Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Congo River -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Africa, West
hypothesis, it gives additional weight, provided the river swell
in early September"--which it did. In his "Journal" (p. 224), we
find a memorandum, written as it were with a dying hand,
"Hypothesis confirmed. The water..."
On February 24, 1854, Dr. Livingstone, after leaving what he
calls the "Dilolo Lake," found on an almost level plain, some
4,000 to 5,000 feet high and then flooded after rains, a great
water parting between the eastern and the western continental
shores. I have carefully considered the strictures upon this
subject by the author of "Dr. Livingstone's Errors" (p. 101), and
have come to the conclusion that the explorer was too experienced
to make the mistakes attributed to him by the cabinet geographer.
The translation "despair" for "bitterness" (of the fish?) and the
reference to Noah's Deluge may be little touches ad captandum;
but the Kibundo or Angolan tongue certainly has a dental though
it lacks a cerebral d.
The easterly flow was here represented by the Leeba or upper
course of the "Leeambye," the "Diambege of Ladislaus Magyar, that
great northern and north-western course of the Zambeze across
which older geographers had thrown a dam of lofty mountains,
where the Mosi-wa-tunya cataract was afterwards discovered. The
opposite versant flowing to the north was the Kasai or Kasye
(Livingstone), the Casais of the Pombeiros, the Casati of
Douville, the Casasi and Casézi of M. Cooley (who derives it from
Casezi, a priest, the corrupted Arabic Kissis ); the Kassabi
(Casabi) of Beke, the Cassaby of Monteiro and Gamitto (p. 494),
and the Kassaby or Cassay of Valdez. Its head water is afterwards
called by the explorer Lomame and Loke, possibly for Lu-oke,
because it drains the highlands of Mossamba and the district of
Ji-oke, also called Ki-oke, Kiboke, and by the Portuguese
"Quiboque." The stream is described as being one hundred yards
broad, running through a deep green glen like the Clyde. The
people attested its length by asserting, in true African style,
"If you sail along it for months, you will turn without seeing
the end of it:" European geographers apparently will not
understand that this declaration shows only the ignorance of the
natives concerning everything a few miles beyond their homes. The
explorer (February 27,1854) places the ford in south latitude 11°
15' 47", and his map shows east longitude (G.), 21° 40' 30",
about 7° 30' (=450 direct geographical miles) from Novo Redondo
on the Western Coast. He dots its rise in the "Balobale country,"
south latitude 12° to 13°, and east longitude 19° to 20°.
Pursuing his course, Dr. Livingstone (March 30) first sighted the
Quango (Coango) as it emerged from the dark jungles of Londa, a
giant Clyde, some 350 yards broad, flowing down an enormous
valley of denudation. He reached it on April, 1854, in south
latitude 9° 53', and east longitude (G.) 18° 37', about 300
geographical linear miles from the Atlantic. Three days to the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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