The Mutshila Aumsinga rapids are formed by a considerable slope in the river-bed, combined with the projection of numerous masses of rock above the water. But the chief danger in crossing them arises from another cause. Between a wooded island and the left-hand shore are two side-currents, about fifty yards broad, formed by some little islands at their head; and as no part of the rapids is sufficiently shallow for boats to be lifted across them, the strength of the rowers has to be put to the test by pulling against the full force of the stream, and is consequently liable to be exhausted.
ASCENDING THE ZAMBESI.
The boat in which I was sitting happened to be the third in the order of procession. It carried my journals, all my beads and cartridges, and the presents intended for the native kings and chiefs. Like all my other boats it was too heavily laden, and not adequately manned. The second boat just ahead of me conveyed my gunpowder, my medicines, and provisions, and all the plants and insects that I had collected at Sesheke, the bulk of my specimens having been left with Westbeech to send back to Panda ma Tenka. Observing that the crew in front were experiencing the utmost difficulty in holding their own against the current, I shouted to them to catch hold of the branches of some overhanging trees; I was most anxious to see them at least keep their bow in the right direction. My voice was lost in the roar of the waters. I could see that the oars of the men were slipping off the surface of the rock that was as smooth as a mirror, and that the men, although obviously aware of their peril, were paddling wildly and to no purpose at all. My heart misgave me. Nothing could save the boat; still I could not bring myself to believe that fate was about to deal so hardly with me. I could not realize that just at the moment when a threatening fever made me especially require my medicines I was about to lose them all. I could not face the contingency of having my stock of provisions, on which I depended not only for the prosecution of my journey, but for my very maintenance, totally destroyed; neither could I resign myself to the loss of all the natural curiosities that I had laboured for so many days to accumulate. I called vehemently upon my own crew to hasten to the rescue; but they, in their alarm at the desperate plight of the others, were quite powerless; they were utterly bewildered, and were letting themselves drift into the fury of the current; but happily they were within reach of the drooping branches of a tree, at which they clutched only just in time to make their boat secure. By this time the boat in front had twisted round, and presented its broadside to the angry flood. Nothing could save it now. Heedless of the state of fever I was in, I should have flung myself into the current, determined to help if I could, had not the boatmen held me back. Not that any assistance on my part could have been of any avail, for in another moment I saw that the paddles were all broken, the men lost their equilibrium, and, to my horror, the boat was overturned.
MY BOAT WRECKED.
At the greatest risk, by the combined exertions of both crews, the capsized canoe was after some time set afloat again, and a few trifling articles were gathered up, but the bulk of my baggage was irrecoverably lost.
Thus ended all my schemes; thus vanished all my visions for the future.
No one can conceive the keenness of my disappointment. The preparations of seven previous years had proved fruitless. Here I was, not only suffering in body from the increasing pains of fever, but dejected in spirit at the conviction that I must forthwith abandon my enterprise.
An hour after that deplorable passage of the Mutshila Aumsinga, which never can be effaced from my memory, we landed on the right-hand bank of the Zambesi, just below a Mabunda village called Sioma. My servants, who had continued following on foot, were ferried across, and we made our encampment before it grew dark. We were rather surprised to be told by the residents that the neighbourhood was infested with lions, and that the village was night after night ravaged by their attacks; and, for my own part, I was inclined to believe that the stories were made up as a pretext to induce us to move on. In exchange for some beads I obtained a quantity of kaffir-corn beer, which I distributed to the boatmen in acknowledgment of the exertions they had made in my service. Finding that I was not intimidated by the representations they made, and pleased moreover with the beads I had spent among them, the natives became more hospitable, and gave us their advice and assistance in collecting the roofs of seven deserted huts, which we placed closely side by side in a semicircle, resting one edge on the ground, and propping up the other on poles, so that from the wood the encampment looked merely like a lot of grass-piles. I had several large fires lighted in front.