Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa

D >> David Livingstone >> Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa





Chapter 26.

Departure from Linyanti--A Thunder-storm--An Act of genuine Kindness--
Fitted out a second time by the Makololo--Sail down the Leeambye--
Sekote's Kotla and human Skulls; his Grave adorned with Elephants'
Tusks--Victoria Falls--Native Names--Columns of Vapor--Gigantic Crack--
Wear of the Rocks--Shrines of the Barimo--"The Pestle of the Gods"--
Second Visit to the Falls--Island Garden--Store-house Island--
Native Diviners--A European Diviner--Makololo Foray--Marauder to be
fined--Mambari--Makololo wish to stop Mambari Slave-trading--Part
with Sekeletu--Night Traveling--River Lekone--Ancient fresh-water
Lakes--Formation of Lake Ngami--Native Traditions--Drainage of
the Great Valley--Native Reports of the Country to the
North--Maps--Moyara's Village--Savage Customs of the Batoka--A Chain
of Trading Stations--Remedy against Tsetse--"The Well of Joy"--First
Traces of Trade with Europeans--Knocking out the front Teeth--Facetious
Explanation--Degradation of the Batoka--Description of the Traveling
Party--Cross the Unguesi--Geological Formation--Ruins of a large Town--
Productions of the Soil similar to those in Angola--Abundance of Fruit.



On the 3d of November we bade adieu to our friends at Linyanti,
accompanied by Sekeletu and about 200 followers. We were all fed at his
expense, and he took cattle for this purpose from every station we came
to. The principal men of the Makololo, Lebeole, Ntlarie, Nkwatlele,
etc., were also of the party. We passed through the patch of the tsetse,
which exists between Linyanti and Sesheke, by night. The majority of the
company went on by daylight, in order to prepare our beds. Sekeletu and
I, with about forty young men, waited outside the tsetse till dark. We
then went forward, and about ten o'clock it became so pitchy dark that
both horses and men were completely blinded. The lightning spread over
the sky, forming eight or ten branches at a time, in shape exactly like
those of a tree. This, with great volumes of sheet-lightning, enabled
us at times to see the whole country. The intervals between the flashes
were so densely dark as to convey the idea of stone-blindness. The
horses trembled, cried out, and turned round, as if searching for each
other, and every new flash revealed the men taking different directions,
laughing, and stumbling against each other. The thunder was of that
tremendously loud kind only to be heard in tropical countries, and which
friends from India have assured me is louder in Africa than any they
have ever heard elsewhere. Then came a pelting rain, which completed
our confusion. After the intense heat of the day, we soon felt miserably
cold, and turned aside to a fire we saw in the distance. This had been
made by some people on their march; for this path is seldom without
numbers of strangers passing to and from the capital. My clothing having
gone on, I lay down on the cold ground, expecting to spend a miserable
night; but Sekeletu kindly covered me with his own blanket, and lay
uncovered himself. I was much affected by this act of genuine kindness.
If such men must perish by the advance of civilization, as certain races
of animals do before others, it is a pity. God grant that ere this time
comes they may receive that Gospel which is a solace for the soul in
death!

