Prepares to examine Lake Bemba. Starts from Casembe's 11th June,
1868. Dead leopard. Moenampanda's reception. The River Luongo.
Weird death-song of slaves. The forest grave. Lake Bembo changed
to Lake Bangweolo. Chikumbi's. The Imbozhwa people. Kombokombo's
stockade. Mazitu difficulties. Discovers Lake Bangweolo on 18th
July, 1868. The Lake Chief Mapuni. Description of the Lake.
Prepares to navigate it. Embarks for Lifungé Island. Immense
size of Lake. Reaches Mpabala Island. Strange dream. Fears of
canoe men. Return to shore. March back. Sends letters. Meets
Banyamweze. Reviews recent explorations at length. Disturbed
state of country.
_1st June, 1868._--Mohamad proposes to go to Katanga to buy copper,
and invites me to go too. I wish to see the Lufra Kiver, but I must
see Bemba or Bangweolo. Grant guidance from above!
_2nd June, 1868._--In passing a field of cassava I picked the pods of
a plant called Malumbi, which climbs up the cassava bushes; at the
root it has a number of tubers with eyes, exactly like the potato. One
plant had sixteen of these tubers, each about 2 inches long and 1-1/2
inch in diameter: another tuber was 5 inches long and 2 in diameter,
it would be difficult for anyone to distinguish them from English
potatoes. When boiled they are a little waxy, and, compared with our
potato, hard. There are colours inside, the outer part reddish, the
inner whiter. At first none of the party knew them, but afterwards
they were recognised as cultivated at Zanzibar by the name "Men," and
very good when mashed with fish: if in Zanzibar, they are probably
known in other tropical islands,
_4th June, 1868._--From what I see of slaving, even in its best
phases, I would not be a slave-dealer for the world.
_5th June, 1868._--The Queen Moäri passed us this morning, going to
build a hut at her plantation; she has a pleasant European
countenance, clean light-brown skin, and a merry laugh, and would be
admired anywhere. I stood among the cassava to see her pass; she
twirled her umbrella as she came near, borne by twelve men, and seemed
to take up the laugh which made her and her maids bolt at my
reception, showing that she laughs not with her mouth only, but with
her eyes and cheeks: she said, "Yambo" (how are you)? To which I
replied, "Tambo sana" (very well). One of her attendants said, "Give
her something of what you have at hand, or in the pockets." I said, "I
have nothing here," and asked her if she would come back near my hut.
She replied that she would, and I duly sent for two strings of red
beads, which I presented. Being lower than she, I could see that she
had a hole through the cartilage, near the point of her slightly
aquiline nose; and a space was filed between the two front teeth, so
as to leave a triangular hole.
[Illustration: Filed Teeth of Queen Moäri.]
After delay had grown vexatious, we march three hours on the 9th, and
reach the Katofia River, covered with aquatic trees and running into
the Mbérézé: five yards wide and knee deep.
_10th June, 1868._--Detained again, for business is not finished with
the people of Casembe. The people cannot esteem the slave-trader, who
is used as a means of punishing those who have family differences, as
those of a wife with her husband, or a servant with his master. The
slaves are said to be generally criminals, and are sold in revenge or
as punishment. Kapika's wife had an ornament of the end of a shell
called the cone; it was borrowed and she came away with it in her
hair: the owner, without making any effort to recover it, seized one
of Kapika's daughters as a pledge that Kapika would exert himself to
get it back!
[At last the tedious delay came to an end and we must now follow the
Doctor on his way south to discover Lake Bemba.]
_11th June, 1868._--Crossed the Mbérézé, ten yards broad and thigh
deep, ascending a range of low hills of hardened sandstone, covered,
as the country generally is, with forest. Our course S.E. and S.S.E.
Then descended into a densely-wooded valley, having a rivulet four
yards wide and knee deep. Buffaloes and elephants very numerous.
_12th June, 1868._--We crossed the Mbérézé again twice; then a very
deep narrow rivulet, and stopped at another in a mass of trees, where
we spend the night, and killing an ox remained next day to eat it.
When at Kanengwa a small party of men came past, shouting as if they
had done something of importance: on going to them, I found that two
of them carried a lion slung to a pole. It was a small maneless
variety, called "the lion of _Nyassi_," or long grass. It had killed a
man and they killed it. They had its mouth carefully strapped, and the
paws tied across its chest, and were taking it to Casembe. _Nyassi_
means long grass, such as towers overhead, and is as thick in the
stalk as a goose-quill; and is erroneously applied to Nyassa. Other
lions--Thambwé, Karamo, Simba, are said to stand 5 feet high, and some
higher: this seemed about 3 feet high, but it was too dark to measure
it.
_13th June, 1868._--The Arabs distinguish the Suaheli, or Arabs of
mixed African blood, by the absence of beard and whiskers: these are
usually small and stunted in the Suaheli.
Birds, as the Drongo shrike, and a bird very like the grey linnet,
with a thick reddish bill, assemble in very large flocks now that it
is winter, and continue thus till November, or period of the rains.
A very minute bee goes into the common small holes in wormeaten wood
to make a comb and lay its eggs, with a supply of honey. There are
seven or eight honey-bees of small size in this country.
A sphex may be seen to make holes in the ground, placing stupified
insects in them with her eggs; another species watches when she goes
off to get more insects, and every now and then goes in too to lay her
eggs, I suppose without any labour: there does not appear to be any
enmity between them. We remained a day to buy food for the party, and
eat our ox.
_14th June, 1868._--March over well-wooded highlands with dolomite
rocks cropping out and trees all covered with lichens, the watershed
then changed to the south.
_15th June, 1868._--Yery cold in mornings now (43°). Found
Moenempanda, Casembe's brother, on the Luluputa, a stream twenty yards
wide and flowing west. The Moenempanda visited by the Portuguese was
grandfather to this one, and not at the same spot; it is useless to
put down the names of chiefs as indicating geographical positions, for
the name is often continued, but at a spot far distant from the
dwelling of the original possessor. A slave tried to break out of his
slave-stick, and actually broke half an inch of tough iron with his
fingers; the end stuck in the wood, or he would have freed himself.
