with the aid of the friendly chiefs, in inducing]
them to return, sadder and wiser men, to resume I
their duties, and so to enable me to triumph I
over these obstacles.
''''June 23.—We commenced our work this I
morning, assisted by 150 Zinga natives, and by I
10 A.M. had succeeded in drawing three canoes I
up the 200-feet steep to the level of the rocky I
point. The fourth canoe was the new Livingstone I
which weighed about three tons. It was already I
20 feet out of the water, and we were quite I
confident we should be able with 200 men to]
haul her up. But suddenly the rattan and Ficus I
elastica cables snapped, and with the rapidity j
of lightning the heavy boat darted down the!
steep slopes into the depths. The chief carpenter,!
of the Expedition, who had superintended its]
construction, clung to it under the idea that his J
single strength was sufficient to stay its rapid I
downward descent, and he was dragged down j
into the river, and, unable to swim, scrambled
into the canoe. Uledi sprang after the carpenter, I
as the men remembered that he could not swim,
and, reaching the canoe, cried out to him to j
jump into the river and he would save him. ‘ Ah, I
my brother,’ the unfortunate man replied, ‘I j
cannot swim.’ ‘Jump, man, before it is too late!
You are drifting towards the cataract!’ ‘I am
afraid. ‘Well then, good-bye, my brother;
nothing can save you!’ said Uledi as he swam
riune 23, i877-"1 ANOTHER [ Zinga?. J FATAL ACCIDENT. 169
ashore, reaching it only 50 feet above the cataract.
A second more and the great canoe, with Salaam
Allah in it, was swept down over the cataract,
and was tossed up and down the huge waves
until finally a whirlpool received it. I reckoned
fifty-four during the time it was under water;
then it rose high and straight out of the depths,
the man still in it. Again it was sucked down,
revolving as it disappeared, and in a few seconds
was ejected a second time, the man still in it.
A third time it was drawn in, and when it
emerged again Salaam Allah had disappeared.
The fleet-footed natives and the boat’s crew had
started overland to Mbelo Ferry, and shouted
out the warning cries to the ferrymen, who were
at once on the alert to save the canoe. After
riding high on the crests of the waves of the
Ingulufi Rapids, the Livingstone canoe entered
the calmer wat?fc^of the crossing-place, and, in
view of all gathered!?) witness the scene, wheeled
round five times over the edge of a large whirlpool
and disappeared for ever! It is supposed that
she was swept against the submerged rocks
beneath, and got jammed; for though there is
a stretch of a mile of quiet water below the
pool, nothing was seen of her up to sunset, five
hours after the catastrophe. Two of the new
canoes are thus lost, and another good man has
perished. The Wangwana take this fatal accident
as another indication of the general doom im