ere = ee a iN ane atelate’ Pemhgeranah eaitaeeree i BAS ae sfatitateiar ite tr M3 aera) are 7, U8 iy sete . ihelelete captain raat ctu2) Oe, Hulhnandsi & Walton. tedhy Ovampo rin NARRATIVE OF AN EXPLORER IN TROPICAL SOUTH AFRICA. BY FRANCIS GALTON, Esa. WITH COLOURED MAPS, PLATES, AND WOODCUTS. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1853. LONDON : BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. PREFACE. —_e— Tue following pages contain the description of a part of Africa hitherto unknown to Europeans, but which has recently been travelled over and explored by the Author. His journey was a tedious and a very anxious one, but happily brought to a close without loss of life or serious accident to any member of his large party, which altogether amounted to nearly forty men. The result of this excursion has been to fill up that blank in our maps which, lying between the Cape Colony and the western Portuguese settlements, extends to the interior as far as the newly discovered Lake ’Ngami. The country of the Damaras—warlike, pastoral Blacks—was in the first instance explored; beyond them he found a broad tract, inhabited by aboriginal Hottentots; and, again, to the north of these, the Ovampo, a race of intelligent and kindly negroes, who b iv PREFACE. are careful agriculturists, and live in a land of great fertility. On his return southwards, a quick journey was made into the interior, near the line of the southern tropic, until a road, which had recently been travelled from the borders of the Cape Colony to Lake "Ngami, was reached, and in this way a practicable route between the Lake and the Atlantic was proved to exist. Few new objects of natural history were either collected or heard of, as the tract in question was for the most part a high barren plateau, that sup- ported but little variety of either animal or vegetable life. The journey may perhaps produce a useful result, by indicating a very favourable opening to missionary enterprise, namely, among the Ovampo. The writer has no wish to commit himself to extreme views either on this or on kindred subjects, but, if philan- thropists continue anxious to promote African civilisa- tion, the remarkable advantages of Ovampo-land, as a leverage ground in these matters, should not be lost sight of. The healthiness of the climate, the position of the country, the intelligence and orderly habits of the natives, their travelling and trading propensities, and, lastly, the ready access which it admits of from a healthy sea-coast, form most cogent PREFACE. v recommendations. In addition to these, though bordering on slave-producing countries, Ovampo-land is itself exempt from that scourge, and there would be one prejudice the less for Christian teachings to encounter. A traveller who, starting with the same views that the Author did, chose to start from Little Fish Bay, or elsewhere, in Benguela, and explore to the east- wards and southwards, would be likely to make a very successful journey. He would find shooting in abund- ance, and have opportunities of learning everything about as highly interesting a race of negroes as is probably to be found in the whole of Africa. The Author’s fate certainly led him over a great deal of barren country, and many monotonous days were passed ; still he cannot regret that he undertook the journey, for, besides the enjoyment of robust health in Africa, habits of self-reliance in rude emergencies were acquired, which are well worth possessing, though an English education hardly tends to promote them. A question is commonly put to explorers, ‘‘ Why could you not go further when you had already succeeded in going so far?” and the answer to this is, that several independent circumstances concur in stopping a man after he has been travelling for a certain time and distance. He must refit, for his vi PREFACE. cattle become worn out; his articles of exchange, which are his money, expended ; and, indeed, the medium of currency among the people he at last reaches being unknown to him, has of course been unprovided for. His clothes, necessaries, luxuries, all become exhausted, and the capital out of which he has to support himself fast disappears. On the other hand, infinite difficulty is found im acquiring the confidence of a strange nation; a new language has to be learnt; native servants refuse, and are unfitted, to accompany their master in countries strange and probably hostile to them, and whom months of joint labours had educated into a kind of sympathy with his cause; and so, when an explorer intends to cross the frontier of a neighbouring tribe, he finds that all his old travelling arrangements are more or less broken up, and that the further progress of the expedition will require nearly as many preparations and as much delay as if it were then about quitting the borders of civilisation. But his energies are reduced, and his means become inadequate to the task, and therefore no alternative is left him but to return while it is still possible for him to do so. It is therefore not to be expected that any large part of the vast unexplored region before us will yield its secrets to a single traveller, but, rather, that they will become known step by step through various PREFACE. vil successive discoveries; and as the experience of nearly a century corroborates these views, it is probable that for years to come there will still remain ample room in Africa for men inclined for adventure to carry out in them, if nowhere else, the métier of explorers. FRANCIS GALTON. 8, St. JAMEs’s PLACE, April 27th, 1853. The four Mimosas that, to the exclusion of nearly every other tree or bush, form the vegetation of Damara-land. b2 DATES OF MY JOURNEYINGS. 1850 | August September October November } December 1851 | January February March April May June July August September October November December Sail from Cape Town and land at Walfisch Bay. Travel with cart and mules to Otjimbingue. Buy oxen and send them down to fetch the waggons, while I stay at Otjimbingué and at Barmen. Make an excursion on ride-oxen to Erongo. Take waggons to Schmelen’s Hope, and ride thence to beyond Rehoboth. Interviews at Schmelen’s Hope; adjacent country is explored. Travel with the waggons to the northward. Pass Omanbondé—reach Okamabuti—a waggon breaks down. Meet the Ovampo caravan, and return with them on ride-oxen to Ondonga. Stay a fortnight at Nangoro’s, then go back to Okama- buti. Return southwards with the waggons by the Omoramba. Reach Barmen and go on to Jonker’s. Take waggon to Elephant Fountain, ride thence on ox- back to Okomavaka. Cross plain to ’Tounobis ; stay a week and return. Travel with waggons down towards the coast. Reach Walfisch Bay and wait for the ship. LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES OF PRINCIPAL POINTS. * South Latitude. East Longitude. Schmelen’s Hope . 22° 0’ 16° 56’ Okamabuti : - 3 19° 31" 18° 20’ Nangoro’s Werft in @aHiones 5 F : In 59% 16° 14’ Elephant Fountain : 3 . 227 21 18° 59’ ’Tounobis (or Otchombinds). ; . is 21% bbs _ 21° (55! * See p. 161, vol. xxii., “ Journal of Royal Geographical Society,” for details of the calculations and for further latitudes. ITINERARY OF MY PRINCIPAL ROUTES. = From WALFISCH BAY to NANGORO’S . . 719 English Miles. ” s TOUNOBIS = = 518 55 The hours given are those of actual travelling, exclusive of all ddays. 1 allow 24 English miles for each hour; but, reckoning as the crow flies from point to point, 2 geographical miles will be found to be very near the truth. Hours. WatriscH Bay To BARMEN. 207 Miles. 5 BARMEN TO OMANBONDE. 5 219 Miles. wok CN a CNRS Va Ne rene From Walfisch Bay to— Sand Fountain. Scheppmansdorf. Oosop Gorge. [No W.] Davieep Gorge. Mouth of Tsobis R. [W.] Tsobis. Kurrikoop. [No W.] Otjimbingue. In river bed. Okandu. Ondjiadjikenne. Etamondjua. Reedy Fountain. Barmen. 822 or 207 miles. From Barmen to— 8 | Schmelen’s Hope. 13} Okandu. 54] Okamabonde, 44) Kutjiamakompe. 64| Okanjoe. [No “J 64| Omoramba R. [No W.] 24| Okatumba. 24| Otjikururume. 24| Ontekeremba. 5 | Wells. 3 | Ozukaro. 54 we apa ee 82] Wells. [No W.] 20 | Okavaré (or Omanbonde). [W.] 913? or 228 miles. z J 3 i=} BARMEN TO TOUNOBIS. 310 Miles. From Barmen to— Foot of first hills. Katjimahas old kraal. [W-] Eikhams. Wells on Quieep R. [W.] Bend of Quieep R. Noosop R. [No W.] Kurrikoop. Water in Noosop R. Elephant a [No W.] Twas. z OMANBONDE TO NANGORO’s. s 284 Miles. From Omanbondé to— 10 | Okatjokeama, 8. Vley. [W.] 43| Okapukua. 44| Otjamunee. 34| Okamabuti. 4 | Namboshua. 6 | Ootui. 8 | Otchikango. [No W.] 12 | Otchikoto. [No W.] 94| Otjando. [No W.] 144] Omutchamatunda. [No W.] 105| Wells in Flat. [No W. for 93 hrs. ] 21 | Vieys, 2 hours in Ond wit No W.] 6 | Nangoro’s Werft. 1134 or 284 miles. The letters in brackets affixed to those stages which exceed 5 hours, mean as follows :—{W. at that there is water sufficient in quantity for cattle on the road in one or more places, [No W.] that there is not. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page Determine to travel in Africa. —Motives for the Journey.—Preparations. —Stock in Trade.—An Emigrant Ship.—Arrival at Cape Town. —Dangers of the Road.—Change of Route.—Determine to pro- ceed by Walfisch Bay.—Necessary Outfit.—Prospects of the Route. —Travelling Cortége.—Servants and Dogs.—Arrival at Walfisch Bay.—The Natives.—Extraordinary Mirage.—The Kuisip River. — Tobacco. — Ride-Oxen. — Disembarking. — Misadventure at Starting.—Perils of the Desert.—The ’Nara.—The Mission at Scheppmansdorf . , ; ‘ : : ‘ acl CHAPTER II. Sand Fountain.—A Lesson to the Natives.—A Present.—News of a Lion. —Scheppmansdorf.— A narrow Escape.—A Missionary’s Establishment. — Native Huts.—Missions.—A Lion Hunt. — Preparations for the Road.—Native Trees.—The Hottentots.— Character of the Country.—Mode of breaking in an Ox.—Arrange- ment of the Baggage.—A Prosperous Start.—The Swakop.— Night Bivouac.—Labours of the March.—Loss of a Horse and a Mule.—The Lions’ Chase.— Attempt to avenge the Loss. — Animal Food.—The Ghou Damup.— Erongo Mountain. — Intense Heat.— The Tsobis River. — Ride-Oxen. — Native Servants.—Their Cape Town Life.—A Giraffe Hunt.—Change of Country.—An Ostrich me —Approach to Otjimbingué.— Hans Larsen 4 ‘ : ; : ‘ ; . 24 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. f Hear ill News.—Engage Hans.—Ride to Barmen.—En route.—Oxen versus Mules.—Arrive at Barmen.—Jonker’s Attack.—Previous History. —Oerlams and Europeans.—Hottentots and Bushmen.— Establishment of Missions. —Native Feuds.—Dislike to Missions. Obstruction to Travellers.—Write to Jonker.—Buy Oxen from Hans.— Breaking them in.—Attacks of Distemper. —Complete my Encampment. —Damara Digging. —Native Hunting. —Oxen sent to the Bay.—I go to Barmen.— Damara Thorn-trees.— Jonker writes to me.—My Plans. —The Ovampo.—First Rain.— Hottentot Beauties. —Hyena’s Insolence. —Damara Ferocity. — Cruel Murder.— Mutilated Victim. —Message to Chiefs. —Their Replies . ; : 2 - 5 P "i 4 : 59 CHAPTER IV. I go to meet the Waggons.—Start for Erongo.—En route.—Damara features. —Gabriel in a Scrape.—The Mountain Erongo.—Chase Zebras. —Ghou Damup Huts.—A Black Coquette.— Return to Waggons.—Leave Otjimbingué.—Mishaps.—How to encamp and water Oxen.—Arrive at Barmen, thence to Schmelen’s Bay.— Ride to Hikhams.— A doomed Sufferer.—Visit Jonker. —Con- ference with him.—Swartboy and Amiral.—Ride on to Rehoboth. —Umap’s Judgment.—Obtain Interpreters. —Return to Rehoboth. Murder a Dog and pay for it.—Conference at Hikhams. — Legislating.— Proposed Conference. —Mules run quite away.— Schmelen’s Hope.—Dates : A 5 ‘ > . o 105 CHAPTER V. Personnel.—Commissariat.—Daily allowances.—Start on the Expedi- tion.—Damara Obtuseness.—Inability to count. —Information withheld.—Kahikené sends to us.—Arrive on the high Table- land.—Superstitions on Food.—Meet Kahikené.—His Difficulties. —Gives me Advice.—Information about the Road.—Four Oxen stolen.—The Culprits are punished.—Recognising lost Oxen.— Hear of another Road. —Reach Omatako.— African Puma, — Eshuameno.—Chipping the front Teeth. — View from the Hill. —Ja Kabaca.— Climb Omuvereoom.—A Snake. — Seriously obstructed by the Thorns.—Reach Otjironjuba.—How to make Soap.—We catch some Bushmen.—Learn a little and travel on. —Doubts about our Route.—Arrive at a Werft.—Are guided onwards.—Omanbondé.—Hippopotami . 5 - S . 128 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER VI. Page Mistake a Lion for an Antelope.—Explore a Road.—Reach Palms.— Return and bring the Waggons.—Experiences of African Travel. —Guide decamps and we find another.—Settle at Okambuti.— The first Elephant. — Waggon breaks down.—Make a Strong Camp. Chapupa’s History.—Savages versus Europeans.—Ride on to the Ovampo.— Method of searching for Water.—Damaras are bad Guides. —Find some Bushmen.—We start, but are ordered back. —The Ovampo Caravan.—Chikorongo-onkompé.—Pronunciation of the letter L.—Salt, not a Necessary of Life. —Damaras never eat it.—Return to Chapupa’s Werft.— Arrange a Present for Nangoro. — Dressed and tanned Leather.— Hear of Kahikené’s Death.—Damara Creed.—Eandas and Omakuru.—Ceremonies.— Huts and Finery.—Chaunts and Music.—Damara Language.— Prefixes 5 2 é = e : : ‘ : . 162 CHAPTER VII. Damara Helpmates.— Marriage Tie.—Caravan to Ovampo-land. — Yearly Traffic. —Otchikoto.— Improvised Chaunts.— Reach an Ovampo Cattle-post.—Archery Practice. —The Parent Tree.—We reach Ondonga.—Corn, Beans, and Palms.—Fruit-trees.—Native Beer.—Density of the Population.—Encamp by Nangoro’s Village. —Cannot obtain Pasturage.—Nangoro pays us a Visit.—Ovampo Belles. —We go to a Ball. — Description of Dances. —Charms and Counter-charms. —Nangoro’s Palace. —The Great River.— Prospects. — The King is crowned.—His lawful Successors.— The Queens’ Duties. —Ovampo Dentists.—Surgical Practice . 195 CHAPTER VIII. We are ordered to return.—Hesitation.—The Slave dealings here.— Future of Ovampo-land.—A Field for Missionaries.—Best way of getting there.—Slavery and Servitude.—Giving Men away. —Arrange my Packs.—Start Homeward.—Leave Ondonga.—The Oxen suffer severely. —Reach Okamabuti.—The Waggons are safe.—Start for Omaramba.—Okavaré.—Hlephants visit us.—Ice every night.—Pass Omagundé.—Reach Barmen 7 i moe xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. The Waggons are condemned. —Messengers to the Cape. —The Kaoko.—History of Damara-land.—Ghou Damup Genealogies.— Start for Elephant Fountain. — Excessive Drought. — Engage Eybrett.— Sell my Cart and Mules.—Travel from Eikhams.— Shooting Giraffes in the Dusk.—Elephant Fountain.—Numerous Pitfalls. —Plundering Expeditions.—The Kubabees reach ’Ngami. —Trouble of taking Observations.—Leave Waggon and ride to the East.—Engage Saul.—Hans and a Lion.—We enter the Bushman Tract.—Rhinoceros Skulls. —Hear of the Kubabees Hottentots. —Start for ’Tounobis.—Shoot a White Rhinoceros. — Reach *Tounobis.—Elephant in a Pitfall.—Prepare for Sport.—Night- Watching for Game.—Rhinoceros Veal.—Opera-glasses.—Herd of Elephants.—Fights and Frolics.—Bulk of the Rhinoceros,—A Picturesque Finale.—Spring Hares.—Remarks on my Route.— Unicorns and Cockatrices. —Bushmen Springes. —Setting Guns at Night.—Description of Plate.—Poisoned Arrows CHAPTER X. Hear the Fate of my Two Oxen,—Plan an Attack to avenge them,— Make an Attack on Two Werfts.—Catch some Culprits,— Hottentot Passion for Onslaught.—Return to Eikhams.—Best sort of Travelling Compass.—MS. and other Almanacs.—Watches and Alarums.—Large Packs of Lions.—A Tale learnt from Tracks.—Accidents with Guns.—Methods of carrying them on Horseback.—Description of the Plate.—Saddle Arrangements.— Travelling Dress.—Colours most suited for Sportsmen.—Bright Colours of Skulking Animals.—Rationale of them.—Join Hans’ Party.—Begin to break up the Expedition.—Travel down the Swakop.—Reach Walfisch Bay. aa ie, ai and Ostriches. —Retrospects.—Leave Africa . ; : Page . 288 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. eA eSA) NATIVE GROUP A a o ~ . 5 . = FRONTISPIECE. THE THORNS OF DAMARA-LAND é s e : : . Page vii TRAVELLER WITH PACK-OXEN é Fi : ‘ : ; . 103 CHAPUPA, A DAMARA CHIEF . é A : ; P eG. DAMARA WOMAN . : : é F 3 : F : . 189 DAMARA WEAPONS, ETC. . ; : : : : ; yes LOL CAMP IN OVAMPO-LAND . 3 . = 3 E : é 6 ANG NANGORO, KING OF THE OVAMPO 5 < : : eee 20) OVAMPO WEAPONS, UTENSILS, ETC. 5 : 3 ; 5 . 224 SETTING A GUN AS A SPRING-GUN . 3 ‘ : . .°. 286 HOTTENTOT METHOD OF CARRYING A GUN ON HORSE OR OX-BACK 302 MAPS. . c - ¢ 4 C é 2 . . AT THE END. a ia TROPICAL SOUTH AFRICA. CHAPTER I. Determine to travel in Africa.—Motives for the journey.—Preparations.— Stock in Trade.—An Emigrant Ship.—Arrival at Cape Town.— Dangers of the Road.—Change of Route.—Determine to proceed by Walfisch Bay.—Necessary outfit.—Prospects of the Route.—Travelling Cortége.— Servants and Dogs.— Arrival at Walfisch Bay.— The Natives.— Extraordinary Mirage.—The Kuisip River.— Tobacco.— Ride-Oxen. — Disembarking. — Misadventure at Starting.—Perils of the Desert. —The ’Nara.—The Mission at Scheppmansdorf. Ir was in 1849 that I determined upon a long travel in Africa. I had been there once; and then, landing at Alexandria, sailed or rode far beyond all the deserts, temples, and cataracts of Egypt, until I had fairly entered the “ Soudan,” or country of the Blacks—that zone of the tropical vegetation, to which the name of Central Africa properly applies. It was a tour hastily performed, but still sufficient to imbue or poison me with that fascination for further enterprise, which African tourists have so especially felt—a fascination which has often enough proved its B 2 MY MOTIVES FOR THE JOURNEY. {cHaP. I. power by urging the same traveller to risk his comfort, his health, and his life, over and over again, and to cling with pertinacity to a country which after all seems to afford little else but hazard and hardships, ivory and fever. The motive which principally induced me to under- take this journey was the love of adventure. I am extremely fond of shooting, and that was an additional object; and lastly such immense regions of Africa lie utterly unknown, that I could not but feel that there was every probability of much being dis- covered there, which, besides being new, would also be useful and interesting. A large field lay open to any explorer who might wish to attempt the enterprise, and I chose to undertake the task. The discovery that was made of Lake Ngami, in South Africa, gave a direction to my plans; and in the beginning of 1850 I fixed on the Cape as the point at which to enter Africa. Many South African travellers and sportsmen were then in London; so that I received every information about the Bechuana country up to 300 or 400 miles north of the Orange River, which has been most successfully shot over by several of our countrymen ; and through the very kind interest which several influential members of the Geographical Society took in my proceedings, I was readily enabled to start, perfectly aw fait as to what was known and what was wanted to be known in South Africa. I now began my preparations in good earnest. Mr. Andersson, a Swedish gentleman and a naturalist, CHAP. I.] PREPARATIONS. 3 consented to accompany me; and to his perseverance and energy I have since been in the highest degree indebted. I collected together all the things I could think of, or that my friends were kind enough to suggest to me, as advisable to take. I knew that at least the first part of my journey would have to be undertaken in waggons, in each of which I was assured four thousand pounds’ weight could be carried without risk across the country, so far as it had been penetrated, and therefore I was not necessarily stinted in the quantity of comforts I could carry from Europe; but as to the latter part of my expedition I was aware that the probability was that I should have to leave my waggons, and to travel either by boat or on the backs of some beasts of burden, or possibly even to walk, in which case I should have to content myself with far less luggage. I therefore collected my things together, on the prin- ciple of having them as light as possible, and in duplicate, the half of which I could leave en cache, when I had to quit my waggons, as a store to fall back upon should I happen to meet with robbery or accident. In my perfect ignorance of what would be the most acceptable presents, and what were the best articles of exchange among the people I should meet with, I made a great collection of all sorts of ornaments, so that I had a store like a pedlar’s shop; for besides the more staple articles of guns, beads, knives, and gaudily printed calico, I bought or collected looking- glasses, accordions, hunting-coats, my friends’ old B2 4 MY STOCK-IN-TRADE. [cHAP. I. uniforms, burning-glasses, swords, gilt belts, immense bracelets, anklets, yards of picture chains for neck- laces, Jews’-harps, mosaic rings; lastly, I explored the shops of Drury Lane for some theatrical finery, and a magnificent crown rewarded my search, which I vowed to place on the head of the greatest or most distant potentate I should meet with in Africa. On the 5th of April, 1850, everything was prepared ; I and my boxes were on board an East Indiaman ; my last adieu was said, the very last line sent off by the pilot boat, and we were off for the Cape. I had plenty of occupation on board ship in arranging my things, trying to learn the Bechuana language, practising with a sextant, and reading up books; so that the time passed as agreeably as can be expected in a sea voyage. It so happened that the ship in which I had taken my berth carried a; number of emigrants—a fact which the careful agent only let us find out at the last moment—but I liked the crowding and bustle of it amazingly. The emigrants were not in the least in the way of the cabin passengers, for we, ~ of course, had the poop to ourselves; and looking down from it, the deck had all the appearance of a crowded fair. The emigrants were a squalid starved-looking set at first, but six weeks of rest and good feeding made a - wonderful change in their condition; and as we sailed into the warm weather, and they could sit about the decks, they began to think of their personal appearance, and to wash and tidy themselves and put their clothes to rights. It was amusing to see how soon they CHAP. I.] ARRIVAL AT CAPE TOWN. 5 divided themselves into cliques, and how high and mighty the party that sat under the left corner of the poop were, and how they looked down on those who sat elsewhere. Anyhow we had a pleasant sail, though some eighty days had passed before we were in Table Bay, and among the white stone and green-shuttered houses of Cape Town. I intended to make a stay here of a few weeks, and then to sail on to Algoa Bay, whence my land journey was to have been commenced. I therefore took the earliest opportunity of presenting my letters of introduction, and I hoped that chance would soon throw much information, valuable to me, within my reach, J cannot sufficiently express how much kind- ness I received during my stay in Cape Town from all my acquaintance there. Everybody that I was thrown with seemed to take the greatest interest in my excursion, and I was referred and introduced to all those whose experience or information might be of any use to me. I had not, however, arrived many days, when news came that materially affected my plans, and in the end gave them a somewhat different direction. The emigrant Boers—those Dutch colonists who had rebelled and run away from us—had broken out into open revolt. They invested the whole breadth of the habitable country, north of the Orange River, through which the direct way to Lake Ngami lies; and information was received that they had resolutely refused the passage of any stranger from the colony through their country; that they had already turned 6 DANGERS OF THE ROAD. [CHAP. I. back some travellers, and that in all probability they would send a “commando” to take immediate and exclusive possession of the lake country. Sir Harry Smith, then Governor of the Cape, was so good as to put me in immediate possession of the news, and strongly dissuaded me from attempting to pass them, not because there was any risk to my life, but because after the tedious journey of six weeks or two months that led to their country, I should be met by these Boers, and almost to a certainty stopped, robbed, and turned back. There was no road to the left of these people, because they live up to the verge of the great Karrikarri desert, which takes up all the middle of “ South Africa, whilst any party taking the road to their right would have to pass in the first instance through the whole length of the Caffre country, and then to the fever-stricken neighbourhoed of the west coast. In fact when the Boers chose to stop all commu- nication from the Colony northwards, by the usual route, they were perfectly able to do so. In a few days the intelligence that had before been received about the Boers’ intentions became more fully confirmed, and I had to think of other ways of getting to the tropical lands of South Africa. My first thought was to try the east coast, by Delagoa Bay, but that plan was instantly abandoned on account of the fearful unhealthiness of the district. Next I thought of the Mozambique, and of landing at Quillimaine—a plan which was warmly advocated by a Portuguese gentle- man of the highest standing at that place, Signore Isidore Pereira. CHAP. I.] CHANGE OF ROUTE. 7 His father had crossed Africa from Mozambique to Benguela, and he himself had travelled much, and was in intimate relation with the chiefs of many of the surrounding parts. He chanced to be passing through Cape Town when I was there en route to Rio. He took the kindest interest in my plans, gave me very full information upon what he knew of the interior, and subsequently furnished me with credentials to different Portuguese gentlemen at the more distant of their settlements. If I had been under no sort of tie, I should have slaved at learning Portuguese in Cape Town until the first ship sailed for Mozambique, and then have gone by her—but I was engaged to take my travelling companion by some means of conveyance, by which he could bring home a complete collection of the Natural History of the country ; and Signore Pereira told me that no beasts of burden were used in the interior of Mozambique, but that all luggage was carried on men’s backs, and the traveller himself in a palanquin. This way of travelling would never have answered the object Andersson had in view, and I therefore did not feel justified in proposing it to him. At last a plan was suggested, and very strongly urged upon me, chiefly by some merchants, of sailing to Walfisch Bay, and thence travelling with waggons ; this was the idea I finally adopted. I heard that though all was desert by the sea coast between the Cape Colony and Benguela, yet that beyond this desert not only habitable but very fertile country was to be found. As to distance, Walfisch Bay was of all places most favourably situated for an excursion into the 8 ROUTE BY WALFISCH BAY. {cHaP. I. interior, and there were Missionary establishments already formed from near the coast to many days’ journey inwards. I was referred to a person who had carried on for some years a cattle trade between Walfisch Bay and the countries near it and the Cape. He had built a store at the Bay, and had had a vessel of his own there; sometimes he sent the cattle by her to St. Helena, sometimes he sold them to the whalers and guano ships which then were numerous, and often put in to him for provisions, and lastly he had driven large herds of them overland to the Cape—by a road to the west of that Karrikarri desert, of which I spoke a few lines back, and to the east of which the Boers and Bechuanas reside. All about this line of country the Namaqua Hottentots live, and up it some fifteen or twenty years ago Sir James Alexander was the first to explore a waggon road. My informant, the cattle trader, had himself seen nothing but arid worthless country, but he strongly stated his belief in the fertility of Damaraland, into which no white man had ever penetrated, but on the borders of which the Missionary stations are placed. I then went to the agents and friends of the Mis- sionary Societies to which those stations belonged, and the trader's account was very fully confirmed by them. I was informed that the Damaras were considered by the Missionaries as a most interesting nation, and one well worthy of exploring, and that an expedition had long been contemplated by them to go through Damara land, to see what field might lie open for their labours beyond it. I was very kindly assured of every CHAP. I.] NECESSARY OUTFIT. 9 assistance on their part, and my friends insisted on the great advantage that I should have, if the first stage of my journey was made in company with persons who had experience of the country and acquaintance with the language. Moreover, a novice had just arrived from Germany, and was waiting for the earliest oppor- tunity of being shipped off to join his future fellow labourers. So far matters seemed promising enough ; but one point was certain, that everything I might want must be taken from Cape Town, as nothing whatever but oxen could be bought where the Mission- aries were. Servants, waggons, and things of every kind, I must take with me, for the ship would land me on the desert sand—four tedious months’ journey from Cape Town ; and when she sailed away all communication thence would, for at least a year, be at an end. Now if I had been going to travel in any of the usual ways, as with pack-horses, mules, camels, boats, and so forth, and with people I knew something about, I should not have had the least anxiety; but oxen were creatures I had no experience with, or of Cape half-castes either. Cape Town is proverbially the worst place in the Colony to get waggon drivers and leaders from, and I did not much fancy the undertaking; but still go somewhere I must, and I could think of no other alternative but Walfisch Bay. I therefore consoled myself with the idea that, if the whole affair broke _ down at the very first, Andersson and I would still find protection from the Missionaries, and that if on the other hand we could push on at all, we could probably B3 10 PROSPECTS OF MY ROUTE. [CHAP. I. get a great way. SolTI began resolutely to make my preparations. I will try to put ina few words the whole of the information that I could get, and upon which I had to act. Walfisch Bay was perfectly desert, though traders had lived there. The nearest water was three miles off, and that in very small quantities. The nearest place where cattle could thrive was between twenty and thirty miles from the coast. This was the first Missionary station,—it was called Scheppmansdorf. Thence a journey of ten or twelve days inland over wretched country led to two other stations; they were the furthest; and all beyond them northwards was unknown. These last were in Damara land; the Namaqua Hottentots lived between them and the Cape. A small pen and ink map was also shown me, but it was blotted and not very intelligible. No oxen could be bought until I arrived at the furthest stations. If I bought them from the Damaras they were untaught ; if from the Namaquas taught oxen; the horse distemper was very severe, and no horse would live throughout the year. ‘The Namaquas were always fighting with the Damaras, and it was very doubtful whether having travelled amongst the one tribe, the other would permit me to pass through their country. No money was used or known, nothing but articles of barter,—iron things for the most part among the Damaras, clothing and guns among the Namaquas. Lastly, that the great man of all the country, who could do what he liked, and — of whom everybody stood in awe, was Jonker Africaner. It was said that he had a wholesome dread of the English a a CHAP. I.] MY TRAVELLING CORTEGE. 