DR. LIVINGSTONE. 



33 



Portuguese, whose kind treatment did much to restore his health, 

 which had been impaired by fever, and the poor food, chiefly manioc- 

 root, on which he had been obliged to live. But his task was boot- 

 less. The country was unhealthy. The coast tribes were inhospita- 

 ble. Wagons would be impracticable among the interminable for- 

 ests, marshes, and rivers. The westward route being thus out of the 

 question, instead of availing himself of the offer of a passage home 

 from the officers of H. M.'s cruisers at Loando, Livingstone determined 

 to retrace his steps, and seek a path along the Zambesi to the east. 



In August, 1854, he is once more at Linyanti; on November 3d, 

 starting down the Zambesi with a large retinue of Makololo. 



The country beyond Linyanti is greatly infested by the " tsetse" 

 fly, the bite of which, fatal to oxen, horses, and dogs, is perfectly harm- 

 less to man, as well as to goats and sheep, and wild animals. After 

 its bite is received, the victim gradually pines as if seized with con- 

 sumption, and in a longer or shorter time dies. There is no cure for 

 it known. In appearance the " tsetse " resembles the honey-bee, and 

 is about the size of the common horse-fly. It is common throughout 

 the whole of Central Africa, and infests certain well-defined districts, 

 usually those frequented by game ; numbers may be found in a partic- 

 ular spot, and yet a few yards farther on not a singly fly is to be seen. 

 It only bites in the daytime. 



Starting at night, therefore, to get safely through the "tsetse" 

 tract, on November 4th Livingstone arrived at the island of Kalai, 

 where the rapids commence above the " Victoria Falls," as he loyally 

 named them. They are known among the natives as " Mosi oa tunya " 

 (Smoke does sound there). Nothing can be grander than their appear- 

 ance, which is perhaps unique. Columns of vapor, darkening upward 

 from a white base, first become visible, rising at distinct intervals 

 like jets of smoke in the far distance. The broad stream sweeps 

 along, its surface dotted in every direction with beautiful green isl- 

 ands, and then the vast body of water is seen to descend suddenly 

 into a deep perpendicular fissure 180 yards wide, extending across the 

 entire bed of the river, and is lost to view. Looking down from the 

 brink opposite, masses of dense white vapor conceal the seething vol- 

 ume of fallen water below, from which feathery columns of spray like 

 those described, rainbow-covered and the source of ceaseless showers, 

 perpetually ascend far up into the air. Passing eastward (the river 

 here flows north and south), along the edge of the cleft in front of the 

 falls, the fissure is seen to extend, from a gap near the end, with still 

 narrower dimensions in a zigzag course, down which the whole mass 

 of Zambesi water, compressed into a deep, swift column, rolls along, 

 boiling and foaming, till it finds an outlet at a lower level. The rock 

 through which the chasm runs is a dark-brown basalt, covered at the 

 projecting angles, and wherever there is root-hold, with a dense growth 

 of tropical vegetation. The length of the fissure into which the river 



