ROUGH TRAVELLING. 281 



see all the difficult part by descending from that point before reporting to Her 

 Majesty's Government. The next yillage we came to gave a totally different 

 account ; the men asserted that there was a waterfall so frightful as to be 

 perfectly unapproachable : ' no elephant had ever gone near it, nor hippopo- 

 tamus ; not even an alligator could reach it, and a man might perish with 

 thirst in sight of, but unable to approach it.' On asking how they happened 

 to get near this frightful abyss, they replied that it was more accessible from 

 the other side. They had a political reason for not showing us the river ; the 

 Banyai, on the opposite lands (Shidima) have been in the habit of exacting 

 large payments from the traders for leave to pass. Eighty fathoms of calico 

 are sometimes paid to a single village, and the villagers here were afraid that 

 blame would be imputed by the Banyai to them in the event of our opening 

 a path whereby their exactions would be avoided. By insisting that our two 

 guides from Zandia should fulfil their bargain, they went on, but led us to a 

 point near Mount Stephanie, where, emerging from the mountains, we found 

 ourselves a good thousand feet above the Zambesi ; the mountains on both 

 sides slope at a high angle down to the water, and there is no upper or flood- 

 bed. The water, about 300 yards broad, appeared to us at the height we first 

 saw it, not more than a third of this width. The guides pointed to a rapid, 

 caused by two rocks about eight feet high in the middle of the stream, as the 

 waterfall ; but refusing to credit them, we resolved to go up along the bank 

 westward. 



"On descending to the water's edge we found the steep sloping bank 

 covered with enormous boulders, with a black glaze, as if they had recently 

 been smeared over with tar. Wherever the water flows over rocks for a long 

 time this peculiar glaze appears ; it has been observed in the Congo, and has 

 been mentioned by Humboldt in the Orinoco. The guides declared that it was 

 totally impossible to go further, though their soles were furnished with a thick 

 3racked skin similar to that of the elephant. The marks of these cracks were 

 visible on the sand they trod upon. The Makololo head-men — very willing 

 fellows — showed me their feet on which the blisters were broken by the hot 

 rocks over which we had climbed, and said they were fairly done up ; that it 

 was evident the villagers magnified the difficulty from political motives ; and 

 that there was no impediment save such as we had already seen. On urging 

 them to make another effort, they said that they ' always imagined I had a 

 heart till then ; they were sorry Kirk could not understand them, for he would 

 acquiesce in their views and go back — I had surely become insane ; ' and next 

 day they endeavoured by signs to induce him to return. Leaving them there 

 Dr. Kirk and I went on alone ; but while striving with all our might we could 

 uot make more than one mile in three hours. It was in truth the worst tract I 

 ever travelled over ; our strong new English boots were worn through the soles. 

 The sun's rays were converged by the surrounding hills into a sort of focus, and 



M 1 



