bounding the Barotse valley,
are not more than two or three hundred feet in altitude over the general
dead level. Many of the rivers are very tortuous in their course, the
Chobe and Simah particularly so; and, if we may receive the testimony of
the natives, they form what anatomists call 'anastamosis', or a network
of rivers. Thus, for instance, they assured me that if they go up the
Simah in a canoe, they can enter the Chobe, and descend that river to
the Leeambye; or they may go up the Kama and come down the Simah; and so
in the case of the Kafue. It is reputed to be connected in this way
with the Leeambye in the north, and to part with the Loangwa; and the
Makololo went from the one into the other in canoes. And even though the
interlacing may not be quite to the extent believed by the natives,
the country is so level and the rivers so tortuous that I see no
improbability in the conclusion that here is a network of waters of a
very peculiar nature. The reason why I am disposed to place a certain
amount of confidence in the native reports is this: when Mr. Oswell and
I discovered the Zambesi in the centre of the continent in 1851, being
unable to ascend it at the time ourselves, we employed the natives to
draw a map embodying their ideas of that river. We then sent the native
map home with the same view that I now mention their ideas of the
river system, namely, in order to be an aid to others in farther
investigations. When I was able to ascend the Leeambye to 14 Deg. south,
and subsequently descend it, I found, after all the care I could bestow,
that the alterations I was able to make in the original native plan were
very trifling. The general idea their map gave was wonderfully accurate;
and now I give, in the larger map appended, their views of the other
rivers, in the hope that they may prove helpful to any traveler who may
pursue the investigation farther.

24TH. We remained a day at the village of Moyara. Here the valley in
which the Lekone flows trends away to the eastward, while our course is
more to the northeast. The country is rocky and rough, the soil
being red sand, which is covered with beautiful green trees, yielding
abundance of wild fruits. The father of Moyara was a powerful chief, but
the son now sits among the ruins of the town, with four or five wives
and very few people. At his hamlet a number of stakes are planted in
the ground, and I counted fifty-four human skulls hung on their points.
These