333 A THUNDERSTORM. Chap. XXVI. 



at once recommended our keeping well away from the river, 

 both on account of the tsetse and the rocky county, and also 

 because the Zambesi beyond the falls tarns round to the 

 N.N.E. Mamire, who had married the mother of Sekeletu, on 

 coming to bid me farewell before starting, said, " You are now 

 going among people who cannot be trusted because we have 

 used them badly, but you go with a different message from 

 any they ever heard before, and Jesus will be with you, and 

 help you, though among enemies ; and if he carries you 

 safely and brings you and Ma Eobert back again, I shall say 

 lie has bestowed a great favour upon me. May we obtain a 

 path whereby we may visit and be visited by other tribes, 

 and by white men !" 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



Descent of the Zambesi. — Victoria Falls. — The Lekone. — 

 Ancient Lakes. — The Batoka. — The Unguesi. 



On the 3rd of November we bade adieu to our friends at 

 Linyanti, and departed accompanied by Sekeletu and 200 fol- 

 lowers, who were all fed at his expense. We encountered a 

 fearful thunderstorm as we were passing by night through the 

 district occupied by the tsetse between Linyanti and Sesheke. 

 About ten o'clock it became so pitchy dark that both horses and 

 men were completely blinded, and this darkness was soon in- 

 tensified by flashes of the most vivid lightning, which momen- 

 tarily lit up the whole country, spreading over the sky in eight 

 or ten branches at a time, in shape exactly like those of a tree. 

 The horses trembled, snorted, and started, and every new 

 flash revealed the men taking different directions, laughing, 

 and stumbling against each other. The thunder was of that 

 tremendously loud kind peculiar to tropical countries, and 

 which appears to be louder in Africa than in India. The 

 pelting rain, which followed, completed our confusion. After 

 the intense heat of the day we soon felt miserably cold, and 

 turned aside to a fire which had been made by some travellers ; 

 for this path is seldom without numbers of strangers passing 



