In early November 1855, David Livingstone travelled down the
Zambezi River to the area called “smoke that thunders” with local
Makalolo oarsmen.
From his own records: "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 Zambezi, 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."
[Livingstone, David, Missionary Travels and Researches In South
Africa (1858)]
Livingstone named the Victoria Falls after his Queen, planted
peach and apricot stones and carved his initials and the date
(16th November 1855) on a nearby tree.
Today, from the western edge of the falls in Zimbabwe,
Livingstone's statue gazes across at the Island named after him.
