Zambezi River

“ The first steamer placed on the river above the Kebrabasa Rapids was the “Constance” launched by the Gibbons expedition at Chikoa in September 1898. She steamed to beyond the Guay confluence, and being ultimately sold to a commercial company, was used to carry goods on the middle Zambezi. The first steamer placed on the river above the Victoria Falls was the “Livingstone,” launched in August 1902.
See David and Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries (1865) ; A. de Serpa Pinto, How I Crossed Africa (1881) ”

“ The Zambezi is the principal river, and forms the southern boundary of Mozambique proper, its inland border extending to Lake Nyasa. The coast is low and swampy, but the interior has well-wooded plains with valuable timber. The soil is fertile and produces corn, rice, cotton, cocoanut and india-rubber. The country is rich in minerals, but mining has not been extensive. The capital is Mozambique, built on a coral island near the mainland. The Mozambique Company administers, besides Mozambique, the Manica and Sofala region. ”

“ The Nile, Niger and Congo rivers have their origin on the interior slopes of the highlands, and therefore discharge into the Atlantic Ocean, while the Zambezi drainage basin, lying largely on the outer slopes, falls off toward the Indian Ocean. The longest river system is that of the Nile, which rises in the lake region of Equatorial Africa and flows northward through the mountainous divide to the plateau region of eastern Sudan, where it receives an important affluent from the west in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. ”

“ The Middle Zambezi.—The Victoria Falls are reached some 60 m. after the Kwando confluence is passed, and below them the river continues to flow due east for about 120 m. It then cuts its way throuch perpendicular walls of basalt from 60 to 100 ft. apart. This dismal canyon, named by Major St Hill Gibbons “The Devil's Gorge,” is 8 m. long. Towering over the rocks which form the banks of the river are precipitous hills, 700 to 800 ft. high. The river flows swiftly through the gorge, the current being continually interrupted by reefs. ”

“ The Indian Ocean receives numerous rivers; but the only great river of South Africa which enters that ocean is the Zambezi, the fourth in size of the continent, and having in its course the Victoria Falls, one of the greatest waterfalls in the world. In Southern Africa also, but flowing westward and entering the Atlantic, is the Congo, which takes its origin from a series of lakes and marshes in the interior, is fed by great tributaries, and is the first in volume of all the African rivers, carrying to the ocean more water than the Mississippi. ”

“ Many of the African women are particular about the water they use for drinking and cooking, and prefer that which is filtered through sand. To secure this, they scrape holes in the sandbanks beside the stream, and scoop up the water, which slowly filters through, rather than take it from the equally clear and limpid river. This practice is common in the Zambesi, the Rovuma, and Lake Nyassa; and some of the Portuguese at Tette have adopted the native custom, and send canoes to a low island in the middle of the river for water. ”

“ The country north of the Zambese river, already spoken of, is one of the most valuable portions of South Central Africa, intersected by large rivers, tributaries of the Zambese, the elevation being nearly 3000 feet above sea-level, with splendid open and extensive grass plains, most valuable for grazing all kinds of stock. It is also a fine corn-growing country. With a railway to the Zambese river, it would be easy for settlers to reach it, and a road for an outlet for their produce. ”

“ Of the rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean the only one draining any large part of the interior plateaus is the Zambezi, whose western branches rise in the west coast highlands. The main stream has its rise in 11 deg. 21' 3'' S. 24 deg. 22' E. at an elevation of 5000 ft. It flows west and south for a considerable distance before turning to the east. All the largest tributaries, including the Shire, the outflow of Lake Nyasa, flow down the southern slopes of the band of high ground which stretches across the conbnent in 10 deg. to 12 deg. ”

