to an island in the Indian Ocean, acted as St. Augustine would have done had he located himself on one of the Channel Islands when sent to christianize the natives of Central England. This is, we believe, the first case of a Protestant Mission having been abandoned without being driven away.

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

602

EFFLUVIUM FROM THE MARSH. CHAP. XXVIII.

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 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 2d 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 sulphu reted 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 color, 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 odor of our shirts and flannels, than we did elsewhere.

We tarried in the foul and blackening emanations from the marsh because we had agreed to receive on board about thirty poor orphan boys and girls, and a few helpless widows whom Bishop Mackenzie had attached to his Mission. All who were able to support themselves had been encouraged by the missionaries to do so by cultivating the ground, and they now formed a little free community. But the boys and girls, who were only from seven to twelve years of age, and