The chief gave me a public reception, which was like that of Casembe,
but better managed. He is young, and very handsome but for a defect in
his eyes, which makes him keep them half shut or squinting. He walked
off in the jaunty way all chiefs do in this country, to show the
weight of rings and beads on the legs, and many imitate this walk who
have none, exactly as our fathers imitated the big cravat of George
IV., who thereby hid defects in his neck: thousands carried their
cravats over the chin who had no defects to hide. Moenempanda carried
his back stiffly, and no wonder, he had about ten yards of a train
carried behind it. About 600 people were present. They kept rank, but
not step; were well armed; marimbas and square drums formed the bands,
and one musician added his voice: "I have been to Syde" (the Sultan);
"I have been to Meereput" (King of Portugal); "I have been to the
sea." At a private reception, where he was divested of his train, and
had only one umbrella instead of three, I gave him a cloth. The Arabs
thought highly of him; but his graciousness had been expended on them
in getting into debt; he now showed no inclination to get out of it,
but offered about a twentieth part of the value of the goods in
liquidation. He sent me two pots of beer, which I care not to drink
except when very thirsty on a march, and promised a man to guide me to
Chikumbi, and then refused. Casembe rose in the esteem of all as
Moenempanda sank, and his people were made to understand how shabbily
he had behaved.
The Lulaputa is said to flow into the Luéna, and that into the Luongo:
there must be two Luénas.
_22nd June, 1868._--March across a grassy plain southerly to the
Luongo, a deep river embowered in a dense forest of trees, all covered
with lichens--some flat, others long and thready, like old men's
beards, and waving in the wind, just as they do on the mangrove-swamp
trees on the coast. The Luongo here is fifty yards broad and three
fathoms deep; near its junction with the Luapula it is 100 yards; it
rises here to eight fathoms' depth. A bridge of forty yards led us
over to an island, and a branch of the river was ten yards beyond: the
bridge had been broken, some thought on purpose, but it was soon
mended with trees eighteen to twenty yards long. We went a little way
beyond, and then halted for a day at a rivulet flowing into the
Luongo, 200 yards off.
_23rd June, 1868._--We waited for copper here, which was at first
refused as payment of debt. I saw now that the Luongo had steep clay
banks fifteen feet down, and many meadows, which must be swimming
during the rains. The Luéna is said to rise east of this.
[In a private letter Livingstone shows that he had seldom been more
affected by the sufferings of slaves than at this time, and it would
perhaps be difficult to imagine any scene more calculated to excite
misery and distress of mind.
The following incident deals with the firm belief in a future state,
which enters so largely into the minds of all Africans, and which for
very lack of guidance assumes all the distorted growths of
superstition.
He must be of a thankless spirit who does not long to substitute the
great vision of future peace afforded by Christianity, in lieu of the
ghastly satisfaction which cheered these men, when he sees by the
light of this story the capacity that exists for realising a life
beyond the grave.]
_24th June, 1868._--Six men slaves were singing as if they did not
feel the weight and degradation of the slave-sticks. I asked the cause
of their mirth, and was told that they rejoiced at the idea "of coming
back after death and haunting and killing those who had sold them."
Some of the words I had to inquire about; for instance, the meaning of
the words "to haunt and kill by spirit power;" then it was, "Oh, you
sent me off to Manga (sea-coast), but the yoke is off when I die, and
back I shall come to haunt and to kill you." Then all joined in the
chorus, which was the name of each vendor. It told not of fun, but of
the bitterness and tears of such as were oppressed, and on the side
of the oppressors there was a power: there be higher than they!
Pérémbé was one of the culprits thus menaced. The slave-owner asked
Kapika's wife if she would return to kill Kapika. The others answered
to the names of the different men with laughter. Her heart was
evidently sore: for a lady to come so low down is to her grievous. She
has lost her jaunty air, and is, with her head shaved, ugly; but she
never forgets to address her captors with dignity, and they seem to
fear her.
_25th June, 1868._--We went over flat forest with patches of brown
haematite cropping out; this is the usual iron ore, but I saw in a
village pieces of specular iron-ore which had been brought for
smelting. The Luongo flowed away somewhat to our right or west, and
the villagers had selected their site where only well-water could be
found: we went ten minutes towards the Luongo and got abundance.
[Illustration: A Forest Grave.]
The gardens had high hedges round to keep off wild beasts. We came to
a grave in the forest; it was a little rounded mound as if the
occupant sat in it in the usual native way: it was strewed over with
flour, and a number of the large blue beads put on it: a little path
showed that it had visitors. This is the sort of grave I should
prefer: to lie in the still, still forest, and no hand ever disturb my
bones. The graves at home always seemed to me to be miserable,
especially those in the cold damp clay, and without elbow room; but I
have nothing to do but wait till He who is over all decides where I
have to lay me down and die. Poor Mary lies on Shupanga brae, "and
beeks fornent the sun."[64]
Came to the Chando River, which is the boundary between Casembe and
Chikumbi; but Casembe is over all.
_27th June, 1868._--We crossed a flooded marsh with the water very
cold, and then the Chando itself twelve feet broad and knee deep, then
on to another strong brook Nsénga.
_28th June, 1868._--After service we went on up hills to a stockade of
Banyamwezi, on the Kalomina River, and here we built our sheds; the
spot is called Kizinga, and is on the top of a sandstone range covered
as usual with forest. The Banyamwezi beat off the Mazitu with their
guns, while all the country people fled. The Banyamwezi are decidedly
uglier than the Balonda and Baitawa: they eat no fish, though they
come from the east side of Tanganyika, where fish are abundant and
cheap; but though uglier, they have more of the sense of honour with
traders than the aborigines.
_29th June, 1868._--Observed the "smokes" to-day, the first of the
season:[65] they obscured the whole country.
_1st July, 1868._--I went over to Chikumbi, the paramount chief of
this district, and gave him a cloth, begging a man to guide me to
Bangweolo. He said that I was welcome to his country; all were so: I
had better wait two days till he had selected a _good_ man as a guide,
and he would send some food for me to eat in the journey--he would not
say ten days, but only two, and his man would take me to the smaller
part of the Lake, and leave others to forward me to the greater or
Bangweolo. The smaller part is named Bemba, but that name is
confusing, because Bemba is the name of the country in which a portion
of the Lake lies. When asking for Lake Bemba, Kasongo's son said to
me, "Bemba is not a lake, but a country:" it is therefore better to
use the name BANGWEOLO, which is applied to the great mass of the
water, though I fear that our English folks will bogle at it, or call
it Bungyhollow! Some Arabs say Bambeolo as easier of pronunciation,
but Bangweolo is the correct word. Chikumbi's stockade is 1-1/2 hour
S.E. of our camp at Kizinga.
