DAMARAS, OVAMPO, AND NAMAQUAS 147 



chief Amiral. Farther to the south of it the country 

 becomes desert. Amiral joined me, by arrangement, 

 at Elephant Fountain for a shooting expedition. He 

 and his people seemed much more civilised than the 

 other Namaquas, and nearer in character to the 

 Dutch Boers. 



I left my wagon with two men, together 

 with those of Amiral and some of his own men 

 whom he left behind to guard them, and starting on 

 ride-oxen with Andersson we reached Twas, the 

 farthest point yet visited by Amiral, on about the 

 28th. In front of us lay an arid plain, especially arid 

 in this very dry year, which had to be crossed in 

 order to reach the next watering place, well known to 

 the Bushmen, but not to Amiral, and called Tounobis. 



My oxen were tired and footsore, but we went. 

 It proved to be a journey of 20^ hours actual desert 

 travel, and led us suddenly into an ideal country of 

 big game. The ground, adjacent to a broad river-bed, 

 was trodden with the tracks of all sorts of animals, 

 elephants, rhinoceros, lions, and a vast variety of 

 smaller game. Crowds of Bushmen were encamped 

 near to the water, busy with their pitfalls and with 

 securing an elephant that had fallen into one of them 

 during the previous night. We became great friends 

 with the Bushmen, and sat late into the night hearing 

 their stories about themselves and the recent doings 

 of a body of strange Namaquas coming from the 

 south, who in the preceding year had swept past 

 them and onwards to Lake Ngami, leaving unmis- 

 takable signs of their expedition, and marauding as 

 usual as they went. This much, therefore, was estab- 

 lished, that a feasible road existed from Walfish 