11 Government, and unlimited respect for a large letter with a large seal, but that I had much better keep out of his way.. This I think is a faithful summary of all that I could learn, and I soon set to work to act upon it. Cape Town abounds with mules, small well-bred looking things, so I made inquiries and bought eight that had been well broken into harness, and were in good condition; I could only buy one pack-mule, which made my ninth. Mules had withstood the dis- temper so wellin Bechuana country, that I trusted that at least half of them would live until my wanderings were ended. I then bought a large strongly-built cart for them to draw, and with it I purposed to make my first expedition up the country, carrying the heavy articles of exchange and bringing back oxen. I also bought two waggons—I believe the only two travelling waggons in Cape Town—for now-a-days the march of intellect has inspired even the ponderous Dutchmen, and they make good roads and use lighter vehicles. These were to be drawn by the oxen that I intended to buy in the country, and the mules, as I calculated, would be strong enough to pull them from Walfisch Bay to Scheppmansdorf, the first station, and thence to go on with the cart and articles of exchange. As there wasno grass at Walfisch Bay, I took plenty of corn for my cattle, and a cask of good water for ourselves; the mules would drink at Sand Fountain, the place three miles off. I only took two horses, as I knew they would be victims to distemper before the important part of my journey commenced ; and I bought but few 12 MY FOLLOWERS. (cuar. 1. additional articles of exchange for I hoped to obtain enough game to supply us with daily food, in addition to the few sheep we should take with us as slaughter cattle. This was a sad mistake, as I found out after- wards. I was aware I should require at least sixty waggon oxen,—two spans of from fourteen to six- teen for each waggon. As Namaqua land was out of my intended route, and as I had been so strongly advised not to go there, I took only enough clothing, &c., to buy some forty or sixty oxen there, and iron things enough to buy 150 from the Damaras; the surplus beyond what I immediately wanted being meant to cover the unavoidable expenses of travelling. I had, as I méfitioned before from England, a large and indeed an expensive set of “presents” but my great error was in not taking far more things of known exchangeable value, and in having taken those “ presents ” which the natives really cared very little for. I felt quite sure that everything connected with my waggons was right, because I got more than one expe- rienced friend to look them over; and having engaged my vessel, a schooner of some 100 tons, all except my servants were at length in readiness. I wanted, in the first instance, a headman—one who had travelled with oxen and knew the work—a man with a character that he could not afford to lose, under whom I could put every detail, and whom I would pay highly; but I could find no such person in Cape Town. I, how- ever, engaged a Portuguese, John Morta, a most thoroughly trustworthy man, who, though he did not in the least fulfil the conditions I have just mentioned, CHAP. 1.1 MY DOGS. 13 was honest in the extreme, and with whom I received an excellent character; next, I hired Timboo, a black, liberated by one of our cruisers years ago, on capturing a slave-ship in the Mozambique. He, too, had an admirable character, and could do a little of everything. I do not think he would have joined me had he not been suspected of too active interference (on the loyal side) during the late anti-convict movement, which made it convenient for him to leave Cape Town for a season. ‘There was some story about his having had a personal conflict with an influential leader of the opposition. Timboo was an excellent groom, and had some acquaintance with oxen. Besides him, I got John St. Helena, as waggon driver, and his brother, for leader; John Williams, a square-built, impudent, merry fellow, and a right useful servant, was another leader ; and a young scamp, Gabriel, who clung to my heels wherever I went in Cape Town, and who under- took to be agent in getting me dogs, horses, or anything else, begged so earnestly to go with me, that I enrolled him also in my corps. I still wanted a second waggon driver, and at the last moment took a man out of a waggon-maker’s shop, though I did not much like him. As for dogs, although I was assured that I could find any number in the country, still I thought that a few Cape Town mongrels would be of no harm, and Gabriel brought me a whole pack for approval, at an uniform rate of 2s. 6d. each; one good dog was given to Andersson, and by entreating that a sentence of exe- cution, which was passed on a fine-looking Newfound- land, for trespassing in the barracks, might be commuted 14 WALFISCH BAY. [CHAP. I. to transportation for life, I obtained him also. I had a fancy to take a small dog which could be carried in the waggon all day, and would be wakeful at night, so I bought a spaniel, on which I lavished infinite affection, and who rejoiced in the name of Dinah. Andersson was most busy in packing and arranging my things. I don’t know how I should have got through the work myself: the confusion seemed endless. At length, after we had been for three weeks or a month in Cape Town, the schooner was brought close into shore ; the kicking mules were boated into her; the heaps of wheels, axletrees, &c., that belonged to the four vehicles of the Missionary and myself disappeared off the quay; all the boxes were on board, and, last of all, a cab-full of lamenting curs were embarked and sent away. In the second week of August, 1850, we set sail, and on the eve of the 20th the low sandy shore of the land we were bound for came in sight. We rounded Pelican Point (on which pelicans were certainly sitting), and came into a wide bay, the shores of which were dancing with mirage, and presented the appearance of the utmost desolation. The store-house was a wretched affair to have received so grand a name—being a wooden shanty, about the size of a small one-storied cottage—which we could not for a long time see from on board our ship. The name of the bay, “‘ Walfisch,” is Dutch, and means whale-fish: the sailors have corrupted it to Walwich, and, lastly, to Woolwich Bay, all which aliases may be found in different maps. There area great many whales of the sort called “ humpbacks” all about this ee CHAP, I.| THE NATIVES. 15 coast; in coming here we passed through a “school ” or herd. It was a magnificent sight; for the whole sea around us was ploughed up by them. We went up the Bay very cautiously, for it has never been properly surveyed; and different charts give most widely different plans of it. At nightfall, we anchored a mile or so off shore. We could see no natives; and not a sign of life anywhere, excepting in the immense flocks of pelicans and of flamingos and other sea-birds. And this, it appears, is the character of the entire coast between the Orange River and the Portuguese territory—a physical barrier which has saved the natives who live behind it from the infliction of a foreign slave-trade. The books of sailing directions say that no fresh water can be obtained on the coast for the whole of that distance ; but this is a mistake, as in Sandwich Harbour, some twenty miles south of Walfisch Bay, there is, at least at present, a copious supply. In the morning we saw some savages about, and brought the schooner as close in shore as seemed safe, about one-third of a mile from the store-house; and at midday, the captain, the new Missionary, and ourselves landed. A row of seven dirty squalid natives came to meet us. Three had guns: they drew up in a line, and looked as powerful as they could; and the men with guns professed to loadthem. They had Hottentot features, but were of a darker colour, and a most ill-looking appearance : some had trousers, some coats of skins, and they clicked, and howled, and chattered, and behaved like baboons. This was my first impression, and that 16 THE MIRAGE. [cHaP. I. of all of us; but the time came when, by force of comparison, I looked on these fellows as a sort of link to civilisation. They were well enough acquainted with sailors; and the advent of a ship was of course a great godsend for them, as they bartered, for tobacco, clothes, and all sorts of luxuries, the goats’ milk and oxen which a few of them had; but they had been savagely ill-used more than once, and had occasionally retaliated. The captain of them soon made his appearance, and we became very amicable, and walked towards Sand Fountain, signs and smiles taking the place of spoken language. A letter was sent on to the Missionary at Scheppmansdorf, a cotton handkerchief and a stick of tobacco being the payment to the messenger for his twenty-five miles’ run. We passed over a broad flat, flooded in spring-tides, following the many waggon- tracks that here seemed so permanent as not to be effaced by years. We were surrounded by a mirage of the most remarkable intensity. Objects 200 yards off were utterly without definition : a crow, or a bit of black wood, would look as lofty as the trunk of a tree. Pelicans were exaggerated to the size of ships with the studding-sails set; and the whole ground was wavy and seething, as though seen through the draught of a furnace. This was in August, the month in which mirage 1s most remarkable here; it is excessive at all times, and has been remarked by every one who has seen the place. A year and a half later I tried on two occasions to map the outline of the Bay, which was then comparatively clear, but still the mirage quite prevented me; an object which I took as a mark from CHAP. I.] THE KUISIP RIVER. 17 one point being altogether undistinguishable when I had moved to my next station. After proceeding half a mile we came to the bed of the Kuisip, a river that only runs once in four or five years, but, when it does, sweeps everything before it. The bed was very broad, and hardly definable: there were marks here and there lke the bottom of dried-up pools, where the ground has been made into a paste and afterwards cracked by the drought. Bushes (Dabby bushes I have always heard them called) not unlike fennel, but from eight to twelve feet high, grew plentifully; a prickly gourd, the ‘Nara, with long runners, covered numerous sand-hillocks ; and lastly, high shifting sand dunes, on either side, completed the scene. We were so much out of condition, that the depth of the sand and the heat of the sun (at least, what we then thought was heat) gave us a good tiring, and we were heartily glad when Sand Fountain and its watering-place came in sight. My imagination had pictured, from its name, a bubbling streamlet; but in reality it was a hole, six inches across, of green stagnant water. It was per- fectly execrable to taste, as many years had elapsed since the Kuisip last ran, and the water which drains from its damp sand to the hollow here, had become almost putrid, and highly saline. However, it was drinkable, and I was satisfied that with plenty of digging enough could be obtained to water my mules. Some years ago, when the trader lived here, the water was copiousand very good; but all these sort of wells are very uncertain, even more so than the flow of the river 18 RIDE-OXEN. [CHAP, I. on which they depend. We came back much as we went, and bought five ostrich eggs that were brought to us, giving seven sticks of tobacco for the lot, but this was a piece of extravagance, five being the proper price. Cavendish tobacco is that which has been nearly always bartered here ; it is, as most smokers know, in sticks, each stick weighing about an ounce, and worth a penny. I had taken only a hundredweight with me; but five hundredweight would not have proved at all too much. We took the captain and an ill-looking Hottentot, who appeared to be a relation of his, on board, as the two were inseparable ; and we employed ourselves in picking bush tics from our persons, for the bushes swarmed with them. During the night a gun was heard on shore, and a fire was lighted, which proved to be made by the Missionary, Mr. Bam, and Stewartson, who had been a cattle-trader, but had lately lost everything, so that he, his wife, and children could not afford to return to Cape Town, but lived at the same station with Mr. Bam. We had sent the letter at midday; they received it about night-fall, and had ridden down on oxen in five hours. I had up to that moment no conception that oxen ever were, or had been, used as hacks, except possibly as a joke; but here were two fine-looking beasts, saddled, and with sticks through their noses, -and a thin bridle fastened to the stick, and tied to a log of wood, and really they looked uncommonly well, and not at all out of their element. We at once proceeded to disembark. The horses and mules had to swim: the sailors managed it rather — oo CHAP. I. | MISADVENTURE AT STARTING. 19 clumsily, and nearly drowned one; but at last the creatures were all got on shore. Heavy packages had next to be landed in the dingy, and we got through a deal of work. In the evening I rode with Mr. Bam to the Hottentot kraal, by Sand Fountain, and of course listened with great interest to all he had to tell me of the country. With the Damaras he had little or no acquaintance. He was born in the Cape; had made several overland journeys; spoke much of the difficulty of travelling here, both from want of food and the badness of the road; and did not hold out to me the slightest encouragement as regarded my journey. After sunset Mr. Bam returned on board to sleep, and to get a good substantial dinner there, which is not to be despised by a resident in these parts. I pitched my tent on shore, and slept in guard of the things. My men had worked with very good spirit through the day in landing them, though it was hard work, and they were wet all the time. Some slept on shore and some on board. I had a heavy spar, which lay on the beach, carried under the lee of the store-house, and picketed my mules and horses to it. The night was very chilly, damp, and windy, and the animals extremely restless. In the morning we found that my two horses had broken loose, and escaped. Timboo and John St. Helena went directly on their tracks; but as hours passed, and they did not return, I became much alarmed. On Mr. Bam’s coming on shore he advised me at once to send some natives with provisions after the men, as all was desert for forty miles and more round the Bay ; 20 PERILS OF THE DESERT. [oHaP. I. the horses would never perhaps be overtaken by the men, who would possibly follow their tracks till they were exhausted, and so be themselves unable to return. I therefore sent two natives directly,—Mr. Bam inter- preting for me—one with provisions, and the other with orders to go on after the tracks, and bring the animals back. Late in the afternoon my men made their appearance, looking sadly exhausted. They had gone very far, until they dared not go further; and then, intending to return by a short cut back, soon became bewildered among the sand-hills, and quite lost their course. They were on the point of going altogether wrong, when the mist cleared away, and showed them the sea and the Bay, with the schooner in it, in the far distance. After a long walk they came to the waggon-tracks, which took them to Sand Fountain, where they obtained water, and there the Hottentots met them. The sailors had landed some of my things very carelessly indeed, dropping bags of flour into the sea. I made a great row, with much effect, about it. Some goats were driven down to sell. I bought two kids for a second-hand soldier’s coat, without the buttons: I had three dozen, and gave sixpence each for them at a Jew’s shop in Cape Town. The horses were still missing. I sent the captain, “ Frederick,’ and another man, on their ride-oxen upon the spoor, for I became extremely anxious for their lives; there is not a blade of grass or a drop of water where they are gone. Frederick would not not go unless I promised him and his friend a really cHapP. I.] THE ’NARA. 21 respectable coat and a pair of trousers, to be paid if they brought the horses back—not otherwise. The agreement was made, and off they started. I wish I had brought more old clothes. Two coats and the etceteras are a sad drain upon my wardrobe. Another accident happened: my large white dog, that I begged from the barracks, took fright at the waggon-whips which we had landed, and were cracking: he ran straight away, and was never seen by us again. Flamingos gathered here in immense flocks; their flight is very curious; the long projecting neck in front, and the long legs behind, make them look in the distance more like dragon-flies than birds. I broke a pelican’s wing with a cartridge of swan-shot, and had a chase of a good mile after him before J came up: the Hottentots eat him. The Bay seems, from all accounts, to swarm with fish; but, though I have a small seine net, I have no time now to set it. August 23.—The horses are found! They had strayed nearly forty miles (I saw their tracks long after- wards), and Frederick drove them to Scheppmansdorf for food and water, as it was much nearer for them than the Bay. He came to claim his apparel: I grudgingly enough gave him the only coats I could; they were the workmanship of Stultz: I had intended them for full-dress occasions at Missionary chapel-meetings, &c. But it could not be helped; and the greasy savages put them on, exulting in their altered appearance. I have mentioned above the ’Nara, a prickly gourd, which grows here: it is the staple food of these Hottentots, and a very curious plant. In the first 22 THE MISSIONARIES. © [CHAP. I. place, it seems to grow nowhere except in the Kuisip and in the immediate environs of Walfisch Bay; and, in the second place, every animal eats it; not only men, cattle, antelopes, and birds, but even dogs and hyenas. It is a very useful agent towards fixing the sands; for as fresh sand blows over, and covers the plant, it continually pushes on its runners up to the air, until a huge hillock is formed, half of the plant, half of sand. I do not much like its taste; it is too rich and mawkish. The waggons that belonged to the Missionaries in the country came down to the beach to carry away their supplies, which had arrived by my ship. A vessel would have been chartered for them if I had not previously engaged it. They had arranged that one should be sent every two years to bring them their things of barter—clothes and groceries, and whatever else they might want; for the overland journey was found to be more expensive and less practicable, as it takes quite four months to reach Cape Town from Walfisch Bay, and the roads are so rocky that a waggon is seriously risked by the journey. The oxen, too, are probably much worn out, and, after all, only some 1500Ib., net weight, can be carried in each waggon. On the other hand, a vessel from the Cape arrives in a week, and can, of course, carry anything. The trip costs about 100/.: it would be much less if it was not that the prevalent winds make it a matter of some four weeks to return. Chance vessels hardly ever arrive now-a-days at Walfisch Bay: not one had come for more than a year. CHAP. I.] SAND FOUNTAIN. 23 All our things were at length landed; the wells at Sand Fountain yielded enough water for the mules; the storehouses both there and at the Bay were un- locked, and cleared out to receive my luggage; the waggons and cart were pieced together; and the schooner sailed away. CHAPTER II. Sand Fountain.—A lesson to the Natives. —A present.—News of a Lion.— Scheppmansdorf.—A narrow escape.—A Missionary’s Establishment. —Native Huts.—Missions.—A Lion Hunt.—Preparations for the Road.—Native Trees.—The Hottentots.—Character of the Country. —Mode of breaking in an Ox.—Arrangement of the Baggage.—A Prosperous Start.—The Swakop.—Night Bivouac.—Labours of the March.—Loss of a Horse and a Mule.—The Lions’ chase.—Attempt to avenge the loss.—A narrow escape.—Animal food.—The Ghou Damup.—Erongo Mountain.—Intense heat.—The Tsobis River.— Ride-Oxen.—Native Servants.—Their Cape Town Life.—A Giraffe hunt.—Change of Country.—An Ostrich Egg.—Approach to Otjim- bingué.—Hans Larsen. Tue Missionary who had come with us from Cape Town went off at once to Scheppmansdorf with Mr. Bam, whose oxen fetched his waggon and all his things, and who very kindly promised to give me a help with mine, when the oxen were sufficiently rested, if I would first get the luggage as far as Sand Fountain. The mules were therefore harnessed, and worked excellently, carting my heavy things through the deep sand; and they made sometimes two and sometimes three trips a-day between that place and the Bay. Andersson and myself slept at Sand Fountain. John Morta cooked for us, and the others drove the cart, and took care of my store at the Bay. = CHAP. I1.] A LESSON TO THE NATIVES. 25 Mr. Bam told me I should have great trouble in first going up the country, unless I had a person to guide me, and that there was not a Hottentot with him who could go. I had no interpreter for them, and they were frightened at the Damaras. Stewartson said that he was going in about two months, and would then be very happy to show me the way. It appeared, on further conversation, that the business which detained him from going at once was, that he had to make a fence round his garden to keep it from Mr. Bam’s pigs. So I arranged with two. of my men that they should go and help him to get through the work quickly, while my others were employed with me. After a week every- thing was returned to Sand Fountain. Andersson and myself had employed ourselves in walking about, superintending the work. The Hottentots of course crowded round us every day, but they did not at all trouble us: only one or two of them were impudent, and, as I did not know how much thrashing they would stand, I let them alone. I took some pains to exhibit and explain to them the mechanism of a spring rat- trap, and when they sufficiently comprehended its object, 1 gave them to understand that my boxes were all guarded by rat-traps, so that if they put their hands into them to steal, they would infallibly be caught. The black and white crows almost attacked our larder for food. They live on the dead fish that le about the beach, which indeed is almost the only food hereabouts for them. The natives brought us milk every morning to barter for tobacco, and also some goats. Mr. Bam very kindly sent me a slaughter ox. Cc 26 NEWS OF A LION, [CHAP. I. It seemed to me the most princely of presents. Meat keeps wonderfully well here in this season (August and September), and even dries instead of tainting; but I subsequently found it otherwise in December. I had taken plenty of salt meat with me from Cape Town, and rice and biscuits—quite two months’ provisions— for I knew it must be a long time before we could fall into the ways of the country, and find our own commis- Sariat there. I gave the mules a day’s rest, and then started with my first load to Scheppmansdorf. Andersson remained behind. Mr. Bam had sent me word that a lion had come over from the Swakop River, and was prowling about and very daring, and that a hunt should be got up at once. As we travelled sometimes in the soft sand of the river bed, sometimes on the gravelly plain, through which it runs, we kept a sharp look out for the track that had been seen there: we found it after we had travelled ten miles. The natives amused themselves by cleverly imitating it; they half clenched their fist and pressed their knuckles into the sand. It was curious to see to what a distance the lion kept to the waggon-road, walking down the middle of it as though it had been made for him. T listened deferentially to Timboo and John St. Helena, who were quite learned on the subject of tracking. Except some ostriches scudding about, some crows, lizards, and a few small birds, there was no other sign of animal life, but we saw spoors now and then of the little steinbok, a very pretty gazelle some sixteen inches high. CHAP. It. | HIS ANTECEDENTS. 27 We followed the waggon path till an hour after night- fall, when the damp feel of the air, distant lights and barking of dogs, announced that we had arrived at Scheppmansdorf. Mr. Bam welcomed me most kindly, introduced me to his wife, gave me an out-house for my boxes and myself, and we formed a very pleasant party that evening, more especially as I heard that my horses were quite well and fat. We talked over the lion, and it seemed that he had been prowling about the station continually ;—that he was a well-known beast, who usually hunted the lower part of the Swakop, and had killed an immense number of cattle ;—many a time have I heard them reckoned over,—fifty oxen, three horses, one donkey, and innumerable calves and dogs. He had often been chased but was too wary to be shot —and soforth. We talked over the lion at Mr. Bam’s till a late hour: he assured me that the animal would prowl about that night, as he had done so every day for a week, and that if I wanted to try my rifle, I could track him in the morning. He and Stewartson had taken my horses the day before to hunt him, and they found him and gave chase; at last he came to bay, when they rode to the top of a sand-hill immediately above him, where the beast not waiting to be fired at charged them. Mr. Bam galloped off, but Stewartson’s horse being thoroughly blown, would not stir a step, until the lion’s head appeared over the sand-hill just above the astonished animal, who probably had no idea of what was taking place, for Stewartson seems to have been “craning” over the ridge of the bank. I was glad to learn, not only on o2 language ‘‘ Ovaherero,’ 188 DAMARA CREED. [CHAP. VI. those who are settled towards the interior are always called “ Ovampantieru,” or the “ Deceivers;” for what reason I am totally unable to find out. Damup, which is the Namaqua name for the people generally, has been corrupted by the Oerlams and Dutch traders into ” and by this title they have always been known to the whites. Like the word “ Caffre,” itis an established name, and also a convenient one; for it “ Damara, supersedes all distinctions of locality and of tribes, which Ovaherero does not; in addition to this, it is very pronounceable, and therefore I prefer adhering to established usage, and calling these savages by it, rather than by words in their own language. Next, as to their jumble of ideas, which, for want of a better name must "S dignified by that of their religion or creed— In the beginning of things there was a tree (but the tree is somehow double, because there is one at Omaruru, and another near Omutchamatunda), and out of this tree came Damaras, Bushmen, oxen, and zebras. The Damaras lit a fire, which frightened away the Bushmen and the oxen; but the zebras remained. Hence it is that Bushmen and wild beasts live together in all sorts of inaccessible places, while the Damaras and the oxen possess the land. The tree gave birth to everything else that lives; but has not been prolific of late years. It is of no use waiting by the side of the tree in hopes of capturing such oxen and sheep as it might bear. Again, notwithstanding that everything comes out of the tree, men have in some separate manner a special CHAP. VI.] EANDAS AND OMAKURU. 189 origin or “eanda.”’ There are six or seven eandas, and each eanda has some peculiar rites. ‘The tribes do not correspond with the eandas, as men of every descent are to be found in each tribe. The chiefs of tribes have some kind of sacerdotal authority—more so than a military one. They bless the oxen; and their daughters sprinkle the fattest ones with a brush dipped in water every morning as they walk out of the kraal. DAMARA WOMAN, They have no expectation of a future state; yet they pray over the graves of their parents for oxen and sheep,—fat ones, and of the right colour. There is hardly a particle of romance, or affection, or poetry, in their character or creed; but they are a greedy, heartless, silly set of savages. Independently of the 190 CEREMONIES. [CHAP. VI. tree and the eanda, there is also Omakuru; he can hardly be called a deity, though he gives and withholds rain. He is buried in several different places, at all of which he is occasionally prayed to. The Damaras have a vast number of small super- stitions, but these are all stupid, and often very gross ; and there is not much that is characteristic in them. Messengers are greased before they set out on a journey, and greased again when they come back; of one sort of ox only grown men eat; out of one parti- cular calabash of milk only grown men drink, and so on ad infinitum. A new-born child is washed—the only time he is ever washed in his life—then dried and greased, and the ceremony is over. Some time during boyhood the lads are circumcised, but at no particular age. Marriage takes place at what appears to be the ages of 15 or 16, but as the Damaras keep no count of years it is scarcely possible to be certain of their ages; my impression was that the Damaras were not so precocious as black people usually are. The teeth are chipped with a flint when the children are young. After death the corpse is placed in a squatting posture, with its chin resting on its knees, and in that position is sewn up in an old ox-hide (the usual thing that they sleep on), and then dropped down into a hole that is dug for it, the face being turned to the north, and covered over; lastly, the spectators — jump backwards and forwards over the grave to keep the disease from rising out of it. A sick person meets with no compassion; he is pushed out of his hut by his relations away from the fire into the cold; they CHAP. VI.] HUTS AND FINERY. 191 do all they can to expedite his death, and when he appears to be dying, they heap ox-hides over him till he is suffocated. Very few Damaras die a natural death. The huts are wretched affairs—I have already slightly described them—the women are the builders. They first cut a number of sticks eight or nine feet high, and also strip off quantities of bark from the trees which they shred and use as string; holes are then “ crowed” in a circle of eight or ten feet across, in which the sticks are planted upright, their tops are next bent together and pleached and lashed with the bark shreds —this makes the framework; round about it brush- wood is woven and tied until the whole assumes a compact surface ; a hole for a door three feet by two, is left in one side, and a forked prop is placed in the middle of the hut to support the roof; the whole is then daubed and plastered over, and the work is completed. As the roof becomes dried and cracked with the heat of the fire, and indeed as it generally has a hole in it for a chimney, the Damaras lay old ox- hides on the outside upon its top, weighting them with stones that they may not be blown off; these they draw aside when they want ventilation, but pull them over at night when they wish to make all snug. The furniture of the hut consists of a couple of ox-hides for lying and sitting on, three or four wooden vessels, a clay cooking pot, a bag of pignuts, a leathern box containing a little finery, such as red iron earth to colour themselves with, and a small skin of grease. There may perhaps be an iron knife and a wood chopper; everything else is worn on the persons, or 192 CHAUNTS AND MUSIC. [CHAP, VI. buried secretly in the ground. When they sleep, the whole population of the hut lie huddled up together like pigs, and im every imaginable position round the small fire. They have nothing to cover themselves with. The children, before they can walk, are carried in a kind of leather shawl at the mother’s back; after- wards they are left to shift for themselves, and pick up a living amongst the pignuts as well as they can. They all have dreadfully swelled stomachs, and emaciated figures. ‘It is wonderful how they can grow up into such fine men. The Damaras do not dance much, only on great occasions, when they perform war-dances ; neither do they sing together, although they are very fond of chaunting solos in a sing-song air, inventing the words as they go on, and having a chorus to break in now and then. I have seen one guitar amongst them, but it was I think an Ovampo importation ; their only musical instrument is their bow. They tie a piece of reim round the bow-string and the handle, and bind them up tight together, then they hold the bow horizontally against their teeth, and strike the tense bow-string with a small stick. A good performer can produce great effect with it; they attend more to the rhythm than the notes, and imitate with its music the gallop or trotting of different animals to perfection. The baboon’s clumsy canter is the chef d’wuwvre, and when well executed makes everybody roar with laughter. The natural colour of the Damaras is by no means easy to determine, except during the heavy rains which wash off the layers of grease and red pigment with CHAP, VI.] DAMARA LANGUAGE. 