_2nd July, 1868._--Writing to the Consul at Zanzibar to send supplies
of cloth to Ujiji--120 pieces, 40 Kiniki; 80 merikano 34 inches broad,
or samsam. Fine red beads--Talaka, 12 frasilas. I ask for soap,
coffee, sugar, candles, sardines, French preserved meats, a cheese in
tin, Nautical Almanac for 1869 and 1870, shoes (two or four pairs),
ruled paper, pencils, sealing-wax, ink, powder, flannel-serge, 12
frasila beads, 6 of Talaka; added 3 F. pale red, 3 W. white.
_3rd July, 1868._--The summary of the sources which I have resolved to
report as flowing into the central line of drainage formed by the
Chambezé, Luapula, and Lualaba are thirteen in all, and each is larger
than the Isis at Oxford, or Avon at Hamilton. Five flow into the
eastern line of drainage going through Tanganyika, and five more into
the western line of drainage or Lufira, twenty-three or more in all.
The Lualaba and the Lufira unite in the Lake of the chief Kinkonza.
_5th July, 1868._--I borrowed some paper from Mohamad Bogharib to
write home by some Arabs going to the coast. I will announce my
discovery to Lord Clarendon; but I reserve the parts of the Lualaba
and Tanganyika for future confirmation. I have no doubts on the
subject, for I receive the reports of natives of intelligence at first
hand, and they have no motive for deceiving me. The best maps are
formed from the same sort of reports at third or fourth hand. Cold
N.E. winds prevail at present.
_6th July, 1868._--Divided our salt that each may buy provisions for
himself: it is here of more value than beads. Chikumbi sent fine
flour, a load for two stout men carried in a large basket slung to a
pole, and a fine fat sheep, carried too because it was too fat to walk
the distance from his stockade.
_7th, 8th, and 9th July, 1868._--After delaying several days to send
our guide, Chikumbi said that he feared the country people would say
that the Ingleza brought the Mazitu to them, and so blame will be
given to him. I set this down as "words of pombe," beery babble; but
after returning from Bangweolo, I saw that he must have been preparing
to attack a stockade of Banyamwezi in our path, and had he given us a
guide, that man would have been in danger in coming back: he therefore
preferred the safety of his man to keeping his promise to me. I got a
Banyamwezi guide, and left on the _10th July, 1868_, going over gently
rising sandstone hills, covered with forest and seeing many deserted
villages, the effects of the Mazitu foray: we saw also the Mazitu
sleeping-places and paths. They neglect the common paths of the
country as going from one village to another, and take straight
courses in the direction they wish to go, treading down the grass so
as to make a well-marked route, The Banyamwezi expelled them, cutting
off so many of them with their guns and arrows that the marauders
retired. The effect of this success on the minds of the Imboshwa, or
Imbozhwas, as Chikumbi's people are called, was not gratitude, but
envy at the new power sprung up among them of those who came
originally as traders in copper.
Kombokombo's stockade, the village to which we went this day, was the
first object of assault, and when we returned, he told us that
Chikumbi had assaulted him on three sides, but was repulsed. The
Banyamwezi were, moreover, much too sharp as traders for the
Imboshwa, cheating them unmercifully, and lying like Greeks.
Kombokombo's stockade was on the Chibérasé River, which flows briskly,
eight yards broad and deep, through a mile of sponge. We came in the
midst of a general jollification, and were most bountifully supplied
with pombe and food. The Banyamwezi acknowledge allegiance to the
Sultan of Zanzibar, and all connected with him are respected.
Kombokombo pressed food and drink on me, and when I told him that I
had nothing to return for it, he said that he expected nothing: he was
a child of the Sultan, and ought to furnish all I needed.
_11th July, 1868._--On leaving the Chibérasé we passed up over a long
line of hills with many villages and gardens, but mostly deserted
during the Mazitu raid. The people fled into the forests on the hills,
and were an easy prey to the marauders, who seem to have been
unmerciful. When we descended into the valley beyond we came to a
strong stockade, which had successfully resisted the onset of the
Mazitu; we then entered on flat forest, with here and there sponges
containing plenty of water; plains succeeded the hills, and continued
all the way to Bangweolo. We made a fence in the forest; and next day
_(12th July)_ reached the Rofuba, 50 yards broad and 4-1/2 feet deep,
full of aquatic plants, and flowing south-west into the Luongo: it had
about a mile and a half of sponge on each side of it. We encamped a
little south of the river.
_13th July, 1868._--On resting at a deserted spot, the men of a
village in the vicinity came to us excited and apparently drunk, and
began to work themselves up still more by running about, poising their
spears at us, taking aim with their bows and arrows, and making as if
about to strike with their axes: they thought that we were marauders,
and some plants of ground-nuts strewn about gave colour to the idea.
There is usually one good soul in such rabbles. In this case a man
came to me, and, addressing his fellows, said, "This is only your
pombe. White man, do not stand among them, but go away," and then he
placed himself between me and a portion of the assailants, about
thirty of whom were making their warlike antics. While walking quietly
away with my good friend they ran in front and behind bushes and
trees, took aim with bow and arrow, but none shot: the younger men ran
away with our three goats. When we had gone a quarter of a mile my
friend told me to wait and he would bring the goats, which he did: I
could not feel the inebriates to be enemies; but in that state they
are the worst one can encounter, for they have no fear as they have
when sober. One snatched away a fowl from our guide, that too was
restored by our friend. I did not load my gun; for any accidental
discharge would have inflamed them to rashness. We got away without
shedding blood, and were thankful. The Mazitu raid has produced
lawlessness in the country: every one was taken as an enemy.
_14th July, 1868._--We remained a day at the stockade of Moiéggéa. A
Banyamwezi or Garaganza man is settled here in Kabaia's district, and
on the strong rivulet called Mato. We felt secure only among the
strangers, and they were friendly with us.
