L 
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 L 
 
 Ic^'Jj. 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 EXPLORATIONS 
 
 IN 
 
 SOUTH-WEST AFRICA, 
 
 AN "account of a JOURNEY IN THE YEARS 
 
 1861 AND 1862 FROM WALVISCH BAY, ON THE T\TSSTERN COAST, 
 
 TO LAKE NGAMI AND THE VICTORIA FALLS. 
 
 THOMAS BAINES, F.E.G.S. 
 
 FORJLERLY ATTACHED TO THE NORTH AUSTRALIAN KSPEDTnON, AND SUBSEQUENTLY 
 TO THAT OP DR. LTVIXGSTOXE OX THE ZXSUnZSl. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, EGBERTS, & GEEEN. 
 
 1S64.
 
 ^- 
 
 ^
 
 73/ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This work was written by my Son during a journey 
 from Walvisch Bay, on the west coast of Africa, to 
 tlie Victoria Falls of the Zambesi Eiver, in company 
 with Mr. J. Cliapman, a former friend of the 
 author's, who had spent many years in travelling 
 and was well acquainted with the country and the 
 language of the natives. In 1858 Mr. Baines was 
 appointed artist to the Zambesi expedition under 
 Dr. Livingstone, and accompanied his party to Tete, 
 the principal town in the Portuguese territory, on 
 the eastern coast of Africa; but leaving that ex- 
 pedition in 1861, he returned to Cape Town. On 
 recovering from a severe ilhiess, which was attended 
 with fever and loss of sight for several weeks, he 
 resolved to explore the interior himself, and if 
 possible to cross the continent from the west coast 
 to the Zambesi on the east. For this purpose he 
 built two copper boats, so constructed as to be used 
 singly, or, when the river admitted, side by side, 
 with a platform on which he could form a house or 
 
 1101042
 
 I
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 cabin; tliis he accomplished with his own hands, 
 with the exception of a smith for a few hours' work. 
 Having provided liimself with the requisites for such 
 an undertaking, he left Table Bay, March 21, 1861, 
 and arriving on the 29th of that month at Walvisch 
 Bay, there began his overland journey. The journal 
 was ^vritten under many difficulties, till they arrived 
 at the Victoria Falls, when fever, famine, and the 
 murder of many of their attendants obliged them 
 to return at a time when they had hoped in a few 
 weeks to begin their voyage down the Zambesi. 
 
 The absence of the author in Africa, while this 
 volume was passing through the press, must be 
 pleaded in excuse for the alteration in the paging of 
 the latter portion of the Avork. The last chapter 
 was already in t}^e, when some MS. sheets were dis- 
 covered which supphed the narrative of events for the 
 weeks intervening between the first attack of illness 
 and the final resolution to abandon the design of 
 descending the Zambesi, and to return by land to 
 Walvisch Bay. It was found necessary to insert 
 this narrative, which now forms Chapter XV. 
 
 M. A. BAINES.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 DEPARTUIiE FROM CAPE TO^VN — PELICAN POINT CURIOUS ACTION 
 
 OF WIND ON LOOSE SAND — THE FLAMINGO — NAMAQUA HOT- 
 TENTOTS — SAND FONTEIN — SHARKS — COW-FISH AND THEIR 
 PRET 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 START FOR ODJIMBINGUE — THE DUPA RIVER MISSION STATION 
 
 AT IIYKOM KOP THE VALLEY OF THE SWA-KOP — THE ROODE- 
 
 BERG — RAVINES OF THE TINCAS RIVER ROCKS AT ONANIS 
 
 ARRIVAL AT OTJIMBINGUE RETURN JOURNEY — ARRIVAL AT 
 
 WALVISCH BAY THE JL'NCTION OF THE OOSOP AND THE SWA- 
 KOP JOURNEY TO OTJIMBINGUE ..... 21 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 A HOTTENTOT CHIEF DRESS OF THE DAMARAS — HABITS OF THE 
 
 HOTTENTOTS GREAT BARMEN — HOT SPRINGS JUNCTION OF 
 
 THE BARMEN RIVER WITH THE SWA-KOP THE AWASSBERG— 
 
 TRADING AMONG THE HOTTENTOTS — APICa's KRAAL UN- 
 TRAINED OXEN THE VALLEY OF THE WINDHOCK . .42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE QUIEP, OB ELEPHANT RIVER THE TWIN TURRETS— KOT- 
 
 ZEBUE, THE DAMARA — LIBERTY AND EQUALITY THE KLEINE 
 
 BAKJIE HILL — THE NOOSOP HILLS — NAMAQUA GIRLS THE 
 
 MISSION STATION AT GOBABIES BUSHMEN, AND THEIR HABITS 
 
 INOCULATION OF CATTLE FOR LUNG SICKNESS — ITS EFFECTS C7
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ELEPHANT KLOOF WANT OK WATER — CONSEQUENT SUFFEHliCGS 
 
 OF THE CATTLE AFFHAY WITH BUSUMEN TRIAL AND 
 
 PUNISHMENT OF THE AGGRESSORS — ELANDS GIRAFFE PIT 
 
 THE OTCHOMIilNDE, OR THORN RINGER — PROFESSOR WAHL- 
 
 BE.iO CURIOUS SCENE AT A DRINKING-POOL — LIMESTONE 
 
 PLAINS 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DISCONTENT AMONG THE DAMABAS — KNAVERY OF GERT — CHASE 
 
 FOR STOLEN HORSES GEOLOGICAL FORMATION AT GHANZE — 
 
 VARIETIES OF THORN-BUSHES DAMARA NECKLACES — FUR- 
 THER SEARCH AFTER GERT THE MARKWHAE, A SUCCULENT 
 
 noOT — WOLF FOUNTAIN ARRIVAL AT KOBIS ^PREPARATIONS 
 
 FOR A LENGTHENED SOJOURN 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 CONTINUED SICKNESS AMONG THE CATTLE — ILLNESS OF SOME 
 DA>LARAS — OCCUPATIONS IN THE BUSH— DAMARA COSTUME — 
 
 THE Bushmen's poison — chameleons — brindled gnoos — 
 
 LEOPARDS — intellect OF BUSHMEN — DISCIPLINE OF BE- 
 CHUANA WOMEN — THE CHIEF LESHUlXtEBE — BAOBAB TREES 
 FURTHER TIDINGS OF GERT AND THE HORSES — KOBIS 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 RENEWED SEARCH TOR GERT AND THE HORSES — THE LAMB- 
 CATCHER, OR GOLDEN EAGLE ORIGIN OF LOCAL NAMES — 
 
 KOBIS — THE BUSHMEN CHEATED BY THE DAMARAS A SMOKING 
 
 MATCH AN ELEPHANT WOUNDED — THE ZAMBESI RIVER — 
 
 IVORY TRADERS — TUFTED OWLS THE VIVEIRA, A KIND OF 
 
 CIVET CAT — ANECDOTE OF PROFESSOR WAHLBERG PREPARA- 
 TIONS FOE A TREK — A LEMUR EFFECTS OF SUNLIGHT ON 
 
 CLOUDS
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 rAClli 
 
 INSPANNING — SNYMAN AND THE CHIEF LESHULATEBK — THE 
 
 MOTJEERIE TREE A METEOK— DUTCH OXEN-DRIVERS — THE 
 
 KOPJIES — CHANGE OF SCENERY INSECT-EATING JACKALS 
 
 A FIRE IN THE ENCAMPMENT FEUD BETWEEN SEKELETU 
 
 AND LESHULATEBE — QUARANTINE VLEI — THE OOMAHAMA 
 TREE — THE IRON TREE — ANTIDOTE TO THE BUSHMEN'S 
 POISON — THE KAA GRUB — LITTLE NGAMI — THE MOWANA 
 TREE — THE LOW LAND OF NGAMI . . . , .220 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EARTH- SNAKES BECHUANA THIEVES EFFECTS OF HEAT ON 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS VISIT TO LESHULATEBE — BAR- 
 TERING ADROIT ROBBERIES EXTORTIONATENESS OP THE 
 
 BECHUANAS CHRISTMAS DAY PREPARATIONS FOR THE 
 
 JOURNEY INTO THE FAR INTERIOR ..... 272 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LETTERS FROM HENRY CHAPMAN — ARRIVAL AT MOSELINYAN 
 
 TIDINGS OF GERT — MAJIU-KA-HOORIE RAIN-VLEIS — MAHA- 
 
 LAAPIE THE WELLS AT KOOBIE MORE LAST WATERS A 
 
 NIGHT IN THE BUSH AFTER AN ELEPHANT HUNT — THE DEAD 
 ELEPHANT — BUTTERFLIES AT A FEAST — DEATH OF DR. HOLDEN 
 
 DEALINGS WITH NATIVE TRIBES REMEDIES FOR HORSE 
 
 AND CATTLE SICKNESS — UNION-VLEI A METEOR— TRIP TO 
 
 THE NORTH-WEST ELEPHANT HUNT DENTITION OF THE 
 
 ELEPHANT . . . . . . . . . 291 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 UNDULATING COUNTRY UNCERTAINTY OF FINDING WATER 
 
 DISAPPEARANCE OF BUSHMEN STRENGTH AND CAUTI0USNESS 
 
 OF ELEPHANTS AN EVENING SCENE^— VULTURES FEASTING 
 
 ON DEAD ELEPHANTS— FIRST SIGHT OF A GIRAFFE — UNDU- 
 LATING GRASS LAND — THIC ONJURA, OR TREE-SQUIRREL
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DIFFICULTY OF PRESERVING BIRD-SKINS A NIGHT ATTACK 
 
 • OF ELEPHANTS — A NARROW ESCAPE COOKERY OF THE 
 
 BUSIUfEN THE TOUCAN GEMSBOKS WANDERINGS OF ELE- 
 PHANTS IN SEARCH OF WATER ..... 328 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 DEEP VLEI CERASTES, OR HORNDD SNAKE THE RIVER VUL- 
 TURE — OSTRICHES SERINGA BUSHES NOISELESS TREAD OF 
 
 ELEPHANTS— DAMAR A DANCES FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR A 
 
 START SKIN OF THE GIRAFFE NEW TEAR VLEI DIFFI- 
 CULTY OF PRESERVING ELEPHANTS' SKULLS FROM DAMARAS 
 
 A PUFF-ADDER THE WHITE RHINOCEROS ^^^ARIOUS SPECIES 
 
 OF VULTURE DAMARA INDOLENCE— THE KALIHARI DESERT 
 
 LUBELO HILL THE KQUIBA MOUNTAINS THE BLACK 
 
 FINCH — MAKOLOLO FORAYS — A SIGHT OF LAKE NGAMI— 
 NATIVE NAMES THE BOTLETLE RIVER RAVAGES OF ELE- 
 PHANTS IN leshulateee's village ..... 373 
 
 CHAPTEE XIY. 
 
 DIFFICULTY OF MAKING OBSERVATIONS A CONFERENCE WITH 
 
 LESHOLaTEBE — CRIMES OF SEKELETU AGAINST THE MISSION 
 
 PARTY LESHULATEBE'S BARGAINS HIS ADMINISTRATION OF 
 
 JUSTICE — GRASS ON FIRE A SAIL ON THE RIVER RIVER 
 
 SCENERY A TRADING EXPEDITION A BECHUANA VILLAGE 
 
 THE SOLITARY PALM LOCAL NAMES A CONJUROR 
 
 THE PEETRO, OR COUNCIL OF WAR — THE TIGER REGI- 
 MENT LESHULATEBE's army THE CHIEFTAIN MAKHOLOQUE 
 
 —A M^\KOBA AVIZARD HORSE-DEALING — RUMOURS OF THE 
 
 DEATH OF SEKELETU — A BROWN EAGLE — AN ATTACK OF 
 FEVER .......... 
 
 413 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE TAMALUKAN RIVER THE MAKOBAS — THE Z.VMBESI AND ITS 
 
 TRIBUTARIES — MAKOBA TREACHERY FEVER — THE EUPHORBIA 
 
 AND THE POISON GRUn THE TREE WITH LEGS KAMMA- 
 
 KAMMA — MUn PANS — SAND PLAINS AND THE MIRAGE
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PAG E 
 
 SECKOMO AND HIB SON ODEA-QUE PAKIIOPaTE JIATLOMO- 
 
 GANYANI — GERUFA — DAKA OR GUaKA — THE TABLE-LANDS OF 
 THE ZAMBESI THE APPROACH TO THE FALLS . . [390] 
 
 CHAPTER. XVI. 
 
 SABLE ANTELOPES HOTTENTOT BOASTFULNESS ROADS TO THE 
 
 ZAMBESI FALLS — CHOICE OF THE ATESTERNMOST ROAD — THE 
 TSETSE COUNTRY — RAPID DIMINUTION OF GAME — HUNGER- 
 BELTS OF THE KAFIRS THE TSETSE-POISON THE MATETSIE 
 
 RIVER — A QUAGGA SHOT THE RIVER BOLUNGO A DISSEL- 
 
 BOOM BROKEN ANECDOTES OF LION HUNTING A CHANGE 
 
 OF COURSE — SECHELI'S AMBASSADOR — SEKELETU'S DEFENCE 
 
 EXPLOITS OF WILDEBEESTE . . . . . .458 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 approach to the victoria falls distant sound of the 
 
 cataract — the first view of the falls a black rhino- 
 ceros the southern face of the falls — its double 
 
 rainbow buffalo hunt negotiations with 3i0sh0tlani 
 
 sekeletu ant> the missionaries — the great chasm or 
 
 three-rill cliff exorbitant prices of food dealings 
 
 with moshotlani and madzekazi a fall into a game-pit 
 
 the eastern side of the cataracts — changes produced 
 
 by the falls in the character of the scenery dr. 
 
 Livingstone's garden — shooting and descending the 
 
 rapids extreme breadth of the falls close of the 
 
 expedition . . . . . . . . .481
 
 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 MAPS. 
 
 Sketch Map of South Africa, showing the Regions explored 
 
 by Mr. Baines . . . .to face 1 
 
 Route Map: Walvisch Bay to Thounce . . ,, 35 
 
 Route Map : Thounce to Victoria Falls — Zambesi River „ 224 
 
 CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH. 
 Regiment of Flamingoes — Swa-kop River . . frontispiece 
 
 WOOD ENGRAVINGS, FROM ORIGINAL SKETCHES. 
 
 (Engraved bj^ G-. Pearson.) 
 
 Namaqua Hunters, Walvisch Bay . . . .10 
 
 Griqua Hunter and Griqua Women . , .11 
 
 Pomp and Vanity . . . . . .41 
 
 Kynomobia, or Mrs. Kanoa, Dikkop's married daughter . 46 
 
 Hot and Tepid Springs at Great Barmen . . .51 
 
 Damara Woman carrying Water in a Native Jar, and 
 
 holding Ostrich Egg-shell . . . 5G
 
 XIV 
 
 IJST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Ncamaqua Ilottontot Women begging 
 
 Melon Dunce, Hottentot Girls 
 
 Jem, a Portrait 
 
 Bushmen, a Group 
 
 Damaras and Bnslimcn with a Dead Ox 
 
 Damaras .... 
 
 Eechuaua drinking 
 
 Arrival at the Water Pit . 
 
 Damara Mother-tree in Seed, but Leafless 
 
 Bechuana smoking Dakka . 
 
 Tufted Owl (fliboa of Cuvier) 
 
 An Attendant on a Chief . 
 
 Bechuana Ivory-carrier and Girl with Milk 
 
 A Chief bringing Ivory to sell 
 
 Tree at Mamu-ka-Hoorie . 
 
 Group of Storks 
 
 Storks in Sleepy HoIIoav 
 
 Storks feeding on Elephants' Flesh . 
 
 First Sight of a GiraiFe 
 
 Bittern .... 
 
 The enraged Mother (Elephant) 
 
 A Group of Three Ostriches 
 
 Tired Elephant washing 
 
 Finch .... 
 
 Native Doctor extracting Disease . 
 
 A Woman of the Batasanas (a subdivision of 
 
 standing for her Portrait 
 Makalaka, with the first Reef in his Hunger 
 Bird's-eye View of the Victoria Falls 
 
 to face 76 
 88 
 . 92 
 to face 96 
 . 97 
 . 104 
 . 123 
 
 to face 128 
 . 181 
 . 204 
 . 213 
 . 231 
 . 279 
 
 to face 282 
 . 295 
 
 to face 337 
 . 338 
 
 to face 340 
 . 343 
 . 345 
 . 356 
 . 377 
 . 393 
 . 404 
 . 438 
 the Bechuanas) 
 
 . 442 
 belt. . . 467 
 
 in face 487
 
 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH-WEST AFEICA. 
 
 Djeirx 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 _ DEPARTURE FROM CAPE TOWN PELICAN POINT CURIOUS 
 
 ACTION OF WIND ON LOOSE SAND — THE FLAMINGO NAMAQUA 
 
 HOTTENTOTS SAND FONTEIN SHARKS COW-FISH AND 
 
 THEIR PREY. 
 
 On Wednesday, March 20th, 1861, I had the satis- 
 faction of embarking at Cape Town the materiel of my 
 intended expedition on board a smart Httle brigantine 
 of about 110 tons, called the ' Elizabeth Mary.' The 
 greater number of my packages were of course sent 
 below ; but the two boats, which, from inabihty to 
 find a boat-builder to work in metal, or a smith 
 to understand the requirements of the case, I had 
 myself constructed of copper, were retained on deck, 
 and securely lashed on each side under the waist 
 bulwarks. 
 
 On the following day, accompanied by Mr. Lo- 
 gier, I went down to the jetty, where, a stiff south- 
 easter rendering it unsafe to trust to a dingy, Mr. 
 Bates khidly lent us one of his large cargo-boats. 
 After about two tacks, plentifully sprinkled with salt 
 
 B
 
 '2 EXI'LOKATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 water, we reached tlie vessel just as tlie anchor was 
 being weighed. Having passed between the island 
 and the main, we saw towards afternoon the old 
 Ta])le mountain looming grandly in the warm dis- 
 tance, when all the minor features had disappeared. 
 We soon had a succession of variable winds, alter- 
 nately with calms, accompanied by very dense fogs. 
 After a week thus spent, we ran in towards the 
 land. As we heard surf but could see nothino;, we 
 hove to towards evening, and ran on again in the 
 night. On Friday the 29th (Good Friday) we w^ere 
 again becalmed, and so enveloped in fog that, 
 though the roaring of the surf was unmistakable, not 
 a vestige of land could we see till breakfast time, 
 when w^e made out part of a long range of sand- 
 hills, with a number of indefinite objects, that 
 most likely were rocks exaggerated by the re- 
 fractive state of the atmosphere. As the fog cleared 
 away, the line of sand-hills lengthened out ; a solitary 
 momitain was visible far inland to the north-east. 
 About noon we made out the long low Sand Spit, 
 called Pehcan Point, which extends northwards till 
 it forms a sheltered basin, on wliich the prevalent 
 southerly winds can hardly raise a ripple that would 
 endanger a boat. We passed its extremity in 22° 52' S. 
 and 14° 22' E. witli a freshening breeze. A sailing- 
 boat soon came off to us, and the head-man directed 
 us to an anchorage, about a quarter of a mile north 
 of Mr. Latham's house. Of course the captain was 
 anxious to meet the principal consignee of his cargo,
 
 1861.] AX OUT-STATIOX OX THE COAST. 3 
 
 and I to fall in with my friend and future fellow- 
 traveller, Chapman, ^vlio had preceded me ; but we 
 learned that the first named, after having been 
 wrecked in the ' Canute,' near Ichaboe, and conveyed 
 to Sandwich Harbour in the ' Eagle,' was at present 
 some distance up the country, and that the latter had 
 left for the interior about two months before. The 
 head-man, however, offered to send a Damara with a 
 letter, which was accordingly written and despatched. 
 
 As no carsfo could be lauded, we contented 
 om'selves with hoisting out the copper boats, and 
 finding that from theu' unfinished condition they 
 leaked considerably, we towed them ashore, and the 
 fishermen carried them above high water mark for 
 me. At mght we caught a large quantity of eel 
 fish, barbels, dog-fish, and smaU sharks. 
 
 On the 3 0th, Captain Burstall and I went ashore, 
 and found the house built upon a foundation of 
 sand-bags, certainly not six feet above high water 
 mark, and the fishermen's huts almost on a level with 
 it ; the water, in fact, flowing nearly up to them. A 
 large quantity of fish were drying on a framework of 
 poles, and their huge heads were lying in heaps upon 
 the beach. Farther on was a cage or trap with falhng 
 door and baited hook, for the purpose of catching- 
 jackals ; but strong indeed must have been the scent 
 that could compete, even under their discriminatuig 
 noses, with the masses of decaying matter on the 
 beach. 
 
 Beyond was a broad flat, covered with cat, dog,
 
 4 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 and otlier inud-frequeiitiiig fish, which, venturing 
 too far witli the last s|)ring-tide, had been left at a 
 distance from their element, and were now adding 
 each his mite to the ' ancient and fish-like smell ' 
 that pervades the whole place. Still farther inland 
 was a quantity of small drift-wood, brought down 
 long ago, I suppose, when there was water in some 
 of the channels between the sand-hills. At length, 
 after having walked about three miles, we reached 
 the commencement of the first range, and on ascend- 
 ing ten or twelve feet for a more extended view, found 
 that the mirage, which had created an illusive sheet 
 of water between us and the house, had entirely 
 disappeared. The difficulty of representing this 
 phenomenon in a painting is that, supposing the 
 artist to succeed perfectly, he cannot convey to the 
 beholder of the picture the absolute knowledge that* 
 it is not intended for water ; if there is wind, the 
 mirage ripples like a sunny lake, and the only test 
 by which to judge of it on the spot is, that it never 
 rises into breakers, and that it exaggerates excessively 
 the height of objects within its influence. I have seen 
 in Table Bay the hulls of vessels rise up like great 
 castles nearly to their lower 3'ards, while all above 
 was unaltered and natural; and the houses and rocks 
 on Eobben Island, hardly visible under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, shoot up like great spars to nearly the 
 same height. Here the dense flocks of pehcans and 
 flamingoes present an appearance that actually led 
 the mate of the vessel to mistake them at first sight
 
 1861.] CURIOUS ACTION OF WIND ON LOOSE SAND. 5 
 
 for houses ; and considering that the last-named bird, 
 with its white plumage and scarlet wings, stands about 
 four feet in height, I do not wonder at the current 
 stories of their being mistaken for a column of in- 
 fantry with red jackets and white caps and trowsers. 
 The action of the wind on these ever-shifting 
 sands is also worthy of notice. The dry hght sand 
 is heaped up in a ridge by the first gust capable of 
 scooping a hollow in the surface ; gradually it ad- 
 vances like a wave of the sea w^ith its steepest side 
 to leeward, and the sand flying from its crest seems 
 so hke the ocean spray, that the similarity is almost 
 complete. Farther inland were some brown bushes, 
 perching themselves upon the reddest sand-spots that 
 they might appear more green by contrast. The 
 most noticeable things on our return was the track 
 .of a large water-barrel, in which, in fashion of a 
 garden roller, the inhabitants draw their supplies 
 from an indefinite distance. I hardly know what 
 can give a better idea of the utter destitution of 
 this place than the fact that we have at present on 
 board twenty-seven large barrels of water, at a cost 
 in Cape Town of os., and a freight thence of 30^. per 
 ton. Of course the casks are required in the fishery, 
 but the want of water is everywdiere forced upon our 
 notice. Even Captain, the agent's half-bred New^- 
 foundland, swims regularly to the ship, puts his paws 
 in the bight of a rope to be hauled up, and sniffs so 
 pleadingly at the casks, that the hardest heart on 
 board cannot refuse to fill a dipper for him.
 
 6 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 At niglit Tom caught a couple of spotted sliarks ; 
 the male 4ft. Gin. and the female 4ft. 2 in. in length, 
 the latter nearly ready to produce eleven young ones, 
 besides containinf^ several ova in various stages of 
 development. 
 
 On Easter Day we remained on board, putting 
 affairs a little in order. The fishermen brought a 
 penguin, which fought the boys and dogs gallantly, 
 and pecked with its hard sharp beak at any naked 
 ankle or sea-boot most impartially. Seeing it rather 
 roughly treated, I interceded for the poor creature, 
 but was informed that nothing could by any possi- 
 bility hurt it. 
 
 By the Gth of April we had got all stores out, 
 Mr. Dixon having come thirty-six miles to meet us. 
 As I was a little undecided till I heard from Chapman, 
 I resolved to stay at Mr. Latham's, who, I was as- 
 sured, would be happy if I did so. Dixon accord- 
 ingly took charge of the various packages intended 
 for residents in the country, and having tied up all 
 the letters in a bag comprehensively enough ad- 
 dressed ' To the white inhabitants of Damara-land,' 
 spanned in his oxen and set forth on his dreary 
 night-long journey through the sand-hills. 
 
 The fishermen had been engaged during the Gth 
 in ballasting the vessel, and, having finished their 
 work, received payment, part in rum and part in 
 coin, wliich last, however, soon found its way back 
 in exchange for more of the first. A couple of sove- 
 reigns wliicli remained to me I invested in a dozen
 
 1861.] ENCOUNTER WITH AN OLD SERVANT. 7 
 
 of cheap shirts, and some tobacco, for small presents, 
 to which Captain Burstall generously added a quan- 
 tity of bread and some spirits ; and shortly after 
 dinner I saw the anchor lifted, the sails spread, and 
 the ' Elizabeth Mary ' on her way to Eio. 
 
 Early in the morning of April 9th, while we were 
 still waiting for Mr. Latham, three wagons were seen 
 crossing the flats, and by breakfast time Mr. Dixon re- 
 turned, accompanied by Mr. Langenhoorn, a fine old 
 man, with hair shghtly tinged with grey just thin- 
 ning on the top, and with a beard and countenance 
 which Eembrandt would have dehghted to copy. 
 He had come down on the part of Mr. Andersson, 
 with two wagons to bring hides, and to wait for the 
 arrival of our vessel — the news not having reached 
 Otjimbingue when he left. Of course he was glad 
 to find his cargo ready for him ; and by the afteinoon, 
 the wagons being reloaded, he and Mr. Dixon again 
 left me alone in my glory. The Dutch proverb says, 
 ' Mountains camiot meet, but people may,' and this 
 morning Dixon called my attention to a man engaged 
 in spanning out the oxen, who proved to be John 
 Human, the driver of one of M'Cabe's wagons when 
 we w^ere over Vaal Elver in 1850, and my after- 
 rider in my second trip from Mooi Eiver to Bloem 
 Fontein. He had told Dixon of the care I took 
 in teaching him to read, but said he had since 
 forgotten it. He had, I believe, been more than 
 once to Moselekatse's country. Chapman had picked 
 him up somewhere in the interior, and after wander-
 
 « EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 ing through several of the neighbouring tribes, he 
 had at length found himself in the service of Mr. 
 Andersson. The country between this and Otjim- 
 bingue, I understood was at present full of game, 
 principally springbok and blawe wildebeeste. Tracks 
 of giraffes and rhinoceroses had been seen, and ui 
 one place the spoor of as many as eighteen lions. 
 Indeed, in some parts it was not safe to dismount 
 from the wagon at night, and on one occasion a 
 traveller had encountered a number of these beasts 
 sitting across his track, awaiting his approach, and 
 by no means inchned to get out of his way. 
 
 As I accompanied the wagons a short distance 
 from the house, I asked how so many of the oxen 
 had lost their tails, and was told it was the lung 
 sickness — a curious effect of the disease, I thought ; 
 but I was further informed that it was usual to m- 
 oculate healthy cattle by passing a needle and thread, 
 previously steeped in the virus of the diseased lung, 
 through the skin of their tails. This caused a painful 
 swelhng, which, if the needle touched the bone m its 
 passage, extended to the whole hind-quarters, and 
 occasioned the loss of the tail, or perhaps of the 
 animal. I was told that of the cattle not inoculated 
 fifty per cent, died, and that the operation reduced 
 the per-centage to twenty-five. How it reached this 
 country is not known. 
 
 On returning, I found a fine flamingo which the head 
 fisherman had just killed and brought up. This was 
 the first time I had actually had the bird in hand.
 
 1861.] DESCRIPTION OF A FLAMINGO. 9 
 
 and I could not but admire the delicate gradations 
 of white and scarlet on the body and wings, con- 
 trasted with the jetty black of the quill feathers. 
 The legs were of a delicate pink, and naked to within 
 three inches of the body ; the feet were webbed, and 
 the toes tipped with black nails resembling in form 
 those of the human hand ; the head was large, the 
 beak abruptly crooked, and covered from the eyes to 
 the bend with a delicate flesh-coloured skin, forming 
 a small pouch under the lower mandible — the tints 
 of this, however, are unfortunately likely to be lost in 
 drying. The tip of the beak was black, the eye small 
 and bright yellow, with a black pupil. The extreme 
 length, from tip of beak to middle toe, was four feet 
 ten inches, the neck and beak being nearly two feet, 
 and the legs, exclusive of the short thigh which is 
 concealed in the body, two feet two ; the wings 
 were rather small, their spread being five feet four. 
 I should think the bird, when living, would stand four 
 feet high. At night I skinned the flamingo, and was 
 surprised chiefly at the enormous size of its tongue, 
 which filled the whole of the large lower man- 
 dible, and was provided with recurved papillse with 
 soft points, so that they could hardly be of ser- 
 vice, like the serrated beak, in securing the prey. 
 The tongue contained a great quantity of fat, a thick 
 layer of which was also spread over the whole body. 
 Two days later, a number of Namaqua Hottentots 
 passed on ox-back, carrying their guns, but down^ 
 wards, in a bag before the right knee, the muzzle
 
 10 
 
 EXPLOEATTONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Ai 
 
 projecting backwards beyond the arm, as described 
 by Mr. Galton. They were bound to a place seven 
 hours' journey to the north, where Dixon had in- 
 formed, me a herd of buffaloes inhabited some reed 
 patches. The fishermen hauled the seine during the 
 day, but caught only some small fish the shape and 
 size of a herring, some sharks, sting-rays, cat and 
 dog-fish, and several broad-finned flat-belUed sharks, 
 called from tlieir shape fiddle-fish. 
 
 NAMAQUA HUNTERS, WALVISCH BAT. 
 
 As yet we have seen very httle of the natives 
 of the country. The Namaqua Hottentots, before 
 mentioned, came up at first to help in discharging 
 cargo ; and it was amusing to see four of them 
 labouring under a bag of flour, while a similar one 
 was steadily carried up by a single fisherman, or 
 three of them kneeling in the sand to roll a tar-
 
 1861.] 
 
 NAMAQUA HOTTENTOTS. 
 
 11 
 
 barrel. They were dressed mostly in leather trowsers, 
 duffle jackets, and felt hats. Their native orna- 
 ments consist of lonsi: thoiio-s of leather coiled Hke 
 ropes about their hips, with others forming fringes 
 below the knee. The first lady of this tribe we 
 
 GHIQUA HUNTEB AND GRIQUA WOMEN. 
 
 were introduced to was dressed principally in a 
 bundle of firewood, and the lashings necessary to 
 bind it to her shoulders ! The Hottentots recognised 
 drawings of the elephant, rhinoceros, springbok, 
 and blue wildebeeste, the last of which they named 
 ' Gaow.' * 
 
 * Or, Ghau2—ED.
 
 12 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 111 tlic afternoon of the 12tb, I walked alono; the 
 beach at the head of tlie bay, which is now being 
 divided from the anchorage by a bar of sand, and in 
 a few years will probably become a shallow lagoon. 
 Taking a telescope with me, I had a better view of the 
 flocks of flamingoes and pelicans feeding at the edges 
 of the shoals. Part of the skeleton of a whale, co- 
 vered with barnacles, and killed, probably, when the 
 bay was worthy of its name, bore evidence to the 
 fact that tlie water had once been much deeper. I 
 beheve these creatures are seldom or never seen 
 here now. 
 
 On the 15th I set to work to find out how to 
 make cartridges for my gun, a Wilson's breech- 
 loader, but had to make several trials before I suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 The day after, I went out in hopes of shooting 
 a flamingo, and had a few shots at from 500 to 700 
 yards, the balls generally striking a very small dis- 
 tance short of tlie flocks. We saw one flying with his 
 leg broken, but could never get near him again, and 
 another remained, apparently disabled, behind the 
 flock ; but as Tom took off his shoes to go after 
 him, he mustered strength to get away. I believe 
 the fishermen kill them by lying on their belly in the 
 wet sand, and making the ball ricochet along the 
 water ; but the birds are so shy that they have not 
 killed another since they shot the specimen the head- 
 man gave me. 
 
 After walking about half-way round the head of
 
 1861.] CAPTURE OF TWO LIVE GEMSBOKS. 13 
 
 the bay, we struck inland a little, and returned over 
 large ridges of sand, like the billows of the ocean, 
 walking easily up the incUned slope of the weather 
 side, and launching, as rapidly as we could keep our 
 legs going, down the lee, which, as usual with sand, 
 lies at an invariable angle of about 45°. 
 
 During the day we had a smart brief sliower, the 
 first rain, as Joseph told me, that had fallen for two 
 years. 
 
 I began now to fear that I should be obliged 
 to discontinue my work on the boat, as my paint 
 oil was expended ; but the old steward, Joseph, 
 brought out a bucket of tar for me, which timely 
 assistance enabled me to continue my work. The 
 plan I had adopted was to lay another piece upon 
 the inside, fore and aft ribbed ; and having first tarred 
 it well, to clinch it through all with the longest nails 
 I have, each of which has to be beaten out to nearly 
 an inch beyond its original length before I can use 
 it. To show through how minute an aperture 
 water will find its way, I may mention that where 
 the box for containing the lower part of the mast is 
 screwed to the end of its section, the screws are 
 rusted, and tlie wood blackened. 
 
 A Damara brought in a fine pair of gemsboks* 
 living, but they were rather spoiled by having been 
 scraped at the points. I bought them for a cotton 
 
 * The g here is pronounced hard, or rather Avith a guttural 
 sound. It will be near enough if you pronounce it as in the 
 English word gun, and not as in gem or Jem.
 
 14 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 handkerchief. The name of this animal, as nearly as 
 I can express it in writing, is Kalip ; it begins, I 
 think, with the dental click. 
 
 In the afternoon of Sunday the 21st I walked along 
 the wagon-track, over the flats, for nearly a couple 
 of miles, and then among the sand-hills for almost as 
 much more to Sand Fontein, a Uttle on the left hand 
 of the road. I came upon about half-a-dozen huts 
 of the very rudest description, being in fact mere 
 boughs thrown over a rough framework, without the 
 shghtest pretence of being either wind or water-tight. 
 The only furniture was a few wooden troughs for 
 carrying water, and the only article in demand was 
 tobacco, a small modicum of which they stick into 
 the shank bone of a sheep, and straightway the 
 rejoicing native calleth it by some name that means 
 pipe, and essayeth to smoke therein. 
 
 Launching down at an angle of 45° mid-leg deep 
 in dry loose sand, we came to the waterhole, where my 
 Boschman, clearing it away a Uttle, laid hold of an old 
 pot-hd,and revealed the well, whose sides were formed 
 of fragments of that same pot. A broken gin-flask 
 had found its way even here, and this he proceeded 
 to fill, using the half shell of a nara as a ladle. The 
 liquid had a soft unpleasant taste, and was neither 
 cool nor refreshing. It is said that, having once 
 found water at the depth of four to six feet, if you 
 break through a thin stratum of clay the water 
 leaks out, and you have to dig fifteen or sixteen 
 more before you again reach it. Tlie waters of the
 
 1861.] TWO SHARKS CAUGHT. 15 
 
 Zwartkops, when, as is usually the case, they aie not 
 strong enough to run in their own channels, are sup- 
 posed to escape under ground, and may be had for 
 the digging at Sandwich Harbour. I caught a small 
 snake as Ave returned, and put him in a bottle of 
 spirits, with some beetles. 
 
 On Monday the 22 nd, the thermometer in the open 
 room stood at 67°. I saw the sharp dorsal fins of 
 several large sharks ghding swiftly through the calm 
 water, and fired a few shots at them to try the range 
 of my gun. The boat was at this time returning 
 from Pehcan Pouit. Presently we saw the sails taken 
 in, and the crew engaged in a contest with one of 
 these sea monsters, which appeared half as long as 
 the boat. Some were holding on by a line, while the 
 head-man seemed to be stabbing and striking when- 
 ever he had a chance. Presently they towed the fish 
 on shore, and putting out again, very soon returned 
 wdtli another of nearly equal size, and, only that the 
 wind rose suddenly, would probably have secured 
 more. The sharks were of a deep grey or slate colour 
 on the back and sides, and, as usual, white on the 
 belly. The most striking peculiarity, which I have 
 never before noticed in a shark, was that the afterpart 
 of the body, instead of tapering off as usual toward 
 the tail, received a great increase of width, while its 
 depth was proportionately diminished, being fidly a 
 foot wide and only three or four inches deep — this 
 arrangement, of course, being the best calculated to 
 afford the greatest strength hi giving the lateral stroke
 
 16 
 
 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Aprii 
 
 with tlie tail, with the least resistance to the water in 
 doing so. I have only noticed this arrangement in 
 the porpoise, but there the tail being horizontal, and 
 the stroke therefore either up or down, the depth 
 of the body near the tail is much greater than its 
 width. The fishermen showed me that if you touch 
 a shark on the side above the ventral fins, a convul- 
 sive motion is produced, even when life is so far 
 extinct that no handling, however rough, in any 
 part would affect the creature. The dimensions of 
 the largest (though they differed only by a few 
 inches) were as under : — 
 
 Length from nose to tip of tail 
 
 ,, „ to fork of tail 
 
 Gh'th behind pectoral fins . 
 From tip to tip of pectoral fins 
 From nose to first gill . 
 Front ridge of dorsal fin 
 Upper lobe of tail 
 Lower lobe of tail 
 Breadth of body at tail 
 Depth of body at tail . 
 
 The oil extracted from the liver is worth 30/. per 
 ton, and the men say that catching sharks would 
 pay better than fishing. The liver of the largest 
 was put into a large basket, and two Namaquas 
 actually staggered under the burden. The stomach 
 of this contained a steinbrass, I should think, 
 between three and four feet long, just once bitten in 
 the middle ! The skin was digested off it, but it 
 seemed quite fresh when cut. 
 
 ft. 
 
 in. 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 4
 
 1861.] A TRAVELLING CHEST. 17 
 
 To-day came in the carcase of a very fine flamingo, 
 half devoured by jackals : the wings, however, were 
 perfect. Probably it was one of those woimded 
 on Tuesday, for jackals do not catch full-grown 
 birds like these unless previously rendered incapable 
 of escape. 
 
 Toward noon it blew very hard from the east, 
 bringing down such clouds of sand that we could 
 not see eighty yards in any direction. To work 
 outside was an impossibility, and the flies, driven in 
 for shelter, rendered the house almost untenable. 
 Toward afternoon it moderated, and shifted to the 
 south-west, when I went down and made a sketch 
 of the shark. 
 
 I took a number of parasites ofi" the shark, and put 
 them in spirits ; they were mostly under the broad 
 part of the body near the tail, and their own broad 
 flat form enabled them to attach themselves firmly, 
 with little chance of being washed ofl". 
 
 I forgot to say that the sharks were taken with 
 the harpoon, and that one of them had an old 
 healed-up scar across liis belly, either the mark of a 
 former ' rip ' or the result of a fight. 
 
 On Tuesday the thermometer in the morning stood 
 at 64°. I finished working up the waste pieces of 
 sheet iron over a 4-doz. ale case, made hinges and 
 hasp for it, and turned it out a good, strong, iron- 
 covered chest, capable of bidding defiance to all the 
 ants in Africa, if I can only preserve it from the 
 rust of Walvisch Bay — a matter of no small difficulty. 
 
 c
 
 18 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 I ain loth to fire my gun, for even if well greased 
 after, it is sure to rust ; and, as a kind of last resort, 
 I have been obliged to tar the blades of my saws. 
 
 On the 24th the ' Susan ' arrived from Sandwich 
 Harbour. 
 
 Sunday, April 28th. — A young jackal was picked 
 up on the beach, having been killed by dogs during 
 the night. As is the case with the kangaroo and 
 other tough-skinned animals, the ribs were crushed in 
 several places, without any external wound or even 
 loss of hair, the only injury visible being a small 
 hole in the hind quarters. 
 
 Tuesday, oOth. — About noon, Captain Duncan hav- 
 ing completed the discharge of his cargo, and kindly 
 undertaken the care of my sketches, specimens, &c., 
 left us for his vessel, taking with him my young 
 volunteer, Tom Wilhams, who, having repented of 
 the adventure, was now desirous of returning to the 
 Cape, and also my watch, which had broken down. 
 
 Mr. Euncie arrived, the next day, from the 
 interior, bringing me a letter from Chapman, who 
 had gone on from Barmen to the place of a 
 Hottentot headsman, named Amral, for the piu^pose 
 of purchasing cattle, having then only seventeen left 
 out of one hundred and forty. On Thursday, Mr. 
 Latham reached his home, accompanied by Mr. 
 Kisch, who brought me a second letter from Mr. 
 Chapman, and informed me that Henry Chapman, 
 his brother, would very shortly follow. 
 
 On Thursday, May 2nd, wagons began to arrive, mi-
 
 1861.] COW-FISII AND THEIE PREY. 19 
 
 til at one time ten or a dozen must have been collected 
 round the house, and among the new arrivals we had 
 the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Latham, Mrs. Andersson 
 (proceeding to the Cape to rejoin her husband, who 
 was about to make the journey overland), and Mr. 
 Wilson, one of the traders of the interior, and among 
 the earliest visitors of Lake Ngami. In fact, he had 
 himself been invited by the chief there, and was 
 ready for the journey some months before. 
 
 On Friday, having finished putting together the 
 six sections of one of my boats, I launched her 
 with the assistance of my friends, and pushed off 
 to try her in the bay. I found, as I expected, that 
 from her limited beam she was somewhat tender in 
 the water, and with the large oars lent us by Mr. 
 Latham we could not pull to advantage ; still she 
 floated lightly, drawing about nine inches aft, and 
 seven forward, and when conjoined, the two will, of 
 course, be as stiff as could be desired. In the after- 
 noon the fishermen carried her up for me. A 
 number of cow-fish, something between the large 
 porpoise and small whale, were seen in the bay, 
 chasing their prey almost up to the beach, and many 
 times we could see the gallion or other smaller fish, 
 leaping like salmon three or four yards out of the 
 water, followed by their bulky pursuers. It is said 
 to be not uncommon in these desperate leaps to 
 see not only the fugitive but the would-be captor 
 stranded on the beach together. The cow-fish has 
 sometimes been shot during the chase, but has only 
 
 c 2
 
 «20 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [May 
 
 once been known to be secured after a death- 
 wound. 
 
 Saturday the 4th was a busy day enough. Mr. 
 Cator, not having a heavy load, kmdly offered to take 
 some of mine up for me, and I accordingly packed 
 tliree boxes with such things as I should not require 
 before reaching Otjimbingue.
 
 1861.] LOADING Ur. 21 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 START FOR OTJIMBINGUE THE DUPA RIVER MISSION STATION 
 
 AT HYKOJI KOP THE VALLEY OF THE SWA-KOP THE ROODE- 
 
 BEKG — RAVINES OF THE TINCAS RIVER ROCKS AT ONANIS 
 
 ARRIVAL AT OTJIMBINGUE RETURN JOURNEY — ARRIVAL AT 
 
 WALVISCH BAY THE JUNCTION OF THE OOSOP AND THE 
 
 SWA-KOP JOURNEY TO OTJIMBINGUE. 
 
 On Sunday (May 5),wliicli was fine and tolerably clear, 
 with a fresh breeze from the westward, we spanned 
 in, and on Monday morning Henry Chapman arrived. 
 Duiing the day he cleared his wagon of ivory, heads, 
 horns, native drums, and other articles of commerce 
 and curiosity, and on Tuesday we began loading up. 
 The sacks of meal were laid in tlie bottom. On these 
 were placed two of the larger sections of our boat, 
 fiUed with light goods, packed so as to injure the 
 copper as little as possible, and above these again 
 were laid two others reversed, so that the convexity 
 of their bottom just filled up tlie wagon tent, leaving 
 barely room to lash the bow and stern sections, laid 
 end for end, the broad part of one to the narrow 
 part of the other at the back. When to all this 
 were added a few necessaries for tlie road, and a 
 couple of good-sized water barrels, pots, kettles, and 
 wagoners' clothing, karosses, &c., it may be imagined 
 that even a good-sized cat would hardly have found
 
 "22 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [May 
 
 a comfortable place to lie in. The wagon left the 
 same afternoon, and on the morning of Wednesday, 
 having been suj^pUed by the kindness of Mrs. Latliam 
 with a loaf of new bread, some excellent Damara- 
 land butter, and a few other little luxuries, and by 
 Mrs. Andersson with a very tasteful haversack for 
 my sketch-book, I at length started for the trip to 
 Otjimbingue, and overtook the wagon outspanned 
 near Sand Fontein, about three and a half miles SE. 
 from Mr. Latham's house. As soon as the heat of 
 the day was over we spanned in, the wagon-wheels 
 pressing deeply into the loose sand, and hfting large 
 quantities on the after-spokes, like water on the 
 paddles of a steamer. About four or five o'clock 
 we came to the edge of the plain, an elevated flat 
 of sand, destitute of everything — even the scanty 
 tamarisk, ganna, underbosch, and naras, closely 
 stripped by natives of their fruit, were now left 
 behind, and not a solitary flower ' wasted its sweet- 
 ness on the desert air.' Mingled with the sand 
 were small quartz pebbles, rounded like shingle on 
 a beach, and here and there the underlying rock 
 appeared upon the surface. Just at sunset we saw 
 wagons ahead, and before eight overtook them where 
 tl:iey had halted on the plain to make cofiee, with- 
 out taking the yokes ofl" the oxen. Among them I 
 found Mr. Dixon, Haybettel, Andries the smith, 
 and others, and after walking for some time during 
 our long night journey, I accepted, not miwillingl}^ 
 an invitation from Dixon, to avail myself of the
 
 1861.] MISSION STATION AT IIYKOM KOP. 23 
 
 cadel, or beds slung in the wagon of one of liis 
 retainers. At length reached the Dupa Eiver, which, 
 like the Kiirsip, has not been known to contain 
 water for the last ten years, and outspanned before 
 daybreak, with some low hills of quartzose sand- 
 stone on our left or north. My friends had been 
 without water since yesterday, and the last kettle 
 in our wagon being now converted into coffee, Mr. 
 Dixon proposed that we should visit Mr. Eckardt, 
 the Ehenish missionary at Hykom Kop, in the valley 
 of the Swa-Kop. Passing through a small break 
 in the hills, we entered a small desolate valley 
 enclosed by barren p}Tamids, cones, and precipices 
 of fantastic shapes and dry arid colours, the 
 yellowish grey of the generality of the stone 
 being only relieved by a darker tint banded by light 
 pink streaks of quartz, crossed by lodes of black 
 ironstone, or speckled by a black substance, splitting 
 easily into thin glittering laminae. The whole sur- 
 face of the rock seemed undergoing rapid disintegra- 
 tion, and in places it was almost dangerous to step 
 on what seemed a solid rock, lest it should crumble 
 under foot ; in this manner, caves, holes in the rocks, 
 and peaks or blocks of every shape were found. 
 One which I sketched had a singular resemblance to 
 a gigantic head and face, and others, Mr. Dixon 
 told me, were called Samson, Hansom Cab, and 
 other names expressive of their shape. 
 
 In this valley, however, about seven years ago, a 
 tree called the wild tobacco had been introduced, and
 
 24 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 spreading rapidly, became with its cool glazed green 
 leaves and 3^ellow tubular flowers quite a feature 
 in the landscape. The mimosa, the kameel-doorn, 
 (camel-thorn), and a tree like the shedak of Aus- 
 traha also grew among the reeds that fringed the 
 sandy bed of the Swa-Kop. But for water I looked 
 in vain, although one of our Damaras returned with 
 a bucketful. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Eckardt, who were respectively 
 turning out the goats and preparing coffee, gave us 
 a hearty welcome to their little house, w^iich, like 
 others, seemed to be built of reeds, rather as a screen 
 from the heat of the sun than as a shelter from even 
 the shghtest shower of rain. Xear this was another 
 in course of construction by Mr. Dixon for Mr. 
 Latham, and from a neck of rock behind this I 
 made a careful sketch of the valley. 
 
 A little lower down I came upon water, which, it 
 appears, oozes from a small spring in the river-bed, 
 and at present is strong enough to run about a mile 
 before it is again absorbed. 
 
 Before leaving, Dixon presented me Avitli a pak of 
 bufialo heads, to be called for on my return to the 
 bay, and led me to the wagons by a more direct 
 but less picturesque ravine than that which Ave had 
 traversed in the morning. In its sandy bed we 
 came upon a bulbous plant with four leaves, fourteen 
 or sixteen inches wide, and, when perfect, nme or 
 ten feet long, lying in a cross upon the ground. 
 The ends were withered and curled up, and in the
 
 1861.] THE VALLEY OF THE SWA-KOP. 25 
 
 centre was an assemblage of small stems six inches 
 long, each bearing on smaller stems from three to 
 five greenish-crimson substances, of an elongated 
 ova three inches long and three quarters of an inch 
 thick, and marked with scales like a fir cone. On 
 this plant I found a number of red, or red and yellow 
 field bugs, and captured some of them for preser- 
 vation, beside making an outline of the plant itself, 
 intending to colour it from some of the specimens we 
 expected to see to-morrow. 
 
 About 10 A.M. we were on the road again, crossing 
 another plain more undulating, and, though not so 
 heavy in sand as the last, more thickly strewed with 
 pebbles and quartz — fragments hard and sharp to the 
 feet of the poor oxen. Vegetation it may be said 
 there was still none, for the bare grey leafless shrubs 
 rather suggested the idea of birch brooms that had 
 gone adrift than anything else, and the greenish-grey 
 patches, few and far between, frequently turned 
 out to be merely stones of that colour. On our 
 left rose the desolate hills I have before men- 
 tioned, the quartz streaks becoming more distinct 
 as we neared them, while the lodes of black iron- 
 stone, that edged the top of some of the pro- 
 minences, looked Hke the hard outline of a clumsy 
 draughtsman. Between them and us we occasionally 
 were favoured with a view of the chaos of barren 
 rocks in the dry valley of the Swa-Kop. 
 
 This absence of vegetation, combined with the 
 neutral yellow of the sand and rock, renders it
 
 26 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFIUCA. [May 
 
 very difficult to judge of distance, and during the 
 morning I could hardly persuade myself that a 
 bottle set up as a mark at 100 yards was not more 
 than three feet high, and ever so far distant. 
 
 On coming up with the train towards evening, I was 
 invited by Mr. Dixon to see a cave long talked of, 
 and at length discovered by him, a few hundred 
 yards to the left of the road. The strata here 
 seemed set completely on edge, and two large well- 
 like holes, with a thin partition wall, communicated 
 at a depth of twenty feet with a series of caves ; but 
 as the sun had long since set and the wagons were 
 moving on, we could not stop to examine them. 
 
 About nine we halted to make coffee, and after a 
 short meal trekked again, keeping the oxen, as be- 
 fore, in the yokes till daybreak, or not far short of 
 eighteen hours without food or water, though to- 
 ward morning they were slightly relieved by a damp 
 mist and a few drops of rain. 
 
 On Saturday the 11th, the rising sun showed us 
 tliat the soil was now scantily clothed with a small 
 narrow-leafed grass, which, though nearly invisible 
 Avhen looked straight down upon, showed, Hke the 
 mirage, in greater strength when the eye glanced 
 upon the distant plain. 
 
 As the mist cleared off we saw the bold outline 
 of Eoodeberg, its peak barren as before, but its sides 
 slightly tinted by the dwarf aloes and scattered bush 
 lurkino; amons; the huere sandstone boulders. As 
 
 o o o 
 
 we expected in the course of a day or two to be in
 
 1861.] THE EOODEBERG. if 
 
 the head-quarters of the hons, I spent an hour or 
 two in getting my hand in to the manufacture of 
 cartridges. Shortly after noon, our friends came up, 
 and Mr, Cator invited me to his wagon, from which 
 in about half an hour Mr. Smutz pointed out two 
 remarkable pinnacles in the distant range, which he 
 called the ears, but which I should prefer (if it were 
 practicable in the face of general usage) to call, 
 as Cator did, Westminster Abbey. But beautiful as 
 were the warm grey tints softened by the distance 
 upon this scene, a treasure more estimable far to the 
 thirsty cattle lay unsuspected by me in the bare grey 
 mound of rock beside us. As the loose oxen 
 streamed up its sides, I thought they were but taking 
 a nearer cut; but when dogs returned with drip- 
 ping paws, and men with well-filled barrels on their 
 shoulders, I perceived that we must have found 
 the water I had heard of. In the very top of this 
 low hill of rock was v/orn by some freak of nature 
 a large and nearly circular hollow, which had re- 
 tained the water that had fallen since the last rains. 
 I at once determined to remain and devote the rest 
 of the daylight to the completion of my sketch, 
 in the foreu'round of which these sweet waters in 
 the desert of course became the prominent object, 
 and the distant ranges the accessories. My friend, 
 however, knowing that there was water at Tineas, a 
 few miles farther on, advised me to keep back my 
 gun, and left a Damara to carry my traps when I 
 had done. Presently I caught the faint sound of
 
 28 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 wheels and the cracking of a whip, and about sun- 
 set Onesimus, coming up, reported that three of his 
 oxen were unable to pull. He, therefore, outspanned 
 by the water, and kilHnga sheep upon the spot, went 
 to work upon the preparation of supper. This, 
 being reported ready, formed a welcome and appro- 
 priate end to the day's journal. 
 
 As Onesimus thought the country was better for 
 the cattle a few miles in advance, he proposed, on 
 Sunday, to ride on slowly in the evening to the 
 next outspan, and as I required some things I 
 had left in Mr. Dixon's wagon, I walked on to over- 
 take him, before he should leave Tineas. The road 
 wound between large blocks of sandstone, hollowed 
 underneath, and balanced on their edges on another 
 in such a manner that it seemed as if a little more 
 decay would allow the whole mass to launch over 
 the edge. 
 
 As the country opened more, the vegetation 
 improved, and frequent bushes of euphorbia, its 
 stem-like leaves shooting up five or six feet like 
 half-inch green rods, alternated w^ith the still scanty 
 grass and wild flowers. Seeing the wagons at some 
 distance, I left the road, and, crossing the rugged 
 ravines of the Tineas Eiver, came up with them 
 near a little pool, by which stood a mass of wliite 
 rock, connected w^ith the river bank by a wall 
 built as a schirm for the night hunters. The spoor 
 of one lioness and two cubs had been seen, but only 
 a solitary brace of ducks had been shot.
 
 ]86].] RAVINES OF THE TINCAS RIVER. 29 
 
 When the wagons Avent on, I stowed the box and 
 haversack under a cleft in the rock, and went some 
 distance down the river-bed, where, near one of 
 the scanty pools of brackish water, I succeeded in 
 breaking out some geological specimens, which, till 
 I know a better name, I must call foliated mica, and 
 also another which it was more easy to classify on 
 the spot than to replace, to wit, the hammer-handle. 
 
 It was now long after dark, and I was making 
 up my mind to return and pass the night 
 
 Even there where lions most do congi-egate, 
 
 when I heard the crack of Onesimus's whip, and 
 after a good walk overtook him. He had, however, 
 overshot the turning of the road to Tineas, and as I 
 would not distress the oxen by turning them back, 
 we outspanned five or six miles farther on, and 
 during the night saw the fires of some of our friends 
 a short distance ahead. 
 
 Early on Monday the loth, I took one of the 
 Damaras with me, and returned for the things in the 
 rock; a few springboks were grazing on the plain, but 
 the wagon dogs had got loose, and most provokingly 
 kept the game at long range. I took a shot with 
 the 1,100 yards sight at one of a small troop of 
 ostriches, and struck up the dust close by him. 
 
 Just as we had made about a mile on our return 
 we were met by Mr. Smutz, who had brought back 
 his own and one of Mr. Gator's horses ; the latter he 
 handed to me, and on we cantered merrily. In a
 
 30 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 small hole in tlie roadside we saw about six inches 
 of the folds of a snake, but had no weapon with 
 which to kill him without injuring his skin, as he 
 was evidently too large to be hurt by a zamboze. 
 I supposed him nearly as thick as my waist. The 
 surface rock was now soft limestone, and the conse- 
 quent danger of return of the ball less, so I fired 
 two shots into his hole and left him. In the after- 
 noon we rode SE. and E. to Onanis, where I 
 sketched two immense masses of rock. 
 
 The next day we overtook Dixon, Haybettel, 
 Eolf, and William ; and as some things that I re- 
 quired were in their wagons, I stayed with them. 
 Outspanning again in advance of the rest of the 
 train, they reported having seen the spoor of a 
 quagga chased by a lion, and during the night I 
 believe a little farce had been played off for the 
 benefit of two tradesmen going up from the Cape 
 to Otjimbingue — one of the Damaras leaping and 
 roaring in the bushes, and the rest of the party 
 firing as wide of him as possible. 
 
 On Wednesday, while lying under the Witte 
 water range, Dixon proposed that we should try to 
 find a gu-afie, and accompanied by a Damara we 
 followed tracks over hiU and dale for three or four 
 hom^s, without seeing a living thing except a rabbit 
 and a steinbok. Half-a-mile from the wagons was a 
 crevice between two rocks, into which the rain Avater 
 filtered, and men were baling it out to let the oxen 
 drink. Farther on were pools, round wliicli the mud
 
 1861.] WITTE WATEK RANGE. 31 
 
 was freslily kneaded by the huge animals whose 
 footsteps I this day saw for the first time. The 
 country was gradually improving ; the kameel-doorn 
 began to be a feature in the landscape, and aloes and 
 many other flowers clothed the broken rugged slopes 
 and valleys : still these alternated with the large 
 masses of bare granite, smooth and rounded, with a 
 few hardy plants forcing a subsistence from the few 
 cracks and fissures in the rock heaved up hke 
 mountains from the plain to which we had so long 
 been accustomed. At noon I joined the former party, 
 and at night slept at Chobie, by Mr. Cator's wagon, 
 Onesimus having gone on several miles in advance. 
 Thursday, IQth. — I walked ahead in hopes of over- 
 taking Onesimus, but in vain. I found a plant like 
 an overgrown turnip growing above ground, instead 
 of under, and regularly stung my mouth as if I had 
 taken euphorbium in tasting it. A horseman whom 
 I met asked if I were Mr. Baines's servant, and on 
 my telling him yes, asked where Baines was — the 
 appearance of a man on foot, carrying his own gun, 
 not being, I suppose, quite up to his expectations. 
 Wine circulated freely at the outspan, and in the 
 afternoon, as Cator had ridden on, I found myself 
 under the necessity of putting a stop to the constant 
 applications of the general coloured pubhc to his 
 demijohn. At night we stayed at the house of Mr. 
 Jones, who, knowing the demands of the market, had 
 already loaded up and driven oiT a wagon full of 
 merchandise.
 
 3-2 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 Friday, 17th. — Mr. Jones's house, or Kurikop 
 (which Oneshnus translates Year-hill, from a Nama- 
 qua word ; the Damara name being Omquaronto), is 
 rather pleasantly situated on the south side of the 
 Swa-Kop, which is three times crossed between this 
 and Otjimbingue. It is encircled by mimosas and 
 kameel or giraffe-thorns, and along the sandy bed of 
 the river grows quite a refreshing fringe of willow-like 
 trees. Water, however, there is none, at least to the 
 eye, and the earth is hardly damp even to the touch ; 
 but by scratching a hole with the hands, the precious 
 fluid, so providentially screened from evaporation, is 
 found beneath the surface. In this way it runs I 
 know not how many miles, receiving on each side 
 rivers of hke character ; and ]\ir. Vero, who had 
 travelled along the coast to render assistance to a 
 wreck, beheves that no other stream falls into the 
 sea between it and Orange Eiver. 
 
 At Otjimbingue I was kindly welcomed by Mr. 
 and Mrs. Hutchinson, and found Mr. Andersson 
 busily preparing for a journey to the Cape, over- 
 land, with a herd of oxen, all of which had been 
 rendered by inoculation proof against the lung sick- 
 ness. I had much wished for a little conversation 
 respecting the country with one so weU acquainted 
 with it as Mr. Andersson, but his departure the fol- 
 lowing evening left me no opportunity. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 19th, Mr. Hutchinson 
 w^alked out with me to the nearest hills, composed 
 of disintegrated granite, tlie lower fissures in whicli
 
 1861.] THE EUPHORBIUM. 33 
 
 were filled up with pink quartz from six to ten inches 
 thick, straight, even, and upright as a well-built wall. 
 On the plain he drew my attention to a small 
 creeping plant, the seed of which is the celebrated 
 haak-doorn frequently brought as a curiosity to the 
 colony ; and among the mimosas we caught a 
 number of brilhant-winged beetles and butterflies. 
 One of the former is supposed by Mr. Layard to be 
 new, and he proposes to call it Hutchinsonia ; it is 
 a beautiful emerald green, with white stripes. The 
 elephant beetle, so called from its form and colour, 
 is also common, but the rhinoceros beetle I have not 
 yet seen. 
 
 On the 22nd, the wagon having undergone the 
 necessary repairs, I left Otjimbingue between 4 
 and 5 p. M. on my return trip for the remainder 
 of my boat. Holding an average course of W. by S,, 
 I crossed the Swa-Kop once, and leaving Kurikop on 
 my right, outspanned about ten on the flats near 
 Platte Klip. 
 
 On this return route I visited the singular granite 
 peaks which had been compared to Westminster 
 Abbey. In their immediate neighbourhood I 
 noticed what seemed hke an ordinary dragon tree, 
 or baobab, — a famihar object to the South Afi"ican 
 traveller. On approaching to sketch it more 
 minutely, I found that it was a gigantic aloe. 
 Kneehng on the ground so as to bring my arms 
 low enough to embrace the solid trunk, I found its 
 circumference to be nearly twelve feet. Above this 
 
 D
 
 34 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 it divides into five stems, each of which at nearly 
 the same height sent forth branches as thick as my 
 arm, of uniform size, even to the top, where tliey 
 were crowned each by the well-known star of aloe 
 leaves, and adorned with three or more magnificent 
 spikes of yellow flowers. The stems were smooth 
 and round; but at the base the 'bark appeared to 
 burst and cmi off m large flakes, as if their veneers 
 of fine satin wood had warped ofi" the foundation 
 they were laid on. The effect of this magnificent 
 crown of leaves and flowers, perfectly rounded in 
 contour, and fifteen or more feet in diameter, and as 
 many from the ground, contrasted with the sterile 
 rocks on which it grew, was lovely in the extreme ; 
 and it was with regret that I broke off" a couple of 
 branches, about four inches thick, to possess myself of 
 a specimen. Indeed, at the risk of incurring the 
 reader's contempt, I confess I can never quite get over 
 the feehng that the wonderful products of nature are 
 objects to be admired, rather than destroyed ; and 
 this, I am afraid, sometimes keeps me looking at a 
 buck when I ought to be minding my hind sights. 
 In this way, I suppose, I must excuse myself for 
 not getting a shot at the only two quaggas I saw 
 during the day. My specimen of the tree proved too 
 cumbersome a burden for me ; and after holding on 
 as long as I could, I sat down to make a sketch of 
 it, and, preserving the flower-spikes only, left it on 
 the road, and reached the wagons as Onesimus was 
 preparing supper. I ought to remark also a pecu-
 
 I\
 
 "-^^ r~T
 
 18G1.] PREPARATIONS, 35 
 
 liarity of the eupliorbium with the rod-Hke leaf : the 
 root enlarges itself above ground, when the soil is 
 hard, till it looks like a great block of grey stone as 
 big as a table, and the green rods grow abruptly out 
 of this mass. 
 
 I now fell in with a Mr. Poison coming up from 
 Walvisch Bay, where he had left a younger brother 
 ill, and had been obliged, in consequence, to push 
 forward alone. This gentleman informed me that 
 in the interior he met the survivor of the unfor- 
 tunate mission party, Mr. Price, who has no doubt 
 but that the food was poisoned by Sekeletu for the 
 sake of ridding himself of his visitors that he might 
 seize upon their property. 
 
 At length, on Thursday, May 30th, about break- 
 fast time, we arrived at Walvisch Bay, and found that 
 Henry Chapman had already gone across to Sand- 
 wich Harbour, and would probably take a passage 
 for Cape Town. 
 
 Mrs. Andersson and Mr. Kisch were still there, 
 waiting for the arrival of the ' Good Hope,' hourly 
 expected. During the next day Mr. Latham lent. me 
 yokes to place across the wagon sides, and inverting 
 the boat, we laid her bottom-up upon them. We 
 then loaded the wagon underneath, contriving to 
 lash two or three spars across the fi^ont to make a 
 seat for the driver and myself, instead of the fore 
 chest, the whole of which was crossed by the boat, 
 she being twenty-two feet long and the wagon only 
 ten. In the afternoon I sent out the wagon Avith 
 
 D 2
 
 36 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [.Tine 
 
 Onesimiis (who, on the plea of being about to ver- 
 scJialen, or ' die ' from the cold, had begged my only 
 jacket of me the night before we came in), telling 
 him to outspan near the edge of the plain, and let 
 his oxen feed till Monday afternoon, when I would 
 join him. 
 
 Saturday, June 1st — Mr. Latham, according to his 
 promise, most kindly lent me a watch, on condition 
 of being allowed to receive and use mine (which had 
 been sent down to Cape Town for repairs) until I 
 could return his. The service thus rendered to me 
 is almost incalculable, as even on the short trip to 
 Otjimbingue, I found it almost impossible to lay down 
 a track with any correctness without a time-keeper. 
 In fact, as is the general way in thinly peopled dis- 
 tricts,! have met with the most friendly and hospitable 
 reception everywhere ; and young Poison, who is for 
 the present disabled from making the journey, is 
 just now pressing upon me a number of little articles, 
 which, however trifling in Cape Town, are of price- 
 less value where they cannot be replaced. 
 
 On Sunday we finished loading up, and securing 
 the boat. The cattle were sent forward to rest in 
 Paradise, a name given to a spot among the sand-hills, 
 where the poor beasts might delude themselves with 
 the smell of water, and a vision of scanty herbage. 
 The next day word was brought that the wagon 
 was standing among the sand-hills, and walking out 
 with Mr. Latham, I found it barely screened by the 
 first ridge from the sight of those at the house.
 
 1801.] THE JOURNEY. 37 
 
 On returning, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Poison kindly- 
 sent out their drivers to the assistance of Onesimus, 
 and on Tuesday forenoon I left Walvisch Bay and 
 walked to the edge of the plain, on which I found the 
 wagon with the oxen already inspanned : and cruel 
 work this inspanning had been. One of the after oxen 
 especially was covered with large wales, while the 
 red blood stood in drops upon his back, till I 
 felt almost tempted to give master Kachawbie a 
 sample of the caravasse he wielded so unmercifully. 
 In a short time I was better able to sympathise with 
 the poor cattle, for Onesimus, in one of his back 
 strokes, brought the long wagon-whip across the calf 
 of my leg, raising a wale from front to rear as broad 
 as two fingerSj and marldng the path of the voorslag 
 by a cut which even three weeks later was not quite 
 healed. Of course it was perfectly accidental, and 
 ' 'JSTesmus,' in looking at the damage, asked very in- 
 nocently : ' How comes it then that your trowsers are 
 not cut too ? ' 
 
 On Wednesday night we reached Oosop, and I was 
 told that where the Oosop joins the Swa-Kop, there 
 are a number of basaltic columns, nearly hke the 
 Giant's Causeway. I had no time, however, to ex- 
 amine any local curiosity, owing to the accidents 
 incident to such a journey as I had to perform. 
 
 The journey from the sea to Roodeberg is almost 
 always performed by two forced night marches of 
 eighteen or twenty hours each, the intervening day 
 being spent in refreshing the cattle at Hykom Kop ;
 
 38 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 but our delay at Oosop had given me an opportunity 
 of seeing by daylight the most complete picture of 
 desolation that ever met my eyes. Under the glare 
 of the hot sun, even though at this season far to the 
 northward, it Avas almost painful to look upon, while 
 to judge of distance was absolutely impossible, as, 
 fi'om the general light sandy colour of the plain, 
 hillocks of limestone would stand out, and their 
 white sides, according to the angle at which they re- 
 »flected the sunlight, would appear glaringly close to 
 the spectator, or on a slight change of position melt 
 into a pale misty grey and seemingly recede for 
 miles during a few minutes. Then, among a number 
 of neutral coloured elevations that might be any- 
 where, would rise some hard-edged ridge of rocks, 
 roughly outhned with ironstone, the harsh blackness 
 of which stood out unsubdued by the atmospheric 
 veil that imparts the greatest charm in landscape 
 scenery, and negativing at once all conclusions that 
 might have been previously formed. In fact, I 
 know nothing to give a better idea of this portion of 
 Damaraland, than the exhibition, under strong gas- 
 light, of a relief map in plaster of Paris, not cleaned 
 from the stains of the mould nor painted. 
 
 The rest of our journey, of course, was very similar 
 to the former one. I took the old road, although a 
 detour of several miles to the south of the mountains 
 involved a day or more of extra travel, as the 
 country is both better for the cattle and less destruc- 
 tive to the wagon and ca]-go. The pool in the rock
 
 18G1.] ZEBEA HORSE SHOT. 39 
 
 was fast drying up, it being only surface water from 
 the rains and not permanent. At Tineas Drift I 
 saw, for the first time, the dry bleached skull of a 
 rhinoceros, and having stayed fifteen or twenty 
 minutes to take a round of bearings, had as usual the 
 pleasure of walking from six tiU nearly ten o'clock 
 before I overtook the wagon. 
 
 Saturday^ Stii. — Saw a few springboks, and after 
 passing through the poort, I observed what I thought 
 to be four quaggas standing near a thorn tree at some 
 distance. Onesimus took his gun (a good double 
 smooth bore, for which he had paid twelve oxen), 
 and just as, with stealthy pace, he was coming almost 
 within range, away went the wagon dogs, and away 
 went the game. Onesimus held on, hopelessly, as I 
 thought, till the abrupt wheehng of a quagga stalhon 
 in a cloud of dust showed that, disdaining to fly be- 
 fore so contemptible a foe, he had turned to fight the 
 dogs and cover the retreat of the mares. For some 
 minutes a spirited contest went on, and then the 
 beaten curs fled for refuge to their master. In another 
 moment we saw the pursuer sink upon his haunches, 
 and then roll over upon the plain. The prize I found 
 was not a quagga, but a full striped zebra horse, 
 as large as a moderate sized pony, and beauti- 
 fully formed for strength as well as speed. Having 
 sketched it carefully, and superintended the removal 
 of the skin, for which I rewarded the slayer with a 
 stout blue cotton shirt, I repaired to the wagon, 
 which had meantime halted by a mass of granite
 
 40 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH Al'TJCA. [June 
 
 rocks, in the deep fissures of which was a large pool 
 of water, and spent the rest of the day in cleaning 
 the skin and head, and sketching a party of Damaras 
 who gladly helped Onesimus to cut up and dry the 
 flesh, their own reward being a share of the bones 
 and such pieces as could not with advantage be 
 turned into buttons. Of course, I made trial of the 
 meat, and found it very tender and well flavoured. 
 We kept the main road this time, leaving Kurikop, 
 or Jones's, to the left, and halting in the poort, 
 near Otjimbingue, I walked forward and reached 
 the village about four on Tuesday afternoon. The 
 unloading of the wagon, arranging my things for the 
 journey, and getting through such Httle matters as 
 were absolutely necessary, occupied the rest of the 
 week. 
 
 The Damaras, Onesimus tells me, could not even 
 make an assegai, but bought their weapons of the 
 Ovampo, till the incursions of the Hottentots forced 
 them to call their energies about them. Of the de- 
 liberate cruelty of some of these raids there is abun- 
 dant evidence. Only the other day, a boy, worn 
 down to the last possible stage of starvation, was 
 brought to Mr. Hutchinson, and his tale ^vas, that 
 the Hottentots, after sliooting his parents, had in- 
 variably mingled his scanty rations of milk with 
 woodashes before allowing him to drink it. Of 
 course, after a remedy had been given him for the 
 sores thus formed upon his mouth, he was sent 
 among the servants to take his chance of restoring
 
 1861.] 
 
 HOTTENTOT CRUELTY. 
 
 41 
 
 a little flesh to his emaciated frame. Another 
 victim of the Bok Berg foray is in attendance on 
 the cattle kraal. The Hottentots cut both his hands 
 off at the wrists, but notwithstanding this he is still 
 active and useful. These are the habits of people 
 described to the English public as ' gentle Africans,' 
 ' mild, melancholy, and sedate,' &c. Thank Heaven, 
 whatever excesses our countrymen may be guilty of 
 when their spirits are excited, cold-blooded cruelty 
 like this is not their characteristic. 
 
 POMP AND VANITY.
 
 42 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A HOTTENTOT CHIEF DRESS OF THE DAMARAS HABITS OF THE 
 
 HOTTENTOTS GREAT BARJIEN HOT SPRINGS JUNCTION OF 
 
 THE BARMEN RIVER WITH THE SWAKOP THE AWASSBEBG 
 
 TRADING AMONG THE HOTTENTOTS — APICA's KRAAL UN- 
 TRAINED OXEN — THE VALLEY OF THE WINDHOCK. 
 
 On the 22nd of June, Mr. Hoaclianas arrived with 
 Mr. Euncie's wagon from the Bay, and persuaded 
 me to go out to Euncie's place at Anna Wood, 
 about twenty-five miles to the north-west, where, 
 we arrived about eleven ; the same night crossing 
 the Swa-Kop six or eight times, and halting before 
 the house under the most magnificent anna-trees (a 
 kind of thorn) I had seen in the country. The 
 river, all the way from Otjimbingue, presented a 
 broad, level, sandy bed, with banks from three to five 
 or six feet high on each side, and hills more or less 
 distant. There were only two or three feet water, 
 so that boats of light draught would meet no ob- 
 struction for many miles. It is as well, perhaps, 
 that the sudden flushes, raised at long intervals by 
 thunder showers, do not run off, but are absorbed 
 and protected from evaporation by the sandy bed. 
 At Anna Wood I nni told the water is always at the
 
 1861.] A IIOTTE^^TOT CHIEF. 43 
 
 surface, and certainly the gigantic thorns must re- 
 quire a watered locality in which to flourish. 
 
 Being obliged to return to Otjimbingue on the 
 24th, I spent the morning of Sunday in sketcliing Mr. 
 Euncie's house and the noble trees that overshadowed 
 it. Some of them were, I suppose, 90 feet high, and 
 6 ft. or 7 ft. in diameter at the base. They seemed 
 to be a kind of acacia, the leaves being similar, and 
 the flowers hano-ino; in catkins rather than cjolden 
 balls like the mimosa. The wood is light, easily 
 worked even while wet, and very flexible until 
 dried. It is said that there are no worms in the 
 living tree, and that if the wood is worked with 
 the saw, and not hewn, none will enter it. Others 
 tell me that if cut at the present season, it is almost 
 sure to be free from worms. It is very extensively 
 used for building, but is not close-grained enough for 
 wagon work, all the wood for that purpose being- 
 imported from the Cape at an advance of 75 per 
 cent, upon the price. During the day John Harris, a 
 Hottentot chief, arrived with his wife, a daughter of 
 Jonker, and, as she styles herself, the Victoria of 
 Damaraland. On being treated to a glass or two of 
 wine, a luxury by no means common here, he became 
 communicative enough to explain to us the reasons 
 his father-in-law would not allow white people to go 
 to the interior. And first on the list stood Anders- 
 son, who had written to Jonker to send down for 
 a leaguer of brandy. Jonker of course sent down 
 his wao-on, and behold it was an anker ! Of course
 
 44 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Ji>£ 
 
 some absurd mistake must have occurred ; it is not 
 likely Andersson would think of giving him a leaguer, 
 and he is too well acquainted with colonial measures 
 to write anything of the kind, when he knew he had 
 only an anker. When I consider the difficulty a really 
 conscientious man would find in guarding a keg of 
 liquor up to the chieftain's kraal, I should not be 
 surprised if some who love a zoupie better than an 
 unbroken promise have really disappointed the old 
 fellow. Chapman, I understand, promised him some, 
 and the liquor is now on its way up; but the case 
 was opened on the road to Otjimbingue, and two 
 bottles were taken out : not as a theft, be it remem- 
 bered (for the bringer duly offered payment), but 
 because he could not do without a zoupie on the 
 road. 
 
 During the week a letter arrived from the up- 
 ward-bound wagon train, requesting medical assist- 
 ance for Mr. Poison, who was worse, and for Mr. 
 Barry, who had taken fever on the road. Hutchin- 
 son immediately rode sixty miles to meet them. On 
 his return I heard that the invalids were conside- 
 rably better, and that he had seen a troop of giraffes 
 between this and Chobie Eiver. 
 
 In due time the train arrived ; and next day the 
 wagon we were to go up with was hauled out of the 
 river bed, and passed under inspection. This vehicle 
 belonged to Lamert, a Hottentot chief, who was 
 desirous of having it brought up to him. 
 
 June 27 th. — I accompanied ]\ir. Hutchinson on his
 
 1861.] DAMARA MEN AXD WOMEN. 45 
 
 morning visit to the cattle post, rather more than a 
 mile south of the town. The kraal has been shifted 
 several times, as everything in contact with lung- 
 sick cattle seems to retain the infection ; and five or 
 six invalids, known by their peculiar cough, were now 
 enclosed in it. Fortunately the disease, though it com- 
 pletely corrodes the lung, does not injure the flesh, 
 and the beef at our table would not suffer by com- 
 parison with the average of English meat. Chloride 
 of potash is said to have been successfully used as a 
 remedy, and, if so, will prove an inestimable boon to 
 people whose only wealth is in their cattle. Hutchin- 
 son shot a steinbok as we returned, and during the 
 forenoon a number of the Damaras came in from the 
 kraal to sit for their hkeiiesses. The men are ol 
 moderate height, and generally well made, of a rich 
 dark brown, like the Kafir, and their hair is generally 
 straightened out, and matted into strands, three or 
 more inches long, with fat and red clay. Their dress 
 consists of from fifty to eighty fathoms of thin leather 
 thongs coiled round the hips, and a small piece of 
 skin between the legs, with the ends brought up and 
 tucked fore and aft into the cord. Beads, iron rings, 
 strips of tin or brass, &c., are used for ornaments ; and, 
 if the wearer be rich enough to afford it, in the hair 
 over the centre of the forehead a cockle-shell is worn. 
 Truly, I beheve, if any friend at home w^ould invest 
 three halfpence in these favourite mollusks and send 
 me the shells after his meal, I might make my fortune. 
 The costume of the women is still more singular.
 
 46 
 
 EXI'LORATIONS IX SOUTH AFKICA. 
 
 [Ju: 
 
 Strings of beads, either of glass or iron, or from the 
 ostricJi egg-shell, are hung round their necks and 
 liips, the latter being encircled by a broad loose belt, 
 with pieces of shell or white beads worked on it. 
 Their anklets are fonned of iron strung upon leather 
 thongs and tied round one above another, the lowest 
 
 Mlt». KANOA. 
 
 falling over the heel and instep,while iron in various 
 forms is profusely used, either as rings for the arms 
 and wrists or beads to decorate the body. But the 
 most curious portion of their attire is the headdress, 
 which consists of a stout leather skull cap with three
 
 1861.] COSTUME OF DAilARA WOMEN. 47 
 
 ears of the same material affixed to it, one on each 
 side and one behind, nicely rounded^ hollowed and 
 stiffened, and finally polished with grease and red 
 clay. Bands of coarse shells are generally laid round 
 the cap, and the soft leather attached to the front 
 is generally rolled up, so that crossing the forehead 
 it falls down on either shoulder. Behind is a broad 
 tail or fall, two or three feet long and six or eight 
 inches wide, composed of short tubes of tin strung 
 upon leather thongs, and then stretched side by 
 side upon the binding piece, the ends of which 
 are cut into a frmge. The children wear only 
 a girdle with a fringe in front, the length varying 
 according to fancy and the amount of skin in the 
 parents' hands. 
 
 During the past week I have taken altitudes of 
 the sun and of the stars, and the result is that the 
 mean latitude appears to me to be 20° 22' V2I' 
 south. 
 
 Wednesday^ July '^rd. — ]\Ir. Barry left for Walvisch 
 Bay to bring up a cargo of goods still remaining there 
 for Mr. Chapman ; and the repairs of Lamert's wagon 
 being completed, I spent the day in receiving the 
 cargo from Mr. Hutchinson and loading it up. I had 
 at first some idea that I should be able to pack the 
 sections of one of tlie boats in it ; but as provision 
 stores, &c., accumulated, my prospects began to 
 diminish, and I began to doubt whether I should be 
 able to carry more tlian four compartments at tlie 
 most, of which two wilLbe the bow and stern. But
 
 48 EXrLORATlOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jily 
 
 even supposing that the Hottentot disturbance should 
 increase, I shall still be able, with little trouble, to 
 cut wood, and replace the midship sections. Lastly, 
 I packed my sketches, maps, record of observations, 
 &c., hoping on the morrow, or early the next day, to 
 start on my journey to the interior. 
 
 We soon after left Otjimbingue, and at an early 
 stage suffered from that curse of African travelling, 
 the importunity and insubordination of the men em- 
 ployed. 
 
 Friday^ 12th. — I determined, as a rule, to inspan 
 as early as possible in the mornings, lest the people 
 should annoy me with importunities. But as the 
 night grew cold and the bottle empty, the inevi- 
 table Hottentot nature rose to the surface, the vexed 
 question of leave to travel having now come up. 
 Jonker, it seems, had been informed that I was on the 
 road, and had sent two men to tell Harris that if 
 he were satisfied Jonker would be so, and ' whom 
 Harris should not keer would not be keered by 
 Jonker,' and also, that a portion of the tribute obtained 
 by Harris should be duly transmitted to his superior. 
 When I asked him how, now that he had di^unk it 
 all, he would comply with his instructions, he readily 
 suggested that I should steal a little more from Chap- 
 man. I desired him to convey my respectful compli- 
 ments to Jonker, and tell him that if I had more time 
 on my return, I hoped to visit him ; but that the 
 question he had raised was a thing I could not talk 
 about, what I had given him being a free return on
 
 18G1.] GEE AT BAEMEN. 4!) 
 
 my part for friendship on his ; that I was not a 
 man in the habit of telHng hes ; that if he were to run 
 the whole waggon throuQ-h his fingers he would not 
 find another drop of Kquor, and he ought to believe 
 me when I said so. 
 
 When, on the 14th, the wagons were ready to 
 depart, Harris and I parted on the best possible 
 terms with each other. Crossing the river (which 
 a few hundred yards distant was again a broad fiat 
 bed of dry sand) several times in the course of the 
 day, we travelled to the south-east, with mountains 
 on our left, until we came in sight of the houses at 
 Great Barmen, the river again showing water on 
 the surface, as we crossed it for the last time. We 
 passed the garden, in which were a couple of palm 
 trees, bearing fruit, I beUeve, for two seasons, and 
 plunging through the black wet sand in the water 
 furrow, were directed by Daniel Cloete to an out- 
 span under the shadow of some fine thorn trees, just 
 beyond the house of Mr. Hahn, which at first sight 
 I had mistaken for the church. 
 
 Daniel, a very respectable half-caste man, informed 
 us that Mr. Hahn had been absent now nearly two 
 years, and that Mr. Poison, who had preceded us 
 and had stayed here some days, had been sent for 
 by Jonker, but was expected to return to-morrow. 
 It was not unlikely that he would have some trouble 
 with Jonker on the score of payment for liberty to 
 pass through, especially as Cator and Smutz had 
 allowed themselves to be coerced in such a matter.
 
 oO EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Juia- 
 
 Certainly their conduct is to be regretted, as I believe 
 had they shown firmness and command of temper, 
 tliey might have successfully resisted it, and thus 
 nipped the evil in the bud, instead of establishing a 
 precedent which the Hottentots will not be slow to 
 understand and make use of. 
 
 As Harris's men wished to return at once, I com- 
 menced unloading the wagon, and while doing so 
 heard among them an altercation, which soon swelled 
 into a row and a sharp scuffle. The Damaras pressed 
 round to haul off the combatants, and as it threatened 
 to grow serious I interfered, took the stones from the 
 hands of half a dozen of them, and wrested the knob- 
 keerie from the driver. I had hardly returned to 
 my Avork, when they again flew at each other, grap- 
 pling by the clothing and strildng open-handed, or 
 scratching hke a couple of fish-wives, rather than 
 men fighting. The Damaras again took sides, and a 
 very pretty scuffle was going on, when the sturdy 
 savage, who had joined us with Harris's oxen at our 
 first break down, flew toward the fray, and with a 
 wide swinffino; blow of his clenched fist laid one 
 
 DO . 
 
 poor fellow ' with his face to the sky and his feet to 
 the foe.' Everyone now clutched at the nearest 
 and biggest block of quartz or granite, and seeing 
 that mischief was inevitable, I put the principals 
 asunder, disarmed the seconds, and assisted by 
 Daniel Cloete, who now came down from the house, 
 succeeded in preventing any further breach of skull 
 or peace. Both the fellows were bleeding, and the
 
 1861.] 
 
 HOT SPBIXGS. 
 
 51 
 
 man still lying on his back was damaged about the 
 left eye. Of course I hastened to set Harris's people 
 at liberty to return, and having lectured the drivers 
 about the difference between demandino; shirts as a 
 right and accepting them as a present (to all which 
 they readily assented so long as they got them in 
 hand), I sent back ' treksels,' which, liberally inter- 
 preted, means pounds (more or less) of tea, coffee, 
 and sugar, done up in handkerchiefs, as a compliment 
 to their chief. 
 
 On Monday morning I visited some hot springs 
 in the neighbourhood, which rise, not in the lowest 
 
 ^^^^J?" ^ 
 
 -> 
 
 HOT AXD TEPID SPEIXGS. 
 
 part of the hollow, but in a rock, apparently of mi- 
 caceous schist, six or eight feet above the level. A 
 dam has been formed on the sloping side, and
 
 52 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 from an opening in its side the superfluous water 
 flows off to irrigate the land. The temperature of 
 the principal spring is given by Mr. Cator in a note- 
 book kindly left for me at 149°, and that of the 
 second, three or four yards from it, at 119°. There 
 are several places where weak and tepid streams rise 
 up, but possibly they are only so much overflow 
 from tlie main source, coming through longer pas- 
 sages to the surface and cooling on their way. It is 
 commonly said that such springs are hotter in the 
 morning than at noon ; I could not bear to dip my 
 hand in the principal one at sunrise, but was able to 
 do so after noon. It must be remembered, however, 
 that the morning was sharp and cold and the day 
 quite warm, so that any feeling by mere bodily 
 sensation is no test. In the morning William Cloete 
 inspanned for Eikhams, the abode of one of Jonker's 
 sons, kindly taking with him a couple of smaU but 
 rather heavy boxes ; and having arranged to leave 
 the two sections of my boat, with bolts, copper, 
 my box of clothing, Chapman's pit-saws, and other 
 goods, I followed him, shaking out even the stufling 
 from my pillow and the sawdust I had put in my 
 mattress, in the hope that I might be able to use it 
 in skinning birds. What chance I have of collect- 
 ing specimens, when obliged to put in practice such 
 measures as these, may be imagined ; and now that I 
 have nothing to preserve them in, the Damaras begin 
 to bring me snakes and lizards, catching them by the 
 back of the neck without injury, and passing them
 
 18ol.] THE TAMARISK POOET, 53 
 
 from their fingers to mine as if fangs and venom liad 
 not entered into their imagination and could not 
 enter into their skin — the first time, as far as I re- 
 member, I ever found a black man willing to help 
 me with a snake. Wliat to do, or how to satisfy 
 the demands of science and Jonker junior, heaven 
 knows ! I hope if Wilson sends me any, as he has 
 promised, he will have the foresight to methylate it 
 well before it does come. 
 
 We crossed the Barmen river ; and travelling over 
 rolling hills of dark blue schist sparkling with 
 minute frae^ments of mica and enclosincf veins or 
 blocks of quartz, round which it seemed to have 
 been deposited, we again crossed the river a hundred 
 yards above its junction with the Swakop, crossing 
 the latter twice, and on acain comins: to it treked 
 to the SSE. up its sandy bed, which after about half 
 a mile began to feel damp to the feet in some places 
 and soon showed short narrow lines of water lying 
 hke reposing snakes, generally in the outer side 
 of every bend. A very good altitude of a Lyras 
 gave Lat. 22° 6' 23'' S., the same star at Barmen 
 showincT 22° 5' 51'' S. 
 
 Tuesday^ IQth. — Passing out of the river, we saw 
 William Cloete's wagon stancUng a httle farther on, 
 and travelling over an undulating hilly country to 
 the SSE., entered the Babble's (or Tamarisk) poort. 
 Here our road lay sometimes in the bed of the river, 
 sometimes by the side of it. After halting a short 
 time at noon, and trying to take an observation
 
 54 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 which was rendered of no value by constant inter- 
 ruptions, we passed one of Chapman's off-outspans 
 and brought to for the night with the river on our 
 right hand, while opposite were a succession of 
 rounded hills covered with yellowish grass and 
 bushes, with trees of more goodly proportions at their 
 base, and doves and grey lories flitting through the 
 branches. As I was sketching this contrast to the 
 sterile country we have left, a couple of Berg Dama- 
 ras accosted me, and succeeded in making me fully 
 sensible that they wanted tobacco. I found that 
 they had brought the expected oxen from Lamert, 
 but Bonnie said there was not a fore nor after ox 
 among the lot, and without them it would be im- 
 possible to go forward. So I suppose I shall have 
 to detain those belonging to Henry Chapman till 
 we reach Eikhams, and try to get some from Jonker 
 junior. 
 
 During the next day I was employed in making 
 handles to a couple of iron buckets, formerly 
 whitelead kegs, and in repairing the coffee mill, &c. 
 Such things as these occupy a great portion of the 
 time that is not spent in actual travelling, and, of 
 course, opportunities of sketching are lessened in 
 proportion. The Damaras, too, have at most been 
 accustomed only to a trader's wagon, and I am 
 obliged to do almost everything myself, rather than 
 let them clamber through the vehicle at the risk 
 of smashing in my foho, sextant case, or whatever 
 may happen to be in their way. Nevertheless, I find
 
 ]8()1.] WILLIAM CLOETE. 55 
 
 most of them very willing to learn what I require ; 
 and Tapyinyoka, whom I entrust with the making 
 of my bed, has this day washed the grease and red 
 clay out of his hair and shirt, mounted a pair of 
 duck trowsers and a straw hat, and begins to con- 
 sider himself as a civilised person. Anent the trek 
 oxen I held a consultation with the driver, Wilham 
 Cloete acting as interpreter — for though Bonnie can 
 speak a little Dutch, he prefers the Namaqua language 
 — and I saw no other course but to retain the span I 
 now have to go as far as Eikhams. Cloete's advice 
 was to drive on the clean oxen that had been sent 
 for us in front, and not let them mix with our span, 
 then to halt at a short distance from Eildiams, and 
 go on without the wagon to purchase or hire such 
 cattle as were needed to complete the new and 
 uninfected span; in the meantime to let the trek-touw 
 (rope), the yokes, and whatever else might have 
 received the sahva of the cattle, be thoroughly 
 washed, and then go in upon the Werf with a clean 
 bill of health. This of course was a reasonable pre- 
 caution, and was complied with. 
 
 Thursday, 18^/i. — After proceeding about half a 
 mile, I overtook Cloete's wagons ; and, waiting for 
 them to inspan, we travelled in company, and drew 
 up on the bank of the river on the flat, a mile 
 or two beyond the southern opening of the poort. 
 In addition to my own company, I have now 
 four Damaras, whom Daniel Cloete is sending on 
 with me to Elephant Fountain in charge of cattle.
 
 .-jG explorations in south AFRICA. [Ji!LY 
 
 One or two loose people, with tlieir wives carry- 
 ing their calabashes in baskets on their heads, 
 their tliree-eared caps flaunting behind them, are 
 keeping way with us for the benefit of the few 
 scraps the men leave. These, with Gloete's people, 
 the herd of sheep and cattle, and the three white 
 
 I>AJrARA wriMAN CARRYING AVATEE IX A XATIVE JAR. 
 
 tented wagons glancing in the smilight as they 
 Avend their way beneath the spreading Kameel 
 dooms, form a goodly and even picturesque cavalcade. 
 For my own part, I ride or walk as occasion suits,
 
 ISfjL] I^^FECTED CATTLE. 57 
 
 carrying nothing but my compass, bush knife, and 
 note-book, and ahnost forgetting that I have such a 
 thing as a gun in the wagon. I have seen but one 
 httle buck since I left Otjimbingue, and though 
 lories and doves are numerous, I was not able to 
 afford the luxury of a shot-gun when I left Cape 
 Town, and Chapman's heavy double-barrel wastes 
 ammunition most awfully. 
 
 The next day, after a winding course of three 
 hours and a half, beginning at something like SE. 
 by E. and ending at south, we made our camp under 
 some fine giraffe thorn trees, beside a tributary of the 
 Swakop. Here Cloete sent me a couple of pheasants 
 nicely cooked for dinner. I find him a very decent 
 good sort of fellow, and an interchange of good 
 offices goes on between us. I took a careful round 
 of bearings from the top of the hill, and having just 
 secured a good altitude of a Lyrae Avhich showed 
 that we have made about 3' of latitude, I am about 
 to turn in. The very trifling difference of declina- 
 tion of this star makes the mistake of a day of no 
 importance, while in an observation of the sun it 
 would place us some miles out. 
 
 Saturday^ 20th. — Treked early, and about 10 a.m. 
 reached the last Avater at which it was considered we 
 ought to let suspected cattle drink, and were just 
 about to outspan with the intention of going forward 
 afoot to buy clean oxen, when we saw a team of 
 horses dragging a low sort of machine rapidly towards 
 us, and soon made out Chapman perched with his 
 
 E
 
 58 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jllt 
 
 driver on a wagon chest tied upon an axle. After a 
 warm greeting and a brief explanation of tlie diffi- 
 culties we had respectively met and overcome, we 
 agreed that I should go on to the next water with 
 the wagon, but send back the oxen without suffering 
 them to drink at it, and try to get fiTsh ones from 
 Jonker jun., while he would hold his course on to 
 Barmen and endeavour to see Poison. Here we 
 parted with William Cloete, receiving from him the 
 boxes he had carried for me, and making him a 
 present of a few little things as a return for his 
 willino-ness to obli^'e. 
 
 About sunset we entered the poort near Awassberg, 
 and crossing the Swakop, which is now more stony, 
 the greater inclination of the bed enabling floods to 
 wash out the fine sand, we turned again to the east, 
 leaving Awassberg to the south. On spanning out 
 we were visited by a Hottentot, who appeared to be 
 in charge, and who was satisfied with my assurance 
 that I was now preparing to send back the oxen 
 Avithout allowing them to drink. And now, as my 
 friend and I have at last effected a junction, I trust 
 that we shall be able to lighten our difficulties and 
 share om^ pleasures, and that my next letters may be 
 sent from Lake Ngami by way of the interior to 
 Cape ToAvn. 
 
 This same night, July 20, we had a visit from 
 three well dressed and mounted Hottentots ; but as 
 they did not think it worth Avhile to introduce 
 themselves, I did not feel it incumbent on me to
 
 1861.] TRADE AMONG THE HOTTENTOTS. 59 
 
 invite them to supper, and the interchange of civihties 
 between us was confined to the word ' yah.' 
 
 A good observation of a Lyrte gave 22° 33' 8'' S. 
 as the latitude of the outspan in Windhoek, as this 
 bleak valley is named, and showed a southing of 
 13' 35'' since our last night's outspan. 
 
 Sunday, 21st — This morning we were visited by 
 several persons anxious to trade for sheep, but I 
 purchased only those of a Damara who lived at a 
 distance, and who was anxious to depart for his 
 home. I gave him my second coat for a small ox, 
 three shirts for a larger one, two beakers coffee each 
 for two large sheep, and two for two smaller ones — 
 Hendrick Jager, a tall young man with pecuharly 
 Hottentotish features, sitting on the wagon chest and 
 acting as arbitrator in the bargain. The affair was 
 now declared finished, and those who lived in the 
 neighbourhood were told to bring their cattle to- 
 morrow. I kept the tea-kettle going during his 
 visit, taking the first ' mask ' for myself and Jager, 
 and handing the second water over to the common- 
 alty. One of those who proposed to bring oxen, 
 wanted first to look into the wagon and see how 
 many chests of tea we had, so that he might know 
 how many oxen to bring, one ox one chest being his 
 proposal. Of course I refused to gratify him, asking 
 him whether he were afraid that we had not the means 
 of paying for anything he brought, I gave Hendrick 
 a couple of regatta shirts and elastic braces, but I con- 
 sidered it necessary to refuse some things that were
 
 60 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 asked of me, as too great a show of liberality without 
 an equivalent would be at once set down to fear of the 
 chief and a desire to purchase his favour. He made 
 a very good shot witli my Wilson's rifle, and all of 
 them were astonished with the simplicity and facility 
 of the breech-loading movement. Eight horses were 
 brought up sliortly after noon. Placmg his wife 
 astride on one, Hendrick mounted another, and 
 taking with him a treksel, departed for Eikhams. 
 One young sprig of aristocracy hinted that I ought 
 to have filled the jar of sugar I gave him, but I did 
 not choose to give presents by measure, and told him 
 I was not going to unload the wagon on Sunday to 
 give him more. An old captain named Piet Koper 
 came again in the afternoon to see my jackets, but 
 the only garment of that kind is now left behind at 
 Cloete's, and as it would be not quite the thing to go 
 about among the Portuguese without a decent coat, 
 I do not intend to part with it. I gave him a 
 waistcoat, however, and told him I would see his 
 sheep to-morrow ; meanwhile he took with liim a 
 treksel coffee, and sent me up a little milk, asking 
 in return a beaker susar. Two Hottentots in the 
 service of Chapman arrived to-day, and are to go on 
 to Barmen to-morrow. 
 
 We cast the trek-touw out of gear, stretched it with 
 a tackle between two trees, tarred it and rolled it in the 
 dust, sent the yokes and dissel-boom to be washed in 
 water drawn from and carefully carried away from 
 the drinking-place. Old Piet Koper brought a sheep
 
 1861.] APICAS KKAAL. 61 
 
 and two bucks, which I boudit for five beakers suo;ar : 
 and a Hottentot Avitli him sold me a calf for two 
 stout handkerchiefs and duck enough to make a pair 
 of trowsers. He had also a cow, which lie wished 
 to exchange for my pit-saw, but besides the impossi- 
 bility of parting w4th a tool I need for my own use, 
 a cow for slaughter is by no means worth the price 
 actually paid in Cape Town for the saw. 
 
 Hendrick Jager visited and took tea with me at 
 night, and was highly amused at the sight of his 
 uncle upon paper ; he was rather desirous of buying 
 the Wilson breech-loader, which is universally ad- 
 mired, but I cannot part with the only one I have. 
 
 Tuesday, 23?y/. — I looked in vain for the trek of 
 oxen, and found it necessary to put a decisive stop to 
 the purchase of slaughter-cattle, especially as they 
 began to rise in their demands. Chapman arrived in 
 the afternoon from Barmen, where he told me he 
 had seen several women who had been crippled in 
 some of the by-gone cattle-raids by persons who 
 thought it easier to cut off their feet than to unlace 
 their iron anklets. 
 
 Wednesday^ 22>rd. — I sketched a Damara kraal 
 and village belonging to a man named Apica, origi- 
 nally I believe a native of the countries north of the 
 Zambesi, brought to the Cape in a captured slaver 
 from the east coast, and finally settled among these 
 people. He is about the only man who has a garden 
 and cultivates tobacco. A number of his people 
 were around oui* fire, some of them so plentifully
 
 G2 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jl'i.v 
 
 besmeared with clay and grease that even the iron 
 ornaments of the women appeared of a bright Indian 
 red. Two httle girls were present, and assuring 
 them that there was no harm in it, Apica told them 
 to stand for me. Clothing properly speakmg they 
 had none whatever, but wore as ornaments broad 
 girdles composed of strings of perforated ostrich 
 egg shells, not descending so low as to incommode 
 the seat of the wearer. To the front of these were 
 attached long thongs of leather, descending to the 
 feet, and gracefully shading but not concealing the 
 limbs. The little things stood very patiently, till 
 it began to be dark and cold, when, having done 
 enough to enable me to complete my drawing, I 
 let them go. The difference of temperature I have 
 no certain means of ascertaining, but I know that 
 while by day an eighteenpenny gossamer is clothing- 
 enough, at night I can have over it a stout cotton 
 shirt, and sometimes a blanket over that, without 
 feelino; too warm. 
 
 The next day. Chapman succeeded, at the sacri- 
 fice of a chest of tea and a bag of gunpowder, in 
 hiring about half a dozen oxen to help us out of 
 the valley. The young oxen sent down the country 
 for us were as yet untrained and stubborn, and one 
 of them took a fearful amount of punishment un- 
 flinchingly. The lash, however, was in the hands of 
 a man of strength and judgment. Measuring his 
 distance fairly, Bonnie stood upon a slight elevation, 
 and deliberately laid on stripe after stripe, the long
 
 ISGl.] DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL. 63 
 
 boor-slag marking its track with blood from shoulder 
 to hip, till one well-aimed blow falling in hne with 
 a previous one, the obstinacy of the beast gave way, 
 and smearing the trek-touw with gore as he passed 
 under it, he applied his strength to the yoke. Half 
 a score of active young ISTamaquas came to our help, 
 and with shouts and screams, twisting and bitinaj 
 of tails, and every mode of inflicting pain (except 
 the last resort of fire) that ingenuity could suggest, 
 succeeded in forwarding us about half a mile before 
 sunset ; the httle urchins, like boj^s in all countries, 
 making believe at the same time to help by straining 
 their young muscles at the spokes of the after- wheel. 
 
 On the 26th we had a repetition of the same, 
 with the additional labour of unloading the fore 
 half of the wagon before we could drag it out of 
 the sand of the river. At the next diift it struck 
 again, and no persuasion could induce the oxen to 
 draw it out ; not that it was over- weighted now, but 
 that none of our cattle had been properly trained to 
 the yoke. One of the foremost lay down, and not 
 imtil the tliird man had taken his spell w^ith the long 
 wliip did he consent to spring to his feet agam. I 
 desired our helpers to stay and eat with Bonnie, but 
 a yellow skin seems not to look upon a black one as 
 a fitting associate. 
 
 Saturday^ 27th. — Breaking our dissel-boom in the 
 first attempt to move, I got off the fractured end and 
 was contriving some substitute for the broken irons, 
 when Chapman succeeded in hiring young oxen
 
 C4 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Jui.Y 
 
 from old Piut Koper and his friends. We stuck 
 in the boom again, trusting to the wood alone, and 
 after an awful amount of shrieking, storming, and 
 thrashing, twenty oxen drew out the wagon, only to 
 stick again through a mistake in the road a quarter 
 of a mile farther on, where, as it was now dark, we 
 outspanned and made our supper. 
 
 The next day we took a walk up the hill, which 
 here, as in nearly all the Windhoek valley, is a 
 dark schist glittering with minute particles of mica, 
 in some parts so plentifid as to make the stone feel 
 almost soapy to the touch. In the evening Chap- 
 man and I took observations of the distance of 
 the comet from Arcturus, a Lyr^, and the last 
 star in the tail of the Great Bear : the nucleus of 
 the comet, however, showed so dimly through the 
 inverting telescope that we could not be certain to 
 a Lyrte a few seconds. I fancied that I perceived 
 a retrograde movement in it from the Great Bear 
 toward a LyriB, but this might be an error of ob- 
 servation, which in so undefined an object is not 
 impossible. The meridian altitude of a lUyrad gives 
 22° 33' 5'' S. 
 
 Monday, 29tJi. — Made a careful sketch of the 
 Awass mountain, with the Windhoek branch of the 
 Swakop winding like a dry dusty road through the 
 valley. Chapman had succeeded in hiring a broken- 
 down wagon from old Piet Koper, and about seven 
 hundred pounds weight had been set apart as its 
 cargo. This, which he had already laid upon the bank,
 
 186!.] HOTTENTOT PILFERING. 65 
 
 the Totties in their boorsegtigheid carried down, and 
 loaded their wagon in the river bed, strnggUng from 
 eleven till two to draw it up, and finally being 
 obliged again to carry forward their cargo and send 
 to Chapman four overspan to pull out the nearly 
 empty wagon. Time after time this process was 
 repeated, and finally their own yokes and gear were 
 cast off, and ours bent on with the oxen to their 
 dissel-boom ; and now on the top of the cargo (which, 
 being merely our upper load, included mostly our 
 light tin boxes, instruments, and other valuable and 
 easily broken articles), they wanted to jDitch in, 
 javelin-like, the yokes and lumbering trek-touw. 
 Eemonstrances were of no avail, and it was only by 
 actual force that I could prevent it. As for tramp- 
 ling or sitting on anything they chose, they seemed to 
 regard it as their right, and my objections as some- 
 thing most unwarrantable. 
 
 Chapman's experience of them did not differ much 
 from mine. Eeturning after a minute's absence from 
 the wagon, he caught a fellow in the act of stealing 
 biscuit from a hitherto unopened sack ; but instead of 
 feeling any shame at his detection, the thief resisted 
 all attempts to deprive him of his booty, and when 
 at length obliged to let go, made a gesture of 
 menace, and thrust his finger in my companion's 
 eye. Chapman, though a man of considerable 
 patience and forbearance, pitched him out of the 
 wagon, and laid his hand upon his gun. The only 
 relief to this was the fini afforded by the winning
 
 66 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 iinpudeiice of a couple of merry little maidens, who 
 asked for everything, chased and wrestled with one 
 another for their prize, threw off their voerchitz, 
 Manchester cottons and karosses, and in their beaded 
 and tasselled skin petticoats, pretended to heave round 
 the wagon wheels, push forward the bed plank, 
 and in short, performed acrobatic tricks that would 
 have set Olympus in a roar. Of course we decided 
 to pay off and dismiss our helpers, and struggle on as 
 best we could, trusting to lash and daily drill to 
 bring our oxen to their senses. In the evening, 
 several guns were heard in the direction of Wind- 
 hock, and, in the absence of Koper, the old man 
 chief, whom we had complimented by giving him 
 tea before we handed over the kettle to the others, 
 seemed in great doubt whether it was an alarm or a 
 feu dejoie on the arrival of some guest, but inclined 
 rather to the former opinion. It seems, however, 
 that during an elephant hunt one of Apica's family 
 shot a man who in a former war had slain one 
 of his relatives, and pretended that the death was 
 accidentally caused by the brother of the victim. 
 The brother strongly denied it, for the treacherous 
 act had been witnessed by other persons. Of course, 
 a new feud is the result of this, but whether it will 
 end in the ultima ratio, or whether the chiefs and 
 elders will be called together to settle it, is yet 
 doubtful.
 
 1861.] 67 
 
 CHAPTEE lY. 
 
 THE QUIEP, OR ELEPHANT RIVER THE TWIN TURRETS 
 
 KOTZEBUE, THE DAMARA LIBERTY AND EQUALITY THE 
 
 KLEINE BAKJIE HILL THE NOOSOP HILLS — NAMAQUA GIRLS 
 
 THE MISSION STATION AT GOBABIES BUSHMEN, AND THEIR 
 
 HABITS INOCULATION OF CATTLE FOR LUNG SICKNESS ITS 
 
 EFFECTS. 
 
 Our course, which had been south, was, on the 
 30th of July, turned by the Awassberg, and we 
 proceeded about east along the base of the moun- 
 tains over tolerably steep hills and valleys, till, 
 leaving the last of the sources of the Swakop, we 
 struck the first of the Qidep, or Elephant river, about 
 four in the afternoon, and stuck fast in an insignificant 
 sandy drift, where the felloes of the wheels did not 
 sink to above half their breadth. John Harris was 
 returning; from a matrimonial neQ;otiation on behalf 
 of some Hottentot, whose name was embelHshed with 
 the prefix of Dik (thick or fat), a widower, who 
 wished to replace his lost one by a young girl, who 
 as usual affected great diffidence, but had said 'Yes,' 
 after saying 'No' just long enough. The other am- 
 bassadors had gone on in search of the parents, and 
 Harris, after drinking tea with us, took Chapman 
 aside, and recounting the services his cornet had
 
 68 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 rendered me without asking payment, requested that 
 an appropriate present might be sent in acknow- 
 ledgment of his kindness. An iron can of spirits of 
 wine, belonging to Chapman, had, through the heat 
 and motion of the wagon, sent forth its odour, and 
 the keen organs of the Hottentot detecting this, he 
 would at once have placed it in the category of Kwaii 
 waters, and sent the liquid fire through the usual 
 channel had he been permitted. In the evening. 
 Chapman entertained me with an account of his ad- 
 ventures, trials, and sufferings from sickness, plunder, 
 treachery of guides purposely sent by the chiefs to 
 lead him into the fly country, recovering of property 
 through the dread entertained by the thieves of the 
 magic intelligence of a note-book, and many other 
 things. 
 
 Wednesday, oXst. — As Mr. Ukana or Hoachna (I 
 am not certain of the spelling] was still waiting 
 for Mr. Euncie at some distance before us. Chap- 
 man rode forward in his little two-horse ' shay ' to try 
 to borrow leading or after-oxen, with which to train 
 the rest into something like order. To get out the 
 wagon, I was obliged to unload half the cargo, and 
 then raise the fore-wheels alternately with the lifter, 
 and collect stones to make a solid path for them. 
 Chapman has to-day been told that the Namaquas 
 have shot four of WiUiam Cloete's cattle, suspected 
 of having sickness. 
 
 In about half an hour we sighted two remarkable 
 hills capped with layers of rock, which, as tlie Hot-
 
 1861.] THE TWIN TURRETS. 69 
 
 tentot names are difficult to obtain and sometimes 
 impossible to pronounce, I called the ' Twin Tur- 
 rets,' it being absolutely necessary to have some 
 distinctive names to prevent confusion in notes and 
 bearings. I may here remark that although I think 
 I am making some little progress in the Damara 
 dialect, there is a kind of half-lisping sound in 
 utterances that we should express by sh or th, and 
 Chapman says it is to produce this tliat their front 
 teeth are knocked out or forced asunder sideways. 
 
 We passed a kraal and a few" huts, a wagonful 
 of Hottentots, followed by a young woman astride 
 an ox and managing the reins very gracefully ; and 
 about three stuck again in the Elephant river. Tap- 
 yinyoka made me a sleeping place, blocking up the 
 narrow channel with bushes and spreading my 
 blankets diagonally under a small rock, where after 
 supper I made and coloured a rather successful sketch 
 of my lair, w^orking on with it till it was too late for 
 an altitude of any star now available. 
 
