former hospitality. Our men
were all much pleased with his kindness, and certainly did not look upon
it as a proof of weakness. They meant to return his friendliness when
they came this way on a marauding expedition to eat the sheep of the
Banyai, for insulting them in the affair of the hippopotamus; they would
then send word to Chitora not to run away, for they, being his friends,
would do such a good-hearted man no harm.

We entered Kebrabasa rapids, at the east end of Chicova, in the canoes,
and went down a number of miles, until the river narrowed into a groove
of fifty or sixty yards wide, of which we have already spoken in
describing the flood-bed and channel of low water. The navigation then
became difficult and dangerous. A fifteen feet fall of the water in our
absence had developed many cataracts. Two of our canoes passed safely
down a narrow channel, which, bifurcating, had an ugly whirlpool at the
rocky partition between the two branches, the deep hole in the whirls at
times opening and then shutting. The Doctor's canoe came next, and
seemed to be drifting broadside into the open vortex, in spite of the
utmost exertions of the paddlers. The rest were expecting to have to
pull to the rescue; the men saying, "Look where these people are
going!--look, look!"--when a loud crash burst on our ears. Dr. Kirk's
canoe was dashed on a projection of the perpendicular rocks, by a sudden
and mysterious boiling up of the river, which occurs at irregular
intervals. Dr. Kirk was seen resisting the sucking-down action of the
water, which must have been fifteen fathoms deep, and raising himself by
his arms on to the ledge, while his steersman, holding on to the same
rocks, saved the canoe; but nearly all its contents were swept away down
the stream. Dr. Livingstone's canoe, meanwhile, which had distracted the
men's attention, was saved by the cavity in the whirlpool filling up as
the frightful eddy was reached. A few of the things in Dr. Kirk's canoe
were left; but all that was valuable, including a chronometer, a
barometer, and, to our great sorrow, his notes of the journey and
botanical drawings of the fruit-trees of the interior, perished.

We now left the river, and proceeded on foot, sorry that we had not done
so the day before. The men were thoroughly frightened, they had never
seen such perilous navigation. They would carry all the loads, rather
than risk Kebrabasa any longer; but the fatigue of a day's ma