234 ATTEMPT TO REACH THE NGASO ABANDONED. 



The Bushmen who inhabited these parts declared that the 

 country between here and the Ngami was then impassable, 

 and that any attempt on our part to reach it would be cer- 

 tain destruction to ourselves and cattle. Though we did not 

 altogether credit their story, we felt that, under the circum- 

 stances, it would have been highly imprudent to proceed far- 

 ther. 



From a rough calculation, we concluded that we could not 

 be above nine or ten days' journey from the lake, and it was, 

 therefore, with no little reluctance that we gave up the at- 

 tempt. However, it was all for the best, and we ought, in- 

 deed, to be grateful to the natives for their truthful informa- 

 tion. From after experience, I am quite confident that, had 

 we tried to push on that year, nothing could have saved us 

 and our beasts of burden from perishing from thirst. After 

 leaving Tunobis, we should not have met with water for at 

 least three days and a half of actual travel, besides the nec- 

 essary delays. To perform this, even with fresh animals, 

 would perhaps have been a thing unheard-of in these re- 

 gions, but the difficulty was magnified by the state of our 

 cattle, which were now reduced to skeletons. Indeed, even 

 before reaching Tunobis, some of them had been left behind 

 from sheer exhaustion. 



I must confess that, on first reading my friend's narrative, 

 I was somewhat startled on coming upon his pleasant asser- 

 tion that he did not much care about reaching Lake Ngami. 

 It is true that, when landing at Walfisch Bay, we had but 

 little hope of arriving there ; but, at least for my own part, 

 I had always conceived the great goal of our journey to be 

 precisely the Ngami. Moreover, with regard to his supposi- 

 tion that the country hence toward the lake was compara- 

 tively open and free from bushes, and that, consequently, a 

 road to it could be traced without the slightest difficulty, I 

 can only say that shortly after leaving Tunobis — not to men- 

 tion the scarcity of water — the bush becomes so dense, and 



