216 TWO HUNDKED MEN IN LINE. 



rible storms which distinguish Africa pre-eminently. The storms 

 of Africa even are wilder than in other lands ; the clouds are 

 deeper and blacker and more angry-looking ; the thunders are 

 hoarser and heavier, and lightnings flash more vividly. That 

 night was made absolutely dreadful ; the swift successions of 

 pitchy gloom and glaring brilliancy as of the heavens on fire 

 were bewildering and terrifying ; and a pelting rain, increasing 

 the discomforts of the hour, initiated the new enterprise which 

 was to be full of Aveariness and adventure. 



Including the personal attendants of Sekeletu, the party com- 

 prised about two hundred men when it left Sesheke. One hun- 

 dred and fourteen of these had been assigned as the special 

 companions of Dr. Livingstone. Some of the party floated 

 along in canoes, while others marched along the bank with 

 the oxen. They were following the same river which they had 

 ascended in the former journey. There is not properly any dis- 

 tinction to be made between the Leeambye and Zambesi. They 

 are names applied to the same stream in different sections of the 

 country. The distinction which has been made by some writers 

 is not sustained by the observations of Dr. Livingstone or other 

 travellers who have reached its banks ; both names imply 

 " the river," and are applied to this noble stream as a distinction 

 of eminence because it is the great river of the country. 



The grand, indescribable, mysterious scenery was a fitting 

 attendant of the song of the boatmen, which ran, 



" The Leeambye ! nobody knows 

 Whither it comes or whither it goes," 



and accorded well with the fables which were told of mighty 

 monsters which sometimes held the canoes of the natives mo- 

 tionless on the surface ; and constituted a splendid introduc- 

 tion to the " grandest scene in all Africa," which was soon to 

 burst on the view of the traveller : for the Niagara of Africa 

 was at hand. 



This wonderful spot has always inspired the ignorant inhabit- 

 ants of the country with awe ; they only view it from the dis- 

 tance. Its columns of smoke like mist towering toward the 

 clouds and its roar like angry thunder is all they know of the 

 mystery, where the Leeambye is lost in an awful chasm. They 



