They Described The Population There
As Located In Small Villages Like The Balonda, And That No Difficulty
Is Experienced In Traveling Among Them.
They mentioned also that,
at a distance of ten days beyond Cazembe, their path winds round
the end of Lake Tanganyenka.
But when they reach this lake,
a little to the northwest of its southern extremity, they find no difficulty
in obtaining canoes to carry them over. They sleep on islands, for it is said
to require three days in crossing, and may thus be forty or fifty miles broad.
Here they punt the canoes the whole way, showing that it is shallow.
There are many small streams in the path, and three large rivers.
This, then, appeared to me to be the safest; but my present object
being a path admitting of water rather than land carriage,
this route did not promise so much as that by way of the Zambesi or Leeambye.
The Makololo knew all the country eastward as far as the Kafue,
from having lived in former times near the confluence of that river
with the Zambesi, and they all advised this path in preference to that
by the way of Zanzibar. The only difficulty that they assured me of
was that in the falls of Victoria. Some recommended my going to Sesheke,
and crossing over in a N.E. direction to the Kafue, which is only
six days distant, and descending that river to the Zambesi.
Others recommended me to go on the south bank of the Zambesi until
I had passed the falls, then get canoes and proceed farther down the river.
All spoke strongly of the difficulties of traveling on the north bank,
on account of the excessively broken and rocky nature of the country
near the river on that side. And when Ponuane, who had lately headed
a foray there, proposed that I should carry canoes along that side
till we reached the spot where the Leeambye becomes broad and placid again,
others declared that, from the difficulties he himself had experienced
in forcing the men of his expedition to do this, they believed that mine
would be sure to desert me if I attempted to impose such a task upon them.
Another objection to traveling on either bank of the river
was the prevalence of the tsetse, which is so abundant that the inhabitants
can keep no domestic animals except goats.
While pondering over these different paths, I could not help regretting
my being alone. If I had enjoyed the company of my former companion,
Mr. Oswell, one of us might have taken the Zambesi, and the other gone
by way of Zanzibar. The latter route was decidedly the easiest,
because all the inland tribes were friendly, while the tribes
in the direction of the Zambesi were inimical, and I should now be obliged
to lead a party, which the Batoka of that country view as hostile invaders,
through an enemy's land; but, as the prospect of permanent water-conveyance
was good, I decided on going down the Zambesi, and keeping on the north bank,
because, in the map given by Bowditch, Tete, the farthest inland
station of the Portuguese, is erroneously placed on that side.
Being near the end of September, the rains were expected daily;
the clouds were collecting, and the wind blew strongly from the east,
but it was excessively hot.
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