_15th July, 1868._--At the village on the south bank of the Mpanda we
were taken by the headman as Mazitu. He was evidently intoxicated, and
began to shut his gates with frantic gesticulations. I offered to go
away; but others of his people, equally intoxicated, insisted on my
remaining. I sat down a little, but seeing that the chief was still
alarmed, I said to his people, "The chief objects and I can't stay:"
they saw the reasonableness of this, but I could not get my cowardly
attendants to come on, though one said to me, "Come, I shall show you
the way: we must speak nice to them." This the wise boys think the
perfection of virtue, speaking nice means adopting a childish treble
tone of voice and words exactly similar to those of the little Scotch
girl who, passing through a meadow, was approached by a cow, probably
from curiosity. To appease this enemy, she said, "Oh, coo, coo, if you
no hurt me, I no hurt you." I told them to come on and leave them
quietly, but they remained babbling with them. The guide said that
there was no water in front: this I have been told too often ever to
believe, so I went on through the forest, and in an hour and a half
came to a sponge where, being joined by my attendants, we passed the
night.
_16th July, 1868._--Crossing this sponge, and passing through flat
forest, we came to another named Méshwé, when there, as a contrast,
the young men volunteered to carry me across; but I had got off my
shoes, and was in the water, and they came along with me, showing the
shallower parts. We finished the day's march by crossing the Molongosi
spongy ooze, with 150 paces of deep water, flowing N.E. The water in
these oozes or sponges felt very cold, though only 60° in the
mornings, and 65° at midday. The Molongosi people invited us into the
village; but the forest, unless when infested with leopards and lions,
is always preferable, for one is free from vermin, and free from
curiosity gazers, who in the village think they have a right to stare,
but in the forest feel that they are not on an equality with
strangers.
[It was on the 18th of July, 1868, we see that Dr. Livingstone
discovered one of the largest of the Central African Lakes. It is
extraordinary to notice the total absence of all pride and enthusiasm,
as--almost parenthetically--he records the fact.]
_17th and 18th July, 1868._--Reached the chief village of Mapuni, near
the north bank of Bangweolo. On the 18th I walked a little way out
and saw the shores of the Lake for the first time, thankful that I had
come safely hither.
I told the chief that my goods were all expended, and gave him a
fathom of calico as all I could spare: I told him that as soon as I
had seen and measured the Lake I would return north; he replied, that
seeing our goods were done he could say nothing, he would give me
guides, and what else he should do was known to himself. He gave a
public reception at once. I asked if he had ever seen anyone like me,
and he said, "Never." A Babisa traveller asked me why I had come so
far; I said I wished to make the country and people better known to
the rest of the world, that we were all children of one Father, and I
was anxious that we should know each other better, and that friendly
visits should be made in safety. I told him what the Queen had done to
encourage the growth of cotton on the Zambezi, and how we had been
thwarted by slave-traders and their abettors: they were pleased with
this. When asked I showed them my note-book, watch, compass,
burning-glass, and was loudly drummed home.
I showed them the Bible, and told them a little of its contents. I
shall require a few days more at Bangweolo than I at first intended.
The moon being in its last stage of waning I cannot observe till it is
of some size.
_19th July, 1868._--Went down to Masantu's village, which is on the
shore of the Lake, and by a spring called Chipoka, which comes out of
a mass of disintegrated granite. It is seldom that we see a spring
welling out beneath a rock: they are covered by oozing sponges, if
indeed they exist. Here we had as a spectator a man walking on stilts
tied to his ankles and knees. There are a great many Babisa among the
people. The women have their hair ornamented with strings of cowries,
and well oiled with the oil and fat from the seeds of the Mosikisi
trees. I sent the chief a fathom of calico, and got an audience at
once. Masantu is an oldish man; had never prayed to the Great Father
of all, though he said the footsteps of "Mungu," or Mulungu, could be
seen on a part of Lifungé Island: a large footstep may also be seen on
the rock at the Chambezé, about fifteen inches long. He informed us
that the Lake is much the largest at the part called Bangweolo.
The country around the Lake is all flat, and very much denuded of
trees, except the Motsikiri or Mosikisi, which has fine dark, dense
foliage, and is spared for its shade and the fatty oil yielded by its
seeds: we saw the people boiling large pots full of the dark brown
fat, which they use to lubricate their hair. The islands, four in
number, are all flat, but well peopled. The men have many canoes, and
are all expert fishermen; they are called Mboghwa, but are marked on
the forehead and chin as Babisa, and file the teeth to points. They
have many children, as fishermen usually have.
_21st July, 1868._--Canoe-men are usually extortionate, because one
cannot do without them. Mapuni claims authority over them, and sent to
demand another fathom that he may give orders to them to go with us: I
gave a hoe and a string of beads instead, but he insisted on the
cloth, and kept the hoe too, as I could not afford the time to haggle.
Chipoka spring water at 9 A.M. 75° }
Lake water at same time 71° } air 72°.
Chipoka spring at 4 P.M. 74° 5' }
Lake water at same time 75° } air 71° 5'; wet bulb 70°.
No hot fountains or earthquakes are known in this region. The bottom
of the Lake consists of fine white sand, and a broad belt of strong
rushes, say 100 yards wide, shows shallow water. In the afternoons
quite a crowd of canoes anchor at its outer edge to angle; the hooks
are like ours, but without barbs. The fish are perch chiefly, but
others similar to those that appear in the other Lakes are found, and
two which attain the large size of 4 feet by 1-1/2 in. thickness: one
is called Sampa.
_22nd July, 1868._--A very high wind came with the new moon, and
prevented our going, and also the fishermen from following their
calling. Mapuni thought that we meant to make, an escape from him to
the Babisa on the south, because we were taking our goats, I therefore
left them and two attendants at Masantu's village to assure him.
_23rd July, 1868._--Wind still too strong to go. Took lunars.
_24th July, 1868._--Wind still strong.
_25th July, 1868._--Strong S.E. wind still blowing, but having paid
the canoe-men amply for four days with beads, and given Masantu a hoe
and beads too, we embarked at 11.40 A.M. in a fine canoe, 45 feet
long, 4 feet deep, and 4 feet broad. The waves were high, but the
canoe was very dry and five stout men propelled her quickly towards an
opening in Lifungé Island, on our S.E. Here we stopped to wood, and I
went away to look at the island, which had the marks of hippopotami
and a species of jackal on it: it had hard wiry grass, some flowers,
and a species of Gapparidaceous tree. The trees showed well the
direction of the prevailing wind to be south-east, for the branches on
that side were stunted or killed, while those on the north-west ran
out straight, and made the trees appear, as sailors say, lopsided: the
trunks too were bent that way.
