About The Beginning Of The Upper Third The Lake Is Crossed
By Taking Advantage Of The Island Chizumara, Which Name In The Native
Tongue Means The "Ending;" Further North They Go Round The End
Instead, Though That Takes Several Days.
The lake appeared to be surrounded by mountains, but it was
afterwards found that these beautiful tree-covered heights were, on
the west, only the edges of high table-lands.
Like all narrow seas
encircled by highlands, it is visited by sudden and tremendous
storms. We were on it in September and October, perhaps the
stormiest season of the year, and were repeatedly detained by gales.
At times, while sailing pleasantly over the blue water with a gentle
breeze, suddenly and without any warning was heard the sound of a
coming storm, roaring on with crowds of angry waves in its wake. We
were caught one morning with the sea breaking all around us, and,
unable either to advance or recede, anchored a mile from shore, in
seven fathoms. The furious surf on the beach would have shivered our
boat to atoms, had we tried to land. The waves most dreaded came
rolling on in threes, with their crests, driven into spray, streaming
behind them. A short lull followed each triple charge. Had one of
these seas struck our boat, nothing could have saved us; for they
came on with resistless force; seaward, in shore, and on either side
of us, they broke in foam, but we escaped. For six weary hours we
faced those terrible trios. A low, dark, detached, oddly shaped
cloud came slowly from the mountains, and hung for hours directly
over our heads. A flock of night-jars (Cometornis vexillarius),
which on no other occasion come out by day, soared above us in the
gale, like birds of evil omen. Our black crew became sea-sick and
unable to sit up or keep the boat's head to the sea. The natives and
our land party stood on the high cliffs looking at us and exclaiming,
as the waves seemed to swallow up the boat, "They are lost! they are
all dead!" When at last the gale moderated and we got safely ashore,
they saluted us warmly, as after a long absence. From this time we
trusted implicitly to the opinions of our seaman, John Neil, who,
having been a fisherman on the coast of Ireland, understood boating
on a stormy coast, and by his advice we often sat cowering on the
land for days together waiting for the surf to go down. He had never
seen such waves before. We had to beach the boat every night to save
her from being swamped at anchor; and, did we not believe the gales
to be peculiar to one season of the year, would call Nyassa the "Lake
of Storms."
Distinct white marks on the rocks showed that, for some time during
the rainy season, the water of the lake is three feet above the point
to which it falls towards the close of the dry period of the year.
The rains begin here in November, and the permanent rise of the Shire
does not take place till January. The western side of Lake Nyassa,
with the exception of the great harbour to the west of Cape Maclear,
is, as has been said before, a succession of small bays of nearly
similar form, each having an open sandy beach and pebbly shore, and
being separated from its neighbour by a rocky headland, with detached
rocks extending some distance out to sea. The great south-western
bay referred to would form a magnificent harbour, the only really
good one we saw to the west.
The land immediately adjacent to the lake is low and fertile, though
in some places marshy and tenanted by large flocks of ducks, geese,
herons, crowned cranes, and other birds. In the southern parts we
have sometimes ten or a dozen miles of rich plains, bordered by what
seem high ranges of well-wooded hills, running nearly parallel with
the lake. Northwards the mountains become loftier and present some
magnificent views, range towering beyond range, until the dim, lofty
outlines projected against the sky bound the prospect. Still further
north the plain becomes more narrow, until, near where we turned, it
disappears altogether, and the mountains rise abruptly out of the
lake, forming the north-east boundary of what was described to us as
an extensive table-land; well suited for pasturage and agriculture,
and now only partially occupied by a tribe of Zulus, who came from
the south some years ago. These people own large herds of cattle,
and are constantly increasing in numbers by annexing other tribes.
CHAPTER X.
The Lake tribes - The Mazitu - Quantities of elephants - Distressing
journey - Detention on the Shire.
Never before in Africa have we seen anything like the dense
population on the shores of Lake Nyassa. In the southern part there
was an almost unbroken chain of villages. On the beach of wellnigh
of every little sandy bay, dark crowds were standing, gazing at the
novel sight of a boat under sail; and wherever we landed we were
surrounded in a few seconds by hundreds of men, women, and children,
who hastened to have a stare at the "chirombo" (wild animals).
During a portion of the year, the northern dwellers on the lake have
a harvest which furnishes a singular sort of food. As we approached
our limit in that direction, clouds, as of smoke rising from miles of
burning grass, were observed bending in a south-easterly direction,
and we thought that the unseen land on the opposite side was closing
in, and that we were near the end of the lake. But next morning we
sailed through one of the clouds on our own side, and discovered that
it was neither smoke nor haze, but countless millions of minute
midges called "kungo" (a cloud or fog). They filled the air to an
immense height, and swarmed upon the water, too light to sink in it.
Eyes and mouth had to be kept closed while passing through this
living cloud:
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