193 which they so plentifully besmear themselves. In dry weather the Damara comes out ruddy and glossy, like an old well-polished mahogany table; he is then reeking with oil, his features are plump and smooth, his appearance genial and warm, but a few hours’ steady deluge quite alters the man. His skin becomes dead-looking and devoid of all lustre—there is not a tinge of ruddiness in it; it is not even black, but of a pale slate colour, or like old iron railings that want fresh painting, and the Damara, when cleaned, becomes a most seedy-looking object. Concerning their language I shall say little, as it can only interest philologists, and for their benefit a most copious manuscript grammar and dictionary has already been sent by the Rev. Messrs. Hahn and Rath, to Bonn. Its grammar is much the same as that of the Sichuana and Caffre languages; which are said to be kindred to that of nearly every known negro language in Africa. Itis highly flexible, so that when a new word is once obtained they can express immediately and intelligibly every derivative from it. Thus if they learnt the word “ bread” they would have no difficulty in forming the word a “ baker.” The great clumsiness of the language is its want of comparatives and of adjectives. It has one great but not peculiar beauty in the prefix which every substantive possesses. These prefixes have all a special power which it is not easy to define, but which is soon caught up by the learner. To take a simple instance, Omu is the prefix that signifies manhood; Otji, a thing. Now Omundu is simply a man; but by saying Otjimundu, the idea of K 194 PREFIXES. [CHAP. VI. an inanimate thing is superadded to the idea of a man, and the word expresses an old crone. The prefix of the substantive which governs the sentence is con- tinued or hinted at through all the declinable words in it, and gives a bond of union to the whole. The vocabulary is pretty extensive ; it is wonderfully copious on the subject of cattle; every imaginable kind of colour—as brindled, dappled, piebald—is named. It is not strong in the cardinal virtues; the language possessing no word at all for gratitude ; but on looking hastily over my dictionary I find fifteen that express different forms of villainous deceit. DAMARA WEAPONS, ETC. CHAPTER VII. Damara helpmates.—Marriage tie.—Caravan to Ovampo land.—Yearly traffic. —Otchikoto.—Improvised chaunts.—Reach an Ovampo cattle- post.—Archery practice.—The parent tree.—We reach Ondonga.— Corn, beans, and palms.—Fruit trees.—Native beer.—Density of the Population.—Encamp by Nangoro’s village. —Cannot obtain Pasturage. —WNangoro pays us a visit.—Ovampo Belles.—We go to a Ball.— Description of Dances.—Charms and counter-charms. — Nangoro’s Palace.—The Great River.—Prospects.—The King is Crowned.— His Lawful Successors.—The Queens’ Duties.—Ovampo Dentists. — Surgical Practice. May 22nd.—The Ovampo and ourselves were all in readiness, and we travelled for a couple of hours to a place of general rendezvous. I was very curious to see what our carayans would consist of, as it would give an accurate idea of the amount of trade and communication that goes on northwards from Damara- land. There are four of these caravans yearly,—two to Chapupa’s werft, and two that travel between those Ovampo and Damaras that severally live near the sea. Kahikené had told me of these last; and I have since heard much fuller particulars about them. We had fifteen ride and pack oxen, eight slaughter ; two cows, one calf, thirty sheep, and three goats. Goats are very useful to furnish leather, in case any- ‘ K 2 196 DAMARA HELPMATES. [CHAP. VII. thing should be torn, or bags have to be made; they do not, however, travel quite so well as sheep. We encamped as usual at night, letting the oxen graze about us, not dreaming of any accident, when a Damara, who was going through the trees, luckily came upon a lion, who was crouching at one of my ride-oxen, almost within springing distance. The hon, of course, decamped, as lions always do when they are discovered at their wicked practices; and we had the satisfaction of hearing him roar hungrily throughout the night. The cry of a lion as he walks about, when he is baulked of sport, is plaintive, and not unmusical; but I never hear them utter it in the menageries in England. It was quite a new sound to me when I first listened to it; and I should never then have guessed it had come from a lion unless I had been told so. Another very peculiar cry is that of the zebra; at a distance it sounds more like the roo-coo- cooing of a dove than anything else. We cut bushes and kraaled in the oxen during the dark; and as I had now only a small drove with me, and plenty of Damaras, I came to a resolution to make a kraal every night for the oxen, and so relieve myself of all anxiety about them. I had found it such a luxury both at Schmelen’s Hope and Okamabuti, to have kraals to drive the cattle safe into at nightfal, for, dismissing from our minds all care about them, we could then sleep undis- turbed throughout the night. The men of my party were, besides myself and Andersson, John Allen, John St. Helena, and Timboo. I had five picked Damaras with four wives. The women are very useful, for they cnap, vit] MARRIAGE TIE. 197 carry the men’s things, and make their huts, and cook for them, leaving the men unhampered and disengaged, ready to run and drive the oxen, and do anything that might be wanted. Damara women have not much to complain of: they are valuable helpmates ; and divorce themselves as often as they like. The consequence is that the marital rule depends not upon violence nor upon interest, but upon affection. A wife costs a Damara nothing, for she ‘‘ crows” her own pignuts, and she is of positive use, because she builds and plasters his hut, cooks his victuals, and carries his things when he moves from place to place. A Damara seldom beats his wife much; if he does, she decamps. This deference of husband to wife was a great difficulty in the way of discipline ; for I often wanted to punish the ladies of my party, and yet I could not make their husbands whip them for me, and of course I was far too gallant to have it done by any other hands. ‘They bored me to death with their everlasting talking; but I must own that there were many good points in their cha- racter. They were extremely patient, though not feminine, according to our ideas: they had no strong affections either for spouse or children; in fact, the spouse was changed almost weekly, and I seldom knew, without inquiry, who the pro tempore husband of each lady was at any particular time. One great use of women in my party was to find out any plan or secret that the natives I was encamped amongst were desirous of hiding. Experience tells us of two facts : first, that women delight in communicating everybody else’s secrets to each other; secondly, that husbands 198 CARAVAN TO OVAMPO LAND, [CHAP. VII. | and wives mutually tell one another all they know. Hence the married women of my party, whenever I staid near a werft, had very soon made out all the secrets of the inhabitants, which they retailed directly to their husbands, and they to me. It was a system of espionage which proved most effectual. A difficulty arising from women’s gossipings had occurred at Okamabuti, in which Chik behaved very well. My man Kambanya told his wife, who told other wives, who told their husbands, that the Ovampo intended to rob and murder me as soon as I arrived in their country. The story, by passing through so many hands, had acquired several circumstantial details, quite enough to make it worth inquiring into; so I, not knowing the origin of the tale, had Chik up in judgment before me, and taxed him with what I had heard. He protested his imnocence; and then I said that to clear himself he must investigate the report, which he did in a most masterly manner; and traced the whole affair down to the unhappy Kambanya, who had fabricated the story to dissuade me from going, and from taking him to Ovampo-land, so Kambanya was whipped, and my friendship with Chik cemented all the stronger. May 23rd.—We rode on six hours, to the second place of rendezvous, Ootui, and there found all the Ovampo at their encampment, and parties of Damaras under every bush; and as we travelled on next day, I counted in our caravan 86 Damara women, nearly half of whom had yelling babies on their backs, and 10 Damara men. Our party consisted of 14, and the CHAP. VII.] YEARLY TRAFFIC. Ngo Ovampo of 24; making about 170 souls in all; 206 head of horned cattle were driven along, independently of my own, and were the result of Ovampo barter; and of these three-fourths were cows or heifers. The 86 women went on various speculations,—some to get work in Ovampo-land, some to try and get hus- bands, others merely to sell their ostrich-shell corsets. Chik thought the caravan a little above the average ; therefore, as there are altogether four caravans, we may consider 800 oxen as the annual export of Damara- land to the north; in exchange for which at least half of the Damaras are kept supplied with weapons and ornaments, the other half deriving theirs from the Namaquas and the missionaries to the south. The Damaras have no communication whatever with any other country, a broad land dividing them from the natives to the east, and the sandy tract by the sea- shore bounding them to the west. May 24th.—Avrrived at Otchikango, the baboon- fountain, passing a very curious circular hole in the middle of a chalky patch of ground; it was exactly like a bucket, ninety feet across, and thirty feet deep: its name was Orujo: the sides were perpendicular, the bottom flat; and in the middle was a small well, down to which a person could easily scramble. All the ground about is limestone; and wherever there is a bare patch of it, numbers of circular holes, like minia- ture Orujos, are to be seen: generally they are about the size that would just admit a round lucifer-box ; some a few sizes larger; several about a foot across; and in these trees are often growing just as they would 200 OTCHIKOTO. [CHAP. VII. in a flower-pot: those that are open make dangerous pitfalls. The effectis very curious. Mr. Oswell tells me that by Lake “Ngami he has met with the same things. May 25th.—F¥or the third time we left Otehikango, and travelled all day, till four p.m., passing over some very rugged ground and dense thorns, such as no waggon could get across: it was a pass over a low chain of hills. The encampments at night were very pretty. ‘There were fires in all directions. Every- body was in the best of spirits. The Ovampo sang their manly chorusses with charming effect. We had no water, but were to reach a wonderful place, Otchikoto, on the morrow, at eleven,—which we did. May 26th.—Without the least warning we came sud- denly upon that remarkable tarn, Otchikoto. It isa deep bucket-shaped hole, exactly like Orujo, but far larger, for it is 400 feet across: deep down below us lay a placid sheet of water, which I plumbed, leaning over from the cliff above, to the enormous depth of 180 feet, the same depth within five or six feet at four different points of its circumference. The water could be reached by a couple of broken foot-paths, to the top of one of which the oxen were driven to drink out of a trough, and a line of men handed up bambooses of water from one to another to fill it. There were small fish in the water; it is curious how they got there. I was told that fish were also to be found in the fountain-head of Otjironjuba, but I did not see them. There were infinite superstitions about Otchikoto, the chief of which was, that no living thing which ever got into it could come out again. How- CHAP. VII.] IMPROVISED CHAUNTS. 201 eyer, John Allen, Andersson, and myself, dispelled that illusion from the savage mind, by stripping andswimming all about it, under the astonished gaze not only of the whole caravan, but also of quantities of Bushmen who lived about the place, and who came to greet the Ovampo, with whom they are on the best of terms. Although the Oyampo live on the borders of a ereat river, yet none had ever been seen swimming. It appeared that alligators were so numerous in its waters that the natives feared to venture in. Chik had been extremely friendly up to the present time, but he now began to look with some suspicion upon us ; the fact of our having swum about Otchikoto alarmed him—it looked like magic. Again my Damaras were always teasing the others by saying that we were cleverer than the Oyvampo—a fact which these would not admit; but now it was proved beyond doubt, and the whole eighty-six females sang songs about us; one matron improvised, and all the others joined in a shrill chorus, like “ tirri-tirri-tirri.” The self-esteem of the Ovampo had certainly been wounded. Chik at first ridiculed guns. He had seen guns in Benguela, but they must have been worthless affairs, and badly handled, for he laughed at any comparison between them and arrows; however, by degrees he became frightened at seeing what they really could do. ‘There was a duck swimming about the water, not more than sixty yards off, but it looked very much further, as things below one always do, and I shot him very neatly with my little rifle: and again, the next day, Andersson was shooting some birds on the wing for K3 202 REACH AN OVAMPO CATTLE-POST. (CHAP. VII. specimens, and Chik became so frightened that he would not pick them up. We had great fun at Otchikoto; there was a cave there full of bats and owls, which we swam to and explored. The place swarmed with doves, and every now and then a white hawk swooped in amongst them. The Bushman captain fraternised with me, and we interchanged smiles and small presents. May 27th—We travelled through the everlasting thorns and stones for nine hours, and offpacked at wells—wretched affairs, that we had to sit up half the night to clean and dig out. May 29th.—We came on ox spoors. Old Netjo, who is a family man, was beside himself with joy, and kept by my side pointing out all the indications of the neighbouring Ovampo. Passing a reedy, boggy foun- tain, we came an hour after to Omutchamatunda, which then was thronged with the Ovampo and their cattle. We were received very hospitably, and had a tree assigned us to camp under. The Ovampo gave us butter to grease ourselves with ; but as it was clean, and as they also brought corn, I preferred eating it. There was a little game about, and we had some shooting, and also a bathe and a battue of ducks and partridges. No corn was grown here, neither were there any women; it was simply a cattle-post, and far from the corn country of the Ovampo. | May 30th.—We passed the grave of the god, Omakuru; the Damaras all threw stones on the cairn that covered it, singing out Tati-kuru! Tati-kuru! (Father Omakuru). Came to Etosha, a great salt-pan. CHAP. VIL] ARCHERY PRACTICE. 203 It is very remarkable in many ways. The borders are defined and wooded; its surface is flat and effloresced, and the mirage excessive over it; it was about nine miles in breadth, but the mirage prevented my guessing at its length; it certainly exceeded fifteen miles. Chik said it was quite impassable after the rainy season; and it-must form a rather pretty lake at that time. We arrived late in the evening at another werft, on the south border of the grand flat, Otchihako-wa-Motenya, which appears to extend as a grassy treeless estuary between wooded banks the whole way hence to near the sea. The Ovampo here could not believe that I was able to express sounds by writing on paper, so I jotted down the names of a number of people, one after the other, and then read them out. I may as well give a few of them, as a guide to the rhythm of the language: Kangutra, Entongo, Epinga, Angéro, Andahe, Akoosa. JI planned a_ shooting match ; there were a great many-naturalised Bushmen on the spot, and as all the Ovampo carry bows, I had a large archery meeting. I put up a_ sheep-skin (which gives a target of about three feet by two), and placed the men eighty paces from it. The prize was tobacco; there were twenty competitors, and each shot six arrows, so that 120 shots were made; but out of these 120 only one hit the target fairly, and another brushed it. At very near distances, as from five to ten yards, the men shot perfectly. I have frequently given prizes to Damaras, Bushmen, and Ovampo, to shoot for, but I have only seen wretched archery practice, far worse than that of our societies in 204 THE PARENT TREE. (CHAP. VIl. England. I suppose I have been unfortunate; but though I have taken some trouble to see good practice, not only with bows and arrows, but also with rifles, I have never witnessed performances that approached to the accuracy which shooters often profess to attain, although I certainly have seen lucky shots made, and indeed have made them myself. Andersson made a beautiful one at an ostrich in Damara-land. The bird was standing 280 yards from him, in a thick but rather low cover, which concealed its body, while its neck stood high, in bold relief. Andersson stalked up to within that distance, but as the creature was alarmed, and the ground immediately in front was exposed, he could not get nearer. He aimed, of course, high up the neck, intending to hit the body, but the elevation was a little too great, yet the aim proved so perfect, that he shot him dead through the neck. Katondoka was sent on to tell Nangoro the news of the approach of the caravan, and to carry a message from me to him; and now came our hardest stage of all. It was nineteen hours’ actual travel, and told cruelly on the oxen; for they were weak, and had been badly off for grass on the road, We crossed the flat in four hours, keeping close by its easternmost margin ; to the west it widened out, and stretched to the far horizon. Four hours from the north border of the flat we passed a magnificent tree. It was the parent of all the Damaras. The caravan stopped awhile, and the savages danced round and round it in great delight. We slept without water. In the morning we had some delays with the oxen, but travelled from early CHAP. VII. | WE REACH ONDONGA. 205 day-break, passmg an empty well at eleven, and another a little later. We pushed through thick thorns the whole time, and had begun to disbelieve in Ondonga, when quite of a sudden the bushes ceased : we emerged out of them, and the charming corn- country of the Ovampo lay yellow and broad as a sea before us. Fine dense timber-trees, and innumerable - palms of all sizes, were scattered over it; part was bare for pasturage, part was thickly covered with high corn stubble; palisadings, each of which enclosed a homestead, were scattered everywhere over the country. The general appearance was that of most abundant fertility. It was a land of Goshen to us; and even my phlegmatic waggon-driver burst out into excla- mations of delight. Old Netjo’s house was the nearest, and he therefore claimed the right of entertaining me the first, and to it we went. He had two or three wives, and a most wonderfully large family, to every member of which he presented us. Then he took Andersson and myself over the establishment, and showed us his neat granaries and thrashing-floors, and his cocks and hens : the pigs, he regretted, had been sent out of the way; and lastly, Mrs. Netjo, No. 1, produced a dish of hot dough and a basin of sour milk, on which we set to work, burning our fingers as we pulled off large bits, which we dipped into the milk and swallowed. Then we went on to Chik’s house, who encamped us under a magnificent tree, and took our cattle under his charge. He told me that we were still a long day’s journey from Nangoro, and that the whole of our way there would lie through a corn country like this. 206 CORN, BEANS, AND PALMS. (CHAP. VII- The harvest was now over; but the high stubble was still standing, and in it the oxen were allowed to feed. There was at this time hardly any other pas- turage for them. The Ovampo have two kinds of corn ; one is the Egyptian doura (or exactly like it), a sort of hominy; and the other is a corn that was new to me, but kindred, as I am told, to the Indian “ badjera:” its head is cylindrical, and full of small gray seeds, which, though not larger than those of millet, are so numerous that each head contains a vast deal of nutriment. Both kinds of corn grow to much the same height, about eight feet; and in harvesting the reapers bend down the stalks and only cut off the heads. As we journeyed on the next day our surprise at the agricultural opulence of the country was in no way decreased. Chick told us a great deal about the tenure of the farms, and the way they dig them. Each farmer has to pay a certain proportion of the tobacco that he grows to Nangoro (tobacco is the chief circu- lating medium in Ovampo-land) ; but the corn can be planted without any drawback upon it. The fields are hoed over before each sowing season, and the corn planted. The manure from the cattle kraal is spread over the ground. They plant beans and peas, but adopt no systematic rotation of crops. The palms that grew here were of the same sort as those that I saw near Omanbondé; but the fruit of these was excellent, exactly like those of the Egyptian doum, while that of the others was bitter. The other trees that I observed were fruit trees: they were sparingly scattered over the country; but nearly all that I saw CHAP. VII.] FRUIT TREES. 207 were of magnificent size, as large as those in any English park; their foliage was so dense and green that a real shade from the sun could be obtained, which never is the case in Damara-land, as the straggling stunted thorn, with its few shrivelled leaves, offers little more of a screen to its rays than an English tree in winter time. The fruits are of two kinds, one, which I never saw myself as it was not the season for it, was a kind of cherry, according to Timboo’s autho- rity, who recognised at once all the produce of his own country (Masapa, by Moviza) here in Ovampo-land. The other is a very acid fruit, not unlike an apple in shape, colour, smell, and size, but with a stone in it. No other tree stands in the corn country of the Ovampo, or at least gives any feature to the landscape. Ondonga, for that is the name of the land, 1s most uniform in its appearance; and I should think no stranger could recollect his way for any distance in it. I don’t know what we should have done here, if I had brought my waggons. We could never have taken them across the Ovampo fields, trespassing everywhere. The roads that the natives and we travelled were only path- ways through the stubble; and we were particularly requested to keep to them. There was hardly any grass whatever, it was perfectly eaten up; and the Ovampo oxen had been sent away to distant cattle-posts on every side to get food. They were now being driven back in small herds to eat off the stubble upon the farms of their owners. By each homestead were five or six cows and a quantity of goats, very small, but yielding a great deal of milk. To give water even to 208 NATIVE BEER. (CHAP. VII. these was a great difficulty, for the wells have to be dug twenty or thirty feet deep through the sandy soil before water is reached ; and then it oozes out so slowly that only a very limited supply can be obtained. There had been great trouble in getting even my small drove of cattle watered; but Chik said that there were some vleys still left, which were Nangoro’s property; but to which he would probably allow my oxen to be driven. The Ovampo make a great fuss about water ; if I wanted any to drink I had to buy it with beads. I was greatly pleased with the mutual goodwill and cordiality that evidently existed among the Ovampo; they were all plump and well-fed; even the blind old people, who are such wretched objects in Damara-land, were here well tended and fat. They looked shy at me; but Chik had been impressing upon me during the whole of our journey that his countrymen would all keep away until Nangoro had seen and approved of me, then they would come from all sides, and be as civil as possible. Chik introduced me to some of his most particular friends, who were very hospitable indeed, stopping us on the road, and giving us beer and biscuits, and such-like luxuries. The beer is not to be despised, although it is very thin and sweet; it is made from crushed corn and water, and takes two or three days before it is quite ready. I should think that a person must drink immense quantities before he could become intoxicated with it, but two or three tumblers full make one sleepy. We travelled short stages, sleeping one night at the house of one of Chik’s friends who kraaled our oxen in. J was much afraid of their straying in the night, CHAP. VII. ] DENSITY OF THE POPULATION. 209 as if they did so they might cause all sorts of damage. I felt ill at ease in Ovampo land, because I was no longer my own master. Everybody was perfectly eivil, but I could not go as I liked, nor where I liked ; in fact I felt as a savage would feel in England. My red coat was the delight of all the little boys and girls, plump merry little things, who ran after me shouting and singing as happy as could be. The Ovampo took much interest in seeing the oxen packed and ridden; they had never seen them used in that way before, and carefully examined the saddle-bags, and the way they were put on. To gain some idea of the amount of the Ovampo population I counted the number of homesteads that I passed, and found that I saw, on an average, thirty in each hour’s ride, about three miles. From the undu- lating nature of the country, and from the number of palms, I considered that I could only see a mile and a half on either side of me, and therefore these thirty farms would take up a square of three miles in the side, or nine square miles; that is, in round numbers, three farms would occupy a square mile ; allowing from thirty to forty souls in each farm, it gives a popula- tion of a hundred persons to a square mile. There is no town whatever in Ondonga, for the population is entirely rural. Travelling on we passed a few Damaras who had lately arrived from Omaruru to make amends to Nangoro for some thefts which the natives on that side of the country had been committing against the Ovampo. A little further we met four Ovapangari who had come south from the great river; they were 210 ENCAMP BY NANGORO’S VILLAGE. [CHAP. VII. frightened and suspicious, and Chik would not interpret for me to them. At last a particularly fine clump of trees came in sight, and there Chik said we were ordered to stay, Nangoro’s palisading being only a quarter of a mile further. Here we offpacked, and made a kind of encampment. I pitched my tent, and we made as good a screen as we were able with the saddle-bags, and a few palm branches, but we had hardly any firewood, grass, or water. After a great deal of trouble I made Chik obtain for us the use of some wells close by, but we had to wait half the day till they were disengaged. Then I could find no place to send my oxen to feed. No kind offer was made of a stubble field, and Chik would not bestir himself much. He was always saying, “You must wait; Nangoro will come down and see you to-morrow, and then he will arrange everything ;” but in the meantime my oxen were starving. The Ovampo kept away from us, and Chik was almost the only person that we were allowed to communicate with. We all felt uncomfortable, I never for a moment expected any attack from the Ovampo, but I had considerable misgivings that they purposely intended to keep my oxen in low condition that I might be less independent. Ondonga is a very difficult place to get away from. Indeed if anything had occurred to make it advisable for me to force a quick retreat I hardly know how I should have done it. It would have been very questionable if we could have found our way back by Netjo’s house ; for, as I mentioned before, the country ESRl Joe4g epreurogyy Acuity Wyo) “dNV'T OdWVAO NI dWVO TOUT RAN UAL Atco e 110 1M OW i/axs NMOS 20 APR 24 } Mar insy ATHY CHAP. VII.] CANNOT OBTAIN PASTURAGE. 211 is remarkably uniform, intersected with paths, and quite destitute of natural features to guide us. It is also slightly undulating, enough so to limit the view to a mile or two ahead. There was vley water, if we did not miss it, near to Netjo’s; and thence there remained a journey of twenty-one hours, two hours 1 in Ondonga and nineteen in the thorns and flats, without ot Z and as part of this lay over a bleak country the stage was too severe a one for any weak ox to endure. I found that some Ovampos had been tampering with my Damara cattle-watchers ; one, aman whom I had taken from Chapupa’s werft, became impudent, and instead of driving my cattle to grass, kept them on a bare place for half the day ; so I took active measures upon his back and shoulders, to an extent that astonished the Ovampo and reformed the man. June 6th.—Nangoro did not come, but sent us a little corn as a present, and requested us to fire off our guns, as he wished to hear what kind of noise they made. We had plenty of ammunition, and therefore amused ourselves with some rifle practice, which several Ovampo watched from a short distance with great interest. June 7th.—The oxen looked dreadfully thin. I began to fear that they would die, and then we should have to abandon our luggage and get back on foot—an exertion which I had little fancy for. However about midday Chik came in great excitement to tell me that Nangoro was on his way to me, so I smartened things and made ready for him. There was a body of men walking towards us, and in the middle of them an 212 NANGORO PAYS US A VISIT. [cHAP. VIL. amazingly fat old fellow laboured along; he was very short of breath, and had hardly anything on his person. This was the king himself. He waddled up looking very severe, and stood in the middle of his men staring at us, and leaning on a thin stick very neatly shaped, that he seemed to carry about as a sceptre. I hardly knew what to do or what to say, for he took no notice of an elegant bow that I made to him, so I sat down and continued writing my journal tall the royal mind was satisfied. After five or six minutes Nangoro walked up, gave a grunt of appro- bation, and poked his sceptre into my ribs in a friendly sort of manner, and then sat down. He could, I believe, understand Damara well enough, but he persisted in making Chik interpret for me into Ovampo. Nangoro had quite a miniature court about him; three par- ticularly insinuating and well-dressed Ovampo were his attendants in waiting; they were always at his elbow and laughed immoderately whenever he said anything funny, and looked grave and respectful whenever he uttered anything wise, all in the easiest and most natural manner. I gaye Nangoro the things that I had brought as a present for him, regretting excessively that I could spare him nothing better. In fact all my gilt finery was but little cared for by these people. It would look as outré for an Ovampo to wear any peculiar ornament as it would for an Englishman to do so. The sway of fashion is quite as strong among the negroes as among the whites; and my position was that of a traveller in Europe, who had nothing to pay his hotel bill with but a box full of CHAP. VII] OVAMPO BELLES. 