A PERPETUAL BARRIER. 351 



dense thornbush which covered the ascent. The face of the slope 

 was often about an angle of seventy degrees, yet their guide, 

 Shokumbenia, whose hard, horny soles, resembling those of 

 elephants, showed that he was accustomed to this rough and hot 

 work, carried a pot of water for them nearly all the way up. 

 They slept that night at a well in a tufaceous rock on the north- 

 west of Chipereziwa, and never was sleep more sweet. 



From what they had seen and felt they were satisfied that 

 Kebrabasa must always form a barrier to navigation at the 

 ordinary low water of the river; but the rise of the water in this 

 gorge being as much as eighty feet perpendicularly, it was con- 

 sidered probable that a steamer might be taken up at high flood, 

 when all the rapids are smoothed over, to run on the upper 

 Zambesi. The most formidable cataract in it, Morumbwa, hav- 

 ing only about twenty feet of fall, in a distance of thirty yards, 

 it was reasonable to suppose that it must entirely disappear 

 when the water stands eighty feet higher. They found current 

 stories which confirmed their impressions of the impossibility of 

 navigation in low water and encouraging their hope of ascend- 

 ing safely in flood time. One story goes that once on a time a 

 Portuguese named Jose Pedra — by the natives called Nyama- 

 timbira — chief, or capitao mor, of Zumbo, a man of large enter- 

 prise and small humanity — being anxious to ascertain if Kebra- 

 basa could be navigated, made two slaves fast to a canoe, and 

 launched it from Chicova into Kebrabasa, in order to see if it 

 would come out at the other end. As neither slaves nor canoe 

 ever appeared again, his excellency concluded that Kebrabasa 

 was unnavigable. There is another of a trader who had a 

 large canoe swept away by a sudden rise of the river, and it was 

 found without damage below. But the most satisfactory in- 

 formation was that of a trustworthy old man, who asserted that 

 in flood all Kebrabasa became quite smooth, and he had often 

 seen it so. 



Having satisfied themselves, as far as possible at the time, 

 concerning the famous rapids, the party returned to Tete, and, 

 in accordance with the requirements of their commission, gave 

 themselves up to various examinations into the agricultural and 

 mineral resources of the country, and such observations of the 

 customs of the people, and climate, etc., as they had opportunity. 