While at Sesheke, Sekeletu supplied me with twelve oxen--three of which
were accustomed to being ridden upon--hoes, and beads to purchase a
canoe when we should strike the Leeambye beyond the falls. He likewise
presented abundance of good fresh butter and honey, and did every thing
in his power to make me comfortable for the journey. I was entirely
dependent on his generosity, for the goods I originally brought from the
Cape were all expended by the time I set off from Linyanti to the west
coast. I there drew 70 Pounds of my salary, paid my men with it, and
purchased goods for the return journey to Linyanti. These being now all
expended, the Makololo again fitted me out, and sent me on to the east
coast. I was thus dependent on their bounty, and that of other Africans,
for the means of going from Linyanti to Loanda, and again from Linyanti
to the east coast, and I feel deeply grateful to them. Coin would have
been of no benefit, for gold and silver are quite unknown. We were here
joined by Moriantsane, uncle of Sekeletu and head man of Sesheke,
and, entering canoes on the 13th, some sailed down the river to the
confluence of the Chobe, while others drove the cattle along the banks,
spending one night at Mparia, the island at the confluence of the Chobe,
which is composed of trap, having crystals of quartz in it coated with a
pellicle of green copper ore. Attempting to proceed down the river next
day, we were detained some hours by a strong east wind raising waves so
large as to threaten to swamp the canoes. The river here is very large
and deep, and contains two considerable islands, which from either bank
seem to be joined to the opposite shore. While waiting for the wind to
moderate, my friends related the traditions of these islands, and,
as usual, praised the wisdom of Sebituane in balking the Batoka,
who formerly enticed wandering tribes to them, and starved them, by
compelling the chiefs to remain by his side till all his cattle and
people were ferried over. The Barotse believe that at certain parts of
the river a tremendous monster lies hid, and that it will catch a canoe,
and hold it fast and motionless, in spite of the utmost exertions of the
paddlers. While near Nameta they even objected to pass a spot supposed
to be haunted, and proceeded along a branch instead of the main stream.
They believe that some of them possess a knowledge of the proper prayer
to lay the monster. It is strange to find fables similar to those of
the more northern nations even in the heart of Africa. Can they be the
vestiges of traditions of animals which no longer exist? The fossil
bones which lie in the calcareous tufa of this region will yet, we hope,
reveal the ancient fauna.

Having descended about ten miles, we came to the island of Nampene, at
the beginning of the rapids, where we were obliged to leave the canoes
and proceed along the banks on foot. The next evening we slept opposite
the island of Chondo, and, then crossing the Lekone or Lekwine, early
the following morning were at the island of Sekote, called Kalai. This
Sekote was the last of the Batoka chiefs whom Sebituane rooted out. The
island is surrounded by a rocky shore and deep channels, through which
the river rushes with great force. Sekote, feeling secure in his island
home, ventured to ferry over the Matebele enemies of Sebituane. When
they had retired, Sebituane made one of those rapid marches which he
always adopted in every enterprise. He came down the Leeambye from
Naliele, sailing by day along the banks, and during the night in the
middle of the stream, to avoid the hippopotami. When he reached Kalai,
Sekote took advantage of the larger canoes they employ in the rapids,
and fled during the night to the opposite bank. Most of his people were
slain or taken captive, and the island has ever since been under the
Makololo. It is large enough to contain a considerable town. On the
northern side I found the kotla of the elder Sekote, garnished with
numbers of human skulls mounted on poles: a large heap of the crania of
hippopotami, the tusks untouched except by time, stood on one side. At a
short distance, under some trees, we saw the grave of Sekote, ornamented
with seventy large elephants' tusks planted round it with the points
turned inward, and there were thirty more placed over the resting-places
of his relatives. These were all decaying from the effects of the sun
and weather; but a few, which had enjoyed the shade, were in a pretty
good condition. I felt inclined to take a specimen of the tusks of the
hippopotami, as they were the largest I had ever seen, but feared that
the people would look upon me as a "resurrectionist" if I did, and
regard any unfavorable event which might afterward occur as a punishment
for the sacrilege. The Batoka believe that Sekote had a pot of medicine
buried here, which, when opened, would cause an epidemic in the country.
These tyrants acted much on the fears of their people.

As this was the point from which we intended to strike off to the
northeast, I resolved on the following day to visit the falls of
Victoria, called by the natives Mosioatunya, or more anciently Shongwe.
Of these we had often heard since we came into the country; indeed, one
of the questions asked by Sebituane was, "Have you smoke that sounds in
your country?" They did not go near enough to examine them, but, viewing
them with awe at a distance, said, in reference to the vapor and noise,
"Mosi oa tunya" (smoke does sound there). It was previously called
Shongwe, the meaning of which I could not ascertain. The word for a
"pot" resembles this, and it may mean a seething caldron, but I am not
certain of it. Being persuaded that Mr. Oswell and myself were the
very first Europeans who ever visited the Zambesi in the centre of the
country, and that this is the connecting link between the known and
unknown portions of that river, I decided to use the same liberty as the
Makololo did, and gave the only English name I have affixed to any part
of the country. No better proof of previous ignorance of this river
could be desired than that an untraveled gentleman, who had spent a
great part of his life in the study of the geography of Africa, and knew
every thing written on the subject from the time of Ptolemy downward,
actually asserted in the "Athenaeum", while I was coming up the Red Sea,
that this magnificent river, the Leeambye, had "no connection with the
Zambesi, but flowed under the Kalahari Desert, and became lost;" and
"that, as all the old maps asserted, the Zambesi took its rise in the
very hills to which we have now come." This modest assertion smacks
exactly as if a native of Timbuctoo should declare that the "Thames" and
the "Pool" were different rivers, he having seen neither the one nor the
other. Leeambye and Zambesi mean the very same thing, viz., the RIVER.