213 cowries and Damara sandals. I would have given anything for ten pounds’ worth of the right sort of beads; half of that value would have made a really good present to Nangoro, and franked me into the good graces of all his people. As it was he was rather sulky, for it is considered a kind of insult to an African chief to visit him, and make use of his country without commencing acquaintance by sending a tribute. He insisted upon my giving him a cow which I, or rather John Allen, had with me, besides the ox I had presented him with; and as there was no help for it, the cow went. We then had a short conversation; he looked at our guns and made us shoot with them, chatted a little, and then left us, saying that we were free to buy and sell with his people as much as we liked. Immediately crowds of the Ovampo, who had been gathering during the interview, poured down upon us, laughing and talking, but taking the greatest care not to touch our things, or to annoy us in any way. ‘They were a merry set, and all of them dressed, or rather ornamented, very tidily. ‘They wore a great quantity of beads and rings, but scarcely anything else except a kind of cartouche box, in which they kept a tuft of hair for painting and powdermg themselves. The ladies were buxom lasses, having all the appear- ance of being good drudges. Their hair was worn short in front, but spread out behind into a broad fan. They were decidedly nice-looking; their faces were open and merry, but they had rather coarse features, and shone all over with butter and red pigment. They seemed to be of amazingly affectionate 214 WE GO TO A BALL. (CHAP. VII. dispositions, for they always stood in groups with their arms round each other’s necks like Canova’s graces. ‘They hummed sentimental airs all day long, swaying themselves about to the tune, and completely ruined the peace of mind of my too susceptible attendants. I began to buy corn and beans from them; the women brought small baskets full, often only a handful each, and were paid in beads. I had brought a bar of iron, half an inch thick, and four feet long, that procured me 100 pounds of corn at once. Timboo was the most successful bargainer; he sat in the middle among the beads, and twenty or thirty corn-selling damsels crowded about him. He was in his glory, chaffing and chattering in a most original patois all the day long, for he had picked up a few Ovampo words, and many of the Ovampo knew a little of Damara. Every night Nangoro gives a ball, to which the élite of Ovampo-land have a free entrée. He kindly sent me an invitation by Tippoo, that one of his three courtiers under whose protection we had been especially placed. As soon as night sets in, the guests throng together from all sides, and as the country is full of palms, one member of each party generally picks up a dried, broken-off branch, and lights it as a torch. It gives a brilliant flame, and the effect of the many lights on every side is particularly pretty. I went, about eight o’clock, down the sanded walk, between quickset hedgerows, that leads to Nangoro’s palisading. When we had entered it, we turned to the right, into the dancing-court, which was CHAP. VII. | DESCRIPTION OF DANCES. 215 already filled with people who talked and flirted just as though they were in an English ball-room. There was a man with a feeble guitar, or banjo, in one corner, and a powerful performer on the tom- tom in front of him. The first dance was remarkable as a display of dexterity, though I hardly think of elegance; it was undertaken by twelve or fourteen gentlemen, all the others looking on. The dancers were ranked in double files, and dos-a-dos ; they then “nasséed” from side to side with a tripping operatic step, but a wary and cautious eye. Every now and’ then one of the performers spun suddenly round, and gave a most terrific kick right at the seat of honour of the gentleman whom he then found in front of him. This was the dance; there was a great deal of dexterity shown both in delivering and avoiding the kick which, when successfully planted, hit with the force of a donkey’s hoof. I observed that the three courtiers danced very well and very successfully, indeed I would not have found myself dos-a-dos with Tippoo for any consideration. The ladies applauded the dance most vociferously. After this came a prome- made; we were all jammed together into a compact mass, and then stepped round and round the court to the sound of the tom-tom, tapping the ground with our feet in regular time. Dance number three was for the Bushmen, a large kraal of whom lay close by Nangoro’s palisading ; they are his body-guard. This dance was entirely mimicry, either of animal steps or anything else they liked, and then a grand promenade closed the evening. I saw only thirty or forty of 216 CHARMS AND COUNTER-CHARMS. [CHAP. VII. Nangoro’s wives there. I suppose that the others, being old, did not dance. ‘They wear a copper armlet as a sign of distinction. I had a difficulty with Nangoro, from not having complied with one of the principal Ovampo customs, on first entering the country. I did not like it, though if I had had a proper idea of its importance, I should, I suppose, have submitted with the best grace I could. The Ovampo are, as all blacks and most whites, very superstitious ; a particular fear seems to possess them ‘of a stranger charming away the life of a person he may happen to eat with. Why dinner time should be the season when the charm has most power I do not know; but such is considered to be the case. Accord- ingly, counter-charms are used; sometimes one is in fashion, sometimes another; now, Nangoro, when a young man, being a person of considerable imagination, framed a counter-charm for his own particular use, and this being of course taken up by the court, is at present the fashion of the whole of Ovampo-land, and it was to this counter-charm that I personally objected. The stranger sits down, closes his eyes, and raises his face to heaven ; then the Ovampo initiator takes scme water into his mouth, gargles it well, and, standing over his victim, delivers it full inhis face. This ceremony having once been performed, all goes on smoothly, though I am inclined to think that, like vaccination, it requires to be repeated at intervals, as its effect dies away, Old Netjo yielded to my objections the day I dined in his house, as Chik had done when I first met him, and compromised the matter by rubbing butter between CHAP. VIL. ] NANGORO'S PALACE. 217 my eyes instead. But Nangoro’s mind was not so easily satisfied ; he was harassed with suspicions; and though he invited me to drink beer at his palace, yet he contrived to be out of the way when the beer was brought in, and made the three courtiers sit down with me instead. The plan of all the Ovampo houses is intricate, but Nangoro’s was a perfect labyrinth, and I could never find my way about it. Conceive walls of palisading eight or nine feet high, the poles of which are squared, smoothed, and driven in so close together, that it is only here and there that an arrow could be shot out between them. With these an irregularly circular place of about one hundred yards across is walled, one entrance being left, and to that entrance a broad double pathway leads, which is marked and divided by slight hedges. Within the outer circle other walls of palisading are placed in various ways; on one side a passage leads to the cattle kraal, in another place there is one leading to the dancing-court; passages lead to Nangoro’s rooms, to the granaries, to the threshing floors, to the women’s apartments, and to those of the attendants and of the three courtiers. I tried to sketch out the plan several times, but my head would never take it in. Nangoro came to my encampment one morning for a chat, and to see the guns fired; we talked about the countries to the north, and of the great river, which was four long or five easy days’ journey ahead, but towards visiting which I could obtain no offer of assistance from him. He told me that the traders (Portuguese) L 218 THE GREAT RIVER. [cHAP. v1. who went there never crossed it, but that his people went to them and were ferried across by the Ovapangari. I had become quite familiar with this river by hearsay, as nearly every Ovampo had been there, and many Damaras also. There were some runaway slaves from Benguela who knew all the places marked in the usual maps, as Caconda, Bihe, Quinbumba, and so forth, and spoke of the houses of many stories with great wonder. ‘The river runs from east to west, and with avery rapid current, so much so that boats never went up it, but only ferried from side to side; the breadth of the river was so great, that though a man’s shouting could be heard perfectly across it, yet his words could not. ‘They said it was very deep, and full of alligators. It ran down to near the sea, and there it ended in a large pool, percolating, of course, like very many other large African rivers, through the sands. In this pool were great numbers of hippopotami, and the sand between it and the sea was so soft and treacherous that people could not walk over it. The names of the people who lived along it I have put down on the map at the places they were described to inhabit. The Damaras call them all “Ovampo.” ‘The traders who go down to this river to barter have occasionally horses (their spoor, neigh, and gallop, all being mimicked to me). They bring brandy, beads, and assegais, to exchange for ivory and cattle. These traders must be very nearly black, because not only the colour of our skin but the straightness of our hair was a constant marvel to the Ovampo. ‘They wondered if we were white all over, CHAP. VII] PROSPECTS. 219 and I victimised John Allen, who had to strip very frequently to satisfy the inquisitiveness of our hosts. Nangoro positively refused to believe in the existence of any country which was inhabited by whites alone. He seemed to consider them as rare migratory animals of unaccountable manners but considerable intelli- gence, who were found here and there, but who existed in no place as lords of the land. In all the inquiries that I made I had much trouble in worming out my information, for Nangoro was not at all communicative; and Chik, from some cause or other, became daily more distant and reserved. The subject of the oxen was always a sore one. Nangoro would not give me the use of his stubble-fields, or the right of watering my oxen at the wells before his own had drunk; the consequence was that they remained hanging about till noon, and then were driven off two or three miles to a piece of ground as barren as Greenwich Park in summer-time. They came home every evening thinner than they were the day before, and were now in a wretched state: the poor things were becoming very weak indeed, and we were per- petually talking over the chances of their breaking down on the return journey. It was exactly eighty hours actual travelling from Okamabuti, or allowing two miles and three quarters an hour, two hundred and twenty miles; of this, nearly sixty miles, partly choked with thorns, partly as bleak as Salisbury Plain, had to be travelled without water. This, of course, would be nothing to animals in good condition, and in a European climate ; but it was a very different L 2 220 THE KING IS CROWNED. [cHaP. VII. matter to me in Africa. I had been given to under- stand from the first that I must neither go back nor go on without Nangoro’s express permission; so that we were always under some anxiety. Of course I did all I could to please him; but still, either from want of consideration on his part or intentionally, things did not go on smoothly. Once when he was in a good humour I produced my theatrical crown, which I had not shown him before, and gave him a long discourse upon it. I told him that the great captains of our country usually wore a head-dress of that description, and that I therefore begged he would do me the favour of wearing it, as a memento of my visit to him. It had a contrivance behind for altering its size, and I stretched it to its full extent, for Nangoro’s head was like a bullock’s, and then put it on him with great solemnity, patting it down to make it sit tight. I must say that he looked every inch a king. The three courtiers were in ecstasy, and Nangoro himself gave every sign of self-satisfaction when I held up a looking. glass before him to show the effect; and afterwards carefully sketched him. Nangoro, in the first instance, had views with reference to me to which I confess I showed but little inclination; it is really a great drawback to African explorings that a traveller cannot become on friendly terms with a chief without being requested and teased to receive a spare wife or a daughter in marriage, and umbrage taken if he does not consent. Itis, I know, very ungallant to betray tender secrets, and I would not do so on any account, if the charming Chipanga was ever likely to read this AMPO. OF THE OV KING NANGORO, CHAP. VIL] HIS LAWFUL SUCCESSORS. 221 book; but I cannot help hinting at the subject, as it not only illustrates a phase of African life, but also indicates a direction in which any adventurous fortune- hunter may successfully push his addresses. For the benefit of those gentlemen I must explain how matters stand. Nangoro is king by virtue of his deceased first wife; by her he has no children. Chipanganjara married that lady’s sister, who also is dead, leaving one daughter as heiress to the kingdom; and this daughter is Chipanga. She, greasy negress as she was, never forgave me the “ spretz injuria forme.” I observed that some wild ducks and geese flew over our encampment every morning and evening, and begged Tippoo that I might be allowed to go to the water where they drank. We walked a couple of hours due east, and came to a long succession of vleys, where droves of Nangoro’s cattle were watered. There was no grass near, or else I should have insisted on encamping there. Beyond the vleys the thorns began again. Elephants come down at times in great num- bers, and do much mischief to the corn. I fancy that game is very abundant in the neighbourhood of the great river, although there must be a great deal of cultivated ground adjacent to it. The course of the river is very long, and its stream is undoubtedly swift, because although a considerable slope might be allowed for from Nangoro’s werft northwards to its bed, still the height of the bed at that place above the sea can hardly be less than 3000 feet. To the west- wards of north the river is formed by the confluence of three others; and in that country the Ovabundja live: 222 THE QUEENS’ DUTIES. [CHAP. VIL it is marshy and flooded, and the people live in houses built on poles. It is very remarkable that between Chapupa’s werft (where the waggons were left) and Nangoro’s, a distance of 220 miles, we had not crossed a single river-bed. There was the mark of one little rivulet about four feet wide, near Otchikoto, and that was literally all. I could obtain no answer from Nangoro as to whether or not I might proceed. Chik, who was our only medium of communication, put off everything with a ‘‘to-morrow.’” We were so teased with his procrastination, that we christened him “ Mahuka,” which was his favourite word. I went to Nangoro’s to see his wives at work, threshing corn. They make meal by pounding the grain in a stone mortar; every- thing was scrupulously clean and tidy. The granaries are in shape and manufacture exactly like our common bee-hives, though considerably larger, about four feet in diameter; these are placed with the point downwards, each in a rough frame-work on three legs, which raises it a foot from off the ground; into the bee-hive. the grain is put, and the whole is thatched and plastered over: in Nangoro’s granary rows and rows of these were standing. I have no fancy for their houses; they are so absurdly small. They are circular, five and a half feet across, and three feet high, with a conical thatched roof above all; the door is two feet high, and one and a half broad. Nangoro sleeps in the open air under a shed, as he is too fat to creep into one of these houses. Each hut is occupied by an entire family : a husband, CHAP. VIL.] OVAMPO DENTISTS. 223 a wife, and a few small children ; and when the door is closed by the mat, and a cozy fire made in the middle of the hut, they must find the atmosphere particularly genial and sweet. Their utensils are remarkably neat; they have wooden cups, beer ladles, spoons, and so forth. I regretted much that I had not enough things of exchange to buy some of these which took my fancy. Their dagger-knives were creditably made, and very pretty. The knife was set into a wooden handle, and fitted into a wooden sheath ; but both handle and sheath were in part covered with copper plating, and in part wound round with copper wire beaten square. There is plenty of copper in this country. The . Bushmen brought us quantities of ore at Otchikoto. Tippoo took me to see a blacksmith ; but his bellows were scarcely larger than an accordian, and were worked in a similar manner. He was not a successful artificer. I had occasion to make inquiries for a pro- fessional gentleman, a dentist, as one of my teeth had ached so horribly that I could hardly endure it. He was employed at a distance; but I subsequently wit- nessed, though I did not myself undergo the exercise of his skill. He brought a piece of the back sinew of a sheep, which forms a kind of catgut, and tied this round the unhappy tooth; the spare end of the catgut was wound round a stout piece of stick, and this he rolled up tight to the tooth, and then prised with all his force against the jaw till something gave way. I saw the wretched patient sitting for the rest of the day with his head between his knees, and his hands against his temples. 224 SURGICAL PRACTICE. [CHAP. VII. The practice of surgery is rather rude among the Ovampo. Timboo had run a thorn very deeply into his hand; it did not remain in, but the prick caused a painful abscess, which pointed and partly broke. He applied to the Ovampo doctor, whose measures were simple: he squatted down, resting Timboo’s hand upon his knee, and then grasped a tough stick with both hands, with which he energetically kneaded down the swelling. Timboo endured the operation without a cry; but a black can bear anything. There are no diseases in these parts except slight fever, frequent ophthalmia, and stomach complaints. I kept a bottle full of eye-water for the sufferers from ophthalmia, and stuck a feather into the bottom of its cork, with which I could paint the eyes of a whole row of patients one after the other. OVAMPO WEAPONS, UTENSILS, ETC. CHAPTER VIII. We are ordered to return.—Hesitation.—The Slave dealings here. —Future of Ovampo-land.—A Field for Missionaries.—Best way of getting there,—Slavery and Servitude.—Giving men away.—Arrange my packs.—Start Homeward.—Leave Ondonga.—The Oxen suffer severely. —Reach Okamabuti.—The Waggons are safe.—Start for Omaramba. —Okavaré.—Elephants visit us.—Ice every night.—Pass Omagundeé. —Reach Barmen. On one occasion Nangoro told me that he would send Chik back with me to my country. I promised to take him as far as that of the Hottentots, where he could see some of my countrymen ; but that my country was so far off, that if he went to it, he would never find his way back again ; besides, it was cold, and he would die there ; so it was agreed that Chik should go back with me to Barmen. I was very glad of this arrangement, as I wanted to obtain fuller information from him than I possessed. I wished to make a small vocabulary of the language of the Ovampo, and learn something more than I could observe of their manners and customs; but here in Ovampo-land Chik would scarcely answer asingle question. He constantly replied, “ You must not ask these things ; Nangoro will think that you want to take away his life.” And he became quite sulky if he was pressed. Indeed, I have no conception to L3 226 WE ARE ORDERED TO RETURN. (cHaP. VIII. this day whether or no the Ovampo have any religion, for Chik was frightened and angry if the subject of death was alluded to. My articles of exchange were now reduced to a few handfuls of beads; and I could not stay longer in the country. A man can no more travel without things of exchange here than he can without money in England. I therefore insisted upon being allowed to leave Ondonga, where my cattle were dying by inches, and where I was eating up my food, and could afford to stay no longer; and I begged hard for a guide to take me on to the river, or to some place where I should find pasturage and game. June 13th.—Nangoro sent me word “that day I might buy and sell; that the next day I must come and take leave of him; and the day after that I must go back to Damara-land.” Now came the question what was to be done. The river was four long days ahead. It was a goal to reach, and in itself probably well worth visiting. Its com- mercial importance might be great, as it appears to offer a high road into the very centre of Africa, through countries which, if as healthy as Ovampo or Damara- land, leave nothing to be desired on that score. It was precisely the most interesting point of my whole journey. Ought then a visit to it to be abandoned because Nangoro would not let us go? Or ought we to push on for it at all hazards? On the other hand, the river .was well known to, and frequented by traders from Benguela; there would therefore be no difficulty in fully exploring it from that side ; and probably infinitely CHAP. VIII] HESITATION. 227 more could be learnt by inquiries properly made at Mossamedes than anything that I could report from having seen it with my own eyes during so cursory a yisit as I proposed. Now, as to the risk I should run by temporising with Nangoro until I had obtained per- mission to go there. My oxen would entirely knock up, and probably die; and then what could I do? Even if I walked back to the waggons, leaving things of the greatest value to me in Ovampo-land, the want of ride-oxen would be felt most seriously throughout the return journey. They were everything to me. It was on them that I explored the roads, followed tracks, and made the most successful expeditions. If Omagundé, through whose pasture grounds I must return, was to attack us, as I thought he most probably would, it must be by the ride-oxen alone that we should have a chance of escaping. I could not spare them nor risk losing them. It would be impossible to replace them before many months, as it is not one ox out of forty that will make a ride-ox, for only those are fit to break in that show far less gregariousness of disposition than oxen ordinarily do. The beasts that walk first, and lead the herd, are the only oxen that. can be ridden with any comfort or success; the others jib and crowd together, and fight with their horns, when you try to urge them on, and the whole caravan comes to a stand-still. It takes half a year to break in an ox to anything like travelling purposes; he has not only to learn to be quiet, but also to bear a weight on his shoulders. Now, with great trouble I had collected together fifteen efficient ride and pack oxen: they were 228 THE SLAVE DEALINGS HERE. (CHAP, VIII. the stay of my party in cases of difficulty or danger, and I would not for any but the weightiest considerations run the risk of losing them. With no better supply of water and pasturage than they were now allowed, I felt sure that though they might reach the river, and even return to Nangoro’s, yet that they would never see Damara-land again. I also feared that the Portuguese traders might play me some tricks, as these half-castes are by no means scrupulous, even less so than traders are elsewhere; and I could not help thinking of the way in which our own country- men had behaved to the late Mr. Ruxton, when he landed at Walfisch Bay, with a view to explore the interior. I confess that greatly annoyed as I was at being unable to visit the river, I could not help feeling that Nangoro’s refusal to let me proceed was all for the best, and I accommodated myself to his orders, and put myself in readiness to start on my return. I made many inquiries as to whether there were any slave-dealings between the Ovampo and the Portuguese; but I was always answered in the negative. I after- wards heard at St. Helena that slaves were not exported from the south of Benguela, because they never thrived when taken away, but became home-sick and died. This is exactly what I should conceive of the Ovampo; they evidently have strong local and personal attachments ; they are also very national, and proud of their country. I should feel but little compassion if I saw all the Damaras under the hand of a slave-owner, for they could hardly become more wretched than they now are, CHAP. VII. ] FUTURE OF OVAMPO-LAND. 229 and might be made much less mischievous; but it would be a crying shame to enslave the Ovampo. To “me, as a stranger, they did not behave with full cordiality ; and it was natural enough that they should not; but among themselves the case was quite different. ‘They are a kind-hearted, cheerful people, and very domestic. I saw no pauperism in the country ; everybody seemed well to do; and the few very old people that I saw were treated with particular respect and care. If Africa is to be civilised, I have no doubt that Ovampo-land will be an important point in the civilisation of its southern parts. It is extremely healthy, and most favourably situated for extending its influence. From the sea-coast it must be accessible ; and inquiries really should be made at Mossamedes about the river which bounds it. A ship cruising along the sea-shore there can see nothing at all, for the coast is a low sandy desert, which extends quite out of ken of people afloat: it is behind this strip of desert that the habitable country begins, and probably through the sand of it that the river perco- lates. It is very much to be wished that some explorer would make an attempt from Little Fish Bay, or there- abouts. It would be a far easier undertaking than that which I have gone through, because the starting-point is an inhabited place, where every necessary can be bought with money. Full information could be obtained there on all the articles of exchange, and horses could be procured. Black men, who speak Portuguese, can readily, I am assured, be found; and there is so large an export of skins and ivory (according 230 A FIELD FOR MISSIONARIES, [CHAP. VIII. to Portuguese authorities) from Benguela, that there must be excellent shooting somewhere in the country. I will guarantee the healthiness of the lands to the south of the river; and the Portuguese declare the same of those to the north.* I also earnestly recommend this land to the notice of all who are interested in mis- sionary enterprise. The Ovampo have infinitely more claims on a white man’s sympathy than savages like the Damaras, for they have a high notion of morality in many points, and seem to be a very inquiring race. It would be an easy country to secure a footing in, as the king’s good-will has alone to be gained, and not that of numbers of independent captains, who never settle by the missionaries, but come suddenly with * Translation from José Joaquim Lopez de Lima’s work on the Portuguese Settlements in Western Africa. 1846. (Page 196.) “To the southward of the river Longa is the fertile province of Benguela, where, instead of sandy plains, rich meadows watered by mountain-streams display themselves before the eye, covered with cattle and sheep, the principal riches of its pastoral inhabitants. The soil produces all the grains and fruits of Africa, America, and Europe, while from amid these favoured plains arise the magnificent mountains of the Naunos, whose lofty heads are lost in the clouds. From these mountains rush down fertilising streams; in their bowels are found iron, copper, suiphur, and other valuable productions, and the forests afford protection to herds of elephants, to rhinoceroses, stags, and a thousand different descriptions of wild animals, whose spoils constitute a principal portion of the gains of the merchants of Benguela and Mosammedes. This fertility extends over the cultivated plains of Bihe, Quilengues, Bumbo, Huila, Enjau, Caconda, Galengue, and Sambos, being bounded by the country of the Mocoands, which separates the Portuguese possessions from the illimitable deserts of sand which form the ne plus ultra of our dominion.” N.B. I protest not only against the “ illimitable deserts of sand,” but also against the southern portion of the map which accompanies the book, in which a magnificent but apocryphal river is made to meander through them, and over the very ground which I have crossed and recrossed.—F. G. CHAP. VIII. ] BEST WAY OF GETTING THERE. 231 their cattle, eat off all the grass near, and then move on to a fresh pasturage. I should have said that I use the word Ovampo in the Damara sense, in which it includes all the corn- growing tribes to their north. These seem to be of precisely the same race, manners, and customs ; and they speak one language. I have seen men from several of them; and whenever I asked the Ovampo, they said that all their neighbours were just like themselves. On my voyage back to England, as I was very anxious to determine the question of how the Ovampo river was connected with the sea, and whether it afforded a good road up the country, I waited a month at St. Helena for the chance of a vessel to take me to Little Fish Bay; owing, however, to the sup- pression of the slave-trade, none of our cruisers called there as they used frequently to do, neither was it expected that they would do so: I therefore abandoned the attempt. But a traveller who, starting from the north, desired to make the expedition, should go in the first instance to Rio, and thence plenty of opportunities would offer of crossing over to Africa. Though no slaves are exported from the countries in which I travelled, yet there is a kind of slavery in the countries themselves. It is not easy to draw a line between slavery and servitude; but I should say that the relation of the master to the man was, at least in Damara and Hottentot land, that of owner rather than employer. 232 SLAVERY AND SERVITUDE. [CHAP, VIII. I cannot speak with certainty of the exact standing in which the Damaras and the Bushmen severally live among the Ovampo. The first are employed princi- pally as cattle-watchers; the second, who are even more ornamented than the Ovampo themselves, are a kind of standing army; but I have great reason to doubt whether either the one or the other class is independent. The Ovampo, as I have mentioned, looked down with much contempt on the Damaras ; and there is not a single instance, so far as I could learn, of an Ovampo-woman marrying a Damara, and settling in Damara-land; but the reverse is a very common case. The Bushmen appear to be naturalised among the negro-tribes, and free in the border-lands between them to a distance very far north of Ondonga. I cannot say how far; but I certainly think to the latitude of Caconda. I believe them to be a very widely spread race. Ofthe Ghou Damup I lost all trace in Ovampo-land. The Namaqua Hottentots and Oer- lams, in all their plundering excursions, capture and drive back with them such Damara youths as they take a fancy to, and they keep them, and assert every kind of right over them. They punish them just as they please, and even shoot them, without any one attempting to interfere. Next in the scale of slavery are those Damaras, Ghou Damup, or Bushmen, who place themselyes under Hottentot “ protection,” and on much the same footing as those among the Hottentots, are the paupers that are attached to different werfts among the Damaras. These savages court slavery. You engage one of them as a servant, CHAP, VIII. | GIVING MEN AWAY. 233 and you find that he considers himself your property, and that you are, in fact, become the owner of a slave. They have no independence about them, generally speaking, but follow a master as spaniels would. Their hero-worship is directed to people who have wit and strength enough to ill-use them. Revenge is a very transient passion in their character : it gives way to admiration of the oppressor. The Damaras seem to me to love nothing: the only strong feelings they possess, which are not utterly gross and sensual, are those of admiration and fear. ‘They seem to be made for slavery, and naturally fall into its ways. Their usual phrase with reference to the missionaries is, “Oh, they are wise, but weak ;” but Jonker and the Hotten- tots are, I could almost say, their delight. They wonder at their success. All over Africa one hears of “ giving” men away : the custom is as follows. A negro has chanced to live a certain time in another’s employ; he considers him- self his property, and has abandoned the trouble of thinking what he is to do from day to day ; but leaves the ordering of his future entirely to his employer. He becomes too listless to exist without a master. The weight of independence is heavier than he likes, and he will not bear it. He feels unsupported and lost if alone in the world, and absolutely requires somebody to direct him. Now, if the employer happens to have no further need of the man, he “ oives”’ him, that is to say, he makes over his interest in the savage to a friend or acquaintance; the savage passively agrees to the bargain, and changes his place 234 ARRANGE MY PACKS. [CHAP, VIII, without regret ; for, so long as he has a master at all, the primary want of his being is satisfied. A man is “‘oiven” either for a term or for ever; and it was on this tenure that I held several of my men. Swartboy gave me his henchman; Kahikené, a cattle-watcher ; Mr. Hahn, a yery useful man, Kambanya. As a definition of the phrase “giving a man,” I should say it meant “making over to another whatever influence one possessed over a savage; the indi- vidual who is given not being compelled, but being passive.” Before starting on my return I bought as much corn as I could carry back, which also proved to be exactly as much as I could buy with my stock of beads. I knew by this time pretty well what weights the different oxen could carry, and arranged their saddle- bags accordingly. I always carried a couple of spring balances with me when on ride-oxen, and as they each marked up to forty pounds, by using the two together I could weigh up to eighty pounds, which was as much as I ever wanted on this occasion, though afterwards when ivory had to be carried I was put to shifts for weighing it. It saves infinite trouble in packing to have the two saddle-bags of exactly the same weight, and I am sure that no practice will train the hand to judge with certainty whether they are so; a small heavy thing always feels lighter than its real weight, and a bulky thing heavier. I have constantly tested the guesses that practised muleteers and camel- drivers have made of the weights of things, and often convicted them of great mistakes, In my waggon I CHAP. VIII] START HOMEWARD. 