3i8 UV/.VGSTONE'S JOURNKV ACROSS AFRICA 



ents that the Portuguese officials and merchants had sent to Sekeletu 

 were duly delivered; and "on Sunday," says Livingstone, "when Sek- 

 eletu made his appearance at church in his uniform, it attracted more 

 attention than the sermon." 



On the 3d of November, 1855, Livingstone left Linyanti and re- 

 sumed his long march across Africa. Sekeletu and a large number of 

 followers accompanied him for some distance, and then bade him an 

 affectionate farewell. 



A day or so after parting from Sekeletu, Livingstone came in 

 sight of the great falls of the Zambesi, and which were known to the 

 natives as "Mosi-oa-tunya" — "smoke does sound there." The noble 

 river, a mile in width, sweeps down a broad and wooded valley, which, 

 sloping gently back from the banks, culminates in swelling hills some 

 three or four hundred feet in height. Trees of many kinds, from the 

 massive baobab to the slender palm, grow in clumps or singly upon 

 this grassy slope. From the bosom of the river arise palm-fostering 

 island's, and on its banks the silver cedar spreads its branches, the 

 clustering fruit of the wild date-])alm gleams like gold, and the scarlet- 

 fruited cypress lifts its dark head above the surrounding foliage. The 

 vegetation is tropical, but the scene has a repose which is rare indeed 

 in a region where all forms of life are exuberant and aggressive. 



These are some of the beauties of the most remarkable scene in 

 the Zambesi basin. But the traveler passes them by almost unheeded ; 

 for right in front of him, and riveting his gaze, there rise into the 

 heavens five lofty columns of vapor. These five great towers of 

 Nature's building curl and bend to the faintest breeze, and yet never 

 cease to soar till they are dissipated in the rarified atmosphere of 

 greater elevation, or, mingling with the clouds of a spent storm, are 

 lost from view. They are the sentinels over the most wonderful sight 

 Nature has prepared for man in Africa — a physical phenomenon of 

 a pre-eminence which induced Livingstone to baptize them wath a 

 name of equal pre-eminence in his own country, and reveal to an as- 

 tounded w^orld that unrivalled plunge of waters as the Victoria Falls. 



Livingstone cautiously paddled to an island in mid-stream and 

 on the very brink of the falls, and this is what met his view : "Creep- 

 ing with aw^e to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had 



