A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864Livingstone, David
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A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, Central -- Discovery and exploration
We had heard a good deal of a stronghold some miles below the Falls,
called Kalunda. Our return path was much nearer the Zambesi than that of
our ascent,--in fact, as near as the rough country would allow,--but we
left it twice before we reached Sinamane's, in order to see Kalunda and a
Fall called Moomba, or Moamba. The Makololo had once dispossessed the
Batoka of Kalunda, but we could not see the fissure, or whatever it is,
that rendered it a place of security, as it was on the southern bank. The
crack of the Great Falls was here continued: the rocks are the same as
further up, but perhaps less weather-worn--and now partially stratified
in great thick masses. The country through which we were travelling was
covered with a cindery-looking volcanic tufa, and might be called
"Katakaumena."
The description we received of the Moamba Falls seemed to promise
something grand. They were said to send up "smoke" in the wet season,
like Mosi-oa-tunya; but when we looked down into the cleft, in which the
dark-green narrow river still rolls, we saw, about 800 or 1000 feet below
us, what, after Mosi-oa-tunya, seemed two insignificant cataracts. It
was evident that Pitsane, observing our delight at the Victoria Falls,
wished to increase our pleasure by a second wonder. One Mosi-oa-tunya,
however, is quite enough for a continent.
We had now an opportunity of seeing more of the Batoka, than we had on
the highland route to our north. They did not wait till the evening
before offering food to the strangers. The aged wife of the headman of a
hamlet, where we rested at midday, at once kindled a fire, and put on the
cooking-pot to make porridge. Both men and women are to be distinguished
by greater roundness of feature than the other natives, and the custom of
knocking out the upper front teeth gives at once a distinctive character
to the face. Their colour attests the greater altitude of the country in
which many of them formerly lived. Some, however, are as dark as the
Bashubia and Barotse of the great valley to their west, in which stands
Sesheke, formerly the capital of the Balui, or Bashubia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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