235 carried a steel-yard, and knew and registered the weight of everything I carried. I mentioned that the Ovampo had fowls; they are very pretty small bantams, and I bought three— thinking that being a new breed they might have some points about them which would be valuable to poultry fanciers; they eat very little, and laid eggs every day. I put them in an Ovampo basket, covered it with a piece of skin, and made one of the Damara women carry it on her head. June 15th—We left Nangoro’s in company with Chik, and with Tippoo, who did the honours for Nangoro. The oxen kicked excessively with their packs. Kahikené’s black ox ripped up with his horns two of the bags of corn that he carried, and galloped about, kicking and tossing like mad. We caught him at last, and had him down, and sawed off the tips of his horns on the spot. We were about three hours in doing four miles, and had to encamp under a tree; the first start is always the most troublesome part of a journey. June 16th.—Travelled four hours and slept at the vley. The oxen were so stiff that I had to take them on by easy stages. They strayed in the night, and were not recovered till past mid-day. Spooring is out of the question in Ondonga, as the ground is trodden up everywhere. Luckily the oxen had done no damage, only a little trespass, and we went on to Chik’s house, where we stopped. ‘There was evidently no means of getting water for the cattle before leaving Ondonga, so we made ready to be off very early. The morning 236 LEAVE ONDONGA. [cHaP. VIII. came, and, to our surprise, Chik would not go with us. We persuaded him to go as far as Netjo’s, whom we knocked up out of his snug hut in the chill early morning, and wishing him and his family an affectionate adieu, gave him the last beads that we had, and started away on our old track to Damara-land. It was with the greatest relief that I once again felt myself my own master, and could go when I liked and as I liked; anything for liberty, even though among the thorn bushes. I was sincerely grieved that Chik would not return with us, as he was a person of great consequence in the country, and I had hoped that by his means the Damara-land Missionaries would be enabled easily to extend their stations among the Ovampo, which was an object they had long hoped for. They would also have had leisure to learn from him enough of the Ovampo language to make them- selves independent of an interpreter. I believe Chik wanted to go, but he could persuade no companions to join him, and, naturally enough, did not like to go alone. The oxen went very steadily and quickly, and although we had often to adjust their packs, yet we made eight hours’ actual travelling by four o'clock; they seemed to know they were going home; we then stopped in a grassy place, and the oxen had the first good meal they had enjoyed for more than a fortnight. It was quite pleasant to watch their lank sides dis- tending. There was no time to be lost, so that we were up and packed and off before day-break. The CHAP. VIL. ] THE OXEN SUFFER SEVERELY. 2387 night was bitterly cold, and when we started the Damaras and ourselves carried firebrands, breathing their smoke to keep us warm. We travelled five hours and came to the edge of the flat. There are wells of brackish water there. The oxen were utterly tired, for we had gone quickly, and the sun was intensely hot after acold night. I thought the oxen might choose to drink the water though we could not, so I offpacked and tried them, but they refused although now forty-eight hours without water. They would not eat either. We packed up again after noon and struggled over the flat. The oxen were dead-tired; they tripped their legs together and looked as miserable as could be, but just before nightfall we reached the wells; there is no shelter nor firewood here, but the bleak wind sweeps over the flat, and tired as we were we had to watch the oxen all night. They drank exces- sively, and then wandered restlessly about in the dark, so that during my watch I could hardly keep them together, though running and walking a great part of the time. That night fairly broke the constitutions of Frieschland, Timmerman, Buchau, and Kahikene’s ox, and severely tried all the others. The first four were never the same oxen again that they had been before. We stayed at the wells till the forenoon of the next day, and then pushed through the Ovampo werft at the south border of the flat, and offpacked at Etosha. June 21st.—We arrived at Omutchamatunda, which we now found deserted, except by a few Bushmen. 238 REACH OKAMABUTI. {CHAP. VIII. We pushed on the day after to beyond Otjando, and then following our old spoor we arrived safely at Otchikoto; there we took a day’s rest, and amused ourselves in bathing. I made some fish-hooks out of needles, and caught about a hundred small fish, which we eat. We could hear nothing of the waggons from the Bushmen. News travels very slowly in these parts. Even at Otchikango no information could be obtained. Ootui was deserted, and we were sick with anxiety. If Chapupa had played false with Hans, what should we do?—a handful of men on worn-out beasts, with all the ‘savage Damaras and a dried-up country in front. June 30th.—Three hours from Okamabuti, we came upon Damaras; they said that the waggons were to have started that very morning to rejoin Chapupa, who had,changed his encampment some days. pre- viously. Hans, they said, was well, but they knew nothing more. We rode to Namboshua, took a drink of water there, and then, two hours after, came upon our waggons’ spoor, and upon Okamabuti at the same time. We anxiously examined the now deserted kraal for tokens that all was right. We found John Morta’s cooking fire still burning, and unmistakable signs of his handiwork about, so that no harm had happened to him. Phlebus’ spoor was recognised directly ; he had a large foot and walked flatly, and we found some signs of John Williams. As the cattle kraal was well trodden down, my oxen were probably all well ; after a long search and comparing remarks, we rested CHAP. VIII. | FIND THE WAGGONS SAFE. 239 satisfied that no great mishap could have befallen the party, and that Hans had trekked on, either for better pasturage or for some other good reason. It was clear, from what the Damaras said, that the waggons were not very far off; and as the news of our arrival would reach them the same night, I offpacked the tired beasts and intended to give them a good feed in the morning—waiting till Hans either sent me some Damaras or came himself to take me on. As we were offpacking, to my dismay I found that we were one pack ox short, and he was the animal that carried my MSS., nautical almanac, gun tools, bullet moulds, and numberless nick-nacks, that were particularly necessary to me. One never counts oxen on the road ; they are so gregarious, that, as a general rule, it is quite unnecessary. In this case we had all been pressing forwards and riding in front of the drove, and none of us could tell whether we had seen the lost one since our first start. It was a very awkward case, for the country was stony in part, and, where not stony, ploughed up with the spoors of the lately migrating Damara oxen. Tired as they were, two of my men and three Damaras went back after him, and, strangely enough, at Namboshua, and by one of those chances that travellers are so often indebted to, one of these Damaras came right upon him as he was lying down, tired, among some thick trees; he was, of course, brought back in triumph. The next morning a posse of my Damaras came running joyfully to me ; they had heard of my arrival at the waggons the previous night, and came to tell me the 240 START FOR THE OMARAMBA. [CHAP. VIII. news and escort me to them. My party had trekked on with Chapupa, to be near him for the sake of protection, as the Bushmen had of late been stealing a great deal in the neighbourhood. July 1st.—After three or four hours’ ride, I recog- nised the burly form of my faithful servant Hans, on the look-out at the top of a hill. To my extreme relief I learnt that all had gone on well; that Chapupa, although troublesome, had done no mischief; that several sheep had been bought, that the oxen were well, and the axletree was as successful a piece of carpenter’s work as the one that had been broken. Chapupa had bought things and never paid for them, and, being in’ disgrace, sneaked away from me. Kasupi was our principal friend now; he said that it was absurd to try to go back the way we came, as of all the watering-places at which we drank between Kutjiamakompé and Omabondeé, a journey of three weeks, not more than two now remained that were not dry. He said that we must return by the Omaramba, where we should find both water and grass, and that he would guide us there and start us. A lad made his appearance, who said that he knew the Omaramba road perfectly, and under these escorts we proceeded. Numbers of Damaras wished to join me: I allowed a few to do so, and my party now numbered thirty-four. We returned by our old road to Okatjokeama, and then turned to the left. At a werft there I found my old guide who had stolen the horse-rug and run away from me. He had the impudence to wear it before my eyes. He was six feet seven inches high, and CHAP. VIL] OKAVARE. 241 large in proportion, and therefore too heavy for me to give a shaking to, and I dared not whip him, so I only pulled the rug off his back and rated him soundly. We hit the Omoramba and followed it to the con- fluence of its two branches. Game began now to show, and we had no need to kill any oxen. We had some charming hunts—one after wild boars. Kasupi could not, any more than the other Damaras, give me much information about the road down the Omoramba. It seemed most unfavourable to waggon travelling. They said the Omoramba ran between hills where Ghou Damup lived, and the Damaras dare not go there. If my ride-oxen had not been so entirely worn out, and the country so arid, I should have much liked an excursion in that direction, which, as I have since discovered, would be a most interesting route. Now, however, it was out of the question. July 12th.—My entire werft at Okavaré consisted of eighty cattle, and 110 sheep and goats; of these many belonged to the men, and not to me. I had only seventy cattle and eighty sheep and goats: of these about forty were useful waggon oxen, and fifteen ride and pack, leaving me a surplus of fifteen slaughter oxen and the eighty small cattle. My articles of exchange were at a very low ebb indeed, although I had a small further supply at Walfisch Bay. I had no reason to expect getting more than ten oxen with them in Damara-land; but when I arrived among the Hottentots, I intended to sell one of my waggons for M 242 ELEPHANTS VISIT US. (CHAP. VIII. forty or fifty oxen, which can always be done; and thus becoming independent, should have amply enough for a second excursion on a smaller scale. We now trekked steadily up the Omoramba, and one day’s work was like another’s. There were wells every two, three, or four hours, but deep ones, and choked with sand, which we had on every occasion to clear out, working for hours, and often half through the night. The river-bed is sometimes a broad reach of sand with high banks, sometimes imperceptible, except toa very practised eye. Thorns of course hem it in. The few incidents that occurred on our return journey were these. One night we slept close to water-holes: our encampment was anything but a quiet one; and the dogs barked all night, as they almost invariably did. We had watered the oxen out of a heavy wooden trough that Damaras had made and left at the wells, and this trough blocked up the path- way down to the largest well. In the morning, to our surprise, we found elephant spoors all about us: three large ones and two calves. They had pushed the trough to one side, and walked down to the well till their trunks could reach the water, and had stamped the sand in, and made a great mess of our handiwork. Then they had walked close round us till their minds were satisfied, and finally moved off straight away across country. A very large springbok was shot, which we weighed against a large and fat sheep that we killed. The first was 120 pounds; the second, 112 pounds. Damara CHAP. VIII. ] ICE EVERY NIGHT. 243 sheep stand much higher than our English sheep, and have no wool; the hair of their hides is like that of a calf. Hans sold two of his curs to some of the Damaras for two oxen each. I cannot conceive what could have induced them to make such a bargain. They were keen upon dogs, for they offered four oxen for another one, ‘“‘ Watch;” but he was too useful to me in worrying night marauders to be spared. We had a fine night for chevying hyenas. After one was killed, and everything was silent, I sent a Damara out among the bushes to imitate thei howl, that we might hear the others answer, and know where they were. He did it so successfully, that all the dogs were at him in an instant, and he was bitten. July 17th—Our old friend the hill Omuvereoom came into sight. The air was very thick and cold at nights. The sky had quite an English November ap- pearance. We found ice about us nearly every morning since leaving Ondonga. For the last three weeks I have observed that there is a vast deal of electricity in the air, every woollen thing crackles when rubbed with the hand. My large black dog “ Wolf” is quite a powerful electrical machine when his back is stroked down. July 25th.—We arrived at Ontikeremba, where there are a great many deep wells, about four feet in diameter, and thirty feet deep. A row of four men contrived to hand up the water out of them; but it was as much as they could do. I can hear nothing of the proceedings of the Hottentots, during my absence, but learnt the full particulars of Kahikené’s death. The bed of the Omoramba is now that of a small M2 244 PASS OMAGUNDE. [cHaAP. VIII. sandy streamlet; yet wells are found in numbers along it. July 26th.—At Otjikururumé we came in full sight of Diambotodthu, and Omatako was right before us. July 28th.—Left the Omoramba, along which we had been travelling every day (except two) for more than a fortnight; and on July 29th arrived at Okandjoé. We had now passed through the midst of Omagundé’s country ; but he had moved to where Kahikené had been staying, and therefore I saw nothing of him. Crowds of Damaras and nearly one thousand head of cattle were at Okandjoé, where there is copious well- water. I sent in a civil way to beg the use of two wells for my cattle; but the Damaras were very impudent, and refused. We therefore seized upon the wells, and the Damaras became obliging and highly courteous. It gave us quite a home feeling to see the hills that we knew so well round about us. I was now safe as regards water; for by my map I knew the distance to Kutjiamakompé, and thence, happen what might, I could pass through to Schmelen’s Hope. We heard some news of the missionaries here, that Mr. Hahn had been to Omaruru, and also that the Hottentots had been quiet, and not plundering. July 31st.— Arrived at Kutjiamakompé, and were once again on our old waggon-spoors. It was strange to see how the dry season had altered the place: I should never have recognised it at a cursory glance. The fine sheet of vley water was now baked earth, and we drove over it to wells which were on the other side. CHAP. VIII.] REACH BARMEN. 245 August 1st.—In the clear evening we passed over the ridge which separates the water-shed of the Swakop from that of the Omoramba. The Schmelen’s Hope Hills, and those by Jonker, and opposite to Barmen, rose into view at once, and we took our farewell leave of the beautiful cones of Omatako and the other high landmarks that had so long guided us. We found water at Okamabondé, and next day at Okandu, whence I sent a messenger on to Barmen with a note. August 3rd.—We rested at Schmelen’s Hope, and, August 4th, arrived safely at Barmen, being a year all but ten days from the time when I sailed from Cape Town, and five months from the day that the waggons left Schmelen’s Hope; of these five months ninety days were employed in journeying onwards, inde- pendently of such excursions as were made from time to time to look out for roads. It occupied fifty days of travel to reach Nangoro’s from Schmelen’s Hope, and forty days to come back again. The return distance was 168 hours, or about 462 miles, and we were forty- nine days on the road, nine of them being days of rest or necessary delay. This gives, including stoppages, an average of nine and a half miles a day, which is very fair travelling for a continuance, even over known roads. CHAPTER IX. The Waggons are Condemned.—Messengers to the Cape.—The Kaoko.— History of Damara-land.—Ghou Damup genealogies.—Start for Elephant Fountain.—Excessive Drought.—Engage Eybrett.—Sell my Cart and Mules.—Travel from Eikhams.—Shooting Giraffes in the dusk.—Elephant Fountain.—Numerous Pitfalls.—Plundering Expedi- tions.—The Kubabees reach ’Ngami.—Trouble of taking observations. —Leave Waggon and ride to the Hast.—Hngage Saul.—Hans and a Lion.—We enter the Bushman tract.—Rhinoceros skulls.—Hear of the Kubabees Hottentots.—Start for ’Tounobis.—Shoot a White Rhinoceros.—Reach ’Tounobis.—Elephant in a pitfall.—Prepare for Sport.—Night-Watching for Game.—Rhinoceros Veal.—Opera glasses. —Herd of Elephants.—Fights and Frolics.—Bulk of the Rhinoceros. —A Picturesque Finale.—Spring Hares.—Remarks on my route.— Unicorns and Cockatrices.— Bushmen Springes. —Setting Guns at Night.—Description of Plate.—Poisoned Arrows. During my absence some little news had been received from Europe, for an Englishman had arrived by ship and settled near Walfisch Bay, to try his hand at cattle-trading; and one newspaper had _ been received through his means. Of my own family I heard no tidings, and of course had been unable to receive any since I had left England, a year and four months previous to this time. The missionaries receive their communications once in every two years, unless, by some chance acci- dent, a post can be dispatched by ship from Cape CHAP. IX.] THE WAGGONS ARE CONDEMNED. 247 Town. They tried to establish sets of messengers from Rehoboth to the Orange River, but the road is so long and difficult that the plan had to be abandoned. One of these messengers murdered his comrade, and said that he had been eaten by a lion; at another time the letters were spoilt by the rains: on every occasion there was some delay or accident. I was delighted to find that the Hottentots had remained very peaceable, only those under Cornelius having done any mischief to the Damaras during my absence. Confidence was being restored, and troops of Damaras were gathered about the watering-places and pasturages of the Swakop, which had long been abandoned on account of their dangerous proximity to Jonker. Now, as regards my own plans, the waggons were pronounced scarcely fit for an overland journey to the Cape. The tires of the wheels were worn out; the mended axletree was of doubtful wood; and the waggons were altogether become rickety. On the other hand, the missionaries expected a vessel some time not earlier than December, and we were now at the beginning of August. If, then, I returned by the ship, I should have August, September, October, and half November, to do what I liked in, and leaving Barmen not later than the end of the first fortnight in November, I could easily push down to the bay in time to join the vessel. As a way of ridding myself of the waggons and all my remaining properties, I should arrange with Hans to act as agent for me to convert them into oxen, and 248 MESSENGERS GO TO THE CAPE. (CHAP. IX. drive them for sale down to the colony, by which means I should recover some part of their value. Then in order to occupy the fifteen weeks that I had to spare, I intended to make a quick journey to the eastward, both for the purpose of seeing something of the Hottentots, and also to find out whether, as I had at first been assured was the case, the Karrikarri Desert was interposed as an impracticable barrier between the sea-coast countries and Lake ’Ngami. I divided my party into two: one waggon went down with Hans to the bay, to bring back all the articles of exchange that I had left there; and the other waggon, together with all my ride-oxen, went with me by Jonker’s village on my road to the east. To make matters more secure, I dispatched messen- gers to the Orange River, in obtaining whom Swartboy very kindly assisted me; and among my letters, I wrote one to the agent of the missionaries in Cape Town, offering to bear a certain part of the expense of the vessel, on condition that it was dispatched not earlier than the 1st of December, or later than the last of January. We then busied ourselves for a week in packing, and in repairs, and in enjoying Mr. Hahn’s kind hospitality. Mr. Hahn had made an excursion to Omaruru during my absence, in company with Katjimaha’s sons. It is a spring, situated in the neighbourhood of extensive pasturage, a very important place to the Damaras, and about four and a half days’ travel from Barmen, being a little way beyond Erongo, —the Ghou Damup mountain that I have already CHAP. IX.] THE KAOKO. 249 mentioned. Omaruru is a rendezvous for the caravans that travel between the Damaras and the sea-stde Ovampo; and immediately north of it begins a broad barren tract called the Kaoko, which those caravans have to cross, and which, though now very thinly inhabited, appears to have been the original home of the Damara nation. I heard of the safety of three of my mules who had travelled down to Scheppmansdorf and taken up their quarters there; they grazed, strayed, and slept just where they pleased, for the Hottentots could not manage them. They were five in number when they ran away from me at Schmelen’s Hope, but two of them must have been killed on the road by lions ; they certainly did not die of starvation, for the other three arrived at Scheppmansdorf very plump and in good condition. . I ought to mention that the horse distemper does not appear to exist at Scheppmansdorf: five or six horses have at different times been kept there, but none have suffered from the disease. IT had much satisfaction in comparing the results of my inquiries with those of Mr. Hahn, with regard to the earlier history of Damara land. It appears undoubted that seventy years ago not a single Damara existed in the parts where I had been travelling, but that they all lived in the Kaoko, while tribes of Bushmen and Ghou Damup possessed the entire country between the Orange River and the Ovampo, excepting only the Kaoko on the north-west, and the central Karrikarri desert on the east. M3 250 HISTORY OF DAMARA-LAND. (CHAP. IX. The Ghou Damup, though treated kindly by the Bushmen, were always considered as inferiors, and the two races never intermarried. The Ghou Damup lived then, as they do now, about the hills, and the Bushmen on the plains. I saw an old Damara, and an old Ghou Damup who remembered this state of things, and several who were born just after it was put an end to; among these was Katjimaha himself who looks about sixty-five years old. The Damaras at that time made a sweeping invasion eastwards, right across the country, to the very neigh- bourhood of Lake "Ngami, and attacked the Mationa (as they call the people who live there). Subsequently the Mationa retaliated and invaded the land as far as Barmen on one occasion, and on a second attack passed up the Omoramba as far as Omanbondé. The last Mationa invasion took place about twenty-two years ago. The result of all this fighting was that the Bushmen tribes have been exterminated or driven out of the whole pasture country between Barmen and Okamabuti (the place where the waggon broke down), and the Damaras inhabit it in their stead. LEastwards, they are now separated from the Mationa by only a broad strip of barren country. The Ghou Damup live in large communities about a mountainous district on the lower part of the Omoramba, where they appear to be by no means an impoverished nation, but agriculturists and traders with the Ovampo and other nations to the north. My own belief is, that very long ago the Ghou Damup were the aborigines not only CHAP. Ix.] GHOU DAMUP GENEALOGIES. 251 of the present Damara-land but also of the whole country to the south of it half way down to the Orange River, and that they are of a race in every respect kindred to the Ovampo. The Bushmen appear to have invaded and thoroughly conquered the Ghou Damup, for they not only exist as the superior caste of the two, but have also taught them their language, to the entire exclusion of whatever other one they may at some former period have possessed. Those Ghou Damup that I saw have no tradition of any other language than that they used; but the tribes who live on the lower parts of the Omoramba were described as speaking several languages; and some of these were said to be ignorant of Hottentot. All these bits of information were derived from very many sources ; some I received from persons in Damara- land, some from Ghou Damup among the Namaquas, and the rest from Bushmen who lived far to the east of them. The Ghou Damup are abused and tyrannised over by everybody, but servitude has become their nature, and the very name of Ghou which they themselves adopt and use is far from complimentary. Like many other Hottentot names it is not translatable to ears polite. The missionaries for delicacy’s sake call them “ Hill’ Damaras, because they live on the hills. A standing joke against the Ghou Damup is, that they trace their descent from the monkey tribe. An old man amongst them gave me the following history of his family ; he worded it very neatly :—“ My great uncle was a baboon, and lived on excellent terms with the rest of the family, but the following occurrence 252 START FOR ELEPHANT FOUNTAIN. [cHAP. Ix. caused his separation from it. My grandfather had been gambling, and Jost all the ornaments, &c., that he had on his person, but wishing to continue the game, requested his brother the baboon to go to my great grandfather, the famous Hadji-Aybib, and beg enough beads from him to form another stake. My great uncle the baboon went, but passing a Hottentot werft by the way, in which were many fierce dogs, before unknown in the country, he became so alarmed at their barking and snapping at him that he ran to the hills, and never dared face man again. Why should not we and the baboons be brothers ?” said the old gentle- man. ‘“ Everybody persecutes us alike. We both live on the hills, eat the same roots, and ‘ crow’ for them with our hands in the same manner!” Hadji-Aybib, my friend’s great grandfather, married a Bushwoman for his second wife, who annoyed her step sons by her hauteur, and twitted them on account of their vulgar habits and low connections. Influenced by her, Hadji- Aybib cruelly treated his Damup progeny, and they on their part earnestly longed for his death. One day he was missing, rumour gave out that he was killed, and the sons gave way to the greatest paroxysms of merri- ment, during which they behaved in such an unseemly manner before the eyes of their fine lady Hottentot connections that on Hadji-Aybib’s return,—for he was not killed after all,—they were obliged, from absolute shame, to hide themselves away from his presence, and fled to the hills, bearing with them the reproachful name of Ghou Damup. August 13th.—Our party separated, one detachment CHAP. Ix.] — EXCESSIVE DROUGHT. 253 en route to the bay, and Andersson, Timboo, John Morta, Phlebus, and myself, travelling towards Lake "Ngami. I took only five or six of the most active Damaras with me, and appointed the neighbourhood of Jonker’s werft as a place of rendezvous for both parties at the beginning of November. The dryness of the country was now really alarming ; all the watering places that remained were crowded with cattle, and every blade of grass within miles of them was being eaten off. Over a great part of Damara-land rain had not fallen more than ten times during the whole rainy season; and a mortality from actual starvation had already begun among the cattle, and the year will probably be remembered and named by the Damaras as that of the great drought. It was therefore no easy matter for me to travel about; but I had one advantage on my side, which was, that on the road, when far away from watering places and the grazing limits of the cattle by them, I often found grass, and there I outspanned to sleep, and let the oxen feed, then travelling on in the morning I came to the next watering place at the middle of the day, when the cattle of the natives were all sent off to the fields, and the wells were disengaged. I thus ensured an evening’s meal to the oxen, and also one in the early morning, if they chose to eat it, and water in the middle of the day, but no more. On the road to Jonker we found hardly any grass, and I do not know howI should have been able to keep my cattle at his place, if it were not that a valley was left unoccupied, owing to a superstitious feeling 254 ENGAGE EYBRETT. [cHAP. IX. arising from a cattle watcher haying been lately murdered there by the Damaras, Jonker received me very kindly, and I expressed to him how glad I was to hear of the excellent manner in which he had kept order among his people during my absence. He had, I knew, been put to very great trouble in doing so, as the disposition to pillage is general among the Hottentots, and requires a far more despotic ruler to repress than Jonker or anybody else in this republican part of the world is allowed to be. I found a man settled here who was of great use to me, and whom I engaged; he was white, and born in the Cape; spoke English and Dutch perfectly, and was brought by the missionaries here as _half- carpenter, half-schoolmaster. He, however, did not suit them, and had for a long time been dismissed their service ; I found him installed as Jonker’s prime minister. He spoke Hottentot very fairly, and had a winning manner about him that vastly smoothed down the minor difficulties of my way; and though he was always getting himself and us into scrapes, yet he had a marvellous faculty of creeping out of them again. Eybrett, for that was his name, undertook to guide me to Hlephant Fountain, a deserted station on the northern frontier of Amiral’s tribe. No waggon had passed that road for years, and the way led along a country which was rarely travelled over, owing to its being a border district between the Damaras and Namaquas. Elephant Fountain and the country immediately adjacent had been the Ultima Thule of missionaries CHAP. IX.] SELL MY CART AND MULES. 