Born
in Scotland, David Livingstone arrived in Africa in 1840 at the
age of 27 as a missionary and physician. He spent most of the
remainder of his life on the continent, his exploits making him
the most famous explorer of the century. An encounter with a lion
in 1843 cost Livingstone the use of his left arm. Undeterred,
Livingstone continued his exploration of the African interior,
particularly the Zambezi River area in 1852-1856. It was during
this expedition that he became the first European to witness the
magnificence of Victoria Falls.
In
1866, Livingstone set out at the head of an expedition charged
with the task of finding the headwaters of the Nile River. His
lack of contact with the outside world over a period of four years
raised concerns for his welfare and prompted the New York Herald
to send Henry Stanley to find Livingstone. Stanley achieved his
goal on November 10, 1871 approaching the explorer in an African
village with the immortal words "Dr. Livingstone I presume".
Years in the wilderness took their toll however, and David Livingstone
died in Africa in April 1873 at age sixty.
A
Scene "Gazed Upon by Angels in Their Flight"
In early November 1855, Livingstone traveled down the Zambezi
River to see for himself the area the natives called "smoke
that thunders." Approaching the spot in canoes, the party
could see the columns of spray and hear the thunderous roar of
water miles away from the falls:
"After
twenty minutes' sail from Kalai we came in sight, for the first
time, of the columns of vapor appropriately called 'smoke,' rising
at a distance of five or six miles, exactly as when large tracts
of grass are burned in Africa. Five columns now arose, and, bending
in the direction of the wind, they seemed placed against a low
ridge covered with trees; the tops of the columns at this distance
appeared to mingle with the clouds. They were white below, and
higher up became dark, so as to simulate smoke very closely. The
whole scene was extremely beautiful; the banks and islands dotted
over the river are adorned with sylvan vegetation of great variety
of color and form…no one can imagine the beauty of the view
from any thing witnessed in England. It had never been seen before
by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon
by angels in their flight. The only want felt is that of mountains
in the background. The falls are bounded on three sides by ridges
300 or 400 feet in height, which are covered with forest, with
the red soil appearing among the trees. When about half a mile
from the falls, I left the canoe by which we had come down thus
far, and embarked in a lighter one, with men well acquainted with
the rapids, who, by passing down the centre of the stream in the
eddies and still places caused by many jutting rocks, brought
me to an island situated in the middle of the river, and on the
edge of the lip over which the water rolls. In coming hither there
was danger of being swept down by the streams which rushed along
on each side of the island; but the river was now low, and we
sailed where it is totally impossible to go when the water is
high. But, though we had reached the island, and were within a
few yards of the spot, a view from which would solve the whole
problem, I believe that no one could perceive where the vast body
of water went; it seemed to lose itself in the earth, the opposite
lip of the fissure into which it disappeared being only 80 feet
distant. At least I did not comprehend it until, creeping with
awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been
made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream
of a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet, and then
became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards.
The entire falls are 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.
If one imagines the Thames filled with low, tree-covered hills
immediately beyond the tunnel, extending as far as Gravesend,
the bed of black basaltic rock instead of London mud, and a fissure
made therein from one end of the tunnel to the other down through
the keystones of the arch, and prolonged from the left end of
the tunnel through thirty miles of hills, the pathway being 100
feet down from the bed of the river instead of what it is, with
the lips of the fissure from 80 to 100 feet apart, then fancy
the Thames leaping bodily into the gulf, and forced there to change
its direction, and flow from the right to the left bank, and then
rush boiling and roaring through the hills, he may have some idea
of what takes place at this, the most wonderful sight I had witnessed
in Africa.
In looking down into the fissure on the right of the island, one
sees nothing but a dense white cloud, which, at the time we visited
the spot, bad two bright rainbows on it. From this cloud rushed
up a great jet of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted 200
or 300 feet high; there condensing, it changed its hue to that
of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower, which soon
wetted us to the skin…
On the left of the island we see the water at the bottom, a white
rolling mass moving away to the prolongation of the fissure, which
branches off near the left bank of the river… The walls
of this gigantic crack are perpendicular, and composed of one
homogeneous mass of rock. The edge of that side over which the
water falls is worn off two or three feet, and pieces have fallen
away, so as to give it some- what of a serrated appearance. That
over which the water does not fall is quite straight, except at
the left corner, where a rent appears, and a piece seems inclined
to fall off Upon the whole, it is nearly in the state in which
it was left at the period of its formation…On the left side
of the island we have a good view of the mass of water which causes
one of the columns of vapor to ascend, as it leaps quite clear
of the rock, and forms a thick unbroken fleece all the way to
the bottom. Its whiteness gave the idea of snow, a sight I had
not seen for many a day. As it broke into (if I may use the term)
pieces of water, all rushing on in the same direction, each gave
off several rays of foam, exactly as bits of steel, when burned
in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks. The snow-white sheet seemed
like myriads of small comets rushing on in one direction, each
of which left behind its nucleus rays of foam."
Credits:
EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).
Also
see:
»
Stanley
Finds Livingstone, 1871
»
Map of Victoria Falls
»
Victoria
Falls Accommodation
