Seven Years in South Africa/Volume 2/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X.
UP THE ZAMBESI
MANKOË.
On the morning fixed for the start one of the Marutse subchieftains came to me with a message that I was to accompany him to the river side. There I found three of the royal canoes waiting for me; but as they barely sufficed to carry my baggage, I had to ask for a fourth, my servants for the present having to follow on foot.
It was about noon when we quitted Sesheke. We proceeded at good speed past a number of islands, creeks, and lagoons, at which I should have been glad to linger, and could only regret that the approach of the unhealthy season made it necessary to hurry forwards, and quite prevented me from drawing up either a proper map or detailed plan of the river-bed. The shore, sandy and sloping, was covered with a layer of turf and clay about a foot deep; and during the first part of our voyage I noticed several plants that I should very much have liked to stay and gather; but I could not venture to stop, as I was anxious to overtake the queens, who had started some hours earlier.
TYPES OF MARUTSE.
Towards evening we arrived at a place which required very careful navigation; some trunks of trees that had been washed down by the stream had become imbedded in the ground, and formed dangerous impediments in the line of traffic; we succeeded, however, in passing them with safety, and just about sunset reached the spot where the royal ladies had landed. It was a bare sandy place on the bank, enclosed on two sides by sedge, and sheltered from the wind by tall bushes. The serving-maids had already lighted several fires, and had commenced their cooking, and a number of boats had been despatched to fetch reeds to build the huts for the night’s accommodation.
In the course of the day’s progress I had noticed a great many water-birds and swamp-birds, as well as starlings, finches, and kingfishers, all along the river.
Had I followed my own inclinations I should have stayed close to the spot where the queens had landed; but my boatmen recommended a place a few miles further on. Not suspecting any artifice on their part, I acceded to the proposal, though it turned out that their only motive was to separate me from the royal flotilla, that I might not have the protection of the queens if they should be inclined to be insolent or misconduct themselves in any way. It was quite late before we reached the landing-place to which they carried me, and which was a Mamboë settlement, containing a few huts occupied by fishermen and hippopotamus-hunters; their character being sufficiently indicated by the nets hung out on poles ornamented by crocodiles’ heads, and by the quantities of fish that were lying about. We found our quarters for the night in a grass-hut thirty yards long, but not more than ten feet wide and about ten feet high.
While we were reloading our boats in the morning the royal squadron came in sight, and we awaited its arrival. The Mamboë in the place sent the queens a bullock which had been slaughtered the evening previously, and Mokena, “the mother of the country,” was courteous enough to send me one of the hind-quarters. I made my own boatmen keep up with the others all the morning, and we made our way along with good speed. The boats were all well manned; and as they darted about, sometimes in the rear and sometimes well to the front, threading their way between the islands on the dark blue water, and past the luxuriant mimosas on the banks, they formed a picture that I should willingly have done my best to transfer to paper if I had not felt that every available moment ought to be employed in making the best survey I could of the cartographical features of the stream.
When it was necessary to give the energetic boatmen a rest we lay to for something under an hour against a sandbank opposite a Marutse settlement on the right-hand shore. They all enjoyed their dacha-pipes, while the queens partook of some light refreshment; one of them, Mamangala, thoughtfully sending me some broiled fish for my luncheon. The river-scenery, and the examples of animal life, corresponded very much with what i had noticed the day before.
Towards evening we arrived at a place where some recent travellers had left about twenty huts. Here we resolved to land; and, indeed, it was high time that we did so, as a storm was gathering, and it began to rain before I could get my baggage on shore. The fourth boat for which I had asked was here awaiting me. The storm continued till near midnight; and as the huts were not waterproof I was induced to use my wraps to protect my packages. While sitting dozing upon one of my boxes I slipped off, and woke to find myself lying in a great pool of water that had dripped through the thatch. Of such a night’s rest it was hardly to be expected that I should escape the consequences.
I yielded next morning to the solicitations of the boatmen, and started, much against my inclination, on a hunting-excursion across the plain stretching far away from the Sesheke woods towards the west. Overgrown with grass four or five feet high, the plain was full of swamps, and was subject to floods that left nothing unsubmerged except the few hillocks on which the Marutse had erected some stragling villages, the largest of which is called Matonga. The whole expedition was damp and dreary, and as far as sport was concerned absolutely fruitless. Before I reached our encampment, when we had only about another mile to go, I was seized with a sudden weariness, which increased so rapidly that I was unable to move a step, and my servants had to carry me the rest of the way back. I understood the symptoms only too well, and could come to no other conclusion than that I was in the preliminary stage of fever.