 August 1st — Met a messenger from Chapman 
 for tea, sugar, &c,, and learned that Ukana could 
 not lend us any oxen, his real reason being that the 
 Hottentots have spread a report in advance that we 
 are bringing up lung sickness, and he has in con- 
 sequence moved out of the road so that his cattle 
 may not have tlie slightest cliance of contamination 
 from ours. We crossed the Elephant river, wliich 
 toward midday began to show a flat sandy bed, 
 three or four times as broad as a turnpike road, and
 
 70 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [ArcrsT 
 
 as we were struggling up a little stony hill were met 
 by Ukana, who advised and assisted us, and even 
 promised if we found our oxen unequal to the task 
 to have them and their gear removed entirely, and 
 bring his own span-in yokes to drag us out. 
 
 One little thing he told me he had for me to do, 
 and this I learned was no less than to make a new 
 hammer for his percussion gun ! Well, no one knows 
 what he can do till he tries, and taking the best 
 piece of iron I had, I went over to his wagon, and 
 by two o'clock in the morning had succeeded so far, 
 that on Friday it only required filing up, and he fired 
 the gun effectually. The Hottentots laughed at the 
 shape of it, but considering that I had neither good 
 iron nor bellows to give it heat, I felt reason to 
 be not very much ashamed of my craftsmanship. 
 Ukana's idea of the incessant begging of the 
 Hottentots, is, that they hardly know or mean what 
 they are saying, but that it is a kind of sickness ! 
 I confess I never knew or heard before of so entirely 
 universal an affliction. Among the Damaras was one 
 to whom Ukana had given the name of Kotzebue 
 (his real one being nearly similar in sound), the finest 
 man I have seen in this part of Africa. He was 
 as tall as most Europeans, and perfectly made; his 
 eyes open enough to look another fairly in the face, 
 his nose only moderately broad, and his hps, though 
 still thick, shapely and not over large. The promi- 
 nence of his cheek bones was slight ; and though 
 with a white skin his features would have been
 
 1S61.] KOTZEBUE, THE DAMARA. 71 
 
 called far from perfect, yet as a Damara he seemed 
 so superior to the generahty of his race, that I took 
 the first opportunity of sketching him, but not having 
 any colours by me, I determined to leave my outline 
 untouched as a guide to work from it at a future 
 opportunity. 
 
 Eeturning to our wagon. Chapman bought an 
 ox for two bags or ten pounds of powder, and a 
 sheep for three beakers of coffee, and on Saturday 
 mornino; I o-ave a stout cotton shut for a eoat. 
 
 Do C 
 
 There is a report that Adam Kok, who was lately 
 in Cape Town and had agreed to enter No Man's 
 Land, between the colony and Natal, as a British 
 subject and with the consent and sanction of the 
 governor, had paid a visit to the tribes in advance 
 of us ; but we now find it was not Adam but Jan 
 Blom, the Coranna chief, with, it is said, no end of 
 liorses. During the day I attempted to map our 
 course from Eikhams (warm water), but was able to 
 do httle from the constant obtrusion of the Hotten- 
 tots. It is of course impossible to work without 
 having tools or materials of some sort about ; and 
 when obliged to keep a constant watch to prevent 
 their being stolen by a set of fellows who, like 
 monkeys, wiU persist in handling everything, and feel 
 themselves insulted if requested to desist from tram- 
 phng on one's bed, and dinnerplates, or striding over 
 drawing materials or vessels containing food, it is 
 hardly possible to go very nicely through the calcu- 
 lations necessary to reconcile discrepancies arising
 
 72 EXPLORATIONS IN" SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 from imperfectly estimated distances, cross bearings, 
 &c. 
 
 One fellow was highly offended when I compared 
 him to a Bushman and asked where lie had been 
 ' made great ' (equivalent to the Yankee ' raised '), 
 till he had the effrontery to demand coffee instead of 
 waiting till it was offered him. Another of the 
 party, after Chapman's return, seeing him rise from 
 liis seat for a moment, coolly took possession of it 
 himself, and when reminded of his error, just shifted 
 so far as to leave a corner of the chest unoccupied, 
 his object being, of course, to raise himself in the 
 estimation of the Damaras by forcing a white man to 
 sit beside him. To put one's self on a level with a 
 Hottentot by quarrelling ■with him, would be in his 
 estimation almost as good as submitting to his in- 
 solence, but in both senses he was disappointed ; for 
 my companion, after five or six times desiring him to 
 move, and once appealing to an old man of more 
 decent behaviour, quietly pushed him on one side 
 and took the seat to himself; and Eobin Eed-breast 
 finding that after this we gave him no more coffee, 
 accepted in rather a crest-fallen style a pannikin at 
 second-hand from Bonnie. 
 
 About nine in the evening the brothers Poison 
 arrived with two wagons, and spanned out just 
 beyond us, having been compelled to purchase the 
 forbearance of old Jonker with, I believe, thirty bags 
 of powder. They had resisted as long as possible, 
 Init the unmanly submission of Cator and Smutz
 
 1861.] LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. 73 
 
 (who had been the greatest boasters in Otjimbingue) 
 had encouraged the old chief, and he now openly 
 demanded tribute for permission to travel on ' his ' 
 road, the said road being the tracks made by white 
 men's wagons, or cut by their axes through the bush. 
 The helpless condition to wliich travellers are reduced 
 by being obliged to send back their own cattle on 
 suspicion of lung sickness places them still more at 
 the mercy of these savages. 
 
 Sunday^ ^tli. — I mtended to have gone to the top 
 of the hill named Haikoos, or yellow thorn, but as 
 Chapman had gone across for his little car to Ukana's, 
 I dared not leave the wagon unwatched, and a sharp 
 look-out, seconded by lock and key, confined the day's 
 losses to a clasp-knife. Poison's men had heard at 
 Jonker's that we had spirits in the wagon, the 
 presence of which had been detected by the smell 
 when a box was overturned, and were urging him to 
 ask it of me. Of course he refused this, and I 
 explained to him that they must have smelt either 
 the can of sphits of wine or some of Chapman's 
 chemicals for photography, and that there was in 
 truth not a drop of liquor with us. 
 
 Monday^ bth. — This morning, as yesterday, the 
 water left from overnight was covered with a thui 
 coating of ice, Saturday having been ushered in with 
 a few drops that could hardly be called rain. We 
 spanned in early, without waiting for coffee, and 
 gladly shook off the dust of our feet from this nest of 
 vagabonds, whose impudence, fortunately for us, was 
 
 F
 
 74 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Adgust 
 
 only equalled by their cowardice. I have put away 
 my revolver under lock and key, lest it should be too 
 handy to come by some of these days ; and this 
 morning for the first time I laid hands on one fellow, 
 and pitched him to the other side of the fire, for 
 standing in my path and forcing me among the thorns 
 of the fence as I passed to and from the wagon with 
 the various tools and instruments I had been usina;. 
 Of course I refrained from striking him, for they 
 would like nothing better than occasion to gather a 
 force and plunder us, on pretence of compensation. 
 After a trek of twenty miles without Avater, we 
 outspanned a few hundred yards south of the 
 Elephant river, and a mile or two north of a hill 
 called ' Kleine Bakjie ' or Little Cheek, perhaps 
 in contradistinction to the last werg, where the 
 check was anything but little. This day I saw two 
 skulls of the rhinoceros, and one of a harte-beeste ; the 
 worms which attack the horn and with the fibres of 
 it build long projecting galleries, had rooted it so 
 firmly in the earth that with all my strength it cost 
 me three or four trials before I lifted it, tearing up 
 at the same time an imbedded mass of these galleries 
 from four and a half to five inches long. A stray 
 harte-beeste and wilde-beeste had been reported on 
 the Hottentot werg ; a shy old cock ostrich was seen 
 along the road ; and in the afternoon I fired my first 
 shot at game since leaving Otjimbingue, the dogs as 
 usual driving away the buck without any attempt to 
 catch him. I noticed several large sheds or roofs
 
 1861.] THE CHIEF JAX JOXKER. 75 
 
 sheltering tlie nests of large communities of the social 
 grosbeak. The trees in which they were built were all 
 dead — Chapman says from the weight of the material 
 the birds have laid upon them. Chapman, who had 
 stayed behind with his httle cart, was of course beset 
 by our friends, whose pertinacity increased as their 
 chance of booty diminished, and, at the last moment, 
 one of them bolted with his pipe, but having been 
 seen by a young Damara, was induced, for fear of 
 consequences, to bring it back again. 
 
 The chief Jan Jonker came to visit us, and 
 tolerable order was preserved during his presence. 
 He complained that all the ' Smouses ' hurried past 
 as fast as possible, so that if the Hottentots wanted 
 clothing or other goods they had to run after the 
 wagons ; and, to prevent disputes and annoyance from 
 his people climbing into the wagons, desired that two 
 samples of everything they contained should be 
 brought out and laid upon the ground. The Poisons, 
 though by no means ambitious of the title he bestowed 
 on them, consented to stay the next day over, accord- 
 ing to his wish ; but our wagon, containing nothing 
 that Chapman wished to part with here, was to 
 remain intact. As a proof of the civilised taste 
 acquired by this chieftain, it may be noticed that the 
 first request he made was for ' Eau de Cologne ' to 
 warm his stomach ; and the next, duly conveyed 
 through his ' alter ego,' for tea to drink at home, 
 as the chief could not walk in the air (i.e. of the 
 niglit). 
 
 F 2
 
 76 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 The next morning after early coffee, I went to 
 Mount Seeace to obtain a round of bearings, and found 
 though I had estimated the distance at within two 
 miles, that it cost me an hour's walk to reach the base, 
 and nearly another to the top. Haikoos (Vaal Doom 
 or yellow dun tliorn) mountain was visible enough 
 at ten miles distance, and Awass beyond it about 
 twenty more. The Ndosop hills appeared twenty-five 
 or thirty miles to the north, and a succession of 
 elevations of more or less importance from south- 
 east round to the westward : otherwise, the view 
 was uninteresting. The flat, of redder earth than 
 hitherto, was scantily covered with pale yellow 
 grass and small scattered mimosas, except where it 
 was intersected by the sandy bed of the Elephant 
 river, from which the whirlwinds raised pillars of 
 dust, partially obscuring the thorns that fringed it. 
 
 After dinner Poison's driver induced a couple of 
 Namaqua girls to stand for me in their native dress ; 
 the elder was short and rather stoutly built, and 
 might have been tolerably good looking had she 
 been clean, and her eyebrows, nose, and cheeks not 
 outlined with blue clay. The younger, I suppose 
 about fifteen, was nearly as tall, but much more 
 slenderly made, and wore from a necklace of brightly 
 coloured beads, red, white, and blue, a small wooden 
 box for aromatic herbs ; both had short skin petti- 
 coats, edged with grey beads, and belschoens more *^ 
 clumsily made than I have seen at Windhoek and 
 Little Barmen. 
 
 V U
 
 NAMAQUA HOTTENTOT 'WOMEN BEGGING.
 
 1861.] VALLEY OF THE NOOSOP RIVEE. 77 
 
 Wednesday^ 1th. — Arthur Poison, Chapman and I 
 went ahead in the small cart, and passing a long 
 thorn fence, of which we could see nearly three 
 quarters of a mile, with pitfalls at intervals to entrap 
 the antelopes, we entered the valley of the Noosop 
 river, and rode at a good pace along its bed, hard 
 and flat now as a turnpike road, though the spoor 
 of one of the few wagons whose tracks were left 
 showed that at some former period it had been 
 soft enough to let the wheels sink two or three 
 inches. And now, at last, the landscape was en- 
 livened by a few of the animals proper to the 
 country. Gumea fowl ran in troops through the low 
 bush, but they are small marks for the rifle. Three 
 ostriches tempted us to a long shot, and a wounded 
 steinbok on three legs led Chapman and me in chase 
 till it tired us out and escaped. A little farther on, 
 I saw for the first time the beautiful roodebok or 
 pallah, clearing the thickets in its path with flying 
 leaps. The water-hole, as Chapman had opined from 
 the scarcity of game, was so far dried up as to be a 
 mere mass of black filthy mud ; but as we un- 
 harnessed the horses, we saw four brindled gnus, and 
 farther on two or three small troops of springboks. 
 The constant persecution of the Hottentots had 
 rendered them, however, so wild, that we fired rather 
 as a trial of skill than in hope of kilhng them, 
 
 A Hottentot on his journey having camped down 
 near us, we bought a sheep of him, the purchase 
 covering also a pannikin of water ; and making a fire
 
 78 EXPLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 ill a small scherm under a group of the largest ' wagt 
 een beetje' (wait a bit) thorn trees I had ever 
 seen, cut off the choicest morsels, and were busy in 
 the enjoyment of them when we heard the wagons 
 coming up. A scanty pannikin of coffee each was 
 added to our fare, and the Damaras having been 
 set to make a kraal to keep the cattle from straying 
 in search of water or being dispersed by lions, we 
 made ourselves as comfortable as possible for the 
 nisrht. 
 
 Thursday, 8th. — We left our outspan — which, as 
 the river now turned to the southward, we called 
 ' Turn-away Bend ' — and travelled shghtly to the 
 south of E. over a sandy plain covered with long white 
 grass. I saw two bucks, I think dinkers, one of 
 which I brought to the ground as it bounded past, 
 and might have captured it, had it not taken a course 
 directly opposite to our own, which would have led 
 me away from the wagons, instead of after them. The 
 other I feared to shoot, lest the ball shoidd range far 
 enough to hurt some of our people. As for ostriches, 
 they are so hunted that it is impossible to come with- 
 in even a long range of them, and though I fired 
 twice I could not even see where the bullet fell. 
 
 The Damaras fingered behind to dig roots, one of 
 which, caUed onaque, was rather watery, and another, 
 the otjintory, not very different in taste from a white 
 radish. These with the seeds of a creeper, the otji- 
 pewa, and a larger root that I have not yet seen, are 
 often their only means of subsistence.
 
 1861.] NEST OF OUTLAWSL 79 
 
 Toward noon we halted amid a grove of thorn 
 trees, covered "with nests of the social grosbeak, and 
 various other birds. Some of the former were large 
 enouo-h to have formed a comfortable shelter for half 
 a dozen people, while the latter were scattered 
 singly or in companies through the branches. At 
 night we halted with the oxen in the yokes for 
 coffee, and after trekking till three next morning 
 were informed by a messenger that lung sickness 
 was in Wittvlei, and that om- cattle could not diink 
 there. 
 
 Between nine and ten on the 9th, we crossed 
 the Noosop river, as usual dry, and as we came in 
 sight of this nest of outlaws, observed a party 
 crowded round Chapman and his little cart, and 
 another division with their musket barrels glancinsf 
 brightly in the sun in some commotion round one 
 of the principal huts. These I afterwards learned 
 were intended to blockade our path, but some 
 quarrel among themselves, or difference of opinion 
 as to its practicabihty, led them to abandon their 
 project and follow us to our outspan, where, as 
 usual with these people, when not partially restrained 
 by the proximity of a chief, we had a repetition of 
 all the former importunities. The idea of sending 
 us a drop of milk was the most unhkely to occur 
 to them, and when we asked what was the 
 Namaqua word for ' thank you,' he told us it was 
 not in their language. Of course, our drivers syiu- 
 pathised with them rather than with us, and could
 
 80 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 not be reckoned on for support in case of quarrel. 
 Indeed, it seems rather as if they considered them- 
 selves entitled to decide whether or not the wagons 
 should go on, the owners, in their estimation, having 
 only a secondary voice in the affair. We were also 
 unfortunate, inasmuch as Poison's driver was so far 
 superior to the rest as to possess a long nose and a 
 scanty beard, and on these credentials he and his 
 mate sit down to eat with us, forming a link by 
 which to connect with our every meal every Hot- 
 tentot in the vicinity, always excepting Bonnie, who, 
 though a better man than nine-tenths of them, is- too 
 black to eat out of the same pot with yellow people ! 
 
 At night some of them wanted Chapman to write 
 a letter to the missionary, asking his advice respecting 
 the punishment of a Damara wdio had killed some of 
 their sheep ; but as this was evidently intended only 
 as an insult both to ■ the reverend gentleman and 
 through him to the chief, he of course refused. 
 
 It seems that Amral himself is desirous of in- 
 stituting something hke order, and some time ago 
 ordered a flogging to the leaders of the Wittvlei 
 people for their share in a cattle-raid. The judges, 
 however, in his absence, commuted the punishment to 
 a fine of a couple of oxen, and now all those who 
 are enemies of law and order have fled to this cave 
 of AduUam. We hear now that Amral has taken 
 the decided step of actually flogging a man against 
 whom the murder of his Damara servant has been 
 proved, and our people are trying all they can
 
 1861.] IIVFECTED CATTLE. 81 
 
 to get us to commit ourselves to some opinion 
 on the irregularity of the proceedings, which, if the 
 tale we hear be true, is a mere act of justice, and 
 highly creditable both to the chief and his adviser 
 the missionary. 
 
 Saturday, 10th. — Intelligence arrived last night 
 that the cattle Chapman had been buying about here 
 and had sent on some hundred miles in advance, 
 were infected with lung sickness and were dying fast. 
 If this be true, it will be the most fearful difficulty 
 we have yet had to contend with. 
 
 Sunday, Wth. — By dint of remonstrances and 
 threats, the sluggish herdsmen were driven from 
 the fire, and by about noon the wandering oxen 
 which ought to have been guarded all night were 
 reclaimed, some of them already far on the road 
 to the pestilent water at Wittvlei. We rode till 
 about sunset, when we were met by Mr. Stauffer 
 with an empty wagon, and a message from Chapman 
 that Amral the chief would not permit a single ox 
 from the coastway to drink at his water, but that he 
 would probably allot a place for them a day's journey 
 from his own. None of my companion's cattle had 
 yet died, as Stauffer and John had immediately 
 commenced inoculation, but from a prejudice among 
 the natives it was likely that even the operation 
 that ensured their safety would seem to them a 
 sufficient reason for stopping us. The whole of the 
 dreary flat was traversed in the night, and before 
 sunrise we crossed the river, and found ourselves
 
 82 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 in sight of Gobabies (the viUage and mission at 
 Elephant Fountain), on a dry stony hill covered with 
 leafless thorns. The thirsty cattle rushed at once to 
 the scanty puddles in the river-bed ; and cruel as it 
 seemed, we were obliged to head them back, all the 
 precautions we had taken to comj)ly with the 
 sanitary regulations notwithstandmg. The chief 
 Amral, a little old man with a wrinkled, but not 
 otherwise unpleasant countenance, came down to 
 share our coffee, and beyond the strict care of his 
 water, which we could not blame him for, was by no 
 means unreasonable or exacting. His people also were 
 restrained by his presence, and seemed beside of a 
 superior caste to those we had lately met. Numbers 
 of them were, to use the colonial term, ' Baastaards,' 
 that is, the offspring of white and coloured parents, 
 and one, as I rightly guessed, was from the Cape, and 
 if I mistake not, more accustomed to the net and 
 oar than to the wagon whip. The Griqua chief 
 Waterboer, from Philhpolis, joined us. He has been 
 here some time, and, it is said, has or is about to 
 become a retainer of Amral's. The people were 
 summoned to morning service by a sonorous blast 
 upon an ox-horn, and afterwards I paid a visit to the 
 missionary Mr. Kraphol, the chief dining in the same 
 room, but at a separate table. We learn that we 
 are about the last who will be allowed to visit this 
 place (though I do not see how this resolution is to 
 be carried out), and even we are to get away as fast 
 as possible. In this we cordially agree, but where to
 
 1861.] CARGO TRANSFERRED. 83 
 
 go to we are undecided. All the water-holes within a 
 hundred and twenty miles are taboo'd to us ; and how 
 to get past the lake without bringing om^ cattle into 
 contact with those of the people there, we have not 
 yet decided — perhaps we shall not do it this year. 
 On one thing we may congratidate ourselves : we are 
 now past the worst of the Hottentots, and if we can 
 only save a few clean cattle strictly apart from the 
 infected ones, we may still pursue our journey. 
 
 On the next day we transferred the cargo from La- 
 mert's wagon, which was to be left here for him, to 
 Chapman's, and though the latter was the smaller of 
 the two, yet by discarding boxes and stoAving their 
 contents in bulk, and especially by bartering a quan- 
 tity for cattle, a horse, &c., we managed to condense 
 it sufficiently. A few bottles of vinegar, pickles, 
 curry powder, &c., doubtless wiU not pass without 
 remark, and I suppose will cause us fresh solicita- 
 tions for grog. I am told and fully believe that cam- 
 phorated spirit is in especial request, and hardly any 
 method of fitting it for the preservation of spe- 
 cimens would cause it to be rejected by a Hottentot. 
 Of course, as before, our vehicle is too full to be used 
 as a sleeping-place or sitting-chamber, like the 
 neatly appointed wagon of the Poisons which I have 
 shared for the last two or three nights. With the 
 muskets taken from the arm-chest and laid side by 
 side upon a rack stretched across the tent, and our 
 shooting guns slung wherever there is room, it has 
 rather a formidable appearance. Scores of eager
 
 84 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 hands were diving into every nook to secmx' waste 
 grains of coffee, stray beads, and other things, 
 manifesting at the same time no particular care to 
 avoid damaging those we wished to retain, or in 
 some instances to discriminate between them. The 
 presence of Mr. Kraphol, however, restrained them 
 from any considerable depredation, and tlie know- 
 ledge that we could at a moment's notice appeal to 
 their chief acted as a farther check. 
 
 Lady Amral, notwithstanding, considered herself 
 entitled to the privileges of her rank, and, perhaps 
 as pin money, laid hands on our reading lamp. 
 Who got the coffee kettles I can hardly tell ; one 
 went at Wittvlei and the other is reported missing. 
 I tried to take a meridian altitude of the sun for 
 latitude, but though I succeeded in enlisting one 
 Hottentot on my side, by telhng him I wished to 
 set the watches right at twelve o'clock, he could not 
 prevent the constant passing and repassing of the 
 people, nor check the rush of curious gazers poured 
 forth from the school-room, when the sun was at its 
 highest. The weather being also cloudy, I need 
 hardly say my observation was not worth reading 
 off 
 
 Mr. Poison kindly took charge of my sketches 
 and journal up to this date ; and Mr. Kraphol readily 
 acceded to my request that he would purchase for 
 me a Damara dress of man and woman complete, 
 telling me that he would set some of the natives to 
 make new garments, that they might not be sent
 
 1861.] ANDRIES THE DEIVER. 85 
 
 home in so offensively filthy a condition as they are 
 worn. 
 
 We spanned in about 4 p.m., and having parted 
 Avith Bonnie, who is a man of some property in the 
 vicinity and either a real or foster son of Amral, 
 I left Gobabies, and had proceeded about half a 
 mile when the new driver Andries told me that 
 from a recent injury in his arm he was unable to use 
 the whip. As he seemed a well-conducted man 
 and we had heard a good account of him, I wished 
 to hire another to act under him till he should 
 recover ; but he preferred returning, and Chapman, 
 who was staying behind to recover the oxen that 
 had been allowed to stray, sent me another with a 
 caution that he would require more close watching 
 than the first. Our dissel boom had split where the 
 bolt joins it to the fore stell or carriage, and in a 
 short time came completely out, the team running 
 off at full speed without the wagon, I repaired this 
 with a bolt and nut, and after six hours trek to the 
 SSE. minus two hours for delay, spanned out on a 
 flat of red sand with long white grass and a few 
 thorn trees. The clouds which had shed upon us 
 a drop or two of rain, cleared off just in time to 
 allow me a rather uncertain altitude of « Cygni, 
 which gave 22° 19^ \2". (Of course all latitude is 
 .'I'outh, and longitude, when we obtain it, east.) IS[ot 
 Ijeing satisfied with Deneb and missing Fomalhaut 
 tlirough the irregularity of my watch, I had to wait 
 some hours longer for a Eridani or Achirnar,
 
 86 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 a good altitude of wliicli gave 22° 33' 34", thus 
 enabling me, by estimating the distance we had made, 
 to guess the approximate latitude of Gobabies. I 
 had just put away my instrument and was composing 
 myself between the blankets, when Luther rose and 
 asked if it were not time to inspan. I looked east- 
 ward and saw that the day was breaking ; so after 
 refreshing myself with a pannikin of coffee, I sent for 
 the oxen, and giving my rifle and pouch to Tapy- 
 inyoka walked ahead to try to find a buck, without 
 seeing a thing larger than a little bird. We halted 
 in a small grove of fine thorn trees in lat. 22° 35' 
 50", and crossing a grassy plain with here and there a 
 patch of thorns, entered a poort^ in which is the small 
 beginning of a waterless river running to a place 
 called Twass or Quass — the chck at the beginning 
 not admitting of expression in English letters. An 
 excellent altitude of a Lyrai showed that while tra- 
 velling to the east we had returned to 22° 35' 30", 
 or almost exactly that of our last night's halt. 
 
 Luther took up his quarters in an old Damara hut, 
 one of a now deserted kraal, and on the morning of 
 "Wednesday 14th informed me his agreement with 
 Chapman was at an end, but agreed for a further 
 consideration to drive the wagon to the cattle post 
 kept by Lamert's Damaras, a few miles farther on. 
 Although our oxen were, so far as human foresight 
 could avail, perfectly free from infection, the women 
 and boys, in the absence of the men who were out 
 hunting, ran down to see that they did not touch
 
 1861.] LUTHER AND APOLLOS. 87 
 
 the water, miserable puddle although it was, and 
 feeling myself from the weakness of the defenders 
 still more bound to respect their scruples, I desired 
 the men to cast loose a wooden trough from the 
 after trap, and bale water out of one of the rather 
 ample wells for the thirsty beasts. I was somewhat 
 surprised while sketching the busy scene, rendered 
 more picturesque by a stately overshadowing gum 
 thorn, to see that some of the cattle did not rush so 
 eagerly as I expected to the liquid mud, till I found 
 that there was a pool in the poort where we had 
 slept last night, and though Luther had neglected 
 to inform me (to use the mildest term) when I asked 
 about it, some of the cattle must have sought it 
 out for themselves. In the evening the headman of 
 the kraal, named, I believe, Apollos, paid us a visit, 
 and after accepting coffee, bread, and part of a small 
 supply of dried meat that we were obliged to fall 
 back upon, proposed to change iron pots, as ours 
 being a gallon larger than his would serve him 
 better for soap boiling. Thinking to expedite the 
 advent of a sheep, I consented, and was then told 
 that the sheep could not be brought till to-morrow, 
 although they had been grazing in our view at the 
 close of the afternoon ; and in answer to a very broad 
 hint from Luther whether I was not going to ask for 
 milk, I told him I was not in the habit of begging, 
 and that the headman might do just as he pleased 
 about sending it. 
 
 Thursday^ \hth. — There arrived in succession a
 
 88 EXrLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Augdst 
 
 pint of milk in a small wooden bowl, Apollos, and a 
 sheep, — the latter to be sold for my last two pocket- 
 knives, and jointly eaten with the proper accessories 
 by ourselves and ' 'Polios ' the aforesaid ; and while 
 breakfast was being prepared. Chapman came in with 
 a small bag of shot, a polony and a small quantity of 
 French brandy, kindly sent by Mr. and Mrs. Kraphol 
 — a tired horse and a good appetite. Of course our 
 friend Luther was quickly on the scent of the ' warm 
 w^aters,' A\dth an address and perseverance that 
 deserved a better return than disappointment. The 
 settling of his pay was a matter of great negotiation. 
 Eeadymade duck trowsers he refused contemptuously ; 
 and Chapman tells me that even drill is now looked 
 down upon as only a liner kind of sail-cloth. So 
 civilised (?) have we become ! 
 
 At length, with a multitude of small articles, from 
 hat, moleskin, and caUco, down to treksels, thread and 
 needles, and handkerchiefs to carry them in, he set 
 out on his return to Gobabies, leaving us to go 
 forward with a young Damara, who, proud of his 
 promotion, which entailed the reversion of the cojQfee 
 and sugar after meals, togetlier with the highly es- 
 teemed privilege of ordering the commonalty to fill 
 and light his pipe, evidently tried hard to prove 
 himself worthy of his charge. We turned northward 
 up the course of the dry channel and gained an 
 elevated plateau, where, though our road was more 
 circuitous, we had easier country and more frequent 
 opportunities of finding water than in tlie long valley
 
 
 
 
 
 imr 
 
 7^::r^\ ■^■z-jl,>^'^M^i',w{f.''^m^ :~:'/^[ .-^-^t
 
 1861.] PEST GEASS FOUNTAIN. 89 
 
 in which the various driblets of the highlands are 
 collected ; we halted for the night without any but 
 the supply we carried in the cask. 
 
 Friday, IQth. — Eeached a steading, the werft of 
 a Damara rejoicing in the name of David, and called 
 by Chapman ' Pest Grass Fountain,' because all the 
 varieties of grass seeds, pointed, barbed, spiked, or 
 feathered, for penetrating the clothes and irritating 
 the skin are to be found here. David, who spoke 
 tolerable Dutch, sold us half-a-dozen sheep or goats 
 at the rate of a good common shirt, or calico, &c., 
 enough to make one, each ; and besides brmging to 
 the wagon a hide which he had agreed to restore, 
 he actually restored two or three dogs, as also an 
 iron tent pole that had been lost some months 
 ^before — a rather pleasing contrast with the usages 
 we had become accustomed to of late. 
 
 A fine, portly-looking, and somewhat elderly man, 
 one of Lamert's principal people, had ridden several 
 miles from the hunting ground to sell the feathers of 
 an ostrich, which Mr. Chapman bought at various 
 prices according to their quahty, and these being 
 pretty well settled by custom, very httle bargaining 
 sufficed. There is a marked difference in the be- 
 haviour of the Hottentots ever since we passed 
 Wittvlei. At Elephant Fountain much of this must 
 be ascribed to the influence of the chief Amral and 
 the missionaries Kraphol and Weber, and now the 
 few we meet seem to feel that we are gradually mak- 
 ing our way beyond the magic circle of their power. 
 
 G
 
 90 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Augdst 
 
 Chapman says that when he left, he heard that a 
 Eaad or meeting was to be called next day, the real 
 object of which was to consult whether other mea- 
 sures tlian those of persuasion should be adopted 
 to prevent his going to the lake. Whatever the 
 result may be, I trust we shall see as Httle as 
 possible of them in future. 
 
 Skirtmg the edge of the highland, from which 
 occasional vistas through the depressions to the 
 south showed us the broad valley and the flat 
 country looking as blue and dark as the wide ocean 
 in the distance, we turned agam south and outspanned 
 in the head of another hollow, where a couple of pits 
 fifteen or twenty feet deep afforded us a supply of 
 water. Unfortunately a paouw from some casualty 
 had died and rotted in one of them and rendered the 
 water unfit for use. I had a very good altitude of 
 a Lyra3 in the evening, and am glad to find that 
 latterly my observation agrees with the dead reckon- 
 • ing, sometimes even better than I could have 
 expected when the difficulty of keeping the compass 
 course, where the windings of the wagon track can 
 seldom be seen half a mile in advance, is taken into 
 consideration. 
 
 We hear that a driver of Chapman's who had 
 been punished for repeated proofs that nothing 
 was too hot or too heavy for him, has been staying 
 with the cattle in his charge at a Hottentot werft to 
 the north-west, and having celebrated his marriage 
 with one of the daughters of the tribe by slaughtering
 
 1861.] BUSHiffiX ATTACKED. 91 
 
 two of the finest trek oxen, has chosen the time of 
 our being in the neighbourhood to commence his 
 wedding tour, very wisely leaving his master's gun 
 somewhere else, so that it may not be lost should he 
 himself be captured. 
 
 Another even less welcome piece of intelligence is 
 the confirmation of a report that Chapman's Damaras 
 during his absence had borrowed guns of his servant 
 John, an old soldier of the 74th Highlanders, (who 
 was in the waterkloof at the same time as I,) and 
 instead of hunting, as they had promised, had 
 attacked the Bushmen in the hills, killing some, and 
 returning loaded with their almost worthless plunder. 
 This outrage, the result of some ancient feud, is hkely 
 not only to set the Bushmen at enmity with us, but 
 to give occasion to the Hottentots, who claim some 
 power over the unfortunate Bushmen, to make use of 
 it as a pretext for stopping us in our journey. 
 
 After watering the oxen, which had been kept 
 thirsty all night that they might drink their fill before 
 commencing the night stage, we travelled to the E. 
 of S. along the river toward the great valley ; but 
 though Chapman Avent ahead to distinguish the old, 
 and nearly obhterated, road from the track of a wagon 
 that had strayed, young Jem, in the pride of his recent 
 advancement, thought himself quite competent to 
 choose his path, and, in consequence, after many 
 difficulties in which he lost temper and began to 
 thrash the oxen savagely, we came to a stand in the 
 loose sandy bed about a hundred yards below a hard
 
 92 
 
 EXPLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Ai 
 
 stony crossing. Chapman and I, after giving tlie 
 cattle an hour to graze, worked till sunset, and 
 then liad to unload the wagon to its lowest pack, 
 and draw it up empty, not without some danger to 
 ourselves from the bewildered oxen, one of which 
 
 nearly lifted me over his head while I was trj^ing to 
 extricate him from a capsized yoke and choking neck 
 strap. Tiatitude by a good altitude of a Lyras 22° 
 23' 47". 
 
 Sunday^ 18th. — Being now within a couple of days' 
 ride of the other wagon, Chapman rode on ahead to 
 see to the condition of his cattle, and if possible to
 
 1S61.] MEANING OF THE NAME ' SWAKOP.' 93 
 
 obtain birns fit for the inoculation of those we have 
 now with us before they take tlie infection from 
 the others. After an hour's trek to the SE., I 
 outspanned to let the cattle drink at a small pool of 
 surface water called Ondweada Onganga, or Bull 
 Giunea Fowl, and took tea from some liquid mud 
 fetched from one of the pits not yet quite dry, some- 
 what nearer the wagon. In the afternoon we cleared 
 the small valley, and entering the main one, crossed 
 the river-bed in a rather pretty belt of various thorns, 
 and at length came to a stand in a dead flat about a 
 hundred yards from the wagon road. The more the 
 oxen pulled, the deeper the wheels sank in the sandy 
 soil. I succeeded, however, in laying a number of 
 transverse logs under the fore wheels, forming a 
 short corduroy road, and was doing the same with 
 the after when night came. Chapman tells me 
 that the name ' Swakop ' is not from the Dutch 
 Swart Kop or Black Hill, but is in the Hotten- 
 tot tongue a somewhat coarse translation of ' Fair 
 round belly with good capon lined.' Here we were 
 serenaded by a kind of chirping lizard. Farther 
 on is to be found a peculiar species of green and 
 yellow bull-fr'og, which tlie epicures of the country 
 clean by blowing into it till the entrails are forced so 
 far toward the mouth that they can be drawn out by 
 the insertion of a finger. The Damara mode of 
 forcing an unwilling cow to give milk is, I dare say, 
 efiicacious, but hardly admits of description. 
 
 Monday, Idth. — After some hours' work we raised
 
 94 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 the wa2fon out of tlie loose soil, and drew it forward 
 only to sink again when it ran off the end of my road ; 
 but by forbidding Jem the ' slinger ' to sheer the oxen 
 from side to side, (a very excellent manoeu\Te in other 
 cases, but now of no effect but to work deeper 
 hollows for the wheels,) we came at last to somewhat 
 harder ground, and passing over a small break in 
 the southern hills rode eastward over a succession of 
 gentle elevations with sandy hollows between. In 
 general the soil was slightly bound by thin tufts of 
 tall and nearly white grass and scattered thorn bushes, 
 which here and there attained the magnitude of 
 small trees. Yery few birds were to be seen, the prin- 
 cipal being a kind of plover near the water holes, 
 a soHtaiy ondindombe, or blue roller (Moselekatze's 
 bird, as it is called on the other side of the continent), 
 a few doves, and though last, by no means least, an 
 enormous black vulture, lazily flapping his great wings 
 on the top of a small thorn tree, but quite sufficiently 
 on the alert to sail heavily away when I tried to get 
 near him. At Sand Fountain I found a couple of 
 Bushmen who spoke a httle Dutch and were glad to 
 perform small services for a few charges of powder 
 and ball. I bought from them a kid-skin sack of 
 berries about the size of a pea, which, they told me, 
 when allowed to ferment in water, produce a liquor 
 as good as brandy. They showed no timidity, 
 nor in fact any distrust or want of confidence, and 
 ' sky-larked ' freely with the Damaras whom Chap- 
 man had sent to assist in driving, so that I began to
 
 1861.] INOCULATION FOE LUNG SICKNESS. 95 
 
 hope that the affair aUuded to a day or two ago may 
 not be so bad as we have heard. 
 
 At 9 P.M. we inspanned, and turning gradually 
 north tiU two next morning, reached Chapman's 
 encampment, where I was sorry to find that from 
 sixteen to twenty oxen had already died of lung- 
 sickness, or of inflammation after having been 
 inoculated. A whole tribe of Damaras had gathered 
 like vultiu-es to the feast, and their huts clustered 
 round tlie kraal gave quite a busy ak to the 
 otherwise solitary valley, the quietude of which was 
 further broken by the baying of about fifty dogs, 
 who, conceiving that they were expected to bark, 
 most conscientiously performed their duty. A wash 
 in good clean water after a sound sleep was indeed 
 refresliing, for, to say truth, I had of late more than 
 once di'eamed of such a luxury, with the additional 
 indulgences of white trowsers, clean socks, and light 
 shoes. 
 
 Tuesday^ 20th. — The first operation of the day 
 was to obtain the lung of an ox that had just been 
 slaughtered, and thoroughly to saturate a thread of 
 cotton wick in the diseased matter. The new oxen 
 were then driven into the kraal, lassoed one by one 
 by the hind leg, and thrown by a smart pull upon the 
 tail on the opposite side ; a hole was then bored 
 through the skin in the after part of the tuft, taking- 
 care not to touch the bone, a piece of the saturated 
 wick drawn through with a sail needle, and tied to 
 prevent its drawing out. Our wagon was unloaded.
 
 96 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 the tent taken off, and John with the assistance of the 
 Damaras set to fashion it in a more commodious form. 
 Chapman had on first reaching his camp made 
 enquiries respecting the alleged assault upon the 
 Bushmen, but had found nothing to justify him 
 in inflicting punishment upon his men ; at least, in 
 the present uncertain state of the evidence. There is 
 another tale, that some Hottentots; not then, I beheve, 
 in the service of Mr. Chapman, but casually employed 
 to seek some stray oxen, had found a number of 
 Damaras engaged in slaughtering them, and fired on 
 them as they say with effect. Such things, if true, are 
 in the highest degree annoying to a traveller who 
 wishes to pass peacefully on his way, and to be, as 
 far as possible, in friendship with all he meets — 
 the more so when committed by people over whom 
 he has no control, but who will nevertheless repre- 
 sent themselves as his agents. 
 
 There is still some hope, however, that as a 
 Hottentot thinks as little of a lie [as he does of a 
 Damara's life, this story, like the other, may turn 
 out to be greatly exaggerated, and perhaps invented 
 to screen his OAvn conduct in the affair. At all events 
 both Damaras and Bushmen are now in plenty round 
 us, and their only idea seems to be how to turn to 
 the best advantage the visitation that has fallen on 
 our cattle. 
 
 Wednesday^ 2\st. — Chapman and I compared our 
 sextants, and took altitudes of the sun which worked 
 out within a very little of each other ; he was using
 
 1861.1 
 
 EFFECTS OF IXOCULATIOX. 
 
 97 
 
 clean tar, which answers very well for tlie sun, but 
 has hardlv reflective power enough for a star. In 
 tlie evening I strained my quicksilver, and cleared 
 it of a great quantity of the tin that it had acquired 
 by its unfortunate leakage. 
 
 Thursday, 22nd. — A young steer, and a fine well- 
 trained trek ox, died from the effects of inocula- 
 tion. Their tails had already been cut to mere stumps, 
 but the inflammation had spread to their bodies, and 
 all the hindquarters were greatly swelled. During the 
 last hours of life they seemed to suffer from frequent 
 
 DA1L4.EAS AND BUSHMEN WITH A DEAD (IX. 
 
 spasm, causing a sudden contraction and rounding of 
 the back and frequent trembling. Froth issued from 
 the nostrils, the eyes became dull and sunken, and 
 gradually the poor beasts sank to the ground, and
 
 98 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. LAlgist 
 
 breathed heavily till life was extinct. As soon as 
 the carcases were given over to the expectant crowd, 
 a trial of their patience, which must have seemed to 
 them most unreasonable, was exacted. To sit or 
 stand round a dead ox and pretend to be cuttmg 
 without actually doing so till the camera had fixed 
 their shadows, was rather too absurd, and if the 
 Damaras could not comprehend it, still less could the 
 dogs. Nevertheless a very tolerable picture was se- 
 cured, they were left to revel to their hearts' content 
 in messes the mention of which would disgust a Eu- 
 ropean. Of course whether we see any of our own 
 men depends on our larder being better supphed 
 with meat than the native huts ; and as that is not 
 the case just now, most of them of course are ab- 
 sent bartering away the knives and other articles of 
 service that have been given them, for the smiles of 
 the dusky charmers in the village. Not that we are 
 altogether abandoned to hopeless solitude, for the 
 strips of tin with which I have been working form 
 their most coveted ornaments, and when I consent to 
 cut them into pieces three quarters of an inch square, 
 nothing can exceed their gratification. The bright 
 brass fittings and screws of the photographic appa- 
 ratus are also tempting in the highest degree, and as 
 many of them are unavoidably loose, the chance is 
 that when one is wanted it is missing. Keys also are 
 highly esteemed, and generally stolen, not with any 
 view of burglariously opening the lock, but simply as 
 articles of ornament, curious and valuable because
 
 1861.] BUSHWOMEN. 99 
 
 worked into a more elaborate form than usual. 
 I have seen even a knife blade forming part of a 
 lady's necklace, though most likely it was capable of 
 easy detachment when required for use. The younger 
 women here, whether from custom or inability to 
 provide so expensive an article, do not wear the 
 three-eared bonnet, but have their hair laid up into 
 long loose cords smeared with red clay and hanging 
 straight and scanty down on every side. Some of 
 the Bushwomen are particularly diminutive, being 
 very few inches above four feet in height. Their 
 real colour is a light yellowish brown, but they are 
 generally nearly black with accumulated dirt, and I 
 am not aware that I have yet seen any with red clay 
 like the Damaras. 
 
 Friday^ 2^rd. — The new tent being completed we 
 arranged the cargo so as to occupy the least possible 
 proportion of the space, and as we were not hkely 
 to see either Barry or Stauffer again for some months, 
 I took possession of it, instead of sharing Chapman's 
 as had been at first intended, thus precluding the 
 possibihty of any portion of the cargo remaming 
 long unwatched, and giving us each a separate 
 chamber to sleep or work in. The iron rowlocks of 
 my boat form admirable crutches in which to lay my 
 rifle, and, in addition to my own revolver, Chapman 
 has lent me one of Colt's navy pistols on a stock, so 
 that I have thirteen barrels loaded by me. To these 
 add about twenty muskets and long unwieldy double 
 barrels intended for trade, and you may judge what
 
 100 EXPLOKATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 an armoury the wagon looks like. My drawing-board 
 is slung on one side for a table, and a long row of 
 pockets, formed by folding a piece of canvas and 
 stitching the two parts together at intervals, complete 
 the conveniences. About noon, the next stage being 
 long and waterless. Chapman collected his unwilhng 
 people, who had fondly hoped to eat the rest of the 
 cattle on the spot, and taking with him the new spans, 
 went forward to let them drink and form a relay for 
 us. The hero of the cattle fray had pressed for an 
 engagement, and as he was known to be a patient 
 and successful hunter, Chapman, after warning him 
 that he must consider himself as a servant bound to 
 obey orders, instead of a great man from the Hot- 
 tentots, (to whom all articles of barter must pay 
 tribute before they were seen by the Enghshman 
 he patronised,) had partially consented. His other 
 quahfications, however, turned the balance against 
 him, and presently a Damara returned with a note 
 requesting me to give our friend permission to enjoy 
 the pleasures of his domestic circle a httle longer.
 
 1861.] 101 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 ELEPHANT KLOOF WANT OF WATER CONSEQUENT SUF- 
 FERINGS OF THE CATTLE AFFRAY WITH BUSHMEN TRIAL 
 
 AND PUNISHilENT OF THE AGGRESSORS ELANDS GIRAFFE 
 
 PIT THE OTCHOMBINDE, OR THORN RIVER PROFESSOR WAHL- 
 
 BERG CURIOUS SCENE AT A DRINKING-POOL LIMESTONE 
 
 PLAINS. 
 
 Leaving Elephant Kloof, one of the well-known and 
 permanent watering-places of travellers on this road, 
 we treked on Saturday, August 24th, to the eastward, 
 accompanied by Damara women, carrying buckets of 
 water on their heads, and men bearing theirs on 
 the palm of the hand turned up to a level with the 
 shoulder. Of course the casks and everything in the 
 wagons that would hold water were carefully filled. 
 I walked ahead with Tapyinyoka (or, as he is now 
 unavoidably beginning to be called by his own 
 countrymen as well as us, Tapioca), but saw literally 
 nothing but a few small birds not worth a bullet. 
 The countr}^, as before, is loose red sand, with long 
 grass, small thorns close set in patches, and a few 
 mimosas. The wagons came up after at sunset, and 
 being outspanned about eight, 1 had good opportunity 
 for an altitude of a Lyi^te, which gave five miles of 
 northing. One of the people, ' Dokkie,' had caught a
 
 102 EXPLOKATIOXS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [August 
 
 couple of small wild cats, rather less playful than or- 
 dmary kittens, and John had seen a steinbok or two. 
 The task of persuading the Damaras to turn out 
 at midnight to fetch the cattle may be imagined 
 rather than described. The contrast between the 
 warm huts and flesh-pots of the village and the 
 keen night air of the flats, was rather too great for 
 them, and, but for the necessity of pressing forward 
 before the heat of the day distressed the oxen, I 
 could have found in my heart to let them he un- 
 disturbed till morning. As it was, I scattered the 
 embers of the fire, allowing the old woman to collect 
 them when the men were gone, and with the help of 
 Mr. Chapman's servant working with the natives, the 
 long teams were at last inspanned, and the wagons 
 in motion. This part of our track, when laid do^\ii, 
 will also be subject to some uncertainty ; for, having 
 taken bearings of Aldebaran, the stars of Orion, and 
 another to the southward, I resigned my usual seat 
 on the wagon-box in favom' of the driver's mate, and 
 fell asleep while watching them from Avithin. 
 
 Sunday, 2bth. — About 9 A. M. w^e outspanned by a 
 small well, about 9 ft. deep, that appeared to have 
 been opened by Chapman when he passed, and 
 which, as I have observed no river, I suppose to be 
 the drainage of a very slight depression in the plain, 
 where I should hardly have thought of looking for 
 it, having passed two or three more promising places 
 during the previous day. As we were inspanning 
 again, I saw in the possession of the Damara woman
 
 1861.] SUCCULENT TUBERS. 103 
 
 two or three large tubers, dug up, as she informed me 
 by words and gestures, by a shaip-pointed stick. The 
 inside was white, tasteless or nearly so, rather softer 
 than a turnip, and plentifully charged with water. 
 It may be eaten either cold, or slightly warmed in 
 the embers, when the rind is easily removed by 
 scraping it with a bit of stick. The Damara name of 
 these is Eiwha. I have not yet seen the leaf, but 
 this morning I picked up a hemispherical substance, 
 seemingly accidentally broken off from its slender 
 root, and possessing similar valuable properties. 
 This, called by the Damaras Oombootoo, is 3^ inches 
 in diameter and 1^ in thickness. The convex or 
 upper surface is faintly marked with octagonal 
 figures hke the back of a tortoise ; its colour is a dull 
 greyish white, with a thin prickly skin between the 
 outer and inner rind. 
 
 Hitherto I have had little or no chance of collect- 
 ing any specimens ; for, during my passage through 
 the Hottentot country, I have abstained from asking 
 them for anything, even to a draught of milk ; but, 
 before leaving Elephant Eloof, I set Tapioca to make 
 me a pair of Damara sandals for tlie bush from one 
 of the waste hides we left behind us. 
 
 Shortly after outspanning for the night, one of the 
 dogs returned with wetted feet and nose ; but this 
 we found, to our disappomtment, was only from the 
 moisture in the carcase of an ox that had fallen 
 out of Chapman's herd. John, the old 74th man, 
 ordered the Damaras to make a kraal, but they
 
 104 
 
 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 passively and apathetically refused. Although I de- 
 sired tlic diiveis who liad been furuished with guns 
 to go with tliem, not wishing for any altercation until 
 I had taken my supper and an altitude of a Lyras, I 
 confirmed John's proposal to give them no meat, and 
 
 when I had finished, went in person and roused every 
 one from the fire wdiere tliey had settled themselves 
 for the night, and making one take my rifle and the 
 others axes and firebrands, (for a savage, whether 
 naked, or wrapped, as some of ours were, in a quan-
 
 1861.] woman's work. 105 
 
 tity of filtliy garments tliat would suffocate a Euro- 
 pean, seems quite paralysed by a slight degree of 
 cold,) I set tliem to their work and saw it about 
 half completed. In the mornhig, however, I found 
 that as soon as I returned to try for an ahitude of 
 a Cygni, (in which, by the way, I failed,) they had 
 slunk back to their fire, leaving the oxen to stray at 
 pleasure. 
 
 Monday, 2 6 th. — I find that the men, if I would allow 
 it, would put upon the old lady already mentioned 
 all the ' woman's work ' of their country, and, beside 
 making her carry water for them, would send her out 
 at night to fetch wood for us where they refuse to go 
 without an armed guard for fear of hons. I expect 
 much kindness has not hitherto fallen to her lot ; for 
 when I call her after meals to receive the surplus of 
 my coffee or a bit of biscuit, she approaches on hands 
 and knees hke a spaniel that hardly knows whether 
 it is to be caressed or beaten. This morning she gave 
 me her medicine- wood, but I cannot yet make out 
 what is its proper name. Tapyinyoka calls it Omom- 
 tenderipe ; but this, I fancy, is only a general name 
 for smaU bush. 
 
 I went ahead as before with my rifle-bearer, but 
 could see nothing. Chapman's spoor was still upon 
 the road, and after waiting for the wagons, John and 
 I drove on the oxen by the voice and gesture alone 
 to the top of the next hill, or rather gentle elevation, 
 on the east side of which were patches of dark soil 
 caked by water and afterward cracked by heat.
 
 106 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 But on probing the ground, it was found quite dry to 
 the greatest depth the ramrod would penetrate. 
 
 We halted too late for an observation of the sun, 
 and treked again till late in the evening, the Damaras 
 running ahead to kindle fires which tempted the 
 cattle to stop, and by every artifice in their power 
 endeavouring to remain behind unnoticed instead of 
 driving on the loose cattle, the object bemg to induce 
 those in the yokes to follow. As to myself, I have 
 practically to turn wagon-driver ; for Jem, though 
 he is improving, is as yet just as likely to hit me m 
 the face with the butt of his whip as to strike the 
 oxen with the lash of it ; and in the dusk of the 
 evening, while I was stepping up into the wagon, a 
 dense 'wagteenbeetje' bush, which owing to its grey 
 leafless condition I had not seen in time, dragged my 
 foot oflfthe step, and to escape being crushed by the 
 wheel, I had to throw myself full front among the 
 thorns, to the great detriment of my moleskins. The 
 leading wagon soon after was brought up by a stump 
 three feet high against the cross bar and fore wheel. 
 This, a camel thorn, seven inches thick and as hard 
 as lignum vitas, we had to saw through, and the first 
 motion of the wagon was followed by a fearful yell 
 among the dogs, the hind wheel having passed over 
 two of them, breaking the thigh joint of one, and se- 
 verely bruising the other : that they were not killed 
 outright was owing to the yielding nature of the 
 sandy soil. 
 
 An ox was killed in the evening, and as the
 
 1861.] WAXT OF WATER. 107 
 
 Damaras, besides receiving their allowance at meals, 
 had helped themselves by stealth to water from our 
 casks, a diminished ration was given them, the in- 
 ternal juices of a fr-esh-killed beast being generally 
 equivalent to a good draught. 
 
 At twelve, after being allowed to feast without stint, 
 the herdsmen were sent for the oxen ; but as soon 
 as they were well out of our reach, they kindled a 
 fire and gave themselves no more trouble till John 
 found them sleeping by it about three miles distant. 
 By working hard ourselves, and backing up the 
 suaviter in modo with ih^fortiter in re, we moved 
 the two wagons just before the sun peeped above 
 the horizon, and, about ten, found one of Chapman's 
 Damaras under a tree with his blankets and a 
 note, which tells its o^vn story better than any other 
 version of its import can. 
 
 ' My dear Baines, — I have got into a fix. The 
 Damara who knew all about the road, now knows 
 nothing ; the cattle are dropping faster and faster, and 
 our own fellows have either drunk or absconded 
 the water, and as I am dying of thirst, I go on 
 with the horses to the water ; so that if they do not 
 come up with the healthy cattle to-night, I can re- 
 turn in the morning and help them. If you have a 
 Bushman with you that knows the water (SE.) 
 where Lamert shoots elephants, go there, instead of 
 coming to Eiel Fontein ; but if not, then come on 
 
 to Eiel Fontein. Yours truly, 
 
 'J. C
 
 108 EXPLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Algcst 
 
 This note, so far as I could learn, was about three 
 days old. Jem knew that Lamert's 'Scheit veldt' 
 was to the right, but knew nothing of the path or of 
 the water, and I deemed it safest to hold on our 
 present course, and if the cattle, now in the thkd day 
 of thirst, (for the little hole we passed can be counted 
 as nothing,) should show symptoms of knockuig up, 
 to take them on myself to the water, and then send 
 them back to John to fetch the wagons. 
 
 We heard that Cliapman had killed an eland, and, 
 as we proceeded, saw flocks of black vultures hover- 
 ing round the carcases of the oxen that had dropped, 
 the Damaras, notwithstanding the plentiful supply of 
 meat we carried, rushing forward to dispute the 
 choice morsels with the birds. The presence of these 
 feathered scavengers seems an indication that we are 
 at last upon the borders of the game country ; for 
 nothing that I know could more strikingly mark the 
 utter absence of animal hfe than the non-appearance 
 of a vulture. With the exception of the solitary ©ne 
 mentioned before I reached Elephant Kloof, I do 
 not remember seeing one, although so many cattle 
 were slaughtered either from long sickness, or, in the 
 great majority of cases, from the inflammation in tlieir 
 hind quarters after having been inoculated. 
 
 Through the weakness of the cattle, we stuck at 
 every httle difficulty. ISTot knowing how long this 
 might continue, I was obliged to stop most peremp- 
 torily all application to the water-cask. Jem was 
 sullen for a time about it ; but as he had two or three
 
 1861.] SUFFERINGS OF THE CATTLE. 109 
 
 times partaken of roots as big as a turnip and as moist 
 as a saturated sponge, I did not conceive tliat I was 
 inflicting any great hardship on him, especially when 
 I, who had worked as liard as he, had not drunk 
 since the night before. 
 
 When I reached the place where John had 
 outspanned, I found him engaged in amputating 
 the tails of the inoculated cattle, to effect which not 
 much anatomical skill was required. ' A sharp knife 
 and a clear conscience,' says the sailor's proverb, 
 ' will go through anything.' The ox whose tail was 
 swelled was caught and held by a noose round his 
 hind foot, and one cut for each did the business. 
 By a meridian altitude of the sun compared with 
 Mr. Andersson's excellent map, I calculated that we 
 could not now be more than ten or fifteen miles 
 from water, although I beheve the country has dried 
 so much in the short period during which it has been 
 known, that his remarks, strictly accurate at the time, 
 caujiot now be depended on ; and as Dokkie assured 
 me that the wagons could reach it in the night, I 
 thought it best to allow them a trial. After passing 
 and repassing each other several times, I completely 
 lost sight of John's wagon, and concluding that his 
 cattle were knocked up, I drew off about all the 
 remainincr water and sent it back to him, intending: 
 to push on and assist him with fresh oxen when I 
 reached the water. In another hour his driver 
 overtook me "with the cattle, completely done up, 
 and some of them bleeding rather too freely from
 
 110 EXrLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [August 
 
 their recent amputation to be pleasant ; a moderate 
 liEemorrhage induced by work being deemed rather 
 beneficial. The country was unpleasant to walk 
 in, owing to the prevalence of the low, leafless, and 
 ahnost invisible clumps of ' wagt een beetje' bush : 
 I was therefore obhged to give the second driver 
 the wagon-box and retire to the body of the 
 vehicle, in which no determination could resist 
 the drowsiness which crept over me ; and as often 
 as I gave way to this, so often had I, on starting 
 up with a confused sense of not being quite up to 
 my duty at the time, to rouse the men from their 
 fire and set the wagon in motion again. At length, 
 about eleven o'clock, one of the numerous fires we 
 had seen in advance proved to be that where 
 Chapman had built his httle scherm between the 
 stems of two or three moderately sized thorn trees. 
 He was well supplied with milk and meat ; and tea 
 and biscuit being in the wagon, we soon extemporised 
 a supper, and fed the little wild cats and compared 
 notes of our separate tracks across the plain. 
 
 Wednesday^ 2Sth. — In addition to the Damara 
 family, consisting of Madam Dikkop, ]\iiss Dikkop, a 
 married sister (I don't know yet whether the ladies 
 change their name at the altar), and a number of 
 male and female relations who had followed us, 
 we were visited by about five-and-twenty Bush- 
 men, with their wives and picaninnies. A perfect 
 Babel ensued, and the visitors, I am sorry to say, 
 left the camp highly offended. The men, how-
 
 1S6I.] BUSHMEX. Ill 
 
 ever, who regarded tlieir squabbles much as we 
 should a row among the dogs, and if disturbed would 
 probably settle it iu the same mamier, remained 
 nearly all the afternoon, and made no objection to 
 my sketching them. Their general stature seemed to 
 be below five feet, but some of them were tolerably 
 well made and in good condition. The only one 
 who exceeded that height was a stout fellow with 
 well-developed muscles, the son of the old chief: the 
 angularity of his cheek-bones was also rounded off by 
 a good proportion of flesh, making his head appear 
 like a pear reversed, the small end representing the 
 skull. The scanty tufts of wool carefully pulled out 
 on the front to their fullest length (about an inch), 
 are set so far back as almost to deceive a casual ob- 
 server into the idea that the forehead itself is high, 
 but a second glance will show the light reflected 
 from the frontal ridge about half-way between it and 
 the eyes. The pecuhar Ime of beauty formed by the 
 protuberance behind, and the necessity of throwing 
 back the shoulders to support the stomach, unnatu- 
 rally distended by quantities of roots, melons, and 
 other non-nutritious food, has been so often re- 
 marked, that it need hardly be mentioned now. In 
 some the hair was shaved round the temples, ears, 
 and back of the head ; what remained on the scalp 
 being felted with red clay and grease into a thick 
 mat, to which ornaments of various kinds, such as 
 beads, bits of ostrich egg-shell of the size of shirt 
 buttons, &c., were attached behind and before. A 
 
 n
 
 112 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Acgust 
 
 bit of sinew from the backbone of a beast, and torn 
 occasionally into thread, formed a necklace ; and small 
 bands of giraffe or elephant's hair were tied about 
 their limbs, the tail of the former serving at once as 
 sceptre and fly-brusher to the old headman. Their 
 clothing was particularly scanty, consisting only of a 
 narrow strip of skin tied around their loins, with an 
 angle in front passed between their legs and tucked 
 again into the belt behind, where, from the great 
 muscular development, it became absolutely invisible. 
 These people, as Chapman has found in former 
 journeys, lying between the Bechuana tribes and the 
 Hottentots, and so far distant as to be subservient to 
 neither, have more independence of character than 
 their less fortunate countrymen. Occasionally, how- 
 ever, the Hottentots penetrate as far on a hunting 
 expedition, and what with scouring the country by 
 day and watching the water at night, destroy im- 
 mense numbers, almost exterminating the animals for 
 miles around them. I have not a little pleasure in 
 being able to add that the behaviour of our visitors 
 was civil and respectful, and we have not as yet- been 
 annoyed by the constant attempts at theft so common 
 in the former part of our journey. 
 
 Fresh oxen had been sent early in the morning, 
 and the w^agon arrived in the course of the afternoon. 
 Chapman had been told by one of the accompanying 
 Damaras, belonging, I think, to Elephant Kloof and 
 not actually in his service, that Dokkie and Bill had 
 come upon the spoor of the Bushmen ; that he was
 
 1861.] AFFRAY AVITII BUSHMEN-. ]13 
 
 averse to go on, but that the others had said, ' The 
 Bushmen will not hurt us — we are white men's Da- 
 maras ; ' that on their approach the Bushmen shot 
 arrows at them, and in return they fired and Dokkie 
 killed one. This gave the affair the colour of an act 
 of self-defence ; and if this were true, however we 
 might regret giving occasion of a quarrel, we could 
 not blame the men. 
 
 But now that the whole party were collected. Chap- 
 man commenced a more thorough investigation of the 
 
 affair. John , Mr. Chapman's servant, stated that 
 
 among the Damaras at Elephant Kloof was one who 
 had been wounded by the Bushmen ; and as there 
 was some talk of reprisals, he had warned the men 
 not to interfere in any quarrels that did not concern 
 them ; that Doklde and Bill asked for guns to go 
 hunting, and he had promised, if they worked well, 
 to lend them arms, and give them food and a day's 
 liberty for the purpose ; that they at once took the 
 road to the Bushmen's kraal, instead of that to the 
 hunting-ground they had pointed out, and some time 
 after returned with a number of bows, arrows, and 
 such other things as Avere likely to have belonged to 
 Bushmen. 
 
 Dokkie denied ha\dng shot the man, but admitted 
 having fired, and said that Mr. Barry or Staufier had 
 expressed an opinion that the Bushmen were more 
 than a match for the Damaras ; on which he answered, 
 ' Give us guns, and let us go out to try.' But John 
 
 H 2
 
 114 EXPLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 stated positively that this remark was subsequent to 
 their return from the foray, and a little cross-exami- 
 nation elicited from Bill the fact that though Dokkie 
 had fired first, it was he who shot the man. Our 
 only doubt now was which were the aggressors. Of 
 course no Bushmen from that village were likely to 
 be found, as, setting aside the distance, they would re- 
 gard the act of the servant as that also of his master. 
 Another Bushman who had been a witness was away, 
 and the difficulty of estimating native evidence can 
 hardly be understood by those who have not ex- 
 perienced it. AYe felt in as much danger of punishing 
 them wrongfully through falsehoods told to gain our 
 favour, as of letting them escape through lies upon 
 the other hand. 
 
 To gain a httle time for consideration, the next case 
 was called on, and the two foremost of the men who 
 had refused to obey John, failing in any sufficient 
 excidpation, were ordered to lie down. Wliile they 
 were on the ground, Chapman told them that he did 
 not wish to have men with him that required punish- 
 ment — that therefore he should not fiog them for 
 this offence, but that any future refusal to obey his 
 servant in the same manner that they would obey 
 himself would certainly not be a second time passed 
 over. 
 
 The first investigation was then resumed ; and 
 though most of those who were called on as witnesses 
 were said to be away on various duties, they were at 
 last brought up, and as the prevarication melted
 
 1861.] PUNISHMENT OF THE AGGEESSORS. 115 
 
 away and tlie permanent points of the conflicting 
 evidence began to gather strengtli, the affair assnmed 
 so black an aspect, that we felt it beyond onr power 
 to inflict an adeqnate punishment. The story of the 
 Bushmen having attacked them was now abandoned, 
 and it was said that they had quarrelled with the 
 Damaras for drinking their water, and that as they 
 Avrestled hand to hand with them, the loose Damara 
 had struck his man several times with a knobbed 
 stick, while Dokkie had fired unsldlfuUy, and Bill at 
 the moment of letting his go had placed the gun to 
 his side and pulled the trigger. 
 
 To assume to ourselves the power of hfe and death 
 over any of the party was out of the question, yet to 
 let such an offence pass without notice was equally so. 
 The only course tliat seemed open to us was to take 
 cognisance of that which more specially concerned 
 us. They were therefore told that for the murder 
 Lamert would most probably try and punish them 
 capitally when they had left our service, but that 
 for using then* master's guns against people not at 
 variance with him, and for bringing the stolen pro- 
 perty to his wagon, Dokkie as wagon-driver would 
 receive a hundred lashes ; Bill, the leader, who might 
 be supposed to have been led by him, seventy-five ; 
 and the other Damaras, for inducing our servants to 
 eno;ao;e in the a^o-ression, a like number. I sufforested 
 
 D O CO " CO 
 
 that, as a fmther distinction, the two Avho had used 
 the fire-arms should be made to strip and take their 
 punishment at the wagon-wheel ; but eventually they
 
 116 EXPLOKATIONS IX SOUTH x\FIlICA. [Augcst 
 
 were ordered to lie down in succession, and the cuts 
 were administered with a small riding zambok. 
 
 Thursday^ 29th. — The Bushmen, who had pro- 
 mised to show us a herd of elands, led us to the SE. 
 down the Otchombinde river, where, after passing a 
 few half-striped quaggas, we at length sighted a 
 herd of these magnificent antelopes. After a run of 
 about two miles, Chapman succeeded in bringing 
 down a nearly full-grown bull ; though at this time 
 the animals, not being overburdened with fat, were 
 less easily overtaken than they would have been at 
 another time, and being myself unprovided with 
 spurs, and perhaps not having my sea legs perfectly 
 aboard, I could not bring my horse up in time. 
 This eland measured 21 inches from the nose, i.e. 
 from the ridge of the upper lip, to the base of the 
 horns ; 8 feet 6 from the horns to the root of the 
 back, the tail itself being 30 inches ; its height at the 
 wither was 6 feet, and the depth from the wither to 
 the elbow-joint was 3 feet 6, the body itself coming 
 about a foot lower. Its general colour was a pale 
 bluish grey. The carcase being duly covered, to hide 
 it from the vultures, we retm'ned to camp, and 
 sent back the bushmen with our Damaras for the 
 flesh, waiting for it in vain till long past supper-time, 
 when Ave had to content ourselves with the ribs of 
 a sorry sheep. 
 
 Friday, oOth. — Our messenger, having eaten to 
 repletion, arrived with the remainder of the flesh, 
 part of which was selected for our own use or for
 
 1861.] OBSERVATIONS FOE LATITUDE. 117 
 
 drying, and the rest given over to the Bushmen. 
 The rest of the day was occupied in taking to pieces 
 and cleaning sextants and trochameter (which last will 
 in future be affixed to the wagon- wheel instead of 
 trusting to estimated distances), putting in order and 
 rendering more portable the photographic apparatus, 
 and taking observations for latitude and height 
 above the sea level. My latitudes from a Lyrge 
 were last night 21° 54' 38", and to-night 21° 54' 40". 
 Chapman's from the sun to-day was 21° 52' 9", and 
 the boiling point of water was 205^°, about 3,440 
 feet, the detached thermometer being 64^°. As 
 Chapman has an Epitome with him, the results of ob- 
 servation can now be rectified by all the necessary 
 corrections. Galton's observations place Koobies 
 (Eiel Fontein) in 21° 55' S., and 21° 0' E. An- 
 dersson's map has it 21° 00' 00" East longitude. 1 
 am certain of my latitude, and have marked a tree. 
 
 Saturday, Zlst. — Chapman obtained some very 
 nice stereoscopes of Bushmen and Damaras, in spite 
 of some failures from the restlessness of the sitters, 
 and the imminent risk of total destruction from our 
 pack of curs rushing over him in chase of the 
 cattle, as he was weighing out chemicals. 
 
 The people were sent this morning to open a well 
 ten miles SE., but returned without finding water. 
 Mem. for the investigation of the curious : — Damaras 
 who require two days to carry the flesh of an eland 
 four miles, can walk ten miles out and back, and dig 
 two large wells in one day.
 
 118 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 Sunday, September 1st. — A cow sufFering from 
 effects of inoculation was killed this morning, and 
 only twenty pounds of the flesh remained after sun- 
 set this afternoon. Gert, the Bushman Hottentot, 
 whose services had been rejected at Elephant's Kloof, 
 rode after us on oxback ; and as it would have been 
 rather hard to send him all the fifty miles back again, 
 he was added to the strength of the expedition. 
 Chapman asked the Bushmen respecting the water 
 in advance ; but as their usual practice is to tell hes 
 until their chief pleases to do otherwise, very little 
 that could be rehed on was learned from them. 
 
 Monday, 2nd. — I fixed the trochameter to the 
 wagon-wheel, and marked the date and latitude 21° 
 54' 40'' on a tree at the outspau. The water is a few 
 hundred yards north, say in 21° 54' 30", and near 
 it is a scherm, built partly of stones, and partly of 
 four rhinoceros and three elephant skulls, the latter 
 broken, and showing the pecuhar cellidar system by 
 which hghtness is retained, while great additional 
 strength and thickness are imparted. By this also, 
 perhaps, the concussion on the brain is much di- 
 minished when the animal butts ao;ainst a tree to 
 overturn it. 
 
 Our camp, which, from the number of retainers 
 attracted by the mortality among the oxen — no less 
 than eighty having fallen victims up to this time — 
 had presented an animated, and, when seen by the 
 light of the many fires scattered through the little 
 grove, a highly picturesque and striking scene,
 
 1861.] GIRAFFE-PIT. 119 
 
 was broken up. A pcack was turned over to 
 the Damaras, that the wagons might not be defiled 
 and encumbered with their skins and blankets, 
 which, however interesting to the entomologist, were 
 by no means pleasant to have in contact with ours. 
 Permission was given to old Dikkop, who had fallen 
 quite lame, to ride upon the footboard of the wagon, 
 and taking one of the Bushmen, we walked ahead 
 down the bed of the Otchombinde river, at first on a 
 course of 175°, afterwards graduahy turning to the 
 eastward. Its breadth was from 100 to 150 yards, 
 with low banks and ridges of sandstone here and 
 there ; and the grass in it was as dry, white, and fea- 
 thery as if water had never flowed there, and never 
 could. 
 
 Many small hollows. Chapman told me, were the 
 accustomed salt-hcks of the wild animals, which had 
 worn them down night after night ; and a mile or 
 two from the outspan, we saw a large double pit, 
 more than half filled up now, but with a wall across 
 it in the middle. Could this be the Giraffe-pit de- 
 scribed by Andersson as that into which he fell on 
 his journey to the lake, his horse balancing himself 
 helplessly across the wall in his efforts to get out ? 
 
 We saw but two small bucks, if I except a few 
 ostriches at which we fired with the long-range 
 sight 1,100 or 1,200 yards, rather to the astonish- 
 ment of the Bushmen, who could not comprehend 
 our throwing away a bullet at more than 40 or 
 50 yards. Flies, however, were in swarms, and kept
 
 120 EXPLORATIOXS L\ SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 up a constant titillation about the eyes, nose, and 
 mouth. The Bushman seemed used to it, and took no 
 notice, though his Hps and eyehds were actually 
 covered with them. 
 
 A glance at the pits, eiglit and a half miles on our 
 journey, explained the speedy return of the Damaras. 
 They had thrown out merely the loose sand that 
 had accumulated in one of them ; and when the 
 wagons arrived, one dog, thrusting his body in, com- 
 pletely filled up the moist portion to the exclusion 
 of the pack, whose howlings proceeding, as. it seemed, 
 from the bowels of the earth, would certainly have 
 puzzled any one till he approached the very edge 
 of the hole in which they were entrapped. 
 
 The oxen were sent back to drink water at Kou- 
 nobis or Tounobis, (there is, as already mentioned, a 
 click that cannot be properly represented by either 
 mode of spelling). The collecting of them by the 
 light of tufts of flaming grass, with the dusky figures 
 flitting imp-like in the grey, misty cloud of smoke, their 
 unearthly yells mingling with the baying of the dogs 
 and the bellowing of the oxen, formed a most pic- 
 turesque and exciting scene, but, being almost simul- 
 taneous with the star's meridian passage, was by no 
 means favourable to observation. Little Pompey, a 
 hitherto nameless Damara boy, is now mstalled as 
 guardian of the horizon, but, with his Sambok and a 
 zeal not quite according to knowledge, makes rather 
 more disturbance in driving away the curs than they 
 would in walking over it. Of course the observer,
 
 1861.] OTCnOMBINDE KIVER. 121 
 
 witli his eye at the telescope, cannot guard it until 
 too late. Xo care in placing the trough seems to 
 avail : if it be elevated, the eye is more apt to catch 
 the oiare of our numberless fires ; if the wao-on afford 
 a shade, the loose dogs of the pack are sure to be 
 prowling round, and the chances are that the stellar 
 image is suddenly obscured by the interposition of a 
 lank hauy body. As for removing to a distance, the 
 cry of a distant jackal or the moving of a restless 
 ox or man brings them charging on, to stand yeUing 
 at a safe distance and slink back again when they are 
 tired. I have tried the wasjon-box ; but the slightest 
 wind puts this entirely out of the question, to say 
 nothmo; of the doejs tugoino- at any bit of flesh that 
 may hang within their reach. Anything like per- 
 fection, therefore, in mapping our route is not to be 
 expected, and all that can be done is to mark the 
 defective observations so as to distinguish them from 
 those that can be depended on. 
 
 Tuesday, 2>rd. — 8.30 a.:m. Left the wagons and rode 
 down the Otchombinde (Mimosa or Thorn) river, on 
 a general course of about 115° ESE. Saw five or six 
 elands running, as usual (when alarmed), to windward : 
 we rode to head them, and both hit our beasts ; but 
 Chapman, making a better shot than I, brought his 
 down. It was a beautiful cow, more slenderly formed 
 than the male, with the yellow brown spreading 
 more generally over the body, and in a few weeks 
 more would have been followed by a calf. As we 
 had still a long and thksty ride before us, I contented
 
 122 EXPLOllATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 myself with a pencil sketch, which was just com- 
 pleted, when a few Bushmen following the spoor 
 reached us, and Chapman at once enlisted them to 
 assist in carrpng the meat to the wagons ; a service 
 they usually perform, receiving for themselves the 
 ' backbone,' — a term that admits of as wide a sig- 
 nification as a 'treksel' of tea or coffee. We off- 
 saddled a mile or two beyond, and gathering a 
 quantity of wild melons, cut them in slices for our 
 horses ; then, turning south and east again, passed 
 several pits now closed up and dry, and some large 
 wells made by the Damaras, when they were a rich 
 tribe and had cattle here. About twelve miles from 
 the wagons, near a large white block of quartz con- 
 spicuous at a distance in the dry grass, we found Gert, 
 who had been sent on to guide the Damaras to the 
 well, sitting with a group of Bushmen pounding up 
 the contents of the melons pestle-and-mortar fashion 
 in the rind, and drinldng the water thus obtained. 
 We fortunately found for our own use a smaller hole 
 which had been opened by the Damaras to quench 
 their own thirst, as I beheve they have some distaste 
 for the insipid melon. 
 
 The large Vlei, forming in Andersson's time a bath 
 for elephants, was dry enough now ; the pitfalls 
 were still numerous, and in one a camelopard had 
 been caught not very long before. We set the Bush- 
 men to uncover those that lay in the path of our 
 cattle, and a quarter of a mile beyond a favourite 
 trekking-place in lime and sandstone rocks, found
 
 1861.] 
 
 DISCOVERY OF OLD WELL. 
 
 123 
 
 tlie Damaras, who Imd just discovered tlie old well 
 and were bemiiDino- to work it. Some of them, as 
 night advanced, kept up hres on the inequalities of 
 the sides, and held torches and tufts of grass above 
 the labourers. The Bushmen and our new acqui- 
 sition, Gert, squatted, tier over tier, like the audi- 
 ence in an amphitheatre, and the dark forms of the 
 
 BECHUAXA DRINKING. 
 
 patient horses stood out against the starry sky behind 
 them, forming an effective, and, to us who watched 
 the gathering of the muddy water, a highly interest- 
 ing picture. 
 
 Wednesday, Uh. — The water had collected to a 
 depth of more than six inches, and an amount of 
 probably two hundred gallons. We had to kraal it 
 in to keep Gert's riding oxen from destroying our
 
 1'24 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sei>t. 
 
 work before tlie herd came up. The steepness of 
 the cutting was a sore disappointment to the nume- 
 rous doves and other birds, of which only tlie little 
 finches could find a footing at the water-edge. The 
 variety of their tints was most surprising ; brown and 
 dull grey, mingled and alternated with deep crimson, 
 blue, or purple, the colours in some instances Hashing 
 with a metaUic lustre, wdiile others w^ere of all 
 shades between a greyish brown and a bright 
 canary yellow. A pretty Namaqua dove fluttered 
 about in abortive efforts to sip the water ; and the 
 white-necked crows sat in solemn conclave, without, 
 so far as I know, coming to any profitable conclusion 
 on the subject. Our bit of eland's flesh roasted in 
 the skin below the ashes was soon expended, and 
 the help derived from a few seeds of a leguminous 
 plant, collected by the Bushmen, and called by the 
 Damaras Objepewa, was very trifling. We w^aited in 
 the evening for the expected partridges ; but none 
 came, and we could not afford to throw away a 
 charge upon a single dove. 
 
 Thursday, bth. — A partridge was found drowned 
 in the w^ell; but the Bushmen refused to eat it. 
 Chapman remarks that he has found them much 
 cleaner m their food than the Damaras or the 
 Bechuanas, the facihty for obtaining fresh meat free- 
 ing them from the necessity of eating everything 
 that comes to hand. Those whom we have as yet 
 seen, not being besmeared with grease except in their 
 matted hair, are certainly far less unpleasant to sit
 
 1861.] SEAECH FOE GAME. 125 
 
 iiGcar than the Damaras. Some of them have rather 
 longer hair than the Bnshmen of the colony ; and 
 this being shaved off ronnd the ears and temples, the 
 remainder is felted with fat and clay into a kind 
 of Scotch (Glengarry) bonnet, a small portion being 
 drawn out into cords which form a fringe or curtain 
 three inches long behind. 
 
 I took one of the Damaras and made a sweep 
 afoot round the country down the river, but saw 
 neither hoof, horn, nor fresh foot-print ; and in the 
 afternoon. Chapman, who had been unwell, saddled 
 up to accompany me. About six miles up the bed, 
 we found a Bushman sitting under a tree Avith a 
 couple of ostrich eggs — probably tlie first of the 
 season. These Chapman bought on credit, and 
 giving him a draught of water from our canteen, we 
 took him into our train, and soon after met the Da- 
 maras coming on with the women, the loose cattle, 
 and the sheep. After a general shaking of hands, 
 we found, partly througli an imperfect knowledge 
 of the tongue, and partly by a note from John 
 Laino;, that the wasoiis were on the other side of the 
 dead eland, and that the trek oxen had run away. 
 We at first tliought of going on to the wagons ; but 
 as it seemed we could not give him much assistance, 
 and shoidd only diminish his scanty store of water, 
 we gave our canteen to the women (whose parched 
 Ups only excited the merriment of the Bushmen), 
 sent them on toward the weU, and made a circuit 
 through tlie country in what proved a fruitless search
 
 126 EXTLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 of game, if we except part of the carcase of a buck 
 found by the Bushmen who ' robbed the tiger of its 
 prey ' with very small compunction, and a snap shot 
 through the bushes at a young cub, doubtless of the 
 tiger aforesaid. I suppose I need hardly mention 
 that the word 'tiger' here is applied to the panther, 
 and is about as appropriate as camel, wild horse, 
 and wolf, when used for the giraffe, zebra, and hy£Ena. 
 The cattle arrived shortly after us, the women being 
 left, contrary to Kafir custom, to unload the pack 
 oxen, one of which bore the limbs of an unfortunate 
 lung-sick congener. 
 
 Miss Dikkop (Kouloloa or Kouroroa, for you can't 
 tell sometimes whether to express the sound by I 
 or r) undertook the cuisine^ and breaking the end of 
 one of the eggs with a small stone so as to have the 
 shell for a water-vessel, she started the contents into 
 an earthen pot with water, and kept it gently simmer- 
 ing till thickened into something between a soup and 
 an omelette. Tapyinyoka and his troop returned 
 most opportunely with meat, tea, sugar, and biscuit, 
 which we were not long in converting into a good 
 supper. 
 
 Gert reported that 'geen stukje' (not a morsel) 
 of the eland's flesh had come to the wagon, tlie 
 Bushmen in taking away the backbone having for- 
 gotten to cut the legs off it. 
 
 As it was necessary, in order to avoid confusion, 
 to have some distinctive name for this well, Chap- 
 man proposed to call it after the late unfortunate
 
 18G1.] SCENE AT A DRINKING -POOL. 127 
 
 Swedish traveller and naturalist, Professor Wahl- 
 berg, who was killed by an elephant farther in the 
 interior, and the observations relative to it will 
 therefore be recorded under that name. The lo- 
 cality is known to the Bushmen by a name which 
 has been written Gnathais, but which in reality 
 consists of one click of the tongue against the palate 
 or front gum, followed by the vowel d^ and another 
 against the teeth, succeeded by the sound of i. 
 
 Friday^ Qth. — As the water here was insufficient 
 even for the loose oxen, it was imperative that one 
 of us should go on with them to the next well, and 
 let this have time to refill itself before the rest of 
 the herd arrived. I offered to undertake this duty ; 
 but Chapman, knowing the country and being ac- 
 quainted with the Bushmen, thought better to do it 
 himself, and would have started without provision, 
 had I not, knowing that I should receive supplies 
 from the wagon before he would, insisted on his 
 taking some. 
 
 I set one of the men to clean out the loose earth 
 that had been thrown down by the trampling of the 
 oxen, and this time left a little bit of slope on which 
 the birds could aliglit to quench their thirst. 
 
 In the afternoon John sent on the rest of the 
 cattle, as they could pull no farther without drinking. 
 And now ensued a scene that almost baffles descrip- 
 tion. At the first faint scent of distant moisture, they 
 had broken into a trot, and increasing their speed as 
 they came on, would in a few minutes have rushed
 
 123 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 over the brink, where tlie foremost, urged on by 
 those behind, must have plunged into the pit and 
 choked it with their carcases. All hands were pressed 
 into service now ; athletic men, women and girls, 
 old or young, stout or meagre, surrounded the well 
 and formed front to resist the charge ; stones, knob 
 keeries, and big sticks were ruthlessly apphed, while 
 the shouts and screams and savage yelling of the men 
 and dogs, to say nothing of the shrill voices of the 
 fair sex, rising above the lowing of the impatient 
 herd, formed a perfect Pandemonium let loose. 
 
 One man in the well and one or two up the sides 
 passed up the water and poured it into a hole, where 
 the few that were admitted to drink at a time jostled 
 and thrust each other about in their eagerness. The 
 supply gave out before half the cattle were satisfied, 
 but two or three fine fellows among our people set to 
 work with a will, and as they cleared out the earth, 
 we soon heard the music of the clear liquid trickling 
 over the sandstone rock, and taking care that they 
 did not dig too deep, and (as sometimes is the case) 
 pierce the clay beneath and let the water off, we had 
 from this time an ample supply for all purposes. 
 
 A Bushman brought me an ostrich egg, and 
 readily accepted a note of Iiand payable on demand 
 for a stick of tobacco. Nothing could have suited 
 me better, for to him a journey of fifteen or twenty 
 miles was nothing, and with the prospect of a trifling 
 addition to his pay another joined him, and taking 
 each a can of water for John, set out early next
 
 1861.] MOKE LUXG-SICXXESS. 129 
 
 morning for tlie wao-on. I sent back the trek oxen 
 soon after, and made another weary and fruitless 
 cii'cuit to the south-east in hope of a chance shot at 
 some httle buck (although the Bushmen had told me 
 it was no use to go without a horse), and consoled 
 myself with my progress in Damara, when I was 
 able to understand so long a sentence as, ' Where 
 do you want to go ? The steinboks are none — the 
 water is there, and our hps are asking for it.' 
 In the afternoon an moculated ox died from inflam- 
 mation, but being bled wliile still warm, the meat 
 was saved. The wagons arrived at sunset; and the 
 liberal supply at the well was as refreshing a boon 
 to John as a good supper and comfortable bed were 
 to me. Our followers had now increased so, that to 
 feed them all was an impossibihty : judging from the 
 number of fires and the average of persons sur- 
 rounding each, I should say a hundred would be a 
 moderate census ; and as among the ' sterner virtues ' 
 of the savage is that of never eating without sharing 
 his morsel with a hungry man who sits near, there 
 is no wonder that our people were clamorous for a 
 great deal more than we could give them. 
 
 Sunday, Sth. — Om^ first care was to send oiT a 
 supply of food to Chapman, accompanied by the 
 unwelcome news that six or seven more of the oxen 
 were showing the usual spnptoms. The Bushmen 
 who wished to return home came for their usual 
 acknowledgment m tobacco ; and havmg received 
 this, and sold me a couple of eggs, a quantity of their 
 
 I
 
 130 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 arrow poison, and a net of two-stranded cord doubled 
 and as neatly niade as an English fisherman could 
 do it, took their leave well satisfied with their visit. 
 Our own people came in for a gratuity in the same 
 coin ; and I took advantage of the day of rest to 
 reduce the errors of estimated distance by the ob- 
 servation for the latitude. By two or three in the 
 morning I had it laid down, I think, with tolerable 
 correctness, as far as the mission station at Elephant 
 Fountain ; and at daybreak I was roused by the 
 appearance of John with a pannikin of coffee and 
 preparations for inspanning. As usual, the greater 
 part of the work fell on him, and the sun was up 
 before we were ready to start. 
 
 The invahd, in whose case I was fortunate enough 
 to find a safe and simple remedy, was allowed a 
 seat on the footboard of my wagon ; but for Master 
 Jem I was obhged, most reluctantly, and for the 
 first time since I have travelled in Africa, to use 
 another cure — to wit, external application of the 
 ox-hide of the country — his pecuhar hallucination 
 leading him to beheve that it was proper to throw 
 the lumber of the wagon among my bedding, and to 
 pitch it in again Avhen I put it out and ordered him 
 to stow it in the side-box. Now, when a savage, 
 obstinate and stolid as an ox, scowls sullenly from 
 under his eyebrows and shortens up the butt of his 
 wagon- whip, it is about time to know who is master. 
 Jumping down, therefore, face to face I repeated my 
 order, and fortunately he quailed without a second 
 blow.
 
 18G1.] PROFESSOR WAHLBERG. 131 
 
 Our path lay over a sandy plain, with clumps of 
 bare, leafless mimosas and other thorns, till we 
 reached open glades of j^ine trees with yellowish 
 green foliage and grey stems, called in the native 
 tongue Motjeara and Motjurie. These became ere 
 long a mixed forest ; and after ten miles by the 
 trochameter we found the Damaras with Chapman's 
 cattle, he himself soon returning from an unsuc- 
 cessful search for wild game. 
 
 Two or three hundred yards beyond our outspan 
 was an open plain formed by two horizontal strata 
 of limestone, the combined depth of which might be 
 from five to six feet, each perforated vertically with 
 holes big enough to admit a drawing-pencil, giving 
 to the blocks that were broken out the appearance 
 of coarse-grained timber. The breaking or wearing 
 away of a circle of the upper stratum a hundred 
 yards in diameter had formed a kind of basin, and 
 in this were two pits which Chapman, working with 
 the men, had opened so that the cattle might drink, 
 and a smaller one with water for our own use. 
 Two or three scherms for night-shooting had been 
 thrown up, and one of these of more regular con- 
 struction than the rest he had rather facetiously 
 named Fort Funk. It was here, I beheve, he met 
 the Greens returning from the journey in which the 
 late eminent naturalist Wahlberg was killed by an 
 elephant ; and here, I understand, he was also chased 
 by one of these huge beasts, and saved only by the 
 arrival of one of his dogs. 
 
 I 2
 
 132 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 Tuesday and Wednesday I devoted to my oil 
 picture of the Damara family, and secured a good 
 likeness of Kouloloa, and her father Otjihooro, or 
 Dikkop (thick or great head). Three altitudes of 
 a Lyrse read as follows : — 
 
 Qth. — 59° b' 30'^ 10th. — 59° 3' 20''. 11th. — 
 59° 5' 50''. The central one I do not depend on, as 
 it was a kind of joint observation, a difficulty oc- 
 curring with the tangent screw which we could not 
 rectify in time. I know that the first and last are 
 good ; the index error is 0° 0' 15" subtractive, and our 
 mean latitude 21° 49' 17" ; the water is 300 yards 
 north, and may be taken to be in 21° 49' 00". JSTo 
 determinate river-course is to be traced here. I 
 find that a discrepancy occurs between Andersson's 
 book and his map ; the map giving the longitude of 
 Tounobis as 21°, and the book stating it from Mr. 
 Galton's observation at 21° 55' 00" : probably the 
 latter is a printer's error for 20° 55' 00". As the 
 sun and moon were hkely in a few days to be in a 
 good position, we determined to avail ourselves of 
 this our first opportunity for a lunar distance ; but 
 other occupation was in store for us.
 
 1861.1 133 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DISCOXTENT AMONG THE DAMARAS KXAVERT OF GERT 
 
 CHASE FOR STOLEN HORSES GEOLOGICAL FORMATION AT 
 
 GHANZE VARIETIES OF THORN-BUSHES DAMARA NECK- 
 LACES FURTHER SEARCH AFTER GERT THE MARKWHAE, A 
 
 SUCCULENT ROOT WOLF FOUNTAIN ARRIVAL AT KOBIS 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR A LENGTHENED SOJOURN. 
 
 As our followers, attracted by the mortality among 
 tlie cattle, were more than we could possibly feed, if 
 the lung-sickness should happily decrease and the 
 animals survive inoculation, we determined to di- 
 minish their number by sending back Gert and his 
 party, especially as he would do nothing but smoke 
 and pretend to oversee labour, and did not even 
 care to bring into exercise his quahties as a hunter. 
 Chapman, therefore, in the most patient manner, ex- 
 plained to him our difficulty, paid him hberally for 
 the work he had not done from Tounobis, and as he 
 could not take back his oxen after receiving infec- 
 tion from our herd, bought them of him at a fair 
 price, that it might not be thought he had sustained 
 the slightest injury by coming to us even unsoUcited; 
 and letters were in course of preparation to be sent 
 by liim. 
 
 The Damaras were ordered to go on to Ghanze,
 
 134 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 the next water, and open the well, but they soon 
 returned, sent back the tools and meat, and betook 
 themselves to their own fire. On caUing up the 
 wagon-drivers, we found that they demanded more 
 flesh. They were told that the leg of a full-sized ox 
 was enough for fom- men on a thirty-mile journey, 
 and as they had taken flesh without leave the night 
 before, no more could be given them. The drivers, 
 who had apparently fomented the mischief and yet 
 wished to keep themselves backward in it, were then 
 told to take the ration and go forward to the well 
 themselves ; but this they refused to do, or rather, 
 without directly saying ' No,' would not budge. Any 
 attempt to enforce obedience must have led to an 
 attack upon us with their knob-keeries ; and although 
 with our weapons ready to our hand we did not 
 fear them, no one of Christian feeling would hke to 
 precipitate an affair that must end in bloodshed. 
 Besides this, we had agreed never to hft a fire-arm or 
 even to refer to it by way of threat, unless in a case 
 where we could with a clear conscience take deadly 
 aim with it. 
 
 Choosing his men, therefore, Chapman called them 
 one by one to our fire, and demanded whether they 
 intended to continue in his service or not. Bill, who 
 had actually killed the Bushman, dared not return 
 through the Hottentot country, and therefore con- 
 sented to stay ; and Dokkie, also concerned in the 
 affair, after many attempts at evasion, had discernment 
 enough not to endanger himself and forfeit the pay due
 
 18G1.] KNAVERY OF GERT. 135 
 
 to him by desertion. Otjiliooro, with the good feel- 
 ings of an old servant, decided to remain, his family of 
 course staying with him ; but Jan, declaring himself 
 ' a Damaras child,' joined the strongest party. We 
 sent for their tobacco given them for the jom^ney to 
 Ghanze, as well as the cooking utensils and everything 
 not belonging to them, and maintained a determined 
 separation between us. It was not long before alter- 
 cations were heard among them, and female voices, 
 answ^ering the gruff tones of the men, finally proved 
 victorious in the contest, bearing down everything, 
 but an occasional remark, which, hke ' a distant and 
 random gun, the foe was sullenly firing.' The poor 
 creatures on whom, after all, the hardships of the se- 
 paration must have fallen, well appreciated the dif- 
 ference between good rations coupled with the light 
 service they did for us, and the task of digging roots 
 and carrying burdens for their lords on tliek home- 
 ward journey. The actual mutineers, who, being the 
 boldest and best men, had been put forward by the 
 crafty cowards who made use of them, returned first 
 to their duty, and were sent forward with the same 
 tools and ration to the well ; and the others were 
 accepted after an interval long enough to mark our 
 sense of their behaviour ; Jem alone, who pleaded 
 that he had only refused because the rest did, and 
 now wished to return with them, being rejected. 
 
 Gert, who had not waited for the letters nor gone 
 through the formahty of leave-taking, was now an ob- 
 ject of suspicion — a confirmed thief who had robbed
 
 136 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 every one with wliom he had travelled. It was not 
 likely he would leave us in this manner unless his 
 booty was worth escaping with. Too late we found 
 out the extent of our loss ; — on Thursday morning, 
 the spoor of seven of Chapman's horses, with that of 
 Gert and his Bushman Hottentot Jan, being all that 
 remained of our stud ; the eighth, which could not 
 possibly be ridden, being contemptuously left in the 
 bush. We could not all leave the wagons ; but John 
 Laing at once volunteered to pursue, and Chapman 
 accepted my offer to join him. Jan put himself 
 forward to join ; but though I agreed to his being 
 forgiven, I decidedly objected to giving him any 
 chance of thinking that we did it because we were 
 obliged to accept his services. 
 
 The oxen were brought in, and with Dokkie, Bill, 
 and Kalokolo, mounted, and three footmen as trackers, 
 we sahied forth in chase, trusting only, like the tor- 
 toise against the hare, that a false sense of security 
 might induce him to linger at some water-hole and 
 allow us to come up. We feared at first that he had 
 induced the Bushmen, about a hundred in number, to 
 join him ; but the spoor indicated no more than him- 
 self and one or two others. He had passed Wahl- 
 berg's well, and, drinking at the little hole six miles 
 beyond, had turned into Lamert's hunting-path, di- 
 verging very slightly to the southward of om' own 
 road. We saw a herd of magnificent elands, and a 
 number of others scattered in the veldt ; but had we 
 shot any, not one of our followers would have left it
 
 1861.] THE CHASE OF THE THIEF. 137 
 
 to come after iis. At niglit we heard sounds in the 
 bush to our right, or north ; and hoping to obtain the 
 assistance of the Bushmen, we left the oxen and John, 
 and I went forward, shouting to them as we ad- 
 vanced, that they might know we were not steahhily 
 attacking them. The hastily-caught-up bow and 
 quiver were accordingly laid aside as they saw our 
 dress and features ; and, with Dokkie as interpreter, 
 we found that Gert had passed at midday with seven 
 horses. 
 
 An offer of knives and tobacco, when we returned 
 to the wagon, induced three of them to accompany 
 us ; and I promised them an additional reward, if by 
 the exercise of their well-known craft they could 
 make him prisoner without killing him. Hour after 
 hour, they ran with us or before us ; one httle fellow 
 taking me by the wrist with a pressure as gentle as 
 that of a lady's fingers, to place my hand upon the 
 foot-marks. Nisht, however, had its usual influence 
 upon our Damaras, and to get them on was next to 
 impossible. While waiting for them on one occa- 
 sion, we found that our Bushmen friends were not 
 ignorant of the method common on the Zambesi, and 
 among other nations, of procuring fire. Two sticks 
 of moderately hard wood were chosen : in one, a 
 little thicker than a pencil, a small notch was made, 
 and into this the point of another somewhat harder 
 and thinner was inserted ; this was made to revolve 
 rapidly between the palms of the hands until sufiicient 
 heat was gained to ignite a small tuft of Garefully-
 
 138 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 selected dry grass. When one man fails to produce 
 fire in this manner, another sits opposite ; and as the 
 hands of the first come to the bottom of the stick, he 
 catches it above, and keeps up the motion until the 
 other has raised his again. Of course, we checked 
 as far as possible anything beyond the lighting of a 
 pipe, and ought in strictness even to have prevented 
 this. 
 
 The moon had now set ; the people were far 
 behind, and Kanoa, the last man who stuck to us, 
 sat down, saying he would go to the wagon. We 
 thought he would come after a brief rest ; but we 
 saw no more of him or of the Bushmen, one of whom 
 was carrying my gun. We kept on, however, guiding 
 our course by the stars, as we could no longer dis- 
 cern the spoor till night was verging into morning, 
 when, after an hour's rest, we started with the sun, 
 and, being without food or water, found it absolutely 
 necessary to strike northward to Tounobis to quench 
 our thirst. A.t length, after many delusive visions, 
 the veritable blue ridge of the river appeared before 
 us ; and as we entered it, John found a water-melon, 
 and shortly afterwards another. The eating of these 
 was better than a draught of water ; the parching 
 crust was removed, and our lips retained their 
 moisture much longer. At noon, we saw horses or 
 mares being driven to the pool, — but found they 
 were not ours, but some belonging to September, a 
 man of Lamert's, sent with a letter to Cliapman. 
 John got a piece of eland ribs from him ; and
 
 I8G1.] THE CHASE INEFFECTUAL. 139 
 
 having eaten it, I wrote a note to Lamert, informing 
 him of the theft committed by his man, and one to 
 Mr. Kraphol, asking him to use his influence with 
 the chief, Amraal, for their recovery. 
 
 I asked September to engage for me a couple of 
 Bushmen to go on with us and take up spoor, 
 intending to ride westward to where Lamert's patli 
 again joins the Elephant Kloof road, and, if Gert 
 had not come out, to try and return upon him at the 
 water. ' JSTothino- for nothino; ' is the maxim of the 
 Namaquas ; but having a small sill^ handkerchief 
 thrust into my shirt-front, I bought some meat of 
 him, and sharing my blanket with John, we slept till 
 it was light enough to resume our journey. The 
 Bushmen finding the little tobacco John had by him 
 not attractive enough, left us under pretence of 
 bringing water, and we proceeded till nearly noon, 
 when, coming to a halt, Ave determined that as we 
 could not expect water for ourselves within forty 
 miles of our starting-point, nor for the oxen under 
 fifty, it was useless to force our jaded beasts any 
 farther. We met a party of Bushmen, who gave 
 us two melons in exchange for the remaining 
 tobacco, and who, as we had no tinderbox, and 
 would not waste a charge in procuring fire, at- 
 tempted to do it, as usual, with two sticks, but 
 failed, probably from the intense heat of the sun at 
 the time. My ox having become lame, and falhug far 
 behind, John very rightly went on to the water, 
 and, finding three of our Damaras there, sent some
 
 140 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFKICA. [Skpt. 
 
 Bushmen back to me witli a canteen. V/e learned 
 that in the morning, having resumed the track, they 
 had found two or three of the horses, one of them 
 the best, and too big for httle Gert to manage, witli 
 their throats cut to prevent their being used in 
 pursuit, and that a number of Bushmen had been 
 induced to watch and give him warning in case of 
 danger. We afterward found that he had repre- 
 sented himself as authorised by Lamert to take 
 Chapman's horses from him — a lie, I would fain hope, 
 invented to account for his possessing them. Among 
 tlie other achievements of this rascal, it appeared 
 that, while coming after us from ElephaUt Kloof, he 
 had fallen in with and murdered a Damara and his 
 wife, who were following us in hope of sharing in 
 our food. During our return, we slept when we 
 were too weary to go on, and saddled up when 
 little refreshed. We quenched our thirst with water- 
 melons ; and when we could not do this, we sucked, 
 Bushman fashion, through a reed at the httle 
 sandpit, and pushed on to drink the polluted water 
 at the well, picking up by the way three camp- 
 stools, which John tied, Kafir fashion, to the horns 
 of his ox. The labour of riding these wearied 
 beasts can hardly be conceived. A tired horse is 
 bad enough, but an ox is beyond description ; no 
 amount of flogging suffices to lift him for a dozen 
 yards into a heavy trot, and nothing is left for it 
 but to sit with aching spine and patient endurance 
 while he plods along the interminable road. Our
 
 18C1.] PEEPLEXITY. 141 
 
 Damaras, of course, had stayed behind to warm 
 themselves and eat up the rest of the meat ; but, 
 as we neared the wagons on Sunday night, we were 
 met by Tapyinyoka and liis company with supphes, 
 and let them fall into om' rear. Another mile ended 
 our journey, and enabled my friend and myself to 
 consult upon the measures to be adopted in our 
 misfortune. 
 
 Monday, IQth. — Chapman called oldDikkop, and 
 explaining to him and one or two more the impossi- 
 bility of providing food for the party, now that our 
 means of hunting game were gone, and the import- 
 ance of the letters he was to be charged with, 
 desired him to return to Otchombinde, giving his 
 letters to Amraal upon the way, and consulting him 
 upon the manner of providing for him sustenance on 
 the road and payment on his reaching home. Dikkop 
 had no desire to leave, and both of us are sorry to 
 part with him ; but to diminish our party is now 
 imperative, and to send either of the men required 
 by the Hottentots, even if they were foolish 
 enough not to escape on the road, would only be 
 exposing them to the revenge of their enemies, with- 
 out our presence to watch the course of justice, 
 which (though we believe Amraal to be well in- 
 clined) would doubtless be influenced, and perhaps 
 perverted, by the violence and unruhness of his 
 people. It seems doubtful whether Henry Chapman 
 will be allowed to pass through to us with the boat 
 and the provision for our journey ; but we shall go
 
 142 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 as near tlie lake as we may with our suspected cattle, 
 and if we are left to our own resources, make for tlie 
 Zambesi, and carry out our intention of descending 
 it either in boats built on the spot, or native canoes 
 connected and decked over like those of the South 
 Sea. At all events, we have lost neither heart nor 
 hope, and, trusting in the care of Providence, shall 
 still push onward. 
 
 Chapman prepared an answer to the letter of the 
 chief, Amraal, informing him that we were now too 
 far advanced on our journey to return to Elephant 
 Fountain, and that to send the two men he required 
 witliout a guard would be nothmg short of mad- 
 ness ; that he had already punished them for bring- 
 ing the plunder from the Bushmen to his wagons, 
 and that the death of their victim had better be 
 made the subject of investigation on the homeward 
 jom^ney, when we, or my friend's brother, might be 
 present to see that a proportionate punishment was 
 awarded. 
 
 Dikkop pleaded hard to be allowed to remain, 
 promising that the women would not expect meat, 
 but would dig roots and maintain themselves ; and on 
 the strict understanding that when meat was scarce, 
 none but the actual working men were to receive 
 rations. This was agreed to, the ladies trusting to the 
 chance of a good feed whenever flesh is plenty. 
 
 Kalokolo,Kahitsi, Eedjacket,and another were then 
 selected ; a bullock was shot for them, and provision 
 made for their food when that was expended, as
 
 1861.] BUSHMEN. 143 
 
 also for their wages in Otchombinde. The letters for 
 Amraal and the Home mail were given them, and 
 toward the close of the day they were on their road. 
 
 Tuesday, 11th. — Mr. StaufTer's rifle, which John 
 was using during the absence of its owner, having 
 burst above six inches from the muzzle, I sawed ofi" 
 the end of the barrels, and I believe it still shoots 
 very well. Our armoury was still further diminished 
 by the rifting of the barrel of one of the stocked 
 Colt's navy revolvers in Chapman's hands, depriving 
 us of a most portable and effective little weapon. 
 During this day and night we made two stages of our 
 journey to Ghanze ; but, from the choking of the 
 trochameter with sand, it failed to register our 
 progress. I cleaned it, and finding it exactly fitted a 
 common pannikin, lashed one between the spokes of 
 the wheel, and put the instrument inside it. 
 
 Wednesday, ISth. — Treked early, and soon after 
 sunrise overtook about thirty or forty Bushmen, 
 many of them taller than those about Eeit Fontein 
 and Wahlberg's well. Some, I should say, were five 
 feet five or six inches in height ; one had a tint of red 
 in his cheeks, while a number of white feathers, cut 
 short and stuck in his liair like curl-papers, gave 
 him almost an effeminate appearance. One of them 
 had the front of a secretary-bird's head fastened in 
 his crisp locks, with the beak projecting over his 
 forehead ; and another wore the spoil of a crow in 
 the same manner. 
 
 Their arrows w^ere carried in neat quivers of bark
 
 144 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 served round with sinew, the whole, with the bow, 
 being carried in a small buckskin, the neck of which 
 was bound tightly round the bottom of the quiver, 
 while the legs served as belts to sHng it on their 
 shoulders ; an improvement on the practice of those 
 at Tounobis or Eeit Fontein, who carry all theirs 
 loose in the skin-sack. At every few yards along the 
 path, one or other would squat down, and with a 
 sharpened stick tear up the loose soil that covered 
 a large succulent root, junks of which they gave to 
 us and to the Damaras. Picking up a leaf of the 
 nearest bush, I made them understand that I wanted 
 to see that part ; when they put into my hand two or 
 three dry, leafless little twigs, almost undiscernible at 
 the height of the eye above the ground. 
 
 Yet, m a few minutes, one man had brought to 
 hght half-a-dozen watery tubers, say nine inches long 
 by six or seven broad, but of all shapes and sizes 
 that the spaces between the stones allowed them to 
 assume. There was a manly independence about the 
 bearing of these fellows that I could not but admire. 
 Tobacco, of course, they asked for, one man even 
 with tears glistening in his eyes, and another with 
 humorous grimaces and witty aphorisms which, 
 though lost upon us, I doubt not entitled him to be 
 considered poet-laureate among his tribe. But when 
 it was once promised, they waited contentedly till it 
 was convenient for us to give it. As for our other 
 possessions, they valued them not ; and the true wild 
 Bushman of this country, I beheve, has not yet learned
 
 1861.] WATER-SUPPLY AT GHANZE. 145 
 
 that oxen are good to eat, as well as to carry burdens 
 or draw wagons. Happy had the Dutch farmers 
 been if the Bushmen near the colony had been of 
 the same mind. 
 
 Living as they do in a country where neither 
 Hottentot nor Bechuana dare permanently settle, 
 they realise as nearly as may be Pringle's spirited 
 description : — 
 
 I plant no herbs nor pleasant fi'uits, 
 
 I toil not for my cheer ; 
 The desert yields me juicy roots, 
 
 And herds of boimding deer. 
 
 Thus I am lord of the desert land, 
 
 And I will not leave my bounds, 
 To crouch beneath the Christian's hand 
 
 And kennel with his hounds. 
 
 The ' bounding deer,' however, are scarce in this 
 ' region of drought,' and only to be found by hours 
 of patient tracking. The advent of us 'white-skinned 
 bandits ' was therefore hailed with every demon- 
 stration of joy ; but bitter was their disappointment 
 when they learned the loss of our horses. The 
 old head-man spoke Sichuana ; and as Chapman 
 could converse in that tongue, an attempt to recover 
 them was soon suggested, our friend's willingness to 
 undertake it being considerably quickened by the 
 promise of two rolls of tobacco and a quantity of 
 beads ; and the same evening, I beheve, saw him 
 go forth on his adventure. 
 
 The water at Ghanze is obtained by digging in a 
 hollow found by the breaking away of the soft strata 
 
 K
 
 146 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 of limestone, the edges of which form chffs on the 
 nortli side from three to five feet in depth, pre- 
 senting the appearance of three horizontal layers a 
 foot or eighteen inches in thickness, and perforated 
 with vertical holes like those at the last water. 
 Underneath, uncovered by the removal of the lime- 
 stone, are ridges of hard greenish-grey rock, lying 
 east and west (magnetic), and containing fine veins 
 of quartz ; but whether this is originally an igneous 
 rock, or, as I think, a sandstone altered and partially 
 fused by heat, I cannot say. The upper rock must be 
 of quite recent formation ; for in the face of it, about 
 three feet below the surface, we found a molar tooth 
 of some middhng-sized animal with its bony quahties 
 still unchanged, while the flat portion of the hollow 
 is full of white crumbled foot-prints of elephants, 
 impressed while the stone was yet soft. I believe 
 Chapman found a tusk in digging here on a former 
 occasion. 
 
 In times not very remote, the water was so large, 
 that a man lying in wait for game at one end was 
 often disappointed of a shot by the animals drink- 
 ing at the other. We outspanned in a small grove 
 about 350 yards south of the pits, and collected 
 specimens of the various mimosa blossoms, ranging 
 through every gradation of tint from the palest 
 greenish-yellow to the deepest golden tint and the 
 most intense chrome. The thorns were not less 
 diversified, and I may as well take this oppor- 
 tunity of naming a few. First, I noticed a large
 
 1861.] VAEIOUS SPECIES OP THORN-BUSHES. 147 
 
 hooked seed of the creeping plant, sometimes called 
 Haak-doorn, but more properly the Grappler; the 
 Haak-doorn, of which a noble specimen overhangs my 
 wagon, being furnished along its branches with small 
 but very strong and sharp hooked thorns, arranged 
 in pairs, and tearing the flesh most cruelly whenever 
 it catches. The twigs of the Wagt-een-beetje are 
 armed with a straight thorn, but the hooked thorns 
 grow in pairs opposite each other. ' Stop a bit ' you 
 must, if this once takes your garments. Next is the 
 Haak-en-steek, the short hook of which holds you 
 fast, and, if you attempt to drag yourself away, forces 
 down upon you a pair of straight ones, a couple of 
 inches long and sharp as the finest needle. Then 
 there is the Motj eerie, or Damara's mother, with its 
 rough cruciform points, the common white-spined 
 mimosa, the prickle-thorn, and I know not how 
 many more. 
 
 The shortest way, in fact, is to adopt Dr. Kirk's 
 division : i.e., class one, for tearing clothes ; class two, 
 for tearing flesh ; class three, the largest, for tearing 
 flesh and clothes both together. 
 
 Here our old friend a Lyro3 failed us, as he now 
 passed the meridian so soon after sunset as not 
 to be sufliciently visible for an observation ; but 
 two good altitudes of a Aquil^ (Altair) gave 21° 
 33' 14''. Water boils by Chapman's observation at 
 205° 4'F., giving approximately 3,346 feet above the 
 sea level. The thermometer ranges from 62° about 
 sunrise to 94° shortly after noon. There is generally 
 
 K 2
 
 148 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 a light breeze from the east, strengthening into gusts 
 about noon, and shifting to various quarters towards 
 sunset. 
 
