The Greatest Falls in the World
THE GREATEST FALLS IN THE WORLD “ I hope you will help to keep God’s highway, the River Zambesi, as a free pathway for all nations.”
(Lord Clarendon to King Sekeletu.) HE gift Livingstone had brought King
Sekeletu from the Governor of Angola was nothing more nor less than a full-dress uniform of a Portuguese colonel Very magnificent, though distinctly quaint, Sekeletu must have looked in it. It attracted more attention than Livingstone’s sermon. But the Linyanti people gave him a most tremendous welcome.
What was Livingstone’s next move to be? He determined to strike straight across East Africa to the mouth of the Zambesi. He was certain if he followed that great river he would find a way that some day would be travelled by missionaries and traders, and would mean very much to Africa.
The King made up his mind to come with him, and it was a pretty big expedition that set out from Linyanti on 3rd November 1855. They followed the river for some time, and then Livingstone and his men got into a native canoe
THE GREATEST FALLS 151 and paddled for some miles down-stream till they reached one of the most beautiful spots on the Zambesi. At that time of year the trees were covered with blossom, and the little green islands on the broad river were gems of colour. Huge baobab-trees and groups of graceful palms grew on the nearer bank. Everywhere were bright-plumaged birds, and the woods swarmed with wild life. It was the first time any white man had been there. Six miles away rose into the sky several tall, misty columns, white below, grey above, and a sort of murmur rose mysteriously from that direction. The natives called it “ Mosioatunya,” which means “ vapour sounds .”
As the canoe brought them nearer and nearer, the sound of the water rose into a mighty roar that seemed to shake the world. The river was more than a mile and a quarter across at this point, and many little wooded islands appeared. From one of them Livingstone saw in another moment one of the greatest wonders of the world—the Victoria Falls.
Imagine if you can a mighty river, broader than the Thames at Gravesend, suddenly, without any rapids whatever, falling straight into a vast crack in the earth, four hundred feet deep, and then forced to change its direction, and rushing madly from right to left, from left to right, boiling and roaring in an immense zigzag channel through great basaltic precipices 152 THE GREATEST FALLS for thirty miles. Imagine five thick clouds of vapour rising from the seething waters, mounting three hundred feet into the air, and falling in rain upon miles of tree-clad rocks and tropical forest. Livingstone, the first white man to gaze upon this wonder, named the falls after the great white Queen.
He found a little green spot, watered by the spray, and planted there, before he left the falls, about a hundred peach and apricot stones, and a quantity of coffee seeds. He hoped this would one day be the parent of many such gardens in the Africa that was to be.
King Sekeletu said good-bye to Livingstone at the falls and lent him 114 men as a guard through the dangerous Batoka country. These people, however, proved quite friendly, and Livingstone found their courtesies sometimes a little overpowering. The Batoka way of saying “ How d’you do? ” is to throw themselves on their backs, roll from side to side, slap their thighs, and say “ Kina bomba! ” over and over again. Livingstone could never reconcile himself to this proceeding, and used to call out: “ Stop! Stop! I don’t want that! ” But the more he protested the more they slapped and rolled. In one of his diaries Livingstone had an entry about a finer side of native character. At Kuruman it was held to be tlolo (worse than bad form) for a man to show his feelings. A mighty hunter named
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Baba, a Christian, when he was horriblymangled by a rhino never showed a sign of suffering, but quietly prayed as long as he was conscious.
Livingstone always declared that even in the most dangerous parts of wild Africa “a man of good sense ” could live amongst the people in safety. He also added the proviso that the white man amongst Africans must be a “ good ” man, in the practical sense of the word. The natives are extraordinarily quick judges of character. It is only a man who can rule himself that can rule savages. He certainly proved that true in his own case amongst peoples who had a very evil name for cruelty and violence. A sense of humour, too, carries the leader of an African expedition very far. Like Hannington, Livingstone’s humour helped him to turn many an awkward corner.
Livingstone often said that his love of natural history saved him from half the worries of travel. When everything seemed wrong he could “ lift up his eyes to the hills ” and find peace of mind there; and to him that meant not only faith in God, but a deep love of nature, a constant resource in noting and “ collecting ” the plants and stones and little natural objects on the march. This was a most wonderfully interesting march for Livingstone, following the course of the Zambesi. It is one of the finest game countries in Africa, and at this time 154 THE GREATEST FALLS of the year the birds are in full song, and the trees and vegetation at their best.