The canoe-men now said that they would start, then that they would
sleep here, because we could not reach the Island Mpabala before dark,
and would not get a hut. I said that it would be sleeping out of doors
only in either case, so they went. We could see the island called Kisi
on our east, apparently a double island, about 15 miles off, and the
tops of the trees barely visible on Mpabala on our south-east. It was
all sea horizon on our south and north, between Lifungé and Mpabala,
and between Lifungé and Kisi. We could not go to Kisi, because, as the
canoe-men told us, they had stolen their canoe thence. Though we
decided to go, we remained awhile to let the sea go down. A
hammerhead's nest on one of the trees was fully four feet high. Coarse
rushes show the shoals near the islands. Only one shell was seen on
the shores. The canoe ships much less water in this surf than our boat
did in that of Nyassa. The water is of a deep sea-green colour,
probably from the reflection of the fine white sand of the bottom; we
saw no part having the deep dark blue of Nyassa, and conjecture that
the depth is not great; but I had to leave our line when Amoda
absconded. On Kisi we observed a dark square mass, which at first I
took to be a low hill: it turned out to be a mass of trees (probably
the place of sepulture, for the graveyards are always untouched), and
shows what a dense forest this land would become were it not for the
influence of men.
We reached Mpabala after dark. It was bitterly cold, from the amount
of moisture in the air. I asked a man who came to see what the arrival
was, for a hut; he said, "Do strangers require huts, or ask for them
at night?" he then led us to the public place of meeting, called
Nsaka, which is a large shed, with planks around and open spaces
between, instead of walls; here we cooked a little porridge, and ate
it, then I lay down on one side, with the canoe-men and my attendants
at the fire in the middle, and was soon asleep, and dreamed that I had
apartments in Mivart's Hotel. This made me feel much amused next day,
for I never dream unless I am ill, or going to be ill; and of all
places in the world, I never thought of Mivart's Hotel in my waking
moments; a freak of the fancy surely, for I was not at all
discontented with my fare, or apartment, I was only afraid of getting
a stock of vermin from my associates.
_26th July, 1868._--I have to stand the stare of a crowd of people at
every new place for hours: all usually talk as quickly as their glib
tongues can; these certainly do not belong to the tribes who are
supposed to eke out their language by signs! A few indulge their
curiosity in sight-seeing, but go on steadily weaving nets, or by
beating bark-cloth, or in spinning cotton, others smoke their big
tobacco pipes, or nurse a baby, or enjoy the heat of the bright
morning sun. I walked across the north end of the island, and found it
to be about one mile broad, I also took bearings of Chirubi Island
from the eastern point of Mpabala, and found from the south-east point
of Chirubi that there are 183° of sea horizon from it to the point of
departure of the Luapula. Chirubi is the largest of the islands, and
contains a large population, possessing many sheep and goats. At the
highest part of Mpabala we could see the tops of the trees on Kasango,
a small uninhabited islet, about thirty miles distant: the tops of the
trees were evidently lifted up by the mirage, for near the shore and
at other parts they were invisible, even with a good glass. This
uninhabited islet would have been our second stage had we been allowed
to cross the Lake, as it is of the people themselves; it is as far
beyond it to the mainland, called Manda, as from Masantu's to Mpabala.
_27th July, 1868._--Took lunars and stars for latitude.
The canoe-men now got into a flurry, because they were told here that
the Kisi men had got an inkling that their canoe was here, and were
coming to take it; they said to me that they would come back for me,
but I could not trust thieves to be so honest. I thought of seizing
their paddles, and appealing to the headmen of the island; but aware
from past experience how easy it is for acknowledged thieves like them
to get up a tale to secure the cheap sympathy of the soft-headed, or
tender-hearted, I resolved to bear with meekness, though groaning
inwardly, the loss of two of the four days for which I had paid them.
I had only my coverlet to hire another canoe, and it was now very
cold; the few beads left would all be required to buy food in the way
back, I might have got food by shooting buffaloes, but that on foot
and through grass, with stalks as thick as a goose quill, is
dreadfully hard work; I had thus to return to Masantu's, and trust to
the distances as deduced from the time taken by the natives in their
canoes for the size of the Lake.
We had come to Mpabala at the rate of six knots an hour, and returned
in the same time with six stout paddlers. The latitude was 12' in a
south-east course, which may give 24' as the actual distance. To the
sleeping-place, the Islet Kasango, there was at least 28' more, and
from thence to the mainland "Manda," other 28'. This 24 + 28 + 28 =
80' as the breadth from Masantu village, looking south-east. It lies
in 11° 0' S. If we add on the half distance to this we have 11° 40' as
the latitude of Manda. The mainland to the south of Mpabala is called
Kabendé. The land's end running south of Masantu's village is the
entrance to the Luapula: the clearest eye cannot see across it there.
I saw clouds as if of grass burning, but they were probably "Kungu,"
an edible insect, whose masses have exactly the same appearance as
they float above and on the water. From the time the canoes take to go
to Kabendé I believe the southern shore to be a little into 12° of
south latitude: the length, as inferred from canoes taking ten days to
go from Mpabala to the Chambezé, I take to be 150 miles, probably
more. No one gave a shorter time than that. The Luapula is an arm of
the Lake for some twenty miles, and beyond that is never narrower than
from 180 to 200 yards, generally much broader, and may be compared
with the Thames at London Bridge: I think that I am considerably
within the mark in setting down Bangweolo as 150 miles long by 80
broad.
When told that it contained four large islands, I imagined that these
would considerably diminish the watery acreage of the whole, as is
said to be the case with five islands in Ukerewé; but even the largest
island, Chirubi, does not in the least dwarf the enormous mass of the
water of Bangweolo. A range of mountains, named Lokinga, extends from
the south-east to the south-west: some small burns come down from
them, but no river; this range joins the Koné, or Mokoné range, west
of Katanga, from which on one side rises the Lufira, and on the other
the Liambai, or Zambesi. The river of Manda, called Matanga, is only a
departing and re-entering branch of the Lake, also the Luma and Loéla
rivers--some thirty yards broad--have each to be examined as springs
on the south of the Lake.
_July 29th, 1868._--Not a single case of Derbyshire neck, or of
Elephantiasis, was observed anywhere near the Lake, consequently the
report we had of its extreme unhealthiness was erroneous: no muddy
banks did we see, but in the way to it we had to cross so many
sponges, or oozes, that the word _matopé_, mud, was quite applicable;
and I suspect, if we had come earlier, that we should have experienced
great difficulty in getting to the Lake at all.