Sekeletu intended to accompany me, but, one canoe only having come
instead of the two he had ordered, he resigned it to me. After twenty
minutes' sail from Kalai we came in sight, for the first time, of the
columns of vapor appropriately called "smoke", rising at a distance of
five or six miles, exactly as when large tracts of grass are burned in
Africa. Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of the
wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees; the
tops of the columns at this distance appeared to mingle with the clouds.
They were white below, and higher up became dark, so as to simulate
smoke very closely. The whole scene was extremely beautiful; the banks
and islands dotted over the river are adorned with sylvan vegetation
of great variety of color and form. At the period of our visit several
trees were spangled over with blossoms. Trees have each their own
physiognomy. There, towering over all, stands the great burly baobab,
each of whose enormous arms would form the trunk of a large tree, beside
groups of graceful palms, which, with their feathery-shaped leaves
depicted on the sky, lend their beauty to the scene. As a hieroglyphic
they always mean "far from home", for one can never get over their
foreign air in a picture or landscape. The silvery mohonono, which in
the tropics is in form like the cedar of Lebanon, stands in pleasing
contrast with the dark color of the motsouri, whose cypress-form is
dotted over at present with its pleasant scarlet fruit. Some trees
resemble the great spreading oak, others assume the character of our own
elms and chestnuts; but no one can imagine the beauty of the view
from any thing witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by
European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by
angels in their flight. The only want felt is that of mountains in the
background. The falls are bounded on three sides by ridges 300 or
400 feet in height, which are covered with forest, with the red soil
appearing among the trees. When about half a mile from the falls, I left
the canoe by which we had come down thus far, and embarked in a lighter
one, with men well acquainted with the rapids, who, by passing down
the centre of the stream in the eddies and still places caused by many
jutting rocks, brought me to an island situated in the middle of the
river, and on the edge of the lip over which the water rolls. In coming
hither there was danger of being swept down by the streams which rushed
along on each side of the island; but the river was now low, and we
sailed where it is totally impossible to go when the water is high. But,
though we had reached the island, and were within a few yards of the
spot, a view from which would solve the whole problem, I believe that no
one could perceive where the vast body of water went; it seemed to
lose itself in the earth, the opposite lip of the fissure into which it
disappeared being only 80 feet distant. At least I did not comprehend it
until, creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent
which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that
a stream of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet, and then
became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards. The
entire falls are simply a crack made in a hard basaltic rock from the
right to the left bank of the Zambesi, and then prolonged from the left
bank away through thirty or forty miles of hills. If one imagines
the Thames filled with low, tree-covered hills immediately beyond the
tunnel, extending as far as Gravesend, the bed of black basaltic rock
instead of London mud, and a fissure made therein from one end of
the tunnel to the other down through the keystones of the arch, and
prolonged from the left end of the tunnel through thirty miles of hills,
the pathway being 100 feet down from the bed of the river instead of
what it is, with the lips of the fissure from 80 to 100 feet apart,
then fancy the Thames leaping bodily into the gulf, and forced there to
change its direction, and flow from the right to the left bank, and then
rush boiling and roaring through the hills, he may have some idea of
what takes place at this, the most wonderful sight I had witnessed in
Africa. In looking down into the fissure on the right of the island, one
sees nothing but a dense white cloud, which, at the time we visited the
spot, had two bright rainbows on it. (The sun was on the meridian, and
the declination about equal to the latitude of the place.) From this
cloud rushed up a great jet of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted
200 or 300 feet high; there condensing, it changed its hue to that of
dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower, which soon wetted us to
the skin. This shower falls chiefly on the opposite side of the fissure,
and a few yards back from the lip there stands a straight hedge of
evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet. From their roots a number
of little rills run back into the gulf, but, as they flow down the steep
wall there, the column of vapor, in its ascent, licks them up clean off
the rock, and away they mount again. They are constantly running down,
but never reach the bottom.