255 and traders, but the Oerlams, under Amiral, had recently extended themselves about forty miles further to the east, and on their late shooting excursions had reached a point considerably more distant. I was assured that the appearance of the land would be found to alter considerably, the thorns and rugged hills of Damara-land giving place to broad plains, and grass, and timber trees. Beyond was the desert which had hitherto been considered quite impassable, except for men on foot, after the rainy season, and which therefore barred out the lands of the west coast from those of Central Africa. It was principally with a view to try if this desert were really impassable that I proposed now to travel, and my object was to strike upon some road that led from the colony up to Lake ’Ngami. The Lake itself I was indifferent about reaching, for it is of no great size, and might prove avery unhealthy place for us, who had been accustomed so long to the pure air of a high plateau. It was two years since its discovery, and there was every reason to suppose that it was by this time perfectly well known. Lastly, I should never get on amongst the blacks there without an interpreter, being, as they are, deadly enemies to the Damaras, from whose side I should have come. I also looked forward with much pleasure to a little sport, for game had been so scarce in Damara-land that it made shooting a real toil. I sold my cart and harness which were lying at Otjimbingué, and the three mules which were at Scheppmansdorf, to Jonker; he gave me twenty oxen 256 TRAVEL FROM EIKHAMS. (CHAP, Ix. and forty milch goats for them; but all my efforts to buy horses were unavailing. He, however, gave me a mount to Rehoboth, where I went to induce Swartboy to meet Jonker and Cornelius, and settle many matters that were in dispute between them, and also to overawe Cornelius and keep him in better order, for he had lately been stealing a great deal of Damara cattle. My Hottentot interpreters now were Eybrett and Phlebus ; but Eybrett was an educated man, and could interpret from English to Hottentot at once, so that I generally employed him. He was an excellent inter- preter into Dutch when he chose to take pains. We had between us a motley command of lan- guages; for including those of Europe, one or other of the party could converse fluently in nine different languages—English, French, Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Hottentot, Damara, and Movisa; besides having some acquaintance with German, Arabic, Caffre, and a smattering of Ovampo. It will be tedious to describe my journey now as minutely as I did that in Damara-land, for it was much the same thing over again—uncertainty of the way and want of water; but we had become far quicker and more self-confident in emergencies, and were altogether a very active and efficient body of men. Among my Damaras I had two of the smartest men and best runners that could be found in the country ; all of them, indeed, were picked men, and they had become much attached to us, and worked very well, and willingly. cHAP.1x.} SHOOTING GIRAFFES IN THE DUSK. 257 In a few hours from Eikhams we had emerged from the valley of the Swakop on to the high plateau. Thence we followed the Quieep River easterly: this we left for the Noosop, crossing a broad plain, and having some shooting; we then followed the Noosop, and game began to appear in abundance. We passed one great herd of springboks that were migrating ; they eat up the grass almost as locusts would on their way. . It was by no means so numerous a herd as is often seen in Bechuana country; but the tufts of white hair on the backs of the males were as thickly scattered over the country as daisies on a lawn. We never had to kill oxen,—only sheep now and then, for the sake of the fat; for all the game was very dry; and where you have no vegetables, fat becomes an essential element of food. It was a great drawback to us that elands were hardly ever seen in this country: they are the staple food of sportsmen in Bechuana-land, and are very fat. We discovered how to shoot giraffes on foot from Andersson having gone successfully after a herd in the dusk of the evening, when we found that they allowed him to stalk close up to them. ‘They see very indistinctly in the dark. He shot at two, who did not run far when wounded, but seemed bewildered. He fired all his bullets away at them, and brought one to a stand-still, and the other to a slow walk; but they would not fall. He could only find one pebble in the sandy soil to fire out of the gun, instead of a bullet, and that seemed to have no effect upon the animal : he then thought of hamstringing them ; but though he 258 ELEPHANT FOUNTAIN. [cHaP. Ix. nicked the skin of one deeply, yet as he struck out both with his horns and heels when he did so, it was too dangerous to continue the attempt. In despair, he took his rifle-barrel (which was a common thick thing) from the stock, and kept flinging it at the giraffe’s head like a knob-kerrie, and at length the beast dropped. In the morning the other one had walked away; and though he was tracked a couple of miles, yet he could not be found. We jerked the giraffe, that is, cut the flesh that we did not eat into strips, and dried them in the sun. The skin was of great service to us, as our shoes were worn out, and wanted new soles. It is strange to see in how small a compass the meat of the whole animal packs up when it is dried. Something was shot every day till we came to Kurrikoop, and there we slept out by the water. A buffalo, a gnu, five zebras, two hartebeests, and three roebucks were “bagged” in two nights. The natives of the place had a grand feast: and so had we. At Elephant Fountain we found Amiral, and about. forty men, who had just arrived there, en route for a shooting excursion to the east. They take their waggons with them for some days, and then make an encampment, whence they journey short distances on ride-oxen, and shoot what they can, bringing the meat back jerked to the waggon. It was delightful to hear people talk familiarly of the rhinoceros as an every-day kind of game, and we longed for a raid upon them. I had not yet seen a single rhinoceros. One was shot by Andersson and Hans when they went down to the bay, but I was not then present. On the last CHAP. IX.] NUMEROUS PITFALLS. 259 shooting excursion Amiral’s men had “ bagged” forty of them. Elephant Fountain is a rather copious spring on the side of a black thorny hill, above a narrow river-bed. Herds of animals come here to drink; and the ground at the principal place is bored full of pit-falls. By arranging the bushes in different ways, different sets of paths and pitfalls can be used at pleasure, and the animals are unscared by the smell of the blood of their companions, who may have been caught and slaughtered the preceding evening. No less than thirty-four zebras were entrapped in one night. We could not of course shoot here, as it might frighten the game away, and there was no great temptation, as only zebras and roebucks came to drink. There were a great many lions about, some of whom had lately taken two men, who had sat up watching for game ; but none troubled us. In the day-time, while we were waiting for Amiral, a few animals were shot, and jerked as food for the party that was to stay with the waggon, for I intended to let it stop here, and to ride on with Andersson, Eybrett, and Timboo, leaving John Morta and Phlebus behind. Elephant Fountain acquired its name from the enormous number of tusks that were found in the water of this place. When the Hottentots settled there, the pool into which the water runs was over- grown with reeds, and harboured lions and hyenas, and all kinds of wild beasts. So the reeds were burnt down, and the pool cleared out: it was not at alla large one, perhaps twenty-five paces across; but in 260 PLUNDERING EXPEDITIONS. [CHAP. Ix. the mud at the bottom of it they found quantities of elephants’ bones and tusks, so that a trader bought enough ivory to fill more than one, and I think two waggons with it. Elephants were then numerous at the place, but they have now quitted it. A very fatal intermittent fever occurs here, and has depopulated the place more than once; it breaks out in April, and rages for two or three months. It does not extend to the west of the place; I cannot say whether or no it does to the east. Amiral told me that the Mationa, or Bechuanas, as he called them, occasionally visited him ; but that, having no inter- preter, he could not converse with them. One large party of chiefs had just left Wesley Vale. He said that the Bushmen had always told him that the desert to the east was impassable ; but that from time to time they had found springs in their hunting excursions ; and that very likely there was a way across it, if the Bushmen would only choose to point it out. It seemed that the desert was bare sand opposite to Wesley Vale, four days south of Elephant Fountain, but covered with grass at this latitude. I therefore had good reason to hope that we should turn its flank. Last year a large party of Kubabees Hottentots (who live a few days east of Bethany) rode up to the north, passing alongside of Amiral’s country; but far to the east of it, they came to a place called ‘ Tounobis,” whence they made plundering excursions on all sides: some against the Damaras, and some against the Mationa, who lived on Lake "Ngami itself. A nephew of Amiral’s, who could write Dutch, was in the expedition, and sent CHAP, IX.] THE KUBABEES REACH ’NGAMI. 261 Amiral a letter about it. He described the boats that were there, and said much about the alligators, who killed very many of their dogs. The Hottentots made a most murderous excursion, having fallen upon a village that was situated on the river, connected with the west of the lake, and cut every person’s throat they could lay hands on. They then robbed the huts and decamped with their booty. Carosses, made of skins that were unknown to them, were amongst the plunder. The lake itself they did not dare to go to; a hill or mountain was pointed out to them, at the foot of which not only the lake, but a large werft of natives were; and these they did not venture to approach. I was told that I should probably see the Bushmen, who guided them. Amiral was very anxious to lay hold of these Bushmen, and require them not to guide strangers, as the harm which the Kubabees Hottentots had done would probably be retaliated on his head. It was most likely on a visit of expostulation, or as spies, that the Mationa chiefs had been to Wesley Vale; but as no interpreter could be found, the inter- view ended in nothing but an exchange of presents. I heard that there was a woman born among the Mationa, but now naturalised in Amiral’s tribe; and I sent messengers long distances to try and bring her, but she was not to be found—only her two half-caste children, who knew nothing but Hottentot. The country appeared to have become quite devoid of all landmarks, only a few rising heads and long undulating ridges being visible, which I could make no use of in triangulating. I had brought my triangu- 262 TROUBLE OF TAKING OBSERVATIONS. [cuapP. 1x: lations to within eleven hours of Elephant Fountain, and, indeed, with a slight gap, to Elephant Fountain itself; but here it seemed that they must cease, so I took a great number of lunars, to fix as accurately as I could the position of the place. I had done the same at Okamabuti, which was the northern limit, or near to it, of my network of triangles ; that of Walfisch Bay was given by Captain Owen’s survey, and I had taken many sets at Barmen, as a check upon the whole. These were all observed with a large sextant, for which I had con- trived a stand; butin travelling on ox-back I was obliged to leave this behind, as being much too cumbrous to carry, and packed a small but excellent circle among plenty of stockings, &c., in a fishing-basket, which I made a man strap on his back. With this circle I had already taken sets for longitude at Ondonga, and I proposed now doing the same at the most eastern point I should arrive at, filling up the intermediate places by a careful dead reckoning, checked by lati- tudes. I had so few subjects of interest in the journey, that taking sets of observations, which would be a great nuisance to a person under any other circum- stances, was to me a source of occupation and a great pleasure, and I slaved at it. It requires some care to “pit” one observation against another, so as to eliminate the error of a doubtful instrument. The packing and unpacking is troublesome, and an instrument cannot be left for a moment unguarded, or the goats will butt at it, the sheep and dogs run over it, or the oxen brush against it; and it is cold work, having to leave the fire, that its glare may be avoided, cHap. x.] LEAVE WAGGON AND RIDE TO THE EAST. 263 and to wait for the culminating of one star after another. We were detained longer than we ought to have been at Elephant Fountain, by a break-down of Amiral’s waggon, just as he was starting, but, as it was a light vehicle and the roads were level, a piece of green wood was made into an axletree, and we were ready to proceed in two days. Our dates were, left Jonker, August 30th; arrived at Elephant Fountain, September 14th; proceeded, September 19th. Hardly a Hottentot lived at Elephant Fountain, but there were large werfts of Berg Damaras there, who of course belonged to Amiral. I therefore felt no fear whatever at leaving my two men, for there is security of life in the country of the Hottentots, and we parted in high spirits for a six weeks’ tour, my time being limited by the expected arrival of the ship at Walfisch Bay, from which I was now distant 156 hours (390 miles), or, with a single span of oxen, at least a month’s journey off. We rode over to “T'was in eleven hours, following the track of Amiral’s waggon, and there we found a large werft. I engaged a Dutchman, by name Saul, whom I found there. He was to take two or three pack-oxen, and to pack them himself, and to help my party in everything. He was a well-known shot, spoke Hottentot perfectly, and was just the man I wanted. It seemed to me that, small as Amiral’s tribe was, it was infinitely the most civilised of all I had seen, and seemed possessed of more resources by far than either Swartboy’s or Cornelius’. I mean that, with 264 ENGAGE SAUL. [CHAP. IX. the usual articles of exchange, whatever was wanted, might be found and bought there with far more facility than elsewhere. The others keep no “stock in hand” of anything, but scramble on from hand to mouth. If you want a pair of leather trousers made, the goat must be killed and the skin dressed, for nobody cares to keep a spare piece of leather. In the same way with carosses, each man has his own sleeping things, but no overplus by him to sell. Every Hottentot has his ride-ox, which he will not dream of parting with until he has broken in another one to take its place, and there is a want of capital everywhere, so that although a traveller may be abundantly supplied with articles of exchange, and the natives around him by no means badly off, yet it does not at all follow that he will find anybody to barter with him as he journeys through their country. September 24th.—We left “I'was on our shooting excursion. I took no dogs: mine were useless curs for anything else but night-watching; and under the guidance of Saul we travelled five hours and a half, passing a succession of little springs on our way. Early the next morning we went three hours to the place of rendezvous, and Amiral came shortly after- wards : numbers of other Hottentots soon dropped in, and we had a very merry evening, telling tales, and talking about the habits of animals. Of course we had lion and elephant stories in abundance. I was curious to know what animals here were the most fatal to man, and we counted over all the deaths that we could think — of. Buffaloes (though not common here) killed the CHAP. IX. ] HANS AND A LION. 265 most, then rhinoceroses, and lastly, lions. Areep, the predecessor of Cornelius, as chief of his tribe, was killed by a black rhinoceros. It is curious how many people are wounded by lions, though not killed. A very active Damara, who was some time with me in Damara-land, but who stayed behind as I journeyed up the country, was in a dreadfully mangled state when I returned. He had found a lion in the act of striking down his ox, and rushed at him with his assegai: he gave him a wound that must have proved mortal, for the assegai went far into his side; but the lion turned upon him, and seizing him, bit one elbow- joint quite through, and continued worrying him until some other Damaras ran up and killed the animal. My servant, Hans, had a very narrow escape some time since. He was riding old Frieschland (the most useful ox I had, but now worn out by the Ondonga journey) along the Swakop, when he saw something dusky by the side of a camelthorn-tree, two hundred yards off. This was a lion, that rose and walked towards him: Hans had his gun in his gun-bag by the side of his saddle, and rode on, for there is no use in provoking hostilities single-handed with a lion, unless some object has to be gained. by it, as every sportsman at last acknowledges. The coolest hand and the best shot are never safe, for a bullet, however well aimed, is not certain to put the animal hors de combat. After the lion had walked some twenty or thirty yards, Friesch- land, the ox, either saw or smelt him, and became furious. Hans had enough to do to keep his seat; for a powerful long-horned ox tossing his head about and N 266 WE ENTER THE BUSHMAN TRACT. [CHAP. Ix. plunging wildly is a most awkward hack for the best of jockeys. The lion galloped up. He and Hans were side by side. ‘The lion made his spring, and one heavy paw came on the nape of the ox’s neck, and rolled him over; the other clutched at Hans’ arm, and tore the sleeve of his shirt to ribbons, but did not wound him, and there they all three lay. Hans, though he was thrown upon his gun, contrived to wriggle it out, the lion snarling and clutching at him all the time; but for all that, he put both bullets into the beast’s body, who dropped, then turned round, and limped bleeding away into the recesses of a broad thick cover; and of course Hans, shaken as he was, let him go. There were no dogs to follow him, so he was allowed to die in peace; and subsequently his spoor was taken up, and his remains found. Probably many more people are killed by lions than one hears of, for the most frequent victims are paupers who scatter themselves about the country, squatting on the ground and crowing pignuts; they become so absorbed in their occupation that a lion could easily crouch behind and spring upon them. Numbers of people are reported to be missing in Damara-land, but no one cares to search out their fate. I made a list once of the people I had met with who had been wounded by lions, but I have lost it. It was avery long one. The wounds were always bad ones to heal. They frequently became almost well, and then broke out afresh. 26th.—We were now fairly en route, and had entered the Bushman country; we travelled along the brow of a long ridge that rose insensibly to perhaps 1000 feet CHAP. IXx.] RHINOCEROS SKULLS. 267 above a wide plain, which stretched far away to the east, and was covered with timber trees ;—this was the margin of the great desert. I was told that we should continue journeying along this ridge till we reached the furthest point that Amiral’s men had yet travelled to, and thence our course would, if we intended to go to ’Tounobis, lie across this plain. The news of our shooting expedition had spread far and wide, and Damaras flocked like crows from all quarters to share in the food. The place where we slept on the 26th was a charming spot, among black- thorn trees, lighted up by fires in all directions, round each of which were grouped parties of our guests. We steadily rode on, keeping ahead of Amiral’s party, and on the evening of the second day we arrived at the first great shooting place. It was a picturesque gorge in the ridge which led down to the plain, and in which was a succession of small springs. Rhinoceros skulls were lying in every direction, but strangely enough only one spoor could be seen. The whole of that night did Saul and I watch without seeing any- thing but a jackal. It was very disappointing, but the animals clearly were not there. We therefore pushed on. Saul had told us that the rhinoceroses would begin trooping in at nightfall, and that we should continue firing at them till daybreak, and I had believed him. Forty were killed here about a month since; I could not doubt it, for I counted in a small space upwards of twenty heads; but I suppose that a vast number were also wounded, and that the whole game was fairly scared from the place. Amiral’s men were N2 268 HEAR OF THE KUBABEES HOTTENTOTS. [cuap. Ix. hard up for food; each man came on his ride-ox, and carried nothing with him. On the 28th we arrived at the furthest place the Namaquas had explored to. We saw about a dozen fresh spoors of elephants, and a few of rhinoceroses. I tried all I could to make the people encamp out of ear-shot of the water but they would not. No elephants came that night, but a rhinoceros, a lion, a hyena, and a gnu were “bagged.” The Damaras were only allowed the carrion, as Amiral’s suite of forty men all had to be fed: these poor people were in a sad state ; they searched for pieces of old rhinoceros hide, the skin of animals that had been slaughtered here before, and which had dried in the sun before wild beasts had had time to devour it. This cooked in the fire and beaten with stones to make it soft enough to chew is not at all bad, and I have often eaten it; but there was not enough of it to feed the whole crew of Damaras, neither were there pignuts here for them to crow, and they were, consequently, in great distress. Several Bushmen came to us here, of the tribe that lived at ’Tounobis ; the Namaquas can hardly under- stand them; they laugh excessively at the odd double way in which they pronounce their clicks. One man, the son of the chief whose name means “ Buffalo,” was — much the most intelligible, and I engaged him at once as guide. He told us all about the Kubabees Hottentots, how they came, and where they went, whom they killed, and whom they robbed, and gave us every particular. All the Bushmen were well acquainted with the great waters to the north-east (the lake CHAP. IX.] START FOR ’TOUNOBIS. 269 ‘Ngami and its rivers), and described the boats on them, and mimicked the alligators and hippopotami. They had heard also of the Soun Damup, that tribe of Ghou Damup that live in an independent state along the lower part of the Omoramba, and pointed out the direction of their country. They knew of waggons haying gone to Lake ’Ngami, and said that they had some things which were given to them by the people who travelled in them, whom they particularly described. They however protested that the country was, in this peculiarly dry season, impassable beyond *Tounobis. How far this place was we could not well make out, but it certainly was a long journey without water ; tired and footsore as the oxen were, I was determined however to attempt it. The Bushmen declared that the game was all scared away from where we were; but that we should see immense quantities at "Tounobis. One informant asserted that the buffaloes were so thick upon the ground that we should have great difficulty in driving the waggons through them. But they all agreed that near "Tounobis it would be dangerous to travel at night, as the wild animals would certainly charge us and our oxen when we met them on the way. We started for "Tounobis on the afternoon of Oct. 1st with Amiral and half of his men; after about three hours we came to a little well that the Hottentots who were before us had just drank dry, and, going on, to our delight saw two huge white rhinoceroses, three or four hundred yards on one 270 SHOOT A WHITE RHINOCEROS. (CHAP. IX. side of us. They are indeed immense creatures, so far longer than the black ones, and their horns so much larger. The rhinoceros now in the Regent's Park Gardens is a black rhinoceros; it is much the most vicious of the two kinds, but nothing like the size of the other. We all tumbled off our oxen, some twenty of us (the others had returned to Amiral’s waggons), and ran helter-skelter through the bushes, each his own way, till we were pretty near them, and then, as one trotted up to see what was the matter, a volley was blazed into him, that bowled him over like a hare. The other one took a sweep and escaped unshot. The rapidity with which the slaughtered one was cut up was perfectly astonishing. I minuted the whole occurrence; it only took twenty minutes, and we were in our saddles again thirty-five minutes after we had leftthem. It must be recollected that three- penny pocket-knives are not the best of instruments to make an impression on rhinoceros hide. There is no knife so good as a common butcher’s knife; as a general rule, soft steel, or even iron, is far better than hard steel, because you can sharpen the first on any bit of stone, and the metal does not splinter when it comes against a bone. We followed an elephant path, which went as straight as a Roman road. I took its direction several times with an azimuth compass, and it did not vary four degrees. We travelled till past nine, having been on the move for six and a quarter hours. The next day, starting very early, poor Timmerman and Frieschland both knocked up; they had never CHAP. IX.] * REACH ’TOUNOBIS. 271 recovered the Ondonga journey: we drove them as far as we could, but it was no use, and as we of course could not wait in the middle of the plain without water, we had to leave the poor creatures to their fate. This day we managed eleven hours’ actual travelling, and could have easily pushed on again at midnight, but the Bushmen begged us not, as we were coming to where the rhinoceroses were very numerous, and assured us that if we started in the morning we should arrive at "Tounobis before the heat of the day. This we did; we passed along a labyrinth of wild beasts’ paths, put up one rhinoceros, and, after four hours, a valley in front where smoke rose among the trees announced that we had arrived at Tounobis. We hurried to the water to look for spoors, and now we were, without any doubt, in a game-country. The river-bed was trodden like the ground in a cattle fair by animals of all descriptions. The water lay in pools among rocks, and there were evident marks of where the water had stood at the preceding evening, and the depth to which it had been drunk out by the animals during the night; by the sides of these holes were the circular walls of loose stones, two or three feet high, that the Kubabees Hottentots had built up as screens, from behind which to shoot. A little way off were crowds of Bushmen; we went to them, and found them clustered round one of a series of deep uncovered wells, about twelve feet across and eight or ten deep, and very close together, into which an elephant had been pushed the preceding night by his comrades, as they had scrambled in 272 ELEPHANT IN A PITFALL. [ CHAP. IX. droves to drink, and there he lay, just killed, and great pieces of flesh were being cut off and hauled up from his carcase. All this was delightful, and we offpacked our lean oxen in the highest spirits about a quarter of a mile from the water, in the midst of a thick grove of trees. Amiral encamped near us; we made a kraal and settled down for at least a week’s pleasuring. As soon as the elephant was disposed of, I collected all the chief Bushmen in a ring, and gave them tobacco and so forth, and began asking them about the country further on ahead. One of my men came to say that he had just found a Bushman cooking with a large iron pot; this was a sure sign of the neighbourhood of civilised man. The Bushman said that it was given to them by people from a waggon some distance to the east, and who had gone to the lake during the previous rainy season. The man who had guided the Kubabees Hottentots lived here—Toes-u-wap was his melodious name. He and the other Bushman wore great numbers of elephant hair necklaces, with three or four beads strung on each of them; they are, as I now find, worked after the manner that the English ladies call “tatting.” Old Buffaloe’s son and 'Toes-u-wap were the only two who could under- stand much of the language of the Hottentots; they interpreted for us to the other Bushmen as well as they could, but our conversation was far from fluent. Several of these Bushmen knew the Mationa language, and as I had a little MS. Sichuana dictionary with me, I asked the Sichuana names for sixty words; of CHAP. IX.] PREPARE FOR SPORT. 