One Might Try
To Make His Voice Heard Across It In Vain.
Its flow was more rapid
than near Sesheke, being often four and a half miles an hour, and,
what
I never saw before, the water was discolored and of a deep brownish-red.
In the great valley the Leeambye never becomes of this color.
The adjacent country, so far north as is known, is all level,
and the soil, being generally covered with dense herbage, is not abraded;
but on the eastern ridge the case is different; the grass is short,
and, the elevation being great, the soil is washed down by the streams,
and hence the discoloration which we now view. The same thing was observed
on the western ridge. We never saw discoloration till we reached the Quango;
that obtained its matter from the western slope of the western ridge,
just as this part of the Zambesi receives its soil from
the eastern slope of the eastern ridge. It carried a considerable quantity
of wreck of reeds, sticks, and trees. We struck upon the river
about eight miles east of the confluence with the Kafue, and thereby missed
a sight of that interesting point. The cloudiness of the weather was such
that but few observations could be made for determining our position;
so, pursuing our course, we went down the left bank,
and came opposite the island of Menye makaba. The Zambesi contains
numerous islands; this was about a mile and a half or two miles long,
and upward of a quarter of a mile broad. Besides human population,
it has a herd of buffaloes that never leave it. In the distance
they seemed to be upward of sixty. The human and brute inhabitants
understand each other; for when the former think they ought to avenge
the liberties committed on their gardens, the leaders of the latter
come out boldly to give battle. They told us that the only time in which
they can thin them is when the river is full and part of the island flooded.
They then attack them from their canoes. The comparatively small space
to which they have confined themselves shows how luxuriant
the vegetation of this region is; for were they in want of more pasture,
as buffaloes can swim well, and the distance from this bank to the island
is not much more than 200 yards, they might easily remove hither.
The opposite bank is much more distant.
Ranges of hills appear now to run parallel with the Zambesi, and are about
fifteen miles apart. Those on the north approach nearest to the river.
The inhabitants on that side are the Batonga, those on the south bank
are the Banyai. The hills abound in buffaloes, and elephants are numerous,
and many are killed by the people on both banks. They erect stages
on high trees overhanging the paths by which the elephants come,
and then use a large spear with a handle nearly as thick as a man's wrist,
and four or five feet long. When the animal comes beneath
they throw the spear, and if it enters between the ribs above,
as the blade is at least twenty inches long by two broad,
the motion of the handle, as it is aided by knocking against the trees,
makes frightful gashes within, and soon causes death. They kill them also
by means of a spear inserted in a beam of wood, which being suspended
on the branch of a tree by a cord attached to a latch fastened in the path,
and intended to be struck by the animal's foot, leads to the fall of the beam,
and, the spear being poisoned, causes death in a few hours.
We were detained by continuous rains several days at this island.
The clouds rested upon the tops of the hills as they came from the eastward,
and then poured down plenteous showers on the valleys below.
As soon as we could move, Tomba Nyama, the head man of the island,
volunteered the loan of a canoe to cross a small river, called the Chongwe,
which we found to be about fifty or sixty yards broad and flooded.
All this part of the country was well known to Sekwebu,
and he informed us that, when he passed through it as a boy,
the inhabitants possessed abundance of cattle, and there were no tsetse.
The existence of the insect now shows that it may return
in company with the larger game. The vegetation along the bank
was exceedingly rank, and the bushes so tangled that it was difficult
to get on. The paths had been made by the wild animals alone,
for the general pathway of the people is the river, in their canoes.
We usually followed the footpaths of the game, and of these there was no lack.
Buffaloes, zebras, pallahs, and waterbucks abound, and there is also
a great abundance of wild pigs, koodoos, and the black antelope.
We got one buffalo as he was rolling himself in a pool of mud.
He had a large piece of skin torn off his flank, it was believed
by an alligator.
We were struck by the fact that, as soon as we came between
the ranges of hills which flank the Zambesi, the rains felt warm.
At sunrise the thermometer stood at from 82 Deg. to 86 Deg.;
at midday, in the coolest shade, namely, in my little tent,
under a shady tree, at 96 Deg. to 98 Deg.; and at sunset it was 86 Deg.
This is different from any thing we experienced in the interior,
for these rains always bring down the mercury to 72 Deg. or even 68 Deg.
There, too, we found a small black coleopterous insect,
which stung like the mosquito, but injected less poison;
it puts us in mind of that insect, which does not exist
in the high lands we had left.
JANUARY 6TH, 1856. Each village we passed furnished us with
a couple of men to take us on to the next.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 238 of 295
Words from 245883 to 246889
of 306638
