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 perfectly
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 district
?—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.
