Continuing our voyage, we entered a narrow side-arm of the river lying between the left shore and the most northerly of a wooded group of islands, to which I gave the name of Rohlf’s Islands.
A MAMBARI.
A MATONGA.
Upon the mainland was Sekhose, the most westerly of the Masupia settlements, where for many years there has been a good system of husbandry, manza and beans being grown, as well as other crops. The Marutse only grow what they require for their own use, and to make up their tribute; but the Masupias, Batokas, and eastern Makalakas do somewhat more than this, selling the overplus to the hunters and traders who come from the south; but even they hardly cultivate more than the sandy slopes and the wooded declivities in the neighbourhood of ant-hills, leaving the marsh-lands completely untilled; yet these are the districts which would prove most fertile, and with the mild climate and the means of irrigation at their command, seem to me to hold out a grand prospect for the future. Away in the interior of the country are vast tracts of meadow-land, often miles in extent, that are now enclosed with primæval forest, but which might be transformed into prolific fields, while the rivers might, like the Zambesi, be utilized for watering them. The tribes are all ambitious and industrious; and if once the plough shall be introduced, and a free trade opened either to the south or east, the Marutse kingdom, it may be predicted, will exhibit a rapid development.
About twelve miles from Sesheke the woods came right down to the river bank, a foretoken of the chain of hills that accompanied the stream from the Barotse valley. East of Sesheke, half way between the Makumba rapids and the mouth of the Kashteja, where the country began to rise, I had noticed a cessation of the palms and papyrus, and west of Sekhose, where the stream has a considerable fall, was the commencement of the southern Barotse rapids and the cataracts of the central Zambesi. They are caused by ridges of rocks running either straight or transversely across the river, connecting links, as it were, between the hills on either side. The peaks of these reefs made countless little islands; and the further we went the more interesting I found their variety, some being brown and bare, whilst others were overgrown with reeds, or occasionally with trees of no inconsiderable height. Within fourteen miles I counted, besides a cataract, as many as forty-four rapids. In some cases the river-bed beneath them presented a continuous, sloping surface of rock, while in others it fell abruptly in a series of steps; rapids again were formed by great boulders that projected above the water, and I noticed one instance where the rocks made almost a barrier across the river, whilst only here and there were the gaps through which the current forced its way.
Were it not that the rapids are avoided by crocodiles, they would be impassable for canoes; but the absence of crocodiles makes it possible for the natives to disembark, and push or drag their craft across the obstacle. In places that are especially dangerous, it is found necessary to stow the baggage on the top of the boulders, and to take the boat over the rapid empty.
The first rapids at which we arrived were called by the natives Katima Molelo. Our oars sufficed to carry us over the first stretch of them, but afterwards the boatmen were obliged to get out and pull every canoe after them, taking care to lose no time in jumping in again, well aware that the deep water just beyond was almost sure to be a lurking-place for crocodiles.
On the 5th we crossed the rapids known as Mutshila Aumsinga, which, as I found to my cost, only too justly had the reputation of being the most dangerous of any of the Sesheke and Nambwe cataracts. I was still feeling very unwell, and could not even sit in my canoe without much pain; but there was nothing in my condition that alarmed me, and I continued to work at my chart of our course.