Zambesi
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Zambesi. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
zam-ba'ze, a river of South Africa, the fourth in size. Its general course is from west to east. It rises in Portugese West Afriza, crosses Rhodesia, and passes through Portuguese East Africa into Mozambique Channel opposite Madagascar. The river was visited by David Livingstone in 1851. In 1855 he discovered Victoria Falls . The Zambesi drains 600,000 square miles of territory. The valley has a white man's climate. It is capable of sustaining a tremendous population. It is one of the regions of which the intelligent reader will desire to be informed. It lies in the course of the Cape to Cairo Railway . At Victoria Falls the Zambesi, here a noble stream, plunges into a rocky chasm 400 feet deep. In 1904 a magnificent steel-work railway bridge was thrown across the chasm. The steel work was obtained from a bridge firm of Cleveland, Ohio. The bridge is the highest--420 feet--in the world, and it was built in the shortest time recorded for such a work, viz., nineteen weeks. No other bridge of its size and capacity has ever been built so cheaply. The bridge is coated with gray paint and is rendered as invisible as possible against the cloud of spray,--"the smoke that sounds," as the natives call it,--that rises from the Falls. The undue obtrusion on the landscape which so many feared has thus been obviated. It is proposed to use the waterpower to develop manufactures. There is an abundance of coal, iron, and copper in the vicinity. None of the grandeur of the falls or of the magnificent landscape is to be destroyed in using the power. To prevent this the British government has set aside as a public park a strip of territory six miles long and from one to two miles wide on either side of the river. See Cape To Cairo Railway ; Africa ; Uganda
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the most important river in southeastern Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean. It has its source in several streams uniting in the far interior. It flows first S. E. and then N. E., then curves again to the S. E., and reaches the Indian Ocean by several mouths in the Mozambique Channel opposite Madagascar. The delta of the Zambesi covers an area of about 25,000 square miles, and commences about 90 miles from the coast, a little below the confluence of the main stream with the Shiré. The course of the whole river is about 1,600 miles, and it drains an area of 600,000 square miles. Its basin is separated from that of the Orange river on the S. W. by a slight watershed, and from that of the Limpopo on the S. by a mountain range. Its course as a whole is through fertile valleys and wooded plains; but the navigation is interrupted by rapids and cataracts, among the latter being the Victoria Falls, which are among the grandest in the world. The valley of the Zambesi is capable of immense development in the way of trade. The Portuguese Government has long mouths of the river, and by the international arrangement of June, 1891, the river from the coast to the confluence of the Loangwe is recognized as being in Portuguese territory; the upper course is chiefly in British territory. The Zambesi and its affluents are now free to the flags of all nations.