DR. LIVINGSTONE AND HIS DISCOVERIES.
When the work of "wooding up" was completed the steamer continued her
voyage. An effort was made to visit the western shore; but at every
halting-place the natives came down in considerable numbers, and their
movements were so threatening that Doctor Bronson did not consider it
judicious to attempt to land. As he was under obligation to the Egyptian
authorities for the use of the steamboat he did not wish to do anything,
however slight, that might lead to hostilities. For this reason he
declined to go on shore where there was the slightest possibility of
trouble with the natives, and contented himself with looking at it from
the deck of the steamer.
While they were sitting under the sheltering awning and studying the
landscape before them Fred asked about the travels and explorations of
Dr. Livingstone.
[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE'S HOUSE AT ZANZIBAR.]
"He was the son of a poor weaver in Glasgow," was the reply, "and
gained the most of his early education at an evening school while
working in a cotton-mill. Afterward he managed to devote his winters to
study, and supported himself by working for the rest of the year. He was
born March 19, 1813, and died May 1, 1873.
[Illustration: DAVID LIVINGSTONE.]
"His family were earnest Presbyterians, and his early training led him
to the study of theology; he combined with it the study of medicine,
and, after devoting himself to these matters for several years, he
offered his services to the London Missionary Society, and was sent to
Africa. He arrived at Natal in 1840, and from that time till his death,
thirty-three years later, his life was devoted to the work of civilizing
and Christianizing the 'Dark Continent.'
"The record of his travels and explorations is in his published volumes,
and in a book entitled 'Livingstone's Last Journals,' which contains the
history of the final years of his life and the melancholy account of his
death."
Fred asked the names of Dr. Livingstone's books.
"During the early years of his missionary work," the Doctor continued,
"he sent a great many documents to England, containing valuable
information of a geographical and scientific character; they were
printed by the London Missionary Society in its journal. But nothing
appeared in book-form till 1857, when he published 'Missionary Travels
and Researches in South Africa.' He visited England to superintend the
publication of the volume, and returned to Africa in 1858.
"Down to that time he had devoted himself to missionary work, and all
his travels and explorations were directly in connection with the effort
to Christianize Africa. In 1858 he went, on behalf of the English
government, and aided by private subscriptions, to explore the southern
part of the great continent.
"On this journey he started from Quilimane, at the mouth of the Zambesi
River, and travelled in a north-westerly direction. For a part of the
route he followed the course of the river, and then turned away from it
to the north, in search of a lake of which he had been told by the
natives. He discovered the lake (Nyassa) in 1859, and explored the
country to the west and north-west of it, and the whole region around
the head-waters of the north-east branch of the Zambesi and its
tributaries.
"The work occupied him till 1863. His wife accompanied him on the
journey, and died in the interior of Africa, in April, 1862. In 1864 he
returned to England, and published 'A Narrative of an Expedition to the
Zambesi and its Tributaries.' Then, as soon as the book was issued, he
made preparations for another expedition, and left England in 1865.
"Nothing was heard from him for more than a year, and in March, 1867, a
report came to England that he had been killed in a skirmish with the
natives on the banks of Lake Nyassa. It was not generally believed, and
in June of the same year an expedition was sent to look for him. It was
under the command of Mr. E. D. Young, and although it did not succeed in
finding him, it obtained information that convinced Mr. Young of the
incorrectness of the report.
"Letters were received in 1869 (more than a year old) from Dr.
Livingstone, so that there was no farther doubt that the story of his
death in the skirmish was incorrect. Another letter came a year later,
and then there was no news for more than twenty months, so that his
friends feared he was no longer alive.
"The New York _Herald_ sent one of its correspondents, Mr. Henry M.
Stanley, to look for Livingstone and to find him, if still alive.
Stanley started from Zanzibar and went to Ujiji, on the shores of Lake
Tanganyika, where he found Dr. Livingstone alive and well, but unable to
travel, for the reason that he had no goods with which to pay his way.
Stanley remained with him from the autumn of 1871 till March, 1872. They
went together to explore the northern part of Lake Tanganyika, to
determine whether it flowed into the Nile. They satisfied themselves
that it was not a tributary of the great river of Egypt, and that the
source of the Nile lay farther to the north.
"On his return to Zanzibar, Stanley sent fresh supplies to Doctor
Livingstone, to enable the latter to complete his explorations. It was
the Doctor's intention to devote a year or more to this work, and then
return to England, to publish his account and reside there permanently.