273 these about twenty were identical with those in my dictionary, twenty were somewhat like them, and the other twenty I could not find. I presume, therefore, that their language is Sichuana, or a dialect of it. The Bushmen were unanimous in saying that our next stage to the east was longer than the one we had just travelled. The season was so excessively dry that all the wells were exhausted. The Kubabees Hottentots had passed by this place in the dry season, but it was subsequent to an ordinarily rainy summer, and they left "Tounobis in the afternoon, travelled all night, and next midday drank water with reeds, after their manner, from a place where the sand was damp ; on the ensuing day they came to a Bushman wertt, and so on every day till the fifth, when they reached a Mationa cattle post; they call it Eisis in Hottentot, Chuésa in Mationa language; from there the hills that border the great water (river or lake I am not sure which) can be seen. ‘There is said to be much game there. We had great difficulty in making the Bushmen distinguish between the lake and the rivers; they called the whole water-country by one name—TI’ Annee. However, I will not enter at length into these details, as more accurate information will certainly be received before long from the whites, or whiter races, who are now steadily pushing northwards. We repaired the circular walls of loose stones that were to form our shooting-screens. The lower they are the better, generally speaking, as being less likely to attract attention; but when it can be managed, a n 3 274 NIGHT-WATCHING FOR GAME. [CHAP. IX. wall about two feet nine inches high is much the most convenient to shoot over, as a man’s position is not cramped when he kneels down and fires from behind one of these: they ought to be six or seven feet across. A hole in the ground is sometimes made instead of a wall; but generally speaking, the neighbour- hood of large watering-places in these parts is a mass of limestone rock, into which one cannot dig. It is one of the most strangely exciting positions that a sportsman can find himself in, to le behind one of these screens or holes by the side of a path leading to a watering-place so thronged with game as ’Tounobis. Herds of gnus glide along the neighbouring paths in almost endless files: here standing out in bold relief against the sky, there a moving line, just visible in the deep shades; and all as noiseless asa dream. Now and then a slight pattering over the stones makes you start ; itjars painfully on the strained ear, and a troop of zebras pass frolicking by. All at once you observe, twenty or thirty yards off, two huge ears pricked up high above the brushwood ; another few seconds, and a sharp solid horn indicates the cautious and noiseless approach of the great rhinoceros. Then the rifle or gun is poked slowly over the wall, which has before been covered with a plaid, or something soft, to muffle all grating sounds; and you keep a sharp and anxious look-out through some cranny in your screen. The beast moves nearer and nearer; you crouch close up under the wall, lest he should see over it and perceive you. Nearer, nearer still; yet somehow his shape is indistinct, and perhaps his position unfavourable to CHAP. IX.] RHINOCEROS VEAL. 275 warrant a shot. Another moment, and he is within ten yards, and walking steadily on. There les a stone, on which you had laid your caross and other things, when making ready to enter your shooting-screen ; the beast has come to it, he sniffs the taint of them, tosses his head up wind, and turns his huge bulk full broad- side on to you. Not a second is to be lost. Bang! and the bullet lies well home under his shoulder. Then follows a plunge and a rush, and the animal charges madly about, making wide sweeps to right and left with his huge horn, as you crouch down still and almost breathless, and with every nerve on the stretch. He is off; you hear his deep blowing in the calm night ; now his gallop ceases. The occasional rattling of a stone alone indicates that he is yet a-foot; for a moment all is still, and then a scarcely audible “sough” informs you that the great beast has sunk to the ground, and that his pains of death are over. The animals are picked up in the morning ; but it is not very easy to find them. Spooring is, in most cases, quite out of the question, on account of the numberless tracks. The Bushmen jerked every particle of the meat of all the animals that we killed, excepting that which we used ourselves. I lke rhinoceros flesh more than that of any other wild animal. A young calf, rolled up in a piece of spare hide, and baked in the earth is excellent. I hardly know which part of the little animal is the best, the skin or the flesh. The Hottentots shot away a great many bullets at rhinoceroses, and did, I dare say, a great deal of 276 OPERA GLASSES. (cHapP. Ix. mischief; for they lie six or seven together in each shooting-screen, and blaze volleys at long distances— often thirty or forty yards—at the rhinoceros. The consequence is that they “ bag” but very few, compared to the number that they fire at; the others most likely linger on for a few days, and then le down and die elsewhere. One night Andersson and myself were lying out together when a rhinoceros came, that I fired at. Something smaller was following at its heels; but we could not see what, on account of the shade of the dark bushes. It was a brilliant moonlight; and we were foolish enough to leave our screen, and poke about after the animal, which luckily we never found. In the early morning Andersson went to look for the game that had been shot ; and first followed the spoor of the rhinoceros we had been seeking. He soon found the animal lying dead among the bushes; and he walked carelessly up, with rifle over his shoulder, when as he was just upon the animal, a full-grown calf rushed out from behind its dead mother right at him. He had a very narrow escape, for the creature brushed by him in the narrow pathway: he was about as large as an ox, and his spoor was half size. Had we come upon them the preceding night, we should have run some risk. On one occasion a rhinoceros that he fired at, brushed down the stones of one side of his shooting- place. If I were to travel again on a shooting-tour, I should certainly take a large opera-glass with me. It is one of the most perfect of night-glasses, besides being the most useful of telescopes. I should think it would put CHAP, IX. ] HERD OF ELEPHANTS. 277 a man’s sight in the dusk on a par with that of wild beasts generally ; and it is so portable and manageable an instrument, that I should never lie out watching for animals without one. Since my return to England I have often amused myself at night in trying their powers, which certainly are marvellous. At sea they are coming into general use, and more than one naval officer of considerable experience, in chasing slavers, has assured me of their great superiority over the ordinary cumbrous night telescope. Talking of these things, I may add, that a powerfully magnifying telescope is of very little use in tropical Africa; the air is always seething and waving from the heat, so that images are seldom sufficiently distinct to be worth magnifying. I generally used the “direct” telescope of my sextant for day purposes; it is in fact a small single opera-glass, and I liked it very much. Elephant shooting was out of the question at *Tounobis for men in our position, without horses and without dogs. The river-bed is perfectly bare, and very light in colour, from the quantity of slabs of limestone. I should be extremely sorry to be chased by any animal over it. The Hottentots made such a noise that the elephants only came down twice whilst I was there; the first time we ran up to them and fired among their legs ; there were fourteen in the herd, fine fellows, standing in a row fronting us in the open moonshine. None of us dared go nearer than sixty yards; we there had the shelter of a low slab in the limestone, but beyond the ground was quite flat. 278 FIGHTS AND FROLICS. (CHAP. Ix. I should think the legs were the best part to fire at in these cases, because if the bullet strikes the bone it is sure to break it, and an elephant on three legs is like a waggon on three wheels, quite brought to a stand-still; and, again, if the bone be missed, the wound, if any, is only a flesh*wound, and does not kill the animal. Our shots produced no effect, except some very angry trumpeting from the elephants, who first faced us and then decamped. The second time we let them alone, and a young bull fell into one of the wells, which we shot. I think I would have given anything for horses at ’Tounobis. I should have enjoyed myself amazingly if I had had them. There were no lions whatever there; they and rhinoceroses do not hit it off together, and are seldom found in numbers at the same place. A rhinoceros is a sulky morose brute, and it is very ridiculous to watch a sedate herd of gnus bullied by one of them. He runs among them and pokes about with his horn, while they scamper and scurry away from him in great alarm. He surely must often kill them. For my own taste, I should like to spend nights perched up in some tree with a powerful night glass watching these night frolics and attacks. I really do not much care about shooting the animals, though it makes a consummation to the night work, as the death of the fox does to a fox hunt, but it is the least pleasurable part of the whole. Great fun seems to go on among the different animals ; jackals are always seen and are always amusing; their impudence is CHAP. IXx.| BULK OF THE RHINOCEROS. 279 intolerable ; they know that you do not want to shoot them, and will often sit in front of your screen and stare you in the face. Sometimes, whilst straining your eyes at the dimly seen bushes about you, the branched stem of one gradually forms itself into the graceful head of some small antelope. The change is like that of a dissolving view, the object had been under your notice for a minute, yet you could not tell when it ceased to be a bush and became an animal. The young rhinoceroses must be much chased by the hyenas and wild dogs, for you never find one, either young or old, whose ears do not show marks of having been sadly bitten. I do not think an elephant gives anything like the idea of bulk and power that the white rhinoceros does. An elephant is so short, and so high upon his legs, that he looks what jockeys would call “weedy” in com- parison to the low and solid rhinoceros. The largest of these that we shot was eighteen feet long and six high; the head and neck forming, I should say, a third of the entire length. If a creature of this size be imagined against the wall of a room, an idea may be formed of his immense size. Their rush is wonderfully quick ; they seem to me to get up their speed much quicker than a horse or any other animal I know. I really think that if a rhinoceros and horse caught sight of one another at the same instant, when not more than ten yards apart, the beast would catch the steed. Their ‘movements are amazingly rapid when they receive a bullet. Oct. 7th. I had a most picturesque finale toa rhinoceros 280 A PICTURESQUE FINALE. [CHAP. IX. hunt. The Bushmen came to tell me that a black rhinoceros was lying wounded under some trees, about an hour off, and very savage, so I went to him and put him up with a bullet as he lay twenty-five yards from me. After the scrimmage which ensued, I ran after him, he going a lame trot and I as hard as I could pelt, putting three or four bullets into him at long distances, and loading as I ran. At length we came to the edge of an open flat that was about 200 hundred yards across. At the further side of that was a mound, on the top of which stood a fine overshadowing tree, and in the middle of the flat was a scraggy rotten stump, and two or three dead branches. The rhinoceros went across this, climbed the mound, and stood at bay under the tree. I did not much like crossing the open flat, but I thought I could certainly run two yards to his three, which would take me back in safety among the bushes, so I went my best pace to the middle of the flat, keeping the dead branches between me and him; they were a mere nothing, but a rhinoceros’ sight is never keen, and his eyes were, I dare say, dim from his wounds. As soon as I came to the tree, I dropped down on my knee, steadied my shaking hand against one bough, for I had run very far and was exhausted, and, resting the muzzle of my heavy rifle in the fork of another, took a quick shot and gave the beast a smart sharp sounding blow with a well-placed bullet. He did not start nor finch, but slowly raised his head, and then dropping it down, poured volumes of crimson blood from his mouth. He did this again and again; at CHAP. IX.] SPRING HARES. " 281 length he staggered a very little, then he put his fore legs out and apart from each other, and so stood for some seconds, when he slowly sunk to the ground upon his broad chest and died. I sketched the scene from memory when J returned, regretting that I had not had a pencil with me at the time to do it more justice, for the dying beast with the branched tree above him was quite a study for an artist. Having shot animals till we were tired, a pleasant moonlight evening was spent on much smaller game—the spring- hare, as the Dutch call it. It is a creature about two feet long, shaped like a kangaroo in body and tail, but with a different head; it burrows and lives in holes all day, but at night frisks about and grazes. We and the Bushmen arranged ourselves in large circles, enclosing fresh patches of ground each time, and then beat up towards the centre. We generally enclosed two or three of these funny creatures, who hopped about in the oddest way, and we rushed in and assassinated them with sticks. The sinews of their powerful tails form excellent materials for sewing carosses. I worked hard to fix the longitude of “Tounobis, which I did more successfully than I could have hoped, as my instrument was a small and not very legible one, and for want of oil I had to read off the observations by firelight. The Bushmen assured me that the character of the country between that place and the lake was of exactly the same description as that around us, a sandy soil with not unfrequent dried-up vleys, and 282 " REMARKS ON MY ROUTE. [cHaP. IX. covered with trees, but by no means so thickly as to impede the progress of a waggon. In fact, if a person wanted to go from Walfisch Bay to the lake, he would have an excellent waggon road after he had left Eikhams (Jonker’s place), one day behind him. He should follow the Quieep River as far as it goes eastwards, and then make a straight course for Kurri-koop, taking the chance of vley water by the road; from Kurri-koop, through Elephant’s Fountain to ’T was, all is excellent; thence he should follow the foot of the ridge and not the top of it, as we had done, sending the oxen to water up the gorges. In the twenty-one hours’ journey to ’Tounobis, three or four large vleys are passed, in which water would lie for many months. From there onwards I should have no fear whatever in the rainy season, even if the Bushmen refused to guide me, because the character of the country is adapted for holding water; but from Damara-land to the Ovampo no person could think of travelling without guides, unless there was a recent track to follow. If he once strayed from the path he would be hopelessly involved in the thorn thicket. I fancy that the Bushmen spoke truth about the want of water ahead, as the droves of animals who had congregated in the neighbourhood of ’Tounobis continued drinking every night, the repeated firing being insufficient to drive them away; it seemed as though they had no other neighbouring watering-place to go to. As the Bushmen learnt to understand our Hottentot a little better, we had some long talks about the CHAP. IX.] UNICORNS AND COCKATRICES. 283 animals on the river that joins the western end of the lake; that there are many there quite new to the Hottentots is beyond doubt, as several carosses were stolen by the Kubabees and brought back south, and the skins that many of these were made from were quite unknown to them. The Bushmen, without any leading question or previous talk upon the subject, mentioned the unicorn. I cross-questioned them thoroughly, but they peysisted in describing a one- horned animal, something like a gemsbok in shape and size, whose horn was in the middle of its fore- head, and pointed forwards. The spoor of the animal was, they said, like that of a zebra. The horn was in shape lke a gemsbok’s, but shorter. They spoke of the animal as though they knew of it, but were not at all familiar with it. It will indeed be strange if, after all, the creature has a real existence. There are recent travellers in the north of tropical Africa who have heard of it there, and believe in it, and there is surely plenty of room to find something new in the vast belt of terra incognita that lies in this continent. Of another fabulous monster, the cockatrice, a most widely spread belief exists. The Ovampo, the Bushmen of this place, and Timboo, all protested that there is such a creature, and that they had often seen it. They described it as a snake, sometimes twelve feet long, and as thick as the arm; slender for its length, with a brilliantly variegated skin; it has a comb on the head exactly like a guinea-fowl, but red, and has also wattles; its cry is very like the noise that fowls make when roosting—I do not mean crowing, 284 BUSHMAN SPRINGES. [CHAP. IX. but a subdued chucking; its bite is highly venomous, and it is a tree snake. I heard an instance of ten cows having been bitten one after the other; they said that sometimes people when on their way home at night hear a chucking in the tree, and think that their fowls have strayed, and as they are peering about under the branches to see where they are, the snake darts down upon them and bites them. It appears to be a particularly vicious snake. I have generally heard it called “hangara.” I never heard of its possessing wings. Since my return I have had my attention directed to a recent book, Mr. Gosse’s “‘ Notes of a Naturalist in Jamaica,” in which he mentions the prevalence of the same belief there, and relates several reported facts relative to the creature. In the Penny Cyclo- pedia, under the head cockatrice, many old drawings of these snakes are reproduced, and are worth looking at; they differ much in character from one another, and seem to have been derived from different originals. I can give no clue to the fable of the cockatrice’s eggs. The Bushmen of "Tounobis are far superior to the Damaras in the art of catching animals; their springe is a very simple one. I admired the simplicity of the method by which the antelopes were induced to leap into the middle of it; an unpractised hand would have made a fence as though he were laying out a steeple-chase course, but the Bushmen simply bend a twig across the pathway, which does not in the least frighten the animal, but which, in the gaiety of his OHAP. IX.] SETTING GUNS AT NIGHT. 285 heart, he overleaps. The pitfalls are neatly made; there is, however, nothing in them which an English gamekeeper would not contrive as well. I must take this opportunity of explaining to the uninitiated how to set a common gun (as a spring gun) to shoot game in the night. The use of such a con- trivance is obvious. Hyenas, perhaps, vex and trouble you night after night, and it is a horrid bore to sit up through the cold when sleep is in these tropical climes so peculiarly grateful, simply for the chance of shooting the worthless animal; it is far simpler to have_a gun in his path, and let him pull the trigger. himself, to his own destruction. Again, as to lions, they do real mischief; and, after all, they are not noble animals whose character entitles them to the privilege of a code of honour, but skulking, troublesome creatures, who give infinite annoyance, and will seldom wait to be shot at. In England one thinks differently, but a traveller who has large herds of cattle with him is only too glad to exterminate lions out of the land, and a spring-gun is the best way of doing this. This is my creed, though I personally am guiltless of its use upon the king of beasts. The way of setting a gun is very simple; everybody has a sort of general conception how an animal when he chests a string shall in some way pull the trigger, and be shot, but without a more definite notion consi- derable difficulty would in practice be found in making the necessary adjustments. The plate (next page) will explain how to doit. A piece of stick is lashed across the narrow part of the stock of the gun in such 286 DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. (CHAP. IX. a way as to have a slight play backwards and forwards; a string from the lower part of the stick is fastened to the trigger, one from the upper leads through the ramrod tubes (the ramrod being taken out), and passes across the pathway; it is evident that when an animal pushes the string the gun will go off. A few points have to be observed; one is, that the string should. not be too tight, else as soon as it is touched the trigger will be pulled, and the bullet make only a skin wound in front of the animal’s chest. The other, a very important point, is that the height to which the gun is lashed should be such as to send the bullet through the beast’s heart, or thereabouts. The rule is, that for a hyena the barrel should be as high as a man’s knee from the ground, but for a lion a span (or eight inches) higher. Neither the string nor the stick that is lashed to the stock, and which acts as a lever, should be too strong, lest, if the animal carries all before him in arush, they should not break, but the gun be torn from its supports and smashed. When a lion’s death is determined upon by means of a spring-gun, advantage is taken of the first animal that he kills; this is probably found half eaten, and the lion is sure to return to his prey the ensuing night. Bushes are then put round the carcase, a doorway is made to one side of a couple of posts, against these two posts the gun is lashed, and the trigger-string passes across the doorway to the opposite side (see plate). I have never seen instances of native poison doing much mischief; that of the Damaras is in practice very harmless. I have seen plenty of people who had been A. SPRING-GUN srawnon.Stone by WL Walton HOTTENTOT METHOD OF CARRYING A GUN ON HORSE OR OX-BAC Jonn Murray, Albemarle Street 1653 CHAP, IX.] POISONED ARROWS. 287 wounded by poisoned arrows, and have dressed their wounds, but saw no great harm experienced from them. The poison becomes so hard and dry on the arrows that it will not dissolve. The Bushman poison is far stronger and more complicated; the manufacture of it is kept secret, but many ingredients are put into the composition. Beside vegetable poisons the Bushmen assured me that the poisonous black spider (a kind of tarantula) is an important ingredient. It seems to be for its size, the most venomous of creatures. Death is very frequently the consequence of its bite. Amiral’s son, who was with me, had lingered between life and death for a long time after having been bit by one, and his escape was considered as a singular piece of good fortune. I saw one once; it happened to be among my bed clothes, and was a nasty creature with huge nippers; though a very quick runner it had compara- tively short legs. When I teased it with a little twig it snapped its nippers together and made quite a noise with them. Throughout our journey we have had great good luck as regards poisonous animals, nobody but Timboo having been bitten, and that only by a scorpion, but we suffered pretty severely from hornet’s stings, both at Otjimbingué and elsewhere ; the oil from our tobacco pipes was the panacea in all these cases. CHAPTER X. Hear the fate of my two Oxen.—Plan an attack to avenge them.—Make an attack on two Werfts.—Catch some Culprits. —Hottentot passion for onslaught.—Return to Hikhams.—Best sort of travelling Compass. —MS. and other Almanacs.—Watches and Alarums.—Large packs of Lions. —A Tale learnt from tracks. — Accidents with guns. — Methods of carrying them on horseback.—Description of the plate.— Travelling Dress. —Colours most suited for Sportsmen.—Bright Colours of Skulking Animals.—Rationale of them.—Join Hans’ party.—Begin to break up the Expedition.—Travel down the Swakop.—Reach Walfisch Bay.—Whales, Sharks, and Ostriches.—Retrospects.—Leave Africa. In aweek the Hottentots became tired of ’Tounobis ; they said that their wives were left without provisions, &c., and Amiral said that he must return. I had no object in staying longer, for I became tired of massa- cring the animals, and it is better when on a journey not to rest oxen longer than a week, unless you can afford at least a month’s delay, as their galled backs become half healed, and they lose their working con- dition, without having time to really recruit their strength. My oxen were all in a very poor way, but I now cared little, as I was homeward bound. We left "Tounobis Oct. 10th, and arrived safely at Okoma- vaka, with no incident except a fright from all the oxen having run away the second night that we were on the road. CHAP. X.] HEAR THE FATE OF MY TWO OXEN. 289 My first inquiries were about the fate of poor Timmerman and Frieschland, and I at last found out their history from some wandering Damaras, for they never can keep a secret. The two oxen had both returned to Okomavaka, but a lion caught Timmerman, and in the morning the Damaras found him half eaten ; they then spoored and found Frieschland whom they stabbed and eat. I discovered who the man was that actually killed my ox; he was Kaipanga, the captain of a werft of these wandering Damaras, and who naturally had Cecamped when he heard of our arrival. I therefore held a consultation with Amiral on the subject, whose eyes glistened with pleasure at the notion of a raid upon the Damara werft. I, of course, stipulated that we should have no firing, but only catch the culprits and flog them. I had been desirous of witnessing the arrangement of a Hottentot attack, and this case occurred opportunely, so I desired Amiral to manage everything in exactly his own way, which he did. He found out where Kaipanga was staying ; it was opposite to a gorge two hours ahead of us, and down in the flat at the foot of the ridge, but far from it and among the trees, and quite two and a half hours away from the watering-place there. Amiral then told everybody that we were going home as quickly as we could, for we had no time to spare to make further inquiries about the lost oxen, and on we went. Our first day was three hours, and we purposely overshot the gorge which was our mark, that the Damaras who were on a keen look-out might be convinced that we knew nothing of Kaipanga’s 10) 290 PLAN AN ATTACK TO AVENGE THEM. [cnap. x. rascality, and were really going home in good earnest. Amiral’s men slept a couple of miles away from mine, so as to disarm all notion of a concerted expedition, but at one o'clock in the morning the old scamp got up quietly with about half his men and joined me. T left sufficient people behind to resist any Damaras in case they attacked the camp during my absence, and we were all off under the escort of Amiral’s spy at two. It was a very dark night, and we scrambled down the gorge and through the trees of the plain till about four o’clock, when we stopped, as there was some doubt as to where we were, and runners were sent ahead in all directions to explore the country for a mile or two round. Just as the first streaks of light appeared in the sky the wished-for information came; there was no time to be lost, and we all ran in a glorious state of excitement across the country. The light quickly increased, and by the time that the sky was grey we were all behind a mound, watching keenly for some indication of the exact position of the werft, which we were assured was close by us. At length a slender column of smoke was seen, and instantly the charge was ordered. Amiral, Andersson, and myself, with four or five others, were to go straight on; ten men were to make a sweep, and run down upon the werft on the right and ten on the left. Nobody was to fire unless the natives used thei assegais. Off they were; our party walked slowly to give the others time, but the dogs of the werft heard us; in an instant the alarm was given, and no time was to be lost, so we in the centre were obliged to make a rush cHaP.x.] MAKE AN ATTACK ON TWO WERFTS. 291 prematurely; almost every Damara was off helter- skelter. We caught a few women and one man; they said that Kaipanga, the chief, whom we were in search of, was at another werft close by; that he had killed the ox and his men had eaten it, and that if we would spare them and not kill them they would show us the way. All this questioning and answering took Little more time to say than it does to read, and we were off again, but the daylight had become quite strong, and before we were at the next werft the sun was about to rise. We could not hope to encircle it, so we ran crouching through the bushes on and into it with much better success than we could have expected. The Damaras were not half a minute out of it when we arrived, and were running in all directions. The country was rather open, and there was a mound close by, to the top of which some of our men ran directly. This acted like flying a kite over a moor ; it made all the runaway Damaras lie still at once, lest they should be seen, and in this way we gained time to examine their werft for proofs of guilt, and were able to spoor them more leisurely. We found no meat in the huts, but a broken marrow-bone was there. In the main hut was a large piece of ox-hide, half dressed, from which the hairs, as usual, had been removed; we took it out to the light; a few scattered hairs remained, and they were whitish-yellow, which was Timmerman’s peculiar colour. A woman who was found in the werft confessed to the skin, and away we went in chase as before. The huts were such wretched affairs that it was not worth while to destroy 02 292 CATCH SOME CULPRITS. [CHAP. X. them in retaliation for the robbery. We had now some long and severe running; with horses we could have done what we liked, but on foot the naked Damaras were more than a match for us. However, we took two men captive, whose looks almost warranted their being hung without any other proofs of their guilt, and we tied them together and drove them home with several women, whom we kept in different detach- ments. It was a long time before we were all collected together, as the men were dispersed over the country, and we had no water till ten o’clock, nor did we arrive at the encampment with our prisoners till midday. After an hour’s rest we tried the men, examining them separately. Amiral’s shrewdness astonished me beyond measure. He was quite in his element, and wormed out the whole story with the greatest dexterity, and the judicial scene was closed with a business-like application of a new rhinoceros-hide whip. I had gained quite an insight into Hottentot onslaught by these few hours’ experience, and could perfectly understand how engrossmg must be the excitement which they yield to savage minds. Com- pared with these, shooting lions and rhinoceroses must be poor sport to them. The last brings simply into play the faculties of a sportsman, and is an occupation dangerous enough to be disagreeable, but negroes are the woodcocks of Africa, the beau ideal of the game tribe, and they are pursued not with that personal indifference every one must feel towards quadrupeds, but with revenge, hatred, and cupidity. The Hottentot onap, x.| HOTTENTOT PASSION FOR ONSLAUGHT. 293 runs to the raid boiling with passion and hungry for spoils. He is matched with an equal in sight, hearing, speed, and ingenuity; the attack and the pursuit call forth the whole of his intelligence. If the negro has a perfect knowledge of the country on his side to aid his escape, the Hottentot has had time for forethought and preparation in the attack to match that advantage. The struggle is equal until the closing scene when the deadly gun confronts the assegai. Then come the tears and supplication and prayers for mercy, which must be music to the ears of the Hottentot, as he revels in his victory and pauses before he consummates it. I have a pretty fixed idea that if English justice were administered throughout these parts of Africa, a small part only of the popula- tion would remain unhung. But we must not be too hard upon the negro and Hottentot morale on that account, for we little know what fearful passions exist in our own European minds until they are thoroughly roused. A young terrier or kitten seems the most harmless and mildest of creatures until he has been brought into contact with rats and learnt the luxury and taste of blood, and many an instance may be found along the distant coasts of this wide world where a year or two has converted the Saxon youth, who left his mother all innocence and trust, into as diabolical and reckless a character as ever stabbed with a bowie-knife. Two more ride-oxen were now knocked up; they were Buchau and Sweetland. I left them under the eare of Saul, near to whose werft we had now arrived, 294 RETURN TO EIKHAMS. (CHAP. xX. and whom I paid off. Travelling on we managed to take the remaining oxen to Elephant Fountain, which we reached 22nd of October; we had left ’Tounobis 10th of October ; the entire distance between the places is 53 hours, or 146 miles, which gives our pace of travelling as usual, viz. ten and a half miles a day. It is very remarkable how steady the pace of travelling is. JI minuted with great care all our journeys from Omanbondé to Ovampo-land, and the whole way from Ovampo-land to ’Tounobis, and thence again to Hikhams, invariably registering the time of every stoppage. The going and returning journeys seldom differed one hour in thirty. Thus, from Okomavaka to ’Tounobis we were twenty-one and a half hours going, and twenty-one and a quarter return- ing, and so on; but when the hours are reduced into miles, much less accuracy must be expected. I allow two and three-quarter miles an hour, which is near enough to give general ideas of distance; indeed, if a traveller has the geographical positions of the main points of his journey laid down, and also knows how long in actual travelling it will take him to get from one point to another, he is furnished with all the information he can require. I had by this time reduced my method of travelling over unknown ground to a principle which I will mention here, for want of a better opportunity. When a given direction has to be followed, which is learnt by the pointing of the natives, the compass is of course the guide by day, but it is very important to have one that is not too delicate, or when you rein up to cHapP.x.] BEST SORT OF TRAVELLING COMPASS. 