594 
CROSSING THE ZAMBESI. 
Chap. XXIX. 
tell me about him; but you shall cross.” Mpende said fre¬ 
quently he was sorry he had not known me sooner, but that he 
had been prevented by his enchanter from coming near me; and 
he lamented that the same person had kept him from eating the 
meat which I had presented. He did everything he could after¬ 
wards to aid us on our course, and our departure was as different 
as possible from our approach to his village. I was very much 
pleased to find the English name spoken of with such great 
respect so far from the coast, and most thankful that no collision 
occurred to damage its influence. 
24^A.—Mpende sent two of his principal men to order the 
people of a large island below to ferry us across. The river is 
very broad, and, though my men were weU acquainted with the 
management of canoes, we could not aU cross over before dark. 
It is 1200 yards from bank to bank, and between 700 and 800 
of deep water, flowing at the rate of 3f miles per hour. We 
landed first on an island, then, to prevent our friends playing 
false with us, hauled the canoes up to our bivouac, and slept in 
them. Next morning we all reached the opposite bank in safety. 
We observed as we came along the Zambesi that it had fallen two 
feet below the height at which we first found it, and the water, 
though still muddy enough to deposit a film at the bottom of vessels 
in a few hours, is not nearly so red as it was, nor is there so much 
wreck on its surface. It is therefore not yet the period of the 
central Zambesi inundation, as we were aware also from our know¬ 
ledge of the interior. The present height of the water has been 
caused by rains outside the eastern ridge. The people here seem 
abundantly supplied with English cotton goods. The Babisa are 
the medium of trade,Tor we were informed that the Bazunga, who 
formerly visited these parts, have been prevented by the war from 
coming for the last two years. The Babisa are said to be so fond 
of a tusk that they will even sell a newly married wife for one. 
As we were now not far from the latitude of Mozambique, I was 
somewhat tempted to strike away from the river to that port, 
instead of going to the S.E. in the dfrection the river flows, but, 
the great object of my journey being to secure water carriage, I 
resolved to continue along the Zambesi, though it did lead me 
among the enemies of the Portuguese. The region to the north 
of the ranges of hills on our left is called Senga, from being the 