_30th July, 1868._--We commenced our march back, being eager to get to
Chikumbi's in case Mohamad should go thence to Katanga. We touched at
Mapuni's, and then went on to the Molongosi. Clouds now began to cover
the sky to the Mpanda, which has fifteen yards of flood, though the
stream itself is only five yards wide, then on to the Mato and
Moiéggé's stockade, where we heard of Chikumbi's attack on
Kombokombo's. Moiéggé had taken the hint, and was finishing a second
line of defence around his village: we reached him on the 1st August,
1868, and stopped for Sunday the 2nd: on the 3rd back to the Rofubu,
where I was fortunate enough to hire a canoe to take me over.
In examining a tsetse fly very carefully I see that it has a
receptacle at the root of the piercer, which is of a black or dark-red
colour; and when it is squeezed, a clear fluid is pressed out at its
point: the other two parts of the proboscis are its shield, and have
no bulb at the base. The bulb was pronounced at the Royal Society to
be only muscle, but it is curious that muscle should be furnished
where none is needed, and withheld in the movable parts of the shield
where it is decidedly needed.
_5th August, 1868._--Reach Kombokombo, who is very liberal, and
pressed us to stay a day with him as well as with others; we complied,
and found that Mohamad had gone nowhere.
_7th August, 1868._--We found a party starting from Kizinga for the
coast, having our letters with them; it will take five months to reach
the sea. The disturbed state of the country prevented parties of
traders proceeding in various directions, and one that set off on the
same day with us was obliged to return. Mohamad has resolved to go to
Manyuema as soon as parties of his men now out return: this is all in
my favour; it is in the way I want to go to see the Lualaba and Lufira
to Chowambé. The way seems opening out before me, and I am thankful. I
resolved to go north by way of Casembe, and guides were ready to
start, so was I; but rumours of war where we were going induced me to
halt to find out the truth: the guides (Banyamwezi) were going to
divine, by means of a cock, to see if it would be lucky to go with me
at present. The rumours of danger became so circumstantial that our
fence was needed: a well was dug inside, and the Banyamwezi were
employed to smelt copper as for the market of Manyuema, and balls for
war. Syde bin Omar soon came over the Luapula from Iramba, and the
state of confusion induced the traders to agree to unite their forces
and make a safe retreat out of the country. They objected very
strongly to my going away down the right bank of the Luapula with my
small party, though it was in sight, so I resolved to remain till all
went.
_13th August, 1868._--The Banyamwezi use a hammer shaped like a cone,
without a handle. They have both kinds of bellows, one of goatskin the
other of wood, with a skin over the mouth of a drum, and a handle tied
to the middle of it; with these they smelt pieces of the large bars of
copper into a pot, filled nearly full of wood ashes. The fire is
surrounded by masses of anthills, and in these there are hollows made
to receive the melted metal: the metal is poured while the pot is held
with the hands, protected by wet rags.
_15th August, 1868._--Bin Omar, a Suaheli, came from Muaboso on
Chambezé in six days, crossing in that space twenty-two burns or
oozes, from knee to waist deep.
Very high and cold winds prevail at present. It was proposed to punish
Chikumbi when Syde bin Omar came, as he is in debt and refuses
payment; but I go off to Casembe.
I learn that there is another hot fountain in the Baloba country,
called Fungwé; this, with Kapira and Vana, makes three hot fountains
in this region.
Some people were killed in my path to Casembe, so this was an
additional argument against my going that way.
Some Banyamwezi report a tribe--the Bonyolo--that extract the upper
front teeth, like Batoka; they are near Loanda, and Lake Chipokola is
there, probably the same as Kinkonza. Feeling my way. All the trees
are now pushing out fresh young leaves of different colours: winds
S.E. Clouds of upper stratum N.W.
_29th August, 1868._--Kaskas began to-day hot and sultry. This will
continue till rains fall. Rumours of wars perpetual and near; and one
circumstantial account of an attack made by the Bausé. That again
contradicted. _(31st August, 1868.)_ Rain began here this evening,
quite remarkable and exceptional, as it precedes the rains generally
off the watershed by two months at least: it was a thunder shower,
and it and another on the evening of the second were quite partial.
* * * * *
[As we shall see, he takes advantage of his late experience to work
out an elaborate treatise on the climate of this region, which is
exceedingly important, bearing, as it does, upon the question of the
periodical floods on the rivers which drain the enormous cistern-lakes
of Central Africa.]
* * * * *
The notion of a rainy zone, in which the clouds deposit their
treasures in perpetual showers, has received no confirmation from my
observations. In 1866-7, the rainfall was 42 inches. In 1867-8, it
amounted to 53 inches: this is nearly the same as falls in the same
latitudes on the West Coast. In both years the rains ceased entirely
in May, and with the exception of two partial thunder showers on the
middle of the watershed, no rain fell till the middle and end of
October, and then, even in November, it was partial, and limited to
small patches of country; but scarcely a day passed between October
and May without a good deal of thunder. When the thunder began to roll
or rumble, that was taken by the natives as an indication of the near
cessation of the rains. The middle of the watershed is the most humid
part: one sees the great humidity of its climate at once in the trees,
old and young, being thickly covered with lichens; some flat, on the
trunks and branches; others long and thready, like the beards of old
men waving in the wind. Large orchids on the trees in company with the
profusion of lichens are seen nowhere else, except in the mangrove
swamps of the sea-coast.
I cannot account for the great humidity of the watershed as compared
with the rest of the country, but by the prevailing winds and the
rains being from the south-east, and thus from the Indian Ocean: with
this wind generally on the surface one can observe an upper strong
wind from the north-west, that is, from the low humid West Coast and
Atlantic Ocean. The double strata of winds can easily be observed when
there are two sheets of clouds, or when burning grass over scores of
square miles sends up smoke sufficiently high to be caught by the
upper or north-west wind. These winds probably meet during the heavy
rains: now in August they overlap each other. The probability arises
from all continued rains within the tropics coming in the opposite
direction from the prevailing wind of the year. Partial rains are
usually from the south-east.
The direction of the prevailing wind of this region is well marked on
the islands in Lake Bangweolo: the trunks are bent away from the
south-east, and the branches on that side are stunted or killed; while
those on the north-west run out straight and make the trees appear
lopsided. The same bend away from the south-east is seen on all
exposed situations, as in the trees covering the brow of a hill. At
Kizinga, which is higher than the Lake, the trees are covered with
lichens, chiefly on the south-east sides, and on the upper surfaces of
branches, running away horizontally to or from the north-west. Plants
and trees, which elsewhere in Africa grow only on the banks of streams
and other damp localities, are seen flourishing all over the country:
the very rocks are covered with lichens, and their crevices with
ferns.