It has often been said that African birds are “songless”; but that is not at all true, if it is made to mean that they have not a wonderful music of their own. African birds certainly do not sing as our thrushes and blackbirds do but some of them have a richness and “ timbre ” all their own. The bell-bird’s deep notes toll like cathedral bells; the chime-bird has a beautiful double note which rings out clear and true through the forest; the bottle-bird’s gurgling rush of liquid notes is like sparkling wine flowing from a silver cup. The plumage, too, of the African birds is astonishing. There are sun-birds of half-a-hundred varieties brilliant blue starlings; parrots and hornbills of every imaginable hue. Up in the branches the nests take every form, from the pear-shaped plaited nest of the weaver-birds to the treetop homes of the marabout storks. In all this forest life Livingstone delighted.
His gun supplied their daily larder, and they not infrequently dined off elephant steaks. Once or twice he saw his men hunt elephants in their own fashion, and, as a good sportsman, was not impressed by it. The great beast would be sighted perhaps in a mud hollow, smearing himself all over with the cooling mud and flapping his great ears in enjoyment. Then the natives would blow into a tube
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and shout out a song to attract the beast’s attention
“ O Chief, chief, we have come to kill you
Chief, chief, besides you many more will die! The gods have said it.”
As they shouted, they rushed upon the elephant and threw a cloud of spears at him. Round would turn the maddened beast and charge in a fury. One man with a red cloak would stay just long enough to bait him; the rest would vanish in the tall grass. Again and again this would be repeated, till the elephant was like a huge pin-cushion, stuck full of quivering spears; and at last the end came, and he sank on his knees and was finished off in triumph. When, as sometimes happened, it was a mother elephant with young, Livingstone never saw this form of hunting without “ a feeling of sickness.” It was a dangerous game but he didn’t think it was sportsmanlike.
What struck him tremendously about this whole region of Africa was the richness of the soil and the opportunities it offered to the real trader. If it could be opened up for proper trade, he was convinced it would soon kill the slave business.
After passing the Loangwa they had rather an exciting scene with two buffaloes. It was a very dense bit of bush, and suddenly the buffaloes charged their line. Livingstone’s little 156 THE GREATEST FALLS riding ox (not “ Sinbad,” for he had died from the bites of the tsetse fly) galloped off in terror, and as the Doctor glanced back he saw one of his men doing a mighty somersault in the air five feet above the back of an enraged buffalo. Fortunately he was not fatally wounded, and Livingstone managed to bring him round again.
Livingstone was always most particular in observing the native game laws. In an African chief’s kingdom these laws are quite as stringent as they are at home. Livingstone’s courteous attention to this made a great deal of difference to the safety of his expedition. African travellers have not by any means always bothered about these native courtesies, or a good many unpleasant scenes and some bloodshed might have been avoided.
Marching at the rate of about ten miles a day, they gradually reached Portuguese territory, and one can imagine how eagerly Livingstone looked forward to seeing a newspaper. It had made it all the harder to leave the west coast because Britain had entered on the Crimean War. All his long journey he had “ wearied ” for news of the campaign, and at last near Tete he met a company of Portuguese soldiers who brought him to the Commandant’s house and told him that Sebastopol had fallen and Britain was victorious. The journey had been, as one of the officers remarked,
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“ enough to tear a man’s life out of him,” but a real bed at Signor Sicard’s hospitable house seemed to more than make up for it all.
Major Sicard had been expecting Livingstone, for native reports of the white traveller had arrived before him at Tete. The natives, who had seen the Doctor find his position with his sextant, told the major that “ the son of a god was coming, and was able to take down the sun from the heavens and place it under his arm.” The Portuguese gave him a most kind welcome, and when he was strong enough to start once more put him on his way to the coast.
Livingstone sailed down the broad Zambesi as far as Mazaro, and then found another river, the Kwa-kwa, down which he made his way to Quilimane. It was just four years since he had said good-bye to his wife at Cape Town, and three whole years since he had had a letter from home. One can picture his joy at getting news at Quilimane that all was well in England. As a matter of fact, his family had been terribly anxious about him, and Commander Maclure and some other naval officers had promised to do their best to get news of him. Livingstone heard at Quilimane that their ship, H.M.S. Dart, had been lost on the dangerous bar of the river. Six weeks later H.M.S. Frolic arrived and the captain had a packet for Livingstone. It contained £150 from the London 158 THE GREATEST FALLS Missionary Societies’ agent at Cape Town to pay his passage home, and he was offered a berth on the Frolic as far as Mauritius. So at last the traveller found himself homeward bound.