 To keep our instruments, food, and materials for 
 painting and photography, from being constantly- 
 overrun and filled with dust by the Damaras and 
 dogs, I stretched a square of rope, sphcing eyes in 
 the corners, and making it fast by lanyards to the 
 wagon-wheels; and John spent the rest of the day 
 in stitching to it a length of canvas, the other edge 
 of which, confined below, forming a tolerably 
 effective fence. Nevertheless, a stray hound would 
 jump over it when a chance offered, and, in his 
 efforts to get out, Avould perhaps endanger our mate- 
 rials, or work ten times more mischief than before. 
 
 As for the difficulties in the way of a photo- 
 grapher, their name is Legion : the restlessness of the 
 sitters, who naturally slirink when the mysterious- 
 looking; double-barrelled lenses are levelled fidl at 
 them, and cannot imagine what ' the shadow- 
 catcher ' is doing under the black curtain — the im- 
 possibility of procuring clean water — the different 
 conditions of atmosphere and intensity of the sun — 
 the constant dust raised either by our people or the 
 wind — the whirlwinds upsetting the camera, and no 
 end of other causes — combine to frustrate the efforts 
 of the operator, and oblige us (myself with greater 
 reluctance than Chapman) to condemn many and 
 many a picture ; for in almost every one there
 
 1861.] DAMARA NECKLACES. 149 
 
 is here and there some Httle bit of effective repre- 
 sentation that I, as an artist, would give almost my 
 right hand to be able to reproduce. 
 
 Friday, 20th. — I commenced a sketch in oil of 
 our outspan, with the groups of Bushmen gathered 
 round their fires under the different trees ; the candle 
 iUumining our wagon, tent, and awning, and the 
 clear moonlight showing the other objects in the 
 picture. This occupied me three or four days ; but 
 then, be it remembered, more than half my time was 
 spent in the various little occasional jobs that are 
 daily becoming needful, and not a little of it in 
 ' flapping away the flies — not kilhng them ;' because, 
 with the exception of the larger sort, which, when 
 their needle-hke proboscis was inserted, remained 
 to be crushed upon the spot, they were generally 
 nimble enough to escape the blow. 
 
 The perfume that regaled us when the ladies 
 passed ' betwixt the wind and our nobility,' we 
 found to proceed fi'om a necklace, the beads of 
 which, Dokkie informed us, were made from the 
 kidneys of the meerkat, or other small animals, com- 
 pared with whose odour that of the polecat is 
 mildness itself. The meat of the cattle slaughtered 
 before they die from the inoculation, though in 
 some cases we prefer fasting to letting it come nigh 
 the wagon, is unobjectionable to the Damara ; and 
 if the habits of the dogs could be mentioned with 
 propriety, it would readily be perceived how super-
 
 150 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 fluous a fine sense of smell must be to a traveller in 
 this country. 
 
 Chapman bought us a boAV each, with quiver 
 made of bark and neatly sewed round with sinew, 
 containing firesticks, sucking-reed, sinew for thread, 
 small reeds for ornamental purposes, and lastly, ar- 
 rows headed with bone or iron, the head of those 
 of the former description being reversed and the 
 sharp envenomed point inserted into the end of the 
 reed forming the shaft, which, when a beast is 
 hit, falls off like that of a harpoon, leaving the 
 poisoned head fast in the victim. The iron head, 
 on the other hand, with a sharp chisel-edge a quar- 
 ter of an inch broad, was carefully wrapped up by 
 itself in bark or sinew, and is, I understand, specially 
 reserved for the giraffe. 
 
 Their bow is strung with neatly-twisted sinew 
 looped on at one end, and rolled round it at the 
 other in such a manner that by merely turning in 
 the hand, as if it were the thread of a screw, it can 
 be tightened or relaxed at pleasure. The bow is three 
 quarters of an inch thick, httle, if at all, more than 
 three feet long, and looks more like a plaything than 
 a formidable weapon ; but I found it required a 
 stronger pull than those of the Damaras to bend it. 
 Their cord, made from the fibres of a small leaf, 
 apparently of the aloe kind, is very neatly made, 
 usually two-stranded, and furnished with loops and 
 toggles, when they have frequently to fasten an 
 unfasten it.
 
 1861.] THE MARK\YHAE ROOT. 151 
 
 We remained over Monday, waiting the return 
 of the adventurers, who had traced Gert to the 
 borders of the Desert, where he was living far 
 away from water, and never letting the horses drink 
 t^vice in succession from the same pool. He had 
 shot three or four elands, and, besides his peculiar 
 seragho, had collected around him a tribe of Bush- 
 men, some of whom he sent out daily to inform him 
 of any parties coming in pursuit. For this reason 
 they could not get near him, and the only plan they 
 could suggest for us was to live concealed in one of 
 the Bushman camps, and watch an opportunity of 
 entrapping him. 
 
 Havuig fairly rewarded them for their trouble, and 
 leaving for further deliberation the use we should 
 make of their report, we left Ghanze on Tuesday 
 24th, and walked forward, the Bushmen digging roots 
 when we became thirsty. One of these measured 
 in its longest circumference 3J feet, and 2J feet in 
 its shortest. Those of moderate size are, however, 
 more agreeable, the juice having rather a milky 
 appearance and taste. Its seeds are strung upon a 
 skein of fibres in long round tapering pods, 4 to 6 
 inches long, and thicker than a goose-quill. This 
 inestimable gift of Providence to a thirsty land is 
 called Markwhae, or Marfwhae ; and I do not hesitate 
 to say that the mastication of even a small portion 
 of it affords more rehef to a traveller than the drink- 
 ing of any amount of water. 
 
 We outspanned about sunset, having made perhaps
 
 152 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 twelve miles ; but an uncertainty as to the figure 
 at which the trochameter was set at starting 
 vitiated all calculations founded on the reading off. 
 We intended to start again at moonrise, but the 
 lierdsman having allowed the cattle to run off, we 
 were not under weigh till past 7 a.m. on Wednes- 
 day, when Jem, with an accuracy that would entitle 
 him to rank as marksman in a rifle corps, shot his 
 wagon into the only possible hole in the path, and 
 broke the ' dissel boom ' in trying to drag it out. 
 The shortening and refitting this, and boring a new 
 hole for the bell, cost me one hour's laboiu', and, 
 though John found an inch-shell auger in Chapman's 
 wagon, it was too late to save the centre of one of 
 my bits. 
 
 The invahd, who thinking, I suppose, that two 
 cures must be better than one, has submitted to some 
 lancing or cupping operation in the native fashion, 
 has now acquired a prescriptive right to tlie front of 
 my wagon ; and Jem, taking advantage of my having 
 allowed young Pompey to ride when the forced 
 night marches were too long for him, is contriving 
 to instal him permanently as his pipe-bearer, keeping 
 him out of sight, instead of sending him forward 
 witli the women, till he thinks I cannot have the 
 heart to turn him away and make him walk alone. 
 My only remedy for this, I suppose, will be to insist 
 on the young schemer washing himself: if that fails, 
 wliat else can be effective ?
 
 1861.] FOEESTS AND PLAINS. 153 
 
 We saw the traces of an elephant upon the road, 
 and Chapman had seen a herd of fine elands, and 
 a rhinoceros, which scarcely ever drinks water, but 
 hves on roots and melons. Chapman has observed 
 that the elephant never eats the Markwhae, nor any 
 grass, except a very sweet kind near the Zambesi, 
 though we see now and then places where they 
 have torn up the ground for roots that are agreeable 
 to them. 
 
 We outspanned, after treking for twelve hours, 
 near a pit called by the Bushmen Thounce, and by 
 the Bechuanas Leetjee Pierie, both names signifying 
 Wolf Fountain — the Stink Fountain of Andersson; 
 but though we might by waiting for it have obtained a 
 little water for ourselves, we could not have expected 
 enough even for the dogs. We had made rather 
 more than fifteen miles by trochameter, but were too 
 late for an altitude of a star, my attempts last night 
 being frustrated by the spiUing of the quicksilver, 
 and Altair passing before I could collect it again. A 
 former observation of Chapman's, however, gives 
 21° 19' 30", which I dare say is not far from the 
 truth. 
 
 On the next day, I walked ahead on a winding road, 
 sometimes west of north and sometimes nearly east, 
 as dense patches of forest alternating with open mi- 
 mosa plains influenced its course. I believe to the 
 south there is a sandy ridge that renders it almost im- 
 possible to trace a direct road to Kobis. My soft 'vel-
 
 Ifi4 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Skpt. 
 
 schoenen' of iintanned leather being now completely- 
 worn out, I mounted a pair of English make, wliich 
 bUstered my heel pretty severely. In looking over 
 my diminished wardrobe, I find an unexplained liiatus 
 in more than one department, but the unkindest 
 cut of all makes me repent not having kept more 
 carefully a lock on my understandings ; the half of 
 two pair of shoes is missing — a serious loss when it 
 is considered that this is a full third of my original 
 outfit ; and I can only account for it by supposing 
 that some Namaqua, incapable of discriminating be- 
 tween right and left, without enriching himself had 
 made me poor indeed. 
 
 After crossing two or three large limestone hollows, 
 like the beds of former vleis, we came to a stand 
 near a waterless pit, in latitude 21° 14' 36'', and the 
 cattle being unable to hold out longer, we sent them 
 off at once for a draught of water at Kobis, ten or 
 twelve miles farther on. 
 
 Friday^ 21th. — Fired half a dozen of the manu- 
 facturer's cartridges from my Wilson's rifle, and found 
 them answer well in keeping the gun clean. We are 
 quite sensible that it is false economy not to throw 
 away a few charges now and then in practice, but 
 we have both so little ammunition that we dislike 
 expending it, and in consequence fire badly when 
 we do by chance see game. The thermometer stood 
 to-day at 102° in the wagon, the coolest shade I 
 could find for it. Durins^; the afternoon, I finished
 
 1861.] PREPARATIONS FOR A PERMANENT CAMP. 155 
 
 sketches of the Wagt-een-beetje, the Kameel-doorn 
 (Acacia Girafise), the Vyndoorn, and the Haak- 
 doorn. 
 
 A Bushman from Kobis reports that the cattle 
 had not yet been all watered there, and there is no 
 game of any kind about the place, though Chapman 
 has never known it fail thus before. ' The Hidiest ' 
 
 o 
 
 (said he, speaking in and borrowing the idea from 
 Sichuana) ' has killed the country.' 
 
 Saturday, 2Sth. — Chapman walked forward to the 
 water ; I remained working up the arrears of my map, 
 which is now brought on as far as Elephant Kloof. 
 Before sunset the cattle came back, and spanning in 
 at once, we treked through the bush, sticking fast 
 every few minutes, till half-past eleven, when we 
 found Chapman under a bush about a hundred yards 
 south of the well at Kobis. 
 
 On Sunday we went over to the pits, which the 
 Damaras were enlarging, the oxen being still un- 
 satisfied. Formerly this place was a vlei or small 
 lake, at least one hundred yards across, and even on 
 Chapman's last journey there was an ample supply 
 for his oxen as well as Lamert's. Now, after dio-o-ina; 
 eight feet through clay and limestone and a bed of 
 pebbles, barely sufiicient is found to be baled out in 
 buckets for the cattle. The spoor of tlie elephants 
 regularly cut up the sun-dried mud, which I suppose, 
 in time, will be as hard as that at Ghanze. We 
 moved the wagons more than half a mile to the
 
 156 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 iiortli of the water, rigged our awning and screen, 
 and prepared to encamp for perhaps two or three 
 months, with a sweet gum thorn shading the wagons, 
 and a kraal of the same material round them to keep 
 out the dogs. Vain hope ! we must leave a passage 
 for our own egress, and we cannot keen them from 
 using it.
 
 1861.] 157 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 CONTINUED SICKNESS AMONG THE CATTLE ILLNESS OF SOME 
 
 DAMARAS OCCUPATIONS IN THE BUSH DAMARA COSTUME 
 
 THE Bushmen's poison — chameleons — brindled gnoos — 
 
 LEOPARDS INTELLECT OF BUSHMEN DISCIPLINE OF BE- 
 
 CHUANA WOMEN THE CHIEF LESHULATEBE BAOBAB TREES 
 
 FURTHER TIDINGS OF GERT AND THE HORSES — KOBIS. 
 
 We had been in hopes that the mortahty was 
 decreasing among the cattle, but seven or eight 
 more were now reported as unable to feed, or 
 showing the prelimuiary symptom — a short husky 
 cough. Even the inoculation in many cases seems 
 no protection — whether from the virus having failed 
 to act, or from the cutting off the tail before the 
 gathering was ripe, we can hardly teU. Great are 
 the consultations on the subject, and every imagi- 
 nable cause is taken into consideration and duly 
 weighed. As I have had no experience in this 
 matter, and Chapman very little, we console our- 
 selves with the thought that we are acquiring it. 
 In one or two cases where cattle have died at a 
 distance and nothing has been brought in to attest 
 the nature of its malady, we look with some distrust 
 at the poisoned arrows carried by one of the herds- 
 men ; and the discrepancy of the reports among the
 
 158 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 men togetlier, combined with a few indications ob- 
 served by John, such as water carried in a paunch, 
 recent blood, &c., lead us to suspect that the riding 
 ox reported to have fallen dead while we were on 
 the tracks of Gert may have been the cause of the 
 Damaras failino; to follow us. 
 
 Many of the people complained of being ill, and 
 we were in some doubt whether gorging the flesh of 
 the lung-sick cattle might not have affected them ; 
 though as we use it ourselves, and as Mr. Hutchinson, 
 who is a medical man, places it regularly on his 
 table, where I have often eaten it without perceiving 
 the slightest taint, I can hardly see how that should 
 be the cause. The greatest difficulty is that they 
 themselves will not tell us what is the matter with 
 them. Dokkie or Jem, who interpret, are now and 
 then caught in telUng them what to say, instead of 
 conveying the sense of their answers to us ; and it 
 was necessary to impress on them pretty strongly 
 the fact that white man's medicine was not like 
 theirs, a thing to play with, but that the remedy w^e 
 gave for one disease would perhaps kill a man who 
 was affected with another. However, we have at 
 last, by hard questioning, hard reading, and the 
 assistance of John's military experience, arrived at 
 some knowledge of the causes of their sickness, and 
 the best method of treatment to be adopted ; and 
 unless the infection spreads with them as with the 
 cattle, we are in hope of arresting it, inasmuch as
 
 1861.] TEADE IN IVORY. 159 
 
 Kama Toodel, our worst case, is able already to walk 
 to the water, about 500 yards distant. 
 
 The Bushmen reported that two wagons were 
 lying at the lake, and as a trader who, I beheve, is 
 indebted to Chapman in several hundred pounds of 
 ivory, is expected there, John expressed his willing- 
 ness to go forward and convert our doubts on this 
 point into certainty, the more especially as we 
 wished to obtain horses either by commuting for 
 them a portion of the debt, or paying their price in 
 . ivory held by the chief at the lake for Chapman. 
 As we do not like to carry infection among the 
 herds of the natives, the Damaras were sent to bring 
 back the riding oxen from half way on the road, and 
 John was to inform the chief that we would come 
 on when ours were perfectly recovered. 
 
 The Bushmen here, who have no prejudice against 
 the flesh of tame oxen, and come in for a share of 
 ours when we kill, bring in bits of tusks broken off 
 as the elephants are digging roots, and occasionally 
 a tuft of ostrich feathers or a leopard skin, to ex- 
 chano;e for tobacco. We find that their brethren at 
 Eeit Fontein have rather taken us in, by seUing us 
 sticks of harmless gum and beeswax instead of their 
 deadly poison ; not but these would have looked 
 equally well with a nicely written label under the 
 glass case of a museum, but, as the Scotchman said, 
 when we carry water, we carry water ; and when we 
 pick up bawbees, we like to do it in real earnest.
 
 160 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Sept. 
 
 Our Damaras, seeing tliat we employ the Buslimen 
 occasionally on little services, have a notion that they 
 cannot do better than follow our example ; and, 
 truth to say, they improve on it wonderfully. These 
 same fellows, who would spring to the shghtest 
 word of a Hottentot, while they consulted their own 
 convenience in serving us, now shift off their work 
 upon oiu' visitors in so imperious a manner that we 
 are obliged to remind them that they are paid and 
 fed to serve us, and that the Bushmen are not. I 
 should be sorry to say that no savage is impressible 
 by kindness, but really it seems that the majority of 
 these will perform no duty they can possibly evade 
 unless under fear of punishment. Even their own 
 clothing they will not repair, so long as they tliink 
 they can replace it from us ; and Chapman was 
 obliged the other day to stand over them, and almost 
 force them to commence the preparation of a calf 
 skin to make velschoenen for themselves. I had once 
 some hope of Tapyinyoka, and gave him clothing 
 and blankets, and such other little indulgences as 
 were in my power ; but the slight return of making a 
 pair of Damara sandals has been put off time after 
 time, till Chapman, having heard me speaking to him, 
 went the other day to theii' quarters and made him 
 take them in hand. 
 
 Bill seems to be the only one present who does 
 anjrthing without compulsion, and he and the young 
 girl Kouloloa are at present our Ganymede and Hebe 
 — nectar in all cases being understood to signify 
 tea or coffee. He is the only one as yet who has
 
 1861.] LIFE IN THE BUSH. 161 
 
 rendered us any service with the gun, and within the 
 hist two days he brought us in five guinea fowl that 
 had come with other thirsty birds to drink at our 
 water, where I beUeve the women go regularly 
 every morning to fish for drowned doves, partridges, 
 and finches, their haul amounting one day to over 
 two dozen of all kinds. 
 
 The murder of the Bushman, to an English mind, 
 is something against him, but any one of his country- 
 men would have done the same on as slight a pre- 
 text ; and Dokkie, who seems to have been much 
 worse than he, only escaped the actual crime through 
 unskilful shooting. 
 
 Our own time has been fully occupied by the 
 numberless little occasional wants that must be 
 attended to. I name a few to give some idea of the 
 multifarious avocations rendered necessary by life in 
 the bush. Thus Chapman has been making ivory 
 sights to a couple of guns, reinoculating the cattle, 
 setting in order his camera, and amongst other tasks 
 trying photography (in which, however, owing to the 
 restlessness of his sitters, the nicety of manipulation 
 required among the chemicals, and the uncertainty 
 of the wdud, which, blowing generally from the south- 
 east, sometimes comes in gusts from the opposite 
 quarter, he has not this time succeeded in obtaining a 
 single plate worthy of preservation). In arranging a 
 vocabulary he is more fortunate, for though the 
 Damaras, when asked the word for an abstract qua- 
 lity, such as colour, number, goodness, &c., will say a 
 
 L
 
 102 EXPLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 white man, a black ox, good meat, and so forth, his 
 previous knowledge of the native languages generally 
 enables him to detect the absurdities this gives 
 rise to. 
 
 For myself, I have laid out work sufficient to last 
 me for a time indefinite. I have akeady, as I write, 
 completed a pair of velschoens — which, I flatter 
 myself, are not discreditable as a first performance — 
 and I have shghtly coloured a pencil sketch of the 
 well at Kobis, and have at last (Saturday, October 
 5th) finished my ' Damara family,' It has been long 
 enough in hand, but it must be considered that it is 
 not every day I can work, nor can I employ half my 
 time on my picture when I am at it. The intervals 
 of comparative calm also have to be chosen, for 
 during the south-east gusts the colours would be so 
 thoroughly sanded, that it would be hopeless to 
 attempt anything. 
 
 Besides this, having determined on painting a few 
 good pictures rather than an unhmited number of in- 
 ferior ones, I have never worked at the principal 
 figures without my model before me ; and in cases 
 where our people have lost or bartered away any of 
 their native weapons or ornaments, I have supplied 
 the defects only after a consultation with Chapman 
 and a reference to his photographs in confirmation of 
 my own recollections. The principal of these are the 
 assegai of Dikkop, and the white belt of the yoimg 
 girl. This she has lost or parted with in some way or 
 other, and wears only the fringed apron in front.
 
 1861.] DAMARA BOJfXETS. 163 
 
 and a small piece of soft skin behind ; but as it is an 
 ornament she ought not to be without, and as it 
 helps materially to give effect to the picture, I have 
 taken the liberty of restoring it. It consists of small 
 circular pieces of ostrich egg shell, bored in the 
 centre, strung hke buttons with their flat sides 
 together ; the cords are then laid side by side till 
 they form a belt from three to six or seven inches m 
 width, across which pieces of stiff leather are stitched 
 to support them, like the whalebone in a corset. 
 The bonnets are very elaborate pieces of furniture. 
 The headpiece is of stout hide bent while still soft 
 to fit the head, and kept in form by rows of orna- 
 mental stitching ; the ears seem to be slightly thinner, 
 and are also stitched in such patterns as to give them 
 the proper hollow. The curtain or sun-shade, or 'ugly,' 
 in front, is of very soft leather, and is rolled more or 
 less back at pleasure ; and the long strings of ii^ou 
 tubhig pendent down the back were formerly made of 
 good thick honest iron purchased, like their assagais 
 and other ornaments of metal, from the Ovambo, 
 Now, however, since the country has been visited by 
 Enghshmen, pieces of hoop and tin are generally 
 substituted. The weight of such a head-di'ess is no 
 trifle, and thinking on one occasion that my sitter 
 must be weary, I told her to leave her bonnet with 
 me and go to her hut — about the most fearful 
 breach of etiquette, I presently found, a Damara 
 woman could be guilty of, for Dikkop, if he did not 
 die of shame at seeing her shaven head uncovered, 
 
 L '2
 
 164 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 would infallibly kill lier for appearing before him in 
 sucli dishabille. Actual infidelity would be laughed 
 at compared with such offence against the conven- 
 tionality of Damara land. The iron ornaments worn 
 like gaiters on the ankle are also generally of 
 Ovambo make. The sandals, wdiich in a picture 
 might appear too large, are purposely made so, the 
 pointed ends projecting three or four inches beyond 
 the toe and heel ; the thong passes up through the 
 sole between the great toe and the next, encircles 
 the heel, and is confined about the middle of the 
 foot by a smaller thong on each side knotted through 
 the sole. A curious red-breasted butcher-bird, witli 
 a white stripe upon the wing, was here shot by 
 Chapman. 
 
 At last we have succeeded in obtaining the real 
 poison of the Bushmen. One of them brought us 
 a small bas; full of what looked hke rough brown 
 seeds, slightly oval in form, and about half an inch 
 in length. These proved to be the cocoons of an 
 insect, and on breaking them a small cream-coloured 
 grub was found coiled up inside. Taking one of 
 these between the forefinger and thumb of his right 
 hand, he squeezed it gradually, and touched the 
 ivory head and neck of his arrow with little drops 
 of the internal moisture. The identity of this with 
 the poison on the arrows in our possession admjts of 
 no doubt. The insect is called 'Kaa, and is probably 
 identical with the Ngura mentioned by Livingstone 
 as producing such fearful agonies if a sore is touched
 
 Ib61.] CHAMELEOX. 1C5 
 
 by its entrails. No mixture of any kind is used ^vitll 
 it, but it seems that every tribe has itspecuHar recipe., 
 and herbs and roots are used extensively by some of 
 them. Chapman succeeded in taking three or four 
 good stereoscopic views ; and one Sunday evenino- 
 Ave took advantage of the first opportunity for a 
 lunar distance from the planet Venus. I sat up till 
 one o'clock for an altitude of Achernar, but contrived 
 to be a minute or two too late in observins: it. 
 
 Monday^ Itfi. — Within the last few days the 
 hitherto unvarpng cloudless sky has been overcast, 
 and on Saturday last two or three smart showers came 
 down — of short duration it is true, and in quantity 
 barely sufficient to moisten the dust upon the surface, 
 but still encouraging us with hopes of a refreshing 
 season. If it stops the mortality among our cattle, 
 we shall indeed be thankful. It is now a week 
 since we arrived, and in that short period no less 
 than twelve have been killed to prevent their dying 
 of disease. Chapman has been more successful 
 during the clouded days with his photography, and 
 has some very nice prints from his glass plates. 
 
 A young steinbok was found by the Damaras, 
 and we tried to rear it ; but in a day or two it died, 
 although we made a goat suckle it. Cow's milk, 
 Chapman tells me, generally causes these httle crea-' 
 tures afiections in the eye resulting in bhndness. 
 
 One of the Bushmen brought me a rather large 
 chameleon, about four and a half inches long in the 
 body and the same in the tail, and when irritated
 
 163 EXPLORATION'S IN" SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 covered with deep brown or blackish spots upon a 
 li<dit grey ground, with a httle yellow under the 
 jaws. At this time its body is inflated till it is 
 nearly two inches in depth, and the back as round as 
 a hog's ; but when at rest it is not more than half 
 the bulk, and its colour sinks to a neutral tint of the 
 shades which it displays when excited. It seems 
 incapable of assuming the brilliant colours noticeable 
 in the ' King Chameleon ' at the Cape. 
 
 I was settling myself very quietly after breakfast 
 to sketch the httle animal, when Dokkie stole up 
 with a gesture of caution, and pointed through the 
 tent to the opposite bush. Chapman had already 
 seized his gun, and for fear of spoiling his shot, I 
 remained quiet till it was delivered ; then, running fur 
 my own and handing him my revolver, we followed 
 the dogs in pursuit. A couple of young blawe 
 wilde-beestes, or brindled gnoos, had apparently 
 scented our newly-opened wells, and, while on their 
 way to the water, had stayed a moment to gaze at 
 the Avagons. Chapman had hit one of them behind 
 the shoulder, and finished it with a couple of pistol 
 shots as the dogs kept it at bay. The carcase was 
 brought nearer to the wagons, and the camera 
 brought to bear, wdiile I sketched it from nearly the 
 same position — a great piece of presumption, doubt- 
 less, on my part, yet not without its uses, for I fmd 
 tliat the probability of having my work compared 
 with that of Phoebus puts me rather on my mettle. 
 For some nights past the barking of the dogs had
 
 1S6I.] AN AFRICAN LEOPARD. 1C7 
 
 deepened and intensified, and a sliarp angry chorus 
 of all the voices, varied by a pitiful howl from some of 
 the more adventurous curs, showed that the clamour 
 was no longer vain and objectless. The other evening- 
 one of them was nipped, but I believe not torn, by 
 some animal which the rest of the pack (about fifty, 
 minus a few casualties on the road) had not pluck 
 enough to engage ; and last night, as I was thinking 
 of shaldng down my blankets, their voices again 
 swelled upon the breeze, mingled this time with the 
 angry snarling of a tiger. Calling to the Damaras to 
 encom-age the dogs, we stumbled through the dark- 
 ness to the fray ; but all that we could see was a 
 writhing strugghng mass, from which occasionally a 
 dog would emerge with a howl of pain. A little 
 Eushman by my side, with his bow half bent and 
 arrow ready to let fly, was cantiously watching the ap- 
 pearance of the foe ; and Bill and Doklde, with double 
 barrels on full cock, would in their excitement have 
 fired at anything, had tliey not been restrained. As 
 soon as we could make our voices heard, we called 
 for fire-brands, and by their light the Damaras rushed 
 in. The old lady gallantly led the van. Seizing 
 the now helpless prowler of the wild by the tail 
 and ears, they hammered him to death with their 
 knob keeries. The dogs were allowed to worry the 
 carcase a few minutes longer to give them courage 
 for the next attack, and it was then brought to the 
 wagon and laid out of their reach tiU to-morrow. 
 Tuesday^ 8th. — Chapman made three or fom' good
 
 168 EXPLOKATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 photographs of the tiger, or more properly leopard, 
 and I sketched it as it lay, as I think it preferable on 
 such occasions to make a careful and faithful study 
 of the dead animal as it lies before me, rather than 
 confuse myself and render my sketch valueless by 
 attempting to give the action of life to it before I 
 have secured data on which to do so with tolerable 
 correctness. 
 
 The dimensions, as I took them, were, from nose to 
 back of skull between the ears, 8 in. ; thence to the 
 erection of tail, 2 ft. 9 in. ; tail, 2 ft. 3 in. ; total, 5 ft. 8 in. 
 From top of shoulder to point of toe, 2 ft. 3 in. ; 
 from rump to point of hinder toe, 2 ft. 2 in. ; girth 
 behind the shoulder, 1 ft. 10 in. ; do. at loins, 1 ft. 6 in. 
 Its body, as will be seen by these figures, was long 
 and slender ; its powerful hmbs, with their mas- 
 sive paws and semi-retractile talons, rendered the 
 creature, for its size, a most formidable antagonist. 
 The teeth were old and worn, and to this circum- 
 stance doubtless the dogs owed their comparative 
 indemnity from punishment in the final struggle. 
 The forehead was rounded, the face rather long, the 
 colour a pale raw sienna or brownish-yellow, with 
 brown spots annular on the body, and arranged in 
 lines so as to form rings of spots round the legs. 
 The tail was ringed with black and white alternately, 
 and the throat, belly, and inside of the limbs white. 
 
 It corresponded most nearly with Felis Jubata, 
 the hunting leopar.l, as described by Harris. The 
 Damaras, in speaking of it, used the word imkwa.
 
 1861.] LESSON IN SHOOTING. 169 
 
 though whether the word belongs to their language 
 as well as to the Sichuana, I do not know. I kept the 
 skull, though much battered, and the paws ; but, with 
 the exception of a leg reserved for ourselves, w^e 
 gave the carcase to the men, who told us they could 
 not eat it, and asked for the meat of the wilde-beeste 
 we were drying. This from people who luxuriate on 
 putrid beef or still-born calves, and who prefer a 
 jackal for the very reason that its flesh emits a 
 stench that would ruin a fox-hound for ever, was 
 rather too frivolous to listen to ; and. as we have 
 heard no more on the subject, I suppose their 
 scruples, if they really had any, have given way. 
 
 At night, clouds began to overspread the sky, ac- 
 companied by thunder, lightning, and gusts of w^ind, 
 so that we had to lower our awning and convert it 
 into a tent with the sides furled, and the edge of the 
 roof pointed to the wind. 
 
 During the following day. Chapman gave the driver 
 and leader a lesson in shooting, the principal points 
 of which were, that they should not start backward 
 at the flash in the pan, nor pull trigger until theu- 
 hearts had done palpitating ; also, not to hold the butt 
 at a distance from their shoulder, and so give it room 
 to kick. All hands then set to work to catch cattle 
 and examine their tails to see if they were sufficiently 
 swelled for amputation. To say truth, I could not 
 look without a feehng of commiseration upon a wdiole 
 herd of young calves of all sizes, destined to pass 
 whatever length of days might fall to their lot ex-
 
 170 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 posed defenceless to tlie attacks of every fly that 
 chose to revel on the blood of the poor tailless 
 animals. 
 
 Warned by the experience of yesterday, I fitted a 
 double set of lines to our tent, so that by slackening 
 one and tightening the other we could convert it 
 into a lofty awning or low rain-shed at pleasure. 
 The flesh of the tiger was white and well tasted, but 
 had doubtless been more tender when yoimg ; in this 
 respect it suffered rather by comparison with that of 
 the wilde-beeste. Some Eushmen who visited us 
 said it was the unkwa, called 'nquane by the tribes 
 met with by Captain Harris. They said the other 
 Bushmen had left on account of their dread of the 
 camera and the sextant, and Chapman of course 
 endeavoured to explain to them that the instruments 
 were harmless. They understood and recognised the 
 figures in many of his stereoscopic prints, but when 
 I showed them the oil picture of the Damara family, 
 their admiration knew no bounds. The forms, dress, 
 and ornaments of the figures were freely commented 
 on, and the distinctive characteristics between them 
 and the group of Bushinen pointed out ; the dead 
 bird was called by its name, and, what I hardly 
 expected, even the bit of wheel and fore part of the 
 wagon were no difficulty to them. They enjoyed 
 the sketch of Kobis greatly, and pointed out the 
 figures in the groups of men, horses, and oxen very 
 readily. Leaves and flowers they had no difficulty 
 with, and the only thing tliey failed in was the root
 
 1861.] INTELLECT OF BUSIIMEX. 171 
 
 of the Markwliae. But when it is considered that if 
 this, the real blessing of the desert, were lying on 
 the surface, an inexperienced Enghshman would not 
 know it from a stone at a little distance, this is not 
 to be wondered at. The dead animals draw^n in 
 perspective and fore-shortened were also named as 
 fast as I produced them, except a half-finished 
 un coloured sketch of the brindled gnoo or kokoon. 
 They had an idea of its proper name, but, said the}^, 
 ' We can see only one horn, and it may be a rhinoceros 
 or a wild boar.' 
 
 This conversation, one would think, ought to set 
 at rest the fallacy respecting the unicorn painted in 
 the Bushman caves. It is said that, in their ignorance 
 of perspective, they have drawn a two-horned animal 
 in profile, with one horn covering the other so as to 
 appear one ; if so, why not have drawn the legs and 
 ears in like manner ? A moment's reflection wdll show 
 that this presupposes a knowledge of perspective. 
 Take a child, give him a slate and pencil, and will 
 he not, as I liave done myself, count the missliapen 
 projections on the head to know whether it is a horse 
 or a cow.P Just so with the Bushman. A true child 
 in art, he wdll paint with his feather, dipped in grease 
 and coloured clay, the horns and ears half way down 
 the neck, the legs perliaps equally distributed along 
 the body, hut he will never fail to give each animal 
 its proper complemejit of members. 
 
 I have searched in caves on Kat Eiver, Klipplaat, 
 Winterberg, Tarka, and at Eildon, the residence of
 
 J 72 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 the poet of South Africa, Thomas Pringle, and have 
 recognised most of the wild animals of the conntrj% 
 witli Bushmen armed with bows, and colonists on 
 horses, and have even seen a snake carefully painted 
 in three colours, black, white, and red ; but though 
 I have heard of the unicorn — and I believe one is 
 figured m Barrow, from a Bushman drawing — I 
 could never find it. And I do not hesitate to say that 
 a representation of a one-horned animal, could I be 
 certain that it was not defaced and rendered imper- 
 fect by time or accident, and that it w\as in reality 
 drawn by Bushmen before intercourse with Euro- 
 peans had made them acquainted wdth our traditions, 
 w^ould confirm me in the behef that such a creature 
 in reality existed. The rumours among Hottentots 
 and other tribes bordering on the colony are easily 
 recognised as our own legends of the unicorn, the 
 mermaid, &c., returned to us altered, and perhaps 
 improved, by travel. 
 
 As our friends had sold us a number of ostrich 
 errops, we ordered one for dinner inside the tent, when 
 w^e had lowered it. It w^as fortunate that we did so, 
 for, just as it was brought to table for dinner, down 
 swept a squall of wind and rain from the northward, 
 and our newdy-rove gear for the tent was called into 
 immediate service, standing the test w^ell. At night 
 it cleared sufficiently to allow us to take a dis- 
 tance between the moon and Venus ; but the planet 
 was so low that I was obliged to reverse the usual 
 order, and take as many altitudes of it as I could
 
 1S61.] OYUMBAPOO BEEKIES. 173 
 
 get, then the distances, and lastly, the altitudes of 
 the moon. 
 
 Thursday, \^th. — Some days since, the Bushmen 
 had brought us a quantity of Ovumbapoo berries, and 
 putting these into a keg, we set the Damara to treat 
 them, secundum artem, with boihng water. When 
 the orthodox interval had elapsed we tried our 
 beverage, and persuaded ourselves (no Devonshire 
 man being present to resent the insult) to call it cider 
 with a winey flavour ; but to say truth, it was far 
 more hkely, as the Kroomen say, ' to capsize him 
 lower hold than to make drunk come,' and was more 
 hke bad vinegar with a taste of apple shreds than 
 anything 1 kno^v. I had formerly made a small 
 quantity uufermented, which was like a thin syrup 
 with an exceedingly sweet and pleasant taste. 
 
 A letter from John informed us that the chief at 
 the lake was well pleased with Chapman's considera- 
 tion in sending him notice of the lung-sickness, and 
 that he had ivory and was anxious to traffic; but 
 there was no chance whatever of buying horses. 
 
 The Bushmen told Chapman there had been a 
 great elephant hunt, in which three of those creatures 
 were Idlled by the Bechuanas after having been 
 hunted about till thoroughly wearied. 
 
 There had also been another ceremonial which 
 does not happen every year, and the rites of which 
 are conducted with such secrecy and caution that 
 no male, even of the tribe, is permitted to speak of 
 it, at least in the presence of strangers; nor do any
 
 174 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 attain to a knowledge of the mysteries except the 
 operating doctor. This, it seems, is a custom equiva- 
 lent to circumcision of that particular division of the 
 young girls who had attained the age of twelve or 
 fourteen years at nearly the same time. They are 
 classed into these divisions from the time of their 
 birth, and as the year of initiation comes on, the old 
 commanding matrons inure them beforehand to all 
 the household duties of their future life, such as 
 sending them unclad in the bitter cold of the early 
 morning to draw water at the most distant wells, 
 to cut and carry heavy loads of w^ood, to handle 
 heated ii^on, and to bear all the drudgery and painful 
 labour they may expect in the married state. During 
 this time, however, they have their privileges. If 
 they catch an uncircumcised boy, the law is in their 
 hands, and he is taught hke the men of Succoth with 
 thorns and briers, the gentle monitresses taking no 
 little pride in the time that elapses before the lesson 
 is efiaced from his mind and skin. It is said that 
 when their numbers are sufficient to justify them in 
 their own eyes, they are not at all particular as to 
 whether the lad be protected by the forementioned 
 ceremony or not. No one dares to resist them, and 
 men are sometimes pretty severely marked before 
 they escape. 
 
 The chief of the lake, Leshulatebe, seems to be in 
 his way a character worth studying. The story of 
 the two Bushmen whom he tied to a couple of horses 
 they had lost, and then thrust back into a morass
 
 18G1.] THE CHIEF LESHULATEBE. 175 
 
 with an injunction not to lose the horses again, was 
 told me by Chapman pretty much as Andersson has 
 publislied it ; and I learned further that, in the year 
 1854, when he was attacked by, I think, Sekeletu, 
 the Bushmen on this side thought it a good chance 
 to sweep off a lot of his • cattle. His people could 
 neither pursue nor dared engage these ' Swart- 
 serpents ' of the desert ; so after a while he dropped 
 a hint that he supposed they thought he was dead, 
 and the cattle were without a master — that they 
 were hungry, and the affiiir was now forgotten. He 
 sent a man with tobacco to buy skins of them, and 
 having by a long course of deceitful kindness lulled 
 their suspicions, he proclaimed a grand battue. Of 
 course the quarry was the Bushmen themselves, who 
 were surprised, disarmed, and brought before him 
 when sitting on his veld stool. He superintended 
 the deliberate cutting of their throats, embittering 
 their last moments by every taunt and sarcasm his 
 imagination could supply. One of the actors in this 
 bloody drama was afterwards in Chapman's service, 
 and related with great gusto the part he had sustained 
 in it. I believe at one time Leshulatebe wanted to 
 try his hand upon our friend Gert, but Chapman 
 interceded for his life. On another occasion, when 
 the Damaras mutinied, he desired no better oppor- 
 tunity to wipe out some ancient feud in blood ; but 
 Chapman and Edwards, declining this generous offer, 
 merely asked him for horses, and brought the fugitives 
 back by measures less at variance with lumianity.
 
 17'3 EXPLORATIOXS IX SOUTIT AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 This afternoon we were surprised by the sight of 
 our Damaras running to tlie bush. That the men 
 should do so was likely enough : something might have 
 attacked the cattle, or a hundred other causes might 
 be assigned. But when the women, snatching up 
 their bundles, followed them in flight, we could hardly 
 understand it. After some time, however, we learned 
 that a cry for help having been heard, the nearest 
 men had run, others without knowing the cause had 
 followed, and a panic spreading among the rest, they 
 had joined the flight, leaving us only a man and his 
 wife under medical treatment, another woman, and 
 the boy. The dogs, it seems, had brought to bay a 
 young wilde-beeste (of the brindled kind), and after 
 dark the people returned with the spoil. 
 
 The rainy season seems to be now setting in. 
 During the forenoon we had steadily increasing 
 breezes from the north ; at noon the wind veered 
 to the SSE. with a squall of ram. Heavy clouds 
 gathered round, particularly to the westward, and to- 
 night the landscape, during the flashes, seemed to be 
 actually flooded with electric hght. It is a new 
 thing, but none the less a welcome one to us, to be 
 obliged to take precautions against rain. Li fact we 
 feel as much refreshed as the old quartermaster did 
 in a morning of good thick Channel weather after six 
 weeks of Mediterranean sky. 
 
 Friday^ 11th. — To-day saw John return from tlie 
 lake. He had been well received by the chief Leshu- 
 latebe, who, as before mentioned, was much pleased
 
 1861.] THE CHIEF LESHULATEBE. 177 
 
 with the precautions taken to avoid conveying the 
 infection to his cattle. Nevertheless, he was so 
 anxious to commence trading that he proposed to 
 send half-a-dozen oxen to meet one of the wagons 
 half-way, and bring it to his place, with muskets, 
 powder, and such other things as we required. The 
 reason of his eagerness seems to be that Sekeletu 
 and another chief (Likomo) are at war for the 
 paramount authority in their tribe, and he fears that 
 the \'ictor will make a descent upon the lake country. 
 He therefore very naturally wishes to arm himself 
 as fast as possible, and is not a little disappointed 
 that we have not shot Gert, and brought the horses 
 to him for sale. He was expecting Poison with his 
 wagons, goods, and horses, and not allowing for the 
 difficulties of getting through Namaqua land, regards 
 his non-arrival as a breach of promise. It would 
 seem, indeed, that Poison had acted incautiously, 
 but principally in giving quantities of goods on credit 
 to persons, some of whom, it is said, have not the 
 slightest intention of papng, while others try to 
 make it appear that he is their debtor, instead of 
 having anything to receive. My friend, as well as 
 most of the interior traders, who are generally 
 regarded at home as a set of lavv^less, desperate 
 vagabonds, have endeavoured to sustain the sacred 
 character which the promise of an Enghshman bears 
 among the natives every^vhere (at least so far as I 
 have any acquaintance with them), and they on 
 thek part are not slow in converting any unguarded 
 
 ii
 
 178 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 expression or want of decision in refusing into an 
 absolute promise. 
 
 Poison's delay, however, arises from causes utterly 
 beyond control. A Hottentot (Lamert, I believe, 
 who owed him forty oxen for a wagon delivered 
 last season) delayed payment because he wanted to 
 make a hunting trip with them ; and when Chapman 
 pointed out to him and to the chief Amral the 
 damage his character would sustain by such an act, 
 sent only twenty, and half of these the merest 
 calves, to draw the wagons up. Any attempt on his 
 part to cross the desert till he has reinforced his 
 spans by fresh purchases, would be nothing less than 
 madness. 
 
 Game is abundant near the lake, and John reports 
 having seen troops of blawe wilde-beestes, spring- 
 boks, a few camelopards, two rhinoceroses, &c. As 
 he was passing an angle of the lake, the natives 
 pointed out an alhgator, and to their great dehght, 
 he sent it to the bottom with a ball through its skull. 
 Bubbles of air, rising from the same spot for a long- 
 time afterwards, showed that it was most probably 
 dying there. When a Koodoo or waterbok is seen 
 entering the reeds, the Bushmen, blockading all the 
 avenues, seldom fail to meet and kill the animal 
 as it tries to escape. Six or seven elephant's tusks, 
 most hkely the produce of the hunt we had heard 
 of, were brought in ; but probably the same cause 
 which enables us to move toward the lake (that is, 
 the rainy season filhng the pools and fountains on
 
 1861.] SAVAGE DOGS. 179 
 
 the way) will also facilitate the spreading of the 
 game over the country, and leave the lake destitute 
 by the time we reach it. 
 
 The chief is a regular collector of guns, and is said 
 to be a better judge of their respective merits than 
 many a European. He was rather struck with the 
 performance of John's little cut-down rifle, and wlien 
 told, in the course of enquiries respecting our arma- 
 ment, of my breech-loader, he remarked that he had 
 one that would fire seven shots in succession (most 
 Hkely a ' Colt,' sold him by Green). 
 
 He has also a troop of savage dogs, bred from 
 one formerly obtained from Chapman, and witli 
 their tastes improved by cultivation. These are the 
 guards of his harem, and the occasional worrying 
 of a man or woman is looked upon as part of their 
 education. They pulled down an unfortunate female 
 while John was at the town, but no notice was 
 taken. Three men returned with John, one the 
 servant of Snyman, debtor in a thousand pounds 
 of ivory to Poison and Chapman, and the others on 
 the part of Leshulatebe to seek a present in tea, 
 coffee, sugar, or, above all, in brandy ; and to act as 
 spies upon Snyman's servant, who is never allowed 
 to be one moment unattended by one of them, so 
 that it is impossible to send any message by him 
 without having every word of it made known to the 
 chief 
 
 This afternoon I found a tree about fifteen feet 
 high and eight inches diameter at the base, with 
 
 M 2
 
 180 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 smootli green bark and perfectly rounded form, 
 tapering gently, undisturbed by any large limbs, to 
 its top. Strong thorns stood out nearly at right 
 angles from its branches, and on these, about half an 
 inch from the point, were clusters of green berries 
 and small purple or crimson flowers. This the 
 Bechuanas and Bushmen told us was the tree under 
 which they find their poison grub, the caterpillar, 
 feeding upon the berries. 
 
 Sunday, IMi. — Gentle, steady rain all night leak- 
 ing in through the Avagon tents, and giving us a morn- 
 ing's work to dry the wetted things, and preserve the 
 rest. Yesterday Chapman made an excellent picture 
 of one of the drivers at an ostrich's nest, storing his 
 plunder in the legs of his leather crackers tied up into 
 sacks. 
 
 In the afternoon the clouds broke, and the 
 evening was clear and calm ; the wind during the 
 day was from the north-east, and the thermometer 
 never rose to 80°. The young grass is beginning to 
 shoot at the roots of the old, and we are in hopes 
 that in a few weeks more we may move nearer to 
 the lake, and make a trip there on foot or ox-back. 
 But we shall most likely not take the wagons there 
 at all, but keep away to the eastward instead. 
 
 Monday, \Aith. — The inner sail of my wagon 
 being so narrow as to allow the moisture to collect 
 along its edges, and drip into the wagon instead of 
 carrying it off, I cut another cloth, and indoctrinated 
 Tapjdnyoka into the mysteries of the palm and
 
 1861.] 
 
 THE MOTJOHAARA TREE. 
 
 181 
 
 needle. True, he made rather slow work of it, but 
 he did it very well, and shortly after sunset it was 
 tar enough forward to cover the wagon again. We 
 find the only way in which we can have anything 
 done is to make the men come and work under our 
 
 DAMA.BA MOTHEU-TUEE IN bEED, BUT LEAFLESS. 
 
 own eye at the wagons ; if they take it to their 
 huts (which, by the way, now form a village of rather 
 pretentious appearance), good bye to it. As my 
 oil picture was plentifully dusted and not yet dry, I 
 sketched in water-colours — first the plant, bearing a 
 ijfreat resemblance to an aloe leaf of which the Bush-
 
 182 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 iiieii and Bechiianas make their twine ; next, the 
 Motjohaara or Damara mother- tree, from a fine 
 specimen about fivc-and-twenty feet high near tlie 
 wagon ; and lastly, the flattened seed-pods of the 
 tree. 
 
 Tuesday^ Ibt/i. — Stuck pretty close to my work all 
 day. I find, on the whole, it is much better to paint 
 in the wagon than outside, unless the subject requires 
 the latter, as even within our inclosure we cannot 
 avoid dust and other annoyances. At night, I observed 
 the distance between the moon and Venus for lono;!- 
 tude, but have not yet attempted to work it out. 
 The day has been fine, with a few white clouds in the 
 clear sky, the wind SSE. ; a whirlwind about noon 
 capsizing the camera and doing other damage. 
 
 Thursday, 17 th. — Withm the last few days a small 
 tree called sandal-wood lias put forth its beautiful 
 light yellow flowers, which droop most gracefully 
 from its long and slender twigs. On examining these 
 for the purpose of a sketch, I found that the number 
 of stamens varied from a dozen to more than twenty 
 on flowers of one cluster, but for a long time could 
 not find the pistil. We sent for branches from several 
 trees, and at last found that some of the racemes 
 carried two or three flowers bearing this organ, 
 spreading in six parts over a small central sphere, 
 and growing indiscriminately with those bearing the 
 stamens ! Chapman next reported having found a 
 small mowano or baobab, which I was surprised to 
 see in the shape of a great irregular rocky-looldng
 
 1861.] SMALL BAOBAB TEEE. 183 
 
 block of root, with a stump about four feet high, more 
 hke a pollard willow than anything else, and clusters 
 of young twigs — some fresh and others broken down 
 — growing from its ragged sides, suggestive on a 
 first glance of anything but youth and vigour. The 
 smallest I have seen on the Zambesi, from twelve 
 inches in diameter, were tall, shapely, youthful-look- 
 ing trees ; and those in Australia, before age had made 
 their stems gouty, were smooth, and round, and long 
 necked, as a champagne bottle, which, with a branch- 
 ing twig stuck in its cork, would be no bad represen- 
 tation of them. 
 
 Chapman has remarked, as I have, that a young 
 baobab is seldom seen, and he is astonished at my 
 telling him of one so small as twelve inches. 
 
 In the evening Chapman made an excursion in 
 search of a bulb, the flower of which I had painted 
 from his description in Cape Town. He was fortu- 
 nate enough to find one just budding. This is care- 
 fully potted out as safely as possible from dogs, &c., 
 and in a few days we hope to have a drawing from 
 nature itself, by which to test the correctness of the 
 former one. 
 
 John lias been employed the last few days in 
 cleaning and putting in order the muskets brought 
 up for traffic. Leshulatebe is anxious, in anticipation 
 of the war, to get into his hands as many weapons as 
 possible, and though he hkes for himself superior 
 guns, he thinks, very rightly, that his people cannot 
 break a musket as easily as one of finer workman- 
 ship.
 
 184 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Oct. 
 
 A pair or two of old boots, pitched overboard, 
 have been picked up, and are worn with no small 
 pride by Kouloloa and Pompey, giving a most ludi- 
 crous air of insufficiency to their scanty drapery, 
 which before this addition, and while it was strictly 
 native, seemed no transgression of propriety. 
 
 Some Bushmen who arrived this day report that 
 the chief Amral had sent them after Gert, and that 
 he is very much annoyed that one of his people 
 should ' destroy the road ' used by the Enghsh, on 
 whom the Namaquas depend for their supplies of 
 arms, ammunition, clothing, &c. The perversity of 
 Dokkie, who would always make up some reply 
 rather than confess ignorance, made it appear that 
 Gert had been obliged to cut the throats of the rest 
 of the horses ; that the pursuers had taken his gun, 
 and that a couple of wagons belonging to white men 
 were with them. But the arrival on Friday 18th 
 of the old Bushman who could speak Sechuana 
 enabled Chapman to learn tliat Gert broke his gun 
 hunting elands ; that he still has horses ; that the 
 pursuers were afoot, and that the wagons are apo- 
 cryphal. We had entertained a hope that they were 
 Henry Chapman's, and do not hke yet to dismiss the 
 idea ; and the hope of assisting his brother, with the 
 chance of catching either the thief or some of the 
 horses, is almost enough to induce Chapman to 
 empty a wagon and go back with it to Eeit Fontein. 
 Indeed if the rumour of the wagons should be at all 
 corroborated, I should most heartily concur in it.
 
 1861.] SKETCH OF A BULB. 185 
 
 I had sketched the flower bud in the afternoon, 
 and towards sunset remarked that it showed simis of 
 
 o 
 
 parting a Httle at the end. Before the short twi- 
 hght of the tropic had faded, it had burst, or rather 
 exploded, into a perfect flower of the most dehcate 
 transparent white, gently diffusing its refreshing 
 odour in the breeze ; not lavishly, as if it had enough 
 and to spare for all the world, but sparingly and at 
 intervals to those who patiently awaited it. I was 
 glad to perceive that, allowing for a few unavoidable 
 shortcomings, the picture I had made from Chap- 
 man's description in Cape Town was by no means 
 unlike the flower. Of course, I placed a sketch of it 
 in its mature condition beside the former one, and 
 well was it that I did so, for next morning its beauty 
 was faded, its head drooped, and it had shrunk to 
 nothing before the heat of the day came. I had, 
 however, been so pleased with its ephemeral delicacy 
 and beauty, that I have attempted to make out a 
 description which I trust may be accepted for the 
 Httle information it may contain, for I frankly confess 
 beforehand my deficiencies in accuracy of botanical 
 nomenclature. Calyx, funnel-shaped, divided into 
 six narrow and equal sepals, each about three and 
 a half inches long, adhering to the corolla three 
 quarters of an inch from their opening ; the neck 
 about five inches long, as thick as a common quill, 
 swelling a little over the ovary, free, or not adhering 
 to the pistil ; bracts, two, twisted spirally, as are 
 also the leaves ; corolla, monopetalous, bell-shaped.
 
 186 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 hexagonal, the angles being formed by the filaments 
 of the stamens, which grow up in the white trans- 
 parent petal. It is deeply scolloped at the edges so 
 as to leave two tongues overhanging each of the six 
 angles ; stamens, six epipetalous, rising three quarters 
 of an inch above the edges of the corolla, and curv- 
 ing inward ; pistil, seven inches and three quarters 
 long, standing higher than the stamens, and perhaps 
 receiving the pollen when the flower droops. 
 
 This night and the last I sat up for altitudes of 
 Achernar, whence I assign the latitude of Kobis at 
 21° 7' Z". Subsequent corrections make the latitude 
 of our station 21° 7' ?>". 
 
 To-day was fine and clear, the wind NNE., in- 
 creasing as usual towards noon, when whirlwinds 
 sweep through the trees, catching up such things as 
 a mattress or blankets, and dropping them here and 
 there along their path. The thermometer was 58° 
 at sunrise, and not more than 94° between twelve 
 and three. 
 
 The effects of the little rain we have had are 
 now beginning to be apparent. The loose surface 
 s^oil seems as dry as ever, but on digging three or 
 four inches, we find that it has filtered through, 
 and is retained by the ground beneath. The dry 
 sunburnt leaves of various bulbs are imbibing fresh 
 vigour, and it is curious to see two or three inches 
 of cool glossy green leaf topped by a chisel-edge of 
 dry sear yellow. The trees partake of the vivifying 
 influence, and the ' Damara mother ' just before my
 
 1861.] chapman's vocabulary. 187 
 
 wagon is really beautiful witli her drooping seed, 
 clusters of rich brown yellow, supported by the green 
 of the young leaves and the angularities of her stem 
 softened and half- veiled by them. 
 
 Chapman is proceeding steadily with his voca- 
 bulary, and begins to find glimpses few and far 
 between of rules by which it is governed. These, 
 however, are still too vague to be positively laid 
 down. The plural, it is generally known, is formed 
 in most tribes by a prefix, as Ama, in the Kafir. He 
 now learns that when a word in the singular com- 
 mences with the same letter as the plural prefix of 
 the tribe, the letter of the prefix is changed when 
 apphed to it. We had a discussion about a sound, 
 which in several words given me by Tapyinyoka I 
 had written as r, and Chapman pronounced as I ; 
 for instance, Urukako, ' a shoe or sandal,' Uruiya, 
 ' a knife,' wliich he wrote Ulukako and Uluiya. 
 Dokkie, when called on to decide the matter, tried 
 to find out which pronunciation each of us favoured 
 most, and while he gave as soft an / as a lisping lady 
 for my friend, he rolled out for me as harsh an 
 rir as ever was ' burred ' out by a Northumbrian. 
 Chapman considers it more like a soft d combined 
 with Z, and in this is supported by Mr. Edwards 
 and other missionaries, and his own ten or fifteen 
 years' acquaintance with the natives. I have noticed 
 something Hke it on the Zambesi, where the name 
 of a tributary liver was pronounced Knenya or 
 Lucuya, while a Portuguese ofiicer wrote it for me 
 Duenya.
 
 188 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct, 
 
 Monday^ 21st — I sketched a very beautiful umbel 
 of white and pale purple flowers brought home last 
 night by Chapman, apparently a kind of amarylhs. 
 The main stem was flattened, an inch and a quarter 
 wide and a quarter thick, the bracts had fallen down 
 and withered, and the pedicles were arranged, not 
 in a circle, but four lozengewise in the centre, then 
 a row of four on each side of them, and one filling up 
 the interval at each end. 
 
 The flower had been too long gathered to restore 
 itself to form when placed in water, but I believe 
 that when fully opened they turn gracefully outward, 
 like the many similar flowers of the country. The 
 stamens were six, with a curved bright j^ellow 
 anther in each, and the pistil about an inch longer, 
 and of the same delicate purple tint, toward the end, 
 as the leaves of the flower. The Damaras were sent 
 out with the dogs to teach them to chase and give 
 fight to wolves and other night prowlers, instead of 
 barking at them, and at night Dokkie and Jem were 
 ordered to lie at the water and try to shoot a wolf 
 as a subject ; but wlien we went down between ten 
 and eleven, calling to them beforehand, lest the 
 vigilant liers-in-wait should send a bullet through us, 
 not even echo answered us. Jem made his appear- 
 ance some time after, but Dokkie was nowhere ; the 
 solution of the case being, that they had gone to 
 sleep in their huts, and one of them hearing of our 
 being at the water, had roused himself, and come 
 down with a tale of his watching somewhere else.
 
 1861.] MAKING VELSCHOENS. 189 
 
 The method commonly adopted among the Nama- 
 qiias, and, in fact, pretty generally through South 
 Africa, for making velschoens, is to plant the bare 
 foot upon a piece of hide, mark its outline, then cut 
 the uppers and fit them on hi the same manner — in 
 short, precisely what we read of the mode adopted 
 by the Highlanders of Scotland less than a century 
 since. To-day, however, wishing to do things in a 
 rather more orthodox fashion than by this rule 
 of thumb method, and at the same tune to secure 
 specimens of the woods of the country in some 
 serviceable form that would ensure their not being 
 thrown away when the wagon became encumbered, 
 ' I made me,' (as Eobinson Crusoe says,) a pair of 
 lasts of the sweet gum thorn, which I found a very 
 compact close-grained wood, of sufficient consistency 
 to work pleasantly wdth a sharp axe, and I think if 
 not exposed to the sun immediately after cutting, 
 not very liable to rift in drying. The outer wood is 
 white — the heart of a dark brown, and somewhat 
 harder. The Damaras were at first rather bewildered 
 at the progress of the wooden feet, but when they 
 saw me trying them in a pair of shoes that fitted 
 me, they at once comprehended and admired their 
 utihty. 
 
 For the last three or four days I have had Tap- 
 yinyoka w^orking at a netting under the wagon, so 
 that the cook may have some place for putting away 
 his dishes witliout lumbering the wagon, and to-day 
 I set him to make a strip of canvas into a set of
 
 190 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 pockets for my centre bits, the points of wliicli are 
 liable to damage when thrown indiscriminately into a 
 box. His day's work amounted to forty-eight inches 
 of seaming, or about sixpence-worth, Cape sail- 
 makers' price ; but his work was exceedingly neat and 
 strong, and though he requires to be kept up to it, 
 he does it in a manner very different from the 
 slovenly and unwilHng wagon-drivers, while he seems 
 likewise to value any expression of approbation when 
 he has acquitted himself well. In such a case as this 
 there is some pleasure in teaching a man, but I men- 
 tion it simply because it is so entirely exceptional.
 
 1861.] 191 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 RENEWED SEARCH FOR GERT AND THE HORSES THE LAMB- 
 CATCHER, OR GOLDEN EAGLE — ORIGIN OF LOCAL NAMES — 
 KOBIS — THE BUSHMEN CHEATED BY THE DAMARAS — A SMOKING 
 
 MATCH — AN ELEPHANT WOUNDED — THE ZAMBESI RIVER 
 
 IVORY TRADERS — TUFTED OWLS — THE VIVEIRA, A KIND OF 
 CIVET CAT ANECDOTE OF PROFESSOR WAHLBERG — PREPARA- 
 TIONS FOR A TREK A LEMUR — EFFECTS OF SUNLIGHT ON 
 
 CLOUDS. 
 
 On the morning of Tuesday the 22nd, I cleared out 
 my wagon and had it cleaned. In the afternoon 
 I fired some shots with Cliapman, and came off 
 second best ; four of his Colt revolver shots enter- 
 ing the iron-wood tree, certainly not farther apart 
 than the spots upon the playing card, and the 
 fifth only a small distance from them. My pistol, 
 an Adams patent, though carrpng a larger baU, 
 had by no means the power of the Colt, as the 
 bullets after striking the tree rebounded and failed 
 to bury themselves. With the rifle I had better 
 fortune. Each of us knocked down our mark (the 
 eighth part of a sheet of Bath post), and my gun, 
 without any perceptible recoil, drove the bullets well 
 into the hard wood. One of Chapman's rebounded 
 more than a hundred yards, and feU a little to the 
 left of where we were standing. His rifle, which is
 
 192 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 not of the largest calibre used by elephant hunters, 
 carries six bullets to the pound, and is charged with 
 seven and half drachms of powder. This immense size 
 lias its disadvantages as well as its recommendations. 
 It makes in an elephant a large wound from which 
 he bleeds freely, and most likely dies, when a smaller 
 bullet, except in a mortal spot, would be absolutely of 
 no effect. But on the other hand no man will attack 
 one of these animals except with a weapon he knows 
 thoroughly, and is in the habit of shooting with 
 daily, and therefore the same heavy gun has to be 
 used for the smallest antelope, half of which perhaps 
 is fairly blown away by an ounce and half of lead. 
 
 On the 23rd, my thermometer at noon stood at 95° 
 in the Avagon, the coolest place I know ; a second ther- 
 mometer, which on comparison with the first stood at 
 98° when used, at a wet bulb came down to 68°, 
 showing 16° for effect of evaporation ; in water fresh 
 from the well it showed 78°, and in the sun rose to 
 136°. On the following day I observed the distance 
 between the sun and moon for longitude, sketched a 
 party of Damaras cutting up an ox, and made myself 
 a pair of velschoens. 
 
 As the Bushmen spoke confidently of their abihty 
 to get at the horses, which they said were now 
 grazing night and day, Gert having no use for them 
 now that his gun was broken. Chapman engaged one 
 or two to go with the Damaras to fetch them, the 
 rest being with due formahty enhsted in our service, 
 and retained as hostages for the good conduct of
 
 1861.] RENEWED SEARCH FOR GERT. 193 
 
 their coimtryinen — no very great security after all, 
 for there is nothing to detain them but a somewhat 
 exaggerated estimation of our power, and the pros- 
 pect of a daily ration. 
 
 The Damaras were placed under the orders of 
 Kajumbie, a fine fellow, and an old servant of Chap- 
 man's, to the great chagrin of the wagon-drivers, a 
 couple of headstrong young fellows on the turning 
 point of manhood. They w^ere strictly charged to con- 
 fine themselves to the service in which they were sent ; 
 to obey their leader, and not to illtreat the Bushmen, 
 although they were to keep a strict watch over them, 
 lest they should play them false. Above all, they 
 were cautioned not to let their guns be stolen, as one 
 mounted Hottentot, armed with a double-barrel, 
 would find neither risk nor difficulty in shooting the 
 whole eight. The only part of the orders that did 
 not meet the entire approbation of the generahssimo 
 of the detachment was the precautions to be observed 
 in the safe keeping of Gert. As for his retaking a 
 horse, or escaping when allowed a moment's retire- 
 ment, they were not in the habit of so far consulting 
 a prisoner's convenience, and we must be very unhke 
 Damaras to show any tenderness at all with regard 
 to the life of a man who had robbed us. 
 
 Shortly after noon they set out, and were seen 
 some distance on the road, with everythmg they did 
 not like to carry piled upon their guides, and we are 
 not without some doubts that the irresistible pro- 
 pensity of a savage in power to tyrannise over one
 
 194 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 weaker than himself may yet render their expedition 
 abortive. Should they succeed in bringing Gert, we 
 fancy our best course will be, after punishing him 
 for the theft, to place him in custody with Leshultitebe 
 until Henry Chapman has passed in safety. 
 
 My sketch of the outspan was again broken in 
 upon by the appearance of a huge hawk-like bird in 
 the branches of a tree near the Damara village. I was 
 obliged to fire with very small shot, the lock of the 
 barrel I wished to use faihng me three times : how- 
 ever, I saw he was wounded, and loading again, I 
 followed and winged him on another tree. 
 
 The bird, which Chapman says is called by some 
 the Lammijie-vanger, (Lamb-catcher,) and by others 
 the Golden Eagle, differs, so far as I can find, only in 
 the lighter colour of its plumage from the European 
 kind. Its spread of wing is five feet nine inches, its 
 length from tip of beak to end of tail two feet three, 
 the leg from knee-joint to tip of talon one foot, and 
 from the wrist-joint of the wing to the tip of the 
 fourth and fifth quill feathers, which are longer than 
 the others, one foot nine inches, somewhat smaller 
 than the dimensions of the Golden Eagle of Europe, 
 which are given three feet three in length and 
 seven feet six for s|)read of wing. 
 
 Its bill is nearly black, with yellow cere and nar- 
 row yellow edging up to the opening of the jaw ; 
 the irides are a bright hazel, the brows overhanging 
 and marked with a line of deep brown ; the space 
 between them and the edge of the upper mandible is
 
 1861.] THE LAMMIJIE-VANGER. 19.5 
 
 bare of feathers but furnislied with dark hairs half an 
 inch long, which also form a small beard romid the 
 base of the lower ; the head, throat, back, and wing 
 coverts are of a light warm brown, partaking on the 
 head of a somewhat redder tint. I used ochre and 
 burnt-sienna in copying it, with a little sepia to give 
 a more sober tone upon the wings. The tarsi are 
 covered all down to the parting of the toes with 
 feathers, longer in front and paler as they go down- 
 wards, the heel being naked. There is a considerable 
 space of white, visible above the tail when the wings 
 are slightly opened. 
 
 The quill feathers, which, when the wing is closed, 
 reach to the point of the tail, are dark sepia brown, 
 nearly black, lighter towards the root and on the in- 
 side, and marked with transverse bars of the darker 
 colour ; the shafts are dark glossy brown at the tips, 
 changing to white as they approach the roots, the 
 secondary quills and large coverts being edged with 
 hgliter colour approaching to white, while the feathers 
 of the tail are similar to the quills, but a trifle lighter ; 
 the toes are yellow on the outside, and grey on the 
 inside, the talons black, and from one inch to one inch 
 and three-eighths in a straight line from the tip to 
 the base. The curvature of the hinder, or the largest, 
 is one inch and three-quarters. I can only add that 
 the skinning him was tough work, and that I was 
 surprised so powerful a bird should be disabled by 
 such apparently slight wounds. 
 
 One of the Bushmen brought in a chameleon ; and
 
 196 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 as I had succeeded very well in drying the last, I 
 determined to preserve tliis in the same manner. 
 Pipe oil was scarce ; but a little tobacco from the 
 bottom of the bowl was put into his mouth, and a 
 little water poured on it. The moment this passed into 
 his stomach strong convulsions ensued, which soon 
 terminated in death. I then removed the intestines 
 and eyes, replacing them with rag, placed him as 
 naturally as I could on a branch, with his long 
 tongue extended as in catching flies. The strong 
 oil found in a long-smoked pipe is instantaneous 
 death ; but some of the Dutch Boers believe that 
 it kills only snakes and venomous reptiles, and 
 therefore that the chameleon must be poisonous. 
 This of course is not the case, although it is furnished 
 with small saw-hke teeth, which make visible im- 
 pression in a pencil-stick. 
 
 Chapman objects rather to my calling this place 
 Kobis, after Andersson's spelling. He says that the 
 Bushman who formerly hved here was named Koobie, 
 and his son who is now witli us bears the same name. 
 These people are considered a kind of outpost or 
 picquet of the Bechuanas. The water at which a 
 man drinks is soon known by his name, and his 
 successor in the post, as a matter of convenience, 
 continues to bear it.' In this manner, perhaps, a 
 series of stations along the pools in a river will have 
 separate names, but a European arriving at one of 
 them, if not aware of the custom, applies to the 
 stream the name given him wliere he strikes it ;
 
 1861.] ORIGIN OF LOCAL NAMES. 197 
 
 another in like manner applies as a general name the 
 word he hears at the next post : and thus contradic- 
 tory and confusing statements are made upon the 
 maps, and a new comer using these in conversation 
 with the natives will be guided not where he wants 
 to go but to the spot to which the word he happens 
 to use is properly applicable. 
 
 Sunday^ 27th. — Seeing one of the small red- 
 breasted butcher-birds upon a tree before my wagon, 
 I pointed it out to John, who took up a musket and 
 fired. The explosion almost deafened me, and I felt a 
 smart stinging sensation in my cheek, the cause of 
 which was obvious enough when I saw the shattered 
 stock in his hand and the barrel in the kraal fence. 
 His hand was bleeding freely, but I found only a 
 severe flesh wound on the side of the left thumb, 
 which I bound up, leaving the blood (after all the 
 best healing salve) to do its own work in helping to 
 unite tlie severed portion. It was a mercy that neither 
 of us sustained any serious injury, for I was perliaps 
 in more danger than the man who fired the gun, 
 as the barrel was rent and blown outward on the side 
 next to me, and the lock, plate, springs, screws, and 
 splinters were picked up just beyond. The shot also 
 was heard pattering about as it escaped, and as none 
 of it went forward through the muzzle, of course the 
 bird escaped. 
 
 During the day I brought forward copies of my 
 map, so as to allow of my sending one away at 
 
 N 2
 
 198 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 any opportunity, without fear of being unable to 
 replace it if it should be lost, and wrote in names 
 from Chapman's previous knowledge of the country 
 — adding one or two where the Hottentot was abso- 
 lutely unwriteable, but preserving the native word 
 wherever we found it possible to do so — especially 
 in the Damara, which, though not quite so liquid as 
 the Kafir, is really a pleasant language to pro- 
 nounce, and, in the case of such objects as come 
 within its scope, capable of a great variety of expres- 
 sion. 
 
 In the evening I went with Chapman to see an 
 elephant's skull a short distance to the west. It 
 was too much mutilated to be worth sketching, but 
 perhaps, from that cause, revealed more fully the 
 beautiful maimer in which the cellular arrangement 
 of the interior gives immense strength, without in- 
 creasing the weight that strains upon the muscles of 
 the neck. 
 
 We saw a small tree in full leaf with its green 
 berries about the size of a sloe ; these generally ripen 
 before the first rain, and fall off as soon as moisture 
 comes, but probably the showers we have had are 
 premature. 
 
 Flowers are coming out freshly in all directions ; 
 one, a beautifully-spreading white flower on a ra- 
 ther straggling shrub, presents in some instances the 
 curious appearance of supplementary petals growing 
 on the stamen and overshadowing the anther. We 
 have yet found only a few thus doubled, and are
 
 ISfil.] FLOWERING SHRUBS. 199 
 
 at a loss whether to consider it an accidental or a 
 regular arrangement. This shrub has a purple sweet- 
 pea-hke flower. The euphorbium, too, is beginning 
 to show its claims to rank among the ornaments of 
 the wilderness. 
 
 Since the departure of the men, the old lady has 
 taken on herself the office of my chamber-maid, and 
 I do not like to find fault with what is done with a 
 good will, although I wish she could dispense with 
 the polecat necklace when she carries the blankets 
 out to air. As for Kouloloa, we propose to give her 
 a new name, but are not yet agreed upon it. Chap- 
 man proposing ' Boots,' while I hold out in favour 
 of ' Goody Two Shoes.' 
 
 Monday, 28th. — I spent a considerable portion of 
 the early morning in taking observations to deter- 
 mine the index error of my sextant, as I am in doubt, 
 while observing the lunar distance from the sun, 
 whether the heat has not altered it by expansion of 
 the arc. 
 
 Tuesday, 2dtli. — We had been reckoning on the 
 possibility of our expeditionary force returning at the 
 end of the week, but by breakfast-time they were 
 seen in single file and open order returning to the 
 camp. They stated that they had been to the Bush- 
 man village on this side Ghanze, or from thu'ty-five 
 to thirty-seven miles from here ; that when there 
 the Bushmen who were reported to have seen the 
 horses had denied all knowledge of them ; that their 
 guides attempted to run away, and that they were
 
 200 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 obliged to threaten them to make them come back 
 to us. 
 
 The guides, on their part, said (Koobie acting as 
 interpreter) that the horses were certainly there, and 
 only wanted fetching ; that the Damaras had dallied 
 at the village as if they were afraid either of Gert 
 or of the sun upon the road ; that they themselves 
 had said, ' Come, let us go on to-morrow and take 
 them,' and that they were now wilhng to start afresh 
 for the purpose ; and finally accused the Damaras of 
 having robbed them of a number of skins, sacks, and 
 other property. Our people pleaded that they had 
 bought some, that the Bushmen had given them 
 others as presents, and that tlie remainder they had 
 picked up when thrown away by their owners. The 
 Bushmen admitted having received a little tobacco, 
 but not by any means an equivalent to the property 
 taken from them ; and as for the presents and the 
 picked-up skins, it was but too evident that our people, 
 like the Makololo on the Zambesi, had been begging. 
 They were, therefore, ordered to restore everything, 
 the purchases being utterly ignored, as they were 
 sent to fetch horses, and their tobacco was given 
 them to smoke, and not to traffic with the Bush- 
 men. Slowly and one by one, after subterfuges and 
 evasions innumerable, they brought in and threw in 
 a heap the worst and most ragged of the plunder, 
 the better skins coming only after threats of punish- 
 ment if they concealed them, and promises of for- 
 giveness if they brought them fairly forward. It
 
 18G1.] DAMARA NOTION'S OF TKADE. 201 
 
 was hardly possible to repress a smile at the dispro- 
 portion between the value of the lot as it lay before 
 us and the tenacity with which the Damaras clung 
 to them, as, but for their own indolence, they might 
 have accumulated a hundred times the amount from 
 our slaughtered animals ; but nevertheless, it was 
 property the owners had acquired, manufactured, 
 and improved by their own labour. To them it was 
 of importance, in fact their all, and no man had a 
 risrht to take it from them. 
 
 At last everything was discovered but one new 
 sack. Dokkie was charged repeatedly to tell the man 
 who had it to bring it forward, and to interpret 
 literally the answers he received. Kajumbie, as head- 
 man, was told of his responsibility as head of the 
 party, and sent with positive orders to search through 
 the huts until he found it, and late in the afternoon 
 it came to hght in Dokkie's bundle. He and the man 
 who had carried it were called to the front, the 
 property was restored to its rightful owner, and I 
 think that not the most devoted advocate of the 
 poor Africans can blame us for subjecting the couple 
 of obstinate thieves to a sound flogging in sight of 
 the plundered people. 
 
 In the evening I sketched and skinned a hawk 
 or kite (Milvus affinis) similar to those found in 
 Austraha. 
 
 I had intended to spend yesterday in trying to ob- 
 tain likenesses of the Bushmen ; but after the wrong 
 they had suffered at the hand of our fellows had
 
 202 EXPLOKATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 been redressed, we tliought it better to propose no- 
 thing wliicli would in any Avay excite their suspicion. 
 To accustom tliem, however, to the idea of sitting 
 for their portraits, we showed them prints and pic- 
 tures, and let them see the Damaras submitting to 
 the operation. One of these last was immediately 
 recognised, the man's name pronounced, and his 
 attitude and peculiarities eagerly commented on. 
 Koobie, after whose father the water here is named, 
 now comes regularly when my foho is in hand, to see 
 what I am doing, and this morning I proposed to 
 him to stand and let me sketch him. He allowed 
 me just time for an outline of his figure, when he 
 became restless, and told us he wanted to follow 
 and join the Bushmen, who have gone back, without 
 the help of Damaras, to earn the reward promised 
 for the recovery of the horses ; and I spent the rest 
 of the day in the prehminary painting of an oil pic- 
 ture of him and his countrymen grouped round a 
 Damara mother-tree near the wagons. A secondary 
 group in the picture I purpose to represent in the 
 act of smoking tobacco, and the difficulty in this is 
 that to make this the principal, and carry it out in 
 its full vigour, would be too revolting, and to half do 
 it would make a milk-and-water sort of affair, 
 
 I had given them the other morning a stick of 
 European weed, and for the first time saw a regular 
 systematic smoking-match. One of them first cut a 
 sufficient quantity and filled the bowl, which is in- 
 serted b}^ a straight stem five or six inches long into
 
 1861.] A SMOKING-MATCH. 203 
 
 the side of a koodoo's or other curved horn ; the 
 larger end is then taken into the mouth, and a most 
 suffocating volume of smoke inhaled or rather swal- 
 lowed, the surplus escaping in a cloud more like that 
 of a smoking chimney than anything we are accus- 
 tomed to. It comes out, in fact, like a dense cloud, 
 fiUing the whole opening of the mouth. The pipe 
 is then passed on, and a draught of water taken from 
 an ostrich's egg-shell, those who are better able to 
 withstand the intoxicating influence spirting it from 
 their mouths upon the shoulders of their more help- 
 less comrades, who lie hysterically laughing and roll- 
 ing upward their eyes till the pupil entirely dis- 
 appears beneath the lid, or dragging out of the circle 
 such as are acted on in a manner disagreeable to the 
 rest of the company. One fellow, an old seasoned 
 vessel, pointed out to me with great glee the succes- 
 sive symptoms, and to display his own prowess stood 
 up and danced with the pipe still in his mouth. 
 For my own part, I half repented of being in any 
 way the cause of such a scene ; but on the other 
 hand, to refuse these poor creatures the only enjoy- 
 ment they seem capable of, would be a piece of 
 cruelty and niggardhness I should not like to have 
 laid to my cliarge. 
 
 Amoncf the Finajoes, levied in the war of 1850-3, 
 I have seen smoking rather more systematically car- 
 ried on. The pipe, as here, is a stone bowl inserted 
 by its wooden stem into a horn of the proper curva- 
 ture. The party sit in a circle, then No. 1 inhales
 
 204 EXPLORATIONS LN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 the iiiiifh-loved vapour, passes the pipe to his neigh- 
 bour, takes a moutliful of water without drinking it, 
 passes on the calabash, and then througli a tube 
 (generally a hollow stick covered with the skin of a 
 bidlock's tail) spirts out smoke and water together 
 into a hole in the groiuid common to all the party. 
 Tt is said to be accepted as a compliment if one 
 man discharges his mouthful on the same spot as 
 
 BECHUANA SMOKING DiVKKA. 
 
 another who has preceded him. A severe fit of 
 coughing succeeds, and the more narrow the escape 
 from suffocation the more intense seems to be the 
 enjoyment. 
 
 The Bechuanas make two holes in the ground, and 
 connect them by a rather scientific mode of tunnel- 
 ling. Water (of which Captain Harris very truly 
 remarks, ' Nor arc tliey by any means ]iarticular 
 where it comes from ') is then poured in, tind al)o\"c
 
 18G1.] A EHINOCEROS' SPOOR. 205 
 
 its surface, in one hole, is placed a little burning to- 
 bacco ; the man kneels down, apphes his mouth to 
 the other, and enjoys the luxury of an unportable 
 hubble-bubble. With a view to such pleasures as 
 these, flat noses and protruding lips seem to be a 
 most admirable provision of nature. Chapman says 
 the Bechuanas in their own country do not smoke, 
 but take snuff, and those I have seen must have 
 learned it from the Bushmen. They do it, however, 
 commonly enough on the Vaal Eiver. 
 
 Thursday, olst. — Dikkop reported the spoor of a 
 rhinoceros at our well, where something must have 
 frightened him, as he passed without drinking ; the 
 Bushmen said they had told Dokkie early in the 
 morning, but he had said nothing about it — a tole- 
 rable sign that none of our people are affected by 
 hunger. We followed the spoor about five miles with- 
 out seeing any sign of his halting — a stray rhino- 
 ceros-bird, which had perhaps parted company, also 
 followina; us. 
 
 In the faint hope that the rhinoceros might turn 
 back to drink, we went down shortly after dusk to 
 lie at the water in one of the old scherms, or circular 
 walls of loose stones, about thirty inches high and 
 six feet in diameter. After some hours of alternate 
 watching and dozing. Chapman proposed giving up 
 the useless vigil, and devoting the rest of the niglit 
 to its legitimate purpose at our camp ; and as tlie 
 Bushman seemed to coincide with him, I consented, 
 if nothing should appear shortly. We were lying in
 
 200 ]:xrLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Oct. 
 
 a half-dreamy condition when the Bushman touched 
 and whispered to Chapman, who cautiously possessed 
 himself of his gun and levelled it in such a position 
 that I could not move without either showing my- 
 self above the scherm or spoiling his aim. Of course 
 not a word is spoken on these occasions, and settling 
 myself down upon my back, with the muzzle of his 
 gun exactly over my face, and about ten inches 
 above it, I waited till the blinding flash had passed, 
 and then, springing up, saw a large black object 
 moving rapidly away from us. Of course in another 
 instant my gun was at my shoulder, and pointed as 
 carefully as the darkness permitted, but no report 
 followed the falhng of the hammer. We had fired at 
 a mark during the day, and I had omitted to reload 
 after the last shot — an utter violation, I humbly con- 
 fess, of the sportsman's first and most elementary 
 canon, to reload at once after firing, no matter at 
 what, or when, or under what circumstances. How- 
 ever, it was not of much consequence, for the rump 
 of an elephant would furnish a grave for a whole 
 platoon of bullets without much inconvenience to its 
 owner. Meanwhile I am flattered at thinking I have 
 at last seen an elephant, and if anyone w^ants to know 
 what it is like, let him take a black mass of anything, 
 the bigger and more shapeless the better, then still 
 further obscure it with a cloud of dust, and he will 
 have a tolerable idea of the reality. 
 
 Next morning, despite Master Jem's assurance that
 
 18G1.] A WOUNDED ELEl'IIAIST. 207 
 
 it was nothing but a ' rliinoster,' we found the spoor 
 of the animal, a bull of the largest size, seventeen 
 yards from our scherm, and Chapman, from the 
 blood-spots on the ground, affirmed that he was 
 wounded in the trunk. This was rather startling, but 
 by following the sw^eeping curve marked on either 
 side like a travelling course dotted over a map, it 
 was pretty evident that he was correct, for had it 
 been in any other part of the body the blood would 
 have fallen in a straight line and within the footsteps. 
 The Damaras, as many as could handle a gun, with 
 all the dogs that would follow, and one or two Bush- 
 men, were sent on the spoor, and returned in the 
 afternoon, informing us that he had joined several 
 others, and was away to the lake. Could it be that 
 this was a spy sent on in advance to ascertain wdiat 
 danger was to be apprehended in coming to the 
 water? Chapman says he was carefully smelling 
 the ground wdth his trunk as he came on, and 
 seemed perplexed by the footprints of the oxen. The 
 Damaras, Avhen questioned, could not tell where he 
 was wounded ; but the Bushmen, by the marks on 
 the trees, believed it to be in the breast, which, with 
 the ball first cutting the trunk, is very probable. I 
 spent the rest of the day in painting in the landscape 
 for my group of Bushmen, and at night went down 
 to the scherm. Chapman proposed that Ave should 
 lie in it on alternate nights, but as he has incurred the 
 main part of the expense of the expedition with a
 
 20-$ EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov 
 
 view to a profitable return from tliis very source, I 
 accepted the terms only so far as it would serve my 
 artistic purposes, and secure me as trophies the spoils 
 of a few elephants of my own killing, offering at 
 other times to be with him, and, if need be, to give 
 him the assistance of my rifle. It would be impos- 
 sible for me to watch all night without sleeping the 
 greater portion of the day, and an artist could not 
 afford to make this a general practice. Of course, 
 no use can be made of any portion of the time spent 
 in the scherm. 
 
 Sunday, November Srd. — Snyman, the half-caste 
 trader, arrived from the lake, for the purpose of 
 coming to an understanding respecting his former 
 transactions with Chapman and Poison. He was 
 willing, he said, to pay Chapman his share of the 
 debt, but wished to let Poison's stand over until he 
 should arrive in person at the place appointed. We 
 had been planning out an expedition to the north- 
 west, in the direction of Libebe, where Andersson, 
 some distance to the westward, struck a large river, 
 which, from native information. Chapman believed to 
 be the Chobe. This was to be put in execution as 
 soon as the rains render the desert fit to travel in, 
 and now it seems Snyman is willing to spend the 
 interval between this and the time when it may be 
 possible to commence our journey eastward, in ac- 
 companying us, and to hunt and trade for Chapman 
 on terms hereafter to be arranged.
 
 13G1.] THE FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI. 209 
 
 He seems to be a straightforward sort of fellow, 
 and we liope will prove more of an acquisition than 
 our last unfortunate adventure in the Hottentot 
 line. One piece of service, I suggest, should be re- 
 quired of him, and that is, to drill Jem and Dokkie 
 into something like efficiency as wagon-drivers. 
 
 He says that not being able to compete with the 
 traders from the Dutch Eepublic at Vaal Eiver, 
 and the Sovereignty, or, as it is now called, the 
 Orange Free State, he had hit upon the expedient of 
 presenting the chief Sinamane with a valuable gun, 
 and marrying his daughter, and as we purpose to 
 build our boat and embark on the Zambesi in the 
 vicinity of this chief's country, it will be a good move 
 to have his son-in-law interested in our welfare. 
 
 We shall not, however, be able to start for that 
 quarter before next April, as fever is rife at the lake, 
 and numbers, even of natives, are dying daily. He 
 tells us that at the point where he saw the river, about 
 two days' journey below the falls, the waves were leap- 
 ing like a troop of springboks — a most apt comparison 
 to one who knows their habit of springing straight up 
 with their white hair on the back fully opened, de- 
 scending on the same spot, and rebounding again up- 
 ward, as if by the mere elasticity of their muscles. 
 There are several other falls within a few miles below 
 the Great Fall, seemingly supplementary to it, and it 
 is probable he overstates then- height at eighty or one 
 hundred yards. The position of Sinamane may be
 
 210 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. ' [Nov. 
 
 inferred from the following data. From his point to 
 the falls is two days' journey, a distance perhaps of 
 forty or fifty miles ; from the same place to Sinamane, 
 four days, and from Sinamane to the falls about 
 three days — all the distances being reckoned afoot. 
 
 There is a Boer from the Vaal Eiver EepubHc, 
 named Swartz, trading and hunting in the country-, 
 who has rather an effectual mode of ' bescherming ' 
 himself from elephants. He digs a large hole, and 
 one part of this he covers with logs of such strength 
 that the heaviest beasts may rush over in any number 
 without breaking them, and under this he takes re- 
 fuge in case of an attack. Chapman proposes to dig 
 a trench, leaving one end open for each of us, and 
 covering the middle as a mutual shelter. I rather 
 approve of it, as one may sleep in comfort while the 
 other watches. 
 
 Monday^ ith. — It appears to be satisfactorily ar- 
 ranged that Snjmian should take over such goods 
 as are for sale from Mi\ Chapman, at a price suffi- 
 cient to leave him a reasonable profit, and pay for 
 them either as he receives the price from native 
 purchasers, or by the ivory of the elephants he may 
 kill. The ivory will accumulate in the wagons as 
 the goods are taken out, and thus save all long 
 reckonings and possible misunderstandings between 
 debtor and creditor. The investment can hardly be 
 definitely settled just now, as there are a couple of 
 men from the lake who are evidently spies upon 
 him, just as others were upon his servant on the first
 
 18G1.] SNYMAX, THE IVORY TRADER. 211 
 
 occasion. In fact LeshuMtebe (Leshoolatebe) tried 
 all in his power to dissuade and hinder him from 
 coming here, and was heard to say to one of his 
 chief men, ' It is aU up with us now ; Snyman will 
 get Chapman's goods, and we shall have to pay him 
 more than the Englishman would ask us.' Chapman, 
 on his part, wishes to have as little dealing as 
 possible with this chief, who, though a jolly feUow 
 when not on business, is an exceedingly shrewd hand 
 at a bargain, and is not unlikely to include in his 
 arguments in favour of a reduction of the price a 
 motion very significant of throat-cutting. 
 
 Tuesday^ hth. — Snyman, togged out in a thorough 
 new suit, took another road towards the lake, and as 
 it had rained heavily the day before, we sent Doklde 
 with him to see whether the vlei, at the hills, five-and- 
 twenty or thu'ty miles from this, was filled with water. 
 All the Damaras now, in prospect of shooting game, 
 are making powder-horns out of the head-gear of the 
 dead oxen. The filling of these makes me wish I had 
 insured my life. When they begin to shoot, ' save 
 me from my friends ! ' 
 
 A long and anxious consultation as to the best 
 means of bringing on our goods left in Otjimbingue 
 and Barmen resulted in the sending of Kojumbie 
 and Kanoa, on Wednesday morning, to carry letters 
 to Elephant Fountain and bring back any intelli- 
 gence which they could gather respecting Henry 
 Chapman. 
 
 Who was the philosopher that was astonished at
 
 212 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 a little girl carrying fire by laying it on cold ashes 
 in the hollow of her hand? Of course he knew 
 the theory, but how often are the untaught ahead 
 of the learned in practice ? Now to apply the 
 story. The sun, now nearly vertical, had heated 
 the dry sandy surface till the barefoot sitters felt it 
 inconveniently. Few of us would have thought of 
 the expedient which to them came naturally. Each 
 of them chose a cake of ' kraiel mist,' and turning 
 it up, stood upon its yet moist under-surface. 
 
 The other day we watched the Bushmen putting 
 ostrich feathers into the reeds or sticks from which 
 the pith has been extracted. The quill was first 
 pushed in as far as the strength of the shaft would 
 allow, and the other end of the reed then tapped 
 upon a stone, till the feather, by its own action, 
 completely enclosed itself Not many would think, 
 when a Bushman offers for sale a reed not thicker 
 than a drawing-pencil, that it contains a plume that 
 might wave as proudly as the finest in the Prince of 
 Wales' coronet ! 
 
 Thursday^ 7th. — As Tapyinyoka had a pain in his 
 wrist from sawing, we advised him to take ofi" his 
 iron bracelet, and rub the part with fat ; and during 
 the day we set Jem and Dokkie to the work of tree- 
 felhng, which, if we are not very poor medicos, is 
 about the best remedy in the world for their sick- 
 ness. Fortunately wood is cheap, and if they spoil 
 too many planks by careless cutting, another tree 
 stands invitingly near us ; and as the wood seems as
 
 1861.] 
 
 A TUFTED OWL. 
 
 213 
 
 soft and evenly grained as American pine, and after 
 three or four days' cutting has not begun to spHt or 
 warp, we think it will make good specimen boxes, and 
 many other things beside bearing poison grubs for 
 the Bushman's arrow. 
 
 In tlie morning John shot a small owl of the kind 
 called hiboa or tufted in Cuvier. Chapman tried to 
 photograph it, but the creature's head was so con- 
 
 di'^ 
 
 TUFTED OWL (hIBOA OF CCVIER). 
 
 tantly in motion that it was impossible. I spent the 
 rest of the day in sketching and preserving it. Its 
 length w^as 10 inches ; expanse of wing, 2 feet 
 2 inches ; the tufts or horns about an inch longer 
 than the other feathers. The plumage, except the 
 white of the face and under parts of the body, was 
 pale ashy brown, for which I used very diluted sepia. 
 All the feathers were mottled with a darker shade,
 
 •214 RXFLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA [Nov. 
 
 and had a dark stripe along the centre. The quill 
 feathers were cross-barred with the same colour, and 
 the tufts and ends of the ear feathers which encircle 
 the face were nearly black. The feet and toes were 
 feathered to the base of the claws. The wind in 
 the morning was SW. Eather unusual, about noon 
 it changed to NNE., with light showers. 
 
 Monday, llth. — The ordinary routine since last 
 entry. We had riglitly estimated the beneficial 
 effects of a few hours' work with the saw, for next 
 morning Dokkie found himself able to rise about 
 three hours earlier than usual, and, calling for his 
 gun before daybreak, hunted till late in the after- 
 noon, and even the sight of a log of wood l}^ng 
 ready to be cut up has ever since had a wonderful 
 effect on him. 
 
 John brought in a fine steinbok, with a fully 
 developed foetus, both of which I sketched, and 
 skinned. The little one, a male, was much darker than 
 its mother, from its dark glossy brown skin being yet 
 imperfectly covered with hair ; its hoofs at the point 
 were soft and milky white, but the centre was begin- 
 ning to turn black and harder — a process which, 
 I believe, is never completed till the little animal 
 enters on the perilous Hfe that is in store for it. 
 The Damaras also contributed a couple of small 
 animals, apparently viveira, or a kind of civet cat, 
 but too much mauled by the dogs to admit of very 
 accurate examination. The head and body were 
 15 to 18 inches long, and the tail as much more.
 
 1861.] PEOFESSOE WAHLBEEG. 215 
 
 Chapman set Tapyinyoka to skin them, as their 
 perfume increased, till even he pronounced it, in a 
 mixture of Dutch and Damara, Mooi kako (anything 
 but pleasant). The head was shaped hke that of a 
 fox ; tip of the nose black, with a dark streak extend- 
 ing to each eye, and another branching from it at 
 right angle to the edge of the upper hp, about half 
 way to the jaw, leaving a spot of white in which the 
 whiskers were inserted. The ears were large and 
 nearly naked. The general colour of the skin was 
 ashy grey, lighter toward the rear. A dark sepia- 
 brown stripe, commencing between the eyes, runs 
 over the centre of the forehead, and continues along 
 the back even some inches into the tail ; two other 
 stripes partaking of burnt sienna colour, and less 
 definite, are ranged on each side of the centre ; the 
 others, as they recede down the sides, are more and 
 more broken up into spots. The tail is ringed alter- 
 nately black and white. There are five claws on 
 the fore-feet, partially retractile, and, for anything 
 I know, the same number on the hinder, which last 
 are dark brown, nearly black, and have a naked 
 strip of skin quite up to the heel, hke a plantigrade 
 animal. 
 
 One evening Chapman related to me some inte- 
 resting circumstances respecting the late Swedish 
 naturalist, Professor Wahlberg, whose untimely fate 
 entailed so great a loss upon the cause of science in 
 this comparatively unknown portion of Africa. It 
 seems that in an evening conversation, Chapman and 
 

 
 216 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Nov. 
 
 Green — the latter well known as perhaps the boldest 
 and most successful hunter in this country — main- 
 tained the propriety of running away directly they 
 had fired at an elephant Avithout even waiting to see 
 whether or not he was wounded, citing instances 
 in which the beast had rushed forward and was 
 standing in the very smoke of the gun when they 
 turned round to look at him. Walilberg, on the con- 
 trary, held that a man's best course was to stand hke a 
 rock, and the elephant would be sure to swerve and 
 charge past without touching him, as he had found 
 by experience in several instances. The party sepa- 
 rated, and Green, rejoining his brother and Chapman 
 some months after, conveyed to them the melancholy 
 intelligence that the eminent naturalist was no more, 
 and that he himself had been so afiected by the 
 death of his friend, that for a long time after he had 
 not been able to face an elephant. 
 
 While watching the progress of a very successful 
 photograph of our drivers extemporising sacks from 
 then- leather continuations for the plunder of an 
 ostrich nest supposed to be just discovered by them 
 in the desert, I was startled by a sudden scream, and 
 turning to the wagons saw one of the Damara women 
 brought to the ground with a severe bite just above 
 the ankle, and a slighter one in the thigh, from 
 one of our dogs, whose newly awakened maternal 
 feelmgs prompt her to give battle to every creature 
 that comes within hail of her mongrel litter. I 
 gave her some strips of an old shirt to tie up the
 
 1861.] DEESS OF BUSHMEN. 217 
 
 wounds, and I suppose she must be doing well, 
 as I have not heard any complaint since. The 
 affectionate mother was banished from the position 
 she had occupied to another where her outbursts 
 of mingled tenderness and fury would be less dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 Koobie and some Bushmen returned, the former 
 wearing a spherical tuft of the ends of black ostrich 
 feathers with the short pieces of stem tied toge- 
 ther and the filaments radiating from them so as 
 to form a perfect globe of jetty hue. Besides this, 
 he had a necklace of elephant's hair, on which at 
 intervals were strung such beads as he had been able 
 to procure. Chapman asked him particularly the 
 name of the place, and he said the water had his 
 name, and he had the water's. The place, about the 
 farthest outpost of the Bechuana power, is named 
 after the first occupant, and his son, on succeeding to 
 the charge, as a matter of convenience assumes the 
 name — our present friend being, as Chapman rather 
 humorously says, by hereditary right ' Lord Koobie 
 of Lough Koobie.' We are only sorry for the sake of 
 all that his ' Lough ' is no longer worthy to be called 
 by such a title. 
 
 One of them evidently gave a false return of the 
 course by which he had come to visit us, and seeing 
 Chapman look curiously at a piece of checked stuff 
 that bore a suspicious resemblance to Gert's jacket, 
 became visibly agitated. Of course, such a thing as 
 this is too slight even to be mentioned to them as a 
 
 o 2
 
 218 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 cause of suspicion, though, as a boy with three or 
 four egg-shells full of water had been hastily left 
 when the women went clown to the pit the other 
 day, we think it not at all improbable that the 
 cunning thief has spies out to give him information 
 of our movements. 
 
 Tuesday, \2t1i. — After many trials — not the least 
 of which was a whirlwind yesterday, tearing away 
 the corners of our tent, carrying up hats, pencils, 
 papers, skins, and even a sardine-box full of insects, 
 scattering half-dried beetles, locusts, and no end of 
 entomology everywhere — I managed to complete my 
 picture of Koobie and the Bushmen, having printed 
 in from actual reality almost everything I could think 
 of as proper to the scene and characteristic of the 
 tribe. One man is busy in touching his arrow-points 
 with the entrails of the poison grub ; his quiver, bow, 
 and various shafts, with other reeds and fire-produc- 
 ing sticks, he near him. Another, with a stick held 
 in his right hand, is pressing with his foot its sharp- 
 edged end upon the leaves of the hibiscus, the fibres 
 of which are separated from the rind by being 
 drawn two or three times under the rude lever. The 
 egg-shells and net for carrying them, and the shells 
 of Baobab fruit also used as water-vessels, lie in 
 the foreground, with broken ivory for sail, tor- 
 toise shells, some edible roots, and the cocoons of 
 an insect which are also eaten. Koobie holds the 
 tail of a brindled gnoo, and the old man that of a 
 giraffe. A man equipped with bow and quiver stands
 
 1861.] SKETCH OF BUSHMEN. 219 
 
 behind them. One is tearing with his teeth the sinew- 
 off the leg of an ox ; another is ehciting a few notes 
 from a bow, the end of which he holds between his 
 teeth, while he vibrates the string with a Httle piece 
 of soft reed. The recumbent figure in the foreground 
 wears on his head an ornament of, I think, squirrel's 
 tail, the skin of which is so turned that the long 
 hairs form a flattened disk, looking exceedingly well 
 upon the side of his black head. He is inserting an 
 ostrich feather into the reed, wherein he carries it. 
 The group in the second distance is enjoying the 
 grateful perfume of a donation of ' the fragrant weed, 
 the Frenchman's darling,' and the Bushman's — 
 though not exactly the leaf referred to by the poet. 
 A Damara is introduced to give an idea of the rela- 
 tive size of the two races. The tree overshadowing 
 the group, as well as another more distant, with its 
 yellowish-brown seed-pods among the foliage, is the 
 Motji haara, or Ooma haama, Damara mother. The 
 more spreadhig sweet gum is beside it, and near the 
 women returning from the well. I have taken the 
 Hberty of transplanting for a couple of hundred yards 
 the stunted little Mowana (Baobab) and the poison 
 grub tree of the Bushmen. The huts and kraal are 
 those of our own people and cattle. 
 
 The rest of the day was filled up by planting a 
 whitewashed pole as nearly in the meridian as pos- 
 sible, with a view of ascertaining the variation by 
 taking the irregular distance of the rising and setting 
 sun, and comparing them with the angle shown by the
 
 220 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 compass. I also made a pencil sketch of the effects 
 of the whirlwind, and a new card to my compass. 
 This is, however, not a favourable place, as the bush 
 obscures the sun at the actual moment of its rising 
 and setting. 
 
 Wednesday, l^th. — Sketched a couple of the beau- 
 tiful amarylhdte with which the country now abounds. 
 I find it of no use whatever to bother myself with 
 trying to paint the background round the outline 
 of the flower, leaving the paper for the whites, as in 
 the time I am able to devote to each I am utterly 
 unable to give evenness of effect in this manner. 
 I now either lay first a wash of the colour I wish for 
 background, or take deep-tinted paper, and then lay, 
 in one touch if possible, the form of each petal with 
 thin Chinese white, strengthening it where the high- 
 est lights are to come, and adding such tints as are 
 required. Whenever my paper admits of it, I make 
 my drawings of the natural size, but in some cases 
 the umbels of these lily-like flowers are so large and 
 beautiful, that I am obliged to reduce them to a 
 fourth. Unfortunately, we are neither of us deeply 
 skilled in botany, and besides this, the ' Flora Capen- 
 sis' of Harvey and Sonder, in Chapman's possession, 
 has only reached its first volume. Lindley's 'School 
 Botany' gives us considerable help, but this refers 
 only to strictly British vegetation. 
 
 In the afternoon I finished a new compass-card, 
 regularly divided from 0° to 360°, which saves the 
 trouble and unavoidable sources of error that are
 
 1861.] A NEW COMPASS-CARD. 221 
 
 sure to arise when one has to write North 60° 
 West, or South 35° East. I took considerable care 
 with it, and I think the hues of bearing now cor- 
 respond as perfectly as possible with the hne of 
 sight. 
 
 There is a httle uncertainty in a portion of my 
 map near the Dubbie bushes on the Swakop Eiver. 
 I know that I have laid down the form of the moun- 
 tams carefully, and as correctly as can be expected, 
 and that my latitudes are tolerably good, unless that 
 of Great Barmen may be a mile or two in error. 
 But I may be wrong in my estimated distances. 
 Chapman, on the other hand, having measured the 
 distance by trochameter, is certain not to be ^vrong 
 in that point. I think, however, we are Hkely to 
 arrive at a solution of the difficulty by ascertaining 
 where John cut a tree for a dissel-boom which I 
 had seen, and fortunately made an entry with refer- 
 ence to the spot in my journal. Often I think my 
 own writing prohx, but such instances as this show 
 that nothing whatever is too insignificant to be re- 
 corded, and specially not the passing showers with 
 gusts of southerly -wind shifting to east and north 
 during this afternoon and evening. 
 
 Thursday, lUh — A clear breezy morning, after a 
 night of thunder-storms passing from south to north 
 a mile or two to the east of us, and sometunes just 
 throwing the edge of their mantle over us. 
 
 The rest of the week has been occupied in endea- 
 vouring to complete my map, which I have now
 
 222 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 brought up as accurately as I am able as far as 
 Koobie, where we now are. As a matter of precau- 
 tion, I have printed off three or four copies, so that 
 should any be lost, as is not improbable, in sending 
 them home, I may not be obhged to go through the 
 same labour again in reproducing them. Every day 
 brings forth its floral novelty, which I sketch and Chap- 
 man photographs, taking in from five to thirty seconds 
 a group that would cost me a couple of days' labour, 
 and sometimes making me envy the magic facihty 
 with which any amount of detail is secured. Perhaps 
 the next minute, however, warns me to be content 
 with the comparatively tortoise-hke operations of the 
 pencil. A breeze rises, the gracefully waving petals 
 defy the power of the lens : the sohd framework of 
 the wagon, the lightly-sketched ropes of the tent, 
 the tin pannikin, the knife, the trowel, even the grain, 
 the saw-marks, and the inscription on an old candle- 
 box, come out with provoking exactness, while the 
 only flower at all definite is the rather conventional 
 red and white rose on the fore chest. 
 
 The beautifully delicate white flower already 
 described hke an upturned hexagonal bell, is now 
 plentiful and no less evanescent. As the day leaves 
 us, the swelhng bud bursts into full and perfect 
 beauty, and before three hours of the morning sun 
 have shone upon it, it has drooped and withered, and 
 is no more a flower. A bush with smooth sea-green 
 leaves, in Hke manner, is covered at sunrise with 
 funnel-shaped flowers of the purest white, with the
 
 1861.] PREPARATIONS FOR A TREK. 223 
 
 slightest of deep purple in the long tube ; but they 
 must be gathered at once : after breakfast, in vain 
 might the dilatory collector search for a perfect 
 specimen. A more hardy ornament of the veldt 
 is the flower of the grappler thorn, richly marked 
 with crimson and purple on a yellow ground, and 
 reminding one in shape of foxglove, monk's-hood, 
 and a host of other Enghsh names whose verisimi- 
 htude is in nowise perfect in my remembrance. But 
 hasta ! — hard business was now before us, in the 
 clearing up and stowing in the most convenient form 
 the things we had been using or should require 
 for use during the trek, not an item of which could 
 be trusted to the wagon-drivers without the super- 
 intendence of one of us. The precautions necessary 
 for securing the goods from leakage of the tents 
 during the showers which now and then pass over 
 us, and the final arranging and putting away of 
 specimens collected up to this date, took up much 
 time, together with successive consultations over each 
 new medical difiiculty among the Damaras — the last 
 case being that of the young girl Kouloloa, who we 
 fear shows symptoms of fever ; her father, Dikkop, 
 also had strained his arm, and bled himself, as John 
 says, extravagantly with a sharp stone on the back of 
 his hand. As the afiair is not likely to be serious, 
 Chapman thought it best to refuse him medicine 
 on account of his having doctored himself, as there 
 is no knowing what effect the combined native and 
 European remedies might produce. A day or two
 
 224 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 since, I initiated Tapyinyoka into the art of putting 
 on soles, pump fashion, sewing them inside out on 
 the lasts, and then turning them so as to hide the 
 seam, a thing that has hitherto been a great mystery 
 to the Damaras, who are accustomed to see the 
 stitches come through outside the sole, where a day 
 or two of walking soon chafes them away. 
 
 Monday, IMi. — Yesterday, Kouloloa (previous 
 to her attack of fever), besides the splendidly 
 coloured little beetles, resplendent with blue, green, 
 and gold, with pale and deep tints of red on the 
 under parts, that cluster on the berries of the sandal- 
 wood, brought in a little lemur, an animal not hitherto 
 known to exist in this part of Africa (that is to say, 
 so far as we know). It seems about the size of a 
 small squHTel, and very much resembles those I have 
 seen near Vaal Eiver, except that its eyes are not so 
 inordinately large. Its ears are large and naked, Hke 
 those of a bat, and its fur a soft ashy grey ; but as it 
 seemed hkely to recover, we did not disturb it for 
 examination, and at night it became exceedingly 
 tame and hvely, showing no fear at being handled, 
 but going to sleep again as soon as a candle was 
 lighted. A httle persuasion induced it to eat sugar, 
 and at the first convenient opportunity I shall sketch 
 it. The beetles aforesaid, we find, are beginning to 
 burst their gorgeous envelopes and come out in 
 simple red, but whether this is the military jacket or 
 the Jeames-like plush of the Httle velvety scarlet

 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 / 
 
 -"__ 
 
 '^ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 ' / 
 
 / 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 /-._ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 r^*/®;,"'"""- 
 
 r
 
 1861.] APPEARANCE OF THE SKY. 225 
 
 insect on the other side of the continent, we are yet 
 at a loss to determine. 
 
 At night the sky was clear, except heavy ina,sses 
 of ciimuh to the north-east, on which the setting sun 
 threw its glorious tints, hghting up the bold promi- 
 nences and throwing the recesses into shadow as 
 if in reahty it were a solid range of mountains. 
 Quickly its brightness faded into pearly grey with 
 a roseate glow still overspreading it, and then the 
 bright moon, invisible behind it, drew an outline of 
 almost dazzling light along its rugged edges, while 
 the flashing of lightning, so distant that no thimder 
 could be heard, illumined its interior with a fitful 
 transparency. The whole spectacle lasted not many 
 minutes, but it was a thing of beauty such as I have 
 rarely seen, and its memory, even to an artist's mind, 
 fit to be a joy for ever. .
 
 226 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 INSPANNING SNYMAN AND THE CHIEF LESHULaTEBE — THE 
 
 MOTJEERIE TREE A METEOR — DUTCH OXEN-DRIVERS — THE 
 
 KOPJIES CHANGE OF SCENERY INSECT-EATING JACKALS 
 
 A FIRE IN THE ENCAMPMENT FEUD BETWEEN SEKELETU AND 
 
 LESHULATEBE QUARANTINE VLEI THE OOMAHAilA TREE 
 
 THE IRON TREE ANTIDOTE TO THE BUSHMEN'S POISON THE 
 
 KAA GRUB — LITTLE NGAMI — THE MOWANA TREE — THE LOW 
 LAND OF NGAMI. 
 
 This morning a vapoury appearance, allowing me 
 to use the lightest sextant shades in looking at the 
 sun, indicated that rain had fallen somewhere. We 
 trust it is in the direction of our intended journey. 
 Everything is now cleared up, our tent struck ; the 
 latitude marked on 'Observation tree,' the tires of 
 the old wheels buried five or six yards north-east of 
 it, and we are now only waiting for the oxen to be 
 watered before we span them in. The old lady 
 takes considerable pains to inform me that she has 
 now entered the bonds of wedlock with Tapyinyoka. 
 What Mrs. Tapyinyoka in Otjimbingue will say to it, 
 is more than I know ; most likely, however, she will 
 console herself for the loved one's absence in like 
 manner — indeed, I beheve such things are matter of 
 agreement and convenience between all parties con- 
 cerned. The last request of the happy man whom I
 
 1801.] INSPANNING. 227 
 
 sketched in purely native costume in Otjimbingue is 
 for a tin box ' to put his shirts in.' 
 
 At one o'clock my oxen were inspanned and moved 
 forward a couple of hundred yards, but Chapman 
 was not so fortunate. First one ox broke loose, and, 
 hunted by dogs and men, charged finally into my 
 span, driving the two leaders clean out of the yokes. 
 The ladies came to the rescue, and gallantly tm^ned 
 the rest out of a bush where they would have almost 
 inextricably entangled themselves and the wagon. 
 The road was now harder, patches of limestone 
 appearing on the surface; and about six we were 
 alongside a hollow or circular depression in the rock, 
 with a hole and a httle damp soil in its centre. 
 Another hour was spent in strugghng up the sides of 
 the little acclivity, and at seven we passed a large 
 Motj eerie tree, and spanned out under two smaller 
 ones, 150 yards from the dry pit, where the rising 
 moon, throwing the deep shadow of a bush across 
 the place where we had made our fire, reahsed as 
 picturesque a scene as ever imagination suggested. 
 The trochameter indicated fourteen miles with some 
 odd furlongs. This is evidently too much. Our time 
 of travel certainly did not exceed, and perhaps fell 
 short of, three hours out of the six the oxen were 
 in the yokes ; and a comparison of the course with 
 a careful latitude, and the estabhshed variation 
 24° 43' bV West, makes the side of the triangle 
 representing our distance travelled barely three 
 miles. I am sure I set the trochameter correctly, so I
 
 228 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 suppose the jerking over the rough limestone at the 
 pit must have disarranged it. 
 