On the left of the island we see the water at the bottom, a white
rolling mass moving away to the prolongation of the fissure, which
branches off near the left bank of the river. A piece of the rock has
fallen off a spot on the left of the island, and juts out from the water
below, and from it I judged the distance which the water falls to be
about 100 feet. The walls of this gigantic crack are perpendicular, and
composed of one homogeneous mass of rock. The edge of that side over
which the water falls is worn off two or three feet, and pieces have
fallen away, so as to give it somewhat of a serrated appearance. That
over which the water does not fall is quite straight, except at the left
corner, where a rent appears, and a piece seems inclined to fall off.
Upon the whole, it is nearly in the state in which it was left at the
period of its formation. The rock is dark brown in color, except about
ten feet from the bottom, which is discolored by the annual rise of the
water to that or a greater height. On the left side of the island we
have a good view of the mass of water which causes one of the columns of
vapor to ascend, as it leaps quite clear of the rock, and forms a thick
unbroken fleece all the way to the bottom. Its whiteness gave the idea
of snow, a sight I had not seen for many a day. As it broke into (if I
may use the term) pieces of water, all rushing on in the same direction,
each gave off several rays of foam, exactly as bits of steel, when
burned in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks. The snow-white sheet
seemed like myriads of small comets rushing on in one direction, each of
which left behind its nucleus rays of foam. I never saw the appearance
referred to noticed elsewhere. It seemed to be the effect of the mass of
water leaping at once clear of the rock, and but slowly breaking up into
spray.

I have mentioned that we saw five columns of vapor ascending from this
strange abyss. They are evidently formed by the compression suffered by
the force of the water's own fall into an unyielding wedge-shaped space.
Of the five columns, two on the right and one on the left of the island
were the largest, and the streams which formed them seemed each to
exceed in size the falls of the Clyde at Stonebyres when that river is
in flood. This was the period of low water in the Leeambye; but, as
far as I could guess, there was a flow of five or six hundred yards of
water, which, at the edge of the fall, seemed at least three feet deep.
I write in the hope that others, more capable of judging distances than
myself, will visit the scene, and I state simply the impressions made on
my mind at the time. I thought, and do still think, the river above the
falls to be one thousand yards broad; but I am a poor judge of distances
on water, for I showed a naval friend what I supposed to be four hundred
yards in the Bay of Loanda, and, to my surprise, he pronounced it to be
nine hundred. I tried to measure the Leeambye with a strong thread,
the only line I had in my possession, but, when the men had gone two
or three hundred yards, they got into conversation, and did not hear
us shouting that the line had become entangled. By still going on they
broke it, and, being carried away down the stream, it was lost on a
snag. In vain I tried to bring to my recollection the way I had been
taught to measure a river by taking an angle with the sextant. That
I once knew it, and that it was easy, were all the lost ideas I could
recall, and they only increased my vexation. However, I measured the
river farther down by another plan, and then I discovered that the
Portuguese had measured it at Tete, and found it a little over one
thousand yards. At the falls it is as broad as at Tete, if not more so.
Whoever may come after me will not, I trust, find reason to say I have
indulged in exaggeration.* With respect to the drawing, it must be
borne in mind that it was composed from a rude sketch as viewed from the
island, which exhibited the columns of vapor only, and a ground
plan. The artist has given a good idea of the scene, but, by way of
explanation, he has shown more of the depth of the fissure than is
visible except by going close to the edge. The left-hand column, and
that farthest off, are the smallest, and all ought to have been a little
more tapering at the tops.

* The river is about one mile (1.6 km) wide at the falls, and
plunges over 350 feet at the centre. Livingstone greatly
underestimated both distances.--A. L., 1997.

The fissure is said by the Makololo to be very much deeper farther to
the eastward; there is one part at which the walls are so sloping that
people accustomed to it can go down by descending in a sitting position.
The Makololo on one occasion, pursuing some fugitive Batoka, saw them,
unable to stop the impetus of their flight at the edge, literally dashed
to pieces at the bottom. They beheld the stream like a "white cord" at
the bottom, and so far down (probably 300 feet) that they became giddy,
and were fain to go away holding on to the ground.

