At about eleven they landed to lunch. After an hour’s rest they embarked, the doctor with an umbrella overhead. Sometimes they reached a sleeping-place two hours before sunset. Coffee was again served out, with coarse bread made of maize
meal, or Indian corn, unless some animal had been killed, when a potful of flesh was boiled.
The canoes were carried beyond the falls, slung on poles placed on men’s shoulders.
Here as elsewhere the doctor exhibited his magic lantern, greatly to the delight of the people.
Nothing could be more lovely than the scenery of the falls. The water rushes through a fissure and, being confined below by a space not more than a hundred yards wide, goes rolling over and over in great masses, amid which the most expert swimmer can in vain make way.
The doctor was able to put a stop to an intended fight between the inhabitants of two villages. Several volunteers offered to join him, but his followers determined to adhere to the orders of Sekeletu, and refused all other companions.
They were treated most liberally by the inhabitants of all the villages, who presented them with more oxen, milk, and meal than they could stow away. Entering the Leeambye, Dr Livingstone proceeded up that stream in his canoe, while his oxen and a portion of his men continued their journey along its banks.
The rain had fallen, and nature put on her gayest apparel: flowers of great beauty and curious forms grew everywhere, many of the forest trees having palmated leaves, the trunks being covered with lichens, while magnificent ferns were seen in all the moister situations. In the cool morning the welkin rang with the singing of birds, and the ground swarmed with insect life.
Livingstone did not fail to preach the Gospel to his attendants, as well as to the inhabitants of the villages, ever having in mind the value of human souls.