XVI FEVER AND FAMINE 335 



was the nearest point where we could hope to get 

 anything Hke food for a sick man ; for Mendonc^'a, 

 though very hospitable, had nothing to eat himself 

 but what he got from the Kafirs. By the route we 

 had to travel, we had to traverse at least seven 

 hundred miles of wilderness before reaching this 

 haven of refuge — a long and seemingly hopeless 

 tramp for sick men. 



January 13//^ — Thanks to Warburg's fever 

 tincture — which I believe to be the most powerful 

 and effective medicine for this disease — the excessive 

 and almost unbearable pains in my head had to a 

 great extent ceased ; but I still felt very ill, and 

 Owen and my Basuto boy were both very ill. 



'January \\tli. — Dreadfully ill. Owen slightly 

 better. 



January i^th. — Better again. Yesterday I went 

 up to Sitanda's, at the same time giving a present, 

 and asking for a man to show the way to where 

 Da Costa was (only a day and a half distant), so 

 that we might try and get some men from him to 

 help us out of the country. This he flatly refused 

 to do. The inhuman old barbarian, knowing the 

 fatal virulence of this fever, evidently thought that 

 if he could only prevent us from obtaining assistance, 

 we must soon succumb to disease and hunger, and 

 he would then be able to seize everything we had 

 with us. He also refused to sell us any sort of 

 food, and must have sent word round to the 

 adjoining kraals forbidding the people to sell us 

 anything ; for at first they brought a few fowls and 

 a little corn for sale, but now none came near us. 



January \6th. — Can get no sleep at night. 

 During the last three nights I have not slept a wink. 



January x'jtii. — About midnight a steady rain 



