264 
NAVIGATION OF THE LEEAMBYE. 
Chap. XV. 
The message by Mosantu was, that I was sorry to find that 
Santuru had not borne a wiser son. Santuru loved to govern 
men, but Masiko wanted to govern wild beasts only, as he sold 
his people to the Mambariadding an explanation of the return 
of the captives, and an injunction to him to live in peace, and 
prevent liis people kidnapping the children and canoes of the 
Makololo, as a continuance in these deeds would lead to war, 
which I wished to prevent. He was also instructed to say, if 
Masiko wanted fuller explanation of my views, he must send a 
sensible man to talk with me at the first town of the Balonda, 
to which I was about to proceed. 
We ferried Mosantu over to the left bank of the Leeba. The 
journey required five days, but it could not have been at a 
quicker rate than ten or twelve miles per day; the children 
were between seven and eight years of age, and unable to walk 
fast in a hot sun. 
Leaving Mosantu to pursue his course, we shall take but one 
glance down the river, which we are now about to leave, for it 
comes at this point from the eastward, and our course is to be 
directed to the north-west, as we mean to go to Loanda in 
Angola. From the confluence, where we now are, down to 
Mosioatunya, there are many long reaches, where a vessel equal 
to the Thames steamers plying between the bridges, could run 
as freely as they do on the Thames. It is often, even here, as 
broad as that river at London Bridge, but, without accurate 
measurement of the depth, one could not say which contained 
most water. There are, however, many and serious obstacles 
to a continued navigation for hundreds of miles at a stretch. 
About ten miles below the confluence of the Loeti, for instance, 
there are many large sandbanks in the stream ; then you have 
a hundred miles to the river Simah, where a Thames steamer 
could ply at all times of the year; but, again, the space between 
Simah and Katima-molelo has five or six rapids with cataracts, 
one of which, Gonye, could not be passed at any time without 
portage. Between these rapids there are reaches of still, deep 
water, of several miles in length. Beyond Katima-molelo to 
the confluence of the Chobe, you have nearly a hundred miles 
again, of a river capable of being navigated in the same way as 
in the Barotse valley. 