"But his plans were never carried out, as he died in the field of his
work. After Stanley's return to England another expedition was sent out,
under command of Lieutenant Cameron, to carry supplies to the great
explorer and render him any assistance in its power. Cameron left
Zanzibar in March, 1873, and reached Unyanyembe in the following August.
While he was making preparations for proceeding farther the news of
Livingstone's death reached him in the shape of a letter from Jacob
Wainwright, the doctor's negro servant."
Doctor Bronson paused a few moments before continuing the story.
[Illustration: CHUMA AND SUSI.]
"There are few men in the world," said the Doctor, "who can surpass, or
even equal, Livingstone in securing the affection and devotion of their
followers. In his last expedition, starting from Unyanyembe in August,
1872, he was accompanied by about eighty men, most of them having been
sent from Zanzibar by Stanley. Three of his men had been with him for
eight years, and two others for six years; but the rest were
comparatively new in his service. The three first mentioned were Susi,
Chuma, and Amoda, who joined Livingstone on the Zambesi River in 1864,
and the other two were Mabruki and Gardner, who were hired at Zanzibar
in 1866. The new-comers soon became as zealous as the older ones in
looking out for the welfare of their leader, and during his last
illness, and down to the day of his death, they did all in their power
to make him comfortable.
"Remember that he was a white man, and a stranger in the country. The
negro is not credited with a large amount of honesty by those who have
travelled in Africa; and certainly there are many instances of treachery
and rascality in the stories told by explorers. Dr. Livingstone was
frequently deceived by guides and scouts during his journeys, and he was
plundered by the chiefs, who demanded heavy tributes for the permission
to pass through their country. I have already told you of the constant
difficulties in the way of obtaining porters before starting on a
journey, and of the large number of desertions on the road.
"In his last journey Dr. Livingstone's men remained faithful to the end
of his days, and when he died they embalmed his body and brought it,
with all his journals and every article of his personal property, safe
to the coast. In addition to the difficulty of transporting it for
hundreds of miles through the country, where there were no roads, they
had to meet the superstition of the African tribes on their way, who
have the greatest horror of a dead body, and would have killed every man
of the party if they had known the burden they were carrying. Knowing
what we do of the difficulties and dangers that confronted these
faithful but ignorant men, it is a wonder that they undertook what they
did, and still more wonderful that they succeeded.
[Illustration: PAGE FROM LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNAL.]
"Every scrap of his journals, from the day of his departure from
Zanzibar down to the last line he was able to write, a week before his
death, was preserved and brought home. They show to what straits he was
sometimes reduced for writing materials, as many of his notes are
written on old newspapers sewn together into the shape of books, and he
was often obliged to make his own pencils and ink. His rough notes were
taken in this way, and when he had time for writing in full he copied
them into a larger journal. One of these journals was sent to England,
in care of Mr. Stanley, and delivered to the missionary's family.
"While we are on this topic I may as well tell you of the closing days
of Dr. Livingstone's life.
"There are comparatively few entries in his journal. His men say that
his health was never good from the first day of the journey, and when
they halted at night he was too weak to make many notes. The word 'ill'
occurs frequently on the pages of his diary, and on several occasions it
is the only record of an entire day. For the last few days of his
travels he was unable to walk, and was carried on a 'kitanda,' or
litter, made by his men. It was rudely formed, but strong. It consisted
of a framework seven feet long, with several cross-pieces, and a bed of
grass, on which the sufferer could recline comfortably. It was slung
from a pole, and carried on the shoulders of two men, and in general
appearance was not unlike the palanquin which you saw in India, and was
better for an invalid than the sedan-chair of China.
"In the fac-simile of the last page but one of Livingstone's journal,
you see that his writing is cramped and evidently made with great
difficulty, and the last line refers to his being carried on the
kitanda. The entry on the 21st (of April) mentions his trying to ride,
but he says he was forced to lie down, and they carried him back to the
village, much exhausted.
"His men say that on this morning he mounted his donkey as usual, but
his strength was so far gone that he could not retain his place in the
saddle, and fell fainting to the ground after riding only a short
distance. In this condition he was carried by Chuma, one of his men,
back to the village, and rested during the day. The chief of the
village was very kind to him, and said he could rest there as long as
he pleased, and, when ready to move on, the guides for the road should
be ready.
[Illustration: THE LAST MILE OF LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEY.]
"It was during this day of resting that his men constructed the kitanda,
and from that time till the 30th of April he was carried upon it. He
died in the village of Ilala, which belonged to a chief named Chitambo.
