The New Student's Reference Work/Zambezi River and Region

Zambezi (zȧm-bā′ zē) River and Region, the extensive region in southeastern Africa known to medieval geographers under the general name of the empire of Monomotapa, is shown on old maps as drained by a river, called Zambese or Zambere, which plainly is the modern Zambezi.  Although the lower region of the Zambezi, for at least 300 miles from its mouth, has nominally been in possession of the Portuguese since the beginning of the 16th century, it is only within the last half of the 19th century, through the reports of Livingstone and other explorers, that we gained any definite knowledge of this vast region, the total length of whose river is 1,650 miles.  The river bears the name of Zambezi from its mouth to its junction with the Chobe; thence to its junction with the Liba, coming from Lake Dilolo, it is called the Liambai.  Part of the upper basin of the Zambezi was explored by Major Serpa Pinto in 1878–9. In the region where the Liba joins the Liambai the main stream is 200 or 300 yards wide and quite deep.  From the confluence to Victoria Falls there are many long tracts that could easily be plied by large steamers.  Lake Dilolo, from which the Liba flows, seems to have an outlet both to the north and to the south, the northern outlet probably running into one of the tributaries of the Kongo.  Large areas in this region are liable to be flooded and to stand under water for considerable periods at a time.  Victoria Falls are about 2,500 feet above the sea; while Lake Shirwa, a smaller lake southeast of Nyasa, is 2,000 feet.  The natives inhabiting the coast region drained by the Zambezi are of the pure negro type, while the Kololo who were found in the central and upper country, belong to the Betjuana family.  According to Pinto this tribe long ago ceased to have separate existence.  On the upper Zambezi Pinto discovered a tribe of yellowish white color.  The Zulu tribe, who inhabit the high region dividing the Limpopo from the Zambezi basin, have overrun and conquered nearly all the tribes south of them.  The possession is governed by the Mozambique and Nyasa Companies, and the Zambezia Company carries on industrial, commercial, agricultural and mining operations, while the Mozambique Sugar Company has plantations on the lower Zambezi.  The Zambezi is navigable for stern-wheelers as far as Tete.  The ports of Portuguese East Africa are visited regularly by the steamers of the German East Africa line, and on the Zambezi and Shiré Rivers many small steamers ply.  The Delagoa Bay Railway has a length of 57 miles in the colony, and is continued for 290 miles to Pretoria.  Beira Railway has a length of 204 miles in the colony, and is continued from the British frontier to Bulawayo.  See Central African Protectorate, Nyasaland, Portuguese East Africa and Rhodesia.  The military force of the colony is 4,888 men, three fourths of whom are natives.