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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 238 of 263
Words from 123665 to 124168
of 136856