The Doctor's men say they were kindly treated by Chitambo during all
their stay, and when they left he gave them all the guides and
provisions that they needed."
Fred asked what was the disease which caused the death of the great
explorer.
[Illustration: LIVINGSTONE ENTERING THE HUT WHERE HE DIED.]
"He died from malarial poisoning," replied the Doctor, "as many other
Europeans have died in Africa. He had suffered from it for several
years, and realized that unless he returned to England, to reside there
permanently, he could not hope to recover. As I told you before, he was
intending to do so in the very year in which he died.
[Illustration: FORDING A SWOLLEN RIVER.]
"In one of his journeys Dr. Livingstone travelled an estimated distance
of eleven thousand miles, and the sum of his travels in Africa has been
placed as high as sixty thousand miles. A great part of this was
performed on foot. There were many journeys by river and lake, nearly
always in native canoes, and comparatively few in boats of European
construction, owing to the difficulty of carrying them around cataracts
or other obstructions on the rivers, or making long traverses from one
lake to another. In South Africa, and in some parts of Central Africa,
horses or donkeys may be used for riding purposes; but these animals are
scarce, and quite as liable as their masters to fall victims to the
pestilential fevers of Africa.
"The climate is not by any means the worst enemy of the dumb animals
that accompany the African traveller. Lions prowl around the camps, and
when their presence is quite unexpected they spring from the bushes and
kill the horse or other animal they have marked for their prey with a
single stroke of their powerful paw. Many travellers have lost their
favorite steeds in this way, and in South Africa thousands upon
thousands of oxen have been killed by lions. On the return of Dr.
Livingstone's party to the coast they undertook to bring his riding
donkey, but the poor beast was killed by a lion only a few days' journey
from the spot where the doctor died.
[Illustration: A LION KILLING LIVINGSTONE'S DONKEY.]
"According to custom the men had built a stable for him, where they
thought he would be secure, as it was close to their quarters. In the
middle of the night there was a loud crash that roused everybody: the
men ran out, and found the stable broken and the donkey gone. They set
fire to the grass to make a light, as the night was very dark, and as
soon as the blaze rose up they saw a lion close to the body of the
donkey. They fired at the intruder, and wounded him. He retreated
growling, and the men did not think it prudent to follow. The donkey was
quite dead, and there is no doubt that he was instantly killed when the
lion sprung upon him. The next morning they found a broad track of
blood where the lion had dragged himself along; but as there was the
track of another lion close by it they did not follow the trail far into
the bushes.
"Dr. Livingstone was early impressed with the horrors of the slave-trade
in the interior of Africa, and in all his writings he frequently
referred to the infamous business. In one part of his journal he
describes how he found the dead body of a woman tied by the neck to a
tree. The people of the country told him that she had been unable to
keep up with the caravan, and her master, finding that he must abandon
her, determined to make an example that would frighten the rest. So he
tied her to the tree and left her to die, and whenever any others of his
caravan broke down they met a similar fate or were killed on the spot.
One day some of the doctor's men went a little way from the path and
found a number of slaves yoked together with sticks, and so near death
from starvation that none of them were able to speak.
[Illustration: "GOREE," OR SLAVE-STICK.]
"The 'goree,' or slave-stick, is made from the fork of a small tree. It
is placed on the neck of a negro, and the ends of the fork are fastened
together by an iron rod, riveted at each end; and as the man's hands
are generally tied behind him he has no way of escaping from his bonds.
[Illustration: MANNER OF FETTERING A GANG OF SLAVES.]
"Whenever Dr. Livingstone encountered one of these travelling gangs of
slaves he released them, if the circumstances permitted, and they
generally did. By so doing he roused the hostility of the slave-traders,
who revenged themselves by spreading unfavorable reports concerning him,
and inciting the natives to attack him. Most of his troubles with the
natives were from this cause, and several times his escape from death at
their hands was exceedingly narrow. The slave-traders were too cowardly
to make any open fight with him, and when he met them on the road with
their slaves they generally ran away, and left him to deal with their
human merchandise as he liked.
[Illustration: SLAVERS AVENGING THEIR LOSSES.]
"One of his stories of an encounter with a slave caravan is quite
amusing.
"One day he heard from a native that a gang of slaves on its way to the
coast was coming along the road, and would shortly appear in sight. He
was in a little village where the party was to pass, and so he sat down
and waited for them.
