In Batongaland by W. B. White

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 22, 1914

In Batongaland

By W. B. White

W. B. WHITE

SUNDAY, June 7, our party of three left the Solusi Mission for Bulawayo and the north. The sun had set when we left the mission, and it was past midnight before we reached the railroad station. The last half of the night was spent in our beds on the open prairie, with the starlit canopy of heaven above us. We took an early morning train for Bulawayo.

This is a city of possibly four thousand people, and is the commercial center for Southern Rhodesia. We are told that in former years this city was terribly afflicted with the fever, but as the country about has been brought under cultivation and gradually opened up, this condition has now almost wholly disappeared, and Bulawayo is regarded as a healthful place. We stopped here only a few hours, taking the train at noon for Victoria Falls, on the Zambesi, three hundred miles north.

The country along the way is a rolling prairie, covered with a short growth of trees, high grass, and innumerable white-ant hills, ranging from three to fifteen feet high, with here and there, possibly at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles, a stock farm, with some cultivated land upon it. In this country, but back from the railroad, is much wild game, such as lions, leopards, wild cats, hyenas, and some elephants. Station agents along the way told us of the nightly visits and thieving propensities of these wild animals. The country abounds in deer of many varieties, but of these not much account is taken.

We arrived at Victoria Falls early Monday morning, June 8. Long before we reached the station, we could see over the prairie a great cloud of mist hanging over the falls, caused by the spray. We first visited the gorge below the falls, which we are told is forty miles long and abounds in some of the grandest pieces of scenery in the world. Where we saw it, the gorge is not so wide, but is very deep, rocky, and precipitous, with the Zambesi River, like a blue ribbon, roaring and rushing far down in its rocky depths. We next made our way along a well-beaten path, cut through a dense tropical forest, to the Cantilever Railroad bridge which here spans the river. In the wet season this bridge is 356 feet above the river, but in the dry season it is 406 feet above the water, the river varying fifty feet in depth between the wet and dry seasons. This bridge is 650 feet long, and is a beautiful structure. Passing a little way up the river, we came to the full view of the falls, of which we have heard so much. At this point the Zambesi is about a mile wide, and the plunging of this great river over a sheer precipice of 464 feet, forms the most majestic waterfall the writer has ever seen. The beauty of Victoria Falls is increased by the fact that the river at the brink of the precipice is divided by huge rocks, forming a series of waterfalls of different sizes and forms, presenting to the eye a picture far more lovely and varied than it would if the fall were only a single one. Then again the falls can easily be seen at close range, for the shore of the river just below closes up very near to the precipice, enabling one from the opposite shore to get a splendid view, provided he is well protected with rubber clothing.

The forests about the falls are very tropical, and seem to be a veritable paradise for monkeys and birds of beautiful plumage. The railway management has here provided a little side trip for the benefit of its passengers. They hold the train at Livingstone, which is across the river and a few miles up, four or five hours, enabling all who desire to do so to go above the falls, take canoes, which are propelled by skillful native oarsmen, and skirt along the shores of the river four or five miles to a point opposite Livingstone, where the canoe crosses to the city and the passengers connect with their train. This river ride is a pleasant break in a long, tiresome journey.

Tuesday, June 9, at midnight, we reached Manze Siding, where we were met by Brother and Sister Anderson, with their ox team. They were waiting to take us to the mission, eight miles away.

Sister Anderson, during the last rainy season, was afflicted with blackwater fever, but her life was spared. She is getting stronger, and we were glad to meet them both. It is very evident, however, that they need a rest of a few months in which to build up their strength, as they have been under a hard strain for some time.

We reached the mission about 4 A. M., and of our experiences and observations there I will speak in another article.