“ Antecedently to the river system, which seems to have been a great southern Nile flowing from the sources of the Zambesi away south to the Orange River, there existed a state of fluvial action of greater activity than any we see now: it produced prodigious beds of well-rounded shingle and gravel. It is impossible to form an idea of their extent. The Loangwa flows through the bed of an ancient lake, whose banks are sixty feet thick, of well-rounded shingle. The Zambesi flows above the Kebrabasa, through great beds of the same formation, and generally they are of hard crystalline rocks ”

“ When about half a mile from the Falls, I left the canoe and embarked in a lighter one with men well acquainted with the rapids, who brought me to an island in the middle of the river and on the edge of the lip over which the water rolls. Creeping with care to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi. In looking down into the fissure one sees nothing but a dense white cloud ”

“ Zambesia—or Rhodesia, as it is often called—now extends far to the north of the Zambesi River, being bordered on the north by the Congo Free State and Lake Tanganyika, and on the east by Lake Nyassa, and embracing the heart of South Africa. This territory was chartered in 1889 by the British South Africa Company, with Cecil Rhodes, then premier of the Cape Colony, as its managing director and practical creator. ”

“ No traveler has ever looked with other than awe upon those superb lakes Albert Nyanza, Edward Nyanza, Victoria Nyanza, Tanganyika, Leopold II., Nyassa, Bangweola, and dozens of smaller ones whose presence came upon him like a revelation. And then out of these plateaus, thousands of feet high, run all those mighty rivers which constitute the most unique and mightiest water system in the world—the Zambezi, the Congo, the Niger, the Senegal and the Nile. ”

“ From the Cape Peninsula to north of Salisbury, or the Victoria Falls, the whole country is one continuous plain country. Between the tops of the highest hills and the highest grassy ridge in the Transvaal the difference of altitude seems solely due to the action of the rain. In the Zambesi basin you have a great shallow basin, and directly you cross the river and travel northward the ascent is being made to reach the crest of the watershed between the Zambesi and the Congo, which is but little higher than the highest grassy ridge in the neighbourhood of Salisbury. ”

“ The hills on both sides of Kariba are much like those of Kebrabasa, the strata tilted and twisted in every direction, with no level ground.
Although the hills confine the Zambesi within a narrow channel for a number of miles, there are no rapids beyond those near the entrance. The river is smooth and apparently very deep. Only one single human being was seen in the gorge, the country being too rough for culture. Some rocks in the water, near the outlet of Kariba, at a distance look like a fort ”

“ It often makes the other trees of the forest look like mere bushes in comparison. A hollow one, already mentioned, is 74 feet in circumference, another was 84, and some have been found on the West Coast which measure 100 feet. The lofty range of Kebrabasa, consisting chiefly of conical hills, covered with scraggy trees, crosses the Zambesi, and confines it within a narrow, rough, and rocky dell of about a quarter of a mile in breadth; over this, which may be called the flood-bed of the river, large masses of rock are huddled in indescribable confusion. ”

“ On the Zambesi, the Bō-tlét-lē River near Lake Ngami, and in North Australia, the natives are very ingenious in the construction of dams or weirs; and creels or trap baskets are skilfully placed at the outlets. Some of these are of stiff reeds or osiers; others, of rushes so flexible as to be merely a bag or net. Long semicircular pounds are, by the natives of some countries, constructed of sticks and twigs between high and low water marks. The fish, getting embayed within these, are left high and dry as the tide falls, and are gathered up before the return of the waves. ”

“ The country could grow grain enough to support ten times the inhabitants it has at present. Like the lower valley of the Nile, the Barotse country is inundated every year, over its whole surface, by the waters of the river, which deposit a layer of fertilizing slime. The banks of the Zambesi, for some distance above and below this district, are high and cliffy, presenting ridge after ridge of fine rock and pleasing scenery, while the stream runs swiftly over its stony bed. ”

“ For more than half of this distance above the port it is navigable for steamers drawing G or 7 feet of water, and the whole distance for light craft. During the annual inundations of the Zambese, its banks are completely flooded, ,and tho mainstream thus becomes united with the Quelimane River through an intricale network of marshy depressions. The river has moreover recently shifted its bed, and now reaches the coast some 6 miles farther north, that is, so much nearer to its periodical Quelimane branch. The abandoned channel is still visible, now transformed to a circular lagoon. ”

