322 LIVINGSTONE ON THE ZAMBESI 



region, passed through a belt of wide level plains of rich, alluvial soil, 

 covered with grass which grew to a height of over ten feet. The 

 natives of this belt of country live in houses raised on piles above the 

 reach of flood, and entered by ladders. 



Passing Sena, which is built on the level bank of the Zambesi, the 

 Doctor pressed forward to Tete. Here he was received by the 

 Makololo — whom he had left there nearly three years before — with 

 the greatest affection and enthusiasm. Some of them had died, but the 

 survivors philosophically remarked that ''men die in any country." 

 Tete stands upon some low ridges on the right bank of the Zambesi, 

 and in Livingstone's time it was surrounded by a stone and mud wall, 

 the huts of the natives being outside this line of defence. The Doctor 

 found many tons of indigo growing, not only in the vicinity, but even 

 in the streets of the town. Indeed, tlie indigo plant was the chief weed 

 of the place, and regarded as such a nuisance that it w^as annually 

 burned off, exactly in the same way as the natives burned off the tall 

 jungle grass. 



A short distance above Tete, the navigation of the Zambesi is 

 interrupted by the Kebrabasa Rapids. Livingstone and Kirk exam- 

 ined these falls with the greatest care no less than three times, and 

 they came to the conclusion that, while impossible of navigation at 

 ordinary times, it might be possible to do so at the flood season, W'hen 

 the river rose to a great height in the rocky canyon which formed its 

 bed, and buried the rocks and rapids below. But the force of ^he 

 stream at this time was too great for the "Ma-Robert" to stem, and 

 accordingly Livingstone sent a report back to the Government, point- 

 ing out the difficulties, and asking for a more powerful steamer. 



In the meanwhile, he turned his attention to the Shire, a large 

 affluent of the Zambesi, which it enters above the delta. Of this river 

 the Portuguese could tell him nothing but what was erroneous. An 

 expedition, it was said, had attempted to ascend it in former years, but 

 the impenetrable mass of aquatic vegetation had made advance impos- 

 sible. Upon entering the Shire, in January, 1859, a good deal of duck- 

 weed was met w-ith, but never in sufficient mass to stem the progress 

 of canoes or boats, and after a few miles it almost disappeared. The 

 natives, however, were very much in evidence, and at first assumed an 



