The whole of the once pleasant Shire valley was now a scene of wide-spread desolation. Fearful famine had followed the slave raids, and the sights which met their eye in every direction were heart-rending. The ground was literally covered with human bones. “Many had ended their career under the shade of trees, others under projecting crags of the hills, while others lay in their huts with closed doors, which, when opened, disclosed the mouldering corpse with a few rags round the loins, the skull fallen off the pillow; the little skeleton of a child that had perished first, rolled up in a mat between two large skeletons.”
Hoping that the “Lady Nyassa” might be the means of putting a check on the slavers across the lake, they hurried on with their work. She was unscrewed at a spot about five hundred yards below the first cataract, and they began to make a road over the portage of forty miles, by which she was to be carried piecemeal.
Trees had to be cut down and stones removed. The first half-mile of road was formed up a gradual slope till two hundred feet above the river was reached, where a sensible difference in the climate was felt. Before much progress was made, Dr Kirk and Charles Livingstone were seized with fever, and it was deemed absolutely necessary that they should be sent home. Soon afterwards Dr Livingstone was himself attacked.
The “Pioneer” meantime was roofed over and left in charge of the trustworthy gunner, Mr Young.
One day, an empty canoe was seen floating down with a woman swimming near it. The boat put off and brought her on board, when she was found to have an arrow-head in the middle of her back. A native cut it out, and, notwithstanding the fearful character of the wound, being fed liberally by Mr Young, she recovered.
On the 16th of June the remaining members of the expedition started for the upper cataracts.
Cotton of superior quality was seen dropping off the bushes, with no one to gather it.
The huts in several villages were found entire, with mortars and stones for pounding and grinding corn, empty corn safes and kitchen utensils, water and beer-pots untouched, but the doors were shut, as if the inhabitants had gone to search for roots or fruits and had never returned; while in others, skeletons were seen of persons who died apparently while endeavouring to reach something to allay the gnawings of hunger.
Several journeys had been made over the portage, when, on returning to the ship on the 2nd of July, they received a despatch from Earl Russell, directing the return home of the expedition.
Considering the utter devastation caused by the slave-hunting, and the secret support given by the Portuguese officials to the slave-traders, notwithstanding the protestations of their government that they wished to put an end to the trade, it was impossible not to agree in the wisdom of this determination.