Now, though the edge of the rock over which the river falls does not
show wearing more than three feet, and there is no appearance of the
opposite wall being worn out at the bottom in the parts exposed to view,
yet it is probable that, where it has flowed beyond the walls, the sides
of the fissure may have given way, and the parts out of sight may be
broader than the "white cord" on the surface. There may even be some
ramifications of the fissure, which take a portion of the stream quite
beneath the rocks; but this I did not learn.

If we take the want of much wear on the lip of hard basaltic rock as of
any value, the period when this rock was riven is not geologically very
remote. I regretted the want of proper means of measuring and marking
its width at the falls, in order that, at some future time, the question
whether it is progressive or not might be tested. It seemed as if
a palm-tree could be laid across it from the island. And if it is
progressive, as it would mark a great natural drainage being effected,
it might furnish a hope that Africa will one day become a healthy
continent. It is, at any rate, very much changed in respect to its lakes
within a comparatively recent period.

At three spots near these falls, one of them the island in the middle,
on which we were, three Batoka chiefs offered up prayers and sacrifices
to the Barimo. They chose their places of prayer within the sound of the
roar of the cataract, and in sight of the bright bows in the cloud.
They must have looked upon the scene with awe. Fear may have induced
the selection. The river itself is to them mysterious. The words of the
canoe-song are,

"The Leeambye! Nobody knows
Whence it comes and whither it goes."

The play of colors of the double iris on the cloud, seen by them
elsewhere only as the rainbow, may have led them to the idea that this
was the abode of Deity. Some of the Makololo, who went with me near to
Gonye, looked upon the same sign with awe. When seen in the heavens
it is named "motse oa barimo"--the pestle of the gods. Here they could
approach the emblem, and see it stand steadily above the blustering
uproar below--a type of Him who sits supreme--alone unchangeable, though
ruling over all changing things. But, not aware of His true character,
they had no admiration of the beautiful and good in their bosoms. They
did not imitate His benevolence, for they were a bloody, imperious crew,
and Sebituane performed a noble service in the expulsion from their
fastnesses of these cruel "Lords of the Isles".

Having feasted my eyes long on the beautiful sight, I returned to my
friends at Kalai, and saying to Sekeletu that he had nothing else worth
showing in his country, his curiosity was excited to visit it the next
day. I returned with the intention of taking a lunar observation from
the island itself, but the clouds were unfavorable, consequently all my
determinations of position refer to Kalai. (Lat. 17d 51' 54" S., long.
25d 41' E.) Sekeletu acknowledged to feeling a little nervous at the
probability* of being sucked into the gulf before reaching the island.
His companions amused themselves by throwing stones down, and wondered
to see them diminishing in size, and even disappearing, before they
reached the water at the bottom.

* In modern American English, the word "possibility" is more
appropriate here, and elsewhere in the text where
"probability" is used.--A. L., 1997.

I had another object in view in my return to the island. I observed that
it was covered with trees, the seeds of which had probably come down
with the stream from the distant north, and several of which I had seen
nowhere else, and every now and then the wind wafted a little of the
condensed vapor over it, and kept the soil in a state of moisture,
which caused a sward of grass, growing as green as on an English lawn.
I selected a spot--not too near the chasm, for there the constant
deposition of the moisture nourished numbers of polypi of a mushroom
shape and fleshy consistence, but somewhat back--and made a little
garden. I there planted about a hundred peach and apricot stones, and a
quantity of coffee-seeds. I had attempted fruit-trees before, but,
when left in charge of my Makololo friends, they were always allowed to
wither, after having vegetated, by being forgotten. I bargained for
a hedge with one of the Makololo, and if he is faithful, I have great
hopes of Mosioatunya's abilities as a nursery-man. My only source of
fear is the hippopotami, whose footprints I saw on the island. When the
garden was prepared, I cut my initials on a tree, and the date 1855.
This was the only instance in which I indulged in this piece of vanity.
The garden stands in front, and, were there no hippopotami, I have no
doubt but this will be the parent of all the gardens which may yet be in
this new country. We then went up to Kalai again.