拍品專文
In August and September 1858, Livingstone's Ma Robert made slow progress up and down river dropping off supplies upstream at Shupanga, Sena and Tete. It was already clear that the great river would not be navigable without a portable boat to avoid the shallows and rapids. Baines stayed with the boats (the launch, a pinnacle from the Hermes and two whale boats) while Livingstone reconnoitred overland to Tete. In September, Baines, suffering intermittently from fever, eventually took the pinnacle and whale boat up to Tete, and the present watercolour dates from this period: 'The first stage was toilsome and slow, for here the Zambesi, three or four miles wide, crept tortuously through 'a low level expanse of marshy country...' The river was low after the dry season, and obstructed by immeasurable islands and sandbanks, so that there was always the fear of the boats grounding'. (J.P.R. Wallis, Thomas Baines, Cape Town, 1996, p.102)