Five Zambesi Men, Who Had Been All Their
Lives Accustomed To Great Heavy Canoes, - The Chief Recommendation Of
Which Is
Said to be, that they can be run against a rock with the
full force of the current without injury
- Were very desirous to show
how much better they could manage our boat than the Makololo; three
jumped into her when our backs were turned, and two hauled her up a
little way; the tide caught her bow, we heard a shout of distress,
the rope was out of their hands in a moment, and there she was,
bottom upwards; a turn or two in an eddy, and away she went, like an
arrow, down the Cataracts. One of the men in swimming ashore saved a
rifle. The whole party ran with all their might along the bank, but
never more did we see our boat.
The five performers in this catastrophe approached with penitential
looks. They had nothing to say, nor had we. They bent down slowly,
and touched our feet with both hands. "Ku kuata moendo" - "to catch
the foot" - is their way of asking forgiveness. It was so like what
we have seen a little child do - try to bring a dish unbidden to its
papa, and letting it fall, burst into a cry of distress - that they
were only sentenced to go back to the ship, get provisions, and, in
the ensuing journey on foot, carry as much as they could, and thus
make up for the loss of the boat.
It was excessively annoying to lose all this property, and be
deprived of the means of doing the work proposed, on the east and
north of the Lake; but it would have been like crying over spilt milk
to do otherwise now than make the best use we could of our legs. The
men were sent back to the ship for provisions, cloth, and beads; and
while they are gone, we may say a little of the Cataracts which
proved so fatal to our boating plan.
CHAPTER XIII.
Dr. Livingstone's further explorations - Effects of slave-trade -
Kirk's range - Ajawa migration - Native fishermen - Arab slave-crossing-
-Splendid highlands.
The Murchison Cataracts of the Shire river begin in 15 degrees 20
minutes S., and end in lat. 15 degrees 55 minutes S., the difference
of latitude is therefore 35 minutes. The river runs in this space
nearly north and south, till we pass Malango; so the entire distance
is under 40 miles. The principal Cataracts are five in number, and
are called Pamofunda or Pamozima, Morewa, Panoreba or Tedzane,
Pampatamanga, and Papekira. Besides these, three or four smaller
ones might be mentioned; as, for instance, Mamvira, where in our
ascent we first met the broken water, and heard that gushing sound
which, from the interminable windings of some 200 miles of river
below, we had come to believe the tranquil Shire could never make.
While these lesser cataracts descend at an angle of scarcely 20
degrees, the greater fall 100 feet in 100 yards, at an angle of about
45 degrees, and one at an angle of 70 degrees.
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