"In a little while the slave-party, a long line of manacled men, women,
and children, came wending their way round the hill into the valley, on
the side of which the village stood. The black drivers, armed with
muskets and bedecked with various articles of finery, marched jauntily
in the front, middle, and rear of the line, some of them blowing
exultant notes out of long tin horns. 'They seemed to think,' says the
doctor, 'that they were doing a very noble thing, and might proudly
march with an air of triumph; but the instant the fellows caught a
glimpse of the English they darted off like mad into the forest--so
fast, indeed, that we caught but a glimpse of their red caps and the
soles of their feet. The chief of the party alone remained; and he,
being in front, had his hand tightly grasped by a Makololo. He proved to
be a well-known slave of the late commandant at Tette, and for some time
our own attendant while there.
"'On asking him,' says Dr. Livingstone, 'how he obtained these captives
he replied that he had bought them; but on inquiring of the people
themselves, all, save four, said they had been captured in war. While
this inquiry was going on he bolted too.
"'The captives were thus left entirely in our hands, and knives were
soon busy cutting the women and children loose. It was more difficult to
cut the men adrift, as each had his neck in the fork of a stout stick,
six or seven feet long, and kept in by an iron rod, which was riveted at
both ends, across the throat. With a saw luckily in our baggage, one by
one the men were sawn out into freedom. The women, on being told to take
the meal they were carrying and cook breakfast for themselves and the
children, seemed to consider the news too good to be true; but, after a
little coaxing, went to work with a will, using the old slave-sticks for
making a fire. Some of the captives were mere children. Two women had
been shot the day before for attempting to untie their thongs, and a man
was killed with an axe because he had broken down with fatigue.'"
In continuing his account of the work of Livingstone, Doctor Bronson
said that the explorer's habit of making on the spot notes of everything
he saw that would be of interest to the English reader had rendered his
books very valuable. Some of his statements were at first received with
a grain of doubt, but his reputation for veracity was soon established.
It was found that wherever there was any inaccuracy of statement in his
reports it was due to his having received the story from some one else.
Truth does not prevail among the people of Africa any more than in other
lands; and the facetious American who enjoys "fooling a reporter," by
gravely telling a lot of falsehoods, which there is no time to
investigate, has his prototype in the wilds of the "Dark Continent."
[Illustration: QUILIMANE, AT THE MOUTH OF THE ZAMBESI.]
"We must," resumed Doctor Bronson, "read his works in order to
appreciate Dr. Livingstone's labors in Central and Southern Africa.
There are notes on natural history, botany, and kindred studies,
together with descriptions of all the people and tribes among whom he
travelled. One day he met a party of honey-hunters, and sat down for a
chat with them. They pointed to a small bird that was quietly resting on
the limbs of a tree near them, and said it was their honey-guide. The
bird attracts the attention of the native by hopping from twig to twig
and calling in the sharpest notes of his voice; when he finds he is
followed he leads the way to a hollow tree or other spot where a swarm
of bees has its home, and as soon as the honey has been taken he regales
himself on the fragments of comb that lie scattered on the ground. This
bird is described in books on natural history, and is said to belong to
the cuckoo family. The natives follow it, in full confidence that it
will lead them to a deposit of honey; but it sometimes happens that they
are conducted to the lair of a lion or other ferocious beast.
[Illustration: VIEW ON THE NAVIGABLE PART OF THE ZAMBESI.]
"Livingstone's memory will always be preserved in connection with the
exploration of the Zambesi, and the discovery of the great cataract of
Mosi-oa-tunya, better known as the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, though
the former name is to be preferred.
"He discovered the falls in 1855, on his first ascent of the valley of
the Zambesi, and the account he gave was so startling that he was
thought to be wandering from the truth. In his second journey, five
years later, he made a detailed examination of the cataract, making
careful measurements of the heights and distances, so that there could
be no mistake. If you look at his book and compare the measurements with
those of Niagara, you can hardly fail to be astonished."
Fred went below to find the volume in question, and soon returned with
it. From Dr. Livingstone's description of the great Falls of the Zambesi
he read the following:
"On the 9th of August, 1860, we proceeded to see the Victoria
Falls. Mosi-oa-tunya is the native name, and means smoke-sounding.