The boatmen were inclined to be very angry because we had come back without bringing a supply of game, and were also ready to make a disturbance with the villagers in Matonga for not procuring them enough corn and beer. I began to fear that I should have a difficulty with them; but happily Sekele, the sub-chieftain who had the oversight of things, took my part and brought them to reason.
During the night one of Moquai’s waiting-women was reported to be missing, and it was soon found that she had taken her way back towards Sesheke.
Some messengers were sent, who quickly overtook her; she proved to be the bride who had been forced into marriage against her wishes.
Continuing our voyage, we entered a narrow sidearm of the river lying between the left shore and the most northerly of a wooded group of islands, to which I gave the name of Rohlf’s Islands.
,_a_Mambari.jpg) |
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| A MAMBARI. | A MATONGA. |
Upon the mainland was Sekhose, the most westerly of the Masupia settlements, where for many years there has been a good system of husbandry, manza and beans being grown, as well as other crops. The Marutse only grow what they require for their own use, and to make up their tribute; but the Masupias, Batokas, and eastern Makalakas do somewhat more than this, selling the overplus to the hunters and traders who come from the south; but even they hardly cultivate more than the sandy slopes and the wooded declivities in the neighbourhood of ant-hills, leaving the marsh-lands completely untilled; yet these are the districts which would prove most fertile, and with the mild climate and the means of irrigation at their command, seem to me to hold out a grand prospect for the future. Away in the interior of the country are vast tracts of meadow-land, often miles in extent, that are now enclosed with primæval forest, but which might be transformed into prolific fields, while the rivers might, like the Zambesi, be utilized for watering them. The tribes are all ambitious and industrious; and if once the plough shall be introduced, and a free trade opened either to the south or east, the Marutse kingdom, it may be predicted, will exhibit a rapid development.
About twelve miles from Sesheke the woods came right down to the river bank, a foretoken of the chain of hills that accompanied the stream from the Barotse valley. East of Sesheke, half way between the Makumba rapids and the mouth of the Kashteja, where the country began to rise, I had noticed a cessation of the palms and papyrus, and west of Sekhose, where the stream has a considerable fall, was the commencement of the southern Barotse rapids and the cataracts of the central Zambesi. They are caused by ridges of rocks running either straight or transversely across the river, connecting links, as it were, between the hills on either side. The peaks of these reefs made countless little islands; and the further we went the more interesting I found their variety, some being brown and bare, whilst others were overgrown with reeds, or occasionally with trees of no inconsiderable height. Within fourteen miles I counted, besides a cataract, as many as forty-four rapids. In some cases the river-bed beneath them presented a continuous, sloping surface of rock, while in others it fell abruptly in a series of steps; rapids again were formed by great boulders that projected above the water, and I noticed one instance where the rocks made almost a barrier across the river, whilst only here and there were the gaps through which the current forced its way.
Were it not that the rapids are avoided by crocodiles, they would be impassable for canoes; but the absence of crocodiles makes it possible for the natives to disembark, and push or drag their craft across the obstacle. In places that are especially dangerous, it is found necessary to stow the baggage on the top of the boulders, and to take the boat over the rapid empty.
The first rapids at which we arrived were called by the natives Katima Molelo. Our oars sufficed to carry us over the first stretch of them, but afterwards the boatmen were obliged to get out and pull every canoe after them, taking care to lose no time in jumping in again, well aware that the deep water just beyond was almost sure to be a lurking-place for crocodiles.
On the 5th we crossed the rapids known as Mutshila Aumsinga, which, as I found to my cost, only too justly had the reputation of being the most dangerous of any of the Sesheke and Nambwe cataracts. I was still feeling very unwell, and could not even sit in my canoe without much pain; but there was nothing in my condition that alarmed me, and I continued to work at my chart of our course.
The Mutshila Aumsinga rapids are formed by a considerable slope in the river-bed, combined with the projection of numerous masses of rock above the water. But the chief danger in crossing them arises from another cause. Between a wooded island and the left-hand shore are two side-currents, about fifty yards broad, formed by some little islands at their head; and as no part of the rapids is sufficiently shallow for boats to be lifted across them, the strength of the rowers has to be put to the test by pulling against the full force of the stream, and is consequently liable to be exhausted.
ASCENDING THE ZAMBESI.
