When Sebituane Came In Former Times,
With His Small But Warlike Party Of Makololo, To This Spot,
A General Rising
Took place of the Batoka through the whole country,
in order to "eat him up"; but his usual success followed
Him,
and, dispersing them, the Makololo obtained so many cattle
that they could not take any note of the herds of sheep and goats.
The tsetse has been brought by buffaloes into some districts where formerly
cattle abounded. This obliged us to travel the first few stages by night.
We could not well detect the nature of the country in the dim moonlight;
the path, however, seemed to lead along the high bank of what may have been
the ancient bed of the Zambesi before the fissure was made.
The Lekone now winds in it in an opposite direction to that in which
the ancient river must have flowed.
Both the Lekone and Unguesi flow back toward the centre of the country,
and in an opposite direction to that of the main stream.
It was plain, then, that we were ascending the farther we went eastward.
The level of the lower portion of the Lekone is about two hundred feet
above that of the Zambesi at the falls, and considerably more
than the altitude of Linyanti; consequently, when the river flowed along
this ancient bed instead of through the rent, the whole country between this
and the ridge beyond Libebe westward, Lake Ngami and the Zouga southward,
and eastward beyond Nchokotsa, was one large fresh-water lake.
There is abundant evidence of the existence and extent of this vast lake
in the longitudes indicated, and stretching from 17 Deg.
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