“ No account of the Zambesi can be perfect without mention of Pinto’s trip across the continent of Africa. He started from Benguela, on the Atlantic, in 1877, under the auspices of the360 Portuguese Government and in two years reached the eastern coast. He was a careful observer of the people, and his journey was through the countries of the Nano, Huambo, Sambo, Moma, Bihé, Cubango, Ganguelas, Luchazes and others till he struck the Zambesi River. His observations of manners and customs are very valuable to the student and curious to the general reader. ”

“ When the river is in flood, a natural canal running parallel with the coast, and winding very much among the swamps, forms a secret way for conveying slaves from Quillimane to the bays Massangano and Nameara, or to the Zambesi itself. The Kwakwa, or river of Quillimane, some sixty miles distant from the mouth of the Zambesi, has long been represented as the principal entrance to the Zambesi, in order, as the Portuguese now maintain, that the English cruisers might be induced to watch the false mouth, while slaves were quietly shipped from the true one ”

“ Ancient gold-diggings and old forts are found in every locality, more particularly in the north and north-east direction towards the Zambese, some of them very extensive, and appear to have been worked for years. Most of the rivers contain gold-dust in their sandy beds, and many of the natives of the present time collect it for their head Indunas, and sell it to the Portuguese at Tette on the Zambese river, a considerable village with beautiful gardens and fruit of every description in perfection. ”

“ Southwards also tho Zambese communicates during the inundations with several streams traversing the Gaza territory. Here the junction is effected by a lagoon belonging to the Zangwe tributary to its lower course, and by a succession of channels and backwaters extending as fur as the River Pungwe, on the Sofala coast. 254 SOUTH AND EAST Af'EICA. Climate of the Zambese Basin. In such a vast area of drainage as that of the Ku-Bango and Zambese river Bystems, the climate naturally presents many contrasts according to the aspect of the laud, its general relief and distance from the sea. ”

“ The most eager inquirer may find his experiences pall upon him when for hour after hour he sees nothing but level shore, and a foreground of green bango-reeds festooned with dull magenta convolvulus. In fact, the reason why the boundary had to be marked by a board affixed to a tree, is because this particular angle of alluvial land is so level and devoid of natural features that, in the rainy season, there is usually one navigable channel, if not more, [2] cutting it off into an island, by connecting the Shiré and Zambezi. ”

“ Nature has divided that part of Africa lying south of the Zambesi River into three distinct and well-defined regions. A strip of lowland skirts the coast of the Indian Ocean all the way from Cape Town around to Natal, Delagoa Bay and still northeast to the mouths of the Zambesi. Between Durban, the principal port of Natal, and Cape Town this strip is very narrow in places—the hills coming down almost to the margin of the sea. Beyond Durban, to the northeast, the low plain grows wider. ”

“ Finding that it was impossible to take our steamer of only ten-horse power through Kebrabasa, and convinced that, in order to force a passage when the river was in flood, much greater power was required, due information was forwarded to Her Majesty's Government, and application made for a more suitable vessel. Our attention was in the mean time turned to the exploration of the river Shire, a northern tributary of the Zambesi, which joins it about a hundred miles from the sea. We could learn nothing satisfactory from the Portuguese regarding this affluent ”

“ There are no striking features; no mountains, no large river, except the Zambesi, and only one rather uninteresting lake, ’Ngami; no great forests, no tropical vegetation; the rains are scanty, the soil dry, the plains large. What you see one day you may see for a week. In most countries you would have to describe nature in her many phases, but in South Africa one might take a paint-brush and give a broad, general idea of the land, with four or five streaks of colour—the widely extending, ascending, nearly treeless flats from Kuruman to the Molopo River ”