LIVINGSTONE'S JOURNEY ACROSS AFRICA 
318 
ents that the Portuguese officials and merchants had sent to-Sekeletu 
were duly delivered; and “on Sunday/’ says Livingstone, “when Sek¬ 
eletu made his appearance at church in his uniform, it attracted more 
attention than the sermon.” 
On the 3d of November, 1855, Livingstone left Liny anti and re¬ 
sumed his long march across Africa. Sekeletu and a large number of 
followers accompanied him for some distance, and then bade him an 
affectionate farewell. 
A day or so after parting from Sekeletu, Livingstone came in 
sight of the great falls of the Zambesi, and which were known to the 
natives as “Mosi-oa-tunya”—“smoke does sound there.” The noble 
river, a mile in width, sweeps down a broad and wooded valley, which, 
sloping gently back from the banks, culminates in swelling hills some 
three or four hundred feet in height. Trees of many kinds, from the 
massive baobab to the slender palm, grow in clumps or singly upon 
this grassy slope. From the bosom of the river arise palm-fostering 
island's, and on its banks the silver cedar spreads its branches, the 
clustering fruit of the wild date-palm gleams like gold, and the scarlet- 
fruited cypress lifts its dark head above the surrounding foliage. The 
vegetation is tropical, but the scene has a repose which is rare indeed 
in a region where all forms of life are exuberant and aggressive. 
These are some of the beauties of the most remarkable scene in 
the Zambesi basin. But the traveler passes them by almost unheeded; 
for right in front of him, and riveting his gaze, there rise into the 
heavens five lofty columns of vapor. These five great towers of 
Nature’s building curl and bend to the faintest breeze, and yet never 
cease to soar till they are dissipated in the rarified atmosphere of 
greater elevation, or, mingling with the clouds of a spent storm, are 
lost from view. They are the sentinels over the most wonderful sight 
Nature has prepared for man in Africa—a physical phenomenon of 
a pre-eminence which induced Livingstone to baptize them with a 
name of equal pre-eminence in his own country, and reveal to an as¬ 
tounded world that unrivalled plunge of waters as the Victoria Falls. 
Livingstone cautiously paddled to an island in mid-stream and 
on the very brink of the falls, and this is what met his view: “Creep- 
ing with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had 