The boat in which I was sitting happened to be the third in the order of procession. It carried my journals, all my beads and cartridges, and the presents intended for the native kings and chiefs. Like all my other boats it was too heavily laden, and not adequately manned. The second boat just ahead of me conveyed my gunpowder, my medicines, and provisions, and all the plants and insects that I had collected at Sesheke, the bulk of my specimens having been left with Westbeech to send back to Panda ma Tenka. Observing that the crew in front were experiencing the utmost difficulty in holding their own against the current, I shouted to them to catch hold of the branches of some overhanging trees; I was most anxious to see them at least keep their bow in the right direction. My voice was lost in the roar of the waters. I could see that the oars of the men were slipping off the surface of the rock that was as smooth as a mirror, and that the men, although obviously aware of their peril, were paddling wildly and to no purpose at all. My heart misgave me. Nothing could save the boat; still I could not bring myself to believe that fate was about to deal so hardly with me. I could not realize that just at the moment when a threatening fever made me especially require my medicines I was about to lose them all. I could not face the contingency of having my stock of provisions, on which I depended not only for the prosecution of my journey, but for my very maintenance, totally destroyed; neither could I resign myself to the loss of all the natural curiosities that I had laboured for so many days to accumulate. I called vehemently upon my own crew to hasten to the rescue; but they, in their alarm at the desperate plight of the others, were quite powerless; they were utterly bewildered, and were letting themselves drift into the fury of the current; but happily they were within reach of the drooping branches of a tree, at which they clutched only just in time to make their boat secure. By this time the boat in front had twisted round, and presented its broadside to the angry flood. Nothing could save it now. Heedless of the state of fever I was in, I should have flung myself into the current, determined to help if I could, had not the boatmen held me back. Not that any assistance on my part could have been of any avail, for in another moment I saw that the paddles were all broken, the men lost their equilibrium, and, to my horror, the boat was overturned.
MY BOAT WRECKED.
At the greatest risk, by the combined exertions of both crews, the capsized canoe was after some time set afloat again, and a few trifling articles were gathered up, but the bulk of my baggage was irrecoverably lost.
Thus ended all my schemes; thus vanished all my visions for the future.
No one can conceive the keenness of my disappointment. The preparations of seven previous years had proved fruitless. Here I was, not only suffering in body from the increasing pains of fever, but dejected in spirit at the conviction that I must forthwith abandon my enterprise.
An hour after that deplorable passage of the Mutshila Aumsinga, which never can be effaced from my memory, we landed on the right-hand bank of the Zambesi, just below a Mabunda village called Sioma. My servants, who had continued following on foot, were ferried across, and we made our encampment before it grew dark. We were rather surprised to be told by the residents that the neighbourhood was infested with lions, and that the village was night after night ravaged by their attacks; and, for my own part, I was inclined to believe that the stories were made up as a pretext to induce us to move on. In exchange for some beads I obtained a quantity of kaffir-corn beer, which I distributed to the boatmen in acknowledgment of the exertions they had made in my service. Finding that I was not intimidated by the representations they made, and pleased moreover with the beads I had spent among them, the natives became more hospitable, and gave us their advice and assistance in collecting the roofs of seven deserted huts, which we placed closely side by side in a semicircle, resting one edge on the ground, and propping up the other on poles, so that from the wood the encampment looked merely like a lot of grass-piles. I had several large fires lighted in front.
During the voyage that had ended so disastrously, I had noticed some trees on the river-bank with a whitish bark, growing from twenty to forty feet in height. What was most remarkable about them was the way in which, from the boughs that overhung the river, masses of red-brown roots descended like a beard, sometimes as much as six feet in length.
The rain fell heavily all the next morning, and in the afternoon the wind blew so icy cold, that although the servants did all they could to cover up the front of my hut with mats, my body suffered from repeated chills. My illness creased so much that I was quite unable to turn myself without assistance. I had a sort of couch extemporized out of some packing-cases, on which I reclined and got what rest I could. While I was lounging in this way, I heard a conversation going on outside the hut amongst my servants, who supposed that I was asleep. One of them, Βorili, was saying that it was a lucky thing that Nyaka (the doctor) was sick, and proposed that they should all make off with my property to the southern bank of the Chobe. The rest of them did not seem altogether inclined to acquiesce, but I made up my mind to nip anything like a conspiracy in the bud. Calling them all in, I made each of them a present of beads, except Boril, whom I asked whether he expected a gun from me when we parted, as a remuneration for his services. Of course he told me he should reckon on his gun; but he looked somewhat surprised when I replied that he was much mistaken, and that having found out that he was a bad servant and a thief, I should keep my eye on him, and that if he repeated his misconduct, I should send him back to Sesheke for Sepopo to punish. He knew what that meant.
