" The Rovuma was found to have
changed greatly since his last visit, so that he had to land his goods
twenty-five miles to the north at Mikindany harbor, and find his way
down to the river farther up. The toil was fitted to wear out the
strongest of his men. Nothing could have been more grateful than the
Sunday rest. Through his Nassick boys, he tried to teach the Makonde--a
tribe that bore a very bad character, but failed; however, the people
were wonderfully civil, and, contrary to all previous usage, neither
inflicted fines nor made complaints, though the animals had done some
damage to their corn. He set this down as an answer to his prayers for
influence among the heathen.
His vexations, however, were not long of beginning. Both the Sepoy
marines and the Nassick boys were extremely troublesome, and treated the
animals abominably. The Johanna men were thieves. The Sepoys became so
intolerable that after four months' trial he sent most of them back to
the coast. It required an effort to resist the effect of such, things,
owing to the tendency of the mind to brood over the ills of travel.
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