e days in crossing in canoes. It is
connected with another named Kalagwe (Garague?), farther north, and may
be the Nyanja of the Maravim.
Although I was warned that the Batoka tribe would be hostile, I decided
on going down the Zambesi, and on my way I visited the falls of
Victoria, called by the natives Mosioatunya, or more anciently, Shongwe.
No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in
England. It has never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so
lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight. Five columns
of "smoke" arose, bending in the direction of the wind. The entire falls
is simply a crack made in a hard basaltic rock from the right to the
left bank of the Zambesi, and then prolonged from the left bank away
through thirty or forty miles of hills. The whole scene was extremely
beautiful; the banks and islands dotted over the river are adorned with
sylvan vegetation of great variety of colour and form. At the period of
our visit several of the trees were spangled over with blossoms.
In due time we reached the confluence of the Loangwa and the Zambesi,
most thankful to God for His great mercies in helping us thus far. I
felt some turmoil of spirit in the evening at the prospect of having all
my efforts for the welfare of this great region and its teeming
population knocked on the head by savages to-morrow, who might be said
to "know not what they do."
When at last we reached within eight miles of Tete I was too fatigued to
go on, but sent the commandant the letters of recommendation of the
bishop and lay down to rest. Next morning two officers and some soldiers
came to fetch us, and when I had partaken of a good breakfast, though I
had just before been too tired to sleep, all my fatigue vanished. The
pleasure of that breakfast was enhanced by the news that Sebastopol had
fallen and the war finished.
PIERRE LOTI
The Desert
_I.--Arabia Deserta_
Pierre Loti, whose real name is Louis Marie Julien Viaud,
and who has made his whole career in the French navy, was
born at Rochefort on January 14, 1850. Distinguished
though his naval activities have been, it is as a man of
letters that Pierre Loti is known to the world. His first
production, "Aziyade," appeared in 1876, and gave ample
promise of that style, borrowed from no one and entirely
his own, which has since characterized all his works. "The
Desert," published in 1894, is a maste
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