 We found here a messenger from Snyman, who, 
 after the agreement made with him, had gone off to 
 his own home at Sinamane's, taking with him tliree 
 guns and all the other articles Chapman had 
 intrusted him Avith. He proposes that we should 
 meet him on the Zambesi. Perhaps he means 
 honestly, but if so, he has very weakly allowed 
 himself to be fooled out of a very profitable bargain 
 by Leshulatebe, who has told a story of war and 
 mmxler to get him out of the way, and now sends 
 word to Chapman to let his cattle stay at the Kopjies, 
 and he will send others which he owes to Chapman 
 to bring the wagons to the west end of the lake. 
 Then Chapman is to put all the guns into the 
 canoes ; the chief will send for them and take them 
 to the town for purposes of trade. If we had our 
 own boat here we might do such a thing, but to put 
 them in his power without the means of bringing 
 them away again if Chapman should not be satisfied 
 with the terms on which it suits him to purchase 
 them, is rather too much to expect. He might be 
 so far advanced in civihsation as to have landlord 
 and tenant acts, and consider the guns fixtures 
 which the owner could not remove when he left the 
 house. 
 
 Tuesday morning, 19th. — As^it was reported that 
 the road in advance was destitute of water, John 
 commenced sawing up some fallen Mo tj eerie hmbs to
 
 1861.] THE CHIEF LESHULATEBE. 229 
 
 make an inclosiu'e for our meals and working room ; 
 but an amendment of the rumour led to an adjourn- 
 ment of the work, and finally to an expedition of 
 discovery on the part of John, mounted on the old 
 horse, which we never expected to see again aUve. 
 Scarcely have I written the words when the sound 
 of hoofs is heard, and John comes riding on the 
 imexpected horse, bringing a hawk with white wings, 
 red beak, and long red legs, a couple of crimson 
 amaryllidse, and a report of no water — not enough, 
 as he said, even for the little lemur. Nearly at the 
 same time old Dikkop, who has taken back the cattle 
 to drink at Koobie, tells us that elephants have been 
 through the deserted village there. 
 
 Well, to return to the Mo tj eerie. The tree nearest 
 our wagon — and it is not a first-rate specimen — is 
 eight feet fom- inches in ckcumference ; at knee- 
 height above this it bifurcates, and the stems mea- 
 sure 4^ and 5J feet respectively. The bark is dry 
 and grey, and divided into small oblong pieces by 
 longitudinal cracks. The branches are gnarled and 
 contorted hke those of an oak, and in a fine specimen 
 the top spreads so as to afibrd a shade of twenty or 
 thirty yards across. Of one, or rather a group of 
 two nearly in one, distant forty-four yards, the ver- 
 tical angle is 16° 24/ 30'^ and the horizontal 22° 24' 
 00". The appearance of a small bough with leaves on 
 it is very hke that of an oak, but the leaves them- 
 selves are oval, about two inches long, and three- 
 quarters broad, of a warm glossy green, and not
 
 230 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 indented at their edges. The wood is dark, close- 
 grained, and as nigh as possible like that we used to 
 cut on the Zambesi, under the name of lignum vitas, 
 for the engine of the Ma Eobert. Another property 
 is that of being an excellent test of the disposition of 
 our people, for while Bill, after making early coffee, 
 came for^vard voluntarily to lend a hand before he 
 prepared breakfast, the rest hung back till called for, 
 and Jem found himself afflicted with a stiffness in his 
 wrist from using the whip yesterday, httle thinking 
 that half an hour's sawing would be the very remedy 
 we should prescribe to set it free again. We are 
 now in hope that the sickness among the cattle is 
 on the decrease, as for the last week or ten days 
 they have died less frequently, and those we have 
 had to give over to the slaughter before their 
 breath departed have been mostly young animals and 
 calves. Of course we cannot afford to kill the trek 
 oxen, and as the supply of flesh is no longer unhmited, 
 the women collect the skins and hoofs, and boil and 
 pound them up into a very savoury mess. We exact 
 no labour beyond what is absolutely necessary from 
 the men, but encourage them to go out hunting for 
 themselves ; and as a further inducement thereto, we 
 purpose to mark off" three or four feet of lignum 
 vita3 as sawyer's work for Jem and Dokkie, who 
 will most assuredly make tracks as soon as we make 
 chalk lines. I spent the day in making a sketch of 
 the little lemur, and as our visitors flocked round to 
 see it, one of the Bushmen asking, in wonder.
 
 1861.] 
 
 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BUSHMAN. 
 
 231 
 
 whether a white man was really a man, or something- 
 far superior, I persuaded the young Bushman to stand 
 for his likeness, which, though it was not eminently 
 successful as an individual portrait, was yet good 
 enough to raise their wonder still higher than before. 
 
 ATTENDANT ON A CHIEF. 
 
 My sitter (I suppose I have as much right to say, he sat 
 to me standing, as Milton had to write of others who 
 w^ore very nearly the same costume, ' stood kneeling ') 
 is one of the privileged youths on the personal staff 
 of Leshulatebe. When Chapman last saw him he
 
 232 KXI'LORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 was quite a boy, and now, though he has attained 
 a goodly height, his figure is sHm, and his hmbs, 
 especially his arms and hands, delicately formed ; e\d- 
 dently he has never worked, nor does he intend to 
 work. In perfect contrast to him is a young Makoba or 
 boatman, blacker in colour and not so tall by a head 
 as the young ' gentleman's gentleman ' he waited on ; 
 his lower limbs, though stout enough for one of his 
 size, seemed absolutely small when compared with 
 liis muscular arms and expanded chest, from which 
 his breasts projected almost as fully as those of a 
 young woman. 
 
 Wednesday^ 20th. — To-day I turned my hand to 
 thinning out the edge of an American hand-axe, 
 which, as usual, had large segments broken from it 
 by the hard work of the country. When done it was 
 just hard enough to be sharpened with a handsaw 
 file, and to that temper I would ad\dse a traveller 
 to have all the tools reduced that native servants are 
 to work with. I might also suggest that a number, 
 say two or three dozen of such files, should be taken, 
 as most persons have very loose ideas as to their 
 durability. One file will not, as many think, last two 
 or three years, and do the work of a journey. On 
 the contrary, it will only sharpen one handsaw pro- 
 perly, and after that should be kept for inferior 
 work. The saw, also, used by the people should have 
 coarse teeth, widely set, so as to do a great deal of 
 what carpenters expressively call ' sawing wood,' 
 rather than makino- a fine clean cut.
 
 1861.] A METEOR. 233 
 
 At iiight I observed Achernar, but having been 
 occupied by other work, had not guessed the time 
 sufficiently near to catch the star before passing the 
 meridian. While thus engaged I saw a meteor shoot 
 from the low mist on the southern horizon, and, 
 slightly arching in its flight, rise toward the zenith, 
 its head glowing with an intense hquid heat, as if of 
 molten iron, in two or three successive drops, and 
 leaving a train of sparks behind it, gradually fading 
 from a white heat to yellow and dull red. It seemed 
 as bright as a signal-rocket discharged at half a mile 
 distance, and certainly much brighter than the planet 
 that had just set. 
 
 For those who prefer actual measurement rather 
 than description, I supply the best data I am able 
 to give, premising that the nature of the phenomenon 
 itself renders them necessarily very indefinite and 
 imperfect. I counted five mentally, and rather slowly, 
 while it was performing rather more than half its 
 flight, for I did not think of beginning for the first 
 few seconds ; it rose from 20° or 30° to the westward 
 of the meridian, or nearly magnetic south-west, and 
 ascended about as much beyond Achernar before it 
 exploded, not in a great shower of sparks, but giving 
 off a few dull fragments. Could it be that the body, 
 Avhatever it might be, passed through a segment of 
 our atmosphere, becoming incandescent as it entered 
 and losing its heat again when it emerged ? I mea- 
 siu-ed the angle as nearly as possible between the 
 beginning and end of its flight, and found it approxi- 
 
 P
 
 234 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Nov. 
 
 mately 70°, and immediately afterward made a sketch 
 by candle-light. My work is rather coarse, but I 
 prefer leaving it as it is to vitiating my first impres- 
 sion for the sake of artistic finish. This ke[)t me up 
 till it was time to observe Aldebaran (a Tauri) and 
 Capella (a Aurigse), and by two o'clock I found myself 
 ready to go to bed. 
 
 Friday, 22nd. — The sky was overcast, especially 
 to the EjSTE., all day, and rain fell in the after- 
 noon and evenins;. Koobie arrived to tell us there 
 was water in advance ; but it is not at all unlikely that 
 he is sent by Leshulatebe to liurry us on, so that lie 
 may commence trading for the guns. The poor fellow 
 seems to have rolled too near the fire some cold 
 night, for there is a fi'esli scar as big as the palm of 
 liis hand on his right arm just below the elbow. John 
 reported having folloAved a large herd of elands, 
 ' more than a hundred,' for four miles, and we saw a 
 stray ostrich pass through the bush not far from the 
 waG'on. He broudit in also a curious little flower, 
 or raceme of flowers, which appeared to me so novel 
 that, at the risk of exposmg my botanical ignorance, 
 I must now venture on the best description I can 
 give. First, the stem, six or eight inches long, and as 
 thick as a croAvquill, sent forth, at intervals of an 
 eighth of an inch, a number of foot-stalks with three 
 leaves, one large and the other two small, at their 
 junction with tlie stem. About an inch from this the 
 flower commenced with a calyx of four small green 
 leaves ; the petals were small and white, foiu' in
 
 18G1.] IMPROVEMENT IN THE CATTLE. 235 
 
 number, and grew on little foot-stalks half an inch 
 long, all of them turning upward ; wliile from the 
 calyx projected, at an angle of 45°, what appeared 
 another pedicle, about an inch long, with the stamens 
 and pistils growing on it — the latter, as the flower died, 
 sending forth a seed -pod two inches long, and less than 
 one eighth thick. Chapman says the root is used 
 medicinally in cases of colic or other similar dis- 
 orders. 
 
 Saturday ^^ord. — The young grass and the long rest 
 our cattle have had have worked wonders on them. 
 Last night, when they were turned homeward, they 
 ran like a herd of antelopes, and not being pleased 
 to enter the kraal, broke away again, trotting, canter- 
 ing, butting with their heads, and kicking with the 
 other extremities, lashing their sides, or trjdng to do 
 so, with the miserable remnant of their tails, gallop- 
 ing, stump on end, clean away from the herdsmen. 
 This morning we shot one on suspicion of lung sick- 
 ness, but found the lung only shghtly discoloured, 
 and were just about hispanmng, when my man arrived 
 with some oxen due from Leshulatebe to Chapman, 
 and a message to take good care of the raisins, 
 which were specially addressed to me, as Chapman 
 is not a fruit-eater. He said it was quite true that 
 Leshulatebe had tried to get him out of the way, 
 and he was almost persuaded to go, but the Bech- 
 uanas stole the powder and lead he had received 
 from Chapman, and while trying to recover this, he 
 began to suspect the chiefs motives for effecting his 
 
 p 2
 
 236 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 removal, and determined to come to us. One of 
 the Bushmen with him wore as a beh the skin of 
 a python, ten feet two inches in length, and three or 
 four inches broad ; but the size of the snake must 
 have been greater, as this was only a piece cut out 
 along the ridge of the back. 
 
 The weather during this morning being an un- 
 certain alternation of neither shower nor sunshine, 
 kept us in a state of indecision respecting our 
 journey — the rain giving us promise of water in 
 advance, while during its continuance we could not 
 inspan, as the constant moistening of the yokes 
 would chafe the necks of the oxen, to say nothing 
 of the softening; and weakenino; of our trek-touw 
 from the same cause. Snyman volunteered to go 
 on our back-track, and, under pretence of being 
 a deserter, to gain the confidence of Gert, and steal 
 the horses from him. On consideration, however, 
 we did not accept this offer, as the rains would 
 enable the little thief to shift his quarters as he 
 pleased, and it was not probable that he would be 
 ignorant of Snyman's having been with us. Besides, 
 if Snyman turns out a good fellow, his assistance with 
 the oxen is too valuable to be dispensed with in 
 the journey we propose to make. At 3.20 p.m. we 
 left the Motj eerie trees at Mahalaapie, and treked 
 at a fair average pace over the flat, the cattle very 
 soon distinguishing the artistic touching of the 
 voorslag from the slovenly handling they had been 
 accustomed to. It may be an African prejudice, but.
 
 1861.] KNOWLEDGE OF OXEX. 237 
 
 if SO, even my Australian visit has not been sufficient 
 to dispel it, that cattle are never properly driven but 
 by an old Dutch-trained Hottentot ; and many a time 
 have I longed for McCabe's old servant, Andries, to 
 help us out of some difficulty, where five minutes of 
 his voice would have saved us the unloadino- of the 
 wagon. In fact, so thoroughly are these people bound 
 up with their spans of oxen from their very youth, 
 that, with a httle alteration, Dibdin's song, ' A sailor's 
 all one as a piece of his ship,' might be apphed to 
 them. They know individually every ox, no matter 
 among how many ; and I have heard, and fully 
 believe, a story of one of these men, Avho, having lost 
 a cow, recognised her offspring, calved since the 
 theft, and by this means traced the crime to the 
 persons who had committed it. If anyone doubts 
 this, let him consider whether, in the human race, 
 he could not often identify a child by its resemblance 
 to its parents. 
 
 Even the names of oxen seem to be estabhshed by 
 custom so far, that I have thought, and Chapman 
 confirms me in the opinion, that a man of sufficient 
 experience might, on an emergency, choose out a 
 span by name without even seeing them. Geelbek 
 (yellow mouth, generally a hardy, dark-coloured ox), 
 Bonte berg (speckled hill), Blaawe berg (Blue moun- 
 tain), Bles-man (one with a blaze or Avhite spot on 
 the forehead, the general colour being dark), would 
 rarely be anything but good oxen. Holland, Am- 
 sterdam, Steersman (mate or steersman) would not be
 
 238 EXPLOKATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 bad. Scotland is generally a large black ox, and 
 England a red one, not quite dark enough to be 
 called Eoodeberg. 
 
 It would be well, however, for a purchaser to 
 ascertain the nationality of the owner before ask- 
 ing for the last-named, as, though I have known a 
 Bechuana to compliment us by calhng the best ox 
 in his span England, it is commonly said that the 
 Dutch impose that honoiu-ed name on the most 
 obstinate brute they have, for the express pleasure of 
 thrashino- him. 
 
 For loose cattle, however, none is a better herds- 
 man and driver than the Kafir, unless perhaps the 
 ' hfters ' on the northern border of our own country 
 might have vied with him. I remember when 
 returning from the Kei with 21,000 captured head, 
 the Hottentots told me they were obhged to shout 
 in Kafir to the cattle, as neither Dutch nor English 
 was suflScient to drive them on. 
 
 About an hour after starting we caught a ghmpse 
 of 'theKopjies' on our left, on a bearing of 75° 
 and gradually turned through the bush till we shaped 
 a serpentine course toward them. The country here 
 becomes more agreeable to the eye ; the young grass 
 mixed with the dry stems of last season. The mimosas 
 and acacias are putting forth their leaves ; while 
 httle rain plashes lie upon the flats and cause con- 
 volvuli and other beautifid flowers to add their 
 beauty to the scene. 
 
 This day, for the first time, we saw the httle vel-
 
 1861.] THE KOPJIES. 239 
 
 veteen scarlet spider (of course it cannot be identical 
 Avitli the insects on the Sandahwood), but met with 
 nothing to try a bullet on, except a hawk on the dry 
 limb of a tree. We outspanned about seven, in sight 
 of the Kopjies, having made about six and a half 
 miles by trochameter, and at night were visited by a 
 squall from NNW., and a heavy shower continuing 
 more moderately all night. 
 
 Sunday^ 24rth. — One of the women brouglit in a 
 frooj of the kind that buries itself in the sand durincf 
 dry weather, and only comes out after rain. It was 
 small of its kind, being not so broad as the back of 
 my hand, but is the first we have yet seen. Koobie 
 cleaned it, Bushman fashion, blowing the intestines 
 out at the mouth by applying his own lips to the 
 frog's antipodes, and shortly after I skinned it by 
 turning the whole body, without cutting the skin, 
 through the capacious jaws. 
 
 We have both been trying to impress on John the 
 imprudence of allowing the Damaras to dispute his 
 orders, or to give him insolent answers, but he seems 
 as loth to lift his hand to them as we, and the con- 
 sequence is a perfect babel of broad Scotch, broken 
 Dutch, English, and native language, in fact, a regular 
 South African Lingua Franca. 
 
 Our path through the bush, winding as it does to 
 avoid the larger shrubs, trees and hills, or other 
 impediments, together with the impossibility of seeing 
 the path a hundred yards in advance, puts it out of 
 the question to keep a iftrictly accurate compass
 
 '240 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 route. I tried it as an experiment for the first lialf- 
 liour, and the result sliowed that, unless to the total 
 exclusion of every other occupation, this could not be 
 attempted. I am therefore obHged to guess as nearly 
 as possible at an average, which in this case cannot 
 be far wrong, as an occasional glimpse of the Kopjies 
 served me to correct it. A Httle after noon our dogs 
 rushed forward, and we soon after found them 
 bathing luxuriously in a small rain pool beside the 
 road. It is hardly necessary to say they had made 
 it undrinkable ; however, we are not hkely to suffer 
 much from thirst now. 
 
 In the afternoon the character of the country 
 began to change. The first low hillock was on our 
 right ; the road, winding to avoid it, led us to the next, 
 and a couple of Bushmen, meeting us here, led the 
 way across the country to the vlei where Chapman 
 had halted with the cattle. Not for some hours, 
 however, did we succeed in completing the last 
 mile of our journey, and it was not till my man 
 came back to take the whip, and Jem had to undergo 
 the indignity of leading the span he should have 
 driven, that the cattle consented to put fortli their 
 strength and draw the wheels out of the holes they 
 had worked in the soft ground. The rain cleared off 
 again, and we found the other wagon outspanned 
 under a fine maUapie tree, growing, hke almost all of 
 the kind I have seen, out of a large ant-hiU ; but 
 whether the tree attracts the ants, or the fine soil of 
 the hill is necessary to the growth of the tree, I
 
 18G1.] A FEXNEC. 241 
 
 cannot undertake to say. At night I watched for a 
 star, but at the moment of its meridian the watery 
 vapour closed again and frustrated me. 
 
 Monday, 26th. — Chapman, attended by a number 
 of Bushmen and Damaras, went out in search of 
 anything that would supply the party with food ; 
 but after traveUing the greater part of the day, re- 
 turned without havmg seen anything but a guinea 
 fowl and a fennec, or small insect-eating jackal, 
 both of which were consumed upon the spot, and, 
 if I understand rightly, by Jem. The fennec was 
 but slightly wounded, and ran hard for its life, 
 doubhng so sharply that it would have escaped the 
 leading dog, but in doing so ran into the very jaws 
 of the one next following. Snyman also saw nothmg 
 except one ' klumpjie ' of kameels, which he fired 
 at, breaking the hind leg of one of them. I find that 
 my observation of last night, notwithstanding the 
 mist, was not far from the truth, and the altitudes, 
 with one taken on the 26th by Chapman, stand as 
 imder : — 
 
 Sunday, 24th . . Acbernar, 106° 7' 50" 
 
 [Achemar, 106° 9' 50" 
 Monday, 25tli . . ■ a Tam-i Aldebaran, 105° 35' 50" 
 
 [a Aurig£e Capella, 46° 23' 
 Tuesday, 26tli (Chapman) Achernar, 106° 9' 30" 
 The under error is V b" subtractive, and the mean latitude 
 20° 59' 32". 
 
 Tuesday, 26^A. — As the sun to-day was to be 
 nearly vertical at noon. Chapman prepared his 
 camera and glasses to secure a record of the ap-
 
 242 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 pearance of our outspan receiving the rays directly 
 from above ; and when the shadow of a plumb-line 
 thirty-two inches long had shortened to less than 
 three-quarters of an incli, commenced his operations, 
 securing two good pictures before the sun, now 
 passing to the southward, threw the shadow as much 
 on the other side. Wliether any photographer has 
 ever taken a picture under similar circumstances we 
 of course cannot say ; but considering the many 
 chances against a man being ready on the very spot 
 where tlie sun will be vertical at noon of any given 
 day, we feel much inclined to doubt it. 
 
 The declination reduced to our meridian . 21° 00' 46" 
 Thus — diiFerence 1^ hour . . . 32" 
 
 21° 00' 14" 
 Compared with our observed latitude . 20° 59' 32" 
 
 gives a difference of forty-two seconds only, which 
 is the distance of the sun's centre from the point in 
 the heavens immediately vertical to us. 
 
 W^ednesdai/, 27th. — The sun's centre being only 
 11' south of our latitude, and his semidiameter being 
 16', some portion of his disk must still have been ver- 
 tical to us. Chapman took another couple of pictures, 
 calling me to stand somewhat nearer to the camera, 
 and it is proposed to call the resulting stereograph 
 ' the shadowless man.' Those of the vertical sun 
 and of John bringing home a small steinbok yester- 
 day, print very nicely, and it is to be regretted we 
 liave no stereoscope to show us their full effect.
 
 18G1] A HUT BUENT. 243 
 
 Hardly was the photography finished and myself 
 settled to my picture again, when a cry and a 
 rush were heard, and, looking out of the wagon, I 
 saw a hut in our Damaras' village in flames, and 
 the breeze sweeping the fierce flame, that glowed 
 dark and red in the strong sunlight, toward the 
 next house, from which the women were retreat- 
 ing. We feared at first it was the hut in which the 
 young girl was lying sick, but on reaching the spot 
 we found her lying still asleep in one of the others. 
 Short as was the distance, the light grass had been 
 consumed before we reached the spot, and nothing 
 was left but the charred poles that formed the frame- 
 work. Nearly all tlie finery of the women had been 
 lying on it at the time of the accident. One married 
 lady had to appear unbonneted, and Kynamobia, who 
 would not lift a finger to help her suffering sister, was 
 grieving over the loss of her magnificent bodice. 
 It is said, and I begin partly to believe it, that the 
 Damaras are about the most heartless people under 
 the sun. Everybody knows that in other tribes the 
 aged and helpless are left to perish, but that a mother 
 should refuse to pull a few bundles of grass to 
 close up a sleeping hut for her sick daughter, until 
 threatened with personal chastisement if she neglected 
 it, is almost beyond belief. Not an extra kaross was 
 spared to her ; in fact, they seem to have taken 
 advantage of her helplessness to deprive her of the 
 little ornaments she had. Chapman sends her milk 
 and tea, but we are not certain that it always reaches
 
 244 EXPLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Nov. 
 
 lier ; and though he has given her the fever pills, as 
 used by Dr. Livingstone and Dr. Kirk, there is not 
 much use in doing so when we cannot get them to 
 take the slightest care of one another. The following 
 two incidents, which are vouched for, speak for them- 
 selves. On a former journey one of the men was so 
 ill that Chapman took him into his wagon whenever 
 the camp was moved, and had him hfted out at the 
 next halting-place. On one occasion the poor fellow 
 asked for water, and his countryman rephed with 
 such a hateful scowl and bitter taunt, that my friend 
 had him laid down and flogged upon the spot, to 
 teach him a little sympathy for the afflicted. 
 
 It is said that, during a period of distress, the mis- 
 sionary, Mr. Halm, assisted many of these people 
 with food, and finding that a blind girl was imposed 
 on and robbed of her proper share by the members 
 of her own family, he took her into his house, 
 whither her brother followed to take away the food 
 that was given her ; and when this was forbidden, 
 the revengeful villain enticed his sister from the 
 house, and leading her to a distance in the veldt, 
 abandoned her in her helpless condition to be de- 
 voured by hygenas. 
 
 The news from the lake was also a subject of 
 consultation. Sicomo and Sichele are, as we have 
 heard before, at loggerheads, and a casus belli, is 
 no longer wanting between Sekeletu and Leshu- 
 latebe. It seems the latter has subjects from whom 
 he collects tribute on his extreme eastern fi'ontier,
 
 1861.] SEKELETU AND LESHULATEBE. 245 
 
 where they are equaUy exposed to be phmdered by 
 the Makololo. On several occasions they pleaded 
 this as an excuse for not being able to pay tribute 
 to their own chief, who told them to let him know 
 wdien Sekeletu's men were again levying black-mail 
 within his borders. 
 
 They did so a short time since, and Leshulatebe 
 has, it seems, killed ten or twenty of the rival tax- 
 gatherers, and sent a challenge to Sekeletu to come 
 on as fast as he likes. Of course he wants the guns, 
 but Chapman has sent a message to the effect that 
 he cannot now leave a wagon with goods for traffic 
 in a country which the chief proposes to turn into a 
 battle-field by inviting an enemy to enter it, and that 
 if he wishes for anything he must come in person, 
 and come quickly. 
 
 Thursday^ 2Sth. — Last night I made a new butter- 
 fly net with a hoop of brass wire and some pink 
 mosquito net Chapman had brought, and this morn- 
 ing, after we had captured a few, Bill took it in hand 
 rather successfully. He then, after breaking the net, 
 devoted himself to botany, and first brought me a 
 plant called Ombooa, the leaves of which are boiled 
 by the Damaras, then moulded by the hand into a 
 nearly round cake, and eaten either moist or after 
 being dried in the sun. I dare say it was good 
 enough, but the appearance of the mess was quite 
 sufficient for me. 
 
 Friday, 29th. — John busy trimming a new axle, 
 which I find, on cutting it, is not Damara mother,
 
 246 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. ^ [Nov. 
 
 but more resembles tlie Stink-wood of the Colony 
 and the Matundo of the Zambesi ; but it seems a 
 firmer grain than either, and although cut only 
 yesterday, works smooth and pleasantly under either 
 saw or plane. 
 
 Saturday, oOth. — Cliapman has found a large vlei, 
 that is to say, fifty yards wide and waist-deep, five 
 miles to the northward and westward ; and this is 
 likely to be our first move, as the Bushmen say the 
 country to the east is too thickly wooded ; in addition 
 to which, we do not want to risk the loss of the 
 cattle by going into the fly country. 
 
 It is to be hoped that we may persuade Koobie 
 to accompany us, as he speaks Sichuana, and is 
 besides a fine specimen of his tribe. But his family 
 are gone to Koobie to dig the roots called by the 
 Damaras Onaque, and by Chapman Avild potatoes. 
 I have remarked that since we were at Eeit Fontein, 
 none of the Bushmen have brought their wives and 
 children, with the exception of a couple of damsels, 
 'all sweet perfume,' and part, I believe, of Gert's 
 widely-extended seraglio, who visited us at Fort 
 Funk. Chapman says this reserve is occasioned by 
 the treatment they receive at the hands of the 
 Namaqua Hottentots when they come into the 
 country. 
 
 One of the old Bushmen very sensibly advised 
 Chapman not to tire himself out after elephants, but 
 to wait till the Bushmen saw them and came to tell 
 him. He says the elephants are now drinking up
 
 1861.] THE OOMAHAAMA TREE. 247 
 
 the little waters, but wlieii those are done tliey will 
 be forced to Hock to the standing pools, and may be 
 fallen in with without much difficulty. 
 
 The collective experience of our party was now 
 brought to bear upon the axle — Chapman, as the 
 most experienced wagon-traveller, deciding on its 
 form, the set of its arms downward and forward, and 
 the relative strength of the fore and hinder part of 
 it, and the handling of the tools falling to me and 
 John. 
 
 After dinner we walked down to our floAver-o-arden 
 at Quarantine vlei, as Chapman proposes to call it from 
 the fact of our being desired to stay here so long as 
 the oxen are sick. 
 
 At sunset I had a view of the range extending 
 to the eastward from the nearest hill, which we pro- 
 pose to distinguish as Quarantine kop. 
 
 It consists of a pile of huge blocks of syenite or 
 some similar rock, and on all other sides overlooks 
 a flat as boundless as the sea itself, only one small hill 
 being visible to the west of it. 
 
 Monday, December 2nd, 1861. — The Motjiliarra 
 (Sichuana) or Oomahaama (Damara), of which wood, 
 after a discussion almost as tough as itself, it 
 appears that our new axle is made, is a tough- 
 grained wood much resembling the Stink- wood of 
 the Colony or the Matundo of the Zambesi. The 
 heart is of a yellowish brown, of medium depth, and 
 much harder than the outer wood, which is lighter 
 and nearly tlie colour of beech ; its fibre is very
 
 248 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 close, but not straight, being subject to sudden and 
 unexpected undulations, which cause it to tear up 
 with a certain woolliness if not worked with exceed- 
 ingly sharp tools, though in this respect it is much 
 less unpleasant than either of the varieties mentioned 
 above. It possesses in great power, when freshly 
 cut, the peculiar smell from which the wood derives 
 its name ; but this soon becomes fainter, and in a few 
 hours hardly perceptible. Its seed-pods hang in 
 clusters of about a dozen in each on pedicles one 
 and a half or two inches long ; and numbers of these, 
 grouped together on the end of the smaller branches, 
 hang in drooping masses. The pod is very thin, flat, 
 and oval, or rather of a long heart-shape, the point 
 being attached to the pedicle, and the indentation at 
 the opposite end ; the seed is contained in a thickened 
 portion of long oval form, in the centre ; the colour 
 is light burnt-sienna, which when relieved by the 
 cool green of the young leaves, also grooving in 
 small clusters of five or six from the end of a short 
 foot-stalk projecting nearly at right angles from the 
 branch, imparts a pecuhar richness of colouring to 
 the whole. The bark is rough and of a greyish- 
 brown, and in the larger trees is impressed with 
 lozenge-shaped hollows, the projecting edges between 
 having in consequence the appearance of a net 
 drawn over the tree. Chapman, on being again 
 consulted, says the people told us distinctly this was 
 tlie Damara mother ; and Green, who ranks among 
 tlie foremost of explorers and hunters in this country.
 
 18G1.] MOTJEERIE WOOD. 249 
 
 has the same opinion. The flower I have seen only 
 in the bud, but Chapman says it is white or pale 
 yellow, and when developed w^ill almost overpower 
 the green of the leaves ; the flower of the Matundo, 
 formerly sketched on the Zambesi, is of a deep 
 chrome yellow, and reminds me, as far as I now 
 remember, very much of the laburnum. 
 
 Andersson, in a foot-note, states his impression 
 that this has been described as Quercus Africana, but 
 neither the wood nor the leaf resemble an oak ; and 
 I think I remember the ' stink haut ' of the colony 
 being called in a list at the end of a book of tra- 
 vels Laurus hullata. He says, with truth, it is well 
 adapted for various purposes, as wagons, gun- 
 stocks, ship-building, &c. ; but I remember when, at 
 Dr. Livingstone's request, I assisted the native car- 
 penters in building a boat for Major Secard, the 
 latter advised me to use only the dark heart of 
 the w^ood, as the whiter outside was not so durable, 
 especially in the water. 
 
 The motj eerie wood is hard, but not tough in 
 grain, and splits more readily than the other ; its 
 fibre does not tear up even under the saw, which 
 cuts it as smoothly as if it had been planed. In the 
 young tree there is on one side two inches, and on 
 the other one and a half inches, of hard close-grained 
 white wood, which has not shown a symptom of 
 splitting since we cut it, while the heart, two 
 inches in diameter, of dark brown, shghtly waving 
 grain, rifted through its whole length almost as soon. 
 
 Q
 
 250 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 as it began to dry. In the older trees the white 
 wood diminishes in proportion as the heart increases, 
 and those we cut at Mahalaapie had every appear- 
 ance of lignum vitse. We cut large quantities of 
 similar wood on the Zambesi, for the engine, or ra- 
 ther for the furnace, of the Ma Robert. The bark is 
 grey, becoming less brown with age, and though 
 rough, is not reticulated Hke tlie other, but is divided 
 by longitudinal cracks into small oblong pieces. The 
 tree then nearest our wagons (and it was not a first- 
 rate specimen) was eight feet four inches in circum- 
 ference. At knee height above that it divided, and 
 the bifurcations were respectively four and a half 
 and five and a half feet round ; the branches were 
 gnarled and twisted like those of an oak, and in a 
 fine specimen (the subject of my present oil picture) 
 spread out so as to give a shade twenty or thirty 
 yards across. The two trees, growing as it were 
 from the same root, increased the width of the 
 shadow very little, though adding greatly to its 
 density. At a distance of forty-four yards, (the 
 vertical angle was 16° 24' 30" and the horizontal 
 22° 24' 00",) the appearance of a small bough is 
 much Hke that of an oak ; the leaves are oval, two 
 inches long, and three-quarters broad, of a Warm 
 glossy green and not indented at the edges. 
 
 This we think may now be considered as the tree 
 entitled to the Damara name of Omborumbongo — 
 or, as Andersson gives it, Omumborambonga — and 
 of which he says in his note, ' The grain of this tree
 
 1861.] THE IRON-TKEE. 251 
 
 is so very close, and the wood so exceedingly 
 weighty, that we gave it the name of the iron-tree.' 
 He also mentions that the tree said to be tliat from 
 which the Damaras are descended, is to be seen at 
 Omururu; but somehow there must be more than 
 one parent tree, for both in going and coming we met 
 with several Omumborambongas, all of which the 
 natives treated with fihal affection. 
 
 For my own part, I still think that Andersson is 
 right m his affihation of the Damaras, and that our 
 people have misled us. But I have no doubt what- 
 ever of having at last ascertained the native names, 
 both in Damara and Sichuana, correctly, as Chapman, 
 who speaks the latter tongue fluently, and the former 
 tolerably, has taken great pains with Koobie, who says 
 ' he knows all the trees,' as also with the Damaras. 
 
 I consider myself, however, pretty safe in saying 
 that our Damaras regard with a veneration almost 
 amounting to horror the timber of either tree, to 
 avoid which, especially if seen in combination mth 
 a saw and a chalk-line, they will go many a mile 
 out of thek way. 
 
 Chapman has just showed me the seeds of the 
 Omborumbongo, the pods of which consist of two thin 
 flat disks three-quarters of an inch broad, set at right 
 angles to each other, the seed being enclosed where 
 the centres of the two cross each other. 
 
 Another subject of enquiry still m hand is the Ngwa 
 or Kaa, the grub furnishing the poison for the Bush- 
 men's arrows. Of this more anon, as the insects are 
 
 q2
 
 252 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUPH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 still in captivity, and it would be premature to make 
 statements which we might have to contradict to- 
 morrow. Chapman has closely questioned Koobie 
 and others respecting the antidote to this poison, 
 but everyone denied all knowledge of any such, or 
 else brought purposely the wrong root ; still, how- 
 ever, a word let fall here and there helped to put 
 him on the right track, and yesterday, after cross- 
 questioning a new Bushman who avoided giving the 
 information as long as possible, he asked him sharply, 
 ' And what, then, do you call the Kala huetlwe? ' 
 The man was taken by surprise, confessed that the 
 white people knew everything, and brought the 
 plant, the root of which is chewed and rubbed on 
 the scarified wound, grease being applied afterwards. 
 The Kala huetlwe is a small, soft-stemmed plant, 
 with leaves two and a half inches long by a quarter 
 broad. It has a small yellow flower with five petals, 
 a number of stamens, and the calyx divided into two 
 sepals ; its root is something between a bulb and a 
 tuber, rough and brown outside ; and when cut is 
 seen marked with concentric rings of light, reddish 
 bro^m and purple. The people sent by Leshulatebe 
 to trade went away yesterday, taking their ivory with 
 them, as they could not come to terms. The chief 
 wants us at his place as fast as possible, but I think it 
 likely Chapman will only take one wagon to the lower 
 end of the lake to meet him if he is anxious to trade. 
 
 This afternoon we finished and put in its place the 
 new axle ; it is said that Mr. Moffat will make one in
 
 1861.] THE KAA GRUB. 253 
 
 a day, and that Mr. Edwards, who formerly travelled 
 in company with Chapman, will do the same, but he 
 was a first-rate hand with the adze, and none of us 
 are expert enough to handle this useful but dangerous 
 tool with confidence and precision, 
 
 Wednesday, ith. — Cut out a piece of the broken 
 axle, which I believe is of the wood called in the 
 colony Eood eels, for an artificial horizon. The rest 
 of the day I spent in sketching the various stages of 
 the Kaa, or, as Livingstone writes it, the ISTgwa. It is 
 difficult to write this word so as to convey its sound to 
 an English ear, the 'K is sounded as a click of the 
 tongue against the roof of the mouth, and the aa is 
 then prolonged through the nose. There are signs 
 adopted in the Hottentot books printed by the 
 missionaries, and if I can come by one, I will give 
 them, but as the sound represented has to be taught 
 in connection with its peculiar sign, they would 
 convey no more meaning to an English ear than 
 written music to a person unacquainted with notes, 
 or Greek letters to one who had not learned their 
 meaning. Well, to come back to our mutton, the 
 httle brownish-yellow beetle with darker spots upon 
 its body, head, and wing-covers — and say about three- 
 eighths of an inch long — deposits eggs upon the leaf 
 of the Maruru papurie ; these are about one-sixteenth 
 in length, of a bright orange-yellow, and from them 
 issue small grubs, black at first, but changing to a 
 very pale, almost transparent, flesh-coloiu"; the head is 
 dark brown, furnished with serrated mandibles, and
 
 254 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 apparently two pair of forceps capable of independent 
 action. We think we can discern two indentations in 
 the forehead which appear to be eyes, but the highest 
 magnifying power we have is the microscope out of 
 a sextant. Its neck is protected by a shield also dark 
 brown, either in two parts or made to appear so by 
 a hghter stripe down the middle ; its legs are brown, 
 and seem at first only hke small hooks, but examina- 
 tion shows that they are beautifully jointed; and along 
 each side, just at the edge of the belly, is a double 
 row of a dozen dark spots, the uppermost of which 
 seem to be merely colour, while the lower is a small 
 tubercle with a dark-edged circular orifice. We were 
 much puzzled by a covering of green matter similar 
 in colour to the leaf it feeds on. At first we thought 
 it was the first skin peehng ofi", as it lay m loose rolls 
 parallel to the transverse muscular rings of the body ; 
 it seemed gradually driven forward towards the head, 
 where it formed a shield or hood, portions breaking 
 ofi'as it dried, and being replaced by fresh. At length 
 we were enabled to decide that it must be the ex- 
 crement of the creature, issuing not only in the usual 
 manner, but from the pores that are scattered over 
 nearly the whole of the body. When the grub attains 
 a length of three-quarters of an inch, this matter 
 is more sparingly distributed, and is of a brownish 
 coloiu". In a short time the grub drops from the 
 tree, and, burying itself about two feet below the 
 surface, forms its cocoon of a thin sheU of earth 
 agglutinised round its body. Its entrails, or rather
 
 1861.] KALA HUETLWE. 255 
 
 the whole internal juices, are in all stages of its grub- 
 hood of the most deadly nature, and if brought in 
 contact with a cut, or sore of any kind, cause the most 
 excruciating agony. Livingstone says, ' The person 
 who cuts himself calls for his mother's breast, as if re- 
 turned in idea to childhood again, or flies from hu- 
 man habitations a raging maniac' He also says the 
 Bushmen cure the wounds by administering the Ngwa 
 itself in combination with fat ; but they did not tell 
 us this. Koobie says there are three kinds of Kala 
 huetlwe ; one, which I have sketched, with small five- 
 petalled yellow flowers and long leaves, the mid rib 
 appearmg in rehef on the lower side, and in de- 
 pression on the upper ; another with a broader 
 leaf, tasting nearly hke sorrel, and a larger flower ; 
 and the third with the leaf of a wrinkled or wavy 
 form. Fat is used after the chewed root of the Kala 
 huetlwe has been applied to the wound. 
 
 On a former occasion a Bushman gave Chapman a 
 remedy for the bite of the tsetse : it seemed to be 
 a parasitic plant growing either in the hollow of a 
 tree or between the wood and the bark. Chapman 
 thought it acted by restoring to the blood the iron 
 of which perhaps the bite of the fly deprived it, but 
 he sent it home with other specimens by a friend, and 
 has not yet heard any report on it. 
 
 John walked about thirty miles to-day, without 
 seeing anything but one steinbok and the spoor of 
 other animals ; and having decided on starting to- 
 morrow to meet the chief, we shot the disabled ox at
 
 256 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 night, bringing all the flesh to the wagon and seeing 
 that the whole of the ofial was thrown to the half- 
 starved dogs. It can scarcely be necessary to say 
 that this departure from our usual practice was to 
 impress upon the Damaras that it would be of no 
 advantage to them to cause the death of any of the 
 cattle either by design or carelessness. The head we 
 buried in a pit full of glowing embers ; leaving it with 
 the skin on to be ready for breakfast in the morning. 
 Thursday^ bth. — Made preparations for inspanning, 
 and were nearly ready when a message came from the 
 village to the effect that old Dikkop was dying. John 
 went over, and soon returned to say that he was in 
 reality very ill, on which we hastened at once to the 
 spot, and found him lying helplessly among the 
 females of his family, who were washing his wrists 
 with water, and with tearful eyes were singing his 
 death song. His pulse when I first felt it was good 
 and regular, but intervals of faintness seemed to 
 come on, and his skin felt cold. We agreed that the 
 first thing was to restore the animal heat by plentiful 
 covering and warm drink. Tlie women told us that 
 the pain proceeded from the left shoulder, which had 
 been strained some time ago, and he seemed to shrink 
 when the hand was placed between it and the neck ; 
 the suddenness of the fainting fit, however, puzzled 
 us, and, till we learn more, the only thing we can do 
 is to apply a mustard-plaster or a bhster. Bill is also 
 sick, but as his complaint is evidently fever, there 
 is little difficulty in treating him, though we feel it
 
 1861.] A MESSAGE FROM LESHULATEBE. 257 
 
 rather unfortunate that two of the best people should 
 be prostrated at once. Saali-kome-kho, the former 
 invalid, was getting better ; but the syringe, manufac- 
 tured with no small ingenuity out of the exploded 
 rifle-barrel, having been entrusted to him, he had 
 neglected to use it, and this day was ordered up to 
 the wagons to be operated upon. Apart from motives 
 of humanity, I have a personal interest in getting him 
 cured, for so long as he occupies the front of my 
 wagon, I cannot jump up or down at pleasure, and 
 am deprived of every convenience for observing and 
 recording our route as we travel. 
 
 Some Bechuanas arrived with a message from 
 Leshulatebe to Chapman, almost too flattering to be 
 translated, and a most earnest request that he would 
 come at once to the lake, as the chieftain's heart was 
 sore at the protracted absence of his dearest friend — 
 and the guns and powder. A goat was given them 
 for supper, and they killed it by thrusting one of 
 their needles, or rather awls, about six inches long 
 into the body behind the shoulder, working it so that 
 the animal should die of internal hsemorrhage, the 
 resulting clotted blood being, I believe, the daintiest 
 part of the repast. 
 
 As the water at Quarantine vlei was absolutely 
 unfit for drinking, and the pool from which water 
 had been carried for us had given out, while that at 
 which the cattle drank was becoming scanty, it be- 
 came imperative that we should make a move, and 
 after due consultation, we decided on the 6 th of
 
 258 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 December to leave John with the sick people and 
 one wagon, and take on the other with all the 
 cattle, sending back the drivers with a span of 
 oxen for him when we reached ' the big tree,' 
 a mowana or baobab, growing by a pool of water, 
 w^hich the young Bechuana assured us was full. 
 
 Before starting, I had given him half a stick of 
 American tobacco, and while preparations were 
 going on, my attention was drawn to a negotiation 
 between Mrs. Dikkop, another old hag, and the 
 young stranger, the object of which on the part of 
 the mother seemed to be the acquisition of the half 
 stick in return for half an hour's companionsliip of 
 her daughter. Those who believe in the Arcadian 
 innocence of the savage state, and foncy the poor 
 natives know no ill till it is taught them by wicked 
 Christians, ought to have a few weeks' experience of 
 these people. Heaven knows some of us are bad 
 enough, but the utter want of decency, and even of 
 common humanity, apparent here seems to be the 
 rule and not the exception. Bad as some of oiu: 
 countrymen may be, I believe it would be difficult 
 to find a dozen or twenty Englishmen who would 
 not carry forward a comrade should he chance to 
 fall sick upon the road, or at least do whatever might 
 be in their power to help him. 
 
 Our road, or rather course, for we had to axe our 
 way more than once through the bush, lay at first 
 to the westward of north, till we crowned the 
 western base of the third Kopjie, and in another
 
 1861.] THE MOWANA TREE. 259 
 
 mile came again into the regular wagon spoor. We 
 now turned to the eastward, and walked on, passing 
 three or four httle. plashes of rain water, and halting 
 by a somewhat larger one; but the drivers, finding it 
 difficult to keep our track, had turned to the north- 
 ward ; and cutting across the country toward them, 
 we outspanned at last on a barren flat, wetted to-day 
 for the first time with rain water. Not a blade of 
 grass was in sight, and the trees looked bare and 
 dry, as if vegetation had ceased for ever. We chose 
 the base of an ant-hill as the driest place for our 
 bed, and after taking an altitude of Achernar, which 
 gave latitude 20° 52' 52" or 6° 40' of northing, we 
 turned in for the night. 
 
 Saturday, 7th. — We walked ahead of the wagon, 
 on a course of about 70°, about six miles, and 
 halted under a fine Mowana, ' the big tree,' but 
 found the httle puddle of filthy water quite insuffi- 
 cient for our cattle, and as for drinking it ourselves, 
 when the wagon came up and coffee was made, 
 nearly two thirds the depth was thick mud ; about 
 the same proportion remaining in a cambric hand- 
 kerchief, when we strained the little hquid there was 
 through it. 
 
 The tree measured fifty feet in circumference at 
 its base, and was in full leaf, with a few of the 
 beautiful pendent white flowers still upon it. I 
 made a hasty sketch, and Chapman took three very 
 good photographs, showing with great clearness the 
 pigmy-looking wagon, and groups of people under
 
 260 EXPLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 its giant shade ; but as matters stood we were 
 obliged to cut short our work, and come on walking 
 ahead of the wagon for a chance shot at any rhino- 
 ceros we might meet. From a little rising ground 
 we saw and took bearings of the whole range of hills 
 we had left, and also of another called Libebo, 
 seemingly a reappearance of the same range far- 
 ther to the west. We next crossed a flat with small 
 thorny shrubs, but now entered a somewhat closer 
 bush of mimosas, oomahaamas, and other trees of 
 medium size, but destitute of the baobabs, which we 
 had found were becoming plentiful in the morning. 
 Towards evening we reached a hollow of conside- 
 rable size, the bottom of which, though now quite 
 dry, was evidently at some seasons covered with 
 a considerable depth of water ; and near this we 
 saw a solitary gemsbok. As the young Bechuana 
 who had volunteered to carry my gun was far out of 
 sight behind, all the good I could do was to keep 
 myself hidden, for fear of alarming the animal, 
 while Chapman crept up to him ; but the laggards 
 coming up as he was nearly ready for a shot, fright- 
 ened the game and it escaped. 
 
 From the next rise or hill of red sandy soil, 
 thickly clothed with bush, it is possible in dayhght 
 to see the waters of the lake ; but when we reached 
 it darkness was coming on, and a gathering storm 
 sweeping from the south-east toward us. The light- 
 ning played in continuous dazzling streams, the 
 thunder rolled over our heads, and the rain
 
 1861.] SCORPIOXS. 261 
 
 drenched everything, forcing even the scorpions from 
 their holes to take refuge under us as we sat by the 
 fire. These, as fast as they were discovered, were 
 thrust into the glowing embers by the Bushmen, but, 
 for some reason or other, taken out again as soon as 
 disabled; and even one which, to put him quickly 
 out of pain, I threw into the body of the fire, 
 was hooked out again and tlirown aside. At length 
 the loose cattle came up, and as the pack still 
 carried several spare hides, we made prize of two, 
 and forming each a kind of penthouse of them, 
 contracted our limbs into the dry space beneath, 
 and squatted round the fire till the storm was over. 
 The wagon was still some distance behind, and 
 unable to come on ; so we returned, and made the 
 best we could of it for the night. The httle lemur 
 seemed in his element, and jumped about the wagon 
 with surprising agility, springing at the bushes out- 
 side, fifteen or twenty feet distant, and only pre- 
 vented reaching them by the shortness of his tether. 
 The moths that were attracted by our candle he caught 
 cleverly with either hands or teeth, and seemed 
 thoroughly to understand our object when we 
 caught for him those that were beyond his reach — 
 the only drawback to the pleasure of feeding him 
 being that he would occasionally think our fingers 
 a continuation of the moth, and inflict a sharp bite 
 upon them, and would do the same if we attempted 
 to hold him, not viciously, as it seemed, but merely 
 as a hint to let him go. Among the rest, he de-
 
 262 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec 
 
 voured a large poison grub, but hitherto he has not 
 shown any symptom of being unfavourably affected. 
 
 Sunday, Sth. — We walked on early, and in half 
 an hour saw the low land of Ngami, with the reeds 
 marking the former extent of the waters, which had 
 now receded so far that, as the Bechuanas said, the 
 usual outspan on the shore was not damp enough to 
 breed a mosquito. We stopped to let them breakfast 
 on Motlope berries and wild plums, and then de- 
 scended to the shores of 'the Dam,' as it is generally 
 called among our people, who have learned the 
 w^ord from the Dutch and Hottentots. The base of 
 the hill was bordered by a rich belt of trees, under 
 the shadow of which canoes used formerly to pass ; 
 but beyond these was now a dry plain, on which 
 flocks of birds, seemingly black and white ibis, were 
 feeding on the fresh-^vater snails. We could see the 
 trees in the distance stretchmg round the north-west- 
 ern side, and after walking about a couple of miles to 
 the northward of east, came to where the water ap- 
 proached within half a mile of the woody belt, and 
 chose the most elevated bit of land we could, under 
 a fine Kameel-doorn, for our outspan. The bit of 
 water in sight was a mere strip, and the horizon was 
 bounded by reedy islands less than three-quarters of 
 a mile distant. 
 
 A messenger was at once sent by the Bechuana 
 to notify our arrival to the chief, whose town is still 
 a day's journey (on foot) beyond us ; and soon after 
 we saw a number of Mukoba, or canoe men, coming
 
 1861.] HEAVY RAIN. 263 
 
 toward us. They had been sent, they informed us, by 
 theu" chief to bring Chapman and his articles of 
 traffic to the town ; and a private message to me 
 mtimated the chiefs deske that if I had anything to 
 exchange, I was not to be afraid to come too. I 
 desked my respectful compliments in return, but 
 told him that I had nothing to trade with, and had 
 only come to visit his country and himself — an 
 answer which, I suppose, will not tend to raise me 
 much in his estimation. 
 
 Chapman also declined to avail himself of the 
 canoes, as he did not wish to leave his wagon, and 
 had expected the chief to meet him. No end of 
 flattery, which would have done credit to a courtier, 
 was expended by His Highness's messengers, and of 
 course a corresponding amount of diplomacy was 
 requii'ed in return. 
 
 We stretched our tent beside the wagon, but 
 during the night were roused up by a flood of rain, 
 that made us glad to creep into the wagon again with 
 the few things that we could preserve from the flood 
 above and beneath us ; and before morning, although 
 the precaution had been taken to cover them Avith a 
 large tin bath, the whole of the six puppies were 
 absolutely drowned. The sun shone out in the 
 morning, and we spread out such things to dry as 
 could not be easily stolen, heaping the rest on the 
 wagon roof for the best chance we could give them. 
 The chief, it was said, yesterday was detained a 
 prisoner by the women, who would not let him go
 
 2G4 EXPL0RATI0X3 IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Dkc. 
 
 till he made rain for them ; and the shower of last 
 night is now pointed to as a proof of his skill in that 
 line. They tell us we are cowards, not to revenge 
 the death of the missionaries and their families on 
 Sekeletu; and when Chapman told them Li\dngstone 
 had written that the unfortunate people were the 
 victims of fever, and not of treachery, they replied 
 unanswerably : ' If Sekeletu was their friend, why 
 did he rob the survivors of their wagon ?' 
 
 About noon, after drying their wetted nets, fish, 
 &c., the Bakoba shouldered their paddles and de- 
 parted, followed by the Bechuana, not very well 
 pleased with the result of their mission. In the after- 
 noon Chapman shot an ox, one of the last suspected 
 of lung sickness. I walked over to the reeds and 
 bulrushes at the water's edge, and thought the slip 
 we saw might be a quarter of a mile broad, but very 
 shallow, as little avosettas and other wading birds 
 were running far out, and even in the centre a heron 
 was standing with not a third of his legs immersed. 
 In the evening I took the angular distance between 
 the moon and Venus, and Chapman afterwards ob- 
 served the altitude of Aldebaran, which gave lati- 
 tude 20° 36' 38''. (Date, Monday, 9th December, 
 1861.) Camp at edge of the trees formerly marking 
 the border of the lake. 
 
 Wednesday, 11th. — Copied out the arrears of the 
 log, ' bringing it up to the current date.' I hope we 
 shaU be able to move forward soon, as the warm 
 moist atmosphere seems to produce a lassitude and
 
 1861.] A BRILLIAXT-COLOURED CATERPILLAR. 265 
 
 weariness after any slight exertion, quite unknown 
 during our passage of the desert. At night we took 
 a hght under the trees, and caught a couple of tole- 
 rably large moths, and in returning to the wagon, I 
 made two or three sketches of the lemur, in the 
 lively positions he assumed, while catching moths or 
 boundinoj about the wao'on. Like the insects he hves 
 on, he seems to have a kind of irresistible tendency 
 toward the candle, and, if his tether is left long 
 enough, frequently upsets it. We add a few daily to 
 our collection of insects, and having no more spirit 
 to preserve them in, scald them in boihng water, 
 and not infrequently, if it happens not to be quite 
 up to the mark, find our supposed dead specimens 
 resuscitated, and some ravenous beetle devouring 
 others worth a dozen of himself. 
 
 Thursday^ 12th. — I copied a brilhantly coloured 
 caterpillar, the body of which was an emerald green, 
 with two rows of silvery spikes along each side of 
 its back ; a purple hue marking the edge of the belly, 
 and other thorns or spikes of deep yellow, and a 
 quantity of dead white spots, distributed all over. 
 
 After this, I walked back nearly a mile to a small 
 hill that commanded a view of this portion of the 
 lake, and from which I could see the trees extending 
 all round upon my left or western side, to the north, 
 and apparently terminating about 70° more to the 
 eastward. 
 
 The extremities of the nearest water, the shallow 
 strip with reedy banks I have before spoken of.
 
 2GG EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 reached from 5° to 75°, and as inucli as I could see 
 of the distant or main body, from 330° or 30° west of 
 north to 75° east, or 15° more than a quarter of the 
 compass. The distant trees did not seem to me 
 above ten miles away, and certainly, I should say, 
 not fifteen, and I believe this end is called Little 
 Ngami. Green, I believe, brought up a boat of a 
 pecuhar build, very broad and shallow, drawing not 
 more than six inches water, and fitted with lockers 
 for convenience during an extended trip ; the natives 
 ridiculed her greatly, and expected no end of triumph 
 over the stupid Enghshmen when the great broad 
 thing was put upon the water, fancying that its speed 
 hke its shape must correspond to that of a tortoise, 
 and that their canoes w^ould be able to play round it 
 much as a privateer used to do round an old log of 
 a merchantman. The first hoisting of the sail to an 
 easterly breeze dispelled all these ideas, and the 
 manner in which she cruised about the lake con- 
 vinced them that Englishmen knew something beyond 
 making houses iim upon wheels. Green has offered 
 the use of her to Chapman, but it is said the Bechu- 
 anas have stolen the iron out of her, and if so, it is 
 not likely they have taken mucli pains to preserve 
 the woodwork. 
 
 As I returned, after finishing my sketch, I saw 
 John comino; over the flat with the other wao-on, 
 converted, pro tein., into an ambulance for the sick 
 people. It drew up alongside the other, and being 
 partially cleared, is to be cleaned to-morrow. Among
 
 18G1.] DESTRUCTIVENESS OP INSECTS. 267 
 
 the catastrophes consequent on non-superintendence, 
 we find it reported tliat a family of field-mice had 
 found their way into it, and have been tearing the 
 paper off my botanical specimens ; the thermometer 
 is broken, relieving me from the task of further ob- 
 servations on that score, and one of Chapman's mus- 
 kets, having been allowed to come m contact A\dth 
 the fore-axle, has its barrel regularly bent round, the 
 wood of course being rifted to pieces. Perhaps, by 
 cutting it off, we may save an escopette or short gun 
 of eighteen inches barrel, but its value as for sale is 
 ffone for ever. 
 
 Friday, IWi. — Emptied the wagon, and, looking 
 over my collection of skins, found them in a lament- 
 able state. Wlien we opened the box, a small hairy 
 grub and a black and white beetle, in spite of arsen- 
 ical soap and pepper enough to make one sneeze, 
 were revelling- in the work of destruction. Even the 
 
 o 
 
 sandals Tapyinyoka had made for me out of eland's 
 hide were partially consumed ; the meerkat skins, 
 the little steinbok, and several others were utterly 
 ruined ; and while I was collecting the remnants, the 
 gathering clouds warned me to stow away every- 
 thing as quickly as possible. 
 
 A storm coming from the eastward, which had 
 been brooding all the morning, passed to the west end 
 of the lake, then workhig round by the north came 
 back upon us, leaving a few drops as it passed to the 
 south-east, whence it. soon returned in full force, 
 leaving, in the short time it lasted, about three-
 
 2G8 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 quarters of an inch of water in such vessels as stood 
 about. 
 
 The Hghtning, though day was not yet closed, 
 was very vivid, darting both upward and downward, 
 and not vanishing at once, but remaining for some 
 seconds, like a glittering, agitated riband connecting 
 heaven and earth. 
 
 Our supplies are beginning to show signs that 
 they will not last for ever, and, by common consent, 
 we have put away what little remains of the sugar 
 and the meal, lest anyone should require it in sick- 
 ness. 
 
 We have still tea, coffee, and a little biscuit, and 
 we hope to buy native corn a little farther on ; 
 clothing of course goes as provisions do, one little 
 pillow-case holds all mine now. 
 
 Saturday, l^th. — Seeing that an old teapot that 
 had been left out during the night contained a con- 
 siderable quantity of water, I poured it into a cylin- 
 drical vessel for convenience of measurement, and 
 found its depth 4^ inches ; this, however, is a trifle 
 more than the true depth of rain that fell, inasmuch 
 as while the opening of the teapot was 3J inches in 
 diameter, that of the vessel I poured it into was only 
 2^, so that the net rain-fall may be estimated 
 at 4 •1625 inches. It is said by the natives that 
 the rains do not affect the depth of the lake, and 
 probably they do not to any great extent. But this 
 morning the clump of reeds that I had walked to the 
 other day had become an island, witli three or four
 
 1861.] EARTH-SNAKES. 269 
 
 inches of water all round it, and small patches of 
 water appeared in many places that had been only 
 mud before. John is busy making a new dissel-boom, 
 to replace the one broken by Jem in bringing the 
 wagon up, Chapman printing half-a-dozen successful 
 photographs lately taken, and I, after throwing away 
 some more bird-skins, utterly ruined by the uncon- 
 querable little pests, set to work again at my picture 
 of the Motj eerie trees. The afternoon threatened 
 rain, but the evenmg, though cloudy, has not yet 
 fulfilled it. 
 
 Sunday^ loth. — Some of the women brought in an 
 earth-snake, or worm, for it seems to partake of the 
 character of both ; it was much bruised, and about a 
 foot or fifteen inches in length. It is as thick as a 
 drawing pencil ; its head was protected by a hard 
 spade-shaped shield, admirably adapted for piercing 
 soft or loose soil, and its tail, about two and a half 
 inches long, and very sohd, was terminated by a hard 
 flat ' wad,' forming as it were the last ring. I thought 
 at first it had been broken short off, but examination 
 showed no signs of this, and I suppose this singular 
 appendage must be given to enable it to force back- 
 ward the superfluous earth through the passage it is 
 making ; l3ody and tail are of equal size throughout, 
 marked with muscular rings hke those of a worm, 
 and resembling it in colour, but again subdivided 
 by little ridges into squares, and marked near the 
 head with scales hke those of a snake. There are 
 other and more auOTiform varieties, but I have never
 
 270 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 again seen the Voetjes Slang (four-footed snake) 
 or Slang Hagurclis (snake lizard) which I once sent 
 home from Mooi Eiver in the Trans Vaal. 
 
 John shot one out of the flock of ibis that wander 
 over the flats, and brought it in, but the appearance 
 of the head seemed so much at variance with that of 
 the kinds I have hitherto seen, that I was at first 
 inclined rather to doubt. Its bill, very slightly curved 
 and thickenino; toward the base, suo-o-ested the idea 
 of an adjutant, while the nearly naked neck gave it 
 the look of a vulture, and probably also its name in 
 Sichuana, which, as Chapman says, is Manun (or 
 Manung) a Noka, vulture of the river. I can hardly 
 make out an exact correspondence with any species 
 described either in Maunder's or our abridgement of 
 Cuvier. It seems to come nearest to that kind of 
 ibis described as Tantalus, but the African species is 
 there said to be ' white, slightly shaded with purple 
 on the wings,' whereas the general colour of this is 
 a deep sepia brown with a shifting gloss of green, 
 according to the play of light over the wings, and a 
 similar glow of purple on the feathers at the base of 
 the neck ; the body and under side of the tail are 
 white, but when the wings are closed they completely 
 cover the back, so that the white on the breast only 
 is visible. On the inside of the wing, at the last 
 turn or wrist-joint, the feathers are hgliter, and allow 
 a little pale scarlet skin to appear through them ; the 
 beak is about four or five inches long, of a horn- 
 colour, deepening into l)rown at the point and pass-
 
 I86I.] THE IBIS. 271 
 
 ing into grey at the base ; the skin is naked to just 
 beyond the ears and eyes, and of a hght bkie. The 
 eyes are black, and the hds hned with a narrow 
 strip of vermihon, a patch of which spreads also 
 round their lower angle ; the skin under the beak is 
 of the same, but rather a deeper coloiu" ; the legs are 
 somewhat paler, with black or dark brown claws, 
 and the toes are very slightly webbed — hardly so far 
 as the first joint in fact, the merest extension of the 
 membrane between them ; its length from tip of beak 
 to tip of toe is two feet eight inches, and spread of 
 wings two feet four inches. 
 
 In the evening a tliLinder-storm passed over the 
 lake about a mile to the north of us. One flash, 
 streaming from above, set fire to the reeds, which 
 burnt furiously for some time after, sending up 
 sheets of red flame more than twenty feet liigh, 
 while the broAvn smoke, drifting first to the west- 
 ward under the easterly breeze, was caught by a 
 northerly current, sa}" at ninety feet high, and borne 
 toward us.
 
 272 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EARTH-SNAICES BECHUANA THIEVTDS EFFECTS OF HEAT ON 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS VISIT OF LESHULATEBK BAR- 
 TERING ADROIT ROBBERIES EXTORTIONATENESS OF THE 
 
 BECHUANAS CHRISTMAS DAY PREPARATIONS FOR THE 
 
 JOURNEY INTO THE FAR INTERIOR. 
 
 On the ITtli of December I examined the map with 
 a view of deciding on our course so as to pass to the 
 southward of the cattle-posts, should Leshuhitebe be 
 playing us false. During the forenoon his messengers 
 arrived, bringing a couple of quarts of honey and a 
 basket of dried ants, lest we should be liungry. The 
 chief having made rain enough, was now at liberty to 
 visit us, and would come shortly with ivory. A 
 council of the tribe had been held, and though lie 
 and his uncle wished us to come straight on, the 
 people were desirous that we should be made to pass 
 another way, saying they would oppose the power 
 of the tribe (they use here a word implying a threat 
 of actual force without saying it in plain terms) 
 to our passage. Snyman, who had left us three wrecks 
 or a month aojo witli two or three o!:uns and ammiini- 
 tion for an elephant hunt, ' lost his way ' again, his 
 Bechuanas ' losing theirs ' also, and not only that, but 
 ' losing one another,' arrived separately and after
 
 1861.] NEGOTIATIONS. 273 
 
 great privation at Leshulatebe's town — a mere con- 
 firmation of what we knew pretty certainly akeady, 
 Chapman having found and pointed out his spoor 
 along the regular wagon road to the lake. This 
 gentleman had sent a small tusk, and the request 
 that ' his own gun ' and a quantity of beads, tools, and 
 other things mio-ht be sent to him. 
 
 In answer to all this, Chapman told them it was 
 evident the chief wanted to get his guns and all 
 other property that made his presence desirable, and 
 then turn him away to seek a fresh road through the 
 veldt ; that we might have come on at once had we 
 wished, and passed by before they knew of their 
 danger, but that from a desire not to injure them he 
 had told them of the sickness among the cattle, and 
 we had waited, losing nearly three months at Koobie 
 and elsewhere ; that now we were Idlling off the last 
 of the lung-sick cattle, and that as soon as the herd 
 was clean we should come on the straight road 
 without regard to the power of their nation ; that 
 as for Snyman, the gun was not his, but one of 
 Chapman's entrusted to him for sale, and that, as 
 we were short of guns, it would be detained 
 until he met us in person, when, if it were finally 
 kept, a portion of the debt he owed would be 
 cancelled. 
 
 I think I have already mentioned that the women 
 occasionally bring us earth-snakes of more decided 
 snaky appearance. To-day Chapman opened one of 
 these, and inside it — filling up, in fact, its whole body.
 
 274 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 SO that it was a wonder how room could exist for 
 tlie internal organs — he found one of those I had 
 sketched on Sunday, its head toward the tail of tlie 
 first named, perfectly formed, and seemingly, when 
 released, larger than the body that had contained 
 it. They tell us that the egg is hatched in the 
 parent, and the worm afterwards produced : how 
 this chnnges again into the perfect snake, we do not 
 3'et know. 
 
 A goat, as usual, was given to the messengers (for 
 Leshulatebe has threatened to cut the throat of any 
 one who shall dare to eat of beef from our cattle), 
 and was cruelly subjected to a living death, that the 
 blood might coagulate internally as much as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Wednesday, IMi. — I wish somebody would send 
 us an almanack for 1862. I have the ' Nautical ' for 
 1863, but that is far to look forward to. 
 
 The appearance of the Bechuanas yesterday had 
 been the signal for putting away everything likely to 
 be stolen, and setting a watch upon the rest ; but, 
 notwithstanding our precautions, a tusk was missed 
 this morning from under my wagon. There could be 
 no mistake about it, for though the spoor of the 
 thief was unfortunately trampled out before we 
 discovered the loss, the mark of the iron was still 
 upon the ground, and Cliapman and his servant of 
 course knew the number there ought to be. At first 
 we thought of detaining the whole party, but various 
 circumstances directed suspicion to a man who had
 
 1861.] BECHUANA ADROITNESS. 275 
 
 not been sent by the chief, but had jomecl the party. 
 We decided to take and keep his gun, until the tusk 
 was restored. He pretended that the gun was the 
 chief's, and untying tlie holster from his waist, handed 
 it to the messenger, saying, ' Here, take the cover of 
 your gun,' but gave us the slip as soon as possible. 
 The bona fide messenger and party soon after 
 packed up and went their way, seemingly quite 
 indiiferent as to the affair of the adventurer and his 
 gun. The tusk is doubtless hidden somewhere in 
 the bush till they have an opportunity of removiug 
 it, but our Damaras have not yet succeeded in 
 finding the place. 
 
 From the concurrent accounts of every traveller 
 who has been here, there is not an honest nerve or 
 fibre in a Bechuana's body ; from the root of his 
 tongue to the tips of his toes, every muscle is 
 thoroughly trained to the purpose of abstraction. 
 Even though they touch it not with hand or foot, 
 let them but barely sit near an article of moderate 
 size, and when they move off, it moves off with 
 them in a manner no wearer of trowsers can con- 
 ceive of. 
 
 This morning I cut off nearly two-thirds of the 
 barrel of the bent musket, and John fitted up the 
 stump again as a sort of escopette, which was at once 
 adopted by the Cape lad Harry, who considered that, 
 because it now kicked more than a longer musket, 
 it must be a stronger shooting gun. There is one 
 good quality about the unsophisticated honest old
 
 27G EXPLOEATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Dkc. 
 
 brown Bess, and that is, she will stand any amount 
 of ill-treatment without shooting worse than she did 
 at first, though when regularly put ' off schot ' by 
 some careful old Hottentot, it is wonderful to see 
 what precision for short ranges may be got out of the 
 clumsy machine. 
 
 About breakfast-time a young girl of the Bakha- 
 likhari, just budding into womanhood, daintily 
 anointed with fresh grease, and bedecked with large 
 rolls or cords of beads, whose whiteness contrasted 
 well with the dark brown on which they lay, arrived 
 in camp with her duenna, a shrewd-looking Bechu- 
 ana beldame, whose sidelong glances shot search- 
 ingly from under the brim of an old straw hat upon 
 the countenance of everyone that cast an eye uj)on 
 her charge. There was plenty of speculation in her 
 eye, and she was evidently on the look-out for a 
 inatrimonial enf]!:ao:ement, with less re""ard to the 
 duration than to the other advantages of the con- 
 tract. 
 
 It was a mere act of duty and humanity to caution 
 her against intercourse with our people, and she was 
 persuaded, instead, to become a subject for photo- 
 graphy. After two or three attempts, ho"\vever, all 
 of which unfortunately failed, the double-barrelled 
 camera was too much for her, and she thought it 
 advisable to put as great a length of road as possible 
 between her lovely charge and the dreadful mysteries 
 of the black box. 
 
 Thursday, l^th. — This morning I made a sketch
 
 1861.] EFFECTS OF HEAT. 277 
 
 of the Baklialikliari belle and her watchful griffin, 
 which, though not actually from hfe, passed the 
 ordeal of an inspection with great success. 
 
 The manufacturers of photographic materials at 
 home know httle of the rousiii usagre that is uu- 
 avoidable in a journey like this, nor of the intense 
 heat and sunhght under which the work has to be 
 done. Gutta percha softens in a few minutes so as to 
 render it useless even for a bath. The one Chapman 
 now uses is covered with stout canvas thickly coated 
 with copal varnish ; and only the other day, a dipper 
 giving way on the outside, the iron imbedded in it 
 was exposed to the action of the liquid, the whole 
 of which was spoiled. A wooden one was then made 
 as an experiment, but this was as bad as the other 
 until well varnished, which we hope will effectually 
 protect it. 
 
 Friday, 20?/i. — In expectation of the chief's visit, 
 I made a hasty finish of my picture of the lake. 
 John had brought in a steinbok yesterday, and we 
 hung it on the trees in the bush and arranged the 
 Damaras round it for a photograph, but did not get 
 a very good picture. 
 
 Saturday, ^Ist — Sketched a water-colour view of 
 
 the lake, as a memento for my old friend L , 
 
 and commenced another for J\ir. W , to be sent 
 
 to Otjimbingue. 
 
 Sunday, 22nd. — Harry brought in some of the 
 wild folum or Morootoonoque, and made ' beer ' of 
 the pulp shaken up with water. It was curious
 
 278 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Di^c. 
 
 stuff, producing a sour curd wlien milk was added ; 
 but tliey say Jem got drunk on it. 
 
 Monday, 1?>rd. — Shortly after breakfast, while I 
 was packing up botanical specimens and trying how 
 best to stow my traps into the smallest possible space, 
 and throw away as many boxes as possible, John, 
 who in the course of his experience has added a few 
 nauticalisms to his military phraseology, called out, 
 ' Stand by the main halyards ! ' (evidently he had 
 sailed in a schooner) ; but the present interpretation 
 was, ' Leave nothing unwatched that is not immode- 
 rately hot or heavy.' Casting our wondering gaze 
 toward the north-east, we beheld the head of a 
 column of irregular infantry, out of uniform, and 
 marching ' at ease.' As they rounded the angle of 
 the cattle-kraal, and approached our outspan, they 
 turned toward the wood upon om^ right, and piled 
 arms round any tree that took their fancy. Behind 
 them walked Leshulatebe, attired in a felt hat with 
 flowing white feather, a regatta shirt, ' washed and 
 boxed' perhaps at the time of its purchase, a 
 shepherd's plaid coat, white moleskin trowsers, and 
 top boots ; while from his neck depended the usual 
 beads, sheath, knife, snuff-box, &c., and in heu of 
 a handkerchief a jackal's tail. Then came another 
 body of men with musket and spear, dressed, some 
 in native karosses, and others in European clothing, 
 or in skins made up in imitation of it, among which a 
 tiger (i.e. leopard) skin jacket, and the cap made of 
 the scalp and ears of a zebra, were most cous[)icuous.
 
 1861. J 
 
 ARRIVAL OP LESHULATEBE. 
 
 •279 
 
 The ivory-bearers followed after an interval in single 
 file and funeral order ; that is to say, as regards the 
 tusks, the 'juniors lirst.' 
 
 Of course he professed not to be aiixious about 
 trading, but this transparent artifice failed. Chap- 
 
 ■7 c-^r;r 
 
 AX IVORY-CARRIER. 
 
 man in reality was not, as the cargo would be equally 
 or more profitable farther on ; he therefore showed 
 liim photographs, and hhited to him that he should 
 now embrace the opportunity of being presented 
 stereographically to the admiring British public. 
 Tliis lionour his Chieftainship declined, as he was
 
 •280 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 not dressed for such an occasion ; but if he were 
 furnislied on the spot with a red shirt, continuations, 
 long boots (which, as we had lost the horses, he re- 
 marked could be no further use to us), and the proper 
 accessories of such a costume, he would not obsti- 
 nately refuse to countenance the camera. Chap- 
 man then proposed that I should show him some 
 sketches, but he showed little appreciation of them. 
 A Hottentot, he said, alluding perhaps to the colour, 
 was very ugly (and in some cases he is not far 
 wrong) ; and I told him that therefore was I prac- 
 tising upon ordinary and ugly people, that my pencil 
 might be better up to its work when I had to sketch 
 handsome fellows like the chief. At last his patience 
 failed utterly, and he was fain to confess that, though 
 he liked well to see the pictures, his heart was sore 
 about the guns, and until he shoidd become the 
 happy owner of the 'Babijaana' (Baboons), a con- 
 traction of ' Baviaan's bout ' (Baboon's thigh, the 
 colonial term for a musket), he could enjoy nothing 
 else. Nevertheless, His Majesty condescended to 
 partake of a tin of sardines with us; but, as if to 
 verify his own words, he so flooded them with 
 condiments, that he could not like the fish for the 
 strong stuff that was with them. 
 
 A vast amount of prehminary bargaining went on. 
 Ivory was bought and goods shown, and as small 
 teeth were rejected, larger ones slowly and reluc- 
 tantly made their ap])earancc : but Chapman de- 
 cidedly refused to trade until tiic pre\-ious debt was
 
 1861.] BECHUANA DISIIOXESTY. 281 
 
 settled, or at least half of it, for in the absence of 
 Mr. Poison they have the opportunity of saying 
 anything they like about the bargain without fear of 
 contradiction. The chief and his people wheedled, 
 bullied, and then wheedled again — at one time 
 talking as if they were come ' not to trade but to 
 collect tribute from their Bushmen ;' that it did not 
 matter to them, for the oxen were all dying, and we 
 should never be able to go beyond them. Chapman, 
 on his part, complained of the dishonesty of the 
 people. He gave him the gun taken previously 
 from the Bechuana, but told him that on any 
 future occasion he would not trouble himself to 
 search for stolen goods, but would seize and at 
 once destroy the property of the thief. He should 
 be ashamed, he added, to say at home that he had 
 been obliged to make a ki^aal fence round the 
 wagons to keep the personal attendants of a chief 
 from pilfering his goods. 
 
 During this time I succeeded in sketching a very 
 tolerable hkeness of the chief, who was getting too 
 eagerly bent on the guns to notice what I was 
 doing. My wagon was besieged by an eager crowd, 
 all anxious to see the likeness of the young fellow, 
 whose former services as rifle-bearer I had rewarded 
 with a shirt and a promise of thread and soap to wash 
 and mend it. Not one of them would trust himself 
 to stand for his likeness, but everyone was eager 
 to see his neighbour put in colours ; and as I made 
 it a pomt of honour not to be baulked by their
 
 282 HXPLOIIATIOXS IN SOUTH AFKICA. [Dec. 
 
 running away when I had once commenced the 
 outline, I had the laughter on my own side when I 
 exhibited a tolerably recognisable figure of the 
 fugitive, whose curiosity generally drew him back 
 to see himself upon paper. To the young fellow's 
 repeated requests for the thread, and the clamo- 
 rous demands of the involuntary sitters for having 
 their likenesses taken, I de*sired Harry to reply that 
 an Englishman's promise was not like a Bechu- 
 ana's, and that they must learn to wait in patience 
 and confidence for its fulfilment ; and as for clause 
 No. 2, if they performed work for me, or brought 
 me any equivalent, I would pay them, but that they 
 ought to consider I was doing a great honour to the 
 man I selected for a model ; and that when I had 
 once seen a man, nothing could prevent my painting 
 him ; the only difference being, that if he stood 
 quietly, his face and ornaments would look better on 
 paper than if he ran away. 
 
 At night the tusks were sent away again, and, 
 attended by his body-guard, Leshulatebe went his 
 way to his own wagon. Snyman exonerated himself 
 in some measure from the aspersions cast upon hun 
 by the Bechuanas ; and the fact now appeared to be, 
 that being hard pressed by debt toward people who 
 liad served liim, he had parted with his professedly 
 limiting equipment in order to pay them. 
 
 Tuesdmj, 2Uh. — Early in the morning a repeti- 
 tion of yesterday's procession was enacted. Having 
 made a convenient seat in the front of the wagon, I
 
 1861.] TEEMS FOE BAETEEING. 283 
 
 began to sketch the groups that thronged around, 
 making the wagon itself the foreground of the 
 picture, with the hike and the long train of Bushmen 
 carrying ivory in the distance. Chapman had pre- 
 pared his camera last night, and brought the lenses to 
 bear upon the market-place, much as I have seen a 
 gun, during the day, carefully trained and pointed 
 to the cliff where an enemy was expected in the 
 night. No sooner, however, did he take up a glass 
 and enclose himself within the black curtains of the 
 stereograph, (I believe I'm right there,) than the 
 word was passed from mouth to mouth, ' Move your 
 bodies; don't sit still, keep yourselves in motion.' I 
 protested against the giving of the shirt as the price 
 of a few minutes' sitting, as, if they once establish a 
 tariff of prices on such a pretence, the httle store 
 we have wdll speedily be exhausted ; but the perti- 
 nacity of our visitor at last gained the point, and the 
 coveted garment being presented to him, he retired 
 beyond the trees, to thrust his legs into enamelled 
 leather boots, and to replace his regatta with the 
 scarlet flannel. Whether purposely or not I cannot 
 say, but on his return he stood so unsteady, that 
 the only result was a fresh waste of chemicals. 
 
 The market now went on : the size of a tooth to be 
 considered the equivalent of a musket was settled, not 
 by any rude guess at its length and thickness, but by 
 actual weight (the Dutch is a little heavier than the 
 English, 1001b. being about equal to our hundred- 
 weight), in which the chief showed himself quite an 
 
 S
 
 284 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 adept, and not less so in tlie noble art of haggling for 
 a bargain. Of course, every gnn must be tried to see 
 that the lock worked well, that the pan-cover gave 
 fire enough, and that there were no hidden defects 
 about the workmanship ; and tlie reckless way in 
 which they were pointed and flashed about was ' a 
 caution.' Then came the cow-teeth and inferior 
 tusks, for hats and articles of clothing, or beads ; and 
 then again, after a hard trial to substitute these for 
 the purchase of guns, the Bushmen — and some of 
 these fine feUows six feet high, (half-castes, I reckon, 
 like the Baastaard Hottentots of the colony) — were 
 sent off for more of the veritable bull-tusks. But 
 trading was not the only occupation of the day : one 
 stout and stumpy little fellow, in an oil-skin cap — 
 the Joe Miller, I fancy, of the tribe — led off" a kind 
 of beggar's petition, with wonderful transitions from 
 the humble to the imperious, the chorus being 
 taken up by the throng. V\'ith the exception of the 
 bit of soap to the young fellow, and a handkerchief 
 to another Avho seemed to have some authority, I 
 had one answer for all : ' John has everything ; put 
 your tusk on your shoulder, and go to him for all 
 you want.' 
 
 Once, during the morning, I had an opportunity 
 of witnessing unobserved the mode in which the fit 
 of abstraction came upon the sufferer. A piece of rag 
 was lying on the ground, and a Bechuana, walking 
 quietly near it, first chiselled the broad front of his 
 sandal into the surface of the ground ; then extending
 
 ]S61.] ADROITNESS IN EOBBERY. 285 
 
 his toes toward the worthless prize, lie first drew in 
 the edge, and then cleverly proceeded to gather the 
 whole beneath his foot, till, seeing that I was watch- 
 ing him, and at the same time not going to take the 
 trouble of reclaiming the rag, he put on an open 
 countenance and picked it up with his hands. 
 Other things they would take up on pretence of 
 looking at, and pass them from hand to hand among 
 the crowd ; but, by keeping a strict look-out, we 
 generally stopped them before they went out of 
 sight. The ' heat of the sun ' was a good excuse for 
 creeping under the wagons ; and when once turned 
 out, the next chance was seized of getting in again, 
 until the enclosure round the cook's fire was fairly 
 thronged with them, and the panels of my wagon, 
 on which I had indiscreetly painted a giraffe and 
 other animals, attracted no end of admirers, who 
 generally preferred to inspect the picture that was 
 most out of my sight. Still, as sentinels were 
 posted everywhere, many of their attempts were 
 frustrated, and the plunder recaptured ; but at last 
 an axe and an adze, Harry's blanket, and some 
 other things, got clear off; and as they refused to 
 move when Chapman ordered them off, he at once 
 put a stop to the traffic, telling the chief that unless 
 he interposed to keep his people in order, he would 
 not let him have another article. This had the 
 effect desired ; but Leshulatebe, instead of feeling 
 anything like shame, only began to rate poor Harry, 
 who from his sojourn among the Bechuanas ought 
 
 s 2
 
 286 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 to have known that they were thieves, and kept a 
 better look-out. They say, indeed, that a Bechuana 
 does not steal ; and perhaps the immediate officers 
 and attendants of the chief may not : but decidedly 
 they do not frown upon the success of their servants, 
 and only punish them by confiscating the plunder to 
 tlieir own use. 
 
 And now, the market being done, the chief opened 
 his heart so far as to bring out a calabash of honey, 
 which, however, he would not present to us until he 
 knew how much sugar he Avas to have in return, and 
 finding the few pounds we had left were not much 
 more in quantity than his own precious gift, asked 
 whether we had not a pannildn or something else in 
 which he could pour out his regal bounty. Chapman 
 had already given him a large dish of several pounds 
 of coffee ; but, .finding we had still a httle more, he 
 could not rest until the present was doubled, and he 
 was told at last to take his honey to his wagon, for 
 we vv'ere ashamed to accept things in so niggardly a 
 spirit. This, however, did not answer his purpose, 
 for it would have deprived him of a pretext for 
 future exactions ; and still less would it answer ours 
 to raise needless quarrels with a fellow so unscru- 
 pulous, especially when we are not yet past his 
 town. 
 
 He promised us Bushmen to take us round the 
 cattle of his tribe, and bring us by a new road, (or 
 rather through a hitherto wild country where we 
 must make a road,) to the river, twenty miles below
 
 1861.] BECHUANA EXTOETIOX. '287 
 
 his town, where, as we are not yet completely 
 stripped, his people will traffic with us for corn as 
 provision on the road. 
 
 At niffht a messeno'er returned brinsino; the missino; 
 adze, found, it is said, upon a Bakoba who had been 
 flogged nearly to death for stealing it, and a request 
 for more coffee. This it was not prudent to refuse ; 
 but another present was substituted, and the answer 
 expressed oar sense of the degraded position of a 
 chief who pretended to do justice to his visitors for 
 the sake of what he could get from them. Chapman 
 says that the chief's uncle is a different man, and in 
 some respects a noble fellow ; but the low cunning 
 and niggardliness of this petty haggler overrule him. 
 Later still, other messengers arrived with ivory for 
 the purchase of the saddles, and encamped on the 
 other side our tree till mornins:. 
 
 25^/i, Christmas-day. — The saddles, which from 
 theu' bulk and awkward shape for stowage we were 
 glad to get rid of, were sent off by the messengers 
 with an apology for the absence of stirrup-irons, 
 which, however, as they had been so recently stolen, 
 the chief would have no difficulty in finding. Still, 
 the principal man kept lingering about ; and when he 
 thought it was his cue to speak, requested a parting 
 gift for his master, in coffee, tea, or any few goods 
 that might be left, as also the loan of my accordion 
 with which to soothe his melancholy hours ; and very 
 pointedly brought to our notice, that when Dokkie 
 had been sent wdth a message to the town, Lord
 
 288 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 Bountiful had given liini a whole shoulder of mutton, 
 and as mucli beer (native) as he could drink. 
 
 Chapman, in return, asked if the man who could 
 be guilty of such meanness was in reahty a chief ; 
 and told him, that when he visited the town, he 
 w^ould bring his own food, and eat nothing at the 
 expense of his host. But this, instead of shaming him, 
 was the very thing he wished ; and the visitor was 
 desired to bring with him plenty of coffee, and every- 
 thing: else that was nice. 
 
 At our first moment of leisure, we began clearing 
 the wreck — closing up specimens, pictures, &c., and 
 assorting the stores intended for each wagon, the 
 ivory obtained being placed in the vehicle Avhich I 
 have hitherto occupied for conveyance to the coast. 
 Frequent showers interrupted us ; and at last a heavy 
 drenching rain stopped all further proceedings, and 
 made us glad to huddle everything under the best 
 shelter we could, preserving such things as the rain 
 would absolutely spoil, and letting the rest take 
 their chance. 
 
 Our Christmas dinner of meat and Kafir corn, 
 with a drop of the much-grudged honey in om^ tea, 
 was hurried over as quickly as possible ; and while 
 trying to shelter ourselves in the Kap tent wagon, 
 word was brought in that Kajumbie's wife was again 
 ill, ha\ang brought on a relapse by sitting out in 
 tlie night-air. We found the poor creature in her 
 hut, surrounded by a crowd of women, some of 
 wdiom were singing a melancholy dirge, and others
 
 J861.] PREPARATIOXS FOR A JOURNEY. 28'J 
 
 SO bedewing their cheeks with tears, that I was 
 almost ready to retract my opinion of their want of 
 sympathy, had not Chapman noticed that until they 
 heard of our coming, not one had been near her, and 
 that the whole had been got up between the first 
 announcement of our intended visit and oiu' arrival. 
 The first requisite, as it appeared to us, was to 
 restore the warmth of the body, and promote sleep 
 and gentle perspiration ; but in the miserably impro- 
 vident huts they build, this is next to impossible. 
 We sent her warm tea, with such medicines as we 
 thought best for that purpose ; but the chief cordial 
 recommended by the best books we possess on the 
 subject — i.-e., half a pint of pure generous wine — 
 was as much out of our reach as the elixir ^itas of 
 old fables.' 
 
 It is now pretty well settled that the separate 
 parties shall comprise, on our side, Dokkie and Bill, 
 who cannot be sent among the Hottentots, and the 
 latter of whom is promoted to the station of general 
 servant ; Tapyinyoka, who is to take Bill's place as 
 leader of the oxen, and the rest of the men who 
 have no wives — Tapyinyoka consenting, with the best 
 grace in the world, to dismiss Mrs. T.'s locum tenens, 
 and send her back with all the women and the 
 married men to their own homes with John. 
 
 The morning of December 26tli is clouded but 
 tolerably fine. Our preparations are vigorously 
 going on ; and now, with the best Avishes of the 
 season to all oin- friends at home, we shut up
 
 290 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 jounials, nail up boxes of specimens, photographs 
 and sketches, and prepare to start on Avhat we 
 consider the commencement of our journey. 
 
 So now farewell to all friends, and hurrah for the 
 far Interior !
 
 18C1.] 291 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LETTERS FROM HENRY CHAPMAN ARRIVAL AT MOSELINl'AN 
 
 TIDINGS OF GERT MA3IU-KA-H00RIE RAIN-VLEIS MAHA- 
 
 LAAPIE THE WELLS AT KOOBIE MORE LAST WATERS A 
 
 NIGHT IN THE BUSH AFTER AN ELEPHANT HUNT THE DEAD 
 
 ELEPHANT BUTTERFLIES AT A FEAST DEATH OF DR. HOLDEN 
 
 DEALINGS WITH NATRT: TRIBES REMEDIES FOR HORSE 
 
 AND CATTLE SICKNESS UNION-^'LEI A METEOR — TRIP TO 
 
 THE NORTH- AVEST — ELEPHANT HUNT DENTITION OF THE 
 
 ELEPHANT. 
 
 While letters were being closed up and final pre- 
 parations made for John's departure with the cargo, 
 a message arrived from the town to the effect 
 that we must hasten onward, as the Avomen Avere 
 waiting to sell their corn. There was a dubious 
 wording in this, that left it uncertain whether he 
 wished Chapman to come on alone, according to his 
 original proposal, and to send the wagon round, or 
 whether his objections to the passage of our cattle 
 had been overcome by his desire of gain. Another 
 man had brought back a gun that had been found 
 defective; and another, a perfect one, was given in 
 exchange for it. 
 
 Tapyinyoka at the last moment repented of his 
 adherence to the still outward-bound wagon, and 
 went to fasten his clothes-bag upon John's. This 
 being stopped, he absconded, and, in consequence,
 
 292 EXrLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 liis inamorata was detained as an hostage, and a 
 likeness of her sketched upon the spot, which I do 
 not suppose, however, her imagination will convert 
 into any incantation that affects her personal liberty. 
 
 The cattle were sought out and inspanned, the 
 wagon drove off, last messages were given, hands 
 shaken, and kind wishes exchanged, and we were 
 alone with our party, now diminished to our heart's 
 content, in the wilderness. The deserted little village 
 looked melancholy, and we missed the vivacious 
 talking of the females who had left it ; and yet we 
 were not quite alone, for our young Bechuana was 
 still waiting, and the Bushmen were prowling round 
 our wagon, ever striving to be upon the unwatched 
 side. 
 
 The homeward-bound troop was not yet out of 
 sight, when John was seen hastily returning, accom- 
 panied by two men, who proved to be our long- 
 looked-for messengers, Kajumbie and Kanva, bearing 
 a bag of letters from Henry Chapman, who was on 
 his way up, but was detained on the other side of 
 Elephant Fountain, by the Hottentots, who were 
 determined to allow no white man to pass to us 
 until Chapman himself returned with the Damaras 
 concerned in the murder of the Bushmen. They were 
 also much enraged Avith him for having bi'ought 
 lung sickness in the country — as if he had purposely 
 done them an injury, instead of being a sufferer by 
 a misfortune common to all, and which he had 
 exerted himself to the utmost to avoid.
 
 18G1.] MOSELINTAX. 293 
 
 Edward Barry, and another young lad, the son of 
 Mr. Charles Bell, surveyor-general in Cape Town, 
 were with him ; and he had also in the wagon some 
 sections, we could not learn how many, of my boat. 
 If he has the four ends and the bolts, it ^vill be 
 enough for me, as I can easily build midships to 
 them wherever there is wood. 
 
 At night we walked over to John's wagon, leaving 
 our own to inspan and follow us ; and on the morning 
 of Saturday, 28th, leaving the bed of the lake, we 
 walked on before the wagons to Moselinyan, the 
 large vlei, that was dry when we had previously 
 crossed it, but was now gemmed by little rain-pools, 
 affording baths for httle groups of ducks amid the 
 green herbage of its bed. On our way, we met the 
 Damaras whom we had dismissed at Fort Funk, re- 
 turning to us with forty or fifty sheep — a couple of 
 mares, mth their backs utterly ruined by tying packs 
 on them, so that we cannot attempt to ride them for a 
 couple of months — and a large bundle of Cape papers 
 old and new. The wagons arrived too late to make 
 a second trek on the same day ; so Chapman is writ- 
 ing letters to the chief Amraal Lamert, and answer- 
 ing one received from relatives of the chief, who 
 wrote to deny on liis part, or on that of his son, any 
 complicity in the liorse-stealing propensities of Gert. 
 The letter of the Hottentots seems reasonably and 
 fairly written ; and we learn from it that five of the 
 horses have been retaken by Lamert, but are kept 
 by him 'until their backs shall be healed' (i. e., I
 
 294 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Dec. 
 
 suppose as security tliat we will bring back the two 
 men accused of murder). Gert has still the best 
 horse with him, and one is dead ; so that the tale the 
 Damaras told us of his having cut the throats of two 
 or three of them is a fiction, and the horse-hair they 
 showed us had been cunningly extracted from the 
 tail of an eland. The writers stated, as far as I 
 could understand, that they had one of the thieves, 
 the Bushman Jan ; and when they caught Gert, 
 would punish him at the gallows. This we do not of 
 course desire, at least for the theft of the horses : if 
 the murder of the Damara man and woman is proved 
 against him, we shall have less to say in his favour. 
 
 At night I obtained an altitude of Canopus for the 
 latitude, and found, from some cause or other, that 
 my right eye was becoming swollen and painful ; 
 a w^arning not to strain it too much, as the lesson 
 I had last year was too serious to be disregarded. 
 
 Sunday^ 2dth. — We walked forw^ard, in hope of 
 meeting something, to the big tree, the mowana, at 
 Mamu-ka-hoorie, and found the country much im- 
 proved : rain-vleis had formed all along the road, and 
 the new water at the tree, preserved by the grow^th 
 of grass and rushes from admixture wdth the mud, 
 was sweet and pure ; and many flowers that had 
 passed away at Koobie before we left it were here 
 in fLill bloom. 
 
 I made a second sketch of the tree ; and Chapman 
 shot a pair of the merganser (I think), the gander of 
 which has a large fleshy protuberance upon the top
 
 1861.] 
 
 THE MOWAXA TREE. 
 
 2J»5 
 
 of his beak. In the afternoon we found the trees 
 (so bare and dry when we had passed up) putting 
 forth their leaves vigorously. We saw the spoor of 
 a lion, which from the retractile power of the claws 
 is easily distinguished from that of animals wdiose 
 toe-nails always project; and outspanned in what 
 we were forced to call, for want of a better word, a 
 
 TREE AT MAMU-K.V-HOOJRIE. 
 
 valley, but which m fact w^as a depression so shght that 
 it barely gave the rain an excuse for collecting in it. 
 
 Monday, oOth. — Our morning trek brought us to 
 the northern side of the range of Kopjies ; and after 
 another careful reading over of the letters, we came 
 to tlie conclusion that it would be imprudent to trust 
 a load of ivory among the" Hottentots until we had
 
 296 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA, [Dec. 
 
 more fully ascertained their feelings towards us ; 
 not that we believe, for a moment, Amraal Lamert, 
 the old chief, w^ould himself be guilty of (or allow, if 
 he could prevent it) anything dishonourable, but that 
 the people, many of whom are beyond his power, 
 and others who possess great influence where he is, 
 and who are enraged with Chapman on account of 
 tlie lung sickness, might force him to give way to 
 their violence. We therefore retained our previously- 
 written letters till we should know something more 
 definite about the matter, and wrote fresh ones to be 
 sent on by the same men next morning, purposing, 
 until we received an answer, to encamp somewhere 
 to the nortli of Koobie, and take one of the wagons 
 empty on a hunting-trip. 
 
 Tuesday, '^Ist. — Arriving at the flat hill, Dokkie, 
 through some misunderstanding, turned into our 
 by-road, and drove nearly down to Quarantine. 
 He then broke the dissel-boom in turning- round to 
 come back ; but fortunately it hung on till Ave out- 
 spanned north of the flat hill, and was still long 
 enough to allow of our cutting off the broken end 
 and using it again. We then struck out on a course 
 of 320°, and passing through a tolerably open forest, 
 where the graceful foliage of the oomahaama, with 
 its grey stem, its pale yellow flower-tufts and crimson 
 seeds, contrasting with its cool green leaves and the 
 darker masses of the moUopie, Avith its short leaves 
 closely gathered hke moss on its stout branches — 
 growing as this tree does in close proximity to an
 
 1861.] FOREST SCEXES. 297 
 
 ant-hill — gave a novel and ejBfective character to the 
 scene. Small rain-vleis were abundant ; but Chapman 
 noticed one place of about 100 yards where no rain 
 had apparently fallen till the last shower. We out- 
 spanned under a fine motjihaara, or oomahaama, wdtli 
 an ant-hiU and the inevitable mollopie beside it. One 
 of the two mares sent up by Henry was found to be 
 sick ; a quantity of blood was drawn from her, and 
 a heavy dose of graauw vomitief administered; but 
 next day she died, and the Damaras and dogs were 
 allowed to share the carcase. 
 
 The night was fine ; but I felt too fatigued and did 
 not think it prudent yet to strain my eye either in 
 writing journals or observing stars. 
 
 Wednesday, January l.s-f, 1862. — A new year — 
 and a happy and successful one may it be to us 
 all! — commences, not very magnificently I must con- 
 fess, \Y\Xh the capture of a matamaelli, or edible frog, 
 by Pompey. I made a sketch of the animal, and on 
 skinning and roasting it, found a whole mouse, an 
 ant, and some other insects, in its stomach. Chapman 
 shot a duiker, a female, larger than the steinbok — in 
 fact, about the size of a goat, but with more slender 
 and graceful form. It had horns about two inches 
 long — rather unusual, except in males ; the body was 
 yellowish-grey, the head and neck more of a sienna 
 colour, a nearly black streak along the front of the 
 nose, the fetlock-joints and hoof black, the hair white, 
 Avith a black streak along the middle. At night 
 I observed an altitude of Aldebaran.
 
 298 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 Thursday^ January 2nd — Started soon after sunset. 
 Walked ahead on a course of 240°, tlirough groves of 
 oomahaama full of blossom, and flats of grass and 
 prickle-thorn. The wagons in following kept more 
 southerly, and striking our former road, we outspanned 
 about half a mile beyond our former outspan on the 
 flats. In the afternoon we were stopped by heavy 
 rain within a couple of miles of Mahalaapie, and 
 during the night experienced such a succession of 
 lio-htnina; flashes and rolls of thunder as the oldest 
 inhabitant (if there were anybody here) would try in 
 vain to remember : at least, this is the report of my 
 companion, who says that I was evidently disturbed 
 by it, though I am conscious of nothing but dreams 
 of shipwreck and other fearful scenes. 
 
 Friday, January ord. — Outspanned for breakfast 
 under the Motj eerie trees at Mahalaapie ; and holding 
 a rather more southerly course than when we came 
 up, passed the pit in limestone without seeing it, and 
 came to a large vlei of clear rain water in a limestone 
 hollow. A mile more westerly brought us to Observa- 
 tion tree,which looked so small that neither of us could 
 recognise it after leaving the land of Baobabs. John 
 went down to Koobie water, now again a large vlei 
 worthy of its former days, and with two barrels 
 brought in as many brace of ducks, when heavy rain 
 drove us to the shelter of our wagon. 
 
 Satiurlay, January ith. — An inspection of the 
 wells at Koobie by no means bore out the conception 
 I had formed from last night's report. It is true tliey
 
 186-2.] WELLS AT KOOBIE. 299 
 
 were filled so that tlie actual holes we had dug were 
 no longer visible, but they were still separate, and 
 not united, as in former days, in one large vlei. They 
 had been well frequented by ducks, for the water 
 was stained of a deep brownish-red by them, and 
 the long grass, as I found out during my walk, was 
 wet up to my knees. 
 
 Breakfast was nearly ready, when it was reported 
 that a lion, or tiger, or some other lord of the wild, 
 had been heard roaring at the rain vlei about a mile 
 back. Girding on our bandoliers, we started, 
 followed by the spare Damaras and all the dogs we 
 could muster, to give him battle — when, hark! is 
 that he ? no, no ! Surely no. Yes it is — it is — a 
 bull-frog ! ! And so back we came sorely chop-fallen, 
 allowing to fly over our head the ducks we might 
 have killed either for roasting or to soothe our 
 wounded susceptibility, had we brought a shot-gun 
 instead of rifles. After the reconnoitring parties 
 detached in various directions had returned, we 
 moved the wagons about a mile NNW., and cleared 
 an outspau for them under a fine spreading Damara 
 mother or Omborumbunga tree, near a little hollow 
 extending farther w^est, and containing a little water. 
 A larger pool is reported farther on, and though the 
 Damaras say the bush is too thick to take a wagon 
 through, we rather think of going forward to see 
 whether it is so. 
 
 Sunday^ January hth. — Messengers arrived fi'om 
 Leshulatebe bearing a small tusk and a request for
 
 300 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 cofTec, but Chapman refused to trade with them ; 
 telUno" them that neither he nor his brother would let 
 the chief have another gun till all the things the 
 tribe had stolen from us were restored — asldng, 
 moreover, how the chief could expect coffee after the 
 plucking to which lie had subjected us at the lake, 
 and whether he could with any justice call himself a 
 chief when he either could not or would not restrain 
 his people from plundering visitors. They said 
 Leshulcitebe did not know of the theft, and had 
 tried to recover the property by sending his herald 
 to order restitution ; that the tribe knew well he was 
 injiuing himself and them by not checking such 
 practices, because white men, on whom they de- 
 pended for supplies of arms and ammunition, would 
 be deterred from coming among them. 
 
 They added that they had heard hard words to- 
 day, that the chiefs heart Avould be very sore, and 
 that they themselves were afraid to stay with us. 
 They were of course assured that they were con- 
 sidered only as messengers bound to deliver the 
 words of their sender, whether good or ill, and to 
 take back hterally the words they heard in answer ; 
 that therefore they had better remain as usual, for 
 food and rest, and leave us in friendship to-morrow 
 with the message for tlieir chief. 
 
 Monday, Qth. — The ivory having been removed 
 from the wagon which I had formerly occupied, and 
 a few things rather too hurriedly collected for a short 
 trip to the north-west, we left the other wagon with
 
 1862.] TRAVELLING IN THE BUSH. 301 
 
 the medicine-chest and written instructions, condensed 
 after hard study of our medical book, under the care 
 of John, and having treked about half a mile, halted 
 to consider what we should send back for. Tap- 
 yinyoka, who had first reported the existence of the 
 water, led the span, and was desired to take tlie 
 nearer course, which proved to be 335 degrees, or 
 about NNW. Maquetre, toward a gently swelling 
 succession of ridges, part of which we had already 
 seen from the wagon. The bush was moderately 
 close in parts, but nowhere so thick as to call for the 
 axe, and in about 3^ or 4 miles we reached a fme 
 vlei of clear water in a grassy hollow near the second 
 ridge : a couple of ducks, of which I shot one, were 
 swimming on the surface. The Bushmen, when 
 questioned, told us this was positively the last water. 
 Another spell, however, brought us to a little group 
 of three vleis, one of them perhaps fifty yards wide, 
 6£ miles from our starting-point, and we outspanned 
 for dinner under a motlopie tree, growing as usual 
 out of an ant-hill, and affording a spot of elevated 
 ground in case of rain. 
 
 This water was again the very last, but we told 
 the Bushmen we were going on to the next, and 
 Chapman, taking the chief of them, walked ahead. 
 The discovery of a bees'-nest in an ant-hill soon after 
 starting caused a halt ; but seeing it would occupy- 
 too much of our time, I called off our followers, 
 promising the Bushmen tobacco for bringing it in — = 
 a task which they gave up after a few minutes' more 
 
 T
 
 302 EX^L0RAT10^^S IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan 
 
 clifreinsf. Meantime, tlie bush being rather too thi 
 
 CO 
 
 ClC 
 
 to admit of our followmg the elephant-path on 
 which we were, we had swerved a httle to the right, 
 and regaining it again, came to another vlei — tlie 
 very last this time. A careful search of the margin 
 proved that Chapman hud not been here, and after 
 sending the diiver and Harry to the west to try to 
 cut his spoor, without success, I kept the wagon on 
 its course, firing on the top of the ridges till we 
 joined each other about sunset in the vicmity of 
 another last w^ater. 
 
 Thursday, 9th. — On the morning of the 7th we 
 moved forward again, notwithstanding the protests 
 of our guides, who insisted that there was no water 
 where we wished to go, and on every possible occa- 
 sion turned so much to the eastward that we were 
 both obliged to walk before the wagon and refer 
 constantly to our compasses, the sun being too nearly 
 overhead to be trusted to for guidance. Still, as they 
 had evidently some reason of their own, probably a 
 dread of going into the district of another tribe who 
 Avould expect the lion's share of the flesh we might 
 kill, and Chapman could not perfectly understand 
 them till their head man Koobie should join us, it 
 was thought better to let them have a little of their 
 own way, checking them only when they took us to 
 the east of north. The first mile or two was a grassy 
 open plain of grey sandy soil consoHdated by the 
 crass roots and the late rains. Then came otovgs of 
 mimosas, oomahaama, and motlopies, growing as
 
 1802.] CAPTURE OF A BULL-FROG. 303 
 
 usual from ant-hills, and these again alternated with 
 patches of low bush of brittle wood, with smooth 
 spear-shaped leaves (for a wonder destitute of thorns). 
 This, I am told, is the favourite food of the elephant. 
 Water we passed every fifteen or tw^enty minutes, 
 and resting at one vlei overshadowed by a pair of 
 haak-doorns and a motlopie, our Bushman waded 
 in close pursuit of something which when captured 
 proved to be a bull-frog of the largest size, the body 
 being 9 in. long by 5^ wide, while the hind-legs 
 from toe to toe extended 18 inches, and the fore- 
 legs 11|. Holding it at arm's length by the spine, 
 he gave it several heavy blows across the back of the 
 neck, finishing it off with an artistic stroke or two 
 across the gullet and the muscle of eacli thigh. These 
 frogs seem to eat everything ; for another, when its 
 intestines were blown forward, burst under the opera- 
 tion, and a young bird flew from its mouth, (Of 
 course no one will imagine by this word any reference 
 to the use of its wings.) 
 
 We halted after 8 J miles of travel north by 
 west, and Chapman, going down to the vlei a quarter 
 of a mile farther, found himself face to face with 
 an elephant, with nothing but a charge of small 
 shot in his gun. He returned at once for his rifle, 
 and putting away my sketch half dry, I took up 
 mine. The hut v.diich we had begun erecting to 
 shelter the cargo of the wagon that had been sent 
 back for John, was left to finish itself, and with the 
 three dogs held ready to slip, we beat the bush in all
 
 304 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 directions, till some of the sliarpest sighted saw, or 
 thought they saw, elephants to the eastward. These 
 on a nearer approach were decided to be only cows, 
 and we returned to take up the spoor of the elephant 
 first seen. A tempting shot at a duikerbok was of 
 course declined, and we pressed on to the northward 
 over sandy ridges covered with shrub and bush, 
 thorny and thornless alternately. Chapman, who 
 runs faster than I, and has beside his guns carried by 
 natives, was getting in advance, and as he descended 
 into the next valley I heard three shots in rapid 
 succession, followed by a wild shrill scream, and the 
 baying of the dogs. I came forward double quick, 
 hoping that the elephant might come out my way, 
 and give me a chance as well, but as I cleared the 
 bush, I saAv before me an open hollow, a very gem 
 of the wilderness, with a broad vlei in the centre, 
 and beyond it the huge broadside of the beast 
 making off among the crackling bushes, while Chap- 
 man was trying to reload his rifle, and the rest of 
 the people were gathering themselves up after their 
 dispersion by the charge. I held on the way the 
 beast had gone. Chapman coming up as soon as he 
 had loaded, but the dogs had been driven away, and 
 the Bushmen led us on a spoor which we were soon 
 convinced was that of an unwounded bull. For any 
 white man to keep up mth these naked children of 
 the wild, would be almost as impossible as any- 
 thing I could guess at, and both of us were soon 
 distanced. I held on the spoor till after sunset.
 
 1862.] AN ELEPHANT HUNT. 305 
 
 when the absence of other footprints convinced me 
 that no one else was following, and lying down from 
 sheer weariness, I waited till the moon and stars 
 shone through the clouds sufficiently to allow of my 
 shaping a course homeward. The faint report of an 
 occasional gun far to the southward, fired as I sup- 
 posed by Damaras sent back by Chapman to meet 
 me, enabled me to correct my course whenever the 
 obscuring of the moon caused me slightly to deviate 
 from it. At length, however, the moon set, the clouds 
 shut in the stars, the firing to the southward ceased, 
 and as the grey stumps and thorny branches were 
 no longer visible until I tumbled over or was en- 
 tangled by them, I spread a couch of grass in the 
 shelter of a low thick bush, and the night not being 
 cold enough to need a fire, I slept till daybreak 
 enabled me to resume my journey. Of course I had 
 been unable in the night to distinguish paths, and 
 now crossing one which showed marks of our yester- 
 day's passage, I held on straight through the veldt, 
 and soon saw the smoke of our encampment straight 
 before me. Kalokolo and a Bushman came out to take 
 my gun, and another mile brought me home just as 
 the boys were milking the cattle for early coffee. 
 
 I learned, rather to my surprise, that Chapman 
 himself had fired the signal-guns from the wigwam, 
 the enormous charge, no less than fourteen drams 
 of powder, accountmg for the distance at which I 
 had heard them, while the answer I had made was 
 utterly inaudible to him. He had been of course
 
 306 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 nitluT anxious during tlic night, l^ut the Bushmen 
 liad spoken for me. ' He has a beard like you, he 
 can't lose himself ; ' little thinking, I suppose, that the 
 hirsute appearance of an Englishman is no guarantee 
 for ability to find his way in the bush. 
 
 The elephant, I learned, on entering the hollow 
 was met b}^ another coming, all unconscious of the 
 chase, to refresh himself at the water, and Chapman, 
 keeping back the people as much as possible, was 
 obliged to fire at the second across the vlei at between 
 one and two hundred yards' distance, although the 
 ivory of the first, notwithstanding a broken tusk, 
 seemed forty pounds heavier than that of the intruder. 
 At the second gun, the people had run past him and 
 exposed themselves to a furious charge. Bill, after 
 firing liis shot, escaping with marvellous activity, but 
 proving in the subsequent chase that he could run 
 as fast after an elephant as away from him — follow- 
 ing (so saith report) almost between the legs of the 
 beast, and firing with a boldness which, when as- 
 sisted by skill in the use of his weapon, will make 
 him a most successful hunter. 
 
 Eeturning toward the vlei, the Bushman pointed 
 suddenly to some object, and handed Chapman's gun 
 to him to shoot it ; but another glance showed it to be 
 the carcase of the elephant, lying within a few hundred 
 yards of the spot where he had first been fired at. 
 
