Rev. 
H. Waller. 
24 July 
iSjl.” 
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE 
there is always a certain amount of swamp land 
available in the neighbourhood of lakes and 
rivers, in which corn can be grown at all times 
of the year. When we were in the highlands, 
in 1863 and 1864, in the neighbourhood of the 
Shire, all the population which was not swept off 
accumulated at the river ; and it was a very 
frightful state of things there, because the people 
flocked to the river, perfectly famished and per 
fectly mad with hunger, and they risked their 
lives for the sake of a few heads of corn. The 
river all day long was carrying down the dead 
bodies of those who had been fighting amono-st 
themselves, like starving dogs quarrelling over a 
bone. The postulation is very dense indeed on 
Lake Nyassa at present. 
980. Some of that pojtulation would, in the 
course of time, sjtread over the dejtopulated dis 
trict ?—Yes, if there was anything like peace. 
981. Mr. FowlerIs not the water on the 
coast very dangerous to drink ?—I do not believe 
it has the effect attributed to it ; I have drunk 
the vilest water possible, and yet remained in 
most perfect health ; if a man in bad health 
drinks bad water, or bad beer, or anything else, 
it may kill him ; I do not believe as some people 
do, that a draught of bad water will be sure to 
bring on fever or dysentry. 
982. ^ Sir R. Anstruther^ With regard to the 
probability of the depopulated district becoming 
again inhabited, the fertility of the soil, and the 
salubrity of the climate, which induced peojile to 
go there, and cultivate the soil in time past, 
would operate as inducements to people to go 
there again, would they not?—Yes; this part of 
the country is full of little streams ; in fact, it 
was some time before I knew what the native 
word for thirst was, though you may hear the 
word for hunger from morning to night. I neve^ 
saw a better watered country in my life (when 
you get on the low lands, in fact, you have too 
much Avater), and where you have water, you are 
sure to have plenty of cultivation. We hear of 
African deserts, but that term only applies to the 
extreme South and the extreme North of Africa; 
there is not an approach to a desert in the interior 
at all, it is a very fertile country throuo-hout. 
983. Mr. Kinnaird.'\ You referred just now to 
the suggestion that a European settlement might 
be established at some point near the coast?-' 
I referred to a suggestion in a letter I recently 
received from Dr. Kirk ; he found it necessary 
to make a journey for one or two days into the 
interior of the country to push on some of the 
porters Avho were conveying provisions to Dr- 
Livingstone, and he then passed through a part 
of the country, which he found exceedinWy 
healthy and fertile, and which he thought could 
be very well inhabited by any Europeans. 
984. You have no suggestion to make to the 
Committee further than you have made, as to 
the policy of establishing a coast settlement for 
Europeans ?—Seeing that it must be obvious to 
all of us, that it would help us out of a difficulty 
if we could provide for these liberated slaves, h 
Avould be a most important thing if a European 
settlement could be established near Zanzibar, 
where they could be carefully looked after ; and 
I consider it most fortunate that Dr. Kirk has, 
in his opinion, discovered a place recently where 
such a settlement could be formed.