But that which demonstrates the humidity of the climate most
strikingly is the number of earthen sponges or oozes met with. In
going to Bangweolo from Kizinga, I crossed twenty-nine of these
reservoirs in thirty miles of latitude, on a south-east course: this
may give about one sponge for every two miles. The word "Bog" conveys
much of the idea of these earthen sponges; but it is inseparably
connected in our minds with peat, and these contain not a particle of
peat, they consist of black porous earth, covered with a hard wiry
grass, and a few other damp-loving plants. In many places the sponges
hold large quantities of the oxide of iron, from the big patches of
brown haematite that crop out everywhere, and streams of this oxide,
as thick as treacle, are seen moving slowly along in the sponge-like
small red glaciers. When one treads on the black earth of the sponge,
though little or no water appears on the surface, it is frequently
squirted up the limbs, and gives the idea of a sponge. In the paths
that cross them, the earth readily becomes soft mud, but sinks rapidly
to the bottom again, as if of great specific gravity: the water in
them is always circulating and oozing. The places where the sponges
are met with are slightly depressed valleys without trees or bushes,
in a forest country where the grass being only a foot or fifteen
inches high, and thickly planted, often looks like a beautiful glade
in a gentleman's park in England. They are from a quarter of a mile to
a mile broad, and from two to ten or more miles long. The water of the
heavy rains soaks into the level forest lands: one never sees runnels
leading it off, unless occasionally a footpath is turned to that use.
The water, descending about eight feet, comes to a stratum of yellow
sand, beneath which there is another stratum of fine white sand, which
at its bottom cakes, so as to hold the water from sinking further.
It is exactly the same as we found in the Kalahari Desert, in digging
sucking places for water for our oxen. The water, both here and there,
is guided by the fine sand stratum into the nearest valley, and here
it oozes forth on all sides through the thick mantle of black porous
earth, which forms the sponge. There, in the desert, it appears to
damp the surface sands in certain valleys, and the Bushmen, by a
peculiar process, suck out a supply. When we had dug down to the caked
sand there years ago, the people begged us not to dig further, as the
water would all run away; and we desisted, because we saw that the
fluid poured in from the fine sand all round the well, but none came
from the bottom or cake. Two stupid Englishmen afterwards broke
through the cake in spite of the entreaties of the natives, and the
well and the whole valley dried up hopelessly. Here the water, oozing
forth from the surface of the sponge mantle, collects in the centre of
the slightly depressed valley which it occupies, and near the head of
the depression forms a sluggish stream; but further down, as it meets
with more slope, it works out for itself a deeper channel, with
perpendicular banks, with, say, a hundred or more yards of sponge on
each side, constantly oozing forth fresh supplies to augment its size.
When it reaches rocky ground it is a perennial burn, with many aquatic
plants growing in its bottom. One peculiarity would strike anyone: the
water never becomes discoloured or muddy. I have seen only one stream
muddied in flood, the Choma, flowing through an alluvial plain in
Lopéré. Another peculiarity is very remarkable; it is, that after the
rains have entirely ceased, these burns have their largest flow, and
cause inundations. It looks as if towards the end of the rainy season
the sponges were lifted up by the water off their beds, and the pores
and holes, being enlarged, are all employed to give off fluid. The
waters of inundation run away. When the sponges are lifted up by
superabundance of water, all the pores therein are opened: as the
earthen mantle subsides again, the pores act like natural valves, and
are partially closed, and by the weight of earth above them, the water
is thus prevented from running away altogether; time also being
required to wet all the sand through which the rains soak, the great
supply may only find its way to the sponge a month or so after the
great rains have fallen.
I travelled in Lunda, when the sponges were all supersaturated. The
grassy sward was so lifted up that it was separated into patches or
tufts, and if the foot missed the row of tufts of this wiry grass
which formed the native path, down one plumped up to the thigh in
slush. At that time we could cross the sponge only by the native
paths, and the central burn only where they had placed bridges:
elsewhere they were impassable, as they poured off the waters of
inundation: our oxen were generally bogged--all four legs went down up
to the body at once. When they saw the clear sandy bottom of the
central burn they readily went in, but usually plunged right over
head, leaving their tail up in the air to show the nervous shock they
had sustained.
These sponges are a serious matter in travelling. I crossed the
twenty-nine already mentioned at the end of the fourth month of the
dry season, and the central burns seemed then to have suffered no
diminution: they were then from calf to waist deep, and required from
fifteen to forty minutes in crossing; they had many deep holes in the
paths, and when one plumps therein every muscle in the frame receives
a painful jerk. When past the stream, and apparently on partially dry
ground, one may jog in a foot or more, and receive a squirt of black
mud up the thighs: it is only when you reach the trees and are off the
sour land that you feel secure from mud and leeches. As one has to
strip the lower part of the person in order to ford them, I found that
often four were as many as we could cross in a day. Looking up these
sponges a bird's-eye view would closely resemble the lichen-like
vegetation of frost on window panes; or that vegetation in
Canada-balsam which mad philosophical instrument makers _will_ put
between the lenses of the object-glasses of our telescopes. The flat,
or nearly flat, tops of the subtending and transverse ridges of this
central country give rise to a great many: I crossed twenty-nine, a
few of the feeders of Bangweolo, in thirty miles of latitude in one
direction. Burns are literally innumerable: rising on the ridges, or
as I formerly termed them mounds, they are undoubtedly the primary or
ultimate sources of the Zambezi, Congo, and Nile: by their union are
formed streams of from thirty to eighty or 100 yards broad, and always
deep enough to require either canoes or bridges. These I propose to
call the secondary sources, and as in the case of the Nile they are
drawn off by three lines of drainage, they become the head waters (the
_caput_ Nili) of the river of Egypt.
Thanks to that all-embracing Providence, which has watched over and
enabled me to discover what I have done. There is still much to do,
and if health and protection be granted I shall make a complete thing
of it.
