n, and it was only by
shooting one that I made them retreat. The meat is very much like
that of an ox, and this one was very fine. The only danger we actually
encountered was from a female elephant, with three young ones of
different sizes. Charging through the centre of our extended line,
and causing the men to throw down their burdens in a great hurry, she
received a spear for her temerity. I never saw an elephant with more
than one calf before. We knew that we were near our Zambesi again,
even before the great river burst upon our sight, by the numbers of
water-fowl we met. I killed four geese with two shots, and, had I
followed the wishes of my men, could have secured a meal of water-fowl
for the whole party. I never saw a river with so much animal life around
and in it, and, as the Barotse say, "Its fish and fowl are always fat."
When our eyes were gladdened by a view of its goodly broad waters, we
found it very much larger than it is even above the falls. One might try
to make his voice heard across it in vain. Its flow was more rapid than
near Sesheke, being often four and a half miles an hour, and, what I
never saw before, the water was discolored and of a deep brownish-red.
In the great valley the Leeambye never becomes of this color. The
adjacent country, so far north as is known, is all level, and the soil,
being generally covered with dense herbage, is not abraded; but on
the eastern ridge the case is different; the grass is short, and, the
elevation being great, the soil is washed down by the streams, and hence
the discoloration which we now view. The same thing was observed on the
western ridge. We never saw discoloration till we reached the Quango;
that obtained its matter from the western slope of the western ridge,
just as this part of the Zambesi receives its soil from the eastern
slope of the eastern ridge. It carried a considerable quantity of wreck
of reeds, sticks, and trees. We struck upon the river about eight miles
east of the confluence with the Kafue, and thereby missed a sight of
that interesting point. The cloudiness of the weather was such that
but few observations could be made for determining our position; so,
pursuing our course, we went down the left bank, and came opposite the
island of Menye makaba. The Zambesi contains numerous islands; this was
about a mile and a half or two miles long, and upward of a quarter of
a mile broad. Besides human population, it has a herd of buffaloes that