Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
After an hour's rest we again embark and cower under an umbrella. The
heat is oppressive, and, being weak from the last attack of fever, I
can not land and keep the camp supplied with flesh. The men, being quite
uncovered in the sun, perspire profusely, and in the afternoon begin
to stop, as if waiting for the canoes which have been left behind.
Sometimes we reach a sleeping-place two hours before sunset, and, all
being troubled with languor, we gladly remain for the night. Coffee
again, and a biscuit, or a piece of coarse bread made of maize meal,
or that of the native corn, make up the bill of fare for the evening,
unless we have been fortunate enough to kill something, when we boil
a potful of flesh. This is done by cutting it up into long strips and
pouring in water till it is covered. When that is boiled dry, the meat
is considered ready.
The people at Gonye carry the canoes over the space requisite to avoid
the falls by slinging them on poles tied on diagonally. They place these
on their shoulders, and, setting about the work with good humor, soon
accomplish the task. They are a merry set of mortals; a feeble joke sets
them off in a fit of laughter. Here, as elsewhere, all petitioned for
the magic lantern, and, as it is a good means of conveying instruction,
I willingly complied.
The falls of Gonye have not been made by wearing back, like those of
Niagara, but are of a fissure form. For many miles below, the river is
confined in a narrow space of not more than one hundred yards wide.
The water goes boiling along, and gives the idea of great masses of it
rolling over and over, so that even the most expert swimmer would find
it difficult to keep on the surface. Here it is that the river, when in
flood, rises fifty or sixty feet in perpendicular height. The islands
above the falls are covered with foliage as beautiful as can be seen
any where. Viewed from the mass of rock which overhangs the fall, the
scenery was the loveliest I had seen.
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