[Then he adds in a note a little further on:--]
But few of the sponges on the watershed ever dry; elsewhere many do;
the cracks in their surface are from 15 to 18 inches deep, with lips
from 2 to 3 inches apart. Crabs and other animals in clearing out
their runs reveal what I verified by actually digging wells at Kizinga
and in Kabuiré, and also observed in the ditches 15 feet deep dug by
the natives round many of their stockades, that the sponge rests on a
stratum of fine white washed sand. These cracks afford a good idea of
the effect of the rains: the partial thunder-showers of October,
November, December, and even January, produce no effect on them; it is
only when the sun begins to return from his greatest southern
declination that the cracks close their large lips. The whole sponge
is borne up, and covers an enormous mass of water, oozing forth in
March and April forming the inundations. These floods in the Congo,
Zambesi, and Nile require different times to reach the sea. The bulk
of the Zambesi is further augmented by the greater rains finding many
pools in the beds of its feeders filled in February, as soon as the
sun comes north.
_Mem._--In apparent contradiction of the foregoing, so far as touches
the sources of the Zambesi, Syde bin Habib informed me a few days ago
that he visited the sources of the Liambai and of the Lufira. Each
comes out of a fountain; the Lufira one is called Changozi, and is
small, and in a wood of large trees S.W. of Katanga; the fountain of
the Liambai is so large that one cannot call to a person on the other
side, and he appears also very small there--the two fountains are just
five hours distant from each other. He is well acquainted with the
Liambai (Leeambye), where I first met him. Lunga, another river, comes
out of nearly the same spot which goes into the Leuñge, Kafué (?).
Lufira is less than Kalongosi up there; that is less than 80 or 200
yards, and it has deep waterfalls in it. The Koné range comes down
north, nearly to Mpméto's. Mkana is the chief of the stone houses in
the Baloba, and he may be reached by three days of hard travelling
from Mpwéto's; Lufira is then one long day west. As Muabo refuses to
show me his "mita," "miengelo," or "mpamankanana" as they are called,
I must try and get to those of the Baloba of Mkana.
Senegal swallows pair in the beginning of December.
_Note_.--Inundation.
The inundation I have explained in the note on the climate as owing to
the sponges being supersaturated in the greater rains, when the sun
returns from his greatest southern declination, the pores are then all
enlarged, and the water of inundation flows in great volume even after
the rains have entirely ceased. Something has probably to be learned
from the rainfall at or beyond the equator, as the sun pursues his way
north beyond my beat, but the process I have named accounts
undoubtedly for the inundations of the Congo and Zambesi. The most
acute of the ancients ascribed the inundation with Strabo to summer
rains in the south; others to snows melting on the Mountains of the
Moon; others to the northern wind--the Etesian breezes blowing
directly against the mouth of the river and its current: others, with
less reason, ascribed the inundation to its having its source in the
ocean: Herodotus and Pliny to evaporation following the course of the
sun.
_1st September, 1868._--Two men come from Casembe--I am reported
killed. The miningo-tree distils water, which falls in large drops.
The Luapula seen when the smoke clears off. Fifty of Syde bin Omar's
people died of small-pox in Usafa. _Mem._ Vaccine virus. We leave on
the 25th, east bank of Moisi River, and cross the Luongo on the 28th,
the Lofubu on the 1st October, and the Kalongosi on the 7th.
[Dr. Livingstone seems to have been unable to find opportunity to make
daily entries at this period. All was turmoil and panic, and his life
appears to have been in imminent danger. Briefly we see that on his
way back from the Lake he found that his Arab associates of the last
few months had taken up Casembe's cause against the devastating hordes
of Mazitu, who had swept down on these parts, and had repulsed them.
But now a fresh complication arose! Casembe and Chikumbi became
alarmed lest the Arabs, feeling their own power, should turn upon them
and possess the whole country, so they joined forces and stormed
Kombokombo, one of the leading Arabs, and with what success we shall
see. It is a fair specimen of the unaccountable complications which
dog the steps of the traveller, where war is afoot, and render life a
misery. He writes as follows on the 5th October:--]
I was detained in the Imbozhwa country much longer than I relished.
The inroad of the Mazitu, of which Casembe had just heard when we
reached the Mofwé, was the first cause of delay: he had at once sent
off men to verify the report, and requested me to remain till his
messengers should return. This foray produced a state of lawlessness
in the country, which was the main reason of our further detention.
The Imbozhwa fled before the marauders, and the Banyamwezi or
Garaganza, who had come in numbers to trade in copper, took on
themselves the duty of expelling the invaders, and this, by means of
their muskets, they did effectually, then, building stockades they
excited the jealousy of the Imbozhwa lords of the soil who, instead of
feeling grateful, hated the new power thus sprung up among them! They
had suffered severely from the sharp dealing of the strangers already,
and Chikumbi made a determined assault on the stockade of Kombokombo
in vain.
Confusion prevailed all over the country. Some Banyamwezi assumed the
offensive against the Baüsi, who resemble the Imbozhwa, but are
further south, and captured and sold some prisoners: it was in this
state of things that, as already mentioned, I was surrounded by a
party of furious Imbozhwa. A crowd stood within fifteen or twenty
yards with spears poised and arrows set in the bowstrings, and some
took aim at me: they took us for plunderers, and some plants of
ground-nuts thrown about gave colour to their idea. One good soul
helped us away--a blessing be on him and his. Another chief man took
us for Mazitu! In this state of confusion Cazembe heard that my party
had been cut off: he called in Moenempanda and took the field in
person, in order to punish the Banyamwezi, against whom he has an old
grudge for killing a near relative of his family, selling Baüsi, and
setting themselves up as a power in his country.
The two Arab traders now in the country felt that they must unite
their forces, and thereby effect a safe retreat. Chikumbi had kept
twenty-eight tusks for Syde bin Omar safely; but the coming of Casembe
might have put it out of his power to deliver up his trust in safety,
for an army here is often quite lawless: each man takes to himself
what he can. When united we marched from Kizinga on 23rd September
together, built fences every night to protect ourselves and about 400
Banyamwezi, who took the opportunity to get safely away. Kombokombo
came away from his stockade, and also part of the way, but cut away by
night across country to join the parties of his countrymen who still
love to trade in Katanga copper. We were not molested, but came nearly
north to the Kalongosi. Syde parted from us, and went away east to
Mozamba, and thence to the coast.
FOOTNOTES:
[64] The allusion is to Mrs. Livingstone's grave.
[65] At one season the long grass which covers the face of the country
catches fire. For some three months the air is consequently filled
with smoke.--ED.