Seongo, or Chongwe, meaning the rainbow, or the place of the
rainbow, was the more ancient term they bore. We embarked in canoes
belonging to Tuba Mokoro (smasher of canoes)--an ominous name; but
he alone, it seems, knew the medicine which insures one against
shipwreck in the rapids above the falls. For some miles the river
was smooth and tranquil, and we glided pleasantly over water as
clear as crystal, and past lovely islands, densely covered with a
tropical vegetation. But our attention was quickly called from the
charming islands to the dangerous rapids, down which Tuba might
unintentionally shoot us. To confess the truth, the very ugly
aspect of these roaring rapids could scarcely fail to cause some
uneasiness in the minds of new-comers. It is only when the river is
very low, as it was now, that any one durst venture to the island
to which we were bound. If one went during the period of flood, and
fortunately hit the island, he would be compelled to remain there
till the water subsided again, if he lived so long. Both
hippopotami and elephants have been known to be swept over the
falls, and of course smashed to pulp.
"After many narrow escapes from being dashed on the rocks we landed
at the head of Garden Island, which is situated near the middle of
the river, and on the lip of the falls.
[Illustration: THE GREAT FALLS OF MOSI-OA-TUNYA.]
"On reaching that lip, and peering over the giddy height, the
wondrous and unique character of the magnificent cascade at once
burst upon us. It is rather a hopeless task to endeavor to convey
an idea of it in words, since, as was remarked on the spot, an
accomplished painter, even by a number of views, could but impart a
faint impression of the glorious scene. The probable mode of its
formation may perhaps help to the conception of its peculiar
shape. Niagara has been formed by a wearing back of the rock over
which the river falls; and, during a long course of ages, it has
gradually receded, and left a broad, deep, and pretty straight
trough in front. It goes on wearing back daily, and may yet
discharge the lakes from which its river flows. But the Victoria
Falls have been formed by a crack right across the river in the
hard, black, basaltic rock which there formed the bed of the
Zambesi. The lips of the crack are still quite sharp, save about
three feet of the edge over which the river rolls. The walls go
sheer down from the lips without any projecting crag, or symptom of
stratification or dislocation. When the mighty rift occurred no
change of level took place in the two parts of the bed of the river
thus rent asunder; consequently, in coming down the river to Garden
Island the water suddenly disappears, and we see the opposite side
of the cleft, with grass and trees growing where once the river
ran, on the same level as that part of its bed on which we sail.
"The first crack is, in length, a few yards more than the breadth
of the Zambesi, which by measurement we found to be a little over
eighteen hundred and sixty yards, but this number we resolved to
retain, as indicating the year in which the fall was for the first
time carefully examined. The main stream here runs nearly north and
south, and the cleft across it is nearly east and west. The depth
of the rift was measured by lowering a line, to the end of which a
few bullets and a foot of white cotton cloth were tied. One of us
lay with his head over a projecting crag, and watched the
descending calico, till, after his companions had paid out three
hundred and ten feet, the weight rested on a sloping projection,
probably fifty feet from the water below, the actual bottom being
still farther down. The white cloth now appeared the size of a
crown-piece. On measuring the width of this deep cleft by sextant
it was found, at Garden Island, its narrowest part, to be eighty
yards, and at its broadest somewhat more. Into this chasm, of twice
the depth of Niagara Falls, the river, a full mile wide, rolls with
a deafening roar; and this is Mosi-oa-tunya, or the Victoria Falls.
"Looking from Garden Island down to the bottom of the abyss, nearly
half a mile of water, which has fallen over that portion of the
falls to our right, or west of our point of view, is seen collected
in a narrow channel twenty or thirty yards wide, and flowing at
exactly right angles to its previous course, to our left; while the
other half, or that which fell over the eastern portion of the
falls, is seen in the left of the narrow channel below, coming
toward our right. Both waters unite midway, in a fearful boiling
whirlpool, and find an outlet by a crack situated at right angles
to the fissure of the falls. This outlet is about eleven hundred
and seventy yards from the western end of the chasm, and some six
hundred from its eastern end; the whirlpool is at its commencement.
The Zambesi, now apparently not more than twenty or thirty yards
wide, rushes and surges south through the narrow escape-channel for
one hundred and thirty yards; then enters a second chasm, somewhat
deeper, and nearly parallel with the first. Abandoning the bottom
of the eastern half of this second chasm to the growth of large
trees, it turns sharply off to the west, and forms a promontory,
with the escape-channel at its point, of eleven hundred and seventy
yards long, and four hundred and sixteen yards broad at the base.
After reaching this base the river runs abruptly round the head of
another promontory, and flows away to the east, in a third chasm;
then glides round a third promontory, much narrower than the rest,
and away back to the west, in a fourth chasm; and we could see in
the distance that it appeared to round still another promontory,
and bend once more in another chasm toward the east. In this
gigantic zigzag, yet narrow, trough the rocks are all so sharply
cut and angular, that the idea at once arises that the hard
basaltic trap must have been riven into its present shape by a
force acting from beneath, and that this probably took place when
the ancient inland seas were let off by similar fissures nearer the
ocean.
