DISCOVERY OF THE ZAMBESI. 
53 
there at all. The Portuguese maps all represent it as 
rising far to the east of where we now were ; and, if even 
any thing like a chain of trading-stations had oxistod 
across the country between the latitudes 12° and 18° south, 
this magnificent portion of the river must havo been 
known before. Wo saw it at tho end of the dry season, at . 
the time when the river is about at its lowest; and yet 
thoro was a breadth of from three hundred to six hundred 
yards of deep, flowing water. Mr. Oswell said ho had 
never seen such a fine river even in India. At tho period 
its annual inundation it rises fully twenty feet in per- 
pendicular height, and floods fifteen or twenty miles of 
lands adjacent to its banks. 
Occasionally the country between the Chobe and Zam- 
besi is flooded, and there are largo patches of swamps lying 
near tho Chobo or on its banks. Tho Makololo woro living 
among these swamps for tho sake of the protection the 
doop reedy rivers afforded them against their enemies. 
-Now,' in reference to a suitable locality for a settlement 
for myself, 1 could not conscientiously ask them to aban 
don their defences for my convenience alone. The health} 
districts were defenceless, and the safo localities woro so 
deleterious to human lifo that tho original Basutos had 
nearly all been cut off by tho fever : 1 thorofore feared to 
•object my family to tho scourge. 
As there was no hopo of tho Boers allowing tho peace 
•bio instruction of tho natives at Kolobong, I at onco ro 
•°lvod to save my family from exposnro to this unhealthy 
r ®gion by sending them to England, and to return alone, 
*ith a view to exploring tho country in search of a 
ealthy district that might prove a centro of civilization 
• Q d open up the interior by a path to cither tho east or 
w ost coast. This resolution led mo down to tho Capo in 
^pril, 1852, being tho first time during cloven vears that I 
ft d visited tho scenes of civilization. Our route to Capo 
°wn lod us to pass through tho centro of tho colony 
the twentieth month of s Caffro war; and if those 