 Breakfast was soon over, and I collected my draw- 
 ino; materials, and started with Kalokolo and the 
 ]3u^hmcn, regretting only that my friend, for want of
 
 1862.] THE DEAD ELEPHAXT. 307 
 
 his bath and other photographic materials, could not 
 accompany me. Traversing a length of hill and 
 dale, which now seemed wearisome enough, we 
 passed the vlei, scarcely disturbing the wild fowl on 
 its placid surface, and a few hundred yards bej^ond, 
 came in sight of the gigantic carcase looming like a 
 grey granite boulder above the bush. Of course I have 
 seen elephants, but it has always been at my home, 
 and not in theirs, and neither picture nor well- 
 groomed black-skinned show specimen from India I 
 had ever seen had quite prepared me to stand, for 
 the first time, without a sensation of awe and wonder 
 beside the mighty African, fallen in all his native 
 grandeur in his domain. Masses of earth had been 
 upturned by his broad feet ; his column-like legs 
 were stiffened in his tracks ; the tusk upon the lower 
 side was buried in the soil ; the head and curling 
 trunk were extended forward, leaving his broad fore- 
 head (flat, or even convex, and not channelled in tlie 
 centre like that of the Indian, and as represented in 
 all the pictures I have yet seen, those of Harris even 
 seeming to have been influenced by his Indian expe- 
 rience) nearly in a line with his body. The ears, which 
 in the African are of huge size, covered with their 
 upper ])art nearly half the neck, the hindmost angle 
 reaching to the death-spot behind the shoulder, and 
 the lower descending nearly to a level with the chest. 
 The rough grey side, deeply marked with wrinkles 
 crossing each other like a network, destitute of hair, 
 except a solitary bristle here and there, rose, more
 
 30.S EXI'LOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 like a rock than the skin of a lately living animal, so 
 high that I conld barely see the head of a man 
 beyond it — a dark purple stain upon the lower side 
 of the chest alone indicating the manner of his death, 
 the bullets having entered on the side now in contact 
 with the ground. The sun was just beginning to be 
 warm, and the carcase was not yet swelled ; never- 
 theless the Bushman approached the intestine like 
 a practised fencer, springing back with marvellous 
 agility when he had made his blow ; nor was his 
 caution vain, for the discharge of a fire-engine was 
 nothing to what followed : and I can easily imagine 
 the ordnance-like explosions of which I have heard, 
 when the body of .an elephant that has lain all day 
 under a vertical sun is pierced for the first time. 
 
 In a short time the fat and various pieces of the 
 intestine were spread like blankets over every bush ; 
 titbits were broiled and eaten among the garbage 
 in which the savages were revelhng, taking apparently 
 a special delight in wild songs, which issued in most 
 sepulchral tones from the c-avernous interior ; but to 
 me, I must confess, the most disenchanting sight of 
 all was the flocks of lovely butterflies, with all their 
 spiritual and Psyche-like associations, fluttering fear- 
 lessly among them, and feeding, greedily as they, 
 upon the most oflensive portions. 
 
 I made another sketch while the hide, more than 
 an inch thick, was being torn in planks from the 
 ribs, and was just beginning to enjoy the luxury of a 
 good bath in the vlei, when the Bushmen came
 
 186-2.] 
 
 DIMENSIONS OF ELEPHANT. 
 
 309 
 
 dowu for the same purpose, the Damara alone think- 
 ing a wash a work of supererogation ; and at night we 
 supped on steaks which were really superior to 
 much of the beef we have lately eaten. As this was 
 the first elephant whose death I had ever witnessed, 
 I requested Chapman to relinquish in my favour his 
 right to the tail, as a little (not very little, perhaps) 
 memento of the scene ; for the same cause, though 
 larger animals are sometimes met with, I append a 
 statement of the measure taken on the spot. 
 
 Dimensions of male Elephant nearly full g 
 
 •oicn. 
 
 
 
 
 ft. 
 
 in. 
 
 ft. 
 
 in. 
 
 Half the girth of the body 
 
 8 
 
 9 = 
 
 17 
 
 6 
 
 Ditto behind the shoulder . 
 
 7 
 
 9 = 
 
 1.5 
 
 
 
 Ditto before the hind-leg . . 
 
 7 
 
 11 = 
 
 lo 
 
 10 
 
 Tail, exclusive of hairy tuft 
 
 4 
 
 Ox 
 
 
 
 
 Tuft ....'... 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 Insertion of tail to top of forehead 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 Total 1 .-,,-v 
 - length r -^^ 
 
 10 
 
 Top of forehead to insertion of trunk 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Trunk 
 
 6 
 
 8. 
 
 
 
 
 From front of ear to back 
 
 ,3 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 From top to bottom . 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Half breadth from eve to eye . 
 
 1 
 
 9 = 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Length of eye .... 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 From forefoot to centre of spine 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Actual height at shoulder . 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 At middle of back, about . 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hindfoot to spine 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 Actual height .... 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Projection of tusk beyond upper lip 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 Girth of tusk .... 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Breadth of forefoot . 1 ft. 4 in. oi 
 
 • 1 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Length ..... 
 
 . 1 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 Breadth of hindfoot . 
 
 . 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Length 
 
 . 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Colour, iron-gi-ey ; skin reticulated with deep wrinkles ; very few 
 scattered single hairs, except on the eyelash, the lower lip, and 
 the end of the tail, where a number of stout bristles form a 
 rid^e on each side rather than a tuft.
 
 310 EXPLORATIONS IN .SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 Thursday^ 9th. — This morning I was busy in 
 finishing (from what I had witnessed, aided by hints 
 Irom Chapman in what I had not), a picture of the 
 elephant's charge, when I heard a wagon- whip in the 
 distance, but not believing that the conveyance could 
 be back so quickly, I thought I must have been mis- 
 taken. Presently, however, the Damaras confirmed it, 
 and soon after I heard Chapman in conversation, 
 neither with John nor Harry, certainly (though I 
 doubted for a moment how far a clean shirt could 
 disguise them), but with none other than his brother 
 Henry and Edward Barry, who, having arrived at 
 John's camp, had at once spanned in fresh oxen, and 
 returned with the empty wagon we had sent ; and in 
 a few minutes more we had tlie additional pleasure 
 of welcoming Mr. Bell, our new companion. They 
 had reached the Damara tree where John was left, 
 and spanning fresh oxen into the empty wagon, had 
 turned it back at once and come towards us. 
 
 Little or no more work of course was done that day ; 
 messages and greetings from friends far distant, and 
 interchange of news, was sufficient occupation. But 
 it was determined at once to bring on the united 
 wagon train, and Mr. Barry went back with the 
 empty vehicle for that purpose. 
 
 Of incidents less personally affecting us, thougli 
 still of painful interest as regarding friends whom we 
 esteemed, the most distressing was the death of the 
 kind-hearted and amiable explorer. Dr. Holden, Avho, 
 failiii"", I understood, partly from the jealousy of the
 
 1862.] DEATH OF DR. IIOLDEN. 311 
 
 Hottentots and other causes, to make his way to the 
 west, had turned northward of his intended course, 
 and I beheve had launched his boat on one of the 
 rivers there, when in consequence of fever he was 
 obhged to return to his camp. His people had already 
 suffered, and in restoring them to health, he had so 
 far expended his medicines as to be now unable to 
 help himself. His journal is kept up to within 
 two or three days of his death, but the loss of 
 such a man must be lamented not only by his 
 own friends, but by all who take an interest in the 
 progress of discovery in this country. Another melan- 
 choly accident occurred while Mr. Green was being 
 ferried across the river in a native canoe ; a hippo- 
 potamus charged and capsised it, and Mr. Bonfield, 
 the same I believe mentioned in Andersson's book, 
 and another person were seized before they could 
 reach the shore by the alligators abounding in the 
 river. 
 
 Jonker Afinaner, the paramount chief of the ISTa- 
 maqua Hottentots, is also dead, and to his credit it is 
 reported that he has appointed an agent for the 
 settlement of such debts as he had incurred up to 
 the time of his decease. Of course the white inhabi- 
 tants look rather anxiously toward the line of policy 
 to be adopted by his successor. One of the latter, it 
 is said, has fled the country on account of an assault 
 made in a moment of passion upon a Hottentot ; 
 but the rumour is too indefinite at present to admit 
 of my expressing an opinion on the case, beyond the
 
 31-2 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 evident necessity of some form of government being 
 adopted by the white people for the better control 
 of such persons as are not able to command them- 
 selves. I cannot but think that our own government 
 is too tardy in extending its authority where its sub- 
 jects spread themselves. All its efforts seem to be 
 directed to the impossible task of checking the stream 
 of emigration, while actual settlements of our country- 
 men, desirous, and in some cases actually petitioning, 
 to be governed by their own laws, are ignored, until, 
 for the want of the simplest magisterial authority, 
 they either become involved in disputes with the 
 native tribes, or, as in the case of the first little 
 community at Natal, and the deserted people of the 
 Sovereignty, are obhged to submit to and incorporate 
 themselves with any more powerful body of the 
 emigrants in their vicinity, even though, as in the 
 case of the Dutch farmers, they should be at variance 
 with the British Government. In regard to justice 
 to the native tribes, the sooner British authority is 
 interposed the better for them, unless to be plundered 
 and butchered by a horde of semi -barbarians like 
 the Kamaquas be considered better than to live in 
 peace and security under the control of a powerful 
 nation like our own. 
 
 All the cattle, I understand, sent from Otjimbingue 
 toward the Cape had been sent back — Andersson, I 
 believe, alone succeeding in getting through without 
 his herds, and Mr. Latham, who had gone down by 
 sea to meet his, being obliged to return disappointed.
 
 18G2.1 REMEDIES FOR CATTLE DISEASE. S13 
 
 The only remedy in the hands of the white men is to 
 imite in stopping the supphes of European goods to 
 the Hottentots ; but whether in the scattered manner 
 in which they Hve they will be able to do this, seems 
 somewliat uncertain. One cheering item of intelli- 
 gence is, that by the use of potash they are now able 
 to check the progress of tlie dreaded cattle plague ; 
 and it is said beside, that the late Dr. Holden had, 
 before his untimely death, succeeded in curing two 
 or three cases of horse sickness by some peculiar 
 mode of administering ammonia. 
 
 Saturday^ 11th. — Henry Chapman and I walked 
 out to the dead elephant, thinking to obtain a sketch 
 of the skeleton, but totally unprepared for the scene 
 that actually presented itself. The dried flesh was 
 hanging in strips, of course, on rail fences set at all 
 angles, and raised so high that each piece had to be 
 hoisted to its place by a forked stick; but the 
 collective force of Bushmen, now numbering about 
 thirty men and boys, assisted by the vanguard of 
 our Damaras, had been unable to deal w^ith the 
 mass of flesh before them, and fully half of it lay 
 festering in the sun in a condition quite indescrib- 
 able. As no ladies of the Bushman tribe were 
 present, Koobie, who had arrived on the first intelli- 
 gence of the slaughter, was gallantly assisting the 
 fair ones of the other tribe to choice morsels of 
 the head, in return for which they laboured at 
 chopping away the spongy mass of bone in which 
 the now loosened tusks were imbedded, or gathered
 
 314 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 round the Iires wliere the narrow bones, too vast 
 for them to crack, were being burned through. Fat 
 was besmeared on every one. Kouloloa,when bring- 
 ing in the offering of beetles, ghstened Hke a bit 
 of antique bronze, and Pompey's darker skin shone 
 from head to foot with a polish Day and Martin 
 never dreamed of even in an advertisement. An 
 approaching shower obhged me to close my sketch- 
 book and return, leaving unmolested a fine specimen 
 of the merganser, or hooded goose, a spoonbill, and 
 three or four other birds I should have wished for, 
 had not all shooting at smaller game been forbidden 
 by the elephant hunters, lest the more valuable 
 prey should be startled by the report, and quit the 
 country. 
 
 After a walk of between three and four miles SSW., 
 or S. byW., we reached the wagons, four in number, 
 and outspanned about a quarter of a mile south of the 
 water, which, as we cannot write the sound nor find 
 out the meaning of the native name, we have called, 
 from the junction of our forces here, ' Union Vlei.' 
 I am sorry to say the weather prevents my observing 
 the latitude. 
 
 Among the cargo of the newly-arrived wagons, I 
 was glad to see the four end sections of my boats, 
 i.e., the bow and stern of each, together with the 
 wood- work ; this last is less important than the cop- 
 per, but is still welcome, as it will save me a great 
 amount of wood-cutting. 
 
 Inside, the wagons were full to tlie very tents, so
 
 1862.] UNION VLEI. 315 
 
 that the other sections could not have been brought 
 in them, and I shall now have to build the midships 
 of the boats in wood. Besides this were my cartridges 
 from Mr. Logier, and my clothes from Barmen ; 
 among the latter, I understand, a pair of shoes. If 
 they should be the missing odd ones, the loss of 
 which would have spoiled two pair, I pledge myself 
 gladly to withdraw my suspicion from the Hotten- 
 tots, and do them the justice of confessing that they 
 did not steal what never has been lost. Time and 
 the unloadincj of the wascons will sliow. 
 
 A bottle of brandy that by some miracle had 
 passed safely through those sharpest of all excisemen, 
 the Namaquas, was opened in honour of the occasion, 
 and Saturday night in the wilderness was cheered 
 with the festive song and circulating pannikin, our 
 only regret being, that the promised and expected 
 newspapers, being opened in Otjimbingue, had been 
 sent to other travellers, and that a few ' Illustrated 
 News ' left in the wagons had been torn up after 
 beincf read. 
 
 Sunday it rained heavily most of the day, and at 
 night I tried to observe for latitude, but the clouds 
 gathered again, and I had to give up the attempt. 
 
 Monday^ 1 3/f/i. — Commencied preparations for get- 
 ting under weigh at sunrise, but were not actually in 
 motion till long after breakfast. Henry Chapman like 
 ourselves has no efficient driver ; but one of his is a 
 Hottentot, and poor as he is, he is better than ours, 
 and helps a little. We passed Union Vlei, and turning
 
 316 EXPLORATIONS LV SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 nortli-west down the valley, which became broader 
 and more open as we went on, outspanned under a 
 sweet gum tree in its grassy bed, and Chapman set 
 to work with the Damaras to make a scherm, or 
 perhaps I ought rather to say, to dig a rifle-pit near 
 a small vlei where elephants had left their tracks. In 
 a short time Dokkie hurried back, and commenced 
 rifling the tool chest, selecting of course a perfectly 
 new and unused adze. I wondered what a Damara 
 should want with such a tool ; but as he declared 
 he was sent for it, I let him have one already in 
 use. Shortly after dinner a man came up with his 
 finger nearly cut off, the bone being in fact actually 
 divided by a wild stroke another had made with the 
 tool ; so little, however, did the wounded man seem 
 under the influence of pain, that we thought it at 
 first only a flesh wound requiring the ordinaiy 
 dressings, and it was not till John, who had seen the 
 cut given, informed me of the extent of the injury, 
 that I thought it necessary to make a support for 
 the wounded hand out of the cover of an old book 
 softened by wetting it. 
 
 The pit was partially completed, one end being 
 covered with stout logs, grass, and earth for a retreat, 
 the other left open to shoot from. Chapman and 
 his brother took possession. The clouds which had 
 been gradually thinning broke up, and with the 
 assistance of Mr. Bell I attempted a lunar obser- 
 vation ; but the opportunity had come too late, and 
 the setting of the planet cut us short before we had
 
 18G2.] A METEOE. 317 
 
 completed it. I obtained, however, a good altitude of 
 Canopus for the latitude, which came out 20° 57' 9" ; 
 but previous to this my attention was drawn to a 
 sudden light thrown into the tent, where I was 
 working beside a good ordinary lamp, and turning 
 to the west I saw, notwithstanding the brightness of 
 the moon, a meteor of unusual size and briUiancy 
 slowly descending hke a globe of glowing metal to- 
 ward the horizon. All the ordinary ideas of shooting- 
 stars, rockets, &c., would be in fault in describing this. 
 It seemed to me to be a body of considerable size, 
 the slow apparent motion of which was due to its 
 immense distance from the eye, and to its superior 
 light spreading an additional glow over a large 
 portion of the space already illuminated by the 
 moon. 
 
 Tuesday, \^th. — Unloaded and inspected the cargo 
 of the newly-arrived wagons, and am happy to say, 
 both on the Namaquas account and my own, that 
 no suspicion wliatever can attach to them in the 
 matter of the shoes, inasmuch as those most desirable 
 articles of wearing apparel have come safely to the 
 hands of their proper owner. It was less satisfactory 
 to find that a tin of preserved potatoes was utterly 
 ruined by leakage, and a sack of meal partially so, 
 and that a Damara, who had been allowed to ride in 
 the wagon on account of sickness, had made the 
 most of his opportunities in diminishing the bag of 
 sugar underneath him. A man sent down the 
 Omaramba valley or dried river course reported 
 
 u
 
 318 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 til at it turned north of west, and that the elephant 
 spoor was going down it, but he had seen no water. 
 Koobie, who at first had seemed to appreciate the 
 opportimity of going among strange Bushmen and 
 kilhng and plundering them under the protection of 
 white men, and had been rather surprised to find 
 that our ideas did not quite coincide with his own, 
 would tell us nothing whatever, and even recanted 
 the information he had previously given, his object 
 being to get us to return and shoot elephants in his 
 country, where none but he would be allowed to in- 
 terfere with the flesh. Most hkely he has his orders 
 from Leshulatebe ; and he was consequently informed, 
 that as he knew nothing of the country beyond, and 
 was apparently unwilling to guide us in it, we were 
 determined on going through it ourselves, while he 
 returned in peace and plenty to the water called 
 after his name. 
 
 Wednesday, IhtJi. — All hands occupied in pre- 
 parations for the trip to the north-west. The cape 
 tent wagon was cleared of all but what is absolutely 
 necessary, and the others were ranged together with 
 the ivory, hutted in, as a standing camp, under the 
 care of John Laing. John, who had been out during 
 the morning, reported a fine vlei at some distance, 
 near which he came suddenly on a large bull ele- 
 phant ; but as the Damara who carried his gun was 
 not ready to give it to him, he did not get a shot. 
 Chapman mustered the people and went out without 
 success.
 
 1862.] MOVE TO THE NOETII-WEST. 319 
 
 Tliursday^ l%th. — Treked on a nearly Avesterly 
 course down the valley of Union Vlei for about six 
 and a half miles, passing vleis every half hour ; and 
 outspanned just beyond a large one with some 
 Bushmen huts (deserted) near it. Chapman made 
 a rifle-pit where he and his brother went to lie m 
 wait at night, while I stayed to go on with my map, 
 and Mr. Bell and Barry bore me company. 
 
 Friday^ 17th. — About 2 a.m. Chapman and his 
 brother came up from the scherm, and I occupied 
 the post with Bell till dayhght, without seeing 
 anything but three ducks upon the glossy surface of 
 the pool. The rest of the day was occupied in deter- 
 mining the index error of my sextant, and working 
 up my map which now, I think, comes as near the 
 truth as an unprofessional surveyor can be expected 
 to make it, — the dead reckoning, after forty miles 
 journey, coming ^vitliin one mile of the latitude and 
 distant bearings. It is said there is httle or no water 
 in advance of us in this valley, but Chapman has 
 been out to the 'NW., and reports a good road. 
 
 Saturday, ISth. — After taking my night at the 
 scherm with Henry Chapman, who during his watch 
 saw three hyenas, one of which he allowed to sit 
 unmolested within six yards of him rather than 
 disturb any more noble game by firing, we cleared 
 up the traps for a trek, and returning to the vlei 
 to load up water, struck out to the north over the 
 rising ground, where were two or three Bushmen. 
 They pointed on a course of 260 or 10° south 
 
 u2
 
 320 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 of west, and informed us there was no water in 
 advance, and that the Union vlei Omaramba ran in 
 a direction which, on reference to the map, would 
 lead to the Omaramba Otchombinde, eight or ten 
 miles above Eeit Fontein, or Kounobis. Henry- 
 Chapman says that Jan Waterboer has traced up tlie 
 Otchombinde nearly to Elephant Kloof, and that it 
 makes a great sweep (to the northward ?). The Bush- 
 men subsequently confirmed their report respecting 
 our Omaramba joining the Otchombinde, and I fancy 
 that both this stream and that of Jan Waterboer are 
 merely tributaries, and that the main bed comes from 
 the north between the two. For about two hours we 
 treked over elevated undulating plains of grey firm 
 soil apparently calcareous, covered with grass (which 
 indicated that the rain had fallen long since) and 
 patches of low bush alternately thorny and without 
 thorns, the latter called in Sichuana, Mo Khononga, 
 and a favourite article of food with the elephant. We 
 passed several vleis dried or dr3'ing up, and deeply 
 marked with the spoor of elepliants, rhinoceroses, 
 and giraffes searching for water. At eleven o'clock, 
 from the north-western brow of the rise, we saw be- 
 fore us a broad valley with lines of dark brown trees, 
 where, after a journey of twelve and a half miles, or 
 six hours in all, we found Chapman and Bell near 
 a small vlei barely affording a drink for our cattle. 
 Other Bushmen joined us here, and from their dis- 
 putes about the tale they should tell to mislead us. 
 Chapman gathered that there w^as in reality water
 
 1862.] PLOTS AND INTRIGUES. 321 
 
 in advance, but how far distant he could not tell. 
 One thing only was certain ; each party wanted to 
 take possession of us and lead us to shoot game for 
 them in their own particular district. An evening 
 trek of two and a half miles brought us past half a 
 dozen vleis, shaded by fine thorn trees, encircled by 
 white sandy beaches, and from a third to half full of 
 water. We outspanned at a distance from these, lest 
 we should disturb whatever game there might be, 
 and at nio;ht heard from the Bushmen that a larsre 
 running river was only one day in advance. This 
 is not what we want exactly, for in such case it 
 Avould probably be infested by Tsetse, and Chapman 
 cannot afford to risk his cattle ; but a second account 
 is that it is a standing water or pool in an Oma- 
 ramba or dry bed with occasional waters, and this 
 will answer our purpose much better. Chapman and 
 Bell had seen a camelopard at a long distance, and 
 had heard a distant rush and scream supposed to be 
 that of an elephant charging some of the dogs. 
 
 At night we were all attacked by sickness, pro- 
 bably from milk soured in a Damara's calabash ; and 
 my attempt to take an altitude of Aldebaran, was 
 rendered almost fruitless by the rising of the clouds. 
 It is encouraging, however, to see that rain is falhng 
 in every direction within a few miles of us. 
 
 Simday, Idth. — Leaving the wagon to stand, and 
 the oxen to rest for the day, Henry Chapman, Bell, 
 and I walked down the valley to see if there were 
 water in advance, and had passed two or three vleis
 
 322 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 when the Bushmen pointed to the riglit, and told us 
 that they heard elephants. They (and the dogs as 
 usual) dashed ahead, and before we could gain the 
 ridge of the hill, we heard the loud roaring and 
 trumpeting of the beasts, em^aged by the barking of 
 the dogs, and as the valley opened before us, saw 
 their huge dark forms crasliing through the bushes 
 as they escaped over the other side. We ran on, en- 
 couraged by the roaring and angry barking that 
 announced a desperate conflict in the next hollow 
 but when we reached it not an elephant was to be 
 seen, and we looked round in wonder for the cause, 
 till casting our eyes downward, we saw the yelhng 
 pack clustered round an animal which at first w^e 
 took for a wild boar, but which partially breaking 
 away, showed itself to be a young elephant, probably 
 six months old, and a httle more than three feet in 
 height. I called to know whether any of the Da- 
 maras had a rein or anything to make him fast with, 
 but no means of securing him being at hand, I pulled 
 triggers, and telling the Bushmen to cover the car- 
 case and leave it uncut, hastened on after the others. 
 We soon separated in the thick bush, and Bell and I, 
 after following till we were tired, made for the 
 wagon, where we found Henry had already arrived, 
 and had sent Damaras to fetch in the elephant. This 
 was found too heavy a task, and we accordingly 
 started with sketch-book and camera toward the spot, 
 where almost the first thing we saw was the dead 
 body of poor little Bruin — the only one of our dogs
 
 1862.] CAPTURE OF YOUNG ELEPHANT. 323 
 
 I could find heart to be soriy for — stiffened and dis- 
 torted by a blow from the trunk of one of the ele- 
 phants. We gave him a place in the picture beside 
 the fallen game, and at length the impatient Damaras 
 were allowed to begin theu- work — not quite at theu' 
 own pleasure, however, for as the animal was small, 
 and the dentition of the African elephant is a sub- 
 ject on which information is desked at home, I 
 thought it worth while to attempt the preservation 
 of the skin and skull-bone. After no end of trouble 
 I succeeded in getting off the hide not greatly- 
 mutilated, preserved the skull from being broken, and 
 then turned my attention to the share of meat 
 the Bushmen were to have ; the back-bone was 
 allotted to them, but the difference between the 
 cutting of a Bushman for himself, and the cutting 
 of a Damara for him, was something wonderful, and 
 it requii'ed a determined and constant interposition 
 of authority to prevent the larger portion of their 
 share from adhering to that of the Damaras. 
 
 The elder Bushman carried home the skin for me, 
 and helped me in cutting out one of the feet, which 
 I handed over to him as his reward, to the great 
 chagrin of a Damara who officiously interposed at 
 the last moment in hope of securing the delicacy. 
 After dark I had it hoisted on the branches of a tree 
 out of reach of the dogs, and packed behind the 
 wagon in the morning. I ought to mention that 
 Bell tested the measurement of the height at the 
 shoidder by doubhng the circumference of the
 
 324 EXrLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Jan. 
 
 foiefoot, and in tliis case found it to correspond 
 exactly. 
 
 Monday^ 20th. — Walked ahead with the Bushmen, 
 who took us to the east of north across the valley, 
 and across a second which probably joins it lower 
 down ; then turned still more east over a flat with 
 ant hills, and a rather pretty grove of tall straight 
 Oomahaama trees, from which poles, thirty or forty 
 feet in length, and eight or ten inches at the base, 
 might be obtained. We followed in hope that the 
 path might turn more north and west, but they still 
 held on and pointed forward to ' the Dom ' or water- 
 course, which, for anything we could tell, might be 
 Ngami itself, or a river running to it. We therefore 
 turned back, and meeting the wagon stopped it in 
 the Oomahaama grove, where a report of recent 
 elephant spoor gave most of the party two hours' 
 good exercise, to the great improvement of their 
 appetite. We sent out Damaras and Bushmen to 
 search for water, but the party that returned at 
 night reported having seen but little ; still the Oma- 
 ramba led to the northward of west, and nearly 
 in the direction we wish, i.e., NW. magnetic (or 
 about WNW. due). It will be understood, I hope, 
 that throughout this joiu'nal, I adopt the rule fol- 
 lowed with the sanction of the Admiralty in the 
 ' Magnetic Magazine ' and other works : that ' all 
 bearings are magnetic unless otherwise stated.' 
 
 At length one of oiu^ Damaras came forward and 
 stated that he knew the country in which the Hot-
 
 1862.] EEPOETS. 325 
 
 tentots went northward to hunt, and that before this 
 moon was dead, we might, by following the Oma- 
 ramba to the west, and then turning more northward, 
 reach the waters at which they drank, and from that 
 the Omaramba K'omatoka on the road of the hunters 
 and traders in Ovambo land. This if it turns out to 
 be correct, will answer our purpose, as we are now 
 endeavouring to make a road through the new 
 country north of the Hottentots, to enable Henry 
 Chapman to bring out his cattle from Otjimbingue, 
 with the risk of driving them through the country 
 of so capricious and unreasonable a set of people. 
 
 It is said there is an independent tribe of Bushmen 
 in our path, and we wish, therefore, to retain some 
 of those now with us, that they may report of us 
 as travellers and hunters who treat people fairly, 
 and not a horde of Hottentots. A little pre- 
 caution of this kind is not unnecessary, for were we 
 to come suddenly upon them, it is most hkely they 
 would shoot some of our Damaras, in continuation 
 of the standing feud between the tribes, and run 
 away from us lest we should attack them m turn. 
 
 On laying out the elephant's skin to finish cleaning 
 and drying it, I found that, notwithstanding all the 
 care I had taken, one of the Damaras had cut the 
 trunk oiT, and of course completely spoiled it ; so 
 after cutting off the feet and tail, I had to hand it 
 over to the Damaras, who carried it off rejoicing in 
 the prospect of a glorious stew. Eepeated dis- 
 couragements of this kind have made me resolve 
 
 ^&'
 
 326 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 over and over again to give up the collection of spe- 
 cimens altogether. I sawed the skull in two, and set 
 a couple of women to clean off the flesh which, with 
 the great amount of brain contained in the cavity, 
 oucfht to be considered an abundant reward for their 
 trouble ; and extracting the teeth myself, I put them 
 carefully away in separate papers, the alveoli being 
 as yet mere jelly, quite incapable of retaining them 
 in their places, and even the inside of the young half- 
 formed teeth being of the same soft consistency. The 
 tusks were just formed, and the points were tolerably 
 firm, but I expect they will drop out in a few days, 
 when I shall put each away with its own side of the 
 skull, and, if possible, forward half to the Lynn 
 Museum, and half to Professor Owen. 
 
 Tuesday^ 2\st. — Gentle rain in the morning. For- 
 tunately last night was clear, and I observed three 
 good stars, Aldebaran, Capella, and Canopus, which 
 gave a mean latitude of 20° 46' 20". Damaras and 
 Bushmen were sent out again, but none of them 
 brought a favourable report, except that the ground 
 was hard enough for a good road, and that the path 
 after going north for some time turned again to the 
 west, down an omaramba ; but at last Chapman, while 
 listening to tlie discussion among the Bushmen, 
 detected the word used for fountain, and though he 
 could not tell how far distant, learned that there 
 was certainly one before us. The only bribe that 
 will induce these people to show us where it is, is a 
 tinder-box, and it seems doubtful whether we can
 
 1862.] EAIN. 327 
 
 muster one in the whole party. They can of course 
 make fire by rubbing sticks together, but the power 
 of stril\ing it at one blow out of a stone seems to 
 them about the highest that man can attain to. In 
 the afternoon we had heavy rain, which we hope will 
 help us on our way a little.
 
 328 [Jan. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 UNDULATING COUNTRY UNCERTAINTY OF FINDING WATER 
 
 DISAPPEARANCE OF BUSHMEN — STRENGTH AKD CAUTIOUSNESS 
 
 OF ELEPHANTS AN EVENING SCENE — VULTURES FEASTING ON 
 
 DEAD ELEPHANTS — FIRST SIGHT OF A GIRAFFE — UNDULATING 
 GRASS LAND — THE ONJURA, OR TREE -SQUIRREL — DIFFICULTY 
 OF PRESERVING BIRD-SKINS — A NIGHT ATTACK OF ELEPHANTS 
 
 — A NARROW ESCAPE COOKERY OF THE BUSHMEN THE 
 
 TOUCAN — GEMSBOKS — WANDERINGS OF ELEPHANTS IN SEARCH 
 OF WATER. 
 
 On the 22iid of January, we treked to the east of 
 north to the vlei at whicli we turned back on Monday, 
 then ahnost north, over undulating country, with aher- 
 nate patches of bush and grass, till we reached an 
 omaramba, and turning half a mile to the west, out- 
 spanned after a journey of seven miles and a quarter, 
 in a ' pan ' or flat bed of clay nearly a mile in dia- 
 meter wetted by the last rain till it stuck to the feet 
 like pipe clay, and containing pools in several httle 
 hoUows ; the Bushmen called it Karran, but we 
 think this is only a general name for this kind of 
 hollow. They say the omaramba goes to 'Kaniess, 
 which must be near Mosehnyan, but it is diflicult to 
 know whether the water, if there were a stream, 
 would flow to or from that place if we are going up 
 it, as we think our chance of water of course will
 
 1862.] TEICKERY OP THE BUSHMEN. 329 
 
 come to an end at the head of the omaramba ; and 
 we shall have to look for another beyond the water- 
 shed. 
 
 Large flocks of the black and white ibis, and of 
 the white stork settled in lines half a mile long, the 
 ibis looking like black regiments, and the stork, the 
 black quill feathers being invisible when closed, hke 
 white ones. "We shot specimens of both, and a fennee 
 or large-eared jackal, and Chapman womided a 
 brindled gnoo out of a herd of about fifty, most of 
 them females with calves, in defence of which they 
 charged the dogs and regularly beat them off. In 
 the afternoon we made eight miles and three-quarters 
 WKW., finding vleis at every half-hour, till we as- 
 cended a small rise, on which we outspanned, with 
 the omaramba on our left. The night was too cloudy 
 to take an observation. 
 
 Thursday, 2^rd. — The first report after the showers 
 of the night had ceased, as morning dawned, was, 
 that the Bushmen, who had promised to show us 
 ' the Fountain,' had decamped in the night, for what 
 reason no one could tell, as they appeared well satis- 
 fied the night before, and had even brought us a 
 quantity of berries to make cider of. Possibly they 
 may know that the country is dry, and fear that we 
 might ill-treat them for faihng to find water ; or 
 perliaps the Damaras may have threatened tliem 
 without our knowledge. Our inability to speak their 
 language, together with the indolence, inefiiciency, 
 and sullen obstinacy of Dokkie, induced us to send
 
 830 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 back Harry and some Damaras to stay with John, 
 and deske Jan the Hottentot to join us, in the 
 capacity of interpreter and driver. A miserable trek 
 of about five miles, during which Dokkie filled up 
 the measure of his iniquity by steahng our scanty 
 supply of water, and tearing through the whole side 
 of the wagon tent by obstinately refusing to obey 
 Henry Chapman's orders, brought us to ' Deep Vlei ' 
 at present only a deep mud hole, and him to the 
 punishment he had richly earned. The rest of the 
 morning instead of finishing the sketches I had made, 
 I had to spend in mending the wagon tent, and httle 
 time was left in the afternoon to skin two or three 
 of the finches Chapman brought in. Damaras were 
 sent back rather more than six miles for Avater, 
 and others were in advance, reporting, when they 
 returned, the existence of several little pools, but no 
 appearance as yet of a permanent spring. 
 
 Friday, 24:th. — Inspanned early, and leaving ' Deep 
 Vlei' near the junction of the smaller valley with 
 the omaramba of the last two days, we turned more 
 to the northward over the rise ; then passing through 
 a hollow with a limestone bottom, and a small pit, 
 where the long green grass indicated the possibility 
 of water, and surmounting the next rise, outspanned 
 about a hundred yards south of the little rain vleis we 
 had heard of. Heavy clouds were hanging over the 
 horizon to the north-east, making me think that some 
 other hollow or irregularity of the land must be there
 
 1862.] STRENGTH OF ELEPHANTS. 331 
 
 to account for the collection. A cool easterly wind 
 was, however, sweeping them athwart our course, 
 a few miles before us ; and I hope that by still hold- 
 ing on to the north we may find a tract where the 
 liquid treasures of ISTgami may be distributed by the 
 prevalent winds over the thirsty land for the benefit 
 of travellers. Chapman, however, thinks that, unless 
 permanent water be discovered within at most a 
 day's journey from this, it will be unsafe to risk a 
 passage with a herd of cattle through the country, 
 when a few days of unclouded sun have scorched up 
 the httle water we have been drinking since leaving 
 Koobie. 
 
 The dogs had here again caught a young fennee, 
 or fruit and insect eating jackal, which one of the 
 Damara's skinned. I sketched the head, which with 
 the ears might be appropriately represented by an 
 equilateral triangle ; but I cannot say that I succeeded 
 quite to my satisfaction in giving the foxy expression 
 of the eyes. However, the sketch must pass for what 
 it is worth, and at least is a useful study for me. 
 Chapman and his brother shot several finches (some 
 of which with four long feather shafts, shghtly webbed 
 at the end, were very beautiful), and a number of 
 other birds. 
 
 During this and the last two or three days we had 
 seen many trees of considerable size overturned by 
 elephants ; more than one of these appeared to be 
 certainly more than eight, and perhaps ten inches in
 
 332 KXPLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 diameter ; and tliey were not dry rotten wood, but 
 strong gromng Motjihaaras, such as we had made 
 our axle of, overthrown in all their strength, and 
 Avith their o-reen foliaore and crimson seeds still as 
 
 a O 
 
 full "^nd rich as any on the trees still flourishing 
 beside them. 
 
 Saturday, loth. — A cloudy morning with occa- 
 sional showers. I liad tried to get altitudes of three 
 stars last night, but, from the passmg clouds and wa- 
 tery haze as well as the glare of the Damaras' fire, only 
 obtained an imperfect view of Canopus. Still, on lay- 
 ing down the last two days' work, I found it agree with 
 the dead reckoning mthin a half or three quarters of 
 a mile. Damaras were sent out to search for the 
 reported fountain, meat was given them and they 
 were ordered to sleep out and not turn back till the 
 next day. Our position as shown on the map is now 
 so favourable for an attempt to open a new road in 
 the country independent of the ISTamaquas, that I 
 should be sorry if from any cause we were unable to 
 carry out our project. The filling up some half com- 
 pleted pencil sketches, and shortening and fresh 
 sighting one of Chapman's long elephant rifles, took 
 me all the morning, and while busy with the last, I 
 saw Kajumbie and his party returning with a rather 
 crest-fallen air. They had found water,indeed; a large 
 water such as we had not seen on the road, as large 
 as Otjimbingue (whatever that may mean) ; but 
 they had also seen elephants, cows and bulls and
 
 1862.] OBSERVATIONS OF DISTANCE. 333 
 
 young ones, like a troop of cattle. The dogs had burst 
 from the slips and attacked them, and our heroes, 
 confessing themselves fairly frightened, had neither 
 called off the dogs, nor fired at the elephant, but had 
 made the best of their way home, leaving the 'dogs 
 to drive the game out of the country rather tlian 
 risk themselves in the vicinity. Henry Chapman 
 shot a couple of blue rollers with a green instead of 
 pale crimson breast, and without the long feathers 
 in the tail common to Moselekatze's bird, on the 
 Zambesi. I sketched one of them, and now, the 
 clouds having cleared off, am observing stars north 
 and south for latitude. 
 
 Sunday, 26^/i. — Morning tolerably clear, wind east. 
 The altitudes of Aldebaran, Capella, and Canopus, 
 respectively, were 106° 20' 10", 47° h' 50" and 116° 
 8'. Canopus on the previous night being 116° 8' 40", 
 the index error 2' 15" sub tractive, and the mean 
 latitude 20° 39' 11". The first report of the morn- 
 ing is that the horses have strayed, and that the 
 Damaras are after them ; the man whose duty it is 
 to attend them, having neglected to tie them up last 
 night. Then' tracks go to the southward, and we are 
 of course anxious to recover them before they fall 
 into the hands of the Ghanze and Eiet Fontein Bush- 
 men, who are all in the interest of Gert the former 
 horse-stealer. 
 
 Our position as we now find it on the chart is, lat. 
 20° 39' 11" approximate longitude 21° 37', in the 
 
 X
 
 3:]4 EXPLO RATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 hitherto unexplored country, and our distance from 
 the nearest known points as under : — 
 
 
 Magnetic 
 
 Miles 
 
 
 bearing. 
 
 distant. 
 
 Christmas tree . , . . 
 
 105 
 
 69 
 
 Koobie . . . . 
 
 145 
 
 58 
 
 Gbanze . . . . 
 
 170 
 
 60 
 
 Koimobis, or Eiet Fonteiu 
 
 228 
 
 85 
 
 Scbmeli's Hope 
 
 279 
 
 270 
 
 Omaramba Omataka^ at the point we 
 
 
 
 wish to strike 
 
 308 
 
 180 
 
 Okavare . . . . 
 
 305 
 
 190 
 
 Supposed position of Omaramba Oma- 
 
 
 
 taka, in the direction of our present 
 
 
 
 course . . . . 
 
 326 
 
 120 
 
 Libabe . . . . 
 
 6 
 
 180 
 
 Kang . . . . . 
 
 65 
 
 80 
 
 Okovango . . . . 
 
 840 
 
 240 
 
 In the afternoon some of the Damaras brought us 
 several pieces of comb, full of young bees' pollen and 
 honey, the whole of which, comb and all, being eaten 
 just as it w^as cut out, was exceedingly palatable, the 
 other ingredients formmg a good corrective to the 
 sweetness of the honey. Of course even with this 
 modification we could not consume much of it, and 
 the remainder was handed over to the Damaras. 
 
 Monday^ 27th. — A trek of foiu' miles and three 
 furlongs, took us about a quarter of a mile past three 
 fine vleis, at the farthest of which we had a scherm 
 made in the usual form, the middle being covered 
 with stout poles and earth, and the ends left open 
 to shoot from. Chapman rode on in the direction of 
 some trees that, from a distance, had looked like 
 palms, but were found not to be so. He had fallen 
 in with a Bushman village, but his Damaras rushinsj
 
 lSG->.] CAUTIOUSNESS OF ELEPHAXTS. 335 
 
 forward had commenced plmidering, and the Bush- 
 men standing in their defence with broad assagais, 
 were only deterred from kilhng the robbers by the 
 approach of Chapman, who, sending away the 
 Damaras witli liis gun, rode toward the fugitives 
 who were bending their bows with poisoned arrows 
 on the string, and tried to convince them of his 
 friendly intentions. They pointed to the Damaras, and 
 at one time seemed as if they would have come 
 forward to speak, but eventually took to flight. Of 
 course the thief was mad« to restore his booty, and 
 on returning to the wagons was sentenced to receive 
 two dozen lashes, such an offence as this being too 
 serious a thing to be passed over. Jan, who had 
 arrived in the morning, was mounted at once, and 
 sent back with one of the Damaras Avho had been at 
 the huts, and Dokkie. He was armed of course for his 
 protection, but had strict orders to conciliate the 
 Bushmen, and if possible to induce them to come to 
 the wagons. 
 
 At night Henry Chapman and I went down to the 
 scherm and watched alternately till nearly daylight. 
 Sometunes we fancied we heard movements far away 
 in the bush, and once a slight ripple on the water, 
 which I supposed to be caused by the swoop of a 
 night-hawk, or the plunge of a frog ; but on the 
 morning of Tuesday, 28th, when we went out to seek 
 for any elephant that might yet be straying in the 
 bush, we found the spoor of one which had come 
 down to our pool, but being alarmed, probnbly by 
 
 X 2
 
 336 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 the end of cut log which the people had left un- 
 covered, had turned away without drinking. It may- 
 be that the plash I heard was that of a frog startled 
 at the moment, but Chapman says that the tread of 
 an elephant, when his suspicions are aroused, is more 
 noiseless than that of any other animal known in the 
 country. 
 
 Chapman had taken a couple of most excellent 
 observations for latitude, Capella giving 20° 40' 15'', 
 and Canopus 20° 40' IG", the difference between the 
 two being only one second the sixtieth part of a mile 
 or about twenty-nine or thirty yards. In the fore- 
 noon I marked the latitude on a tree. 
 
 Tuesday, 2Sth. — As soon as we had rested our- 
 selves. Chapman made another sweep to the west 
 and south, without finding either an eligible road 
 or water ; and when he returned I took the largest 
 of his horses, which from a habit of shying could 
 not be ridden after elephants, and, accompanied by 
 Jan to interpret for me in case we should meet with 
 Bushmen, started at 2 p.m. on a NW. by W. course. 
 We passed a small vlei at which the path ended, but 
 the open valley beyond was of good level soil, and 
 quite practicable for a wagon. About three, we 
 turned into a clump of bush near the northern ridge, 
 and found a small muddy vlei (not sufficient for our 
 cattle to drink once at), and a path leading across the 
 valley to the bush on the southern side. After a 
 short search here we held on again, cheered by the 
 sight of some laro;e birds, which I took at a distance
 
 GROTTP OP STOKKS (Jan. 28, 1862).
 
 186-2.] GROUPS OF ADJUTANTS. 337 
 
 to be glossy ibis and white egret. At the latter I 
 fired three or four bullets mthout effect, and could 
 not account for my bad shooting till they took "wing, 
 when I found they were gigantic storks, their bodies 
 having been hidden in the long grass, and my 
 mistake as to their kind leading me to allow too 
 little distance between their heads and their bodies. 
 With the other bu-ds, which proved to be adju- 
 tants, I was more fortunate, my next shot bringing 
 one do^\Ti from a dead branch with, as it appeared to 
 me at the moment, a wound only through the beak 
 about four inches from the pomt ; on skinning him, 
 however, I found that the ball had passed his 
 shoulder, just grazing the spine and cutting the red 
 skin of the neck. I folded up the skin as well as I 
 could upon the spot, and handed it to Jan, who 
 eventually took off his shirt to wrap it in, and rode 
 round to the southward, where, crossing the path we 
 had seen before, we came upon a couple of fine 
 grass}^ vleis, sufficient in Jan's opinion to give our 
 cattle a month's water. Heavy clouds were now 
 overhanging the northern ridge, and partial rainbows 
 were shoAvu on them by the setting sun, the Hghts 
 and shadows on the green bush and long rich grass 
 contrasting strongly with the dark purple distance, 
 Avhile the dead trees, every one of them occupied by a 
 group of great adjutants standing upright on their 
 grey stilt-like legs, with their dark mugs reheved by 
 their white breasts and red necks glancing in the sun- 
 light, completed the picture. A canter of two hours
 
 338 
 
 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Jan. 
 
 broiiglit US to the wagon, and througli the night I 
 liearcl occasional sliots where Chapman and the rest 
 of tlie party were lying in the rifie-pits at the water. 
 Wednesday, 29th. — Hearing the baying of our 
 dogs at some distance, followed by the shrill scream 
 and trumpeting of an elephant, I caught up my gun, 
 and followed the cry through the thick bush till a 
 
 STORKS IN SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 brisk fusilade not far from me announced that the 
 party were engaged with him. Another single shot 
 followed, and all was quiet but for an occasional 
 savage growl, guided by which I at last came upon 
 the elephant breathing his last or nearly so, and feebly 
 stniggHng witli the dogs that were tearing at his 
 trunk. I called them off, and leaving a boy to guard
 
 1862.] CAPTURE OF ELEPIIAINT. 339 
 
 tliem and allow tlie noble animal to die in peace, 
 returned to the wagon, where I learned that seven or 
 nine elephants had been fired at during tlie night ; 
 two of them, I believe, by James Chapman before 
 dark, while he was on his way to his scherm, where, 
 I believe, the herd had mostly congregated, only one 
 attempting to drink at that occupied by Henry 
 Chapman and Bell, and standing in the act within 
 six or eight feet of them. Considerable numbers 
 were supposed to be in the bush, and any person not 
 safely ' beschermed ' before dark would have stood 
 more chance of being a subject for a verdict next 
 morning, than of being able to give one. Breakfast 
 was quickly finished, and, equipped for photography 
 and art, we took the field again, coming first upon 
 the bull nearest to the water and afterwards to the 
 body of the first I had seen. Both were of good size, 
 though not so large as that killed to the north of 
 Union Vlei, but the tusks of both were I think some- 
 what heavier. The Damaras returned from an un- 
 successful search after the other wounded ones, and 
 when we had finished our pictures and Mr. Bell had 
 taken measurements, they were set to work to save 
 the internal fat and as much of the flesh as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 In the afternoon 1 made a sketch of the adjutant, 
 copying as nearly as possible the colours, although 
 the bluish grey of the trunk and the intense red of 
 the naked skin on the neck had already faded. The 
 under part of the body was white, the wings a dull
 
 340 EjXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Jan. 
 
 brown, nearly black, with a greenish gloss on some of 
 the feathers, the tail of the same colour, and the legs 
 flesh-coloured an inch or two below the feathers ; 
 after which they were dark- coloured, but covered 
 with a white incrustation like a kind of natural pipe- 
 clay. Large flocks of these birds hovered over the 
 dead carcases, but have probably been afraid to settle 
 while the Dainaras were round them. At night I 
 went with Henry Chapman to lie in his brother's 
 scherm ; Dokkie and Bill being sent to occupy our 
 former one. But the noise of the Damaras at the 
 dead elephants, and the growling of the dogs ef- 
 fectually deterred any game from coming near us. 
 As for Dokkie and his mate, they deserted their post, 
 or, in the Cockney vulgate, ' hooked it ' about nine 
 o'clock ; declaring, when they reached the wagons, 
 that they were not afraid, but that the hole was not 
 comfortable for men to sit in. Jan had previously 
 averred that he was not in condition either to use a 
 spade or shoot at elephants. 
 
 Thursday^ oOth. — Dokkie and Jan, after rationing 
 themselves ofl* the ribs of a goat, were sent to take a 
 day's ride on oxback and report upon the direction of 
 the spoor and on the general features of the country. 
 After a good breakfast oS" two or three feet of 
 the trunk, which had been buried in a fire pit all 
 night, Chapman went off* to try the country to the 
 south-west and to search for traces of the animals, 
 the spoil of which are to repay him for the expense 
 and labour of his journey.
 
 1862.] AN ELEPHANT FEAST. 341 
 
 One of the tusks was brought in before noon, and 
 I went to the dead elephant to try for a sketch of 
 the skull ; but there seems to be little hope of my 
 ever succeeding in this, as the Damaras chop the 
 tusks out, instead of waiting till they can be drawn, 
 and smash the skull in pieces for the sake of the 
 fat and marrow. Of course after the feast is ended 
 no one is in condition to exert himself in cutting 
 up more meat. A few, who are least gorged, throw 
 green branches over the carcase, while the rest stretch 
 themselves under trees festooned with strips of 
 blackened flesh and surrounded with festering offal, 
 till they are able to rise and begin another meal. 
 The idea of providing for the day beyond the morrow 
 seems never to enter their minds. 
 
 At night, the Chapmans took possession of the 
 farthest scherm, and I of the nearest or orig-inal. 
 Jan excused himself as before as being out of con- 
 dition, and Dokkie, when I relinquished my watch 
 and lay down, very quietly followed my example, 
 and when I roused him told me very coolly he had 
 not been sleeping. 
 
 Friday^ o\st. — Jan and Dokkie, with other Da- 
 maras, were sent to make a scherm at a water 
 Chapman had seen to the south-west. The flight 
 of the birds overhead was narrowly watched, in 
 hope of their directing us to the other wounded 
 elephants, but the Damaras say that this adjutant 
 does not eat meat. One or two vultures, however, 
 were at last made out by aid of a telescope, and
 
 342 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Fkb. 
 
 wc hope more of these useful hunter's guides will 
 follow. As the Damaras destroy our knives by 
 sharpening them on rough stones, breaking them 
 against bones, &c., I tried this morning to make 
 one out of tlie handle of a gridiron. It would not 
 pass muster with Sheffield cutlery, but it takes a 
 coarse, keen edge, and saves a better one. The 
 teeth and part of the jaw bones of one elephant 
 were brought up as I had directed to-day ; but for 
 the sake of drying them so that they may be packed 
 without smelhng offensively, I am obhged to cut 
 them through with a saw and set the women to 
 remove the soft portions under the teeth. 
 
 Saturday^ February 1st. — Chapman and his brother 
 returned from the scherm where they had spent a 
 night of discomfort from the swarms of musquitoes. 
 A wolf and a tiger (leopard) appeared to be drink- 
 ing there, and as they did not come up to the ele- 
 phants we know of, it was thought they must be 
 feeding on some of the others that we have not 
 found. The Damaras, when desired to go in search, 
 say, ' Wliy should we look for more elephants ? we 
 have more meat than we can eat now, and more 
 than half of it stinks already.' Dokkie cannot go 
 out without a riding-ox, while the rest only make 
 a short circuit and sleep under a bush till they 
 think it time to come home. 
 
 Henry Chapman reported that the abandoned 
 carcases were now covered by vultures, hawks, and 
 adjutants. I borrowed his Httle gun, and taking my
 
 18G2.] 
 
 VULTURES. 
 
 343 
 
 sketch-book, paid them both a visit. Numbers of the 
 birds rose as I approached, and wheeled in large 
 circles over my head, but from the thickness of the 
 bush, I conld not come near enough to see them m 
 the enjoyment of their meal before they were dis- 
 turbed. I shot two adjutants, and two vultures ; but 
 only secured one of the latter, with wings seven 
 
 FIRST SIGHT OF A GIRAFFE. 
 
 feet in the spread, and almost as big as the boy who 
 carried it for me. Coming to the second vlei as 
 twilight was closing in, I saw, looming above the 
 bush, the stately head and neck of a giraffe. I 
 followed in hope of getting a better view, but saw 
 nothing more than the swan-like neck gracefully 
 floating over the low bush, and with only the little
 
 344 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Fkb. 
 
 fowling-piece in my liand I had no hope of making 
 a capture of liim. 
 
 Sunday^ 2nd. — Moved on at ten o'clock, taking the 
 road to the north-west, past the Bushmen's huts ; and 
 after riding five miles outspanned in the edge of the 
 bush just beyond the water I had found a few days 
 ago. I found another vlei not far from the wagon, and 
 Chapman, riding ahead, found a still larger one, near 
 which we propose to halt to-morrow. Finished skin- 
 ning my vulture, and partially coloured my sketch of 
 the adjutants and vultures gorging on the elephant. 
 
 Monday, ^rd. — Moved about four and a half 
 miles along the southern side of the hollow, with 
 the low ridge on the north about a mile from us, and 
 slopes of long rich grass and scattered patches of 
 mimosa and other bush filling up the interval. We 
 outspanned on the edge of the southern bush, with a 
 fine grassy vlei south-south-east a quarter of a mile, 
 and another half a mile east-south-east, beside some 
 smaller ones ; in all, or any of which, some one or 
 more of us bathed, swam, shot ducks, or tried in vain 
 to hunt the little water-hens out of the long grass. 
 Henry Chapman killed a pair of beautiful little 
 bluish grey herons, or egrets, about a foot in height, 
 with grey and yellow speckled stripes down the 
 throat ; I sketched one of them, and at night ob- 
 served Aldebaran and Capella for latitude. The clouds 
 rising in the west, obscured the planet, or I would 
 have taken a lunar distance. The two stars gave 
 mean latitude 20° 36' 34".
 
 1862.] 
 
 DOCTRINAL DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 345 
 
 Chapman and I have been talking about some 
 better observance of the Sunday, but whether we 
 shall come to any practical conclusion time and 
 further consultation will show. Tlie difficulty is, 
 
 that we number among us about as many doc- 
 trines as we do persons, the extremes being Eoman 
 Catholic and Scotch Presbyterian, so tliat if nobody 
 consents to give up a few differences, we may as 
 well let it alone. I have proposed that Chapman,
 
 346 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 kiiowino; the dilTerence between the Eoman Church 
 and that of England, should select such portions of 
 the Missal as may be used in common by all who 
 profess to be Christians, and he thinks favourably of 
 it, if it does not give offence to the rest of us. 
 
 The Damaras have been down the omaramba some 
 miles, and report plenty of water, beside which, 
 Kanva says, he saw twelve bull elephants ; or, 
 as we propose to call them by way of abbrevia- 
 tion, bulephants, the females being distinguished as 
 cowlephants, and their young as caliphants ; or, 
 wdiich is even simpler, to call them at once, bulls, 
 cows, and calves, as a true ivory hunter disdains to 
 notice even the existence of any inferior animal. 
 Jan and Dokkie had been out on riding oxen, and 
 had lost themselves, but a few heavily loaded guns 
 enabled them to retrace their steps, and reach the 
 wagons about ten o'clock. They reported two oma- 
 rambas to the north with vleis, but no one has as 
 yet succeeded in discovering the fountain, without 
 which, as an unfailing supply, it would not be pru- 
 dent for Henry Chapman to bring his oxen across, 
 when the season advances. 
 
 Tuesday, ith — Moved forward about four miles 
 alono- the omaramba, which assumed a more decided 
 character as we proceeded, being now a flat bottom 
 of about a mile in width, covered with long rich 
 grass, green and hardly yet in seed, and groves of 
 mimosa bush between definite though low ridges on 
 the north and south. After dinner, Chapman and I
 
 1LG2.] MUD-HOLES OF ELEPHANTS. 347 
 
 rode on about three miles NW. by west, passing 
 tv/o or three large vleis, and several smaller ones, 
 besides mud holes in which the elephants had been 
 puddling and kneading up the soil into a uniform 
 black clay. Two or three heavy showers fell in 
 different directions, leaving the paths hke little run- 
 ning streams. The Damaras had almost finished the 
 scherm at the nearest vlei but one, and about sunset, 
 with Dokkie as my watchmate, I took possession. 
 Before long I became aware of the movement of 
 some quadruped not very far from me, and watch- 
 ing patiently, as the cautious animal peered about 
 to satisfy himself that his way to the water was per- 
 fectly safe, I saw emerging at the very foot of the 
 tree within a barrel's length of me the head and 
 brilliant eyes and finally the whole body of a large 
 field-mouse, which, after surveying me curiously for 
 some time, decided not to improve our acquaintance- 
 ship but to make his exit by another way. My 
 vigil being ended, I desired Dokkie to watch, and 
 on no account to fire, but to call me if anything 
 appeared. Surely, thought I, as I woke again, roused 
 by noises I could hardly account for, there must be 
 elephants about us now. I rubbed my eyes and 
 looked up, but Dokkie's watch-tower was empty, 
 and I found him as before coiled up in the lower 
 tier, flapping away the mosquitoes. A drizzling rain 
 lasted till morning, and when the ducks began to 
 settle down with a plash upon the water of the 
 vlei, I returned to the wagon and very gladly
 
 348 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Veu. 
 
 took a pannikin of liot coffee and half an hour's 
 sleep. 
 
 Wednesday, hth. — As soon as breakfast was over, 
 Chapman and I rode to the north-west, or a little 
 more westerly along the valley, about six or eight 
 miles, finding small vleis and pools of mud or water 
 every few hundred yards. A black wildebeeste broke 
 cover, just showing his mane and withers, like those 
 of a wild boar, above the bush, before he was lost 
 again ; but with the exception of a variety of birds, 
 hawks, toucans, blue rollers, jays, scarlet-breasted 
 butcher birds, and brilliant finches, and an occasional 
 meerkat, or ground squirrel, to give the dogs a run, 
 everything was solitude ; though large trees torn 
 down and broken in every direction, testified to the 
 enormous strength of the elephants that frequented 
 the pools, kneading up the black mud with the 
 poAver of a steam-engine, and leaving the ser- 
 pentine sweep of their trunks upon the path 
 wherever their suspicions had been excited. The 
 Da,maras had nearly completed another rifle-pit 
 at one of the largest of the group of vleis, with- 
 in a couple of miles of the wagon, and Chapman 
 set them to scoop out the ends, so as to leave 
 a bench for the watchers to sit upon, instead of 
 being obliged to stand during the long hoiu's of 
 the night. 
 
 In the afternoon I caught several varieties of beau- 
 tiful butterflies, including a pair most splendidly 
 marked, with wings fully three inches from tip to tip,
 
 1862.] AX UNSUCCESSFUL CHASE. 349 
 
 similar to two wliicli Chapman had caught a day or 
 two before. I had gone down with Edward to the 
 first vlei, and was admiring the flocks of ducks, 
 storks, and a beautiful white spoon-bill, when we 
 heard a shot in the direction of the wagons, followed 
 by the angry scream of an elephant. We ran up as 
 quickly as possible, and learning that the animal was 
 still at bay in the bushes, I took my gun and followed 
 the sounds till I overtook Henry Chapman. Some 
 time after we met his brother, returning flushed and 
 exhausted from an unsuccessful chase, which more 
 than once was near a disastrous termination. 
 
 The elephant had been seen approaching the 
 wagon, and Chapman going two or three hundred 
 yards to meet him, had severely wounded him with 
 the first shot. He turned as usual for his second gmi, 
 but the man who followed him bore nothing but a 
 stick. Meantime, his horse had been caught and 
 saddled, and mounting with a fresh gun, he renewed 
 the attack. The elephant trumpeted and charged. 
 The horse, paralysed by fear, could not exert himself 
 to escape, and his rider without spurs could not urge 
 him onward. Providentially some motion caused the 
 furious beast to swerve, almost at the moment when 
 all hope was gone, and retreat into the bush, where 
 on every fresh attack he charged so fiercely as to 
 scatter the dogs and footmen and completely to 
 unnerve the horse, which stood trembhng in every 
 limb instead of answering the will of his rider. 
 
 At night, Henry Chapman and Bell took charge
 
 350 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Feu. 
 
 of the new scherrn, while I, with ' Eed Jacket,' went 
 down to the nearest vlei. No elephants came, but the 
 rain fell unmercifully, and had I not taken the pre- 
 caution of bringing a mackintosh sheet, I should 
 have fared badly enough. As for poor Eed Jacket, 
 I found his woolly head lying next to mine on the 
 same pillow, and the chief difference between us 
 when we returned to the wagon was that his clothes 
 took less drying than mine. Chapman and Bell came 
 home soon after me, regidarly drenched, and leaving 
 their blankets, guns, &c., in the water (as they could 
 not possibly be worse), to be brought home by the 
 Damaras. 
 
 Thursday^ Qth. — Clouds still heavy. A little rain 
 fell in the morning, but the clouds have cleared off, 
 giving us a chance of drying our tent and blankets. 
 The Damaras found a small animal, called onjura, 
 in the hollow of a small dead tree over one of their 
 houses, and sending a light weight up to unkennel 
 it, captured it, after a smart chase by men and dogs 
 through all sorts of puddles, ahve, and not much 
 injured. 
 
 Friday, 7th. — The little onjura, or tree squirrel, 
 appeared very tame, allowing me to scratch its head 
 and neck and to feed it with small grasshoppers, &:c. 
 Two more, most likely its young ones, were caught 
 to-day, and tied up with it in the wagon. We rode 
 out a few miles without seeing anything, and on our 
 return found a number of Bushmen, who informed 
 us that there was a large vlei frequented by ele-
 
 1862.] BARTER BETWEEN BUSHMEN AND DAMARAS. 351 
 
 pliants and all other game, about a day's journey 
 to the westward, and a permanent water (not a 
 fountain) about three days' walk, perhaps a hundred 
 miles farther north. Tliis is not unhkely to be the 
 Teoge river, and if so, it would not do to take the 
 cattle near it on account of the fly. 
 
 Saturday^ Sth. — Some of the Bushmen were ob- 
 served without their ornaments, which it appeared 
 the Damaras had bought of them for elephant's flesh. 
 The whole of them were at once called up, their 
 jewellery sought out and restored to them, and the 
 Damaras threatened with punishment if they repeated 
 the ofience, there being only a nominal difierence 
 between purchase by the stronger party and plunder. 
 
 Started about nine, walking ahead of the wagons 
 on a north-west course a httle westerly. Along 
 the path m the southern side of the omaramba we 
 passed, as before, vleis at every few hundred yards, 
 till I reached a small patch of bush a little farther 
 than our excursions on horseback. The wagon came 
 on and outspanned a few hundred yards back, in 
 a drenching shower brought on by a shift of the 
 wind to the westward, checking the clouds that had 
 been so long drifting from the east. 
 
 If I had a shot gun I might have collected any 
 amount of birds. Toucans, red-breasted butcher- 
 birds, hawks, finches, black and white plovers, and, 
 among others, some about the size of a shrew, with 
 plumage of a pure white, excepting only the tail 
 and quill feathers, which were of as deep a black.
 
 3o2 EXPLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA, [Fkb. 
 
 Sunday, 0th. — As there was no water near our 
 oiitspan, we started about eight, and kept a general 
 north-west course down the omaramba a httle more 
 tlian four miles. We passed three or four waters 
 with the fresh spoor of elephants along the path, and 
 outspanned near a small vlei in a patch of bush. As 
 the sun came out strong, we spread everything to 
 dry, and found maggots of considerable size revel- 
 ling in our bird-skins, — arsenical soap and camphor, 
 apparently, being rather a delicacy to these intruders. 
 It seems utterly impossible in this weather to dry 
 a large bird, however carefully it may be cleaned, 
 before insects attack it ; and with so many of us, 
 with only one wagon to carry everything, it is im- 
 possible to keep anything in safety that is not packed 
 up in the smallest possible compass. 
 
 The Bushmen who joined us the other day seem 
 finally to have deserted us, leaving an assagai and a 
 pair of sandals among the Damaras. They seem never 
 to have met with white men before, and, according to 
 their own account, the Hottentots have treated them 
 so ill, that they are still afraid. It appears not at all 
 unlikely that the Damaras have had a hand in this, 
 and that Dokkie, who is naturally afraid of coming 
 into the hands of the Hottentots, is trying to prevent 
 them and a Damara who knows something of the 
 country from giving us information. 
 
 Monday, 10th. — As Chapman considered that, 
 without having discovered a permanent water, it 
 would be imprudent for his brother to bring cattle
 
 1862.] THE GUANA. 353 
 
 from Otjimbingue, and elephants had been reported 
 m the country behind us, we turned the head of the 
 wagon again to the south-east, abandoning for the pre- 
 sent, very rehictantly on my part, the idea of making 
 a road in the independent country to the north of 
 the Hottentots. Henry Chapman and I came on in 
 advance, and as before saw numbers of birds and 
 recent tracks of elephants. We started a flock of 
 guinea fowl, one of which I brought down with a 
 bullet through the spine, and Henry having found a 
 mushroom, we extemporised a very tolerable break- 
 fast, and coloured a sketch of an elephant path in the 
 bush, at a fine vlei about six miles from our starting- 
 point. Here the wagon overtook us, and a couple of 
 miles more brought us to the group of vleis at which 
 we had previously made our scherms. At *t)ne of 
 the smaller vleis the dogs rushed forward, and killed 
 a guana or lizard, about three feet in length and of a 
 very light yellowish grey colour. I sketched it, and 
 returned to look for the wagon, which had halted 
 about a mile short of the scherms. 
 
 Henry Chapman returned soon after, bringing with 
 him the Bushmen whom he had found at our former 
 outspan, about two miles south-east of this ; they said 
 they had not run away fi^om us, but only stayed 
 behind to smoke and to hunt giraffes. The man who 
 could speak Damara was not among them, and Jan, 
 though he knew one dialect of the Bushman language, 
 could not understand theirs. At length a Damara 
 was found who carried on some sort of conversation.
 
 3 54 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 and we learned that the water they had spoken of was 
 to the north ; that their chief (perhaps Libebe) hved 
 very far to the north, and hunted elephants with dogs 
 near a very great water, the distance of which seemed 
 to increase every time we asked about it. 
 
 They helped me to skin the lizard, and accepted 
 the fore quarters, asking also for the tail, but as I 
 had reserved this for myself, I called Bill and 
 desired him to cook it. This he dechned to do, lest 
 even the handling of it should deprive his legs of 
 strength and make him unable to run, and the Da- 
 maras generally affirmed that on this account neither 
 boys nor young men ever touched it ; that old men 
 only, who were past running, fed upon it ; and that 
 even the dogs had sense enough not to eat a lizard, 
 lest they should impair their speed. I asked how 
 the Bushmen and the Austrahans, who could outrun 
 any Damara I have seen, could use the flesh as a 
 common article of food ; but all they knew was, it 
 was not good for a Damara. In the end, I toasted 
 it on a forked stick, and brought it to the tent, 
 where we all voted it excellent. 
 
 At night, though thin clouds were overspreading 
 the stars, and denser masses, from w^iich emanated 
 vivid flashes of hghtning, were rising from the 
 south-west, I made a good observation of Canopus, 
 which, reading 116° 2' 20'' with index error 2° lb" 
 subtractive, gave latitude 20° 36' 46", or within 
 about ten seconds of our former outspan, about two 
 miles and a half farther to SE. by E.
 
 1862.] A NIGHT ATTACK. 355 
 
 Tlie height of the place where we turned back, by 
 Chapman's observation, is about 2,891 feet, the boil- 
 ing point of water being 206^, and thermometer 
 80 ; being about 150 feet higher than our outspan 
 at Christmas tree, on the border of Lake Ngami, and 
 nearly on a level with the water, and 192 feet lower 
 than Koobie which is 3,083. We thought at first 
 the valley ran toward the north-west, but we find 
 that in the showers the water, so far as we have 
 observed, flows in the opposite direction. This may 
 be due only to partial inequalities, and is not yet to 
 be depended on. If we are right, most probably the 
 vaUey runs down to the Karroop, or large pan, where 
 we saw the ibis and stork. However, leaving this 
 point m abeyance, we have decided to name the 
 valley as far back as the vlei where I shot the adju- 
 tants, after Dr. Norton Shaw, acting secretary of the 
 Royal Geographical Society ; the group of vleis at 
 which we are lying being called after Mr. Wheeler, 
 the librarian (since dead) ; and those about four to 
 six miles south-east, after Mr. George, E.N., the 
 superintendent of the map-room — a Httle memento 
 of former friendship on my part, and of desire for 
 future acquaintance on that of my companions. 
 
 We were aU comfortably asleep, when I felt a hand 
 on my shoulder, and rubbing my eyes I saw an ex- 
 cited Bushman pointing toward the water, and going 
 through a pantomimic action, whicli I interpreted 
 ' elephants are drinking there.' Henry Chapman 
 joined me, and we called his brother, who, from more
 
 350 
 
 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Feb. 
 
 experience, warned us tJiat it was useless and unwise 
 to attack a herd of unknown numbers at nio-lit, and 
 without a scherm to flee to in case of danger. The 
 idea of offensive operations was, therefore, given up ; 
 but wishing to see the animals in the full enjoyment 
 of their bath, I went down with two Buslnnen, and 
 
 tht; enraged motheh. 
 
 soon, to my great disappointment, perceived that the 
 dogs were following me. In another minute the 
 attack commenced. The fierce barkings of our pack 
 were followed by the screams of the young calves 
 and the angry trumpeting of the cows, and then 
 came the tramp and crashing of the headlong charge. 
 I waited a moment or two, watching a chance to fire 
 as they broke cover, but the dogs beaten off from
 
 1862.] A COUNCIL OF WAR. 357 
 
 their attack upon the little ones came flying in all 
 directions toward me, every one of them pursued by 
 an infuriated mother. The haakdoorns and under- 
 wood (like large hedgerow thorns in England) while 
 offering no impediment whatever to an elephant, 
 materially embarrassed a man, and by their density 
 prevented my seeing beyond a very short distance. 
 I dodged from tree to tree, trying to find one suf- 
 ficiently strong to stand behind, and take a shot as 
 they came on, but all within my reach were smaller 
 than I had previously seen overthrown in mere play- 
 fulness. At every point, down came fresh dogs upon 
 me, with the trumpeting and crashing of the in- 
 visible pursuer, seemingly within eighty yards of 
 me. Driven successively from every stand, I reached 
 the outside of the bush, where the first thing I 
 heard was the voice of Chapman, calling me to 
 come up to the wagon before I got killed ; and as 
 I did so, the whole troop, breaking away, followed 
 only by one of the most persevering of the dogs, 
 passed in the edge of the bush, little more than a 
 hundred yards from us. 
 
 Of course the whole party were roused by this 
 time and clustered in all sorts of undress round the 
 wagon, toward which Chapman feared the dogs 
 would lead the elephants. The Bushman had arrived 
 before me, having made a straight cut of it, and 
 he had seen me ' looking awfully white ' (in the shirt 
 as he explained, and not in the face) against the 
 dark bush, and thought me rather too conspicuous 
 
 Y
 
 358 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 an object in such a vicinity. The scene at the 
 wagon, to judge from the concurrent testimony of all 
 there assembled, must have been worth witnessing. 
 At the first charge the Bushmen started from their 
 fire, and gathered in a cluster ready to fight or fly. 
 Then came Jan and the Damaras snatching up guns, 
 no matter whose, and 'hooking it' to a safe dis- 
 tance, whence they came valorously back when the 
 danger was over. Young Edward had made up his 
 mind to run, ' not wisely but too well,' to the shelter 
 of the cattle kraal ; Bell was to have shown the 
 lightest pair of heels in the country ; Henry Chap- 
 man elected to screen himself under the wagon ; 
 and James was to get away from it as soon as 
 possible, firing from any bush that would conceal 
 him, as the charge was made, and the work of 
 demolition proceeded. Nor need it be supposed 
 that I intend any reflection on the courage of any 
 of the party. No one is ashamed of running awaj 
 from an elephant under any circumstances, but when 
 a troop of cows charge in a compact body with 
 their young for protection under their belhes or in 
 the centre of the square, nothing can possibly with- 
 stand them, and a wagon and tent would be fairly 
 trampled and kneaded into the ground before they 
 left it. 
 
 Tuesday, 11th. — The scene of last night's adven- 
 ture gave ample evidence that my position had been 
 ' interesting ' enough. The path where the main body 
 had charged was eight yards wide, aflbrdincr room
 
 1862] MODE OF ATTACKING ELEPHANTS. 359 
 
 for four abreast, but from the manner in which the 
 soil was torn and trampled up, I should say tliat the 
 leaders must have been followed by at least four 
 times that number, to say nothing of the calves. Then 
 there were separate tracks in every direction, some 
 chasing the dogs under the bushes where they 
 sought shelter; others rushing over an ant-hiU, and 
 breaking the tree off the top of it ; some defending 
 their young ones from attack, and the rest breaking 
 away to escape from it and snapping off one of the 
 largest trees in the bush within 110 yards (fairly 
 stepped) from the wagon. 
 
 Henry Chapman and I went back as far as ' Wait 
 for the Wagon ' Vlei, and shot a pair of ducks, both 
 of which after a severe chase escaped, one by flight, 
 and the other by diving in the reeds. We then 
 turned south-west, across the ridge, and in one of 
 the parallel hollows heard the call of an elephant 
 not far from us. Taking our guns from the Damaras, 
 we went cautiously forward, and saw a small troop 
 of six or seven females, with their young, already 
 disturbed by the dogs and beginning to move in 
 our direction, I was about to take cover of a taU 
 seringa boom, eight or ten yards nearer, when my 
 companion noticed that their attention was fixed upon 
 us, and I saw the nearest cow turn her broad fore- 
 head and extended ears toward me. I took fair aim, 
 heard my buUet strike loudly, and ran at once, 
 making a sweep of about fifty yards — the simplicity 
 of the Wilson rifle enabling me to have it reloaded 
 
 Y -2
 
 360 EXPLOKATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Feu. 
 
 as I came up again. Chapman now joined me, and 
 we fired together, striking the shoulder of the largest 
 cow, and making a short prudential run, lest she 
 shoidd charge, came up again on the spoor and 
 followed through the forest. Possibly oiu: friends at 
 home may think this a cowardly method of fighting, 
 but it is adopted by the most experienced, as well as 
 the most skilful elephant killers in the country, and, 
 at all events, till I learn from personal acquaintance 
 more of the habits of the animal, I shall stick to it 
 most rigorously. If the elephant does not charge, 
 no harm is done ; if he does, we are akeady in full 
 flight before he gathers way, instead of standing in 
 act to load, and allowing him to diminish the distance 
 perhaps by more than half, before we can gather up 
 ourselves for a start. 
 
 Another hour's walk over an open plain, where 
 we counted the spoor of about fourteen elephants in 
 company and saw here and there a sohtary vulture 
 on a naked tree, brought us to a small vlei, the 
 ground round which was trampled bare, and smelled 
 like a menagerie ; as to the water, glad enough Avere 
 we when I found a melon to put the taste out of our 
 mouths. Here we were joined by the Damaras, 
 who said they had not run away, but only lain 
 down when the elephants charged. In either case, 
 the benefit of the spare guns they carried was lust 
 to us, and as for the charge, if there had been one, 
 I think it probable that we, who were nearer to the 
 herd, would have been made first aware of it.
 
 1862.] A SLEEriNG WATCHMAN. 3GI 
 
 James Chapman had made a circuit of about 
 eighteen miles without any practical result, and at 
 night Henry and I occupied our respective scherms, 
 returning in a thick fog on the morning of the 
 12th. Henry had been called by his watch-mate, 
 Dokkie, who, as he said, had allowed the elephant 
 to come on, hoping that he would go to the water ; 
 but it is more probable that the sagacious animal, 
 whose tracks were seen within five feet of the hole, 
 had been startled by the waking up of the in- 
 cautious watchman and gone quietly off before the 
 latter could make up his mind what to do. As for 
 Eed Jacket, I ordered him first to wash my clothes 
 and to spend the rest of the day in finishing his 
 sleep, while I made a couple of sketches in illustra- 
 tion of ' my first night with the elephants.' Neverthe- 
 less on taking post at my scherm at night, I found my 
 watchman as well able to sleep as ever, and knowing 
 that he could not now be suffering from anything 
 but the sheerest indolence, I felt little hesitation 
 in rousing him mth the ramrod across his head, 
 when his loud snoring seemed likely to scare away 
 any elephant that might chance to be approaching. 
 I suppose that so long as the flesh of the former 
 elephants lasts, not one of them will exert himself to 
 assist us in procuring a fresh supply, but as soon 
 as hunger comes on they would be clamorous enough 
 should we fail in doing so. For my own part as I 
 cannot afford to sleep by day, I must have rest in 
 the night, and it seems to me I may as well regularly
 
 362 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 sleep alone in the sclierm trusting to the elephants 
 to wake me if they make noise enough, as have a 
 man there whose presence is an absolute hindrance, 
 instead of help. 
 
 Thursday, XWi. — The cutting down of a small 
 tree with a saw instead of a hatchet, attracted the 
 special notice of the Bushmen, who gathered round 
 in wondering groups, as the keen toothed blade cut 
 gradually into the timber. They have never, so far 
 as we know, seen white men before ; their ut- 
 most stretch in civihsation being the art of smoking 
 tobacco. They gather round when Bill lays our lion 
 skin for dinner, and exercise themselves in guessing 
 (as it seems) how the plates and dishes are to be 
 eaten, and when this mystery is solved, why we 
 should each take the trouble of having a separate 
 one, instead of fishing out of the same pot — of this 
 last they comprehend the use well enough, having 
 probably seen such things among the Hottentots. It 
 is commonly said that a Scotchman, a Dutch cheese, 
 and a Newcastle grindstone are all over the world, 
 but I feel sure that a cast-iron three-legged pot 
 penetrates as far as any of the trio. 
 
 Their own cookery is simple, yet not without 
 method ; their favourite plan is to dig a hole with 
 a sharp stick under their fire, and in this to cover up 
 the food with hot ashes. Thus I saw one of them 
 place seven good-sized prickly melons, like ostrich 
 eggs in a nest ; and though they are generally bitter 
 before being cooked, yet after it they came out very
 
 1862.] AEMED BUSHMEN. 363 
 
 juicy and agreeable. A very palatable addition to 
 them at least, for they kept the luxury to themselves, 
 was the fat of a large hawk shot by Chapman, 
 and roasted on a stick above, so that the juices might 
 drip into the melon. They are all armed with assagais, 
 or rather spears, for they do not seem intended for 
 throwing, with a blade eight inches long and two 
 broad (more or less), and a shaft of five or six feet, 
 the whole weapon being about a foot or eighteen 
 inches longer than the man who carries it. They have 
 also keeries, or knobbed sticks of hard black wood, 
 hke the ovambo, and bows and arrows like other 
 tribes of Bushmen. They carry sticks for producing 
 fire, but of course prefer the less troublesome me- 
 thod of borrowing a brand from our cook. Their 
 colour, like that of all the Bushmen here, is a light 
 sienna brown, very difierent from the sallow dry 
 leaf-coloured Hottentot Bushmen of the colony. We 
 wished to ascertain fi'om them where the water 
 they spoke of, abounding in elephants and all other 
 game, was situated, but having smoked and eaten 
 sufficiently for one spell at our expense, they left 
 their hut and fire and departed without ceremony 
 in the night. 
 
 Friday^ lUh. — In consequence of a heavy shower 
 yesterday, we did not occupy our scherms, and as 
 soon as the sun shone out this morning, spread our 
 wetted clothes, specimens, and bird-skins, to dry. As 
 a specimen of wood, and a memento of the scene, I 
 cut ofi" a section of the haak-en-steek-doorn that had
 
 364 
 
 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Fi 
 
 been broken by tlic elephant on the night of the 
 10th ; and during the rest of tlie day mended a 
 broken gun stock, bored holes in the rib of another to 
 lash on the ramrod pipes that had come unsoldered, 
 made a passable table-knife out of a piece of flat 
 iron, and shot a toucan, a male, but brought him in 
 too late to complete a sketch. Our lamp oil is 
 expended, as well as several other stores, and the 
 lamps do not burn fat properly ; but after a few 
 experiments I think I am finding out the best way 
 of making one out of a powder canister. 
 
 Jan and Dokkie have been sent out to explore ; 
 they have seen water all over, but not even a spoor 
 of game. 
 
 Saturday, 1 htli. — Henry Chapman, who had occu- 
 pied his scherm last night, returned with the usual 
 report this morning ; but, as we are preparing to 
 trek, I did not spend the night in mine. 
 
 Dimensions of Toucan (male). 
 
 
 inches. 
 
 From beak to tij? of tail 
 
 21 
 
 Extent of wings ..... 
 
 28 
 
 Quill feathers ..... 
 
 7| 
 
 Length of beak fi-om tip to opening of jaw 
 
 H 
 
 ,, ,, along top of the curve . 
 
 H 
 
 Depth, lower mandible ^, upper | 
 
 H 
 
 Crown of head ..... 
 
 n 
 
 Neck 
 
 4 
 
 Body 
 
 4i 
 
 Tail 
 
 H 
 
 From tip of beak to tip of claws . 
 
 i"i 
 
 Of leg from knee-joint .... 
 
 ^ 
 
 Of tarsus ...... 
 
 If 
 
 Of longest toe 1J-, nail ^ . . . 
 
 H
 
 18G2.] DESCRirTION OF TOUCAN. 365 
 
 Eyes yellow ; beak horny, yellow; the ridge of the upper man- 
 dible browner, the point and edge of both mandibles dark brown, 
 which, mixing with the yellow, gives a greenish tint; the man- 
 dibles when closed leave an open space of |th inch between them ; 
 the base of both is sienna-brown, giving an orange tint to the 
 beak ; small portion of skin under the throat naked, and flesh- 
 colour ; crown of the head feathers dark brownish grey ; of neck, 
 black and white mixed ; back black, and white line between the 
 shoulders ; feathers of wing coverts black, with a white spot 
 occupying nearly the whole end of each, giving an appearance of 
 black rings ; quills, black, the outer marked with spots of white 
 on their outer edges, the inner speckled black and white ; tail, 
 upper feathers black, lower, speckled black and white ; belly 
 nearly white ; tarsi black and strong ; claAvs curved. Food, 
 insects, tree-beetles, grasshoppers, and hard seeds. 
 
 We treked after breakfast, and as we passed the 
 Wlieeler Vleis, saw a fine black eagle with wliite head 
 and tail. 1 came within shot after two or three 
 attempts ; but before I could see him clearly, a dog- 
 startled him away. Then Henry Chapman wounded 
 him, but small shot on so powerful a bird has little 
 effect, and we saw him soaiing toward the nearly 
 vertical sun ; his white head and tail contrasted with 
 his black wings, till we could not bear to look the 
 way he had gone. We halted at George Vlei for 
 dinner, and outspanned for the night at Adjutant Vlei. 
 
 Sunday, Wth. — Heavy rain in the morning. About 
 noon we came on to our marked tree in Sleepy 
 Hollow, making the distance 4 miles 6 furlongs, 171 
 yards 2 feet 7 J inches, or, 1 furlong 103 yards less 
 than before, having made a straighter course between 
 the two stations. We find by observation that Adju- 
 tant Vlei is 75 feet higher than the point where we
 
 366 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFKICA. [Feb. 
 
 turned back, and tliat the liead of Norton Shaw Valley- 
 is on the other side the rising ground between Adju- 
 tant Vlei and this place ; we may therefore conclude 
 that the rain water we observed was only rinining 
 toward the deeper Wheeler Vlei, and that the valley 
 itself begins a mile or two from here, and runs to the 
 north-west. Sleepy Hollow we suppose to be the 
 head of the Karroop valley. 
 
 Henry Chapman and I, who were ahead, had gone 
 down to the waters to see whether they had been 
 lately visited, when I saw the tall necks of three 
 giraffes swaying in the distance above the bush ; but 
 unfortunately the dogs were Avith us, and the moment 
 they saw our attention fixed on the animals, they 
 rushed forward as usual, and drove them off. I hope 
 our pack of mongrel curs will turn out to be of some 
 use in time ; at present they only seem to put it out 
 of our power to procure meat for the people, or in- 
 teresting specimens for ourselves. The two elephants 
 had been clean picked, and only a few vultures 
 hovered near, or settled on the trees, to pick an addi- 
 tional morsel of tough fibre or rotting skin. The 
 mammoth bones were of a dull grey, but in time will 
 bleach under tlie sun to a dazzling white. The sight of 
 this massive framework impresses one, even more 
 than the entire carcase, with a sense of irresistible 
 strength, and it seems a wonder how even with the 
 immense bullets Avhich the hunters use, one of these 
 massive legs can be broken, as is sometimes the 
 case. The skull as well as the rest was too much
 
 1862] DIFFICULTIES. 367 
 
 damaged to be sketched ; still enough of the celhilar 
 structure was left to show how difficult it must be 
 for a ball not driven by more than ordinary force to 
 travel through such a mass of semi-elastic substance 
 to the brain. I have every confi.dence that my little 
 breech-loader will do as much, both for distance 
 and penetration, as any gun of its cahbre in the 
 camp ; but I should like to have one on the very 
 same principle about a foot shorter in the barrel, 
 and carrying a conical bullet rather more than double 
 the size. I tliink if Wilson would make and send them 
 out, they would become favomites with the hunters. 
 
 Monday^ 17th. — "Went down to the vleis w^ithout 
 seeing anything except a curious little water beetle. 
 Sketched the skeleton of one of the elephants. There 
 seem to be many httle vleis all about the country, 
 and at one of these a hysena had made his lair, 
 dragging to it pieces of flesh as he was able to detach 
 them. One of the Damaras brought in a mushroom 
 thirteen inches in diameter. 
 
 We have been having a discussion about the origin 
 of the words Haak aan (make haste, or bear a hand). 
 Literally rendered in Dutch, it would be 'hook on ;' 
 but I suppose it to be, as I often heard it in the eastern 
 province, Jagt aan, or diive on,* the order given to the 
 herdsman when the oxen are wanted to be spanned 
 
 * Much the same ■word is the original of the English jog on : — 
 
 Jog on, jog on the footpath Tvay, 
 
 And merril}^ hent the stile a, 
 Your merry heart goes all the way, 
 
 Your sad one tires in a mile a.
 
 368 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 in, Dokkie pronoimces it to be a pure Damara 
 word ; but that only means that he has learned it in 
 Damara land, and does not know whether it belongs 
 to his own language or not. An older man says it 
 is also Damara, and that he heard it when a child ; 
 but we do not reckon much more on his memory 
 than on the other's judgment. So the question re- 
 mains where it was, and ' Haak aan ' just means 
 ' haul ahead.' 
 
 Another question of more importance to me, and 
 still more difficult to answer, is how to set my watch 
 going again. The little balance spring which was 
 loose at one end from the first, is now thoroughly 
 adrift, and I can hardly trust myself to try setting it 
 right again. 
 
 Tuesday^ ISth. — I took the big horse, and accom- 
 panied by Henry Chapman, went south on a recon- 
 noitring expedition. In about five miles we reached 
 an omaramba with a chain of small vleis, and tracks 
 of camelopards leading to the west ; but as this was 
 not our course, we left it, and turned again south, 
 over an extensive sand bult, covered with a thick 
 forest of tall seringa and other trees, one so hke 
 another that without constant reference to my com- 
 pass I could not have kept a course ; indeed, on one 
 occasion, Henry, whose turn it was to lead, lost sight 
 of the cloud I had pointed out to him, and was 
 actually coming north again ; and the Damaras 
 were utterly at a loss when asked the direction of 
 the wagons, every man pointing out at a different
 
 I8G2.] THE GEMSBOK. 369 
 
 angle. Shortly after noon we ofF-saddled in a little 
 hollow, perhaps the beginning of another valley 
 going to the west, with tracks of camelopards like 
 the former. Leaving this, we continued south- 
 ward through the seringa forest, till nearly sunset, 
 when a broad valley opened before us with a re- 
 freshing rain-cloud, bearing the ever welcome bow, 
 overhanging the distant ridge to the south-east. 
 Another mile brought us to a small pool of water, 
 mingled with black muddy soil., and after a short 
 halt we crossed an intervening wooded rise and 
 descended to the main valley. A brindled gnoo 
 rushed out from among the bush, and stood right 
 before us for a moment, but starting suddenly as I 
 pulled the trigger, he escaped the shot ; and when I 
 gave my horse the spur, I found he fully merited 
 the character he bore, and would be utterly unsafe 
 to ride in the vicinity of elephants. 
 
 A little farther on we saw three gemsboks, and dis- 
 mounted to creep nearer to them, but the dogs rushed 
 forward and drove them off. I fired three shots, idt- 
 ting my beast tmce, and was pursuing after one of 
 the wounded, when Henry Chapman called to me 
 that the dogs had one at bay, and that his gun would 
 not go off. We ran three quarters of a mile, and at 
 last came up with the noble quarry strugghng to 
 throw off her persecutors, or to gore them with her 
 long straight horns. But the dogs as if aware of 
 their danger never ventured before her head, but 
 hung upon her flanks and shoidders, springing occa-
 
 370 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 sionally at her ears. It was some time before I 
 dared to fire, but having at length cleared off two 
 or three of the pack from her shoulders, I terminated 
 her sufferings, and having made a rough outline 
 sketch, as well as the darkness permitted, set to 
 work to kindle a fire. In this I found my breech- 
 loader a most valuable assistant, for taking out the 
 breech, I was able to insert a bit of rag rolled in 
 diy powder, and ignite it by the discharge of a cap, 
 without blowing away the fire, as an ordinary gun 
 does. I next set the Damaras to cut up the carcase, 
 which took them the greater part of the night. 
 We quenched our thirst at a little muddy pool, 
 or rather a number of elephant footprints, each 
 holding a little water and nearly all of them fouled 
 by the rolling and bathing of the dogs ; and by 
 the time the people had roasted a bit of gemsbok 
 for me, I was fast asleep, and could not make up my 
 mind to rise for more than the merest taste of it. 
 
 Wednesday^ Idth. — After a breakfast on the flesh 
 of the gemsbok, which was exceedingly tender and 
 weU tasted, we packed our blankets, and as much 
 meat as possible, upon our saddles ; and making slings 
 for our guns (mihtary fashion) beside us, left the 
 Damaras to load themselves with as much meat as 
 they chose, and, to say truth, what with the night's 
 feasting and the morning's packing up, very httle 
 indeed was left for the wolves. 
 
 They differed again nearly half the compass as to 
 the direction of the wagon ; but I took a straight
 
 1862.] AYONDEKFUL LITTLE ' ADJITEXTA.' 371 
 
 course through the bush to the northward, telling 
 them we would halt for a httle rest at ' the water.' 
 Theu' answer to which was a very doubtful sort of 
 ' Omeva ipi ? ' (water, where ?) To say truth, I did 
 not know any more about it than they, for we were 
 leaving last night's pool far to the west ; but in less 
 than a couple of miles we came straight, as if a line 
 had been previously drawn for us, upon a couple of 
 vleis, and stopping occasionaUy to allow the loaded 
 men to rest, we crossed the seringa bult at a nar- 
 rower place, struck a small vlei at the head of a 
 valley, in which a path leading the way we wanted 
 to go brought us past other pools, larger and larger 
 as we advanced, till we reached a scherm, at which 
 James and Henry had watched, about seven miles 
 from the camp. 
 
 The Damaras came in rather more than an hour 
 after us ; and I heard Eed Jacket describing, in terms 
 that would have been most interesting could I pro- 
 perly have understood them, the use of the wonder- 
 ful little ' Adjitenta,' that show^ed me the way 
 through the bush whenever we were at a loss. 
 
 From an unwillingness to overstate my distance, I 
 had put down my farthest point at about fifteen 
 miles south, but on comparing notes with James 
 Chapman's knowledge of his path to tlie scherm, I 
 think it cannot have been less than twenty ; and from 
 the spoor we saw, there is every reason to believe 
 that the elephants have now gone south and west 
 into the desert, where, at this season, there must be
 
 372 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Fkb, 
 
 numerous little pools known well enough to them, 
 and sufficient for beasts that can travel ninety or a 
 lunidred miles in the twenty-four hours, but utterly 
 inadequate for the support of the cattle necessary to 
 the slow progress of a wagon. 
 
 Last night, the boiling point of water here was 
 206° T^ths (detached thermometer 83°). This morn- 
 ing 206° "i^ths, detached thermometer 72°, the second 
 thermometer 226° y%ths, detached thermometer 74°, 
 a trifle less elevation than Adjutant Vlei, but greater 
 than our Omdraai or farthest point.
 
 1862.] 373 
 
 CHAPTEE Xin. 
 
 DEEP VLEI CERASTES, OR HORNED SNAKE THE RIVER VUL- 
 TURE — OSTRICHES SERINGA BUSHES — NOISELESS TRE.AD OF 
 
 ELEPHANTS DAMARA DANCES FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR A 
 
 START SKIN OF THE GIRAFFE NEW YEAR VLEI DIFFICULTY 
 
 OF PRESERVING ELEPHANTS' SKULLS FROM DAilARAS A PUFF- 
 ADDER — THE WHITE RHINOCEROS VARIOUS SPECIES OF VUL- 
 TURE ^DAMAEA INDOLENCE THE KALIHARI DESERT LUBELO 
 
 HILL THE NQUIBA MOUNTAINS THE BLACK FINCH MAKO- 
 
 LOLO FORAYS — A SIGHT OF LAKE NGAMI NATI^-E NAMES 
 
 THE BOTLETLE RIVER RAVAGES OF ELEPHANTS IN LESHU- 
 
 LaTEBe's AaLLAGE. 
 
 Peepaeatioxs were now made for inspanning, and 
 Henry and I walked ahead, taking a path which Jan 
 had informed him led nearly to our next outspan. We 
 passed several good sized vleis, but noticed tliat they 
 had diminished greatly since the last rain. Finding 
 that the path held ENE. and turned rather more 
 northerly, instead of holding the direction we wished, 
 I determined to trust to my compass, and strike to 
 the ESE. In a short time we reached another path 
 which led us to the wagon, not far from our marked 
 tree, (20° 39' 11''), after a walk of about ten miles, 
 the wagon having reached it in little more than four, 
 and being, when we came up, just upon the point of 
 startinsf for the afternoon trek. It was not lono- 
 before we came to a stand again, regularly brought 
 
 z
 
 374 EXrLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Fer. 
 
 lip by a stout tree, in cutting clown whicli I captured 
 a snaall grey snake sleeping in the lioUow. We found 
 water in the limestone valley and also in Deep Vlei, 
 near which we overspanned shortly before sunset, 
 having shortened the distance by trochameter nearly 
 a mile, by cutting off unnecessary angles in the course. 
 
 Friday^ 21st. — Walking ahead of the wagon in 
 the early morning, I found and captured a cerastes, 
 or horned snake, sixteen or eighteen inches long, 
 lying in the path. I generally effect this by making 
 a running knot in the bight of a piece of twine, and 
 slipping it over his head, while a stick is pressed upon 
 his neck to keep him down ; then making fast his 
 tether to the end of my ramrod, Eed Jacket carries 
 it hke Mercury with his caduceus — the light fingered 
 propensities of the aforesaid god by no means 
 vitiating the comparison. On this occasion, however, 
 I thought it best to open the venomous reptile at 
 once from stem to stern, strip off his skin and throw 
 away the carcase, retaining the head and poison 
 fangs, and when we came to a halt, to spread out the 
 skin upon paper, the glutinous moisture of the inside 
 causing it to adhere sufficiently. Henry Chapman 
 says that he has seen these serpents in Ovambo land, 
 after a severe rain, coiled up in every bush in the 
 morning, with their heads erect, and in such numbers 
 that people were afraid to walk among them. The 
 colonial name is Hoorn Manijee. 
 
 We rattled through the bush and down the little 
 sandstone slope in the afternoon, scattering a collec- 
 tion of beetles I was drying in all directions, and
 
 1862.] BLAWE WILDE-BEESTES. 375 
 
 halted about 500 yards west of our former outspan, 
 on tlie edge of the pan where Bell shot three ducks. 
 We had some very fair practice at an ant-hill at 
 800 hundred yards distance ; my gun with the full 
 sight (1,100), throwing the bullet far beyond it, and 
 always striking up the dust pretty close as soon as we 
 had got the range. Our meat is reported as come 
 to an end to-day. Water boils here by the first 
 thermometer, 206° gV^^s, or about 25 feet lower than 
 Deep Vlei, the detached thermometer being 83°; 
 the second thermometer also 206° /o^ths, detached 
 thermometer being 82°. 
 
 Saturday, llnd. — As daylight appeared. Bill re- 
 ported a number of black-looking objects (as he 
 thought wild horses, or zebras), standing on the other 
 side of the pan. I went out to try a shot at them, and 
 Chapman following left a horse for me as he passed. 
 We rode quietly along the path so as to attract the at- 
 tention of the animals without absolutely frightening 
 them. We soon saw that they were blawewilde-beestes, 
 or brindled gnoos, and as we neared them, a few broke 
 out from the troop and standing to gaze at us for 
 a moment wheeled round and chased each other in 
 chcles ; one old buh meanwhile standing in advance, 
 while the cows and calves remained in the distance. 
 I hit my beast, but Chapman's gun missed fire, and 
 the whole herd took flight, joined by a few quaggas, 
 that had bean feeding on the other side the valley. 
 We gave chase for a short distance, but neither of 
 our horses, especially Old Euyter, the big beast here- 
 
 z 2
 
 376 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 tofore mentioned, was safe to ride after tliem, and 
 they soon escaped us. However, I had seen enough 
 of the patriarch of the herd, with his sleek glossy 
 bluish sides, blackish brown mane and tail, and 
 spreading recurved horns, to be able to make a 
 tolerable sketch ; and I spent the morning in putting 
 into colour the gambols of the herd under the care of 
 their watchful sentinel, and our adventure on the 18th 
 with the gemsboks in the southern valley. Chaj)man 
 went out after the dark ibis, or river vulture, as the 
 Bechuanas call it, and killed fourteen in two shots. 
 I skinned four of them, and though I searched nar- 
 rowly, could not tell the sex of any. Their food, 
 however, was a kind of wingless insect, somewhat 
 between a locust and a cricket, Avhich now begins to 
 abound in the low bush, and which I have heard in 
 the Cape called koren beestje (a little corn beast) . 
 
 Some Bushmen, belonging we believe to Ghanze, 
 came to us to-day ; they had seen our spoor and fol- 
 lowed it, I know not how far, but would tell us abso- 
 lutely nothing. They were informed, therefore, that 
 our tobacco was reserved for Bushmen who were less 
 ignorant, or more communicative, than they. Jan re- 
 ports a water to the SE. in continuation of this Oma- 
 ramba, larger than any we have ever seen, and well 
 frequented by game. AYe think of moving on to- 
 morrow. 
 
 Sunday^ l^rd. — Walked SE. down the valley, 
 passing on the south side of the pan, which, instead 
 of the unsightly bed of damp pipeclay trodden into
 
 1862.] GRASS SEP^DS. 377 
 
 holes by elephants, now presents a uniform surface of 
 Avaving grass, about a foot higli, gracefully bending 
 under the weight of its seeds, and ready at any 
 moment to discharge them into the socks and 
 trowsers of the passer by. Once there, their barbed 
 points prevent their falling out, and every motion 
 forcing them farther through, they keep up, us my 
 lamented friend the late J. E. Elsey (doctor of our 
 
 ^* 
 
 
 THE THBEF. OSTRICHES. 
 
 expedition in Austraha) used to say of the mosqui- 
 toes, ' a constant and wholesome irritation in the 
 skin,' and I am sometimes inclined to add in the 
 temper. I overtook Bell, and seeing three ostriches 
 we fired, and one of us hit a bird ; but had only the 
 satisfaction of seeing them spread their wings and 
 run rapidly off through the bush. With a cover of 
 CTuinea fowl we had better luck ; with shot we misrht
 
 378 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Fkb. 
 
 have bagged a potful, but with a bullet you can 
 shoot but one at a time. Nevertheless I hit two, and 
 Bell one, and secured two of them before they got 
 away. We spanned out nearly seven miles down the 
 valley, and Chapman and I went on another mile to 
 see the vleis, the size of which had been rather ex- 
 aggerated by Jan. We saw the spoor of an elephant, 
 but no hving game except a goose, a few ducks, a 
 distant eagle, and a few vultures and hawks. During 
 the day I brought up my map to the present date, 
 James and Henry rode out about eight miles, and 
 found the valley change from open grass to thick 
 bush, almost hopeless for a wagon road. I walked 
 the round of the vleis at sunset without seeing any- 
 thing but a prowhng jackal, and the geese and other 
 birds aforesaid. Evening clear (Lat. by Canopus, 
 20° 4:V 58^' S.). 
 
 Monday^ 2-ith. — Jan was sent out to the SE., 
 while Henry and Bell went to the southward, where 
 they were fortunate in finding an elephant path, and 
 shooting a couple of guinea fowl. I went ahead, over 
 an open grassy flat, with low thorns and small bushes, 
 bearing the berry of which Chapman makes a 
 vinegar-Hke drink that we try to fancy cider, and 
 mounting the wagon as it overtook me, went on 
 through a thick bush or shrubbery of young seringa 
 trees, and elephant bush about as high as the wagon, 
 and mostly without thorns. We had passed the 
 Motjihaara grove at about five or six miles distance, 
 and having made about seven and a half miles, out-
 
 1862.] DOKKIE's mishap. 379 
 
 spaanecl in the bush on a sand ridge, evidently a 
 continuation of that on which we killed the elephant 
 calf. 
 
 Tuesday, 2bth. — Started about sunrise, and com- 
 ing to the head of a valley (most likely the same in 
 which we killed the elephant calf), outspanned after 
 a mile and a half's travel ; and sent the Damaras to 
 make a schema at a vlei, where the spoor of elephants 
 had been observed. Edward, with Jan and Dokkie 
 on saddle oxen, went forward to John's camp, wdiich 
 must be now ten or eleven miles south by east. After 
 some time, however, the ox ridden by Dokkie came 
 back, with the stick broken out of his nose, having 
 most probably unseated his rider on the road. 
 
 In the evening Chapman and his brother went 
 down to occupy the scherm ; and I prepared to take 
 an altitude of Canopus, with the result of 20° 49'. 
 
 Wednesday, 26th. — It was not till late in the 
 afternoon that Jan and Dokkie arrived from the very 
 opposite quarter to the proper one. They said that 
 Mr. John had come with them a good part of tlie 
 way, but that they had a difference of opinion about 
 the direction, and had turned westward till they 
 reached the outward-bound road. John had then 
 turned round toward his own camp, and the Damaras 
 who carried the tea and coffee had most likely 
 done the same. One of the part}' at the camp 
 was still sick ; but otherwise all was well. There 
 had been elephants there, and one had been so 
 wounded that a chopping party went out with axes
 
 380 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feu. 
 
 to get the teetli, but returned without finding their 
 beast. At night Henry Chapman and Bell occupied 
 one scherm, and I with Eed Jacket the other ; but 
 were as usual undisturbed — except by a wolf (i.e. 
 Iiya3na) at Chapman's scherm, which was considered 
 not worth shooting. Henry Chapman describes the 
 Ovambo as a very hospitable people, who must have 
 been, before they were plundered by the Hottentots, 
 a rich and industrious nation, capable of undertaking 
 works of no small importance, such as wells of ninety 
 or a hundred feet in depth, with a spiral path cut 
 round the sides to enable people to descend to the 
 water. Their villages are also fenced with conside- 
 rable care, and the huts and out-houses erected by 
 a family or community of three or foiu' owners have 
 as imposing an appearance as those of a populous 
 village among other tribes. They trade with the 
 Portuguese, their oxen constituting the staple on 
 their part ; and in consequence of this, one of the 
 chiefs, when a foray was made upon his herds, 
 allowed his cows (contrary to Kafir custom) to fall 
 into the hands of the enemy, and devoted his energies 
 to the preservation of the oxen. 
 
 Thursday, 27th. — Chapman and I saddled up a 
 couple of the best of our stud (and sorry and sore 
 backed enough they w^ere, as almost all horses are 
 that have been in Hottentot hands), and rode forward 
 in the direction of our standing camp. We were 
 crossing a low sand-ridge covered with small but 
 thick bush of seringa boom, sandal wood, omooti
 
 1862.] ELEPHANTS. 381 
 
 onjou berries, and other slirubs, when Chapman 
 halted suddenly and reached back for his gun. My 
 first movement was to secure mine also, and tlieii 
 look ahead for the game. On the opposite rise, 
 slowly growing into vision, were the bulky forms of 
 three large elephants, their deep grey colour so blend- 
 ing with the broken shadows of the bush, that the 
 eye could not at once distinguish their complete 
 proportions. No time, however, was wasted upon 
 this ; our horses started forward under the spur, and 
 the dogs, having caught the tainted breeze, dashed 
 forward to the attack. We checked our speed a 
 moment, that we might not meet them in the fury of 
 their first charge, and then galloped onward after them. 
 In the next hollow they doubled round like hares, 
 causing us to lose nearly a mile before w^e discovere4 
 them again. A hard run of three miles more brought 
 us nearly up with the largest, a magnificent animal, 
 towering like a castle above the shrubs that had so 
 embarrassed us. Spreading his ample ears on either 
 side, and turning half round, as if in doubt whether 
 he should drive off his insignificant persecutors or 
 not, he stood quite unconscious that in doing so he 
 displayed in his large and glistening tusks the 
 greatest temptation to continue the pursuit. Chap- 
 man had a long shot at him, but when I came up 
 his distance was increased. My horse panted so that 
 I could not fire from the saddle, and if I had dis- 
 mounted I could not have seen my object through 
 tlie bush. We pursued again, and Cliapman, I believe,
 
 382 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Feb. 
 
 fired another shot, but my horse was so exhausted 
 tliat I could not Cfet another run out of him. 
 
 We had hardly met again before we saw another 
 elephant, evidently following the first, not knowing 
 that we were between them. We tried to give chase, 
 but I dropped astern at once, and found it best to 
 offsaddle my horse and let him rest, while I made 
 sketches in my note-book of the different positions 
 in which I had seen the elephants. Finding a couple 
 of water melons, I shared them with my steed, and, 
 following a path a little to the west of south, found 
 myself about noon in sight of our scherm by the vlei 
 at which we had left Union Valley. Half an hour 
 more brought me to the standing camp, our wagon 
 crossing the ridge at a nearer point, and drawing up 
 alongside the others as I came in. 
 
 Chapman had arrived before me, the elephant 
 having led him straight across the country to within 
 about a mile of the wagons before he lost him, and 
 being then so exhausted that he was seen inserting 
 his trunk into his mouth to draw water from his 
 stomach, and dashing it, to refresh himself, over his 
 chest. At this time, however, Chapman looldng back, 
 saw the elephant we had first chased follo^\ang in the 
 wake of the leader, and so close that in a few minutes 
 more he would have seen and charged upon the 
 tired steed and lider ; as it was, my friend had 
 enough to do to get out of the way. Many persons, 
 no doubt, will Avonder that a man cannot hear so 
 large an animal coming after him ; but the foot of
 
 1862.] NOISELESS TREAD OF ELEPHANTS. 383 
 
 the elephant is padded with a lialf spongy, half 
 jelly-like mass beneath the bones which enables it 
 to tread softly and noiselessly upon ground where 
 even a jackal could not pass without making his 
 footsteps audible. Indeed, during the Avhole morn- 
 ing the absence of any sound accompanying their 
 movements impressed me with an idea of un- 
 reahty, and, their legs being concealed by the bush, 
 I gazed upon the huge moving bodies as if they had 
 been portions of soraeweh-managed panorama — as 
 phantoms endued with the power of appearing and 
 vanishing at ■\^^.ll. Of course these visionary ideas 
 are highly reprehensible ; but an artist can hardly 
 be expected to be as practical as the Ehode Island 
 whaler, whose only remark when his mates were 
 rescuing him from the jaws of a sperm whale was, 
 ' I guess she'll yield well on for sixty barrels.' 
 
 Things at the camp had gone on as well as could 
 be expected. John had seen elephants more than a 
 dozen times, and had nearly secured one ; three or 
 four actually passed down tlie valley of the camp, 
 and were standing at daybreak within five hundred 
 yards of the wagons, but were immediately driven off 
 by the shouts and cries of the Damaras. 
 
 The sick had all recovered with the exception of 
 Suah Kjomekho, who was much reduced, and com- 
 plained that his wife neglected him, and would 
 neither obey him nor John when told to prepare his 
 food. It is incumbent on us to provide a remedy 
 for one and a punishment for the other, and, after
 
 384 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Feu. 
 
 due deliberation, the neglectful wife was informed 
 tliat, unless she attended better to her duties, her 
 bonnet would be taken away from her. Of course 
 there was a general shaking of hands, and Mrs. 
 Tapyinyoka began to take me to task in great style 
 for having gone away so far — oh ! very far — the 
 conclusion of the whole being the unmistakable 
 request for tobacco. 
 
 Friday, 2Sth. — All hands busy in transferring 
 cargo, and making preparations for the continuance 
 of our journey ; Jan, who is the only driver who un- 
 derstands his business, superintending the others in 
 plaiting goat-skins into wagon-whips, making yoke- 
 skeis and training young oxen, and myself bolting on 
 an additional platform to the back of the wagons for 
 the purpose of carrying safely the sections of the 
 boat, some of which had been a little battered out of 
 shape on the passage up. 
 
 At night, dances were got up among the Damaras, 
 our attention being first drawn to them by a sound 
 between the barking of a dog and the efforts of a 
 person to clear out something in his throat, by 
 driving the breath strongly through it. We found 
 foiu" men stooping with their heads in contact, vying 
 with each other in the production of these delectable 
 inarticulations, while others, with ratthng anklets of 
 hard seed-shells, danced round them. By degrees 
 the company gathered together, and the women 
 joined the performers, standing in a semicircle. 
 They sang a monotonous chant, and clapped their
 
 18o2.] DAMAKA DANCES. 385 
 
 hands, while the young men and boys danced up to 
 tliem hterally, and by no means gently, ' heating the 
 ground ^^dtli nimble feet,' raismg no end of dust, and 
 making their shell anklets sound, in their opinion, 
 most melodiously. Presently the leader snatched a 
 brand from the fire, and, after dancing up to the 
 women as before, stuck it in the ground as he retired, 
 performing the step round and over it when he re- 
 turned, like a Highlander in the broadsword dance, 
 without touching it. Then came the return of a 
 victorious party, brandishing their broad spears or- 
 namented with flo-s^-ing ox-tails, welcomed by a 
 chorus of women, and occasionally diiving back the 
 few enemies who had the audacity to approach 
 them. This scene, when acted by a sufficient number, 
 must be highly efiective. As it was, the glare of the 
 fire reflected from the red helmet-hke head-gear 
 and ghttering ornaments of the women, the flashing 
 blades, and wa\^ng ox-tails of the wild warriors, 
 with the fitful glare playing on the background of 
 huts, kraal, and groups of cattle, was picturesque 
 enough. The concluding guttural emissions of soimd 
 were somethino; frio-htfnl ; the dogs howled simulta- 
 neously, and the httle lemur, terrified at the uproar, 
 darted wildly about the inside of the wagon, in vain 
 efibrts to escape from Vvdiat, in fact, was his only 
 place of safety. 
 