"The land beyond, or on the south of the falls, retains, as already
remarked, the same level as before the rent was made. It is as if
the trough below Niagara were bent right and left several times
before it reached the railway bridge. The land in the supposed
bends, being of the same height as that above the fall, would give
standing-places, or points of view, of the same nature as that from
the railway bridge; but the nearest would be only eighty yards,
instead of two miles (the distance to the bridge), from the face of
the cascade. The tops of the promontories are in general flat,
smooth, and studded with trees. The first, with its base on the
east, is at one place so narrow that it would be dangerous to walk
to its extremity. On the second, however, we found a broad
rhinoceros path and a hut; but, unless the builder were a hermit,
with a pet rhinoceros, we cannot conceive what beast or man ever
went there for. On reaching the apex of this second eastern
promontory we saw the great river, of a deep sea-green color, now
sorely compressed, gliding away at least four hundred feet below
us.
"Garden Island, when the river is low, commands the best view of
the Great Fall chasm, as also of the promontory opposite, with its
grove of large evergreen trees, and brilliant rainbows of
three-quarters of a circle, two, three, and sometimes even four in
number, resting on the face of the vast perpendicular rock, down
which tiny streams are always running, to be swept again back by
the upward rushing vapor. But, as at Niagara one has to go over to
the Canadian shore to see the chief wonder--the great Horseshoe
Fall--so here we have to cross over to Moselekatse's side, to the
promontory of evergreens, for the best view of the principal falls
of Mosi-oa-tunya. Beginning, therefore, at the base of this
promontory, and facing the cataract, at the west end of the chasm,
there is, first, a fall of thirty-six yards in breadth, and of
course, as they all are, upward of three hundred and ten feet in
depth. Then Boaruka, a small island, intervenes, and next comes a
great fall, with a breadth of five hundred and seventy-three yards;
a projecting rock separates this from a second grand fall of three
hundred and twenty-five yards broad--in all upward of nine hundred
yards of perennial falls. Farther east stands Garden Island; then,
as the river was at its lowest, came a good deal of the bare rock
of its bed, with a score of narrow falls, which, at the time of
flood, constitute one enormous cascade of nearly another half mile.
Near the east end of the chasm are two larger falls, but they are
nothing, at low-water, compared to those between the islands.
"The whole body of water rolls clear over, quite unbroken; but,
after a descent of ten or more feet, the entire mass suddenly
becomes like a huge sheet of driven snow. Pieces of water leap off
it in the form of comets with tails streaming behind, till the
whole snowy sheet becomes myriads of rushing, leaping, aqueous
comets. This peculiarity was not observed by Charles Livingstone at
Niagara, and here it happens possibly from the dryness of the
atmosphere, or whatever the cause may be which makes every drop of
Zambesi water appear to possess a sort of individuality. It runs
off the ends of the paddles, and glides in beads along the smooth
surface, like drops of quick-silver on a table. Here we see them in
a conglomeration, each with a train of pure white vapor, racing
down till lost in clouds of spray. A stone dropped in became less
and less to the eye, and at last disappeared in the dense mist
below.
"Charles Livingstone had seen Niagara, and gave Mosi-oa-tunya the
palm, though now at the end of a drought, and the river at its very
lowest. Many feel a disappointment on first seeing the great
American falls, but Mosi-oa-tunya is so strange it must ever cause
wonder. In the amount of water Niagara probably excels, though not
during the months when the Zambesi is in flood. The vast body of
water, separating in the comet-like forms described, necessarily
encloses in its descent a large volume of air, which, forced into
the cleft to an unknown depth, rebounds, and rushes up loaded with
vapor, to form the three or even six columns, as if of steam,
visible at the Batoka village, Moachemba, twenty-one miles distant.
On attaining a height of two hundred, or at most three hundred,
feet from the level of the river above the cascade this vapor
becomes condensed into a perpetual shower of fine rain. Much of the
spray, rising to the west of Garden Island, falls on the grove of
evergreen trees opposite; and from their leaves heavy drops are
forever falling, to form sundry little rills, which, in running
down the steep face of rock, are blown off and turned back, or
licked off their perpendicular bed up into the column from which
they have just descended."
[Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF MOSI-OA-TUNYA.]