Chap. VII. SAXDIA'S REPORT OF KEBRABASA. 173 



From what we have seen of the Kebrabasa rocks and 

 rapids, it appears too evident that they 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 is 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 cata- 

 ract in it, Morumbwa, has only about twenty feet of fall, in 

 a distance of thirty yards, and it must entirely disappear when 

 the water stands eighty feet higher. Those of the Makololo 

 who worked on board the ship were not sorry at the steamer 

 being left below, as they had become heartily tired of cutting 

 the wood that the insatiable furnace of the "Asthmatic" re- 

 quired. Mbia, who was a bit of a wag, laughingly exclaimed 

 in broken English, " Oh, Kebrabasa good, very good ; no let 

 shippee up to Sekeletu, too muchee work, cuttee woodyee, 

 cuttee woodyee : Kebrabasa good." It is currently reported, 

 and commonly believed, that once upon a time a Portuguese 

 named Jose Pedra, — by the natives called Nyarnatimbira, — 

 Chief, or capitao mor, of Zumbo, a man of large enterprise 

 and small humanity, — being anxious to ascertain if Kebrabasa 

 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. A trader had a large canoe 

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

 without damage below ; but the most satisfactory infor- 

 mation was that of old Sandia, who asserted that in flood 

 all Kebrabasa became quite smooth, and he had often seen 

 it so. 