 Saturday passed much as the preceding day. At 
 night we made up races among the people for sticks 
 of tobacco, and after various feats of strength, two
 
 386 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 of the drivers, Jan and Harry, performed the ' schild- 
 pat ' (tortoise) trick ; i.e. a rein is passed round the 
 neck of each, they then, witli the bight passing 
 between their legs, go on all-fours, and exert their 
 strength in trying to run away with each other. 
 At last we caught the infection also, and vied Avith 
 each other in walking on poles, turning or lying on 
 a slack rope, &c., till long after dark. 
 
 Tuesday, March ith. — Early in the morning the 
 final preparation for our start commenced, about the 
 first thing on the tapis being a stormy altercation 
 between Jan and the Damaras, the most noticeable 
 point of which was the shrewd advice given him by 
 Dokkie : ' If the Damaras will not hearken to you, 
 go nearer to the master's wagon, and make row 
 enough with them to wake him up. Then the3^'ll 
 listen fast enouo'h.' 
 
 Well, about half-past twelve, carpentry, black- 
 smithing, packing, and all the multifarious odds and 
 ends of work being brought to a close, Chapman 
 and I rode forward along the valley, passing Union 
 Vlei, and keeping a straight course ESE. for the 
 Kopjies (visible in the distance), instead of turning 
 south by our former road. Five or six miles from 
 oiu- deserted village, we found that the valley turned 
 away to the north-east, in such a manner as to lead 
 us to suppose that it might not impossibly be one 
 with the Karroop valley, which was turning more and 
 more southerly when we left it. About three or four 
 miles farther, Chapman pointed out a giraffe on the
 
 1SG2.] A START. 387 
 
 opposite side of anotlier valley, and his gun being 
 too heavy to gallop with, I offered him mine, know- 
 ing that, from his experience in hunting, he would 
 be far more hkely to use it successfully than I. The 
 giraffe was slowly walking among the low bushes 
 and trees, at nearly a right angle to the course we 
 adopted, and as we came slowly on (as if intent 
 only on passing before him), turned, incited by 
 curiosity, and walked toward us, looking for all 
 the world, as he stopped to gaze, like the white 
 stump of a dead tree, which anyone might have 
 passed by without suspecting it of the power of 
 motion. I had a fine view of his well-rounded 
 quarters as he at last turned to flight, with his long 
 undulating gallop, so graceful at a distance, and so 
 awkward when you are near enough to see his legs ; 
 but Chapman's mare, catching the strong scent, 
 became terrified, and refused to advance. We ex- 
 changed horses, and I was rapidly distanced, and 
 nearly thrown over the mare's head as she caught a 
 whiff of the terrible, but, to me, imperceptible scent. 
 However, catching my friend's horse, and rejoinmg 
 him, I learned that he had at one time been within 
 forty yards of the giraffe, but, losing ground again, 
 had fired at a range of a hundred, the rifle sending 
 the bullet clean through, and far away on the other 
 side — a pretty good test of its performance, for the 
 skin of the camelopard is-tliicker than that of any 
 animal I know, except the hippopotamus. Indeed, I 
 have seen one of M'Cabe's hunters making soles of
 
 388 EXPLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 it, witli heels cut out of the sohd, as thick, after being 
 tamied and dressed, as those of a fashionable boot 
 at home. Of the horses we cannot say so much, 
 their fear of the strange smell is a great drawback ; 
 but this may not extend to other animals. The Boers 
 say, if your horse will bring you up to a kameel, 
 you can ride him up to anything. 
 
 We found the Damaras again, and started a troop 
 of quaggas, one of which I hit, Avdiile the dogs went 
 after him. But Chapman was firing at an object to 
 me invisible, so well did the warm grey colour of 
 the gemsbok match with that of the half-dried grass. 
 Another sharp run, my friend fired ; the long black 
 horns and little patch of the same colour on the 
 rump became invisible, and in a hundred yards or 
 so more ^e found the beautifully marked antelope, 
 a young male, with shorter horns than the female, 
 breathing his last upon the ground. We covered 
 the carcase with bushes, and, returning, found the 
 first waizon arrivino- at the httle hill near the bend 
 of the valley ; the others, as they came, were out- 
 spanned beside it, and John, Avith the two Damaras, 
 went forward to secure the skin of the gemsbok, 
 his assistants carefully appropriating a firebrand in 
 evident anticipation of a glorious banquet on the 
 choice bits misnamed by us oflfal. 
 
 An accident, I was informed, had befallen my spe- 
 cimen. The ivory Avagon in which Mr. Bell, with not 
 a few humorous allusions to ivory couches, curule 
 chairs, and no end of other pleasantries, had taken up
 
 1862.] AN ACCIDENT. 389 
 
 his quarters, had run foul of mine (or the Zambesian, 
 as we call it, from its carrying the cargo destined for 
 the river), and broken the skull and horns of the 
 gemsbok killed near Sleepy Hollow. How this could 
 happen without damage to the boat I could not 
 imaoine, and sure enouo-li I found that one of the 
 stern compartments was torn and battered out of 
 shape by the colhsion. 
 
 Wednesday, hth. — We started soon after sunrise. 
 
 By a little after nine the slovenly driving of Jem, 
 
 exhausting the after oxen (on which we depend 
 
 for help in emergencies), had brought us to a stand 
 
 in the middle of the waterless flat. After taking 
 
 the whip in hand myself I had to send forward for 
 
 other cattle, which arrived about noon, the rest of 
 
 the wagons being at an indefinite distance. A couple 
 
 of hours' hard struggle advancing us about as many 
 
 miles, we at length sank hopelessly in the red sand, 
 
 this desirable result being mainly brought about by 
 
 the only manoeuvre of which Jem seems capable, i.e. 
 
 ' shugering ' or sheering the team from side to side, 
 
 so as to work the front wheels deeper and deeper 
 
 without advancing them. I sent on the cattle to 
 
 drink wherever they might find water, and waited 
 
 v,ath what patience I might, kindling a fire for the 
 
 benefit of the sick man with the lock of a flint gun 
 
 which had fortunately come into the hands of Tap- 
 
 yinyoka. At ten Jan and Harry (or rather, I should 
 
 say, Charley) arrived with a canteen of milk and a 
 
 span of oxen, and about one next morning we
 
 390 KXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 reached the oiitspan, in a more decided poition of 
 tlie valley which we had entered at noon, and sur- 
 rounded by a forest of motjihaara and other trees. 
 
 Thursday, 6th. — After a good breakfast of gemsbok 
 steaks, we followed the valley as far as it served our 
 purpose ; then, trusting to the compass only, we 
 crossed an open plain or forest of motjihaara and the 
 various thorns scattered according to the nature of 
 the ground over the country. Here and there we 
 found small patches of hmestone, and sometimes 
 beds of a different grass, indicating that long ago 
 the Bechuanas of the lake had kraaled their cattle 
 here. At length the loose oxen broke into a trot 
 followed by the sheep and goats and the thirsty 
 Damaras ; the lowings of the trek oxen responded, 
 and the wagons, before so cumbrous, seemed now 
 scarcely to impede their motion. A small pool ap- 
 peared, but the path we had now struck led to a 
 larger. For one instant we saw the broad placid 
 water reflecting the tall trees above it, the next it 
 was a troubled sea of black mud, rendered all but 
 invisible by the crowd that gathered in it. We 
 walked on a mile farther, found the motjihaara and 
 motlopie with the ant-hill of our former outspan at 
 New Year Ylei, ranged the wagons abreast as they 
 came up, and listened with some gratulation to the 
 comments of our followers on the powers of the 
 wonderful httle ' Adjitenta ' that had guided us so 
 straight to the place where we wished to be. A 
 couple of Bushmen told us a message had already
 
 1862.] SEAECTI FOR GAME. 391 
 
 been sent to Leshulatebe, and, what was more im- 
 portant, that elephants were drinking at Quarantine 
 Vlei, just beyond the Kopjies. 
 
 Friday, 7th. — I put my wagon in order, rigged my 
 table mast, lashed up the rowlocks of the boat as 
 hooks for the guns, and by about noon had made 
 myself tolerably well at home again. In the after- 
 noon I made two sketches of our elephant chase, 
 one for my friend, and one for myself 
 
 Chapman and his brother rode out to look for 
 game, and saw indications that the elephants were 
 drinking between Quarantine Vlei, where John is 
 making a scherm, and another vlei, which he knows 
 some miles farther on, near the large Kopjie ; and 
 as there is little or no water elsewhere, it seems 
 probable they will have to frequent these places for 
 some time. 
 
 Saturday, 8th. — I walked on in advance to the 
 scherm at Quarantine Vlei, where Chapman had 
 wounded two elephants, one of which had been heard 
 during the remainder of the night and was supposed 
 to be not far away. We returned as far as the west end 
 of Maquata hill, where the wagons had halted ; and 
 a party was at once sent out to try to find the game. 
 After searching some time ineffectually, I rode on to 
 the next water, where the Damaras were making 
 another scherm ; and wishing to know whether the 
 waters really ended here, went on along the south 
 side of the Kopjies, eight or ten miles perhaps in all, 
 finding a good open path, with one large vlei and 
 
 A A
 
 392 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 several small ones, beside several spoors of elephants 
 that had gone to the southward in the rainy season, 
 but without seeing a living thing except two or 
 three little steinboks. 
 
 At night I took my place with John at Quarantine 
 Vlei, while Chapman and his brother went to the 
 farther scherm. But in the interim the elephant 
 had been found, and the Bushmen, feasting on it and 
 traversing the path to fill the intestines with water 
 at the vlei, were enough to drive away anything 
 that might be near. As our scherm was not com- 
 fortably arranged for watching in, one or other of 
 us lay outside all night while the other slept, and 
 in the morning I went over to the bush, where the 
 Bushmen were cutting up the carcase. This, as it 
 was only a small cow, perhaps nine feet high, was 
 nearly completed. Only one leg lay upon the ground, 
 and the skull was so well cleaned, that I made a 
 sketch at once, and anticipated the pleasure of seeing 
 a photograph by Chapman. This, however, was not 
 to be, for shortly after breakfast an attack had been 
 made upon the skull, for the sake of the brains and 
 marrow ; and the tusks, and all the flesh that had 
 not been stolen in the night, were brought up to the 
 wagons. Henry Chapman had enjoined the Damaras 
 not to defraud the Bushmen of a share of the flesh 
 for the assistance they rendered ; but it seems that 
 about fifty of them gathered in the night, and, think- 
 ing a bird in the hand worth two in the bush, walked 
 off with all they could carry. The Damaras insist
 
 1862.] 
 
 elephant's flesh. 
 
 393 
 
 that three elephants drank at onr water last night, 
 but how they could do it without trampling on one 
 of us is a mystery, for, lying outside the scherm, it 
 appeared to me that hardly the wing of a bird 
 skimming the surface could escape our notice. 
 
 Monday^ ISth. — In the morning brought up my 
 map and log of the route to the present date, and 
 
 TIRED ELEPHANT WASHING. 
 
 after that made a sketch of the tired elephant dashing 
 water on his breast. 
 
 Chapman went up Maquata hill to photograph, 
 without success. At breakfast we had the trunk and 
 foot of the elephant, both very good, the first Hke 
 fibrous meat, the latter like compact jelly. The Da- 
 maras were employed in making a scherm at the 
 large vlei I saw on Saturday, and Chapman and his
 
 394 EXrLORATIOXS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Marcii 
 
 brother rode to it at night. John was occupying the 
 intermediate one, and I Avas preparing to go down 
 to that at Quarantine Vlei, when a commotion took 
 place around the fire. Anthony (please be kind 
 enough to pronounce this name Ann Tony) had 
 put his hand in the dark upon a puff-adder, and 
 such a shower of blows were raining down on the 
 ill-starred reptile, that I was quite safe to catch him 
 by the tail and ship off his speckled skin before I 
 started for my lair. 
 
 Tuesday^ l^th. — My lonely vigil being ended, I 
 went round the vlei, to make sure that nothing had 
 visited it during my intervals of drowsiness, and 
 returned to camp, wliere I was spreading out the 
 snake skin, with its inner and adhesive surface, on 
 sheets of paper, when Chapman returned with the 
 news that he had killed a bull-elephant and a white 
 rhinoceros, the former, I beheve, standing within 
 three yards of the scherm when he received the 
 death-shot. Without waiting for breakfast, I gathered 
 my drawing materials, and started at once for the 
 spot, about three miles distant, shooting on the way 
 one out of an immense flock of white storks, with 
 black quill feathers, that hovered over or settled 
 near one of the smaller vleis. The elephant, wdiich 
 seemed larger and blacker than those hitherto killed, 
 was already in process of dissection ; so making one 
 of the Damaras hold up the ear for me, I rather 
 hurried over a sketch of the head and fore-limbs, 
 and set out to find the rhinoceros — an animal which
 
 1862.] DESCRIPTION OF RHINOCEROS. 395 
 
 I had not yet seen. About 300 yards north-west 
 of the water, and nearly between it and Secakaama 
 hill, lay the barrel-like carcase, swelhng in the morn- 
 ing sun till the naturally hard skin now seemed as 
 if it enclosed an absolute soHd, and yielded not even 
 to the pressui'e of my foot, when I stood on it the 
 better to observe the outline of the back. The clumsy 
 head — like a shapeless log, with the eyes, nostrils, and 
 disproportionately small mouth crowded together in 
 one end of it — was furnished mth two horns, the 
 anterior nearly four feet long, seven or eight inches 
 thick at the base, but diminishing to less than half at 
 the height of nine inches or a foot, whence it tapered 
 gradually, assuming a sabre-like form with the con- 
 vex side forward ; the posterior being a mere stump, 
 about seven inches in height. The eyes were small 
 and set flat in the side of the head, with no promi- 
 nence of brow, and in such a position that I should 
 doubt very much the assertion, that the rhinoceros 
 can see only what is straight before it. I should 
 think, on the contrary, that anything exactly in front 
 would be absolutely hidden from its view. The 
 mouth, as I have remarked, was very small, and the 
 upper lip not prehensile. The hmbs were dwarfish 
 compared with the bulk of the carcase ; nevertheless 
 the creature runs upon occasion with almost incre- 
 dible speed. The skin was of a light pinky grey, 
 deepening into a bluish neutral tint on parts of 
 the head, neck, and legs. The hmbs, shoulders, 
 cheeks, and neck were marked with deep wrinkles, 
 
 A A 2
 
 396 
 
 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Ma 
 
 crossing each other so as to leave a lozenge-shaped 
 reticulated appearance, but there were none of those 
 folds in the skin which artists at home, borrowing 
 their ideas from the Indian rhinoceros, are so fond 
 of depicting, the only approach to anything of the 
 kind being a slight collar-like mark across the 
 throat. 
 
 Chapman and Bell came up soon after with the 
 photographic apparatus, and took the following di- 
 mensions : — 
 
 From point of upper lip to between the ears 
 
 From ears to insertion of tail 
 
 Tail .... 
 
 From withers to fore foot . 
 
 From hump to fore foot 
 
 From hip to hind foot 
 
 ft. 
 
 =15 4 
 
 The actual height will be a little less than these 
 measurements : — 
 
 Half circumference of body 
 Ears .... 
 
 Half circumference of head 
 Horn .... 
 Short horn 
 
 Circumference of fore foot 
 Hind foot 
 
 The Elephant : 
 Height at Avithers 
 Length of trunk 
 
 ft. 
 
 in. 
 
 G 
 1 
 
 3| 
 
 H 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 7| 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 H 
 
 11 
 
 8* 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 To avoid altercation as much as possible, the 
 Damaras had been sent to cut up the elephant ; and 
 as soon as Chapman had taken two or three very
 
 1862.] SAVAGE ECONOMY. 397 
 
 good pictures of the rhinoceros, the drivers, with 
 Koobie and his Bushmen, were allowed to work 
 their will. First long strips of the thick hide, com- 
 mencing at the centre of the back and running 
 diagonally forward to the thinner portions of the 
 throat and belly, were cut off for the purpose of 
 being hereafter trimmed into whips for the 
 hinder oxen. This done, and the flesh stripped 
 from the top side, the ribs were broken through, 
 and the lower half presented the appearance of a 
 huge charger flUed with clotted blood — was this to 
 be thrown away ? Not a bit nor drop of it ! The 
 long intestines, cut into convenient lengths, were 
 tied up into bags, and the mouth of each being held 
 open by one savage, another commenced baling with 
 both his hands, and a cauldron partly filled with fat 
 being already on the fire, sack after sack of hfe's 
 ensanguined stream was started into it, to say nothing 
 of tit-bits impaled on forked sticks or grilled and 
 roasted in every variety of taste. 
 
 A ' sticker up,' or, in African parlance, a carbon- 
 adjie, had been roasted on a fork for me, but so 
 hurriedly and carelessly that I could not pronounce 
 upon the merits of the flesh, and turned rather to 
 that of the white stork, which I had skinned and by 
 this time broiled. As it was now past sunset, how- 
 ever, I shouldered my rifle, and set out for the inter- 
 mediate scherm, where, while enjoying my supper, or 
 more literally, breakfast, a Damara arrived from camp 
 with a shoe of new bread and a bottle of new milk.
 
 398 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 Nothing whatever except a bird or two visited 
 my water ; but I could hear distinctly the barking of 
 the dogs, and shouting of the jDcople at the dead 
 animals, and the howhng of some hyajnas toward 
 Quarantine Ylei. 
 
 Wednesday, 12th. — On reaching the wagons, I 
 found them nearly ready to start, and in a couple of 
 hours we passed the elephant, and encamped some- 
 thing less than a mile south-east of Seeakaama, one 
 of the largest of the range of Kopjies, which num- 
 ber about a dozen. 
 
 The rest of the week was spent in various occupa- 
 tions, as in making shoes, mending gun-locks, forced 
 out of order by the Damaras, eating the rhinoceros' 
 hump, which was really excellent and would have 
 been much more so, had not Jan in taking it up 
 from the hot earth and embers stuck his spade clean 
 through the skin, allowing the whole of the juices 
 and gelatinous matter to escape. 
 
 We shot tliree kinds of vulture ; one, the small 
 common bird I had already sketched ; a pair with 
 wings seven feet in tlie spread, and with the crown 
 and back of tlie head covered Avith short white 
 feathers ; and a third, with bald pink and purple 
 corrugated skin on the head and neck, and a spread 
 of wing of no less than eight feet. The plumage of 
 the two last was of deep Vandyke and sepia brown, 
 with white upon the legs and other portions, and I 
 took the opportunity of sketching them carefully. 
 We made a new scherm at a small vlei farther on
 
 1862.] INDOLENCE OP DAMARAS. 399 
 
 and in it Henry and I passed an uncomfortable 
 night without seeing anything. In the morning, we 
 crossed over one of the rough heaps of granite blocks, 
 constituting one of the smaller Kopjies, and saw 
 in the distance, either the water of Lake Ngami, or 
 the mirage overhanging it. The intervening country 
 seemed quite flat, with forest more or less dense, 
 and in it we discerned in the distance a troop of 
 buffaloes. We followed, but could not overtake them, 
 and making a sweep past a fine vlei on the north 
 side of the hills, returned to our camp. As for the 
 Damaras, their incorrigible indolence manifests itself 
 daily. The wagons had been brought purposely 
 up to the carcases, so that they might be able to cut 
 up and preserve the whole of the meat. But nothing 
 can induce them to work after their bellies are filled ; 
 and, as before, half the food, obtained at such a cost 
 of long night-watching, is left to rot upon the 
 ground. It would only be a proper punishment to 
 kiU no domestic animals whatever for them, and it 
 is not unhkely that when Henry Chapman leaves us 
 necessity will compel us to adopt it. 
 
 On the 16th, we moved six miles along the southern 
 side of the Kopjies, halting near their eastern end, 
 with the broad flats of the Kahhari Desert in view 
 to the south ; and in the afternoon, we made nearly 
 eight miles more about east, by compass, toward the' 
 southern end of Mount Lubelo, our object bemg to 
 go as straight as possible to the ford at which we 
 are to cross the Botletle Eiver, leaving the lake
 
 400 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 about twenty miles on our north. By this we shall 
 considerably shorten our actual journey, and Chap- 
 man will have the advantage of dealing with the 
 Chief on more equal terms than if we placed our- 
 selves in his power by going the ordinarj^ route, and 
 allowing him to begin his system of extortion while 
 we were yet approaching him, and increase his de- 
 mands day by day before he allowed us to pass. 
 
 He has sent already to say there is war between 
 us, on account of the gun which Chapman took away 
 from one of his men, though he knows well the 
 gun was only detained because one of the party, with 
 whom the man had come, had stolen a tusk, and 
 that it was afterwards dehvered into his own hand, 
 while the tusk was never restored. Our only answer 
 to tliis is, that we know what war is quite as well 
 as he. 
 
 We know him to be capable of any meanness that 
 human nature could be guilty of, and are not without 
 suspicion that the Bushmen we have seen are em- 
 ployed to scare the elephants away from us ; but we 
 beheve at the same time, he is too shrewd to drive 
 Englishmen entirely out of the country by ill-treat- 
 ment, and thus deprive himself of a market for his 
 ivory, or, in homely phrase, kill the goose that lays 
 the golden eggs for him. 
 
 Monday, llth.—We made a morning trek of 
 six and a half miles, passing the dried-up vlei called 
 Sebubumpi, and striking the head of a valley, which, 
 clothed at first in thick bush, opened into a broad
 
 18G2.] MOLEXYANI VLEI. 401 
 
 grassy hollow in which we halted at a fine deep 
 vlei called Molenyani. Here our guide professed his 
 ignorance of the country in advance ; but said that 
 he beheved there was a path along the base of 
 Lubelo hill, to the north and north-east of us, but 
 thick elephant bush to the E. by N., or the direction 
 in which we wish to go. The drivers were sent 
 forward to explore, and I hoped to commence a 
 sketch, but so many little jobs came to my hand, one 
 after another, that the sun had set before I could 
 begin it. 
 
 Tuesday^ ISth. — Treked early to the eastward, 
 two or three miles from the southern base of Lubelo, 
 making an awfully zigzag course of it, Hottentot Jan 
 having got ahead with his wagon, and seeming ut- 
 terly unable to keep the same direction five minutes 
 together. Without a path, the country presented alter- 
 nately grassy flats, on red or grey sand or limestone, 
 sometimes open, and at others moderately covered 
 with bush, but nowhere so thick as to impede a wagon. 
 About an hour after starting, we saw from E. by N. 
 to ENE. the Nquiba Mountains looking dim and 
 blue in the distance, and after travelling nearty ten 
 miles, outspanned without water in a grassy fiat sur- 
 rounded by bush. An eagle had just killed an 
 ostrich chick, and Chapman, frightening him from 
 his prey, picked it up. Its plumage, which could 
 liardly yet be called feathery, was of a light yellowish 
 brown, with darker patches and httle filaments of 
 lighter yellow ; but the most remarkable thing was.
 
 402 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 that the neck, which is nearly naked in the adult bird, 
 was covered with light sienna or reddish yellow — • 
 neither feathers nor hair — with dark brown spots 
 upon it. Chapman also shot a black finch, with two 
 long black feathers above the true tail, an inch broad 
 and nearly eighteen long, and above these again 
 were two oval-shaped black feathers, three or four 
 inches long and one and a half broad, capable of 
 being erected at pleasure. All four of these feathers 
 were placed vertically, or set edge up, instead of 
 lying flat like the true tail. 
 
 At night, John succeeded in shooting the eagle, 
 which, it is supposed, was living on the young brood 
 of ostriches. His spread of wings was six feet four 
 inches, and in length two feet seven inches. His 
 colour above, dark greyish brown, the wings and tail 
 barred with deep sepia brown ; the breast, belly, legs 
 (feathered down to the beginnmg of the toes), and 
 underside of the tail, white, spotted here and there 
 with brown. 
 
 John went forward some miles on old Euyter, but 
 found no water. A httle rain in the afternoon. Even- 
 ing clear. We find our vultures going bad, the tarsi not 
 having been opened far enough. We cannot preserve 
 birds here by the ordinary rules, but have to cut 
 them open from end to end, and in all parts where 
 a bit of muscle, or even sinew, may be left to contain 
 moisture. 
 
 Wednesday^ 19th. — Treked at 6 a.m. toward the 
 Nquiba hills, five or six miles from which we saw a
 
 1862.] WANT OF WATER. 403 
 
 troop of from sixteen to twenty giraffes, skirting the 
 bush to the south of us. John and I went in chase, 
 but they had ah'eady taken the alarm, and after 
 nearly two hours' walk, we rejoined the wagons about 
 noon, when we outspamied in a thick bush, to all 
 appearance destitute of water, and, to add to our 
 discomfort, found on appl}T.ng to the casks that both 
 were nearly empty ; the drivers, with their charac- 
 teristic recklessness, not only having stolen water on 
 the road, but neglected to drive the plugs in again 
 to prevent leakage. If we were in the habit of stint- 
 ing them while drinkmg our own fill, this would be 
 excusable, but when we abstain from using water 
 only to find it wasted in time of need by a set of 
 reckless savages, it is enough to cure us of enduring 
 any privation for the sake of people who certainly 
 will not voluntarily suffer any for us. John took 
 the big horse, and succeeded in finding a vlei fre- 
 quented by buffaloes, but by the time he returned 
 an entu^e span of oxen had escaped us and set off on 
 a search for themselves. 
 
 In the afternoon, I sketched Chapman's elephant, 
 suspiciously approaching the scherm at Seesie Vlei, 
 near Seeakaama, and, for the first time, succeeded 
 in drawing a profile of the animal, in which he re- 
 cognised no inaccuracies. This picture may, there- 
 fore, be taken as a tolerable representation of the 
 African species. 
 
 Thursday^ 20th. — I sketched and coloured one of 
 the Damaras' dances I had witnessed at the standing
 
 404 
 
 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [March 
 
 (•aiii[) ; and afterward grouped a hoopoe, a greyish 
 bird with deep yellow skin round the eyes, and a 
 tree-squirrel shot by Henry Chapman, who also 
 brought in a lono'-tailed finch, similar to tliat before 
 
 shot, but possessing also a couple of long slender 
 hhunents, looking like twisted threads of black silk, 
 in addition to the other feathers. He brought also a 
 small fruit, one inch and a quarter in diameter, with 
 a thick rind and a ])leasantly acid pul]i lietween it 
 and the larue keinel. The tree bearing it mows on
 
 1862.] THE NQUIBA HILLS. 405 
 
 the otlier side the hills in a dense jungle, where 
 elephants might stand in any numbers entirely con- 
 cealed from observation. The baobab abounds there, 
 but the only sign of human life is the driving of 
 pegs into the trunk to facihtate the chmbing of it. 
 The cattle were recovered this afternoon, having gone 
 straight away for an outpost to the north-west, where 
 one or two of them had been accustomed to feed. 
 They might have been found earlier, but Dokkie hav- 
 ing been ordered to fill the water casks, had thought 
 fit to call back for this purpose the Damaras, 
 who were actually starting in search of the oxen. 
 Chapman was afraid they had gone off with a herd 
 of buffaloes, in which case they might have been 
 set down, hke oxen stolen according to treaty by the 
 Kafirs, as UTeclaimable. 
 
 Friday, 21st. — We moved after breakfast about 
 four miles, over a tolerably open plain, between the 
 two portions of the ISTquiba hills, and formed camp 
 with the larger bearing from 305° to 50°, or N. by W. 
 to NE 1 K, and the smaller 205° to 235° or SSW. to 
 WSW. From this point, as it seems probable, Henry 
 Chapman will go down to Grahamstown, with what- 
 ever ivory may be obtained from the chief We 
 spent the rest of the day in looking over specimens, 
 clearing the destructive moth from those that were 
 worth preserving, and condemning such as were 
 utterly ruined. 
 
 Sunday, 2^rd. — In the evening messengers arrived 
 from the chief, with especial comphments to all of us.
 
 406 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 and a special remonstrance to Chapman for staying 
 in tlie veldt, when he might come to town and be 
 on friendly terms as before. The declaration of war 
 was nullified ; but, at the same time, we know too 
 well what is signified by friendly terms not to see 
 tlie advantage of refraining from too close an in- 
 timacy. They say that the reports of his having 
 sent a commando against Sekeletu are ' all hes ; ' but 
 something we can hardly make out has taken place 
 in that line. We are now very nearly on the scene of 
 a conflict that took place with a marauding expedi- 
 tion of the Makololo in 1853. The enemy, whom 
 Chapman, from the remains of the huts, camp fires, &c., 
 estimated at a total of thirty thousand — inclusive of 
 warriors, slaves, camp followers, and everything else, 
 — divided into three bodies, one sweeping round the 
 north and west sides of the lake, one threatening the 
 town, and the other advancing to these mountains. 
 They secured and carried away immense booty, but 
 not entirely without loss ; for the dense bush here 
 afforded an ambuscade for the native forces, and so 
 unconscious of danger were the plunderers, that no 
 less than thirty fell before the first discharge of the 
 ill-directed fire that was scattered on and around 
 them. 
 
 Our own movements have been the subject of 
 much interest. There is a tradition, all over the 
 country, of cattle that are hid in a cave ; and they 
 had come to the conclusion that Henry Chapman, 
 '.vho had previously been in Ovambo land, had
 
 1862.] BAOBAB TREES. 407 
 
 discovered the place and was guiding his brother 
 to it. 
 
 Monday^ 24:th. — We made a circuit of the Quaebie 
 hills. I believe the spelhng sanctioned by professors 
 of the Bechuana language is Klioe for the first 
 syllable ; but certainly no person acquainted only 
 with the Enghsh alphabet would pronounce this 
 rightly, the sound being something like what I sup- 
 pose to be indicated by our own ancient spelling 
 of the words qhueu, qhuare, &c. We found several 
 baobabs, some of which had been stripped of their 
 bark for cord ; but evidently many years ago, as the 
 ring which is left round them, where the ends of bark 
 are cut off about breast high, had now grown nearly 
 double that height, and no fresh one indicated a 
 second operation. Some of them, however, had 
 pegs driven mto the bark, to enable the Bushmen 
 to ascend and gather the fruit which, still young 
 and green, was hanging on the branches. 
 
 We found several wild medlars, and the acid fruit 
 before mentioned, which, after a long thirsty walk, 
 was particularly agreeable. Elephants had been on 
 the summit of the hiUs, but not recently. And after 
 chmbing masses of black igneous rock, more or less 
 hidden by long dry grass, we saw in the far distance 
 the waters of Lake Ngami, stretching from north to 
 north-west by west, and could plainly distinguish 
 the shore on the opposite side, as well as the smoke 
 from the heaps of reeds and bulrushes, burned by 
 the natives about this season. When we returned,
 
 408 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mahch 
 
 one of the Bushmen had made us a stew of wild 
 medlars, and most of us neglected pea-soup in con- 
 sequence. 
 
 Tuesday, 2hth. — This morning Harry arrived 
 from the lake with some Bechuanas and Bushmen 
 bearing all sorts of horrid messages from the Chief, 
 who fears that we shall slip through his fingers be- 
 fore we are squeezed thoroughly dry. CompUments 
 are sent to everyone in profusion, and an invitation 
 to come with all the wagons and their oxen — ' never 
 mind lung sickness ' — to the town, while the rest of 
 the cattle can be driven to a vlei on their way to 
 the drift at Palane, and wait until we come down 
 the river. This is one point gained ; for we were 
 hitherto ignorant whether the country in our line of 
 route were a waterless desert or not. The Bechuanas 
 are jealous of the services rendered us by the Bush- 
 men, especially of their bringing to Chapman the 
 tusks of the elephant he had shot, and now that two 
 more out of the seven he fired at in Sleepy Hollow 
 are reported to be found and the Bushmen supposed 
 to be on their way to us with the ivory, they in- 
 sist that the land is theirs, the Bushmen theirs, and 
 beside all, that they themselves shot the elephants. 
 Fortunately, however, they do not even know as 
 yet whence we expect the teeth, and tell us confi- 
 dently they had their hunt and wounded their two 
 elephants at Quarantine Vlei. Old Booy tells them 
 that he is not their Bushman, that Chapman has found 
 out the land, and it is liis, and they are his people.
 
 18G2.] NATIVE NAMES. 409 
 
 Wednesday, 2Qth. — We find that, as usual, the 
 individuals of our party have received distinctive 
 names from the natives. One is ' Left-handed,' ano- 
 ther, ' Dik staart.' Chapman and I alike are ' Bok 
 baard ; ' and I have another name, expressive of a 
 shght limping from a hmb broken several years ago. 
 In the afternoon we had thunder and a little rain, 
 w^hich is again beginning to be unusual with us. 
 There is no game of any kind to tempt one away 
 from the wagons. 
 
 Thursday, 27th. — There has been a game of 
 diplomacy between Chapman and the Bechuanas all 
 the morning, the object of the latter being to frighten 
 or persuade the Bushmen to bring the tusks of Chap- 
 man's elephants to them, or at least within their 
 power. In this they are assisted by Harry, the Cape 
 lad, whose heart is not proof against the flattering 
 treatment of the Chief, backed up by plentiful enter- 
 tainment and pleasant company. He is not without 
 suspicion that we intend to go past the town, and, 
 unwilling to lose the chance of a pleasant sojourn 
 there, plays into the hands of our adversaries by 
 retailing whatever scraps of information he can over- 
 hear among us. We treked four and a half miles 
 east by north, and outspanned without water in a 
 thick bush. 
 
 Friday, 28th. — Treked early on an average course 
 of NE., but ranging through all the points of the 
 compass from east south-east to north-west by west 
 We passed through several patches of thick bush
 
 410 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 and motjihaara forest as we left the westernmost 
 end of the Qiiaebie hills, and outspanned by a 
 vlei, now quite dry, in which they had led us to 
 believe there was water. The messengers were now 
 informed that we did not intend to go to the town, 
 but would strike the river some miles lower, where 
 Leshulatebe, if he wanted to trade, coidd bring his 
 ivory down in boats. Of course they were greatly 
 taken aback at all this, and protested that the river 
 was five days from us, that it was impossible to 
 reach any place except the town before we perished, 
 that they had been sent expressly to bring Chapman 
 (and his goods), and that if he did not come, they 
 would not dare to tell the Chief where he was, but 
 would just say, Chapman is not — we know nothing. 
 However, we spanned in again at noon, and as Harry's 
 wagon had got in advance, went all sorts of courses, 
 heading at one time for Kuruman and the Kalihari 
 Desert, and the next for Babel Mandeb, or the Straits 
 of Gibraltar. Of course we had to reheve the leader, 
 and keep a stricter course. My wagon as usual was 
 far astern, Jem, in addition to his general uselessness, 
 being partially disabled by a kick fi^om a young ox. 
 I find he has acquired a name as well as the rest of 
 us, to wit, Baviaan bout (baboon's thigh, or old 
 musket) ; but another lately bestowed on him, Coetjie 
 Koorammd (Jemmy, wait a bit), is the most appro- 
 priate. I have heard for some time the cattle and 
 loose Damaras, most of them with young goats and 
 sheep on their shoulders, gathered round as we
 
 186'2.] KANDOM WANDEEINGS. 411 
 
 halted in the frequent showers, and it was not a 
 little amusing to see Kynamobia with a kid strapped 
 behind her back like a baby, and Kouloloa carrying 
 a whole litter of puppies in the same manner. 
 
 Saturday^ 29i?A.— We treked early, on a course of 
 north by east, for about two hours, when we found 
 ourselves in a moderately close bush, which our 
 people, with their hearts set upon the flesh-pots 
 and beer-baskets, to say nothing of the sweethearts 
 at the town, regarded as a judgment on us for 
 going out of the way ; and had it not been for strict 
 attention to the compass, they would have carried 
 their point in some way or other. As it was (a 
 shght illness, that has troubled me now and then for 
 the last two months, keeping me from the leading 
 wagon), they contrived for some time to swerve a 
 couple of points to the eastward. The Damaras, 
 men and women, were eagerly asking for water, 
 and one of the Bechuanas complained of sun-stroke, 
 or, as he expressed it, by signs and words, was having 
 his throat cut by the sun, wherefore, of course, I had 
 to give him a drink. About noon we lost sight of the 
 Quaebie hills, and began to find large open groves of 
 motjihaara trees upon the plain. Between one and 
 two, the bush became a forest, the country evidently 
 descended, and by half-past two we outspanned on 
 the edge of the bush, near a small open reach of the 
 Botletle Eiver. 
 
 Small enough it was in truth, 300 yards long, 
 perhaps, and fifteen wide, with a smooth slope 
 
 B B
 
 412 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 covered with long dry grass, down to the edge of 
 the translucent water, the dark surface of which 
 was adorned with hhes and fenced round on the 
 northern side by tall tliick reeds, which, sweeping 
 round to our shore on both ends of us, formed an 
 impassable barrier to navigation of any kind. Still, 
 though at this time so low, it was the largest water 
 we had seen for many a day; and as the eager Dama- 
 ras, followed by the cattle, rushed down to it, the 
 Bechuana pointed in exultation to the liberal supply 
 to which he had guided us ! We had shot during 
 the morning some half-dozen guinea fowl, and might 
 have had any quantity, but we had no shot-gun at 
 hand, and the rifle kills only one at a time, and all 
 the fragments rescued from our hungry dogs were 
 now served up for supper. We shot a brace of 
 pheasants out of the large trees in which they settled 
 to roost at sunset, and on our retuim found Chapman 
 at the wagon. 
 
 He had been to the village of Leshulatebe, four or 
 five miles farther down, and not finding us had come 
 along the river to this, which is a former residence 
 of the same petty chief. It is said that, only a short 
 time ago, the elephants came down into the pumpkin 
 gardens of the villages and were ^^dth difficulty 
 driven away, retiring even then only to the edge of 
 the bush, and returning to luxuriate on pumpkins as 
 soon as the hue and cry had ceased.
 
 1862] 413 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 DIFFICULTY OF MAKING OBSERVATIONS A CONFERENCE WITH 
 
 LESHULATEBE CRIMES OF SEKELETU AGAINST THE MISSION 
 
 PARTY LESHULATIbe's BARGAINS HIS ADMINISTRATION OF 
 
 JUSTICE GRASS ON FIRE A SAIL ON THE RIVER RIVER 
 
 SCENERY A TRADING EXPEDITION A BECHUANA VILLAGE 
 
 THE SOLITARY PALM LOCAL NAMES — A CONJUROR THE 
 
 PEETRO, OR COUNCIL OF WAR THE TIGER REGIMENT 
 
 LESHULATEBE's ARMY — THE CHIEFTAIN MAKHOLOQUE A 
 
 MAKOBA WIZARD — HORSE-DEALING RUMOURS OF THE DEATH 
 
 OF SEKELETU A BROWN EAGLE — AN ATTACK OF FE\T:r. 
 
 Leshulatebe had not yet heard tliat we had left 
 the Quaebie hills, but had sent other messengers to 
 hurry us on toward his town : what he will say when 
 he finds we have actually passed him, it would be 
 rather interesting to know. The story of our search 
 for the underground cattle is rife among them, and 
 they are anxious to know whetlier we have suc- 
 ceeded in finding them : probably the scherms we 
 made at the waters have partly given rise to this 
 story. It will be rather amusing for some future 
 traveller to hear the tale of our expedition into 
 the unknown regions and of our extraordinary per- 
 severance in digging for the hidden cattle. Othello 
 could spin a good yarn, and to some purpose too ; 
 but his occupation is decidedly gone after this. 
 There appears to be some truth in the story of 
 
 C B 2
 
 414 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 the frontier war we formerly heard of : at all events 
 it is known that Taabin, a son of Makholoque, has 
 gone down to Chapo's with the Mapati or regiment 
 of ' tigers,' that is to say with the young men who, 
 being circumcised in one year, are formed into one 
 Mapati, and distinguished in the present instance by 
 the name of Ma ungua, or the tigers. 
 
 On Sunday, oOtli, we moved a quarter of a mile, 
 and formed camp under a nobly-spreading kameel- 
 doorn in a small open plain surrounded by forest, 
 south of the little open reach of river, which is now 
 unluckily much lower than Chapman has ever seen it, 
 and apparently quite impassable for canoes, whereas 
 in former years Green's large boat used to sail up 
 and down it. 
 
 Our first care was to clean away the dry grasT 
 for fear of danger by fire, — our next, to make a 
 kraal of thorn bushes all round the wagons, lea\dng 
 no entrance except through our dining tent : as we 
 find that the best way of avoiding quarrels with the 
 natives is to put it out of their power to steal any- 
 thing. Among the luxuries of the day may be 
 enumerated a thorough wash in water brought from 
 the river, as it is unsafe to bathe there for fear of 
 alligators. 
 
 Monday, 3l5?. — As last night was tolerably clear, 
 I stayed up till about two this morning, trying to 
 get an observation for the latitude. A heavy dew 
 made everything wet and uncomfortable, rendering 
 the stars also misty and dim : still I was on the
 
 1862.] HYENAS. 415 
 
 point of securing a Crucis, when, just as the star 
 was on the meridian, one of the dogs took it into 
 his head that I must be the wolf that had been 
 prowhng round all the evening ; it was therefore his 
 duty to bark, the rest of the villanous curs, of course, 
 gathering to the summons, making in less than no 
 time a very Pandemonium all round me. (d Cen- 
 tauri would have been good, but by accident I 
 touched the tangent screw instead of the microscope 
 in reading off, and so vitiated the observation. While 
 thus engaged, a spectre-like form ghded noiselessly 
 through the gloom, and the wolf (i.e. hyena) stood 
 within twenty yards looking at me. Fearing that the 
 rush of the dogs, should they wake up, would cap- 
 size me and my quicksilver too, I drove him quietly 
 away, and saw him, when I returned to my work, 
 standing inquisitively in the same place as before. 
 Arcturus and a Crucis passed the meridian within 
 so short a time of each other that the hghting up of 
 my candle, with everything wet around me, kept me 
 trying to read off the one till it was too late to catch 
 the other. 
 
 As I was testing on a defective gun what little skill 
 in metal working I possessed, a party of horsemen 
 were seen cantering over the plain, and presently 
 Leshulatebe, preceded by one of his head-men and 
 his umbrella-bearer, and followed by three or four 
 others, arrived at the wagon. I sent for Chapman, 
 who was out shooting, and, telling the boys to make 
 coflee, invited the cliief to sit by me while I went on
 
 416 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Maech 
 
 with my picture. It is said ' the pencil speaks the 
 tongue of every land,' and so I found it, for the 
 sketches were far more intelligible than either his 
 Dutch or my Sechuana. Our attainments in the 
 respective languages might be pretty accurately 
 stated at zero, as may be inferred from my 
 attempt to designate the moon as ' the sun, but 
 not the sun that shines by day ' (when, as Pat says, 
 there is no occasion for it), ' but the sun of the 
 darkness that illuminates our night.' His interest, 
 however, was in other things : one of the first he 
 asked after was shoes, and nothing less than patent 
 leather would do for him. Chapman's arrival soon 
 reheved me, and a conversation ensued upon general 
 subjects, the chief trying to appear as if he were 
 perfectly unsolicitous about the marketable goods, 
 and at the same time betraying his anxiety every 
 moment. 
 
 Chapman asked him particularly about the death 
 of the unfortunate mission party at Sekeletu's. As 
 a refugee from the Makololo has taken up his quar- 
 ters at the Lake, every circumstance attending it is 
 well known here. There is no doubt that Sekeletu, 
 besides neglect and ill-treatment — which, if they had 
 been suffering from fever alone, would have been 
 sufficient to ensure their death — actually gave them 
 some poisonous substance, not, as has been said, in 
 the flesh of the ox, but in the beer he sent them — 
 the ox being merely a pretended kindness to lull 
 their suspicion, if they had any. Messengers were
 
 1862.] SEKELETU AND HIS CKIMES. 417 
 
 sent out, to arrive as if from a distant quarter, and 
 report on the effects of the poison ; and it was found 
 that the men, especially those who had drank freely, 
 were most affected; others who had merely tasted 
 it not being then apparently very ill. He added 
 many distressing details respecting the plunder and 
 brutal treatment of the perishing survivors, which 
 from motives of dehcacy were omitted in the letters 
 forwarded home. Sekeletu himself, it seems, is now 
 suffering from a leprosy, which is causing his ex- 
 tremities to rot away, and must shortly bring him 
 to a painful and miserable end. 
 
 One part of his conduct Leshulatebe seems inclined 
 to emulate. A wagon belonging to the late Dr. 
 Holden has been left in his care, and now general 
 instructions are given to traders or travellers to bring 
 it out to Otjimbingue, or any civihsed place where it 
 can be sold for the benefit of his heirs ; but Leshu- 
 latebe demurs to this. He says no one has anything 
 to do with the agreement between Dr. Holden and 
 himself, and that if it is wanted, our chief (the 
 Governor of the Cape) must send for it. Of course 
 he has a right to be satisfied respecting the authority 
 of any person claiming the delivery of the wagon, 
 and Avill expect the customary remuneration on such 
 occasions. A remark has been hazarded respecting 
 the possibihty of the Makololo having persecuted the 
 mission party without the knowledge of Sekeletu, 
 but he at once rejected the idea. Whatever the 
 people do, said he, is done by their chief. Chapman
 
 418 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [March 
 
 was about to ask liim whether this rule applied to 
 the thefts committed during our former visit to the 
 Lake, but a moment's consideration determined us to 
 reserve this home thrust for another occasion. 
 
 Ever and anon the conversation would veer round, 
 despite his affected indifference, to the subject nearest 
 his heart — the guns, to wit ; and samples being shown 
 him, from the stout rough service musket to the 
 double fowHng-piece and two-grooved hair-triggered 
 rifle, he very shrewdly asked, ' Where are the guns 
 that you shoot with ? ' The subject next in import- 
 ance was the horses, and these Chapman frankly told 
 him were not very good. Some of them could run 
 well enough, but none were perfect hunting horses. 
 Big Euyter, a showy, powerful animal, and swift 
 enough too, took his fancy at once, and he asked care- 
 fully 'whether the horse was salted' (i.e. acclimatised 
 by having recovered from the horse sickness). As 
 this was uncertain even to ourselves, Chapman an- 
 swered no. The chief looked hard at him, and 
 said, ' How is it other traders praise up their own 
 goods, and you speak unfavourably of yours ? ' add- 
 ing after a pause, ' I beheve he is not salted.' A 
 subsequent ' aside ' to one of his own people ran 
 pretty nearly as follows : ' He lies ! the horse is 
 salted ; don't you see it is winter now, and he is not 
 dead. He wants to keep me from having him.' His 
 great object, how^ever, was to persuade Chapman to 
 bring his goods to town. He was reminded of the 
 terrible consequences of having sickness, should
 
 1862.] BECHUANA JUSTICE. 419 
 
 any remains of that scourge be still lingering among 
 our cattle ; but as none of them have died recently, 
 he overruled all objections on this score. He was 
 then told of the losses we had sustained while 
 traffic was being carried on at the other end of the 
 Lake, but his answer was, that at a distance from the 
 town he had less control over his people than when 
 they were close to it ; ' there,' said he, ' I buy what I 
 wsintjirst, and then give leave to my people to trade, 
 but far away they crowd forward themselves and do 
 not respect me. As for the thieves, I have only been 
 able to find one of them, a Makoba, who stole the 
 adze ; and I have flogged him nearly to death — in 
 fact, he is not able to walk yet.' From this, of course, 
 we infer that the other things were stolen by men of 
 influence ; and law being in Bechuana land, as well 
 as in more civilized countries, a great respecter of 
 persons, a poor friendless boatman, wdio, doubtless, 
 thought the adze a first-rate hoe for his wife to dig a 
 garden with, was made the scapegoat for all the rest. 
 
 As we had already gained our point so far as to 
 place our whole equipment a dozen or fifteen miles 
 beyond him on the road to the interior, and, of 
 course, had it in our power to send back only such 
 things as were intended to be parted with. Chapman 
 agreed to bring the goods to the vicinity of tlie town, 
 and shortly after the royal cortege had departed, a 
 messenger came back at full speed to remind him 
 by no means to forget the folding iron chair in which 
 he sat to receive his visitor.
 
 420 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 The afternoon was clouded, but by midnight it 
 cleared sufficiently to allow me good observations of 
 North and South stars, as under: a Crucis, 96, 2, 10; 
 Declination S., 62, 19, 49 ; 3 Centauri, 101, 18, 30; 
 Declination S., 59, 42, 10; Arcturus 99, 40, 10; 
 Declination K, 19, 53, 53; a Centauri, 100, 10, 30; 
 Dechnation, 60, 15, 29 ; Index error, 1, 50 ; sub- 
 tractive result. South Latitude, 20, 18, 52. The last 
 observation, occurring about two in the morning, 
 was shghtly vitiated by a strong, steady breeze from 
 the south-east, rushing through the branches of the 
 forest and sweeping across our little plain. 
 
 Tuesday^ April 1st. — The 'lake wagon' being 
 cleared of everything but its merchandise, Chapman, 
 with his brother and Edward, started with it and 
 the ' Kaf tent ' or house wagon towards the Lake, 
 leaving me with the ' Zambesian ' and Bell with the 
 ivory wagon to repair the breaches in our fence, and 
 take general charge till his return. I was on the point 
 of sending a couple of men out with provisions to 
 meet John, when Bell, who was butterfly hunt- 
 ing on the flat, came back, to say that the grass 
 was burning to windward. I mustered the forces at 
 once, and hastening out about a mile, found an exten- 
 sive tract of half-dry grass, in many places waist 
 high, burning furiously, especially where more solid 
 fuel was provided by a dead, dry bush, or the trunk 
 and branches of some fallen tree. Gathering 
 branches with as many leaves on as possible, we 
 attacked the enemy to leeward, spreading in two
 
 1862.] GRASS OX FIRE. 421 
 
 divisions up either side so as to beat off its commu- 
 nication with the rest of the grass and confine the 
 flames within a charred semicircle more than half a 
 mile in leng-th on one side and the river on the other. 
 As the day w^as far advanced when we returned, I 
 had to excuse the men who were to have gone to 
 John, and told them to be in readiness as early as 
 possible to-morrow. 
 
 Wednesday, 2nd.— Went on worldng at an 
 oil picture of the tired elephant, and had it in a 
 tolerably effective state by sun-down. Tw^o or three 
 Bechuanas, w4th a few beads for sale, had visited the 
 wagons, and after receiving the customary food given 
 to strangers, had retired to the Damara huts, where 
 I had given strict orders that if sale or barter of 
 any kind took place the equivalents on either side 
 should be sho^Yn to me. I believe they stayed 
 pretty nearly all the rest of the day, Anthony made 
 a visit to the Makoba village, and bought two or 
 three pumpkins, which the men brought home for 
 him. 
 
 The day passed quietly enough till, at the usual 
 time for kraaling the horses, we learned that they 
 were away, the man whose duty it was to watch them 
 having deserted his charge, and spent his time in our 
 extemporised village with the seductive visitors. 
 
 Thursday, 3rd. — Kalokolo arrived early wdth a 
 note from Chapman, who had been more successful 
 in dealing for corn than for ivory, requesting me to 
 send all the women and spare Damaras to bring back
 
 422 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 the food he had purchased. The horses were found 
 this morning. 
 
 Our people reported a number of ' Kafirs,' i. e. 
 Bechuanas, as having passed on the north of the river 
 toward the town ; probably ' the tigers ' returnmg 
 from the war. They say, also, that the Makoba have 
 deserted their huts and, fiUing their boats with 
 pumpkins and other produce, have gone toward the 
 town. Of course they have heard of Chapman 
 being there, but it is rather a pity they should carry 
 it a dozen or fifteen miles past our camp, to which it 
 will have to be eventually brought. 
 
 Kajumbie, the head man of our Damaras, had also 
 his news to impart in the following medley of 
 languages : — ' Kafulah praata ongumbie sicka ; on- 
 gumbie sicka kako' (the Kafirs complain that our 
 oxen are lung sick, and the oxen are not sick). 
 
 Dikkop had brought me last night a guana about 
 three or four feet long, beautifully marked with 
 brown and black on a hght grey ground. His skin 
 was preserved for the box of specimens, and his flesh 
 for breakfast this morning. Occupation during the 
 day : Making a new burner to my lamp, and paint- 
 ing in oil the visit of Leshulatebe with his suite and 
 ivory bearers to our wagons at the Christmas tree. 
 
 Friday, Ath. — The men had returned last night 
 without having met John, and I had determined 
 to send them back again ; but as Mr. Bell expressed 
 a wish to ride over to the Lake, I thought best to 
 wait till I knew whether John had not perhaps
 
 I8G2.] THE ElVER. 423 
 
 arrived there. In half an lioiir, however, Bell re- 
 turned, followed by all the Damaras bearing pump- 
 kins, with a note requesting me to come over in 
 person. From a remark in this it was evident that 
 John had not as yet made his appearance there ; I 
 therefore directed Jem to take two riding oxen and 
 two goats (ahve), with half a sheep for provision on 
 the road, and start again with Tapyinyoka and Eoode 
 Bantze (Eed Jacket), and on no account whatever to 
 turn back till he met John. Then packing up the 
 beads and other things required by Chapman, I 
 started with the Damaras, keeping a general west- 
 by-south course along the margin of the river. The 
 reeds, I found, though still dense, were only for a 
 short distance so close as to obstruct the passage of 
 a canoe, and shortly open reaches appeared, along 
 which a boat might sail freely before the general 
 south-east breeze. When quite full, the river, 
 spreading to the higli banks and trees within the 
 line of which I rode, with its many islands, must be a 
 noble sheet of water ; but at present, in many places, 
 it is an insignificant channel, and in some places a 
 mere plashy swamp, across which the cattle could 
 hardly be said to wade. Some noble baobabs grew 
 along the hne of forest on the northern side, and 
 here and there the banks rose with low cliffs of lime- 
 stone. Huts were scattered along the course, and 
 one or two collections in more favoured spots seemed 
 to aspire to the dignity of villages. Maize, kafircorn 
 (or millet), melon, and pumpkin were thriving ;
 
 424 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Apkil 
 
 men, women, and children were chewing the long 
 sweet stalks of the imphi ; herds of cattle became 
 larger and more numerous as I proceeded ; and at 
 last a messenger from the Lake (my people being 
 now far behind) took my gun, and walking or run- 
 ning after me, according to the pace of my horse, 
 directed me up a path which turned southward from 
 the valley and in a hundred yards more led us to 
 the wagons. The crowd of natives round, many of 
 them in bright scarlet blankets and caps, the new 
 bright barrels flashing in the sun, and various other 
 acquisitions, were evidences of a tolerably brisk traffic, 
 while the interior of the awning heaped up with 
 pumpkins, corn, beans, rhinoceros' horns, and ivory, 
 showed that the commerce had not been quite un- 
 satisfactory. 
 
 Among the manufactured goods were the usual 
 karosses of jackal and other skins made up of a 
 hundred or more pieces of all sizes accurately filled 
 and neatly sewn with an awl and thread of sinew, 
 every successive stitch being hitched round as in 
 sewing a button-hole, and not simply passed through 
 the material ; stools fantastically carved out of solid 
 pieces of light wood ; and not least, an elephant 
 made by a native artist, the only defect of which 
 was that its ears had been broken off and the height 
 of its legs exaggerated, otherwise the form was much 
 admired ; even the muscular action of the hinder 
 leg, which was partially set forward, having been 
 attended to.
 
 1862.] AFRICAN MAXXEES. 425 
 
 The chief, who, in a blackened red shirt, Jim 
 Crow hat, dingy trowsers, and shoes trodden down 
 at the heels, looked marvellously Hke the cook and 
 steward of some Coast of Guinea trader, sat in the 
 green iron chair and took dinner with us, handing 
 the bones half picked to the favoured of his people 
 as they squatted around ; and the meal being con- 
 cluded, Chapman and I accepted his invitation to his 
 village, the more readily that we wished him to be 
 out of the way when the beads arrived. 
 
 The town, a few hundred yards more to the west- 
 ward, was a straggling collection of cylindro-conical 
 huts, each surrounded by a reed fence fifteen feet or 
 more in height, and of no great architectural beauty. 
 Indeed, compared with the carefully-built clay walls, 
 surmounted by the neatly-thatched conical roof and 
 ornamented with designs in coloured earth I had 
 seen at Yaal Eiver and Thaba Unchu, I was dis- 
 appomted with its want of neatness. 
 
 In the open central space stood a pitch-roofed 
 shed of poles and reed used as a stable ; before this 
 was a new trek touw in process of stretching. Just 
 beyond were two wagons, the wheels carefully raised 
 on stones, and each covered by a shed of rough poles 
 to shield it from the sun. One of these was his own, 
 and the other that of the late Dr. Holden ; and this, 
 from the tenor of his remarks, it seemed more and 
 more evident he was greatly inclined to keep ' until 
 the doctor should claim it himself.' His chief object, 
 however, at present was to get us to make him dupas,
 
 426 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 or pastilles, Snyman having told him the tales current 
 among the Malays at the Cape respecting their 
 efficacy as love charms or other surgical properties. 
 We assured him that it v^as all nonsense, that it was 
 used only by fine ladies troubled with the vapours 
 and by effeminate dandies, and not worthy the atten- 
 tion of men ; but all this only increased his eagerness, 
 and at last, while one of his young wives, a slender 
 and elegantly-formed girl in everything except her 
 features, pounded up the ingredients upon a small 
 flat stone worn hollow with constant use, we com- 
 pounded a number of the much-desired httle per- 
 fumed cones and gave him one, the smoke of which, 
 carefully enclosed beneath his ample karos, he in- 
 haled as if it were too precious to lose a whiff of it. 
 Heaps of ivory nicely calculated as to size and value 
 were laid out to tempt Chapman to part with the 
 horses, and a pair of ox horns eight feet three inches 
 in a straight hue between the tips, and more than ten 
 feet in the curve, were sent to the wagon to be sold 
 for a white shirt ' washed and boxed.' 
 
 Not far from the stable was the kotla, a semi- 
 circular pahsade of rough poles a dozen or eighteen 
 feet high, and streaked at about breast height with a 
 black medicine line all round the interior. In this 
 sat some of tlie members of the tribe who had just 
 been brought in by the returned commander, and 
 among them their chief, a common-looking, sharp- 
 featured little fellow, whose cunning had often got 
 him into scrapes from which his courage could not
 
 186-2.] A BECHUAXA VILLAGE. 427 
 
 release him. Once, while a boy, he went to steal corn 
 from the garden of one of his father's subjects, and 
 had carefully packed up as much as he could carry, 
 when a buffalo, which had come down for the very 
 same purpose, charged at once upon him, and pitched 
 the two-lego'ed thief such a distance as almost to 
 
 CO 
 
 break his neck, and scarcely to leave him strength 
 to crawl away. 
 
 The Bechuanas had been more civil and well- 
 behaved than they were on our previous acquaint- 
 ance, which Chapman thinks, and with great pro- 
 bability, is the consequence of our having shown 
 them that we can find our own way through the 
 country and pass their towns independently of them. 
 Nevertheless, one young fellow of the lately-retiurned 
 tiger regiment brought back a musket he had bought 
 at the Christmas tree and demanded Chapman's 
 double-barrelled shooting gun in exchange, threaten- 
 ing, Avhen it was refused, to take it out of the tent. 
 Chapman, after bearing wdth his impertinence as long 
 as possible, sent up to ask the chief whether he had 
 ordered a child who had broken his musket on an 
 unsuccessful foray to come and display his foolish- 
 ness before Eno-hshmen. 
 
 Saturday, hth. — Edward and I went out with the 
 intention of gaining some trifling elevation whence we 
 might see the Lake. A couple of Makobas followed 
 and volunteered to take oiu^ guns, and learning where 
 we wished to go, borrowed a couple of paddles and 
 a canoe about fifteen feet long by twenty inches 
 
 c c
 
 428 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Apeil 
 
 broad, and embarked us at a little opening in the 
 long reeds tliat lined the river. Young Tom, tlie 
 Damara boy, required some persuasion to enter any- 
 thing so novel as a boat, but I think the Makoba seem 
 rather pleased with the confidence generally shown 
 by an Enghshman, and still more when they find any 
 to handle a paddle with tolerable skill. Canoes of 
 every form and size, according to the shape of the 
 tree out of which they had been hewn, were pushed 
 into the reeds at every hundred yards. Herds of 
 cattle with long horns, for which the Bechuana breed 
 is famous, were drinking at the open beaches, and a 
 variety of birds from the long-billed snake-necked 
 darter to the plover, egret, gigantic crane, the red- 
 legged gull, and flocks of ducks and Egyptian geese, 
 sported along the banks or in the water. 
 
 A shallow portion of the river was crossed by 
 mats of reed set on end and curved into various 
 forms so as to form a labyrinth, from which the 
 fish would find it difiicult to escape. Here we 
 landed, one of the men carrying me ashore — a mode 
 of conveyance I would hardly recommend to anyone 
 at all careful about his clothing, unless, indeed, his 
 garments should be already a red clay and grease 
 colour. 
 
 Eeturning, I sketched a heavily-laden canoe pad- 
 dling against the wind with a huge top hamper of 
 reed mats laid above the general cargo ; and landed 
 upon the north shore to show Edward a tall, sohtary 
 palm tree, the only one within view, and the first he
 
 1832.] A SOLITAKY PALM-TEEE. 429 
 
 had ever seen. We measured the height with a 
 sheet of paper folded to an angle of forty-five de- 
 grees. The base and perpendicular being, of course 
 equal, all you have to do is to step backward till 
 the diagonal coincides with the top of the object to 
 be measured ; then the distance at which you stand 
 from the object, with five feet added for height of 
 eye, will be very nearly its altitude. In this manner 
 the tree, one tall smooth stem without knot or branch 
 till the crown of fan-shaped, recurved leaves spread 
 from the top, measures as nearly as possible sixty feet. 
 
 Passing a few huts, and large fields of millet with 
 heavily-laden ears, almost like the feathering tops 
 of reeds, we saw groups of women weaving baskets 
 as big, and in shape very nearly like, the oil jars in 
 the Forty Thieves, to receive the corn, or building 
 new huts with the long stalks from which the ears 
 had akeady been gathered. 
 
 At the wagon we found Mr. Bell, who reported the 
 arrival of John, safe in hmb and health, but without 
 the ivory. A number of Bechuanas having been 
 sent to search the country and terrify the Bushmen, 
 he had waited five days and was at last deserted by 
 old Booy the last who remained true to him. 
 
 In James Chapman's absence, Henry had rather 
 incautiously taxed the chief with having sent these 
 people — a fact which, though morally certain, he 
 was not quite able to prove ; and Leshulatebe had 
 returned to his town offended at Hemy's very proper 
 determination not to sell him the horses. 
 
 c c 2
 
 430 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [April 
 
 In the afternoon I sketched some of the women 
 who came to sell us corn and to indulge themselves 
 in friendly greetings and voluble commentaries on 
 all they saw. Not one of them but claimed acquain- 
 tance with some one of us. ' Was not I your sweet- 
 heart when you were here before ? ' ' Have I come 
 to bid good-morrow to a black Damara ? No ! but 
 to my old friends, the white Makvoas.' Little use was 
 it to say, ' How can you know me who come now for 
 the first time in your country?' ' Oh, no,' was the 
 answer. ' Can mynheer forget his old friend of three 
 years ago ? ' 
 
 My next likeness was one of a fine old man, not a 
 Bechuana (at least of this tribe), named Mantlanysmi, 
 who had once been rich, and was a friend to white 
 people, and the greatest traveller Chapman ever knew 
 among the natives. He said he knew no such river 
 as the Chobe or the Zonga, the first was the great 
 Zambesi and the latter the Botletle. Chobe was a 
 petty chief who lived on that branch of the Zambesi, 
 and from him a portion of it was called Chobe's 
 ferry. In like manner Zonga lived not far from here 
 upon the Botletle, but he is dead now, and his name 
 is passing away ; so that before long few persons will 
 be able to direct a traveller to the place once called 
 after him. It is stransje that Livinjystone should not 
 in after years have discovered and corrected such an 
 error as this, but it appears that the natives com- 
 plain of not being able to understand him when he 
 speaks their language ; and it would seem, generally.
 
 18C2.] A NATRT: COXJUROE. 431 
 
 tliat Scotclimen, however perfectly tliey may under- 
 stand, invariably speak it with an idiom that renders 
 them more or less unmtelligible to a native. 
 
 At night, according to appointment, a native doctor 
 and conjuror visited us and performed some tricks 
 of sleight-of-hand, the first of which consisted in 
 perfectly emptying a skin bag and an old hat, and 
 then causing some of the spectators to shake a bit of 
 meat or hide from the former into the latter. The 
 next was to tie up a necklace in a bunch of grass 
 and allow one of us to burn it. Then, seeing that 
 Edward was the most openly-incredulous, he gave 
 the bag to him, and, telling him to feel it and retire 
 to the tent, he then passed the hat to Chapman 
 and me in due form. Eeceiving it again, he pro- 
 posed to throw something through the air, called 
 out Edward, and when the bag was duly shaken pro- 
 duced the beads unharmed from the hat. Of course 
 any one who has seen Wizards of the l!^orth and 
 all other points of the compass is not greatly 
 astonished by this. But, nevertheless, so cleverly 
 was the trick effected that none of us could detect 
 the exact moment at which the various substances 
 were conveyed away from their supposed place or 
 restored to it wdien it was desirable they should 
 reappear. 
 
 Edward, with boyish curiosity, had rather unfairly 
 tried to baulk him in the bead trick, but though we 
 were fully convinced the necklace was not in the bag, 
 he contrived very cleverly to receive it in the hat.
 
 432 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 The firing ofi" of muskets weut on all night, and on 
 Sunday bodies of men were seen running in and out 
 of the town, while crowds of women came to offer 
 little baskets of corn and milk for a trifling remu- 
 neration of beads. 
 
 After sketching a couple of pretty httle guis, nine 
 or ten years of age, perhaps, and a Bushwoman to 
 whom another epithet might apply, I walked over to 
 the town to witness the peetro, or council of war, then 
 being held in consequence of the return of the 
 tigers. The warriors were squatted on the ground 
 in a compact circular body of about two hundred or 
 two hundred and fifty men, each with his shield of 
 bullock's hide, white and specked with two large 
 spots of black or dark brown, before him. In front, 
 Leshulatebe, dressed in trowsers of black cloth, 
 shepherd's-plaid coat, wide-awake hat and white 
 plume. ~\7as seated in his iron chair, his shield in this 
 position just reaching to the same height as his head, 
 while those of the men upon the ground completely 
 covered them. 
 
 A speech worthy of applause it seemed had just 
 been ended, for as we entered the chief rose, and at 
 the head of a dozen or twenty young men brandishing 
 their spears or muskets rushed forward till they 
 nearly met us. We were accommodated with seats 
 under the shadow of the semicircular fence of the 
 Kotla. During the speeches, which at first were 
 conducted ^vith no great decorum, I had leisure to 
 o])serve the equipment of the force, which at this
 
 1S62.] LESIIULATEBe'S ARMY. 433 
 
 season, wlien the corn-fields and the cattle-ports along 
 the lake and river occupied so many people, was 
 much less than would have mustered at any other. 
 The number of men, as I have said, was between 
 two and three hundred, and of muskets, as nearly as 
 we could count them, a hundred and fifty ; though 
 from Chapman's knowledge of tlie lake trade since 
 it has been opened he thinks that the chief cannot 
 possess anything under five hundred. The outer 
 rank of warriors squatted in close order, with their 
 hmbs drawn up so as to be entirely covered by the 
 small oval shield, which permitted only a glimpse of 
 their accoutrements and of the long bright barrel 
 rising above it, while those in the inner circles either 
 edged in their shields where there was most room^ or 
 held them horizontally as sunshades over their heads. 
 A slow, and not unmelodious chaunt, the Narree or 
 Buffalo song, swelled and died away at regular inter- 
 vals ; and when the altercation, caused by the attempt 
 of a few insignificant or obnoxious individuals to 
 force their opinions on the assembly, had ceased, a 
 warrior rose, and striking his shield with his short 
 stabbing spear obtained a hearing. Then followed 
 the sortie. A company of men, headed by its own 
 petty chief, rushed forward with strange gesticulations, 
 creeping along nearly on a level with the ground, and 
 covered by the shield until the moment for a blow ; 
 then charging and curveting like a prancing horse, 
 thrusting with the short spear (not throwing it like 
 the Kafir assegai), sweeping with the fantastically-
 
 434 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 shaped battle-axe, or poising the musket (which in 
 tlie hands of a savage, were it not for tlie terror of 
 its name, is in reahty the most harmless weapon he 
 could be armed with), and returning victoriously to 
 the main body. Within the last twelve months the 
 Bechuanas have begun to wear European clothing ; 
 and striped shirts, red night-caps, blue handkerchiefs, 
 shawls, and moleskin or leather trowsers, mingled 
 incongruously with their native dress. One man 
 had painted himself with clay of a yellowish green 
 colour, and was besides invested with a mantle of 
 long strips of grey cat or jackal skin, twisted so as 
 to present the silky fur all round, and generally mis- 
 taken by new travellers for the tails of the animals 
 from which they are taken. Others were bedaubed 
 with white or grey, and one man was painted so as 
 to resemble a light-coloured Ilottentot or Bushman, 
 and ornamented with Vandykes and leggings of 
 fantastic form. All these were greeted, according to 
 the extravagance of their antics, with clapping of 
 hands and shrill lulli-looing by the women who sat 
 in groups around with reed mats held over to shade 
 them from the sun ; but great was the applause 
 when Leshulatebe's uncle, the revered old chieftain, 
 Makholoque, in a flowing blanket, new and of the 
 richest scarlet, and a broad-brimmed cavalier hat of 
 unstained black, boimded forward with an agility 
 which his goodly proportions scarcely seemed to 
 warrant, and, after demolishing an imaginary enemy, 
 retired covered with dust and glory to the phalanx
 
 1862.] THE CHIEF MAKHOLOQUE. 435 
 
 of his friends. Another veteran, as stout as he, but 
 clad in a bhie mantle, which in his enthusiasm he 
 threw from his shoulders, displaying his naked body 
 painted to an unpleasing resemblance of a white 
 man, followed him, performing to admiration the 
 motions of a hunted elephant, retreating from or 
 charging upon his enemies. Another group, making 
 too furious a charge, advanced too closely upon the 
 women, and were forthwith driven back, one of them 
 leaving his shield upon the ground with a gallant 
 amazon standing over it and defying him to retake it. 
 On the whole, however, the exliibition was by no 
 means equal to wdiat I have seen among the Fingoe 
 levees or the tribes on the Zambesi. 
 
 The speeches were many, but generally short. 
 One man, referring to the expected coming of the 
 enemy, reminded them of the strength of Quaebie, 
 then' rock of refuge where they had before so suc- 
 cessfully resisted the invaders. Another remarked 
 that Quaebie was indeed strong against the enemy, 
 but now he feared it Avould be strong against them- 
 selves, for its want of water would kill them and their 
 cattle. A third added that Quaebie was indeed 
 strong ; but had not the enemy suffered once, and 
 would he a second time fall into the same trap? 
 Others referred to the lake ; but to this it was 
 objected that their boats were stove in, and that (in 
 figurative form which I do not quite remember), 
 they could not trust their boatmen (the Makoba) if 
 the enemy were hkely to prevail. Old Makholoque
 
 436 EXPLOEATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 deprecated hasty and precipitate measures until tliey 
 had first taken means to ascertain the extent of the 
 danger that threatened them, and his speech was 
 greeted by cries of ' poola, poola ' (rain, rain), a term 
 synonymous in a diy country with refreshment or 
 blessing. The chief, rising, rebuked his people for 
 their indecision. ' You counsel me to fly', said he, ' but 
 none of you point out the manner of flight nor the 
 place of refuge. Wliy do not some of you speak 
 words of wisdom ? ' Some said that Sekhomo in- 
 tended long since to come down and seek the children 
 of his fathers at the lake, and that in so doing he 
 would, as the son of the elder family, overthrow the 
 present chief, and assume the power in his place. 
 To this a fine young man, apologising for himself as 
 having no deeds to warrant him in speaking, answered 
 that he himself was a fugitive from that tribe, and 
 that he had heard such proposals among them ; but 
 that if they acted upon them they would come not 
 as enemies but as men of the same tribe seeking 
 reunion and that old men with messages of peace 
 and wisdom would be sent instead of warriors. 
 Finally, it was resolved that the tribe should not fly 
 to a distance from their residence, but that, if it 
 shoidd be found advisable, the town should be moved 
 to the north side of the Botletle Eiver, a task of no 
 great difliculty, for though there may be fifteen hun- 
 dred or two thousand huts in it, the women belong- 
 ing to each would in a few journeys carry away the 
 reeds or collect fresli ones to build new domiciles.
 
 1862.] THE MAKOBA WIZARD. 437 
 
 The town was on the north side at the time when 
 the Makololo were firing, and was surrounded by the 
 enemy on everyside except that bounded by the water. 
 The besieged, of course, took advantage of this, and, 
 leaving their goats to make a noise and their fires to 
 amuse the enemy, ferried themselves and drove their 
 cattle over, and before the morning were on their 
 way to Quaebie. There they took cover among the 
 rocks, and being ordered by their chief not to fire 
 till they heard his gun, waited till the assailants, 
 headed by an old wizard who was dancing and 
 gesticulating on the spoor, approached within fifteen 
 paces. The click of the gun-lock caught the quick 
 ear of the old diviner. He raised himself for a mo- 
 ment in an attitude of surprise, and in that moment 
 Leshulatebe's bullet ended his career for ever. 
 
 Our wizard friend, the Makoba (or more properly 
 in the singular, Lekoba), paid us another visit, and 
 entered into some tricks with rope and cord, so 
 transparent, however, that a little remembrance of 
 salt-water knotting and noosmg enabled me to bring 
 him to the confession that he was yet only a child 
 in these things. He said that he was about to 
 make a display of his skill in the evening ; and after 
 visiting the Damara's place, where the women were 
 cutting up their boddices and selhng strings of ostrich 
 shell beads for equal lengths of beads of a peculiar 
 slaty blue, I followed the magician to the rendezvous. 
 It was yet too early to commence proceedings ; so 
 scribbling by moonlight on a bit of thorn bark a
 
 438 
 
 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [Aritii, 
 
 request for some tobacco, I sent a somewhat incre- 
 dulous Bechuana witli it to Chapman, and spent the 
 intervening time with a circle of old fellows, who 
 gave me imphi (holcus saccharatus) stalks to chew, 
 while they pounded up the diy tobacco and snuffed 
 it to their heart's content. 
 
 A circle of girls and women now surrounded the 
 
 f'^.::^':^:^ 
 
 i"^ 
 
 NATIVE DOCTOR EXTRACTING DISEASE. 
 
 Makoba wizard, and commenced a pleasing but mo- 
 notonous chaunt, clapping their hands in unison, 
 while he, seated alternately on a carved stool and on 
 a slender piece of reed covered with a skin to pre- 
 vent its hurting him, led off the song, kept time for 
 the hand-clapping, and seemed trying to work him- 
 self up to the required state of inspiration till his
 
 1862.] THE MAHOBA WIZARD. 439 
 
 whole flesh quivered hke that of a person in the 
 ague. 
 
 A few preparatory anointings of the joints of all 
 his hmbs, his breast, and forehead, as well as those of 
 his choristers, followed ; shrill whisthngs were inter- 
 changed with spasmodic gestures ; and now I found 
 that the exhibition of the evening was a bond fide 
 medical operation on the person of a man who lay 
 covered with skins on one side of the circle. The 
 posterior portion of the thigh was chosen for scarifi- 
 cation; but as the fire gave no hght in that dhection, 
 and the doctor and the relatives seemed not to hke 
 my touching the patient, I did not ascertain how 
 deep the incisions were made. Most probably, from 
 the scars I have seen of former operations of the 
 kind, they were merely deep enough to draw the 
 blood. 
 
 The singing and hand-clapping now grew more 
 vehement, the doctor threw himself upon the patient, 
 perhaps sucked the wound, at all events professed to 
 inhale the disease. Strong convulsions seized him, 
 and, as he was a man of powerful frame, it required 
 no little strength to hold him. At length, with up- 
 turned eyes and face expressive of suffocation, he 
 seized his knife, and thrusting it into his mouth, 
 took out a large piece apparently of hide or flesh, 
 which his admiring audience supposed him to have 
 previously drawn from the body of the patient, thus 
 removing the cause of the disease. 
 
 Monday^ 1th. — Chapman made two or three sue-
 
 440 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 cessful photographs of Bechuaua men and women ; 
 and tlien passing through the town to the two large 
 Mowanas — most hkely those mentioned by Living- 
 stone as his latitude station — we sketched and photo- 
 graphed the trees, and turned to take a view of the 
 town. The usual noon-day breeze now sprang up, and 
 a whirlwind advanced from the eastward along the 
 intervening valley, passing within a hundred and fifty 
 yards of us so slowly that, had Chapman been ready, 
 he might have photographed it in his picture. The 
 rapidly whirling column of dust, twenty or thirty 
 feet in diameter and a couple of hundred in height, 
 with the dense black shadow at its base and the 
 semi- transparency of its upper part where the sun 
 shone through it, would have made a magnificent 
 object in an otherwise uninteresting scene. 
 
 Eeturning through the town, Leshulatebe was 
 persuaded, mainly through his desire to drive a 
 bargain for the horses, to stand for his photograph ; 
 but Chapman, though successful in most of the 
 others, failed in tliis instance, though he made several 
 attempts. For the first time the chief offered us food, 
 some nicely-boiled beef without accompaniments, and 
 soon after followed us to our wagon (one having been 
 sent away with ivory, and the corn at the same time 
 having been removed in another cleared and sent 
 up for that purpose), graciously condescended to dine 
 with us, and brought down the price he meant to offer 
 for the steeds. Eventually, this gift was sent away 
 again and brought after dark, and again taken back.
 
 1862.] LESHULATEBE's SUBTLETY. 441 
 
 because Chapman would neither abate the price of 
 his horses nor forego payment for the saddles which 
 had been bought on credit. 
 
 This evening Chapman shot at long range a dark- 
 coloured bird of the stork or ibis kind, the pecu- 
 liarity of which was that the breast was adorned with 
 shining stripes of black quill destitute of feather and 
 curling like lengths of narrow watch-springs. 
 
 My dreams at night having been broken in upon 
 by some noise about the wagon, I had just opened 
 my eyes when the sole of an apparently immense foot, 
 with showers of sand descending from it, appeared 
 between me and the stars. Unfortunately, I opened 
 my mouth also, just in time for the said foot to 
 descend upon it, half blinding and half choking me 
 with the dirt it carried, and giving me, as I thought, 
 an intelligible foretaste of a man's sensations when 
 an elephant does the same thing for him. Poor Bell, 
 terrified at my sudden upstarting and first exclama- 
 tion, quite forgot what he had been looking for, and 
 took care to give me a tolerably wide berth till he 
 came with the propitiatory coffee in the morning. 
 
 Tuesday^ Sth. — By the offer of a few beads I per- 
 suaded a Bechuana woman, a good-looking, merry 
 little body, of most transcendent plumpness, to stand 
 for her likeness ; and after breakfast went with the 
 young fellow, who had been our messenger on the 
 previous visits, to see the eastern angle of the lake. 
 Canoes are doing the duty of ferry-boats at every 
 few hundred yards. One of these was soon occu-
 
 442 
 
 EXPLORATIONS \N SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 [A, 
 
 ]nucl by myseltj my two followers, and half a dozen 
 of volunteers, who seemed to regard my giving the 
 boatman a few inches of tobacco for his trouble as 
 a most unnecessary stretch of generosity, or rather, 
 as that feeHng seems to be beyond their conception, 
 
 BECHUANA STANDING FOR HEE POKTHAIT. 
 
 I should say of either fear or folly. The spur-winged 
 plover abounded on the httle islands, and in one shot 
 I killed eighteen or twenty, which I sent up to the 
 wagon. As Bell and Bany came down in answer to 
 my invitation to join me, our party was now too 
 numerous, but the superiluous hands, being excluded
 
 1862.] THE WATERS OF THE LAKE. 443 
 
 from our canoe, soon seized another, and in our 
 passage down the river went on one or two httle 
 privateering trips on their own account, the first to 
 phmder a cargo of water-melons, and the next to 
 exchange their own crooked log for a straighter one. 
 In both these, however, they were defeated by the 
 vigilance of the owners ; and finding that the 
 Bechuana lads, by their tyi^annical treatment, ren- 
 dered it impossible for me to prevail on a Makoba to 
 accompany us, or even to lend us a paddle, I landed 
 on the opposite or north shore, and walked in a 
 w^esterly direction past the palm tree, the first Bell 
 had ever seen, and which he made by triangular 
 measurement to be 75 feet to the top of its leaves. 
 
 In a short time the Bechuanas complained of the 
 distance, and told me I must return for horses. I 
 answered that my feet were horses strong enough 
 for me. They replied that my feet w^ere protected 
 by shoes, wliile theirs were not, and that the sand 
 was too hot for them ; besides which, Leshulatebe 
 would not fail to cut their throats as well as 
 ours if we ran about his dominions without leave. 
 At length I left my companions seated with the 
 guides under the shade of a tree, and walked along 
 a ridge of low sand-hillocks that marked the former 
 margin of the lake, till, finding a tree worth climbing, 
 I saw beyond the line of reeds, perhaps a mile and 
 a half in breadth, the waters of the lake, the hills of 
 Quaebie bearing at the same time from south to 
 south-by-east.
 
 444 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH APEICA. [April 
 
 On our return these young lads of the soil dis- 
 played their prowess in running after Bushwomen 
 who were going to market. On the slightest en- 
 couragement they would, undoubtedly, have robbed 
 them of their property and brought it to us, doubt- 
 less for their own profit. 
 
 The canoes, left where we had landed, had been 
 reclaimed by their owners, and the ' Bushee man ' 
 was, of course, loudly execrated for daring to repos- 
 sess himself of his own property. Another ferry 
 was, however, at a short distance, and we crossed 
 at once, giving the boatman, as before, a gratuity 
 that seemed to be perfectly unexpected. A struggle 
 now ensued among our own followers for the 
 office of gun-bearing ; those who had done the duty 
 liitherto not choosing to give up the weapons to 
 the new hands who desired to establish a claim by 
 carrying them the rest of the way. 
 
 Leshuldtebe was at the wagon, still intent on 
 driving a bargain for the horses, though he sent back 
 the saddles on finding he was not to be excused pay- 
 ment for them. The conjuror was also there with a 
 set of beads which he desired Chapman to break. 
 Of course, before doing so he thought proper to 
 mark them with ink, and in consequence of this the 
 wizard, with all his drumming, had to confess he 
 could not produce them till after dark, when another 
 string precisely hke them was found beneath the 
 wagon. These he admitted were not the same 
 beads, but had been sent from the ' Highest ' to re-
 
 1862.] TRADING IN HOESES. 445 
 
 place them. The man's ears had been mutilated, as 
 he told us, by the Barimo ; but Leshulatebe said the 
 knife had done the office for him, and he himself was 
 the ' highest ' that had anything to do in the matter ; 
 the reason being much like tliat which caused people 
 at home to lose their ears in the days of the pillory. 
 
 On the 9th we commenced our preparations for 
 inspanning, Dokkie having arrived with the oxen 
 and a report of the capsizing of the corn wagon 
 (without damage, as he said) on the way to camp. 
 Leshuldtebe again brought forward the ivory for 
 the horses, and after trying two or three races, one 
 of which was decided in his favour, and the others 
 in Chapman's, and being fairly warned of all the 
 faults of the horses (which his suspicious mind set 
 down to the account of a desire to keep them 
 from him), he concluded a bargain for two of them, 
 beside the saddles, which he had returned a night or 
 two ago. 
 
 We travelled as before along the bank of the river, 
 picking up by the way pieces of the wagon that ' had 
 not been damaged,' and outspanned not far from a 
 village on a httle rise, pretty well tired with a nine- 
 mile walk. After skinning a few water and other 
 birds, we found it quite time to turn in. 
 
 On Thursday the 10th, we started early to do the 
 remaining four or five miles. Walking on ahead, I 
 shot a toucan with a rifie-ball, but it escaped me in 
 the bush. Leshulatebe followed us to camp, and, 
 to my great satisfaction, bought another of the iron
 
 446 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [ArEir. 
 
 chairs, leaving us only one to carry. No one can 
 imagine the satisfaction with which I see these bulky 
 cumbrous articles go off hand, making in every 
 transaction an increase of the cargo Henry is to take 
 down, and a proportionate increase of accommoda- 
 tion in our own vehicles. I spent the rest of the 
 day in trying to finish the picture of Leshulatebe 
 visiting; our wao-ons at the Christmas tree, but made 
 a very poor hand at it, owing to the clouds of dust 
 raised by everybody. 
 
 Friday^ 11th. — I finished as well as I could 
 the picture I was at work on. I had intended to 
 authorise Mr. Logier to sell the two elephant scenes ; 
 but as my friend admired them, and was willing to 
 get up such things as I required from the Cape, I 
 presented them to him. The rest of the day was spent 
 in putting in order the wagon we are going to take, 
 instead of that which I now occupy. Chapman, at 
 my request, has been asking about Zonga, but Harry, 
 although he has hved some time at the town, has 
 never heard of him. 
 
 Saturday, 12th. — -Being anxious to get away 
 from this place as soon as possible, all hands have 
 been at work on the wagons. I have fitted a new 
 tent to that which I am to have, making the fore- 
 most and aftermost bows of iron rod, and the fore 
 and aft laths of the narrow plank of my boat, thus 
 carrying a considerable portion of it without in- 
 convenience, and having it ready for service when 
 wanted. Besides this, I fitted cross-bars under the
 
 1862.] COREECTION OF MAP. 447 
 
 wagon to sustain the back plank (or bottom), and 
 on their projecting ends to carry side-boxes, one 
 of which I finished during the da}^ Chapman is 
 busy weighing off and arranging ivory, and taking a 
 photograph of tlie scene, with Bell and an assistant 
 in the foreground driving wedges of dry wood be- 
 tween the felloes and the tire of a shrunken Avheel 
 in order to tighten the latter. If the wedges after 
 being driven are well soaked mth salt and water, 
 not only do they swell exceedingly tight at the 
 moment, but their capacity of attracting and retain- 
 ing moisture is much increased, and they hold the 
 tire much firmer and longer ; but it will hardly be 
 believed, that a very intelhgent and practical man 
 in general things, in WaUdsch Bay, soaks his Avedges 
 in brine before driving them in, and has recom- 
 mended this practice to some of om" OAvn part}^ 
 
 At night, with the data afforded by the trip to the 
 lake and the bearings of Quaebie, I set to work to 
 correct my map, using Dr. Livingstone's latitude, 
 20° 20' for the mowana trees south of the town, and 
 found that after a travel of three months, the whole 
 possible error in the relative position of our present 
 camp from that of the Christmas tree was limited to 
 three miles on an east and west line. There is also a 
 discrepancy of a mile or a mile and a half between the 
 course to the lake and its position by latitude ; but 
 as my station here is deduced from eight observa- 
 tions of north and south stars, four of which I know 
 to be good, I feel inchned to trust to it until I know 
 
 D D
 
 448 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Apbil 
 
 more thoroughly what was the nature of Dr. Living- 
 stone's ; particularly as Chapman thinks his observa- 
 tion at the mowana was made only with a small 
 pocket sextant. 
 
 Monday, l^th. — All hands still busy in what 
 we hope are the final arrangements of our respective 
 cargoes, though we have had so many positively last 
 changes, that it is impossible to calculate on the 
 emergencies of the morrow. Once more I have 
 closed up my pictures and specimens ; once more 
 Chapman has inspected and selected his photographs ; 
 once more the ivory has been weighed over and 
 stowed afresh ; and once more we are adding Post 
 Scripta to our letters, or writing new ones. Of course 
 I am doing no painting, for, to avoid the constant 
 annoyances of slovenly stowage or fitting up, I have 
 to do nearly everything about my wagon with my 
 own hand, and have only to-day persuaded the 
 people to make a network of bamboo and raw hide 
 under the wagon for their bedding, by threatening 
 to cut away without mercy everything they tie to 
 the wagon, except in the place appointed for it. 
 
 Tapyinyoka and his pro tern, wife have been busy 
 about this. As for Jem, he is so unimpressibly and 
 passively stupid, that there is no making anything of 
 him. John lent me a hand to stow the cargo, but 
 having put in front everything not likely to be 
 required for some time, he was about to fill the 
 after-hold with corn, so that when the men wanted 
 rations 1 shoidd have been obliged to leave off
 
 1862.] EEPORTED DEATH OF SEKELETU. 449 
 
 work and move all my materials, Sec, before tliey 
 could be got out. I failed to convince liim of the 
 impolicy of this arrangement, and in consequence 
 had to shift the cargo myself. In moving goods 
 from the other wagon I found under my bed a 
 mouse, and shortly after a grey cobra with black 
 throat. I think the species is called ' ring hals ' (or 
 ringed throat) in the colon3^ I killed it, and pre- 
 served the skin. 
 
 This morning some people had heard from others 
 from Mebabe, that Sekeletu was dead of cancer in his 
 lower limbs, or, as others say, of leprosy. Many of 
 his people have dispersed, and the rest have received 
 a message from Moselekatse, desiring them to put 
 the kraals in order ; for the country is his, and he is 
 cominof to it. 
 
 We can make out nothing as yet of Zonga, or his 
 ferry — his very name seems almost forgotten. 
 
 This river is the Botletle. The natives point west- 
 half-south toward the town, which agrees with the 
 course separately taken by Chapman and myself, 
 but leaves a discrepancy between my latitude of 
 this place and Livingstone's latitude of the town. I 
 have therefore made another observation of a Crucis, 
 and the result conies within five seconds of the 
 former and makes only two seconds difference in a 
 mean of the whole, which is now 20° 18' 54'' or 
 20° 18' 56". I have marked the tree 20° 18' 55", 
 and I think as nearly right as most people, not being 
 professional surveyors, would make it. 
 
 D D '2
 
 450 EXPLOEATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 The Makoba have been here getting a gun mended. 
 They say elephants have been drmking near their 
 place. The Damaras were sent to dig a scherm, 
 John and Henry are gone to try their luck, and 
 Leshulatebe's Ganymede, the plump stout little fellow, 
 is here with another tooth for sale. 
 
 The Damaras have been the last three days 
 searching for a missing ox, and to-night they report 
 having found him in an old game-pit. All the spare 
 hands are sent to dig him out, and the rest are 
 allowed to diminish, ad libitum^ the amount of corn 
 we have to carry. The pumpkins are sliced up and 
 dried, but at unguarded moments tlie goats run home 
 and flock round, to testify their unquahfied appro- 
 bation of it. 
 
 Tuesdai/, 15th. — Another day's hard work in 
 sun and dust has, I think, set my wagon pretty 
 nearly to rights. My tent roof is firm enough to 
 allow me and Chapman to stand on it at once ; the 
 four sections of the boats are secured behind ; the big 
 water-cask is transferred to the trap, or swinging 
 platform, under the tailboard ; my side boxes are 
 screwed on and filled ; the tent-sail spread, but not 
 yet fastened ; the rowlocks tied up for my gun, and 
 side-bags for my sketch-books, &c. The ox had been 
 so long without food that (probably from thirst) he 
 refused to eat, and as a trek touw was wanted for 
 Henry Chapman's wagon, the death-warrant was 
 issued, and the rejoicing Damaras set off" to execute 
 it. Great indeed was Jan (the same fellow, I find,
 
 1862.] TUSKS OF A YOUNG ELEPHANT. 451 
 
 that had his head so profitably broken near Objhn- 
 bengue) in twisting and stretching the rope, the 
 whole Damara force being pressed into his service, 
 and not less wonderful was his mechanical ingenuity 
 when the fair pull seemed insufficient. The rope 
 already fastened to the wheel of one wagon, was 
 carried to a spoke in the hinder wheel of another, 
 and made fast close to the felloe. Half a dozen of the 
 stoutest men were then called to hft up the wagon, 
 while another, using the opposite spoke as a lever 
 with his hands, and the rope equidistant from the 
 fulcrum, attempted to heave it round. At night, 
 as the cargo of my wagon was disproportionately 
 great, two hundred pounds of corn were given to 
 the Damaras, with orders to fill themselves. 
 
 Wednesday, l^th. — Preparations had been made 
 for an early start tliis morning, when Henry Chap- 
 man returned from the scherm, reporting the death 
 of a half-grown bull-elephant. We found the ani- 
 mal fallen — as Chapman says is usually the case, 
 although it is the first time I have seen it— on its 
 knees, the hinder feet pointing backward, from the 
 impossibility of bending at the hough joint, one of 
 the fore-feet doubled under him, and the other 
 extended. The tusks, which were large for so young 
 an animal, projected fourteen or sixteen inches, one 
 curving upward, as usual, and the other, from some 
 accident in procuring its food, turning downward. 
 Two good photographs and a couple of sketches were 
 taken on the spot, and before I came away, the flesh 
 
 *i> D 3
 
 452 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 was so far removed, that the back-bone stood Hke an 
 arch between the fore and hind-quarters. No one 
 had brought a measuring tape, and being in haste to 
 get the flesh secured, we did not delay the Damaras 
 longer than absolutely necessary. 
 
 We had a general cleaning of firearms, and target- 
 shooting to-day — driving several holes through an 
 old tin dish — while Bell and Chapman threw up hats 
 for each other. The Makobas and Bechuanas, wlio 
 flocked to us when they heard of the slaughter, 
 applauded every successful shot, and looked on with 
 wonder at the number of shots fired from our re- 
 volvers witliout reloading. 
 
 A few things yet remained to be fitted up outside 
 the wagon, and these Jem performed in so slovenly a 
 manner, answering me when I spoke to him witli 
 such sullen and stolid disrespect, that I was obhged 
 to resort to the argumentum ad hominem, which, 
 for the time at least, seems much to have improved 
 him. 
 
 Thursday, 17th. — I walked onward along tlie 
 river bank, the wagons passing me near a village 
 on the opposite shore. By this time a faintness and 
 lassitude seemed creeping over me, the sun took more 
 hold of my head than usual, and when I reached the 
 outspan, after travelling about four miles, I felt 
 feverivsh, sick at stomach, and unable to eat. In the 
 afternoon we made four or five miles more through a 
 thick undergrowth, which had completely choked 
 the road — disused now for several years ; but I was
 
 1862.] TEDIOUS TEAVELLING. 453 
 
 quite unable to render assistance, or even to take a 
 note of its course. 
 
 Friday^ 18^/i.— The men were sent forward with 
 axes to clear the road, or to find a better if pos- 
 sible. 
 
 We had passed the village of Leshulatebe last 
 night, and eight or ten men and women from his 
 place were still with us. There was httle remarkable 
 about them except that they (the Makobas) are 
 blacker than the Bechuanas, and the apron of the 
 women is a small square of dark skin, with a border 
 of beads worked on it. The men had a snake skin 
 six or seven feet long, and five or six inches broad. 
 They say tliat Zonga is farther down the river, past 
 Macatas. Likely enough there have been two men 
 of the same name, and the lower one lived where 
 Livingstone first saw the river. The work of 
 dragging out the wagons was tedious enough, and 
 was rendered still more so by the obstinacy and 
 inefficiency of Jem, who seems to be a perfect brute, 
 as destitute of the ordinary feehngs of humanity as 
 can possibly be conceived. As usual, the other drivers, 
 none of whom are up to the average capacity, had 
 to help him, and when they were gone, the suUen 
 beast, having got his oxen into hopeless confusion, 
 turned upon his leader, Tapyinyoka, a wilhng hard- 
 working man, and commenced fighting with him, 
 till Henry Chapman arriving from one side, and I 
 from the other, put an end to the struggle. Ill as I 
 was, still I was forced to work when there were trees
 
 454 EXPLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AB'RICA. [Apkil 
 
 to be cut down, and long after sunset we outspanned, 
 having done, I suppose, half a mile or thereabout. 
 Chapman, who was in advance, sent me up a roasted 
 duck, and I was glad to find that after my long fast 
 I had appetite enough to devour it voraciously — a 
 proof, at all events, that the fever is leaving me. 
 The exertion of the day, however, brought on a 
 fresh attack ; I passed a restless night, and on Satur- 
 day was utterly prostrated. The forest, however, 
 became a little more open, and John Laing coming 
 to the assistance of the driver, we made five or six 
 miles, tearing off one of the side-boxes, and greatly 
 endangering the tent,' which, had I trusted the making 
 of it, as usual, to the driver, would most undoubtedly 
 have been torn away. Two of the other wagons 
 had carried away a splinter bar, and one a side-box. 
 In the evening I was better, though unable to eat 
 anything but a spoonful or two of soup. 
 
 The morning of Sunday the 20th was fine, with 
 cool refreshing breezes from the south-east, and just 
 sufficient cloud to temper the intense rays of the sun. 
 Our shattered and dilapidated-looking vehicles lay 
 in open order upon a plain about half a mile wide, 
 covered with dry grass, some of the stems remaining 
 in sheltered spots being more than six feet high. On 
 each side is a boundary of thick forest, the passages 
 of which are choked up with undergrowth. On the 
 north side of the plain is the line of reeds marking 
 the course of the river, which just below us sweeps 
 round to the south, under steep clay banks, which
 
 1862.] MEDICAL PRACTICE. 455 
 
 will force us again to take to the bush, and clear our 
 way through it as we best can. It is said that about 
 three miles back, the ground appears as if trampled 
 by hundreds of elephants and buffaloes, and James 
 and Henry are not yet returned from lying in wait 
 for them. The long rest these animals have had 
 from colonial hunters — who in one year killed five 
 hundred elephants on this river — would have given 
 them opportunity to reinhabit the place ; but Lesliula- 
 tebe, finding that ivory has become valuable, keeps 
 large parties constantly out, either hunting tliem for 
 him, or driving them away from the path of Euro- 
 peans. It seems that a party is now along our track 
 making fires to drive away the game wherever we 
 outspan, and in consequence nothing was found at 
 the scherm last night except mosquitoes and malaria. 
 Mrs. Tapyinyoka, and the rest of the ladies, come 
 regularly to enquire after my health, and this morning 
 they report Tapyinyoka sick of an eye closed up. I 
 advised him to wasli it Avith warm water, and gave 
 him a piece of calico to tie over it. Two or three 
 other cases are reported. Jem has cut his leg with 
 an adze, and Antony has fever, but the others seem 
 to be cleverly counterfeited. 
 
 The cure of old Dikkop last year has raised our 
 medical character wonderfully. Chapman gave him 
 a prescription to do as much good, and as little harm, 
 as possible — the fit passed away ; and now every- 
 one, no matter what his disease is, asks for ' the 
 Dikkop draught.'
 
 4o6 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Apeii. 
 
 Yesterday Chapman shot a small but richly-coloured 
 eagle. The under parts of the body are deep brown — 
 nearly black — with a shifting gloss of green ; the 
 lower side of the wings, white, the upper part, ashy 
 brown, and the back, rich deep crimson brown ; the 
 beak and tarsi, orange or deep yellow, the latter 
 partly feathered and covered with scales so thick as 
 to present the appearance of tubercles. The bird 
 fought fiercely for his life, swooping down from the 
 tree on receiving the shot, seizing the brim of Chap- 
 man's hat, and aiming so evidently at his eyes as to 
 put him for a moment to flight, and to give him a 
 hard struggle before he secured his prize. 
 
 There are two or three new antelopes about here, 
 one of which — the nakong — has, it is believed, 
 never been shot by a white man. Another, found 
 only at the junction of the Tamalukan with the 
 Botletle, about fifteen miles farther down, was once 
 killed by Chapman, who, after carrying the skin 
 about for a long time, and finding no chance of get- 
 ting nearer the colony, sent it to Mr. Moffat, to be 
 forwarded to the British Museum. The chances 
 of transit are, however, so precarious that, with the 
 best intentions of all concerned, it may very likely 
 have miscarried, and my friend is of course anxious 
 to secure another before we pass the spot where 
 alone it is to be found. 
 
 Friday^ 2bth. — It is with no little thankfulness 
 I find myself recovering from a severe attack of 
 fever. I believe I am perfectly free now, but still
 
 1862.] FEVER. 457 
 
 weak, and unable to eat much. Young Edward is 
 also ill, but is recovering slowly. We moved on 
 Monday last from the river bed to this spot, about 
 a quarter of a mile from it, but on higher ground, 
 and the three or four miles of road along the bank 
 appeared to me like a dozen. Henry Chapman and 
 Bell parted from us on their homeward-bound 
 journey on Wednesday, but of course I could neither 
 write nor make up parcels by them, and am not 
 capable of much exertion even yet. Still I feel certain 
 that I am recovering strength, and look forward 
 confidently to resuming my work shortly. I should 
 much have wished to correct my map up to the last 
 moment, but that is impossible ; my friends must 
 therefore see what I have really established, and 
 look on the rest as an approximation which future 
 observations will rectify. The possible error cannot 
 exceed a few miles. I wished also to finish my 
 sketches of the lake, but I tliink it better to send 
 them down as they are, than to withhold them till 
 an indefinitely future opportunity. 
 
 Chapman has had hard work tending me, both 
 shooting partridges to make soup, and going througli 
 consultations about medicine. We have been trying 
 the celebrated compound used by Drs. Livingstone 
 and Kirk, and I suppose their united skill has deter- 
 mined the best proportions of tlie ingredients ; but 
 it will not work miracles, at least with us. The sick- 
 ness will have its time and course, and it is good to 
 have any medicine that will assist nature. 
 
 *D D 6
 
 [390] EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [April 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE TAMALUKAN RIVER — THE MAKOBAS THE ZAMBESI AND 
 
 ITS TRIBUTARIES MAKOBA TREACHERY FEVER THE EU- 
 PHORBIA AND THE POISON GRUB THE TREE WITH LEGS — 
 
 KAMMA-KA5IMA MUD PANS SAND PLAINS AND THE MIRAGE 
 
 SECKOMO AND HIS SON ODEAQUE PAKHOPaTE — MATLUMO- 
 
 GANYANI — GERUFA DAKA OR GUaKA THE TABLE-LANDS OF 
 
 THE ZAMBESI THE APPROACH TO THE FALLS. 
 
 Sunday^ 21th.—JiQ\\ij Chapman's wagons are gone, 
 and my sketches, &c., wliich I was too ill to pack up 
 at the time, followed him last night ; and, to say 
 truth, I feel right glad of a day of rest after more 
 than a week of sickness, and I trust also duly thank- 
 ful that this is the first attack of fever I have 
 experienced through the whole of the unhealthy 
 season. At night, as there was likely to be another 
 opportunity of communicating mth Ilemy and Mr. 
 Bell, I wrote a long letter to my sister, and Chap- 
 man observed a Crucis, the altitude of which was 
 95° 42', error 1' 50" subtractive, result 20° 9' 2" south 
 latitude. 
 
 Monday^ 2Sth. — Walked about six miles south-east, 
 to the junction of the Tanmlukan, which comes in 
 from the north ; but the tali reeds here render the 
 water completely invisible, and anyone might pass
 
 18G2.] ALLIGATORS. [391] 
 
 the spot without remarking it. I shot one of the 
 loosely-feathered birds called in the colony Vlei 
 Lories, or Eeed Hawks. 
 
 Tuesday^ 29th. — The river becomes more open 
 above the junction of the Tamalukan, showing in many 
 places broad reaches of clear water, fringed by reeds 
 for a considerable distance. The stream coming from 
 the north is not known here as the Tamalukan, but 
 is called by the Makobas Zegannie Noka e a Lingalo, 
 after a chief of the Makobas — the Bechuanan Noka. 
 Li very rainy seasons one of its upper branches com- 
 municates mth a branch of the Chobe or Zambesi, and 
 at such times, as probably will be the case in August, 
 a boat might pass from Lake Ngami up the Botletle 
 river and Tamalukan right into the Zambesi. 
 
 Our first messengers returned from Henry Chap- 
 man, who we hope is not far from a hundred miles 
 on his way by this time. Chapman says that some- 
 times, when the Botletle river dries up into pools, 
 the alhgators flock from the dry portions, and at one 
 time he thinks fully two Imndred of these monsters 
 must have been congregated in one daily lessening 
 piece of water. Every morning, as soon as the frost 
 was off the ground, they would come up in large 
 herds to bask in the sun, upon a strip of beach hardly 
 200 yards long. The commotion when a ball was 
 fired among this mass of loathsome reptiles, making 
 tliem seek tumultuously the depths of thefr little 
 pool, must have been, as he describes it, something 
 fearful to look upon. Some of them in gfrth were 
 
 *1
 
 [392] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Mat 
 
 enormous, but tlie largest lie sliot was in length only 
 seventeen and a half or eighteen feet. It cannot be 
 very far from here that my friend Mr. Eobinson, a fine 
 young sailor, lost his life by one of these monsters. 
 
 Wednesday^ 30/A. — Our course was mostly south- 
 east by compass, sometimes through the thorn-groves 
 at a little distance from the river, and sometimes 
 along the reeds by the very margin. We passed 
 through several patches of corn land, but the harvest 
 had been already gathered, leaving only the stubble 
 three or four feet in height. About twelve miles 
 from the junction of the Tamalukan we came upon 
 a village of mat-worked huts, recently built, near 
 the spot where my young friend Eobinson, already 
 mentioned, was taken by an alligator. Poor Eobinson ! 
 a fine young fellow when I knew him. On his last 
 voyage to the Cape, a boat had capsized in the surf 
 while trying to land at one of the western islands. 
 He, swimming like a fish, with sharks alongside him all 
 the time, collected the oars and rudder, and never 
 rested till his friends were all in the boat and pulhng 
 again for a safer landing. At another time, when 
 he was only a little middy eleven years of age, his 
 captain had sent him with a message, when a tall 
 Fejeean planted his feet across the path, and, with 
 hands upon his hips and ready watering mouth, 
 looked down upon the chubby blooming Enghsli 
 child. ' Which is my way (said httle middy) to the 
 boat ? ' ' How good you would eat ! ! ' was the 
 response of the savage. The youngster stayed for
 
 1SG2.] A MAKOBA TILLAGE. [393] 
 
 110 explanation, but made a clean bolt of it, and 
 found the boat as he best could. 
 
 Thursday, May 1st. — This morning Makata, a head- 
 man of the Makoba, brought over four or five of his 
 wives to be photographed, and set to work with his 
 little adze, a small blade of iron stuck in the knob 
 of a stick eighteen inches long, to make a model 
 canoe for Chapman. Squatting on the ground with 
 the block held by his left hand, and by his toes 
 when requisite, he soon had the httle vessel in toler- 
 able shape. 
 
 The canoes of the Makoba are small, say eighteen 
 or twenty inches wide, and fifteen or twenty feet 
 long, and look most disproportionate to the tall 
 figures that man them. We crossed, however, in the 
 hippopotamus boat of somewhat larger dimensions ; 
 and while doing so Makata pointed out a baobab, 
 about half a mile farther east, as the spot near which 
 poor Eobinson met his untimely end. The village, 
 which was newly built, Makatd ha\"ing removed 
 from the place we passed yesterday, consisted of a 
 dozen huts of mats spread over hemispherical frames, 
 and forming with them bright yellow huts, a pleasing 
 contrast to the grey stems of the overhanging trees 
 and the green reeds of the river beyond. 
 
 Last night I made tliree good observations — a 
 Crucis, 95° 44' 30'^ dechnation G2° 19' 55'' S. ; 
 Arcturus 99° 57' 20", declination 19° 53' 45" K; a 
 Centami, 99° 52' 30", declination 60° 15' 36" S. ; 
 index error 1° 50', mean resuU 20° 10' 16" S. 
 
 *1 2
 
 [394] EXPLOKATIONS IX SOUTH AFKICA. [Mat 
 
 Friday^ 2nd. — We fouiul a tolerably good path, 
 mostly in a grassy hollow, like a side channel for the 
 overflow of the river, and our only impediment was, 
 as usual, Jan, whose characteristic was forcibly 
 described by John. ' Broke again, eh ? We have to 
 stop two hours every other minute to let you put 
 your gear in order,' At a shallow place, Moreemie's 
 Ford, where stones were laid across the river to enable 
 the Makoba to ensnare the fish, I bought a barbel, 
 and two other fish shaped like pike, but with a small 
 mouth formed only for suction. The head man living 
 here is called Morokko. About nine we outspanned, 
 after a mile of heavy sand, at some distance from the 
 river. In the afternoon we passed through forests of 
 large Kameel doom, where John shot a beautiful 
 horned owl ; and, coming along the river bank again, 
 after sunset struggled up a heavy bank of sand, with 
 six and twenty oxen to each wagon. My tent sail had 
 been torn off as usual, and the rotten thorns choked 
 my bed completely. 
 
 Saturday, ord. — We walked to the river with 
 some Makobas from the next village, and had a distant 
 view of two water boks, but the cattle being driven 
 to the wagons disturbed them, and they took refuge 
 in the vast beds of reeds that hide the waters of the 
 river. In about an hour more we reached the huts 
 of Samaganga, who said there was no ford that he 
 knew of, and that Poison, in returning from the 
 interior, had struck the river some distance in ad- 
 vance of us, and had travelled along the north bank
 
 ]862.] SCHEMES OF LESHULATEBE. [395] 
 
 as far back as Makata, who ferried the wagou over 
 ill the large canoe. Now Chapman knows that there 
 are fords, the shallow place where I bought the fish 
 yesterday being called Moreemie's ford, and the post 
 near it Morokko's, and there is a tradition of its 
 having been crossed by a Dutchman's wagon ; beside 
 this, there is a ford at Pelane's, some distance up the 
 river. 
 
 It was known also that about the time I was iU, the 
 Makoba chief was sent for by Leshulatabe, and this 
 fact, coupled with the advice they gave us to send a 
 humble request to the great chief (backed of course 
 by a present) to allow the large canoes to be used in 
 carrying our wagons over, very significantly shows 
 that Leshulatebe thinks a little more is yet to be 
 squeezed out of us. If we can find a ford without 
 their assistance, it will of course exalt the power of 
 an Englishman in their estimation, and make them 
 think it useless to withhold farther information ; but 
 even if we do not, I think we have qidte floating 
 power enough in the wagons to carry them over 
 independently of native help. 
 
