uched our feet with both hands. "Ku kuata moendo"--"to catch the
foot"--is their way of asking forgiveness. It was so like what we have
seen a little child do--try to bring a dish unbidden to its papa, and
letting it fall, burst into a cry of distress--that they were only
sentenced to go back to the ship, get provisions, and, in the ensuing
journey on foot, carry as much as they could, and thus make up for the
loss of the boat.

It was excessively annoying to lose all this property, and be deprived of
the means of doing the work proposed, on the east and north of the Lake;
but it would have been like crying over spilt milk to do otherwise now
than make the best use we could of our legs. The men were sent back to
the ship for provisions, cloth, and beads; and while they are gone, we
may say a little of the Cataracts which proved so fatal to our boating
plan.

CHAPTER XIII.

Dr. Livingstone's further explorations--Effects of slave-trade--Kirk's
range--Ajawa migration--Native fishermen--Arab slave-crossing--Splendid
highlands.

The Murchison Cataracts of the Shire river begin in 15 degrees 20 minutes
S., and end in lat. 15 degrees 55 minutes S., the difference of latitude
is therefore 35 minutes. The river runs in this space nearly north and
south, till we pass Malango; so the entire distance is under 40 miles.
The principal Cataracts are five in number, and are called Pamofunda or
Pamozima, Morewa, Panoreba or Tedzane, Pampatamanga, and Papekira.
Besides these, three or four smaller ones might be mentioned; as, for
instance, Mamvira, where in our ascent we first met the broken water, and
heard that gushing sound which, from the interminable windings of some
200 miles of river below, we had come to believe the tranquil Shire could
never make. While these lesser cataracts descend at an angle of scarcely
20 degrees, the greater fall 100 feet in 100 yards, at an angle of about
45 degrees, and one at an angle of 70 degrees. One part of Pamozima is
perpendicular, and, when the river is in flood, causes a cloud of vapour
to ascend, which, in our journey to Lake Shirwa, we saw at a distance of
at least eight miles. The entire descent from the Upper to the Lower
Shire is 1200 feet. Only on one spot in all that distance is the current
moderate--namely, above Tedzane. The rest is all rapid, and much of it
being only fifty or eighty yards wide, and rushing like a mill-race, it
gives the impression of water-power, s