Towards evening, the fever having slightly abated, I made the servants lift me on to the ground, where I sat with my back supported against the bed. In this position I received a visit from some Mabundas, from whom I obtained various specimens of their handicraft. To one of the boatmen I was able, out of the very limited stock of drugs that I had left, to give an emetic that proved very effectual. He had made himself ill by eating too freely of the fruit of a shrub called ki-mokononga; the symptoms of the man and the smell of the fruit made me inclined to believe that he was suffering from the effects of prussic acid. The fruit itself was about an inch long, and half-an-inch thick; it had a yellowish pulp, an oval kernel, and in flavour was not unlike bitter almonds. The emetic soon relieved the sufferer, and next day he was ready for work again.
The Mabunda chief from Sioma came to see me, and in the intervals between the attacks of fever I took the opportunity to ask him, as well as the guides and boatmen, all the questions I could about the land and population of the Marutse empire. Our conversation generally turned upon the Livangas, Libele, and Luyanas, the tribes between the Chobe and the Zambesi, and upon the independent Bamashi, on the lower Chobe, who are also called Luyanas, and are subject to three princes of their own, Kukonganena, Kukalelwa, and Molombe.
Our experience at night proved that the Mabundas had not exaggerated much in what they told us about the lions. After sunset we heard their chorus begin, and it did not cease till dawn. I should not think the animals were more than 150 yards away from us. Up in the little village the people had to be on the watch to keep them at bay, and kept on shouting and beating a drum, while nearly every enclosure was illumined by a fire. My own boatmen sat up, spear in hand, nearly all night, and weird enough their shadows were as they fell upon the fence. No lions, however, ventured to attack us.
For the next two days I was worse rather than better, and vain were my efforts to amuse myself with either my diary or my sketch-book. My disorder was aggravated by the ungenial weather, and even in the most violent fits of fever I was conscious of a feeling of shivering under the keen north-east blast. I endeavoured to keep up my spirits, but writing, which was my sole resource, was a painful trial to me, and the lines danced before my eyes.
I could not bear the thought of going back to Sesheke, and determined to make a vigorous endeavour once again to go ahead. Accordingly on the 8th we started, but the exertion was too much for me, and in the evening I had to be carried ashore. Scarcely had I been laid down in a grass-hut left by some previous passengers, when I was seized with such an attack of sickness and diarrhœa, that I really began to fear that I should not live till morning.
Except at the Victoria Falls, the part of the river  | ||
| VOL. II. | NIGHT VISIT FROM LIONS AT SIOMA. | Page 280. |
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| VOL. II. | IN THE MANEKANGO RAPIDS. | Page 281. |
The last rapids that I crossed were the most dangerous of all in the Marutse country; one of them was known as Manekango, the other was Muniruola. They were formed by ridges of rocks extending right across the river, with an average height of not much over two feet and a half, but the openings were so few and narrow that the water dashed through with the fiercest violence. I had to submit to be laid upon the reef while the men dragged the boat through the rifts at the most imminent peril.
The sickness, which had a little abated, returned again towards evening, and I had considerable difficulty in drawing my breath. In the morning I was so far relieved that I was able to take a few spoonfuls of maizena.
In the course of that day Inkambella, the most important man in the country next to Sepopo, passed down the river.
To hold out any longer was simply impossible. I grew worse and worse. I felt that I had no alternative than to yield to necessity, and calling the boatmen together, I announced my intention of going back. To my surprise I found that my resolution had been forestalled; boats were already waiting, ready to retrace our course. In spite of my weakness I was inclined to take my people to task for presuming to decide for me, but I was given to understand that they were only obeying orders; it transpired that Sepopo had given definite instructions that my health was to be particularly studied while I was in his country; as I was a doctor, the king had been anxious that no mischief should befall me, and regarding me as a sort of magician, he feared that some dire calamity would happen to his kingdom if I were to die while under his protection.
When the men had placed me in one boat, and my servant Narri in another, they declined to start until I had distributed some presents amongst them, and I heard an altercation going on, which I was too weak to check, because my servants had detected them trying to steal some of my goods.
All day long the sun glowed fiercely down, and I was tortured with the most agonizing thirst. Once, in the hope of obtaining a little relief, I let my fevered hands hang from the boat’s side in the water, but my people instantly replaced them on my knees, with the warning that I must not entice the crocodiles to follow us.
After a painful night in an encampment a few miles to the east of Katonga, I was put on board again and carried on to Sesheke. I was conveyed by the boatmen to Westbeech’s hut. He did not recognize me.