 This evening I brought my map up to the present 
 date, after extracting, by Chapman's help, aU the in- 
 formation I could get from the Makoba. The Tama- 
 lukan is called by the Bataoana ( ' the yoimg hons,' 
 an offset of the Bechuana tribe) at Lake Ngami, 
 Seleba, and Noka e a Lingalo (river of Lingalo, a 
 Makoba chief), and by the Makoba Zegaanie. It 
 is not known as Tamalukan till higher up, where
 
 [390] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [May 
 
 Sekeletii used to embark on it. When it overflows, 
 it joins the overflowing of the Mabebe, and thus 
 communicates with the main branch of the Zambesi, 
 erroneously called Chobe (Chobe being merely a 
 petty head man living on it, as Zouga, who seems 
 now to be forgotten, did on the Botletle). This 
 Chobe, or properly the true Zambesi, is the same 
 river, the Okavango, struck by Mr. C. J. Anderson, 
 in Lat. 17° 30'^ Lon. 19° or 19° 20'^ where it was 
 200 or 300 yards wide, and flowing SE., two and a 
 half or three miles an hour. He followed it forty 
 miles SE. to visit Libabe, who resides there, and 
 states that when the Makololo made a foray in that 
 part they came in canoes all the way from Sekeletu's 
 town. He also learned that some Mambari lived on 
 the same river, where it was still a large stream, 
 twenty days' journey higher up. In its course, part 
 of its waters are thrown off" into the Teoge, and 
 find their way into Lake Ngami at its western end, 
 and it is curious that in its overflow it should 
 also communicate with the Tamalukan, which 
 flows by the Botletle into the lake at the eastern 
 extremity. 
 
 I find that the eminent and deeply-read geogra- 
 pher, Macqueen, F.E.G.S. — who (I beheve most truly) 
 is able to tell, from the old Portuguese records, more 
 of the centre of this continent than any traveller 
 here, Livingstone included, has been or will be able 
 to find out — confirms the opinion of Mr. Anderson. 
 The water-shed between the rivers flowing east and
 
 1862.] THE OKAVANGO RIVER. [397] 
 
 west is ill 18° 40' east longitude, and here the 
 Cubango or Okavango takes its rise, passing Libebe, 
 and, under the name of Zambesi, flows past Linyanti 
 to the Leeambye. 
 
 Now to return to our native information. The waters 
 of the Tamahikan, Selebe, or Zegaanie, entering 
 the Botletle divide, one portion flowing west and 
 the other east, along the Botletle, where its lower 
 portion loses itself in a salt pan, extending from 
 25° to 27° K, and from 20° 10' to 21° S. (both 
 of course approximately). Chapman crossed fi.ve 
 rivers flowing from the eastward into this pan. The 
 southernmost of these is the Meea, the next the 
 Qualeba, then the Chouani and the Simoani. These 
 four take their rise in the south-east side of the 
 Madumumbila and Dunamzele Mountains, but the 
 fifth, the Shua, rises on the north-east of Madumum- 
 bila and flows past it : this is laid down on Living- 
 stone's map as the Botletle or Matoe flowing into the 
 Zambesi by the Longwe at Sinamane's. It has, how- 
 ever, no communication with the Longwe, which is 
 the Quaai or Quaclia Eiver, discovered by Edwards 
 and Chapman in, I think, 1854. 
 
 I may also add here, that although the course of 
 the Limpopo is still laid down upon the maps as 
 doubtful. Chapman tells me that Edwards has ascer- 
 tained, from undeniable native testimony, that it flows 
 into the sea under the name of Sabia at Cape Santa 
 Maria, in latitude 21° 40' to 50'. 
 
 Sunday, May 4.th. — We travelled south some miles
 
 [398] EXPLORATIONS IN" SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 along the eastern bank, till we came again to the 
 river beyond where it divides into three branches, 
 forming a couple of islands on which Pelane used 
 to hve. We waded the eastern branch to the larger 
 or Pelane's Island, and while crossing it started four 
 or five koodoes. 
 
 We then started for the north-western side of the 
 island, opposite which we heard shots on the main 
 land. Here we had all sorts of difficulty in getting a 
 boat, the Makoba thinking us helpless, and wanting 
 to drive a hard bargain with us. At length a man 
 passed in a canoe and shouted to ask our Makobas 
 whether we were there, to which they, fearing the 
 new comer should ask a share of the meat, replied 
 that nothing particular was there, and he might move 
 on. One of them landed however, with a pole fifteen 
 or eighteen feet long, with a hook at the end for 
 pulling up the roots of the lotus and other water 
 lilies. When we were tired of waiting, a small canoe 
 pushed into the reeds, and we embarked with nil the 
 dogs ; but a larger one following. Chapman with three 
 dogs got into it, leaving the first Httle craft still so 
 low that Avhen I rested my hands on the gunwale 
 my fingers on both sides were in the water. As I 
 had forgotten my shoes, I took the canoe again and 
 paddled over for them, rather to the surprise of the 
 Makoba. One man entered my craft with a small 
 pole, but I retained the paddle and certainly held 
 my own pretty fairly alongside the paddlers in the 
 other boat.
 
 1862.] KXAVERT OF THE MAKOBAS. [-399] 
 
 It was near this place that, in one of his former 
 journeys, Chapman was subjected to a systematic 
 course of phinder and annoyance, that ultimately 
 brought on the severest attack of fever he has ex- 
 perienced, and had very nearly terminated fatally. 
 Eeturning from the country to the eastward with a 
 cargo of ivory, he found his oxen daily less able 
 to draw the wagon. The Makobas, to whom he 
 apphed for assistance, of course perceived his diffi- 
 culties, and as they increased, became more and more 
 exorbitant in their demands and impudent in their 
 thefts. At length, his cattle faihng almost entirely, 
 he succeeded after great difficulty in hiring a boat 
 to transport the main portion of his cargo along the 
 river. The Makoba chief, for his own pui'poses, 
 delayed the departure of the boat till the light wagon 
 had gone on beyond immediate recall ; he then sent 
 for Chapman, and told him it was impossible that 
 he should help him, but that, as a great stretch of 
 generosity, he would allow the canoe to cross the 
 river and land the cargo on the side on which the 
 wagon was. During his absence. Chapman found 
 that a tin box, containing the whole stock of beads 
 on which he depended for paying his expenses to 
 the colony, had been cunningly opened, miperceived 
 by the man he had left to watch, and the most valu- 
 able kinds abstracted. Irritated by this treachery 
 and the utter ruin and helplessness to which the loss 
 of his beads reduced him, he presented his gun full- 
 cocked right at the breast of the chief's son, with so
 
 [-.00] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [May 
 
 determined an air that the courage of the thief gave 
 way, and kicking the lump of mud usually plastered 
 in the bottom of the boat, he exposed to view some 
 of the missing beads. These were not all, however, 
 but a repetition of the threat brought out the re- 
 mainder from the other end. The Makoba, as soon 
 as he was released, ran off with a speed that con- 
 vinced Chapman other discoveries were to be made, 
 and, counting his ivory, he found that some of it had 
 also been stolen. Seizing his gun again, he ran to a 
 point to intercept the fugitive, but conscious guilt 
 had sped his flight, and he was out of reach. The 
 only course now was to send on for the wagon, and 
 carry forward half the load a day or two's journey 
 — and short enough that was — and then return for 
 the other portion. Tliis of course entailed the trouble 
 of watching both divisions of the cargo, and at one 
 place Chapman was seized with fever, the party in 
 advance becoming ill at the same time, except one 
 man, who was fortunately able to attend them. 
 Neither party knew the condition of the other, the 
 oxen strayed where they would, all note of time 
 was lost, when, in the last hour of despair, assist- 
 ance came from a traveller, to whom Chapman had 
 sent so long before that he himself had almost 
 forgotten it. 
 
 Monday^ bth. — In two treks we made twelve and 
 three quarter miles, mostly over sandy country with 
 open thorn groves, and halted by a camp of Henry 
 Chapman's among some line trees, which are now
 
 1862.] KHAMMA'S ford. [401] 
 
 becoming scarcer tlian liitherto. The spoor of buf- 
 faloes was plentiful, but though we both went ahead 
 of the wagons on separate tracks, we saw none of 
 them, which leads us to suppose that there must be 
 water to the south, away from the river, and this is 
 confirmed by the shortness of the time in which 
 the natives walk to Chapo's. They must make a 
 straight course to tlie ESE., instead of going to 
 the north of east along the > river, and then nearly 
 south again, and equally of course must drink by the 
 way. 
 
 Tuesday, Gth. — Chapman had learned, by indirect 
 questions from the Bushmen that Khamma's ford 
 was not deep. The Makobas, as usual, denied the 
 possibiHty of crossing, except by hiring their canoes ; 
 but a little more than two miles north-east brought 
 us to the place where two reefs, running nearly 
 across the river, leave a stony bed about a hundred 
 yards wide above them. The current was running 
 tolerably strong to the eastward, but it was not 
 more than knee deep, and we crossed ^vithout diffi- 
 culty. We made about two miles more north-east, 
 and another in the afternoon, when we halted 
 for fear of game-pits, about 1200 yards north of 
 the river. 
 
 Wednesday, 7th. — ^After a fruitless search by the 
 river side for a black eagle, I followed the wagons 
 through dewy grass and tormenting prickle thorns, 
 the strong hooks of which, on their fine tough stems, 
 will not unfrequently stop a horse at fidl gallop, to
 
 [402] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFKICA. [Mav 
 
 the great peril of his rider's neck. We halted under 
 a motj eerie tree upon a sandy rise. 
 
 Friday, 9 th. — We walked along the river bank 
 two or three miles, and fell in with some Makobas 
 digging game-pits in the usual oblong form, with a 
 wall of earth across the centre, and rising to within 
 two feet of the surface. Of course the first question 
 they asked our Bushmen was, ' Wliat have they 
 killed ? ' and the answer, equally of course, was, 
 'l!^othing.' At night I observed /3 Centauri, and 
 Chapman Arcturus ; the results differed by only 
 forty-four seconds, and the mean was 20° 12' V. 
 
 Saturday^ 10th. — Chapman shot a small but beau- 
 tiful eagle, of an exceedingly shy and high-soaring 
 kind, which had evaded his pursuit for years. The 
 general colour was a hght warm yellowish brown ; 
 the wing-coverts light sepia brown, edged with 
 lighter colour approaching to white ; the quills the 
 same, the inner edges nearly white, marked with 
 transverse bands of the dark colour ; the tail feathers 
 similar, but banded right across ; the tarsi feathered 
 half way down, the rest covered with scales of deep 
 but dirty yellow ; the eyes yellowish brown, with 
 overhanging brows ; the beak rather slender ; spread 
 of wings, 4 ft. 7 in.; tip of beak to tip of claAV, 1 ft. 
 11 in. ; tip of beak to tip of tail, 1 ft. 9 in. 
 
 We sent for the wagons at once, and when they 
 arrived found that Jem, who loses no opportunity of 
 tyrannising over the httle boys, and making them do 
 his work, had, as usual, taken advantage of our absence ;
 
 1862.] FEVER. [403] 
 
 and little Sam, falling from the front box, was caught 
 in the cheek by the lever used to lift the wheels 
 when they require greasing, and had lost the whole 
 of the flesh, about four inches in length and two in 
 breadth, off" the bone forming the zygomatic arch. 
 We were glad to find it even in this mitigated form, 
 for of course the tale had lost nothing in travelling, 
 and we had been in fear for the poor boy's life. He 
 bore his misfortune bravely, but the brutal driver 
 betrayed not the smallest concern for, or sympathy 
 with, the poor sufferer, and sullenly attempted to 
 resist John when he thought it right to correct him. 
 
 We made another mile or so in the afternoon, 
 halting in a thorn grove at Moroomohooto, near a 
 spot on the river frequented by water bok, buffalo, 
 black rhinoceros, and probably elephants, of which 
 Chapman gave me a most tempting description, 
 winding up with a caution not to expose myself to 
 the night air so soon after my recovery from fever. 
 
 Sunday, llth. — After breakfast I was attacked by 
 vomiting, a slight shivering, and I think a little fever. 
 The day, as usual, seemed protracted to a miraculous 
 extent. The exertion requisite to a change of position 
 was immense compared with the relief derived from 
 it. In the afternoon I was able to eat a little soup ; 
 and this morning, Monday, I hope to feel all right, 
 as soon as I am fortified by a little breakfast. 
 
 Shots in the direction of the river enticed me down 
 to the drift or ford called Moroomohooto, where 
 the river coming from about SW. by W. (magnetic),
 
 [404] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [May 
 
 sweeps round with its convex side to the N., and runs 
 finally to the SSE. On the N. side the current cuts 
 into a bank of soil about 30 feet in height, its sides 
 clothed with reeds and stragghng bush, and its 
 upper level covered with fine thorn and other trees. 
 The south or interior of the curve was, as usual in 
 such cases, a low flat point, several hundred yards of 
 which had apparently been recently formed, as no 
 trees grew within that distance of the water. 
 
 Chapman had shot two beautiful pallahs or roode 
 (pronounced roo-e, the d in tliis word bemg dropped) 
 boks, both females, and without horns ; and I at once 
 returned for my sketch-book, to take advantage of 
 his good fortune. They seemed somewhat larger than 
 a springbok, elegantly formed, and in general colour a 
 light yellowish or raw sienna brown, deepening nearly 
 to biurnt sienna (still light) on the back, and paling im- 
 j)erceptibly into white on the belly, inside of the thighs, 
 and ears, and lower jaw; the forehead was marked 
 with a crescent of dark brown, the convex side back- 
 ward and the points extending to above the eyes ; the 
 tips of the ears were dark, as well as a central stripe 
 upon the upper portion of the tail, the end of which was 
 ornamented wdth flowing white hair, giving it almost 
 the appearance of an ostrich plume. On each side the 
 rump, commencing at the insertion of the tail, was a 
 semicircular brown mark, stretching half way down 
 each thigh. So far as I observed, there were none of 
 the little hoof-like appendages to the fetlocks ; but 
 round those joints, on the hinder-legs only, were
 
 1862.] CONTINUED SICENESS. [405] 
 
 patches of brown liair, slightly raised, and looking as 
 if pieces of skin with longer and darker hair had 
 been actually sewn round them. 
 
 Tuesday^ \Wi. — Eeceived information that Chap- 
 man had shot a wolf, i.e. hyasna ; took down my sketch- 
 book, but was stopped by sickness in the middle of 
 my work, and had to lie down until a horse was sent 
 to carry me home. 
 
 Thursday^ Ihth. — John, who had occupied ]\ir. 
 Chapman's scherm, returned, having seen nothing, 
 while at his own, which was unoccupied, elephants 
 had been sporting and drinking all night. 
 
 A desire to eat came upon me during the day, 
 accompanied with nausea at the merest taste of any- 
 tlnng I had been accustomed to. At length I be- 
 thought me of making pancakes with a httle meal 
 and a spoonful of sugar in it; the egg and other 
 things considered essential at hx)me had to be dis- 
 pensed with. 
 
 In the afternoon some Makobas, whom I have 
 before mentioned as having been sent along our 
 course to drive away game and prohibit the Bush- 
 men from assisting us, stopped at the wagons on their 
 return. Now these men have in some measure 
 counterbalanced the intended injury by doing us 
 involuntarily a most essential service. Chapman has 
 been trymg for days to learn from the Bushmen 
 whether there is water ahead, but they profess the 
 most idiotic stupidity as to the country in that 
 direction, and tell us all the advantages of the road
 
 [406] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 back to the lake. Well, we know, of course, that the 
 men sent to prevent their tellmg us the road have 
 been the way we want to go, and they cannot by 
 any art obliterate the spoor they have left, nor pre- 
 vent us from tracing it. We know, too, that they 
 must drink, and though they might carry water or 
 extort it from the Bushmen, yet a careful sifting of 
 the three grains of truth from the bushel of hes, 
 informs us that they left a vlei yesterday morning, 
 and though it is drying up we may yet find water 
 for the cattle. 
 
 The Bushmen here deny all knowledge of the 
 poison grub, and tried to mislead Chapman respect- 
 ing the juice of the Euphorbia, at one time saying 
 that it was merely to fix the poison on to their arrows, 
 and at another, that it was merely rubbed as a charm 
 upon their arms to make them strong in shooting. 
 It is in this way that believers in the innocence of 
 the gentle African are betrayed into the assertion of 
 so many contradictions. A tribe, or any number of 
 tribes, as in the present instance, is ordered to tell hes, 
 and even were it not so, their custom is to answer 
 falsely till they know from thek chief whether they 
 may speak the truth. I have heard from old Hot- 
 tentots in the colony that the Euphorbia is used with 
 other ingredients in poisoning their arrows, and I 
 believe that its qualities as an irritant considerably 
 assist the action of the real poison, wliile its glu- 
 tinous properties bind it firmly to the barb of the 
 weapon.
 
 1862.] A TEEK. [407J 
 
 Friday, IQth. Preparations were made for trek- 
 ing. Five pack-oxen were lent to the Damaras 
 to enable them to carry their meat, &c., and a Httle 
 after noon we left the river, much to my regret, 
 without a single good observation for the latitude of 
 the place of parting. It was unavoidable, however ; 
 Chapman had been engaged providing food for the 
 party, and sickness had prevented me on the only 
 night when it was possible to observe with accuracy 
 the proximity of the moon, and the thick clouds last 
 night pro\dng insurmountable impediments. We 
 turned from the river up a little valley, thickly 
 wooded, and dragging the wagons \vith difficulty up 
 its sandy sides, outspanned, after doing two miles and 
 seven furlongs, on a sandy undulating country, where, 
 instead of sketching a new pheasant shot by Chap- 
 man, I had to spend the little resting time in repair- 
 ing damages — Jem being, as usual, much more ready 
 to break his wao;on than to think of mendins^ it. 
 
 The loose oxen and Damaras had not appeared. 
 Bill came in some time after we had halted, having 
 followed the Makobas to recover two dogs they had 
 stolen from us. He reported that Dikkop had fallen 
 sick, and that none of the people were coming on. 
 Now we could not very well halt the wagons here, 
 for the water at Moroomohooto is frequented by 
 lions as well as other game, and the ' forest king,' 
 whom Dr. Livingstone professes to hold in such 
 contempt, would just as lief take tribute from our 
 trek oxen as from a herd of buffaloes, and his roar, 
 
 *2
 
 [408] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 thougli I don't mean to talk any ' majestic twaddle ' 
 about it, is most certainly authoritative enough to 
 command the absence of the herdsmen at a moment's 
 notice. 
 
 John was sent back mounted and attended by two 
 Damaras, who, if Dikkop were really ill, were to stay 
 with a pack-ox and help him on ; but if the fact 
 were as we suspected, he was provided with full 
 power to administer a double emetic. 
 
 The character of the country changed almost sud- 
 denly. The thorns through which we had been 
 tearing our way ever since we left the lake, now 
 gave place to the sandal-wood and other thornless 
 trees and shrubs, with a mimosa here and there to 
 remind us that those unpleasant adjuncts of the rose 
 were not quite gone out of existence. We dragged 
 over heavy sand for three miles and three furlongs 
 more, and, halting after dark, had some difficulty in 
 making out a supper. 
 
 Friday^ IQth. — John returned late, bringing on the 
 cattle ; he had found the vultures in a state of tor- 
 pidity on the trees round the deserted camp, and the 
 Damaras in a like state not far off. He had divided 
 the emetic between Dikkop and another of the most 
 sorely afilicted, and hurried on the rest at the best 
 pace he could. 
 
 At night I missed Alpha Crucis by hardly the time 
 necessary to fill my horizon, but obtained three 
 splendid observations of other stars, the total dif- 
 ference of these results being only twenty-five
 
 1862.] THE MOROOMOHOOTO TREE. [409] 
 
 seconds. How I did it is a mystery, for the oxen, 
 calculating the moment of the meridian for the first 
 star with astronomical exactness, could choose no 
 other to close round and kick the wagon-sides, and 
 the driving them away, reading off my observation, 
 and vociferating to the herdsmen, who were com- 
 fortably sitting at their fires within twenty yards, 
 occupied the whole of the few minutes between it 
 and the passage of the next. 
 
 Before leaving the river. Chapman had seen the 
 remains of the Moroomohooto, or tree with legs, 
 in the little hollow hardly a hundred yards from his 
 scherm ; the main stump stands in the centre, and 
 round it are about a dozen smaller ones. It had 
 been a fine motj eerie, and we suppose the httle 
 hollow, havins; been worn since the tree attained its 
 maturity, had swept away the earth from beneath the 
 roots, which might then have become stronger and 
 perhaps more numerous as the tree felt the want of 
 support. 
 
 Saturday^ 17th. — Treked about sunrise over 
 rather harder sand, with occasional limestone. The 
 spoor of elands, buffaloes, and giraffes was abundant ; 
 but though the country was sparsely dotted with 
 scrubby thorns, we saw no living creature. In a 
 little more than seven miles, or about twelve from 
 JVLoroomohooto, we saw a small hollow in the lime- 
 stone, and in the deepest side of this a diagonal 
 hollow, in which the men found a little water, all of 
 which they finished, and looked for more. About 
 
 *2 2
 
 [410] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 two miles and a half from this, at a spot called Ganna 
 or Ghaniia in the Bushman tongue, we halted to make 
 breakfast between a couple of stunted motj eerie trees, 
 where the ashes of former fires indicated an outspan, 
 perhaps Poison's a couple of years ago. There are 
 wagon tracks, but so obliterated by wind, rain^ and 
 growth of herbage, as to be nearly invisible on the 
 light sandy soil. 
 
 In the afternoon we passed another limestone pit, 
 where the people found water enough to supply their 
 immediate wants, and somewhat later Chapman 
 discovered a small vlei, about a mile to the nortli, 
 containing about a drink for the trek-oxen, which 
 were at once unyoked and driven to it. At sunset, we 
 passed a Bushman village (deserted) on a little sand- 
 hill, covered with dwarf palms, six or eight feet in 
 height, being, in fact, merely the leafy crown, grow- 
 ing at once from the ground without a stem. Finding 
 a sliallow vlei with about water enough for the cattle, 
 we outspanned for the night, having made a day's 
 journey of fourteen and three quarter miles. 
 
 Sunday^ ISth. — Having sent the Damaras in every 
 direction to search for a road without result, and 
 consulted the various maps in our possession, none 
 of which, so far as concerns this part of the country, 
 are at all to be depended on, we determined to give 
 up the idea of Kamma-Kamma, which we supposed 
 to be about twenty-five miles NE., more especially 
 as Chapman had heard it was without water, and 
 hold straight on about ESE., toward a district some-
 
 1862.] WAGON -TRACKS. [411] 
 
 what more distant, but which he knew to be less 
 hable to fail. Four good observations last night had 
 given latitude 20° 6' 56'', and while Chapman rode 
 in search of the old wagon-tracks, I brought on the 
 wagons, without a path, over an undulating country 
 of tolerably firm sand, with long dry grass, low 
 prickle thorns, and here and there mimosa groves. 
 
 A messenger from Chapman now informed us that 
 the road (this same road being the track of a wagon, 
 most hkely Poison's, over sand and grass, two years 
 before), lay to the south, and not satisfied with the 
 change I made in the course, so as to reach it with- 
 out losing ground by too abrupt an angle, actually 
 wanted to take us back south-west to the point where 
 he happened to have left it. We treked till long 
 after sunset, and outspanned on the open flat, nine 
 miles, thirty-two yards, by trochameter, from the 
 place we left at noon. 
 
 Monday, 19th. — As soon as the moon rose we 
 prepared to start and moved at half an hour past 
 midnight, still on a southerly course. Kaibengie 
 had told me the night before that we should come 
 to the road when the sun was an hour high, 
 expressing the angle by a motion with his hand ; 
 but about three o'clock, coming to a path leading to 
 the eastward, I determined not to make any farther 
 southing, and though John objected to its httleness, 
 I turned the head of the wagon and followed it. We 
 soon began crossing small pans of dried mud, which 
 as Ave advanced became larger, and were elongated
 
 [412] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Mat 
 
 like creeks or rivers from north to soutli. At day- 
 break we were crossing one of about half a mile in 
 breadth, when my wagon came on a patch of softer 
 mud, and at the same moment the staples of two 
 yokes (by wliich they are attached to the trek touw) 
 gave way, thereby settmg four oxen adrift, and 
 throwing the span in confusion ; the wheels imme- 
 diately sank to the naves. Dokkie's oxen were 
 brought from his wagon and made fast in front of 
 ours, but at the first fair pull the trek touw broke. 
 The sun rose on a desolate expanse of sandy plain, 
 covered with sahne incrustation, shghtly raising 
 its edges in irregular octagonal figures, and crack- 
 ing as clay may be seen to do under a hot sun at 
 home, so as to give it the hkeness of a beach over 
 which the last shallow tide had been driven by the 
 wind in large ripples. Low islands witli dry grass and 
 leafless trees (the Maruru papeerie or Bushman's grub 
 tree) studded the flat here and there ; dark hues and 
 channels on the sand marked where the moisture had 
 not yet evaporated ; the salt water oozed from tlie 
 black mud where our wheels had sunk, and, in com- 
 bination with all this, it would hardly have surprised 
 us had an actual arm of the sea appeared at the end 
 of the long vista to the southward. Jem's whip, as 
 usual, was broken, and he stood helplessly looking on 
 until we gave up the attempt to extricate the van, 
 and, leaviQg the oxen to graze on the main land, sent 
 for driftwood to cook our breakfast. On appUcation 
 to our larder, avc found that some gentleman whose
 
 1862.J THE NTETWA SALT PAN. [413] 
 
 taste was above buffalo meat, had, during the nio-ht, 
 made away with a leg of mutton. Of course every 
 one denied it, and we had no time to waste in use- 
 less enquiries. 
 
 John was busily engaged in unloading the wagon, 
 and I was making a sketch as a httle memento of the 
 scene, when Mr. Chapman was seen riding along our 
 track, and in a few minutes more was with us. He 
 had discovered the water last night, and had even 
 heard the shots we fired for him, and had answered 
 them, but he being to the west or leeward, the sound 
 of his gun had not reached us. 
 
 We were now about eight miles beyond the water, 
 but owing to the change of course to the eastward 
 were still so far advanced upon our journey, and 
 only a few miles, say from three to five, to the south 
 of where we ought to have been. The sand plain on 
 which we were formed part of the ISTtetwa salt pan, 
 which stretches for eighty miles or more to the east 
 or north-east, with an average breadth of eighteen 
 miles. To the south of this again, is a much larger 
 trail, fully as long as this, and perhaps sixty or 
 seventy miles wide. 
 
 We fixed upon a lofty baobab about three miles 
 north, as a rendezvous, and Chapman left us to go 
 exploring, in which, as our mistake of last night has 
 only led us into a more hkely country for water, he 
 did not anticipate much difficulty. The cattle arrived, 
 and were sent on ; the wagons were on their legs 
 again. Jem's whip (he never thinks of repairing till
 
 [414] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA, [Mat 
 
 we are under weigh) was in process of being tied 
 together, when just as, by alternately threatening 
 the driver and tlie oxen, I reached in safety the firm 
 land of a little island, Dokkie, following too suddenly 
 in the path broken by my wheels, went down to the 
 axles on the starboard side. The morning's per- 
 formance was repeated to the minutest incident 
 (breakfast and the arrival of my friend excepted), but 
 at length both wagons were brought in safety to the 
 edge of the main land, and, coasting along the beach 
 or crossing from the island, we landed at last, and in 
 another couple of miles reached the camp fire, estab- 
 lished about half a mile south of the baobab, where 
 Chapman had found a small pool frequented by game 
 and had stationed a man by it to prevent their drink- 
 ing up the water before the trek oxen arrived. 
 
 Men had been despatched to the assistance of the 
 stragglers, and Dikkop and Tapyanyoka came in 
 soon after, but nothing can be heard yet of Kajumbie, 
 and we fear some accident must have befallen him. 
 
 Of course as soon as a permanent water is found, 
 and people can be spared, such help as is in our 
 power will be sent to him. 
 
 Tuesday^ 20th. — The wind is blowing fresh from 
 the eastward, the sky is overcast with drifting clouds 
 to match, and the dry salt pan, catching the grey 
 tints of the overhanging canopy, presents the appear- 
 ance of a shallow inlet of the sea, studded with 
 islets. 
 
 In the forenoon Kajumbie's wife arrived, driving
 
 1862.] MIKAGE. [415] 
 
 tlie pack ox. She said Kajumbie was ill, and that 
 Bill and Eoode Boatjie (who had been sent back) 
 were with him. I desired Dokkie and Jem to take 
 a riding ox to his assistance, but shortly after he 
 arrived escorted by the other two. 
 
 The arrears of my map occupied the greater por- 
 tion of the day ; but as we were both too wearied 
 last night to take a latitude of this place, I do not like 
 to put it down yet decisively ; and the grey clouds 
 covering the heavens so thoroughly, like a north- 
 easterly day at home, forbid any hope of it to night. 
 Everything looks cold and hard, the salt plain some- 
 times appearing like ice, and at others like a shallow 
 muddy sea, with none of the mirage which yesterday 
 so perfectly and beautifully simulated long vistas of 
 water between the distant islands, and tempted away 
 our thirsty dogs in hot pursuit of the deceitful vision, 
 which, receding as they advanced, led them away and 
 away, till their arrival at the opposite shore dispelled 
 the illusion, only to show them the watery cheat 
 upon the plain they had just crossed. Tantalus and 
 his cup was a mere nothing to a pack of dogs, with 
 parched tongues and blistered feet, running hither 
 and thither in hope of drinking the mirage. 
 
 Livingstone says that in some parts of the Ntetwe 
 the latitude can be taken on the natural horizon as 
 well as at sea. Chapman says that sometimes the 
 horizon is clear enough to allow this, but any mirage, 
 which generally follows the appearance of the un- 
 clouded sun, would vitiate the observation.
 
 [410] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [May 
 
 Wednesday, '2\st. — Moved a little more than two 
 miles along the border of the pan, to the NE. by E. 
 
 A long circuit brought me, with empty pouch, 
 to the clump of baobabs we had seen yesterday 
 from the wagon ; five full-sized trees and two or three 
 younger ones were standing, so that when in leaf 
 their fohage must form one magnificent shade. One 
 gigantic trunk had fallen and lay prostrate, but 
 still losing none of its vitality, sent forth branches 
 and yoimg leaves like the rest. The general colour 
 of the immense stems was grey and rough ; but 
 where the old bark had peeled and curled off, the 
 new (of that peculiar metallic coppery-looking red 
 and yellow which Dr. Livingstone was wont so 
 strenuously to object to in my pictures), shone through 
 over large portions, giving them, according to the 
 light or shade, a red or yellow grey or a deep purple 
 tone. 
 
 This night, although the clouds gathered thickly at 
 the time of observation, they cleared off immediately 
 after. I obtained three good altitudes, only one of 
 the four (Arcturus) being vitiated by a cloud of 
 most dense and ill- timed blackness, and even this was 
 httle more than a mile and a quarter in error. 
 
 The observations were as follows : — a Crucis, 
 altitude 95° 35' 20'', dechnation, 62° 19' 55" S., 
 result 20° 5' 48" ; Centauri, altitude 100° 51' 10", 
 declination 59° 42' 16" S., result, 20° 6' 9" ; Arc- 
 turus, 100° 1' 30", dechnation 19° 53' 45", result, 
 20° 7' 18"; a Centauri, altitude 99° 44' 10", decli-
 
 1862.] KAMAKAMA. [417] 
 
 nation 60° 15' 3G" S.; result 20° 5' 48'^ Index 
 error in each case, 1' 50". Mean latitude, leaving 
 out Arcturus, 20° 5' 55" S. 
 
 The water is drawn from a shallow vlei half a 
 mile east from the wagon, but as this lies on the 
 surface of the salt pan and has disordered most of us, 
 both black and white, we have to send nearly three 
 miles for drinking water to a pool in the south-east, 
 and we think of moving there as soon as the sick people 
 can perform the journey. Kamma-Kamma which is 
 ENE. about four or five miles, is said to be dry, and 
 we want the Bushmen to take us straight across 
 to Kounyara, leaving out of the road Gumkheerie 
 and some other waterless pools, Livingstone gives 
 the latitude of Kamma-Kamma as 19° 52' 31". This 
 would make it about twenty miles JN'E. by E. from us, 
 and would give 13' 24" difference of latitude. I have 
 suggested to Chapman that there may be two places 
 of the same name, or that Kamma-Kamma may be 
 a chain of pools extending over some miles of country ; 
 but he says that, on former journeys, he has hunted 
 over the whole of the country, and knows that there 
 is but one place so called. The Bushmen cannot be 
 deceived, and with the care my friend takes in learn- 
 ing the positions of the various waters from them, it 
 is not easy to believe that he can be wrong. Mj 
 own latitude I know is correct, as any one who 
 will take the trouble to work out the observation 
 may prove, and I begin to think that in his earlier 
 journeys, the doctor regarded his miles as merely
 
 [418] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [May 
 
 small change, and was in no way particular to a 
 handful of them. 
 
 Wednesday^ 28th. — A cold morning with a cutting 
 wind from the SE. A troop of about a hundred 
 springbok passed within sight of the wagons, but, 
 though I had two long shots, and one or two closer 
 ones, I could not hold my gun steady against the gale. 
 At the wagons I found preparations for inspanning. 
 We were crossing alternate salt pan and grassy 
 ridge to the SE. when the dogs started a wounded 
 springbok, with still energy enough to run for his hfe. 
 I found the wagons near the vlei from which we had 
 fetched our drinking water, and we halted a little 
 further on, two and three quarter miles from the last 
 camp, with a dwarf palm bush between the wagons. 
 
 Thursday, 29 th. — As Comberimba, the man who 
 had ridden on the front of my wagon yesterday, 
 was reported worse, I had to clear away everything 
 that could be damaged either by fracture or by 
 grease and clay, and resign my bed to him. By the 
 time we had started, however, so many claimants for 
 the same privilege appeared that we thought it best 
 to carry on only Kajumbie, and leave the invalids 
 with people to look after them till we • reached the 
 next water, and then send an empty wagon for 
 them. We travelled five hours SSE., making ten 
 miles and nearly two hundred yards over a dry 
 imdulating grassy country with a few thorns, Avhich 
 at the end of our trek increased to an open wood, 
 intermixed with dwarf palms : the only vlei we saw
 
 1862.] A LIMESTONE HOLLOW. [419] 
 
 was quite dry. John arrived, just as dinner was 
 ready, with the hospital wagon, and reported that 
 the promise of a conveyance had been attended with 
 very ill effects, the sickness having increased at the 
 first mention of it till hardly one of our company 
 was able to stand. Chapman has had an attack of 
 fever, and neither I nor Edward feel perfectly free 
 from it. 
 
 Friday, oOth. — As anotlier of the horses had in 
 a measure recovered his strength, Chapman and I 
 rode onward toward the SE. and soon discovered 
 the road we wished to strike, running a trifle more 
 easterly. As tlie water was far distant, and the chase 
 of some giraffes which we saw was leading us away, 
 we turned E. and ESE. and struck a rhinoceros path, 
 which led us to a fine pool of water in a limestone 
 hollow, with a couple of cranes and some vultures 
 on the bank, a flock of ducks on the surface, 
 and two or three wdldebeestes and camelopards 
 escaping as we came in sight. Chapman arrived 
 soon after, and turning back we stopped the wagons 
 after a journey of nine miles seven furlongs, under a 
 motj eerie tree, which stood in its pride alone, nearly 
 sixty feet high and four or five in diameter at the 
 base. A little misunderstanding had taken place 
 with the guides ; they had overshot the road, and, 
 feehng that they had done so, turned back to look 
 for it. For want of a sufficient interpreter, John 
 construed this into desertion, and made up his mind 
 to go on as the wagons were then leading. Fortu-
 
 [420] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 nately, Chapman returned about the time and set 
 him right. 
 
 Saturday^ ^Ist — Last night, in spite of sundry inter- 
 ruptions from dogs, &c., I made good observations of 
 four stars, a Crucis, 92"* 52',dedinationG2° 19' 55" S. 
 /3 Centauri, 101° 1' 30^ dechnation 59° 42' 16" S. 
 Arcturus, 99° W 20", declination 19° 53' 45" K 
 a Centauri, 100° 1' 30", dechnation 60 15' 36" S. 
 index error, 1' 50" ; mean result, 20° 14' 13". 
 
 Our first work this morning was to unload 
 Chapman's wagon and send it back for the invalids, 
 but John met them commg on, and returned in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 Wednesday^ June Uh. — The wagons were inspanned 
 soon after nine. We moved a mile west, and camped 
 in the Melon patch and bush just north of the water. 
 
 Thursday, htli. — Edward informed me that Kajum- 
 bie's wife was missing ; we had both seen and talked 
 with her at the fire last night, and it seems, after 
 I retired, she had taken a brand and gone away, not 
 in the direction of the huts ; and the next report by a 
 Damara from the water was, that a lion had drunk 
 there, startling away two elands, and that two rhino- 
 ceroses had been seen by the man between the water 
 and the camp. This of course mcreased our anxiety 
 for the poor woman. We were not without fear 
 that a kmd of insanity, common among those natives 
 whose intellects and feehngs are a little above the 
 ordinary level, had come over her, the more espe- 
 cially as she seems to be the only one who manifests
 
 1862.] KAJUMBIE'S WIFE. [42 1] 
 
 tlie slightest sympathy with the siifferings of others, 
 or who even attends to her husband in liis sickness 
 or cares for him when he is absent. Wlien she was 
 brought home, we found that this was in reahty the 
 case. Before the wagon was removed from the last 
 outspan the Damaras had been ordered to build a 
 hut for Kajumbie, near the place w^here we meant 
 to encamp, so that he might be more conveniently 
 attended during his illness ; this tliey had converted 
 into a grievance and source of dissatisfaction. This 
 had so worked on the muid of the poor woman, that 
 she had taken her bit of fire in the night and wan- 
 dered as before mentioned. 
 
 The people were called, and the reality of the case 
 laid before them ; they were reminded that not only 
 Kajumbie, who is really the finest and most intelligent 
 man among them, but all others without distinction 
 were tended in their ailments, even when those were 
 incurred by tlieu* own misconduct; that such medicine 
 or comfort as they required was given to all ahke, 
 and finally they were to obey the orders given them 
 in the present instance. 
 
 ^ Tliey submitted, of course, but with an ill grace, and 
 took httle trouble to conceal tlieir murmurings, the 
 tenor of which pretty clearly indicated their brutish 
 nature. We have had some idea of making them 
 carry the sick man as soldiers do, on a stretcher, but 
 I have no doubt, as Chapman has said long ago, that 
 they would take the first quiet moment to knock 
 him on the head, and throw his body into the nearest
 
 [422] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 biisli, leaving us the alternative of either punishing the 
 murderers according to their crime, or of allowing 
 them to escape and glory in it in our presence. 
 
 Saturday, 7th. — Our intended trek was put off till 
 to-morrow. 
 
 Monday, dth. — A remarkable group of seven 
 palms, or rather two clumps of three and four 
 respectively, standing like out-pickets on the southern 
 limits of their kind, bore south of us 600 or 800 
 yards, while to the north others were scattered over 
 the undulating plain, one or two bare leafless poles 
 holding their place like partially dismasted wrecks 
 among a well-appointed fleet. In two or three 
 hours, the palms and open grassy plain had given 
 place to thickets of mimosa, intermixed with small 
 baobabs, maruru papeerie, a poison tree, and mopane, 
 the sere and yellow leaf of which gave quite an 
 autumnal character to the scene. I overtook the 
 w^agons as the bush began to assume a more forest- 
 like aspect. Eleven miles from last night's camp we 
 passed a tolerably large vlei in a limestone hollow, 
 the scherms standing like little forts in the water, 
 shewing that it had recently been only a small pool, 
 round the borders of which they had been built, 
 while the appearance of the large grassy hollow, 
 and the former experience of my friend, testified to 
 its having been some years ago a magnificent sheet 
 of water, on the surface of which a goodly pleasure 
 yacht might have performed her evolutions. We 
 spanned out under a fine baobab, with several others
 
 1862.] CEOSS PURPOSE. [423] 
 
 in sight, one, it is said, with hollows in which a man 
 might comfortably shelter himself. 
 
 Kajumbie, who had ridden in Chapman's wagon, 
 was sitting by the tree, and I was trying to ascertain 
 how much of his complaint was due to fever, and 
 how much to consequent exhaustion, when a couple 
 of Bechuanas with shields and spears, followed by 
 Bushmen, bearing pumpkins and elephant tusks, 
 halted for a moment to greet us and ask fire as they 
 passed on their way from the north ; they halted 
 near us, but as yet have not condescended to make 
 us a special visit. 
 
 Some Bushmen are here nearly starving, or at least 
 reduced to drive pegs into the trunks of baobabs, 
 and climb them for the fruit, which now only hangs 
 on the most inaccessible twigs, and generally bears 
 marks of the sticks and stones thrown to brinsf it 
 down. 
 
 The parties are now at cross purposes, each en- 
 deavouring to persuade us to the course most in 
 accordance with their own interests. The Bushmen 
 say there is no water to the east, but if we will go 
 south-west and hunt (where they hve), they will 
 show us |)lenty of water and game too. The 
 Bechuanas insist that there is no water anywhere but 
 to the south-east, in the direction of Seckomo's town, 
 where they say Henry Chapman is anxiously waiting 
 us, and if we place ourselves under their guidance, 
 they promise to show us everything an African 
 traveller could desire ; while the Bushmen who have 
 
 *3
 
 [424] EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 followed US from the salt pan, knowing of the dis- 
 sension and impending war among the Bechuanas, 
 and therefore fearing them but little, laugh heartily 
 at their intrigues, and say plainly, ' Don't you see 
 how those fellows are trying to humbug you ? they 
 are pretending to be your friends, but are only 
 tellmg you lies for their own good. It is well now 
 they are weak and divided and expecting war, but if 
 they dared they would cut your throats for what 
 they could get by it. Trust to us, and we will bring 
 you straight through to the water you want to go to.' 
 We are informed that tliree wagons went north last 
 year, toward the Zambesi, one belonging to a white, 
 the other two to colonial men. They have lost all 
 their oxen by the fly, and are now ' scattered all over 
 the country.' A message, however, was sent out for 
 help, and a wagon, mth three spans of oxen, has 
 lately passed near this place on its w^ay to them. As 
 yet we cannot learn their names or other particulars ; 
 but we have the satisfaction of finding that the tale of 
 Henry Chapman waiting for us is untrue, and that 
 he is safe on his way as far as N'chotsa. 
 
 As the stars come on the meridian about four 
 minutes earlier every night, I had completed by 
 about ten four tolerably good observations — the 
 greatest difference being about two minutes of lati- 
 tude, and the mean result 20° 3' 38". The pool of 
 Kounyara bears west one-fourth of a mile, and that 
 of Odeaque is, I suppose, south-east, but how far 
 I cannot tell at present, perhaps a couple of miles.
 
 1862.] SECKOMO'S SOX. [425] 
 
 Tuesday, l^th. — Three separate parties are at work 
 iutrigmng, according to their several interests, to 
 induce us to alter our course. Our saltpan Bush- 
 men have been paid to their satisfaction, and have 
 taken their leave — getting away, of course, as fast as 
 possible, lest, as soon as we are gone, the Bechuanas 
 as usual should plunder them. 
 
 The Bechuana party were to start this morning, and 
 Chapman had given them various things, as powder, 
 lead, &c., for the road, much as you give a noisy 
 street piper sixpence to move on ; and the head man 
 had ostentatiously ordered one of his men to stay 
 and be a guide and assistant to the white men, and 
 to show them all the waters (except those we wished 
 to go to) ; in fact (as we learnt by sundry looks of in- 
 telligence and secret directions, given under the idea 
 that we were ignorant of their meaning), to lead us 
 out of our way, and bring us within range of his 
 chiefs influence. 
 
 Chapman, when he first came into the country, 
 had given Seckomo's son a shooting pony, and the 
 son, at his father's desire, had given him a bull 
 tusk. Tliis, of course, made them molekanes, or 
 bosom friends ; and at every subsequent visit young 
 Seckomo thought it not beneath his dignity to 
 mention ' the bull tusk.' Of course a present of equal 
 value must follow such a hint, and Chapman has 
 given him successively a bidl and ten cows, as 
 breeding stock, beside other unconsidered trifles, to 
 ten times the value of the tusk. We are informed 
 
 *3 2
 
 [426] EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 that the young chief can now read and write, and 
 Chapman is sending a letter to him, with a note to 
 say that we are all well, should there be a chance of 
 its being forwarded to the colony. 
 
 No sooner had our Bushmen departed than the 
 Bechuana pressed into his service the Bushman 
 cliief and all his people resident here, and sent them 
 off with his ivory — the merest apology for a load 
 when divided among them all, but still enough to 
 get them out of the way. A Makalaka, who had 
 offered yesterday to be our guide to the next water, 
 was reminded of his promise, but he professed 
 himself only one of the people of the Bechuanas, who 
 immediately added, 'Certainly, he is my man and 
 cannot go without my orders ; of course I will give 
 him to you, but I am going with you myself to the 
 water you will sleep at to night.' Well, as the water 
 at Gna-kou was only 5° S. of due E., or about ESE. 
 half E. magnetic, we thought it best to put a good 
 face on the matter and proceed on our journey ; but 
 while preparations for a move were going on. Bill 
 missed his tinder box, and rather suspected one of 
 the Bechuana party of having ' lifted it.' The man 
 readily assisted in the search, but John noticed that 
 he sat on a particular spot, or kept his foot on it 
 when he rose, and, when he helped to scratch up the 
 sand, this spot always remained covered. A hint 
 was passed to Bill, and of course the box was found 
 in the very spot. John jumped off the wagon, and 
 the offender, judging from the customs of liis owi?
 
 1862.] A BECHUANA THIEF. [427] 
 
 people, thought he was to be put to death on the 
 instant ; his liead man interposed with ' va prela, va 
 prela ' (wait a httle, wait a httle), and the culprit 
 cringed beliind him, clapping his hands to deprecate 
 the wrath he feared was about to descend on him. 
 I should at first, perhaps, have concurred in flogging 
 the thief, but, after such an appeal as this, the 
 exhibition of the milk and water sort of farce we 
 call punishment would have been most absurd, and 
 as the serio-comic affair was reachmg such a height 
 that a few minutes more would have brought about 
 a most ludicrous anti-climax, the fellow was ordered 
 with the most ferocious countenance that could be 
 assumed for the occasion, to quit the wagons, to fly 
 for his life, never to show his face again, and think 
 himself lucky in so escaping. Two or three other 
 things were missing, and, as Ave could not be always 
 thief catching, we threatened to adopt the practice 
 of a navigator in the south sea islands, i.e. to punish 
 the man who had anything stolen from him. 
 
 After quite a scene with a refractory ox, we 
 rattled on over hard hmestone country, thickly 
 clothed with mopanes, some of which began to 
 assume the dimensions of timber trees. A mile or 
 so on we passed Odeaque, a limestone vlei with 
 plenty of water, and soon after another nearly dry, 
 and, six miles and five furlongs from our starting 
 point, we halted under a baobab, about 200 yards 
 nearly north of the water at Gna-kou — where John 
 made a scherm for himself at night.
 
 [4-281 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 The Bechiiana brought a rotten tusk, but did not 
 succeed in making a bargain for it. He says the 
 only water to the E. is so far that we must keep 
 three or four days without any. He cannot let us 
 have the Makalaka as a guide, because a Bushman 
 who was to have carried his load has been taken ill. 
 All tliis, of course, is nonsense or falsehood ; we know 
 there is water nearer than he says, and can tell very 
 nearly its direction, but he wants to bring us nearer 
 to his chief, and to raise the price of a guide. 
 
 The Bechuana say it is no use whatever for us 
 to persevere in our present course ; the tribes there 
 are eaten by the great lion (Moselekatse) and there 
 is nobody left. One melancholy piece of intelhgence 
 appears well grounded, and this is that the young mis- 
 sionary, Mr. Moffat, son of the Patriarch atKurumaii, 
 is dead, and his young wife is left a widow in a 
 strang;e and savao^e land. I believe there are other 
 missionaries not far from the spot, but even if they 
 are able to protect her, her bereavement must 
 still leave her exposed to dangers and trials few 
 English women could think of 
 
 The breaking down of our last watch precluded 
 for the future the possibility of keeping our course so 
 correctly as I have hitherto done ; nevertheless, if I 
 can get two bottles of the same size, I think I can 
 make an hour-glass to answer the purpose pretty 
 well. 
 
 We rattled on over rouo-h limestone throufjh a 
 dense mopane forest, with Jicre and there more open
 
 1862.] TSAGOBIANA. [429] 
 
 plains; passed Makowzie, a small pit, where tlie 
 Bushmen of the next village found just water 
 enough for them to drink, and outspanned half a 
 mile beyond Eakhopalie, another pit, now dry. Here 
 we met some of the Madinesana, a superior tribe of 
 Bushmen, taller and darker than the others, their limbs 
 better developed, and their features less angular. 
 
 Thursday^ Vltli. — The same limestone country, 
 alternately rough or smooth, clothed with bush or 
 forest of mopane, with baobabs of considerable size 
 here and there. 
 
 We passed Tsagobiana (the little water-dish), a 
 half-gallon fountain in the hmestone rock, and soon 
 after found Chapman at Tsagobia {the water-dish). 
 Halted under a large baobab, of which he made an 
 excellent photograph, catching me for the first time 
 in the act of observing the sun's altitude with the 
 sextant. My object in taking this altitude, which I 
 am only able to do in part of this month, when the 
 sun is not too high, is less for the sake of latitude 
 than to find whether we have the day of the month 
 correctly ; for, as the sun's declination changes about 
 twenty miles a day, any error in the date would show 
 a wrong latitude, and as we know the latitude to a 
 mile by the stars, it will be seen that it is easy to find 
 the date. 
 
 In the afternoon I saw a baobab with ' A. C. Green ' 
 neatly carved in such letters as are used in writing, 
 and 'J. W. B.' (most likely Bonfield) in Eoman 
 capitals near it.
 
 [430] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 Friday, 13^/i.— During the night a rhinoceros had 
 been seen at the water, and Chapman had crept out of 
 his scherm to get a closer shot, when John fired past 
 him and wounded the animaL This mornino^ it was 
 found dead within a mile, and Chapman made some 
 of the most beautiful stereoscopic pictures I have ever 
 seen, including the whole group of eager Bushmen, 
 and in one picture myself in the act of sketching. 
 
 The schemes of tlie Bechuanas seemed almost to be 
 exhaustless. At first they said, ' you are wandering 
 into a waterless country. How can we see our 
 friend perishing from his own folly, and not try 
 to prevent him ? There is war in the country, the 
 tribe you want to go to is destroyed, nevertheless, if 
 you wiU persist in going, some of us will share your 
 peril.' They went, the head man of the Bechuanas 
 discouraging the people about the wagon with 
 stories of the war and the ferocity of Moselekatse's 
 people, and when their timidity had been sufficiently 
 wrought upon, a party that had been sent on in 
 advance by another road, came fleeing as if for life at 
 midniolit to the wao^ons. The Bechuanas affected the 
 utmost terror, and Chapman's people felt it without 
 any affectation. The head man roused Chapman 
 and told him the news. ' Come,' said he, ' and 
 flee to a place of safety. Let me be your guide, 
 and I will bring you out ; but I cannot leave my 
 friend to be massacred, with all his jDCople, by the 
 conquering foe.' The people packed up at once, and 
 wanted even to start without the wagons ; but
 
 1862.] BECHUANA WOMEX. [431] 
 
 Chapman, wlio had been deceived before in the same 
 way, detected some contradiction in the tale, and 
 determined to remain. 
 
 Sunday, Ihth. — We got under weigh just in time, 
 for liardly were we a liundred yards forward, wlien 
 the Becliuana tax-collector arrived ; but Chapman 
 was mounted and ahead, and I suppose he was too 
 busy, disputing with the Bushmen about so much 
 meat as they had not eaten, to trouble me. 
 
 As we passed the village of our desert friends, 
 the whole female community, in all possible stages 
 of full dress and undress, ran out after us, joy- 
 fully clapping their hands, and singing the praises 
 of the ' flesh givers,' who had made them thick and 
 greasy. J^or was it long before we saAv the greater 
 number of them loaded with their household gear, 
 and, I hope with the meat we liad given them, taking 
 the road ahead of us with the intention of keeping 
 company to tlie next water. 
 
 After journeying close upon ten miles Ave spanned 
 out on a Avaterless plain, having seen during the day 
 indurations of Avheel tracks the most recent of which 
 must be nearly five years old, 
 
 Monday l^th. — We moved at 8 a.m. (approximate 
 for I regret to say, our very last Avatch has broken 
 down, and I can no longer observe the course so 
 correctl)'' as formerly), and by six in the afternoon, 
 after a toilsome journey, the inconvenience of Avhich, 
 especially to the panting oxen, Avas mcreased by the 
 dry black ashes of the newly-burned grass choking
 
 [432] EXPLORATIONS IN" SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 up the organs of respiration , we passed to the north 
 of a tolerably large pool, and outspanned about a 
 mile from it under a motj eerie tree. Our distance 
 made good was fifteen miles and a quarter, and 
 Chapman, who had been obliged to dismiss his horse, 
 had been led after game by the Bushmen till he had 
 walked eighteen or twenty. He had made a scherm 
 at a smaller pool, nearly two miles further on ; but 
 as he was tired, and I always secure an observation 
 for latitude if possible on the first night, neither of us 
 occupied it. The smoke of the recent conflagration 
 was still floating in the form oil' thin clouds, and 
 these most inopportunely covered three of the four 
 stars I worked with, exactly at the moment of their 
 meridian, leaving them to shine in their wonted 
 brilliancy a minute or two after. 
 
 Tuesday^ 17th. — The Damaras were sent to the 
 water in advance, to finish a double scherm by 
 walling up the intervals between two sides of low 
 limestone and the central block, and John made one 
 at the pool we had passed for himself. The place 
 at which we are outspanned is called Mitsibolduko, 
 or the bitter water ; but the pool to the south of us, 
 which is permanent, and contains one of the deepest 
 pits in the country, is sweet ; while that in advance, 
 or about two miles ENE., as well as another some- 
 what more distant to the south, is exceedingly 
 brackisli. I had a tolerable altitude of the sun at 
 noon, and some time after went down with Chapman 
 to our scherm at the bitter water, lialf of which
 
 1862.] WAGON-SPOOR. [433] 
 
 during the morning liacl been consumed by tlie 
 thirsty animals. 
 
 The 18th dawned upon us, cold and drowsy; 
 we gave up our fruitless vigil, and with one long 
 shot at a few stray quaggas, returned to the wagons. 
 Some distance to the south of our path we came 
 upon the spoor of, I suppose, four or half a dozen 
 wagons that had recently passed from the south-west, 
 and which Chapman thinks may be those of the 
 half-caste Arons from Kuruman ; if so, from the 
 crowd of Griquas, Hottentots, and people of all kinds 
 that invariably o\*rman the vehicles of this class of 
 people, and their reckless and wasteful slaughter of 
 everything that comes in their way, we may expect to 
 find the country in their track as destitute of animal 
 hfe as terror can induce tlie persecuted creatures to 
 leave it. As a set off to this, however, we hope that, 
 coming from Kuruman, they may possibly have letters 
 for us, or at least papers, or late news from the colony. 
 
 By accident or design our friends had fired the 
 country, and we were obliged to make a detour to 
 avoid the fiercest of the flame, the heat and body of 
 Avhich, where the grass was rank and the seed tufts 
 high enough to brush our faces and even rise above 
 our heads as we passed, was quite enough to render 
 the prospect of walking through it not very inviting. 
 Still, from the fact that the actual fire is only an 
 advancing line, presenting a broad and terrific front, 
 but of no great depth, it would be possible to pass 
 without danger of anything but superficial injury
 
 [434] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jone 
 
 through any part of it, especially on an open flat like 
 this. In a forest where dry wood and matted grass 
 are heaped together, the case is different. We 
 passed through thinner places without inconvenience, 
 but the glare and indistinctness of the flame and 
 smoke, and the gloom beyond, seemed somewhat to 
 confuse my guide. Presently we heard voices, and 
 thinkint? some of our Damaras misht be out, I went 
 forward to meet them, and, to say truth, was com- 
 pletely at fault in forming even a guess at the pro- 
 bable nature of the group before me. Wading 
 through smoke and lire like ourselves, appeared 
 slowly emerging into light a line of beings, so far 
 human as to be upright, but cowled and helmeted 
 with enormous liead-dresses of red and white, 
 giving a gigantic height to their otherwise low 
 fiorures. I thouo;ht of the Damara women, but the 
 utmost exaggeration of their high-eared caps was 
 insufficient for the purpose, and my next thought 
 Avas that it must be some new tribe going through a 
 midnight ceremony, perhaps of circumcision, or of 
 some other rite of which strange dresses form a 
 portion. The next glance showed that the leader 
 was horned, and apparently a female, and the next 
 flash of the leaping flames revealed that the whole 
 procession, which surpassed the most extravagant 
 vision of Saint Anthony, was composed merely of 
 my own Bushmen carrying my own A\nlde-beeste, 
 the stoutest woman poising the head sometimes on 
 her own, or sometimes on her shoulders, and the
 
 1862.] A WILD PROCESSION. [435] 
 
 rest bearing on sticks crossed upon either shoulder 
 the sldn and portions of the meat, the ribs, legs, and 
 shoulder blades of which rose far above their heads. 
 
 As it seemed impossible to come to a present un- 
 derstanding about the scherm, I joined the demon- 
 like cortege, and on we went, like a gang of evil spirits 
 in pictures of the fiery lake, till coming on the Arons' 
 wagon spoor, they told me that the water was to the 
 left — ' not far ' i. e. in the estimation of a Bushman. 
 In the dark, however, I failed to find it before the 
 stars were so far gone, as to be past all chance of 
 a successful observation, and being too wearied to 
 watch all night I essayed to find the wagons. 
 
 Now there was no track but their own spoor, lead- 
 ing to or from them, nothing to mark their position, 
 and the only remarkable feature of the country 
 was a kind of general all-ahkishness ; through bush 
 after bush, and tlficket after tlficket I searched for 
 signs, but ever3rwhere with pertinacious uniformity 
 no sign was made. Every patch was more hke to the 
 last I had left than to itself, and the grey invisible 
 prickle thorns fraying my shirt and trowsers into 
 threads, and my skin to match, were no certain 
 guide, as, though I knew there were plenty near our 
 camp, there was no lack of them in other parts. I 
 knew well that I must be within a mile of camp, and 
 my care was now to confine my search in whatever 
 dkection within that distance. I discharged my gun, 
 but hardly expected an answer, because (as proved to 
 be the case), if it was heard it would naturally be
 
 [436] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 considered as a shot fired by some one at the waters. 
 The cries of various animals sounded faintly in the 
 distance, and after being led out of my way by a 
 fancied similarity, I at last distinguished the veri- 
 table barking of a dog. Tediously and painfully I 
 forced my way through the thorny undergrowth. 
 The slight noise occasioned by this reached the 
 ears of our pack, the barking was renewed, and the 
 fires, now more and more distinct, guided me to our 
 temporary home. A few fritters were soon made for 
 supper, and rest after the day's tramp came more 
 naturally to me than watching. 
 
 Thursday, l^th. — My sextant and one blanket 
 were brought up from the scherm, but another 
 blanket and my book, with some unfinished sketches, 
 were missing. My dinner was untouched, but tooth- 
 marks on the broken handle of the knife gave a clue 
 to the identity of the thief. Jem and Pompey and 
 a Bushman, were sent out, and in the afternoon 
 brought the other blanket, torn to pieces, and my 
 sketch-book with the overlapping tin frame bitten 
 off by a hycena, the bag, greasy from being carried 
 by the Damaras, having probably tempted him 
 to abstract it : fortunately the drawings were 
 uninjured. 
 
 I sketched my last night's adventure with the 
 demon-hunters, and observed for the latitude at night, 
 the mean result being 19° 46' V. I had intended 
 to watch at the water at night, but it was now late, 
 and the fatigue of yesterday had not yet passed off.
 
 1862.] AN AFEICAN TEAVELLING-TRAIN. [437] 
 
 Friday^ 2^th. — Commenced early our preparations 
 to inspan, but from the number of little repairs and 
 fresh fastenings to be effected, were not in motion 
 till about two. The wagon spoors branched off 
 shortly after passing the water, some to tlie north, 
 and others to the south of us, the latter, I believe, 
 bound for Matlomo-ganyani. We held a middle 
 course about ENE., and as we passed over the undu- 
 lating grassy flats, our cavalcade had rather a pretty 
 effect. Around and ahead of the wagons were the 
 Bushmen, some of them bearing shields in addition 
 to the weapons we had been accustomed to see witli 
 them, and few, if any, armed with the bow and 
 poisoned arrow. Then came the women in their short 
 kilts of skin, which, when the outer garment was 
 girded higher than usual, allowed the whole hair of 
 the inner or s|)ringbok skin to be seen hke a border 
 to it. On their heads they bore the cuhnary gear 
 and everything belonging to their lords, except only 
 theu" weapons, and many of them had, in addition to 
 this, filled the baby bag with such store as could not 
 conveniently be carried otherwise. The rear was 
 closed by the Damaras, with the loose cattle and 
 pack-oxen ; and a small herd of quaggas dashing 
 across the front, and leading away the armed men in 
 pursuit, completed the picture. 
 
 On our right or south was the ridge that divided 
 us from the Ntetwe salt pan, and to the north was 
 another, extending north-west as far back as Zougarra, 
 and stretching forward, nearly but not quite parallel
 
 [438] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 to our course. By 5 p.m. we came into heavier sand, 
 with low shrubs and trees of the niopane, and at 7 
 outspanned in a grove of fine young mopanes, on a 
 spur of the northern belt, detached, however, from 
 the main ridge by a valley running between them. 
 Chapman had recognised a poisonous shrub called 
 makouw, which is said to be fatal to oxen, but harm- 
 less to horses, and as they grew in plenty on the flats, 
 the cattle were sent to graze upon the sand-hill. 
 
 I obtained only three stars to-night, but the obser- 
 vations were good, and the mean was 19° 43' l'\ or 
 about three minutes of northing since we outspanned, 
 our distance being ten miles and lialf a furlong. 
 
 Saturday^ 21s#. — After dragging the wagons a 
 little more than five miles through bush and forest, 
 and passing a couple of vleis, dry, or nearly so, in the 
 loose sandy soil, we saw a Bushman village, and soon 
 after a reedy hollow, with a pool of exceUent water, 
 fed by a spring, the first (i. e. to us) of the chain 
 called Matlomo-ganyani, or, as Dr. Livingstone inter- 
 prets it, ' the links,' the pools now in question being 
 known by the name of Thammasetjie. We halted 
 a httle beyond, and intended to have made an after- 
 noon journey, but our Bushmen informed us that the 
 water ahead was so near that it was not worth while 
 to move the wagons, in fact, ' men might call to each 
 other' between it and us. Chapman was here recog- 
 nised by an old man who had seen him ten years ago 
 at Kamma-Kamma, and who recounted the quaggas 
 and other game he had killed there, wdth a view of
 
 18G2.] MASEEANI. [439] 
 
 inducing a repetition of tlie slaughter in this place. 
 I sketched the figure of our guide, Maseeani, fresh 
 greased and red clayed till he shone like a bronze 
 image, and tastefidly girdled about his hips with a 
 smgle roleau of sky-blue beads. His forehead was 
 bound by a fillet of snake skin, and at the side of 
 his head were two circular ornaments formed of bits of 
 skin, so curled as to cause the long hair on them to 
 radiate regularly from the centre. These, added to 
 a j)ecuhar cast of feature and deep set eye, gave him 
 a sort of Mephistophelean expression ; though I 
 beheve we may say for him that he is about as 
 reasonable and modest in his requirements, and as 
 efiective in his duty, as any man we could wish to 
 meet with, and there is some luxury in being able to 
 say thus much, after a httle experience of Bechuana 
 chicanery and extortion. The old man, renewing his 
 acquaintance with Chapman, began, almost as a matter 
 of course, to spin a doleful yarn about some imaginary 
 plundering party of Matabile in the direction we 
 wanted to go, and was woefully taken aback when told 
 that we did not care to hear anything about Mata- 
 bile, but only wanted to know the way to the next 
 water. 
 
 Sunday^ 22nd. — The Bushmen are trying evi- 
 dently all sorts of schemes to delay us here, whether 
 under instructions from the Bechuanas (or Ba- 
 miingwa-to, as the tribe of which Seckomo is chief 
 is called), or merely to serve their own interests, we 
 
 cannot tell. They have brought us to the south of 
 
 *4
 
 [440] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [.June 
 
 our course into the locality of the makouw, or 
 cattle poison, and now use every argument to keep 
 us. There is fly they say in advance, and we cannot 
 take the wagons on, or if we will persist in doing so, 
 yet w^e ought to leave one wagon and the greater 
 part of the oxen near them. Most of them are going 
 no further with us, and one especially must return 
 ' to his wife and children.' It is doubtful whether 
 his conjugal affection would not have given way 
 before the prospect of a good feed when we next fell 
 in with wild game, but he suddenly remembered 
 that his wife carried the puppies ; the die was cast 
 now, and his course decided, the young dogs (and 
 this is not to be understood figuratively, but in 
 literal and quadrupedal sense) must be looked after, 
 his heart was sore for them, and he could not bear 
 the thought of their coming to harm in his absence. 
 Of course, every one wished for payment, but it was 
 necessary to distinguish between tliose who had done 
 real service as guides, and those who had merely 
 followed us to eat the game we killed, and for whose 
 trouble in doing so the meat was certainly a sufficient 
 recompense. One thing, at least, was evident ; had 
 they taken us straight along the valley under the 
 northern sand ridge, we should have kept clear of 
 the poison veldt, and another equally clear was that 
 w^e must get away from it as quickly as possible. 
 
 We passed two or three small pools of the Matlomo- 
 ganyani (at one of which John had watched m a night 
 so cold that ice was on the water at daylight), halted
 
 1832.] GERUFA AND THAMMASETJIE. [4tl] 
 
 at Gerufa, where two or three httle springs percolate 
 through the sand and one ox can drink at each at 
 one time, and passing through a thick mopane and 
 mohonono forest, outspanned about 7 p.m. in a more 
 open fiat with occasional groves of thorn, our course 
 bendino: as we advance more and more to the north, ■ 
 and this afternoon varying with the windings of the 
 road, for we have again struck the usual track from 
 WNW. through all the northern half of the compass 
 to E. by S. 
 
 Our latitude last night at Thammasetjie was 
 19° 39' 32'' ; to-night it is 19° 33' 2", or six mmutes 
 and a half of northing in the day's joirrney. 
 
 Monday^ 2 3 re?. — Leaving the dry vlei and camp 
 of former wagons, we found a well-beaten wagon road 
 through a dense mopane forest, leading us generally 
 in a northwesterly direction, and, after travelhng 
 about six miles through sandy soil, which as usual 
 caused Jem to stick fast every other minute, passed 
 down a small valley with a pit, now dry, called 
 Gumkaebie, and outspanned where the wooded 
 ridges swept round and formed a regular httle 
 amphitheatre at the end of the hollow. 
 
 In the afternoon we made ten miles more, and 
 halted on a former well-fi'equented outspan, 600 or 
 700 yards short of a couple of large pools near 
 which were still the remains of scherms, dug and 
 covered over hke those we use for elephant shooting. 
 
 Wednesday, 2bth. — I was obhged to give up work 
 for the day, and Chapman put himself under medi- 
 
 *4 2
 
 [442] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 cal treatment and retired as soon as the evening 
 became cold. We talked about a latitude, but neither 
 of us could muster courage to sit up and take it. 
 
 Thursday, 2Qth. — In the morning the front sail 
 of the wagon was opened by Bill, who, knowing I 
 had eaten nothing yesterday, came to ask whether I 
 would have soup made for me. I told him ' yes,' but, 
 from some misunderstanding, he did not make it. 
 Nevertheless, the mere asking me about it, was a mark 
 of interest and feehng that I do not beUeve another 
 soul in the company would have been guilty of. 
 Poor Bill, in fact, seems to be a kind of lusus naturce 
 or ethnological marvel : one of these exceptional cases 
 that occur now and then to upset all the learned 
 theories and systems that the scientific or un- 
 scientific world sets up, and to show that no general 
 character, however accurate in the main, can apply 
 without exception to every individual. Ever since 
 his promotion to the stewardship he has been 
 faithful to his master's interest, industrious, obhging, 
 and exceedingly cleanly, though in this respect he 
 has deteriorated since Anthony has taken a share in 
 his department. And to say truth, we have for a 
 long time thought that he deserves a better fate than 
 to be given over to be hanged like a dog by the 
 Hottentots at the end of the journey. There is many 
 a shp, saith the proverb, twixt cup and lip, and the 
 present case may perhaps go to prove the truth of it. 
 
 I found myself well enough to take the gun-lock 
 in hand again this morning, and choosing a bit of
 
 1862.] SNTMAN'S wagon. [443] 
 
 the hardest iron my files or diills would cut, I made 
 an effective repair of it. I would have taken an 
 altitude of the sun at noon, but we were ready to 
 move half an hour before. The next water was 
 only five miles and five furlongs distant. 
 
 The water of Thamafupa is about half a mile NW. 
 by N. There is another water more westerly, and 
 near an ant hill not a hundred yards from our 
 wagons is a little sandy place full of meerkat 
 burrows, amid which, if a man searches patiently, he 
 may scratch away the covering of a diminutive spring, 
 sufficient perhaps, to satisfy his own thirst. Under 
 the tree were a couple of worn out wheels, sides, and 
 other ant-eaten wreck of an old cart, once belonging 
 to Snyman the Hottentot, and built, as Chapman 
 thought, from the wood employed on the Mariqua, 
 or borders of the Transvaal territory. We had been 
 speaking, some days smce, of the kind of people we 
 might expect to fall in with should we overtake 
 the wagons ahead of us ; and the conversation 
 turning on the manner in which the various classes 
 of hunters fed their dependants, Chapman re- 
 marked, ' The Bechuanas never shoot themselves 
 for their people as we do ; ' in the most obvious sense, 
 I hope we shall never perpetrate so disinterested an 
 act of self-sacrifice, but, in reahty, they make their 
 people shoot for them, which is a great deal more 
 than we can do. 
 
 At night, despite my friend's advice to the con- 
 trary, I risked the taking of a latitude, and have as
 
 [444] EXPLOEATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Ji-ne 
 
 yet experienced no ill result, save a momentary ebulli- 
 tion of temper at the calculating precision with which 
 the oxen broke away from their guards and came 
 down upon me at the very moment when my 
 imdivided attention was required for the star ; never- 
 theless, my three observations came out within 27" 
 of each other, the mean being S. latitude 19° 20' 17''. 
 Chapman has been most perseveringly taking 
 bearings of different places from the way the Bushmen 
 point to them, and we hope that these, when laid 
 down, will add considerably to the interest and 
 value of the map. 
 
 As Edward is now getting into the way of keeping 
 the course by the compass pretty well, Chapman and I 
 went ahead for the chance of falhng in with some- 
 thing to replenish our larder. We found two or 
 three httle waters beside the road, one of which 
 seemed a sandy waste of mouse and meerkat bur- 
 rows, but a rhinoceros had smelt the water under- 
 neath, and had scooped out with his nose and horn 
 a pit of about four feet in diameter, so neatly that 
 I thought it could not be other than the work of 
 man. 
 
 Near one of these waters we found the hind 
 wheels of Snyman's wagon, patched, fished, and 
 lashed up with wonderful ingenuity. Four stout bars 
 formed a double cross over the front or concave side, 
 enclosing the nave and abutting on the felloes ; while 
 at the back false spokes, half checked on to the 
 felloe and abutting on the nave, were added behind
 
 lSG-2.] REASON OP ELEPHANTS. [445] 
 
 and between tlie real ones; the whole were then bound 
 together with raw hide, and secured by additional 
 thongs passing through to the cross bars in front. 
 Even this had at last failed, and here he had con- 
 verted his wagon into a cart, which had lasted no 
 longer than to the water we had left this mornino-. 
 We found the fresh spoor of a rhinoceros on our 
 path for some miles, but could not fall in with him, 
 and, coming to a pool after five miles walking, found 
 a scherm similar to the last, and, hke that, unroofed 
 by the elephants, who, aware that mischief had come 
 from it, had taken the first safe opportunity of 
 effecting its destruction. If the poet had known 
 half the proofs of sagacity, and evident profiting by 
 experience, related by hunters in this country, he 
 would never have confined his praise of the elephant 
 to the stinted measure of half-reasoning. It is said 
 that an elephant once actually commenced unroofing 
 the scherm in which one of the Greens lay, but was 
 shot by the brother of the imperilled hunter. Now 
 it is known that, from long experience, an elephant is 
 afraid of a hole, the pitfalls made by the natives 
 having been from time immemorial a source of 
 danger to him, and it must have required some ex- 
 ercise of his half-reasoning faculties to perceive 
 that the danger of the new pits lay not simply in 
 there being holes in the ground, but in their being 
 occupied by men with deadly weapons. It has been 
 known, too, that, carefully as the natives cover their 
 pits, the old elephants have gone before the herd
 
 [44G] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [June 
 
 and uncovered them before the rest were allowed 
 to pass. 
 
 No fact can be better established than that when 
 wild animals are startled they invariably run to 
 windward, lioping thereby to catch the scent of any 
 fresh enemy more readily. Of course the hunters take 
 advantage of this, and meet them in their course ; 
 but near the lake it is said that elephants that have 
 often been hunted have abandoned this instinctive 
 and universal natural habit, and more frequently 
 baulk their enemies by running unexpectedly to 
 leeward. 
 
 We took the wagons to a motj eerie tree and ant- 
 hill about a mile to the north, so that the general 
 SSE. breeze might not waft the smell of them in the 
 path of the elephants ; and at night Chapman went 
 back to occupy the restored scherm at the water, 
 while I tried my hand at shooting the usual stars. 
 I was a trifle too late with the first, the error causing 
 it to show that we had made seven minutes northing 
 while we had travelled, by trochameter, only six 
 and a half miles, but the other two, Arcturus and a 
 Centauri, came out within 21" of each other, and 
 gave a mean of 19° 15' 2V\ shewing a progress 
 northward of 4' 56'', which I suppose to be as nearly 
 correct as possible. 
 
 Saturday^ 2Sth. — Bill reported the discovery of 
 another water to tlie SW., with the spoor of rhi- 
 noceroses so plentiful that a man might shoot them 
 while the sun was high. He is not yet aware of the
 
 1862.] KANVA AND THE GOATS. [447] 
 
 immense distances these beasts travel when tliey 
 suspect danger. John went out, and 1 intended to 
 go when he returned, but he gave so scanty a 
 report that I thought it better to go on making a 
 pair of velschoenen for myself. At night everyone 
 except John, who had taken his turn yesterday, and 
 Edward, went to lie at different waters, Anthony 
 and Jem being sent to the N., while I went to the 
 S. which we had passed yesterday, and watched till 
 after midnight, making Dokkie reheve me when day 
 dawned. 
 
 Tuesday^ July 1st. — After due consultation yester- 
 day, it had been agreed that, in the present scarcity 
 of food, the wagons should be put in motion as early 
 as possible. The cold of the two previous nights 
 (forming a crust of ice nearly half an inch thick, or 
 rather, I ought to say, a collection of crystals of that 
 thickness, in water vessels at our camp) had given 
 me a return of pain in my face, and I thought it best 
 not to expose myself to an increase of it. 
 
 The goats it seems cannot travel. Kanva, who has 
 them in charge, considering himself a great man, has 
 appropriated slaves to himself out of those less able 
 to assert their equahty, and some of these being sick, 
 the flock has been allowed to eat kameel doom 
 seeds, and disorders of the bowels are the consequence. 
 Kanva and another man are, therefore, to stay 
 behind with such as cannot travel, and account by 
 the production of lioof, hide, and horn, for every 
 casualty that takes place among them. It is unplea-
 
 [448] EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 sant to us to use harsh measures to any of the people, 
 but when a man who is paid and fed to work sets 
 up himself and his wife to live in indolence, and be 
 waited on by slaves chosen out of our servants, it is 
 time to do something determinate. 
 
 We are now waiting until the day is warm enough 
 to cause the oxen, purposely kept from water during 
 the cold of morning, to drink their fill, and as soon 
 as they return shall inspan for our long two day's 
 journey over a waterless country to Daka. 
 
 We travelled eleven miles and a half NNW., through 
 bush sparse and open at first, then, as we passed a 
 dry vlei, increasing in density and in the size of the 
 trees, till it attained nearly the respectability of a 
 forest, and again becoming open till we halted. My 
 observations of three stars now available agreed within 
 forty-three seconds, giving a mean of 19° 6' 52'', 
 or 9' 29'' of northing since morning. Chapman 
 finds that the Bushman who accompanies us, and 
 who at first seemed shy of letting us know the extent 
 of his experience, has been to the Victoria Falls as 
 well as down the river to Sapatane's, and may there- 
 fore turn out to be an acquisition to the party. 
 We purpose to stop at Daka — or, as it is on Hall's 
 Map, Guaka — and ascertain the nature of the river 
 bank, especially with regard to the presence orabsence 
 of that little pest the tsetse, or ' fly,' as it is termed 
 par eminence, before we decide on the spot where 
 we shall build our boat, as it would be certain ruin 
 to our plans and death to our cattle, to encamp on
 
 18G2.] DAKA. [449] 
 
 any spot preoccupied by tlie deadly insect. Facility of 
 transporting our craft, when finished, to the river, and 
 freedom from marsh or other causes of fever, must 
 also be considered ; but all this information we hope 
 to obtain at Daka, as well as to replenish our stock 
 of corn, which, as we are obhged to give some to the 
 Damaras instead of flesh, is becommg ' small by 
 degrees and beautifully less.' 
 
 Wednesday, 2nd. — Commencing at sunrise, we tra- 
 velled north over undulating country covered with 
 thorns and mopane trees mingled with seringas, some- 
 times of large size ; and ten miles north outspanned in 
 what might be called an open forest. An altitude of 
 the sun gave lat. 18° 58' 10'' or about eight minutes 
 of northing. Our afternoon course was terribly ser- 
 pentine, and the bush generally thicker, a valley 
 causing us to turn about sunset considerably to the 
 westward. We had made eight and half miles more 
 by seven p.m. when we camped down under a group of 
 fine trees in lat. 18" 55' 4". The Bushman, who says 
 his name is A prill (or April), seems to have been a 
 kind of general guide. He tells us a rivulet runs down 
 from Daka to the river, so that we may drink all the 
 way ; that the falls are magnetic north of us, and 
 Sapatane's is farther east or nearly due north ; he says 
 that we cannot expect to shoot game now, but that 
 in the summer, when the pools dry up, we shall find 
 rhinoceroses by dayhght coming to the waters that 
 are left, and so intent on drinking that they will 
 hardlv notice us. It seems rather an ii^ noble sort of
 
 [450] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Joi-y 
 
 work, but it cannot be helped ; the horses are gone, 
 we must eat and we must feed the people, and men 
 on foot must shoot game wherever and however they 
 can. 
 
 Thursday^ 3rd. — We had fortunately found a pool 
 of rain water, at which the thirsty oxen refreshed 
 themselves, and hngered round the shore as if regret- 
 ting they could not drink more than their fill, but 
 were obhged to hurry our inspanning, as the Damaras 
 had set the grass on fire behind us, and as we were 
 going NW. to windward, the seed was already shed, 
 and the dry stalks, one of which measured ten feet 
 and an inch, promised ample means of spreading it. 
 
 We passed another unexpected vlei, winding to 
 the W. of N., through groves of mopane sufficiently 
 open for the wagons to move freely. At length 
 we distinguished a faint blue horizon through long 
 vistas of the trees. We were evidently beginning to 
 descend, and in a few minutes more, as we reached 
 the edge of the bush, a scene, magnificent compared 
 with anything that had hitherto met our view, lay 
 spread before us. At our feet was the gentle slope 
 leading down to a broad valley, with park-like clumps 
 of thorns and mopane trees, and beyond it ridge 
 after ridge, grey and more grey into the dim 
 distance, were undulating hills, some few of which 
 might almost be termed mountains, stretching fifteen, 
 twenty, or perhaps thirty miles to the N. and E. 
 Evidently we were approaching the edge of the table- 
 and of the Zambesi, and Edward felt as if we were
 
 1862.] A DESERTED KRAAL. [451] 
 
 already there, expecting almost to see the smoke of 
 the falls amid the clouds that rose from the burning 
 grass, though forty or fifty long geographical miles 
 must yet lie between us and that stupendous work of 
 nature. 
 
 We halted about sunset near a mopane grove, in 
 latitude 18" 45' 7", and soon saw the grass behind 
 us fired by the Damaras with the cattle, the wind 
 promising very fairly to drive the flames upon us 
 before the lapse of many hours. 
 
 Friday, 4:th. — Our Bushman tells us that Dakd is 
 very close now, and ratlier laughs at our drivers for 
 not having completed the distance long ago, the last 
 wagon he guided having done it in almost half the 
 time. 
 
 We followed the direction of the valley to the 
 NW., crossed a dry gully or two, the first indication 
 of nuining water we had seen for a long time, and 
 turning more N. halted by an old kraal with some 
 deserted huts and a tree, from one side of which rifle 
 bullets had been chopped out to recover the lead. 
 About 500 yards fiu-ther was the bed of the httle 
 river, the water standing in pools perhaps fifteen feet 
 wide and a hundred yards long, and running in a clear 
 shallow streamlet over the intervening ledges of rock. 
 
 A wagon spoor led to the NE. from this place ; 
 but as it might be one of those that had got into the 
 fly, we thought best not to follow it, and April 
 informing us that this was Daka, we outspanned on 
 the spot, closing the space between the wagons with
 
 [45->] EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [Jui.-f 
 
 our calico fence, and farther protecting tliera by a 
 la\aal of thorns all round, so that, if possible, a small 
 space may be kept clean and free from dogs and 
 other dirt producing creatures. 
 
 In a short time we were visited by some Maka- 
 laka, who told us that a coloured man was lying 
 with his wagon l^eyond a distant ridge, where he 
 had lately shot an elephant, and that the wagon we 
 had heard of as going in mth assistance to the others 
 had passed by Kamma-Kamma, and had brought out 
 one, but not before a white man, who was looked 
 upon as the principal of the party, had died. 
 
 John and Dokkie were equipped with saddle oxen, 
 and sent over to learn the news and open a commu- 
 nication with the nearest wagon. The falls bear 
 20° E. of N., and Sapatane's 60° ; but the people say 
 we ought to go first to Sapatane, and get canoes from 
 him to go up the river with. 
 
 Saturday, hth. — Wishing to observe for the varia- 
 tion of the compass at sunrise and sunset, previous 
 to the completion of my map, I deferred going on 
 with it, and proposed a walk after buffiiloes. This 
 kind of game, however, I heard was so far distant 
 that I must pass the night in the veldt, and go on 
 again next day, wliich is more time than I can 
 afford. The sick goats and sheep "with us have been 
 slaughtered off, and tliis morning the old horse was 
 released from the miseries of this world by the 
 agency of a ' Colt,' and handed over to tlie 
 Damaras. I made a circuit of several miles to the
 
 186-2.] SEKELETU AND HIS CEIMES. [453] 
 
 eastward, crossing several little tributaries of the 
 river, the main stream of which runs pretty strongly 
 when confined and sheltered by rocks, in which 
 case it can always be easily stepped over. I passed 
 an old outspan with a number of native huts, and 
 coming to our camp, found the expected visitor, a 
 coloured man named Eapiel, or John, IVEahura, whose 
 wagon stands some miles JSTW. of this place. 
 
 We can only learn that the principal man of the 
 party who have gone out with their wagon was a 
 Dutchman, and that his death took place not more 
 than a fortniofht asfo. The waoron that brou2:ht in 
 tlie oxen is in advance, and is sent by Secheh to 
 demand from Sekeletu the restitution of all the goods 
 belonging to the unfortunate missionaries, Price and 
 Helmore ; or that faihng, ]\Ir. Helmore's wagon, and 
 two loads of ivory in compensations for the rest of 
 the things, which it appears are now scattered in dif- 
 ferent hands all over the country. If this is refused, 
 continues the message, Sekeletu will hear again. 
 
 A chief named Dabatt, it seems, has been acquiring 
 guns, and as Moselekatse merely suffers a kind of 
 nominal independence in petty tribes upon his 
 borders, a party of Matabili were sent against him ; 
 tlie chief was killed and his tribe utterly dispersed, 
 their harvest being utterly lost, and now they are 
 here and there in clumpjies — twenty men and four 
 or five women in one place, and forty women and 
 half a dozen women elsewhere, but with no children, 
 all the younger people having been carried into
 
 [454] EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFKICA. [July 
 
 captivity. He tells us, also, that the men who were 
 brought back by Livingstone are stationed at the 
 falls to prevent the passage of Dutchmen. 
 
 One of the most wonderful freaks of nature I have 
 heard of, is an elephant with nine tusks, shot about 
 the year 1856 by this man. It had on the right 
 side five, and on the left four, all growing as usual 
 out of the upper jaw. The pair occupying the usual 
 place were of about thirty pounds weight each ; just 
 behind them were a pair somewhat larger, pointing 
 downward and backward ; between these was another 
 smaller pair, and before and behind them in the right 
 jaw were two others, but in the left only one behind, 
 all these being much smaller. I made two sketches, 
 one of each side, in his presence ; and there is no doubt 
 of the fact, as Mr. Edwards, the partner of Chapman, 
 bought six of the tusks ; the head, unfortunately, was 
 broken up. 
 
 The falls can only be properly seen by crossing 
 the river* some distance above them, and coming 
 down on the N. side. The lower part cannot be 
 approached by a canoe in consequence of rapids, 
 nor can the river be seen in many places on account 
 of the impossibility of approaching the edge of the 
 precipices on either side. Canoes from Sapatane's 
 come up some distance, but there are rapids between 
 his and Sinamane's (or, as John calls it, Snyman's) in 
 which no boat he has any idea of could live. 
 
 * This we found to be an error. I subsequently obtained 
 most of my best sketches from this or the S.W. side.
 
 18G-2.] AFPROACII TO THE FALLS. [455] 
 
 Sunday^ Qth. — Finished and closed up letters for 
 my mother and my friend Logier, and brought up a 
 small portion of the arrears of the map. 
 
 A head man of the Makalakas, who arrived to-day, 
 says that his people are starving, and wants us to go 
 E. and shoot game for them. This we should be nut 
 unwilhng to do, but we must first see the Falls, and 
 then must exercise some caution to prevent his 
 leading us into the fly, where our cattle and dogs 
 would die faster than we could kill animals. 
 
 Monday, 7th. — So far as we can learn, the rapids 
 here are not caused by shallows, but are the simple 
 ebullition of the water rushing down from the foot 
 of the falls through a narrow and precipitous channel; 
 in showing us the height of the waves they raise the 
 hand above the breast or about five feet high. Of 
 course no canoe could live, but till I see them I 
 can hardly say wdiat kind or size of boat would sur- 
 mount them. It seems as if we should have to get 
 everything carried by Makalakas, and make a camp 
 of half the party where we build, leaving the rest 
 with the wagons and oxen. 
 
 Tuesday, 8th. — Being dissatisfied with the result of 
 my observations for the variation of the compass, 
 as the uneven nature of the country renders the 
 actual moment of the sun's rising and setting exceed- 
 ingly doubtful, I prepared a sheet of paper on a 
 horizontal board, and while I took equal altitudes of 
 the sun before and after noon. Chapman marked 
 the direction of the shadow. The mean of fine ob- 
 
 *5
 
 [456] EXrLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 servations before, and five after, meridian, gave 
 21° 30'^ W. as the variation required. 
 
 Wednesday, 9 ^A.— Observed the sun morning and 
 evening for variation. The variation by rising and 
 setting sun and that by equal altitudes now agree 
 within a degree, the first series being 22° 30' W., 
 the set by equal altitudes 21° 30' W., and to-day, 
 by rising and setting, 22° 22' 50". The rest of the 
 day was occupied in trying to reconcile my own 
 work upon the map with the bearings obtained 
 from the pointing of Bushmen to distant places. 
 Since the break down of our last watch, I am not 
 able to keep the course so accurately, but the 
 trochameter distances and latitudes cannot be far 
 wrong ; and though the Bushmen in general point 
 very truly, yet here I think few of them know much 
 of the country, and everyone points a different way. 
 They make a difference of 45° in the direction of the 
 Falls, one pointing W. of N. and another nearly KE. ; 
 perhaps they include the rapids. They are also very 
 vague with Sapatane, Chapo, and other places. 
 
 Thursday, 10th. — I spent most of the day in try- 
 ing to reconcile tlie discrepancy between the course 
 of the wagons, as kept by compass, and the direction 
 of the route as pointed out by Bushmen. The diffi - 
 culty was to decide whether I or they were most 
 likely to be in error, and in what portions of the 
 map. My own latitudes I am certain of; the tro- 
 cliametcr cannot exaggerate the distance travelled, 
 though, if choked with sand, &c., to prevent its acting.
 
 1862.] EECKONIXG OF DISTANCES. [457] 
 
 it may show less than the truth ; but without a watch 
 to determine the time spent on each direction, it is 
 impossible to keep a tortuous course with any accu- 
 racy. Hence in two places, where I thought the 
 Bushmen knew the country perfectly, I gave the 
 preference to the information derived from them, 
 while in others, where they were ignorant or desirous 
 of misleading us for their own interests, I adhere at 
 present to my own data. 
 
 Chapman retm^ned about 10 a.m., having been 
 fifteen miles to the wagon of Secheli, and about eight 
 more in hunting from it, all in a KE. direction. The 
 young man in charge of the wagon says there is an 
 open path quite to the Falls clear of fly, and also 
 that there must be a clear path from Moselekatse's, 
 because l^IofTat came in quite to the river. We find, 
 however, it was not Moffat in person, but the packet 
 he sent to Livingstone, and which the Matabili 
 deposited for him on the island near the Falls. 
 Perhaps the bearers reported there was no fly ; but, 
 without actually bringing cattle through, it is hardly 
 possible to be certain of its absence. The Makalakas, 
 however, say that they kept cattle before the 
 MatabiU swept them off, and that they know places 
 perfectly safe from it.
 
 458 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFEICA. [Jti.Y 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 SABLE AXTELOPKS HOTTENTOT BOASTFULXESS — KOADS TO 
 
 THE ZAMBESI FALLS — CHOICE OF THE WESTERNMOST KOAD 
 
 THE TSETSE COUNTRY RAPID DIMINUTION OF GAJIE 
 
 HUNGER-BELTS OF THE KAFIRS — THE TSETSE-POISON — THE 
 
 MATETSIE RIVER — A QUAGGA SHOT THE RIVER BOLUNGO 
 
 A DISSEL-BOOM BROKEN ANECDOTES OF LION HUNTING 
 
 A CHANGE OF COURSE — SECHELl's AMBASSADOR — SEKELETU"s 
 DEFENCE EXPLOITS OF WILDEBEESTE. 
 
 Friday^ July 11th. — Chapman tried his new camera, 
 and I packed my sextant and drawing materials 
 into as small a compass as possible, for our in- 
 tended visit to the falls. Booy, tlie young Ba- 
 quain from Secheh's wagon, came •\^^th some of his 
 people bearing the leg of a buffalo which they had 
 shot, and concluded a bargain respecting some lea- 
 thern trowsers, which were well and strongly made, 
 much more strongly, I imagine, than those made by 
 white people ; they were handed over to such of our 
 people as were privileged to wear them. Some 
 ammunition was given him, on the understanding 
 that part of the game killed with it should be sent 
 over to us. 
 
 He appears to be profiting by the distress occa- 
 sioned by the foray of the Matabili, by carrying on
 
 1862.] SABLE ANTELOPES. 459 
 
 a kind of juvenile emigration, much on the same 
 system as that in vogue among the French on the 
 coast of Mozambique, except that his vohmtary 
 emigrants do not come down to him witli chains on 
 thek hands, but are safely transferred in considera- 
 tion of a payment to their chief, and will, eventually, 
 by a repetition of the payment, become the servants of 
 some of the farmers at Vaal Eiver or elsewhere. 
 
 A couple of young lads were offered by the chief 
 to Chapman, but, of course, declined ; for, though the 
 presence of people, wdio in a short time would be 
 able to act as interpreters, is highly desirable, the 
 bargain, whenever made, must be constructed in 
 such a manner as not to leave an impression on the 
 native mind that we are buying slaves, or, in fact, 
 doing anything more than hiring the services of cer- 
 tain people for such time as we require them. 
 
 Booy, since the error into which he had fallen 
 respecting the supposed passage of Moffat's wagon 
 to the Zambesi, is rather confounded in his ideas of 
 the country ; and as there are but few men here 
 to carry our traps, we are obliged to defer our 
 jomiiey. 
 
 Saturday the 12th was occupied in lending John 
 a hand with such guns as needed putting in order 
 from the shrinking of the stocks or other causes. 
 Chapman had a long ride and an exciting chase after 
 a herd of about a hundred and fifty sable antelopes, 
 which, with their large sweeping horns, arched necks, 
 and coal-black sides, constrasted with their whitish
 
 460 EXrLORATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 flanks and the lighter coloured does and fawns, must 
 be a sight worthy of being remembered. He hit four 
 times, and severely wounded a solitary buck with a 
 single shot, but came home wearied out and unable 
 to secure him. The neck in running, he remarked, 
 was arched, so as to throw the horns upward and 
 forward, and the fawns were of much lighter colour 
 than either sex of the older ones. 
 
 In connection with this subject, we mentioned a 
 report current in Kuruman, to the effect that Harris 
 did not shoot the first sable antelope, but that it was 
 killed by one of his people. I suppose this to be on a 
 par with the reports circulated respecting Anders- 
 son, that the greater part of what he writes was seen 
 and done by his people and not by him. These reports 
 most likely originate in the well-known propensity to 
 exaggerate their personal prowess, so universal among 
 the Hottentots and similar classes of people. I have 
 very Uttle doubt tliat by the time Dokkie and our 
 people get home, they will have but a faint remem- 
 brance of Chapman's having shot elephants, and a 
 very vivid idea of the part they ought to have played 
 in helping him ; and it will not take many evenings 
 round a fire to make them quite obhvious of theu' 
 master's success, and very tolerably inventive as to 
 their own. As for Jem, I suppose him to be too lazy 
 even to invent a story of his deeds. At all events, 
 it is certain that if Harris had not seen and recog- 
 nised tlie bucks as perfectly new to science, and fol- 
 lowed them in spite of the openly expressed derision
 
 1862.] ROADS TO THE FALLS. 461 
 
 of liis followers, and then, after his first faihire, 
 perseveringly taken up tlie spoor for three clays, not 
 one of them would have cared to leave the flesh- 
 pots beside the elephants for all the honours science 
 ever dreamed of. 
 
 His statement that it was unknown to the Mata- 
 bili has also been questioned, because it is common 
 in the country now inhabited by that tribe ; but it 
 must be remembered that only two or three years 
 before his visit, Moselekatse had fled with his force 
 from the service of Dingaan, and had probably not 
 made themselves as yet acquainted with everything 
 worth notice in then- new possession. 
 
 At night, the missing ox and the remnant of the 
 sick flock, six in number, were brought up, eighteen 
 skins beinsj shown as talhes for the dead ; and it 
 behoved us not to enquire too curiously as to the 
 causes of the mortahty. This, with the number we 
 have been obhged to kill, reduces our flock by forty, 
 and deprives us of the greater part of om- milk. 
 
 Sugar has been given up months ago, so that our 
 luxuries are in a fair way of becoming few indeed. 
 
 Sunday^ loth. — From conversation with the 
 Makalaka, Chapman learns that there are two roads 
 to the falls, one to the westward, where the wagon 
 of Secheli, with the embassy, is standing, and one 
 more direct, where the wagon of the same chief to 
 which Booy is attached is outspanned. The latter, 
 I find, is on a hunting expedition, and the people 
 belono-ins: to it are R'one north of the river in search
 
 462 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 of game. By this road, which is about NNE. mag- 
 netic, or nearly due north, they promise to bring us 
 within two days' walk of the falls, or, as nearly as we 
 can reckon, twenty-two minutes of latitude ; by the 
 other, they think we could get so far without en- 
 countering the fly as to be within half a day of them. 
 They say they had cattle before Moselekatse plun- 
 dered them ; and even now they keep dogs which 
 could not live where oxen would be bitten. 
 
 Booy is left in charge of the wagon belonging to 
 Unqua, one of Secheli's people, and a party of 
 hunters, and has nothing to do with the embassy of 
 that chief. 
 
 In explanation of some discrepancy in their state- 
 ments, they say : — If we tell you hes in favour of the 
 road, and you hnd it worse than we say, you will be 
 angry, and if your oxen die will revenge the loss on 
 us ; but if we tell them against the path, and you find 
 the country better than we have represented it, then 
 you will be pleased, and our reward increased. 
 
 As they seemed perfectly confident there was no 
 fly, and the easternmost road would afford us more 
 facility for going down the river when our visit to 
 the falls was over, we thought it best to adopt it, and 
 leaving one wagon with John, take on the other as 
 far as possible, halting, as nearly as we could judge, 
 about ten miles short of the fly-country, as it is well 
 known that buffaloes will carry stray insects a long 
 distance, and though they would leave the animals 
 and fly back to their own habitat, yet, should they
 
 1S62.] KAVAGES OF THE TSETSE. 463 
 
 meet a herd of oxen on tlie way, an hour or less 
 would be quite enough to refresh the wmged pest and 
 insure the death of the cattle. 
 
 Monday, lUh. — A.s> the doubts occasioned by the 
 Makalaka statements were not sufficiently explained, 
 we determmed rather to take the longer and safer 
 route to the westward. John was therefore sent by the 
 eastern to outspan near the Moquain wagon, but still 
 at a sufficient distance to preserve good fellowship, 
 and we were about to start by the other way when 
 a messenger arrived, to say that Malesi, or John 
 Mahura (I have hitherto erroneously called him 
 Mareemi), or Eapret, i. e. the father of Peter, mshed 
 to go Avith us to the falls, and Avould be here with 
 his wagon at noon. Chapman made a long unsuc- 
 cessful chase after game, the little he saw being 
 exceedingly wild ; and about three o'clock the wagon 
 arrived and outspanned a few hundi^ed yards from 
 us. Mahura approved of the route we had decided 
 on, and expressed his doubts as to that recommended 
 by the Makalakas, who were, as we already suspected, 
 eager to get us near their places, so that they might 
 feed on what we killed. The place where we are now 
 he considers safe, and the road m front may also be 
 safe ; but it is uncertain, for in the migrations of the 
 buffiiloes the tsetse is carried about, and may pos- 
 sibly not return immediately to its own limits, but, 
 finding a tolerably eligible spot, generally where 
 sweet gum-trees abound, may remain there for some 
 time, and in the interval kill off a herd of cattle in a 
 
 E E
 
 464 EXPLOKATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [July 
 
 place previously considered quite exempt from such 
 casualties. Of this he gave one or two instances that 
 had happened about here, and advised that John 
 should not be allowed to stay with the cattle too 
 near the buffaloes, not (as some of our Enghsh 
 friends would naturally thmk) because the beasts are 
 dangerous and savage, but because a httle insignifi- 
 cant parasite insect that harbours on them has the 
 power of inevitably destroying horses, oxen, and 
 dogs. A note was accordingly sent to warn John of 
 his danger, and advise him respecting a proper 
 standing place. Mahura, who was suffering from an 
 old w^ound in the foot, offered another man to go 
 ■\vith us when we should leave the wagons, and men- 
 tioned that the Makololo w^ould themselves volun- 
 teer to carry the goods intended for traffic from the 
 wagons to the falls ; but Chapman, who has suffered 
 by such practices as this himself, and known cases in 
 which others who have been persuaded to accept 
 their assistance, have been told to sell their goods at 
 the buyer's valuation or take them over the river 
 again as they could, asked why they could not just 
 as well bring their ivory to the wagon, and carry 
 the goods to the falls when they had bought them 
 quoting at the same time the names of several per- 
 sons Avho had visited the Makololo, and not one of 
 whom had retiu"ned to trade Avith them again. 
 Mahura says, however, that they are becoming afraid 
 now to practise too much upon white men, as they 
 begin to see that the effect of di'iving traders out of
 
 1862.] DIMINUTIOX OF GAAIE. 465 
 
 their country will only recoil upon themselves, and 
 that in a recent instance they actually brought back 
 to a wagon such goods as they did not succeed in 
 making a bargain for. He says that when they were 
 trafficking with him, they wanted to take him and 
 his goods to an island, because, said they, our trust is 
 in the water ; we hke to stand with one foot on land 
 and the other in the water. ' Good,' said he, and 
 my trust is in the land, with no river between me 
 and my wagon. I will come to the water's edge 
 with my goods ; come you to the water's edge with 
 yours, but you don't entrap me and my property 
 upon islands. Beside this, you must not trust too 
 much to your rivers ; the English are a water nation, 
 and know more of boats than you do ; they will put 
 boats on wagons and bring them ; they can put a 
 boat in a sack and blow it up ^vith wind, and what 
 will you do against them with your river ? ' 
 
 He says there is game in the country, but we do 
 not know where to find it. That no doubt is true 
 enough ; but what a contrast to the reports of the 
 first travellers who passed through teeming herds 
 of wild animals, and who never thought of kiUingf 
 domestic cattle, great or small, after reachmg Lake 
 ISTgami. The Botletle only a few years since swarmed 
 with elephants, and the deserted and desolate plains 
 we have passed over were ahve with everything. 
 Chapman says he could not feed his people unless he 
 killed a camel (i.e. gkaffe) every week, or at least 
 some beast equivalent to it, and now so reckless has 
 
 E E 2
 
 465 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 been the persecution, that within a day after a wagon 
 comes to an outspan, hardly a sohtary buck is to be 
 seen within a dozen miles of it. The labour of pro- 
 curing food runs away mtli all the time that should 
 be devoted to other work. 
 
 Tuesday, 15 th. — John Mahura's deputy came to 
 the wagon, highly recommended by his principal 
 as a man that thoroughly knew the country, and 
 one also Avho could conduct a traffic in goods or 
 ivory with the natives. Chapman doubted whether, 
 if no white man was by the wagon, he would not 
 become timid, and allow the price of the goods 
 entrusted to him to be beaten down. ' He afraid,' 
 said John, ' to ask a price ? he throw off anything of 
 what he has asked ? No, he will never lose a bargain 
 for want of cheek to ask his price.' Well, ]\Ii\ Wilde- 
 beeste, for such is the only name I have yet heard, 
 undertook the pilotage, and we, spreading over the 
 country in search of game in a general north-west- 
 erly direction, crossed the little Bonka rivulet on 
 which we had encamped, and soon reached the main 
 stream or Daka near the temporary village, where 
 the wagon of the Boers had stood and where, as I 
 afterwards learned, the principal of the party, named 
 Pretorius, was bm'ied. This is the same collection of 
 huts I had seen when hunting some days ago. On 
 the opposite rise we saw Chapman's people, and soon 
 came upon a rietbok, about two-thnds grown, Avhich 
 he had killed with small shot ; its general colour was 
 light yellowish brown. We halted at a little spring
 
 1862.] 
 
 HUNGER-BELTS. 
 
 467 
 
 called Nkumba or Nkiiba, nearly live miles fi'om our 
 starting-point, and in the afternoon ascended an ele- 
 vated sand ridge, the level plain of which was covered 
 with seringa and other trees. Chapman brought 
 down an eaijle, of a kind we have not seen before, 
 
 MAK.M-AKA. AVITH THE FIHST REEF IX HIS HUNGEK-BELT. 
 
 and of a uniform dull bluish brown colour ; and a 
 hare running across my path had something less than 
 a hair's-breadth escape from my bullet. The equip- 
 ment of one of our guides was worthy of notice ; in 
 addition to the usual ' Kafir breeches,' as the scanty 
 l3it of skin with one corner passed between the thighs
 
 4G8 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 to meet the other two which are tied round the liips 
 is called (though, by the way, the true Kafirs on the 
 colonial frontier do not wear even this), his loins 
 were girded by a snake skin and the roll of red or 
 blue beads worn in this locality, and his head bon- 
 netted by a goodly tortoise-shell, which served him 
 as a water-dish when we halted. His spears and 
 battle-axe formed his armament, and a heavy rifle 
 his biuxlen. Food he had none to carry, for every 
 man carried a signal of distress around his belly. 
 
 About sunset we began to descend, and following 
 the course of a valley with a small gully of rock and 
 dried black mud bounded by hills somewhat lower 
 than the sand ridge, halted after dark about half a 
 mile from the only palm-tree we had seen for a con- 
 siderable time. We were too late for any stars, 
 except a Centauri, which gave latitude 18° 33' 36', 
 or about six minutes of northin2^. 
 
 Wednesday, IQth. — As we had halted without 
 water after the long afternoon trek of ten and a half 
 miles yesterday, we pushed on along the valley (which 
 is called Zimboya), and soon reached the first water. 
 Shortly after tliis, httle rills were heard trickHng 
 under the long grass, and clear pools, four feet in 
 depth witli rocky bottom and water-lilies growing to 
 the surface level, presented themselves. Again the 
 stream narrowed, ceased running, and tlie pools be- 
 came small and few, so that at first I thought it must 
 have flowed away through some channel which I had 
 not seen to tlie bluff u]ion our right.
 
 1862.] A tsetse's STIXG. 469 
 
 We had seen a few sassaybus and rietboks in the 
 early moriimg, but near the wagon, where the neces- 
 sity of observing the course obhged me to remain, it 
 was impossible to get a shot at them, tlie crowd of 
 natives being alone sufficient to terrify the game, 
 while the guide wdio carried a musket, with very 
 httle ability to use it, generally had the first and best 
 opportunity, so that nothing but . long ranges were 
 left for the rest of us. A Hon had been heard roaring 
 in the bush beside us, and soon afterwards seeing a 
 herd of. quaggas, I followed them a long and weary 
 chase through a thin mopani country, which, while 
 it prevented my gettmg a fan' shot, allowed the 
 quarry to see and avoid me. The poor fellow who 
 followed me had thus to take another reef in his 
 hunger-girdle and solace himself with a scanty pinch 
 of snuff, as we tmiied toward tlie road. The wagon 
 evidently had not yet passed, and again we had to 
 turn, winding through plain and forest, till we found 
 it outspanned not half a mile from where we left it 
 on the Zimboya rivulet. A cold in the face, con- 
 tracted during the previous night, obhged me to give 
 up walking in the afternoon, and we were riding on 
 the track by which I had returned, when Chapman 
 came galloping back for fife (not his own but his 
 horse's). A fly had settled on the rump of his steed, 
 and though he had driven it off, he could be by no 
 means sure that others had not sucked blood, and 
 left the subtle venom with which they dilute it. We 
 altered our course, and held more north along the
 
 470 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [July 
 
 rivulet in the open places, galloping the oxen when- 
 ever we were forced to enter the bush. A herd of 
 waterboks appeared ; Chapman wounded one and 
 gave chase, but again the fly attacked him and forced 
 him to a precipitate retreat. A reef of sandstone 
 now cut off our path by the river. Du-ecting 
 Dokkie to the cleanest place, I told him first to 
 get up the bank and then rush across the level 
 ground till the bush was left behind him. The care- 
 lessness of the leader, however, allowed the front 
 pair of oxen to pass on either side of a stout stump, 
 and as the driver did not see this between the double 
 line, it caught the fore-axle exactly in the centre, 
 bringing the wagon up with a jerk, and breaking the 
 stout chain trek touw. Seeing the stump was too 
 large to be cut aAvay, I made Dokkie cast loose his 
 drag-chain, and passing it out behind the wagon 
 ordered the three or four yoke of cattle that had 
 broken adrift round to draw the wagon backward. 
 A smart driver would have done this at once, but 
 the simple manoeuvre seemed past Dokkie's compre- 
 hension, and the more I tried to hasten him the more 
 he found some new cause of delay. 
 
 I saw a dozen of the dreaded httle pests hovering 
 with that rapid motion of the -wing that keeps the 
 insect stationary over the devoted cal^tle ; but near an 
 hour passed before we were again ready to move, 
 and a few minutes of that time has most likely served 
 to inject the poison which dooms twelve working 
 oxen, two horses, and the cows, to a painful and lin-
 
 1862.] A QUAGGA SHOT. 471 
 
 geriiig death. No oue can be assured of this, till in 
 three weeks or so the staring eye and roughened 
 coat begin to tell the tale of gradual waste. I 
 heartily wish (hope, I can hardly say,) we may be 
 mistaken, but our guide, who had seen no fly, when 
 asked whether he was certain on the point, replied 
 with an air of astonishment, ' Is then the tsetse a 
 thing that a man forgets when he has once seen it?' 
 
 We travelled north and east along the river, till 
 the larger stream of Matietsie received its waters, and 
 crossing the bed of the latter at a dry rocky drift 
 spanned out on a burnt and desolate patch, where at 
 first it seemed difficult to find grass for the cattle. A 
 sheep was killed and served out, to make a scanty sup- 
 per for our followers, and Chapman undertook for the 
 night the astronomical department, securing as be- 
 fore only one star, which gave latitude 18° 25' south. 
 
 Thursday, 11 th. — We had proceeded httle more 
 than a mile when word was sent us that Chapman 
 had shot a quagga, and hastening toward the spot, I 
 found an eager group of natives, who were with diffi- 
 culty restrained from rushing at once upon the prey. 
 What they must think of us who measure, sketch, 
 photograph, and look at, in short, do anything before 
 we eat our game, it would be rather interesting to 
 know exactly. When liberty was at last given, the 
 rush was something terrible, and there was enouoh to 
 do to keep the Damaras — who as more closely bound 
 to us, felt themselves the stronger party — from leav- 
 ing the poor Makalakas little or nothing but the
 
 472 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [July 
 
 bare skeleton. In this case we had omitted tlie 
 measurement, but I had sketched the stripes carefully, 
 and the camera of course cannot be gainsaid. The 
 general colour was a yellowish or raw sienna brown 
 on the upper parts, and deepest on the rump, fading 
 into white on the neck, belly, and legs. The stripes 
 were of the deepest brown, or nearly black, and the 
 difference between this and the known varieties, con- 
 sisted in their being continued quite down to the 
 hoof on all four legs, slightly fainter on the inside. 
 The belly was marked by a broad black band along 
 its centre, to which all the side stripes were joined. 
 On the back was a similar black hue, but only the 
 stripes above the shoulder were connected with it. 
 The mane was upright as usual, the ears small and 
 equine, and a bare spot was observable on the inside 
 of the fore legs only ; the zebra, I beheve, having it 
 on all four, as well as longer ears. 
 
