The Boys
Rode On Both Cows And Bulls Without Fear, And The Animals Were So Fat
And Lazy, That The Old Ones Only Made A Feeble Attempt To Kick Their
Young Tormentors.
Muazi never milks the cows; he complained that,
but for the Mazitu having formerly captured some, he should now have
had very many.
They wander over the country at large, and certainly
thrive.
After leaving Muazi's, we passed over a flat country sparsely covered
with the scraggy upland trees, but brightened with many fine flowers.
The grass was short, reaching no higher than the knee, and growing in
tufts with bare spaces between, though the trees were draped with
many various lichens, and showed a moist climate. A high and very
sharp wind blew over the flats; its piercing keenness was not caused
by low temperature, for the thermometer stood at 80 degrees.
We were now on the sources of the Loangwa of the Maravi, which enters
the Zambesi at Zumbo, and were struck by the great resemblance which
the boggy and sedgy streams here presented to the sources of the
Leeba, an affluent of the Zambesi formerly observed in Londa, and of
the Kasai, which some believe to be the principal branch of the Congo
or Zaire.
We had taken pains to ascertain from the travelled Babisa and Arabs
as much as possible about the country in front, which, from the
lessening time we had at our disposal, we feared we could scarcely
reach, and had heard a good deal of a small lake called Bemba. As we
proceeded west, we passed over the sources not only of the Loangwa,
but of another stream, called Moitawa or Moitala, which was
represented to be the main feeder of Lake Bemba. This would be of
little importance, but for the fact that the considerable river
Luapula, or Loapula is said to flow out of Bemba to the westward, and
then to spread out into another and much larger lake, named Moero, or
Moelo. Flowing still further in the same direction, the Loapula
forms Lake Mofue, or Mofu, and after this it is said to pass the town
of Cazembe, bend to the north, and enter Lake Tanganyika. Whither
the water went after it entered the last lake, no one would venture
an assertion. But that the course indicated is the true watershed of
that part of the country, we believe from the unvarying opinion of
native travellers. There could be no doubt that our informants had
been in the country beyond Cazembe's, for they knew and described
chiefs whom we afterwards met about thirty-five or forty miles west
of his town. The Lualaba is said to flow into the Loapula - and when,
for the sake of testing the accuracy of the travelled, it was
asserted that all the water of the region round the town of Cazembe
flowed into the Luambadzi, or Luambezi (Zambesi), they remarked with
a smile, "He says, that the Loapula flows into the Zambesi - did you
ever hear such nonsense?" or words to that effect. We were forced to
admit, that according to native accounts, our previous impression of
the Zambesi's draining the country about Cazembe's had been a
mistake. Their geographical opinions are now only stated, without
any further comment than that the itinerary given by the Arabs and
others shows that the Loapula is twice crossed on the way to
Cazembe's; and we may add that we have never found any difficulty
from the alleged incapacity of the negro to tell which way a river
flows.
The boiling-point of water showed a descent, from the edge of the
plateau to our furthest point west, of 170 feet; but this can only be
considered as an approximation, and no dependence could have been
placed on it, had we not had the courses of the streams to confirm
this rather rough mode of ascertaining altitudes. The slope, as
shown by the watershed, was to the "Loangwa of the Maravi," and
towards the Moitala, or south-west, west, and north-west. After we
leave the feeders of Lake Nyassa, the water drains towards the centre
of the continent. The course of the Kasai, a river seen during Dr.
Livingstone's journey to the West Coast, and its feeders was to the
north-east, or somewhat in the same direction. Whether the water
thus drained off finds its way out by the Congo, or by the Nile, has
not yet been ascertained. Some parts of the continent have been said
to resemble an inverted dinner-plate. This portion seems more of the
shape, if shape it has, of a wide-awake hat, with the crown a little
depressed. The altitude of the brim in some parts is considerable;
in others, as at Tette and the bottom of Murchison's Cataracts, it is
so small that it could be ascertained only by eliminating the daily
variations of the barometer, by simultaneous observations on the
Coast, and at points some two or three hundred miles inland. So long
as African rivers remain in what we may call the brim, they present
no obstructions; but no sooner do they emerge from the higher lands
than their utility is impaired by cataracts. The low lying belt is
very irregular. At times sloping up in the manner of the rim of an
inverted dinner-plate - while in other cases, a high ridge rises near
the sea, to be succeeded by a lower district inland before we reach
the central plateau. The breadth of the low lands is sometimes as
much as three hundred miles, and that breadth determines the limits
of navigation from the seaward.
We made three long marches beyond Muazi's in a north-westerly
direction; the people were civil enough, but refused to sell us any
food. We were travelling too fast, they said; in fact, they were
startled, and before they recovered their surprise, we were obliged
to depart. We suspected that Muazi had sent them orders to refuse us
food, that we might thus be prevented from going into the depopulated
district; but this may have been mere suspicion, the result of our
own uncharitable feelings.
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