better they could manage our boat than the Makololo; three jumped into her when our backs were turned, and two hauled her up a little way; the tide caught her bow, we heard a shout of distress, the rope was out of their hands in a moment, and there she was, bottom upwards; a turn or two in an eddy, and away she went, like an arrow, down the Cataracts.  One of the men in swimming ashore saved a rifle.  The whole party ran with all their might along the bank, but never more did we see our boat.

The five performers in this catastrophe approached with penitential looks.  They had nothing to say, nor had we.  They bent down slowly, and touched 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