295 look at it, so long a time elapses before it settles that the animal becomes fidgetty and disturbs the needle again. By far the best pocket-compass to have, is one that has a glass bottom as well as a glass top to it, like those which are commonly hung up in the cabins of ships, only, of course very much smaller, say one inch across. The pivot on which the needle turns is fixed in a hole drilled through the bottom glass. Concentric with the needle, and turning stiffly round its cap, is a small piece of brass, shaped, say, like a fish, so that its head could never, even by the faintest light, be mistaken for its tail, The top glass of the compass should unscrew. Before starting, having determined in which direc- tion you intend to proceed, take off the top glass and adjust the head of the fish so that it shall point in that direction; there is now no chance of error or confusion ; you forget all about the needle and only think of the fish. When it becomes dark, you have simply to hold up the compass between your eye and the sky, and the fish can be seen quite plainly; but an ordinary compass can never be deciphered after dusk. If any doubt remains, the light of a cigar or a piece of white paper held below the compass will, when you look down upon it, bring out the fish quite clear and distinct. It is much better to hang the compass by three threads, like a scale-pan, than simply to hold it in the hands; the threads take the place of gimbals, and, besides, being more compact in the pocket, are also less likely to get out of order. For a pocket-compass, no great accuracy is required; if the 296 . MS. AND OTHER ALMANACS. [CHAP. X. traveller can depend upon it to a point, that is quite sufficient. Where any bearings for mapping purposes are wanted, nothing inferior to an azimuth compass should be used, and one of these I invariably carried In a case sewn on to my shooting-belt, so as to lie in the small of the back. An almanac should be calculated and written out for the latitudes and longitudes in which the traveller intends to go. A simple approximation to accuracy is all one wants, and the same almanac would do for hundreds of miles; the information required is as to the times of sunrise and set, and of moonrise and set, the bearings of all these; and if the same particulars be given for a few zodiacal stars, it will be found of great use. Again, the times of culmination and the proximate altitude of three or four latitude stars should be stated for every night, and for a given latitude—those stars I mean which come to the meridian soon after dusk, and are of such meridian altitudes as to come within the range of a sextant. Occultations should of course be put down, and, if the traveller has a telescope large enough to observe them, the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites also: one lunar distance to the nearest degree should be copied for every day, in order to check the date; but for longitude purposes recourse must be had to that surpassingly excellent but most cumbrous and ill-bound of English publications, the “Nautical Almanac”—a work printed on blotting- paper, that is spoilt by rain and torn by wind, and which requires as much care in packing and in using as the instruments it is designed to accompany. All CHAP. X.] WATCHES AND ALARUMS. 297 the times made use of should be apparent times. The chance is greatly against a traveller’s watch going with sufficient accuracy to keep mean time. I set mine every sunrise and sunset, keeping another one in reserve, snugly packed up among soft things, to use during lunar and other time observations. In any moderately flat country the error one is liable to, by setting the watch in this way, lies within five minutes, and that is quite accurate enough even for latitude purposes. It is a great satisfaction to have all the particulars about the moonlight in your MS. almanac, for when one travels, it is of much import- ance; the quickest journeying being done by it. Knowing the bearings of the principal celestial bodies when they are near the horizon, is a great check upon one’s course by night; a man soon becomes familiar with these if he has occasion to make use of them. I should strongly urge travellers to provide themselves with alarum watches, or alarums, in some shape or another. Over and over again have we lost our natural rest through fear of oversleeping our time ; besides awaking the sleepers, they are of great use in attracting attention when it is time to commence to do anything, such as watching for a star, &ec. &c. It was a great comfort returning to the faithful John and to his pots and saucepans, for we had lived on tough diet since we left him. Immense quantities of animals had been caught in the pitfalls at Elephant Fountain during our absence; they appear to have been migrating in herds, for they are not always found in the same abundance. As my waggon was 03 298 LARGE PACKS OF LIONS. [cHaP. x. light, I bought what little ivory I could from Amiral’s people, and took it away with me. I sold it after- wards at St. Helena for about 701. We returned by the way which a few pages back I mentioned as the one that I recommended for waggons to travel upon. We had a little shooting, but not much; at one place we put up eight lions; they were not close together, but within a space about 200 yards across, through which we happened to drive. It was the largest pack I had seen. Fourteen is the largest I have ever heard of. These eight were all full-grown beasts; five of them were females. We had two falls of rain, enough to supply the Quieep River well; indeed, we found a pool with enough water to swim in at the place where we outspanned. After the first showers the landscape looked charming ; the sere leaves of the trees freshened up, and the air was laden with the fragrance of the acacias. For the sportsman, the rain makes a tabula rasa of the sand of the country, by obliterating all old tracks and disposing the ground to admit the sharpest and most distinct foot-mark impressions, which it is quite a luxury to follow. It is wonderful how much may be learnt from spoors; a few tracks will tell a long tale. Thus, a short time since, some of Amiral’s men came upon the track of a giraffe, grazing, and others of the party upon that of a lion crouching. Of course the spoors were followed. Of a sudden the lion’s tracks entirely disappeared, and those of the giraffe showed he was at full gallop; a small slippery place, caused by a slight shower, lay CHAP. X.] A TALE LEARNT FROM TRACKS, 299 in his path ; by the side of it was an ugly sharp stump, the solid relic of a thorn-tree that had been broken down. In the slippery place the giraffe’s feet had slid, and the animal had fallen; on the stump was blood and lion’s hair ; beyond, on one side of it, were the tracks of the lame marauder, as he limped slowly away; on the other side, those of the giraffe at full gallop. It was therefore evident that the lion had sprung on the back of the giraffe, and was carried by him till he slipped and fell. The fall dislodged the lion, who was flung upon the stump, and was injured too severely to be able to continue the attack. The giraffe seemed not to have been much hurt, as his gallop was a steady one, and there was no blood on his tracks. The October rains can never be depended on; they seldom supply the country with more than one day’s water; they are very partial, and mere showers. These rains do more harm than good to a traveller, for, without materially increasing his supplies of water, they cause the dry grass, which overspreads the eround, to rot, and no food can in many places be obtained for the oxen. The true rainy season does not begin till the end of December; and even then it requires many falls before the arid country is so drenched by rain as to allow the water to lie upon its surface. As we travelled on, reports reached us of a shocking and fatal accident which had happened to a trader, who had, while lifting up his gun, caused it to go off, and had shot himself through the arm and side. 300 ACCIDENTS WITH GUNS. [CHAP. X. The accident occurred among Cornelius’s tribe, and as they were a very suspicious set, I feared that some foul play might have been the cause of his death; however, Cornelius took great pains in forwarding messengers to me, with full particulars of the case, and I could not hear that any robbery had been com- mitted upon him. The cause of this accident was that of four-fifths of those that occur, namely, the cock being allowed to lie down upon the nipple instead of being kept at half-cock. As the unfortunate man, while sitting in the waggon, drew his gun up to him by the muzzle, it appears that the cock caught against one of the spokes of the wheel, which lifted it a little, so that, when released, it snapped back and the gun went off. Few as the people are who possess percussion-guns in this remote corner of the world, there have been three deaths and one bad accident with them. For travelling purposes, I do not approve of carry- ing a gun half-cock, because, in the very careless way that the men persist in holding their fire-arms, the half-cock very frequently becomes full cock without their knowing it, and the cap also is liable to fall off. I think the safest plan with a common gun is to put a piece of thick rag on the cap, and to let the cock down upon it. But I much prefer having a third nick cut in the “tumbler,” by which a very low half or quarter cock is produced, the cock just clearing the nipple and securing the cap from being dislodged; many pistols are made in this way. I have adopted this plan for a very long time in my travelling guns, cHaP, x.] METHODS OF CARRYING THEM ON HORSEBACK. 301 and confidently recommend it. As to carrying guns on horseback, nobody that I am aware of, except a Hottentot, and occasionally a Dutchman, knows how to do it. Theirs is a most simple and effectual plan, which, strangely enough, has never been adopted or perhaps even proposed for our mounted troops, and which is incomparably superior in practice to any of the usual plans, with all of which I am pretty well familiar. Carrying a gun with a belt across the shoulders is objectionable in every way; the gun jogs excessively about, and its weight is wearisome to a degree; the rider has to go through a vast deal of strugeling before he can slip it over his head and get it in hand; and, lastly, in case of a fall, it might injure him severely. The next plan—that of carrying the gun muzzle downwards in a bucket in the position that a sports- man would carry his gun over his arm—is most unsafe; the bullet is perpetually liable to be dislodged, and if dislodged the gun is pretty sure to burst; besides this, a complication of straps are requisite to secure the gun to the belt of the rider, which I find in practice a great inconvenience. Another method is, to sling the gun, which in this case must be a short one, muzzle downward to the back part of the saddle; so that when the rider is on his seat the stock of the gun is behind him, and the muzzle in a bucket below his feet. In this plan, as in the last, the bullet is lable to be dislodged, and also the projecting stock of the gun, over which the leg has to be thrown when 302 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATE. (CHAP, X. mounting, is excessively in the way of a person who has to do with a restive or frightened horse. There are straps also in this case, which are as troublesome as in the former. Moreover, in all of these there is a jingling and a rattling when the horse trots or canters, which is a very unsportsmanlike sound, although it may be thought by some to be soldierlike and dashing. Now the Hottentot plan that I recommend I consider perfect: it is to have a case of strong leather (see plate, p. 286) of such a size and shape as to admit the gun-stock a little stiffly; this case, which I will call the “ gun-bag,” is fastened tightly above to rings or dees in the pommel of the saddle; below, it is altogether unsupported except by a thong, which passes round the saddle-girth and keeps the gun-bag from tilting too far forwards; the gun is pushed stock downwards into the bag, the barrel passes between the right arm and the side, while the muzzle is so entirely clear of the person, that even in taking a drop-leap, that of an ordinarily-sized gun never shifts into a dangerous position. Some time is taken before a person unused to it will find out the best adjustments for both fastenings, as they should be varied according to the rider’s seat, but when once determined they have never to be changed. ‘There is no objection whatever to this plan; the hands of the rider are free, and the gun is safe and quite out of the way. It does not cumber him, but he feels it nestling by his side, as an inseparable and faithful companion should do; the cocks are in full sight; a CHAP, X.] SADDLE ARRANGEMENTS. 303 cover to keep the rain out is most easily put on; in a moment the gun is out of the gun-bag and in the hand, almost as quickly a whip could be raised, and it can be left on the animal’s back when the rider dismounts. I do not think the general effect is at all unsightly. I should not mind riding any reasonable horse across country with a gun carried in this way; indeed it is an invaluable plan to a traveller, for any sized weapon may be put in it; either a little pea-rifle that could be shot off with one hand, as a pistol, or a long heavy two-ounce weapon. A common long shooting gun is perhaps the easiest to carry, though all are easy enough. The other convenient saddle arrange- ments for a travelling hack, area bag to hold odds and ends on the left side of the pommel, or where advisable, a holster for a “revolver;” behind the left leg a sabretash, for writing materials may be hung; on the crupper of the saddle there is no harm in having small saddle-bags, and above them a waterproof cape, with leggings, if the season be very rainy, wrapped up in it. With these things, gun, saddle, and all, a man would ride two and a half stone heavier than he walks, which is nothing for a steady travelling expedition; but if he wants to gallop off, shooting, he must of course limit himself to a saddle and gun-bag. No two people travel in the same dress; my own fancy lies in leather trousers, jack-boots, a thick woollen jersey, a cotton shirt over it, and a cap. A belt supplies pocket room. In foot expeditions, the jack-boots must be replaced 304 TRAVELLING DRESS. [CHAP. X. by shoes. In Southern Africa I never could walk barefooted; independently of the thorns, there was something in our state of health which made small wounds difficult to heal, and caused scratches in the foot and hand to fester. Our very Damaras could not travel even with their own sandals, much less could we leave off shoes entirely. I was the more surprised at this, as in previous travelling in North Africa I had become nearly independent of them. I recollect climbing Jebel Barkal, which is a well-known rugged hill, with very sharp stones in it, near the fourth cataract of the Nile, barefooted. Without shoes and stockings I think I could not even lay my feet to the ground during the hottest time of the year. Once, owing to a mistake, I had dismounted at a small spring of water and turned my ox loose, who rejoined his comrades, and was driven on with them to a more copious watering-place, a couple of miles a-head; I had no stockings on at that time, only shoes. When I started on foot after the party, the heat of the sand was so intense that I positively was but just able to walk, although my skin was pretty well case-hardened. I underwent real suffering in that short distance, but the cool of thick woollen socks, the thickest that English sailors ever wear, was delicious when they were pulled on to my blistered feet. I do not think that a perfect head-dress has yet been invented by man. A light hunting-cap is very aa convenient among thick trees, but it cannot be used as a nightcap in the bivouac. As regards colours of cHAP, x.| COLOURS MOST SUITED FOR SPORTSMEN. 305 the dress, infinite misunderstanding generally prevails, as may at once be perceived by the colour of the uniform in which our rifle corps are clothed. People have an idea that because shadows are dark, and because people who crouch in ambuscade are generally in shadows, that therefore their clothes should be dark also. They forget that the same shade which deepens the tint of the trees gives at the same time an extra depth to the colour of the man’s clothes. As a first approximation to obtaining the best-coloured dress for the purposes of concealment, one would say, let it be of the prevailing hue of the country it is to be used in; so that, if the clothes were dropped on the ground, they would be positively undistinguishable from it at a short distance, whatever blaze of light or depth of shadow fell on it. Iam acquainted with no country in the world in which “rifle-green” would answer this requirement. But, going a step further, we find that in no case hardly is the colour of the land one uniform hue, but that a cloth of any one colour, even though it be of the prevailing tint, catches the eye from its mass. It is therefore better that the colour of the dress should not be the same throughout, but irregularly broken, and that too in a manner which does not contrast too strongly with the dispo- sition of the scenery, as for instance, the stripes on a tiger’s hide being vertical are far less conspicuous ong the upright stems and reeds than if nature lad disposed them horizontally. A little experimenta- lizing will show another curious and very unexpected result, namely, that if the very brightest colours are 306 BRIGHT COLOURS OF SKULKING ANIMALS. [cHapr. x. used in spots or stripes, or in any other design, ~ but in such proportion that their actual mixture would have produced the sober tint required, then, at rifle distances, unless the pattern be too large, all individuality of the colours will be found to have disappeared, and they will have merged into exactly the same tint that would have been produced had the same colours been mixed together in the same pro- portion on the pallet. It will also be found that a very large pattern may be used if the margins of the various bands or spots of colour be a little shaded off. In this way we can in a great degree account for the gaudy liveries with which the most skulking of animals are usually dressed. The cat tribe is almost univer- sally decked out with spots or bars. Snakes and lizards are the most brilliant of animals; but all these, if viewed at a distance, or with an eye whose focus is adjusted, not exactly at the animal itself, but to an object more or less distant than it, become apparently of one hue, and lose all their gaudiness. No more conspicuous animal can well be conceived, according to common idea, than a zebra; but on a bright star- light night the breathing of one may be heard close by you, and yet you will be positively unable to see the animal. If the black stripes were more numerous he would be seen as a black mass; if the white, as a white one; but their proportion is such as exactly to match the pale tint which arid ground possesses when seen by moonlight. I therefore protest against the usual notion that people have, as exemplified in the choice of a rifleman’s dress. It is infinitely too OHAP. X.] RATIONALE OF THEM. 307 dark; and this, in addition to the squareness of the hat, makes an object of him that is particularly calculated to attract attention. It would be, I am sure, hopeless to stalk wary animals in such a costume, unless the character of the country gave most peculiar facilities for doing so. A man who wishes to dress for stalking may indulge his smart fancies to a great extent, but should test every pattern that he selects by viewing its effect at a slight distance, say twenty yards, the main point of all being, that the depth of tint (leaving every consideration of colour aside) should be neither too light nor too dark. I have frequently amused myself by cutting out in paper figures of men, all of the same size and shape, and painting one a rifle- green, and the others bright blue, yellow, and red, in spots or patterns. I have then stuck up these figures against the face of a landscape painting, and retreating ten or twelve yards, the dark green form of the rifleman, place it where I would, remained a promi- nent unmistakable mass, while the others faded as it were into the foliage, and could not be distinguished from it. It requires a few trials to hit off the proportions of the different colours used to produce a perfect result. I may add, in case the reader might wish to experimentalise, that it saves much running backwards and forwards in doing it to place a looking- glass some distance in front, and, as the painting goes on, to hold the sketch up from time to time and observe the effect in the distant reflection. To return from this long digression to my narrative. On the 1st of November, the eighth day after leaving 308 JOIN HANS’ PARTY. (CHAP. X. Elephant Fountain, we heard a report about Hans, which, though untrue, alarmed me exceedingly; it was to the effect that he had shot himself, and that the waggons lay on this side of HKikhams. I was so anxious, that I pushed the oxen through the night, and with but little intermission we were again on the road in the morning; we there found Damaras, who, to my great relief, assured me that he was alive and well, and I therefore left the waggon oxen with the men, to have drink and food, and started on first, and walked till I had the pleasure of seeing Hans again, who, after all, had had no accident whatever; he had every thing in perfect order, and, as usual, had to show me some result of careful thrift and hard work. The sense of oxen is wonderful; the two sets, mine and his, that had been separated nearly three months, knew each other again perfectly, and passed the night together in the most amicable way, instead of fighting and knocking their horns together as new acquaintances always do on their first introduction to each other’s society. I was badly off for small cattle; of the forty goats that I had bought from Jonker, hardly one was alive; they had all died of a distemper one after the other. Hans gave me a terrible account of the state of the roads south; he said that literally there was no grass whatever for great distances together. In coming up to meet me, the oxen that he had were knocked up entirely, and he had to send first to Jonker’s and then to Mr. Hahn’s, a journey of many days, for assistance. My oxen were fresh enough, for they had had a long cHaP. x.| BEGIN TO BREAK UP THE EXPEDITION. 309 rest at Elephant Fountain, and plenty of grass, so I had but little fear of getting on to the Bay, especially as the road thither is entirely down hill. Noveniber 5th.—I arrived at Jonker’s, and had long conversations with him, and we parted excellent friends. There seemed a reasonable hope that a more peaceful state of things was now entered upon, although I had failed in obtaiming from Cornelius that com- pensation for the cattle he had stolen from the Damaras, which I had desired. My plans about my personal effects were now arranged. Andersson kept half, and with the other half I made part payment to Hans of the debt for wages and cattle that I owed him. I took this opportunity to sell one waggon to Jonker for forty oxen, and to buy others besides. Phlebus was dismissed, that he might return home to Rehoboth. As Barmen was to be the head-quarters of Andersson and of Hans also, after I had left the country, we took on Jonker’s waggon by ourselves to that place, and there all its contents were placed in store. Wishing the Missionaries a final farewell, I travelled on to Otjimbingué with the large waggon, whose axletree had been replaced at Okamabuti, but had recently, in jolting over a stone, split lengthways; I therefore made ready to leave it behind, if necessary, and push on with ride-oxen; in fact, I had no time to spare, for the animals were fast knocking up from hunger ; however, by blacksmithing and carpentering as well as we could, the waggon was made strong enough to travel on with us. 310 TRAVEL DOWN THE SWAKOP. (CHAP. X. We passed rapidly through Otjimbingue, for there was no grass there, and on the 2lst of November reached Tsobis. Now I felt safe; happen what might, T could reach the Bay in time to save the ship. The oxen were very thin and weak, but there were plenty of reeds in the Swakop for them to eat. As we moved down the Tsobis River, by the place where the first giraffe was shot, some natives warned us of the next watering-holes at the mouth of the river, for the Ghou Damup had poisoned the water to lill the buffaloes that then were there. We had arrived at the Swakop before we were aware of it; the oxen rushed, as they often do, wildly to the watering-holes, and though we drove them away before any one had drunk enough to hurt them seriously, yet one dog was very nearly killed. He rolled about in agonies from the poison. The oxen became still weaker, the change of food from dry grass to reeds quite upset them, so that we had to rest the following day. November 24th—We could just move on through the sand with hard struggling, and the next day we arrived at a place where old Piet was encamped, and were luxuriously treated with milk. We slept at Annaas on the 27th, at Davieep on the 28th >there was not a relic to be found of my poor horse and mule that the lions had eaten there. We now travelled principally by night. From Davieep we arrived safely at Oosop, after rather a hazardous jolting which the waggon underwent in going down a steep bank, and we were then only one day’s journey from the Bay. Andersson rode directly across the CHAP. X.] REACH WALFISCH BAY. 311 plain to Scheppmansdorf, to make inquiries after news and to rearrange some of the packages. He was to send back word to me immediately on his arrival. There was plenty of grass at Oosop, and I stayed there two days, and then went on to Hycomkap, where Andersson’s messenger reached me, saying that the ship had not arrived, As we had slept at Oosop on the 29th, we could, if I had chosen, have reached the Bay on the 30th. We left “Tounobis October 10th, so that the entire journey would have taken us fifty-three days; but, had the country been in a good state for travelling, _Iam sure that I could have done it in ten days less, or forty-three days. I had calculated on thirty-seven days’ actual travel, and four of rest, or forty-one days. With a change of oxen at Eikhams or Elephant Fountain, I think Lake "Ngami ought to be reached in fifty days from Walfisch Bay, and with a change at Otjimbingué and again at Elephant Fountain, a light well-driven waggon might do it in forty days. At Hycomkap we had some pretty foot-chases after gemsbok calves, and killed a few. The whole number of oxen in the drove were now 133. Jonker had still some to pay, when he received the mules. December 4th.—We left Hycomkap in the afternoon for the Bay, and walked the whole night through and the following morning besides, with only half an hour's intermission. The cool sea breeze fanned our faces about eight o'clock, and to my intense delight I saw in the distance two vessels at anchor in Walfisch Bay. We arrived there at ten in the forenoon, not 312 WHALES, SHARKS, AND OSTRICHES. (CHAP. X. a bit tired, but highly excited. The vessels were whalers; all the Scheppmansdorf party were on the beach, and seeing and talking to so many people seemed quite another world to me, after my long and almost solitary ramble. These whalers were the very first vessels, excepting one, which had touched at the Bay since my arrival in the country. I now put the store-house into habitable order, and settled down, awaiting the arrival of the ship I expected, which was to bring me all my letters, my clothes, and everything that I had left behind me at Cape Town. Days passed, the cold was bitter, and I passed most of the daytime rolled up in my caross. The wind whistled through every cranny, and though the sun was vertical at noon, yet its rays never seemed to touch us. I employed myself fishing with a seine- net, doing a little whale fishery in the bay, and in trying to harpoon small sharks out of my mackintosh pontoon; one gave me a capsize. I shot and captured one, and slew but lost three others; at least, though habitués of the place, they never reappeared. I rode one day with Andersson to Scheppmansdorf, when we saw a brood of young ostriches, each about a foot high, with their parents, and gave chase. The creatures could run very nearly as fast as we, and had quite as good a wind, so, having a long start, they gave us a severe chase before we came up to them, when we slew six. Returning from Scheppmansdorf I drove the three miles in a cart that Mr. Bam had made himself, and as we were cantering over the plain CHAP. X.] RETROSPECTS. 313 I again saw the ostriches, and went after them in my chariot. I soon came up with them, and, jumping out, captured six more. - Christmas and New Year’s Day had passed, when, early in January, 1852, as the morning haze cleared away, the sails of a schooner loomed large before us; in a moment I was in my pontoon and paddled out to her, jumped on board, and received my letters of a year and nine months’ interval. They were not indeed unchequered by melancholy news; but for the intel- ligence they conveyed of my own family circle I had ~ every reason to be grateful. Thus closed my anxieties and doubts. I had much indeed to be thankful for. I had not lost one of my many men either through violence or through sickness in the long and harassing journey I had made. It was undertaken with servants who, at starting, were anything but qualified for their work, who grumbled, held back, and even mutinied, and over whom JI had none other than a moral control. I had to break in the very cattle that were to carry me, and to drill into my service a worthless set of natives, speaking an unknown tongue. The country was suffering from all the atrocities of savage war when I arrived, and this state of things I had to put an end to before I could proceed. All this being accomplished, I found myself without any food to depend upon, except the oxen that I drove with me, which might, on any evening, decamp or be swept off in a night attack by the thieving and murderous Damaras. That all this was gone through success- fully, I am in the highest degree indebted both to P 314 LEAVE AFRICA. [CHAP. X. - Andersson and to Hans, for ‘single-handed, I hardly know what I should have done. On the 16th of January I said my last adieu, and in company with Timboo, John Williams, and John Morta, sailed away to St. Helena. The rest remained in the country. Hans intended to make a venture in cattle and ivory, and Andersson to investigate the natural history of the lake district. Of the natural history of Damara-land he had made a complete collection, but the barrenness of the country admitted of no great scope to the naturalist. The flowers were very few and wretched-looking. I really only know one that would look presentable in an English garden. What few seeds I brought from Ovampo-land are now planted in the gardens at Kew. My Ovampo fowls survived a stormy passage homewards, and laid eggs constantly, until they came to English latitudes, and then they all died; and my faithful cur, Dinah, is the only living animal of the expedition, besides myself, that fate has as yet allowed to revisit Kurope. THE END. BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. oF ae Ser = WT" Coaltamt Rite The Damara =amieaire dur those sith C0 ane i where chiefly Dutch TheYollawsah tint hanes he Hesert the Fe y amplayed at, anat the Keerrem putt te gre ian, ert the detpae the tint he gresicor Whe tuppsted. § Missienary MPAN TIER NUMEROUS HUSHMEN TRIBES | Trees, grass andijimnity v4tk i Den ois Ochenbinle | | ib eee Rough Sketch fi as SE RECENT DIscOvERIKS QU AS axv OF SSS DAMABRA LAND ADJACENT COUNTIUES ax explored and surewzed. ey BR Dillialiab ty John Shurray, Albemarle Street London 1853. RECENT VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. see TWO VISITS TO THE TEA COUNTRIES OF CHINA AND INDIA. By ROBERT FORTUNE. Third Edition. With Map and Woodeuts. 2 vols. post 8vo. 18s. JOURNAL OF A WINTER’S TOUR IN INDIA. With a Visit to the Court of Nepaul. By the Hon. CAPT. EGERTON, R.N. With Woodeuts. 2 vols. post 8vo. 18s. VISITS TO THE MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT. By the Hon. ROBERT CURZON. With numerous Illustrations. Fourth Edition. 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