 Our guide protested against going on in the after- 
 noon, asking rather impudently, 'What sort of 
 travelling is this, and where shall I drink water 
 to-night ? ' But after crossing two or three river beds, 
 all tributaries of the Matietsie, and one with a httle 
 water in it, we halted at night on the south bank of 
 the Bolungo river, which, hke the rest, took a course 
 a little to the northward of east. 
 
 I had seen no game, but had nearly been led away 
 from the wagon by a report of buffiiloes, which 
 turned out to be only bushes. Chapman had seen 
 two elands asleep, and was creeping up to them,
 
 1862.] A WAGON BROKEN". 473 
 
 wlieii his followers, rushing eagerly up, startled the 
 game, and he lost them. I tried the three usual 
 stars at night, but had no absolutely certain observa- 
 tion. I beheve the latitude to be 18° 18'. 
 
 Friday, 18th. — Feehng a little better I took a 
 circuit to the south-east along the river which 
 flows in tolerably strong rills over rocky drifts or 
 stands in deep pools between the shallows. Turning 
 east in a rocky valley, I saw a few water ducks, so 
 shy and wary that I had no chance to fire. Then 
 turning north across a broad plain and elevated sand 
 ridge, covered with mopani bush, had just found the 
 wagon track in a rocky valley, when a shout attracted 
 my attention, and I learned from a Damara that the 
 wagon w^as broken. I turned back toward our out- 
 span, but soon met it coming on. Dokkie, with his 
 usual carelessness, having broken ojQf the dissel-boom 
 in the drift, and presuming upon Edward's youth, had 
 not hesitated to let it be heard that he cared nothing 
 about the matter. Edward had made fast the drag- 
 chain to the broken spar, and had the country been 
 level it would have answered very well ; but in the 
 uneven Httle ruts that caught the wheels, the after 
 oxen had no power to steer the wagon, and we found 
 it necessary to shorten and refit the boom. This 
 occupied an hour, and at the first attempt to move, 
 an extravagant and ill-judged sheer of the team not 
 only broke the new wood, but irremediably fractured 
 the tong, or part of the fore- carriage hi which the 
 pole is inserted.
 
 474 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [July 
 
 I now took the lifter, and passing it below the 
 fore-axle with the dissel boom restored to its place 
 and the drag-chain carried forward to relieve it of 
 the strain, lashed all three firmly together with stout 
 reins. In another hour we were again in motion, 
 through a valley rough enough to test it pretty 
 thoroughly. At the opening of this we met Chap- 
 man coming back, and a few hundred yards farther 
 crossed another stream called Nyati or Buffalo river, 
 which also joins the Matietsie, and outspanned. Dok- 
 kie was called to account for his carelessness and 
 insubordinate conduct, and was adjudged to receive 
 two dozen, as a hint to conduct himself with more 
 propriety in future. 
 
 The stars are beginning to pass too early for me 
 now, as the remains of daylight are still strong upon 
 the sky; but observations of Arcturus and a Centauri, 
 agreeing within eight seconds of each other, gave 
 latitude 18° 14' 42^ 
 
 Chapman gave us an interesting detail of one or 
 two lion-hunts, in one of which the lion, reposing — 
 we must not say majestically — on a prominence of 
 rock, disdained even to look at the wagons passing, 
 but remained motionless as his verisimihtude in 
 stone beside some noble portal. Chapman led up 
 his people — the crew of seven wagons — and ad- 
 vancing some fifty yards farther than he could per- 
 suade them to go, fired two or three shots, one of 
 which taking effect, enraged the lion, and made him 
 charge before the rifle was reloaded. Looking back
 
 1862.] A YOUNG QUAGGA. 475 
 
 to see whether he was supported, Chapman saw his 
 people in full flight, one httle Bushman, the last, 
 springing or rather flying over a precipice of I dare 
 hardly say how many feet. Chapman jumped over 
 one of ten, and hurried to take shelter behind his 
 horse, thinking, as is frequently the case, that should 
 the lion spring upon the steed, he would be able 
 to shoot him with certainty ; but man it seems is not 
 the only creature that knows discretion to be the 
 better part of valour. 
 
 My friend was up a little higher on the Zambesi 
 in 1853, and had engaged canoes and actually em- 
 barked, to make a visit to the falls, when Dr. 
 Livingstone arrived. The people made some of 
 their usual frivolous excuses to avoid the perform- 
 ance of their contract in this instance, that the 
 Matabili had punished a chief, named Wanlde, in 
 that direction, for having been on too friendly terms 
 with them, and thus he lost the opportunity of having 
 been the first to see this magnificent cataract which 
 was discovered two years after by Dr. Livingstone. 
 
 Saturday^ 19th. — We had proceeded about a 
 mile NE. by N., and had the small conical hill on 
 our left, when Chapman, who was in advance, fired, 
 and coming up soon after, I found he had been for- 
 tunate enough to bring down a fine young quagga 
 stallion, of the same kind as the mare previously 
 killed ; but as age, I suppose, ]iad not yet deepened 
 its colours, its whole body w^as of the purest white, 
 marked with jet black bands down to every hoof, in
 
 47a EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jdly 
 
 tliG manner of the other, but sHghtly fainter on the in- 
 side of the legs and also where the stripes of the sides 
 join the longitudinal line of the belly, some of those 
 on the flanks having their points so faintly marked 
 that the junction could not yet be called complete. 
 Like the other, a central stripe ran along the back, 
 with which two or three of the shoulder stripes were 
 connected, the broad stripes of the hinder parts 
 originating near it about the insertion of the tail, and 
 diverging laterally over the hip, flank, and side, till 
 they nearly or completely reached the vertical Ime, 
 the longest of them meeting on the way the vertical 
 stripes of the sides and forming the most beautiful 
 possible combination of curves and angles, even 
 the slight variation of regularity on either side 
 conducing to the effect. The ears were small, 
 banded and tipped with black and dark brown. 
 The head was well-shaped, and the whole form 
 hghter and more elegant than in the older specimens. 
 The measurement was from hoof to shoulder four 
 feet six inches, from hoof to rump five feet, actual 
 height four feet one inch, length seven feet three 
 inches, tail two feet four inches, nose to back of ears 
 two feet, neck and mane from back of ears two feet, 
 ear along the back six inches, along front seven inches 
 and a half, smallest circumference of neck two feet 
 seven inches, ditto at breast three feet, ditto leg 
 below knee six inches and a half, ditto leg below 
 hock seven inches and a half 
 
 The impatient natives were now allowed to cut it
 
 1862.] SECHELIS WAGON. 477 
 
 up, the preservation of the sldii being just now out 
 of the question. I crossed two or three Httle streams 
 coming from the hills on my left and aU flowing 
 toward the Matietsie, when my man, who knew no 
 more of the country than I, persuaded me to leave 
 the course I was taking and turn east. I had just 
 been looking at the compass and thinking of any- 
 thing rather than looking for game, when he with 
 his own ideas steadily bent on one object, i. e. the 
 acquisition of meat, suddenly poked me in the back 
 with his spear (the blunt end, of course) and handed 
 me my gun. We had come suddenly round an angle 
 of the hill upon a fine roan antelope ; but the watch- 
 ful animal, detecting our first movement, darted into 
 the thick bush before I could bring my sights to bear 
 on him. The facihty of loading allowed me a second 
 shot before he was completely out of range ; but 
 I failed to secure him, although from his nervous 
 start when I fired the last, I fancy it either hit or at 
 least passed very close to him. 
 
 I returned to my former course, and in about half 
 an hour saw the wagon of SecheH outspanned in an 
 open valley, and met Chapman returning from it ; 
 we drew up ours about a quarter of a mile from it 
 to the south, and learned from the man in charge 
 that it was only by accident he had not lost all his 
 cattle by the fly. He had intended to encamp at a 
 place he had visited last year, but having halted here, 
 had since found fly on the former outspan. This 
 place he beheves to be at present quite safe. He is
 
 478 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 a young man, and in liis coarse and not too frequently 
 washed European clothing, looks a tolerably respect- 
 able wagon driver ; but I was hardly prepared to 
 hear that he was himself the plenipotentiary and 
 ambassador of Secheli. He had been unable to take 
 the direct route for want of water, and after being 
 four days without it, had to send back his oxen to 
 Koungara for a drink. He was eight days travelhng 
 from Zougarra to Daka, and has been here five weeks, 
 but has not yet been allowed to enter the country of 
 Sekeletu, although he sent messengers forward while 
 lie was still far distant on his journey. He received, 
 in fact, a positive refusal of any permission or safe- 
 conduct whatever ; Sekeletu, it is said, observing, 
 ' No ! you accuse me of kilhng people, and you shall 
 not come to die in my country and give me ad- 
 ditional blame.' As for the goods of the deceased, 
 Sekeletu denies having anything to do "with them, 
 and says that Mr. Price took them to himself. But 
 the answer to this is, ' We know that Price did not 
 take them, and we know that the lady's dresses, shoes, 
 scarfs, and shawls, are being worn by men and 
 women, and that you and your people are drinking 
 the tea and coffee you have taken from them.' 
 
 He says that he went toward the falls, but was 
 compelled to turn back and wait Avhile messengers 
 were sent up to the chief, and is now expecting an 
 answer. 
 
 At night he came with three men, who have been 
 left at his camp with orders to act as spies upon him.
 
 1862.] ORDERS OF SEKELETU. 479 
 
 and to report the arrival of other travellers. They 
 say that we must remain here till they have been to 
 the head man at the falls, and retm^ned with permission 
 for us to proceed. We answer that our time is not 
 like theirs, of no value, and that we cannot afford to 
 waste it without an object; that we will proceed on 
 Monday, and they can start if they wish in the morn- 
 ing, and so, arriving a day before us, announce our 
 coming. This, however, they demur to, on the 
 ground that Sekeletu will infalhbly cut their throats 
 if they do not stop us according to order. We ask if 
 the Makololo do not know that Livingstone was 
 accustomed to walk right into a chief's place and 
 announce himself, when he well knew that it was the 
 custom to send messengers before. But all argument 
 being of no avail, we expressed our determination to 
 take the responsibility on ourselves and make the 
 visit ; so that, if we were stopped, it might be by a 
 chief, and not by two or three slaves in the veldt, 
 who might or might not have any authority for their 
 statements. They relaxed so far as to promise that 
 one of their number should go with us, and retired. 
 
 Sunday^ 20th. — The first thing was the long pro- 
 mised and much-needed wash in water, rather more 
 than ' dehciously cool,' which left me, not clean, but 
 something less dirty than the smoke and ashes of the 
 last day or two had rendered the whole of us. A 
 strong easterly breeze blows here the greater part of 
 the day, and the sun being now on a visit to our 
 friends in the northern hemisphere, the air is cool
 
 480 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 «and pleasant. We have been trying indigenous beans 
 and other substitutes for coffee ; but of all we can 
 invent we find roast pumpkin the best, and are trying 
 to persuade ourselves that it is even more agreeable 
 than the best mocha. 
 
 An evening observation of a Centauri gave lat. 18° 
 12' 6", and the direction of the falls, as pointed out 
 by the natives, is 20 degrees east of north, or very 
 nearly in the due meridian. 
 
 Monday, 2Lsf.— About ten or eleven last night we 
 were awakened by a couple of shots and the barking 
 of dogs near the Moquain wagon, and thinking they 
 might be attacked by some night prowlers, were 
 preparing to take part in the fray, when Wildebeeste 
 and our Bushman April made their triumphal entry 
 into our camp, the former proclaiming at the top of 
 his voice that he had killed an indefinite number 
 of the biggest elephants that ever were seen. A 
 good deal of questioning elicited the fact that 
 several had comedown successively to the water, and 
 that he had fired five times, killing one, he could not 
 say whether male or female, and wounding others. 
 He then passed on to the Damaras' fire, where, feehng 
 himself less restrained by strict and searching ques- 
 tions, his harangue commenced in good earnest. ' Be- 
 hold me, the hunter ! Ye look on me, the killer 
 of elephants and miglity bulls ! Behold me, the Big 
 Elephant ! the Lion ! Look on me, ye Damaras ! and 
 Makalaka ! admire and confess that I am a great bull 
 calf!!'
 
 1862.] 481 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 approach to the victoria falls — distant sound of the 
 cataract the first view of the falls — a black rhino- 
 ceros—the southern face of the falls its double 
 
 rainbow buffalo hunt — negotiations with moshotlani 
 
 — sekeletu and the missionaries — the great chasm or 
 
 three-rill cliff exorbitant prices of food dealings 
 
 with moshotlani and madzekazi — a fall into a game-pit 
 — the eastern side of the cataracts — changes produced 
 by the falls in the character of the scenery — dr. 
 Livingstone's garden — shooting and descending the 
 
 RAPIDS — extreme BREADTH OF THE FALLS — CLOSE OF THE 
 
 expedition. 
 
 If it ])e of importance that the first view of a 
 magnificent work of nature should be that which 
 most effectually reahses its wild subhmity and 
 grandeur, then decidedly the visitor to the Victoria 
 Falls should approach them from the southern or 
 colonial side. 
 
 Toiling for many a weary week across the desert 
 liighland north of ISTgami and the Botletle river, 
 dependent for a draught of water on scanty limestone 
 pits or still more precarious vleis from tlie last rains, 
 and plunging suddenly as it were from this region of 
 drought into an illimitable valley, where the brown 
 and arid stony ridges of the foreground pass through 
 all imaginable shades of sombre green and greyish- 
 
 F F
 
 4fc2 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 purple to tliG ethereal blue of the far-off horizon, and 
 where from every hollow gushes some bubbling 
 stream to send its waters to the Great Zambesi, he 
 crosses the Daka and Matietsie rivers, and halts at 
 length among the hills upon the sources of the 
 Onyati and Buffalo. 
 
 Here let him leave his vehicles, his horses, oxen, 
 and dogs, and discarding everything that cannot be 
 carried on the shoulders of a few Makalaka, make up 
 his mind to a day's march across the tsetse-stricken 
 hill of red sand, scantily clothed with mopanies and 
 other varieties of the Bauhoenia, their leaves growing 
 in pairs, edge upward, defying the sun to scorch, or 
 the traveller to find shadow beneath them. Let him 
 halt by niglit upon the northern slope, and, stretched 
 beneath some gigantic baobab or motchecheerie, 
 watch the red glare of his fire, thrown high into the 
 dim recesses of the foliage, and listen till in the still- 
 ness of the night there steals upon his ear a low 
 murmuring like the sighing of the ocean before an 
 impending storm, rising and sweUing gradually into 
 the deep-toned, monotonous roar of a continuous surf 
 for ever breaking on some iron-bound coast. 
 
 Such, at least, is an outhne of the course we had 
 pursued with tolerable success, and which, with due 
 precautions for the avoidance of places infested by 
 the tsetse, may fairly be recommended to other 
 travellers. 
 
 Commencing our journey at Walvisch Bay, upon 
 the west coast, in the beginning of 18G1, we found
 
 18G2.] FIRST VIEW OF THE FALLS. 483 
 
 ourselves at day-break on Wednesday, 23rd July, 
 1862, shaking off the slumbers of the night and 
 packing up our bedding in readiness for the last 
 march between us and the falls. 
 
 We were in motion soon after sunrise, and had 
 barely proceeded half a mile when Barry discovered 
 the smoke, and seeking a little opening in the trees, 
 we saw the water of the broad Zambesi glancing hke 
 a mirror beyond a long perspective of hill and valley, 
 while from below it clouds of spray and mist nearly 
 a mile in extent rose out of the chasm into which the 
 water fell. The central five or six of these clouds or 
 columns were the largest, but in all we counted ten, 
 rising more hke the cloud of spray thrown up by a 
 cannon ball than in a strictly columnar form. A 
 light easterly wind just swayed their soft vapoury 
 tops ; the sun, still low, shed its softened hght over 
 the sides exposed to it. The warm grey hills beyond 
 faded gradually into the distance, and the deep valley 
 before us, winding for six miles between us and the 
 falls, showed every form of rough brown rock, and 
 every tint of green or autumnal foliage, presenting to 
 the eye, long wearied of sere and yellow mopanie 
 leaves, dry rocks, burnt grass, and desolated coimtry, 
 the most lovely and refreshing coup cVoeil the soul of 
 artist coidd imagine. Willingly could I have feasted 
 my eye upon this distant vision for the day, but our 
 wearied and thirsty men were heavy laden and 
 pressing on for water.
 
 484 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFKICA. [July 
 
 And now Avas to come before our view another 
 portion of tlie panorama, to them of far more interest 
 tlian all the cataracts the world can boast of. We 
 had refreshed ourselves at the Masoe, a httle stream 
 flowing over a rocky bed, and had started with fresh 
 vigour on our way, when our guide whistled. A 
 halt Avas made, and every eye turned in the direction 
 indicated. A black rhinoceros (boriele, the fiercer 
 of the two varieties) was standing not far upon our 
 right, and from his uneasy gestures it was evident he 
 had caught sight of us at the same moment. 
 
 Keeping back as well as we could our excited 
 followers. Chapman and I crept to within fifty yards, 
 and fired with deadly aim into his shoulder. He 
 stumbled, badly wounded, but stood at bay about a 
 hundred yards farther, viciously snuffing the air with 
 elevated nose. A couple more shots brought him 
 down again with a broken shoulder, and bleeding 
 profusely from the lung he darted away through the 
 thicket at a pace we could not cope with. We ran 
 till out of breath when the spoor was plain, or sought 
 its course in devious winding's when it was not. We 
 crossed the little river, and about four miles back 
 caught sight of him again, but the rush of the three 
 men who had kept with us put him to flight, and 
 being tolerably wearied, we returned, leaving Wilde- 
 beeste and April to follow as silently as they could, 
 and find an opportunity of despatching the crippled 
 Ijeast. Having dined off* a bit of elephant's flesh 
 broiled u])on the embers, we took the path again.
 
 1862.] SOUTHERN" FACE OF THE FALLS. 485 
 
 winding wherever soft red sand could be found 
 among the low rocky liillocks. Pebbles of beauti- 
 fully crystallised white quartz, transparent and 
 opaque, others tinted with deep green hke verdigris 
 (though it does not test like copper), as well as agate 
 and coarse red jasper, lay about on one of these hills, 
 another feature of the ever varying scene which 
 arrested our attention. 
 
 Tlie deep valley of the narrow river,* enriched 
 with every kind of foliage, had now become more 
 decided in its character. Steep cliffs bounded it on 
 either side, the deep shadows of their abrupt descent 
 contrasting with the grassy plateaux above, whose 
 yellow surfaces showed like fields of ripened corn. 
 Immediately beyond was the belt of dark, fresh 
 green forest, fringing the ravine of the Victoria, and 
 from behind this rose the white yaporous columns 
 (or rather clouds, for the first' word suggests too 
 formal an idea) screening as with a misty veil the 
 now darkened southern face of the fall, beyond 
 which a long vista of the palmy island-studded river 
 glittered like silver in the sunlight, the banks now 
 showing in w\arm and soft grey tints the detail of 
 
 * We did not at first recognise this narrow stream as the lower 
 portion of the Zambesi. Dr. Livingstone's description having 
 conveyed the impression that the continuation of the river flowed 
 from the fartlier extremity of the chasm which receives the 
 cataract, instead of about three-fourths from the nearer end. Be- 
 side this, the lower portion is aj^parently so mere a thread, com- 
 pared with the broad sheet of water above, that any one would 
 fancy it only a small tributary.
 
 48G EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jcly 
 
 their features, and tlie mountains melting faint and 
 blue into the distance. 
 
 Again the scene, like the Peri's glimpse of paradise, 
 was shut out from our view, and we travelled north- 
 ward till the path brought us to the westward of the 
 falls, about a mile from their nearest point. Ac- 
 cording to the rules laid down for traders, we should 
 have gone onward to the ferry and reported our 
 arrival in due form to the petty chief there stationed, 
 but artists have always some odd fancy that sensible 
 people would never dream of, and at my suggestion 
 we camped down under a shady tree, took two or 
 three Makalaka to carry gun and sketch-book, and 
 walked down to make sure of a preliminary view 
 and settle the plan of future operations. 
 
 The moistened atmosphere to leeward of the spray 
 cloud, the rich green sward becoming momentarily 
 more damp till every footprint of elephant, hippopo- 
 tamus, or buffalo was filled with fine clear water, 
 marked our near approach, and crossing with sodden 
 shoes the stumps and half-fallen trees that obstructed 
 our view, we stood at once fronting the southern face 
 of the magnificent Victoria FaUs. At the western 
 angle, or just opposite to us, and at the beginning of 
 the ravine, a body of water fifty or sixty yards wide 
 comes down like a boihng rapid over the broken 
 rocks, the steepness of the incline, while it diminishes 
 by a few feet the height of the actual fall, forming a 
 channel for the reception of a greater volume of 
 water, and allowing it to rush forward with so much
 
 18G2.] THE GKEAT CATARACT. 487 
 
 violence as to break up tlie whole into a fleecy, snow 
 white, irregularly seething torrent, with its lighter 
 particles glittering and flashing hke myriads of living 
 diamonds in the sunhght, before it takes its final leap 
 sheer out from the edge of the precipice into the 
 abyss below. 
 
 ' How does the water come down at Lodore ? ' 
 Would that I could remember Southey's inimitable 
 lines ! they would save me a world of description. 
 
 ' Here it comes glancing, 
 There it comes dancing, 
 Rattling and battling 
 With endless rebound.' 
 
 Then interposed a mass of cliff smooth almost as a 
 wall, and certainly as perpendicular, its base pro- 
 jecting like a buttress, its summit crowned with grass 
 and forest, kept ever dark and green by the spreading 
 mist, and its dark purple front (deepened almost to 
 blackness in the shadow by the northern sun) broken 
 by a deep chasm, through which poured three smaller 
 rills that might have been accounted grand had they 
 not been dwarfed by the mighty mass beside them. 
 A hundred yards more east commenced the first grand 
 vista of the Fall, comprising in one view near half a 
 mile of cataract, stretching in magnificent perspective 
 from the three rill cliff to the western side of Garden 
 Island. The cliff was here of its original height, and 
 the edge being apparently unworn, the height of the 
 fall was greater, but of course the depth of water flow- 
 ing over it was less. Beside this, from the absence
 
 488 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 of any material slope like that in the channel of the 
 leaping water, the stream did not gather way, but 
 flowed calmly and majesticaUy onward. Shallows 
 and ledges of rock caused rapids and miniature 
 cascades, but these only partially broke the repose of 
 the deep blue smface, till, reaching the cantle of its 
 course, the mighty change took place. Wherever an 
 equality of the rock formed a hollow to conduct a 
 mass of water, there fell, sweeping more or less out- 
 ward in direct proportion to its strength and volume, 
 a jet more or less green and translucent for the first 
 few yards, but quickly breaking into masses, from 
 which the lighter particles, detached in their descent, 
 formed comet or rocket-like trains of spray and 
 vapour, till the whole, before reaching the abyss, was 
 transformed into a broken, snow white, fleecy stream, 
 bearing but little resemblance to actual liquid water, 
 and reminding me more of the descriptions I have 
 read of the Staubbach in the Alps than anything 
 else. 
 
 The river was at its lowest, and the sheet of water 
 therefore was not unbroken ; but I suppose it never 
 can present the smootli unvaried regularity which the 
 only representation hitherto given would indicate. 
 Here and there masses of rock jutted out their tops, 
 forming small islands, breaking the uniformity of the 
 line, and their fronts interspersing broad faces of 
 dark rock, on either side of which trickled down shal- 
 low rills, too weak to jet out in curves like the others. 
 Some of these never even reached the bottom in a
 
 1862.] EFFECTS OF LIGHT AND VAFOUR. 489 
 
 visible form, being either distributed over the rock, 
 dispersed by the wind, that always eddies upward 
 from the gulf, or licked up by the ascending vapour. 
 
 Now stand and look through the dim and misty 
 perspective till it loses itself in the cloud of spray to 
 the east. How shall words convey ideas which even 
 the pencil of Turner must fail to represent ? Stiff 
 and formal columns of smoke there are none — 
 the eastern breeze has blended all in one. Think 
 nothing of the drizzling mist, but tell me if heart of 
 man ever conceived anything more gorgeous than 
 those two lovely rainbows, so brilhant that the eye 
 shrinks from looking on them, segments of which 
 rising from the abyss, deep as the solar rays can 
 penetrate it, overarch spray, rock, and forest, till rising 
 to the highest point they fail to find refi^actory mois- 
 ture to complete the arch. 
 
 Eastward ho ! Still eastward ! through mud, wild 
 date-palm brakes, grassy swamps, and vine thickets 
 tangled with ever dripping leaves, scene after scene 
 of surpassing grandeur presenting itself, till the 
 imagination is bewildered and embarrassed by so 
 much magnificence. Now we pass the central, or, as 
 we suppose it. Garden Island, dividing the fall into 
 two great masses, and interposing its breadth of 
 bare projecting precipice. Its extent as yet we can- 
 not tell, for its farther end is lost in spray. In some 
 places the grass reaches up to the verge, the trees 
 appearing as if the keen wind blowing upward from 
 the o;i.ilf had shorn off their overhangino; branches
 
 490 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 level with the clilT. Here and there are broad ui- 
 tervals of dark purple rock wet and slippery with 
 tangled weeds. I approach the edge and look with 
 awe into the troubled, narrow stream beneath. The 
 influence of the water downward, eternally down- 
 ward, seems to meet a response within me, and 
 kneehng down I rest on one hand to look farther ; 
 but down comes my little bushboy to rescue me 
 from the supposed danger, nor will he be satisfied 
 till we have removed from the verge. 
 
 Still farther to the eastw^ard, w^e will visit the re- 
 motest angle, and then what need of crossing the 
 river (as we have been told is necessarj^) for a view, 
 when every feature we can wish for fronts us on this 
 side ? Why, rather, did not Livingstone cross and see 
 the southern front, instead of contentincf himself Avith 
 a peep at the hazard of his hfe from the precipitous 
 island ? 
 
 But now appear new actors on the scene. The open 
 sky beyond shows that we have nearly reached the 
 termination of the forest, when Chapman stops sud- 
 denly. I can see nothing jet, but the poised rille 
 and attitude of precaution show that something more 
 than ordinary is before us. I step back round the 
 corner of the bush, and there, within seventy yards, are 
 a hundred buffaloes, fortunately to windward of us. 
 We fire into them, and they charge wildly round to 
 leeward, seeking to sniff our wmd. If they gain 
 tliis, their next charge will be directly at us. Bullet 
 after bullet sto})s and heads them off, and though
 
 1862.] A BUFFALO IIUXT. 491 
 
 tliey see us plainly tliey cannot determine on a 
 direct charge without another effort to get to lee- 
 ward and ascertain our quahty by the scent. At 
 length they turn and rush toward the fall, crush- 
 ing through palm brake and rotten wood till at 
 fiill speed they gain the rocky headland and we 
 hold our breath in fear lest they should rush over. 
 Now they halt on the very edge, then- dark massive 
 forms stand out in bold relief against the misty 
 clouds ; and again, as the bullets tell upon them, 
 they take refuge in the palm brake, the wounded 
 lagging in the covert as they go. 
 
 One with bleeding jaws charges dkectly at us, 
 forcing us in turn to take the shelter of the stoutest 
 trees ; and presently my httle fellow calls my attention 
 to one standing crippled between the feathery leaves 
 of a low palm and a diagonally inchned and stunted 
 tree. As I prepare to fire he rises to charge, and I 
 take cover till I estimate his remaining strenejth, 
 returning to dehver my shot when his fruitless effort 
 is over, the Bushman immediately chmbing the 
 stunted tree and throwing his assegai from the 
 branches, while a Makalaka, carrjdng an empty 
 musket, begs hard for a charge and a bullet, 
 which is refused only because we have none to fit 
 the bore. 
 
 Still there are others badly wounded in the brake, 
 invisible, though we can hear them bellowing within 
 ten yards, and extreme caution is necessary in ap- 
 proaching so dangerous a beast.
 
 492 EXPLOEATIOXS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 Chapman, as tlie more experienced liunter, now 
 takes the lead, and I follow close to support him. 
 Peering closely through the openings of the arching 
 leaves, at length he sees the feet, and firing shot after 
 shot where he thinks the body ought to be, retreats 
 to cover after every discharge. After awhile all is 
 silent, and leaving the animals to die, we return to 
 our first victim, order a couple of men to bring up 
 some of the Hesh, and hasten to cheer the hearts of 
 our party with the tidings of the glorious feast await- 
 ing them. 
 
 Of course I have as yet sketched nothing but an 
 outline of the buffalo in a small note-book, and I 
 now lose no time in committing to paper my impres- 
 sion of the herd halting short in their headlong 
 career on the very face of the cataract. Again, how- 
 ever, there is a report of buffaloes, and the whole herd, 
 disturbed in their favourite retreat, and cut off from 
 escaping by the windings of the deep gorge before 
 mentioned, are coming toward our camp. We sally 
 forth and fire, wounding some at almost every shot. 
 Sometimes they turn and charge us, and now, rein- 
 forced by a larger body coming down toward the 
 falls, they charge as often as we fire, driving us back 
 from tree to tree, till many of the foremost being 
 wounded their courage fails and they retire, though 
 not without a vicious determination to renew the 
 combat should we jDress them too closely. At length 
 my bullet breaks the hind leg of a large cow, she 
 turns out from the troop and seeking the covert of
 
 1SG2.] THE PETTY CHIEF, MOSHOTL.\J\^I. 493 
 
 some trees leaves but a small portion of lier shoulder 
 visible. My next passes through it, and the Bush- 
 man April dashes up and thrusts his assegai behind the 
 blade-bone of the fallen animal. Fain would I have 
 preserved the horns as a trophy, but all our burdens 
 must be laden on men's shoulders for a march of 
 twenty miles back to the wagon, and I am obliged 
 to content myself witli the tail. But here April in- 
 tercepts me. The cow, as he has ascertained by 
 small incisions, is ' very fat,' and he fears to make a 
 large one lest the hysenas should find too easy an 
 entrance for their teeth, and rob liim of the luxury. 
 StiU I determine upon adding another to my ' tails 
 of the wilderness,' and leaving him to cover the car- 
 case as he likes, return to camp. 
 
 A couple of fine men bearing the large heavy 
 spears used upon the river arrived soon after, having 
 been sent by Moshotlani (the petty chief or headman 
 at the ferry), on hearing the reports of our guns, to 
 learn Avho we were and what was the object of our 
 visit. Our answer was that, as Dr. Livingstone had 
 made known the wish of Sekeletu to engage in com- 
 merce with white men, Chapman had brought up a 
 few goods in order to commence a traffic on fair 
 terms ; but that, as the carriage by land was long 
 and tedious and the loss of cattle from Ions; sick- 
 ness and the Tsetse fly exceedingly heavy, he could 
 not afford to part with European manufactures ex- 
 cept at a high price. We therefore wished to ask 
 the chief, Sekeletu, for ten of his men to help us to
 
 494 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFEICA. [July 
 
 build a boat near Siuamanc's, and take her down to 
 Tete, promising them a gun each, or such otlier pay 
 as might be agreed upon, and pointing out that goods 
 brought up the country by water could be sold at a 
 rate more nearly in accordance with their original 
 price, and engaging either to return with the men in 
 person, or to make arrangements with the British 
 consul, Dr. Livingstone, that tliey might be duly 
 sent to their own country. 
 
 My presence (as a person who does not trade or 
 make a profession of hiuiting is looked upon as a 
 vairabond, with no ostensible means of sjaininf^; a 
 liveliliood) we accounted for by telling them that 
 when I left Dr. Livingstone, at the Zambesi mouth, 
 I was seriously ill, and as my property remained in 
 Tete, I was naturally desirous of returning to re- 
 cover it. 
 
 The death of the unfortunate missionaries was of 
 course a dehcate subject for persons situated as we 
 were to touch upon, for we cannot honestly exonerate 
 the chief from having hastened their death by harsh 
 treatment and neglect, if not, as native testimony 
 assures us, by actual poison ; and this, probably, 
 because his temper was soured by the uon-arrival of 
 the men he had sent down with Livingstone ; 
 certainly he plundered the survivors, and insulted 
 them by disinterring and brutally mutilating the 
 corpses of their dearest relatives. 
 
 In answer to an allusion to the subject, Ave told 
 them that it had l3een reported in Cape Town that
 
 1862.] ASTRONOMICAL OBSERYATIOXS. 495 
 
 Sekeletu had poisoned them, and that the people 
 ■were grieved and indignant at the cruel deed ; but we 
 were private people and had no authority to speak 
 on so serious a subject, which had better be left to 
 be discussed between the chief himself and such per- 
 sons as might be properly delegated on the part of 
 our government. 
 
 All this passed, of course, in a quiet conversational 
 manner, and our visitors remarked that they also 
 Avere men of no authority, and that we had better 
 come to the drift, where boats were in waiting to 
 take us across to the head man. But we, not wish- 
 ing to place ourselves in the trap in which Baldwin 
 was caught, decHned the offer with thanks, express- 
 ini>' our intention to send a messen2:er to announce 
 
 o o 
 
 our arrival in due form, and pointing out as an 
 additional reason the number of bufialoes we had 
 slain, and the probability that their flesh would go 
 to waste did we not remain upon the spot to 
 secure it. 
 
 x\-t night I observed a Centauri (3 Centauri and 
 Arcturus passing the meridian before daylight was 
 sufficiently off the sky), which gave observed altitude, 
 95° 23' 30'^ index error, 2' 18'', subtractive ; lati- 
 tude, 17° 54' 42", and about eleven greeted again 
 our long-lost friend a Lp-as, the altitude of which 
 was 66° 55' 50", error 2' 18", lat. 17° 55' 20", the 
 mean of the two being 17° 55' 4" south. 
 
 The nearest ano;le of the falls bears 108° and the 
 farthest 115°, or as nearly as possible Jwc^east; so
 
 496 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 that tliG observed latitude of our camp may be taken 
 as that of the waterfall. 
 
 Thursday^ 24:th. — Wakened about daybreak by 
 the never-ceasing, never- varying roar of the cataract. 
 We saw the dull grey spray cloud rising in irregular 
 columns and spreading its dark form against the 
 eastern sky, differing from smoke only m that it did 
 not rise or fall beyond a certain limit, and did not 
 drift away, but remained overhanging the spot from 
 which it rose — its spreading palm-like top just 
 swayed and altered by the gentle breeze. I watched 
 with interest as the sun rose about 30° on one 
 side of it, but was somewhat disappointed in the 
 effects I had anticipated : no play of brilhant colours 
 took place on its illuminated edge, nor did it show 
 more transparency or light and shade than might 
 have been observed on a diffused cloud of steam 
 under the same circumstances. 
 
 Its angular height from the tree-tops, measured with 
 the sextant, varied with the rise and fall from 5° 50' 
 to 7° 48' ; and these laid down by the protractor on 
 paper, and measured with the compasses, gave, esti- 
 mating our distances at one mile, 440 and 754 feet 
 respectively. If we take the latter and add to it 40 
 feet, or, as we afterwards found it, more nearly 90 feet 
 for the height of the trees, and 350 for Dr. Living- 
 stone's measured depth of the fall, we shall have a 
 result of 1,144 or 1,194 feet as the actual height to 
 which the spray rises from tiie bottom of the chasm. 
 This is, of course, only a rough approximation, and it
 
 1862.] GARDEX ISLAXD. 497 
 
 must be remembered that the apparent heiglit and 
 vohime are greatly diminished as the heat of the 
 day comes on, though during the coolness of the 
 early morning we thought it rose higher than the 
 greatest altitude I have mentioned ; and in the wet 
 season, when the water rises six feet or more, it must 
 be truly magnificent. 
 
 After chatting for some time, I started for the 
 falls, taking Edward along the bank of the river, 
 and getting peep after peep at the waters, as from a 
 mere swiftly-flowing stream it grew into a rapid, 
 rushing with accelerated violence as the slope in- 
 creased, till at length we stood over the very edge of 
 the western channel, and looking down on the broken 
 foaming mass tossing in wild confusion beneath our 
 feet, could see still fiuther down the troubled water 
 in the deep chasm making its way towards the east, 
 and, as the clouds of misty spray swayed and opened, 
 could catch glimpses here and there of smaller rills 
 pouring down indentations of the cliiTs, and could 
 even see indistinctly portions of the water on this 
 side Garden Island. Edward seemed rapt in won- 
 der, and was ready to declare that nothing could 
 be more grand ; but when a hundred yards more 
 brought us round the western end of the chasm and 
 face to face with the white and foaming mass of the 
 'leaping water,' with its minuter particles glittering 
 like flakes of silver in the morning sun, he could not 
 find words to express his feelings. 
 
 Just after passing Garden Island we observed a 
 
 G G
 
 498 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July. 
 
 small quiet pool upon its eastern side, and as a rough 
 mode of testing the breadth, I fired, aiming with 
 the 100 yards or point-blank sight at the root of a 
 tree. My bullet fell in the pool somewhat lower than 
 the point aimed at, and, as my rifle shoots strongly 
 and to a greater distance than the figures marked 
 upon the sights indicate, I considered the breadth of 
 the chasm to be, there, rather more than 100 yards. 
 About 200 yards more east we stretched a line 
 120 feet in length, and taking bearings of a tree on 
 the very edge of the falls, obtained the following re- 
 sults : — Base line on south side of the chasm, 120 feet ; 
 direction, 315°: the tree bears from the west end 74° 
 and from the east end 62°. Second set : Base line, 
 120 feet; direction, 135° ; the same tree from west 
 end, 51° ; from east end, 37°. 
 
 The distance of the tree is therefore about four 
 times the length of the base line, or 160 yards; 
 perhaps 10 yards may be taken off, as this was not a 
 favourable place for standing near the edge, and a 
 trifle may be allowed for error in this rough mode of 
 measurement ; still, as the two sets agree very 
 nearly, I think the breadtli of the chasm cannot be 
 less at this point than 140 yards. Opposite Garden 
 Island it was mucli narrow^er, and from a subsequent 
 measurement I considered it to be about 75 yards. 
 
 We passed the scene of our battle with the buffa- 
 loes, where clusters of wild date palm shot up their 
 slender stems and graceful feathery leaves to a height 
 of thirty or forty feet, while others shorter in the
 
 18G2.] THE FORM OF THE FALLS. 499 
 
 stem spread tlieir leafy crowns, so as to form a dense 
 and sometimes almost impenetrable jungle in the 
 recesses of the swamp. 
 
 The forest now terminated abruptly ; and, deter- 
 mined to see the end of the falls this time, we walked 
 on through swampy grass till we were stopped by a 
 deep fissure — not at the end, for we could still see 
 waterfalls meltino; into obscure mist more than a 
 quarter of a mile beyond — but at, I suppose, a little 
 more than two-thirds from the western end of the 
 chasm, rather vitiating its similarity to the letter L, 
 and hardly warranting a comparison with a T. Im- 
 pressed with the ideas founded on Dr. Livingstone's 
 picture and description, we thought at first that this 
 must be one of the rivers we had passed on 
 Wednesday, but a glance from the precipitous head- 
 land at the narrow stream far down in the gorge be- 
 neath our feet showed that it was the continuation of 
 the Zambesi itself, and that the waters of the cata- 
 ract were flowing from ect'St as well as west to escape 
 l)y it.* The stream was of that sombre green which 
 indicates great depth ; the moderate rapid formed in 
 the narrow turn below the entrance rolhng in that 
 smooth glassy swell, almost destitute of foam, which 
 seems so gentle and proves so overpowering when one 
 tries to stem it. I could not then tell what impedi- 
 
 * I did not like at the moment to decide that no outlet could 
 exist at the extremity of the fall, hut it was evident that, if there 
 were any, only a very small portion of water could escape by it, 
 and subsecj^uently I found that there Avas none.
 
 500 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Jolt 
 
 ments midit exist farther down, but it seemed to me 
 that if that swell could be surmounted a stout crew 
 might pull a whale-boat right into the chasm, and 
 even skirt the base of the fall for a short distance to 
 east and west before the rapids and shallows stopped 
 them. 
 
 Eeferring afterwards to the comparison of the 
 river's form to that of a letter, Chapman observed 
 that, though it was certainly not like an L, and he 
 had no doubt I had hit it to a T, yet for his part 
 the mighty Zambesi, pouring her troubled waves into 
 the gulf, reminded him rather of a great C ; at which 
 Barry and I, not liking to be defrauded of the chance 
 of connecting our own initials ^vith the river, ex- 
 claimed in unison. Oh ! letter B, letter B. 
 
 In our enclosure I found the head man, Moshotlong 
 or Moshotlani, smTOunded by his attendants. Chap- 
 man told me our proposals had been favourably 
 entertained, and that it was considered that the 
 messao;e would be ao-reeable to the chief and in 
 accordance Avith his own wishes to open a path to 
 liis country by the river. Chapman had discovered a 
 defect in the fowhng-piece, and had, therefore, de- 
 termined not to present it, but to send to the wagon 
 for a more costly weapon, with one rifled and one 
 smooth barrel. A present of beads to the head man 
 had been followed by a succession of requests made 
 through the medium of Madzekazi for everything : 
 his greater experience in civilisation enabled him to 
 think of the chmax to the lonc^-lost being, Grosr.
 
 1862.] A MAGNIFICEXT VIEW. 501 
 
 When they were about to depart I presented 
 Madzekazi with the onl}^ tiling I had worth giving — 
 a large red handkerchief of brilliant pattern ; and 
 thanking me with an inimitable air of native pohte- 
 ness, he laid the gift at the feet of the head man 
 till he obtained permission to retain it. 
 
 Saturday, 2Qth. — Edward started early with Dokkie 
 and some natives on his return to the wagon, as it is, 
 of course, not desirable to leave it any longer than 
 we can help without a white man in charge. 
 Chapman and I went to the falls, and spent the day 
 in photograpliing and sketching the chasm from the 
 brink of the rock overhanging the rapid of the 
 ' leapmg water ' at its western end. The view here 
 was magnificent; though the volumes of spray and 
 mist compressed into rolling clouds, such as might 
 arise if the broadsides of a fleet were discharo-ed in 
 the same hmits, hid from us all but a small portion of 
 the nearest actual fall. Still, in the space kept clear 
 by the interposition of the dark sombre w^all of the 
 westernmost island, we could see the troubled 
 eddying waters — here dark green and of glassy 
 smoothness, there white and foamino^ as it encoun- 
 tered the numberless rocks and shallows in its way — 
 seeking as it were to escape by the only channel 
 open to it from the rusli and turmoil it had passed. 
 At this, which may be called the beginning of the 
 chasm, the rock of the north or upper side projects 
 like a buttress at its base, and heaps of great fallen 
 masses stiU farther narrow the water-course. The
 
 502 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 upper part being indented from a cleft, from wliicli, 
 in all probability, these masses Lave been thrown, 
 two or three rills Avhich, if seen alone, would be of 
 themselves called cataracts, find their way through 
 the rock and forest on the top, and gushing down as 
 perpendicularly as the jutting irregularities allow, 
 fill the hollow w^ith an indefinite grey mist, wdiich 
 nothing but a vertical sun at another period of the 
 year can illuminate. 
 
 The channel between this, which we have called 
 Three-rill Cliff, and the western shore slopes more 
 than any of the other parts, carrying off, of course, a 
 deeper body of water, and causing the stream gra- 
 dually to become a foaming angry rapid, till, with 
 the impetus it has acquired, the water, noAV a broken 
 mass, ghttering with silvery lustre in the sunlight, 
 leaps clear away from the edge, and shoots diagonally 
 downw^ard in masses which may be hkened to the 
 nuclei of comets leaving long vapoury trains in their 
 rear. The wind, the waving foHage, the drifting 
 spray, and, above all, the impossibility of catching 
 the detail of the rushing water, were sore trials to 
 the photographer, and, to say truth, not much less w'as 
 the artist made to feel the incompetency of his power 
 to give even a faint idea of the grandeur of the 
 scene before him. Still it seemed not quite im- 
 possible, until the declining sun caused the rainbow 
 to rise from beneath his feet and gradually span the 
 entire picture, drawing its tints, more beautiful than 
 in England's clouded climate one can ever dream
 
 1862.] MADZEKAZI. 503 
 
 of, over rock, spray, cloud, waterfall, and forest. Then, 
 indeed, the combmed effects of wild and sombre mag- 
 nificence in the eternal chffs, the hfe-like motion 
 of the leaping or the fallen waters, the inimitable 
 softness of the misty cloud veiling the distant preci- 
 pices, the \T.vid yet blended tmts of the dense forest, 
 and above all the surpassing lovehness of the brilhant 
 bow, could not but impress him with a deep sense of 
 the nothingness of human art in the presence of this 
 mighty work of the Creator. 
 
 Eeturuing by the river-side I saw an alligator lying 
 on a rock, but the motion of putting do"\vn my 
 drawing materials startled him, and he launched into 
 the water before I could bring my gun to bear. 
 Madzekazi was still in our scherm, and Chapman 
 told me he had brought a little milk, just enough to 
 add to our coffee, and after waiting some time, an- 
 nounced that he was going. ' Presently,' said he, ' I 
 am gone,' but still remained sitting ; and finding that 
 Chapman merely said the native equivalent for good- 
 bye, burst out furiously with ' You no Englishman ! 
 You Porotoguesa. Englishman give me beads, plenty ; 
 you no Englishman.' Moshotlani also had sent for 
 beads with which to buy us corn, and Chapman sent 
 him some — remarking that, most probably, Sekeletu 
 would give provision of this kind to his visitors, but 
 that if it was to be a matter of sale, we should be 
 obliged in future to view the meat they had of us in 
 the same light, instead of considering it, as at present, 
 as a free gift. It is rather time, too, to economise
 
 504 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [Jcly 
 
 our animal food, for out of four buffaloes shot on 
 Wednesday (beside two more wliich we afterward 
 learned tliey liad picked up and concealed from us, 
 to say nothing of the crippled rhinoceros which 
 could scarcely by any chance escape them) only two 
 small bundles, easily carried in the hand, remain to 
 our share. They make exorbitant demands for the 
 most trifling articles. Knowing nothing of a regular 
 standard of value, they think the utmost they can 
 extort from one purchaser must be the minimum for 
 the next, and they have thus contrived to force up the 
 price of a sheep, worth say six or seven shillmgs in the 
 colony, to an amount in beads, the cost price of which 
 would be at least fifteen or twenty, to say nothing of 
 carriage. This might be all very well for people of 
 fortune travelling for pleasure and regardless of 
 expense, but we cannot afford to eat mutton at this 
 rate, and therefore content ourselves with tough 
 buffalo. 
 
 I found Chapman persevering under all sorts of 
 chemical difliculties, in which I am sorry to say I 
 could give him no assistance, and therefore spent my 
 leisure in taking angles with sextant and compass, to 
 assist me in the formation of a map or ground plan. 
 
 The cliff of Three-rill Fall projects at its base like 
 a huge buttress, but there is no corresponding inden- 
 tation in the lower part of the opposite fall, which, on 
 the contrary, has two or three horizontal ledges, 
 showing that more of tlie upper than of the lower 
 part must have fallen off. We therefore think that a
 
 18G2.] TIIREE-RILL FALL. 505 
 
 wedge-shaped mass, widest at the top, must either 
 have given way in the form of debris, at the time of 
 the disruption, or have been then so shaken and 
 fractured as to be washed down graduahy afterward. 
 The Three-rill Chasm and the deep sloping channel of 
 the Leaping Water have also contributed their frag- 
 ments to the heap at the bottom of the cliffs, forming 
 several marked shallows across the lower stream as 
 it finds its way east. The west end of the great 
 chasm also slopes back about fifty yards, and from 
 the general appearance we conclude that, if the 
 fissure at the end has ever been of any great depth 
 below the surface of the lower waters, the broken 
 rocks have so far filled it up that it must now be 
 comparatively shallow. 
 
 A Httle behind the fringe of date palms (the wild 
 and almost inedible variety) I found the horns and a 
 bit of decomposed offal of our fifth bufialo, not a 
 particle of the meat from which had ever found its 
 way to our camp. The driving mist rendered it 
 impossible to continue a series of angles, as the points 
 necessary for observation became indistinct at a very 
 short distance. I found a more convenient spot for 
 viewing the portion of the fall opposite the outlet, 
 and from a narrow promontory I sketched the scene 
 from which the spray had driven me a day or two ago. 
 A strong easterly wind blew in gusts, and while it 
 drifted only the light vapour from the larger falls, it 
 waved and swayed the httle rills about Uke threads 
 of gossamer.
 
 506 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 I possessed myself of tlie tip of a buffalo horn, as 
 a memento, and returning to our sclierm, which 
 Cliapman had improved considerably in the interval, 
 found that he had walked along the bank of the 
 lower river, which turns abruptly to the south-west, 
 coming back to almost ^vithin 500 paces of the 
 Avestern fall, and then, instead of continuing on its 
 apparent course, doubles back again abruptly into an 
 almost unnoticeable continuation of the deep narrow 
 fissure. He had passed the falls when the setting sun 
 caused the rainbow to rise to the highest altitude of 
 the cloud, when the broken jets shooting up through 
 the short segment of the prismatic arch, with large 
 intervals between, assumed the appearance of lambent 
 flickering fire. 
 
 Monday. — A very pleasant-looking old gentleman 
 brought a present of three baskets of corn, two for 
 Chapman and me, and the third for Edward, wdio is 
 now absent. We sat chatting for some time, and as 
 he wished to see a picture of the falls, I showed him 
 my folio. He displayed considerable appreciation, 
 but as usual the bare profile of a man or animal, with 
 the background left quite blank, elicited the greatest 
 applause. Moshotlani and suite caught us before we 
 could get away from home, and just as I wasthinkmg 
 that I might take my leave without impropriety. Chap- 
 man put the same idea into effect, and left me in tlie 
 lurch, with the great man and his people on my hands. 
 He, as Madzekazi informed me, w^as very sick, and 
 wanted medicine to enable him to drink beer mtliout
 
 1862.] SKETCHES OP THE FALLS. 507 
 
 subjecting himself either to a choUc or intoxication. 
 I promised to look in the book, and shall probably 
 recommend him to sign the pledge, as his stomach 
 seems to be in excellent meat order. He had come 
 without trowsers expressly for the purpose of begging 
 a pair, and Avhen I asked what he had done with those 
 he wore yesterday, he desired Madzekazi to intimate 
 to me that I was ' no good,' and seemed highly amused 
 when I thanked him for the comphment. 
 
 I got away as soon as I could, and sketched at the 
 outlet of the river opposite the fall for the rest of the 
 afternoon, taking a drier path at the back of the palm 
 swamp. Eeturning along the narrow chasm into 
 which the lower river vanishes, running in a narrow 
 channel of unknown depth 300 feet below the surface 
 of the earth, I saw and made a sketch of the abrupt 
 turn Chapman had told me of. Its course had been 
 hitherto WJSTW. to within 500 yards of the west end 
 of the fall, when it seemed to spread out into a deep 
 tarn, the dark green waters of which appeared more 
 sombre by contrast with reddish yellow rocks ; and 
 without information a man might search a long time 
 before he discovered the outlet to the left, where it 
 almost doubles back on its own tracks. A few 
 baboons were shouting among the rocks ; but though 
 we should have been glad of one for dinner to-morrow, 
 I could not get a fair shot at them. Chapman had 
 been up the river in a canoe, and had wounded four 
 hippopotami, but from the noise and timidity of the 
 boatmen could not get near them again.
 
 508 EXPLORATIONS IX SOUTH AFRICA. [July 
 
 Tuesday, 2'dth. — The boatmen, with two small 
 canoes, came early for Chapman, and as Bill desired 
 to see the foils, I told him to go with me. We saw 
 a few antelopes in the long grass, but they seem even 
 more shy there than on the plain, probably because 
 the grass, whicli is taller than they are, affords cover 
 to beasts of prey as well as to them. 
 
 I finished, as carefully as time and circumstances 
 permitted, one sketch from the first promontory in the 
 bend of the outlet, with the falls seen through its 
 opening — the only spot, with the exception of the west 
 end, in calm Aveather, that is free enough from spray 
 to allow the use of water-colours. By this time Bill, 
 without any orders from me, had boiled the kettle, 
 cooked me a mess of beans, and with some cakes 
 brought from camp, set out a very nice little pic-nic 
 tiffin under the shadow of a tree — an agreeable varia- 
 tion in the day's work that we had never thought of 
 before, probably for want of some one careful enough 
 to do it. Poor Bill seems to have more appreciation 
 of the beauty of the scene than I have observed in 
 any of the people. As soon as he overcame the 
 nervousness of first looking over the edge, he laughed 
 and clapped his hands with childish glee at the 
 rushing waters, and when I sent him into the mist to 
 see the rainbow, he not only stayed some time, but 
 called Eoode Baatzie also to admire it. While I was 
 taking angles as far as objects could be seen through 
 the spray cloud, I sent them both to find, if possible, 
 a path to the bottom, but they did not succeed. We
 
 18G2.] SKETCHES OF THE FALLS. 509 
 
 saw a pair of very beautiful birds in form and size 
 like a toucan, but of a deep blue or purple, with tlie 
 ends of the quill feathers white, forming when the 
 wings were ojyen a transverse line right across. The 
 grey ghostly forms of the baboons glided as before 
 among the rocks and forest, but so cautious were they 
 and wary that I could barely catch a ghmpse of 
 these grotesque caricatures of a hon. 
 
 The day's work had, however, nearly come to a 
 tragic end. Game pits to be worth anything must 
 be carefully concealed ; and it is no wonder that my 
 friend fell into one of them. The matter of thankful- 
 ness and congratulation is that he alighted on his 
 feet between two of the four sharpened stakes at the 
 bottom, and escaped with merely a bruised neck from 
 the gun he was carrying. 
 
 Wednesday, SOth. — We took an early breakfast, 
 and cleared out before our friends from over the 
 water made their visit. I sketched the fall from 
 Three-rill Cliff to Garden Island, and had about 
 half finished when the wind rising from the east 
 drove the spray over me and compelled me to shut 
 up. I retired to a drier spot and began to sketch a 
 remarkable tree among the many almost similar that 
 are to be found in this wet forest. The trunk had 
 fallen, down, but had been partially supported by 
 others, and before decay had quite destroyed it, 
 some of its younger shoots had struggled up again 
 into the light, and now, increasing into fine young 
 trees, had sent down roots lacing round the old and
 
 510 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [A i oust 
 
 rotting trunk from a height of twelve or fifteen feet 
 to seek for moisture in tlie earth. 
 
 Thursday^ Z\st — I went early to the falls, and 
 choosing a point opposite Three-rill ChfF, where, of 
 course, no spray arose, I sketched as long as the wind 
 was still enough not to drive upon me that which 
 rose from the Great Western and Garden Island 
 fall. I was chased out, however, before I had well 
 finished, for, though an artist may work in wet shirt 
 or shoes, he cannot work with wet paper, and per- 
 haps it is better for his health that he cannot. I 
 have now secured rough but tolerably effective 
 sketches of the falls from all the points at which it is 
 possible to work on the south side, and begin to 
 think now of paying our friends beyond the water the 
 comphment of a visit to theirs. 
 
 Friday^ August \st. — I cUmbed a tree near the 
 western side of the falls, but could obtain no better 
 view on account of the dense foliage of taller and 
 more inaccessible trees before me. I, therefore, cut 
 across to the angle of the lower river, and stationed 
 myself above the tarn, in front of the long narrow 
 chff, whence I could see up the stream on my left 
 into the first bend of the outlet about a mile distant, 
 with the smoke of the falls visible beyond the hue of 
 forest, and about the same distance down it on my 
 right, the course of the two portions being so nearly 
 parallel that their most distant points seem, from my 
 point of vicAV, to form an angle of only twelve degrees. 
 I remained till near sunset sketching, and, as in all
 
 1862.] ANNOYANCE CAUSED BY THE TSETSE. 511 
 
 the views I had taken about here, found that the mag- 
 nitude of the principal features so dwarfs everytliing 
 else, as rocks, trees, &c,, which in common scenes 
 would occupy a large portion of the picture, that I 
 could hardly bring my pencil to a point fine enough 
 to represent them. Still, unless these accessories 
 are minutely and distinctly painted, the vastness of 
 tlie whole is much invahdated. 
 
 Another hindrance is the annoyance caused to the 
 pointer by the incessant persecutions of the tsetse. At 
 the moment perhaps when one requires the utmost 
 steadiness and dehcacy of hand, a dozen of these httle 
 pests take advantage of his stillness, and simulta- 
 neously plunge their preparatory lancets into the 
 neck, wrists, and the tenderest parts of the body ; one 
 or more cunning fellows actually selecting the places 
 where the hues of fortune radiate or cross, with a 
 skill m palmistry that would do honour to an ex- 
 perienced gipsy. 
 
 Next morning a couple of boatmen were sent early 
 for me. I felt much inclined to turn down to the 
 falls before visiting the village, but seeing a broad 
 creek below, I thought better to go up and procure a 
 guide first. I found all hands in grave consultation 
 upon the jacket, and Moshotlani and Madzekazi were 
 disputing which of them had sewn the sleeve on 
 inside out. The matter was referred to me, and I de- 
 cided on lecturing the greatest man while I rectified 
 the mistake. A bowl of sweet milk, more agree- 
 able to me than the beer of yesterday, was brought
 
 612 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 M'itli a request that I would put a siglit on Moshot- 
 lani's musket and cut him a pair of trowsers. I 
 promised both, but insisted on seeing the falls first, 
 and, as I rose to carry my intention into effect, a 
 guide was given me, with authority to take a canoe, 
 though I was strongly advised not to go far down 
 in it, but to land below the side river and walk 
 the rest of the way. The fellow proved rather 
 an expert cicerone : he showed me the island on 
 which Dr. Livingstone had made his garden, and 
 brou2;ht me first to the rocks over which the 
 eastern rapid flows before allowing me a perspec- 
 tive view from the end of the chasm. About one- 
 foia-th of the whole cataract seemed to be on the 
 east side of the outlet, and the hollow in which the 
 first bend of the lower river runs came round so close 
 to the face of the cUff, that it seemed a wonder another 
 outlet had not been broken through a hundred 
 and fifty yards nearer to the east end. Here the 
 bed of the river seems to have preserved its original 
 level, and the water consequently, more shallow than on 
 the western side, is broken into numberless streams and 
 rills, forming falls of various magnitude, some of them 
 on a grand scale, but the majority mere threads com- 
 pfired with the mighty rapid that forms the leaping 
 water at the other extremity. 
 
 The view along the face of the falls was limited 
 only by the body of vapour filling the chasm, and 
 the rocks here, not being drenched with spray, were 
 covered with a drier vegetation, among which the
 
 1862.] VISIT TO THE CATARACT. 513 
 
 scarlet triple spikes and reddish-green leaves of tlie 
 aloe springing from the chffs or drooping chandeher- 
 like from the black face of the rock formed an im- 
 portant and interesting feature. The dark blue toucans 
 or hornbills, Avhich I had first seen here, flew among 
 the trees, while httle honey-birds hovered hke brilhant 
 gems over the flowers. The natural mference from 
 this marked difference is, that the east wind must 
 prevail during the greater part of the year, and that 
 these rocks must be perrnanently to windward of the 
 spray cloud. Two or three waterbbks were seen as 
 we returned, but it is a mere chance to hit them as 
 they dart through the thick bush. 
 
 Tuesday^ August hth. — I finished off the chief's 
 jacket (which, though not in the first style of art, was 
 a tolerable attempt for one who had no previous 
 experience), and again shaped my course for the falls, 
 determined this time to penetrate the dense forest 
 on the southern clifi*, and stand face to face with 
 the eastern portion of the cataract, as I had akeady 
 done with the western. For two or three hundred 
 yards the ground was dry, the prevalent wind driving 
 the spray from it, and the tall, narrow, aloe-like leaf 
 of which cord is made reared its thorny points like 
 bayonets, tliree feet long, set upright in the ground 
 in a most objectionable manner. 
 
 The ground now sloped suddenly, and my guide 
 quietly but decidedly sat down upon the bank. All 
 I could see below was thick dark foliage and black- 
 ened trunks ; but I tried it, and finding a practicable 
 
 H H
 
 514 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [Aigdst 
 
 descent, called my Bushmen to follow, and proceeded 
 through the now wet and dripping covert along the 
 neck formed by the thickly- wooded hollow in the 
 back of the cliff that I noticed two days ago. The 
 ground became lower and narrower as we advanced, 
 the rank grass conceahng the treacherous inequalities 
 in the rocks beneath. At length the forest ceased, 
 the grass-covered slopes dipped and contracted more 
 suddenly, till a narrow wall of black rock, perfect on 
 the side next the falls but broken into rough blocks 
 toward the hollow on the south, formed the sole 
 connecting hnk between that portion of the cliff and 
 the headland of the outlet. Possibly I might have 
 crossed it, but I was akeady drenched with spray, 
 and no object in the way of art could have been 
 gained by pushing still farther into the cloud. My 
 paper was akeady soaked, although I held it above 
 my head ^^dth the face downward during the minute 
 or two I spent in making a hasty outhne ; and my 
 Bushmen had already received permission to retire 
 to a drier part. I returned along the edge, making 
 another outhne of the eastern falls, w^hich, as the 
 rock forming the river-bed has here preserved its 
 original level, are higher than those to the west- 
 ward, and, as a necessary consequence, much less 
 in volume, being in many instances mere broken 
 spray dashing down the rough decUvity instead of 
 the whelming water masses projected sheer out from 
 the precipices at the other end. Both sketches were 
 of course very imperfect, and any pictures made
 
 1862.] ALLIGATORS 515 
 
 from them must be greatly indebted to memory and 
 imaarination. 
 
 Thursday, August 1th. — The morning and tlie 
 chief arrived in due order. Breakfast followed, his 
 mightiness, when the lion's skin was laid, taking 
 it as a compliment to himself, until we explained 
 that Bill was waiting to place the food upon the very 
 spot where he had deposited himself. He had 
 brought a piece of sea-cow tooth for the pm^pose 
 of having a sight put upon his musket, and gave 
 me to understand that the surplus was for me. I 
 have reserved it for the Lynn Museum, as my first 
 earning since I left the Cape. 
 
 Chapman tried to get information respecting the 
 Kafiie and other rivers, and casually mentioned 
 Green's accident on the river near Libebe, where, 
 after the canoe had been capsized by a hippopotamus, 
 ]\ir. Bonham and one or two natives were seized by 
 alligators. 'Yes,' he remarked, 'they are nasty 
 beasts those alligators ; only last night one of them 
 took one of my girls, and my necklace too I a jine 
 head necUace I was letting her wear. Oh ! they are 
 very greedy beasts indeed.' 
 
 Some of the people found and brought, in the 
 Koodoo wounded last night. The chief accepted a leg, 
 but gave a very equivocal answer to a hint that a httle 
 sweet milk now and then would be agreeable to us. 
 
 This morning I took my oil colours, and tying to- 
 gether the foot-stalks of three fan-palm leaves for an 
 easel, I went to the httle promontory m the bend of 
 
 H H 2
 
 516 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 the outlet about a couple of hundred yards from the 
 western headland and from this spot, which for the 
 sake of distinction we may as well call Buffalo Point, 
 the spoor of the herd we met on the first day bemg 
 quite visible here, I made a careful study of the water 
 of Central-Eock Fall and the other fall and rills 
 on either side of it, as seen through the opening of 
 the lower river. I worked till sunset without com- 
 pleting my picture, which, though very poor when 
 examined in the presence of the falls, looks far more 
 satisfactory when seen at our bivouac a mile away. 
 
 Sunday, 10th. — I went some distance down the 
 river and made a sketch, including the forest in front 
 of the falls with the smoke rising behind it, a reach 
 of the upper river, a bit of the fall, and the singularly 
 long narrow chffs and promontories that determine the 
 zigzag course of the lower stream, a small portion of 
 which is visible in the bottom of the deep ravine. 
 The sudden and entire change in the face of the 
 country is most striking ; the distance where the 
 broad river flows on a level mth the surface is fertile 
 and thickly clad with palms, baobabs, and forest 
 trees ; the foreground, where the earth has opened 
 her mouth and swallowed it, is parched and sterile ; 
 red sand, brown rocks, heaps of black scoria?, quartz, 
 green, red, and white, glittering in semi-transparent 
 crystals, red aloes, and dry, grey, and almost leafless 
 mopanies, weary the eye of the beholder. April 
 pointed out a waterbok lying behind a tree : the 
 head and neck only were visible, and, unfortunately,
 
 1862.] THE BOATMAX OF THE KAPIDS. 517 
 
 a small knot protected its shoulders and received my 
 buUet, reducing us to a scanty supper off our last tin 
 of sardines. 
 
 The old boatman of the rapids, Zanjueellah, li^d 
 quite a collection of hippopotamus and other skulls, 
 and, taking his formidable spear, he led us to his 
 lone^ narrow skiff — the same which took down Dr. 
 Livingstone and Sekeletu in 1855, and the only 
 one, I beheve, that goes quite to the falls. He 
 paddled across that Chapman might take his gun as 
 well as I, and we ghded swiftly down the river, 
 winding as the current swept round the islands or 
 ran in races and rapids over the rocks. In many 
 places the shallows extended nearly across the river, 
 and, in shooting through the deepest portions, though 
 we drew only seven or eight inches water, we 
 grounded repeatedly, and I caught myself involun- 
 tarily saying, ' Keep her end on to the stream ; ' but 
 old ZanjueeUah knew the importance of this as well 
 as I, and, standing in the bows with his pole, while 
 his mate did the same astern, he guided the shallow 
 narrow craft, actually balancing and preserving her 
 equihbrium by the mere pressure of his feet as she 
 rushed down each successive rapid. As we passed the 
 end of one island a hippopotamus, or perhaps more 
 than one, disturbed in some peaceful dream, launched 
 down the bank and plunged hito the water just 
 astern ; others appeared m the smooth water on our 
 left, where I had fired at them on previous days, 
 but we did not think it advisable to take the old
 
 518 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 man's attention from the course of liis boat with 
 another rapid immediately ahead, and therefore left 
 the sea-cows in peace till we should return. 
 
 The edge of the fall was now visible, and the sun, 
 beginning to decline, had just imbued the eastern- 
 most cloud of spray with the prismatic colours, not 
 in a complete bow, but in an imperceptible segment, 
 so short as to show no visible curve, and so broad as 
 to leave no portion of its height untinted by the 
 dehcately brilhant hues. 
 
 About ninety yards from the edge of the cataract 
 our course was suddenly and skillfully changed, and 
 we shot into smooth water on the eastern side of 
 Garden Island, where, sticking the boat ashore with- 
 out fastening of any kind, we walked over rocks bare 
 up to the high-water hne and through the tan- 
 gled little forest to Dr. Livingstone's Garden. We 
 found that a hippopotamus had recently entered the 
 enclosure, but could hardly recognise any plants 
 among the rank vegetation which the moisture had 
 caused to spring up. 
 
 There was only one good view from the island, 
 that toward the east, but it was magnificent. The 
 central portion of the perpendicular cliff projects so 
 as to form the narrowest portion of the fissure, which 
 is here, probably, of its original breadth ; but the 
 eastern side slopes suddenly away, so as to tln^ow 
 backward the falls that are nearest to tlie eye and 
 allow those beyond them to be seen in beautiful 
 perspective even to the very extremity of the chasm
 
 1862.] VIEW FEOM THE ISLAND. 519 
 
 on the eastern side. Here, too, one may stand on the 
 very edge, as on a piece of sohd masonry, and look 
 not only into the dim and hardly distinguishable in- 
 tricacies of the mist-hidden distances, spanned — over 
 falling water, white as driven snow, grey smoky mist 
 and black eternal rock, before which the sparkling- 
 moisture with which the air is loaded just allows its 
 delicate and softened hues to be observed — by a rain- 
 bow, glorious in its brilliant lovehness, and forming, 
 but for the small segment cut out by the shadow of the 
 rock he stands on, a perfect circle, which is surrounded 
 by another with reversed coloiu"s, softer and more in- 
 definite as it approaches the edges and thinner spaces 
 in the mist ; but he may peer down below him into 
 the very abyss beneath his feet, see his own shadow 
 three hundred and fifty feet below him on the 
 troubled eddying waters, and speculate, if he so 
 pleases, on the geological ages required to accumu- 
 late the heap of debris which has fallen from the re- 
 ceding portion of the cliff, nearly doubhng the width 
 of the chasm, and which, as if to suit the very pur- 
 pose of the vagrant artist, has thrown back the 
 nearest cataract so as just not to shut out the view 
 of the more distant fall. 
 
 ThankfLilly the painter accepts the proffered boon, 
 and, requesting his friend to measure angles and such- 
 like tedious but very necessary details, busies himself 
 in endeavouring, however humbly and imperfectly, to 
 reproduce the beautiful and glorious scene. It is in 
 vain : hardly has half an outline been completed
 
 520 EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 when tlie prudent Charon of the rapids warns him 
 again and again that the day is waning, that paddhng 
 up the stream is a long work, and that ' it is not a 
 road for men to travel in the dark.' Eeluctantly 
 he closes his work, and obeys the summons. 
 
 We halt but for a moment before the inscribed tree 
 to read the letters, D L 1855, and below them, C L 
 1860, with the broad arrow ^ of the Government 
 cut beneath them. The water is baled from our 
 somewhat leaky little skiiT, and now comes the 
 struggle up the rushing waters, in which, perhaps, 
 a man who, to some extent, knows and can appre- 
 ciate the nature of the various dangers, feels more, 
 when reduced to sit as a helpless useless passenger, 
 than one who is utterly inexperienced. Eut he, too, 
 can understand and glory in the skill and courage of 
 the veteran who commands the boat. See him now, 
 standing erect and fearless in the narrow bow, the 
 mere play of his ankle joints, without the shifting of 
 a foot, counteracting her tendency to heel and roll 
 as the water dances round her ; observe how firmly, 
 yet with what rapidity, he poles her against the 
 current in the shallows, how quickly he catches up 
 his paddle in the deeper water, how carefully he 
 guides her across the smoother parts, his unerring 
 eyes watching, before he enters them, the curls of 
 the various eddies, and with what judgment he 
 shoots, end on, into the exact place w^here it is just 
 possible for her to ascend the successive rapids, 
 jumping out at the proper moment to force her up
 
 1862.] HIPPOPOTAMI. 521 
 
 the steep incline, and in again as soon as slie is in 
 the level waters. 
 
 And now nearly half a mile of distance from the 
 verge has placed us in comparative safety, and the 
 hippopotami are appearing in the still water near 
 the rocks above us. The old man sheers the boat so 
 as to give us a chance, but the wary animals snort 
 and dive too quickly. He runs her higher up into 
 the shallows, and landing there — ^if standhig mid-leg 
 deep on a submerged rock in the open river may be 
 so called — we wait for their reappearance. My bul- 
 let strikes the water close by the head of the first 
 and enters between eye and ear, while Chapman's, 
 just grazing and raising a jet of spray so close by the 
 next that one would think it impossible to miss, goes 
 on skipping and ricochetting away over the surface, 
 till it passes the edge of the falls and loses itself in the 
 chasm. The remainder of the passage is long and 
 tedious, but both danger and chfficulty diminish as 
 we advance, and before sunset we are at our bi- 
 vouac, where, as the few beads left us are not, in 
 our estimation, a sufficient reward for the service 
 rendered, we promise Zanjueellah a more adequate 
 compensation, and enter into a Idnd of conditional 
 arrangement to be taken to-morrow to an island 
 where the hippopotami are hkely to come ashore at 
 night. 
 
 Our guide, Wildebeeste or Quati, as usual, is 
 smoking, coughing, expectorating, and shouting forth 
 his own praises at the top of his voice, lying in his
 
 522 EXPLOEATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA. [August 
 
 scherm, and expecting to be fed as usual, though he 
 takes no trouble whatever to add to our supplies, and 
 is m fact rather a tool in the hands of Moshotlani to 
 aid and forward his designs, than any help to us. 
 His master, John Mahura, rather expects that his 
 deputy is to work out the span of oxen Chapman has 
 lent him, but if he does, all I can say is I should like 
 to get a dozen or two vagabonds to earn me a span 
 each on the same terms. 
 
 Thursday^ 14#A. — The first cloudy day of the 
 season, the greater part of the sky occupied by hot- 
 looking cumuh, and, toward evening, dark piu-ple 
 clouds tinted with crimson and orange, allowing the 
 sun to peer through the intervals. I stayed at home 
 colouring my Garden Island sketch, while Chapman 
 went to the falls, sketching and taking bearings from 
 the edge of the chff surrounding the ' Tarn Bend.' 
 To the western end of the chasm was 700 steps or 
 approximate yards (not paces), and to the spot where 
 the camera stood over the edge of the leaping water 
 was 100 more, the direction being 30°, or about NE. 
 by K magnetic, and the bearings of the extreme ends 
 of the vapour from Tarn Bend 30° and 110°. The 
 distance, walking in a line parallel with the falls, 
 from the leaping water to the outlet, he found to be 
 2,000 steps, and there seems to be rather more than 
 one-fourth of the whole fall on the eastern side of it. 
 This would give 2,700 steps as the extreme breadth 
 of the fall ; but in walking a long distance it is 
 possible that every step is not a full yard, and perhaps
 
 1862.] CONCLUSION. 523 
 
 if we take tlie whole breadth at 2,000 yards, we 
 shall not be far from the mark. 
 
 Chapman arrived with his wagon, and on the 1st 
 September left for Boana, a place between the Daka 
 or Luisi river and the Matietsie, about twenty miles 
 distant and in latitude 18° 21' 1''. I followed on 
 the 4th, and preparations were immediately com- 
 menced for the conveyance of tools and other neces- 
 saries to the Zambesi, for the purpose of cutting 
 wood to build a boat, or rather to supply the defi- 
 ciencies of my copper double boat, of which, fi^om 
 the difficidty of transport consequent on the long sick- 
 ness among the cattle, we had only been able to bring 
 up four sections, i.e. the two bows and two sterns, the 
 other eight having been left behind in Otjimbingue. 
 In a few days I started with most of our Damaras 
 and a number of hired Makalakas, and estabhshed 
 myself on a small eminence which I called Logier 
 Hill, after my esteemed friend in Cape Town, in lati- 
 tude 18° 4:' 58", and a mile or two above Molomo-e- 
 a-tolo's island, in the mouth of the Luisi, where 
 Chapman temporarily joined me, and we made a trip 
 to ascertain the navigability of tlie river below us. 
 Of oiu- efforts to complete the boat, and provide for 
 the safe return of the wagons, dashed almost in the 
 very moment of success by a sudden and deadly at- 
 tack of fever, obliging us for the sake of oiu" people 
 to retreat to the high lands of the desert, I shall 
 say no more, and I fear I have already trespassed too 
 much upon the reader's patience.
 
 INDEX.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ADD 
 
 ADDER, a puff, 394. 
 Adjutant birds, group of, 337, 
 339. 
 
 Adjutant Vlei, 363. 
 
 Alligators, 178, 414, 503, 515, Great 
 numbers of tbem in pools in the 
 Eotletle river, [391J. Mr. Robin- 
 son killed by one, [392], 
 
 Aloe, a gigantic, 33. 
 
 Amaryllidae, 220, 222. 
 
 Amral, his punishment of the Witt- 
 vlei robbers, 80, His people, 82. 
 His wife, 82. Chapman's answer 
 to Amrai's letter, 142. Sends 
 men after Gert, 184. 
 
 Andersson, Mr., at Otjimbingue, 32. 
 His accident in a giraffe-pit, 119. 
 
 Anna trees, 42, 43. 
 
 Anna Wood, water at, 42. 
 
 Antelopes, new, 456. Sable, 459. 
 
 Ant-hill, a mallapie tree growing 
 out of an, 240. Bees' -nest in an, 
 301. 
 
 Apica, the Damara chieftain, 61. 
 
 Apollos, the headman, 87. 
 
 A prill, the Bushman, [449]. 
 
 Arms of the Bushmen, 143, 144, 
 363. 
 
 Army, a Bechuana, 433. 
 
 Arrow-poison of the Bushmen, 130, 
 164, ISO, 219, 251, 253. Anti- 
 dote for the poison, 252. The 
 juice of the Euphorbia used with 
 that of the poison grub, [406]. 
 
 Awass mountain, 64, 76. 
 
 Awassberg, 58. 
 
 BAASTAARDS ' in South 
 Africa, 82. 
 Bakhalikhari girl, a, 276. 
 
 BON 
 
 Bakjie, Kleine, the hill, 74. 
 
 Baobab trees, 183, 259. Abundance 
 of baobabs near the Nquiba hills, 
 403. And near the Quaebie hills, 
 407. A clump of, [416]. 
 
 Barmen, Great, river, 49. Crippled 
 women at, 61. 
 
 Barter in Africa, 59, 60, 71. Terms 
 for bartering, 283. Barter between 
 the Bushmen and Damaras, 351. 
 
 Basaltic columns on the Oosop river, 
 37. 
 
 Bataoana. an offset of Bechuanas, 
 [.395]. 
 
 Bechuana drinking, 123. A Bechu- 
 ana woman standing for her por- 
 trait,441,442. Bechuanas smoking 
 dakka, 204. Said to be snuff- 
 takers, 205. Bechuana thieves, 
 274, 275,281,285, [427]. Their 
 jealousy of the Bushmen, 408. 
 Bechuana justice, 419. Bechuana 
 women, 430, 441. Their women, 
 [431]. 
 
 Bees'-nest in an ant-hill, 301. 
 Eaten, 334. 
 
 Beetles, water, 367. Brilliant- 
 winged, at Otjimbingue, 33. The 
 elephant and rhinoceros beetles, 
 3.3, 224, 
 
 Bell, Mr., joins the party, 310. 
 
 Belts of Damara women, 162. 
 
 Birds in the Bush in South Africa, 
 348, 351. 
 
 Bitterns, 345. 
 
 Blom, Jan, the Coranna chief, 71. 
 
 Blood-feuds, 66. 
 
 Boat, the author's, 13, 19. 
 
 Bok Berg foray, 41. 
 
 Bolungo river, 472. 
 
 Bonneld, Mr., his death, 311.
 
 528 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 BON 
 
 Bonka rivulet, 460. 
 
 Bonnets of Daniara -women, 163. 
 
 Botany in Africa, 220, 245. 
 
 Botletle river, 399, 411, 449. Alli- 
 gators in the, 414, [391]. Vil- 
 lages on the banks, 423. Fish in 
 the, [394]. Fords over the, 
 [394], [395], [401]. 
 
 Bows and arrows, 150. 
 
 Buflaloes, herd of, 399, 490. 
 
 Bugs, field, 25. 
 
 Bulb, sketch of a, 185. 
 
 Bush, life in the, 161. Travelling 
 in the, 301, Birds in the, 348, 351. 
 
 Bushmen, some killed by the Dama- 
 ras, 91. At Sand Fountain, 94. 
 Bushmen and their families, 110. 
 Description of Bushmen, 111. 
 Their character, 112. Cleaner 
 in their food than the Daniaras 
 or Bechuanas. 124. Their dresses 
 described, 143. Character of the 
 ■wild Bushmen, 144, 145. The 
 poison used for their arrows, 164. 
 Their intellect, 171. Dress of 
 Koobie, 217, 218. Picture of 
 Bushmen, 218. Portrait of an 
 attendant on a chief, 231. 
 Their antidote for their arrow - 
 poison, 252, 255. An indepen- 
 dent tribe of, 325. Their dis- 
 appearance, 329. A Bushman 
 village plundered by Damaras, 
 335. Barter between the Bush- 
 men and Damaras, 351. Their 
 first acquaintance -with white 
 men, 362. Their cookery, 362. 
 Their arms, 363. A deserted 
 Bushman village, [410]. Their 
 schemes, [439]. _ 
 
 Bushwomen, 99. 
 
 Butcher-bird, red- breasted, 164, 
 197. 
 
 Butterflies, brilliant -winged, 33, 
 348. 
 
 Butterfly-net, a, 245. 
 
 CAMEL-THORN, the, 31, 155. 
 Caterpillar, the poison, of the 
 Bushmen, 164, 180. 
 Caterpillar, a brilliant-coloured, 2 65. 
 Cats, wild, 102. 
 
 Cattle, lung-disease of, 8. Inocula- 
 tion of the tail as a preventive, 8. 
 Lashing cattle with the wagon- 
 
 DAM 
 
 whip, 62. The lung-sickness in, 
 81. Mode of performing inocu- 
 lation for lung-disease, 95. Cut- 
 ting off their tails, 109. Mor- 
 tality among the cattle on the 
 road, 118. Continued sickness 
 among the cattle, 157. Improve- 
 ment in the cattle after the rain, 
 235. Dutch-trained Hottentots' 
 knowledge of oxen, 237. Names 
 of oxen, 237. Kaffir drivers and 
 herdsmen, 238. Cured of disease 
 by the use of potash, 313. 
 
 Caves, 26. 
 
 Cerastes, or horned snakes, 374. 
 Great numbers of them in 
 Ovambo land, 374. 
 
 Chameleon, a, 165, 195. 
 
 Chapman, Mr., joins the party, 58. 
 His previous adventures, 68. His 
 vocabulary of the Damara lan- 
 guage, 187. His illness in the 
 country of the Makobas, [399]. 
 His fall into a game-pit, 509. 
 
 Chapman, Mr. Henry, joins the 
 party, 310. 
 
 Chief, a, of an African village, 
 425. 
 
 Chobe river, 208, [396]. 
 
 Chouani river, place where it rises, 
 [397]. 
 
 Civet cats, 214, 215. 
 
 Cloete, Daniel, of Great Barmen, 
 49. 
 
 Cloete, William, 55, 57. Disease 
 among his cattle, 68. 
 
 Cold, effect of, upon savages, 105. 
 
 Comet of 1861, 64. 
 
 Compass, a Damara's wonder at a 
 pocket, 371. 
 
 Conjuror, a Bechuana, 431, 437, 
 445. 
 
 Cookery of the Bushmen, 362. 
 
 Cow-fish, 19. 
 
 DABATT, the chief, [453]. 
 Dabbie's (or Tamarisk) Poort, 
 53. 
 
 Daka, or Guaka, [448], [449], 
 [451]. 
 
 Dakka smoked by the Bechuanas, 
 204. 
 
 Damaraland, a picture of the deso- 
 lation of, 38. 
 
 Damara men and womea described,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 529 
 
 DAM 
 
 45. Mrs. Kanoa, 46. Fight 
 between Damavasand Hottentots, 
 50. A Damara woman carrying 
 Avater, 56. A Damara kraal and 
 village, 61. Kotzebue the Da- 
 mara, 70. The Damaras' scanty 
 means of subsistence, 78. Their 
 feud with the Bushmen, 91. 
 Damaras with dead oxen, 95. 
 Ordered to go to Ghanze, 133. 
 Their meeting and return to 
 duty, 134, 135. Illness of some 
 of them, 158. Their evasion of 
 duty, 160. Mr. Chapman's vo- 
 cabulary of the Damara's lan- 
 guage, 187. Their powder-horns, 
 211. Damara woman bitten by 
 a dog, 216. Their heartlessness, 
 243, 244. Cakes made by them 
 from the leaves of the Ouibooa, 
 245. Plunder a Bushman's vil- 
 lage, and punished, 335. Their 
 feast off elephant flesh, 341. 
 Barter between the Bushmen and 
 Damaras, 351. Damara dances, 
 385. Damara indolence, 399. 
 
 Damara mother tree, 147, 186. 
 Wood, 246, 247. 
 
 Dances of the Damaras, 385, 403. 
 
 David, the Damara, 89. 
 
 Deep Vlei, 330,374. 
 
 Desolation, a picture of, 38. 
 
 Doctor, a native, extracting disease, 
 438, 439. 
 
 Dogs, savage, of an African chief, 
 179. 
 
 Dokkie, punished for robbery, 201. 
 His mishap, 379. 
 
 Dove, a Namaqua, 124. 
 
 Ducks on Koobie Lake, 298. 
 
 Dunamzele Mountains, [397]. 
 
 Dupa river, the dry bed of the, 23. 
 
 EAGLE, the Lamb-catcher, or 
 Golden, 194. A black, 365, 
 [401], 401, 402, 456. Brown, 
 [402]. 
 
 Earth-snakes, 269, 273. 
 
 Eckardt, Mr., the Rhenish mission- 
 ary at Hykom Kop, 23. 
 
 Eikhams, 52. Meaning of the name, 
 71. 
 
 Eiwha, large tubers so called, 103. 
 
 Elands, herds of, 116, 121, 136,234. 
 Dimensions of one, 116. 
 
 FIR 
 
 Elephant, f.HKl of the, 153. The 
 first seen, 206. A wounded ele- 
 phant, 207. Question as to run- 
 ning or standing after shooting at 
 one, 216. Capture of a young 
 one, 322. His skull, 326. An 
 elephant- chase, 381. Noiseless 
 tread of elephants, 382. A tired 
 elephant washing, 393. The 
 trunk and foot as food, 393. 
 Tusks of a young elephant, 451. 
 Skull of, 118. Professor Wahl- 
 berg killed by one, 131. Swartz's 
 mode of 'bescherming' himself 
 from elephants, 210. Near the 
 Lake Koobie, 229. An old Bush- 
 man's advice as to hunting ele- 
 phants, 246. Favourite food of 
 the elephant, 303. An elephant 
 hunt, 304-306. A dead elephant, 
 307, 31-1. Strength of elephants, 
 331. Herds of elephants, 333. 
 Their noiseless tread, 338. Cap- 
 ture of one, 338. An elephant 
 feast, 351. Mud-holes of elephants, 
 347. A chase after an elephant, 
 349. Fresh spoors, 352. An 
 elephant-path in the bush, 353. 
 A night attack, 355-357. Mode 
 of attacking elephants, 359. A 
 sleeping watchman, 361. Bleached 
 bones of an elephant, 366. Ele- 
 phants in the pumpkin gardens 
 of a village, 412. Reason of ele- 
 phants, [445]. An elephant with 
 nine tusks, [454]. 
 
 Elephant-beetle, 33. 
 
 Elephant Kloof, 101. 
 
 Elephant river, or Quick, 67, 69. 
 
 Euphorbia, with the rod-like leaf, 
 33,199. Thejuiceof the Euphor- 
 bia used with that of the poison 
 grub for poisoning arrows, [406]. 
 
 FENNEC, or insect-eating jackal, 
 241, 329, 331. 
 
 Fever, the author attacked by, 452, 
 457. Mr. Chapman struck down 
 by, [399]. The author again 
 attacked by, [405]. Prevalent 
 among the party, [419]. 
 
 Field-mice, 267. 
 
 Fmch, a long-tailed, 404. 
 
 Fire, Bushmen's mode of making, 
 137, 139. In the grass, 420. 
 
 I I
 
 530 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 FIS 
 
 Fish, mud -frequenting, 3, 4. Of 
 tlic Botletle river, [394]. 
 
 Fishing-nets of the, Bushmen, 130. 
 
 Flamingoes, dense fioclis of, 4, 
 Description of one, 9. Flamingo 
 devoured by jackals, 17. 
 
 Flies, about eyes, nose, and mouth, 
 120. The tsetse fly, see Tsetse. 
 
 Flowers, African, 185, 188, 198, 
 220, 222, 234, 294. 
 
 Fly country, 246. 
 
 Folum, wild, or Marootoonoque, 
 277. 
 
 Forest of thorn-trees, 131. 
 
 Fort Funk, 131. 
 
 Frogs, green and yellow bull, 93. 
 Those which bury themselves in 
 the sand during dry weather, 939. 
 Bushmen's mode of cleaning 
 frogs, 239. A matamaelli, or edi- 
 ble frog, 297. A bull-frog, 299, 
 303. 
 
 GAME, diminution of, 465. 
 Gamepits, [402]. Mr. An- 
 derson's accident in one, 119. 
 Mr. Chapman's fall into one, 
 509. 
 
 Ganna, or Ghanna, [410]. 
 
 Garden Island, 487, 489, 497. 
 View from, 519. 
 
 Gemsbok, 13, 260, 369,388. Gems- 
 bok flesh, 370. 
 
 George Vleis, 355. 
 
 Gert, his knavery, 133. InefFec- 
 tually chased, 135-139, 151. His 
 life saved by Mr. Chapman, 
 175. Men sent after him by 
 the chief Amral, 184. Re- 
 newed search for him and the 
 stolen horses, 191. Return of the 
 expedition, 200. His probable 
 spies, 217. Sayman's offer to 
 steal back the stolen horses, 236. 
 His seraglio, 246. 
 
 Gerufa, [441]. 
 
 Ghanzo, the Damaras ordered to, 
 
 133. Water supply at, 145. 
 Giraffe, first sight of a, 343. One 
 shot through, 387. The scent of 
 the giraffe terrible to a horse, 
 
 387. Skin of the giraffe, 387, 
 
 388. Three seen, 366. A herd 
 of, 403. 
 
 GiralJ'e-pit, 119. 
 
 IBI 
 
 Gnathais, 127. Scene at adriuking- 
 
 pool at, 127, 128. 
 Gra-Kou, [426], [427]. 
 Gnoos, brindled, 77, 166, 176, 329, 
 
 369,375. Exploit of, 480. 
 Gobabies, village and mission of, 
 
 82. 
 Granite, disintegrated, 32. Granite 
 
 rocks like Westminster Abbey, 
 
 33. 
 Grappler thorn, flower of the, 223. 
 Griqua hunter and Griqua women, 
 
 11. 
 Grosbeak, the social, 75,79. Trees 
 
 killed by, 75. 
 Guana, a, 422. 
 Guinea-fowl, 77, 353, 412. 
 Gumkaebie, [441]. 
 
 'TTAAK AAN, ' meaning of the 
 J-X expression, 367. 
 
 Haak doom, or grappler thorn tree, 
 147. 
 
 Haak-en-steek thorn free, 147, 155. 
 
 Haikoos, the hill, 73, 76. 
 
 Harris, John, the Hottentot chief, 
 43, 48, 49. 67. 
 
 Heat, effects of, in South Africa, 
 277. 
 
 Herons, 344. 
 
 Hippopotami, 518, 521. 
 
 Holden, Dr., his death, 311. His 
 waggon detained by the chief 
 Leshulatebe, 417. 
 
 Honey, wild, 334. 
 
 Horses, 'salted,' 418. Trading in 
 horses, 445. Horse-sickness said 
 to be curable by the use of am- 
 monia. 313. 
 
 Hospitality in thinly- peopled places, 
 36. 
 
 Hottentots, their cold-blooded cruel- 
 ty, 40, 41, A Hottentot chief, 
 43. A fight between Damaras 
 and Hottentots, 50. Their inces- 
 sant begging, 70. Their constant 
 obtrusion, 71, 72, 74. Improve- 
 ment in their behaviour, 89. 
 Their knowledge of oxen, 237. 
 Human, John, 7. 
 Hya;na, lair of a, 367. 
 Hykom Kop, mission station at, 23. 
 
 IBIS, 270, 329, 376. The food of 
 the ibis, 378.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 531 
 
 ICE 
 
 Ice, outhe road, 73. 
 
 luoculation of the tails of cattle, 8. 
 Mode of inoculating for lung- 
 disease, 95. 
 
 Insects, destructiveness of, 267. 
 
 Inspanning, difficulties of, 2-27. 
 
 Iron tree, the, 250,251. Seeds of 
 the, 251. 
 
 Ivory, trade in, 159. Ivory brought 
 in, 178. 
 
 JACKAL, the fennec, or large- 
 eared jackal, 241, 329, 331. A 
 flamingo devoured by jackals, 17. 
 One killed by dogs, 18. 
 
 Jackal trap, 3. 
 
 Jager, Hendrick, 59. 
 
 Jem, 92. 
 
 Jonker, Afinaner, the Hottentot 
 chief, 43. His demand of tribute, 
 48, 49. Tribute demanded by, 
 72, 73. Eau de Cologne to -warm 
 his stomach, 75. His other de- 
 mands, 75. His death, 311. 
 
 KAA, or Ngwa, the poison grub 
 of the Bushmen, 251, 253. 
 Kafirs, their value as herdsmen and 
 
 drivers of cattle, 238. 
 Kafrie river, 515. 
 Kala huetlwe, the antidote to the 
 
 arrow-poison of the bushmen, 
 
 252, 255. 
 Kajumbie and his wife, [-421]. 
 Kalihari Desert, the, 399. 
 Kamakama, [410]. Latitude of, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Livingstone, [417]. 
 Kanoa, Sirs., the Damara woman, 
 
 4G. 
 Kanoa and the goats, [447]. 
 Karran, or water hollow, 328. 
 Khamma's Ford over the Botletle 
 
 river, [401]. 
 Knife, an extempore, 346. 
 Kobis, 155, 194. The well at, 
 
 155. 
 Kok, Adam, 71. 
 Koper, Piet, 60. 
 Koobie, the Bushman, 202, 217. 
 
 His return home, 318. 
 Koobie, Lake, 217. Elephants at, 
 
 229. Ducks on, 298. Wells at, 
 299. 
 Koodoo, or waterbok, 178, 515. 
 
 LOG 
 
 Kopjies, glimpse caught of the, 238, 
 
 258. 
 Kopjies, the, 399. 
 Kotzebue, the Damara, 70. 
 Kounobis, or Tounobis, 120. 
 
 Longitude of, 132. 
 Kraal, a deserted, [451]. 
 Kraphol, Mr., missionary at Goba- 
 
 bies, 82. 
 Kurikop, Mr. Jones's house at, 32. 
 
 LAMERT, the Hottentot chief, 
 44. 
 
 Lammijie-vanger (Lamb-catcher) 
 eagle, 194. 
 
 Langenhoorn, Mr., 7. 
 
 Latham, Mr., his house at Pelican 
 Point, 2. His hospitality and 
 kindness, 36. 
 
 Leeambye river, [397]. 
 
 Lemur, 224, 261. 
 
 Leopard, a, 346. An African, killed, 
 1G7. Its dimensions, 168. Its 
 flesh, 170. 
 
 Lashuhitebe, the Bechuana chief, 
 174, 177. His dogs, 179. His 
 shrewdness, 211. His modest pro- 
 posal, 228. Sends oxen and rai- 
 sins, 235. His quarrel with 
 Stkeletu, 244. Sends messengers 
 to Mr. Chapman, 257, 263, 272, 
 299. Arrives at the camp, 280. 
 Declares himself at war with the 
 party, 400. His meanness, 400. 
 His messages, 400, 408-410. 
 Arrives again at the camp, 415. 
 Detains Dr. Holden's wagon, 417, 
 425. Visit to him, 425. His 
 army, 433. His bargaining for 
 the horses, 440. His subtlety, 
 441. Purchases the horses, 445. 
 His further schemes, [395]. 
 
 Libebe, the chief, [396]. 
 
 Libebo Mils, the.. 260. 
 
 Limestone water hollow, [419]. 
 
 Limpopo river, its course, [397]. 
 
 Lingua Franca of South Africans, 
 239. 
 
 Lions, spoors of, 28, 30. At Mo- 
 roomohooto, [407]. Lion-hunts, 
 474. 
 
 Lizard, a chirping, 93. A lizard- 
 tail eaten, 356 
 Logier Hill, 523.
 
 532 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 LON 
 
 ONA 
 
 Longwe river, [397]. 
 
 Lories, Vlei, [391]. 
 
 Lubelo, Mount, 399. 
 
 Lung-disease of cattle. 8, 79. Effects 
 of the disease, 97. Inoculation, and 
 the mode of performing it, 8, 95. 
 
 MADUMUMBILA mountains, 
 [397]. 
 Wadzekazi, 500, 501, 503. 
 Magisterial authcrity, want of, 312. 
 Maholoque, the chief, 434. 
 Mahura, 461, 462. 
 Makata,theMakobaheadman,[393]. 
 Makobas, their personal appearance, 
 
 455. Makata, their headman, 
 
 [393]. Their canoes, [393]. Their 
 
 knavery, [399], [401]. 
 Makdo forays, 404. 
 .\iakowzie, [429]. 
 Malesi, 461. 
 Mallapie, growing out of an ant-hill, 
 
 240. 
 Mambari, the, [396]. 
 Maquata Hill, 391. 
 Markwhae, or Marfwhae, the roots 
 
 so called. 151. 
 Maseeani, [439]. 
 Masoe river, 484. 
 Matamaelli, or edible frog, 297. 
 Matietsie river. 471. 
 Matlomo-ganyani, [437], [440]. 
 Matuudo tree, 249. 
 Medicine-wood, 105. 
 Medlars, wild, 407. 
 Meea river, place where it rises, 
 
 [397]. 
 Melons, wild, 122. Prickly melons 
 
 roasted, 362. 
 Merganser, the, 294. 
 Meteors, 233, 317. 
 Mica, foliated (?), 29. 
 Milvus afEnis, 201. 
 Mimosas, leafless, 131. Mimosa 
 
 blossoms, 146. 
 Mirage, 4. Difficulty of represent- 
 ing it, 4. Vexatious effects of the, 
 
 [415]. 
 Mitsiboklubo, [432]. 
 Moffat, Mr., his death, [42S]. 
 Molenyani Ylei, 401. 
 Mootjeerie tree, 227. Described, 229. 
 Moreemie's Ford on the JBotletle 
 
 river, [394]. 
 Morokko, the headman, [394]. 
 
 Moroomohooto. on the l>otletle 
 
 river, [403]. Lions at, [407]. 
 Moroomohooto tree, or tree with 
 
 legs, [409]. 
 Moselekatse, 461. Claims the 
 
 country of Sekeletu, 449. 
 Moselekatze's bird, 333. 
 Moselinyan Vlei, 293. 
 JMoshotfani, the chief, negotiations 
 
 with, 493, 500. 
 Mother tree. Sec Damara's mother 
 
 tree. 
 Moijeerie, or Damara's mother tree, 
 
 14 7. Wood of the, 249. 
 Motlope berries, 262. 
 Mouse, a field, 347. 
 Mowanna, or baobab tree, a, 259. 
 Mukoba. or canoe-men, of Lake 
 
 Ngami, 262. 
 Mushroom, a large, 367. 
 
 "VTA KONG antelope, 456. 
 
 li Namaqua Hottentots, in Wal- 
 visch Bay, 9, 10. Namaqua girls, 
 76. No word for ' Thank you' 
 in their language, 79. Their mode 
 of making velschoens, 189. Death 
 of their chief Jonker Afinaner, 
 311. Their sharpness, 3 1 5. 
 
 Names, native. 409. 
 
 Necklace of kidneys, 149. 
 
 New Year Vlei, 390. 
 
 Ngami, low land of, 262. 
 
 Ngami, Little, 266. 
 
 Ngami, Lake, a view of, 407. 
 
 Ngwa, or Kaa, the poison-grub of 
 the Bushmen, 251, 253. 
 
 No Man's Land, 71. 
 
 Noosop hills, 76. 
 
 Noosop river, 77, 79. Game in the 
 valley of the, 77. 
 
 Norton Shaw Valley, 355, 366. 
 
 Nquiba Mountains, 401, 402. 
 
 Ntetwa Salt-pan, the, [413]. 
 
 Nvati, or Buffalo river, 474. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS, difficulties of 
 making, 120, 414. 
 Odeaque, vlei of, [426]. 
 Okavango river, place where it takes 
 
 its rise, [397]. 
 Ombooa, cakes made by the Da- 
 maras from the leaves of the, 245. 
 Onaque root, 78.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 533 
 
 OND 
 
 Ondindombe, or Moselekafze's bird, 
 
 94. 
 Ondweada Onganga, or Bull Guinea 
 
 Fowl, water of, 93. 
 Onjura, or tree-squirrel, 350. 
 Oomahaama trees, 324. 
 Oombootoo, 103. 
 Oosop river, 37. Basaltic columns 
 
 reported to exist at, 39. 
 Ostriches, 29, 77, 78, 234, 377. 
 
 Ostrich eggs, 125, 128. Ostrich 
 
 feathers in reeds, 214. An 
 
 ostrich chick, 401. 
 Otchombinde river, 116, 320. Its 
 
 bed and banks, 119. 
 Otjintory root, 78. 
 Ovambo land, great numbers of 
 
 horned snakes in, 374. 
 Ovanibapoo berries, drinks made 
 
 from, 173. 
 Owl, horned, [394]. 
 
 PALLAHS, or roode boks, [404]. 
 Palm-tree, a solitary, 429. 
 Groups of, [422]. 
 
 Panthers, 126. 
 
 Paradise, in Walvisch Bay, 36. 
 
 Pebbles, a plain thickly strewed 
 with, 25. 
 
 Peliine's Island, [398]. 
 
 Pelican Point, 2. Sand-hills near, 4. 
 
 Pelicans, dense flocksof, 4. 
 
 Penguins, 6. 
 
 Pest Grass Fountain, 89. 
 
 Pheasants, 412. 
 
 Photographer in Africa, difficulties 
 of a, 1-48. 
 
 Plovers. 94. 
 
 Plums, wild, 262. 
 
 Poison grub tree of the Bushmen, 
 219, 251, 253. Antidote for the 
 poison, 252. 
 
 Potatoes, wild. 246. 
 
 Price, Rlr., the survivor of the un- 
 fortunate mission party, 33. 
 
 Prickle-thorn tree, 147. 
 
 Procession, a wild, [435]. An 
 African travelling train, [437]. 
 
 Pumpkins, grown in village gar- 
 dens, 412, 422. 
 
 Python, skin of a, 236. 
 
 Q 
 
 UAAI, or Quache, river, [397]. 
 Qiiaggas, 39, 375, 471, 475. 
 
 SEB 
 
 Qualeba river, place where it rises, 
 
 [397]. 
 Qualbie hills, the, 405. The refuge 
 
 of the Bechuanas, 435. 
 Quarantine Kops, 247, 
 Quarantine Vlei, 247, 391. Water 
 
 at, 287. 
 Quartz, fragments of, strewed about, 
 
 25. 
 Quati, the guide, 521. 
 Quiep, or elephant river, 67, 69. 
 
 RABBITS, 30. 
 Races among the Damaras, 
 
 385. 
 Rain, 165, 261, 267, 268, 298, 350. 
 
 The rainy season, 176. 
 Rhinoceroses, 153, 205, 395, [430], 
 
 484. The flesh of the, 397, 398. 
 Rhinoceros-beetle, 33. 
 Rhinoceros-bird, 205. 
 Rietboks, 469. 
 
 Rifle, a Wilson breech-loader, 61. 
 Robben Islands, mirage on, 4. 
 Rock, disintegration of, 23, 28, 32. 
 
 The Twin Turrets, 69. 
 Rollers, blue, 333. 
 Roode boks, or pallahs, 77, [404]. 
 Roodeberg, the, 26. Water in the, 
 
 27. 
 Roots eaten by the Damaras, 78. 
 
 Tubers dug up in the desert, 103, 
 
 144, 151. 
 Runcie, Mr., his place at Anna 
 
 Wood, 42, 43. 
 
 SALT-LICKS of wild animals, 
 119. 
 
 Samaganga, village of, [394]. 
 
 Sand-clouds, 17. 
 
 Sand Fountain, 94. Huts at, 14. 
 
 Sand-hills, near Pelican Point, 4. 
 Curious action of the wind on 
 loose sand here, 5. 
 
 Sand-plain. 22, [412], [413]. 
 
 Sandwich Harbour, water at, 15. 
 
 Sapatane's, [449]. 
 
 Sassaybus, 469. 
 
 Scherm, formation of a, for ele- 
 phant shooting, 28, 316. A 
 night in a scherm, .?47. 
 
 Scorpions, 261. 
 
 Sea-cow tooth, 515. 
 
 Sebubumpi Vlei, dried up, 400.
 
 534 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 SEC 
 
 Secheli, 401, 477. 
 
 Seckonio, his son, [425]. 
 
 Seeace, Mount, 76- 
 
 Sekeletu, and the mission party, 33. 
 His quarrel with LeshuUitebe, 
 244. His cruelty to the mission 
 party, 417. His reported death, 
 449. His crimes, [453]. His 
 orders, 478. 
 
 Seringa trees, 378. 
 
 Sharks, spotted, 6. Capture of, <;ff 
 Pelican Point, 15. Dimensions 
 of a large one, 16. Parasites of 
 sharks, 17- 
 
 Shoe-making, 224. 
 
 Shooting, lessons in, given to 
 savages, 169. 
 
 Shua river, rise of the, [397]. 
 
 Sichele, his quarrel with Sicomo, 
 244. 
 
 Sicomo and Sichele at loggerheads, 
 244. 
 
 Simoani river, place where it rises, 
 [397]. 
 
 Sinamane, the chief, 209. 
 
 Sky, singular appearance of the, 
 225. 
 
 Sleepy Hollow, 365. Storks in, 
 338. 
 
 Smoking, Bushman method of, 203. 
 
 Snakes, 15, 30, 53. The cera.>tes, 
 or horned snake, 374. Earth, 
 269. Four-footed snake and 
 snake-lizard from Mooi river, 
 270. 
 
 Snuff taken by the Bechuanas, 205. 
 
 Snyman, the half-caste ivory-trader, 
 208. His career, 209. Arrange- 
 ments between Mr. Chapman and 
 him, 210. Goes off lo Slna- 
 mane's, 228. Offt-rs to steal back 
 the stolen horses from Gert, 236. 
 His waggon, [443], [444]. 
 
 Spider, a velveteen scarlet, 239. 
 
 Springboks, 29,39, 77, [418]. 
 
 Springs, hot and tepid, 51. 
 
 S([uirrel, an onjura or tree, 350. 
 
 Steinboks, 30, 77, 165, 214. 
 
 Stink Fountain of Andersson, 153. 
 
 Storks, long lines of, 329. In Sleepy 
 Hollow, 338. White, 394. Flesh 
 of, 397. 
 
 Storm, a, 267. 
 
 Sun, the, vertical at noon, 240. 
 
 Swa-Kop river, valley of the, 23. 
 Vegetation of the sandy bed of 
 
 UNI 
 
 the river, 24. Water in the, in 
 June, 42. Meaning of the name 
 ' Swa-Kop,' 93. 
 Swartz, the Vaal River Boer, his 
 mode of ' bescherming' himself 
 from elephants, 210. 
 
 rPABLE BAY, the mirage in, 4. 
 J- Tamalukan river, [390], [391]. 
 
 Its names amongst the adjacent 
 
 tribes, [395]. 
 Tamarisk Poort, 53. 
 Tapyinyoka, 55. 
 
 Tapyinyoka, Mrs., 226, 291,292. 
 Teoge river, 351, [396J. 
 Thamafupa, [441 J. 
 Thammasetjie, [438], [441]. 
 Thorn-trees, several kinds of, 147. 
 
 Flower ot the grappler thorn, 223. 
 Thounce, or Wolf Fountain, 153. 
 Three-rill Fall of the Zambesi, 504. 
 Thunderstorms, 26S, 271, 298. 
 Tineas river, 28. Animals near, 28. 
 
 Ravines of the, 29. 
 Tineas Drift, 39. 
 
 Tinder-boxes coveted by the Bush- 
 men, 326. 
 Tobacco, wild, 23. 
 Tools (axes, saws, &c.), advisable 
 
 for the journey, 232. 
 Tortoise-trick of the Bushmen, 386. 
 Toucan, dimensions of a male, 
 
 364. 
 Travelling in Africa, difficulties of, 
 
 48, 79. 
 Tree with legs, the, [409]. 
 Trochanieter, the, 143. 
 'I'sakobiana, [429]. 
 Tsetse, the, 351. Remedy for the 
 
 bite of the, 255. Ravages of the, 
 
 461. A tsetse's sting, 469, 470. 
 
 Annoyance of the tsetse to the 
 
 party, 511. 
 Tufted owl (Hiboa of Cuvicr), 213. 
 Turnip-like bulb growing above- 
 
 giound, 31. 
 Turrets, the Twin, 69. 
 Twass or Quass river, 86. 
 
 TTKANA, the Damara chief, C9, 
 
 Unicorn, the, of S:)uth Africii, 171, 
 
 172. 
 Unicn Vlei, 314.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 535 
 
 VEG 
 
 VEGETATION, absence of, 25. 
 Velschoens, Namaqua mode 
 
 of making them, 189. 
 Victoria Falls, approach to the, 
 
 [455], 461, 481. First view of 
 
 them, 483. Description of them, 
 
 435 et seq. 
 Vilhige, an African, 425. 
 Viveira, or civet cat, 214, 215. 
 Vultures, 94,343,376. Three kinds 
 
 shot, 398. 
 
 WAGON-WHIP, 37, 62, 63. 
 Wood used for wagon- 
 Mork, 43. 
 ' Wagt een beetje ' bush, the, 78, 
 
 106, 110, 147, 155. 
 Wahlberg, Professor, his death, 
 
 127, 131. Well called after him, 
 126. Anecdote of him, 215. 
 
 Water, scarcity of, at Pelican Point, 
 5. Waterhole near Pelican Point, 
 14. Escape of the Zwartkops 
 river under ground, 15. Water 
 in the Roodeberg, 27. Water 
 obtained by scratching a hole 
 •with the hands, 32. Water at 
 Anna Wood, 42. The pestilent 
 -water at Wittvlei, 89. The 
 ■watering-place, Elephant Kloof, 
 101. Scene at a drinking-pool, 
 
 128. Water supply at Ghanze, 
 145. The well at Kotis, 155. 
 Wells at Koobie, 299. Abundance 
 of water, 240, 326. Want of 
 ■water, 403. 
 
 Waterboer, the Griqua chief, 82. 
 liiver of, 320. 
 
 ZWA 
 
 Water-boks, [394]. 
 
 Water-hens, 344. 
 
 Wheeler Vleis, 355. 
 
 Whips for driving oxen, 37, 62, 63. 
 
 Whirlwind; a, 218. Of dust, 442. 
 
 W^ilde beestes, bla^we. .See Guoos, 
 brindled. 
 
 Wilson, Mr., 19. 
 
 Wind, curious action of the, on 
 loose sand, 5. 
 
 Windhoek, valley of the, 59, 64. 
 
 Wittvlei, 79. I^ung-sickness in, 79. 
 Cattle robbers of, 80. 
 
 Wizard, the Makoba, 437, 445. 
 
 Wolf, a, 346. 
 
 Wolf Fountain, 153. 
 
 Women ; of the Namaqua Hotten- 
 tots, 11. Griqua ■women, II. 
 Damara women, 45, 56. Crip- 
 pled women at Barmen, 61. Na- 
 maqua girls, 76. Bushwomen, 
 99, 110. The old lady of the 
 party, 105. A Damara girl's 
 dress, 162, 163. A Damara wo- 
 man bitten by a dog, 216. A 
 Bakhalikhari girl, 276. Bechuana 
 women, 430, [431]. 
 
 Wood of various South African 
 trees, 246, 247, 249,251. 
 
 ZAMBESI river, approach to the 
 Falls of the, 209, [455], 461, 
 481. First view of them, 483. 
 Description of them, 485 et serj. 
 Zanjueellah, the boatman of the 
 
 Zambesi rapids, 517, 520. 
 Zebras, 39. 
 
 Zimboya rivulet, 469. 
 Zwartkops river, 15. 
 
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